Support Indie Authors.

Greetings and Salutations, readers! I hope everyone has been doing well. Comment and let me know how 2015 is going for you!

I'm not here to talk about the events and happenings in my life. I'm here to discuss the support of indie authors and to promote one of my favourite indie authors, Kira Adams. Before I put the spotlight on her, I would like to talk a little about supporting indie authors.

I enlarged this so everyone could read it.

Indie Authors are just as amazing as regular authors. The difference between us and authors is that we have to promote ourselves, using social networking websites, blogs, and the like. Unfortunately, there are other indie authors and social networking website users who will try to undercut indie authors by leaving a bad review to drop book ratings and rankings, and those who will report promotional posts as harassment. We don't have PR people to advertise for us. It's all on us. Be respectful. If you don't want to see promotional posts, there is a little down arrow on the right top corner on Facebook posts that will bring down an options menu. Click on it and select "I don't want to see this". It's as simple as that. 

It's not that difficult.

If you love an indie author's book, review it, tell your friends about it, like the indie author's page, and invite your friends to have a dekko at their page and like it. Send a message to the indie author and personally tell them how much you enjoyed their work! I recently found out that I had two serious fans, and that meant more to me than the money I've made so far. All authors, not just us indies, want their readers to fall in love with the characters as much as they have. The money is nice, but that's not the point. The fans are what's important.

Leave a review, an honest but fair review.

I cannot stress this enough. The best way to support an indie author is to leave a review. Make it an honest and fair review. Constructive criticism helps us to improve our skills and produce quality books in the process. 

When did readers become so picky? I used to follow a page called IABB on Facebook, It was an indie author confessions type of page. I didn't see many confessions from indie authors. All I saw was hateful remarks from readers stating why they won't buy an indie author's book. They whinged about everything! It made me angry, so I unliked and unfollowed the page. I'm not that bloody picky! If the book is that good, I'm not going to nitpick at every grammatical error or a few misspelled words! If the mistakes are so bad that I can't read the book, that's a different story entirely, but I still wouldn't trash an indie author. I may contact them and kindly explain to them why I couldn't finish the book, or if I have time, I'd be willing to help them by editing. We're in this together. Let's help each other out instead of cut each other down.

In the beginning, our books are not perfect, but everyone starts out slow. The thing is once you get to the top, you have nowhere to go but down. Remember that.

Show an Indie Author Love.

Read and Review.

I will stop whinging and get to the second reason I am here. I'm here to support one of my favourite indie authors, Kira Adams! Not only is her new book, Emerging From The Darkness being released on March 31st, she has re-released Into The Darkness. It is free on Amazon now through March 30th! You can purchase it here.

This is the cover!

And now it's confession time. This is a REAL confession from a REAL indie author, not a whinging picky reader. I wish I could remember who promoted Kira's book, but someone put it out there on Facebook. (This is why promotion is important.) I clicked on the link. The ebook was $0.99 on Amazon, and I immediately purchased it. Now for the confession. The reason I was drawn to the book was because (and try not to laugh) there was a redhead on the cover. I know, that may sound ridiculous, but that will make me purchase an ebook quicker than anything. Fall covers are my second favourite. (Put a redhead surrounded by Autumn trees covered with colourful fall leaves and my mind might just explode!) For some reason, it's not the same with hard copy book covers, but I do like being able to look at the characters. 

Now a warning: if you put a character on the cover and I can't picture him or her the way he or she is depicted, well...it just gets confusing. V.C. Andrews' ghost writer has done that with a character called Jordan March. The little girl was a sufferer of precocious puberty. She was depicted as a brunette. No matter how many times I stopped and looked at the cover, I COULD NOT picture her as a brunette. She was blond haired in my mind, and my mind refused to believe anything else. 

It was the same with Sidney Sheldon's Rage of Angels. My nine year old brain saw Jennifer Parker's character looking like Melissa Reeves from Days of Our Lives. There was no picture on the cover of the copy I read to tell me otherwise, even though the book describes Jennifer Parker as a brunette.

Kira has NEVER done this, wrote a character that I couldn't picture as how she described them. I can clearly picture the character on the cover in great detail. I can hear their voice. She has perfected this.

I'm getting off track here, so let's move on to the teasers! Before I do, I don't want to forget to mention that I LOVED Into the Darkness! I couldn't put it down! I read it in approximately two hours! Now she's re-releasing it? How can you improve what I thought was perfection?!? I seriously cannot wait to read the re-released version! Did I mention that you can purchase it here?

