May 25, 2016 | Blog hops tours & reblogs
Now Available on Amazon for Pre-Order! Coming to your Kindle on June 1st! Timoran Wrath has a shameful secret that is about to see the light of day. The noble barbarian has always been a constant source of strength and wisdom for his beloved friends. His loyalty has...
May 23, 2016 | Writing
As you know, I’m fascinated by idioms and how their origin. The Passive Guy recently alerted me to a great post by Daily Writing Tips that includes 45 idioms from the world of boxing. Thanks to the Planetary Defense Commander for correcting a couple of them....
May 21, 2016 | Writing
I came across this great YouTube analysis of movie endings, and what they mean. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to share, as many of the techniques described here can be used in our writing, too. I particularly liked the idea of closing with a return to everyday...
May 19, 2016 | Entertainment, Fun Historical Facts
In 1801, Britain’s first census was begun. A subsequent survey, conducted in 1881, asked residents to declare their “rank, profession or occupation.” Here are some of the more puzzling responses, as preserved by the London Genealogical Society and...
May 17, 2016 | Marketing, My friends' Guest Posts
If you read the cool comments under my posts, you may remember a dialogue I had with author M T McGuire, where I offered her a guest post spot if she’d share her experience making her book, Few Are Chosen, permafree. She not only came through, but has written...
May 15, 2016 | Marketing
You may remember my recent posts on my experience advertising with Amazon Marketing Services (AMS). It turns out I’m either a slow learner or an incurable optimist since I had another go at it in April. And guess what? This time, it worked! I followed the same...
May 13, 2016 | Entertainment, Writing
According to a meme that’s been going around, the Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its annual neologisms contests, in which readers are asked to supply alternative meanings for common words. Seeing how much you all enjoyed my post...
May 11, 2016 | Entertainment, Writing
The Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year 2015 is… That’s right – for the first time ever, the Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year is a pictograph: ?, officially called the ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ emoji, though you may know it by other names. There were...
May 9, 2016 | Events and Giveaways, Fun Historical Facts
With April 23 marking the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, few will remember that his lasting fame almost did not happen. A brilliant post by the New York Times explains how that came about. Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616 on his...
May 7, 2016 | Marketing
When I launched Honest Fibs the other day, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that with just a couple of dozen sales in a few days, it had reached the phenomenal sales rank of some #40,000. This got me thinking: how is that even possible? I don’t think any...
May 5, 2016 | Maps and Infographics, My friends' Guest Posts
This is a guest post by the very talented Kiara Halligan, who created the Infographic for GalaxyEssay. I have often written about the subject of author rejections, and this infographic is a great way to show why you should never give up! Famous author Rejections: Why...
May 3, 2016 | Interviews Features and Reviews, Marketing
The last of my pay-it-forward series, today’s post is dedicated to EffrosyniWrites and her author services. For a while now, Effrosyni has been offering services to authors and receiving small donations in return at a fraction of the going price. This is her way...
May 1, 2016 | Marketing, Publishing
The Passive Guy alerted me to a big change in the way Amazon does book marketing. As Amy Collins of The Book Designer reports, starting today, Amazon is expanding its Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) to include a wide range of book marketing tools previously...
Apr 30, 2016 | Events and Giveaways
Tonight at midnight we celebrate Greek Orthodox Easter. I hope you’ll excuse me if I reblog last year’s post on what today is all about, and that you’ll enjoy the post! Tomorrow is the Greek Orthodox Easter. Pretty much the same as that celebrated by...
Apr 29, 2016 | Interviews Features and Reviews, Writing
I couldn’t have a pay-it-forward series without mentioning the Logsdon family. Lorelei Logsdon is an amazing editor, who has edited all of my books. Her husband, John, is a best-selling author who has helped me immensely with my marketing. And their son, Jake,...
Apr 27, 2016 | Interviews Features and Reviews
Continuing my pay-it-forward series of posts, I am presenting you today with Steve Bosley and his upcoming novella, Die, Blossom, Bloom. The novella is now available to pre-order for the low price of just 99p. You also get a FREE story from his next collection of...
Apr 25, 2016 | Marketing, My friends' Guest Posts
Continuing my paying-it-forward series of posts, I present to you today another one of my new friends, Duke Vukadinovic. You may or may not be aware that in my day job, I’m a web developer whose company, Istomedia, has developed over 450 websites and blogs since...
Apr 23, 2016 | My friends' Guest Posts
I recently realized that I haven’t paid it forward in a while now. I will do so with a series of posts running throughout April, dedicated to some of the wonderful people I’ve met along a way. Some are author friends. Others offer services I’ve used...
Apr 21, 2016 | My Publications
Let it never be said I don’t listen to you. After your amazing comments and votes on my post, Book Cover Help Requested: Perfect Beat, my trusted sidekick cover designer Alex Saskalides of 187Designz went back to the drawing board and came up with a whole bunch...
Apr 19, 2016 | Publishing, Writing
In a fascinating study shared by The Reading Room, men were found to be quicker to judge a book they’re reading than women are. The study was performed by Jellybooks, who used a bit of JavaScript in eBooks that measured reading habits of volunteers. By breaking down...
