Paula, over at Daily Cheap Reads, has notified me that TAKEDOWN will be featured tomorrow night, starting at 8 pm.
As an extra incentive for readers, I'm putting the book on sale for 99 cents.
Daily Cheap Reads is an excellent source for good, affordable ebooks. Paula is a voracious reader. I've found her picks to be very good, and that's why I'm so pleased TAKEDOWN was chosen to be highlighted on the site.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Markets got you down?
It could be worse. You could be Jane Nelson, in TAKEDOWN.
She knows her 401K is going to dive, dive, dive:
But seriously, Jane's financial problems are just minor heartburn. After all, she's running from killers who plan to eliminate her for what she knows, and that's just a second-degree ulcer compared to the burden of saving the world from financial collapse.
So . . . the market is down a bit. Things could be worse. Much worse. Read TAKEDOWN, and you'll actually feel good about today's headlines.
On sale for a limited time on Amazon!
Update: A reader just told me he saw this movie trailer over the weekend, and he said it reminded him of TAKEDOWN.
Update 2: The algorithmic trading described in TAKEDOWN was a large factor in the recent. 2.2 trillion haircut in the markets.
She knows her 401K is going to dive, dive, dive:
But seriously, Jane's financial problems are just minor heartburn. After all, she's running from killers who plan to eliminate her for what she knows, and that's just a second-degree ulcer compared to the burden of saving the world from financial collapse.
So . . . the market is down a bit. Things could be worse. Much worse. Read TAKEDOWN, and you'll actually feel good about today's headlines.
On sale for a limited time on Amazon!
Update: A reader just told me he saw this movie trailer over the weekend, and he said it reminded him of TAKEDOWN.
Update 2: The algorithmic trading described in TAKEDOWN was a large factor in the recent. 2.2 trillion haircut in the markets.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Interview on the Deck: Anna Murray
When a guest interrogated me recently, I decided to turn it into blog fodder.
Enjoy.
Anna
Q: How did you get into this writing gig?
I love to read. I went on a binge in 2002, reading over 350 historical romance novels, along with history books. A Wyoming historical journal essay about a western town inspired me to write Unbroken Hearts in 2002-3. It was edited and revised at least ten times (I stopped counting!).
I went through the query-go-round, and almost made it (one publisher requested full MS and sent it through their ringer), but no cigar. Looking back, the rejections were the best thing that could have happened, because I've made far more money on the book as a self-published work.
The big publishers can't come close to the 70% royalty rate that Amazon is offering, and advances are low in the genre.
I published my first book on Amazon in March, 2008.
Q: How many books have you self published?
Four. Untamed Hearts and Undaunted Hearts are the sequels to the first western historical romance. TAKEDOWN is my latest. It's a contemporary romantic suspense/thriller.
Q: How do you write a story?
I start with the broad story arc and characters. I develop an outline, and this goes through several iterations as subplots and color are added. It continues to expand until it becomes the book. This is also known as the "Snowflake method."
Q: What advice would you give to new authors?
Write in scenes. I typically have 3 scenes per chapter. Every scene, whether it is action, dialogue, internal monologue, or narrative, must move the plot forward.
Will you write plot-driven or character-driven books? Decide which is your strength.
Writing is difficult, as it requires macro and micro skills: Envisioning broad plot and characters, and, at the detail level, picking apart sentence structure, grammar, spelling. Very few people operate at both levels. Proofreaders and editors are critical.
Q: How long does it take to write a book?
The first book took 8-10 months, but now it goes faster because I have an established process.
When I'm "heads down" writing I'll spend 4-5 hours a day working, and I can finish a book in 4-5 months at that pace. I'm always doing research alongside, always reading historical stuff. I read 30-40 history books before I started the first series.
Q: Tell me about your latest work.
TAKEDOWN combines many life experiences I've had with a thriller plot line. The heroine in TAKEDOWN, Jane Nelson, receives the same "thanks for sex last night" misdirected emails I received when I ran a community website, but of course they lead to more interesting problems for her.
In addition to writing, I've worked as a programmer, systems analyst, and web designer for 20+ years. I'm also an avid stock market investor, and I belong to the Investor Village AAPL (Apple) Sanity community, where my friends from Wall Street and beyond inspired ideas for TAKEDOWN.
Enjoy.
Anna
Q: How did you get into this writing gig?
I love to read. I went on a binge in 2002, reading over 350 historical romance novels, along with history books. A Wyoming historical journal essay about a western town inspired me to write Unbroken Hearts in 2002-3. It was edited and revised at least ten times (I stopped counting!).
I went through the query-go-round, and almost made it (one publisher requested full MS and sent it through their ringer), but no cigar. Looking back, the rejections were the best thing that could have happened, because I've made far more money on the book as a self-published work.
The big publishers can't come close to the 70% royalty rate that Amazon is offering, and advances are low in the genre.
I published my first book on Amazon in March, 2008.
Q: How many books have you self published?
Four. Untamed Hearts and Undaunted Hearts are the sequels to the first western historical romance. TAKEDOWN is my latest. It's a contemporary romantic suspense/thriller.
Q: How do you write a story?
I start with the broad story arc and characters. I develop an outline, and this goes through several iterations as subplots and color are added. It continues to expand until it becomes the book. This is also known as the "Snowflake method."
Q: What advice would you give to new authors?
Write in scenes. I typically have 3 scenes per chapter. Every scene, whether it is action, dialogue, internal monologue, or narrative, must move the plot forward.
Will you write plot-driven or character-driven books? Decide which is your strength.
