Big News: Monday Blog Post

Posted on January 9, 2017 by conniejean

Newest News:

So much is going on. I just put Mystery at the Fair on Bundle Rabbit. This is a new site that allows the author to list my book individually but also has curators who build bundles (ebooks!) at discounted prices. https://bundlerabbit.com. You do have to be a member but it’s free. Seach on my name. So far I just have one book in there but if it becomes popular, I’ll put other books in there.

I have a Thunderclap underway and it ends on the 13th! A Thunderclap is a way to let my readers, friends and family help me let people know my book has been released. It’s free for my readers, friends and family to do and it’s simple. Click on the link, tweet, facebook or tumblr post with the handy buttons. It’s simple, free, and helps me a lot. I’m doing this Thunderclap on Mystery in the Woods, my newest book. So, can you help me out? Click here, click on the social media button, and that’s it! I really appreciate the help. http://thndr.me/rzLcmq

By next week I’ll have an Instafreebie up, so stay tuned for that.

And! Just yesterday I put my blog up on Kindle Publishing for Blogs. You’ll be able to get my blog delivered directly to your Kindle and read it wirelessly! How cool is that! Check out Kindle Publishing for Blogs!

Giveaways:

Rudolf’s Holiday Giveaway winners were Karen Giasson and Emily Smith. I’ve sent them emails but they haven’t gotten back to me yet. When they do, Karen wins a free ebook and Emily won the mug! Don’t miss out on the next one. It’s being called For the Love of Books, Valentines Giveaway. The link is https://conniesrandomthoughts.com/giveaways-and-prizes/. Click on the Rafflecopter link. This is a short giveaway because we’re lining up one for St. Patrick’s Day. So get in on the opportunity to win $135 in Paypal cash plus prizes from over 40 authors, that’s over 80 prizes! Hurry!

Shout Out:

If you’re looking for books, perhaps you’d be interested in Joshua Robertson. He’s a author of dark scifi and fantasy and can be found at https://www.facebook.com/joshua.robertson.9235?fref=ts. Check out his page.

Where Will I Be?

The lovely author Gail Kittleson, who writes Women’s fiction based in the World War II era, has invited me to appear on her blog. That is today, January 9th! So click on this link, http://www.gailkittleson.com/ and see my post!

This is the week! The local Payson Library is doing a Book Blitz. Throughout the month of January, they’re inviting authors to do a reading and take audience questions. I’ll have books to sell there, too. See me at the Payson Library community room, January 11th at 9am. See you there!

Newsletter Sign Up:

Click here to sign up for my newsletter. I’ve put sign-up prizes on both the regular and the Brown Rain newsletter sign-ups. That’s right. If you sign up for my newsletter you get a free story from me. Be prepared for fun and contests! Click on the video link for a short video from me. Hear what I’m working on. Join my “A” Team to be the first to read my books and hear what new books are coming.

Newest Book Release:

Mystery in the Woods released on January 24th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords, today! You can also see all my books on https://conniesrandomthoughts.com/my-books-and-other-published-work/. If you’ve read any of my books, please drop a short, honest, review on the site where you bought it or on Goodreads. It’s critical to help me promote the books to other readers. Thanks in advance.

Christmas is Creeping Up: Monday Blog Post

Posted on December 19, 2016 by conniejean

From this year’s Electric Light Parade

Newest News:

Christmas is creeping up on us. Hubby and I attended a Christmas open house at a friend’s house on Sunday. It’s nice to see everyone, for sure.

Presents are wrapped and under the tree. Christmas cards are trickling in. I love opening them up and then putting them on my wall. The collection is another decoration! Brother-in-law has been invited to a Christmas Eve celebration at our house. I guess I’m ready! Hope you are, too! Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!

