HerStory Anthology, Prizes and me!

Out today on Amazon, Smashwords and Barnes and Noble is HerStory: Fiction Honouring Women’s History Month. And it features a short story by yours truly. I’m sure you’ve heard me yapping about it prior to today. I am very excited to have this story out there, it’s a great little story and I hope you enjoy it and all the other wonderful stories that have been selected. I have my copy and am looking forward to curling up on the couch and getting to read it too. Keep reading for more details about the book, the release and lucky you all…the prizes you could win. Good luck and enjoy!!!!!

In ancient times, women were regarded as sacred. They were thought to hold the mystical power of creation—responsible for the continuation of our species. With the rise of Science and Religion, these myths were dispelled and their plight began.

 

HerStory: Fiction Honoring Women’s History Month is a collection of Flash Fiction and Short Stories from today’s top authors featuring female characters that exemplify strong strength of mind, body, and character. Some of these tales are based on real people while others are purely fictional. However, all are standing up for themselves and what they believe in.

 

Grab yourself a glass of wine or favorite hot beverage and get comfortable as you read about the lives of women who will light the fire in your soul.

It’s finally here. HerStory. Available to the masses. And to honor release day, we’re having a party. Use the Rafflecopter below to enter to win some terrific prizes. *U.S. residents only*

Here’s what’s up for grabs.

GRAND PRIZE

 

First Grand Prize

First Grand Prize

Because they have the same agenda: empowering girls/women, Keira’s Kollection owner Mr. Wagstaff has graciously agreed to donate a Strong is Beautiful T-shirt. One very lucky woman is not only going to walk away with a paperback copy of HerStory and be empowered through words, but she will also be showing her empowerment right there on her shirt.

And that’s not all, the grand prize winner also gets a pair of earrings from Cathy from Etsy, who runs Yesware. The earrings sparkle one side and have a message on the other side: the greatest story never told.

Only, we’re telling it, the authors of HerStory. We are telling it.

 

SECOND GRAND PRIZE

 

Author Laura DeLuca has donated an incense diffuser to go along with some handmade soap from Greenchild Creations.

And we’re throwing an e-book into this mix. Why soap and diffusers? What does that have to do with women’s history?

In HerStory, Mathilda of Ringelheim runs a bath house. It seems appropriate to honor herstory this way.

AND as Mathilda seems to know, every woman needs soap and every woman needs time to relax. So one lucky winner will take a nice long shower with her fantastic handmade soap, set her diffuser on a table, and curl up with HerStory on her kindle. Who says you can’t be relaxed and empowered at the same time? (and smell good)

THIRD GRAND PRIZE

 

Another donation from Laura DeLuca: an ebook, a Japanese tea set, and an Oriental incense diffuser. How does this tie into HerStory?

In Please Stay, Asuka, a Japanese wife of the 1600s, is preparing the evening meal while awkwardly trying to discuss a matter–somewhat delicate–but of great importance with her husband.

As you get lost in your ebook, in Asuka’s story (penned by Becca Diane), you can pretend you are there. Perhaps you feel your husband’s penetrating stare. But you serve him his tea, straighten your spine, and say what needs to be said…then wait, breath held, for his reply, incense lightening the tension in the air…

FOURTH GRAND PRIZE

 

One lucky winner will have a chance to make their voice heard on the radio…with a $25 Amazon gift card burning a hole in their pocket!

HerStory goes behind the scenes to locate the stories of women who lived, laughed, and touched the lives of generations…

Now, here is your chance to have your story told to the world….or your mother’s…it’s your chance to talk about the most inspiring woman or women in YOUR life. Shout it out! Tell listeners everywhere about this amazing person. Honor her!

This prize is being donated by Indie Reviews Behind the Scenes.

PRIZE 5, FOUR WINNERS, FOUR TINS OF EMPOWERMINTS

 

Four of these tins of mints are being donated by the Unemployed Philosophers Guild. That means four lucky winners are going to win a tin of mints to carry around in their pockets and every time they look at the tin, they’ll be empowered!

The tin is also the perfect size to serve as a pillbox once the mints are gone. This is something you can keep for a LONG time.

