Win a $20 Amazon Gift Card

I thought I would add a fun competition to the Mine to Avenge blog tour, which is currently at Day 6 (schedule here). On the final day of the tour (Friday April 26th) I will be choosing one of the wonderful host bloggers to win a $25 Amazon gift voucher and was wondering how to choose them.

This is where you come in. Help me choose the winning host by nominating them. I will count up all the nominations next Friday (26th) and award the voucher to the winning host blogger. Then I will do a random draw from among those who have nominated a blogger to win a $20 Amazon gift voucher.

So there are two vouchers on offer - one for the host bloggers, and one for those who would like to nominate.

Here are a few simple rules to make it easy to participate:

1. Nominate the host blogger you would like to win. Get your nominations to me by either commenting at the bottom of this post, or messaging me on my Facebook Page or contacting me via my Website. Please DON'T post directly on my Facebook Page but use the message button.

2. Nominate as many authors as you wish, but only nominate each author once. So please don't send multiple entries for the same blogger. As there are 12 hosts, it means you are eligible to send through 12 separate nominations.
Note: If you nominate all 12 authors, this will help their numbers for the host blogging part of the competition and show your support, but it doesn't count as multiple entries for the random draw part of the competition. You will only be included once in this draw.

3. Host bloggers are eligible to nominate other bloggers with the following exclusions -

• Please don't nominate yourself.
• You will also be excluded from winning this particular part of the competition, as you are in the running for the host blogger prize.

So check out the schedule each day and nominate the bloggers you would like to win. When you check the schedule, all links to the host bloggers are active, but of course, the blog tour is only up to day 6 - April 20th - so there are no Tour posts beyond that date at this time, but don't let that stop you from checking out the other bloggers and getting to know them and what they do.

Have fun. Competition closes 5pm Friday 26th April (South Australian time).

Liebster Blog Award - Mark 2

Today I'm thrilled to be responding to my second nomination for the Liebster Blog Award. I only recently responded to a nomination I received last year for the same award, as I overlooked it in a period of busy-ness at the time the nomination originally came through. 

However, I am very excited to have been nominated a second time for my blog, A Novel Journey, this time by Red Nomad OZ of Amazing Australian Adventures. Red’s blog is well worth a visit if you want to find out more about Australia. I can almost guarantee that if you live outside of Australia, you’ll want to book a ticket after being to her blog, and if you already live here, well, you’ll be tempted to throw in your day job and get on the road to visit the wonderful places she talks about.

At the risk of some repetition for those who read this blog regularly, I will reiterate what the Liebster Blog Award is about for the visitors to this post. The Liebster Blog Award is an award bestowed upon bloggers by bloggers, the word Liebster being German, meaning ‘sweetest’, ‘kindest’, ‘dearest,’ ‘beloved’, ‘lovely’, ‘kind’, ‘pleasant’, ‘valued’, ‘cute’ and  ‘endearing’. The award encourages bloggers to continue on with their work in the blogging world, acknowledges them as gifted bloggers in their own right, and by nominating bloggers, you indicate that they are some of your personal favourites.

Here is how the award works:

• The nominated blogger must post 11 facts about themselves.
• They must then answer 11 questions from the blogger who nominated them.
• Then nominate 11 bloggers and give them 11 questions to answer.
• Link to your chosen 11 bloggers in your blog post. 
• Let them know you have nominated them.
• Don't nominate the blogger who nominated you.

11 Facts about me:

1. I founded a Horse and Pony Club in my home town when I was 13 years old. We didn't have one, and I wanted one. I was a bit of a 'make it happen' kind of girl from a very young age.
2. As a child I liked to breed guinea pigs - actually they did that themselves without any help from me, other than the matchmaking and the introductions. 
3. My first job was a regular summertime job - cutting apricots when a teenager. I did this every summer.
4. My favourite comfort food is my Mum's creamed rice.
5. I was an adventurous child and sometimes had my five sisters and brothers racing around the local township following treasure hunts I set up.
6. Autumn is my favourite time of the year.
7. I love to read historical fiction.
8. I love going to live theater, but don't go often enough.
9. I kept a diary for many years after reading The Diary of Anne Frank.
10. The first story I ever wrote (that I can actually remember) was a story about going on a holiday to Fiji. I think it was for a newspaper competition.
11. I still own a VCR and use it regularly to watch old movies that I haven't yet replaced with DVDs.

