Monthly Archive for December, 2010

Web Site Revamping and Mysteries, Murder & More Blog Now on Kindle

Published on December 27, 2010 in Amazon Bookstore and General News. 2 Comments Tags: Amazon affiliates, Amazon store, Kindle blog subscriptions, Kindle Blogs, Sink or swim, Stacy Juba, The Flag Keeper, Twenty-five years ago today, web sites.

My regular visitors may have noticed that things look a little different lately. In mid-December, I did some major restructuring to my web site and blog. My blog now has a menu bar at the top, with links to my web site. Since blogs tend to draw more traffic than web sites, it made sense to better connect the two by adding a menu bar to the blog. That way, new visitors can more easily learn about my books – which is why this blog exists in the first place.

If you’re an avid Kindle user, you can also now subscribe to this blog on Kindle. I recently learned that Amazon was seeking blogs to offer for Kindle users. My first thought was, why would anyone pay to follow a blog, however, Amazon believes Kindle readers will subscribe to blogs because of the convenience. Some of my author friends began offering a Kindle subscription to their blogs, and I decided to do the same. In 2011, I’ll be hosting a mock season of my fictional reality show Sink or Swim, in which literary characters will compete during the year. I’ll also continue offering the “What were you (or your character) doing 25 years ago feature?” on a less frequent basis. From time-to-time, I will offer giveaways and post about what I’m reading. And of course in addition to the Kindle option, you can still follow via Google Friend Connect, Networked Blogs, Goodreads and RSS feeds. All choices can be found in the sidebars.

My web site has also gone a significant revamping. I loved the previous design, however, it was becoming impossible to maintain by myself due to the difficulty of the software program. Now that my career has evolved into multiple books, the web site needed maintenance much more frequently. I’m pleased that the new format will be easy for me to maintain without any help. I hope you’ll also take a few minutes to check it out. The Books tab will lead you to short descriptions of my current books, Twenty-Five Years Ago Today, Sink or Swim, and The Flag Keeper, and bring you to links for longer descriptions, book trailers, reviews, and book club discussion questions.

The Store tab features retail links for the print and e-book versions of my books. Also via this tab, you can access my Amazon store which features authors who have been showcased on my blog in the past. As an Amazon affiliate, I receive a small commission on sales made via any of the Amazon links on my web site, even if buyers purchase something else entirely such as a pair of jeans…this year, the commission from the odds and ends purchased through my Amazon links was enough to buy me an ink cartridge for my printer and some computer paper. Not much, but I appreciate any opportunities to defray expenses. So by all means, purchase your jeans after clicking on one of my Amazon links! Receiving notification of a small deposit into my account a couple times per year, when enough purchases add up for Amazon to issue payment, is always a pleasant surprise.

You can also check out my list of upcoming News and Events, including an Author Chat on Library Thing, future giveaways, and the Sink or Swim Blog Tour. As always, thanks for visiting! If you read Kindle books, please check out my limited time special 99 cent Kindle offer which expires sometime on January 3rd.

Limited Time Offer — Get Mystery Novels for 99 Cents on Kindle Through January 2nd

Published on December 26, 2010 in General News. Closed Tags: 99 cent Kindle books, Amazon, Kindle, Kindle bargains, Kindle books, Sink or swim, Twenty-five years ago today.

If you got a Kindle for Christmas or enjoy reading books using the Kindle apps, I have a special limited time offer. I’m embarking on a huge marketing campaign for my books in 2011 and as a small baby step, I’m working to get my novels better featured in the Amazon system. I hope this will raise awareness about the trade paperback versions of Twenty-Five Years Ago Today and Sink or Swim, as well as the Kindle editions. The better a title’s Amazon ranking, the more lists it becomes featured on and the more likely that Amazon readers will stumble across it. Also, Amazon readers will often review books they’ve purchased and sometimes cross-post these reviews on sites such as Goodreads, Library Thing, Shelfari and their own blogs.

Since so many people received Kindles for Christmas, this seemed like a good time to experiment with a short-term sale as a method of getting the word out. As a result, I’m offering Twenty-Five Years Ago Today and Sink or Swim for 99 cents on Kindle through January 2. On January 3, I’ll be bringing both titles up to full price, where I expect them to remain for the rest of the year. If you enjoy reading Kindle books, please feel free to take advantage of this special offer and if you have a friend who owns a Kindle, it takes less than a minute to send a Kindle book as a gift by clicking the Give As a Gift option.

Happy New Year!