Mystery in the Woods made it back from the editor and I spent all week doing the rewrites. I sent it back to him on Sunday. We’re trying very hard to get it out before the end of the month. And as I said last week, I’ve been brainstorming ways to promote the release. One way is to contact my A Team people, and have them let me know if they’d like an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of Mystery in the Woods to read and review. There are several other ideas on my list. We’ll see if I can make them work for me. You’re not on my A Team? Let me know you want to be. I’ll set it up. I’m also considering an Instafreebie (Mystery in the Woods is up right now!), Author Shout promo, and of course twitter and facebook announcements. I began the process of setting up a Reader’s Gazette account so Mystery in the Woods may show up there. And if you’ve never checked it out, Bundle Rabbit has some wonderfully priced collections of books.

One thing I’m considering is a live chat. Who’d be up for that? Put a comment below if you are. I could set one up on Imzy, on Google +, or maybe somewhere else. What do you think?

I’m also considering a Thunderclap. This is a simple way for people to support my book release by sending a facebook post or tweet to announce the release. It doesn’t cost anything and can really get the word out. I’ll keep looking into it.

Giveaways:

Rudolf’s Holiday Giveaway is in full swing. This time, there is a $120 grand prize, lots of author prizes, what’s not to like? And you get the opportunity to find new to you authors. You’ll see my posts on my Facebook, and Twitter pages as well as in these posts and my newsletter. Don’t miss out this time. https://conniesrandomthoughts.com/giveaways-and-prizes/. Click on the Rafflecopter link.

December 16th – 18th, was the Brain to Books Holiday Giveaway and CyCon Sampler. This Holiday Book Giveaway ended on Sunday and we had a $100.00 Amazon gift card to hand out and we had so many games and giveaways it was amazing. I had signed up to host the 5pm Eastern (3pm Arizona) time slot on December 17th and had so much fun! I’m sorry if you missed it. There were a LOT of giveaways. Next time, right?

Shout Out:

Author Maggie West

On the 21st, my author interview is with Maggie West. She’s a cozy mystery author and if you can’t wait, check her out on MaggieWestBooks.com.

Where Will I Be?

Imzy Stickers

Do you follow me on Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or other sites? You can find all my links here. I’m also on a new social media site, Imzy.com. You can follow me there at https://www.imzy.com/connies_random_thoughts. This is a troll free site and free to join. Enjoy.

Newsletter Sign Up:

Newest Book Release:

Troubled Streets released on October 15th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords, today! You can also see all my books on https://conniesrandomthoughts.com/my-books-and-other-published-work/. If you’ve read any of my books, please drop a short, honest, review on the site where you bought it or on Goodreads. It’s critical to help me promote the books to other readers. Thanks in advance.

Fall Photo Contest: Monday Blog Post

Posted on September 26, 2016 by conniejean

From October 2009 Upstate NY

Have been traveling to California and back to see my daughter and arrived home after noon today, totally wiped out. So instead of my usual Monday post, how about this. I offer up a contest. Your best fall picture. Yep. I choose from the photos posted to comments. I’ll give you a free ebook if your photo is chosen. I’ll make the winner announcement next Monday (Oct 3rd).

So, to kick it off, I’ve put a photo at the top of the page, just to give you an idea.

Also, just a quick push for my new mug: a halloween one. https://www.gearbubble.com/chihuahuapumpkin2016

Not very scary but cute.

April Camp NaNo 2016: Monday Blog Post

Posted on April 4, 2016 by conniejean

Oh! Oh! Oh! It is April Camp NaNo and as of Sunday, I’m over four thousand words into my new book, Mystery at the Book Festival. Camp NaNo is a slightly different take on the November event. At Camp NaNo, we choose our desired word goal count. Some people choose just 5,000, some, like me, push for that 50,000-word goal. I’m already looking forward to digging deeper into my main character, Jean and her best friend, Karen. In Mystery at the Book Festival, Jean and Karen, both big readers, learn more about authors and book writing and publishing than they ever wanted to know. I think you’ll like the story.

