Author Lucinda Moebius Guest Blogs Today!

Everyone, please welcome my guest blogger today, Lucinda Moebius. Above is the cover for her new release, the second in her series. I had the great pleasure of reading the first in her series and am looking forward to reading Raven's Song. But let's have Lucinda speak for herself:

Conda, thank you for hosting me on your site today.  I am thrilled with the chance I have to talk a little bit about myself and what it is to be an author.

My name is Lucinda Moebius and I am a Science Fiction and Fantasy author.  Currently, I reside in Boise ID.  I grew up in Idaho and Eastern Oregon and although I have lived or visited many other places, I consider Boise my home.  I love the city; it has everything I need to be happy.  My family, except my father and one brother, all live in the same twenty-mile radius.  We are all exceedingly close, some may even say slightly co-dependent, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.  We have been there for each other for life’s major events: marriages, births, baptisms, illness.  Boise is big enough to offer big city options like nightlife hotspots, fine dining, fast food and shopping yet small enough to safely raise a family and have neighborhood block parties.  It’s the place I will always call home.

My first book Echoes of Savanna is a Science Fiction novel set in the year 2036.  Savanna Taylor is a medical doctor who is dealing with genetically altered diseases released by terrorists.  More importantly, the novel’s concept is based on Campbell’s Hero’s Journey.  The story covers a generation, twenty years, of the main character’s life.  There are many events that happen to a person in the course of a lifetime.  Savanna is living in a time of fear and terror and her goal is to make a safe Haven for her family.

The second book in the series, Raven’s Song, was released in January 2012.  Raven is Savanna’s daughter.  She is genetically altered and actually has some very unique character traits.  I love this beautiful child of Haven.  Raven is everything her mother is not: impulsive, impetuous, emotionally charged and impatient.  Her calling in life is to be a soldier, but the unique struggles this woman faces are not always fought on the battlefield.  

The concept for these books actually grew from a lesson in a creative writing class.  My students and I were discussing literature and writing together.  I had the idea for a genetically altered doctor who was fighting genetically altered diseases and the story started to flow.  I have always been a fan of Greek Mythology and the concept of the Hero’s Journey developing from these stories felt very organic.  The story just seemed to flow out of me and it just grew into this amazing life.  Haven is my child. 

I would love it if your readers took the time to head over to my website and find out a little bit more about Haven and my writing.  I might even have a few challenges for them. 

Thank you

Lucinda Moebius

About the author:

Lucinda Moebius grew up in the mountains of Idaho and Eastern Oregon. Her mother taught her to read when she was four years old and since that time books have been her constant companions. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in English Teaching, a Master’s in Educational Leadership and is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Education. Lucinda supports her writing habit by teaching High School and College. She currently lives in Boise, Idaho with her husband, stepson and their dog and cat.

Find me on facebook: Lucinda Hawks Moebius

Website: www.lucindamoebius.com

About Lucinda's novels:
Echoes of Savanna:
Every generation has its defining moments, events that change history and turn the course of lives. Forever will the children of that generation be defined by those moments.
Savanna Taylor is a medical doctor in 2036, the same year terrorists release a series of plagues and viruses into the world. She is a nineteen year old Brain Trust whose task it is to find a cure for the diseases and develop vaccines to prevent their further spread. The world is thrown in turmoil and Savanna needs to find a way to survive with her sanity and family intact. She needs to find a safe Haven for herself and for those she loves.
Can Savanna cope in a world in constant flux brought on by war and disease? Can she save the world and protect her loved ones or will she make the ultimate sacrifice? How will she be defined?
Raven’s Song:
The next generation has come into its own.  Raven, Savanna’s impulsive, impetuous daughter has begun her own epic journey.
Raven was born in a time of turmoil and war.  She decides her calling in life is to be a soldier.  Sacrificing the shelter and security of Haven, Raven puts herself at risk to save others.  She finds herself in perilous situations and thrust into the role of leadership despite her own misgivings.  The Siren’s Song of Haven is continuously singing to her.  She could be safe, protected, sheltered and warm if she returned to Haven and its stone walls.  But, is it her destiny to live in the walls of Haven, or is there another destiny in store for this child of Haven?

