A Day in the Life of Dyan Garris

5:00 A.M. – The raucous blast of a telephone ring breaks startlingly into the quiet reverence of a peaceful desert morning, where a fiery sun emanating a heat that seeps deeply into your very bones has not quite yet shown its cheery face over the mountains. I fumble around for my voice which apparently is still slumbering in some undiscovered dimension. “Hello?” I manage somewhat imperceptibly. The caller is from the east coast where the day has perhaps already reached a particular level of civility.

“Did I wake you?” The caller seems completely astounded that I am still in the twilight zone.

“No,” I squeak out. “I’m just not in my body yet. Can I call you later?”

“Well, yes. . . I’m having a spiritual crisis. I need a reading. What time will you call me?”

“You know I retired from readings a year ago. You can still get a free card reading on my website.”

“Yes, but I really need to talk to you and it’s just one question. . .”

And so the day begins. I am not just promoting my Voice of the Angels Cookbook. I am in the middle of promoting my line of CDs, cards, and other books as well.

5:15 A.M. – A mixture of green tea and herbal tea gently enters my body and caresses my very soul. I absorb its warm peacefulness with a substantial twist of gratitude.

6:00 A.M. – I’m in the pool. Every day begins with a one hour swim. The water is a comforting and silky embrace and we joyfully become one. It is meditation, deliberate mindfulness and euphoric bliss.

8:00 A.M. – Another call from the east coast. My meditation basket and relaxation basket are going to be featured on a TV episode. They are calling for script approval and they need it soon. There is a production deadline. I review the script. It needs a rewrite. I rewrite it and send it on its way through the ethers of cyberspace.

9:00 A.M. - I attempt to write the Daily Channeled Message. I actually channel this message, which means I must go into a light trance. Husband with seemingly fine-tuned Daily Channeled Message radar pops into the room like a cannonball. “Honey,” I admonish him. “I’m trying to do the channeled message.”

“I know, but the graphic artist is on the phone and wants to go over the revisions for ‘The Book of Daily Channeled Messages.’”

“Please tell her I’ll call her back.”

10:00 A.M. – I signed up for a Virtual Book Tour. Dorothy Thompson of “Pump Up Your Online Book Promotion” has e-mailed me several interviews that need to be answered. My other e-mail is like a Pacific Ocean of correspondence and orders that need fulfilling. We’ll get to it. Everything gets done in its own time. I follow my own incessant advice to everyone and breathe deeply.

11:00 A.M. – I am sending out a press release through PRWeb for the cookbook. They call and request some revisions. They are very thorough. We examine every detail and every paragraph like we’re having an MRI. I am grateful. They are the best. I rewrite and e-mail it back to them. They call again. We’re good to go. Whew!

12:00 P.M. – I hear bells. Lunch is calling. I make time to talk to my food.

1:00 P.M. – Phone again. This time it’s the fax. The radio promoter is faxing over the contracts for the CD radio promotion which I need to read, sign, and fax back. They also want me to ship them 200 “Release” CDs. I promise they will go out today.

2:00 P.M. – I am revamping my press kit into a little booklet, rather than twenty sheets of paper that I send out with orders and other correspondence. The printer has e-mailed and tells me they cannot locate the cover photos and they also need me to read the proof and send them the revisions, if any. They need it today if they are to meet my deadline.

3:30 P.M. – My friend calls. She tells me she had an interview with a newspaper reporter and they would like to give me some ink. Can I send over my press kit? Soon. She mentions that she just heard one of my songs on the Soundscapes cable TV music channel. I am thrilled!

4:00 P.M. – The distributor needs one-sheets with descriptions, UPCs, and catalog numbers for the CDs. They also need signed contracts and demos. This I cannot do today. Another distributor has placed a large order for inventory. This can go out tomorrow.

5:00 P.M. – Another friend calls. She is representing my product line. “You know those greeting cards we wrote years ago?”

“Yes….”

“We should polish those up and add them to the line.” OK, it is on the list. “Oh, and I was reviewing the line and I think something is missing.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, you need to have a meditation journal for use with the CDs along with the journal that you already have for use with the cards. It makes everything complete.” It makes sense to me. I put it on the list.

7:30 P.M. – Back to computer things. I need to update my Amazon.com account and my CDbaby.com account because I’ve added new products. I upload product images and write descriptions. And I wade through a sea of all the other e-mail that requires response. In there I discover a request for interview from a magazine I’ve been waiting a year to hear from. Do I want to do it? Absolutely! I also find a request to be a guest on a radio show. That’s exciting. Count me in.

