Blog Tour: KEEPER OF THE DRAGON SWORD

Tomorrow is the start of the blog tour of Keeper of the Dragon Sword. It is my second novel in the series of The Nations of Peace and the first of The Dragon Masters.

If you have received a review copy, please remember to post your review here (Goodreads).

I love the cover and it is taking part in two contests. If you like it too, why don't you vote for it:
* on Facebook on 10 June 2013 here
* on AuthorsdB.com here voting closes end of 2013
Thank you for you support!

There are quite a few giveaways, so make sure you enter everyday to increase your chances of winning!

I will post and tweet the links of the participating blogs, but would like to thank all of them in advance for supporting authors like myself in telling the world about our books.

Versatile Blogger Award

I was nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award by Kevin at Cooking Athanasia.Thank you very much for the award Kevin!

 

The Rules for the Award are as Follows:

1. Add the Versatile Blogger Award badge to a post.
2. Thank the person who presented you with the award and link back to him or her in you post.
3. Share seven things about yourself.
4. Pass the award to 15 other bloggers. Contact the chosen bloggers to let them know about the award.

Seven things about me:

1. I have trained as an electronics engineer, but had specialised in two fields: electromagnetic compatibility and intrinsic safety. Since receiving my masters degree in engineering management, I had owned my own consulting business for ten years before I had to give it up for economic reasons. Since then I have been working as a project manager for Denel Land Systems.

2. I have several hobbies that do not include books! I love archery and own a compound bow. My husband likes to do all kinds of photography and had taken several pictures where I had shot at waterfilled balloons and apples. I also like to do counted cross-stitch, and have gotten my mother interested in it as well. Although I prefer large projects, more than 40 000 stitches, I have been known to do the odd birthday card for a friend or family member. I designed and stitched an anniversary sampler for my in-laws' 40th a few years back, where hubby and I combined our passions for the project.

3. I love fly fishing. Never seem to have much time to do that though.

4. I am a huge Manchester United fan and captain of a Superbru group, called The Broomstick Gang, where a few of my colleagues and I challenge each other during the English Premier League season.

5. I paint abstracts in acrylics and mixed media, and my present project is a canvas almost as tall as I am! It was inspired by the water lily design by Frank Lloyd-Wright from a book that I had bought at a book sale. My design utilises an abstract that I had drawn from one of my orchids.

6. I keep two journals: one for my writing and a personal journal. I often print advice from other blogs about writing and then glue it into my writing journal. I dislike scrapbooking, although I do decorate my writing journal with stickers and sometimes a pencil drawing. This year my journal has a butterfly theme. My personal journal, well that's personal :)

7. My first love remains reading and writing. I started my first story in 2001 and have recently had a relook at maybe publishing it. It will need to much of a rewrite to make it worthwhile, but not all of my first stories are going into the trash. As soon as I finish the third novel in the Nations of Peace Series, I will revisit one or two of my earlier projects.

My nominees: (the list is not extensive, but these sites are well worth the effort of a visit)

1. The Creative Penn by Joanna Penn

2. The Writers Digest by Brian Klems

3. The Sinner Author by Charity Parkerson

4. Writing with Kristine Cayne by Kristine Cayne

5. Rachelle's Window by Rachelle Ayala

6. Awesome Romance Novels by Donna Fasano

7. Independent Author Index by Faydra Deon

 

Guest Post: Creating a Platform

Today I welcome Kevin McDonald to my blog to share some of his insights about online groups for writers.

A strong presence in the new age of social media is heralded to be an essential tool for writers to communicate with readers. As an aspiring writer, I read that one should build a platform using social media. Unsure of the exact definition of a platform, I charged ahead using my existing Facebook account in addition to creating Google+ and Twitter accounts. I already had a blog, and just thought I could use these social media sites to advertise by blog, which was centered on my work in progress, Cooking Athanasia. So off I went, writing weekly posts and spamming the crap out of the big three social media sites with links. The result: People were reading, or at least clicking on my blog (right around 30 to 40 hits on publication day), but I wasn’t really connecting with people. If anything, I was probably irritating some with four-time a day iterations of my blog link.
After a conversation with John Ward, of the G+ Writer’s Discussion Group, I thought that perhaps a different approach was in order. So I became involved in one of the G+ communities to which I belonged and stopped spamming my blog links. Instead, I began asking about their projects and offering them help and encouragement. Of course, I still talked about my project, but it came as a natural progression of conversation rather than force-feeding, one way spam transactions. By doing this, I have connected to some truly talented writers and poets from around the world who I enjoy interacting with daily. I have found that most writers don’t look at writing as something competitive and they are willing to offer constructive criticism as well as being genuinely happy for others in the community when good news stories are reported. I have found real relationships with these people on my social networks and they have enriched my journey just by being themselves. As far as my blog goes, I still try to publish weekly and I do send links on the various sites once on publication day. The result: 94 views in a single day, but more importantly, several rich conversations with my readers regarding the blog post.

