#Writerly Wednesdays- Amazing Things Are Happening 5 Star #review #booktrailer

Monday Mercury went out of Retrograde and it seems things are starting to straighten out a bit, in life. We'd already suffered through having to buy a new washer when we really couldn't afford it and anything that could go wrong, had been...

BUT....

It was Monday that I happened upon, quite by accident when I was checking my Author Central information, a 5 STAR REVIEW on Amazon for CASTAWAY HEARTS, which thrilled me to no end! It is officially my first real Amazon Customer review and I couldn't be happier about it!

Monday was also the day that I put out a final plea on my social networks for votes for my CASTAWAY HEARTS book trailer that was in a Video Contest on YOU GOTTA READ REVIEWS, which I posted about last week. I was in third place at the time, and content in the idea that I could still win a month's FREE Featured Book advertising (for 3rd place) on their website for CASTAWAY HEARTS- it's promo and exposure I wouldn't have otherwise since I haven't invested much in paid promo (can't really afford to at this point).

Like the paranoid nervous little thing I am, I couldn't stop going back to obsessively check my numbers because I thought the voting would end on the 26th and I was holding out for that 3rd place spot. I, of course, later read the rules again only to find that the voting would end sometime during the day of the 27th and then the winners would be announced.

Imagine my surprise of surprises when I went to check it mid-morning and discovered I was in 1ST PLACE! I had been at least a good 40 odd votes behind and then suddenly I was sprinting past the person's video in first place by leaps and bounds. I couldn't fathom why, so I posted about it on Facebook only to find out a few minutes later when I scrolled down my timeline that one of my sisters-in-law had shared it and asked her friends to take a moment to go vote.

By the time I went to bed that night I had a good 50-60 point lead and was still in 1st. It was the next morning when I awoke to find myself in 2nd place and approximately 80 votes behind, but the polls were still open, but I didn't know for how long.

I again posted about it and thanked those who voted that I would still end up in 2nd place, with 2 months of FREE advertising on the site. That beats not winning anything- but...somehow my request for a few more votes at the end were heard and by the time the voting ended, I was in 1st place again with a 50 vote lead.

Here is the

ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE WINNERS.

I will have 3 months of free advertising spots now and it's because of a great many strangers who took a moment to help me out.

I feel like the Comeback Kid, and I'm so full of gratitude to those who voted for my video. It's greatly appreciated and I'm deeply moved that so many took the time to go vote when they didn't have to. To be honest, I hadn't even hoped to be in the Top 3 in a roster of 20 videos, because I haven't entered any contests like that before. I truly am grateful and I feel blessed beyond my comprehension this morning.

If you haven't seen the book trailer, here it is-

Now that I've had my thrill for the week and I'm still a good 8,000 behind on my NaNo, I need to dive into HEART OF THE SURF with all seriousness today, especially after the oddball dreams I had this morning before getting up, about a white/blue beam of light shooting down from the sky at the darkest dawn and liquid silver unicorns the size of elephants that glided by overhead like rumbling thunder.

Please don't forget to stop by

Monday's Christmas with Catherine & Dawson to enter the GIVEAWAY!

Only about 3 1/2 days left to enter, so please stop by and get your entries in for your chance to win! Next Monday it will be a different set of goodies!

Don't forget to cast your #Vote for CASTAWAY HEARTS #Booktrailer! @YouGottaRead

CASTAWAY HEARTS 

is Entry #7 over on

YOU GOTTA READ REVIEWS! 

I'd really appreciate the votes! 

Voting is open from 

the 21st and runs through the 26th.

Winners will be announced on the 27th and the top three will be reposted in reverse order on the 28th through 30th.

Prizes for the cover and video contest:

1st place winners in our contest will win 3 months of free advertising consisting of the first month after the contest in our right sidebar (valued at $25.00) and the next Two months in our left sidebar (valued at $30.00) (Total prize Value: $55.00).
2nd place winners in our contest will receive 2 months of free advertising in our left sidebar (Valued at $30.00).
3rd place winners in our contest will reveive 1 month of free advertising in our left sidebar (Valued at $15.00).

#Writerly- Check it out on You Gotta Read Reviews- Castaway Hearts is #7 Video Entry!

