Guest Author: Abigail Owen - Top 3 Author Addictions - #TWRP

Hi Melinda! Thanks so much for having me today. I enjoyed your post on your top 3 author addictions so much, I decided to reciprocate with my own. J Like you, since becoming an “official author” several years ago, I’ve also enjoyed the interaction with both other author and with readers. On top of writing, I too have become addicted to certain aspects of this life. Here’s my list:

My Favorite Top Three Author Addictions

1.   Twitter

I am absolutely with you on the Twitter addiction. It took me a little while to get into this social media tool. But once I started connecting with people and using it as a tool, I’ve really enjoyed it.

On top of regular updates and links to blog posts that can be helpful and informational, I also enjoy stalking—I mean following—various industry folks who I am most interested in working with at some point.

I’ve also discovered the various pitch contests for authors. Like #PidMad. Those are always fun.

I too enjoy following celebrities. Other than the occasional moments of insanity, I don’t interact with them. But some are quite funny or interesting with their tweets. Love following Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Renner, and Rob Kazinsky.

Are you on twitter? How about following me… @AOwenBooks

2.   Pinterest

I am an online research junkie. Nothing beats in person, but as an aspiring author I’m not rolling in the big bucks yet. So Google is my best friend.

I love Pinterest not only as another search tool in researching, but as a way to help me visualize. I pin anything I find, image-wise, as I go along. Buildings, clothes, locations, activities, the actor/models I found who most closely look like my hero/heroine.

I also love using Pinterest to share those images with my readers.

You can find all my books and series at my Pinterest account: www.pinterest.com/AbbyOwen

3.   Workshops

Online, in person, podcasts…I can’t get enough of writer workshops. I enjoy topics of all kids – character development, query writing, plot development, the cowboy hero, world building. I don’t always incorporate everything I’ve learned, as frequently it has more to do with your own personal writing style. But I ALWAYS learn something new to try. I have to be careful about how many I sign up for at a time, or I can’t keep up!

I love talking to readers! You can find me at:

Website/Blog: www.abigailowen.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/AOwenBooks

Facebook: www.facebook.com/AbigailOwenBooks

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/AbbyOwen

Now it’s your turn to share. What is your favorite addiction? Leave a comment below!

ANDROMEDA’S FALL

(Shadowcat Nation #1)

Andromeda Reynolds is being hunted. After witnessing her mother’s violent death at the hands of a pack of wolf shifters, Andie has devoted her life to protecting her community of cougar shifters from a similar fate. But now, a greater threat lies within her own dare, and she must run. If she stays, Kyle Carstairs will force their mating, seeking the added political power their union would provide.

Andie would rather chew off her own foot than end up with Kyle. Though, knowing him, she won’t live long either way. Andie’s only hope of survival is to mate Jaxon Keller, the Alpha of the Keller Dare with which she is seeking asylum. But before she can get to him, Andie must first go through A.J., one of the Alpha’s Protectors.

What Andie doesn’t realize is that A.J. has secrets of his own. All Andie knows is that the incredibly frustrating shifter insists on challenging her story, her skills, her trust… and her heart.

The Wild Rose Press

Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | B&N | Apple | Kobo | Print

Shadowcat Nation Pinterest Board: http://www.pinterest.com/abbyowen/the-shadowcat-nation-series/

TRAILER LINK: http://youtu.be/VPoOg6WFolo

Excerpt:

When she was satisfied, she leapt with all the power of her feline form. She didn’t shift exactly—she was trying to avoid that right now since it would be seen as a direct threat if anyone caught her—but she used the might of the beast inside her to clear the distance to the window. She sailed through the opening and immediately tucked and rolled as she hit the ground.

She found her feet and returned to her crouch. Using her cat’s hearing, she waited yet again. 

Someone might’ve heard the sound of her landing. Her injured left arm was detracting from her usual finesse. As she listened, she turned in a slow circle, making sure the room, which appeared to be a hotel-like bedroom, was as empty as she’d expected it to be. Many minutes later, satisfied that she was alone and that no one was coming for her… yet… Andie moved towards the door.

Cracking it open a hair, she looked down and saw a long stretch of closed doorways in both directions. Based on the layout of the building and the location of the window, she determined she needed to go to her right.

Andie tensed to open the door all the way and then froze in place when a deep male voice sounded from directly behind her. “Stop where you are.”

