Monday, March 9, 2015

Something different, please?

Romance writing can get very creative when the writer is trying to avoid words like vagina and penis, in an attempt to take the medicinal feeling out of the scene.  But are some of the words any better?  These are just a sampling of words used for genitalia that make me go hmmm...

Girly bits - make me think of my eleven year old, ew.

Lady garden - um, what exactly are we doing here?

Folds - laundry, and too much skin, ew

Mound - Laundry again...

Outer lips (or lips of any kind, really)- reminds me of a joke from my childhood friend, the Truly Tasteless Jokebook, where a little boy's dad tells him girls have teeth down there.  I hear somebody parting lips of any kind, and the Jaws theme starts playing in my head.

Love vessel - um... just, no.



Men can be just as bad:

Shaft - mining for something, are we?

Manhood- Like they have to go through some ritual to get a penis. Nope.  They're born with it.

Tower of Power - What exactly are we talking about here?


What sorts of words drive you nuts?  Totally take you out of the scene while you're reading?  Comment below for a chance to win an ecopy of my latest release, The Fixer Upper.

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Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Groovy Cool Writing Techniques by Cinta Garcia de la Rosa

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GROOVY COOL WRITING TECHNIQUES

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AVAILABLE NOW!

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Groovy Cool Writing Techniques is a collection of essays developing techniques for improving writing in a creative way. Every person is creative; they only need to light that spark inside, so the magic can begin. A picture, a walk in the streets, your own childhood memories... Everything can hold stories. You just need to find the way to tell those stories in a creative way. This book can help you.
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EXCERPT
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When you look at a blank page that insists on being blank, or after thousands of attempts to write the typical boy-meets-girl story in a more original way, I'm sure that you have also exclaimed, "I'm not creative!" And maybe you have wondered what the difference between a creative and a non-creative person is. Or maybe you want to know whether a person's personality or profession play a role in that.
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I have good news for you: we are all creative. You can be creative in the kitchen, creating delicious meals. You can be creative in the artistic field, drawing beautiful pictures. You can even be creative as a homemaker, creating a wonderful and cosy home for your family. It's not all about writing.
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Creativity is not a talent that only some chosen people possess and others can only envy. It's an ability and, as such, you can learn it, develop it, and use it. Everybody can learn to be creative. Don't roll your eyes, I am serious! You can do it with practice.
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Every creative process has three phases: previous, conception, and subsequent. Creators usually consider the previous moment as the most important of the three. We "write" the most during the hours previous to actually putting words on paper or on screen. This is also when we can have negative thoughts about our writing ("I can't do it", "I'm not good enough") or when we can choose to postpone everything. So it's necessary for us to combine two attitudes:
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Disposition. To create it is necessary to believe, to see ourselves as creative people. Only if we believe in ourselves we will be willing to create something new. When writers believe they have everything they need, the fear to fail disappears and they let themselves flow.
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Avoid thoughts like “I haven't lived enough experiences,” “I don't have a great imagination,” “I can only speak of what I have lived,” “I won't be able to catch the reader's attention”... Run away from negative thoughts! You don't need them!
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We write with anxiety when we lack self-confidence: what if the challenge of the novel I have in my mind is beyond my talent? If you have those thoughts and feel stressed, please stop!
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Take ten deep breaths: this will help you to relax and find the flow your brain needs to work better with less energy. Breathe. Breathe so deep that the air gets to your belly button, helping you to find balance. Slowly.
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Next, admit that everything you are looking for is inside yourself. The creative person that you are is waiting somewhere. There is a diamond in the rough you must find — a diamond that exists for sure and is called creativity.
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Breathe. Trusting the creative process, your creative self, will revive your flow.
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Believe in yourself: the text is a reflection of the self. Dive into the blank page like in a refreshing swimming pool on a hot day. Look for the idea that is shining at the bottom of the pool. Visualise the diamond! Repeat: “I believe in myself, I believe in my creative self”. Make of that sentence your personal mantra. Breathe. Now you are in the best disposition for creating, for finding your diamond, polish it, and make it shine.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
> Author photo via Rosa StormCinta Garcia de la Rosa is an International Award-Winning Author who spends her time in the United States and Spain with her amazing husband. Along with writing, her career encompasses beta-reading, editing, proofreading, and translating Spanish/English. Cinta has loved the written word since she was five years old and reads at least one hundred books every year. She has a B.A. in English with minors in Literature, Art, and Creative Writing from Oxford. Cinta has published:
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You can stalk her here:
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GIVEAWAY
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- Five readers (5) will win a signed copy of the book once the paperback is available.
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What do you have to do in order to win? Very easy! Grab a copy of my book and write a review before March 31st, and send me the permalink to your review using the contact form on http://cintagarcia.com. On April 1st I will put the names of all the reviewers (including the people who received ARCs) in a random picker of winners, and I will notify the winners.
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How can you get a copy for reviewing? Two options: either you buy the book or click on the following link and grab a free copy. There are only 20 freebies, so hurry up!
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> Enjoy the book and good luck!
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Monday, March 2, 2015