Looking Backward in Time – December 1960, 1935, and 1910

Published on December 21, 2010 in 25 Years Ago Today. 3 Comments Tags: 1910, 1935, 1960, microfilm, newspaper columns, Norma Huss, Twenty-five years ago today, Yesterday's Body.

Norma Huss, author of the novel Yesterday’s Body, has been combing past editions of newspapers and has shared a special treat with us. One of the themes of my blog is “25 Years Ago Today” inspired by my novel Twenty-Five Years Ago Today, in which a newspaper editorial assistant stumbles across an unsolved murder while researching her “25″ and “50 Years Ago Today” columns on the microfilm. Norma has gone back 50 years, 75 years, and 100 years, finding interesting tidbits to share with us from the month of December. I hope you enjoy this walk back in time.

Fifty years ago, in December 1960, the United States was building fallout shelters to protect their families from atomic disaster. On December 6th, one was dedicated in down-town Lancaster, PA. The shelter was designed to protect one family of six for two weeks. The 10 by 10 by 7 (the height) structure had 8-inch-thick masonry walls and was stocked with bunk beds, canned food, stove, radio, flashlight, and games. (I do hope they included water, although that wasn’t mentioned.)

Also that December, three days later a truck loaded with Christmas trees missed a curve and plunged into the Susquehanna River. (The driver made it out of the submerged cab and survived.) In another three days, a surprise storm dumped 12 inches of snow that must have stayed around a while as the temperature dropped to 10 degrees.

Seventy-five years ago, residents of a nearby town were startled when four goats broke through a fence and raced through the streets. Residents scurried to the safety of their porches while the guests at the General Sutter Hotel wondered if wild mountain goats were common in the area. In other news that day, the Lancaster Liederkranz mourned the loss of Gaboot, a 20-man beer stein known as the mightiest mug ever to cross the club’s bar. A man lifted it to refresh the orchestra members, and kapow! The Gaboot fell to the floor and broke into pieces.

One hundred years ago, on December 6, 1910, 8 inches of snow fell on Lancaster. Never fear…large snowplows and gangs of shovelers helped keep all the trolley lines operating. They must have done a good job because the next day, 450 children lined up for free shoes given by two local stores as a result of a fund-raising venture. However, there were only 150 pairs available, so a second benefit was scheduled for the 300 children turned away.

Oh yes, there was another incident two days later of extreme family discord. Residents in a tenement over Woolworth’s store heard a woman screaming at her husband. After she’d turned the air blue, she pulled a stocky horsewhip from her dress and lashed him as he ran down the stairs and out into the street. (Hmmm. Never happen now. No horsewhip, no place to hide it in skin-tight jeans, and…that building is gone.)

Thank you, Norma! Please check out Norma’s book, Yesterday’s Body, on Amazon and wish her congratulations as the novel is a 2011 EPIC finalist in the mystery category. Visit her web site for more information about her writing.

25 Years Ago Today: Historical Nonfiction Author Velda Brotherton

Published on December 20, 2010 in 25 Years Ago Today. 7 Comments Tags: Arkansas authors, Arkansas Meals and Memories: Lift Your Eyes to the Mountains, Daisy wheel printer, Kay Pro, nonfiction historical books, Ozarks, technology, The Boston Mountains: Lost in the Ozarks, Velda Brotherton.

I’d like to welcome my guest Velda Brotherton. Velda has been writing for 28 years. She is a native of Arkansas and lives there with her husband. Her published works include six historical romances, six regional nonfiction historical books, numerous historical newspaper columns and magazine articles. Her latest books are The Boston Mountains: Lost in the Ozarks and Arkansas Meals and Memories: Lift Your Eyes to the Mountains, both published in 2010.

Welcome, Velda. Tell us, what were you doing 25 years ago?

VELDA: What I wasn’t doing was emailing, talking on a cell phone or working on a computer. Not a real one, at any rate. A young writer friend had a computer . . . well, we called it that. It was a Kay Pro that, when all folded up, resembled a portable sewing machine. Open it had a small screen, about 8″ square and no hard drive. One large floppy contained the program, it went in one slot, the other was used to record her work. In addition, she had a Daisy Wheel printer that was slower than I could type. Paper was tractor fed.

My friend lived deeper in the Ozark forest than we did. Her kitchen was outdoors beneath the rest of the house and it had a dirt floor. She had electricity but no running water. When she was writing, the Kay Pro was spread out on her bed. Every Saturday we got together to help each other with our “first novels.” She’d been to a writer’s conference in New York and so was much more sophisticated in the world of writing than I. Though she and her husband had very little money, her family did have, and they took care of her financial needs when it came to writing.

