Monthly Archive for December, 2010

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Kindle Book Giveaway – Free E-book of ‘The Cutting Edge’ to 10 Blog Followers

Published on December 11, 2010 in Bestseller Bound. 20 Comments Tags: bestseller Bound, Darcia Helle, Kindle, Kindle gifts, The Cutting Edge, Twenty-five years ago today.

If you have a Kindle or enjoy reading e-books using a Kindle app, then I have a special contest for you. I am going to buy 10 of my blog followers a Kindle download of Darcia Helle’s fabulous novel The Cutting Edge. The contest will run from Dec. 11 at 6 a.m. EST to Dec. 16 at midnight EST. Winners will be announced on Friday, December 17 and will receive their free download on December 20.

All you have to do is:
1. Follow this blog via Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs. (you can be either a new or current follower)
2. Leave your name and e-mail address below if you would like to be entered into the drawing.
3. For an extra entry, tweet this post or share it on Facebook, and let me know.

The reason for this giveaway is to celebrate the countdown to The Cutting Edge Amazon Campaign! On December 20, Bestseller Bound will promote an experiment to see how powerful social networking can be in propelling an indie book onto the Amazon Kindle Bestseller List.

The goal is to get as many people as possible to purchase author Darcia Helle’s book The Cutting Edge on that day in Kindle format. The book is normally $3.99 on Kindle, but on December 20 will be discounted to 99 cents. A large number of people purchasing it on that day will help to raise the book’s Amazon ranking and will therefore put it on the radar of Kindle users. You’ll also be supporting charity. As part of this campaign, Darcia will donate all the profits from the December 20 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.

Since Darcia is a good friend of mine, I thought I would help the campaign to get a decent start with 10 sales. Darcia is also offering bonus content at the end of the book, including an excerpt of my brand new reality TV show-themed mystery novel Sink or Swim. I’m honored to have an excerpt in The Cutting Edge as I loved it when I read it earlier this year. The book follows a hairdresser named Skye Summers who can’t stop fantasizing about killing her clients. Meanwhile, a serial killer is targeting women in the community and becomes obsessed with Skye. The book mixes elements of suspense, mystery, romance and dark comedy. It was easily one of the best novels that I read this year.

So, if you would like to enter the contest, then please leave your information below. Winners will be randomly selected and announced at the end of this week. Using Amazon’s new gift-giving function for Kindle books, on Dec. 20, I will select the “Give as a Gift” option for The Cutting Edge Kindle edition and send the gift to my 10 winners. 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 you don’t win the contest, then head over to Amazon on December 20 and download the book for 99 cents. It’s cheaper than a cup of coffee, will help you unwind during the holiday season, will help a deserving author to gain attention, and will support a good cause. In the meantime, follow The Cutting Edge Campaign on Facebook and Twitter. Also, if you’re an indie or small press author, reader, reviewer, or book blogger, we’d love to have you join Bestseller Bound.

And I have one more link for you. When you’re done entering this contest, head over to the Indie Books Holiday Giveaway Event – created and organized by Darcia Helle – and fill out a simple entry form to win great prizes. Forty-seven authors are giving away hundreds of print books and e-books. Have fun!

25 Years Ago Today: Rock and Roll With ShapeShifter Author Susan Helene Gottfried

Published on December 6, 2010 in 25 Years Ago Today. 7 Comments Tags: 1980s music, a-ha, Def Leppard, Duran Duran, Hard Rock Cafe, Jon Bon Jovi, Madonna, Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation, music industry, radio stations, record stores, Rick Savage, rock bands, rock music, ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes — Year 1, ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes — Year 2, Susan Helene Gottfried, Trevor’s Song, West of Mars, Wham!.

I’d like to welcome my guest Susan Helene Gottfried. Susan is the author of ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes — Year 1, ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes — Year 2, and Trevor’s Song. If you’re looking for a holiday gift for the music fan/reader on your list, then you can purchase Susan’s books and support a great cause, the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, at the same time. Details are at the bottom of this post, but first, let’s meet Susan.

