The Author Hideaway Dealership: WiFi Not Always Included

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Welcome to . . . Oh, I see you’re in a rush, so I’ll get right to the pitch.  We provide authors with private locations that they can escape to after periods of stress.  These can be for work or just to relax, but we guarantee that nobody can intrude upon your personal haven without your permission.  Our products range from fortified offices to isolated cabins, but we do draw the line at pocket dimensions.  Yes, people tend to jump to that idea when we give the guarantee.  The problem there is that the rents are high and you never know when an interdimensional cataclysm will strike.  Last thing you want is to be stuck and gradually starve to death.  I will also tell you that we cannot build entire worlds.  It’s a single room or simple structure that can be no bigger than two floors.  At best, we can design a small island for you, but that’s very expensive.

A tree house is possible and we do have a variety of terrains that we maintain away from the public eye.  For trees, you would want either our jungle or forest regions, which you can view in those two windows.  Sadly, we can’t put a tree in the desert because the sand makes it impossible for the roots to be very secure.  One sandstorm and you’re going to be asking for a refund, but we don’t do those in such situations.  The taiga region over there could work as long as you’re okay with the smell of pine trees and don’t mind us connecting squirrel paths to the roof.  It’s better to do this or you’ll have them running through the building.  Now, what kind of structure were you considering?

Single-story cabin would work with a pulley elevator access, which you can activate with this beeper.  Arriving at the base of the tree will be accomplished by either our underground shuttle or teleportation rune.  We’re putting a cabin in a pine tree and you’re questioning magic?  Skim this pamphlet as I continue.  The basics will be a desk, bed, television if desired, bookshelves, and closet for clothes.  Due to the height, we can’t put a full patio, but there is a small porch that you will step onto.  It’s enough for a single rocking chair just be aware of the wind.  Decorations are all your choice and money since we don’t expect to make those decisions.  WiFi is a monthly service, but we assure you that it will never fail even in a storm.

Power is important here, so we need to discuss the type of generator.  You don’t want one too hot because it could ignite the tree.  Being so high up, you could use the solar and wind combination with an electric backup.  There’s also the squirrel one where the paths we add can use the passing animals to charge the batteries.  It’s not the most reliable one because you can’t guarantee their appearance, but people seem to go for this if they believe the others are two controversial.  Nuclear is a final option and we can put a shielded generator into the ceiling.  This is a popular option for our dystopian, horror, and science fiction authors, which is funny since we haven’t had an accident all year.  Well, no explosions, but there have been a few mutations.  Did I mention there are no refunds if that happens?  Sure, I guess we can put a bio-fuel generator on there, but what would you put in the . . . I don’t if pine needles and pine cones will work, but we need to move on.

There will be a small kitchen and a connected bathroom included.  The kitchen can be a full stove with cabinets to hold whatever you need for cooking as well as a refrigerator that you need to keep stocked.  Our devices will preserve all food put inside, so you don’t have to worry about anything going bad.  The large cabinet works the same way and is hermetically sealed as you can see in this design.  No, the smaller one holds the food and the bigger one is for liquor.  It used to be the other way around, but too many authors were switching them and then complaining about problems.  If all of that is too complicated, we can simply put a microwave over here along with the fridge, freezer, and a drawer for utensils.

The bathroom is similar to the kitchen in that you can go simple with only a toilet and sink or extravagant with a massaging bathtub.  We can’t make it too large in a tree house or the whole thing will fall to the ground.  The plumbing gets pretty heavy unless you want our water purification system, which we can put in the walls.  It makes a gentle gurgling noise every ten minutes, but it could help with weight distribution.  Now, you must provide your own soap and toilet paper since we don’t know your preferences.  All of our bathrooms come with a small desk that you can pull out in front of the toilet and a sealed compartment over here for a notebook.  If you include a bathtub or shower, we include a small waterproof computer here with a stylus.  This way, you can jot down any ideas you get in the shower and it will be sent to a master file that you can access from your synched smartphone.  Almost forgot, but we can have the ventilation fan double as an air freshener and we can provide one of hundreds of scents.

As you can see, there are a lot of little details, so let’s go to the back and hash all of them out.  Just remember that once you tell someone about this place, they will be allowed to show up whenever they want.  We’ve had so many authors lose their hideaways to kids and spouses who simple took them over.  Again, no refunds.

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Check This Out: The Mo & Dale Mysteries by Sheila Turnage

Check out the fun and interesting interview.

L. Marie's avatarEl Space--The Blog of L. Marie

Today on the blog, I am thrilled beyond measure to have one of my favorite authors—the one and only Sheila Turnage! I’ve mentioned her in this post, this one, and others.

She is here today to talk about her middle grade mystery series, the Mo & Dale Mysteries, which began with the Newbery Honor-winning Three Times Lucky (click here to read a synopsis). In September, it will end (sob!) with The Law of Finders Keepers. Penguin Random House is the publisher of this series. Trust me. You will want all of them.

 

 

Sheila is represented by Margaret Riley King at WME. Her editor/publisher is Kathy Dawson of Kathy Dawson Books (which is the imprint for the last three books of the series). Now, let’s talk to Sheila!

El Space: Four quick facts about yourself?
Sheila: I grew up on an NC tobacco farm, and…

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The 2018 Author Interview Series Featuring Ronel Janse van Vuuren

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Don Massenzio This week’s author interview features Ronel Janse van Vuuren , author of New Adult, Young Adult and children’s fiction filled with mythology and folklore. On a side note, though the initial response was gratifying, I find myself running out … Continue reading

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The Benefits of Genre Associations – by Diana Hurwitz…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's avatarChris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

on Blood Red Pencil site:

As writers, many of us are introverts and would rather hang out in our pajamas with our pets than go out and network and attend public functions where we don’t know anyone.

