A Burst of Sparkle

I’m opening a favorite sparking drink tomorrow, metaphorically at least, as I kick-off a month-long blog tour for my first series, 46. Ascending. It seemed fitting to do this before my new series begins to dominate my life after the release of its first book on November 13. After all, I do love this original series too.

I’ve found a new blog company, Silver Dagger Tours, to put this tour together and I’ve been very impressed so far. I love the people I’ve worked with on previous blog tours, but my hope is a new venue, with new hosts, will introduce me to new readers.

So far I’ve got these great visuals to use …

and the schedule of stops below, many of them on blogs I’ve never visited. I’ll keep posting here about the tour and how it goes.

Oct 9

KICKOFF at Silver Dagger Book Tours (Link live at 3 am tomorrow Oct. 9)

A Pinch of Bookdust

Oct 12

Sadie’s Spotlight

Scrupulous Dreams

Oct 13

Insane Books

The Book Dragon

Oct 14

Bedazzled By Books

The Bookshelf Fairy

Oct 15

All Things Dark & Dirty

The Faerie Review

Oct 16

Midnight Book Reader

Twisted Book Ramblings

Oct 17

The Avid Reader

Oct 19

Musings From An Addicted Reader

Luv Saving Money

Oct 20

Renee Wildes Weblog

Drako’s Den

Oct 21

Why I Can’t Stop Reading

Momma Says: To Read or Not to Read

Oct 22

My Crazy Life

Inside the Insanity

Oct 23

The Pulp and Mystery Shelf

Teatime and Books   

Oct 26

eBook Addicts

Always Love Me Some Books Blog

Oct 27

#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee

Stormy Nights Reviewing & Bloggin’

Oct 28

Sapphyria’s Book Reviews

Readeropolis

Oct 29

Airin’ My Dirty Laundry

Dragon’s Den

Oct 30

IndiePowerd by No Sweat Graphics

Books a Plenty Book Reviews

Oct 31

The Book Junkie Reads . . .

A Wonderful World of Words

Nov 2

Bayou Queen Book Fanatics

Books, Authors, Blogs

Nov 3

Books all things paranormal and romance

Girl with Pen

Nov 4

Literary Gold

Sylv.net

Nov 5

Authors & Readers Book Corner

T’s Stuff

Nov 6

Craving Lovely Books

Book Corner News and Reviews

Nov 7

The Sexy Nerd ‘Revue’

Nov 8

Books A-Brewin’

Nov 9

Anna del C. Dye official page

Valerie Ullmer | Romance Author

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Coming down the slide in 10 days

There was the first rush of panic, followed by a whoosh of tummy tickling pleasure, then a sadness to have it end, probably 30 seconds or so after it started. It was usually followed by an irrational desire to get in line and do it again.

It’s been a while since I’ve done that, but the past three months have had a similar feel. With each new novel I’ve released, the level of complexity of the tasks has increased, making each slide seem higher and feel more twisty.

Read more about Coming down the slide in 10 days.

Nothing cool about modest ambitions

I already know it is admirable and interesting to not care about making money, or to pretend not to care, as the case may be. Being an artist who is driven to create for the sheer joy of it has great appeal. Greed is ugly. Creativity is cool.

Yet, we also have a cultural fascination with being rich, and everyone admires success. To be driven is admirable. To say I believe in my books and trust they will someday be best sellers is also cool. Who doesn’t like a fighter determined to make it to the big time?

Wouldn’t you know it. I’m not either of these kinds of cool.

Read more at Nothing cool about modest ambitions.

(Read more about why I write at The Number One Reason I Write Books,  My Eye-opening Second Reason for Writing, I write because it’s cheaper than therapy, I love to be loved and Remember My Name.)

Review: Deep Sahara by Leslie Croxford

Deep Sahara Review: This is an impressive book, but not an easy read. If a reader is willing to make the effort to flow with this unusual story, I believe they will find themselves haunted by it, in the way only a fine novel can manage. I give it a 9/10.

See Review: Deep Sahara for all my thoughts and for more information about this book.

One of my resolutions for 2018 is to review more books on my x0 blog. For these reviews, I am interested reading speculative fiction of all sorts, including science fiction and fantasy. I have a fondness for metaphysical tales and particularly like stories with a strong female protagonist. I will consider novels of almost all types that relate to the general theme of world peace.

Read about my requirements for a review, and get my contact info.

Designing your own book cover, part 4

I knew I didn’t want the image of Teddie, my hero, to be a photo. This was a book about out of body experiences, and a clear likeness seemed too stark. I wanted something vague, more like a sketch. She had to be young, dark-haired, and there had to be green involved.  I didn’t expect a lot of results when I combined all these search parameters, and I didn’t get them. However, the one image I got had potential.