Andie tensed, adrenaline pumping through her body as swear words went off like fireworks inside her head. Only her years of training kept her from panicking outright. She didn’t move by so much as a twitch as she waited to see if he would attack or talk it out.

“Close the door,” the deep voice continued. “And then turn slowly and face me.”

Andie rose, taking care to keep her wounded arm from view. If she could keep the evidence of her fall from grace hidden, she’d have a better shot at surviving the encounter and making it to the Alpha. If she could get to him and explain, then maybe she had a chance.

Once she was facing her new opponent, she tried to take measure of him. The room was dim, and she dared not shift, not even just her eyes, in case he took it the wrong way and attacked. She couldn’t tell much about him other than that he was very tall. At five-foot-nothing she always had to look up, but with this guy she had to look way, way up to try to see his face. He would be a big mountain lion in his cat form, even for a male.

The stranger said nothing for several long moments, holding eerily still, his eyes taking in every detail. Andie didn’t move or speak. She knew he was sizing her up just as she was assessing him. She also knew what he’d see—a slip of a girl who’d inherited her mother’s bronzed Brazilian beauty. Male cougar shifters rarely saw what she really was and frequently underestimated her.

“I’m not going to ask how you got in here. Clearly, our security needs reviewing.”

Andie didn’t betray her satisfaction at his comment. “I’m sure it’s fine. Very few measures would work to keep me out. Or in.”

“I found you.”

Andie merely shrugged. “Off night.” In more ways than one.

About the Author:

Award-winning author, Abigail Owen was born in Greeley, Colorado, and raised in Austin, Texas. She now resides in Northern California with her husband and two adorable children who are the center of her universe.

Abigail grew up consuming books and exploring the world through her writing. A fourth generation graduate of Texas A&M University, she attempted to find a practical career related to her favorite pastime by earning a degree in English Rhetoric (Technical Writing). However, she swiftly discovered that writing without imagination is not nearly as fun as writing with it.

The Best Man by Ana Blaze Twitter Contest

Twitter Contest to Win an E-Copy of The Best Man by Ana Blaze

(I've read this and you DON'T want to miss this book!)

Book Blurb:

Beth Chase is too busy planning perfect weddings to worry about the lack of action in her own love life. But if she was looking for a man, she wouldn’t be looking at Colin Pratt. Her boss swears that Best Man Colin is a quiet scholar and science fiction writer who couldn’t possibly cause a fuss at his own brother’s wedding. He’s clearly never met the man in question. Snarky, sexy and more than a little inebriated, Colin is the final obstacle between Beth and the last perfect wedding she needs to make partner. Of course, when she helps him into a taxi at the end of the night she has no idea that he’s only just begun to poke holes in her professional exterior. Colin might have the skills to seduce a romance professional, but can he convince her that he’s the best man to share her happy ever after?

Link to trailer: http://youtu.be/PiNLdS1d1h8

Find The Best Man on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17233507-the-best-man

Amazon.com / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / Smashwords: 

The Best Man is available from Entranced Publishing. http://www.entrancedpublishing.com/

Contest Details

Entering is easy. Just tweet @ana_blaze and include the hashtag #TheBestMan between midnight EST on June 7, 2013 and 11:59 p.m. EST on June 8, 2013!

For example, you could tweet:

@ana_blaze I married #TheBestMan I know.

@ana_blaze #TheBestMan is on my must read list.

@ana_blaze #TheBestMan made me breakfast in bed.

@ana_blaze I love sexy nerds. #TheBestMan

@ana_blaze I wish Beth would plan my wedding. #TheBestMan

@ana_blaze Being #TheBestMan is tough, but someone's gotta do it.

or even just:

@ana_blaze  I want to read #TheBestMan!

You get the idea. Twitter rules ask that we don't have too many duplicate tweets, so it's best (and frankly way more cool) if you come up with your own tweet. Ana is really looking forward to seeing what folks come up with. And hoping for some tweets about how to be #TheBestMan. It's also best if you are following Ana on twitter. Apparently that's the only way to guarantee that your tweet shows up in the search.

You can follow here: https://twitter.com/ana_blaze

You're welcome to tweet (and enter) more than once, but please not more than once an hour. Let's not annoy the Twitter-folk too much.

This contest is open internationally.

Void where prohibited. :(

Ana’s Links

Blog: http://anablaze.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnaBlazeLove

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ana_blaze

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/anablaze/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/AnaBlaze

And since this is a Twitter contest, I thought it'd be great to have some insight from Ana about Twitter. Aren't we lucky? 

