Multiple Book Feature Event hosted by Joel Ohman

Science Fiction is the hottest genre right now. Add in some best selling authors and Young Adult books and you have an event not to be missed. So come celebrate these awesome YA Science Fiction Authors with us! Giveaways, book exclusives, games and more! Young Adult Science Fiction Multi-Author Event March 19th from 5:30-9PM. You can enter the big $100 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway at the bottom of this post! Don't miss it!

Join the event!

The authors are excited to see you on the 19th but in the meantime, check out these amazing titles!

Schedule of events!

5:30-6:00 – Angela Scott
6:00-6:30 – Laxmi Hariharan
6:30-7:00 – Theresa Kay
7:00-7:30 – Lee Strauss
7:30-8:00 – Pavarti K Tyler
8:00-8:30 – Susan Kaye Quinn
8:30-9:00 – Joel Ohman
9:00 – Pavarti (Announce Rafflecopter winners - Enter at the bottom of this post!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A little FREE Irish Magic for you today

From Linzé: Top of the morning to all ye lads and lasses! I may not be Irish, but I love a good tale!
This post is reblogged specially for St. Patrick's Day - enjoy!

Grá mo Chroí  Love Stories from Irish Myth

by Ali Isaac & Jane Dougherty

I would like to thank Sue Vincent for inviting us (Jane Dougherty and Ali Isaac) to talk about Grá mo Chroí. So here goes, in time for the Saint Patrick’s Day binge.

For the tiny handful who are not fluent Irish speakers, the title means ‘Love of my Heart’: the collection of retellings Ali Isaac and I put together being of some of the great love stories from Irish myth.

Why did we do it? Because we love the rhythm and the language of these stories, written, or rather told, so long ago, in the pre-Christian era before the shadow of Christian purity fell upon Irish culture and expunged many of the legends of inappropriate material. Women, of course, being anathema to the Christian Church, ended up with the short straw in many of the later versions of these stories. Ali and I wanted to give our versions of what we believe to be the original stories, where the women were not wicked temptresses, whores, or pure as the driven snow. Too pure to even…

But I didn’t come here to rant about Christian hagiography. Irish myth is a wonderful pagan romp. Its heroes and heroines are beautiful and warlike, endowed with magic powers, incredible strength, great wisdom, or beautiful singing voices, quick to laugh, to cry, and of course to fight. They will stop a war the time to play a board game, for the queen and general to deal with her period, or simply because the other side asked nicely. The women choose their own husbands for love and force their lovers to elope with them, a king kills his rival and is abandoned by all his men because they think it was a mean thing to do, and great warriors cry when their favourite hound dies. Little of what they get up to seems ‘sensible’ to modern readers, and certainly there is none of the Christian morality we are used to reading in literature from the Middle Ages onwards.

Both Ali and I have been very affected by our delving into the workings of Irish myth, which has produced dozens of poems and more stories as a result. I hope to publish some more retellings, and I think Ali has one or two projects up her sleeve too. As a Saint Patrick’s Day special (he has to be good for something!) Grá mo Chroí will be free on March 16th, 17th and 18th.

Here is a short excerpt from the first story in the collection, The tragedy of Bailé and Aillinn.

Bailé, the soft-spoken, left Emain Macha in the north to meet Aillinn, his betrothed. Rare was such a wedding host, and uncommonly joyful. For the king of Ulster’s only son and the daughter of the king of Leinster had made a love match. Even the sun shone bright on Bailé’s journey, the hounds danced and milled about the horses’ legs, fancy bridle bits sang silver songs in the wind, and the company was filled with joy.

Bailé left behind his own lands of Ulster, the blue lochs and gorse-yellow hills where the eagles cried. Before him, beyond the purple peaks of home, lay the low, wooded hills and the rich plains of Leinster. He saw his Aillinn in the contours of the hills, in the white plumage of the swans on the river. She was soft as new grass and spring foals, wild as the March wind, and generous as the blackbird singing to the world. His heart was full of joy that soon they would be wed and their union would bind together her rich beauty of soft hills and birdsong, and his wild majesty of the eagle and the red deer.

You can get a copy of Grá mo Chroí here:
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk

You can find out everything of any interest there is to know about Ali Isaac by visiting her blog http://aliisaacstoryteller.com/ You can email her at:  ali@aliisaacstoryteller.com mail to: aliisaacstoryteller.com@gmail.com. Her books are available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

And Jane Dougherty is to be found on her blog https://janedougherty.wordpress.com/ . She is also on Goodreads, and all her books are available on Amazon.com, and Amazon.co.uk.