Cover Reveal - Zack Love's Anissa's Redemption

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Title: Anissa's Redemption

Author: Zack Love

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Romance

Cover Design: Ashley Byland

Cover

AR Cover

Synopsis

Anissa Toma fled war-torn Syria after narrowly escaping the massacre of her Christian family by Islamists. Fortunate enough to rebuild her shattered life in New York City, the young refugee gained admission to an elite college, where she excelled. Her beauty, brains, and purity soon captured the interest of two powerful men: Michael, an activist working to establish Antioch, the first Mideast Christian state, and Julien, her professor and one of the city’s wealthiest bachelors.

As Anissa's saga continues, the refugee-turned-rising-star must navigate between Michael and Julien, while trying to help her surviving relatives and other vulnerable Christians in Syria. As she gets closer to both men in a complex and evolving love triangle, can she unlock Julien's traumatic childhood to open up his heart? Or will Julien find greater solace from his nightmares and other demons in the sessions with his intriguing therapist? What will Michael do for Antioch and for Anissa, and what will Julien's role be? How far will each person go to help Anissa's remaining family and other persecuted Christians at risk in Syria? Find out in this stunning sequel to "The Syrian Virgin.

About The Author

Zack Love graduated from Harvard College, where he studied mostly literature, psychology, philosophy, and film. After college, he moved to New York City and took a corporate consulting job that had absolutely nothing to do with his studies. The attacks of September 11, 2001 inspired him to write a novelette titled “The Doorman” and heightened his interest in the Middle East. A decade later, that interest extended to the Syrian Civil War, which provided the backdrop for his latest work. In late 2013, Zack began releasing his unpublished works of fiction and became a full-time author. He has published comedy, psychological and philosophical fiction, and romance. Zack enjoys confining himself to one genre about as much as he likes trying to sum up his existence in one paragraph.

Facebook | Twitter | Website | Goodreads


Now Available For Pre-Order

Amazon US | Amazon UK


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Sunday, March 1, 2015

Cover Reveal - Tate Linders - Mystery on the Missing Ship



SYNOPSIS

Melodie Crane, her twin sister, Lila, and their mother are embarking on a trip to America on the Titanic. 


What is supposed to be a rather uneventful trip turns into mystery, mayhem, and murder. 



Who will make it out alive? Will they find the person responsible for this tragedy?




COVER DESIGN: BookFabulous Designs

ABOUT THE AUTHOR



Tate has always had a passion for reading all genres of books. She loves to write and draw. She is a very bright young lady who loves to learn. Tate is currently 13 years old. She lives in Seneca, Missouri where she attends school and lives with her mom and 2 sisters. She is an amazing, loving, and wonderful daughter, sister, granddaughter, and friend. She is a very warm-spirited young lady who has such a loving and generous heart. She has overcome a lot of events in her life which have made her a stronger person and shown her what she is capable of and the type of person she wants to be in this world. In turn, this has given her the opportunities to be able to build her character and have her light shine bright.

