Twitter/Facebook Blast $229 Giveaway

A fabulous group of bloggers & authors have joined together to offer you 1 fabulous prize valued at $229.

The winner of this giveaway will receive their choice of a $229 Amazon Gift Card or $229 Paypal Cash!

For all those who hate the long rafflecopters you should appreciate the fact that this one is much shorter.

Just liking on facebook, following on twitter, a free entry and 2 options to share the giveaway make this much faster to enter.

Win a Kindle Fire HDX, Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash ($229 value)

The winner will have the option of receiving a 7″ Kindle Fire HDX (US Only – $229 Value)

Or $229 Amazon.com Gift Card (International)

Or $229 in Paypal Cash (International)

Each of these bloggers/authors/publishers paid to help sponsor this giveaway.

Sponsors

I Am A Reader
Megan Thomason, author of the daynight series
Tressa @ Wishful Endings
Prism Book Tours
The Zharmae Publishing Press
Krysten Lindsay Hager
B. Kristin McMichael
Where The Broken Lie by Derek Rempfer
Simple Wyrdings
Bernard Charles
Elizabeth Isaacs
LK Griffie
Author Toni Lesatz
Sarah Ballance
Lori’s Reading Corner
Jenn’s Book Reviews and Giveaways
Enter Here Canada
The Parent Spot
Mister Darcy – Series by Barbara Silkstone
Aubrey Wynne: Romance Through The Ages
Anna del C. Dye

Sign up to sponsor the next Group Giveaway here:

http://www.iamareader.com/category/giveaway-sponsor-sign-ups

Giveaway Details

1 winner will receive their choice of an all new Kindle Fire 7″ HDX (US Only – $229 value), $229 Amazon Gift Card or $229 in Paypal Cash (International).

Ends 10/29/14

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader and sponsored by the participating authors & bloggers. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post Kindle Giveaway or $229 Gift Card appeared first on Be the Cat.

Photo: Cathryn Farley Photography

I am honored to have New York Times and USA Today Best-Selling author, Denise Grover Swank, with us today on her tour for her latest Rose Gardner Mystery release, Thirty and a Half Excuses. Denise is hosting a Rafflecopter giveaway for a $50 gift card to either Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice), so hop on over and check it out after you read what she had to tell us about travel, writing, and of course, Rose Gardner, the heroine of the series. Now, let’s get to know Denise a little bit better.

LKG-G: You traveled to some great locations this summer. What was your favorite destination and why?

DGS: It’s been a busy summer for me! I’ve traveled for both work and fun to New York City: Paris; London; the Outer Banks, North Carolina; and Seattle, Washington. I love all of those places (except for London, surprisingly) but my favorite was Paris. I’d always heard how rude the Parisians were, but I can honestly say we never encountered anyone who was rude to us. (Although we did encounter a pick-pocket, which by definition would be rude.) The architecture is gorgeous. The weather in June was wonderful. I fell in love with Paris and can’t wait to go back.

LKG-G: Writers find inspiration for their work everywhere. Did anything in your travels catch you by surprise and spark new ideas? Can you share?

DGS: My trip to the Outer Banks was for research for my soon to be release urban fantasy series, The Curse Keepers. It’s set on Roanoke Island. Manteo is a small town so I wanted to go back and get the local flavor for the town. I LOVE the Outer Banks and came up with so many ideas for the series.

But I also came up with a YA contemporary romance idea from my trip to Paris. Maybe I should go back for more research.

LKG-G: Do you see your main character, Rose, traveling beyond the confines of Henryetta any time in the future?

DGS: Rose has always wanted to go to Italy. I’d really like for her to go there. But first, I think she needs to learn to venture off somewhere closer. I’ve talked end game with this series with my critique partner. Trisha sees Rose moving away from Henryetta. We’ll see. I’ll let Rose tell me what she wants to do when the time comes.

LKG-G: What has been your most defining moment as an author?

DGS: When I hit the New York Times bestseller list. I didn’t realize how much it meant to me until I made it.

LKG-G: For some authors, music is a very important part of the writing process. What are the MUST haves on your Rose Gardner Mystery series playlist and why?

DGS: I listen to a LOT of Paramore when I write Rose. And also Coldplay, but mostly Paramore. Their song Never Let This Go really fits Thirty and a Half Excuses.

LKG-G: During the first book in the Rose Gardner Mystery series, Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes¸Rose has an epiphany and decides she is done being afraid of what people will say, and vows to not let fear hold her back any longer — she will do what she wants to do. How are you like Rose in this regard? Can you define a moment when you came to the same type of determination?

