Neva Squires-Rodriguez's Blog, page 37

Weekend Writing Warriors #8Sunday

Hello Friends, today I’m super excited because I received the paperback copy of my book! (See picture below)  Yey!  For this weeks post, I’m sharing a snippet from book 2, which has yet to be released.  Something very serious has happened, this is about a chapter ahead of what I gave you  last week, so you can kind of see what’s going on here.

~Love you guys, hoping everyone has the most enjoyable week ever!

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His words took me off guard as I stared into his dark brown eyes. His lip began to tremble.

“I love you so much.” He said with a sincere expression. “I am so sorry.”

I glanced over at him. Even though he looked sincere, I couldn’t forgive him. It hurt me not to reach over and hold him, but I couldn’t forget about what he had done.

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Be sure to check out all the Weekend Writing Warriors posts here:  http://www.wewriwa.com/

And if you feel so inclined, read book one so that you can catch up on Liliana and her suspense filled journey, before book 2 comes out.

Click the link to check it out on Amazon!

An interview with David Clive Price, author of “Chinese Walls”

Biography

David Clive Price has had a passion for Asia’s peoples and cultures ever since he went to Japan in the 1980s and wrote a book about his travels throughout the country. This passion developed further in Hong Kong, where he struggled to make ends meet as a writer in the 1990s, wrote economic reports about Asian countries, and travelled all over the region researching features for international magazines. Finding himself on his pin ends with his Chinese spouse in a walk-up one-room apartment above a nightclub in Hong Kong, he resolved to join the corporate world and became Chief Speechwriter for Asia for one of the world’s leading banks. It was 1995. Hong Kong was preparing to return to China. David spent the next few years writing speeches to be given all over Asia and the world. He also began publishing a series of books on South Korea, Hong Kong, China, India, and Buddhism in the daily life of Asia.

Freeing himself from corporate life, he set up his own consultancy advising Asian multinationals and Western companies with Asian operations on their strategic and intercultural communications. This experience, and the challenges he faced launching his own business, form the basis of his new book The Master Key to Asia: A 6-Step Guide to Unlocking New Markets and his innovative Master Key Series on the business cultures, etiquettes and customs of Asia’s high-growth markets. Check out his blog posts at www.davidcliveprice.com and his daily posts on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Interview with David Clive on his book, “Chinese Walls”


David, tell us about your latest story, “Chinese Walls.”
The story of a corporate (married) high-flyer who risks all on a secret gay relationship in Hong Kong and almost loses everything by not being true to himself. 


Approximately how long did it take you to write the story?
 6 months but with many revisions afterwards as I widened the scope and theme.


Where did you get the idea for this story from?

 I worked as a speechwriter in Hong Kong and London for business and political leaders before I set out on my own. I wrote it in both London and Hong Kong. I was an ‘out’ gay man at work, and my Chinese partner came to the office to meet me sometimes. But what if I wasn’t out (many were and are not)? What would have happened? And what about all my women friends in the company? They were facing similar or related problems with the male hierarchy. A cross-cultural novel about there glass ceiling and the glass closet came to my mind – and I was the right one to write it.





Do you think Life experiences, research or just your imagination makes you a better a writer?
 Imagination no.1, closely followed by life experiences.


What would you name the autobiography of your life?

 Diving Right In.

If money was not an issue, what one thing would you love to do?


 Fund an educational academy for aspiring young Asians that don’t have the money for college (and a scholarship for Asia-based writers at my Cambridge college)


If you could only pick two people, living or dead, famous or not, to read your book, who would they be and why?

 I would love John Kander, the composer half of Kander & Ebb (Cabaret, Chicago etc), to see I made good and can write the novels he always said I could write when I was his occasional house guest in NYC in the 1970s-1980s. The other one

would be Charles Dickens, who wrote about all kinds of socially taboo subjects.



 



   

Check David’s work out on these fantastic sites:

Amazon
Goodreads
Facebook
Website
Blog Tour Schedule

Liliana by Neva Squires-Rodriguez Now Available in Print and All Ebook Editions!

Liliana by Neva Squires-Rodriguez Now Available in Print and All Ebook Editions!.

~Yippee, the print version of my book is out.  If you’re buying it, can you tag me in a picture of you reading it, for my blog?  :)  Also if you’re not a reader, call your local library and see if they’ll order it for you.  Just because.  :)

Author Do’s #MondayBlogs

The one thing that I am truly thankful for in selecting an online publisher (or them selecting me rather), is the gigantic push for me to establish my web presence.  Without daily entries to various forms of social media, I would not have been selected.  I was ever so hesitant to sign up for WordPress because I had never heard of them and the whole thing sounded like a scam.  This is what the news does to you, establishes a major sense of paranoia of whether to click on this or that.  Low and behold two months later, I have come to find the writer’s world-a fabulous place where people understand the words of Audre Lorde in “Poetry is Not a Luxury” or where they can read Sor Juana Ines de La Cruz and feel the power in her mere words.