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Wednesday, February 25, 2015

New Release - The Fixer Upper by Anne Conley

From the author of The Stories of Serendipity, and The Four Winds comes a brand new stand alone novel, The Fixer Upper, by Anne Conley.



James, a UK based chef, has tried to make a career with EAT-TV, but his womanizing ways aren’t what they’re looking for with their wholesome family style image.  However, the producers of a new reality show about single life, The Fixer Upper, think he’s perfect.  His agent convinces him to give it a shot.  His overpriced bachelor pad is needing a mortgage payment, and he needs a job to support the tween-aged daughter that’s recently been dumped in his lap.


Margaret Dumas is control freak who has micromanaged her marriage to shambles.  When she makes a deal with her mother to quit fixing her up if she’ll do this new reality show, she thinks she’s won.  No more blind dates, no more friendly advice, no more “chance meetings” with her Mother’s friends’ sons.  The only catch is she’s got to go on detestable reality television and expose her dating habits to a total stranger who is supposed to “fix” her and make her a dating machine.  As if.

When Margaret meets James, they clash on the surface, but deep down they recognize something in the other that they want: redemption.


Excerpt from The Fixer Upper:


“So, tell me about yourself.”  James took a sip of the juice and managed to barely suppress his grimace.  Okay, so it’s not fresh squeezed, get over it.  Pushing her aloofness back in the forefront of her mind, she was better able to control her reactions to him and focus on the situation at hand.
“I’m thirty-eight, divorced, an accountant.  I live here with my dog, Puppet, he’s out in the backyard, or else he’d be in your lap, messing up your, uh… jeans.”  Looking at his jeans while she’d said that


