Merry Christmas Eve and Best Wishes for a Happy New Year

   

Hi Everyone,

     I'm changing the subject of this post to go along with the merriment of the season at hand. At first, I was going to follow up on my December 5th post with a tidbit about the results of my character tour for Dark Seraphine. I've decided to take a different route instead. I want to thank a few of the people who have been most influential in my life because sometimes recognition and success isn't about the Bookscan numbers, but rather it's about the heart of the venture. 

     I'm a self-published author who has successfully published books under my own small press's imprint. To admit to your self-pubbed adventures is no longer a reason to find the nearest rock and insert both head and body underneath it. Indie authors are now the rock stars of the literary world. The Tomb Raiders of all things undiscovered. And the pioneers of the new publishing format that is now taking the world by storm. The one critical thing we discovered that propels our success, in my humble opinion, is that our readers are the key. Reaching out to them and allowing them to do the same for us carries a power that even the most expensive ad campaign can't touch. Why is that? How are so many of these indie authors dominating the top 100? 

   Well, as I said, the key to an indie author's popularity isn't a huge secret anymore. We write from the heart and speak to our readers. No, I don't mean only through our literary ventures. I mean, we get online and offline and get their opinions on our work. We name characters after them. Open a blog dedicated solely to making sure the reader knows that at the end of the day, an author is no different from the rest of the book obsessed world. After all, that's what rock stars have done since the beginning of time. They communicated with their fans and spent time getting to know them on a personal level. A song is written from the heart first. The commercial campaign and marketing stuff comes second. 

    When an author uses this model as his/her guide, this putting the reader and fan ahead of "the ideal formula", then a remarkable thing happens. A book takes off and does well. You find headlines on reviews like this one: "WOW WOW WOW!" Smile. And so I end my post on a note to thank all of the indie authors who encouraged me to trudge along this path. A few of them are members of this group. I want to thank my sons for being so patient while I pumped out  five books in one year. The gorgeous people of Romania who have worked up enough buzz in their country to create my very first foreign fan club. The bloggers who embraced my debut novel with the intriguing romance and funny words. And of course the faithful readers who keep spreading the word every day. I heart you all dearly.

   I wish all of you the merriest Christmas and Happiest New Year Ever! 

Yours in Prose,
KaSonndra Leigh
www.kasonndraleigh.com

Memories of an Austrian Christmas
by Victoria Simcox

When I was six years old I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a Christmas with my relatives in Austria—my Oma and Opa (grandmother and grandfather) on my mother’s side of the family, and my uncle Christian, (my mother’s younger brother). 

Unlike the American celebration of Christmas on the twenty fifth of December, the Austrian celebration is on the twenty fourth-Christmas Eve. There is a long tradition the Austrians hold to that says that the Christkindl (The Christ Child) comes to Earth on the twenty fourth of December, and that is the reason they celebrate on that Eve. Saint Nicholas or as they call him in Austria, Niklaus, actually comes before Christmas, either on the fifth or the sixth of December with his opponent the devil, known as Krampus. Together they come to the villager’s doors and ask the children whether they have been good or bad during the year. If the child says they were good, Niklaus may reward them with a small token such as an apple, orange, cookie, or some nuts. If the child says that they were bad, Krampus will try to catch and spank the child. This may sound politically incorrect, but to the Austrians its all in good fun, and Niklaus will send the child running before Krampus has a chance to get them. Unfortunately, I missed this holiday event because I didn’t arrive in Austria until the week before Christmas. Even so, my mother has filled me in on how fun this tradition was for her as a child.

Waking up Christmas Eve morn, I can still faintly remember the sounds and the smells in the air. Oma and my mother clanking around in the small kitchen downstairs while preparing the food for the day, and the smell of marzipan mingled together with ginger, allspice, and cinnamon filling my senses. 

Full of joyful wonder I got out of bed and headed down the old squeaky staircase of my grandparent’s small Vienna flat. Half way down I could see the living room, and with great bewilderment, I looked for the Christmas tree, but it was nowhere to be found. Even a few days earlier I had wondered why there wasn’t one up.

I went into the kitchen and asked my mother why there was no Christmas tree? My mother conversed with my Oma in German, and than in English said to me, “Go now and get dressed. We could use your help.” I decided not to pursue asking about the tree, seeing how busy they were making marzipan and ginger cookies and a brandy soaked, ladyfinger and whip cream cake.