PRIZE 6, TWO WINNERS, CROSS STITCH WALL HANGINGS

 

Author and editor Tara Chevrestt has a secret addiction and hobby. It makes her feel like an old lady, so she keeps it under wraps, but now the truth is out…

 

She likes to cross stitch!!!

 

And with the suffragette tales (Sister Suffragettes by Dahlia DeWinters and Chevrestt’s own From You No and Silent Suffragette) in the back of her mind, she found a pattern on Etsy by Patternbird and set to stitching.

 

Two lucky winners will walk away with these. They are 3.25″ by 6″ and have a hard backing so they may be placed on a wall.



PRIZE 7, ONE WINNER, FLAPPER-STYLE HATDonated from Rakestraw Book Design.

Toni Rakestraw, one of the HerStory contributors, is stitching this hat so one lucky reader can–in her mind–march in a suffragette parade as she reads HerStory. Or perhaps this is something Margaret Sanger would have worn as she leaves the workhouse in The Woman Rebel.

 

PRIZE 8, ONE WINNER, ONE PAINTING

You’ve heard the term multi-published and many of HerStory’s authors can place that before their name, but how about multi-talented?

Author Morgan Summerfield can not only write as she shoes us in Adella, but she can paint too! She is kindly donating a painting 27″ wide by 11″ high, titled Morning Poppies. The frame is handmade with real wood and she stretches all her own canvases. It is hand-painted-by her!-in multi media.

And last, but certainly not least, we have a lovely Coco Chanel quote pendant donated by the lovely Jewelry Designs by Lula. One winner will win this delightful pendant that says  A girl should be things: WHO and WHAT she wants.

I could not have said it better.

Enter for all prizes using the Rafflecopter form below. Giveaway is for three weeks. Winners will be notified via email and will have 48 hours to respond with their snail mail addresses. After 48 hours, new winners will be chosen.

Thank you and enjoy HerStory! Be empowered! Learn something. Believe in yourself and womankind.

Buy links:

Amazon


Barnes and Noble


Smashwords

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Writer Wednesday – James Rollins

Welcome to week three of Writer Wednesday. For this week’s ‘author who inspires me to write’ I have chosen *insert drumroll here* – James Rollins.

Now I came across James Rollins about 5 years ago. A colleague read ‘Map of Bones’ for her book club and thought I would like it. She was right. I hadn’t realised it was the second book in a series at that stage and was given the next book in the Sigma series ‘Black Order’ for Christmas.

Five years on I own all the Sigma series and am eagerly awaiting the next. I have read the books a number of times but my biggest problem now is I start reading them and it makes me think about how I want to write, that I want my characters to be just as real as I find his to be as I get lost in his world…which generally means I trot off and end up writing. It makes reading just that little bit harder.

I have to admit that it’s not just his writing that makes me look up to James as a writer, it’s also the kind of person he is too. He talks with his fans, I’ve talked with him on twitter a few times, and he even follows me (I still squeal about that fact). He’s generous with his readers and completely engaging. And he gets to travel around and visit the places he writes about. He’s the kind of author I aspire to be one day.

I absolutely recommend his books (I’ve made at least 5 people Sigma addicts in my time.) I absolutely think you should give him a follow on twitter or like his page on Facebook, once you are done.

His every book captivates me and inspires me. So Mr Rollins if you ever read this post, thank you for the stories and the inspiration.

As a random aside because I just thought of it, years before I even knew who James Rollins was I created and named a character. Safia Crowe (Safia for Sapphire and Crowe because I was obsessed with birds at the time), imagine my giggles when I read ‘Sandstorm’…

Our souls touched

I had a strange dream last night. It involved organising to pick pocket a visiting priestess who turned out to be on our side, small earthquakes and ominous raging seas, singing the song from King Arthur and magically jumping around the land to avoid Roman soldiers.
So, really, pretty normal for me.
I woke up feeling inspired and rather magical. And I wrote a poem. It was around four am in the morning so I wrote it by the light of the phone into my notebook, so as you can imagine…staying within the lines on the page did not happen. I thought I would share the poem. It relates very much to a few of our characters in our stories. The souls in some of our stories, especially the Children of the Immortals and the Shadows of Avalon tales, are bound beyond death and distance – for better or worse sometimes. But in my mind it is a powerful concept and at times a romantic one. Our souls may touch from life to life and be drawn back to each other again.
Our souls touched
Entwined
In days gone by
The world does not forget these things
We do not forget these things
As lives move on
Death may come
We may return
Different
Apart
But we do not forget these things
Our souls touched
Entwined
Forever
You are a part of me