We too had come to Arkansas to get away from the rat race, but we had a modern home. I couldn’t afford a computer, though. We were mesmerized by this new technology. I continued to bang away on my small portable typewriter, discarded pages piling up all around me. Then one dark night she ran off, leaving her husband and her computer behind. After a while, when it became obvious she wasn’t going to return, he sold it to me. I was in heaven. I guess the Kay Pro made up for the loss of my only writer friend. No one ever heard from her again. If I were a mystery writer, I might have made something of that, considering her strange circumstances, but I never could get the clues planted and the red herring well placed, so I tend to write in other genres.

I wrote three or four novels on that Kay Pro, using a program called Word Star using MS Dos. There were codes for everything because there was no mouse. For years I thought any computer with a mouse was nothing but a toy. Learning those codes stands me in good stead today, for they can still be used and come in handy when editing and moving around through a manuscript.

Currently, with my 11th and 12th books published this past spring and all the promotional needs connected to that, I look back at those days with a certain fondness. No Internet, no Facebook, no online videos to distract us. Yet, I don’t know what I’d do without them.

Times have sure changed! Read more about Velda on her web site and blog.

You can order The Boston Mountains: Lost in the Ozarks at http://www.oldampub.com and discover stories about the lost communities of the Boston Mountains and the people who lived there. The book contains 137 photos, maps and illustrations.

Buy “The Cutting Edge” on Kindle Today for 99 Cents To Support Indie Authors & Food Bank

Published on December 20, 2010 in Bestseller Bound and General News. Closed Tags: Darcia Helle, digital books, Kindle, Kindle bestsellers, Kindle books, Sink or swim, The Cutting Edge, The Cutting Edge Campaign, Twenty-five years ago today.

Today is the day of The Cutting Edge Amazon Campaign! Not only can you buy a fantastic new book for a special 99 cent discount price, you can also participate in an experiment to see how powerful social networking can be in propelling an indie book onto the Amazon Kindle Bestseller List, as well as help raise money for a food bank. I am asking my blog followers, Facebook and Twitter friends to help out the campaign by sharing this post using the Share Icons in the right sidebar. Sharing it on book sites such as Goodreads would also be helpful.

Bestseller Bound, a site that connect readers with indie authors, reviewers and bloggers, is sponsoring the project. The goal is to get as many people as possible to purchase author Darcia Helle’s book The Cutting Edge in Kindle format for 99 cents today on Amazon. The book is normally $3.99 on Kindle so this is a great bargain! Buy it for yourself, or send the Kindle book as a gift for a friend using Amazon’s new “Give as a gift” function. Notifications of Kindle Books gifts are delivered instantly via e-mail and the recipient redeems the gift in the Kindle Store to read on any Kindle or free Kindle app. Kindle books can be read either on Kindle or on your PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, or Android Phone using one of the free reading apps.

If a large number of people purchase it today, that would help to significantly improve the book’s Amazon ranking and will put it on the radar of other Kindle users. Top 100 books get much more visibility on Amazon. You’ll also be supporting charity. As part of this campaign, Darcia will donate all her profits from today’s sales of The Cutting Edge to Metropolitan Ministries, a non-denominational church in Tampa, Fla. that runs a food bank and feeds the homeless and the poor. If you’re doing some Amazon shopping today, please remember that my brand new book Sink or Swim is now available in Kindle format for $2.99 as well as in trade paperback. To celebrate, I’ve decided to lower the Kindle edition of my mystery novel Twenty-Five Years Ago Today to 99 cents as a limited time holiday offer. Please visit my Books page for more information about both titles.

Holiday Special: Twenty-Five Years Ago Today on Kindle for 99 Cents

Published on December 18, 2010 in General News. Closed Tags: ebooks, inexpensive Kindle books, Kindle, Kindle sales, Sink or swim, Twenty-five years ago today.

Amazon predicts that the next couple of weeks will be big weeks for Kindle sales. I just wanted to share that my mystery novel Twenty-Five Years Ago Today is discounted to 99 cents on Kindle for a limited time. For twenty-five years, Diana Ferguson’s killer has gotten away with murder. When rookie obit writer and newsroom editorial assistant Kris Langley investigates the cold case of the artistic young cocktail waitress who was obsessed with Greek and Roman mythology, she must fight to stay off the obituary page herself. I hope readers will take this chance to read the book!