Writing is difficult, as it requires macro and micro skills: Envisioning broad plot and characters, and, at the detail level, picking apart sentence structure, grammar, spelling. Very few people operate at both levels. Proofreaders and editors are critical.
Q: How long does it take to write a book?
The first book took 8-10 months, but now it goes faster because I have an established process.
When I'm "heads down" writing I'll spend 4-5 hours a day working, and I can finish a book in 4-5 months at that pace. I'm always doing research alongside, always reading historical stuff. I read 30-40 history books before I started the first series.
Q: Tell me about your latest work.
TAKEDOWN combines many life experiences I've had with a thriller plot line. The heroine in TAKEDOWN, Jane Nelson, receives the same "thanks for sex last night" misdirected emails I received when I ran a community website, but of course they lead to more interesting problems for her.
In addition to writing, I've worked as a programmer, systems analyst, and web designer for 20+ years. I'm also an avid stock market investor, and I belong to the Investor Village AAPL (Apple) Sanity community, where my friends from Wall Street and beyond inspired ideas for TAKEDOWN.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Indie Author Rock Stardom
TAKEDOWN has been chosen as one of six books highlighted this month on Moses Siregar's "Indie Author Rock Star" site!
Take a look at the site. This is the "American Idol" for indie books, and it's an honor to be included with such tough competition.
Take a look at the site. This is the "American Idol" for indie books, and it's an honor to be included with such tough competition.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Tech Corner: Adding book covers to Kindle uploads
Thanks to a thread over at Kindleboards, I realized I needed to include my book covers in my ebook files.
The covers appear on the product pages, and I thought it was enough. Who looks at a cover after they purchase the ebook? Besides, a file without a large image file is smaller, and takes up less space on the reader's kindle or iPhone or computer. I figured I was doing the reader a favor by leaving it out of the file.
Today's discussion on Kindleboards convinced me I was wrong.
I logged onto my Kindle Direct Publishing account, downloaded the book files (in the html converted format), and began the adventure of adding the covers.
Below I have a step-by-step tutorial on how to do this, and I hope it saves other authors/publishers time and frustration.
HOW TO ADD YOUR COVER TO A KINDLE EBOOK FILE:
Note -- replace the brackets in the code below with < or > (blogger won't let me show HTML tags with the correct brackets -- it thinks I'm trying to put HTML commands into this post).
1. Make a jpg file of your cover. Keep it small enough, in pixels about 500-600W and 700-800H. You can scale your existing cover down using a graphics program.
2. Put your book file and the cover image file into a folder together. Open the book file in a plain text editor (like textwrangler) or an html editor (Dreamweaver) to edit the html directly.
After the [body] tag enter the following code:
[div id="cover"]
[center][img src="yourcoverfile.jpg"][/img][/center]
[/div]
[mbp:pagebreak /]
Save the file after making these changes.
3. Zip the files together. Do this by right clicking (ctrl-click on a Mac) on the folder containing your files. Select the "compress" files option in the menu that pops up. The zipped file created by the compression option will show up on your desktop.
4. Log into KDP, and upload the zip file (Upload Your Book File - step #5) for your book. Preview your book. You should now see your cover at the beginning of your book.
5. Save and publish your book in KDP.
Voila. Not only does this add the cover art to your ebook, it also allows the reader to see the cover when they use the right arrow button from the main list on their Kindle device.
The covers appear on the product pages, and I thought it was enough. Who looks at a cover after they purchase the ebook? Besides, a file without a large image file is smaller, and takes up less space on the reader's kindle or iPhone or computer. I figured I was doing the reader a favor by leaving it out of the file.
Today's discussion on Kindleboards convinced me I was wrong.
I logged onto my Kindle Direct Publishing account, downloaded the book files (in the html converted format), and began the adventure of adding the covers.
Below I have a step-by-step tutorial on how to do this, and I hope it saves other authors/publishers time and frustration.
HOW TO ADD YOUR COVER TO A KINDLE EBOOK FILE:
Note -- replace the brackets in the code below with < or > (blogger won't let me show HTML tags with the correct brackets -- it thinks I'm trying to put HTML commands into this post).
1. Make a jpg file of your cover. Keep it small enough, in pixels about 500-600W and 700-800H. You can scale your existing cover down using a graphics program.
2. Put your book file and the cover image file into a folder together. Open the book file in a plain text editor (like textwrangler) or an html editor (Dreamweaver) to edit the html directly.
After the [body] tag enter the following code:
[div id="cover"]
[center][img src="yourcoverfile.jpg"][/img][/center]
[/div]
[mbp:pagebreak /]
Save the file after making these changes.
3. Zip the files together. Do this by right clicking (ctrl-click on a Mac) on the folder containing your files. Select the "compress" files option in the menu that pops up. The zipped file created by the compression option will show up on your desktop.
4. Log into KDP, and upload the zip file (Upload Your Book File - step #5) for your book. Preview your book. You should now see your cover at the beginning of your book.
5. Save and publish your book in KDP.
Voila. Not only does this add the cover art to your ebook, it also allows the reader to see the cover when they use the right arrow button from the main list on their Kindle device.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
RIP James Arness
I'm a western fan, and of course I was a 'Gunsmoke' fan as a kid.
James Arness attended the same college I graduated from (Beloit College), and I've always considered the young Arness to be the best match to play Cal Easton in the movie version of Unbroken Hearts.
James Arness attended the same college I graduated from (Beloit College), and I've always considered the young Arness to be the best match to play Cal Easton in the movie version of Unbroken Hearts.
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