Read more at Designing your own book cover, part 4.

(For more on this topic see Designing your own book cover, part 1, part 2 and part 3.)

Designing your own book cover, part 3

I was sort of like someone who wants to fire a few BB’s at a squirrel to scare it off the lawn and gets handed an AK-47. Before I knew it, I had dozens if not hundreds of relevant images and so many cover ideas that my head hurt. Take a look at a couple of the wild combinations…

I had to make a decision. I picked something that I thought would please everyone a little and my novel first appeared with the cover below.

It took me no more than a few days to accept that I did not particularly like it.

Read more at Designing your own book cover, part 3.

(For more on this topic see Designing your own book cover, part 1 and Designing your own book cover, part 2.)

 

Designing your own book cover, part 2

It was time to contact the graphics people at Mother Spider, and see if the same magic could be performed on this cover that had happened with my first book, xo. I explained to Jennifer, the owner of Mother Spider, that the novel was about the grown-up adventures of a boy who had once taught himself to shift his appearance while watching his pet chameleon. I had to have the boat, the sunset, the fire-dancing imagery, at least one chameleon and an orange cover.

“We’ll see,” was all she said.

Read more at Designing your own book cover, part 2

(For more on this topic see Designing your own book cover, part 1 and Designing your own book cover, part 3.)

Designing your own book cover, part 1

But wanting to do something and knowing how to do it well are two different things, as you can tell by looking at my first version of the cover to the right. I knew my book needed to be red …

Read more at Designing your own book cover, part 1.

(For more on this topic see Designing your own book cover, part 2  and Designing your own book cover, part 3)

A way to wish you joy and peace in 2017

I woke up to this sunrise today,  a reminder that every day brings us a fresh chance to embrace, improve and enjoy this wonderful gift we call life.

It’s been a tough couple of months for me, and for others who want to encourage tolerance and empathy. I’m looking for positive ways to deal with my concerns about the direction in which my country is headed, and I hope that you are too. Lucky for me, my sister, who is full of good ideas, had a suggestion for me.

With her encouragement, I reviewed, edited and sorted through the 159 posts on my x0 blog and put the best of them into a new book called “Face Painting for World Peace.” This short (121 page) volume of essays attempts to be both humorous and thought provoking as it examines what I like to call “intra-species harmony” (aka world peace) from a wide variety of angles. Three of my favorites are One Person’s Tourist Destination is Another Person’s Home, My Imaginary Prison Time, and My iPod Works as a Fortune Cookie.

This new eBook is available on Amazon for the least I am allowed to charge (ninety-nine cents), and is similarly available at Barnes and Noble, on Smashwords, and at the iTunes store where it can be found as an iBook by searching on Sherrie Cronin. This is not intended to be a money making project; I have pledged to donate half of all proceeds to “Doctors Without Borders”.

Here is the description:

I am passionate about the cause of the world peace. From early 2012 on I have maintained a blog in which I often write about empathy and peace. I have arranged these short essays in book form, to be published for Christmas 2016. A lot has changed in the world over the past four years, but what has not changed is how I continue to cherish time with those I love, and how others do the same throughout the world. This book is my holiday card; my way of wishing hope, joy and peace to every human on earth, with no exceptions.

Please download, please enjoy, and please share with others. Meanwhile, I will try to wake up every day during this coming year, catch a glimpse of that beautiful dawn, and then seek out positive ways to add my voice to the chorus still being sung by those who believe that kindness should guide our politics, our words and our actions. I invite you to sing along, too.

(You can read the orignal post announcing the book on my x0 blog.)

Review of “Defriended” by Ruth Baron

c3 may be the closest attempt I ever make to writing a young adult novel, but the experience left me with a better appreciation of the challenges faced in crafting a story that is realistic, timely and yet appropriate for all young readers. This is not an easy needle to thread, and when I heard that I knew someone who knew someone who had written a fairly successful young adult horror novel, I decided to give it a try. I am so glad I did.

Read my entire review at Review of “Defriended” by Ruth Baron

 

 

Going Crazy

Somewhere between meaningless uses of the word like “I’m crazy about you” and serious, perhaps even crippling, mental health issues is a world of sort-of-comic, sort-of-sad neurotic behavior that we lightly refer to as crazy. We use it to mean that you (or I) have crossed that fuzzy boundary that surrounds normal and you (or I) are now happily dancing around naked in pig shit singing songs from “The Sound of Music” while making funny faces. You know, crazy.

via Going Crazy