Kim Iverson Headlee's Blog: Book Musings from the Maze of Twisty Passages, page 6

Visit Venice #RomanticTravel and spotlight on The New York Saga by @DianaLRubino

Photo credit: Drachenfels castle in Koenigswinter, Germany,
Depositphotos.com Image #74467597 c2016 by :jurajkovac,
Meme c2016 by Linda McLaughlin. Visit Venice with author Diana Rubino!

In Diana's words:

I believe the most romantic spot on earth is Venice, Italy. When you get off the train, walk through the station, and open the doors, it’s like stepping into a fairy tale. The streets are all canals, and ornate ancient bridges span the canals, including the famous Bridge of Sighs, where prisoners gazed upon the city for the last time on their way to be locked up. On our last trip to Venice, I planned the trip to coincide with the full moon. When darkness fell, my husband and I had dinner and walked around. No moon yet. We stopped at a café and had gelato and cappuccino. No moon yet. We crossed a bridge and strolled some more. Still no moon. Finally, at 11:30, it rose, glowing and sending shimmering moonbeams over the canals. So I hadn’t figured what time that full moon was supposed to appear!


The New York Saga

Genre: Historical romance

Poverty, prejudice, and murder won't stand in the way of true love.

The New York Saga spans three generations of the McGlory family, starting in 1894 amidst the poverty and crime on New York’s Lower East Side, through the wild, boozy years of Prohibition, and ending in 1963 as the country mourned President Kennedy’s assassination.

In Book One, FROM HERE TO FOURTEENTH STREET, it's 1894 on New York’s Lower East Side. Irish cop Tom McGlory and Italian immigrant Vita Caputo fall in love despite their different upbringings. While Tom works undercover to help Ted Roosevelt purge police corruption, Vita's father arranges a marriage between her and a man she despises. When Tom’s cousin is murdered, Vita’s father and brother languish in jail, charged with the crime. Can Vita and Tom’s love survive poverty, hatred, and corruption?

In Book Two, BOOTLEG BROADWAY, it’s 1932. Prohibition rages, the Depression ravages, and Billy McGlory comes of age whether he wants to or not. Musical and adventurous, Billy dreams of having his own ritzy supper club and big band. On the eve of his marriage to the pregnant Prudence, the shifty “businessman” Rosario Ingovito offers him all that and more: fame, fortune, his own Broadway musical.


Can anything go wrong for Billy? Only when he gets in way over his head does he stop to wonder how his business partner really makes his millions, but by then it’s far too late…

THE END OF CAMELOT begins on the day Camelot truly ended—November 22, 1963. The assassination of a president devastates America. But a phone call brings even more tragic news to Vikki Ward—her TV reporter husband was found dead in his Dallas hotel room that morning.

Finding his notes, Vikki realizes her husband was embroiled in the plot to kill JFK—but his mission was to prevent it. When the Dallas police rule his death accidental, Vikki sets out to find out who was behind the murders of JFK and her husband.


Vikki falls in love with Aldobrandi Po, the bodyguard her godfather hired to protect her. But he's engaged to be married, and she’s still mourning her husband. Can they find happiness in the wake of all this tragedy?

An Excerpt from FROM HERE TO FOURTEENTH STREET

As Vita gathered her soap and towel, Madame Branchard tapped on her door. “You have a gentleman caller, Vita. A policeman.”

“Tom?” His name lingered on her lips as she repeated it. She dropped her things and crossed the room.

“No, hon. Another policeman. Theodore something.”

No. There can't be anything wrong. “Thanks,” she whispered, descending the steps, gripping the banister to support her wobbly legs. Stay calm! she warned herself. But of course it was no use; staying calm just wasn't her nature.

“Theodore something” stood before the closed parlor door. He’s a policeman? Tall and hefty, a bold pink shirt peeking out of a buttoned waistcoat and fitted jacket, he looked way out of place against the dainty patterned wallpaper.

He removed his hat. “Miss Caputo.” He strained to keep his voice soft as he held out a piece of paper. “I’m police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt.”

“Yes?” Her voice shook.

“I have a summons for you.” He held it out to her. But she stood rooted to that spot.

He stepped closer and she took it from him, unfolding it with icy fingers. Why would she be served with a summons? Was someone arresting her now for something she didn't do?

A shot of anger tore through her at this system, at everything she wanted to change. She flipped it open and saw the word SUMMONS in fancy script at the top. Her eyes widened with each sentence as she read. “I can’t believe what I’m seeing.”

I hereby order Miss Vita Caputo to enter into holy matrimony with Mr. Thomas McGlory immediately following service of this summons.

An Excerpt from BOOTLEG BROADWAY (my favorite passage, which made my aunt cringe)

Pru had kept closemouthed all day about what she was giving him for his birthday. He badgered and hounded her, but she wouldn’t give in.