The story begins with Ike and Cullen, along with other members of the military, being briefed on top secret military affairs in an undisclosed location (which you will find out when you read the book). Meanwhile everyone is just going about their daily lives. Think about your daily routine for a moment. Picture others grocery shopping, driving their kids to school, or home from school, or to some sort of after school activity. While everyone is engaged in their routines, all of Hell is breaking loose. Nobody realizes it. (I'm being secretive, because I wasn't expecting anything that took place! I want other readers to be just as surprised) They're just doing their thing. 

The news reports a curfew, to which main character Phoenix doesn't adhere. She's a rebel. She wants to go out on her date. She doesn't care about the curfew. So she does what she does best and rebels. She goes out on her date. When she returns home, she is shocked at what she finds...

During the midst of chaos, Phoenix and Ike cross paths. They later meet up with Cullen and a few others, as well as dangers untold, betrayal, and loss. It's all about survival, which includes learning who you can and cannot trust. (The rules of society have changed dramatically.)

DO NOT READ THIS BOOK IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A MINIMUM OF THREE HOURS!!!! I say this because you will not be able to put it down!!!!

If this re-release of what I already thought was the most perfect book ever wasn't enough, Kira is releasing the second book in the series, Emerging From The Darkness! (I can't wait to see the cover!)

OMG!!! OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can check out Kira Adams and the woman behind the author, Krista Pakseresht​ on Facebook, and Amazon. She's written many other books, including The Infinite Love Series, which contains the four books, Learning To Live, My Forever, Beautifully Broken, and Against All Odds. I recently shared a post promoting the Infinite Love Series. She has an awesome street team, in which I am involved. (That's not why it's awesome though.) And you can purchase the re-released copy of Into The Darkness here.

Support the Indie Authors you love! I have a list that I absolutely adore. Krista Pakseresht/Kira Adams is on that list, as well as Casey Bond, Jennifer Fisch-Ferguson, JB Stilwell, Annalisa Nicole, Cathy Jackson, and many more! (Ladies, if you would send me teasers, I'd be happy to do a spotlight post on the wonderful books I have read or currently reading!)

Pick up your copy of Into The Darkness today through March 31st for free on Amazon!

Cheers!

It's December...

It doesn't feel like December. There might be Christmas lights on houses and Christmas trees in windows, but it does not feel like December. The forecast is in the upper forties and low to mid fifties with...you guessed it, rain. Oh goody! We had a rainy fall. Now we're going to have a rainy winter.

I'm a pluviophile, but this is getting ridculous.

This means it's going to snow the first week of April, probably on my birthday or even on Easter. (I think Easter falls on my birthday this year. That hasn't happened since I was in my ninth year.)

It's obviously too much to ask that we have winter in December, January, and February, Spring in March, April, and May, Summer (I could care less if Summer never showed its ugly face again) should stay in June, July, and August, and Fall in September, October, and November. I just want a white Christmas, but I'm asking for too much. I always ask for too much.

What winter should look like...

So it's December. Last year, we had sixty and seventy degree days. It just doesn't feel like Christmas is on its way when it's sixty or seventy degrees...

Is it? Is it really?

Christmas: Expectation.

Christmas: Reality.

Despite the fact that the weather is not indicative of what Christmas weather should be, it's nice to see all of the lights on houses and in cities, save for the city in which I live. Apparently the city officials don't believe in Christmas lights. Maybe the city is too broke to put up lights. There's a Christmas tree made of lights in one downtown shopping area, and that's about as festive as it gets. One year, they had one sad little garland strung across 8th Street, and the lights on it didn't even work! But the city where my husband works, their decorations are always really nice. They go all out. It looks like Christmas exploded!

It's also nice to see the decorations in the houses of my loved ones, and the store displays when I have to go shopping for things I need. 

There's a certain store, I won't say which one, that did a lousy job of decorating this year. Their angel tree isn't even decorated! It's just a sad looking little tree with papers hanging on it. Seriously? You can't do that for the needy families? 

It needs someone to care enough to DECORATE IT!

I'll get back to Christmas in a moment. I need to discuss the events and happenings of yesterday.

Yesterday, I  woke with my 12:30 PM alarm. I know that's sad. I sleep in a lot, but it's because I'm an insomniac workaholic coffee addict. I don't like sleeping past 12:30, no matter how late I was up the night before. My husband ususally sends me a text message around 12:30, so the first thing I do upon waking each weekday is have a dekko at my phone. There was a text message. I just assumed it was from my husband. I opened it and read and reread it several times.

Before I continue, the text was news that my uncle on my mother's side had died. (He married my mother's oldest sister.) He had some health issues that ultimately caused heart failure. I didn't know him real well. I got to see him three times in my life. Once was the Christmas right before my parents divorced. The second time was in 1995 when the family came down to visit. The third time was in 2000, when my grandmother passed away. 