Oh, gosh I am so thankful to my author friends who have shown me the guiding light.  Chelle Cordero, who immediately befriended me when I signed on with VHP and pointed me to where to go and what to do online.  Charmaine Gordon and Lauren Shiro who interviewed me on their blog and Charmaine pointed me in the direction of Weekend Writing Warriors, a Sunday writers playground where I met the amazing Teresa Cypher amongst many phenomenal writers & that has been ever so fun to take part in.  And then there is my bffaf Tamara Philip who has given me at least a tip or a lead a day and introduced Goodreads & Listopia (Goodreads affiliated list) to me (sites that I lose hours on end) as well as many other awesome networking sites, groups and adventures.

Anyhow, so the author do’s are do all sorts of networking to get the word about your book out there.  I’m sure there are people that don’t have to bother and can pay someone else to do it, but for poor chaps like me who can’t spare $5.00 for a book campaign, this is something that we have to do.  In fact, I’ve done so much of it that I think I’m going to form a group, SNA (Social Networking Anonymous).  This has become a place where I’ve lost hours of my life and have to get back to writing.  :)

Ok so here’s the plan for us junkies trying to cut down or for newbies to jumpstart.  (Like that, it can go both ways?)

15 minutes of Twitter- two minutes to post a day, ten minutes to retweet, three to accept friend requests and manage your page.

3 minutes of Facebook Author Page- two to post a day, three to go to your various group pages or repost.

15 minutes of Goodreads- 2 minutes to accept friend requests or request people, 10 to find groups, type links on groups and go at it.

7 minutes of Listopia- a straight ten to vote your book or others to various lists

17 minutes of Blogging- Whether it is to write on your own, do a blog hop, etc.

3 minutes to like Amazon Author Pages.

And there you have it, an hour of Author Do’s.  Will you be able to keep it at just an hour, or at least an hour a day?  I don’t know!  But I know one thing for certain-I’ve already gone over my time limit!  Goodbye!  ;)

Weekend Writing Warriors #8Sunday

My heat is running for the first time this year friends!  That’s right, it’s cold.  I’m not ready for fall, much less winter.   LOL  Just wanted to share that with you.  Anyhow, this is a little piece from book two, which will be released soon.  This is kind of an awkward moment.  I’m not going to tell you what’s going on here, but see if you can feel the tension in the room. (PS, notice my Amazon Like link on my menu?  Can you “like” me please?)

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Gilbert woke up and quickly jumped up to see what was going on. Antonio who was still zippering up his pants came out to help me and immediately started yelling at Gilbert.

“You were supposed to give me a warning, man!” Antonio shouted at him.

“Unbelievable! Do I pay you to sleep?” Antonio said as he looked from side to side, not knowing what to do or to say to me as I sat with my face covered in tears.

Gilbert didn’t say anything and I could hear Charles coming out of his room.

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Don’t forget to visit all of the other fabulous warriors sites.  Click here:

http://www.wewriwa.com/

Amazon Likes #mretweettrain #rt

Hey everybody.  I just found out about how important it is for us author’s to get Amazon likes.  Apparently Amazon starts sending our info out when we get to 200 likes, which attracts more visitors to our books.  We can all use a little free advertising right?  For this reason, I’m asking that everyone that reads this take one solid minute and click on the links below and hit the like button that comes up on the top right-hand side of the authors profile.  You do have to be signed in to your Amazon account, but you do not have to buy anything, so please do us a favor and take the time to click a few times.  I’m including not only my link, but also the link of a few of my favorite authors.  If you see this and are an author who needs more likes on your page, just hit the comment button and leave your link and I’ll click like on yours as well.  :)  Thanks.  Enjoy your day!!

Me:  www.amazon.com/Neva-Squires-Rodriguez/e/B00MVB3ZD0

Tamara Philip:  www.amazon.com/Tamara-Philip/e/B00M8CGV60

Chelle Cordero:  www.amazon.com/Chelle-Cordero/e/B002BMBFAE

Lauren Shiro:  www.amazon.com/Lauren-Shiro/e/B00J3L9HZG

Charmaine Gordon:  www.amazon.com/Charmaine-Gordon/e/B001K8UF7O

Susan Berry:  www.amazon.com/Susan-Berry/e/B00KHAMJW0

Malcolm Campbell:  www.amazon.com/Malcolm-R.-Campbell/e/B002BLZ3EO

Angela K Austin:  www.amazon.com/Angela-Kay-Austin/e/B003LUC3UQ

I also wanted to post my friends at Weekend Writing Warriors links here, but I’m having trouble finding a few of you on Amazon, not sure if you use different names, so please post your links.  ;)

