$.99 SALE!!!

 $.99 $.99 $.99 $.99  $.99 $.99 $.99

YES! You read that right! You can purchase Wayward Soul for $.99 right now at AMAZON  and at BARNES AND NOBLE. YIPPEEE!!! I'm posting the book blurb and chapter one below so you can check it out.

BLURB:

When Zanna Seoul accidentally causes the death of a fellow spirit guide’s charge while trying to save the life of the man she loves, she is stripped of her position and banished to Earth to die. In the spirit world, one doesn’t mess with what’s written.

With Zanna no longer guiding him and his memory of her erased, Owen Nash is left wide open as the target of the vengeful spirit guide who feels he’s been wronged. A guide who also happens to be a werewolf. Once on Earth, Zanna refuses to stand by and watch Owen die, so she intervenes again, setting off a chain of events that could mean death for all of them if she doesn’t go back and undo the mess she’s made. Can Zanna succeed before the werewolf does?

SNEAK PEEK:

Chapter One

“Owen, please don’t go to work today.”

Zanna slapped a hand over her mouth. Did she just say that out loud? What the heck was she trying to do? She was Owen’s spirit guide for goodness sake. Her job was to make sure he followed his charted course while living on Earth. To be the invisible force that directed him toward which decision to make. She knew better than to try and change fate. If his chart said he was supposed to die, that was that. His life had already been mapped out from beginning to end before he was born and it was pretty much

set in stone. Unfortunately, right now she wasn’t his spirit guide, but the woman who loved him.

“Did you say something?” Owen asked from the kitchen.

Zanna stiffened. If she hadn’t already been sitting on his sofa, she would have fallen to the floor. Had Owen heard her? “No, nothing.” Yes. Please don’t go to work. Stay here. Stay safe.

“Do you need me to drive you home? I appreciate you staying here last night with Jamie and getting him off to school,” Owen said, walking back to the living room with two cups of coffee. He sat down on the coffee table and handed her a cup.

“No, I’ll be fine,” Zanna said. I need to go look at your chart on the other side and see if there’s any way to stop you from dying.

“If you keep staring at me like that, I’m gonna to be late for work.” He smiled, revealing the dimple in his right cheek.

Inspiration struck. Maybe she was forbidden from telling Owen to stay home, but if he made the choice on his own…

“Well, we can’t have that, Lieutenant Nash.” She leaned forward, sat the coffee down, and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him on the couch with her.

Desire flashed in Owen’s eyes. “Forget work. I spent all night chasing the bad guy.” His mouth captured hers, urging her lips to part. The minute they did, he deepened the kiss and her conscience receded to a distant part of her mind. Zanna ran her fingers down Owen’s sides and around his back, pulling him closer, her hands dipping lower.

Breathless, Owen broke the kiss to ask, “Are you sure? I mean, I know you want to wait…”

Was she sure? As one of the few spirit guides who had never lived on earth as a human before, she didn’t have a lot of experience in the romantic depart. Slowly, she emerged from the blissful daydream where she was trying to find a place to hide from the impossible dilemma she faced.

Do my job and let Owen die or save him and risk causing bedlam on Earth. Why did it have to be written in his chart that he had to die? Would it really be so disastrous if he lived?

“Earth to Zanna,” Owen said.

“I’m sorry. Did you say something?”

Owen furrowed his eyebrows. “Yeah, I asked if you wanted to stop. I’m sorry. I freaked you out, didn’t I?”

Zanna took his face in her hands. “No, you didn’t scare me at all. It’s just—”

“It’s fine, I get it. I’m sorry.” Owen pushed back off the couch and moved to the door. “I gotta go to work.” He grabbed his gun and badge off the shelf by the door and turned the handle. He released the handle and raked his hand through his hair. With a loud sigh, he removed the gun and put it back on the shelf and then walked back to Zanna. He took both her hands in his and placed a tender kiss on her lips. Tears of relief streamed down her cheek.

“Please don’t cry. I hate it when you cry. I was a jerk.”

“I didn’t mean…It’s not you…It’s just…It’s just…” It’s just that if you go to work, you’ll be killed and I’ll lose you.

He caressed her face with his thumbs. “Why don’t I call and have Smitty bring me the reports I need to finish, and we can spend the day doing whatever you want,” Owen offered.

Zanna’s heart sang with joy. “Yes!”

Owen gave her a sheepish smile. “Okay. Let me call work and then I’ll be all yours.” He opened his phone and dialed.

