Freebie Starts Tomorrow (March 29th, 2014)

Spread the word. My book, BLOOD MOON, will be available as a free Kindle download starting tomorrow (March 29, 2014) at Amazon.

Click here!

I wanted to give away copies of my book in time for the April SATs for all those juniors out there who need a more interesting way to cram for the vocab section. If you are unfamiliar with my book, here is the blurb:

Werewolves are roaming Northeast High, and Savannah Black is determined to hunt them down.

When Savannah's academic rival mysteriously disappears, she enlists the aid of her two best friends, Dina and Nick, to solve the mystery. Football players with glowing eyes and razor sharp canine teeth may have fooled the faculty, but not Savannah and her friends. These brave students are determined to eradicate a clan of deadly werewolves who threaten to take over their school.

When Dina disappears right before the big Homecoming Dance, Savannah and Nick must act quickly to save her from the werewolf's curse. But will a straight-A student be able to master knives and silver bullets as easily as chemistry and calculus?

Warning! This book contains pentagrams, bonfires in the woods, and 1000 SAT words and their definitions to challenge you.

It's a fun book, not super duper long (151 pages), and has some great reviews so far. Please download a copy starting tomorrow and, if you are so inclined, rate the book either on Good Reads or Amazon when you are done reading. I'd really appreciate it!

Fun With Fashion

Okay, so this is a totally non-book, non-writing related post. But it's a whole lot of fun!

About a week ago, I found out about a monthly subscription service that started about 2 or 3 years ago. It's called Stitch Fix. Let me give you the low-down on what this service is all about, if you haven't heard of it:

• First, you fill out your fashion profile on their website, which includes questions about style, size, colors you like, accessories you wear, etc.
• You pay $20 per month for the service.
• A stylist is assigned to you, reads your fashion profile (you can also give them the link to your Pinterest board and other online sites in order for the stylist to get a better feel for what you like), and selects items for you.
• You receive one box per month with 5 clothing and/or accessory items from a variety of affordable designers/stores.
• The items come with 'styling cards' that give you a casual and more formal 'look' for how to wear each item in the box.
• You can choose to keep any or all items in the box if you like them.
• Any items you don't like you return to the company in a pre-paid envelope within 3 days.
• If you choose to keep an item(s), the $20 fee is discounted from the cost of the item(s).
• If you buy all 5 items in the box, you get a 25% discount on the total price of the items + the $20 in credit.
• You provide feedback on a card to your stylist, so she gets a better idea of what you like, so each successive box you receive should hone in better and better on your personal style.

I love this whole idea!  I live in a pretty rural area and about 45 minutes to 90 minutes away from a decent sized mall or well-known chain stores. I buy some of my clothes locally, but a lot of times I shop on the internet or save my shopping for the few times a year when I have the time and happen to be in the city. I'm not the kind of gal who likes to take all day to shop. I find that tiring. Usually I whip through a store, thinking I know what colors, patterns or styles I'm looking for and focusing only on a few items in a store full of stuff.

Also, I am not that fashion savvy. I am not good at mixing and matching things and have secretly liked the idea of someone styling me! So I think this service is ideal for someone in my situation. My other thought is, my assigned stylist will inspire me to try on clothing I might never have selected on my own, which would be a good way for me to get out of a styling rut and jazz up my wardrobe.

I completed my styling profile and registered for the next available Style Fix date - May 13th!  Long time to wait, I know. At first, I signed up for only one month of service, but then I returned to the sign up page and selected the 'monthly' option. I realized that to head down to the city to shop would probably cost me $20 in gas, so if the shopping came to me, it might actually be worth the fee, even if I don't buy something every time. And, considering how long I had to wait for the next available date, I was worried that I'd love my Style Fix delivery and have to wait another 2 or 3 months to get back on the shipment schedule.

When I get my box in May, I will report back and let you know what I think. If you believe this service might be of interest to you, check out the link below:

CHECK OUT STITCH FIX!

Just FYI, this is a total self-promo link, as I will get $25 in credit for anyone who signs up using the link. But, hey, I might as well give it a try? Why not!?

Demon Possession or Hoax?