Later on that day I was glad that I hadn't brought up the tree, because after coming home in the evening from doing some last minute shopping with my uncle, Christian, my sister and I were pleasantly surprised to see, standing in the small, dark living-room, a beautiful Christmas tree set aglow with real candles on its branches and under it, toys for my sister and I.

I never questioned my mother about why the tree was put up so late in the holiday until I was an adult and that is when I found out that it is tradition for the Austrians to put the tree up without the children knowing as late as possible on Christmas Eve. The children are sent out to play or do errands and then when they return in the evening they are surprised with a tree and unwrapped presents under it.

Today, my Oma and Opa are no longer with us, but I will never forget that extra-special Christmas I was able to spend with them. As a matter of fact, I still have a gift, a stuffed, little, yellow lion with a red and white ribbon (the Austrian flag colors) tied in a bow around its neck; a present that my Oma had handmade for me that Christmas Eve more then thirty something years ago.

 Check out Victoria's blog @ www.victoriasimcox.blogspot.com

Aine P Massie Book Tour!

Geas Publishing is proud to present the House Millar series Scavenger Hunt & Book Tour. Some of my favourite blogs have come together to hunt to all the items on the scavenger hunt list. At the end of the hunt you will have 25 items to enter into the Rafflecopter.

Hello everyone! First, let me say thank you to everyone stopping by. We’re in the middle of my virtual book tour for both Blood’s Voice (House Millar #1) and Blood Bound (House Millar #2). Both books are paranormal romance featuring the strange and eclectic House Millar.

The House Millar is a unique vampire House within the setting of the books. 99% of all vampires are your more traditional blood sucking, think nothing of killing humans, fiends. They have both House structure and a Council that help to guide their existence, keep them hidden from the human world, and attempt to avoid/stop blood wars that could spill over and cause issues both with humans and with other non-humans in their world.

What makes Mistress Anya and her House so unique is that they are a House of aberrations - vampires that do not kill to feed. I can’t say none of them do or will feed on humans but they do not kill or torture humans. Well, and the House is let by a slightly touched child.

Never make the mistake of thinking that the vampires, traditional or aberration, are fluffy or weak. They are all lethal and will destroy any they feel need to ‘go.’ Even the human loving vampires are quite lethal when need be. Anya alone has a higher kill count (of vampires) than most Guardians – natural born vampire hunters / humans – ever manage to make, and in greater numbers at a time than should be possible.

One thing to learn about the fanged ones, especially those that still have a heart, is that when enraged or in pain they often slip into a blood rage and any abilities they have often become unchecked. Needless to say, never piss off an aberration; they are even more deadly than the traditional, kill for food, kind of vamp.

There is one other thing that makes them a touch different in their world; the House Millar is the only vampire House to consider the non-vampiric members to be actual members, not just pets or servants. Of course, the only true servant in the House is a vampire…but he wouldn’t have it any other way, lol.

Blessings of the season,

Áine

How to Play:

This is how it works… all the blogs below will post a bit about one of the books along with a guest post, interview, character interview, spotlight, etc. along with their token on their scheduled date. You are looking for the special image included somewhere within the post that you will need to then enter into the Rafflecopter at the end. Make sure to enter your answer into the right slot on the Rafflecopter ;)

We are giving away a nice set of prizes – including free eBooks from the series; gift cards to Amazon, B&N, or ARe; swag; and more…

So, enjoy, hunt along with the various posts, and have fun. Best wishes to all!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To Write of Not to Write...

I've been writing for over a year and a half now. I have 6 novels done and working on my seventh- that said I am in no way a Patricia Briggs, Stephen King, James Patterson or any other author who has dozens upon dozens of novels out there. However, I have been asked quite a lot lately if I have any advice for someone who is aspiring to be an author. My initial reaction is yes, my advice would be not to ask me. I don't feel like I have any real advice to offer because some days I sit down and I feel like I'm writing for the first time. I can't figure out what I want to say or how I want to say it. I ask myself if I'm finishing too many quotes with "she asked" or "he said". I wonder if the story is even making any sense, and if a particular thought is really as funny as I think it is or is it simply lack of sleep.

I would like to say that I had it all figured out and that I know the secret to a great novel, but the truth is I haven't the slightest clue. I guess the first thing would be, do you love to write? And when I ask that what I'm saying is do you really love it? Are you constantly thinking up ideas, or plotting out your next scene? Do you get an itch if it's been too many days since you've been able to sit down and hammer out a few thousand words? Is it something you would do even if no one read your work and you made no money at it? I think to be a good story teller you have to love telling stories. If you can say truly, yes, I love to write then you have taken your first step. After that you are on your own...okay just kidding.