Zanna fell back on the couch, relief washing through her. Her mind reeled trying to figure out how this was possible. How had it been so easy to keep Owen from going

to work, when his chart said he would end up being shot and killed in the line of duty today?

“Zanna.”

His voice had taken on a somber note. The laughter completely gone. The way he said her name sent cold shivers up and down her spine. She couldn’t look up, didn’t want to see the solemn expression on his face. She started to tremble and beads of perspiration broke out on her temple. If she didn’t get a grip, she wouldn’t be able to maintain her

physical body and it would be cast back to the spirit side. Owen would then drop dead from shock at watching her disappear.

He sat beside her on the sofa and placed his hand on her forehead. “Are you o—”

His cell phone started chirping. Cursing under his breath, he answered. “Nash.”

Zanna couldn’t hear what the caller was saying, but from the way Owen’s jaw tightened and the vein on the side of his neck throbbed, it wasn’t good.

“I’m on my way.” He snapped the phone closed then tossed in on the table. “I’m so sorry, Zanna. We have a really good lead on the guy we think’s been killing all these young girls. I have to follow it. Why don’t you stay here and wait for me.”

Her throat was so tight she couldn’t speak, so she just gave him a tight smile and nodded.

“Don’t hate me. You know I wouldn’t go if I didn’t have to.”

“I love you, Owen,” she said, her eyes intent.

He pressed his lips to her brow. “Why, I don’t know, but I’m glad you do. I love you, too. Wait for me.”

A few minutes later, she was alone in Owen’s house. Frozen in place, hoping time would stand still.

I can’t lose him. I don’t care what his fate is supposed to be! Think, think, think. There has to be a way to stop Owen from dying without causing chaos and destruction to ensue.

Now Zanna understood why spirit guides were only permitted to take on a physical form to help a charge as a last resort. Why too much interaction between a life director and the human they helped protect was forbidden. The temptation to rewrite a person’s destiny, which in turn would cause pandemonium, was too great. She picked a pillow up off the couch and screamed into it, loud. There was nothing she could do to save Owen.

WORKSHOP WEDNESDAY

I Feel a Contraction Coming On

If I had to pick the one mistake I see writers make over and over it would be that they don’t use contractions. I’m serious. This is by far the biggest correction I make when editing a manuscript. Was not to wasn’t, is not to isn’t, are not to aren’t…the list is endless.

This is jarring to read, it interrupts the flow of the story, and it makes the writing seem choppy. Fiction is supposed to sound natural, and when we speak, we use contractions. Here are some examples from my book Wayward Soul. Read them out loud and see which example sounds better:

A - Please do not go to work. Stay here. Stay safe.

B - Please don’t go to work. Stay here. Stay safe.

A - “Well, we cannot have that, Lieutenant Nash.”

B - “Well, we can’t have that, Lieutenant Nash.”

A - Zanna took his face in her hands. “No, you did not scare me at all.”

B - Zanna took his face in her hands. “No, you didn’t scare me at all.”

A - “Please do not cry. I hate it when you cry. I was a jerk.”

B - “Please don’t cry. I hate it when you cry. I was a jerk.”

Even if you read these examples to yourself, the sentences that don’t have contractions probably felt awkward. The others, more natural and easier to follow. I guarantee this small change will make a world of difference in your manuscript.

On the other side of the coin, sometimes it’s better not to use a contraction. For instance, if you want to add emphasis like in this example from my short story The Ballad of Brenda and Willard:

A - “I cannot believe that you care so little about me that you don’t even remember our anniversary. How dare you. Our anniversary is not March tenth.”

B - “I can’t believe that you care so little about me that you don’t even remember our anniversary. How dare you. Our anniversary isn’t March tenth.”

Either scenario above would work, however example A clearly helps show the character’s emotion and anger just a tad better. This is part of developing your voice as a writer. Just don’t overdo it.

No matter how many times you edit your manuscript, you’ll likely miss some of these. The best way to find them, and avoid spending hours reading and re-reading your story, is to use FIND and REPLACE feature in your word processing program like this:

Whala! Simple. Easy. You can repeat this process to fix any words that should be contracted.

Another alternative is to just use the Find function and search for the word NOT, for example, then click the Reading Highlight button and Highlight all.