More about Kevin:

I retired from the U.S. Army in 2008, after a 23-year career. After retiring, I found a job that matched my skill set, and then I was approached by another organization offering much better compensation for virtually the same job. Taking that job was an easy decision. However, it was a new team and it failed to meet expectations, which resulted in me being laid off at the end of 2011. I had never really been forced to inventory my individual skills and desires to figure out where I excelled and what I would enjoy doing. Writing has always come easy to me and I enjoyed it, but serious writing was always on the ‘someday’ list. Someday came at the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012 when I figured out that writing is what I want to do. I started my work in progress, Cooking Athanasia, in December 2011 and have nearly completed it. I also wrote a 100-page screenplay during Script Frenzy in April 2012, titled Echoes from Enchantment, which is the back-story for Cooking Athanasia (it will eventually be the second book in the series). A day job found me in the spring of 2012, but I am plugging along and plan to eventually she the daily grind in favor of the glamorous life of a full-time writer.

You can follow Kevin at these links
Blog: jennasimmortality.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/JennasImmortal
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/kevin.mcdonald.12

Groups for Writers - A Positive Experience?

As many of you share my passion for books and writing, you will probably belong to either a book club for readers or a writers group. And some of these may be online, such as Facebook or Goodreads groups. But do you belong to a group where you meet and discuss books or writing challenges face-to-face?

I am very fortunate to belong to both kinds of groups and both of them bring something to my writing that I would otherwise not have had. Writing is not a social business, in fact as writers we spend more time interacting with computer keyboards, than we do with other people.

Whether the group meets on Facebook or at my favourite coffee shop, I have learned many things for which I am grateful. Of course, the success of either type of group depends on the people who take part and as in real life there are active and passive members in a group.

I have been privileged to join a group on Google+ where I have met people that I truly feel are supportive of each other and I can now claim to consider friends.

Please come back tomorrow for a guest post from one such friend, and share with us what your experiences are with online and face-to-face writers groups.

Book Launch: More Than You Know by Alexandria Rhodes

Synopsis:After surviving a devastating car accident that took her father's life, Bryn Woods feels like she has nothing left in her hometown of Savannah, GA. Along with losing her father, her

boyfriend, Tyler, unexpectedly leaves town the same time of the accident. Feeling alone, broke and confused, Bryn leaves Savannah for college in New York City to escape her heartbreak.
Four years later, Bryn returns to Savannah to live in her childhood home. Slowly, she begins to let the people of her past back into her life. She lets the protective walls she's built to protect herself crash down around her. As she begins to find love again with Tyler, secrets start to unravel themselves about his past. Tyler has secrets of his own. Secrets connected to the death of Bryn's father. Secrets Tyler didn't even know he kept.

Goodreads

More Than You Know Giveaway


Author Bio:Alexandria Rhodes is a first time novelist from the good old state of Ohio. She is a recent college graduate with a degree in English and Creative Writing. Alexandria has always known she needed to write and has been doing so ever since she bought a typewriter at a garage sale when she was nine. With hundreds of pages of plot ideas, scripts and character descriptions, it is no surprise that she finally came around to writing a book. Alexandria enjoys reading, writing, reviewing, spending time with family, tweeting (a little too much) and traveling, especially to Savannah, GA and New York City. Her writing is heavily influenced by her surroundings and the people in her life. She hopes that her stories will touch the hearts of her readers.
Author Contact Links: Website: http://www.alexandriarhodes.com
Twitter http://www.twitter.com/A_L_Rhodes
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/morethanyouknowbook

Book Launch for charity: My Kort vir jou Sop (Afrikaans anthology)

It isn't everyday that I have the opportunity to introduce you to a book published in my mother tongue, Afrikaans, where I know at least one of the authors. Vanessa Wright, a member of my writers group recently had a flash fiction story published in an anthology with several well-known South African writers.

The anthology covers myriad themes as each writer decided what he or she would like write about. All proceeds will go to Kleinmond library and soup kitchen. The ebook is available on Amazon, Kalahari and soon to be released on Kobo. A paper edition is in the offing.

