Paula Berinstein's Blog, page 4

Meet David Wiffle

Descended from an English lord, Sir Bailiwick Wiffle, David Wiffle is an insufferable prig. He is rich, aristocratic, and does everything by the book. When Amanda and the other kids do things that don’t live up to his impossible standards, he tattles. He is quite the goody two-shoes and a thorn in Amanda’s side.

David is a puny kid with cornflower blue eyes and pale red straight hair. He’s of average intelligence and excels at nothing. He hangs around with one friend, Gordon Bramble, who is a complete toady.

He is a member of Van Helden House. He first appears in Book 1 of the Amanda Lester series, Amanda Lester and the Pink Sugar Conspiracy.

Now that the blog tour is over, here is what I thought

I found Lola of Lola's Blog Tours kind of by accident. I had emailed another potential organizer whose details I got from a link on a book blog, but she never answered me. I knew from browsing book blogs, though, that many organizer logos and links were listed, so I looked at a few and found her. She answered immediately! I knew she was the organizer for me.

I had never done a blog tour before so I wasn't sure what to expect. The way it works is that interested book bloggers sign up to post something about your book or series on a particular day during the tour, which in my case lasted two weeks. They can post a review, an excerpt from the book, an interview, a guest post written by you, a top ten list or similar (also written by you), or just a promo. In my case, there was a good mix of these. On some days, multiple bloggers posted. On others, no one did.

The tour organizer creates a media kit with your book cover images, author photo, blurbs, social media links, buy links, author bio, and electronic copies of the book(s) for reviewers. She also asks for the fonts from your book cover if there are any custom ones. From this she makes up a tour banner for use on all the bloggers' Web sites, as well as some explanatory copy about the tour and the books. In my case I also wanted to do a giveaway, so she set that up for me. She uses Rafflecopter. That made it easy for me, as there's a fee for using it. Since she was already a member, I didn't have to worry about that.

I sent out paperback copies of the first two Amanda Lester, Detective books to those who asked for them, but not the third one because it hadn't yet come out and I didn't have any hard copies. Lola sent Kindle copies of the third book to those who requested it. Some of the bloggers signed up to review just the first book, some the first and second, and some all three. That was very generous, considering that each of my books is in the 400-page range!

I was asked to write two guest posts and one top ten list: my favorite mysteries. In one case the blogger asked me to post on a particular topic, how I do my covers, and in another case, she said whatever I wanted to do was fine, so I came up with a post about how I create my crazy character names.

I also selected excerpts from the three books. It was hard not to pick passages with spoilers in them, but in the end I found quite a few good ones. I wanted to make sure the bloggers had a range of choices. Here is what I sent:

Amanda Lester and the Pink Sugar Conspiracy mystique excerpt (Professor Also shows the kids how to develop their detective's mystique)

Amanda Lester and the Pink Sugar Conspiracy gluppy things excerpt (Amanda and Nick find some horrible-looking gelatinous creatures outside the school)

Amanda Lester and the Pink Sugar Conspiracy dead bodies class excerpt (the pathology class is very gross)

Amanda Lester and the Pink Sugar Conspiracy American English vs British English excerpt (Amanda, who is American, and Amphora, who is English, have a bit of trouble communicating)

Amanda Lester and the Orange Crystal Crisis silly plates excerpt (the decor gremlins have come up with a ridiculous way to eat lasagna, and the kids struggle with it)

Amanda Lester and the Orange Crystal Crisis glitter explosions excerpt (Professor Pole introduces the kids to chemical reactions, and boy, are they awesome)

Amanda Lester and the Orange Crystal Crisis two clowns excerpt (clowns are supposed to be nice, but these two are cheeky)

Amanda Lester and the Purple Rainbow Puzzle Crocodile's flat excerpt (Amanda and Eustace Plantagenet examine the apartment of a deceased criminal named Crocodile Pleth)

Amanda Lester and the Purple Rainbow Puzzle Gordon saves Ivy excerpt (who knew Ivy was allergic to bees?)

Amanda Lester and the Purple Rainbow Puzzle newsagent excerpt (sometimes you have to bribe a newsagent with pizza if you want information on local zombies).

Most of the hosts posted on their scheduled day. A few were a bit late, and some kind of disappeared. However, I came away with some awesome reviews and some lovely publicity, and I'm very, very happy with the results! It's a lot of work--you have to tweet, FB, Goodreads, post comments, etc. constantly during the tour--but it's worth it!

Here are the posts:

Ogitchida Kwe’s Book Blog. Reviews.

3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, & Sissy, Too!. Reviews.

Domestic Chanteuse. Excerpt.