Buy on Amazon:   Echoes of Savanna: http://www.amazon.com/Echoes-Savanna-Parent-Generation-ebook/dp/B006RM66QM/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_2

Raven’s Song: http://www.amazon.com/Ravens-Haven-Generation-Novels-ebook/dp/B006YJ92GO/ref=pd_rhf_dp_p_t_2

Happy St. Paddy's Day

Yes, it makes it green, but Puck wishes it wasn't raining!

Yes, Puck is a fair weather doggy, but all this rain will bring lots of green soon. And in the spirit of the holiday, here's a simple and easy soda bread that makes lots of variations!

SODA BREAD

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour or any combo of white flour, whole wheat pastry flour, and whole wheat flour. Myself, I prefer the all whole wheat bread flour only, which makes the soda bread very dense, chewy and nutty flavored.

1 generous teaspoon baking-soda (but only one otherwise you taste the baking soda)

3/4 teaspoon salt 

1 1/2 cups (about) buttermilk or I prefer to pour a couple of tablespoons of lime juice or vinegar into soy milk for a rich buttermilk flavor.

• Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter and flour a large baking sheet, knocking off excess flour.
  Sift together 4 cups flour, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl and stir in sugar, caraway, and raisins. Add buttermilk and stir just until dough is evenly moistened but still lumpy.
  Transfer dough to a well-floured surface and gently knead with floured hands about 8 times to form a soft but slightly less sticky dough. Halve dough and form into 2 balls. Pat out each ball into a domed 6-inch round on baking sheet. Cut a 1/2-inch-deep X on top of each loaf with a sharp knife, then brush loaves with butter or olive oil.
  Bake in middle of oven until golden brown and bottoms sound hollow when tapped, 35 to 40 minutes. Transfer loaves to racks to cool completely.
  
  Variations
  Adds: 
  Nuts of all sorts, I especially love walnuts, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds
  Dried fruits, I hate raisins but cranberries and walnuts, oh yum
  Herbs, rosemary, sage, garlic and onion, the list goes on and depends on what you are having with the bread
  Cheese, Parmesan or a sharp cheddar work best
   
  Any of my readers want to add? And I have turned off word verification so it will be easier to comment!
   
  HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY! 
  
  

Happy Leap Day!

Have a glorious Leap Day!

This photo requires a bit of explanation. The monster eating the little fairy is a finger puppet. Elaine Ambrose, in her great talk about humor, handed out these little finger puppets for use when us writers got a bit stuck. What a great idea, thanks Elaine! 

Well, I'm working on the second in my trilogy of THE MALL FAIRIES. And I already had the little fairy. So once when I was particularly stuck with one chapter I saw the monster and fairy sitting on my desk. In a burst of inspiration, I made the monster eat the fairy. Now every time I look at this I smile and the smile bring more words.

Okay, dear readers, what do you do when the flow of words starts to trickle? Do you have monsters eat fairies?

The Magic Formula for a Best Seller.

This past Saturday I attended an excellent workshop by Dennis J. Smith on social media. There are new ways to self promote on the Internet every day, it seems. And since I've jumped into the eBook world with my entire cyber body and soul, with quite a bit of success, I've been following other writers' journeys and thinking about the whole "How to sell? What should I be doing to become a best seller? Do I HAVE to do every social network? Do I need to go to every conference? Do I--" You know the drill.Then there's the whole "this person did nothing and sold millions" and "this person did everything and sold tons" and then "I'm driving myself crazy trying to do everything and selling nothing."

The problem is that there is no magic formula for selling. There are far too many variables to say with certainty "if you do so and so you'll sell X amount." Now granted, my mom was right and "If you don't tell people, they won't know." And Dennis is correct that the other writers are doing social media, you bet. So no promotion is a mistake. Social media is a wonderful tool. But there's no way to tell if being on Google+ will sell more books or less than being on Facebook. Or if being on both will sell more of your title.

So how to have a best seller? Here's the secret, here's the magic formula: The writing always comes first. Let me repeat that. The writing is first, always. ALWAYS. The more you write, the better writer you become. The more you write, the more and better product you have to sell. The more you sell, the more you can cross promote. Etc. This doesn't guarantee a best seller. But the wonderful magic is: you'll be writing. You'll be doing what you love first. And wouldn't that be best?