My mystery novel Sink or Swim also just debuted on Kindle this week for $2.99 and came out in trade paperback earlier in the month. How do you change the channel when reality TV turns to murder? After starring on a hit game show set aboard a Tall Ship, personal trainer Cassidy Novak discovers that she has attracted a stalker. Soon, she will need to call SOS for real…

Children’s Bookwatch Highlights The Flag Keeper As Excellent Educational Book

Published on December 18, 2010 in General News. Closed Tags: American history, American history children's books, Children's Book Watch, flag books, flag etiquette, Midwest Book Review, The Flag Keeper.

I just wanted to share that the December 2010 issue of the Midwest Book Review’s online book review magazine “Children’s Bookwatch” features a wonderful review of The Flag Keeper on its American History Shelf.

The review is as follows: The Flag Keeper is a flat-spined softcover book designed to teach young children about the American flag. Simple color illustrations follow the bear girl Elizabeth, as she learns how to treat a flag with proper respect, and why one should never fly it upside down except in emergency (an upside-down flag is a plea for immediate help from the police or anyone else available!) A handful of flag facts and discussion questions such as “How would you describe ‘flag etiquette’ to a friend?” round out this excellent educational book filled with information all American children should know.

For more information on the book, visit The Flag Keeper web site. You can also find various buy links by clicking my store tab. If you know any parents, grandparents, veterans, teachers, librarians or troop leaders that might be interested in sharing this book with children, please share this post. Thanks so much for your help in spreading the word.

Kindle Winners Announced — Countdown to The Cutting Edge Campaign

Published on December 17, 2010 in Bestseller Bound and General News. 1 Comment Tags: Amazon, bestseller Bound, Darcia Helle, e-books, giveaway, Kindle, Sink or swim, The Cutting Edge, Twenty-five years ago today.

I wanted to announce the winners of the 10 free Kindle downloads of The Cutting Edge by Darcia Helle.

1. Janette
2. Cindy
3. Barbara
4. Rene
5. Kristin
6. Barb
7. Kathy
8. Kari
9. Elaine
10. Cory

Thanks to everyone for entering! The winners will receive their free download as a gift from me on Dec. 20, during The Bestseller Bound Cutting Edge Campaign. For those of you who didn’t win, I hope you’ll purchase this great book on December 20, or if you know anyone who has a Kindle, it would make a nice gift for the holidays through the Amazon Kindle Give as a Gift option. The book will be discounted to 99 cents on that day and all proceeds from Dec. 20 will benefit a local food pantry.

In the meantime, you can follow The Cutting Edge Campaign on Facebook and Twitter. You can also listen here to my short radio interview about Bestseller Bound and The Cutting Edge Campaign, hosted by the Indie Book Collective, which has been a great supporter of this campaign. It’s about 10 minutes, at the beginning of the show. Also, if you’re an indie or small press author, reader, reviewer, or book blogger, we’d love to have you join Bestseller Bound.

Speaking of Kindle, my new book Sink or Swim is now available in Kindle format as well as in trade paperback. You’re going to be hearing a lot about this book in the coming months. To celebrate, I’ve decided to lower the Kindle edition of my mystery novel Twenty-Five Years Ago Today to 99 cents as a limited time holiday offer. Please visit my Books page for more information about both titles.

25 Years Ago Today: Romance Author And ‘V’ Fan Joselyn Vaughn

Published on December 13, 2010 in 25 Years Ago Today. 5 Comments Tags: contemporary romance, Courting Sparks, giveaways, Joselyn Vaughn, Kindle gifts, romance authors, V, V mini-series.

I’d like to welcome my guest, author Joselyn Vaughn. I really enjoyed reading Joselyn’s post about the 1980s science fiction mini-seriesV. I can relate to her childhood games. I wasn’t a huge V fan, but I was addicted to Battlestar Galactica and the Star Wars movies. I used to pretend I was a viper pilot blasting the Cylons, or Princess Leia escaping the Death Star. I’m sure you’ll enjoy Joselyn’s account below about how V inspired her to play similar games. We writers always had lofty imaginations, even as kids!

Joselyn’s latest book is Courting Sparks, a contemporary romance from Avalon Books. Joselyn lives in the Great Lakes State with her adoring husband, the world’s most inventive toddlers and the laziest beagles. She believes there is nothing better than a warm hug, a good romance novel and chocolate. When not changing diapers or removing a toddler from a precarious situation, Joselyn enjoys sewing, running, shopping at thrift stores and reading books longer than thirty pages.