As Ma began divvying up the rum cake, the doorbell rang, and Da came back with a long box. “This thing’s heavy. What’s in here, Pru? Billy’s tombstone?”

Billy cut the ribbon with the cake knife and slid the lid off. Wads of tissue paper filled the box. As he removed the last layer of covering and revealed what was inside, they all gasped—a sculpture of a naked man, in all his masculine glory—and fully aroused. He had one hand on his hip and one foot upon a pedestal on which was inscribed in bold letters, “BILLY.”

“Oh, crap.” His face turned red hot.

An Excerpt from THE END OF CAMELOT

Billy came down the stairs for a nightcap and glanced into the living room. He noticed the glow in the fireplace, Vikki’s eyeglasses and the anisette bottle on the table. The couch faced the other way, but nobody was sitting on it. “Where’d they go?” Then he realized they hadn’t gone anywhere—and they were on the couch, but not sitting. Before he got out of their way, he placed a long-playing record on the phonograph. Jackie Gleason’s “For Lovers Only.”

Purchase THE NEW YORK SAGA via Amazon Kindle

Amazon Kindle | The Wild Rose Press |

About Diana
I'm a self-confessed history nut, my favorite eras being Medieval and Renaissance England, and all American history. I've written several novels set in England and the U.S., two time travel romances, a vampire romance, and an urban fantasy, FAKIN’ IT which received a Top Pick award from Romantic Times. I'm a longtime member of Romance Writers of America and the Richard III Society. In my spare time, I bicycle, golf, play my piano and devour books of any genre.



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Not more than half were still alive in Ch 14/sc 1d of RAGING SEA by @KimHeadlee #amwriting

Graphic overlay c2016 by Kim Headlee. It's official.  I now have an embarrassment of riches. :)

On Monday I received input from my primary editor regarding my forthcoming nonfiction book, The Business of Writing: Practical Insights for Independent, Hybrid, and Traditionally Published Authors.

Two days later my proofreader returned her annotated version of Raging Sea: Enemies & Allies.

Yep, you guessed it. I am wading through a truckload of editorial comments.

Since I need to publish The Business of Writing first so I can have copies in hand for my upcoming workshop presentations, I haven't yet looked at Robin's notes for RS:EA. Soon, however, I will assess how much work I need to apply so I can establish a publication date and associated preorder period.

Stay tuned for more announcements about both books!

Meantime, enjoy today's excerpt from Raging Sea —if indeed "enjoy" is a word that can apply to this particular, gut-wrenching situation


Previous excerpts of Raging Sea 
Chapters 1–6 in PERMAFREE Raging Sea: Reckonings  Chapter 7: Sc 1 | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4 | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 8: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 9: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 1d | Sc 1e |
Chapter 10: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 3a | Sc 3b | Sc 3c |
Chapter 11: Sc 1a |  Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 12: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4a | Sc 4b | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 13: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 2c | Sc 2d | Sc 2e | Sc 2f |
Chapter 14: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c |
Raging Sea Chapter 14, Scene 1d©2016 by Kim HeadleeAll rights reserved.
Sgeir heaved a sigh but didn’t get a chance to begin. A stone-muffled commotion seeped into the chamber. Eileann took it to mean the clan was welcoming the war-band home. Of a sudden, she had never wanted to see her father and sister and husband so acutely in all her life.

Over the women’s protests, Eileann rushed from the chamber. When Fioruisge gripped her wrist to pull her back, she yanked free and surged out the door.

In the corridor, the shouts grew louder… and transformed into lamentations.

Eileann burst out of the broch and into the worst hell she could imagine.

The war-band had indeed returned, to the last man.

Not more than half were still alive.

Horses not being ridden were bearing their fallen riders lashed to their backs, led by the survivors.

Fist to mouth, Eileann hitched her skirts in her other hand and sprinted toward the wave of mothers and wives and sisters searching for their menfolk. Some reunions were punctuated by relieved if weak whoops. Others ended in a flood of tears.

Eileann found her father in the midst of the bedraggled troop, sitting as tall in the saddle as his wounds would allow. They did not appear life threatening, thanks be to Nemetona. Her sister Rionnag rode beside him, her armor bloody but not breached, as near as Eileann could tell.

Rionnach was leading Iomar’s horse. Iomar’s throat had been slashed.

Pain twisted Eileann’s gut.

Her father halted the band, and he ordered the warriors to dismount. Dynann appeared from somewhere to throw herself into Rionnach’s arms.

While Rionnag held the reins, Eileann dropped to her knees beside Iomar’s horse, her face on level with her husband’s. With trembling fingers she reached for his face, trying to summon thankfulness that the enemy had left her this small mercy. Pain knifed her gut again. Willing it away, she forced herself to trace the eyelids that would never open, the lips that would never again kiss hers…

The pain would not be denied. It ripped through her like the sword wielded by a ro h’uamhasach, that most terrible of battle-frenzied warriors who stabs and slashes and hacks at his foes until nothing remains but a mass of bloody flesh.