DGS: Wow. Good question. When my husband died seven years ago, I realized I’d spent a good part of my life letting fear hold me back from trying new things. I decided I didn’t want to have regrets when I left this world. So now I look at an opportunity or a decision and ask which choice will present the greatest regret? Scary things are good for us. They help us grow. So if I’m presented with a challenge, and it’s fear that holds me back, I push myself to do it anyway.

LKG-G: Congratulations on your recent Amazon success with Twenty-Nine and a Half Reasons. On Twitter you announced you were so glad it was Rose. Tell us about the soft spot you have for Rose Gardner.

DGS: Thank you! First, I think there’s a lot of me in Rose. I think she’s the most relatable character I write and I would love to be friends with someone like her. (Wait. If there’s a lot of me in her, and I want to be her friend, does that make me a narcissist? LOL)

But second, Rose—Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes—is the first book I self-published. I took a huge risk with her because a lot of people still frowned on self-publishing.

And third, I think there’s an audience out there that hasn’t met her yet.

LKG-G: The publishing industry is changing swiftly from what it once was. Doors have opened for authors that even five years ago would have been tightly shut. You are an iconic example of the new breed of author. Tell us a little bit about the new publishing environment and your views on the future.

DGS: I think more and more authors will ditch traditional publishing for self-publishing. Any author who is relatively successful will only consider a traditional deal to get in print. But print’s not what it used to be. Barnes & Noble and is stocking fewer books, if it even survives another few years. Which means a print deal will stop being the pot at the end of the rainbow.

LKG-G: Writers no longer have the luxury of simply writing their novel and sending it off for someone else to do the rest. You are a prolific author, who works in a wide variety of genres. What is a typical day like for Denise Grover Swank?

DGS: I get up and take my kids to school. Then I come home and work on the business part—emails, etc. After lunch at my desk, I try to write or edit, depending on what part of the process I’m at in the manuscript. I pick my kids up from school and we hang out until after dinner. Then when they go to bed, I write or edit for several hours.

LKG-G: What projects are in the works now that you can share?

DGS: I’ve turned in the first draft of the second Curse Keeper and I’m waiting to for my notes to start revision/edit. While I wait, I’ve started writing the third book in the Off the Subject series.

About Thirty and a Half Excuses:

Life in Henryetta, Arkansas is turned upside down with the arrival of a televangelist, but it’s the death of a little old lady on Rose’s street that catches her attention. The Henryetta police deem her death natural causes, but Rose suspects foul play and so does an unlikely supporter–-the president of the Busy Body Club, her eighty-two year old neighbor Mildred.

But Rose is in the middle of opening her nursery with her sister Violet, who’s separated from her husband Mike, as well as stalling her boyfriend Joe’s family, rich socialites who are determined to meet her. Along with her multiple encounters with Fenton County’s new assistant DA, Mason Deveraux III, it’s just another day in the life of Rose Gardner–-chaos.

About Denise Grover Swank:

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Denise Grover Swank was born in Kansas City, Missouri and lived in the area until she was nineteen. Then she became a nomadic gypsy, living in five cities, four states and ten houses over the course of ten years before she moved back to her roots. She speaks English and smattering of Spanish and Chinese which she learned through an intensive Nick Jr. immersion period. Her hobbies include witty Facebook comments (in own her mind) and dancing in her kitchen with her children. (Quite badly if you believe her offspring.) Hidden talents include the gift of justification and the ability to drink massive amounts of caffeine and still fall asleep within two minutes. Her lack of the sense of smell allows her to perform many unspeakable tasks. She has six children and hasn’t lost her sanity. Or so she leads you to believe.

Thanks for stopping by Denise. And if anyone would like to catch up with Denise and keep track of all that she has going on, please check out the below:

Blog | Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

The post An Interview with Denise Grover Swank appeared first on Be the Cat.

I had the great pleasure to be part of a promotional effort just prior to Christmas organized by Jillian Dodd. Jillian had an idea to gather 99 authors together to join forces to promote 99 books all for 99 cents. Jillian’s plan not only included step-by-step instructions for developing a plan for marketing, sample tweets & Facebook posts, but she also planned to include fabulous prizes for bloggers who helped to spread the word as well as readers. It was a WIN-WIN-WIN experience for all involved.

During the December 21st sale, ten of us made the top 100 in the Kindle store. The majority of us sold hundreds of books and saw our rankings soar. Many were in the top five of their specific category genres. We occupied eighteen of the first 21 slots on Amazon’s Movers and Shakers list. We were excited, and readers loved getting a deal on quality e-books and the chance to win fabulous prizes.

