Musings of Two Creative Minds

****REVIEWS NEEDED ON SMASHWORDS**** I'm looking for honest reviews of my 2nd paranormal/mystery novel "The Ship" for my Smashwords site. Recently there's been a lot of traffic over there but no sales. Part of the problem may be the fact that there's been only one review done on the book at Smashwords. Multiple reviews spurs more sales, so if anyone is interested in doing a review there, I'm willing to supply you with a free e-copy of the book from the Smashwords site. For those not familiar with the story here's the blurb from the back cover of the book: Cassandra Elliott is a billionaire heiress, who has just come out of the closet. She's also a powerful psychic who has seen incredible and terrifying things. In fact, just two weeks ago, she and her girlfriend Julie Cloudfoot, survived a horrific battle alongside their two friends Alex Hill and Veronica Ross. They faced a being from a parallel reality where evolution took a much diff...

A couple of weeks ago, I received these packages in the mail... I shared this photo on FB and teased people for a couple of days about what might be inside, before finally revealing their contents. At least one of my FB friends asked, "Wow, that's a lot of books  Are you having a special event?" My answer was no. So then someone else asked, "Well then why did you get so many?  What are you planning on doing with them?" I responded with, "Well, I'm making them available for anyone who wants a signed edition for just $15.00, plus $3.00 for shipping.  If they want a copy of each book it will be two for $25.00, plus $5.00 for shipping." Then came the inevitable question of, "What happens if you don't sell them all?" My response was this... I went to one of the local public libraries and asked if they would like some free copies of a local author's books for their shelves.  They're response was...

Go GOOGLE yourself! And I mean it folks.  Now I'm not trying to be rude or obnoxious, I'm actually being quite serious about this.  Sometimes putting your name in Google and checking out what pops up can be a real eye-opener. The other day when I was sitting in the library with my wife who was tutoring a student of hers, I pulled out her spare laptop and set it up so I could do some writing.  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my flash-drive with me.  Which of course meant, no writing. So I just started net surfing.  I don't know what prompted me to do it, but I decided to put my own name into the Google Search to see what would happen.  The results took me ever so by surprise. Not only did I find all the usual links to my blogs and Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, FB, Twitter, etc. but I also found a host of other book sites that were carrying my two novels "The Bridge" and "The Ship".  Naturally I was flattered, but the...

For those of you who have been reading this blog for a while, you'll remember I've mentioned a number of times about saving your work on Google Drive, or on a Memory Stick, or even a CD.  I've also suggested that when you edit your work, if you're going to cut a scene to save it in a special folder.  I say this because even though the scene, or even a character, doesn't fit in the story you're working on you might be able to recycle it for another story down the road.   The thing I forgot to mention is that occasionally you should go and look through that folder every so often.  Especially if you're looking to start a new project, or have hit a bad case of writer's block.  Something in that folder may be just the thing to help you get your scene going again. I also have another special folder that holds works in progress that are unfinished.  Or in some cases, are pretty much a complete first draft.. . (said under my breath while looking away in...

Today is my great pleasure in introducing you all to a brand new author and friend of mine.  Raani York has been one of my beta-readers and has just come out with her first novel. So please give her a warm welcome by reading all of this entry and then checking out her breakout novel "Dragonbride".  You'll be glad you did. Dragonbride (The Dragon Chronicles, Book #1) Shalima, “Daughter of the Light”, was born under special circumstances. She was raised by her aunts instead of her mother because she needed to be prepared to fulfill the prophecies of the Old Scriptures, which told that she was the only Magician on Earth. Her aunts carefully prepared her for her obligations and her sacred duty. She will have to get married to the Holy Golden Dragon, the King of the Dragons, a huge Earth Dragon with magical talents. She cannot believe that she is the “Chosen One”, who has to protect the Dragon Species, all of Nature and finally the Earth. But when she tur...

Here is the first newspaper review of one of my novels.  I tried getting my first novel "The Bridge" reviewed, but never seemed to have much luck.  I think the fact that "The Ship" was set in Santa Cruz and featured a local landmark The S. S. Palo Alto, aka "The Concrete Boat", really helped. Here's a shot of the S. S. Palo Alto...

NOTE: I already shared this post on "The Vampyre Blogs - Private Edition", but it seemed appropriate to share here as well, since I talk about what's been going on with me for the past 2 weeks.  There will be new posts about writing shortly.  Consider this one, a quick update about me...  Hello everyone, sorry for the slow updates recently.  I had planned on another post today, but life has a way of kind of being really getting in the way sometimes.  Especially when you're going back to college.  I started attending my first university this week.  Prior to that the past few weeks have been chaotic with my wife getting a new job.  She got her Bachelors Degree last spring at the same university where I'm going now.  She studied to become a high school math teacher.  This summer had been a rough one for us for several other reasons as well, including her taking special summer courses for her credential to be come a teacher. ...