“Eileann!”

Who had spoken? Her mother? Her sister? One of the wisewomen? Eileann couldn’t tell through the merciless pain.


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#RomanticTravel in Louisiana and spotlight on Circles of Fate by Pamela Thibodeaux (@psthib)

Photo credit: Drachenfels castle in Koenigswinter, Germany,
Depositphotos.com Image #74467597 c2016 by :jurajkovac,
Meme c2016 by Linda McLaughlin.
Today on The Maze I welcome back longtime contributor Pamela Thibodeaux with her thoughts about fall romantic travel and her novel Circles of Fate .

In Pamela's words:

Most folks find traveling exciting and romantic, but sometimes great fall romantic travel can be found right at home.

Home for me is in Southwest Louisiana, just 43 miles from the Texas state line.

I don’t know about you but few things are as romantic as sunrise or sunset on the lake, or a seafood feast.

If you don’t find anything in SW LA that’s romantic in your opinion, you can always travel East…Lafayette, Baton Rouge, New Orleans where you’ll find horse drawn carriage rides, riverboat tours, night life and fine, Cajun/French cuisine.

But, no matter what you decide, or where you go, romance is in the heart.




Synopsis:

Set at the tail end of the Vietnam War era, Circles of Fate takes the reader from Fort Benning, Georgia to Thibodaux, Louisiana. A romantic saga, this gripping novel covers nearly twenty years in the lives of Shaunna Chatman and Todd Jameson. Constantly thrown together and torn apart by fate, the two are repeatedly forced to choose between love and duty, right and wrong, standing on faith or succumbing to the world’s viewpoint on life, love, marriage and fidelity. With intriguing twists and turns, fate brings together a cast of characters whose lives will forever be entwined. Through it all is the hand of God as He works all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

Excerpt:

“What?” Todd Jameson’s hand trembled so hard the phone he held threatened to slip through his numb fingers. He wiped a sweaty palm down his thigh and grabbed the receiver then switched ears. The anguish in Mike Ferel’s voice made the pleasantries they shared the first few minutes of the call seem like a distant conversation.

“I’m sorry, Todd, to be the one to tell you this, especially after what you’ve been through this last year.”

He’d spent nine months at war, nine months facing and dealing with death, but not even those things prepared him for the death of his hopes and dreams in nine short minutes. “When?”

A heavy exhale preceded Mike’s answer. “Margaret died six months ago. Shaunna married three months after.”

She said she loved me. He hadn’t meant to utter the thought aloud, but somehow the words slipped past the knot in his throat.

“She cried a long time after you left, didn’t understand why you never wrote or called.”

Though his voice held no accusation, Todd heard the chastisement in Mike’s tone. “I...”

He blinked hard and cleared his throat. “What was I supposed to do, blurt out my feelings over the phone or in a letter and ask her to wait? I thought she was too young to go through that, especially with the war and all. Not knowing if, when, I’d get sent over there was hard enough on me; she didn’t need that on her heart. What if I didn’t come back? I couldn’t fathom putting her through such an ordeal. Not with all the responsibilities she shouldered from her mother’s illness.”

“I’m sorry.”

Todd raked a hand over his face. “Is she happy? Is he a good man?”

“Seems to be.”


Circles of Fate Buy Links:
Kindle | Amazon Print | CreateSpace | Nook | B&N Print | Smashwords |


Author Bio:
Award-winning author, Pamela S. Thibodeaux is the Co-Founder and a lifetime member of Bayou Writers Group in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Multi-published in romantic fiction as well as creative non-fiction, her writing has been tagged as, “Inspirational with an Edge!” ™ and reviewed as “steamier and grittier than the typical Christian novel without decreasing the message.”


You can find Pamela via:
Website | Blog | Twitter @psthib | Pinterest | Facebook | Amazon Author Page |


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The Business of Writing: e-Book and Print Book Layouts #MFRWOrg #ASMSG

Today on The Maze: Everything you want to know about e-book and print book layouts...*
Book of Kells, Folio 19v, Breves Causae of Luke
(The Gospel of Luke), Wikimedia Commons. *...but were afraid to ask!
So, you’ve written your Great [insert_your_nationality_here] Masterpiece, edited it to within an inch of its life, submitted it to an editor so that she or he can edit it to within a micrometer of its life (please invest in professional editing, for the love of All That Is Holy)… and now what?

Formatting it for publication, of course.

There are many companies that offer formatting services, and they charge varying rates. Unless you can code your own e-books (as I do), or you can create your own print book layouts (as I have learned to do), perform a search on “book formatting services” and then pick your poison, so to speak.

Some “poisons” are more lethal to the pocketbook than others, and your mileage may vary with regard to the output quality too.

