Birthday Shout-outs

July is a busy month for birthdays it seems.

My cousin, Long Suffering Housemate hits her big day today - you can follow her on twitter at @magicdarcy; Scott from Indie Book blogger and G. David Walker, the author of  From A Far Land gets the Happy Day on July 22nd, and my dad shares his day with a personal hero of mine, Nelson Mandela on July 18th.

If I'm missing anyone, drop a line in the comments so I can update this post - thanks to Scott for the update on G. David Walker (if you haven't read his book, you're missing a treat).

Happy Birthday to all of you, and anyone else celebrating this month - may the Universe grant you sweetness and light.

News, Reviews & Guest Blogs

Book promotion news

Both Basement Blues and WolfSong are on special over at Smashwords for the month of July.

Get 49% off Wolfsong by using Code SSW50, and Basement Blues is running at a 100% discount - use Code SSWSF.

And if you're hitting Smashwords, there's a whole bunch of authors with specials on - check out Thea Atkinson's brilliant range of psychological thrillers, and Bernard Schaffer's short story collection, Gods and Other Monsters. I'm not sure if the collection is still on special, but if not it's very reasonably priced. The Bakkian Chronicles by Jeffrey Poole is not on special, but worth the read just for the banter between the husband and wife team who find themselves in a really different kind of world.

Over on Kindle, I discovered Voice by Joseph Garraty last month. If you like your horror, get this - I reckon this guy hits the same level as Joe Hill, and if he isn't absolutely huge in the next couple of years, I'll eat my kindle.

John Locke made headlines across the world as being the first purely self-published author to sell a million books on kindle. I took the plunge and read the books - and loved them. Quirky, off-beat and sometimes hysterically funny - I can easily see why he's achieved this. 

On a weird pricing note - I put the price of WolfSong up on the US store. Since then, it's climbed the ranks a bit. I'm not sure why, but US audiences seem to want to pay more for a book. I've kept Basement Blues at the 0.99c mark, and it's been dropping down the ranks. I just don't feel comfortable charging much more for what it is essentially 2 short stories and a short novella; but might need to rethink that in the future. It's the other way round on the UK site, with Basement Blues bopping along quite happily and WolfSong meandering along.

I'm working on the first full length book, and providing my net-book co-operates and I get through the trauma of the finance paper I'm working on for university, hope to have it out in the next couple of months.

Reviews

I got a couple of great reviews on Basement Blues on Goodreads, Amazon and Smashwords - thanks! It was the last thing I was expecting, and I was feeling pretty down when I came across it so it really did make my day.

Guest Blogs

Indie Book Blogger stepped up to the plate (again!) and let me trample all over his blog here. Whether you write or simply love to read, Scott delivers the goods tirelessly on Indie books - I've found some gems on his site. Everything from interviews, to reviews, to good old fashioned banter - go check it out.

The lovely Thea got her hooks in me again via twitter, and talked me into doing a humour piece - Paris Hilton Gets a Fairy, as part of her regular Writer Wednesday exercises on Gonzo Ink. From a writers perspective, her exercises are invaluable - even if you never post them. 

Coming up next - Supernatural Sunday - a look at SHC (Spontaneous Human Combustion, which is just as scary as it sounds..)

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You can find WolfSong on Amazon, Sony  e-bookstore, Nook and Smashwords. Basement Blues is on Amazon and Smashwords

WolfSong - first review on Amazon.com

Scott from Indie Book Blog was kind enough to review WolfSong and the review is posted on Amazon.com here.

It's my first ever review, and I was nervous.      

I read the review.

I read the review again.

Then I went to the kitchen and did a happy dance around LSH while making high pitched squealing noises.

Limped back to my room, (concrete floor + soft slippers = sore feet) and read the review again. Text messaged my folks (South Africa), my brother (Australia), friend (London).

Typed a couple of thank you's to Scott on the forum he started, as a direct response to the review, and on his blog (which I sincerely hope were coherent, because my brain was still doing back flips & giggling gently to itself) and decided to post this before crashing.

He gave me four stars (FOUR!! STARS!! OMGOMGOMG!!) and incredible feedback, both by e-mail and in the review.

Thanks to the feedback I'll be uploading a re-formatted version to kindle tomorrow - right now I'm so tired I'm having trouble focusing on the keyboard - and hopefully that issue is fixed. The other points he made (all valid) I'm going to do my best to fix in the next book.

He also gave a really good summary of the book; something I struggle to do, so I owe a huge thanks to him for that as well.

Mood: Happy, happy bunny!