Here's the thing. My uncle shared the same first name as my father-in-law. This is the message I received from my mother yesterday: John died at 10:50 today.

I stared at the message and I started to panic. I almost responded with, "No he didn't. He died between 9:30 and 10:00 on February 22nd." Then another horrible thought hit me, and I felt like I was in a story from Dormiveglia: "What if I dreamed everything from February 21st on, and I woke up and it was only February 22nd, 2014?"

I finally became coherent enough to realize what was actually happening and I responded accordingly. For five minutes, I was freaking out. Please pray for my aunt and her daughter, son, and daughter-in-law as they walk through the grieving process.

I also had to socialize yesterday. It wasn't so bad. Dinner was great. I was told that I was beautiful by two very kind women who are even more so. I just never know what to say. I've become more of an introvert ever since I became a writer. I find it difficult to interact with nonfictional characters. I actually have to exchange words with them. Unfortunately most of my activities and stories are fictional. If anyone asks what I did today, all I can respond with is "Worked." I can't say something like, "I went to a service at a fictional church Living Waters Cathedral, where my fictional character, Pastor Paul preached an awesome message, and on a night when church services don't usually take place." Or "I witnessed my fictional character, Zephra deal with the challenge that is her youngest daughter who is three going on terrible teenage years." Or "I got to spend some time with fictional republican President Black and his family on Election night." Because if you say things like that, the person with whom you're conversing is going to label you as clinically insane, and perhaps call some men in little white coats to take you somewhere and evaluate you. (I'm fairly sure, "I'm a fictional author," would not serve as a good excuse. Then comes the straight jacket...) So yeah. I'm a writer. Other than my stories, I have nothing conversation worthy to share with anyone. *shrugs* But I look great on paper.

Does anyone have anything going on for the holidays? My husband and I are not doing any Christmas shopping this year. I asked for one thing: an iPhone. Why? Because I will NEVER EVER EVER own another piece of crap Android phone!!!! The last three Android phones I had have been nothing but complete rubbish! My husband insists that if I had a "good" Android phone, it would work, but I don't think the manufacturer makes any "good" Android phones. NEVER AGAIN! Even my Kindle Fire HD, which is an Android product, doesn't work properly. (Imagine that!) I'm over Android. Every single time I have complained on Facebook, everyone has responded with "Get an iPhone. I love my iPhone and I never have any problems with it." So that is all I've asked for this year. I have no idea what I'm getting Doug or any of my loved ones. Probably cash/gift cards. I give out homemade chex mix and try to get one other gift. This year, I don't want to set foot in a mall.

I've become quite ambivalent about the holidays. They're all too commercialized. It's all about making money. The meaning gets lost amongst the sales advertisements, department store commercials, and toy commercials that tell everyone to BUY BUY BUY with money they don't even have to spend. Kids beg their parents for the latest toy, and then the media puts out new toys and gadgets just to get the children to keep begging. It's sad. (There's only one commercial I like, and it's the Hershey's Kisses commercial that plays the little song.) What happened to the meaning and the message? 

I cherish everything my loved ones get for me, because they spent time and money selecting it or making it. There's a lack of appreciation for things we already have. Why do we need more things if we can't appreciate the things we already have? Whatever your family/friends/loved ones took the time to get for you this year, you should appreciate it. They braved the horrible crowds in the mall and spent money on you, or they took the time to make whatever it is they hand crafted for you. Don't take that for granted.

I remember when the holidays were a time for magic and miracles and family gatherings, and there was no Prozac or Xanax involved, and Christmas was always white, and miracles were around every corner, and nobody took anything for granted. Can somebody please tell me what happened?

A few people have private messaged me on various social networking sites and asked me why I haven't weighed in on the whole Ferguson thing.

It's not that I don't care, I just don't want to contribute to the nonsense that's happening in Ferguson. It's bad enough without my opinion on the subject matter. I don't want to contribute to the race war by speculating on the event that took place between the police officer and the young man. I wasn't there. I don't know what happened. It's not fair of me to speculate on anything that took place when I didn't witness it with my own eyes. I think it is sad that another young life was lost. I feel badly for his family. They will spend their holidays grieving. I really don't understand how looting serves to honor the memory of the young man. That's all I will say on the subject of Ferguson.

In conclusion, I will leave you with some Christmas gifs (yes there was a pun intended) that make me feel the holiday spirit.

  

You'll shoot your eye out, kid."

And since this is the only white Christmas I'll probably get, here are some snow gifs for those of you who also would like a white Christmas.

  

And finally, Merry Christmas! If that offends you, too bad.

May your days be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be white at least not rainy.

Cheers...