8:30 PM – I visit my two MySpace pages and my other networking sites. I answer friend requests, comments, and reciprocate with a few of my own.

9:00 PM – I remind myself that we are all responsible for our choices and I hold myself fully accountable for what I’ve created. At this point in the day, I can’t resist a little humor. I smile my sweetest smile. “Honey, will you take me to Barbados? No? Can we go to Fiji then? I flash a bigger and more engaging smile. No? Hawaii? No? Florida it is. I will make the reservations.” Soon.

Dyan Garris is the author of VOICE OF THE ANGELS COOKBOOK. You can visit her website at www.voiceoftheangels.com.

Tags: Dyan Garris, Voice of the Angels Cookbook, recipes for entertaining, Greek Cooking

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dwayne Gerald Anderson, Young Adult Author With Asperger Syndrome

I like science, it was one of my best subjects in school. I loved those types of movies focusing on natural disasters, science discoveries, aliens, and others.

However, I don't just limit myself to science fiction. True, I'm a young adult author who writes for the teen and young adult reader in mind as the books deal with serious issues in society and the world. I have planned a romance, fantasy, and general fiction in the future, as well as two more science fiction novels.

I started writing in September of 2001 not long after the events of 9/11. My first book, "Alien Conflict" was a science fiction novella that focused on an alien who came to Earth to stop a war from breaking out.

The protagonists of my next works had one of my own traits and qualities, so basically, my writing is based off my own experiences in real life. Whether it's being feeble and weak yet intelligent, living with intolerance from others, wanting to be who I want to be, or trying to find my place in the world, the main protagonist of my books and I have at least one thing in common.

Writing is more of a hobby for me. Whenever I'm not writing, I'm on the computer, playing games, watching television, reading(though I don't do as much as I used to years ago), working, or whatever fills my spare time.

My most recent published work other than a novel was a poem I wrote for my late grandmother at her funeral. Her family and friends loved it and it was published in a later edition of my town's official newspaper, the Naicam News.

Being a published author changed my life here in Naicam. Now I'm famous, better respected by those who tormented me in school, and I've never been more proud of myself than ever in my life.

I don't do a lot of traveling, I tend to just stay in one place the whole time. A few years from now, I will be moving to the big city where there are greater opportunities for employment and others things than in a small town.

I was able to accomplish all this, even despite having Asperger Syndrome. Despite what many in my family believed, I can face the challenges and obstacles life throws at me. All I need is a chance and an opportunity to act upon it.

Dwayne G. Anderson
Author of PARTIALLY HUMAN
http://www.geocities.com/andersondwayne/dwaynegand.html

Tags: book promotion, book publicity, author interviews, blogging authors, guest blog, guest bloggers, book blog, virtual book tour, online book promotion, Dwayne G. Anderson

Setting Authenticity by Nikki Leigh

I love to read books set in other places and different time periods so that I can enjoy a good story and to learn about new places and times. When I write, I spend a lot of time learning about the place and time for my books to add authenticity to my stories. This requires extra work, but I like to weave factual information into my novels. In the first chapter of Widow’s Walk, I changed some major elements of a scene I really liked – because some key facts were wrong. Thankfully, I had done enough research to avoid needing to make major changes in Lady Lightkeeper.

There is a very well known author who I really like to read. Her books are great and one was set in Cape Cod. There was a great old house set on a cliff overlooking the ocean which was a major element in the story. About a year later, I visited Cape Cod and I went in search of the house – just in case it was there. It wasn’t there and there were some other major problems. The book put the house on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Problem is – there are no cliffs in that part of Cape Cod and it doesn’t face the ocean. I see that as two major elements of the story that should’ve been changed.

I spent a lot of time researching the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the 1950’s for my Cape Hatteras mystery. My research library contains plenty of books on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and the Cape Ann area of Massachusetts. These books have been invaluable in my research and I found a wonderful historian at Cape Hatteras. Several reviews for Lilah and the Locket (Cape Hatteras mystery) specifically mentioned the atmosphere in the book. That sort of comment makes my day and justifies the added work to make it “right”.

The other side of the coin involves many local historians. I have an idea for a neat local site that I plan to include in Rebels and Rogues. So, I contacted the local historic society for some additional details. At first the conversation went well, but then I got an angry email. This was followed by a series of angry emails.

The place that I want to use has some history, but there is no proof that it was used the way I plan to use it. This seemed to be a hot button issue with the historians. One actually accused me of “perpetuating a myth that had no substantiation in history”. I tried to remind them that I write fiction, but that didn’t help. In the back of the book, there will be a note that there is no proof that my events ever took place, but many other elements of the story will be authentic.