Me, Begging for Reviews
Photo by Brenda Warneka

I have not received any notice of reviews yet, the new contest I started last week. Missed last week’s blog? Reviews, you say. What’s up with that? Well, in the publishing world, reviews are everything. They are a measure of my audience involvement, my ratings. My several ratings on Amazon and other book-sellers is predicated on my reviews. How many, how good are they? It’s a thing. Other places actually count the number of ratings I have. If I don’t have “enough” reviews, they don’t want to take my ads or other promotional materials. So for an author, reviews are a big deal. So here’s the contest. If you have read or read one of my books, drop a review for it on your platform of choice. It doesn’t matter to me where you put the review. It also doesn’t matter to me what kind of review it is. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love a good review but that’s not what I’m asking for. I’d like an honest review from you on how you liked my book, whichever one you read. Back to the contest. You write a review. Put it where ever you’d like. Send me a link to your review. In a couple of weeks, I’ll do a random number generator choice of the people who’ve done a review and you win! Prize? An ebook of mine of your choice. Contest ends April 10th. I’ll announce the winner here on this blog and on my newsletter on the 11th.

Author Arlene Hittle

Just so you know—my next author interview is romance author Arlene Hittle in two days on Wednesday, April 6th. She’s a wonderful author and her books are sweet. You’ll want to hear what she has to say.

Tomato Seedlings and Rosemary Cutting

On the gardening front, we had a big cold front move through and it did indeed drop some snow on us. Those tomato seedlings were safely inside. But now the forecast is for warm sunny days. It’s time for me to get the compost on the garden beds and get planting. The rosemary is a sprig I had cut to use with a chicken dish a month ago. I didn’t need that sprig, but thought I would later. I stuck it in a glass of water and not using it, the cutting rooted. So, I’ve stuck it in a pot of dirt. I think I’ll give it to a friend. She doesn’t have rosemary growing in her garden, yet! Who doesn’t need rosemary growing in their garden?

The Spring Into Reading giveaway has started. I have links to it on my facebook, twitter, and website pages. I offer a free ebook or for second prize, a $5 Amazon card. There are other prizes as well. Over a hundred prizes plus a grand prize. It’s not hard to enter and there are multiple times to enter. You could easily win a prize. Enter today and every day.

Speaking of the Spring Into Reading giveaway, I want to give a shout out to my winners of the Luck o’the Authors giveaway. My first prize winner was Petr Kristek and he won a free ebook. My second prize winner was Belinda Clemons who won a necklace and earring set. I want to thank both of them so much for participating in the giveaway. I’m glad these great fans won these prizes. Don’t forget to enter the Spring Into Reading giveaway.

Bookmark and Charms Swag

The owl charms and the book marks I ordered have come in. I plan on attaching the charms to the book marks to give away to book purchasers at the events I attend. Aren’t they cool!? The April 16th event at the Tempe Library is free but the June MysteryCon is a 2-day event with just a $35 entry fee for BOTH days. Sign up for that now. Mention my name on the registration. I may have a special gift for people who’ve registered in advance and visit me at the event. I am making special prizes for a drawing for those who have registered in advance and noted my name on the registration. I need to know in advance, though, so register today. Look below or at my website, Where Will I Be tab for specifics.

Speaking of appearing, if you get my newsletter you may have clicked on my link to my newest YouTube video. (The video is something only newsletter people receive.) I know! I have a YouTube channel. I didn’t even realize I was setting one up! Anyway, you can see my hair is getting a little shaggy. Sometime this week I’ll be getting it trimmed so I don’t look like a sheepdog at the Tempe Book Festival.

Where will I be? Here’s the scoop.

April 11th at 3pm Arizona time I’ll be on the January Jones Sharing Success Stories web talk radio show. Have you heard me there? Don’t miss out.

April 16th I’ll be at the Tempe Public Library book festival where I’m on a panel talking about Science Fiction and World Building. I’m looking forward to meeting you there.

June 2nd and 3rd I’m at the Scottsdale MysteryCon, Death and Deception in the Desert. I’m giving a presentation there as well on writing a mystery. Tickets for both days are only $35. I do hope you can make it to that one. Here’s a flyer telling all about it.

