By Popular Demand, Flipboard

/ Marcia Meara / 4 Comments

Are you using Flipboard? If not, maybe you should give it a try. I’m going to. Check out Craig’s informative post.

coldhandboyack's avatarStory Empire

Hi all, Craig here again. I’ve posted a few times on my own blog, Entertaining Stories, about how I’ve benefitted from a semi-obscure media called Flipboard.

Flipboard is one of those curated content setups, and I came to it by accident. Once upon a time, I had a Zite Magazine account. I set it up to be a source of ideas that I might want to write about. All was well with the world, because I could give a thumbs up or down and improve the stories I got. I set up all kinds of things, like archaeology, paranormal, scientific discoveries, and more. Many of these made it into posts I make called The Idea Mill.

Then Zite got absorbed by Flipboard. I didn’t have any choice but to switch over. Honestly, it doesn’t work quite as well for my original purpose, but it allows me something I…

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8 Tips for Short and Sweet Descriptions in Fiction #FabulousFridayGuestBlogger

/ Kassandra Lamb / 14 Comments

by Kassandra Lamb

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While editing the book I’m releasing tomorrow, and especially while trying to pare down the scenes that beta readers and my editor said were dragging, I truly came to appreciate the importance of a finely honed description.

Descriptions in fiction are needed to ground the reader in the setting and allow him/her to visualize characters. But they can also bog down the pace and bore the reader if they are too long, and they can be jarring if they’re in the wrong spot. Today I’d like to share some thoughts about how to make descriptions concise and effective.

1. Why descriptions are so important. People’s brains tend to show a preference for one sense over the others when processing information, and which sense is in the lead varies from person to person. Some people are primarily auditory (30% of U.S. population); they process words and sounds far easier than what they see or sense in other ways. Others are primarily kinesthetic, i.e., movement and touch-oriented (3%). A rare few are primarily smell and taste-oriented. Continue reading →

How to open a link in a new Window – and why you should #Blogging

/ Deborah Jay / Debby Lush / 6 Comments

Hi folks – I see too many bloggers who risk losing their audience by NOT using this one simple step on their WordPress blog – don’t be one of them!
If you AREN’T already using this simple tool, skip over to the full post for easy to follow steps to keep your readers on YOUR blog.

Deborah Jay / Debby Lush's avatardeborahjay

We all want people to read our posts, don’t we? Why else would we devote so much time to blogging?

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So in amongst your material, you include helpful links to other articles.

What you may not realise is that more often than not, once a reader clicks away from your page, they don’t come back.

Particularly if you’ve put a link fairly early on in your post, you may have inadvertently lost that reader to someone else’s blog.

Don’t get me wrong, sharing readers is great and part of the fabulous ethos of the community of bloggers and writers, but what if there was a way to keep your reader on your blog at the same time as sharing someone else’s post?

Well, strangely enough, there is!

I learned this way back when I first started my extensive research before ever dipping my toe into the deep water of indie publishing and blogging…

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#NotesFromTheRiver – Swallow-tailed Kite

/ Marcia Meara / 4 Comments

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Swallow-tailed Kite Photo by Doug Little

It’s Wednesday, and time for my weekly #NotesFromTheRiver post over on the St. Johns River Eco Tour website. This week features the gorgeous swallow-tailed kite, favorite bird of my good friend, Doug Little. Check it out if you have a chance, and maybe pass it along, if you like it.

#NotesFromTheRiver Swallow-tailed Kite

Welcome Nonnie Jules, President of Rave Reviews Book Club and Rave Writers–International Society of Authors

/ Mae Clair / 2 Comments

I’ve got a wonderful guest on my blog today. Nonnie Jules is an amazing woman who started and is president of the Rave Reviews Book Club, a fabulous organization for writers. I can’t say enough about how much this fabulous group has done in getting my books noticed. Nonnie is also the founding member of Rave Writer’s–International Society of Authors. I’d love if you’d pop over and check out her post today!

Mae Clair's avatarFrom the Pen of Mae Clair

Hoy, boy! Do I have a special guest for you today, gang! I am honored to be hosting Nonnie Jules, the woman whose vision became Rave Reviews Book Club. Please welcome the president of RRBC and the founding member/president of the Rave Writers International Society of Authors! I’m thrilled to have her here today for an awesome Q&A and personal post!

