Beyond Words

Dianne Hartsock is a wonderfully prolific author. I have had the honor of reading and reviewing, Alex. A terrific read for those of you into paranormal thrillers. She would like to offer a giveaway of a n ecopy of Alex to one lucky commenter. Just tell Dianne who your all-time favorite literary character is. Tell us something about yourself and how you became a writer. I grew up in California, lived ten years in Colorado, and now make my home in the beautiful Willamette Valley of Oregon with my husband and college-age son. My daughter lives nearby and attends OSU. I’ve been writing since 7th grade where a very supportive creative writing teacher said I had talent. It’s funny, but I didn’t settle down to serious writing until about three years ago. I went through the ‘Writer’s Workshop’ given by Wolf Pirate Publishing http://www.wolf-pirate.com/#/alex/4535582697 that really opened my eyes. I never realized how much I didn’t know about writing a story!   Tell us about your ...

Andrea Buginsky has enjoyed writing since she was a kid. Once in college, she decided to turn it into a career and earned a BA in journalism. She has been writing freelance for several years now. Andrea has always wanted to write children’s books. She loves fantasy movies like "The Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter," so she decided to try writing one of her own. She is excited to announce her first publication, The Chosen , a young adult fantasy. As writers know, writing can sometimes be hard. You have moments when you want to write, but don’t have time. You have moments where you have the time to write but no idea what to write. You even have times when a huge deadline is looming and you’re working day and night to meet it. These obstacles and more can make your writing life a hard one. Not to mention the publicizing and advertising that comes with it. But you suck it up and do what you have to do for your writing career because it’s what you really want. T...

Thanks to Rachael Harrie of Rach Writes http://rachaelharrie.blogspot.com/  for her third Campaign to help bloggers connect. This campaign is now open and will run until October 31st. Stop by Rach Writes to sign up and start touring!

Recently I was awarded the Liebster Blog Award from Tracy Krauss http://www.tracykraussexpressionexpress.com/ As I understand it, this award is given to bloggers with fewer than 200 followers to help them to build their readership. I am honored to have been chosen and thrilled to accept the award. Thank you, Tracy :) I would love to pay this award forward by awarding it to the following bloggers: Lizzy Stevens, author, who selflessly promotes other writers on her blog with interviews and guest blogs - http://lizzystevens.blogspot.com/ Susan Stec, author of The Grateful Dead series, a great friend and writer of a campy and fun series of supernatural novels - you've never read about vampires like those in her books - http://thegratefulundead.blogspot.com/ Anya Miller, whose blog is chock full of really interesting and informative info including a blog hop, going on right now - http://housemillar.host56.com/ Tirzah Goodwin, an extremely talented cover artist and gracious ...

Author Apryl Baker has stopped by to answer a few questions about writing and her soon to be released novel, The Promise . Tell us a little about your road to publication. Was it a long one? Do you have an agent? In your opinion are they even necessary? It has been a long and tiring road, but I made a lot of good friends along the way. I started out looking for an agent for my shiny new novel, but agents are the elusive white whale, almost impossible to land. After about thirty rejections, I started looking at small publishers and found a home for my novel, The Promise , book one of “The Coven Series,” with an independent publisher. The smaller publishers have both pros and cons. Because they are small, you aren’t going to get a big fat royalty check up front, but you will get the time and attention a bigger house wouldn’t be able to give you. You also get a bigger cut of the sales than you would with one of the larger houses. So are agents necessary? Honestly, they probably still...

Solstice Publishing is the fastest growing mid-market publisher in the USA. With almost 80 authors covering every category of fiction and rapidly expanding into nonfiction, Solstice is quickly gaining a reputation for fast paced suspense thrillers, sizzling romance, action adventure, science fiction, and a spooky collection of horror and paranormal reads. Critically acclaimed authors have achieved top spots on best seller lists, become screenplays, and won movie deals with top Hollywood studios. Solstice books are available in every available eBook format including ePub, MobiPocket, PDF, DjVu for every electronic reading device - Amazon Kindle, Apple iPad, Android tablet PC, Android phones, iPhone, Barnes & Noble Nook Reader, Sony eReader, Windows Mobile Phones, Onyx Book, iRex, WISEreader, and many more. Traditional print versions can be found in major bookstores throughout the United States and online at Amazon.com. Both print and ebooks are available right here on the Solstic...

This interview is reproduced from “The Life and Literary Pursuits” with permission from the author, Michelle Fayard as well as blogger Alexia Chamberlynn. You can find Michelle's blog at http://michellefayard.blogspot.com/  and Alexia's at http://alexiachamberlynn.blogspot.com Hello, writer friends! As promised, Michelle Fayard and I have collaborated on something fun for you! It stemmed from week one of Deana Barnhart's blogfest, the subject of which was to ask your burning questions about writing. For my blogfest post, I asked readers to share the most successful marketing tips they'd implemented or seen other writers implement. Michelle's comment was so detailed and mentioned several things I'd never even heard of! I asked her for more details, and after a string of discussions, we decided to share with all of our writer friends! I strongly encourage you to check out and follow Michelle's blog . She is a wonderfully supportive blog friend full ...

In celebration of reaching (and now surpassing) 100 followers, I am happy to announce the winner of a $25 Amazon Gift Card is ... Darlene . Congratulations, Darlene. Please keep a look out for my email. Thank you to all my followers :)

From Gone with the Wind to Confederacy of Dunces to the The Sookie Stackhouse series the southern gothic style has appeared in almost every type of fiction since its inception. The first gothic novels were born on the banks of Lake Geneva in the summer of 1816 when Lord Byron hosted a ghost story competition between himself, Percy Shelly, Mary Shelly and John William Polidori. That contest produced both Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein and Polidori’s The Vampyre. Almost 200 years later the vampire novel has evolved but is still as popular now as it was when it first sunk its teeth into the reading public. The heart of the gothic novel is extremes; greatness turned tragic, lofty affluence fallen to social squalor, heroic acts of bravery ending in madness and death. And few places can you find more examples of great ventures turned disastrous than the American south. The image of the old southern plantation fallen to ruin; aristocrat turned r...

Bethany Lopez was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in Michigan and San Antonio, Texas. She went to High School at Dearborn High, in Dearborn, Michigan, which is where she has set her young adult novel. She is married and has a blended family with five children. She is currently serving in the United States Air Force as a recruiter in South Carolina. She has always loved to read and write and has seen her dream realized by independently publishing her first novel through Amazon with CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing. Ta Ta for Now! is also now available through Smashwords at Barnes and Noble.com, on the Nook and the Sony eReader. For a chance to win an ebook copy of Ta Ta for Now! please leave a comment and email address. A winner will be chosen August 31st. I never imagined I would be an Independent Author. To be honest, I never thought I would be an author at all. It is something I always loved to do and dreamed of when I was younger, but it seemed like too big of...