In general, your best value will be to select a company that charges an up-front fee for services, not a fee plus a percentage of your royalties. To charge you a percentage on sales is patently absurd, because once the work is completed, the service provider adds no more value to your work and therefore does not deserve to receive an ongoing percentage from it. Period.

Such a policy knelled the beginning of the end between me and my ex-literary agent, who was trying to hedge his bets by publishing his clients’ unsold manuscripts. If your literary agent has started up such a side business, beware. All that practice does is line his or her pockets at the expense of performing his or her contracted job for you. Exclamation point.

The book service provider I have relied upon for several years is Lucky Bat Books. They offer a wide range of author services, including cover design and marketing, as well as e-book and print book layout. Their prices are very reasonable, they are a joy to work with, and I get nothing for sending you their way; I’m just very happy with the quality of their work. They do not charge a percentage of your sales.

Whether or not you choose to work with Lucky Bat Books, do not select any book services provider that charges you a percentage of your book’s sales over and above what you have paid up front for the work, be it cover design, interior layout, editing, e-book formatting and distribution, or promotion.

I realize that not everyone can afford to lay out the huge chunk of change required for professional services, but as a former software engineer who cut her programming teeth, decades ago, on conversion software, I am here to beg you not to rely on the Word-to-EPUB or Word-to-PDF software offered by such companies as Smashwords and CreateSpace. I have seen other authors’ books generated by these programs, and they are—shall I say?—less than ideal.

At least Smashwords is honest in nicknaming its program the “Meat Grinder.”

I even ran a test to export an EPUB e-book file from a print layout that I had created using Adobe’s InDesign book layout software, and its quality left a lot to be desired too.

My recommendation is to set up crowdfunding for your book rather than relying on these cheap-but-less-than-optimal conversion options.

The book layout process I follow varies by edition type, e-book versus print.


E-book layout process
I code the HTML, including setting up CSS templates for margins, line spacing, indentations, etc. An EPUB file is simply a rigidly formatted ZIP file, and HTML is its source language. I admit I'm not a CSS expert; a mentor shared her e-book template with me years ago, and I've been tweaking it ever since. For quick answers and to look up the latest HTML code sets, I rely upon the web site HTML Dog.To test the book's format prior to conversion, I read it in a browser window that's sized to approximate the aspect ratio of the average e-reader. This also gives me another avenue for spotting last-minute typos and items to wordsmith.Once I'm happy with how the HTML file looks in a browser window, I import it, the cover, and metadata into Calibre free library-management software.What is metadata? It is literally anything you wish to define about your book. Specific metadata tags that import directly into predefined fields in Calibre include: AuthorSeriesTags (Keywords)PublisherI also code the book's description in the metadata section just to include it in the file for my reference.Then I use Calibre to convert the HTML file to EPUB. Calibre offers a slew of output formats, but the two I use most often are EPUB and MOBI (primarily for reviewers who can side-load the MOBI into their Kindle devices).At this point I check the EPUB file in as many e-reader emulators as I can. Calibre offers its own e-reader emulator; on my laptop, clicking on the MOBI version imports it into my Kindle-for-PC application, and if I upload the EPUB file to my Android phone, I can import it into my Nook-for-Android app. Once I am satisfied with the result on as many platforms as possible, I run the EPUB file through EPUBCheck, a free online validation software created by the International Digital Publishing Forum. E-tailers such as Amazon and Smashwords also run your submitted EPUB file through EPUBCheck, but it's best for you to do this first and avoid any unpleasant surprises. Smashwords has finally upgraded the four years outdated and buggy version of EPUBCheck that it was using internally, so now I'm not gnashing and pulling teeth to upload my EPUB files to that platform. If EPUBCheck has reported any errors, I fix them and revalidate. The biggest "gotcha", if you have been otherwise careful in your coding, is to have referenced image filenames that include embedded spaces, a practice that's allowed on Microsoft computers but not Apple or Unix machines. EPUBCheck flags this as a warning, but even warning messages will cause your submission to be rejected by Amazon, et al.Once you have an error-free, warning-free EPUB file, you may upload it for publication on all your chosen platforms: Amazon, Nook, Kobo, etc.

Print books that don't have a lot of complicated interior art insertion
I import the Word doc into InDesign, the de facto standard book-layout software for the publishing industry. I don't know InDesign well enough yet to execute complicated layouts, which is why I am still happy to employ Lucky Bat Books for titles such as the forthcoming, fully illustrated hardcover edition of King Arthur's Sister in Washington's Court !I tweak the layout—defining custom paragraph styles, drop cap styles, etc.—until it all looks good, right, and salutary... and everything lines up across each "spread," which is a pair of pages representing an open book. If you have no scene-break graphics to insert, then this step is almost a no-brainer. I embed graphics for chapter headings and scene breaks, so this step can be time consuming for me, and it's more cost effective for me to do it myself these days. BTW, "spreads" PDF output is an economical way to produce a printed ARC, especially if you have access to a duplex printer.I export the finished layout to a press-ready PDF file in "pages" (rather than "spreads") form. The "pages" (single page) PDF output is what is required for submitting your print layout to CreateSpace and IngramSpark.
Best of luck with your book layouts and all aspects of your writing!


