Friday, October 3, 2014

New Column ~ How To: Practical Help For Writers, Bloggers & You!











People have been asking for help with a problem, a program, or just what does some term mean. So I decided to add a column dedicated just to giving solutions, cool programs or tips I've learn.

I'd love everyone to participate, so if you have a favorite program or help tip, please use my contact me link above and let me know.

These step-by-step directions on Networking your blog comes from Alanna Moses.

Thanks so much Alanna for your help in solving this problem of getting my blog on both my Facebook sites.

  • Go to www.networkedblogs.com
  • Click the “add your blog” button
  • Click the “grow my blog followers – add it on Networked Blogs” button
  • Click the FB login button
  • Enter your FB information
  • Click the “grow my blog followers – add it on Networked Blogs” button
  • Under the Register a new blog page, enter the blog web address
  • The next tab that comes up will have your blog link and blog name already. Enter any topics you want and change the language to English. You also need to click the bottom button for terms of service
  • You should then see a screen that says your blog is registered
  • You will be asked if you are the author of the blog. Click yes
  • You then need to get confirmed as the author
  • Click “install the widget”
  • Enter the html code under a new gadget on your blog design
  • You should now see the networked blog item on your blog
  • Now click “verify now” on the page that says install the widget on networked blogs
  • The next page will have a section where you can invite people to follow your blog. From here, you could send out an email or a FB message.
  • This same page should list your most recent blog posts
  • On the left side of this same page, there will be a link that says “syndication” – click this
  • Choose the blog name you want to syndicate. Then choose where you’d like to publish the posts to
  • Click add facebook target and then select your FB profile
  • Click the publish test post link
  • You should now be able to go to your FB page and see your most recent blog post show up in your FB timeline


Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Five Secrets from Author Karen Docter




Today you learn five secrets from Karen Docter, who writes two different kinds of romance novels.

K.L.'s romantic suspense novels are filled with romance, although the dangers the hero and heroine face are intense, usually because a serial killer is bent on ending one or both of their lives before they can fall in love. Karen's contemporaries are cute & spicy romances. She loves writing about real men and women with dreams and goals that don't allow for a relationship just so she can throw them in each other's path...with a tickle and a smile.

Karen is an award winning author, four-time Romance Writers of America® Golden Heart® finalist, and winner of the coveted Kiss of Death Romance Writers Daphne du Maurier Award Category (Series) Romantic Mystery Unpublished division.  

When she's not saving her characters from death and destruction or helping them fall in love, she loves camping and fishing with her family, reading, gardening & cooking. If she can do most of those things over a campfire, all the better! 

Hi Karen, please tell us Five Secrets we may not know about Killing Secrets (Thorne's Thorns Series, Book 1) or you, but will after today!

1) My desire to be a police officer as a youngster led to my romantic suspense career. When I was nine years old, an incident occurred that shaped my strong sense of justice. Two policemen responded to a domestic situation that went tragically wrong. They’d settled the dispute and were leaving the scene when a neighbor, who’d been drinking and took exception to their presence, shot and killed one of the officers. The situation deeply affected me when I learned the details of the incident and that the slain officer left behind a pregnant wife. It was all so senseless. For the longest time, I considered becoming a police officer. It's not the direction I eventually headed but, when I began writing romance, I found a lot of suspense elements creeping into my stories. Now, I dispense justice in my thriller novels.

2) Killing Secrets is the first book in the Thorne's Thorns series about six foster brothers. Police officer Ross Thorne, and his wife, Evelyn, had only one biological son, Patrick. But they raised him with five foster brothers –Jack, Ben, Cole, Sam, and Joe. All in some kind of trouble at one point or another, they became known as “Thorne’s Thorns”. The six brothers are now strong, sexy men, and each book in the series is about one of them, the danger that enters his life, and the woman he falls in love with and must protect. Killing Secrets is Patrick’s book.

3) I love misdirection and surprises in my romantic suspense. There are two antagonists in Killing Secrets. The hero, Patrick, and heroine, Rachel, don't know where the danger is coming from one moment to the next. Everyone has a secret to keep, silence, reveal or kill for...it's up to the reader to uncover them all.

4) The heroine's four-year-old daughter hasn't spoken a word since her father went to jail and the heroine doesn't know what her ex-husband did or said to silence the child. It tears her up not to be able to help her.

5) I was an executive assistance to a project manager for a mall developer at one time in my life learning, first hand, about construction and project management on a big scale. My experiences helped me to understand Patrick, who is a major contractor in Denver.


Blurb:

Some secrets are better left dead.

Rachel James’ ex-husband is released from prison determined to reclaim her and her little girl — the child is his key to controlling the James fortune. Frightened, Rachel flees to Denver with the child who hasn’t uttered a word since her daddy went to prison.

Contractor Patrick Thorne wants nothing to do with another of his parents’ charity cases. He failed his own wife so abysmally she took her own life as well as his unborn son’s. After two years, it’s time to concentrate on the bid he’s won and the saboteur trying to destroy his construction firm.

There is no room for trust in either of their hearts. But trust is all that will untangle the secrets that dominate their lives, free a little girl of her silent prison, and save them all from a serial killer who stands too close.

Buy Links:
Amazon: goo.gl/BzGZLc
Kobo:  goo.gl/KM563U
iTunes:  goo.gl/pg58wN
Google Play: http://goo.gl/mogQqs

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Book Bench for Romance Lovers FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/281099382014548/


Monday, September 29, 2014

Take Five with Author Jane M. Choate


Take Five is a fast and fun way to learn about authors you're unfamiliar with, 
or new facts from your favorites.

Today I'm so happy to bring you Jane M. Choate,
multi-published author 33 books and over 500 articles.
I'm a lucky girl to be able to call her a friend.  

Welcome to An Indie Adventure, Jane.  Tell us, what inspired you to write your book Keeping Watch?
Keeping Watch has two wounded souls desperately needing love.  I love the idea of wounded people finding love and finding in love healing power.  Healing power comes ultimately from the Savior, who is the greatest healer. 
How do you use setting to further your story?

I believe that setting can be a character.  For Keeping Watch, I chose the genteel setting of Atlanta, contrasting the gracious way of life that the heroine Dani Barclay is accustomed to with the seamy side of life she encounters with her job as a Deputy District Attorney.

How do you construct your characters?

I don’t so much construct my characters as listen to them.  When my characters are “in the groove,” they talk to me and tell me what they should be doing.


How is your main character completely different than you?

My main character Dani is strong enough to fight for justice in the courtroom.  My introverted nature would never allow me to do that.


Tell us something about yourself we might not expect!

I have had a TRO (temporary restraining order) taken out against me when I confronted a woman who took advantage of my elderly father.  My temper got the best of me.

Give us a brief summary of  Keeping Watch :
Atlanta Deputy District Attorney is being stalked.  She confronts the man she believes is the stalker, only to find that he is an ex-Delta soldier whom her father hired to protect her.  Jake Rabb is wounded, in both body and and soul.  He doesn’t want the job of bodyguard, but he is committed to protecting Dani.  Together, they search for the truth and discover that it lies much closer to home than they ever imagined.


Bio:  Jane M. Choate has been reading and writing ever since she can remember.  She used to entertain her friends at lunch time with made-up stories about them.  The stories grew more outlandish as her vocabulary and imagination grew.  Getting paid to write is a dream come true (except when the characters won’t talk to her!).

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