Author: Marcia

That Darkest Place (Riverbend Book 3) by @MarciaMeara #Romantic #Suspense #TuesdayBookBlog

/ Marcia / 5 Comments

What a lovely surprise to find awaiting me this morning. Cathy at Between the Lines has reviewed That Darkest Place, and she simply made my morning! Check it out, and please feel free to share far and wide.

Between the Lines ~ Books’n’Stuff

  • Author: Marcia Meara
  • Published: June 2017 by CreateSpace independent Publishing Platform
  • Category: Romantic Suspense, Book Review, Books, Reading

“There are dark places in every heart, in every head. Some you turn away from. Some you light a candle within. But there is one place so black, it consumes all light. It will pull you in and swallow you whole. You don’t leave your brother stranded in that darkest place.” 

~Hunter Painter~

Following straight on from Finding Hunter, we find two of the Painter brothers keeping a harrowing hospital vigil. The fate of the patient is uncertain but his injuries are bound to be life changing. This story focuses mainly on Forrest and Jackson, both of whom have a lot to come to terms with in different ways. Jackson’s New Year begins with a tragedy. He can’t remember how he ended up in hospital and is initially unaware of the result…

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Endings – How Important Are They?

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A very interesting conversation about cliffhangers going on at Don Massenzio’s blog. I recommend checking it out. I also recommend thinking long and hard about the advisability of ending your book on a cliffhanger, but that’s just my personal opinion. Enjoy!

Author Don Massenzio

endLast week, I talked about book openings in one of my posts. This post talks about the other end of your book, the ending. It will briefly discuss the types of endings and the importance of choosing the right one for your book.

Just_Hanging_AroundLeaving the reader hanging – is it a good idea?

Many sources will tell you not to end your book with a cliffhanger. The reader needs some satisfaction or a happy ending to complete their reading experience. In my opinion, the answer to this is not quite that simple.

As someone who has written a series, I strive to make each book capable of being read as a standalone story. There is, however, a backstory arc for my main character that continues from book to book. What I like to do is resolve the current story within the book but provide a lead in to the next…

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Correction to the #NotesFromTheRiver – That OId Coot Post!

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American coot (Fulica Americana)
Photo by Doug Little

So sorry, folks! I must have been in a Stupid yesterday, which is a lot like a stupor, only with a bad case of DUMB added in. 😯 I totally forgot to include the range map of the American coot the post, and because of that, I made a mistake in saying coots were only in Florida in the winter. Doh! I assumed that to be the case, because that’s when huge migrating rafts of them start to appear on our lakes and rivers. But the truth is, there are non-breeding coots to be found here all year long. (Once again, I’m referring ONLY to the feathered variety, though I’m pretty sure this holds true of the other kind as well. Probably why they’re so grouchy!) 😀

I have added the range map to the post, and I’m sharing it here, as well, for any who want to take a quick look. As you can see, coots are spread across a huge swath of the United States, and well into Canada, as well as south into central America. So, if you live in the U. S. and have a hankering to see some for yourself, you stand a pretty good chance of being able to do so. Again, sorry for the omission yesterday, but hope this makes up for it.

If you haven’t yet read the entire post, you may do so here:

#NotesFromTheRiver – That Old Coot!

Introducing ReaderLinks and Author Helper

/ Marcia / 5 Comments

This could be interesting for those who want a better way to track sales and other pertinent information. Thanks to Nicholas Rossis for helping spread the word.

Nicholas C. Rossis

ReaderLinks | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's booksReaderLinks

I have mentioned my author friend John Logsdon a number of times in this blog. Not only is he a book marketing guru who has helped me a lot with my own books, he has also been developing ReaderLinks; a website to help Indies in their everyday struggle to sell more books.

As John is a hugely successful Indie author himself, he has developed ReaderLinks to cover all of our needs: It includes a Book Calendar; a Sales Tracker; Tweet Management; a Global Links tool; and many more tools.

I’ve been part of his beta-testers for the past few months and I’m excited that the project has now reached the point where the launch build is ready. Check it out and subscribe to be notified when it launches! You can find out more by watching the video below.

The Author Helper

Except for developing ReaderLinks, John has also…

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Update on Audio Version of Swamp Ghosts

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Good News!!

Thanks to an interesting and encouraging post by Don Massenzio, I decided it was time to make my work available as audio books. I signed on with ACX, put up a sample from Swamp Ghosts (the one I’ve had the most requests for), and found a reader whose voice I thought would work. Yesterday, I got the news she has finished recording, and now it’s up to me to listen to the entire book, suggest any changes I feel are necessary, within guidelines, upload the cover resized for a jewel case, and voila! It will be ready to finalize and publish.

So far, this has been an easy process, though with books as long as mine, it does take some time to get them both recorded (on the reader’s end) and proofread (proofheard?) on mine. I have to find 9 hours and 44 minutes in which to sit back and listen, chapter by chapter, author’s notes, acknowledgements, and all. That’s a big chunk of time for me, which I will have to tackle in bits and pieces, but in the long run, it will be worth it.  Audio books are growing at an unprecedented rate, and I believe it’s important to be sure readers have that option.

When this is all over, I’ll post about the entire experience, but I just had to share that the longest portion–reading a 400-plus-page book aloud–is over! I listened to the prologue tonight, and think it sounds darn good, so I’m really excited to see how my narrator has done with the rest, and very much looking forward to being able to offer all of my novels in audio form!

What about you guys? Any of you thinking  of producing audio books? Have you started yet? Do you like to read them, yourself? Have you had experiences you’d like to share? We’d like to hear from you.