Author: Marcia Meara

#ExcerptWeek – #SummerMagic – “Bruises” by Marcia Meara

/ Marcia Meara / 7 Comments

 

13 - 5

I guess I’ll start off #ExcerptWeek by sharing a poem from my eBook, Summer Magic. I’m in the process of formatting it for print, as a small chapbook, so it seems a good time to give you a taste of what will be within the covers. The first half of the book is called “Mac At Ten,” and features poetry about MacKenzie Cole (the hero from my Wake-Robin Ridge series) as he spent his summers camping on the ridge with his dad. Hope you enjoy this one. (Tomorrow, I’ll share an excerpt from Harbinger.)

Bruises

Pale blue eyes,
Fringed in black,
Look out at the world
With the wild, free spirit
Only a ten-year-old boy
Knows how to nurture.

A shock of black hair falls over his brow
As he frowns thoughtfully,
Examining a scab on one knobby knee.
A souvenir from yesterday’s hike,
Acquired while showing off for Dad.
Again.

Long and thin, his scraped-up legs
Have become maps of small hurts,
Tracing each day of his summer.
A scratch here, from picking
Wild blackberries,
And a bruise there, from
Swinging on a low limb.
Those and so many more,
Injuries acquired while calling,
Watch, Dad, watch!
See what I can do!

Badges.
Attesting to his bravery,
Marking his adventures,
And confirming in his mind
His place among Immortals.

His dad sighs, all too aware
More bumps and scrapes
Lie ahead.
No way to guard him
Against the future bruises
Life will bring.
His boy will be marked,
Abraded by time and
The world around him,
Though some scars will be
Much less obvious than others.
And someday, scabby knees
Will be counted as nothing,
When weighed against
Those invisible wounds.

Summer Magic: Poems of Life and Love:   http://bit.ly/SummerMagicPoems

 

#InspirationBoardSunday #SundayBlogShare – And Now for Something Completely Different!

/ Marcia Meara / 11 Comments

silywalk

Instead of a set of inspirational photos today, what do you say we find our inspiration in each other? I know seeing a bit of what each of you have done, or checking out your latest WIP, is always inspirational to me, so . . . given the power vested in me by, ahem, myself . . . I hereby declare today the start of a new #ExcerptWeek!  Yippee!!

Starting today, you are invited to share an excerpt from one of your books or stories, published, unpublished, or a work in progress, and we, in turn, will send it out into the world to be shared among our various social media groups. Here’s how you do it:

  1. If you are already set up to post on TWS, go right ahead and post your excerpt(s) throughout the week, whenever you like.
  2. If you aren’t set up to do so, email me at: mmeara@cfl. rr.com, and I’ll tell you how to proceed, or will post your excerpt for you.
  3. Be sure to include your Buy Links, Cover Photos, Author Photo, and  Author Bio at the end of your excerpt.
  4. Please, no politics, religion, or blatant erotica. (And yes, I’ll be the judge of what constitutes blatant. Sexy is fine. Very sexy is probably fine, too. Graphic descriptions should be saved for those who decide to read your book.)  *wink-wink, nudge-nudge*

And that’s pretty much it. I can help you post, if you need it. Again, just email me with questions. But most of all, SHARE! This is a great way for you to let others see a sample of your work, and learn how and where to buy your books.  (Even if you’ve never posted here before. We’d love to meet you, and help you share your work.)

So, come on! Show us what ya got!

 

 

 

#WakeRobinRidge Book 3: #Harbinger

/ Marcia Meara / 16 Comments

Final Harbinger Cover at 25percent

 

Nope, I haven’t actually launched this book yet, as I haven’t finished deciding how to go about it, but it is available in Kindle and print format, and already selling, in spite of my lack of a cohesive plan.  (Boy, do I hate that “P” word.) So I figured I’d better let you guys know, at least! This is the third book in my mountain series, and for those of you who enjoyed #WakeRobinRidge and #ABoyNamedRabbit, I hope you’ll be eager to follow Rabbit’s latest shivery adventure.  (Meanwhile, I’m trying to remember how to put the image/link in the right sidebar with my other books. Doh! Brain is on vacation!)

Blurb

“. . . he felt the wet slide of the dog’s burning hot tongue on his face, and the scrape of its razor sharp teeth against the top of his head. A white-hot agony of crushing pain followed, as the jaws began to close.”

The wine-red trillium that carpets the forests of the North Carolina Mountains is considered a welcome harbinger of spring—but not all such omens are happy ones. An Appalachian legend claims the Black Dog, or Ol’ Shuck, as he’s often called, is a harbinger of death. If you see him, you or someone you know is going to die.

But what happens when Ol’ Shuck starts coming for you in your dreams? Nightmares of epic proportions haunt the deacon of the Light of Grace Baptist Church, and bring terror into the lives of everyone around him. Even MacKenzie Cole and his adopted son, Rabbit, find themselves pulled into danger.

When Sheriff Raleigh Wardell asks Mac and Rabbit to help him solve a twenty-year-old cold case, Rabbit’s visions of a little girl lost set them on a path that soon collides with that of a desperate man being slowly driven mad by guilt.

As Rabbit’s gift of the Sight grows ever more powerful, his commitment to those who seek justice grows as well, even when their pleas come from beyond the grave. 

Wake-Robin Ridge Book 3: Harbinger

Tweeting a Post with a Long Title – EASY Fix

/ Marcia Meara / 15 Comments

This happens all the time. When a blog post has a title that makes the post too big, just shorten it. Like this:

Click on the post to tweet it. You’ll see something like this:

tweet1

The -26 in red just means this tweet is 26 characters too long. Answer? Remove some characters, like this:

tweet2

Took me less than two seconds to remove “Fictional Character, and.” Then I hit the Tweet button as usual. That’s all there is to it, honest. Easy-Peasy. (The actual link to the post is at the bottom, untouched, and will lead Twitter readers directly to the actual post, in its entirety.)

Anyone Heard of #Pronoun ?

/ Marcia Meara / 12 Comments

Here is a link to the article that started my questions about Smashwords  and KDP. This is the first I’ve heard of Pronoun, but it sounds very interesting. Anyone have experience/thoughts on it?

https://www.bookworks.com/2016/05/pronoun-macmillan-a-shift-to-more-author-friendly-publishing/

 

#Smashwords and KDP Questions

/ Marcia Meara / 40 Comments

Question-Mark-Man2

Question for you authors who publish on Smashwords, or on  Smashwords AND KDP, combined. I’m planning to move my first Wake-Robin Ridge novel from KDP Select to “regular” KDP, so I can permanently reduce the price on the book. I want it to be a “funnel” book to the Wake-Robin Ridge series. I realized that taking it out of Select means I can open it up to other “venues.” I’ve heard good things about combining KDP with Smashwords, and thus getting the book wider exposure.

How many of you have tried this, and can you share your experiences with us here on The Write Stuff? Thoughts, anyone?