This is the quickest way to find words that should be turned into contractions, but it’s certainly not the easiest way to fix them because once you click in the document and make a change, the highlights disappear and you have to repeat the process. However, this will without a doubt ensure you haven’t missed anything. So my advice is to use the table below to help you figure out which words should be contracted, use the Find/Replace function to fix them, and then use the Find function with Highlight to double check yourself.

 

This list isn’t all inclusive and there may still be some contractions that you miss, but just this one change will make your manuscript much better and more appealing to those publishers when you send it outJ

SIX SENTENCE SUNDAY

It's a Father's Day Six Sentence Sunday!!!! Hope it's a happy one for all! I get to honor my father and remind everyone about a great anthology that I'm a part of for Astraea Press. My six sentences come from Matrimonial Mayhem. So without further ado, here's my six from The Ballad of Brenda and Willard.

My parents’ wedding is the stuff of legends; urban legends, that is. You know what I’m talking about. One of those things where your friend’s cousin’s brother’s uncle’s sister-in-law was there, but you never hear the person’s name or actually speak to them. In fact, my mother never signed the marriage application or license. Well, she was only fifteen and so legally she couldn’t, but if not her, then who did? It’s a mystery I intend to unravel.

Oh, what a story it is! Plus, the five other great stories you get. Just click HERE. For $5 you get a great read and help the tornado victims. Also, don't forget to go check out all the other great posts for Six Sentence Sunday.

Workshop Wednesday with Kay Springsteen

Why Your Book Needs a Realtor

This is it! You’ve decided to move. Maybe your house is too big, maybe it’s too small. Maybe you just want to live someplace else. Either way,you’ve decided you’re finished with the house you’re living in. It’s time to sell it. To do that, you have to put it on the market. So let’s say you’ve been living in this house long enough to get comfortable. You’ve made a few improvements, tweaked a few things. Maybe you’ve put on an addition. And along the way, your kids have grown, so you’ve added growth charts with some cute little nicks in the woodwork of their bedroom doors. Nothing big, and it’s so cute and heartwarming, you just know the house’s next owners will want to preserve those marks forever like you were doing.

And, well, maybe getting in and out of the master bath is a bit awkward because the door sticks, but if you just give it a tiny kick, it opens just fine. Yes, those stains on the carpet are a tad unsightly, but—hey, it was New Year’s Eve of 2000 and Auntie Em thought the world was about to end when the clock struck midnight, so she was chugging the grape juice. And when the countdown ended and the neighbor shot off his gun…yeah, maybe that’s not as cute now that 2012 is approaching and Auntie Em likes prune juice.

So your house has some quirks that not every prospective owner is going to love…some might even hate them. What do you do? You clean it up. And since you have a hard time with destroying the evidence of some of your best memories, maybe an objective opinion is called for.

You wouldn’t consider selling your house without cleaning it up and having a third party (AKA your realtor) evaluate what you still need to do to show it off successfully, right?

So why would you consider doing anything less for that story you’ve been sweating over for the past several months or even years?

You’ve built your world, met your characters, introduced them to the world, added in a plot so they have tasks to accomplish. You’ve given then a voice and shown them participating in activities that lead to other activities. You’ve crafted a heart-stopping climax and finished with a breathtaking flourish. You’re ready to submit to a publisher and take that bow into the world of publication, right?

Wrong.

No one tells the perfect tale in a flawless fashion. We’re all human – more human than the characters we’ve created, actually. We’re bound to miss a period or a set of quotation marks. We probably have too many commas or a misplaced modifier. We may even…gasp! We might have a plot hole or two.

So, your story isn’t 100%. What do you do? You can send it in and risk rejection before the acquisitions editor reads past the second or third page. Or you can polish it.

Oh, you’ve already polished it? What about page 17, where your character said she hasn’t been home in 10 years, and then on page 24, she says she’s been away for 11 years?

It’s easy to miss the small details by being too close to the story you wrote. And it’s those small details the reader is going to notice and say, “Wait a minute!” 

So after you realize you’ve done as much as you can with the story, what do you do? You call a realtor. Or at least a critique partner or a group of them. You need someone to look over your work. Someone who will be able to look at what you’ve crafted with a…well, a critical eye. An objective party. Not the spouse, who will either joke your story’s foibles away or not get it. Not your best friend who will gush about your work because, well, you wrote a book!

You need someone with strong grammar and usage skills, someone who understands fiction and how it’s written. The best critique partners are other authors—this also gives you a chance to critique their work for them to return the favor. Trust me, every time you critique someone else’s work, you will learn also.

