Author: Kristina Stanley

Farley’s Friday: Gonna Get That Squirrel

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 13 Comments

Farley here,

Kristina is busy getting ready for her Facebook Launch Party and release of her second novel BLAZE on Sunday, so I have to keep myself occupied.

I don’t have a problem with that as I have a new FFL – Friend For Life – and he’s a squirrel.

Farley watching sqirrel

He’s collecting nuts for the winter, so he’s a little busy too, but he makes times to play with me.

The game:

Squirrel runs down side of tree.

I bark.

Squirrel runs up tree.

I wag my tail.

Squirrel runs down side of tree…

You get the idea.

We do this for hours, until I can’t focus anymore and I just gotta nap.

Farley napping

Woof Woof

TOP TIPS FOR A BOOK READING EVENT

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 10 Comments

In the modern world of publishing, whether you choose the traditional route or self-publishing, much is expected from an author. Writing a great novel is only the beginning of the journey if you want your work to have a public audience.

BLAZE will be released on Sunday, October 25th, but that doesn’t mean I’m ignoring DESCENT. It’s just as exciting to talk about DESCENT as it is BLAZE, and to be asked to do a reading is an honor I appreciate.

DESCENT is on sale ($0.99 USD) until the end of today, and then it’s back to regular price. You can find it on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

Last week I did a reading at a senior residence in Vancouver, Canada.

Vancouver Event (2)

Farley came with me and did his bit to warm up the audience. The big brown eyes and wagging tail did a lot to make people smile. He was pretty happy about the number of cookies he ate.

Vancouver Event (1)

Now to the tips for delivering a great reading:

The advice is split into  4 sections.

Practice before the event:

  • Don’t leave practicing to the last-minute. Practice every day even for short periods of time. If you can, read to an audience.
  • Practice pausing for commas, periods, paragraph breaks, and starting new scenes.
  • Practice until you can take your eyes away from the words and make eye contact with the audience. This will engage them in your reading. Reading to a mirror will allow you to see if you’re looking up.

Technical preparation:

  • Don’t staple the pages. Stapled pages are noisy when turned and are awkward to hold in place.
  • Number your free pages in case you drop them.
  • Ask how many minutes you have to read. Then prepare for a few minutes less, the exact amount of time and a few minutes more. If other readers don’t show up, you  might be given more time. If the proceedings are running long, you might be given less time, Be ready so you can end with a cliff hanger or a dramatic spot that will leave people wanting more.
  • If you’re reading from printed pages, print in a font large enough to read. Remember the lighting could be dark or there could be glare from other lights. If the font in your printed books is small, you can always print the pages you want to read and place your book in front of you while you’re reading.
  • Ask what the setup will be. Is there a podium where you can set your pages? Will you be holding a mic? Will you be standing or sitting?

At the event, before you read:

  • If you’re not first, watch the other readers for what works and doesn’t work. Standing with the mic too close to the sound system can cause feedback, having the mic too far or too close to you mic can make understanding your words difficult.
  • Have your material ready. Don’t start looking for the section you want to read after you’re at the podium. This distracts the audience.

During your reading:

  • Once you are on stage, thank the hosts of the event. This will make you look professional and give you time to let your voice and your nerves settle before you start reading your story.
  • Breathe. This sounds obvious, but breathing will make your speech clear. During the reading, I was so nervous at first, I couldn’t bring air into my lungs. At the end of the first page, when I had to flip to the next page, I moved the mic away from my mouth and took a deep breath. This helped me calm down.
  • Don’t explain your work in the middle of reading. Let your words speak for themselves.
  • Only brief the audience about the story if you’re not starting at the beginning.
  • Speak slowly.

Remember: the audience came to hear you and they want you to succeed, so smile and have fun.

If you have any tips on reading aloud, please share 🙂 I’m always looking for ways to improve.

Thanks for reading . . .

Facebook Launch Party Tips and Party Invitation

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

Four more days until BLAZE is released by Imajin Books, and I can hardly wait. My stomach is in knots. I don’t know why the launch party makes me nervous, but it does.

The post below was one of my most popular, so it seems appropriate to share it again as I lead up to my next launch party. I’ll be hosting on October 25th from 4 to 6 PM EST. (Click here to sign up)

BLAZE is being released on the 3 month anniversary of DESCENT. What a great excuse to have a party!

You may notice I shortened the party this time. The first party was 3 hours, and I found that a bit long. This time, I’ll try two.

If you’re interested, you can buy or download a sample of DESCENT at:  myBook.to/Descent. It’s still on SALE until midnight at Amazon.co.uk and  Amazon.com  for $0.99 USD.

This is a two-way street, as they say in cliché land, so please invite me to your Facebook launch party if you plan to have one. It’s a great way to make new connections.

Below is the story of how I created and hosted my first launch party. We’ll see how I do with my second…

Preparation for the event.

  • Create a banner to announce your event. I used Canva.com. It’s free. You can see both banners I created. Click the BLAZE banner to sign up for the upcoming party.