JOSELYN: They say everything old is new again. I laughed out loud when I saw the advertisements for the V television program this winter. The original mini-series came out when I was in third grade. During recess, my friends and I would play V. I don’t remember anything about the original miniseries except that the V were lizard-like creatures who planned to eat everyone on Earth. Our play mostly revolved around protecting the Golden Child who was played by my friend with long summery blonde hair.

I was jealous because I could not player her with my brown permed hair. We would run around the playground with our Golden Child protected under the monkey bars, battling the bad guys, although I don’t know if we were the V or humans, which I now know as the Fifth Column.

We played V long after the mini-series ended and invented as many daring adventures as we could fit into our fifteen minute bursts of playtime. Sadly, the adventures may have been great fodder for novel plots or even episodes of the show. If only I remembered them.

You can find out more about Joselyn on her web site. Also check out Courting Sparks on Amazon. Daphne Morrow’s ready to date again, but the only spark she discovers is for her long time friend, Noah Banks, a physical double for her ex-boyfriend Aaron. Scorched photos of Daphne’s prom are discovered at the ignition point of a small forest fire and Daphne becomes the prime suspect. When the arsonist strikes much closer to home, Daphne must decide whether she can risk Noah’s friendship for a chance to court sparks.

Stop by to leave Joselyn a comment. And if you have a Kindle or like using Kindle apps., please check out my giveaway post – I will be giving away 10 Kindle downloads of a hot new book, deadline Dec. 16 at midnight.

Listen to The Flag Keeper Radio Interview Monday and the Bestseller Bound Interview Tuesday

Published on December 12, 2010 in Bestseller Bound and General News. Closed Tags: Authors Children Show, Authors Show, bestseller Bound, Darcia Helle, Indie Book Collective, Kindle, Stacy Juba, The Cutting Edge Campaign, The Flag Keeper.

By sheer coincidence, I am being interviewed on two different radio programs this week. Up until now, I’ve never been interviewed on the radio before.

How’s that for a strange twist of fate – two interviews being scheduled on back-to-back days? One interview will focus on my children’s picture book The Flag Keeper, while the other will discuss Bestseller Bound and “The Cutting Edge Campaign.”

“The Flag Keeper” interview is being broadcast throughout the day Monday, Dec. 13 on The Children’s Author Show. I taped the interview a few weeks ago with host Don McCauley. The show will run approximately 13 minutes and is accessible, via an internet connection, around the world. Interviews play from 12 a.m. ET for 24 hours, so you can stop by and listen whenever you want. During the interview, I discussed The Flag Keeper, which teaches children about U.S. flag etiquette through a fiction story, flag facts and discussion questions. The blog Good Family Reads recently reviewed The Flag Keeper and gave it a 10. My local newspaper also just featured a Q&A about the book on its front page, so word is slowly getting out, but the book still needs to find its way to adults who would like to teach kids about flag etiquette. If you know anyone who might be interested, please tell them about the interview or share my web site link.

The Flag Keeper is currently available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble.com, and through The Flag Keeper e-store. In the e-store, you can use the coupon code WUT8RXEJ at checkout. This will allow you to purchase the book for $6.99 each, five dollars off the cover price, plus an additional shipping charge. If you would like to receive free signed personalized bookplate stickers (signed by both the author and illustrator) and a bookmark for each book in your order, then e-mail me at stacy@stacyjuba.com. Be sure to list the child’s name and your mailing address.

During the interview, Don and I discussed where I got the idea for the book, the overall content, and the challenges of authoring a children’s book. If you have a few minutes, stop by the show web site and listen to the interview – it will be available Monday only! (December 13)

As noted above, I will be doing another radio interview on Tuesday, Dec. 14 at 4:30pm PST – this one live with the Indie Book Collective. I’ll be discussing The Cutting Edge Campaign, a campaign to invite readers to download indie author Darcia Helle’s fantastic book The Cutting Edge on December 20 in an attempt to help this well-deserving book land on the Kindle bestseller list. Darcia will be offering the book for 99 cents (at a $3 discount) on December 20 and proceeds from that day will be donated to Metropolitan Ministries, a non-denominational church in Tampa, Fla. which runs a food bank for the homeless and poor. For more details on the campaign, visit (and like) The Cutting Edge Campaign on Facebook. Also stop by Bestseller Bound, which is sponsoring the campaign, and become a member if you love books. Mark your calendar for December 20th!

And if you missed my earlier blog post, I am giving away 10 Kindle copies of The Cutting Edge to 10 lucky blog followers. Winners will be announced by the end of the week. The contest runs through Dec. 16 at midnight EST. If you’d like to enter, check out the blog post.