Dec 27, 2015 | Events and Giveaways, My Publications
My holiday gift is here: Runaway Smile, my award-winning children’s book will be free between the 26th and 30th. A little boy wakes up in the morning and realizes he has lost his smile. After spending the entire day trying to find it, he learns the truth behind...
Dec 25, 2015 | Other, Random Musings
Merry Christmas, everyone! Or, if you prefer, Seasons’ Greetings (not to be confused with Season’s Greetings). Merry Christmas! Join the #UnplagChallenge and guess 10 Christmas storiesPowered By the Tweet This PluginTweet This Instead of a card, I thought...
Dec 23, 2015 | Events and Giveaways, My Publications
I woke up to wonderful news! Runaway Smile has just been announced as the winner of the Gelett Burgess Children’s Book Award, in the Young Adult Fiction category. A lovely gold medal has been awarded (see below), and the book will be included in the Gelett Burgess...
Dec 21, 2015 | Publishing
Fake Reviews Friends have been notifying me of changes in the Amazon review policy. “Are they trying to eliminate indies?” a worried friend asked me. Before I go into details, let me first explain the problem from Amazon’s point of view. As...
Dec 19, 2015 | Events and Giveaways
The Fantasy and Science Fiction Network is holding its annual e-book extravaganza between the 19th and 31st of December. It will be hosting an event with free books, 99 cent deals, and deep discounts on fantasy and science fiction books from award-winning and...
Dec 17, 2015 | Publishing
I read a wonderful post on The Atlantic by Kavita Das the other day, which discussed one of my pet peeves. Jamaican writer Marlon James recently won the 2015 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for his riveting novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings. The media gleefully...
Dec 15, 2015 | Writing
We always think we’re discovering new things, just because we give them new names. And yet, we’re simply rediscovering the wheel. At least that’s how I felt, when I read The 37 Basic Plots, According to a Screenwriter of the Silent-Film Era on The...
Dec 13, 2015 | Interviews Features and Reviews
Quirky Claus meets gnomes, an annoyed reindeer, an agitated armadillo, and a cute wombat. Oh, and did I mention the penguins, sharks, fish, and other critters? Quirky Claus: The Masterfully Madcap Mishaps of an Impossibly Incompetent Santa by Sebastian White is a...
Dec 12, 2015 | Events and Giveaways
The Fantasy and Science Fiction Network is holding its annual e-book extravaganza between the 19th and 31st of December. It will be hosting an with free books, 99 cent deals, and deep discounts on fantasy and science fiction books from award-winning and...
Dec 10, 2015 | Events and Giveaways, Other, Random Musings
After 9 long months, we are finally able to unwrap that third controller. Please join me in welcoming to the world Player 3, aka Marie Nathalie. Born a little over 3 kilos about an hour ago, she’s the spitting image of me. Scary stuff…
Dec 10, 2015 | Interviews Features and Reviews
The University of Florida recently announced a new book, aimed at giving people guidelines on how to communicate well in writing. Yellowlees Douglas is an associate professor of management communication at the University of Florida. She wrote The Reader’s Brain: How...
Dec 8, 2015 | Entertainment, Writing
Editors typically frown on the excessive use of the exclamation mark. Some go as far as to argue it shouldn’t be used at all. So, what’s the deal? How did we start using it in the first place? The English Project has some interesting things to say on the...
Dec 7, 2015 | My Publications
Following the release of Musiville — the second book in the award-winning Niditales series — in eBook format, the book is now available in paper format as well. i was also surprised to find some kind soul had already added it to Goodreads, when I tried to...
Dec 6, 2015 | Entertainment
Everyone knows the story of how Orson Wells caused a minor panic with his radio rendition of War of the Worlds. Not everyone is as familiar with the vampire panic of the late 60s and the early 70s, when rumors swirled that there was a “King Vampire of the...
Dec 4, 2015 | Marketing, My Guest posts
You may remember Rayne Hall from my author feature. Or, you may have met her on Twitter, her preferred medium. She has literally written the book on the best ways to use Twitter – it’s called “Twitter for Writers” and is part of her celebrated Writer’s Craft series....
Dec 3, 2015 | My Publications
Yes, that’s right. Musiville, the second book in the award-winning Niditales series, has now officially been released into the wild. Cue glorious music, angels singing, trumpets blaring, and all the other trappings of a book launch. And, of course, gifts. You...
Dec 2, 2015 | Events and Giveaways
Just a quick note to let you know that I’ll be a guest of my author friend, Fleur Camacho, on Facebook tomorrow, Thursday, at 9.30 am CST. I’ll stay for an hour, and pop in every now and then. The event that Fleur is hosting is part of the 25 Days of...
Dec 2, 2015 | Marketing, My friends' Guest Posts
This is the promised second part to my Can Facebook Really Help You Sell Books? post. It is written by romance author Barbara Hinske, who has done a great job with Facebook, as you will see. I’m experimenting with FB ads myself, so hopefully there will be a...
Nov 30, 2015 | Events and Giveaways, My Publications
Yes, we’ve finally reached the last of my book cover redesigns. Pearseus: Books 1-3 is the latest book to enjoy Alexios Saskalidis’ magic. The Pearseus bundle contains the three first books of epic fantasy series, Pearseus – Rise of the Prince, Mad...
Nov 29, 2015 | Entertainment
One of my favorite free newsletters, Atlas Obscura, recently offered a fascinating glimpse into Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – or Alice in Wonderland, as most of us call it. As you probably know, Lewis Carroll wrote it to entertain some little girls on...