screwed her up again, so she looked around the room.  “Not much to tell…”
“Okay, why did you sign up for the show?”
“Oh, that’s easy.  My mother did it.  I’m doing this to make her happy.  Not really interested in a relationship.  Divorce just finalized last month, and I don’t really see the point in a relationship at this moment.  But she’s brutal in her doggedness.”  She flashed him a smile and his faltered, much to her satisfaction.  “She’s signed me up for online dating, tried introducing me to sons of her friends, you name it.  I’m trying to get her off my back.”
He ran his finger over his bottom lip.  “So let me get this straight.  You have no desire to date, yet you’re on the show to find out how to date?  To be fixed up?”  He leaned back, his arms stretched over the sofa back.  “How utterly lazy of you.”
“What?  No, I’m not lazy.  Far from it—”  She started to explain herself, but he didn’t let her words come out.
“Sounds like it to me.”  He crossed an ankle over his knee in an infuriating gesture.  “You don’t want to date, yet you call us in to do all the work for you.”
Her nerves dissolved as indignation materialized.  She was suddenly angry at this man who came into her house with cameras to make her look like a complete loser.  “That’s not it.  I go out!”
James leaned forward, blue eyes sparkling with interest.  “Now we’re getting there.  Who do you go out with?”
“N-no one.  I go out to a bar by my office.  Alone.”  Margaret tried to steel her voice, but heard her resolve crumble in the hopelessness that her life had become.  She didn’t need this man to make her sound like a loser, she was one. 
“Do you pick up men?”  he asked eagerly, and Margaret stiffened her backbone as he managed to make her habitual routine sound salacious.
“No!  How trashy!  I don’t do one-night stands.”  Loser. 
“I didn’t say you did, pigeon, but do you speak to potential dates in this bar?”  His eyes roamed her legs, and Margaret crossed them self-consciously, to no avail.  The motion seemed to draw his attention further, and his tongue snaked out, resting on the corner of his lip.
“Um, not exactly.”  Would you please put that tongue away?  It’s highly distracting.  “I mean, I speak to them, to say I’m not interested.”
His gaze snapped back up to her eyes, and thankfully, his tongue went back to its typical place.  “So, you’re completely uninterested in dating?”
She shrugged.  “Not uninterested, per se, I just haven’t met anyone who meets my standards, yet.”
He steepled his fingers under his chin, as if deep in thought, and Margaret wondered if the affectation was for the camera.  “What, exactly, are your standards, Ms. Dumas?”
She leaned back and relaxed a little.  This was an easy question.  And it got the focus off her, at least.  “Well, he needs to be taller than me, fit physique, have ambition, be neat, attractive, work a good job, enjoy his mother, no children, be close to my age, and have a hobby.”  Margaret ticked each item off on her fingers like a shopping list.
“Well, that’s not too much to ask, is it?”  She couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not, as she watched him make some notes on a notepad he retrieved from the case he’d brought in.  “How tall are you?”
“Five foot, nine inches.”
“How fit is fit?”  He stared at her, an unreadable expression on his face.
“Excuse me?”
“Do you want a muscle bound god, or are you content with a small spare tire, befitting a man of a certain age?”  His accent distracted her mercilessly, and she had to concentrate on his words instead of his voice.
“I’m not into steroid-users.  They don’t have to be that fit, but spare tires?  Um, I don’t think so.”
“Vague.”  He stood, and to her mortification, reached behind his neck and pulled his t-shirt over his head to reveal the perfectly sculpted torso.  Lean muscle, not too bulky, the smallest trail of reddish-brown hair leading to the snap of his jeans alluding to something impressive down there.  “Do you consider this fit?”
Her eyes were glued to the v formation on his abdomen.  Why did that part of a man’s physique always make her mouth completely fill with saliva?  Her eyes trailed back up over his defined chest—dips and valleys punctuated by a smattering of hair—to admire his wide shoulders.  She noticed his Adam’s apple on her way up to his kissable lips, smirking at her.  Was that a gleam in his eyes?
Shit.  He’d asked her a question, and she had no idea what it was.  Hoping an absent nod would be sufficient, she provided one of those before dragging her eyes away.
“Please put your shirt back on, that’s really not appropriate, um… I don’t think.” 
She managed to release the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding when he put his shirt back on, covering the smooth tanned skin and muscles.  Plopping back on the sofa, he resumed his note-taking.
“Now I know what fit means, thank you.  I think the word ambition speaks for itself, but attractive has all sorts of connotations.  Can you elaborate on what you find attractive?”
His eyes were back on her, his gaze seeking answers, flicking back and forth between her eyes. 
“Um, I like dark hair, but blond hair, as long as it’s neat is okay, too.  I’ve always been attracted to light eyes and smooth skin, but a certain ruggedness is okay as well.”  She bit her lip in thought, refusing to meet his eyes, instead focusing on the quiches perfectly arranged on the platter in front of her.  “I suppose a straight nose is in there somewhere, as well as nice lips… ” Her voice trailed off as her eyes rose, with a will of their own, to see him staring at her, that damned smirk on his mouth again.  Nice lips.  Plump, but not too much.  Definitely kissable.  She cleared her throat.
“He needs to have good manners, too.  No chewing with his mouth open, holds doors for ladies, things like that,” she added for good measure, noting to herself how squeaky her voice sounded.
He put his pen behind his ear and slipped his notepad into his case.  “So, let me make sure I’m clear.  You’re looking for a financially stable man in his late thirties, early forties, with hobbies, smooth skin, rugged appeal, dark hair, who works out regularly, has no children, good relationship with his mum, who holds doors for others, doesn’t smack when he chews, and aspirations for even more?”  He clapped his hands on his thighs as if he was about to stand.  “You, my dear, have impossibly high standards.”
One of her eyebrows arched in incredulity.  “Excuse me?”

“If there’s a man out there like that, I’m sure every woman on the planet would like an introduction, but we’ll do our best.  In the meanwhile, you need some work yourself.  If you’re going to hold others to such a high standard, you’ll need to go through some changes.”  He stood, towering over her, his eyes roaming her body, expression unreadable.


Grab your copy on Amazon ,  Scribd, Page Foundry, and Kobo.  
Barnes and Noble and iTunes will have it soon.


Anne's stalker links: 



AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE –   http://www.amazon.com/Anne-Conley/e/B00BL2P538/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1418742574&sr=8-2-ent

WEBSITE / BLOG –   www.anneconley.com

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