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— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<

… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!

Fall #RomanticTravel with @AuthorTinaGayle and CEO's Widow book spotlight

Photo credit: Drachenfels castle in Koenigswinter, Germany,
Depositphotos.com Image #74467597 c2016 by :jurajkovac,
Meme c2016 by Linda McLaughlin. Today on The Maze I kick off author Tina Gayle's fall #RomanticTravel excerpt exchange by featuring her novel CEO's Widow !

In Tina's words:

One of my favorite romantic trips is to Vegas. We had plenty of time to shop, people watch and visit the sites. Also what topped the trip off was taking a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon. Having never been up in a helicopter before this along was a treat. The trip to the canyon and back was awesome too.


CEO’s Widow  - Book 4 of the Executives' Wives' Club series

Genre: Contemporary Romance with strong women fiction elements

Four women...
One fatal car wreck...
Everyone's lives changed...

CEO’s Widow

Synopsis:

After surviving the grief from her husband’s death, Marianne Clark has built a new life with the help of the other Executive Wives. She plans to enjoy grandchildren and friends until her doctor tells her he found a lump in her breast. Her world turned upside down. She re-evaluates her priorities and decides she grab hold of life with both hands.

Knox Turner lost is first wife to cancer. He’s determined not to let Marianne face this challenge alone. 

Can this couple face the trails ahead and build a future together?

Excerpt:

Incapable of resisting, Marianne set a hand on his chest and absorbed the pleasure of being in this man’s arms again. Too bad the bliss couldn’t last longer. He needed to get back to work. She had errands to run. “Knox, you’re making it harder and harder to resist you.”

“Then don’t. We’ve both had more than enough time to know what we want. Jack and Betty both died almost two years ago. We needed to move on.” He caressed a hand along her back, easing her body even closer to the hard line of his.

Marianne smiled. She’d known him for years as her husband’s boss and respected for all he’d accomplished in the business world. Her hang-up over their age difference grew less and less important as more time passed. “Shouldn’t we at least date a few other people first? Test the water. Make sure we’re not making a mistake by latching onto the first person we’re attracted to.”

“Good, so you admit you find me attractive?” He lowered his head and nuzzled the side of her neck, playfully nipping at her ear.

She sighed. His tantalizing touch and the deep rumble of his voice tempted her into sliding her hand along the back of his neck. Her fingers slid through his silky hair, and she marveled at sensual thrill of being so close to him. For months now, she’d convinced herself her life was full enough with just her kids and grandkids.

Could she be wrong?

Buy CEO's Widow at Amazon Worldwide!

Newsletter:
If you would like to sign up to be an exclusive member of Tina’s List, visit:
http://www.tinagayle.net/newsletter.html

You'll receive a free short story – “My Future StepBrother.” This story leads you right into the story of the CEO’s Widow.

Author Bio:
Tina Gayle loves writing and is currently working on finishing her Family Tree series, a contemporary paranormal suspense series.

When not writing, she enjoys spending time with my family and traveling around the country. She hasn't hit every state, but she hopes to someday. You might also catch her on the golf course with her husband of 30 years.

Also, you can read the first chapter of any of her books by visiting her website or download an exclusive story "My Future Step Brother" and join her special friend's list. All on her website www.tinagayle.net.

You can also find Tina via:
Blog | Twitter | Goodreads | Facebook |


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All this month, you are invited to…

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— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<

… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!

Eileann demands answers in Ch 14/sc 1c of RAGING SEA by @KimHeadlee #amwriting

Graphic overlay c2016 by Kim Headlee. Family issues regarding my two adult children have consumed most of my time this past week. 

Thankfully it's nothing life-threatening, but the emotions and tough decisions still exact a heavy toll. For a writer who is also a mother, this means that work on new material must go on hiatus.

Things with my kids are calming down a bit now, so I'm hoping I can get back into my writing routine soon.

Sometimes I do wish I had mentors like Eileann's,who are featured again in today's excerpt from Raging Sea .

On the other hand, as Eileann will discover in next week's excerpt, sometimes it's better not to know what heartbreak the future will bring.



Previous excerpts of Raging Sea 
Chapters 1–6 in PERMAFREE Raging Sea: Reckonings  Chapter 7: Sc 1 | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4 | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 8: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 9: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 1d | Sc 1e |
Chapter 10: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 3a | Sc 3b | Sc 3c |
Chapter 11: Sc 1a |  Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 12: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4a | Sc 4b | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 13: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 2c | Sc 2d | Sc 2e | Sc 2f |
Chapter 14: Sc 1a | Sc 1b |
Raging Sea Chapter 14, Scene 1c©2016 by Kim HeadleeAll rights reserved.
Sgeir covered the dough with a cloth and left it to rest, snatched her cane, and tottered over to Eileann. “Time aplenty for that, my lady.” She laid a hand on Eileann’s belly and glanced at the other women. “The àrd-banoigin indeed be with child.” That the crone had divined the purpose of Eileann’s visit came as no surprise, but she felt her elation slip as she beheld Sgeir’s stern but sad countenance. “Lady Eileann, we must talk.”