How do you, dear reader, balance the need to promote with the need to write? Are you sometimes completely unbalanced like me? Any suggestions for what might be most effective for promotion? Or do you run screaming at any hint of that word?

Happy Valentines Day

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Above is a picture of Bruce's moms kitties having a Valentine's moment. And I wanted to remind all my creative friends out there that it's passion that creates!

So do you love or hate or don't care about this holiday?

An Eville Review and Why There Are No Evil Reviews

     

From the cover of EVILLE by Holand Peterson

EVILLE is a hoot of a read. I mean that literally, I hooted laughs several times while reading this spoofy fantasy adventure supernatural novel (think a more imaginative and fresh Young Frankenstein). Holand creates a wacky world of supernatural beings. When Mr. Average Guy and this world intersect...it's funny and fun.

Granted this is a good review, but it easily illustrates why there are no evil or bad reviews. I enjoy oddball spoofs and takeoffs of genre fiction. But there are people who dislike or even despise that sort of thing. And are very vocal about it, sometimes on reviews. This is where the writer needs to put on a "reader" mindset. When looking for something to read and browsing the reviews as a reader, I experience a bad review differently. Many times, I'll read the one star reviews first. They are often good for a laugh. An example: a one star review for a novella, that gave it one star because it wasn't novel length and the reviewer didn't like novellas! Now, the novella was stated as such and priced accordingly, in fact was pretty cheap for an eBook of that length. Another review of an anthology of four novelettes gave one star because each novelette was written within the author's well known world. Again, it was clear from the cover that was what each novelette was. And that's what I enjoyed most about that anthology. So a bad review may generate a sale or several.

But what about a review that specifically attacks the writing? OUCH. Again, as a reader, I may discount the review if it's badly written. Even if well-written, I may like what the reviewer dislikes, "too complicated and convoluted a plot" for example. I don't believe there is such a thing. And I may want to read the book to see if I agree or disagree with the reviewer's review.

As a reader, the only review that turns me off a book is one that talks about bad or sloppy writing. Bad is weak characters, a poor plot, or little or missing conflict, and sloppy being too many grammar and spelling errors. And that's something we authors have control over.

Now, I know bad reviews drop your Amazon ranking and that's not good, and you may lose sales, and that's not good. But when you consider reviews as only a small and necessary part of a writing career, and that everyone gets bad reviews, it's not quite so painful. Remember the famous saying: "I don't care what they say about me, as long as they spell my name right" (readers, who said that first?).

Finally, bad reviews can also generate good ones. I've written more than one good review after reading a book and disagreeing with the bad reviews. So, try, try to relax a little, dear writer friends, about reviews!

Feedback? Review my post? Give it a bad review? A good review?

Speak up and Succeed...

...without panicking.

Into every author's life comes the moment when you'll be asked to participate in an event, whether it be a book signing, a talk, sitting on a panel or doing a workshop. People love to meet the author. I've done a lot of events and will be doing many this year as part of my promo for my upcoming novel releases--the first one February 24th!

Here's a few tips that will help guarantee a successful whatever and help take those anxieties away.

First, practice beforehand. Keep notes on what you're going to say. If you're giving a read, read your pages out loud several times until you're familiar and comfortable. Practice looking up from your pages. Speak out and slow down. If your audience can't hear you or understand what you say, then enjoyment is lost. Try not to worry about it being "perfect," we all flub up and many times the audience doesn't notice!

Be brief and to the point. My mom always said, "Stop talking before people stop listening." Consider what you would like to hear from an author. Remember there's no reason to prove to your audience that you have succeeded as an author by telling about every step of your journey, your struggles and every single failure and success. The fact that you're in front of an audience means you've succeeded. Pick one to three stories and keep it brief. Less is more and leave them wanting more. Both cliches because they're true.

Think outside the box. For example, I'm going to be at an event at the Ada Community Library. This event will be by the Pixie Chicks' Writers (a group I belong to) and will be about An Eclectic Collage I and II, anthologies written by the Pixie Chicks. Instead of reading from my work, I'm going to demo the exercises from my article in An Eclectic Collage I.

Most important, relax as much as you can. Remember, the people in the audience are on your side and people too. The more you relax the more they will too and then everyone will enjoy!

Readers, any other suggestions?