It's an exciting time for The Scythe Wielder's Secret, now that the series has concluded. Want to help get the word out? Here's what YOU can do: Don't forget that the single most-effective marketing for any author is word of mouth. If you've enjoyed what you read, please tell people! Thank you so much for your help.
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Fans of Tolkien remember how important 111 (or "eleventy-one") can be. I feel like celebrating with 111 candles, and perhaps a trip to Rivendell!
For a long time, I watched reviews of my book steadily grow, and today received my hundred and eleventh Amazon review for SCHOOL OF DEATHS. Amazingly, 50% of my 111 reviews are 5 star reviews, including the newest review- where the reader says they enjoyed the novel MORE than Harry Potter! Check out the 111th review on Amazon, and be sure to leave your own review there as well! Most of us probably think of Thor as a great warrior from Norse Mythology. But have you ever read the Lay of Thrym or Þrymskviða? As an add on to this week's MythicMondays, let's hear the tale. Thrym, King of the Jotunn (Giants), steals Thor's mighty hammer Mjölnir. Thrym then demands that Freyja, goddess of sex and beauty, marry him. The gods decide to accept Thrym's demands, in a way. Thor and Loki go to Jotunheimr, the land of giants, prepared to attend the wedding. Thor dresses as Freyja, borrowing her clothes and jewelry, and Loki, enjoying himself, dresses as the bridesmaid. During the reception, Thor's identity is repeatedly hinted at, for instance he eats twice as much as anyone else there.When asked about "her" appetite, Thor claims he hasn't eaten in seven days due to excitement.
As part of the ceremony, Mjölnir is placed in the "bride's" hands. Thor reveals his deception and uses the hammer to overthrow the giants. To read the entire story in the Eddas, click here. I'm a father now! Here are pictures from our son Gavin's first two weeks.Throwing my hat into the ring...With The Scythe Wielder's Secret behind me, I'm moving away from YA into the big scary world of books for grown ups (insert audience gasp here). As such, I've decided to enter the annual #PitchWars contest as a prospective mentee. This is my first attempt at PW, so here's a fun look at me and my writing. Five Facts about Me1. I teach high school theatre. With 6 drama classes, over 200 students, and 4-5 shows a year, it's one of the most active theatre programs in the Washington DC area. While many authors dream of seeing their works in film, my personal dream is to one day see an adaptation of my books on stage. (Cursed Child looks amazing by the way!) 2. I'm married to fabulous romance author Rachel Mannino (who's also doing PitchWars), and any day now we are going to be having our first BABY! 3. I never drank coffee or alcohol until I met my wife. 4. I've wanted to be a full time writer since I was ten. My series The Scythe Wielder's Secret is a YA Fantasy trilogy traditionally published by small press MuseItUp, with book three releasing this September. 5. I sing all the time. I sing while writing, driving, even while teaching. But what's he doing now??My entry for PitchWars is a polished adult sci-fi thriller. PILLARS OF CHAOS After a noted geneticist is crucified in front of the White House, his protegee is thrown into a tangled web of riddles and lies, hoping to uncover the dangerous truth about his research. Strange half-visible towers emerge across the entire world, and a group of scientists threaten to bring nations to their knees. The future of humanity lies encoded in our DNA. If you enjoy Dan Brown or Michael Crichton then you'll love PILLARS OF CHAOS.
If you've never tried an audiobook, now's the perfect time to start! The first audiobook I ever listened to was Stephen Colbert's I am America: And So Can You! I had two long commutes daily, one to my job, and one to night school, and I was tired of the radio, which seemed to keep recycling the same five pop songs over and over again. All of a sudden, I found myself laughing and enjoying an entire novel, without opening a single physical page, or flipping through the screen on my kindle.