An event such as this takes a lot of planning, tireless effort, and the skills of a good field general to keep everyone on track and marching in the same direction. Sometimes a quiet, private thank you doesn’t seem enough. We authors wanted to show our appreciation, but what was the best way? Author Charles Sheehan-Miles came up with the idea of a coordinated “thank you,” from authors and bloggers on the same day. A surprise for Jillian, because everyone loves surprises. A public thank you to a wonderful lady. So the public salute:

THANK YOU, JILLIAN DODD

You are a very special lady. It was a wonderful experience and I hope to be able to participate with the wonderful authors who were involved in the event again in the future.

She’s the author of the young adult Keatyn Chronicles. Book one, Stalk Me, published in August 2012, has 139 reviews with an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars. Book two, Kiss Me, published November 2012, already has 157 reviews with an average of 4.8 out of 5 stars. Also by Jillian Dodd, That Boy, with 141 reviews with an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars, and the sequel That Wedding, 64 reviews, 4.7 out of 5 stars.

It was such a great experience and Jillian was so fantastic, I’d like you to meet her as well. To do so, just visit one of the sites below:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

The post A Big THANK YOU to Jillian Dodd appeared first on Be the Cat.

Yesterday I noticed we needed more toilet paper (and yes, apparently I am the only one in the household who is gifted with the ability to hunt for toilet paper in the wilds of a store and successfully capture and bring it home.) I meant to stop at Walmart (across the street from work, so the most convenient place) and get some before coming home yesterday, but forgot… I won’t elaborate as to why, but will just say it has a lot to do with how the work day went. So what, you say? I am a self-confessed freak about having enough toilet paper in the house. I break out in a sweat if I get down to the last roll. It may be strange, but deal with it.

Since I felt so blah upon arrival home after having forgotten about the toilet paper, I didn’t go out and get any last night. Which was epic because we actually put the last roll on the spindle – a true indication of how off I am feeling. So today at the end of work, I did go get the toilet paper (yes, I bought two 24-double roll packs for two people in the house, what of it?) and proceeded home.

As I exited the freeway on the last leg of my homeward journey, I thought about how melancholy I felt and was having one of those “is all of the effort worth it?” moments. And there was a huge line at the stop light and it took forever to change, and all I wanted to do was to get home, get into something comfortable, and turn into a slug. To top things off, some guy in the lane next to me started honking his horn and calling out.

Yes, he honked and called to me. I rolled down the window and his first question was, “Are you the author?” What a wonderful thing to hear while waiting for a stoplight to change from eternal red to green. And before you think this guy is psychic or something, you should know that I have a magnet with the cover of Misfit McCabe on the car door. He was in the car with what I presume to be his daughter, and we proceeded to have a brief conversation about the book and he wanted to write the information down, so I grabbed a bookmark and hopped out of the car to give it to him. (I told you the light was eternal red). We shared a few more words, and finally with a green light we both moved on.

I laughed a little as I moved up to the light (no I didn’t make it through, but he did) because on the seat next to me were the two humongous packages of toilet paper, and I thought of some people I know who would have been embarrassed to have a conversation with toilet paper on the seat. Not me. If I didn’t stop for toilet paper, we wouldn’t have arrived to wait in the line at the same time and I wouldn’t have made that particular connection. So the lessons learned:

1. You can’t embarrass me with toilet paper.
2. Always make sure you have bookmarks to hand out with you in the car… you never know when you might need one.
3. And when things seem dreary, something will come along to show you some light… you just have to allow it to come in.

Oh, and the pic really works for me, because I was having such an eeyore-ish moment, and suddenly the world had sparkles.

The post And All Because of Toilet Paper appeared first on Be the Cat.

Picture 1

Picture 2

 

Picture 3

Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

So which picture is your favorite to see on a poster. Use the radio buttons below and cast your vote.Voting has now been closed. Picture 2 was the winner and the image has been sent to have the poster created. Thanks so much to everyone who participated. I appreciate the help.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

The post Help Me Pick My Poster appeared first on Be the Cat.

The photos are something that had to be done for the LA Times Festival of Books, which is coming up April 24th & April 25th. My signing times, if you’re coming down to the event, are 10-11 on both days. I am participating with AuthorsDen again, and they are going to the trouble of having some posters made of the author and the book cover and requested a professional photo. And there we have the beginning of my freak out. I don’t have any photos which meet the criteria, and knew I had to get them taken. Every author should have a head shot, just as any actor should. It is a part of the business side and is a must…I just wanted to hold off on doing it for a while longer.

AuthorsDen suggested Glamour Shots and since I had no ideas otherwise took them up on their suggestion. The Glamour Shots customer service was excellent. I booked the appointment online and they called to confirm the appointment and gave me the information on what to expect. Arrive at the appointment time with clean, dry hair, sans makeup with four outfits.