July 23rd is the Payson Book Festival. I’ll be at my table all day, ready to talk to YOU! I hope you can make it as we will have over 70 authors attending as well as music, food, author presentations and workshops. It will be stupendous! www.paysonbookfestival.org and click on the Meet the Authors tab.

Want more details about these events? Click here for more information.

Click here to sign up for my newsletter. If you are a Brown Rain series fan, I’ve created a list just for you! If you join my regular newsletter, that’s all right too as I’ve put sign-up prizes on both. That’s right. If you sign up for my newsletter you get a free story from me. My next newsletter is being drafted so sign up today. The YouTube video I just made about Kindred Spirits will be in the newsletter. Just a note. I’m going to be sending out newsletters more frequently. Be prepared for fun and contests!

Kindred Spirits released on March 14th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, Gumroads or Chatebooks today! You can also see all of my books on www.ConniesRandomThoughts.com. If you’ve read any of my books, please drop a review on the site where you bought it or on Goodreads. It’s a big help to me in the book rankings each vendor uses to promote the books on their sites. Thanks in advance.

Spring has Sprung: Monday Blog Post

Posted on March 28, 2016 by conniejean

Unknown Desert Flower

Last week has been a crazy week for me. So much work on writing and my volunteer efforts with the Northern Gila County Fair and the Payson book festival has just left me reeling. Author applications are flooding in for the book festival. On the fair side, a great deal of coordination is taking place for advertising, promotion, and multiple events coordination. Plus for both efforts, volunteers are needed in multiple capacities. Do you live in the Rim Country? I could use your help! Call me.

I’m starting a new contest. One focused on reviews. Reviews, you say. What’s up with that? Well, in the publishing world, reviews are everything. They are a measure of my audience involvement. My several ratings on Amazon and other book sellers is predicated on my ratings. How many, how good are they? It’s a thing. Other places actually count the number of ratings I have. If I don’t have “enough” reviews, they don’t want to take my ads or other promotional materials. So for an author, reviews are a big deal. So here’s the contest. If you have read or read one of my books, drop a review for it on your platform of choice. It doesn’t matter to me where you put the review. It also doesn’t matter to me what kind of review it is. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love a good review but that’s not what I’m asking for. I’d like an honest review from you on how you liked my book, whichever one you read. Back to the contest. You write a review. Put it where ever you’d like. Send me a link to your review. In a couple of weeks I’ll do a random number generator choice of the people who’ve done a review and you win! Prise? An ebook of mine of your choice. Contest ends April 10th. I’ll announce the winner here on this blog and on my newsletter on the 11th.

Just so you know—my next author interview is romance author Arlene Hittle on April 6th. She’s a wonderful author and her books are sweet. You’ll want to hear what she has to say.

On the gardening front, the tomato seedlings are still doing well. A front is moving in and Tuesday is forecast as turbulent. What do I mean? I mean I have no idea what will happen in my town. It could be rain. It could be snow. It could be nothing at all. Tuesday is hiking day for us. Our group, the Payson Packers, C Group, is planning to drive down to Roosevelt Lake for a hike there. Forecast for that area is dry. I shrug. I’ll have to see what the morning brings both for my garden and for the hike.

Mystery in the Woods draft is FINISHED! I am ecstatic. I do have to let it “rest” for awhile before I pick it back up and do a heavy re-write and edit. I am hoping to release it in 2016. In the meantime, I’m outlining the next cozy mystery, Mystery at the Book Festival. It’s the 28th of March and I plan to start writing on April 1st. So I guess I’d better get my outline done.

Take a look at the places I’ll be, below. I’ve ordered owl charms, associated with Kindred Spirits that I’ll attach to new bookmarks. I’ll be giving these away to purchasers of books at the below events. The April 16th event at the Tempe Library is free but the June MysteryCon is a 2-day event with just a $35 entry fee for BOTH days. Sign up for that now. Mention my name on the registration. I may have a special gift for people who’ve registered in advance and visit me at the event. I need to know in advance, though, so register today. Look at my website, Where Will I Be tab for specifics.

Where will I be? Here’s the scoop.