Facebook Launch Party-4

Release  Day Party

  • Set up event on Facebook. Remember to make the event public or only your friends can see it.
  • Put the back description of your novel at the top of the page with a link to where your book is sold. You can use booklinker.net to create a link that will take the person to the amazon site of their home country.
  • Invite all your friends and ask them to share your post.
  • Send a reminder the day before and the morning of the event.
  • Have something to give away. I had 14 books donated by other authors. My publisher recommended not to give away DESCENT as it is a new release. I limited each winner to two books. During the first party, I didn’t have time to give away all of the donated books. This time around, I only asked for 6 contributions. Again, my publisher recommended not to give away BLAZE.
  • Create trivia questions. My questions were all related to the books being given away by other authors, but you ask anything really. I created questions  from the Amazon site for the books donated so people could look up the answers and there would be no confusion about the correct answer.
  • Have winners direct message you with their email address. I only gave away eBooks to make the process easy and less costly for donating authors. People could attend your event from different countries and mailing a paperback could get expensive.
  • If books are being given away, take a screen shot of the book cover from Amazon and post it with the trivia question. Don’t add the link to Amazon as the answer to your question might show up too.
  • Keep the trivia questions and answers in a word document so you can cut and paste them instead of having to type them as you go. Things move fast in a launch.
  • Create a list of pre-posts in word in case things get slow. I only used a couple of the ones I created. This could be a question about reading, your books or anything your guests might be interested in.
Here are a couple of sample threads you can post about 10 minutes before the event starts.
Pin the first thread to the top, otherwise people won’t be able to follows what’s going on.
Welcome Guests (other than authors giving away books): Please check in here. Tell us your name, where you’re from and how you know me ☺ This is our main chat thread.
Have a thread where authors can sign in.
Authors check in: Can donating authors please check in here. Tell us your name, location and the name of the title you are donating. Thank you.
After the launch:
  • send an email to donating authors with email of person who won their book. The donating author will send their book directly to the winner.
  • Watch the site in the days following the launch. Sometimes people come on later just to comment or ask a question.
  • Update your Facebook banner to remove the banner announcing the launch and replace with new banner.

FB Cover

  • Once you add the updated banner, remember to add the shop now button. Again I used the Booklinker.net link so the reader could be taken to their relevant amazon site.
You can sign up of my event (to be held October 25th, 2015) at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1630121803934943/ 
Feel free to copy any of the threads to use for your event.
Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or suggestions to improve a Facebook launch party.
Thanks for reading…

BLAZE FACEBOOK LAUNCH PARTY OCTOBER 25th

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

It’s time to celebrate again. BLAZE will be released on October 25th, 2015. I can hardly believe the time has gone by so quickly.

Facebook Launch Party-4

For the Facebook launch party, I’ve an awesome line up of authors who will be giving away a short story and books to the lucky winners.

The prizes are:

Solon Hosophos: Short Story: I Do Not Fear

Debra Purdy Kong: DEAD MAN FLOATING

Kathleen Duhamel: DEEP BLUE

Keith Edwards-English: FRAGMENTS OF THE COIL

Cathy Astolfo: LEGACY

Luke Murphy: KISS & TELL

I’d love to have you there to share in the celebration. Just click here to sign on. All you have to do win is be the first to answer a simple trivia question.

If you haven’t read DESCENT yet, Imajin Books has put it on sale until October 22nd on http://bit.ly/DESCENTUSA and http://bit.ly/DESCENTUK for $0.99 USD.  This is their gift to readers.

Thanks for stopping by.

Mystery Mondays: Phyllis Smallman on Sherri Travis Mysteries

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

Today on Mystery Mondays I have the pleasure of hosting Phyllis Smallman.  I met Phyllis at the 2014 Crime Writers Of Canada Arthur Ellis Awards dinner. When I was introduced to her by Melodie Campbell, all I got was, “This is Phyllis.”

Wait a minute, I thought. The Sherri Travis mystery series writer? No way. So I casually ask, “What’s your last name?” I was so excited to meet Phyllis, I stumbled over my words. I’d read all of the Sherri Travis mysteries, and couldn’t believe I was meeting Phyllis in person. Well now, I get to host her on my blog. How cool is that!

Screen Shot 2015-10-04 at 3.59.46 PMPhyllis Smallman’s first novel, Margarita Nights, won the inaugural Unhanged Arthur award from the Crime Writers of Canada. Smallman has also won the IPPY golden medal for best mystery and numerous awards from the Florida Writers Association. Her writing has appeared in both Spinetingler Magazine and Omni Mystery Magazine. The Sherri Travis mystery series was chosen by Good Morning America for a summer read in 2010.

Before turning to a life of crime Smallman was a potter. She divides her time between a beach in Florida and an island in the Salish Sea.

Dear Reader,

I’m a little busy on Sherri’s latest adventure, Last Call, so I thought I’d let Sherri speak for herself and tell you about the six published books she’s appeared in. Here’s Sherri.

