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Imajin Books Spring #eBook #Sale

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 1 Comment

Shower yourself with ebooks from Imajin Books during the Spring Showers eBook Sale April 17 – 23.

The sale includes DESCENT and BLAZE, so if you haven’t read either Stone Mountain Mystery, now is your chance.  Avalanche will be released later this spring, so why not read the first two in the series?

You’ll find an amazing selection of eBooks at Imajin Books for only  $0.99 US. If you like trilogies, and who doesn’t, these are only $1.99 US.

Give yourself the gift of reading. You deserve it.

Imajin Spring Showers Badge

Descent: When Kalin Thompson is promoted to Director of Security at Stone Mountain Resort, she soon becomes entangled in the high-profile murder investigation of an up-and-coming Olympic-caliber skier. There are more suspects with motives than there are gates on the super-G course, and danger mounts with every turn.

Blaze: Instead of exchanging vows, Kalin Thompson spends her wedding day running from a forest fire near Stone Mountain Resort, and the pregnant friend trapped with her has just gone into labor. Meanwhile, Kalin’s fiancé, Ben Timlin, hangs from the rafters of a burning building, fighting for his life. Can the situation get any hotter?

Avalanche: On a cold winter morning, the safe at Stone Mountain Resort is robbed, and Kalin Thompson’s brother, Roy, suspiciously disappears. As Director of Security, Kalin would normally lead the investigation, but when her brother becomes the prime suspect, she is ordered to stay clear.

The police and the president of the resort turn their sights on Kalin, who risks everything to covertly attempt to clear Roy’s name. As threats against her escalate, she moves closer to uncovering the guilty party. Is Kalin’s faith in her brother justified? Or will the truth destroy her?

Thanks for reading…

Endorsement For The Author’s Guide To Selling Books To Non-Bookstores

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 15 Comments

Shroud of RosesToday, I get to thank Gloria Ferris, first for being kind enough to take time from her busy writing schedule to read an ARC of The Author’s Guide To Selling Books To Non-Bookstores, and then for writing a lovely endorsement.

Targeted

Gloria is the author of the Cornwall & Refern Mysteries, including Shroud Of Roses and Corpse Flower. She’s also completed the amazing feat of co-authoring Targeted with Donna Warner.

So over to Gloria…

Well, I’ve been a published author for almost five years and it never occurred to me that I can sell my books in places that — wait for it — don’t usually sell books! It’s true. The Author’s Guide To Selling Books To Non-Bookstores, by Kristina Stanley, is an in-depth instructional guide on how to do this. Every step is covered, from formulating a plan to collecting money — and, everything in between.

Kristina kindly provides a sample spreadsheet and invoices to keep the author organized. I also picked up some new book-signing and marketing tips from this book, and my mind is whirling with the possibilities! The book is well-written and worth the read for authors who are interested in stepping up their marketing efforts. ~ Gloria Ferris, award-winning author of the Cornwall & Redfern Mysteries”

Sell Books To Non-Bookstores

Of course, DESCENT and BLAZE can be bought online, but it sure is fun to see them in stores. Soon, AVALANCHE will be sitting beside these two on the shelves.

Thanks for reading…

Farley’s Friday: I’m Showing My Fangs

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 3 Comments

Farley here,

The humans down the street have a new dog. His name is Finn, and he’s a Portuguese Water Dog. Except he doesn’t really like water, so what’s with the name?

The golf course is free of snow but not open for golfers yet. So we get to run, play, wrestle… on 18 fairways.  That’s a lot of turf to cover.

I know my fangs are out and I look a bit vicious, but I’m not. This is how we play. Finn is a rough-and-tumble kinda guy. I don’t actually bite him. He’s only 7 months old, and I’m seven years.

Farley and Finn

In the end, I’m exhausted but so happy to have a new friend living in my neighbourhood. I can’t wait to get out there again and chase him around the bunkers.

Woof Woof

 

 

 

Avalanche Explodes Again: More Praise…

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

Screen Shot 2016-04-03 at 7.24.14 AMThe weeks and months before a novel is published is an exciting time. It’s the time when early praise starts to roll in. I’m so thrilled to share an endorsement from James M. Jackson. James is the author of Ant Farm, Cabin Fever, and Bad Policy.