Book Feature: Garden by Jane Yates

Inspired by the classic novel The Secret Garden, Jane Yates introduces us to a steampunk world of bio-domes, robots and mysteries. Eleven-year-old Aberdeen is so used to being by herself that all she has to fill her thoughts are stories of mighty dragons and grand castles. But Aberdeen’s world is soon thrown into disarray however; her parents murdered.
Having no choice, Aberdeen is sent to live with her uncle back on Earth where her fascination into her new surroundings begin to take hold. It isn’t long before Aberdeen befriends three other children – Maisy, Peter and Lenard.
Oh, and there’s Frank too, Peter’s robot dog, who completes this special circle of friendship.

Garden is a journey of self-discovery, of trials and friendship. With adventure boundless, Jane Yates follows up her acclaimed Paradox Child trilogy with a new tale for young fans of steampunk and science fiction.

Buy Links     Amazon    Smashwords

Smashwords 35% discount coupon: EN36V

Excerpt

Deep in space, Aberdeen sat on a balcony overlooking a grand party her mother hosted. Everyone wore their finest clothes. The music was loud; a type of remixed jazz. Aberdeen searched her mother out among the crowd of guests. Upon spotting her, she gazed at her mother’s attire; a long silk dress, the colour of shock blue. This was matched by elaborate feathers and sparkling jewels that hung in her blue hair. Her mother’s hair swung down her back, which highlighted her large dragon tattoo. Aberdeen eyed the lead in her mother’s hand and followed it to the golden robot dog sat beside her. It was tall and thin, and even from where Aberdeen sat, she could see the cogs moving inside it as if it had a tiny heart beating.
Aberdeen’s mother laughed gaily. She had the full attention of a young officer with braided hair, who was smartly dressed in his green and gold uniform. As he chuckled along, his head dropped back and a cool thin line of rose-smelling cigarette smoke slid from the corner of his mouth.
Aberdeen continued to watch the party from above. As usual, there was no sign of her father; probably in the engine room of the ship, she guessed. She browsed at all the fresh fruit and flowers in
the tall bowls and glasses decorating the table. She knew that they had been picked up the last time the ship had docked at one of the satellite stations. She had learnt that the fragrant, exotic flowers had been grown in large artificial garden domes and she longed to see one.
She looked down in awe at the musicians. A large man sat at a glass piano, his fingers elegantly flitting from key to key. Aberdeen could see his fat belly though through the transparent top of the piano; it wobbled tastelessly as he played, a huge contrast to his regal demeanour. Aberdeen also noticed a tall, skinny man, strumming a black shinny double base and three female trumpeters who all wore brown and white stripy suits.
Draped from the metallic ceiling were candle-shaped lights, and in between them dancers gambolled on trapeze ropes. They wore porcelain masks and flamboyantly displayed peacock feathers, midnight blue and jade green, in their hair. They matched the rhythm of the quintet perfectly, Aberdeen thought.
The floor was polished to a high shine and Aberdeen could see the refection of the sociable people in it. In the corner of the room was an old gentleman who caught Aberdeen’s interest. Upon his head was a black top hat and he rested a glass monocle on his eye, which magnified his golden brown iris so even Aberdeen could see. His long twisting moustache made Aberdeen giggle.
There were no children however, and Aberdeen wondered what the workers’ children were up to. She suddenly felt quite alone.

About the Author

Jane lives in the historic city of Oxford, England with her two spaniels. She works at the Pitt Rivers museum there too and is amazed and inspired by its wondrous array of objects. Being a museum of anthropology and world archaeology, Jane often finds herself influenced by its exhibitions. And indeed it has helped Jane write a trilogy for children – the Paradox Child series.

Jane is not only a mother, artist and storyteller, but dyslexic too, which only highlights her success even more. Jane refuses to allow the disorder to halt her dreams and continues to enjoy her favourite hobbies. Jane is a lover of steampunk, adventure and children’s stories, which often play a huge role in her own books.

Follow Jane:

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Planning for Pantsers - Characters

Even if you are a pantser (a write-by-the-seat-of-your-pants writer), it is advisable to do some planning before you start a new story. It helps you to get to know your characters. You don't have to do it for every single character in your story. Minor characters, or characters not referred to by name, for example the waiter, or the postman, need not be developed.

It is the main characters that you need to create, to flesh out, to make them real to your reader. You can only make a character real, if you know him or her from the inside out.

A simple list:

1. Physical characteristics - these define his or her eyes, colour, hair colour, height, weight, skin tone, shoe size, scars, lips, nose, chin, jaw line, shoulders, limp, etc. A list will suffice that you can refer to if needed. This list will help to prevent you from changing the hero from a muscular blond hunk, to a bulky carrot top with a weak chin.