Now, I’ve developed a partnership of trust and fun with my critique partners. When they point things out, they’re not trying to undermine me or say my work stinks. They’re giving me insights that I can’t have about my work because I’ve been looking at these pages for so long I overlook things. They’re helping me improve and become a better writer.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t have fun at it. My Achilles heel is the difference between lay and lie. I even tried to teach myself to remember the difference by remembering that chickens lay and people lie. But I frequently miss it because it’s one of those things I grew up with: “The shirt was laying on the floor.” It’s a family colloquialism.

So, what do my crit partners do? They cluck-cluck like chickens whenever they find I’ve done this. We have fun with it because writing fiction, through all its processes, should be fun. Otherwise, why do it?

I trust my crit partners with my baby. I may or may not agree with everything they tell me, but the things they find are things at least I am made aware of. Sometimes, I don’t agree with them and yet I can see I’m not right either, and at such times, critique partners are great persons to brainstorm with. “Obviously plan A isn’t working, so what do you think might fix it?”

As a writer, you owe it to yourself and to the story you’ve been working so hard on, to include crit partners in the process. They are your first line of editing so you can present the most polished manuscript possible to the publisher. And believe me, if you can’t take what a trusted critique partner says without folding, you will have problems when your book goes into the publisher’s editing stage. A crit partner will help you polish your work for the editor to prepare for publication. An editor, on the other hand, has a job to do, and that is to spin your work into gold for your readers to enjoy to the fullest possible extent. The more polished your submission, the easier the process of editing will go.

If you need further convincing about the benefits of a critique partner, consider this personal story. Based on my tag line and brief synopsis, I was invited to a chat pitch with a major publishing house’s top editor. I became finger-tied (the equivalent of tongue-tied) and completely bombed the chat. However, this editor obviously sensed my nervousness, and she changed her question tactic. She asked if I had a critique partner or group, and I told her yes. She asked what they thought of the work, and I told her they liked it. She then asked me for a full submission directed to her attention. Why? She confided to me that my pitch was weak but the fact that I worked with critique partners showed a level of professionalism and dedication, and she knew the manuscript would be more polished than if I submitted it with just my own editing. Editors want the submission to be as polished as you can get it, too. Critique partners are your first line of defense to make sure you get that sought after acceptance letter.

Critique partners can be found in various writing groups at http://groups.yahoo.com/ (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RWCcritique/ is one; others can be found using the search function, http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=romance+writing+critique) and at reviewfuse.com. Also, eharlequin.com has a forum in the community tab, where you can reach out to and connect with other writers.

Thanks so much, Kay, for such wonderful information. It is VITAL that you have crit partners to help you with preparing your manuscript. I see book on a daily basis that speak poorly about the author because of errors that could have been avoided. Writing partners will ensure you put your best foot forward.

I hope this was helpful. please check out my post last week on Formatting Your Manuscript and I hope you'll visit my Workshop Wednesday next week:)

WORKSHOP WEDNESDAY

FORMATTING YOUR SUBMISSION

Happy Wednesday! I'm going to start a new series on my blog about cleaning up and polishing your manuscript so that it's 150% ready to submit. I know, I know. I hear you all groaning about how this has been done to death. But I see books on a weekly basis that are in need of more work before the author even thinks of publishing. This includes formatting.

I have yet to see a publishing house that isn't very specific about how they want the manuscript set up. Please take the time to read the requirements and follow the outline requested. This workshop is a basic guide for your document using Word '03, but it gives you an overview of how you want your manuscript to look when you submit it.

STEP 1: Set your font to TIMES NEW ROMAN and your font size to 12. This is an easy to read font and size and it is generally the style that most houses prefer. DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO USE YOUR "SIGNATURE" FONT OR YOUR FAVORITE FONT. This is not about what you like or think looks best. It's what the publisher wants.

STEP 2: Generally, you need to set your margins to 1" TOP-BOTTOM-LEFT-RIGHT. Remember, this is for submissions, not for printing. Your publisher will make the formatting adjustments necessary for that. It's much easier to read and edit your manuscript if it's set up with a 1" margin and nothing fancy. So under the FILE tab, click on PAGE SETUP and then MARGINS and choose 1".

STEP 3: PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! Whatever you do, DON'T space over or tab to indent paragraphs. This is a nightmare to fix when formatting a manuscript for print. Word has several features that will set your first line indent for you. So go to the FORMAT tab and then click on PARAGRAPH.