There are a lot of social media sites and, as an author; I try to maintain a presence on a lot of them. I have a blog, a Facebook page, a Goodreads page and a collection of Pinterest boards. I’m on Shelfari, Library Thing and Absolute Write’s Forum.  But my favorite is Twitter.

I resisted the Twitter at first but it turned out to be a great fit for me and I’ll tell you that a great deal of the traffic at my blog comes from Twitter.

Melinda invited me to share a few of my Twitter tips for writers and I’m thrilled to do so. Some of these are going to be basic tips for all twitter users, so if you’re not a writer you might find a tip or two here as well.

1. First off, don’t be shy. Follow people. Tweet hello.  Join in conversations. Twitter is great for shy people, it’s like a never-ending cocktail party without the need to dress stylishly and come up with interesting conversational topics on the spot.

2. Next, don’t auto-send each new follower a message about your book. Seriously, resist. They’ve decided to follow you—they’ll see information about your book in your profile or in a tweet. Direct messages should be personal.

3. On a similar note, don’t only tweet about your book. The week it’s released, most everyone is going to happily give you some leeway, but after that…you need to make certain you are offering something else to the conversation.  My debut has only been out about a month, so I still mention it about once a day…but I tweet a lot so that’s a small percentage of the whole and I try to do it at different times each day. I think a few months out, it’s probably a once a week kind of thing.

4. Which brings me to a big tip: Use a program that allows you to schedule your tweets! I use Tweetdeck-more about why in a minute—it allows you to set a time for your tweets. So if you want to tweet about your new blog post four times over the course of the day (not a bad idea if your followers are spread out over several time zones), you can set that up all at once. I’ve also used http://www.feed140.net. It worked well too.

5. Use Tweetdeck or another program that lets you keep you twitter feed organized.  Let’s face it, some tweets or tweeters are going to be on your priority list. You don’t want to miss tweets by your favs or your closest friends. Tweetdeck lets you make columns based on lists that you create. For example, I keep a list of all the folks involved with my publishers—all the authors, editors and marketing wonders. And I have a special column of just their tweets on Tweetdeck, so I don’t miss any important business news. You can also make a column based on a hashtag. So if you write YA and want to see all the posts that use the #YALitChat tag, you can make a column for that. It’s a great way to network.

6.  Make certain your profile makes it clear that you are a writer. I follow back almost all writers who follow me…but only if I know that they are writers. I also often check out their blogs if they have one listed. So list yours. J Your profile is also a great place to share a little info about your book.

7. Remember that tweeting feels casual, but a tweet can last forever. Yeah, I don’t want to scare folks away from tweeting, but I feel like I’d be remiss if I failed to mention that you should remember that tweeting is the equivalent of standing on a chair and announcing something in a diner. Be careful about the personal information you divulge and try not to tweet in the heat of an angry moment. As with most internet interaction, ignoring someone who is being inappropriate is probably better than entering into a debate with them. If someone tweets that your book sucks, you can unfollow them, you can even block them, but you should not tweet them all the reasons it doesn’t or stick your followers on them. This is just an example. I haven’t actually seen it happen.

8. Use hashtags. One way you can join or sometimes even start a big conversation is by using a hashtag.  They are basically search terms that anyone interested in following can use to see all the tweets on that subject.  Some to look for: #amwriting #amediting #amreading #kindle 

9. Retweet awesome tweets. Everyone wants their tweets to be retweeted. That’s how you reach a bigger audience. If you want your tweet about your new release to be retweeted you need to build relationships with other tweeters by talking with them and by retweeting some of their best tweets. Don’t retweet everything every one you follow tweets! You have to be both generous and selective. It’s a balance. Don’t worry, you’ll find it.

10. Please don’t #FF every single person you follow. I’ve seen this. Seriously. I tried counting the #FF recommendations from a single person I followed one week and she listed over a hundred people before I got bored and stopped counting. In case you don’t know, #FF is a hashtag used on Fridays to suggest that your followers consider following someone that you follow. It’s a lovely thing to do. It becomes meaningless if you overdo it. The best #FF tweets include just one or two names and a reason that you think others should follow them.