April 11th at 3pm Arizona time I’ll be on the January Jones Sharing Success Stories web talk radio show. Have you heard me there? Don’t miss out.

April 16th I’ll be at the Tempe Public Library book festival where I’m on a panel talking about Science Fiction and World Building. I’m looking forward to meeting you there. I have a nice giveaway for purchasers of any book.

June 2nd and 3rd I’m at the Scottsdale MysteryCon, Death and Deception in the Desert. I’m giving a presentation there as well on writing a mystery. Tickets for both days are only $35. New! I’m offering a prize or two to people who register in advance and mention my name in the registration. I do hope you can make it to that one. Here’s a flyer telling all about it.

Want more details about these events? Click here for more information.

Fast Ride: Monday Blog Post

Posted on March 21, 2016 by conniejean

Did you read that last week I released Kindred Spirits? I’ve created a video of all of the meme cards and quotes I’ve made and put it on YouTube. Here’s the link. Please share it with all of your friends, family, and significant others. Note that the cards have links on them. Not clickable, unfortunately, an issue with jpeg files, but I encourage you to check out the links. Every link discusses something in the book. I hope you find the information both informative and fun. The book is up on all of my ebook and paperback sales sites, see the last paragraph below for links.

I started a giveaway on Amazon that ended yesterday, March 20th. I had 10 First Encounter ebooks to give away. Did you get one? I hope so. If not, I have a couple of free books up for grabs if you sign up for my newsletter. See below for more on how to do that.

This is Author Interview week and Lazette Gifford (http://lazette.net) will be my guest. Lazette writes SciFi and Fantasy among other things. Have you found a new to you author that you’re checking out? Lazette may be one! The post pops up on Wednesday.

Peach Blossoms

The tomato seedlings I talked about last week are still all doing well. I notice the plum tomatoes are growing faster than the cherries. Not a bad thing at all but just interesting to note. The mid-season daffodils are up as the miniatures are fading out. My pear trees are in full bloom as the nectarine and peach are dying out. The apple trees are just starting to blossom. I’m crossing my fingers that we do not get a hard frost or snow any more this year. If we do, I’ll lose all of the fruit. The parsley I transplanted to a different bed has died. I feel a little bad, it would have been nice to harvest it sooner than I could get from seed but it’s not a disaster. I have lots of seed I collected from last year’s second-year parsley and failing that, I can get plants at the nursery.

The Luck O’ The Authors giveaway is closed. We’re compiling all of the winners and should be contacting them along about Wednesday or Thursday. Hundreds of people participated, it’s a lot to sort out. Thank you so much for participating. If you missed out, don’t worry, we have a Spring giveaway coming up. I’ll keep you posted.

Did you pop over to Cover Wars on http://authorshout.com to vote for my cover? The contest ended Saturday. I did not win but many thanks to those who stopped by that website to vote.

I’m continuing to work on Mystery in the Woods. I know, I’ve been saying that every week but really, I am. I made a big break through this week writing over 10,000 words and getting down to my last four scene cards. What do I mean by that? I plot my story out by using scene cards. A 3X5 card that I write a sentence on with who will be in the scene, where the scene is, what the conflict is and what the twist to the story is. Anyway, I’m getting to the end of the story, and the last four cards don’t match what’s going on at this point at all. So I tossed them and wrote out six different cards which take me to the end and ties up the loose ends. Ha! Now I know who did it and what happens. I’m pretty pleased and should be able to have the draft done by this time next week. Yay!

I printed out Zoe Ohale and have it ready for me to begin my first pass through edits. I always do the first pass on paper. The difference between looking at the story on the computer screen and on paper is huge and I spot a lot of things I miss when I’m looking at it for the millionth time electronically. Zoe is a long book for me, longer than I’ve done before, over 70,000. I think you’ll like it!

Where will I be? Here’s the scoop.

April 11th at 3pm Arizona time I’ll be on the January Jones Sharing Success Stories web talk radio show. Have you heard me there? Don’t miss out.