Once on this screen, you can set up a couple of things. The first is under the INDENT/SPACING Heading. In the section marked INDENTATION go to SPECIAL and change to FIRST LINE. This automatically indents the first line of all new paragraphs when you hit return. Simple and no more formatting issues.The second thing you'll setup here is under the section marked SPACING. Set BEFORE and AFTER to 0 and set your LINE SPACING to DOUBLE. Once your options look like the ones on the left, press the OKAY button.

STEP 4: Depending on where you're planning to submit your book, you  may have to add a HEADER. This is easily done as well. Just go to VIEW and click on HEADER AND FOOTER. Pick the option that best fits what the house is asking you to use. Generally, they want you to include your name, the book title, and page number.

WALLA! You are now ready to type that masterpiece! Please follow these steps or the instructions set out by the house you want to submit your book to. You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

I hope this helped! Now, hop on over to read what my friend Kay Springsteen has to say about crit partners. Click HERE.

~Kim

COMMA CHAMELEON

The comma is, in my opinion, the chameleon of the punctuation family. And I don’t mean that in a good way, but rather that it reminds me of the chameleon Randall from the Disney movie Monster’s Inc. Why? Because despite the many grammatical rules about using the comma, they’re always changing or including exceptions that basically say, “This is the rule, but you can do it this way, or you can do it that way, or you can follow what this person does, or what that person does”. Sort of like a chameleon changes colors. It’s enough to drive you batty.

There’s no way in this blog post I can cover all the rules there are associated with the comma. But I’m going to do my best to cover two instances that create problems for authors.

INDEPENDENT CLAUSES: This is more commonly known as a sentence. So basically what this means is if you have two sentences that are joined by a conjunction (and, but, or, so, yet – just to name a few), you need a comma before the conjunction. You wouldn’t believe how many people omit a comma in this instance. I’m going to show you a couple examples to help illustrate how I remember this rule.

Example 1

She abused this privilege by taking the information and using it to prevent her charge from dying.

Example 2

Her feelings for Owen might have clouded her judgment but she would never stoop to sacrificing others for her own selfish desires.

Which one of the above examples needs a comma? If you guessed the second one, you’re right. In the first example, the first phrase can’t stand alone. It doesn’t make sense to say She abused this privilege by taking the information. The second clause is no better. Using it to prevent her charge from dying doesn’t make a sentence either. But in Example 2, Her feelings for Owen might have clouded her judgment is a complete sentence. As is She would never stoop to sacrificing others for her own selfish desires.

The way I remember when to insert a comma and when not to is: INDEPENDENT CLAUSES are IN NEED of a comma. DEPENDENT CLAUSES DEPEND on the contraction so NO COMMA!

INTRODUCTORY WORDS AND PHRASES: This is one of the toughest comma rules (and I use the word rules loosely when it comes to commas) because it doesn’t really give you a clear answer. The rule says that generally an introductory word or phrase is followed by a comma, but to use your best judgment. HELLOOOOO! If we didn’t want someone to come out and tell us what to do, we wouldn’t be reading the rules!

To be honest, this one stumps me the most. With this rule, there’s really no rhyme or reason that goes into an individual’s decision to use a comma or to omit it. I do have a little secret I’ll share that will make it easier. It’s a sure-fire formula you can use to determine if a comma is truly needed. It’s simple and it hasn’t failed me yet.

1. Ask yourself if the sentence can stand on its own without the phrase.
2. Is the phrase being used to insert a pause in the sentence?
3. Place the phrase at the end of the sentence to see if you would need to insert a comma for clarity.
4. Is the phrase essential to the sentence or is it added information?
5. Turn the sentence into a question and see if it makes sense with the phrase.

I know, I know. I hear you all groaning about having to do so much work. And YES you have to do it. If you’re serious about being an author, then you have to do everything possible to make your manuscript the best it can be. Now for a training exercise.

To be fair it hadn’t taken much convincing.

Step 1: take the introductory phrase away and see if the rest of the clause is a sentence. It hadn’t taken much convincing. Yes, it’s a sentence and it can stand on its own.

Step 2: Read the sentence aloud and see if you automatically insert a pause after the phrase. Yes, you should have inserted a pause.

Step 3: Place the phrase at the end of the sentence and see if a comma is needed for clarity. It hadn’t taken much convincing to be fair. Yes, in this instance a comma is definitely needed for understanding.

