Zumaya Publications Free e-book Promotion!

One of my publishers, Zumaya Publications, is doing a free e-book promotion on two releases from Noon EDT 4/8/11 through Midnight EDT 4/10/11.

The promotion will be for:

Carole Waterhouse's The Tapestry Baby (Romance)

and

Mark Roberts's Unforced Error (SF/Fantasy)

 

Here are the links to the free downloads:

Tapestry Baby PDF

Tapestry Baby EPUB

Tapestry Baby MOBI

Unforced Error PDF

Unforced Error EPUB

Unforced Error MOBI

So enjoy these freebies from Zumaya Publications!

Happy reading!

 

 

 

Mind Sieve 4/4/11

Got a ton of stuff to share with you this week. (Some of it was from last week's overflow!) Doh!

Fan Fun

Candace Havens shared a link to the preview of the Three Musketeers in 3D! Lots of familiar faces too! Logan Lerman, Milla Jovovich, Orlando Bloom, Matthew Macfayden, Ray Stevenson, and Christoph Waltz as Cardinal Richelieu.

Vcinemashow is asking peeps to join them in Facebook to show your love of Asian Films.

SoonerCon shared the new trailers for Sega's video game adaptations of this summer's "Thor" and "Captain America: The First Avenger"

Dr Who has a cool 10 minute adventure online. Link curtesy of TopsyRT - Doctor Who: Amy Flirts With Amy? It's too darn funny! A great time loop piece.

SonnerCon shares The theme to the Original Star Trek as played on a...SAW~! (Watch the people's faces. They'll crack you up!)

Kaohsiung City, Taiwan's Eden Hotel has a $50-per 3-hour suite devoted to Batman. (Also shared by SoonerCon. I am sensing a pattern here. :P)

Dollhouse returns in comic book form this week with the brand new story "Dollhouse: Epitaphs" from Dark Horse. (News from MoTacharoen)



Author Platform/Social Media

From inkyelbows comes an updated list of Twitter for Writers. From the basics on up! (Looks super comprehensive!)

Kristen Lamb shows us how to - Go Hard or Go Home--Blogging & Branding. Tag like gang bangers. Own ur digital turf(As I was reading it I realize that though my blog had my name, I wasn't using my tag line! Now we're in business. Bwahahaha!)

YAFantasyGuide told us of Special Invite: Promote your books w/ character profiles.

SFWA posted a link to - How Not to Market Your Book. An actual sample (with the names filed off) of a letter received by Victoria Strauss.

Yes, there is a way to launch a FB fan page and not need therapy from Kristen Lamb. More eye opening wisdom!

How writers can use twitter to help SAVE TIME - by Kristen Lamb.

And cause she's on a roll - You know what you need? More Blogging Cowbell!

From PimpYourNovel we have Getting Your Name Out There. (I so totally agree about going to conventions!)



Writing Advice

Chuck Wendig brings - "Beware Of Writer II: Revenge Of The Teenage Penmonkey From Mars." Insights into a writer's mind! (NSFW)

Kristen Lamb talks about Antagonists.

Trusting Your Muse! Good post by Gigi Salem.

A slice of a writer's life. Stress less. Good advice by Writer Wellness maven JoyHeld. Shared by Kristen Lamb. Now I just need to find the time!

And that's it for this week folks! Enjoy!

Mind Sieve 3/28/11

It's going to be a full load this week! Lots of stuff!


Fan Fun

From Seth Green twitter feed I got this link about Nathan Fillion who made it onto the cover of Entertainment Weekly! Nice little write up with the cover pic at EW.com

SoonerCon shared this link to a pseudo steampunk film by Luc Besson, the same man who brought us Nikita and the Fifth Element, called The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-sec. The preview is totally awesome!

Candance Haven linked the latest preview for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. More movies for my to be watched list!



Author Platform

Nathan Bradford has a great post on Face Book for Authors. Most of the steps are very easy. A few may have changed slightly as Facebook just did a major change with fan pages, but most should be viable.

Kristen Lamb's Twitter Tuesday #10 is right on the money this week. You'll note that I already follow her advice as from the get go I went with @GloriaOliver. :)

10 Ways to Increase You Likebility Quotient - another Kristen Lamb zinger for this week! I do some of these already but I really need to clone myself to be able to participate more. Ugh!



Writing Advice

Kristen Lamb talk about her kitchen junk drawers and at the same time shows us where we can get idea and even help ourselves with our writing.

Donna Newton asks the question "What's in a Log Line?" And taking some lessons learned we get a before and after picture of hers. Very good advice for pitches.

Log line and actual content get discussed in Hooking the Reader and Never Letting Go by Kristen Lamb.

This bit hits home for both writers and readers. Part of it stems for a current discussion on e-book pricing, but it's the bottom half that I want you to look at. It's something I've touted about in my blogs a time or two - The Care and Feeding of Your Favorite Authors - from the indomitable (if not safe for work) mind of Chuck Wendig.

Nathan Bradford talks about a problem all of us writer types face - How to Find Balance? (Cloning! I tell you, cloning is the answer! Bwahahahaha!)

Stalled on your novel? Need ways to jump start the old noggin' again? Chuck Wendig has made a list of ways for you.


Okay, I think I will stop there. lol. This should keep you busy for a bit. :P

Movie Review - Beastly

Beastly

Starring: Alex Pettyfer, Mary-Kate Olsen, Vanessa Hudgens, Neil Patrick Harris, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Peter Krause and more.
Directed/Screenplay by: Daniel Barnz Based on the Novel by: Alex Flinn Original Music by: Marcelos Zarvos

Premise: Modern retelling of the Beauty and the Beast in New York City.

Review: I'm a sucker for Beauty and the Beast movies. There's just certain tales that I will go watch every time they're redone. This is one of them. And I'm glad I did.

Everyone involved with the film gave it a fun, fresh feel to the old story. Some nice chemistry or the beginnings of chemistry between super popular Kyle and and down to earth Lindy right before the world gave out under Kyle's feet. The addition of Neal Patrick Harris was brilliant. A nice bringer of humor to lighten the dark, somber, estranged Kyle. And you'll love Mary-Kate Olsen as the witch. Too fun!

All the original earmarks of the tale of Beauty and the Beast are here - a test failed by Kyle which gets him cursed; the one year time limit to find true love; fate giving Kyle a way to strong arm Lindy's father to have her stay at his home; roses.

Having said that, there are also many new surprises. Reasons are shown why Kyle was the shallow, skin deep only boy we meet at the beginning. The transformation of Kyle is not into a beast but someone with tattoos, torn skin, embedded metal. And the sign of his curse, the way to keep track of its progress - some really nice subtle special effects for this one - a giant rose bush with roots in his hand and up his wrist, with the crown on his arm - and it goes through the seasons. There was a section passage of time that was also done in a subtle surreal way that totally complemented the film.

The ending had a slight twist from the norm, which was also a nice surprise. I especially liked the question it through in, the spiking of unexpected tension after he believes Lindy's gone on her trip - will she know him now as she did then? (No, I won't explain. Don't want to spoil it!) Fun film!

Rating: 4 out of 5 (No hubby rating as he didn't want to see it. Now I get to rib him that he missed a good one. Nyah!)