Life, illustrated

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Reducing the Horrors of Book Marketing: An Interview with Sue Campbell

Book marketing.

The very words make doom resonate through the universe like the implosion of a black hole. It sends perfectly sane writers running through the streets screaming and gibbering, while others huddle in the corner, under their desks, repeating in a zombie-like drone, “No, Lord, please, no.”

As someone who is getting ready to launch a zany romantic adventure called Lady Law and the…

Two eBook Promotions Happening Right Now

Here are a couple of fabulous deals for the frugal romance and historical readers among you. Click quick, though – the promos don’t last long.

Book Marketing Podcast Review and Recommendation

As is usual for my blog (and, let’s face it, my personality), I’m jumping around from subject to subject – history, animals, TV, Amazon, woo hoo! This post is for the fiction writers among you, mainly self published but also traditionally published.

Story Grid Me, Baby

For a few years now I’ve been in a wonderful, amazing, transformative, insert-over-the-top-praise-here writer’s group whose goal…

Love is in the Air … and on the Page

Are you in the mood for romance? Yes? Then I have just the thing for you! A promo with 46 – yes, 46! – free romance books. There’s got to be something you’ll take a fancy to. We’ve got some paranormal, fantasy, gay, historical, contemporary, and more! Perhaps Whiter Pastures, my historical humorous romance?

Enjoy!

How to Triumph over Fake Product Reviews

Years ago, I got had.

I wanted an air mattress to give company a nice place to sleep, so I scrolled through Amazon and settled upon a queen sized mattress with fantastic reviews. Well, they weren’t allfantastic. A sizable percentage of these poor reviews complained about the mattress’s poor quality. Hmmm, thought I. It’s a risk. But the price … it was so good. Surely I wouldn’t be one of the…

Old Medicine, Unfortunate Animals, and the Evils of the AMA

For a recent freelance project, I found myself reading through scores of old articles about medical advancements. It’s been fascinating to see the discoveries of the latter half of the 19th century, and how the discovery of antiseptics, vaccines, and anesthesia wiped out so many of mankind’s scourges, causing the life expectancy to skyrocket. In fact, from 1900 through 1930, the death rate in the…

Turkeys on the Trail: a Reblog

It’s been a while since I regaled you with weird, true tales. What could be more interesting than the history of English turkeys?! Nothing, I daresay! The post is by penandpension.com, the link below.

Turkeys in Boots

No, this is not a bizarre idea for a new Christmas panto! Just a plain, factual statement of what took place in Norfolk in Georgian times.

From the late 16th century, thousands of…

Titillating TV Reviews – The Sinner, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, and Atypical

As far as fiction writing goes, I’ve been largely stalled, going over and over the first few chapters of my next book while weeping piteously and rocking in the corner like a war-traumatized orphan. Why no, that’s not an exaggeration at all.

When it comes to watching TV, though. In that I have succeeded wildly. And so in an effort to do some sort of writing other than what I do at my day job,…

Historical Fantasy At Its Best

The Jinni’s Last Wish by Zenobia Neil

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

From the first page, the novel weaves a spell of another world – a harem in the Ottoman Empire, filled with the scents of cinnamon and cloves, and heavy with desire. Young eunuch Olin fights his lust for the beauties around him while navigating the Byzantine politics that pit wives and mistresses against one another to win the favor of…

“Don’t Tread On Me!” An Iconic American Photo Gone Viral.

Incredible photo of fierce resistance in the face of destruction.

A bargain on this treasure trove of excellent Alaskan cruise advice!

The Navajo’s Trail of Tears

Since the founding of the thirteen colonies in America, settlers have pushed west relentlessly, hungry for land of their own, with little regard for the native inhabitants except as obstacles. This land hunger, combined with a gold discovery on Cherokee land in Georgia, prompted the 1830 Indian Removal Act. The US military forced Indian peoples in Georgia and other areas on a 116-day march in the…