Step 4: Is the phrase essential to the sentence? This is a little trickier to answer, but we know it’s not essential to make the clause a sentence and we know it’s not needed to help clarify what’s being discussed, so it might make the sentence better but it’s not essential. So the answer is NO.

Step 5: Turn the sentence into a question and see if it’s awkward with the phrase. To be fair had it taken much convincing? Had it taken much convincing? It’s not hard to see that the sentence with the phrase is very awkward when turned into a question if you don’t have a comma.

In a nutshell, if you find that you answer yes to steps 1, 2, & 3 and that you answer no to step 4 and that when you complete step 5 it’s awkward, you need the comma. You might be thinking, “But I know that since steps 1 & 2 are yes that I need a comma so I don’t need to complete the other steps”. Wrong. Most people do steps 1 & 2 and still don’t get it right. Until you practice going through all these steps and truly have a grasp of using commas with introductory phrases and words, complete all five steps!

 Now, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. You can start with the few examples I’ve provided. Which ones need a comma? Do you have a sentence you’d like to discuss?

Practice Sentences:

With open arms she ran to him.

Before he could shoot the woman whipped the fire extinguisher around and sprayed the animal.

Slowly Kell stood.

Hope this helps! Still have a question, post it in the comment section and I'll see if I can help you muddle through it:)

~Kim

Trivia Tuesday with Joselyn Vaughn

Welcome my special guest Joselyn Vaughn. She’s letting me pick her brain about the most important issues a writer faces. Okay, maybe not the most important, but certainly the most fun! Here we go…

1. What’s your favorite Disney Movie? I love Beauty and the Beast. I love how they both need to see beneath the surface to find the true person.  I think Disney created a really good version of this fairy tale.

2. Who’s your favorite villain either from a book or a movie? Favorite villain?  Ooo, this is hard. So far, I’m not coming up with a personal favorite, but definitely with some that are very well done. Heath Ledger as the Joker. Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa. Oh and Miss Hilly in The Help by Kathryn Stockett. She had me sick to my stomach every time someone mentioned her.

3. Where’s the one place you’d love to visit? I would love to go to Italy.  I’m not sure which part though. I studied ancient Rome and Greece in college and loved it.  It would be so cool to see all the places I saw in my textbooks and talked about in class.

4. Name one thing on your bucket list that would surprise people. Why? People are always surprised to hear that I run.  I prefer running long distances.  I just don’t have the speed for anything short, but I can run for a long time.  I think it would be really cool to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Just have to figure out how to get the time for more miles in my day.

Girl, have you met my son? I run the Boston Marathon every day.

6. What book do you read over and over again? I’ve read Pride and Prejudice several times. Mr. Bennet cracks me up. I wish I had more time to read right now so I could reread some old favorites.

This has been so much fun! Thank you for coming by and answering the questions that inquiring minds want to know! You also need to check out her book Sucker for a Hotrod. Here’s the blurb:

Bryce Halloway only dates a woman once. No exceptions.

It gives him the reputation of a heart-breaker, but he can handle that as long as it keeps his mother, Dinah, from trying to marry him off. Judi Montgomery and her tempting ponytail finagle their way around official dates with car problems and driving lessons. She worms her way into his heart and entices him to want more from his life.

When health issues causes his father to retire, Bryce inherits the family-owned tractor repair shop. Can Judi’s love and encouragement give him the courage to break tradition and pursue his dreams of owning a custom hot rod shop?

ASTRAEA PRESS ~ AMAZON  ~ BARNES & NOBLE

Also, Joselyn would love to hear from you. You can visit her at

Website ~ Blog ~ Facebook ~ Twitter

Trip to Paradise Blog Hop Winners

CONGRATULATIONS! What an awesome Trip around the world. I wanted to say thank you to all of you for your support and participation in our blog hop. We certainly hope you’ll all come back and visit for our next one! You guys were all so awesome so I upped the ante on my giveaway and instead of three winners we have five – One first place, two second place, and two third place. Here’s a breakdown of the prizes (in case you forgot).

1st place: $10 coupon to use on the Astraea Press website plus a paperback copy of my novella Wayward Soul plus 2 awesome bookmarks

2nd place: a paperback copy of my novella Wayward Soul plus 2 awesome bookmarks

2nd place: a paperback copy of my novella Wayward Soul plus 2 awesome bookmarks

3rd place: a PDF copy of my novella Wayward Soul plus I'll mail you 2 awesome bookmarks

3rd place: a PDF copy of my novella Wayward Soul plus I'll mail you 2 awesome bookmarks

Without further ado, here are the winners. I used randomizer.org to determine the number and then counted down to that comment.