Banner logo for author Nonnie Julies, president of Rave Reviews Book ClubHow long have you been writing?
This will sound cliché, but I really have been writing all my life, at least since the 3rd grade.  I became a published author in 2012.

How many books have you authored? Please share the titles of up to three.
I have authored 3 books, and co-authored one.  The titles are “THE GOOD MOMMIES’  GUIDE TO RAISING (ALMOST) PERFECT DAUGHTERS,” “DAYDREAM’S DAUGHTER, NIGHTMARE’S FRIEND,” and “SUGARCOATIN’ IS FOR CANDY & PACIFYIN’ IS FOR KIDS.”  I can’t list the co-authored title because…

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Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard #TuesdayBookBlog

/ Marcia Meara / Leave a comment

Today’s Bookin’ It book review, in case you’d like to check it out. 🙂

Marcia Meara's avatarBookin' It

514zdgt6xolMy Rating: 4-1/2 of 5 Stars

Because I have so little time to read right now, I’m digging back through books I’ve read over the last year or so, and haven’t yet reviewed. This one popped up in my Unreviewed Books folder, and I decided it would be a quick, easy one for today. It’s good. Read it.

What, you want more? Okay, you asked for it.

Blurb

A charmingly gothic, fiendishly funny Faustian tale about a brilliant scientist who makes a deal with the Devil, twice. 
 
Johannes Cabal sold his soul years ago in order to learn the laws of necromancy. Now he wants it back. Amused and slightly bored, Satan proposes a little wager: Johannes has to persuade one hundred people to sign over their souls or he will be damned forever. This time for real. Accepting the bargain, Jonathan is given one calendar year and a traveling…

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Last Day! $.99 Sale On All #WakeRobinRidge and #Riverbend Books! #TuesdayBookBlog

/ Marcia Meara / 12 Comments

beware1-sale
LAST DAY!

Don’t miss out on this one! If you haven’t downloaded your copies yet–RUN, don’t walk–to Amazon.com, and take advantage of these rock-bottom prices. Offer good for a limited time only, as they say, and that time ends tonight.

This is your chance to read Books 1 and 2 of the Riverbend series, before Book 3 is released next month.  That way, you can move right from the shocking ending of Finding Hunter to the even more shocking beginning of That Darkest Place. No waiting required! 😉 And if you haven’t read any of these, what are you waiting for? Grab ’em today!

~~~

Wake-Robin Ridge, where ghosts walk, ancient legends abound, and things still go bump in the night!

51vxpu-or9l-_uy250_  51y55bnkuzl-_uy250_  Harbinger

Wake-Robin Ridge Book 1
A Boy Named Rabbit: Wake-Robin Ridge Book 2
Harbinger: Wake-Robin Ridge Book 3

~~~

Riverbend, where the beasts that lurk in the dark river waters are never as dangerous as those that walk the quiet neighborhood streets!

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Swamp Ghosts: Riverbend Book 1
Finding Hunter: Riverbend Book 2
That Darkest Place: Riverbend Book 3 (Coming Soon)

Amazon Notifications Regarding Copyright

/ Marcia Meara / 6 Comments

Once again, Nicholas Rossis has shared some information that could be vital to any one of us some day. I highly recommend checking out this post. Hopefully, you’ll never have to use the information therein, but you never know.

Nicholas C. Rossis's avatarNicholas C. Rossis

Amazon | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's books Image: dailyfinance.com

Image this: You have the perfect campaign lined up, and are counting the days before you finally start paying off the cost of those ads.

Then, you receive an email from Amazon accusing you of copyright infringment. Your book has been taken down for now, until you prove it is, indeed, written by you.

This is what’s been happening to several authors, who have received the dreaded copyright notifications from Amazon. Specifically, they’ve received the following email:

Hello,

We are writing to you regarding the following book(s):

Title:[book title]

During a quality assurance review of your catalog, we found content (text and/or images) that is widely available on the web. You can do an online search for the content inside your books to discover which sites are offering the content for free. Copyright is important to us – we want to make sure that no author or other copyright…

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