Last month I entered my video for Castaway Hearts in a Video Trailer contest on

YOU GOTTA READ REVIEWS

I never heard anything back, but I knew there was a chance that my trailer could be bumped over to November's contest if it wasn't picked for October.

Here's the general idea of their contest-

20 Trailers a month will be featured. Voting will begin on the 21st and run through the 26th.

Winners will be announced on the 27th and the top three will be reposted in reverse order on the 28th through 30th.

AND here's what I could win for the book trailer below.

Contest Prizes:

1st place winners in our contest will win 3 months of free advertising consisting of the first month after the contest in our right sidebar (valued at $25.00) and the next Two months in our left sidebar (valued at $30.00) (Total prize Value: $55.00).

2nd place winners in our contest will receive 2 months of free advertising in our left sidebar (Valued at $30.00).

3rd place winners in our contest will reveive 1 month of free advertising in our left sidebar (Valued at $15.00).

The video will be up on their site today.

I will post a reminder on the blog the day the voting starts as well as throw out retweetable posts on Twitter and Facebook, if anyone cares to share the info with others who might like to go vote.
I would really appreciate it if you'd pop over there and give me a vote
November 21st-26th

Taryn Raye has @MonaKarel on #ThursdayswithTaryn Awesome #booktrailer

Thursdays with Taryn

Mona Karel

Please help me in welcoming one of my Tribemates to Thursdays with Taryn where she answers some Q&A and shares with us about her novel My Killer My Love, her paranormal romance. Check out the book trailer! It's awesome!

What book(s) most influenced you as a writer?

My Brother Michael, Mary Stewart

Nerve, Dick Francis

The Witch World, Andre Norton

What book do you read over and over again?

You don’t believe in easy questions do you??  Right now, it’s Wolfsbane and the Alpha and Omega books, by Patricia Briggs. I have NO idea why, except they comfort me.

Thursday Trio-

1)      Movie- Ladyhawke

2)      Music- soundtrack from National Treasure.  I didn’t realize how amazing it was until my husband pointed it out.  That was an expensive Christmas present, VERY hard to find

3)      Decadent Dessert- Now, it would be low carb fudge, homemade, masses of cocoa powder.  Before now, probably a fudge brownie with vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce, and toasted salted pecans. DAMMIT now I’m food imagining.

What’s the most interesting or bizarre bit of trivia you’ve learned from researching for a novel? Aaaaah, I collect bizarre trivia as a matter of course!  Ummm, for the books. Oh, yeah, Atrahasis.  I wanted a special title for the Overlords in My Killer My Love, so I started going back in history. Akkadian was pretty cool, and helped with Mykhael’s Language.  But I went down a few more levels and came across Atrahasis, which links to the creation of humans.

Novel on your Nightstand:

Who/what are you currently reading? Black Tiger by Greta van der Rol

Whom would you cast as your Main Characters/Hero/Heroine if your book became a movie?  I have them set for a series I’m planning, but you mean for the book I’m featuring, which is My Killer My Love.  Mykhael is physically patterned after someone I met at a Saluki show, who was an extra in Last of the Mohicans.  So I’d say Daniel Day Lewis for Mykhael and for Kendra, oh, this is make believe so Kate Blanchette (as a blonde) or Morgan Fairchild. Neither one is perfect but both have that air of innocent wisdom.

MY KILLER MY LOVE

She came to the woods to heal and found evil lurking among the trees....

Upon her grandmother’s death, Kendra inherits a cottage deep within the sequoia forest, along with the powers given only to certain women in her family—powers she doesn’t know she has. Recovering from a vicious attack in Phoenix, Kendra returns home to the remote cabin determined to heal both her body and her spirit. But the forest is ailing, too. Evil lurks in its dark places, turning its quiet glades into a battlefield. When a strangely beautiful man appears at her cabin intent on punishing her for a crime she didn’t commit, Kendra needs all her strength to protect her forest, her life... and her heart. Can she learn to use her powers and to trust Mykhael in time to save the ancient forest?

He came to the woods to redeem himself and found innocence that would be his undoing....