THANK YOU, JAMES 🙂

Avalanche is the third in the Stone Mountain Mystery series and is scheduled for publication by Imajin Books this spring.

Avalanche smashes and uproots relationships in Stone Mountain Resort, leaving devastation in its wake. With as many layers as winter’s snow, this whodunit will keep you turning pages and guessing to the end. ~ James M. Jackson, author of the Seamus McCree Series

***

On a cold winter morning, deep in the Purcell Mountains, the safe at Stone Mountain Resort is robbed hours before Kalin Thompson’s brother, Roy, disappears in an avalanche.

Under normal circumstances, as the director of security, Kalin would lead the investigation into the theft, but Roy is the prime suspect. The police and the president of the resort turn their sights on Kalin. She’s told to stay clear of the investigation and risks her job to covertly attempt to clear Roy’s name.

Threats against Kalin escalate as she gets closer to the truth. Is her faith in her brother justified? Was the avalanche an accident or did something more sinister happen? And is the truth worth destroying her life for?

 

Write Better Fiction: Learn How To Edit

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

Today on Write Better Fiction we’ll cover Learning to Edit. Write Better Fiction is a process to help you critique your own manuscript and give yourself feedback. This will help you improve your novel, so you’re ready to submit it to an editor.

Now that we are fifteen episodes into Write Better Fiction, you’ve probably guessed I have a passion for learning how to edit, and since I blog about the writing process, I wanted to share a little story with you.

I believe to become a better writer, I needed to learn to edit my own story. What about you?  Before sending your story to beta readers, writers’ critique groups, or to an editor, don’t you want your story to be the best you can make it?

The story I’m going to share with you involves Jodie Renner, editor & award-winning author

Screen Shot 2015-09-22 at 7.33.47 AM

Early last fall, Jodie put out a call for submissions for short stories written about British Columbia. The accepted entries would be published in the Voices From The Valleys anthology. I submitted Deirdre Hunting Season, and Jodie accepted it into the anthology.

Once I stopped jumping up and down, and doing the happy dance, I read through Jodie’s website. As all proceeds from the sale of the anthology go to Doctors Without Borders, Jodie asked for volunteers to help proofread. So with a great cause in mind, I volunteered.

Jodie sent me each story she accepted into the anthology and asked for my comments. Over the course of several months, I read every submission that Jodie accepted, sent her my comments and then read the final version.

This gave me the opportunity to see what Jodie did with her edits. It gave me time to read a story, not just because it was a wonderful story, but to read with the eye of an editor. It made me think about spelling, punctuation, and grammar. About word choice, head hopping, and inconsistencies in the story line.

So if you’re looking to improve your editing skills, why not find a project where you can volunteer your time, help a good cause, and learn at the same time?

Besides learning from an expert, Jodie was kind enough to mention me in the acknowledgment section of Voices From The Valleys. Tell me that’s not a thrill.

To entice you to read Voices From the Valleys, Jodie has posted excerpts from all contributing authors at http://www.jodierenner.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/VOICES-FROM-THE-VALLEYS-EXCERPTS.pdf

I’ve put the excerpt from Deirdre Hunting Season below…

Next week, I’ll return to Write Better Fiction with Scene Middles.

Thank you, Jodie!

Deirdre Hunting Season

Excerpt as published in Voices From The Valleys

Due to the shortage of deer in the area, our community restricted deer hunting to bucks with four point antlers. The doe in the area needed more males. Well, so did I. I was forty years old, and my buck just married a doe half his age.

In our small town nestled between the Rockies and the Purcell Mountains of British Columbia, everyone knew everyone. I did the books for half a dozen businesses on Main Street and was known as the accountant with the cheating husband. That’s me. Failure at marriage extraordinaire. What did I do to deserve this? I’m a rule follower. I do good deeds. I volunteer. I’ve never even received a parking ticket. So what happened in my life surprised me.

The day mother nature blew the leaves off my tree, I came home unexpectedly. We’d hired a local company to clean our air ducts, and the guy doing the work was supposed to come the following day. He called and asked if I could meet him a day early. I rushed home, even though I was busy, unlocked the front door, and headed toward the back of the house. I’d told him I’d leave the kitchen door open for him.

Fifteen years of marriage pinholed to one moment. A naked woman standing in my kitchen, leaning against my sink, drinking water from my glass.