A tone-deaf rocker-at-heart, Susan worked in retail record stores, in radio stations, as stage crew, and as a promoter while earning two college degrees in creative writing. Susan walked away from a continued career in the music industry in order to write books, so it makes sense that most of her fiction revolves around rock bands. She says that once you get those record stores, radio stations, and fellow roadies and promoters under your skin, they never leave. When not writing, Susan captains the team at Win a Book, a promotional site for authors, book bloggers and readers.

Here is what Susan was doing 25 years ago:

SUSAN: My life changed 25 years ago. Maybe it was today when it happened. Maybe it was yesterday, last month, last week. I don’t know; it crept up on me. Not like Carl Sandburg’s famous fog, on little cat’s feet.

Nope, my life changed when I turned on the radio. When MTV invaded the homes in my suburban community and introduced my generation to the likes of Madonna, a-ha, Wham!, and Duran Duran.

It was the music of the 1980s, as full of innocence and longing as today’s music isn’t. And I was at the perfectly ripe age — somewhere in my teens — to let it take hold and transform my previously miserable, frustrated, writer-in-training self into a young girl with hopes and dreams.

It was the glamour of the music that got me going. Jon Bon Jovi’s duster jacket. The skinny women in the crop tops and hot pants and boots that caressed the curve of a calf. And while I never owned a duster jacket or wore hot pants — let alone looked good in them — I had a crop top. One. I bought it at the Hard Rock Cafe in Cancun, Mexico. I have a picture of myself backstage with Def Leppard’s Rick Savage, wearing that top. Under a cropped jacket. Probably with boots that caressed the curve of my calf. I remember those boots, too. They were white and fringed and had the perfect kitten heel on them.

Yep, I ate up that 80s hair band image. It was who I thought I wanted to be. Twenty-five years ago today, a lot of people wanted to be those rockers up on that stage. Me, I wanted to be the woman standing in the wings, looking out past the band and into the crowd. I wanted to know I was the reason all those thousands of people had jammed themselves onto the floor and were reaching over each other’s heads, every last one hoping for a handslap or a touch from the singer.

Now, twenty-five years later, part of that girl remains. I turned down a number of jobs that would have let me be that woman in the wings. I had another calling, a stronger one, and that was to write books. When I sit down to play with my fictional band, ShapeShifter, it’s that girl I tap into. That teenager who found her place in the world thanks to 80s rock and roll.

It may have been today when it happened. Maybe it was yesterday, last month, last week. It doesn’t matter. It gave me the gift of a lifetime and even though I’ve moved beyond 80s tunes, music remains the stablizing force in my life. My comfort when things are rough. My inspiration. My passion.

During December 2010, I will be donating at least 50% of my royalties from my three books to the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation. If you recall the movie of similar name, you’ll know they donate new and refurbished instruments to schools, so that our children can have the chance to make music. Details are on my contests page: http://westofmars.com/west-of-mars/contests. Books make great holiday gifts, and this year, my books will give an extra gift — that of music.

25 Years Ago Today: Bestselling Medical Suspense Author CJ Lyons

Published on December 2, 2010 in 25 Years Ago Today. 5 Comments Tags: Angels of Mercy, CJ Lyons, Critical Condition, Die Hard, Erin Brockovich, hospitals, Lifelines, medical school, medical suspense novels, Peace Corps, pediatric ER, physicians, Urgent Care, Warnings Signs.

I’d like to welcome my guest CJ Lyons. I’ve had the pleasure of reading some of CJ’s books and highly recommend them. Warning – you won’t be able to put them down! Her new book CRITICAL CONDITION, the finale of the Angels of Mercy medical suspense series, can best be described as Die Hard in a hospital. It’s due out Dec. 7th.

As a pediatric ER doctor, CJ Lyons has lived the life she writes about. In addition to being an award-winning medical suspense author, CJ is a nationally known presenter and keynote speaker. Her first novel, LIFELINES (Berkley, March 2008), received praise as a “breathtakingly fast-paced medical thriller” from Publishers Weekly, was reviewed favorably by the Baltimore Sun and Newsday, named a Top Pick by Romantic Times Book Review Magazine, and became a National Bestseller. Her award-winning, critically acclaimed Angels of Mercy series (LIFELINES, WARNING SIGNS, and URGENT CARE) is available now and the series finale, CRITICAL CONDITION, hits stores November, 2010. Her newest project is as co-author of a new suspense series with Erin Brockovich.