Good news everyone

Some of you, okay maybe one of you, might have noticed the overwhelming lack of audio on the 15th. I meant to post on that day but got too busy. Life decided to throw me a curve ball and not give me the time I need to do this for you properly. I am still intending to, I am still nervous and excited to do this for you all. Mostly nervous. But I do want to and I will. But I think it is going to me a New Year’s present.

I have gone back and forth about what I am going to read for you all but I keep coming back to Nyssa’s Tale so I think it will be that. Granted it hasn’t had its final edit but I am guessing you guys will be okay with that. (General consensus seemed to be that people wanted to hear my kiwi accent more than the words anyway…I hate to disappoint you but I was born without an accent…and yeah that joke will never get old for me, kind of like me being in the future.)

In other news Sam and I have been writing many, many things as we always do (with some drier spells as the muses got a bit tired or grumpy or sick of us working), we’ve been working on things for a few familiar faces to some of you and some faces most of you have yet to meet. And through all of this we have struck on the idea of how to use some of these stories together and we are very excited to announce we have the rough outline and many words written already for the next Shadows of Avalon novel which will be set after Nyssa’s Tale….well some of it will be set after Nyssa’s Tale, there will be some, shall we say, flashbacks that we are very excited about. It will see more of some of the faces you have already met on Twitter RP and in A Queen’s Tale…but will focus on a couple of faces that will be introduced in Nyssa’s Tale. The new novel will focus on two beautiful and strong characters by the name of Spring and Auta. Now I could tell you more about them but I think I will leave that for another day, but keep alert I have a feeling that you might get to meet them as time goes on and we perhaps start a few guest spots and let some of the characters take over for a bit.

Words cannot express how excited I am to have this rough outline in mind and start pulling all these stories together to bring you more of Shadows of Avalon.

Words cannot express but here have a gif that might cover it…

Confessions of a troubled writer and a tired mind

So I am in a state of exhaustion with still so much to do. Cue the world’s smallest violin. But this post isn’t about all that. This post is about my writing and the sudden OMG moment I seem to be experiencing.

See “A Queen’s Tale” got its first review. The general gist was that the story was amazing but I shot myself in the foot because I didn’t edit it well enough. Now I do have to say that while I am new to reviews and such I think the guy said it in a bit of, to quote Sam, “A dick way” but I can accept constructive criticism. I didn’t think “A Queen’s Tale” was that badly edited but maybe I still see what I want to see and am too close to the story. I don’t know. What I do know is that my confidence is shot about publishing “Nyssa’s Tale” myself with just the help of friends who are grammar Nazis. I am back to the opinion that I had six months ago that I need help from those in the know about this sort of thing if I am going to release my book, and the other novels and short stories that are in production. (Honestly I don’t even know how many novels, novellas and short stories I have on the go writing by myself or writing with Sam, I just know it is a lot. Actually a lot seems an inadequate description.)

So I am back to square one a bit on what do I do now? There are so many people out there with their own advice on indie publishing, mainstream publishing, having an agent, having an editor and all the other components of publishing and I feel just a little overwhelmed. With that in mind I plan to have some discussions with my writer friends who are amazing and have all been, I assume, here at this point.

The important thing I am taking away from the experience of self-publishing “A Queen’s Tale” is that most people really do think I have talent as a writer and I think that is the most important part of the equation. Editing can be taught to me, talent at writing not so much. Also I can find people to help me with the logistics and mechanics of writing. But I feel good to know that there are people who enjoy my writing and want more. And there is more. There is so much more. Honestly I think in the next couple of years I should have at least 10 novels and novellas ready for the editing to publishing process and I am excited about that.

So now for, hopefully, some discussion in the comments section here. How do you all feel about publishing, about reviews, about these same issues that are battling for attention in my head? What did you do? What are you doing? Why is the sky blue? (And yes I know it is because we are all looking up a smurf’s butt.)