Read an eBook Sale, Someone is Trying to Hack Me, Valentine’s Giveaway Winners: Monday Blog Post

Read an eBook Week!

Newest News:

Oh hello! The 12th annual Smashwords Read an Ebook Week sale kicked off Sunday, March 7 and runs through Saturday, March 13. I have ALL of my books on sale for 25% off or .99. I’ve never put all of my books on sale before so get them while you can. You can find me at: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/conniecockrell  What?!?! You already have all of my books! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! Then there’s more!

Discover over 50,000 deep-discounted ebooks from thousands of authors and publishers before these incredible deals disappear.

Visit the sale now.

Read an Ebook Week is an international celebration of ebooks, and it’s the longest running annual sale at Smashwords.

Under the Smashwords Read an Ebook Week sale tab on the home page, you’ll find these shelves:

Featured Read an Ebook Week Sale Deals

  • 25% off – Featured books, 25% off
  • 50% off – Featured books, 50% off
  • 75% off – Featured books, 75% off
  • 100% off – Featured books, free during this sale only
  • More Free Ebooks – Ebooks that are either regularly priced at FREE or at Reader-Sets-The-Price
  • Recent Read an Ebook Week Purchases – What other readers are buying in the sale
  • Recently Added – Latest titles to join the Read an Ebook Week sale

Check out Read an Ebook Week now. Be sure to check the sale daily because hundreds of ebooks cycle in and out of the sale each day.

To learn the story behind the sale, or to download buttons and badges you can share with friends on social media, check out the official Read an Ebook Week hub page.

Please help spread the word! Invite your friends and favorite authors to participate as well.

Hashtags #ebookweek21 and #Smashwords.

In writing news, I mentioned last week that I’ve been struggling to update my Gulliver Station covers. I’m still working on it. So, here’s an apology to anyone looking to buy A New Start. I had to unpublish it to do this work and I am so sorry about the delay.

Last week my website came under attack. I set up additional security and hoped that would be the end of it. Nope. Whoever is doing this is very determined. I get daily reports from my site that the hacker is still at it. It’s both scary and intimidating. I hope you all never have to go through with this.

A bald eagle flying over our local park pond, fishing, I expect.

I mentioned last week that I began a paleo-based sourdough starter. I’ve named it The Beast. It must be fed twice a day unless I store it in the fridge. Then if I want to bake some bread or something, I have to take it out 24 hours in advance, let it warm up and start regrowing, before I can take what I need to bake. Then feed it and put it back in the fridge. The bread I tried to make last week turned out poorly. It was not done in the middle though the edges that were done tasted fine. So I’ve tried it again on Sunday. I took the starter out on Saturday, let it warm up, fed it again, then took my 1 cup of starter to retry the bread. I followed all of the directions but baked it longer. The bread was done in the middle this time but was dense. Soooooo Deeennnnnse! Ugh. I know it’s the flour blend. It’s just too heavy. I’ll have to think about this.

Covid update. I get my 2nd Covid shot on Saturday, the 13th. I’m preparing to have a bad couple of days on Sunday and Monday, as I’ve heard from others that that is what they experienced. Again, we’ll see. I’m looking forward to celebrating about the end of the month with a nice meal in a restaurant to commemorate both the immunization and all of the celebrations we postponed from 2020.  

Please be careful out there. Weather can turn nasty, accidents can happen, illness can overtake us. Till we can meet in person, stay at home when you can and wear a mask when you go out.

Giveaways:

The Valentine’s Day giveaway is over and the winners are:  Eglee who has won a copy of my ebook – Mystery at the Fair, and Abdulaziz who has won a $5 Amazon gift card. The Grand Prize winner is Lizzie M. Congratulations to everyone!

The St. Patrick’s Day giveaway is running. There are 24 prizes and a $60 Paypal Cash Grand Prize. Check out the link at https://conniesrandomthoughts.com/giveaways-and-prizes/ to enter.

Where will I Be?

On May 13th at 2pm Arizona time, I’ll be on the podcast with Laurie Fagan on her show, AZ Creates. It’s a lovely podcast and as soon as I have the link for my interview, I’ll put it up. In the meantime, enjoy her show at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teajmtQ4-90&feature=youtu.be. Note, Karen Landau is a mystery author right here in my town! How great is that!