Four outfits????? My freak out went from tame little kitten variety to rampage of the wildebeasts in two seconds flat. I don’t own four outfits that fit me at the moment. If that sounds like a strange statement, you can read why here. And right at the moment, a shopping spree is out of the question (and truthfully that would make this an extremely painful experience). And they wanted shoes and my shoes would send Ivanna screaming from the room. I own ratty-tatty tennis shoes which are worn from….well, wearing them until they fall apart. I don’t do heels, I don’t do skirts or pantyhose, my wardrobe is casual in the extreme, and I have no plans of changing. Good luck to Glamour Shots, eh?

I arrived on time with eight outfits and accessories, plus props in tow. I know I freaked out about four, so why did I have eight? I threw myself on the mercy of the stylist to make the decisions for me. I had one outfit that I was certain of, and another I was fairly sure about, but as for the rest, I had nothing but question marks. My stylist, Kathleen, was a petite college girl, who was just as cute as could be. I explained my dilemma and she couldn’t have been more helpful. We whittled down the outfits to the few and she agreed with my selections (the two outfits which do actually fit me, plus jeans and a collared shirt – untucked so you can’t tell I have to belt the jeans on in order to keep them up. We decided on a more natural look rather than dramatic for the makeup and Kathleen went to work. For my part, I tried very hard not to fidget while she worked, a feat of amazing restraint for me. It was a little hot in the salon, so poor Kathleen kept having to add powder as the sweat kept popping up. Once my makeup and hair were done, I changed into my first outfit and Thomas took over.

Thomas was excellent to work with. He gave me very specific directions on what to do and, despite popular opinion that I am unable to take direction from anyone, I actually follow direction in a photo shoot fairly well. I knew the shoot was going well because as Thomas checked the pictures he was taking each time, his eyes would light up. I think we missed the mark on only about three of them. One I blinked, one I opened my mouth to talk (yes, I know that is not a surprise), and I don’t know on the third. But other than that, Thomas was very pleased, and let me tell you when the photographer is pleased with the pics, you know you’re going to get good ones. My problem then became how to choose. Below are the thumbnails in black and white (click on it to bring it up in a larger view) and I’m planning on having a poll to help me select the picture that should go on the poster once I get the package with the pictures in color.

The post It’s a Wrap appeared first on Be the Cat.

———————————————————————————————–

LK Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit:
Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

The post Misfit McCabe Book Trailer appeared first on Be the Cat.

Anyway, we were first directed to the children’s section, but then re-directed to the young adult librarian, Padmini. When we first arrived at the desk, Alfonso was the only one working the desk, but he told us that Padmini would be returning shortly, which gave us an opportunity to wander around a little bit more. Mind you, if I had actually started looking at the books themselves, we’d have been sunk. It would have taken a crow bar and a crane to get me out.

As we were wandering around, Alfonso actually came to look for us to let us know that Padmini had returned. Both Mary Ellen and I thought that was extra especially nice of him. I let Mary Ellen take the lead with the talking. . .it’s not that I don’t know how to talk in public, in actual fact, public speaking doesn’t bother me much, but I do get tongue twisted when trying to find the words to ask people to look at my book. Hence, my spokesperson, Mary Ellen. She and Padmini hit it off right away and developed a rapport as Padmini explained how difficult it was to have events for the young adult age group and have a reasonable turn out.

Padmini did take a copy of Misfit McCabe and is going to review and then get back to us. She is thinking about having a group of several independently published authors down to the library to give a talk (about 15 minutes per author), which I would love to take part in. One thing was clear, was that we will need to come up with an idea where I can partner with the library and come up with some scheme to get some behinds in the chairs. So, if anyone has any ideas on how to target the young adult age group so that they attend a function at a library, please send them on in.

The library has an acquarium that is going to be installed as well, so Mary Ellen and I will definitely be going back to see that.
———————————————————————————————–

LK Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.

The post Misfit McCabe Goes to the Library appeared first on Be the Cat.

My main concern was with the forum as I could switch the hosting of the blog back to blogger until I had a chance to work with the blog. But the forum had to be completely dismantled before I could begin the upgrade to the hosting site, so I wanted to get that back up and running as quickly as possible.

So far, I like working with WordPress for the blog, but still need to do some quick studying as far as all of the bells and whistles that it has.  But, as usual, I won’t be able to leave well enough alone and will have to see what I can do as far as changing the templates to suit my personality.  At least I can now relax just a bit and focus on some other things so that I continue to move forward with my goals.

———————————————————————————————–

LK Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.

The post Forum and Blog resurrected appeared first on Be the Cat.