There are tons of Indie authors out there who will support you and give you advice. I always tell the people asking me that I'm not an expert and it won't hurt my feelings if they tell me I'm full of it and to take a hike. But let's say you've admitted that you love to write, next would be what do you love to write? Do you like facts? Do you thrive on real, true information? Or perhaps you love fiction, you love to make up fanciful worlds that only exist inside your head until they are on a word document on your lap top. Do you love mysteries, romances, paranormal or dysptoian fiction?  These are things that I think are important to sort of nail down so that you don't sit down and get frustrated because you don't feel like you have a starting place.

You've decided you love to write, you've picked the type of writing you want to do and the genre you feel passionate about, what now? That is a good question my friend. At this point I think it becomes a very personal journey. Some authors make out a very detailed outline and work the story out step by step others sit down and simply begin...Once upon a time, and let the story build itself as they write. It's something that you will have to figure out and see what works best for you. It will always be a learning process and you will always be changing up the way you do things.

I've said this before and I think it's worth saying it again. As you write, novel after novel, remember as you sit down to begin each one that no matter how many you write, no matter how successful your books may be, you have not arrived. You have not reached the point of the worlds best novelist. Am I saying that to be a jerk- no, I'm saying that because I feel that if we ever come to a place where we think we have it all figured out then we can no longer learn and improve. We will no longer listen to the readers and really hear what they are saying. We will no longer ask advice from other authors or seek out new, better stories. We can never arrive, not if we want to be truly great authors.

If you love to write, then do it. Tell your story, whatever it may be. Maybe it's about a werewolf, maybe it's about a girl who struggles with depression, maybe your story is something that will touch one persons life and change the course they are on for the better. Who knows? But you won't know unless you try. So click off this page, bring up your word document and put down that first sentence.

Once upon a time there was a girl and she had a dream that one day people would read her words and laugh, cry, rejoice, rave, and endure with each of the characters she created. She sat down at her computer and she picked out a name, Jacquelyn Pierce and wrote the first sentence of her first novel:

"Jacque Pierce sat in the window seat in her bedroom looking across the street at her neighbors house...

Guten Tag!

Apologies to my German readers, but my knowledge of the German language is pretty much zip. However, I have a lot of love for readers in Germany who have purchased the English version of The Boyfriend Thief in ebook format. I hope to reach a lot more readers there because I'm celebrating the release of the German print edition, Der Schluss-mach-Pakt, this week! It officially went on sale yesterday.

When I released the ebook version of this book, I never imagined that I would sell print translation rights. Germany is just one of three countries that has decided to translate and publish The Boyfriend Thief in print (the Czech Republic and China are the other two). Translation rights are a writer's best friend. You basically get money for no extra work if you sell the rights to a foreign publisher. If you want more control, you can hire someone to do the translation for you and publish it yourself, but you need to be sure to work out a contract with the translator about whether they'll be paid only a one-time flat rate or a portion of all future earnings for that translation.

I decided to sign the rights to publishers who would handle everything for me because, let's face it, being an indie writer is tough and takes up a lot of time between writing, formatting, marketing, keeping up with the industry, etc. Personally, I was happy to let someone else worry about the translations for me, but I can completely understand why another indie writer would want to keep control over their translations. It's a decision every writer has to make for herself (or himself!), but don't ignore the value of your translation rights. Germany, in particular, is a big book market, and if you have a book that is already selling in the English version on Amazon.de, why not research German publishers or translators to get that version out there too?

(Selling translation rights to a publisher is also a lot of fun because you don't know what the publisher plans to do with the cover when you first sell it. In this case, cbj decided to use the original cover I had designed, just updated with the German title and their logo. But the Czech version uses a completely different cover, so it was really exciting to see that. I haven't seen the Chinese cover yet.)

So happy release week to Der Schluss-mach-Pakt! I'm very excited that the German edition is out, and I'm hoping to reach readers that I haven't before now.

If you're already a fan of The Boyfriend Thief, I released a short story for Christmas about Avery and Zac, which I'm offering free on Smashwords until December 31, 2012. Go here to learn more about it!

Also, I'm taking part in the Winter Escapes promo with several other YA fantasy authors. You can get my ebook Surfacing for just $0.99 until December 14. Many other books in the group are also $0.99 or even FREE. Go check us out and also enter to win a $100 gift card or one of many other prizes!