Her bony fingers gripped Eileann’s elbow to steer her to the nearest willow chair. Eileann sat. Sgeir pointed a look at Fioruisge and thence to the kettle steaming from the hearth pole. The young woman retrieved cups from a shelf and poured a round for everyone of the aromatic, pale green brew.

In serving Eileann, Fioruisge caught her foot against a stool and stumbled. Boiling tisane slopped onto Eileann’s arm. With a yelp, she shot to her feet, sucking the burn. Mortified, Fioruisge stammered an apology. Sian rushed over with a salve pot and pried Eileann’s arm from her mouth.

Her clan-mark, the tattoo of the Tarsuinn Falcon signifying her status as àrd-banoigin, had turned a livid shade of red.

Sian slathered on the salve and gently rubbed it in. The pain abated a bit, but the redness worsened.

The three wisewomen exchanged looks that were not encouraging.

“What does this mean?” Eileann tried not to sound as panicked as she felt but wasn’t sure how well she succeeded. “Please—I know you view the least broken twig as significant. Tell me, please!” A painful twinge flared in her belly but quickly receded.


***

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All this month, you are invited to…

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— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<

… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!

The Business of Writing: ISBNs and Imprints #MFRWOrg #ASMSG

Today on The Maze:ISBNs and Imprints demystified!
Still-Life with Books
by an unknown Dutch Master, ca 1620
public domain via Wikimedia Commons. ISBN: The acronym for International Standard Book Number, a unique commercial book identifier that is now most commonly 13 digits. Buy them in bulk from Bowker -- why? Because each edition (e-book, paperback, hardcover, graphic novel, etc.) needs a separate ISBN, which will chew through them fast if you are creating several editions of the same title.

To clarify : You do not need to assign a separate ISBN to the same manuscript file you publish via different e-book platforms (e.g., KDP, Nook, iTunes, Kobo, GooglePlay, Smashwords, Draft2Digital). Even when the requirements differ for the inclusion of licensing notes, you can still assign the same ISBN because the edition of the story itself is identical across e-reader platforms.

Furthermore, if your plan is to distribute only via Amazon, then you do not need to buy an ISBN for your e-book because Amazon's internal ASIN suffices as a substitute, and you can obtain a free ISBN from Amazon if you release the print edition via Createspace. That said, there has been a recent change to European VAT law -- not yet adopted by all EU members -- that allows for the VAT to not be deducted from your royalty if your e-book has an ISBN.

Decisions, decisions!

If you can afford to lay out $600 (give or take) for a clutch of 100 ISBNs, that's the most economical route short of buying 1000 or more. Bowker's next lowest bulk tier is 10 ISBNs for $295 as of this writing. But unless you're going to print your books via your local print shop, do NOT bother to buy the barcode they try to sell you. (More on those reasons in a future article, when I give my US$0.02 about book covers.)

And if you really and truly do want to buy a barcode, please contact me first. :D

Imprints: An "Decide on a catchy name for your imprint (e.g., Pendragon Cove Press).Do your homework to make sure someone else hasn't already decided that it's a catchy name (e.g., Pendragon Cove Press is my imprint). "Homework" includes any or all of the following steps, depending on how big of a network reach you wish for your imprint to claim:Searching for the name on a book e-tailer site such as Amazon (these are the search results for Pendragon Cove Press). This step is a must.Performing a "Whois" lookup, if you're also interested in snagging the domain(s). For now, pendragoncovepress.com points to this blog; that's all you need to do too, if you don't have time to set up a separate web presence.Searching Gmail, Ymail, and so forth if you want to claim the imprint's name for one or more email accounts.Searching for your desired imprint's name on Twitter, Facebook, etc.Send an email to Bowker requesting that the name be added to their Imprints database. They include a "mailto:" link for this purpose on the page for defining sales & prices when you're setting up your book title's ISBN information. I don't know what their response time is today, but a Bowker representative got my Pendragon Cove Press imprint established within 24 hours last year.It's that easy!

Once your imprint is established, then it will display as an option for assigning in your book's "publisher" field on the product page, rather than your name, which blares the "I Am an Indie Author-Publisher" label to God and everybody.

If you don't set up an imprint but have elected to incorporate (see my article here), then your corporation's name will be recorded as the publisher. That choice doesn't blare quite so loudly, but establishing one or more imprints for your books will make you appear that much more professional and perhaps give you a leg up on your competition.