1st place: @Lindsey Hutchinson

2nd place: @shadowestr

2nd place: @darkangel

3rd place: @mmbourassa

3rd place: @Chrisbails

Congrats, peeps. I do have your emails so be watching for something from me:) This was a wild ride and I hope you come back next month to see what we have in store!

~Kim

Wedding Anthology Winners

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS OF OUR WEDDING ANTHOLOGY BLOG HOP!!!

I’m very sorry for the lateness of this post. We all want to thank you very much for participating in our hop. It was awesome and fun. Congratulations to the five posters who visited all our blogs and left comments. Here is the list of posters. We used randomizer.org to pick the winners. Since there were only five people, we decided to have two fourth place winners. Here’s the list of prizes:

1st place be the Princess Diana beanie baby bear and an Astraea Press coupon code to use toward the purchase of any titles on the Astraea Press website, plus an ecopy of a book currently available by one of the six of us (winner's choice)

2nd place is a beautiful necklace and a paperback of my book Wayward Soul, plus an ecopy of a book currently available by one of the six of us (winner's choice)

3rd place is choice of 2 copies of ebooks currently offered by the six of us (winner's choice)

4th place is choice of 1 copy of ebook currently offered by the six of us (winner's choice)

EBOOKS you can choose from. You can click on the title to read more about the book:

WAYWARD SOUL by Kim Bowman

HEARTSIGHT by Kay Springsteen

LIFELINE ECHOES by Kay Springsteen

MATCHING WITS WITH VENUS by Therese Gilardi

A NEW DREAM by Elaine Cantrell

THE LEGEND OF THE OCEINA DRAGON by Jilly Jenkins

DEAL WITH THE DEVIL by J. Gunnar Grey

And the winners are:

First place – Renee Silvana

Second place – Sheila

Third place – Jennifer Comeaux

Fourth place – Kathleen Ball and Liz

Again, congratulations. Please email me at kimbowman2008@yahoo.com so we can get your prizes to you. Thank you again and it would be really great if you could pass the word on about Matrimonial Mayhem.

~Kim

Six Sentence Sunday

Happy Sunday! It's that time of week again and I'm so glad you all stopped by to see what happened after my parents' said, "I do". I'm promoting my contribution to a very special book that I, along with five other Astraea Press authors wrote. The book, Matrimonial Mayhem, was penned as a way to help the victims of the April 2011 tornadoes in the south. Our hearts go out to the families that suffered. For $5, you can get a great book and help your fellow Americans. Just click HERE to go to the buy link. Now, to find out what happens next in my short story about my parents' wedding. The Ballad of Brenda and Willard:

“I’m going to see you rot in jail; I’ll have the marriage annulled and you’ll never see Kaybird again.” L. T.’s voice shook as he spoke.

“Well, you can try to do that, but I’ve already lived with her for a week as man and wife and you can’t undo that.” Willard prayed L. T. believed him.

The yelling and cursing from the other end of the phone told him he could relax. “Get up here right now; I want to see the marriage license with my own eyes.”

Yep, pretty safe bet that my grandfather wasn't happy! Thank you so much for stopping by. Don't forget to check out all the other awesome posts on Six Sentence Sunday and don't forget to check out Matrimonial Mayhem.

~Kim

Trip Around the World Mega Author Blog Hop: Ticket to Paradise

Welcome, everyone. YIPPEEE! I'm so glad you're stopping to vacation with me in the Grand Canyon. Fasten your seatbelts and don't look down if you're afraid of heights. First, we need to cover a few rules. Also, if you'll look to the right of the screen. I've added the list of authors on our tour so you can make sure you visit them all for some great getaways!

TOUR RULES:

1)  HAVE FUN!!!

2)  INVITE ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS!!! SPREAD THE WORD!!!

3)  THIS TOUR STARTS:  Monday, May 16, at Midnight (Arizona Time)

     THIS TOUR ENDS: Monday, May 23, at Midnight (Arizona Time)

4)  MEET AND MINGLE WITH ALL THE AUTHORS! EXPERIENCE A NEW DESTINATION AT EVERY STOP! PARTICIPATE IN EVERY BLOG CONTEST AND BE ENTERED FOR CHANCES TO WIN MULTIPLE PRIZES! EVERY BLOG VISITED IS ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO WIN!! YOU MUST LEAVE A COMMENT TO BE ENTERED IN CONTESTS. PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS OR CHECK BACK May 24, to see if you were a winner.