Phoenix Fan Fusion, rescheduled for January, 2022. Mark your calendar! I’m going to be there!

Newsletter Sign Up:

Click here to sign up for my newsletter. I’ve put sign-up gifts on the regular and the SciFi/Fantasy and the Cozy Mystery 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. Don’t forget to follow my blog, too. Different material goes in the blog as in the newsletter. You can share both, so spread the word!

Newest Releases:

Creature in the Night, a short Halloween, Winter Solstice, Christmas, Fantasy story has been published. It is up on Amazon, in Kindle Unlimited or for purchase at $.99. 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 or BookBub. Your review is critical to help me promote the books to other readers. Thanks in advance.

Thank you for reading my blog. Like all of the other work I do as an author, it takes time and money. If you enjoy this Monday blog and the Friday free story and the recipe, I put up on the 25th of every month, consider donating to https://www.paypal.me/ConniesRandomThought. I appreciate any donation to help support this blog.

Gardening, Poetry, ebook Sale: Monday Blog Post

Newest News:

We’re now into May and my garden is coming along. Volunteer potatoes have sprouted up in the middle of where I planted bush green beans and peas. Sigh. They’re growing so well I don’t have the heart to pull them. I’ll have to put another row or two of beans and peas in to compensate. My roses have begun blooming. That’s a picture up above. Love it when all of the bushes are in bloom at the same time. How’s your garden?

April’s Poetry month is now over. I hope you enjoyed the daily offering of different poetry forms. I really enjoy doing them and have saved all I’ve written. I may put out a book of poems one day. Maybe after the seven other projects I have sitting around waiting for me to get on the ball.  

On sale now!

I should mention here that I have a sale going on over on the Smashwords site. https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/conniecockrell This is my author page and as you scroll down, you’ll see all of my books. Since I make my books as inexpensive as possible right from the start, I don’t usually do sales but because of the lockdown, I did put some on sale for 60% off. You’ll see the sale prices listed on the ones on sale. This runs through the end of the month, so hop on board an get some reading in. Prices will return to normal June 1st so don’t delay.

Stay safe. Stay well.

Giveaways:

The spring giveaway, Spring Flings and Book Things, is now open. You can get to it here, on my Giveaways page. As soon as the winners are announced for the St. Patrick’s giveaway, I’ll let you know.

Where will I Be?

Payson Book Festival, July 18th at the Mazatzal Hotel and Casino, Payson AZ. This event is under consideration for cancellation. We’ll know more in May

CokoCon 2020, September 4 – 7th, DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Phoenix Tempe, 2100 S Tempe, AZ. This event hasn’t been cancelled yet. I’ll keep you posted.

Phoenix Fan Fusion, September 25th – 27th. This event has been postponed until the end of September. Note that the event is a day shorter, starting on Friday rather than Thursday. For people who have special Thursday passes and other special tickets, check out the Fan Fusion website for details on how those will be handled.

Pine Library, 6124 W. Randall Place, Pine AZ, Friends of the Library meeting, April 27th has been officially rescheduled. The new date for my appearance is October 26th, still at 1pm. So if you happen to be in Pine, AZ on that date, come on by. I’ll have some books available for purchase and signing.

Newsletter Sign Up:

Click here to sign up for my newsletter. I’ve put sign-up gifts on the regular and the SciFi/Fantasy and the Cozy Mystery 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.

Don’t forget to follow my blog, too. Different material goes in the blog as in the newsletter. You can share both, so spread the word!

Newest Releases:

Gold Dreams released May 13th, 2019. It is up on AmazonAppleBarnes and NobleKobo, (Direct link doesn’t work, copy the URL and paste it into your browser, or go directly to Kobo.com and search for Gold Dreams, Connie Cockrell), and Smashwords. The print version is available on Amazon. 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 or BookBub. Your review is critical to help me promote the books to other readers. Thanks in advance.

Thank you for reading my blog. Like all of the other work I do as an author, it takes time and money. If you enjoy this Monday blog and the Friday free story and the recipe I put up on the 25th of every month, consider donating to https://www.paypal.me/ConniesRandomThought. I appreciate any donation to help support this blog.