Throughout his long life, Mykhael has struggled, often in vain, to please the Atrahasis, immortal overlords of the sacred places in the universe. Now they have given him one last chance to redeem himself. He must punish the person they think desecrated an ancient forest in Northern California. But when he meets Kendra, he realizes he’s doomed to disappoint them yet again. Not only is she innocent of the crime the Atrahasis have accused her of, Kendra is the missing part of the soul he didn’t know he still possessed. Can he defy the Atrahasis yet again and live long enough to save the only thing in his life that matters?

My Killer My Love is available at the following:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book trailer- just so you know!

Gonna have to see if I can buy that song and I'm definitely getting this book!

You can find out more about Mona at her

Website

Follow her on Twitter

Facebook

Goodreads

Pintrest

 I'm adding this pic and I hope Mona doesn't mind...

Just a nice looking man with a sweet little behind.

She said he was as nice as he was HOT!

#sixsunday- Enter the Ex Plus Book Trailer up on Menagerie Authors Blog

 (click above image to read MORE Six Sentence Sunday excerpts)

(Check out more by looking up hashtag #sixsunday on Twitter)

Welcome Sixers! Can you believe it's already Labor Day weekend? Where has this year gone? (I'm higher up on the list this week at the official SSS site. #92)

For those who might not know here's what 6 Sentence Sunday is all about-

Pick six (6) sentences from anything you like (it can be from a Work in Progress (WiP), something you recently sold, something you hope to sell or even something already under contract and available for purchase – and don’t worry, Six Sentence Sunday is for published AND unpublished writers). Then post them on your blog on Sunday. That’s all there is to it!

You can add yours link to their official list by signing up before midnight the Saturday beforehand.

Today, we're heading back into—

Love by Design

Jasmine Galloway sees beauty in all things but it’s not a thing of beauty when she meets Derrek Martin, a shallow, arrogant playboy celebrity. When her sister Juniper, a blockbuster actress, recommends her interior design business, Décor Dreams, to Derrek, it’s sure to be a disaster. Jasmine is uncertain she can hold her tongue and get the job done, but she takes it, never one to let her opinions of others stand in the way of professional success and she’s not about to let some pretty boy win her over whose ego is as big as his blockbuster movies. It isn’t long before Derrek’s gentle, affectionate manner and country boy charm gets the better of her. She curses herself for allowing the tabloid fodder to contaminate her impression of a man who might well put his designs on her heart.

Derrek Martin counts himself lucky his acting career took off shortly after his arrival in California. Even more since his parents’ deaths left him the guardian of his little sister. The new house is nice, but it needs a woman’s touch before he brings Paige out from Indiana to live with him. He knows his reputation in the tabloids depicts him far from who he really is, but he has never met with a more chilly reception than the moment he meets Jasmine Galloway, Interior Designer to the Stars. He’s sure she has read everything bad ever published about him and disregards all the good. His private life is simply that, private. Derrek intends to keep it that way—until he meets Jasmine.

Her blatant dislike for him pushes a button no one else ever has and Derrek finds he’s desperate to prove that he isn’t what the tabloids make him out to be. More than that, he’s determined to make her his leading lady, but will an ex with a secret steal the spotlight away?

****

Today we're catching up with Jasmine, who has just arrived home to her apartment when she's stopped by her downstairs neighbor, Ester, who loves to keep her up-to-date on all the celebrity gossip and news. This new tidbit might open a whole new can of worms Jasmine wasn't expecting when she took on the decorating job for Derrek.

“Oh, that Tuesday Barrington is out of rehab.” Essie’s eyes sparkled over the news of the troubled actress. “There’s talk she’s going to be hosting that late night skit show and then doing some television cameos.”

“Really?” Jasmine’s stomach knotted up. So Derrek Martin’s drug addict ex was out for good behavior and trying to make a comeback.

If you missed previous Six Sunday posts from Love by Design and would like to check them out-
Smells Like Freedom
Plastic and Fluff
Led Astray
Intrigued
The Wonderful Wizard of...
Visions
Smiling Back
That Girl is a Hot Mess!
Overzealous Puppy

From one of my other finished manuscripts in the other continuing
Pryce of Love Series- Perfect Recipe for Love-
Sunni Gives It Some Thought...
Ample Distraction

I'm also featured today over on Menagerie Authors Sunday Book Videos blog and I'd love it if you'd come check out the book trailer for my current release, Castaway Hearts.

Castaway Hearts Book Trailer

A little project I was up till 1 am working on last night...