#Writers Helping Writers: Get Your #Book Featured

During my A to Z Challenge on Daily (w)rite I featured authors, through posts like this one. Had April not turned out to be the personal nightmare it became for me, it would have become an even bigger success.

I regularly read bunches of books by author friends and from time to time, I feature them on my blog. This exposes my audience to new books to read, and brings the authors some sales. I'm now planning to make this a regular Wednesday post on Amlokiblogs.

If you're an author looking to get more publicity for your latest book, or buzz up an old one, send me the following at atozstories at gmail dot com:

1. Title of Book, Genre, Author Name
2. A one to two sentence elevator pitch (Not more than 50 words)
3. Author's fave excerpt from the book (Not more than 250 words)
4. Links from where the books can be purchased.
5. Blogpost-sized Book Cover

I'd like an email expressing your interest first, before you send out the above.

The elevator pitch and the teaser excerpt need to be well-polished, ready to be showcased. This is for books only-- novels and short story collections. I'd like to feature non-fiction as well, but no poetry or erotica (sounds horrible, grouped like that, I know, but I run fiction-based, PG13 blogs).
I have June covered, and some of July, but slots are still open. If you need your book featured urgently, I might also feature them on Daily (w)rite.

I look forward to reading your excerpts, and if intrigued enough, featuring them and buying your books!

Rhonda Albom: Focus, Fun, and Adventure!

Focus is the buzz word of the day around our house. I am focused on our upcoming Alaska travel plans in an effort to avoid some of the mishaps of our last adventure. Hubby is focused on what ever it is that rocket scientists do in their spare time, our teens are focused on our soon to arrive house guests and, of course their education. I should introduce myself, I am Rhonda from Laugh Quotes. com. I am a travel photographer, humor writer, homeschool mom, American expat based in New Zealand and I race yachts in my free time.

Our life is an exciting adventure and I try to live by my favorite quote (attributed to Mark Twain):

“Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Here we are on a dragon boat in Beijing, China

If you are wondering why I write a travel humor blog of randomness entitled Laugh-Quotes, don't worry, so am I. In 2012, as we laughed our way around the world the focus changed, yet it retained its stupid name.

To bring the focus back to AtoZ, I thought I would share my reflections poem from the 2013 AtoZ challenge. I went for a theme - Travel Tips I Learned the Hard Way. Another year finished. Before I sign off of the AtoZ Challenge 2013 Can I tell you my views? Don't run away. Everything is cool, Funny, fabulous and filled with new friends all Going the distance. Humor and travel were my focus, Idiots that we were on the road. Joining in to AtoZ, Keeping a focus on one topic, Laughing as I go, Made the blog hop that much more challenging. Never a dull moment. Opportunities to meet new friends. Pausing for a breath or Quiet time Rarely happened in April. So we all pushed to the end. Tired, Unnerved, Victororius. When we finished Xtatic at learning how to use X without the E. You did it too? Now it's time for . . . Zzzzzz


Now that the Challenge is but a memory, what are you focused on?

PS: I also write a blog called Kibitz Spot, but is so far off this topic I wasn't sure I should even mention it.

Thanks for sharing your enthusiasm and love of adventure with us! Best of luck in all your travels!

Elizabeth Demers: Breaking Down the Wall...Naked

Another A to Z challenge comes to an end--- another collection of posts and poetry have been written, another deep breath of relief is released. For my fellow bloggers that survived as well, it's another 'challenge-completed' notch carved into the writing desk.

I've come to enjoy my yearly foray into the world of all things alphabetical. This was my third year, though it was only the second year I had a workable theme (which made the challenge substantially easier than the first year I attempted this challenge.) And, though my first year was difficult because my focus was so scattered, I found this year was more difficult because I lost the enthusiasm that came with the first year excitement----excitement which helped me plug along until the end of the challenge.

Year 3 was a success in the sense that I completed the challenge, though, this was the year that almost wasn't----

Somewhere about a third of the way through the challenge, I seriously considered giving up.... there weren't enough hours to get everything done, the way I wanted to get them done. My poems were getting harder and harder to compose (I mean, there's only so many supernatural poems you can write before they all start sounding alike). I haven't been able to visit near as many fellow A-Z challengers' blogs as I had wanted. Though, I'm hoping to amend this in the days/weeks to come.

Time and time again, I would find myself saying, what's the point? or, I don't care enough about this subject to write anything about it, it just happened to start with the requisite "letter of the day."

Life and work and family and more life, kept getting in the way. I could feel myself teetering between the edges of apathy and despair. I HATE not finishing a writing challenge----- even if I had all 26 posts left to do on April 30th, I'd still give it a go....

But, then I'd push through a couple of posts...find a couple of cool pics and suddenly the poems weren't just 'cereal-box-ingredient-lists'.... And, then I'd remember....

There's a reason we do what we do, we writers. And, it's when things feel past the point of restoration and repair, that our basest and truest form emerges. We aren't caught up in the grandeur of ourselves, wrapped tightly in our own self-assurance, exuding the confidence of the never-failed.... Instead, we're exposed and raw and vulnerable-- we are naked to the world, and more importantly, we are naked to ourselves.

Being naked (especially when you didn't intend to leave the house without your pants) is more than a little scary. We can't hide in the comfort of the background when there's a neon sign hanging over our heads that tells the world and their brother to look at us because we're starkers.

And, when we turn the mirror to ourselves, we are, at once, all too aware of every flaw and imperfection... every blemish screams, every scar burns. But, instead of looking into the mirror long enough to grow accustomed to---and perhaps to even love--- what we see, we build view-blocking walls around ourselves that have no window and no door.

It's here we stay until the claustrophobia (read: innumerable ideas clogging the space around us) becomes too much and we begin the frantic scramble to tear down the stone and mortar.

It's when we push ourselves past the wall, fighting every crumbling brick to make it to the other side, that we are reminded, we can do this. And, it's the relief/respite we feel from the first piece we've written outside the wall, that we are reminded, we want to do this. It's the joy/exhilaration we feel once the words are flowing again, that we are reminded, we MUST do this!

I apologize that this got up late in the day. My bad. A case of a person juggling too many things...so sorry Liz. Thank you for taking the time to be here!