Fingers crossed that all the information for Love In The Air is correct at Goodreads. There is a giveaway starting tomorrow and because I insisted on changing from my pen name to my name there was great confusion everywhere. At least it's right on the cover now. I admit to being afraid to looking inside the book.
This was the kind of image I thought Avalon would use for the cover. Instead they went with a light blue sky and white clouds and a pale yellow Piper Cub I think it is.
See the difference between a professional cover designer and a rank amateur like me? I wouldn't do that. I'd go for the obvious. Contrast. Readability. A red Fokker Dreidecker because that's what was flown in the book. A real traditional publisher shies away from the expected, they are at the cutting edge of creativity. Don't be hampered by all the advice to make sure your name can be read. Who needs to know what the author's name is. That's so old-fashioned.
I
thoroughly loved this book! I felt like Barbara Morgenroth tricks the
reader into thinking after the initial shock, that the book was going to
be happy and go lucky and everything would be fine and dandy. This
story very quickly unravels as you fall deeper into the book.--Shelves of Books
Isn't that so true? Everything unravels.
I wonder what the initial shock was. I should ask Justine, shouldn't I?
So it's a very good day even though I had to go to town and the roads were barely plowed. I wished I had my trusty Bronco as I was going over the mountain and met a big truck coming from the other direction. When I left the modem had been dead for about 10 hours. My provider is sending a replacement but it won't arrive until Friday, so I was getting withdrawals already. Then the modem decided it had a little life left so I was able to quickly do what I needed to and now I'm doing the odds and ends that I should until it decides to truly expire. At some point I will find a backup modem to have in the house.
I met a woman who works in glass and she's going to see if she can make an apple. That would be so fantastic as she's very talented.
Nothing Serious has exceeded my expectations in the downloads department. It's in its final hours of freebiedom and will probably never be free again. So those of you who missed it or plan on waiting for the next time, you may have a long wait.
I had a very large surprise when I saw Bad Apple had been price-matched by Amazon, so many copies of that have been downloaded here and the UK. The rest of the world doesn't care.
Again, I want to thank everyone for downloading these books and I hope if you read them you enjoy them.
My New Facebook Banner
I'm going to be doing more promotion and try to help readers get a sense of what they'll get before they set about to read one of my books.
Read breathlessly as Paige faces challenges unknown to a city girl! Swamp gas water! Zoning board jail! A devastatingly handsome antiques dealer! Blueberry muffins! Does she learn the true identity of the man pretending to be a wealthy playboy? Do the Feds arrest her for international espionage? Does she find the love of her life and convince him to love her, too?
Nothing Serious, my screwball comedy will be free at Amazon tomorrow. Paige battles an internet addiction and identity theft, deals with someone who invents thick water, avoids zoning board jail and falls deeply in love with the blue-eyed antiques dealer next door, Jonathan Macklin, even if he doesn't trust her as far as he can throw his Majorelle cabinet.
I realized it had been put in Select and I never did anything with it. My 90 days are up at the end of the month so I needed to act quickly. Much like Paige acted quickly, I started to make as many arrangements as I could but I'm not yanking my DSL wire out of the wall. I'm not nuts!
I guess Paul gave up after September which doesn't help me in the middle of winter.
I've had super fun on ebay lately. I'm buying up a storm, left and right, grabbing neat things and the best part of it is that the vast majority of items are under $2 including shipping. Bad habit to get in. I can imagine how addicting those home shopping shows are. I think the only Northern Exposure I saw was about some bride to be who spent every cent they had on junk from TV. It was too depressing for me so I never watched the show again. What do they call those episodes "A very special episode". Since every week that's what they usually say, does anyone believe it anymore? It's usually when they take a comedy show and have someone meet with a very unfunny tragedy. Hey, that's not what we're here for.
It's very hard to make me laugh. I can recognize the mechanism of what's supposed to be funny but what's actually funny is rare. Some weeks ago I was looking for something and I came upon what seemed to be a car commercial. I had no idea. Soon tears were streaming down my face. It was so funny and so well done, of course I recognized Zooey Deschanel but actors do commercials. Then I realized it was her show. Didn't know she had one. Never saw it again but here's the promo for it--all I could find. It'll give you an idea of the situation.