Don’t listen to what people say about me. Here’s the real deal. I grew up down in Florida in a broken down trailer park where the swamp gas made us all a little crazy. Ruth Ann, my mom, kept us alive by working every hour God sent but she had one fatal flaw – she was a woman in love with love and she brought home the wrong kind of man. I swore I’d never be like her but I pretty much blew that resolution when I married Jimmy Travis. A guy like Jimmy will quickly destroy your faith in romance…leave you thinking Cinderella is dead and the prince is gay and that moonlight and roses hide muggers and thorns.

So, one night I am tending bar at the Sunset Bar and Grill when a cop walks in and tells me my god-awful husband is dead…kind of a good news bad news situation, the downside being I’m the prime suspect. Having friends in low places can come handy and in the Sunset a girl can find lots of those.

Things happen in the Sunset. I try not to get sucked in to other people’s stories, but good intentions and I never have been the best of friends, another thing I blame on Ruth Ann, caring about people being a further bad example she set for me. That’s what led to all of my problems. Like the time I got trapped on an island with a dead body and a murderer – with a hurricane about to hit. That was all her fault. And when her old boyfriend, the guy who abused me when I was a kid, comes back to town with another single mother and her young daughter, how do you not get involved?

Most of the time I dispense the drinks and try not to get tangled up in other people’s bad times, ‘cause truthfully I’ve got enough of my own, but the thing about a bar, besides the guys who are always coming on to you, is you get to hear all sorts of things – who did what to whom, and how many times – who has the door open and is peaking out of the closet – and these days, so many times it could make you weep, who is about to lose everything. You also hear different versions of the same tale. Sometimes that’s as telling as the truth, but to discover the real facts just pour another drink. Stories just naturally come unraveled in the Sunset.

At the moment I’m hanging out down at the Rawhide Saloon in Key West. It’s an over the top gay bar run by my friend Lexi Devine. But I won’t be here long, just until Last Call when Marley comes back from her date with an Elvis impersonator. I wonder what’s keeping her.

____________________________________

My second series, starring Singer Brown, is set in the Pacific Northwest. The next book in that series, Ghost Island, will be out in 2016. The first in the series is LONG GONE MAN.

Cheers,

Phyl

http://www.phyllissmallman.com

***

Next week on Mystery Mondays please join me in welcoming author Jesse Giles Christiansen.

DESCENT on SALE for $0.99 USD

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

To celebrate the release of BLAZE one week from today, Imajin Books has put DESCENT on sale for $0.99 US.

This offer is available  on Amazon in the US at DESCENT and in the UK  by clicking here.

The sale will only be up for three days, and then it’s back to the regular price.

Feel free to share this with your friends. I’d love to spread the work while the deal is valid.
Thank you Imajin Books!

Kristina

Farley’s Friday: Freedom Has A Price

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 9 Comments

Farley here,

It’s not my fault I love to run in a creek. It’s not my fault the creek bottom is muddy.

Farley Muddy

I rolled and rolled on the grass, but the mud just wouldn’t come off.

So when we arrive home, you know what happens…

Farley in Tub

I don’t like having a bath. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned that, many times…Special bubbles just for dogs. Ha!

Woof Woof

Paperback Distribution

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

Every day, I learn something new in this publishing business. I’ve been telling people DESCENT is available on Amazon only.

Seriously, I should know this stuff by now. It turns out the eBook version of DESCENT is available on Amazon exclusively.

But the trade paperback is a different story.

For those of you who don’t know, Bookfinder will list everywhere a print version of your book is sold.  DESCENT is even available from Barnes & Noble. That’s kinda cool.

The first page of stores at Bookfinder looks like this for DESCENT:

Screen Shot 2015-10-09 at 2.28.43 PM

Wasn’t that an awesome surprise for me!

If you’re looking for something to read and you haven’t read DESCENT yet, now is your chance before BLAZE comes out. Find it at: myBook.to/Descent And now I can add checkout Bookfinder for anywhere that sells the trade paperback.

And if you have read DESCENT, I’d be very excited if you pre-ordered BLAZE.  BLAZE will be released October 25th, 2015. That is so soon and I can hardly wait.

Thanks for reading…

3 Month Anniversary of DESCENT

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 10 Comments

My Facebook launch party is set and the date is special to me. BLAZE will be published on the 3 month anniversary of DESCENT.

When: October 25th, 2-4 PM EST

Where:  https://www.facebook.com/events/1630121803934943/

A special group of authors will be giving away their books. All you need to do is join the party, be the first to answer a trivia question correctly, and you win. I’ll announce the author list closer to the date… Can’t give you all the information at one, now could I?

If you want information on how to host your own Facebook launch party, click here. And if you do host one, be sure to let me know. I love attending them.

Early praise for BLAZE is just a thrilling to me as the early praise DESCENT received. The first I received was from Phyllis Smallman.

“Evil in a beautiful landscape—Blaze is an inferno of action and tension. ‪Its sizzling plot will keep you guessing until the end.” —Phyllis Smallman, award-winning author of the Sherri Travis murder mysteries

Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000040_00072]

If you’re looking for something to read and you haven’t read DESCENT yet, now is your chance before BLAZE comes out. Find it at: myBook.to/Descent

And if you have read DESCENT, I’d be very excited if you pre-ordered BLAZE.

Thanks for reading…