Friday, June 28, 2013

Contemporal Here We Come!

The wife and I are going to our first Steampunk convention this weekend at Contemporal. If you don't know what Steampunk is, its kinda Victorian, and kinda SFF, and kinda different.  I always think Jules Verne--time machines, top hats and canes, and a trip to the moon. But it can have an "Old American West" motif. Post-apocalyptic. Dystopian. Cool. Punk. Did I mention Steam?

My next book will be a Steampunk Mystery. Contemporal is advertising some writer's workshops so looking forward to that.  I will blog on my adventure; be sure to stop by later.

Also, the giveaway for Claws of the Griffin continues.  As the old saying goes, you can't win if you don't enter

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Goodreads Giveaway for Claws of the Griffin

Tuesday ended the sale on Claws of the Griffin.  It was fun.  I may put one of the Penelope Mysteries on sale next.

But for now I am doing a Giveaway on Goodreads, starting Tuesday June 25. I've added a widget to the blog, so you are a click away from getting an entry in.  Somebody has to win and it might be you!

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Twitter Rule #5



I blogged some time back spelling out my Twitter rules that I still try to stick to, although I do take things on a one-on-one basis. A service I use is Who Unfollowed Me where I can get regular feedback on followers I lose. Rule #5: Unfollow me and I'll unfollow back. Guaranteed. Here are a few types I unfollow.

MR. IMPORTANT. This guy (or gal) has a high count of followers and following. Then he unfollows. A quick check shows he has dumped most of the people he  was following. I guess this makes him look important. I have news for him. No blue check mark means he’s just a regular Joe (or Jane) like me. Click Unfollow.

GO FIGURE. This one follows. You follow back. A few days later he unfollows. His following-follower ratio is still about the same. Why? Don’t know. Click Unfollow.

SUSPENDED ACCOUNT. Many times the account has a pretty woman’s picture. The bio says weird, sometimes is lacking, or creates an uneasy feeling. Don’t have to Click Unfollow on this one. Twitter police did it for you.

GET YOU FOLLOWERS. The pitch says you’ll have 10,000 followers in 24 hours. This is great if you are a collector. My brain screams scam. I stay away from these and recommend Click Unfollow.

THE COLLECTOR. When following-follower count exceeds the size of small city, this Twitter tycoon must be in it for the numbers. I usually follow back, but typically I don’t actively pursue him I figure they wouldn’t be able to tell if I followed or not.

THE SNUBBER. These denizens of Twitter never follow back. They look like they would but somehow don’t. Probably not keeping up with Twitter. Click Unfollow.

Who do you unfollow? 



Three More Days
Ends June 18
Claws of the Griffin
  Less Than A Dollar









Saturday, June 8, 2013

Now comes the hard work...marketing



I am now moving into the marketing phase of Claws of theGriffin. Time to apply the great marketing secrets I learned with my Penelope Mystery series. Only thing is I don’t think there is a secret. Biggest challenge will be to get the book out there in front of people.

To launch Claws of the Griffin I have decided to put it on sale at Amazon for 99 cents. This is for 10 days only. Sales ends on June 18. I’d like to do the same on Smashwords, but changing the price takes a while to ripple through the various outlets so instead I am offering $3.00 off the list price of $3.99 by using coupon code RG22R at Smashwords. 

Here are two great ways to read a southern mystery for less than a dollar. Click the links below.


Sunday, June 2, 2013

Summertime TV Fun



June is here and summer around the corner. One of the sadder parts of this time of year is that my favorite TV shows go on hiatus until the fall or in some cases later for the midseason startups.

One new show that zoomed to the top of my got-to-watch list in Elementary on CBS. A modern day Sherlock Holmes in NYC provides consulting detective services to the NYPD. A recovering addict, Holmes' sober companion is Joan Watson, a surgeon who dropped her practice after losing a patient.  Sherlock is edgy and off the wall, while Watson brings calm and stability to the crime solving duo. Moriarty is one of Holmes' nemesis, who makes a startling appearance in the season's finale. 

A midseason show, Bates Motel caught my attention.  This is a prequel to the classic Hitchcock thriller, Psycho. Freddie Highmore plays a young Norman Bates and looks as if he could be Anthony Perkins’ younger brother. The show fills in gaps like how Norman became interested in taxidermy and how he was molded into someone who later kills a woman in a shower with a big knife. I’m sure this one will be back next season.

One of my favorites is Being Human, which answers the question: can a werewolf, vampire and ghost be roommates? The show chronicles their plight to live normal lives. Third season ended and I am looking for a fourth.

One show coming up near end of this month is Under the Dome, a Stephen King epic turned into a mini-series. A small Maine town is suddenly separated from the rest of the world by an invisible dome. What’s inside stays in and what’s outside stays out.

What are you watching this summer?