That is the word du jour. How does a book get found with new books being published by the hour burying it.
I don't know.
There are more books than is humanly possible to read. Readers can't keep up. Book bloggers can't keep up as they attempt to sort the good from the bad with reviews. Some people insist the search engines are the key. If you just have the magical words in your metadata, people will find you. The question I have is how do they know they're looking for you. If I know to search for something specific, I will probably find it. If I'm unsure about the criteria then a search engine will be minimal help.
Over the last weeks I've been seeking out book bloggers. They've never heard of me. For all the time they spend with books, I'm unknown. When they hear about Bad Apple, for instance, then they're enthusiastic about reading it. If it weren't for me, the chance of them finding it seems very slim.
All I can say is that if you find a book you love, tell your friends. Comment on your Facebook page or Twitter or on a forum. Let people know.
Finally, or already!, my novel Love in the Air, has been published by Amazon/Montlake.
The delay stems from changing from my pen name, Robin O'Neill to my name. That was a problem for them.
If you read it, you'll see a character named Alex Milne. There's a long explanation but we'll just say it's a cadet branch of the Milne family.
At some point, this book will be in one of those Goodreads giveaways. 4 copies because Amazon has been very generous with their author copies.
Due to everyone seems to have had a week like mine due to other pressures, the Bad Apple Quiz it will be postponed. But because Kelly was right there and answered the questions, she wins the super cute apple core necklace.
1) Emer misplaced his teeth. Where were they?
2) What song did Tru end the Grange Hall concert with?
3) The Kents were called Flood Trash. What river?
4) What song did Tru refuse to sing?
5) Jan was named after a not famous literary character but that character was married to a very famous literary character. Who?
We're going to have a Pop Quiz tomorrow for the Bad Apple series. Yes, all three books.
It will be here and on the Bad Apple Facebook page.
The winner of this fantastically cute and totally costume jewelry pendant will be chosen at random by Random.org from all the people who answer the questions.
You'll get 1 entry for each correct answer in the comments section. So the more questions you answer correctly, the better your chances are. (Someone check my math on that part). Leave your email or how will I get in contact. Altho I will announce it.
And you'll get 50 points for the essay question. Kidding on that. No essay question.
This time.
The contest will close Saturday at midnight so you have plenty of time to look up the answers unless you know the books by heart--which is probably more than I do!
I must admit I was exceedingly ambivalent about checking. Most of us are a least a little obsessive/compulsive about our books and I didn't want to be checking every hour. So you'll be happy to know I have not been doing that. But I did check just now and am very pleased so perhaps now I can get back to Bittersweet 2 in which every time I think I've gotten over the hump, another one appears.
And there's the shoveling out to be done, of course.
(Scroll down for the Heartbreaker Blog Hop Giveaway Contest)
However one describes Unspeakably Desirable, it's free this weekend and last time I looked it was #41 in Free Women's Fiction which is where it belongs. Yes, it's the companion book to Not Low Maintenance but it's a standalone on its own.
This post is part of the Heartbreakers blog hop. Scroll down
for more information about prizes available.
He really was very appealing. Those types always are.Pathological liars are always the most
enchanting people you will ever meet and womanizers know how to flirt in the
most earnest way.The whole point is to
make you believe you are the only female in the entire universe for them.For two weeks.They acquire endearing characteristics like
the Venus Fly Trap has sweet syrup on its petals so the flies think this is the
greatest find in their garden.These
guys might know how to cook, serenade you on their guitar or draw cute little
cartoon figures on handmade cards to beg forgiveness for standing you up.It was all a carefully crafted
performance.He was good.He had the routine perfected.—Unspeakably Desirable by
Barbara Morgenroth
Have you ever met one of
these charming men?
I knew one.
He was everything a girl
would dream of.
1) He was an actor, so that
meant he was handsome.
2) He was a skier.(Athletic and fit, not squidgy around the
middle.)
