Real Hair Bandits!

Not happy about this at all, of course. But the irony struck me. Venezuela has real hair bandits! Stealing women's hair to sell to salons for hair extensions.

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How horrible for the fair maidens of Venezuela. Hope they catch the muggers. Wish I could send Gord to go clobber 'em.

Get Offa My Laptop!

I don't exactly have the ideal writer's life. I don't have a home office or much personal space at all. We have a shared computer out in the living room and that used to be where I wrote. Until my boys got bigger....

Then the shared computer became Game Central where one of my boys was always playing. I encouraged them to do other things, like go outside, build Legos, read books, etc. But even so, one of them could always be found at the computer, gaming away, and I'd have to bully him off to get my writing done. And then they would stand right at my elbow, saying "Mommy, are you done yet?"

So I gave up the fight and bought myself a laptop last summer. And for a while that was great. Until my boys discovered this virtual game world for kids. Now when I go to the living room, there's one boy parked on the desk computer, another on the laptop, both playing separate characters in the same virtual world. They like to do it together, they say. So I sigh and say "One hour!" after which I have to wrestle away my laptop amidst wails of protest.

I could crack down and put my laptop off limits entirely. But I tend to loosen the rules during summer. Looking forward to school, quiet, and un-harassed writing time!

Book news: Maelyn audio book is now available. Three-quarters done with Heidel - I made great progress at Chuck E Cheese's yesterday! New free book promotion to be announced soon.

Maelyn Audiobook is Here!

 

 

For those of you who prefer to listen to your books, Maelyn is now available as an audio book from Audible.com. It's just over 2 hours long, so it's good for a short road trip! I chose the voice actor Lara Asmundson from ACX.com to do the narrating. She has a beautiful reading voice that I thought matched Maelyn's character well. And she does a great Book Miser!

 

The audio book is $6.95. CLICK HERE to view the product page and listen to a sample. (Hit the play button below the book cover image.)

 

Auditioning Coralina narrators now. Boy is that fun!

 

 

Goodreads Giveaways

Every month I do a Goodreads giveaway for paperback copies of Maelyn and Coralina. It's like a drawing, you enter your name and address and at the end of the month, the winners are selected randomly. (I don't select the winners, Goodreads does.)

I usually offer about 2 or 3 copies of each book, and about 900-1000 people enter the drawing. But if you don't win, you can always enter again the next month! As soon as one giveaway ends I start another one and I'll keep doing that as long as Goodreads allows me.

For authors, by the way, this is an inexpensive way to get exposure. All it costs is the price of mailing the books, usually just a few dollars for each copy. And many of the people who don't win the books add it to their 'To Be Read' list. With Maelyn, for example, I've given away about 20 copies to winners, but over 1,700 people have added the book to their 'To Be Read' list. It's an easy way to read hundreds of new readers!

If you're interested, click on the links below and then find the button that says 'Enter to Win'.

Maelyn Goodreads Giveaway

Coralina Goodreads Giveaway

Good luck!

Now How Did Heidel Get on Goodreads?

LOL! So funny.

I happened to log into my Goodreads account yesterday to check on my giveaways. (I do paperback giveaways every month, but more on that later.) It lists my published books so there was Maelyn, and Coralina, and... Heidel? There she was, listed on Goodreads, though her book isn't published yet. I just stared at her, thinking, what are you doing here? No idea how that happened - I guess it's Heidel's impatience.

I also noticed that 12 people have added her to their "To Be Read" list. Hooray! If you have a Goodreads account and would like to add her to your 'To Be Read' list, the link is here: Heidel on Goodreads

For those following Heidel's story on WATTPAD, I'll have another chunk of chapters ready soon. We're getting to the good parts!