I’ll fess up here, new friends, I absolutely overdid #FF for a few weeks. It’s easy to do; you don’t want to play favorites or risk hurting anyone’s feelings and the next thing you know you’ve loaded up your tweet queue with forty #FF tweets.  I started a new system a few weeks ago. I now limit myself to five a week. I call them my #FiveToFollow. J You can totally steal that if you want. It means that I cannot give all my friends an #FF mention every week, but when it is their turn it’s something special. 

Thank you so much, Ana, for the great Twitter advice! Now, readers, get out there and TWEET TWEET TWEET!

Twitter Acronyms for Writers #amwriting #Wwow #writing

Have I mentioned how much I love twitter? I’ve been tweeting officially for more than a year now and I’ve learned everything by just playing around. BUT it would have been so much easier if someone shared Twitter advice from the get-go. SO, that’s where I step in for you.

Twitter Acronyms:

BTW – By the Way

BC – Because

CX- Correction

DM – Direct Message. This message will only be for the person you send the message to, but again it can only be in 140 characters or less.

EM – Email

FB – Facebook

FF – Follow Friday. On Friday’s you can hashtag FF to promote other tweeters you want others to follow. For example: #FF @MelindaDozier

HTH – Hope that helps

IMHO – In My Humble Opinion

JK – Just kidding

LMAO – Laugh My Ass Off

LOL – Laughing Out Loud

LMK – Let Me Know

MT – Modified Tweet. Put this at the beginning of the tweet so others know you altered it.

NSFW – Not Safe for Work (important for the above #darksideresearch!)

PRT – Partial Retweet. You put this at the beginning of the retweet so others know you altered it.

RE – In reply to

RT – Retweet

RTHX – Thanks for the Retweet

TIL – Today I Learned

TMB – Tweet Me Back

YW – You’re Welcome

Now how about WRITER specific lingo that newbies might not know? You will also see these acronyms on Twitter:

CP – Critique Partner

WIP – Work in Progress

MC – Main Character

POV – Point of View

LI – Love Interest

YA – Young Adult

MG – Middle Grades

SF/F – Science Fiction/Fantasy

MS - Manuscript

NA – New Adult

NF – Non-fiction

RWA – Romance Writers of America

PW – Publisher’s Weekly

ARC – Advance Reader Copy

Resources on the web with an extensive list:

NetNanny - http://www.netnanny.com/learn_center/glossary/acronyms

TagDef - http://tagdef.com/

I hope you found this insightful. Happy tweeting! Oh, and add me, if you haven’t already. I have lots of fun! www.twitter.com/melindadozier

FOLLOW ALONG AND READ ALL THIS WEEK'S POSTS.

TAMMY DENNINGS MAGGY HTTP://TAMMYDENNINGSMAGGY.BLOGSPOT.COM

LACEY WOLFE HTTP://LACEYWOLFE.COM/BLOG.HTML

PALOMA BECK HTTP://ROMANCEBECKONS.BLOGSPOT.COM

YOU CAN FOLLOW US ON TWITTER AT #WWOW. OR FIND US ON FACEBOOK AT WORDS OF WISDOM. AND SOON WE'LL BE OPENING OUR OFFICIAL WWOW BLOG - DETAILS TO COME!

#FridayFrenzy Twitter Pitch Workshop - Entranced Publishing Authors Unite

Entranced Publishing has had so much fun with their first ever Friday Frenzy event, but we know some of the authors felt a little overwhelmed, having to condense a whole query down to 140 characters or less. That’s why, for the next two weeks, the Entranced Publishing authors are banding together to bring you Friday Frenzy Twitter Pitch Workshops!


First, you should check out author Louise Gornall's blog for twitter pitch tips: http://bookishblurb.wordpress.com/


Today's focus will be on ROMANCE and/or EROTICA. (Stay tuned for #SexySaturday pitches.)

Here’s how it all works:

1)     You post your maximum 140 character query in the space below using this formula:

Name:
Title:
Genre:
Query(Book Blurb):
Twitter Pitch:

2)     I give you feedback on it.

3)     You give feedback to two other people who have posted their pitches – remember, what goes around comes around.

I’m not alone in hosting this workshop; some of the other lovely Entranced Publishing authors are doing it, too. So jump on over to their blogs and offer your support to Twitter pitching authors like yourself.

ST Bende, http://stbende.blogspot.com

Ana Blaze, http://anablaze.blogspot.com
Kara Leigh Miller, http://www.karaleighmiller.com/

www.entrancedpublishing.com

www.twitter.com/EntrancedPub

www.facebook.com/EntrancedPublishing

Let's get this party started!