Answer's to Red's questions to me:

Question 1: What's your favourite colour?

Answer: Green - definitely green.

 

Question 2: What is the absolute BEST thing to eat?

Answer: Always and forever - smoked salmon. Just writing about it means that it's highly likely I'll go out and buy some later today.

Question 3: You're on a desert island and you can choose one person to join you. Who is it? 

Answer:  This doesn't specify real or fictional, so I will choose a fictional character because their character is largely confined to what is written about them - you know what you're going to get - no surprises. I'd choose Captain Wilton Parmenter from the 60s TV comedy, F-Troop. He is so cheerful and accommodating and always makes me laugh. He's always so gullible too, so I'd always get my own way, without trying too hard.

Question 4: What scares you rigid?

Answer: Having to do role-plays whenever I do work training of any sort.

Question 5: What's your favourite way to pass the time on a long journey.

Answer: I'll be able to answer that better after my trip from Australia to Europe later this year, but I think reading and crossword puzzles are pretty good. 

Question 6: Where are you going for your next holiday"

Answer: See previous question - EUROPE!!! Especially Paris.

Question 7: If you were to visit and/or travel in Australia, what would you most like to see?

Answer: I'd like to spend some time in Perth, in Western Australia, but not in the summer, if their last one can be used as a guide. 

Question 8: What's your favourite book?

Answer: Random Harvest by James Hilton.

Question 9: What's your most popular blog post (define that however you like!)?

Answer: Probably a couple of posts that haven't been posted yet - scheduled for the upcoming Mine to Avenge blog tour. I have written two character interviews with two of the main characters from the novel. they were such fun to do.

Question 10: What was your mo st embarrassing moment?

Answer: This was easy to decide. I was about 17 or 18 when the movie 'Grease' first came out, and at the time I was living in a tertiary accommodation hostel. I had a crush on the spunky Italian guy living in the room next door to mine, and he took me to see the movie. I dressed up to look the part in a gold full-skirted sixties style dress, but while we were standing around in the foyer waiting for the movie to start, my half-slip elastic broke, and the slip ended up in a silken heap around my ankles, with the full golden skirt essentially transparent. I somehow managed to fix it to sit through the movie, but I know I didn't remember it much at the time. I didn't leave my room for about a week after that, having my friends bring meals to my room instead. 

Question 11: What's your favourite quote?

Answer: At the moment, it's the Winston Churchill quote I use at the front of my novel - 'Nothing is more costly, nothing is more sterile, than vengeance.'

Here are the questions for the bloggers at the blogs I've tagged:

1. Who knows you best in life?
2. If you could spend your life doing anything you like, what would it be?
3. What is your earliest memory?
4. What lifts you up when you are feeling down?
5. What are you most thankful for in life?
6. If you were given $1000, what would you spend it on?
7. Are you a hot weather person or a cold weather person?
8. Name one thing on your bucket list.
9. What is your favourite movie?
10. What is your favourite 'get away from it all place'?
11. What piece of advice do you hand out most often?

Here are the 11 blogs I've tagged:

Australian Fantasy Adventures 

Carpe Librum 

The Disorganised Author 

The Dog Ate My Manuscript 

Jen Black - Author 

Mirella Sichirollo Patzer 

Victoria Lamb 

Chris Redding, Author 

Jess O'Connell - Author 

Author Expressions 

Rosanne E. Lortz 

Have fun responding to this, bloggers, and keep up the good work with your very entertaining blogs.

Liebster Blog Award - Mark 1

I have recently been nominated for the Liebster Blog Award by Red Nomad Oz from Amazing Australian Adventures. The award is an award bestowed upon bloggers by their blogging peers. The word 'Liebster' is German with a range of meanings, such as 'sweetest', 'kindest', 'dearest', 'beloved', 'lovely', 'kind', pleasant', 'valued' and 'endearing'. The award acknowledges bloggers' talent, and by nominating someone, you indicate that they are some of your personal favourites in the blogging world.

When I first learned I had been nominated, my heart plummeted to my boots. Why did I feel this way after receiving this honour from a blogging colleague? It was because I was nominated for this award in the middle of last year, but that initial nomination came at a time when I was moving house and starting a new job and was overlooked and forgotten in the busy-ness of that time. This initial nomination came from Liesel Hill at L.K.Hill.