April 16th I’ll be at the Tempe Public Library book festival where I’m on a panel talking about Science Fiction and World Building. I’m looking forward to meeting you there.

Want more details about these events? Click here for more information.

Kindred Spirits Release Day: Monday Blog Post

Posted on March 14, 2016 by conniejean

Draft front cover: Kindred Spirits

Hoo! I’m releasing the third book in my Brown Rain series, Kindred Spirits, today. I mentioned last week that I’m doing something different this time. Usually I put the book up for sale, mention it once or twice and call it a day. This time I’m really get some excitement going. I’m actually promoting the release. I’ve made up little meme cards and posted every day. I’ve started a giveaway. More about that below. I’ve created a video of all of the meme cards and quotes I’ve made and put it on YouTube. Here’s the link. Please share it with all of your friends, family and significant others. Note that the cards have links on them. Not clickable, unfortunately an issue with jpeg files, but I encourage you to check out the links. Every link discusses something in the book. I hope you find the information both informative and fun. The book is up on Amazon, paperback and Kindle, and Smashwords and GumRoad for the other ebook formats. Soon it will be out on the other ebook sites and up on chatebooks as well.

So what’s this about a giveaway? I’ve started a giveaway on Amazon that ends March 20th. I have 10 First Encounter ebooks to give away. You could win one! You’ll have to follow my Twitter account but that’s all it takes! Click on this link to enter. https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/402a5ef0fe1e0234

Last week was Author Interview week and Terra Luft (terraluft.com) was my guest. What do you think about the author interviews? Have you found a new-to-you author that you’re checking out?

A friend of mine just gave me some tomato transplants. She always starts way more than she needs. She gave me six plum tomatoes and six unspecified cherry tomato seedlings. About for more of each than I need. I’ll give those away. I will, however, still grow or obtain Sungold cherry tomato plants and some Early Girls. Both of those varieties grow really well for me here in central Arizona. And we LOVE the sungolds. There’s no way I’m going to have tomatoes and not sungolds.

Have you entered the Luck O’ The Authors giveaway? This is going to end at midnight St. Patrick’s Day, just 3 days away. That means a lot fewer contestants over some of the longer giveaways. Go to www.conniesrandomthoughts.com/giveaways to enter the Rafflecopter. Even if you’ve signed up for all of the authors, there are daily ways to win. Check it out!

Another fun thing I found a few weeks ago is called Cover Wars over on http://authorshout.com. I submitted my book cover for Mystery at the Fair even though I knew I was going to revise it. Anyway, here’s the fun part. You can go to the site, vote for my cover or someone else’s every day through Saturday. You get to see some new to you authors and I get a little free publicity for my book. It’s a big win all the way around. Stop by http://authorshout.com/cover-wars/ to vote and/or share this page so that all your friends can vote. You don’t even have to sign up for anything. Just scroll down the page past the covers and vote for me or someone else daily through Saturday.

Speaking of covers and Mystery at the Fair. I’ve been thinking about redoing the cover before Mystery in the Woods comes out. A friend of mine had some time and designed me the best cover ever, and one for Mystery in the Woods! It is so awesome! Can you tell I’m excited about it? Here it is. What do you think?

I’m continuing to work on Mystery in the Woods. There are only a few more scenes before I finish the first draft. To be honest, I still don’t know who did it. I’m also now writing non-fiction hiking stories for my local paper. Hubby does most of the photography. A friend of mine told me he ran into some hikers on a trail I wrote about a few weeks ago and they were there because of the story in the paper. How cool is that! April is Camp NaNo and I’m plotting out my next mystery book, Mystery at the Book Festival. It takes place the summer following Mystery in the Woods and poor Jean Hays is starting to look like the murder whisperer. In the mean time my novel Zoe Ohale is up for rewrites and edits, then after that, my still not really titled book, All about Bob. I’d like to get both of those out this year!

Where will I be? Here’s the scoop.

April 11th at 3pm Arizona time I’ll be on the January Jones Sharing Success Stories web talk radio show. Have you heard me there? Don’t miss out.