Things that I have learned on Twitter #MondayBlogs

If you all remember two months ago, I knew nothing about Twitter.  As time passed, I learned more and more.  I feel confident in sharing what I’ve learned with you, so that you can do whatever you want with it.  ;)  (As I type this I must also tell you that my cat is sprawled across the table where I sit writing, examining everything that I’m typing as it pops up on the screen.  It’s very odd, it’s almost like she can read everything that I’m writing.  Oh she just looked away and fell asleep all in one breathe, I must be boring her. )

1)  Tweet (post) something everyday, even twice a day or more often.  The likelihood of it being read is slim, so you’ll want to tweet as you feel appropriate.

2) Don’t over tweet.  No one wants to hear comment after comment about yourself and your feelings.  Limit yourself there, you can get around this if you have a happy twitter finger by retweeting (reposting other peoples posts).

3)  If you are new to the scene and really want to get your information out there for everyone to see, retweet those you are following and those who are following you.  There are a ton of retweet groups that you can join up with, look for them, follow them and retweet them.

4)  If someone follows you, they generally expect you to follow them back.  If you don’t, they will most likely “unfollow” you.  If you’re trying to build your online visibility, don’t go there.  I’m not suggesting that you follow weirdo’s, but if you have a similar profile follow away.  For example, I “followback” anyone that is an author, writer, general artist etc. but avoid following people that suggest they can get me 10k followers if I go their way.  You don’t need to do this, if you are serious about building your online following, it will come.

5)  Make a list.  Make several lists.  I have a “retweet list” and tweet everyone on that list my book info once a day.  They then retweet it out to their followers and you have just earned yourself a little free advertising.  Note only add to this list if the group specifies that they retweet, you don’t want to spam someone that wants nothing to do with Twitter-marketing and then end up getting yourself blocked from Twitter.  :)

6) If you see someone wondering around Twitter who’s completely lost, ask them if they need help, (recommend some Twitter rules of thumb for them).  They will most likely be thankful and add you as a buddy.

7) Go to your Home page every so often, establish relationships with people that you don’t know.  For example, if someone has a really cool picture posted, comment on it.  People are going to see you commenting and may quite possibly follow you.  You want this.  You want a ton of followers.  I’m not sure why, but you do.  Just kidding.  Twitter is more of a marketing site, where as Facebook is more so socializing.  There are people who use it mainly for socializing, like my daughter, which drives me nuts because I don’t want people following her that don’t know her, but I screen it, anyhow you get where I am going with this right?

8)  Aside from retweeting, make sure you tweet about your friends that are also marketing their product.  I guess it wouldn’t be called retweeting, if you are actually initializing the tweet right?  So do it!  For example by best author friend tells me of all these cool Facebook sites to go to in order to market my book and in turn when I go through my list I tweet about her book!  (which I love by the way, “The Trouble with Playing Cupid)  Anyhow it helps, or I think it does.  Anyone in Chicagoland remembers that phone number to Empire Carpet right?  (They had a ton of commercials in the nineties and everyone used to give out that number when they didn’t want to give out their own)  Anyhow, you know where I am going with this right?

9)  Post links to your site in your tweets, pictures also look pretty on Twitter walls, but generally take up much needed characters.   Use them at your discretion.

10) Finally have fun with it, seek out followers if need be and add them, if they don’t add you back, get rid of them.  It works.

*Hope you enjoyed this friends.  Let me know if my tips worked for you.  :)

Weekend Writing Warriors #8Sunday

Good day friends.  As I write this weeks warrior post, I am sick out of my mind.  My eyes are blurry from a bad cold and I wish that my nostrils were working.  I’m telling you this, only because I’m a very odd person, who would like you to know everything about me.  :)  (Little humor there.)  Anyhow that being said, I would have to say that the hardest thing for me to ever do on Saturday mornings is to find “just” eight sentences to post for our Weekend Writing Warriors post, but let’s admit it is so fun to look for and when I find those eight, it’s like a light turns on and I think to myself, That’s it!  Ever so happily.

This week was a little different.  This snippet is from my book “Liliana”, just after Liliana and Antonio get married.  You’re going to see that it’s not like anything else I’ve ever shown you and I’m slightly nervous about your reaction.  I hope that you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it.  Here it goes:

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“Antonio, stop.” I struggled to say. “Please stop.”

Tears filled my eyes and my body began to shake uncontrollably with fear.

He smiled but held his finger to his lips attempting to silence me. When my shaking and whimpering slowed down he began to move back and forth slowly. I felt like my body would break in half as I tried again to stop him. This time he didn’t pull back and just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, he thrust his entire manhood inside me.