“Hey, Babe. Get back here. I don’t have much time,” my then husband called from our bedroom.

The glass of water froze at the babe’s lips as if she’d stuck her tongue on a metal swing set in winter. I recognized her from my husband’s office. Deirdre something-or-other.

Help Me Choose My Novel’s Back Text

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 23 Comments

My latest mystery novel, LOOK THE OTHER WAY, is written. My trustworthy beta readers have sent me their comments, and I’ve updated the novel. Each beta reader provided different input on the story, and each person helped me make it better.

So why not ask my beta readers for help with the book description? They’ve read the book and will know if the description is accurate. So ask, I did. After receiving feedback from 5 people, my two favorite versions are below.

Please vote on your favorite. Which description would entice you to read LOOK THE OTHER WAY?

OPTION A:

Bobby Hall’s body washes up in the surf on a remote Bahamian island. His death is declared accidental. His grieving wife, Debi, hires Captain Jake Hunter, a former cop fleeing personal trauma, to sail with her on A Dog’s Cat and retrace Bobby’s final weeks at sea.

Shannon Payne is fired from the job she loves. Her engagement ends in disaster, and she no longer trusts her judgment of men. Giving up the life she knows as a reporter, she joins her aunt on A Dog’s Cat. The tranquility of life on a sailboat is what she needs. A tumultuous journey with the handsome captain is what she gets.

As tensions heighten on board, so does the attraction growing between Jake and Shannon. When Shannon learns a shocking truth about her childhood, a truth that might mean Bobby was murdered, the only thing clearer than the crystalline waters of the Bahamian archipelago is that someone is not telling the whole truth and hasn’t for a long time.

OPTION B:

A year after her uncle is lost at sea, Shannon Payne joins her grieving aunt on a journey through the idyllic Bahamian islands. She needs to recover from a devastating breakup with her fiancé. And sailing the turquoise waters, tracing her uncle’s route as a tribute to him, may just repair her heart. But instead of tranquility, she uncovers dark secrets from her past that may destroy any chance she has at happiness.

Captain Jake Hunter joins the duo on the thirty-eight-foot catamaran, A Dog’s Cat. He’s running away from painful memories. He dreams of escaping his life as a cop but finds himself embroiled in an investigation. He’s sworn off women, and now he’s living in close quarters with his boss’s niece, a blue-eyed beauty he can’t resist but should. Could his life get any more turbulent?

Shannon and Jake suppress the attraction they feel for each other, Bobby’s mysterious death hangs over them, and someone out there doesn’t want the truth uncovered.

 

I sailed on Mattina, a 38-foot catamaran, for five years in the Bahamas. She’s the sailing vessel used in LOOK THE OTHER WAY, and this is her, one beautiful day in the Exuma Islands.

Mattina sailing

 

Thanks for voting! Comments are most welcome.

 

Mystery Mondays: Teagan Riordain Geneviene on What’s In A Name?

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 58 Comments

With a name as beautiful as Teagan Riordain Geneviene, you may well ask, what’s in a name? Well Teagan, author of ATONEMENT TENNESEE,  is here on Mystery Mondays to tell you.

At the bottom of the post, Teagan has some interesting questions for you, so keep reading…

What’s in a Name?

Hi Kristina. Thanks for inviting me to your Mystery Mondays.

Brain-NamesWhat do you think about names – generally? Or do you think about them? Most people don’t. I however, could really enjoy a big metaphysical discussion about names, but that’s not where I’m headed here. When I started this blog, I promised myself I’d stick to things related to writing or my books.

Names are incredibly important in life and in fiction. The names of my pets were something I chose very carefully, to suit them.

I’m just as meticulous in choosing the names of my characters. The right name can pull you into the mystery of the story, or lend a dramatic tone. When I write a classic type of fantasy, I go all out – researching name meanings and origins, and making sure they fit the traits of the character.

For stories located in the real world (fantasy or not), such as Atonement, Tennessee, I don’t always go to such lengths. Even so, each name speaks strongly to me about the who, what, and where of the character. Right now, I’m showing installments of my novel The Guitar Mancer at my blog. The name-meaning of the heroine is carefully interwoven into the story.atonement-video-cover-copy

There are a lot of cool sites about names and their meanings and origins. Yeah, I know — I’m a total research geek… but check out a few of the websites sometime. You already know that you can find an Internet site for just about anything. There are sites that list names of various myth figures, gods and goddesses, and summaries of the myths. Also, I’m sure you’ve seen at least one of the “baby name” sites. I even found one that list names by their popularity, by state, per year. It’s actually a cool resource if you want to find a character name that’s typical, or common for a given area and time, to help enhance the story in a subtle way.