April 16th I’ll be at the Tempe Public Library book festival where I’m on a panel talking about Science Fiction and World Building. I’m looking forward to meeting you there.

Want more details about these events? Click here for more information.

Kindred Spirits released today! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, Gumroads or Chatebooks today! You can also see all of my books on www.ConniesRandomThoughts.com. If you’ve read any of my books, please drop a review on the site where you bought it or on Goodreads. It’s a big help to me in the book rankings each vendor uses to promote the books on their sites. Thanks in advance.

How To Revise Your Novel Special Gift Today Only

Posted on December 7, 2015 by conniejean

Have you ever taken a class, or read a How-To book, or had someone teach you a craft or a specific skill and later, you realized that what you learned there applies perfectly to a different project that you are doing now?

I have had that happen. When I took the How To Revise Your Novel, or HTRYN, back in the winter and spring of 2012, I thought I was learning how to edit a novel. I was so new I had no idea what I didn’t know. I was so green, every time another author mentioned something they were doing, like writing a bio to put on the back of their books, or they mentioned marketing or social media, I was completely clueless.

One thing that helped me was the HTRYN class. The structure of it taught me to break what seemed like monumental tasks, down into component parts. It taught me to really see how something is put together and how each part is related to the whole. It changed how I approached new tasks. It gave me the confidence to take on new challenges.

If you’re interested in a step-by-step approach to making your novel the best it can be, if you want to learn how to approach new tasks with confidence, consider taking this class. It opens tomorrow Tuesday, December 8th at 10:00AM EST for just one week. Registration will close on Monday, the 17th at 11:59pm EST. Don’t miss this class. It will not be offered again for at least six months, perhaps a year. Full information and details about the class will be released tomorrow. Set your alarm!

Note: Today ONLY! Holly Lisle and I have a free gift for you if you sign up today. If you sign up, contact me by email at [email protected], and I’ll send you the link for your free gift.

Here are the links for joining and for the mini-workshop on revising.

JUST NOW JOINING:

Welcome to HollysWritingClasses.com

ON DAY 3:
https://hollyswritingclasses.com/member/index.php?page=launch-option-htryn-day3&aid=10009

Special News! How To Revise Your Novel!

Posted on December 1, 2015 by conniejean

Well, National Novel Writing Month is over. Whew! Due to travel, I missed several days and it took me just about down to the wire to make my fifty-thousand words. How about you? How did you do? Did you finish your novel? Have you read through it yet?

I know when I finished my first one, way back in November 2011, I was so excited. I’d actually written a whole book. While I was writing it, I was seeing the whole thing up on the big screen. I could see me on the red carpet on opening night dressed to the nines and waving to adoring fans. I imagined opening up the New York Times and seeing my name on the top ten list. Writing that book was an amazing accomplishment and I took December off to celebrate.

When I returned to my manuscript in January and read through it, I liked what I had done but it was rough, gangly, moving in fits and starts and jumping from one plot hole to the next. I knew something else had to be done with it. But what? I’d heard that editing was required before a manuscript could be published, but I didn’t know how to go about it.

I started to look around. Soon I found this author’s site that offered a class that would help me, step-by-step, revise my novel. The author is Holly Lisle and she’s doing it again. She’s offering a newly revised How to Revise Your Novel workshop.

If you’re interested in a step-by-step approach to making your novel the best it can be, consider taking this class. It opened today! If you’re ready now, you’ll get 3 free mini-classes! This offer closes on December 14th. Follow my link to https://hollyswritingclasses.com/index.php?page=home&aid=10009

Provoking: A Monday Blog Post

Posted on November 9, 2015 by conniejean

Promo for Winter Wonderland Giveaway

Do you watch the show Madam Secretary? I do. I love the show. I know. Much of it is way over the top. Every week it’s an international crisis. That begs the question, what would we do? That’s what the show is really about. What would we do? What is fair? What is appropriate? What should our policies be on SO many issues? It’s a show, regardless of its grand-standing, which asks, what would we do? What should we do? Big questions.