T’s Stuff. Excerpt.

Cassandra M’s Place. Reviews.

Just Lei: Books. Excerpt.

Always Me. Excerpt.

Crazy Beautiful Reads. Excerpt and top ten mysteries list.

Lola's Reviews. Guest post, "Lights, Action, Book Cover!"

Mel's Shelves. Review.

Night Owl Book Cafe. Review.

Around the World in Books. Excerpt.

Absurd Book Nerd. Review and excerpt.

Sweet N Sassy Book A Holics. Excerpt.

Driftless. Reviews and excerpt.

Creativity and Crazy. Excerpt and guest post, "Paula B’s Crazy Character Name Generator."

I am so glad I did this. I will definitely be doing more tours. Thank you to the most amazing blog tour organizer, Lola of Lola's Blog Tours, for a rip-roaring success!!!!!

Paula B's Crazy Character Name Generator

People always ask me where I get my character names. After all, Particle Peaksribbon, Simon Binkle, and Owla Snizzle aren’t exactly your everyday monikers. Now that I’m doing this wonderful blog tour, I think it’s time I revealed my secrets, which you can use to name your characters too.

Read more . . .

Sherlock Holmes Meets Nancy Drew Meets Harry Potter

"Amanda Lester and the Pink Sugar Conspiracy is a smashing Holmesian debut from Paula Berinstein."

Read more of the review from noted Sherlock Holmes expert Derrick Belanger on the I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere blog. . .

Paula's Top 10 Mysteries

Today's blog tour stop includes a list of my favorite mysteries as well as an excerpt from the purple book (both toward the bottom of the post). In the excerpt, Amanda and Ivy's sister Fern are trying to find out where in the Lake District zombies have been seen.

Lights, Action, Book Cover: How I Design My Book Covers

Creating a book cover is a lot like directing a movie. You pick the script, hire actors, come up with a look and feel, and design your sets, props, and costumes. Then you turn everything over to the experts who know how to transform your ideas into magic, and voila, you have your cover!

Here is the process in a nutshell.

Read more

Meet Nick Muffet

Nick Muffet is a student at the Legatum Continuatum School for the Descendants of Famous Detectives. He is extremely creative and has experience in film and theater. He is tall for his age and extremely good looking, with long dark thick hair, sky blue eyes, and a medium build. He is gallant and charistmatic, sometimes to the point of flirtation, but he’s not just a pretty boy; he’s the real deal. He’s extremely smart and very good with computers.

Nick first appears in Book 1 of the Amanda Lester series, Amanda Lester and the Pink Sugar Conspiracy.

The Amanda Lester, Detective blog tour and giveaway starts today!

The Amanda Lester, Detective two-week blog tour starts today. The tour will include reviews, guest posts, interviews, and excerpts. On the first stop Ogitchida Kwe's Book Blog, Esperanza reviews the pink and orange books and offers an excerpt from the purple one. Here is a taste of what she has to say:

"If you are a middle grade book fan, and I don't care what age you are you can be one, you will definitely be wild about the author Paula Berinstein. Berinstein gives her readers a chance to connect to her characters and does so with precision. The first book in the series that I read was Amanda Lester and the Pink Sugar Conspiracy and I am so glad that I did. I homeschool my children and read aloud to both of them because they are years apart but both can still enjoy a story being told to them. Well that is exactly how the first book in this series was presented to my homeschool, by reading aloud. My youngest son loves to snuggle in and listen to me read and this was a chance for him to hear a middle grade story. Suffice to say he loved it just like mom and his older brother did!"

There is also a giveaway with the post. You can win a complete set of the first three Amanda books (pink, orange, and purple) and/or a copy of the pink book, Amanda Lester and the Pink Sugar Conspiracy.

Amanda Lester and the Purple Rainbow Puzzle is here!

The third volume in the Amanda Lester, Detective series is here!

Purple rainbows, a mysterious crypt, and pots of gold . . .

Things are not going well for Amanda and the secret detective school. A priceless artifact has disappeared, a dangerous hacker is manipulating matter, and zombies are being seen all over the Lake District. Then the real trouble starts.

When her cousins go missing and her friend Clive is kidnapped, Amanda is forced to turn to someone she’d rather not deal with: her old boyfriend Scapulus Holmes. But then he vanishes too. Now’s she’s sure that arch-villain Blixus Moriarty is involved . . . or is he?

Amanda Lester comes to Publishers Weekly

I am thrilled to announce that the November 16th issue of Publishers Weekly has a four-cover spread featuring Amanda Lester. I also have an interview on page 42.

It's kind of hard to know what else to say. I hope you enjoy it!