2. Choices they had made - people are defined by their behaviour and that includes their choices made or not. The same applies to your character. Choices such as career, car, house, location, country even. These can include marital status, social behaviour (is he a player? is she stuck up around men?) and so on. Write these down for the present and the past, since they will help shape the choices your character makes for the future.

3. Relationships - we are as much part of our relationships as our characters need to be. Best friend, ex-boyfriend, lover, wife, child, parent, colleagues, other friends, enemies, acquaintances, and the stranger that almost knocks her over on the street. All our interactions define us, and we need to focus on the most important ones to shape our characters.

You can add more information, or as much detail as you like, but having characters that are alive in your mind, will come to life in words. Your reader will want to know them, cheer for them or cry with their disappointments and be happy when they achieve their goals.

How much time do you spend making your characters come to life?

Early Benefits I gained from Tai Chi

Source for Infographic

I have not been doing tai chi for a long time, not even three full months yet, but I have been diligent in my daily practice sessions. I practice twice a day, except for Sundays where I only seem to fit in one session. But that is okay, it still works for me.

I don't go to a class, so my form is probably as bad as you could possibly imagine, but I have noticed some things that are different than before I started doing tai chi.

Before I expand, a quick note. I am still struggling with torn ligaments in my left foot which after nearly four weeks, have not healed yet. Due to my work requiring me to walk a lot and climb stairs because the elevator is far away from my office, the healing process is a slow one. A very slow one.

Despite my injury, I have no additional pain during my practice sessions, and take care to ensure proper weight placement on my foot where the form requires it.

On top of all these constraints, I have noticed that my balance is better. I have not had issues in the past, but now there is no struggle, or wiggling, or hopping around when I put on a pair of pants.

The second thing I noticed is my focus during the practice. When my attention drifts for some reason, I get irritated because there is an immediate impact on the form I am busy with. This is also becoming less, while my body seem to remember the moves better when I simply relax and let my hands and feet do their thing. Not an empty mind, but a mind that is relaxing into the moment as the movements flow from the one to the other.

I still have a long way to go with the current course, and already I am thinking of sending the company an email requesting another course to take the practice of tai chi to the next level.

Which course am I doing? I will let the cat out of the bag very soon.

My editing tips (as a non-editor) - Part 3

This week my tips are three unusual things you can to do to help you edit your own writing:

1. Everyone will tell you to hide your first draft in a drawer for at least 4 weeks before tackling the editing. Yep, you should that. It gives your brain a chance to forget what you have written, so you can start the editing with fresh eyes.
2. Start from the back. Now this tip made me giggle when I heard about it the first time. If you think about it, it does make sense. Start editing at the last paragraph will keep your mind focused on the words written, not the story line. This is a helpful hint for copy editing – finding grammar, spelling and language errors.
3. Rewrite your story in pictures. Stick figures or little blocks will do the job, if you cannot draw people. This tip helps your editing effort to spot gaps in your plot and timeline. Add cryptic notes, on the actions/activities your characters are involved in.
   
   Draw a line underneath the block/figures and make notes on the timeline through the story. If you are using flashbacks in time (although not recommended) make sure that your reader knows where the shift is and who the POV character is for the flashback. The same applies for flash-forward scenes.

Lastly, draw an emotional/action line above your storyline.  Indicate the intensity/highs and lows of the storyline. Are the lows too long? Is the action interspersed with less intense activities? Is the emotional roller coaster of your protagonist balanced with highs, lows and normal activity?
Do it by scene or chapter – it will depend on the type of story you are writing. See the example below for a high action scene.

Do you have any unusual tips for editing that works for you? Why not share it in the comments, it might just be the tip someone is looking for.

Breaking News: Launch of the Kasparov MiniChess App

Marisa van der Merwe: CEO and Founder of MiniChess

This event has been in the making for eighteen months. And it is not just another chess playing app. Nope, this is the one app that will eventually help you to play chess, but it is first and foremost an educational tool.
Developed by an overseas company, it has taken many months to take a hands-on books system, to a visually appealing and fun mobile device app.
Aimed at the age group 5 to 9 years, it helps to develop skills in children with a programme that now includes the antics of Cheddar, the MiniChess mouse.

Marisa with Graham Jurgesten and one of the children taking part in the programme

Skills such as spatial thinking, forethought, strategic thinking and creativity are just a few of the things that are developed in children when taking part in this programme.
The programme is now available in several countries and is underwritten by the Kasparov Chess Foundation. Mr. Jurgesten representing the African branch of KCF, added his words of praise and enthusiasm on behalf of the chess master himself.

People attending the launch ready to raise their glasses in celebration

The App was launched at the head office of MiniChess in Pretoria, South Africa tonight and the event was by invitation only.

You can find the Kasparov MiniChess App on iTunes and Android online stores.