Still, you really need to reach out and get involved with other people if you want to improve your writing and market your finished product.

There are multiple advantages to joining a genre-related group:

Continue reading HERE

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The Bright Side of Darkness, on #LisaBurtonRadio

coldhandboyack's avatarEntertaining Stories

Lisa Burton

Don’t touch that dial! This is Lisa Burton Radio. Coming at you with one point twenty-one jigawatts of power. I’m your host, Lisa the robot girl, and my special guest today is Rick Meyers. “Welcome to the show, Rick.”

“Hey, Lisa. What’s up?”

“I’m great, thanks. Now Rick, my bio says you are an emancipated seventeen year old. That’s kind of unusual, how did that come to pass?”

“My folks … my dad took my mom to some fancy restaurant in Amarillo last Valentine’s Day. He’d been saving up for months so they could go. I guess he should’ve put new brakes on the car instead. They skidded off the road on their way home in the pouring rain. They were both dead in a ditch before they knew what hit ‘em. The social workers talked about foster care after that, but it ain’t easy to find a spot for…

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Book Promotion: Do This, Not That – by Amy Collins…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's avatarChris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

on The Book Designer:

A slightly different take on DTNT this month…

Please, authors, if you are on social media or TRYING to get on social media, read this month’s edition of DO THIS NOT THAT.

What I Did

I unfollowed and deleted a romance author from all of my social media platforms.

This author is a terrific lady whom I have spent time with on the phone and in person with her.

Her genre (historical romance) is one of my favorites.

I like her characters, I have read her books in the past, and I like her personally.

SO WHY would I unfollow her everywhere?

Continue reading HERE

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7 Tips to Surviving the Summer as a Parent/Author

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Replace Daddy with Mommy on that picture.  So, things tend to get screwy when you have kids and summer hits.  Camps are so expensive that you might as well mortgage the house or sell a kidney.  Not your own kidney since that only nets you one year, so you’d only prolong the inevitable mortgage.  For some parents, the only option is to either work from home or bring the kid to work.  This is especially true for authors, so what are some things you can do?

  1. Maintain a list of minor projects and tasks that you can do while the kids are playing nearby.  These are things you can easily stop and walk away from such as social media, scheduling blog posts, or even tinkering with other ideas.  In some ways, the partial focus could help with the third idea because you’ll be running on subconscious thought to some extent.
  2. Use your nights and, if possible, weekends to make progress on big projects.  A chapter here and there might not be a bad thing.  If you can get even part of one finished after the kid goes to sleep then it’s a step in the right direction.  A danger here is that you don’t want to pull too many late nights.  Young kids get up early and they won’t really care if you stayed up late.  Not to mention this can lead to them making breakfast for themselves.  Enjoy the emergency cleaning and grocery shopping.
  3. Set your child up with an art project at a table where you can work as well.  You might have to break your concentration a bit, but you’ll know where your child is.  At most, you will have to look up to praise their work or get more supplies.  Keep cleaning supplies nearby, especially paper towels in case they knock over a liquid that races towards your laptop or manuscript.
  4. If your child is old enough then let them entertain themselves for part of the day.  It can be indoors with toys and you sit nearby to work on your own stuff.  Good weather means playing outside, which means you can set up on the patio or bring out a small table.  As long as you’re watching your child, things should be fine, but at a certain age, you don’t have to hover.
  5. Doesn’t hurt to ask grandparents, aunts, or uncles who live nearby if they want to watch your kids for a few hours.  You can’t do this very often and it depends a lot on how supportive they are of your writing, but it can’t hurt to ask.  Sweeten the deal with a home-cooked meal or store-bought ice cream for all.
  6. Turn your focus more to reading and reviewing other authors instead of your own projects.  While you might not make progress with your own stuff, these things can maintain your activity in the author community.
  7. Put everything on the back burner, relax, and enjoy time with your kid.  Before you know it, they won’t want to play games with you and then another blink of the eye will see them as an adult.  Enjoy the fun while it lasts.
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This Week in Indie Publishing

Unknown's avatarDon Massenzio

The Authors Who Love Amazon

Amazon has done a service making self-publishing within reach of everyone. But Alana Semuels’s essay, starting with the subtitle (“The e-commerce giant has finally made self-publishing lucrative”), misleads readers about the true state of things. While self-publishing is a great model for some authors, for many others it is not an option. In particular, journalists, nonfiction writers, teachers, and academics need advances in order to write a book, because they have to take time off from work. Only a traditional publisher gives authors money up front to help them research and write.

Amazon self-publishing is not the panacea Semuels suggests. There are apparently more than 3 million self-published titles up at Amazon, and the majority, by my estimate, make very little money. (Amazon conceals its statistics on these points, so nobody really knows.) And Kindle Unlimited is anything but “highly lucrative” for the 99 percent…

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What Is A Domain Name And How Can It Help In Book Promotion? – by Derek Haines…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's avatarChris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

on Just Publishing Advice:

What is a domain name? It is by far the most important choice you are going to make for your website

When you decide to build a website or blog to promote your books, the first decision you will have to make is what domain name you are going to use.

Domain name registration is quick and inexpensive.

In most cases, your web hosting service provider is connected to domain name registrars, and you can choose top level domain names for less than $10.00 a year.

But before registering a domain, or even a free domain, you should do your homework first.

Continue reading HERE

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Teaser Tuesday: Fighting the Unseen

Cover Art by Sean Harrington

So, I’m going to do one last teaser for Quest of the Brokenhearted since it’s at the new price.  Picked part of one of my favorite battles.  Hope everyone has enjoyed the glimpses into Kira Grasdon’s big adventure and grabbed a copy during the sale.

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