Read an EBook Week, Anniversary, Book Festival: Monday Blog Post

Newest News:

Hey! If you’re on Smashwords, and why wouldn’t you be? It’s Read an eBook week! I have several books on special. So hop on over there and not only check out my specials, but other, new to you, author specials as well. You’ll be glad you did. https://www.smashwords.com/shelves/promos/1/any/any or me at https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/conniecockrell

Slave Elf still has a few copies up on Booksprout for an advanced reader copy (ARC) at https://booksprout.co/arc/10825/slave-elf. I do require at least one review. If you’d like to take part, check it out.

https://www.deviantart.com/kittykatofhyperness/art/Sapphire-71832070
https://www.deviantart.com/kittykatofhyperness/art/Sapphire-71832070

Friday is my anniversary. At this point, we have become a little blasé about it but it’s 44 years. We had to count it up. Our daughter asked us what “anniversary” this was, meaning, the gift. As in the first anniversary is paper. Turns out, not that we’ve ever participated in this particular ritual, at this level, only major points in the anniversary years get special attention. Turns out 44 is not one of them. But 45, next year, happens to be sapphire. Well, color me lucky. I love sapphire. I’ll be fortunate to get a blue anniversary card. That’s because we have never bought into expensive gifts. Except Christmas this last year when I broke down in tears trying to format a book and hubby bought me a Macintosh laptop and a copy of Vellum so I could easier format my books. This is why I love this guy.

The Payson Book Festival organizing is in full swing. All of the author tables are now occupied. All of the Fireside room speakers have been selected. We have new authors, new speakers, and more children’s activities than ever before. This year is going to be more exciting than last year. Mark your calendars for July 20th. Be in Payson for the book festival. www.paysonbookfestival.org for all of the details!

Giveaways:

The Valentine’s Day giveaway is now over and there are 45 prizes to give away and 45 books. The grand prize is $135 in Paypal cash. A winner’s list will be out soon, and I’ll let you know who’ve won my prizes.

A St. Patrick’s Day giveaway will run soon. Stay tuned for that or check out my giveaways page on my website.

In the meantime, I’m in a promotion with 19 other women writers on Book Funnel. You can check out the books here. There are romances, mysteries, shifter stories and even a non-fiction. Don’t miss out. These are all free for a short time.

Where will I Be?:

I went to the 2nd PEO International meeting in Goodyear, AZ this last weekend and had such a wonderful time! The people were so lovely, welcoming, and kind. I had a great presentation and sold so many books! Thank you PEO members. You are wonderful. I didn’t have a partner there to take pictures and no one has forwarded me any yet. But if you’d like to know more, search on PEO International at http://www.PEOInternational.org.

If you are a fan of most any genre, I’m participating in an on-line cyber conference here: http://owscycon.ourwriteside.com/about-ows-cycon/. The event is May 17th through May 19th. There are discussion forums, author giveaways, and so much more. Check out the link and sign up to participate. Sign up also gets you news on what’s happening and when. So sign up today. You might just be the person we want to have in our panel discussion!

Phoenix Fan Fusion! Oh My Gosh! If you haven’t ever been to this event you need to check it out. The prices for entry are so reasonable! Three days is $75 at this point. The catalog of things to do is humongous! I’ll be down in Artists Alley, Four Carat Press, booths 930 and 932. Come check it out. If you’ve never been, it will blow your minds. It’s May 23 – 26th. Come see me!

Newsletter Sign Up:

Click here to sign up for my newsletter. I’ve put sign-up gifts on the regular and the SciFi/Fantasy and the Cozy Mystery 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.

Don’t forget to follow my blog, too. Different material goes in the blog as in the newsletter. You can share both, so spread the word!

Newest Book Release:

The Slave Elf story released February 19th, 2019. It is finally up on all of my other retailers in ebook format. You can buy it at Amazon, Apple, 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 or BookBub. It’s critical to help me promote the books to other readers. Thanks in advance.

Thank you for reading my blog. Like all of the other work I do as an author, it takes time and money. If you enjoy this Monday blog and the Friday free story and the recipe I put up on the 25th of every month, consider donating to https://www.paypal.me/ConniesRandomThought. I appreciate any donation to help support this blog.