What the publisher and some of the writers had to say:

The publisher, Trisa Hugo, from Boekemakranka says the idea for the anthology presented itself while she was busy with the weekly ironing. She immediately stopped ironing, switched on her computer and started emailing writers. The response she received was overwhelming.

Rika du Plessis author of Flopsies met Floozies: 
The idea for the story came form an older friend of my mother who had been cheated on by her husband for many years before she decided to divorce him. She was the one who had all the money and he walked off with half of it. After the divorce she a family member died and she received an enormous amount of money. Her ex-husband was angry about the fact that he couldn't share in the wealth.
You can follow Rika on Twitter @RikaPlessis

Vanessa Wright author of Vyf en 'n drie-kwart ure in Gekkeparadys and Spieelbeeld: 
My ideas and subsequent stories seem to come from a darker side of me and the themes almost always involve loss. The seed of the idea takes a while to germinate until I wake up one morning with the entire story written in my head. I love this creative process. I tend to think visually and try to convey that to the reader.

You can follow Vanessa on Twitter @Artysoul1966

Book Launch: Sinners of Water and Fire by Charity Parkerson

Blurb:

Their love was legendary, cursed, and forbidden. 
The fates conspired to keep them apart, but destiny will bring them together again…
When one of their own becomes the target of a demon bent on revenge, the Society will do anything to keep her safe, including stealing a God from the Heavens.
Heru, son of Geb, once sold his soul to forget her, and now he’ll give anything to keep her safe. 
Gods and Demons collide in the final installment of Charity Parkerson’s award-winning “Sinners” series.

Excerpt:

“I dreamed about you last night.” Heat flooded her face at the confession. She knew it must be the shade of a strawberry, but she lifted her eyes to his, holding his stare steadily, as if daring him to mock her words. For a moment, she could have sworn a look of triumph passed over his face, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared.

“What was the dream about?”

Marissa had thought that it was impossible to be any more embarrassed than she already was, but at his question, she discovered a whole new level of humiliation.

“Um,” she stuttered before admitting, “I don’t want to tell you.”

“Oh,” he crowed. “It was that kind of dream, was it?” While his eyes were shining with mirth, her face was on fire, and she really wanted kick him.

“Shut up,” she hissed.

“Ever as you command,” he said, but she could still hear the laughter in his voice.

Fanning her face, Marissa practically danced in place in her discomfort.

“Are you having some sort of fit?” Adriana, Marissa’s mom, asked, slicing through her mortification.

Marissa had not heard her approach and she shot a nervous glimpse at the tree line to find Harold gone.

“I was attempting a spell.” Marissa answered Adriana’s question absently while searching for any sign that Harold was still hanging around. When her mom remained silent, Marissa glanced over to find her watching her closely, and she pasted a fake smile on her face in order to ease her mother’s obvious concern.

“Okay,” Adriana said, drawing out the word and sounding as if she didn’t believe her, which was a spot-on observation, since Marissa was lying.

Buy Links:

Amazon- US- http://ow.ly/jtGfn

Amazon –UK- http://ow.ly/jtu8c

Barnes & Noble: http://ow.ly/ju66m

Kobo: http://ow.ly/jyysl

Smashwords: http://ow.ly/jy5yh

All Romance Ebooks: http://ow.ly/ju3ob

About the Author:

Charity Parkerson was born in Tennessee, where she still lives with her husband and two sons. She is the author of several books including thirteen Amazon bestsellers. You can like her at http://www.facebook.com/authorCharityParkerson. Be sure to visit her at http://www.charityparkerson.com and you can read her blog at http://charity-thesinners.blogspot.com

Her “Sinners series” was voted one of the top ten best books by an Indie author in 2011- Paranormal Romance Reads

Her book “The Danger with Sinners” was named “Best Book of 2012” by Paranormal Reads Reviews and is a finalist for Favorite Paranormal Romance in the 2012 Australian Romance Readers Association Awards.

She was named as one of the top three Indie authors of 2012- EbookBuilders

She is a member of The Paranormal Romance Guild, is a Goodreads moderator, a member of Coffee Time Romance, and co-host of The Melissa Craig and Charity Parkerson show.

She won author of the week in August of 2011, and is a four-time winner of The Mistress of the Darkpath.

You can follow her on Twitter @https://twitter.com/CharityParkerso

Additional Links:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

Punk & Sissy Publications