3) He was a former Green
Beret.(Warrior spirit!)
4) He was a member of the
Olympic Bobsled Team.(Famous!)
5) He crewed on an
America's Cup race.(Fit, famous,
warrior spirit and can swim!)
6) Need I go on?
He also played the guitar, did the drawings and flew his own plane.He was in a movie doing it, a famous one, but
I'll protect him and won't say which one.
What is a girl supposed to
do with a man like this?Does Mr. X
qualify as a bad boy?
You're probably saying
"What's wrong with this?"
Heck, nothing.Provided it's all true.
Is it true?
Yes, I saw some photos, and
yes, I did fly with him so I know he could at least pilot a plane.
Then we get into a gray
area.
How about missing a date because
his friend was shot and he was at the hospital and there were no phones around?
Does Mr. X qualify for Bad
Boy Status now?
Yes.Mr. X is a Bad Boy.He's a heart-breaker because you believe him
and he's not serious.
In books, the love a good
woman turns these bad boys around.In
real life, not so much.So the best
thing to do with a bad boy is to take them as seriously as they take you.They're fun, they're terrific to have by your
side at a party, they'll introduce you to activities you never imagined and
then you'll part ways.You will be
richer for the experience.He'll still
be a heart-breaker and some day he, too, will have his heart broken because
that's the way the world works.
3rd Grand
Prize: A Swag Pack that contains paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks,
cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more! For a chance to win this huge amount of swagcomment here atbarbaramorgenroth.blogspot.com with your email address--
Finally – about the prizes: To enter all of the contests, comment here and be sure to include your email address!
I finally figured out how to get a vid into this blog. Why does this one have different requirements than my robinoneill blog?
Like everything else on the internet, in short order people abuse it and everyone starts getting annoyed. Now it's Twitter, which I joined less than a month ago.
Social media is about INTERACTING. You're putting yourself out into the virtual world, showing people what you are, what you're thinking about, what you're doing.
Social media doesn't mean spamming Facebook or Twitter with endless links to your books. Why would someone want to read your book if you haven't proven to them you're interesting as a person? You're not Burma Shave. You can't expect a billboard 16 times a day passing by people that says READ MY GREAT BOOK to actually get anyone to read your book.
You can expect it but you're delusional. Sorry. I'm all out of tact for the day and it's only 6:30 am.
I'm very organized if I have enough space, unfortunately I rarely have enough space.
I'm trying harder this year. In my quest for this organization, I realized I misplaced two things already. It would have been better not to know this.
I like the blueishness of this image. It's inherent in the photo, taken more in the shade than the sun. The blue works with the green and tones down the bright white of the daisy.
I'm honored to call her my friend. Michal Towber just released her new album, One Immortal Day. Emmy award winner, a musical prodigy she could be a female Truly Lambert. When asked what music I write to, Michal is always on the list.
Whether it's something I know or I think I know, I double check. So even though I rode, showed, trained and taught riding for a good portion of my life, I never did it at the upper levels and research is required for the Bittersweet Books.
On Friday I received an email from the Amazon seller I bought a used book from (wasn't available as a Kindle). The truck transporting this book was involved in an accident and burned up. Goodbye book. Luckily no one was hurt.
Fortunately two other books made it safely here and one was downloaded with ease.
I don't get the fixation on having paper books. What I really don't get is how enamored people are with the smell of them. Maybe it's my nose, but my books don't have an aroma to them as far as I can tell.
Someone tell me--what do they smell like? Violets? A roll of paper towels? What?
Promo is the word. Or is it "Accio Readers!" http://bit.ly/XdbVpm is where Bad Apple will be found today.
I met a couple of terrific young women who are each doing their own Bad Apple promotions this month so that's very exciting and one is on Valentine's day. Here's the banner I made for that blog. Perhaps more spartan than most.
I thought about trying to do a fake cover the way so many of these banners do but that's seems to be a waste of design space. Better to get just the point across.
It's a busy month and on Feb. 9 there will be an author hunt with clues hidden around this blog.
