To celebrate the release of our new novels, we have four separate contests, which means four different chances of your winning a new book released by Second Wind Publishing!
1. Christine Husom will send a signed copy of one of her books—your choice of which book—to one lucky winner chosen at random from all who leave a comment on her blog post. So be sure to stop by An Altar by the River Release and leave a comment before October 6, 2010. That might be your lucky day!
2. Laura Wharton is offering a signed copy of her new novel, The Pirate’s Bastard. Leave a comment on her blog post and you might be a winner. Click here to leave your comment before October 6, 2010: The Pirate’s Bastard is Sailing into Port Soon
3. Sherrie Hansen is offering an autographed copy of Water Lily to a truly beautiful person. Think of someone you love – mother, father, spouse, friend or hero, and write a brief comment about what makes them beautiful to you. Leave your comment here by October 7, 2010: To a Truly Beautiful Person… by Sherrie Hansen
4. Second Wind Publishing is giving away four ebooks to random commenters. Leave a comment here: Celebrating Four New Novels from Second Wind Publishing – Win an Ebook! telling us which new ebook release you'd like to read, and you might win one of them!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Lancelot's Lady and the new book video trailer
Here's the video trailer for Lancelot's Lady, my contemporary romantic suspense novel. The trailer was created by Kelly Komm, author and trailer creator extraordinaire. Thanks, Kelly! You're awesome!
To celebrate the release of Lancelot's Lady, I'm holding my Cherish the Romance Virtual Launch & Book Tour, with daily prizes, including jewelry, signed paperbacks and ebooks from various authors, plus other prizes. Come join the fun from now until October 10th.
Leave a comment here, with email address, to be entered into the prize draws. You're guaranteed to receive at least 1 free ebook just for doing so. Plus you'll be entered to win a Kobo ereader. Winners will be announced after October 10th.
Let me know what you think of Kelly's video trailer. Does it make you want to buy Lancelot's Lady? Or does it make you want to take a trip to the Bahamas. :-)
Cherish D'Angelo
(aka Cheryl Kaye Tardif)
To celebrate the release of Lancelot's Lady, I'm holding my Cherish the Romance Virtual Launch & Book Tour, with daily prizes, including jewelry, signed paperbacks and ebooks from various authors, plus other prizes. Come join the fun from now until October 10th.
Leave a comment here, with email address, to be entered into the prize draws. You're guaranteed to receive at least 1 free ebook just for doing so. Plus you'll be entered to win a Kobo ereader. Winners will be announced after October 10th.
Let me know what you think of Kelly's video trailer. Does it make you want to buy Lancelot's Lady? Or does it make you want to take a trip to the Bahamas. :-)
Cherish D'Angelo
(aka Cheryl Kaye Tardif)
Monday, September 27, 2010
Reviews of Lancelot's Lady
From the cold rocky shores of Maine to the extravagant mansions of Miami to a lush tropical island in the Bahamas, Cherish D'Angelo takes her heroine through a series of breathtaking romantic adventures that mirror the settings, often in surprisingly ironic ways. A page turner in the best possible sense." ―Gail Bowen, author of the award-winning Joanne Kilbourn series
"Romance, mystery, danger, black-mail, and twists and surprises, this tale contains them all. Readers will not be able to help being captivated while the main character vacations on an island around the Bahamas, while lives change dramatically, while the laws of attraction are fought off, and while danger brews...Despicable intentions threaten every character in this finely crafted tale of sweet tension however. Snakes always lie in wait when around large sums of cash and one camouflages himself as an upstanding individual. His intentions do not stop there. Unknown by Rhianna, her life, and anyone in this character’s way, is threatened. Lancelot’s Tale is a non-stop adventure combined with the agonizing struggle to not give in to the magnetism between them. Enticing. Fun." ―Christina Francine, Midwest Book Review; see Christina's full review at Midwest Book Review
"Another brilliantly crafted novel by Cheryl Tardif [aka Cherish D'Angelo]...a beautiful love story rippling with suspense and just the right amount of sensuality." ―Emily Ross, aka Pauline Holyoak
"Cherish D'Angelo has got that mythical “voice” down to a fine art."―Jennifer L. Hart, author of River Rats
"Lancelot's Lady is riveting. It holds on and won't let you go! Cherish D’Angelo’s descriptive powers are amazing. She summons up scenes like genies from bottles!" ―Susan J. McLeod, author of Soul and Shadow
Prizes & Giveaways: Click on link (left) to view all prizes. Leave a comment here, with email address, to be entered into the prize draws. You're guaranteed to receive at least 1 free ebook just for doing so. Plus you'll be entered to win a Kobo ereader. Winners will be announced after October 10th.Special prizes: Purchase Lancelot's Lady today from Amazon Kindle Store and email me with your receipt as proof of purchase and you'll be entered into a special draw for a beautiful "Lancelot's Lady" pendant. FOUR pendants will be awarded.