Oh, and if you have sent in a new-imprint request, please use a little common sense in your follow-up correspondence if you believe it's taking too long. I imagine that they don't perform those sorts of tasks on weekends and US holidays.

Happy imprinting! :)

***

I'm running a giveaway for an e-copy of Kings !
To enter, click HERE.

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All this month, you are invited to…

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— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<

… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!

#99cents sale A Fortune to Die For by @Liza0Connor presented by @MOBPromos

A FORTUNE TO DIE FORBook 1 of The White Oak-Mafia SeriesBy Liza O'ConnorGenre: Contemporary Mafia Suspense (with touches of humor)
Megan Clarke had a good life until she wins the Mega Times Lottery and discovers the prize comes with a curse. Worse than the many money-hungry suitors, a serial killer has her in his sight. She changes her name and moves to Iowa with plans to buy their last major forest of white oaks and turn it into a State Park. Unfortunately, the Lottery Curse doesn't stop at state lines and someone there wants her dead, as well. Good thing a disturbingly handsome law officer is just as determined to keep her alive.


Megan Clarke set the package on her kitchen counter with great care. “It’s probably nothing,” she chided herself. Opening a letter that came in the same mail delivery, she changed her mind as she read another threat to kill her. She hurried to the phone and hit her speed dial for the local cops. Her hands shook despite her mental self-assurances that everything was okay.

A female voice answered the phone. “Danville Police.”

Recognizing Margaret’s voice, she replied, “Hi, this is Megan. Is Sergeant Adams around?”

“No, he’s on vacation. You get another death threat?”

“Yeah, but there’s also a package. I know it’s stupid, but I’m afraid to open it.”

A heavy sigh sounded over the phone. “I swear, all your troubles since you won the lottery has made me afraid to even play scratch-offs. Hold on.”

Megan pushed her blond hair behind her ears. The craziest part about her winning the Mega Times Lottery was she never played games of chance—thought it a great waste of money. She had already become a millionaire by her own efforts. Why did she want to be richer? She had more than enough.Then one day, while in a New York shop buying lunch, her friend, Terry, a bona fide lottery junkie, had insisted she buy a ticket. “It only cost a dollar. Stop being a miser!” Not wishing to argue, she passed the clerk a dollar. “Just give me a random number,” she instructed the fellow, then frowned as her friend filled out ten cards. “You do realize if I win, you have to take the money,” Megan warned.

Terry stared at her with rounded eyes. “No way! You can’t give away your good luck. If you win it, you have to keep it. Otherwise, you and the recipient will have bad luck the rest of your lives.”

So when the stupid ticket turned out to be the only winning number for a $987-million-dollar pot, all the bad luck stayed with her alone. Honestly, she wouldn’t wish her “new” life on a dog, nevertheless her best friend.

Since she was a financial expert, she took the $463 million upfront and invested half of it, planning to donate the other half to charities. Only problem was, whenever she delved into various charities, she didn’t like the way they used their money, so thus far, she’d only managed to give away a few million.

“Miss Clarke, I’m Detective Steve Williams,” a pleasant voice came over the phone. “How may I help you?”

“I received a package today. It has a name and address I don’t recognize.”

Complete silence answered her.

“Are you still there?”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m just a little confused. Marge said you had a letter threatening your life.”

“Yes. I have one of those, too. It doesn’t have a return address. Nor is it signed. But the letter and the package came in the same post.”

“So you think the package may be from the sender of the death threat?”

“This one or one of the hundred other angry letters I’ve received.”

“Mind if I stop by and take a look?”

Mind? Why did he think she was calling? If only Sergeant Adams were there. “I’d greatly appreciate it.”


Amazon ✯ Goodreads
Unexpected Love ✯ Dance or Die
Liza O’Connor was raised badly by feral cats, left the South/Midwest and wandered off to find nicer people on the east coast. There she worked for the meanest man on Wall Street, while her psychotic husband tried to kill her three times. (So much for finding nicer people.) Then one day she declared enough, got a better job, divorced her husband, and fell in love with her new life where people behaved nicely. But all those bad behaviors has given her lots of fodder for her humorous books. Please buy these books, because otherwise, she’ll become grumpy and write troubled novels instead. They will likely traumatize you.

You have been warned.

AMAZON ✯ WEBSITE ✯ FACEBOOK ✯ GOODREADS ✯ TWITTER



MoB Promotions

***

I'm running a giveaway for an e-copy of Kings !
To enter, click HERE.

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***
All this month, you are invited to…

— Follow Kim on Twitter
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— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<

… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!

Who has died in Ch 14/sc 1b of RAGING SEA by @KimHeadlee? #amwriting

Graphic overlay c2016 by Kim Headlee. The sea is most certainly raging from the influence of what is (at the time of this writing) Hurricane Hermine. 

I hope that by the time you read this, my daughter will have arrived home safely for the Labor Day weekend. If you have loved ones in Hermine's path, I hope they are safe too.