5) PARTICIPATION AT EVERY BLOG IS RECOMMENDED. BUT REMEMBER: THE MORE YOU HOP, THE MORE CHANCES YOU HAVE TO WIN. EVERY AUTHOR IS WAITING TO MEET AND INTERACT WITH YOU, SO PLEASE BE SURE TO SHOW EVERY AUTHOR SOME LOVE!

6) DID I MENTION TO HAVE FUN?  WHOO! HOO!! HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I never truly understood the expression "A picture is worth a thousand words" until my husband and I visited the Grand Canyon in June of 2008. I want to share the experience with you. I had such a feeling of euphoria from the momment we turned onto the road heading to the tour office, and it steadily grew until I thought my heart would burst with the emotion. I'm so glad you're here to share my voyage with me. Now, if I can just get my donkey off his keester so we can hit the trail... 

We visited the West rim of the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, due to errosion and deterioration you are no longer permitted to drive there but have to take a tour bus. Once there, you can't walk past the rope barrier that's up. This is due to the loss of rock and dirt along the side. This is the home of the Hualapai Indians. They were a wonderful people who very openly shared their heritage and love of the canyon with us. Including this beautiful site. Eagle Rock (located at Eagle Point) on the west rim, aptly named for its shape, is considered sacred by the Hualapai Indians. I can't describe how moving it was to view this up close and personal. I felt like the eagle was soaring toward me. There's a lot of myth and legend behind this rock about how it helped the Hualapai's find their home. An amazing site to be sure. My eyes watered.

This is also where the skywalk is, but it was expensive and hung waaaaaaayyy too far over the canyon for my liking. On the West rim is also Guano Point.

This is a weak visual to express to you the beauty and the amazement you feel when you stand and look out across the canyon. I just stood staring, mouth agape. Words escaped me. I hope my picture at least expresses a small amount of the emotion I was feeling. WOW!

The thing that amazed me the most was that the physical location was like looking at a painting. It was that gorgeous and majestic. The colors were so vivid and bright. The detail so perfect. It is truly a splash of God's perfection. The interesting thing about this spot is what goldmine it is in terms of money. Not just tourism either (okay, maybe now it's tourism). Guano means the excrement of cave dwelling critters - specifically bats! Although the pictures don't show it, there are caves that you can see in the sides of the canyon. The feces of bats is used for fertilizer and gunpowder. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the pulley system that still stands there. It was used to take the workers down to the caves so they could gather the guano and send it back up. Pretty cool fun fact!

I hope you've enjoyed your vacation with me. My donkey is plum worn our from out treck across the Grand Canyon. If you ever get the chance, this place is a must see. I can't wait to go back.

Thanks for stopping by:)  Don't forget to visit the other blogs in our blog hop. Plenty of chances to win some awesome prizes.

Speaking of prizes!! Here's the awesome gifts I'm offering! You have three changes to win on my blog. Here are the awesome prizes:

1st place: $10 coupon to use on the Astraea Press website plus a paperback copy of my novella Wayward Soul plus 2 awesome bookmarks

2nd place: a paperback copy of my novella Wayward Soul plus 2 awesome bookmarks

3rd place: a PDF copy of my novella Wayward Soul plus I'll mail you 2 awesome bookmarks

UPDATE: After the wonderful response and support, I've decided to up my prizes. As of right now, we'll have the above prizes, PLUS, I'm adding a 2nd winner of the PDF copy of Wayward Soul and 2 bookmarks!! If I get to 75 commenters, I'll add a 2nd winner of the paperback copy of my novella Wayward Soul plus 2 awesome bookmarks! And if I get to 100 commenters, I'll add a 2nd winner of the  $10 coupon to use on the Astraea Press website plus a paperback copy of my novella Wayward Soul plus 2 awesome bookmarks! So send people this way!!

YEEHAW! Hope you packed your bags because we're just getting started. We still have a lot of travelin' to do! So click on the next button below to go to the next blog, or you can click the previous button to go the the prior blog. Happy Trails and have fun:)

~Kim

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Also, you can hop to the first blog on the hop and go from start to finish by clicking HERE