However, receiving the second nomination reminded me of the first and I searched until I found the details I had saved, and have contacted Liesel to apologise for the oversight. What I have found interesting though is that in the space of the ten months between nominations, the conditions of the award have changed, a bit like Chinese Whispers. With the first nomination last year, one of the main criteria was that the blog had to have fewer that 200 followers and the award was to be passed on to ten more bloggers. However, the second nomination came from the wonderful Red Nomad Oz who has far more than 200 bloggers and the award is passed on to eleven more bloggers.I have decided to address each nomination individually in separate posts, so today's post addresses the initial nomination from L.K.Hill. 

I'd like to thank Liesel very much for her nomination. She is an author who writes over three separate genres - sci-fi fantasy, crime and historical fiction.

Here is how the Liebster Blog Award works - 

1. The nominated blogger must post 10 facts about themselves.
2. They must then answer 10 questions from the blogger who nominated them.
3. Then nominate 10 bloggers and give them 10 questions to answer.
4. Link to your ten bloggers in your blog post.
5. Let the bloggers know you have nominated them.
6. Don't nominate the blogger who nominated you.

Let's start with ten facts about me:

1. I am the eldest of six children - this came with responsibilities I wasn't very happy about, such as frequent babysitting and having to set a good example all the time.
2. My best subjects at school were English and foreign languages - which I've since forgotten - not the English, just the foreign languages.
3. I am a calligrapher and an artist as well as an author.
4. My favourite food is smoked salmon - it often doesn't even make it to a plate - usually eaten straight from the pack.
5. I have a large collection of Kinder Surprise toys.
6. I have a large classic movie collection - favourite star is Cary Grant.
7. I love Paris apartment style decor and am setting up my house that way.
8. I am a person who thrives on solitude rather than a people person.
9. I used to make teddy bears - lots and lots of teddy bears.
10. I am a trained teacher and a trained mental health worker.

Answers to the questions from Liesel -

Question 1: How long have you been blogging for?

Answer: 11 months

Question: Why did you start a blog?

Answer: I started A Novel Journey to record the publishing journey of my novel, Mine to Avenge, and as my first step on my author platform.

Question 3: What has been your weirdest experience with blogging?

Answer: I think this has to be the occasional spam comments through the dashboard that have nothing whatsoever to do with the blog. It is why I now choose to moderate the submitted comments.

Question 4: What is your favourite book?

Answer: Random Harvest, by James Hilton

Question 5: Who is your favourite author?

Answer: C.S. Lewis

Question 6: What do you want to be when you grow up/what is your profession?

Answer: When I grow up, I'd like to work as an author or calligrapher - in the meantime, I currently work as Case Manager in a Parenting After Separation program.

Question 7: How many books do you think you might have?

Answer: Not enough. Seriously though, I don't know. Not as many as I have had. I still have some in storage, and others I have had to give away as I have moved a lot. It's always heartbreaking and difficult for me to cull my books. I often find myself buying them back again later.

Question 8: Do you prefer reading a proper book or an e-book?

Answer: I like either - e-books are great when you have to 'strap-hang' on the bus or when travelling on holiday, when you can take a whole library with you, without having the weight of the books. I still love holding a traditional book as well, and can't see myself giving them up either.

Question 9: If you could choose to live one character's life in a book, who would it be?

Answer: Anne of Green Gables, I think. She is much like who I dreamed I was - and I was crazily in love with Gilbert Blythe.

Question 10: If you were stranded on a desert island, what ten items would you want to have with you?

Answer: A copy of Random Harvest, dark chocolate, a stash of pens and pencils (note: this is one stash), a stash of paper (ditto), my teddy bear, cappucino yogurt, smoked salmon, slippers, ginger beer, and a photo album with lots of pics of my three boys.

Here are the questions for the bloggers at the blogs I have tagged to receive the Liebster Award -

1. What is your favourite city in the world and why?
2. What was your first job after you left school?
3. What was your favourite toy?
4. If you could choose any animal as a pet what would it be and why?
5. Which season is your favourite and why?
6. Which fictional character would you like to invite to dinner and why?
7. Who is your favourite film star?
8. Do you ever lend books to your friends?
9. What is your favourite place to have a picnic?
10. Describe your ideal day in twenty words or less.