I’ve used so many of these sites, I won’t try to list them all here. However, I liked this one (below), and thought it was general enough for other people to find it interesting. It’s divided by state. For the most recent years, it lists names for each year, but if you scroll down it gives an average over a five-year range. I liked that because it gave me a wide-ranging picture of what characters might populate my story. I used it for Atonement, Tennessee since the research for that National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) novel had to be done in such a hurry. http://pregnancy.about.com/od/localbabynames/a/statebabynames.htm

Okay, now I’m putting you to work. It’s time for a quick imagining of a story. Pick a state for the setting. Then choose the average age for most of the people there (even go to a “city data” page if you want to get the mean age in your chosen location), and figure out in what year they would have been born. Then click on the closest year listed. Now look at those names and tell me what images came to your mind. What did you see? Didn’t you see a group of people when you looked at the names? What were they doing? Where did they go when they headed out their separate ways?

Have fun,

Teagan

EASTER EGG HUNT for 3 Free Novellas

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 1 Comment

Easter may be over, but there are still Easter Eggs to be found…

Kristina Stanley's avatarKristina Stanley

Would you like three free novellas for the price of one book?

Imajin Books has a gift for you.

If you read DESCENT and receive your free novellas, let me know. I’d be thrilled to find out which ones you win. Imajin Books loves a mystery, and even I don’t know which novellas are hidden in DESCENT.

easter brunch party

Enjoy.

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Write Better Fiction: The Scene Hook

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 3 Comments

Today on Write Better Fiction we’ll cover The Scene Hook. Write Better Fiction is a process to help you critique your own manuscript and give yourself feedback. This will help you improve your novel, so you’re ready to submit it to an editor.

Everyone knows the cliche hook, line, and sinker. You can apply that to your scene but think of it as entry hook, development, and exit hook. You’ll need all three of these elements in every scene to create a story your readers can’t put down.

What Is A Scene Entry Hook?

Many writing books talk about the importance of the first line, first paragraph and first page of a novel. If you don’t grab the reader then, you might lose them for good. There is a lot of pressure on a writer to produce an extraordinary first line for a novel.

But as with most things, practice will make you better. So start practicing now with the first line of every scene in your novel.

The end of a scene gives the reader an opportunity to close your book an ego to sleep. They might be tired and think about putting the book on the nightstand or closing the book on their eReader. But sometimes the reader will read the first sentence of the next scene to decide whether to keep reading or not, so it better be a good sentence.

I’ll bet you’ve done that late at night when your mind wants to read but your body wants to sleep. I certainly have.

You want the reader to keep reading, or at the very least look forward to reading the following scene the next day.

How Do You Get The Reader’s Attention?

With a good hook, of course. When creating a hook, consider:

  • Starting in media res
  • Foreshadowing trouble
  • Using a strong line of dialogue
  • Raising a question
  • Not wasting words on extraneous description.

So What About Characters?

Remember from last week’s post on scene anchoring, the hook must also introduce characters.

  • Who are they (and who has POV)
  • Where they are
  • What are they doing
  • What’s the timing of the scene

Alternate Your Technique

Alternate your technique so the reader doesn’t get bored. If you don’t know what the hook is or why the reader would start reading the next scene, think about rewriting the beginning of the scene.

Sometimes you might find you’ve started the scene too early. Look at cutting the scene until something exciting is happening. If there is description you need, move it to later in the scene if you can. You might just need a little reorganizing of the scene to make the beginning sizzle.

Last week’s blog covered anchoring your scene, so don’t forget to consider how to anchor your scene in conjunction with creating a good hook.

Your challenge this week is to ask yourself what is the hook for each scene. Is it enough to keep the reader reading?

I critiqued DESCENT and BLAZE using the techniques I’m sharing in Write Better Fiction, and I believe this helped me sign with a publisher.

Please let me know in the comments below if you have any suggestions how to check whether a hook is strong enough?

Thanks for reading…