As a writer of paranormal books, I am often intrigued by interesting or unusual news stories that get  my creative juices flowing. This story really grabbed my attention this morning:

Demon Possession in Gary, Indiana

Oddly, I am a total skeptic when it comes to the supernatural. You would think for a paranormal author I'd be all over that stuff. It's a bit of a mystery why a skeptic would write about the stuff I do. Maybe because, to me, it is easy to write sad or scary stuff about something I don't think to be real. I am more removed that way and less likely to be frightened by my own imagination. ;-)

But this story really caught my attention because of the number of witnesses involved, many of whom were emergency personnel/hospital personnel. Plus, the words of a Catholic priest are pretty convincing.

The story above includes a short interview with the mother, grandmother and priest. All of whom seem to be rational people.

The basics of the story include children being possessed and talking with demonic voices. Eventually, the kids end up at the hospital when the mother and grandmother go there for some help with what they are experiencing. That is where witnesses describe one of the children gliding up the wall and onto the ceiling. Wacky stuff!

What do you think? Do you believe in the supernatural? Have you ever had an encounter with demons or ghosts?

Blood Moon is Book of the Day

Just got notified this morning that my young adult paranormal suspense book, BLOOD MOON, was awarded 'Book of the Day' status at indiebookoftheday.com.



Check it out: Indie Book of the Day

Rain Drops On Roses and Whiskers On Kittens...

Aren't most of us fans of The Sound of Music? Back before DVRs, cheap satellite tv and the internet, we had only a few channels to watch and a schedule we had to stick to. There were certain shows you could count on watching once a year that were 'event' television:

1) The Wizard of Oz

2) A Charlie Brown Christmas 

3) The Sound of Music.

Now, I will admit there were a few other special things like Charlotte's Web at Easter time and some other Charlie Brown shows, but these were the big 3 nobody missed.

My mom, sister and I would look forward to the night The Sound of Music was on...I think it would be something like 3 or 4 hours long with all the commercials built in. We all knew the lyrics to every song by heart. Even some of the lines...

This week, they are showing the Broadway version of The Sound of Music live on tv with Carrie Underwood and Stephen Moyer. Is anyone else looking forward to it? 

I am!

I know the Julie Andrews version so very, very well, I want to see a fresh take on it. Hear some new voices sing the classic songs and see a 'stage' version. 

Carrie Underwood has the singing chops for it. Hoping the acting is good...but I'm not expecting an Oscar-winning performance from her. Should be a LOT of fun!

Who else will be watching?

Guest Post on Just Paranormal Romance

Please visit my guest blog post today at Just Paranormal Romance:

K J Gillenwater's Guest Blog Post

The topic I chose is regarding NaNoWriMo and how it helped me become a published author. Enjoy!

How to Achieve 'Top Tweet' Status

Since I have teenagers, I knew last week was the PSAT for juniors. This gave me an idea to tweet yesterday about my SAT vocab novel, BLOOD MOON. Here is what I tweeted:

Did your child wilt at the sight of the PSAT last week? BLOOD MOON - fun way to prep 4 the SATs: http://tinyurl.com/mmczow2  #satprep #homeschool

I had used the #satprep hashtag before, thinking this would be a way to connect with kids or parents who are thinking about studying for the SATs. The #homeschool hashtag I've tried also, because I am hoping that some homeschooling types might think of my book as a tool for their child for non-traditional SAT study.

Typically, when I use a hashtag in one of my Twitter posts, I like to click on it to see what other kinds of tweets are using it, or if anyone is using it at all. That's when I noticed this:

Somehow my tweet was selected as the "Top Tweet" under the #satprep hashtag! 

I didn't know what that meant or how I was selected, so I did some research.

1) Top tweets are selected by Twitter using an algorithm. Back in 2010 Matt McGee interviewed Twitter's Chief Scientist who had this to say:  “Top Tweets is a new algorithm we developed that finds tweets that are catching the attention of other users,” he says. “The algorithm looks at all kinds of interactions with tweets including retweets, favorites, and more to identify the tweets with the highest velocity beyond expectations.”

2) Up until April this year, Twitter used to support an account called @toptweets where my tweet would've appeared for all the world to see. 

3) Oddly enough, although the algorithm info I've found on Twitter's own website claims that "Top Tweets are Tweets that lots of people are interacting with and sharing via retweets, replies, and more," my tweet has had no RTs or replies from anyone other than myself. 

Right now, I'm just coasting on this additional bit of self-promotion. Not sure if my post will keep this 'top tweet' status for long or if this will produce any sales. I'll let you know what happens, if anything, in a future blog post. As of now, I see NO benefit to me at all!  No sales that I can see and no increase in twitter followers.