Here are the blogs I've tagged and nominated for the Liebster Blog Award:

1. Sonia Fogal - A Journey Through the Woods 
2. Elaine Jeremiah 
3. Edel's Book and Beauty Blog 
4. Brook Cottage Books 
5. E.J.Rycer 
6. The Australian Bookshelf 
7. Daystarz's Books 
8. The Never Ending Bookshelf 
9. Book Muster Down Under 
10. Lost in a Good Book 

 Congratulations bloggers. Keep up the good work. I enjoy following you and am sure others do too.

To blog or not to blog...what is the compromise?

I have seen several blog posts during the week debating whether an author’s writing time is best spent on their blog or on their actual books. It has been interesting and thought provoking reading, as it is something I have been thinking about myself. I can perfectly understand each viewpoint, but I am confused about which position, if any, I need to take for myself.

In several of these posts, authors announced to their readers that they are abandoning their blogs to focus on writing their books, or they are thinking about abandoning them. One author said that Facebook and Twitter more than adequately served their purposes in terms of staying connected with their readers. 

As a full time worker, I completely understand this thinking. Since my burst with NaNoWriMo in November last year, I have barely touched my current work, and am feeling anxious at times that I am losing the connection I had with it over that month of solid writing. I was able to give attention to NaNoWriMo then because I was between jobs.  

However, since then all my writing has been devoted to blogging, and I am now preparing my posts for my upcoming blog tour, but to fit that in as a full time worker means getting up early to write when I can. I also snatch time on weekends between the necessary things like shopping, cooking washing and appointments. I also enjoy writing the blog, so it’s not really that I resent doing that as opposed to getting back to work on the next book, but because the next book is a sequel/companion volume to Mine to Avenge, I am almost feeling that there is a need to direct my energies more into that, as I don’t believe there should be too big a gap between books that are part of a series. 

The opposing viewpoint is that a blog is an essential means of keeping connected with readers and building your readership, particularly for debut authors. It gives readers an opportunity to find out more about you and your book with the depth that Twitter and Facebook don’t necessarily have. It is recommended as a valid way of using your writing skills to market yourself and your book. 

So in a sense I am torn. I want to spend more time on my current work in progress and yet I need to work on building my readership. The question I am asking myself is, what is the compromise? Is there a compromise that other authors have found? I am wondering if the compromise is somehow in changing my approach to this blog and working out how to best use it to continue promotion and maintain contact with readers while giving time to the next book. I will continue to ponder the question to see what I come up with and would welcome any thoughts and ideas.

Promotion AFTER publication

I continue to plod away at the daunting task of marketing and self-promotion. As I go, I am compiling a list of blogs/bloggers and websites that have been supportive and helpful to me along the way, and I plan to share these here on the blog as a resource for other writers when I collect a few more.

My next major venture as part of the promotional journey of Mine to Avenge, is to sift through blogs and bloggers in an attempt to organize a blog tour. In terms of timing with respect to my own book, I am planning this much later than I should have, largely because I’d finished and published my book well before I knew anything about marketing and promotion and things such as blog tours. I was still getting my head around writing my own blog, let alone knowing what a blog tour was. A blog tour is best organized well before your book comes out.

I’m sure I’m not the first author to be in this predicament, and I’m sure I won’t be the last. I was about to say that learning marketing and promotion after the book is published is a bit like shutting the gate after the horse has bolted, but that isn’t really accurate, because if your situation is anything like mine, your ‘horse’ is probably still sitting inside the stable most of the time with the door open, but still needing a significant nudge to get out that door.

Mine to Avenge is occasionally popping out of the stable and showing itself off – I am getting a steady trickle of positive reviews and testimonials, as people are reading it. There are currently two people reading it on Goodreads, and there are some great reviews on that site as well as on Amazon, but it is going to take a lot of hard work and determination to catapult it further into the world.

I don’t believe all is lost if you are a writer in the same situation. I think you can still get your book out there, but it will require persistence and determination on your part, and the help of wonderful supporters like bloggers and avid readers. The challenge is to find them and use them, even if your ‘horse’ is like mine and a bit late out of the starting gate.

I’d love some reader feedback with this post. If you are a blogger keen to help self-pubs, let me know the services you offer in the comments section. If you have some experience with hosting blog tours or doing your own, let me know what kind of ‘stops’ work well. I have a list I’m working on which I will share in the next blog post. If you have a ‘horse’ still in the stable with an open gate, please share any helpful resources you have found.