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You can check out all the other fabulous Weekend Writing Warriors Pages here:

http://www.wewriwa.com/

Like those eight?  Buy my book.  :)  Help me pay off my school loans.  :)  Here’s the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Liliana-Book-1-Neva-Squires-Rodriguez-ebook/dp/B00MV4UD5A

Great news you can also support it on Thunderclapit by clicking here:  thndr.it/1wipW8N

The Blog Hop Tour- #MondayBlogs

The Blog Hop Tour- # Monday Blogs

 

Hi my name is Neva Rodriguez

  I’m a writer who puts a twist into everything that I write.

 

I was invited to join this blog tour by Author Chelle Cordero.  Chelle writes romantic suspense stories that are guaranteed to blow you away.  I can’t say enough about her work, it’s simply amazing!  Check out her phenomenal work here:

 

ABOUT ME

 I’m new to the writing world, but I intend on making waves.   While my writing has not taken me to the point where I can live off of my proceeds, I hope that one day it will.  I don’t think I’m going to get to that point for a while because right now, I owe too much in student loans!  I currently work in customer service (Sigh) and generally spend my lunch breaks devoting time to my writing.  Besides this I have four children, two older, two younger, a husband, a stepson and a cat.

Here’s the links to find out more about my work:

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Liliana-Book-1-Neva-Squires-Rodriguez-ebook/dp/B00MV4UD5A

Barnes and Noble:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/liliana-neva-squires-rodriguez/1120171413?ean=2940046114188

Smashwords:  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/468277

Noisetrade:  http://books.noisetrade.com/nevasquiresrodriguez/liliana-by-neva-squires-rodriguez

CURRENT PROJECT

I’m currently working on the third book in the Liliana series.  It is my personal favorite- of course all of my work is my personal favorite during the time I’m working on it.  I’d have to say that I think that this one is going to blow you away.  Readers are going to see a side of Liliana that they would have never imagined existed!  It’s pure flame, I tell you!  ;)

  WHAT MAKES MY STORIES DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS IN THE SAME GENRE?

I would have to say the exciting twists make my work different than the next persons.  My mind works very differently.  I am the type of person who thinks out several outcomes to a situation before it actually takes place.  I come up with the craziest things.   Imagine someone with that type of imagination writing a book and putting all of their thoughts out there for the reader.

 WHY DO I WRITE THE STORIES THAT I DO?  HOW DOES MY WRITING PROCESS WORK?

I write the stories that I do, because they excite me.   The idea for Liliana came to me in a dream and I went with it.  I write in first person, allowing me, as well as my reader to become on with my writing.  I promise you that you will enjoy it! As far as writer’s block, I don’t really experience, my block is more so a life block.  I wish that I had more time to write, or a job that involved writing. This is where my passion is.

WHO’s NEXT ON THE BLOG HOP

Next in line for this blog hop is my BFFAF (Best friend forever/Author Friend) and fellow VHP (Vanilla Heart Publishing) Author Tamara Philip.

Her website is:  tamaraphilipwrites.wordpress.com    I hope you’ll pay her blog a visit over the next week.  Tamara writes stories that are sweeter than apple pie.  I think she has something else up her sleeve, let’s see if she tells us about it.  Her debut novel is currently on sale in print, audio and e-format.  Buy it in any format now!

Weekend Writing Warrior Post

Hello new friends!  I was so excited to post this, that it’s going up a little early.  No, actually I’m going to a friends house Saturday night, who lives out of town and I want to make sure that if we decide to spend the night, it’s up when it should be.  :)  I’m really excited about that, because I have a babysitter!  Yes!  That’s super exciting, the hubby and I don’t get many of those nights and I really need a break.

So anyhow, a little introduction to this piece.  Oh this is my favorite part of the book (Liliana), the moment Liliana and Antonio meet.  It’s an awkward situation.  It’s pouring rain and Liliana is walking home and has just been offered a ride by someone that she doesn’t know.   You really have to read the book, to completely understand this scene, but it is so hot, I wish we posted more than eight sentences because I’d love to share what happens next.

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He was quiet and I could feel him staring at me in the dark. I began to get nervous when he didn’t start driving right away, instead he turned on the inside lights of his car. I could feel my heart begin to thump heavily as I sat with my hands folded in my lap, too scared to look over at him. If he was going to hit me with something in my head, I didn’t want to see it coming. My mind filled with fear, in imagining what could potentially happen to me. Finally he began to speak and to my surprise, his voice relaxed me.

“Hi, I’m Antonio.” He said.

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Ok, now you must visit the other fabulous writing warriors pages, located here:

http://www.wewriwa.com/

Don’t worry, you can buy my book if you want to read the rest, or just read the first four chapters:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MV4UD5A