Audiobooks are a wonderful way to experience more emotion and more depth in a world. As an author, hearing my works read back by a professional narrator gives my stories a new depth and new emotion, even to me. These books are vibrant and alive in a way unlike any other type of reading. I'd like to extend a special invitation to those considering Audible. Audible is a subscription based audiobook provider- basically it's Netflix for audiobooks, where you pay by the month, and read as many books as you want. But here's the catch- if you're unsure if you'd like a service like this, or if you'd enjoy an audiobook at all- try audible absolutely free for 30 days, and listen to book one of The Scythe Wielder's Secret at no cost! You're getting School of Deaths for free in audiobook, just for trying Audible out, and if you don't like it, you can cancel! You couldn't REAP a better deal! Don't forget to try AUDIBLE free HERE, but if you already have it, click the books below! This year, I wanted to push my Drama Two curriculum, which includes a focus on
world drama. As part of the process, I decided to pair the class with a World Wise Schools active Peace Corps Volunteer Stephanie Edwards. The students had previously researched a unit of non-Western theatre and taught the class, focusing on their findings. Once paired with Stephanie, my students received videos she had prepared, showcasing information about her time in the Peace Corps, the local (Guarini) culture of her village in Paraguay, and other videos relating to what Stephanie was doing to help improve people’s lives. With each video, my students watched via Google Classroom, and then wrote a response, leading to larger class discussions later. My kids also sent Stephanie several email introductions and questions, and later video interviews. After one video on Guarani myths, my students performed their own interpretation of the myths. The most rewarding part of our WWS exchange was when the students got to meet Stephanie in person. She took a brief vacation, and used one of her vacation days to come to our school, where she spoke to the kids, shared photos and a native drink from Paraguay, answered questions, and even presented one of the lessons she’s worked with in her host village. My principal attended and all of the kids really felt that the exchange was rewarding and a great way to end our partnership. I thoroughly enjoyed how WWS gave my students a unique and personal perspective into another part of the world. I have already registered next year’s class to participate in WWS again. Today I'd like to welcome fellow Muse author Sara Jayne Townsend to the blog, to answer the important question- why write? SJ: I always knew I wanted to be a writer. Even as a young child, I loved making up stories. Whenever anyone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said, “a writer”. If the person asking was a teacher or guidance counsellor they would generally respond with, “you can’t make a living doing that. You’ll need to get a proper job.” And that would leave me a bit flummoxed because there wasn’t anything else I wanted to do. It turns out the grownups were right, though. I still have to fit the writing around the day job because I don’t make enough money from the writing to do it full time. My colleagues all know I’m a writer – it’s too important to me not to mention it. But it’s sometimes difficult to explain the writing to people connected to the day job who know I don’t do it for a living. They might assume that since I don’t do it for the money then it’s a hobby. Playing my bass guitar at open mic nights is a hobby. Playing Dungeons and Dragons is a hobby. The writing is more than that. Some people assume I do the writing ‘for fun’. This just seems so far off the mark I don’t know where to begin to correct them. Most of the time, writing isn’t fun. Each rejection I get crushes a bit of my soul. Each time I stare at the words I’ve written and think, “this is just a load of rubbish” I want to go crawl into a hole and not come out again. I spend days or sometimes weeks in a funk when the self-doubt kicks in and I’m convinced I have no talent at all and I’m just pretending to be a writer. Whenever this feeling kicks in I try to ride it out, because I know it will pass. I also know it’s going to come back, and there’s nothing remotely fun about it. Neither is it fun to get up at 5:30am to get the early train into London so I can spend an hour in a coffee shop writing before heading off to what I know is going to be a manically busy day at the day job. I am not naturally a morning person. But I know from experience that if I want to find time to write I have to schedule it, and morning is the best time. I’m too tired by the time I get home from work to get any writing done. So if I don’t do it for the money, it’s not a hobby, and it’s not fun, why do I write at all? This is actually a very good question, and it’s one that is surprisingly difficult to answer. The best I can come up with is that I do it because it’s a part of who I am. Because not doing it is an alien a concept as not breathing. Because if I didn’t do it a part of me would die inside. It’s because of that I deal with the crushing self-doubt, the early mornings, the frustrations of trying to get my work out there. If I didn’t write, I wouldn’t be me. And although that it’s difficult to explain this to non-writers, I know that other writers reading this are nodding their heads in agreement. Who’d choose to be a writer? We don’t choose. If you’re born a writer, you have to write. Simple as that. CM: As a writer with a separate day job, I completely agree! Couldn't have said it better. Who's Sara Jayne?
Sara Jayne Townsend is a UK-based writer of crime and horror, and someone tends to die a horrible death in all of her stories. She was born in Cheshire in 1969, but spent most of the 1980s living in Canada after her family emigrated there. She now lives in Surrey with two cats and her guitarist husband Chris. She co-founded the T Party Writers’ Group in 1994, and remains Chair Person. She decided she was going to be a published novelist when she was 10 years old and finished her first novel a year later. It took 30 years of submitting, however, to fulfil that dream. Her horror novel SUFFER THE CHILDREN will be released by MuseItUp Publishing later this year, and the third novel in her amateur sleuth series, SPOTLIGHT ON DEATH, will be out in 2017. Learn more about Sara and her writing at her website (http://sarajaynetownsend.weebly.com) and her blog (http://sayssara.wordpress.com). You can also follow her on Twitter (https://twitter.com/sarajtownsend) and Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3500282.Sara_Jayne_Townsend), and buy her books from Amazon (UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B003QROE8S and US: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003QROE8S). This week's Mythic Mondays focused on Mermaids, but there was just too much for one newsletter- so here's some more interesting facts about these creatures! Or skip below to see how Mothers are like Mermaids! Four fun Mermaid Facts You might Not know1. Every major seafaring culture has their own version of a mermaid myth. In Slavic cultures, for instance, the rusalka is a mermaid formed when a young woman drowns, often as a result of suicide. The drowned woman, who was unhappy in life, then haunts a waterway, emerging from a river or the sea to bring woe to the living. 2. The Iara, a mermaid from Brazilian mythology, lures men to spend eternity with her under the waters of the Amazon. However, this isn't a bad thing, since the Iara will love the man until he dies of old age, attending to his every desire. 3. Manatees might have inspired many mermaid myths. A manatee cow will cradle its calf in its arms while it swims, much like a woman carrying a child. Several mermaid "sightings" in past and recent times have been attributed to manatees. 4. "Mermaiding" is a profession. Underwater models, wearing mermaid tails, will pose for photo shoots or can be hired for events. While there are few who "mermaid" full-time, there are a growing number of professional mermaids. Mother's Day Humor! |
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