Cherish D'Angelo
(aka Cheryl Kaye Tardif)
http://www.cherishdangelo.com/
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Word on the Street, 2010
It’s Sunday evening and I’ve just finished putting things away after a great day at the annual Word on the Street Fair. It’s a day-long celebration of reading and writing hosted by several cities across Canada simultaneously. I love going to this event because everyone is upbeat and friendly, except perhaps for the guy who was busted by the Vancouver police and hauled off in a paddy wagon this afternoon, although I have no idea what triggered this outcome.
I’ve been attending Word on the Street since I first published Taxed to Death in the late nineties. Over recent years, I’ve volunteered at the Crime Writers of Canada table (thank you to CWC for sponsoring the west coast contingent) and help hand out brochures about our organization. It’s always a treat to talk to people who love reading mysteries but had no idea we existed, or that many more Canadians are writing mysteries than they thought. This is also a chance to let aspiring writers know that help and support is out there.
This year, there were many tables and tents featuring book publishers, large and small, magazines, writing-related organizations and, of course, book sellers. Today’s musical entertainment ranged from opera to bongo drumming. There was an area for kids’ books and entertainment, tents for readings, plus more panel discussions inside the main library. And all of it was free. For those of you who missed out this year, you’ll have another chance next year. It’s always the last Sunday of September, and even though rain was forecasted for today, none came. What can I say? It was a wonderful day.
My amateur sleuth, Vancouver-based, Alex Bellamy mysteries can be purchased at
FATAL ENCRYPTION, http://tinyurl.com/ddzsxl
TAXED TO DEATH, http://tinyurl.com/czsy5n
I’ve been attending Word on the Street since I first published Taxed to Death in the late nineties. Over recent years, I’ve volunteered at the Crime Writers of Canada table (thank you to CWC for sponsoring the west coast contingent) and help hand out brochures about our organization. It’s always a treat to talk to people who love reading mysteries but had no idea we existed, or that many more Canadians are writing mysteries than they thought. This is also a chance to let aspiring writers know that help and support is out there.
This year, there were many tables and tents featuring book publishers, large and small, magazines, writing-related organizations and, of course, book sellers. Today’s musical entertainment ranged from opera to bongo drumming. There was an area for kids’ books and entertainment, tents for readings, plus more panel discussions inside the main library. And all of it was free. For those of you who missed out this year, you’ll have another chance next year. It’s always the last Sunday of September, and even though rain was forecasted for today, none came. What can I say? It was a wonderful day.
My amateur sleuth, Vancouver-based, Alex Bellamy mysteries can be purchased at
FATAL ENCRYPTION, http://tinyurl.com/ddzsxl
TAXED TO DEATH, http://tinyurl.com/czsy5n
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Character as Fate
Heraclitus believed that a person’s character is their fate. Character -- the sum total of a person’s traits -- influences the choices a person makes, and the consequences of those choices ultimately become that person’s destiny. Or not. Much of life is luck, happenstance, and totally out of our control, though we tend to believe we have much more control over our lives than we really do. But that’s not an issue here because this is a writing discussion, and in our story worlds everything is under our control, and what our characters do determine their own fate.
This is most obvious in a tragedy -- a character comes to an unhappy end because of a flaw in his or her own character, though in today’s stories, because readers like a more optimistic ending, that fatal flaw is often balanced by a special strength. But character/fate works for other types of stories, such as a thriller where a character becomes obsessed with finding the truth, and that obsession leads to both the character's fate and the end of the story.
For example, in Daughter Am I, a young woman is determined to find out the truth of who her grandparents were and why someone wanted them dead. That determination overrides her usual placidity and takes her on a journey that eventually leads her home again, changed forever. She really did find her destiny because of her character.
I wonder if the opposite is more true (if truth has degrees), that destiny is character. Does what happens to us, both the actions under our control and those beyond our control, determine who we are? Determine who our characters are? This was a theme I explored in More Deaths Than One. So much happened to my poor hero Bob that was not under his control, yet what was under his control -- how he handled his fate -- made him the man he became.