Here is what CJ was doing 25 years ago…

CJ: Most of the characters I write about are in their late teens, so they wouldn’t remember what they were doing 25 years ago, but I do.

25 years ago I was making the most important decision of my life.

Now, I’ve made plenty of tough decisions since them–many of them truly life and death decisions. But this was the one that would lead me to the place where I could handle holding someone else’s life in my hands.

You see, I was never meant to go to college–none of my siblings did and my parents weren’t especially supportive or encouraging. But I was a good student and earned three scholarships that paid my way, so I left home at 17 to follow my dream of becoming a theatre major, imagining that I’d someday be working on Broadway or maybe as a theatrical or motion picture director.

Then, one day, a biology prof invited a few of us to witness an autopsy on a homeless person. Suddenly my life of theatrical melo-drama was replaced by the real-life drama of a real-life person.

I changed my major, took the MCATs, and applied to medical school. Then came the waiting….not one of my strong suits.

Impatient to start my new life and needing to earn money to put myself through medical school, I graduated from college early to work. So that spring there were no distractions from my waiting, just mindless drudgery earning a paycheck alternating with anxiously pacing until the mailman arrived.

Because of my financial situation I had to turn down two prestigious but frightfully expensive schools–but that was okay, because they weren’t my first choice anyway. I thought if I got into them, I was a sure-in with my chosen school.

I got in…kinda. I was on the waiting list.

Unless some kids turned them down, I wasn’t going to med school after all. What to do? I could go back to the theatre, a lot of my friends were working now and would give me a job, but my heart wasn’t in it anymore. So I decided to join the Peace Corps–satisfying both my need for excitement and adventure as well as my desire to help people, make a difference (a theme you might have noticed in my books, lol!)

Joining the Peace Corps isn’t as easy as it sounds. Just like applying to med school, it’s a rigorous process with no guarantees.

Which translates to more waiting….but then one day I received not one but TWO envelopes in the mail. The big, thick kind that mean paperwork inside.

One from the Peace Corps. One from the University of Florida College of Medicine.

They both wanted me. I wanted both of them. So I had to decide….and that’s what I was doing 25 years ago.

I’m sure you’ve guessed how it all worked out….but if you want to learn more about what I did with my choice, feel free to check out my full bio on my website, http://www.cjlyons.net for the rest of the story.

Check out CRITICAL CONDITION on Amazon. In the middle of a New Year’s Eve blizzard, the staff and patients of Angels of Mercy Hospital are held hostage by armed gunmen. Their target is Dr. Gina Freeman, who is holding vigil over her wounded fiancé, Detective Jerry Boyle. Stranded outside the hospital is ER physician Linda Fiore, whose past holds the secret the hitmen are willing to kill for. With the cold-blooded killers in control, no one may live to see the New Year.

Win Free Books During Indie Books Holiday Giveaway Event!

Published on December 1, 2010 in General News. Closed Tags: authors, book giveaways, Darcia Helle, giveaways, holidays, independent authors, indie authors, QuietFury Books.

If you love to read books, then have I got a contest for you! My friend Darcia Helle at QuietFury Books has organized a huge Indie Books Holiday Giveaway Event, showcasing the books of small press and indie authors. Forty-seven authors are giving away HUNDREDS of print books and e-books in December. Filling out the entry form just takes a moment, but if you’d like to browse, you’ll discover exciting new authors across many genres.

Stop by the giveaway page and have some fun, and please spread the word on your blogs and social networking pages. Since the event is international, you’ll have a chance to win a book no matter where you live. Entries will be accepted between 12:01 AM EST, December 1 and midnight EST on December 31.

On another contest note, thanks to everyone who entered my recent Gratitude Giveaway and I’m thrilled to have so many new followers. The winner of the Sink or Swim early readers copy was Cindy L., and Jessi E. was the winner of the Twenty-Five Years Ago Today e-book. Jacque S. won the copy of Deanna Jewel’s book Never Surrender. I wish all the entrants could have won a book, but if you didn’t, head on over to the Indie Books Holiday Giveaway Event where you have much better odds!