Anyway, I get to my question in a round-about way. As an author, no matter the genre, the goal is to ask, What if? What if the girl is angry and then falls in love with the very person she’s furious with? What if the government decides (and by that I mean what if the “people” decide) that offspring of criminals cannot expect any governmental assistance? What if, as a society, we allow corporations to run roughshod over our rights as human beings?

Today’s post is different. I am poking the bee’s nest, if you will. I’m provoking, and on purpose. As an author, I want to tell a story. Since my favorite genre is science fiction, I’m used to the story making me question, making me look at reality in a whole different perspective. All of the other genres do the same, some with more subtlety, perhaps than SciFi or Fantasy do.

So, tell me, what’s your beef? What are you passionate about? Is it about the lack of budget to take care of our mentally ill? Is it about our food and the control the big conglomerates have over what we eat? Do you fume over the fact that our major “food” companies have an express mission statement to take over the control of all drinkable water on the planet? What about the distance in income between the richest and the poorest in our society? What’s your beef?

I’m here to tell you that stories, whether they’re mysteries or romances, SciFi or Noir, Westerns or Erotica, is talking to you about the issues that you are most passionate about. If you have a favorite genre, it’s because that form of story speaks to you and what you’re passionate about.

So, that’s all I have to say. I want you to question. I want you to be passionate. Love the authors that speak to you. Support them! Buy their books. Respond to their Facebook posts. Follow them on Twitter and GoodReads. Sign up for their newsletters. An author cannot write in a vacuum. They need to pay the rent, buy groceries, purchase clothing and food for themselves and their children. You are a patron of the arts. Support your local author.

I’m appearing on November 14th in Avondale, AZ to sell and sign books. I hope to see you there. See http://www.historicavondale.org/vet-fest.html

I’m teaching a writers workshop on November 20th, in Camp Verde, AZ on critiquing. I have an entry for that on my Where Will I Be tab on my website.

No Author Friend Boost this week. I’m working on National Novel Writing Month. I’m doing well, a little ahead of plan, just in case. I’m working on a Zoe Ohale novel so if you’ve liked the flash fiction, I have a short story about Zoe in the upcoming Forward Motion Anthology, and now, this!

Santa’s Authors Christmas 2015 Giveaway also known as the Winter Wonderland of Books Christmas Giveaway started 1 November. I have a link to the giveaway on my website, https://conniesrandomthoughts.com/giveaways-and-prizes/. There’s also a Youtube video at the bottom of the page to watch. You will love this. Fifty authors have put up all kinds of prizes from books to jewelry to Amazon gift cards. Go ahead and log in. You’ll find links to all of the author’s social media. Click on a link, enter to win. The more links you click, the better your chance of winning. The grand prize is $200 of Paypal cash, good anywhere on the planet. Good luck! Thanks for participating.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Feel free to comment.

I published my October newsletter. Did you miss it? Click here to sign up for my newsletter. I make special offers to my newsletter people that I do not make on the website blog posts. If you like the content, please encourage your friends to sign up, the newsletter is shareable, send it to whomever you think will like it. Don’t delay signing up. You’ve already missed out on two great offers. The November newsletter is coming out soon. Sign up now so you don’t miss out.

Mystery at the Fair released July 15th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords or Gumroads today! You can also see all of my books on www.ConniesRandomThoughts.com, Books tab. If you’ve read any of my books, please drop a review on the site where you bought it. It’s a big help to me in the book rankings each vendor uses to promote the books on their sites. Thanks in advance.

ConniesRandomThoughts

Thoughts and Activities About My Writing

Category Archives: Promotions

Christmas is Creeping Up: Monday Blog Post

Fall Photo Contest: Monday Blog Post

Spring has Sprung: Monday Blog Post

Fast Ride: Monday Blog Post

Kindred Spirits Release Day: Monday Blog Post

How To Revise Your Novel Special Gift Today Only

Special News! How To Revise Your Novel!

Provoking: A Monday Blog Post