Any discussion about fate and writing would also have to include the question: does the writer's fate affect the character's fate? None of my books have totally happy endings. There is always a pinprick of unease in the background, but the book I am now contemplating -- the story of a woman going through grief -- is going to have even less of a happy ending. Perhaps because I know the ending of my own love story? Not my story, obviously, since I'm still here, but the story I shared with another. Except for my work in progress (the one that's been stalled all these years) the stories I'm thinking about writing now all end up with the characters alone.
When I wrote the first draft of my novel More Deaths Than One (and the second draft and the third) I had the hero Bob meandering around his world trying to unravel his past all by himself, and it was boring. Did I say boring? It was moribund. The story went nowhere because there was no one for Bob to butt heads with.
In the fourth draft of More Deaths Than One, I gave Bob a love interest, a waitress he met at a coffee shop. (Hey, so it’s been done before. The poor guy spent eighteen years in Southeast Asia, and didn’t know anybody stateside. How else was he supposed to meet someone?) That’s when the story took off. He had someone to butt heads with, someone to ooh and aah over his achievements, someone to be horrified at what had been done to him.
From that, I learned the importance of writing scenes with more than one character. And yet here I am, once more falling into the black hole of writing a character alone.
Which leads me to my final question: could the fate of the character also influence the writer’s fate? If so, maybe I should decide where I want to go from here, and write my destiny.
Pat Bertram is the author of More Deaths Than One, A Spark of Heavenly Fire, and Daughter Am I.
This is most obvious in a tragedy -- a character comes to an unhappy end because of a flaw in his or her own character, though in today’s stories, because readers like a more optimistic ending, that fatal flaw is often balanced by a special strength. But character/fate works for other types of stories, such as a thriller where a character becomes obsessed with finding the truth, and that obsession leads to both the character's fate and the end of the story.
For example, in Daughter Am I, a young woman is determined to find out the truth of who her grandparents were and why someone wanted them dead. That determination overrides her usual placidity and takes her on a journey that eventually leads her home again, changed forever. She really did find her destiny because of her character.
I wonder if the opposite is more true (if truth has degrees), that destiny is character. Does what happens to us, both the actions under our control and those beyond our control, determine who we are? Determine who our characters are? This was a theme I explored in More Deaths Than One. So much happened to my poor hero Bob that was not under his control, yet what was under his control -- how he handled his fate -- made him the man he became.
Any discussion about fate and writing would also have to include the question: does the writer's fate affect the character's fate? None of my books have totally happy endings. There is always a pinprick of unease in the background, but the book I am now contemplating -- the story of a woman going through grief -- is going to have even less of a happy ending. Perhaps because I know the ending of my own love story? Not my story, obviously, since I'm still here, but the story I shared with another. Except for my work in progress (the one that's been stalled all these years) the stories I'm thinking about writing now all end up with the characters alone.
When I wrote the first draft of my novel More Deaths Than One (and the second draft and the third) I had the hero Bob meandering around his world trying to unravel his past all by himself, and it was boring. Did I say boring? It was moribund. The story went nowhere because there was no one for Bob to butt heads with.
In the fourth draft of More Deaths Than One, I gave Bob a love interest, a waitress he met at a coffee shop. (Hey, so it’s been done before. The poor guy spent eighteen years in Southeast Asia, and didn’t know anybody stateside. How else was he supposed to meet someone?) That’s when the story took off. He had someone to butt heads with, someone to ooh and aah over his achievements, someone to be horrified at what had been done to him.
From that, I learned the importance of writing scenes with more than one character. And yet here I am, once more falling into the black hole of writing a character alone.
Which leads me to my final question: could the fate of the character also influence the writer’s fate? If so, maybe I should decide where I want to go from here, and write my destiny.
Pat Bertram is the author of More Deaths Than One, A Spark of Heavenly Fire, and Daughter Am I.
Do I Need an ISBN to Publish My Own eBook?
The above question is a common one for authors taking their first dip into the ebook pool. The easy answer is: YES. But there's a bit more to ISBNs than that.
To learn more about ISBNs and where to go to get them, please check out my post on my Shameless Promoter - Book Marketing Coach site.
- Not sure if you need an ISBN?
- Unsure if you can use the same ISBN as your paperback edition?
- Wondering if you have to pay for your ISBNs?
To learn more about ISBNs and where to go to get them, please check out my post on my Shameless Promoter - Book Marketing Coach site.
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