Either way, my thoughts and prayers remain with everyone who must deal with the effects of this storm. I'm sure they're all glad that it's not as severe a weather event as it could have been.

Eileann—though she has only the barest inkling at this point—is heading into an emotional storm of life-altering proportions in today's excerpt from Raging Sea .



Previous excerpts of Raging Sea 
Chapters 1–6 in PERMAFREE Raging Sea: Reckonings  Chapter 7: Sc 1 | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4 | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 8: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 9: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 1d | Sc 1e |
Chapter 10: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 3a | Sc 3b | Sc 3c |
Chapter 11: Sc 1a |  Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 12: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4a | Sc 4b | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 13: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 2c | Sc 2d | Sc 2e | Sc 2f |
Chapter 14: Sc 1a |
Raging Sea Chapter 14, Scene 1b©2016 by Kim HeadleeAll rights reserved.
Eileann swallowed a surge of fear and followed her guide.

The heart of the broch was a chamber well known to her, but its dizzying array of pelts, feathers, beads, herbs, dried meats, wax-sealed jars filled with the gods alone knew what manner of salves, potions, and simples, and every cooking, cutting, pounding, serving, and stirring implement imaginable provided a constant source of wonder.

More amazing still was how the women ever managed to find anything amid the clutter.

Fioruisge set the taper in a wall sconce and placed Eileann’s offering on a sideboard.

Sgeir, whose alias meant “Rock in the Sea,” the oldest of the three with the passing of Fioruisge’s predecessor Fairge, was standing at a table near the hearth, kneading bread dough, her cane propped close at hand. Sian, living up to her namesake the wind storm, was bustling about from shelf to shelf, examining jars and vials, and now and again removing one to join the growing collection on another table.

Sian’s grouping—everything from pungent juniper to fragments of cones from the rare Ròmanach stone pine trees that grew outside an arena far in the south of Breatein—comprised what was needful for preparing a body for burial. If that were so, then Sgeir was preparing a loaf to sustain the soul on the journey into the Otherworld.

Eileann felt her eyes stretch wide. “Who has died?”

As a member of the clan’s ruling family, she ought to be among the first to know and yet had heard nothing. A lump grew inside her that had naught to do with her primary reason for this visit. Her husband and father were even now leading the war-band to investigate reports of an Angalaranach incursion onto Tarsuinn lands. Her sister, eager to be blooded in combat, had gone with them too.


***


All this month, you are invited to…

— Follow Kim on Twitter
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September to Remember from The Dawnflier (Sept 2016)

Although August is over for another 11 months, it seems from where I stand in the mountains of southwest Virginia that there are plenty of dog days left before autumn falls upon us!
Kim Headlee at her booth at the first annual Art at the Crossroads street fair,
Wytheville, VA, 8/27/2016. Photo c2016 by Jen Otey.
Thank you to everyone who bought copies of my books or just stopped to chat at my booth the other day! This event proved to be a valuable dress rehearsal for my participation in Olde Salem Days on September 10, and I'm grateful to everyone who helped make the inaugural Art at the Crossroads day a memorable one.

I also extend heartfelt thanks to everyone who visited me at the Wythe County Public Library and BW Country Store earlier in August, as well as to all my new followers and newsletter subscribers who participated in my recent Rafflecopter and Amazon giveaways.

Before I describe more of this month's upcoming personal appearances, I have some exciting book news to report:

King Arthur's Sister in Washington's Court has won its second award, the Summer 2016 Pinnacle Best Fantasy Book. Earlier in August, it was graced with a "solidly entertaining" nod from that monarch of all review sources, Publishers Weekly .Special announcement for BookBub subscribers in the Fantasy genre: King Arthur's Sister in Washington's Court will be on sale for $0.99 (and equivalent amounts in the UK, Canada, Australia, and India) and featured by BookBub on Sunday, September 18! Kings , my sword-and-sorcery novella cowritten with Patricia Duffy Novak, is now available in paperback. I'll be using it at my personal appearances as a reward for signing up for my newsletter, The Dawnflier .The Business of Writing nonfiction book and Raging Sea: Enemies and Allies (The Dragon's Dove Chronicles book 3, part 2) are in the hands of my primary editors and should be available for purchase by the end of the month. Raging Sea: Reckonings is now permafree for Kindle, Nook, iTunes, and Kobo customers! What are you waiting for? :D
Upcoming appearances:
Sunday, September 4: BW Country Store, Big Walker Lookout, Wytheville, VA, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.Saturday, September 10: Olde Salem Days, "Virginia's Foremost Arts & Crafts Festival," 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. My booth will be located at 208 West Main Street, Salem, VA.Saturday, October 8: Indie Author Day at the Wythe County Public Library. Times and participation details TBA.
Stay cool and hydrated!
***

All this month, you are invited to…

— Follow Kim on Twitter
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— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<

… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!