So, what is the answer? I’ll keep using as much authenticity as I can. There will be a note in any book where I took liberties with the truth. But, I believe that as a FICTION author, I should be able to play with the facts as needed for my stories. In turn, I give the reader as much truth as I can work into the story. I feel that’s a good compromise. What do you think?

Nikki Leigh
Author of LADY LIGHTKEEPER
http://www.nikkileigh.com/

“My love of the coast, lighthouses, history and architecture let me have a lot of fun researching and creating my stories. I’ve found that its helpful to write several stories in the same area.
Nikki has a series of business books released under the name Shri Henkel. Additional information can be found at www.sandcconsulting.com/books_4_sale.htm
She also owns a consulting and promotional business. Her twenty years of business management and fifteen years in promotions have been helpful in her business books.
Nikki's latest project is the first book in a series of e-books to help authors learn to promote their books better. It delves into all facets of book promotion and shares tips
from a number of authors about things that worked for them.
Nikki would invite all authors, writers and readers to visit her and her friends at www.readersstation.com. Nikki can be reached at http://www.nikkileigh.com/

Tags: book promotion, book publicity, author interviews, blogging authors, guest blog, guest bloggers, book blog, virtual book tour, online book promotion, Nikki Leigh

The Secret to Publishing: Allow Divine Guidance to Lead You by Yvonne Perry

When I started my research I was sure that a publisher would want to publish my book. I asked for higher guidance and met Valerie Connelly of Nightengale Press one week later. I pitched my book idea to her and she accepted it right there on the spot. That was easy, I thought.

The next week I signed a contract with Nightengale Press and went to work in earnest to get my book finished by January 1, 2007. It was a deadline we both thought was realistic. What I had not expected to encounter was having the field of stem cell research change so rapidly. I kept finding new material and meeting new people in the field. It was hard to find a stopping place! My deadline came and went, and I was still digging through the material I had gathered. Still more was coming in.

I was almost ready to send the manuscript to Valerie at the end of January. That’s when I met Don C. Reed. Don has a son named Roman who was paralyzed in a college football accident ten years ago. He established the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act, “Roman’s law” and has gathered more than $40 million to research geared toward the cure of paralysis. He also worked on the passage of California’s Proposition 71 and knew everyone in the stem cell research field. I spent the next two months collecting more information that really needed to go into the book. In fact, the book wouldn’t have the punch it carries without the information I gathered from Don and his colleagues.

Finally, the book had to go to print if it was going to meet the printing date and go with Valerie to BEA in June. After the galley copy was printed full of errors but time was up! I continued to rewrite, edit and polish the book. I sent 24 pages of changes to the text for the final version. Since Lightning Source had to make so many changes after they have set up the print.
The final version will be printed at the end of this month.

Yvonne Perry
Author of RIGHT TO RECOVER: WINNING THE POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS WARS OVER STEM CELL RESEARCH IN AMERICA
http://www.write2recover.com/

Tags: book promotion, book publicity, author interviews, blogging authors, guest blog, guest bloggers, book blog, virtual book tour, online book promotion, Yvonne Perry

Straight from the Author's Mouth of Nick Oliva, Author of ONLY MOMENTS

Nick Oliva (O-lee-va’) has been a musician, composer, photographer, an audio engineer, an Entertainment Director and Technical Director for over twenty-five years and is a successful self-made money manager.

“Only Moments” was originally written within the cyclical theme of Birth, Death, and Rebirth over ten years ago. I focused on the unforgiving world, the false hope of technology and religion, incorporating one’s own search and questioning of the spiritual aspects that provide some measure of meaning, and then tying it into the romance of total devotion of man and wife. Some might call it a fairy tale romance, but there are many “high school” relationships that have survived the test of time, however difficult. These two characters are both heavily flawed but those flaws are what binds and drives them with their deep passion for music.

This journey begins in the year 2020, with a romantic surreal dream and the waking of one sixty-six year-old widower Chris Vadia, a retired professional musician, and his sullen celibate perspective due to his wife dying fifteen years earlier. After establishing the human surroundings of the time period, we flashback to 1970 and we find how he meets the love of his life, while on a wild summer vacation driving through California. A beach in Big Sur is the dramatic background for the beginning of their impassioned romance.

Time then shifts through their college days, marriage, their struggling and successes, parental deaths, their Carnegie Hall debut, and then the crisis of having grown so far apart despite being with each other constantly. Our unforgiving fate, the duality of technology, the commonality of human emotion throughout history, ties into a tale of human devotion that eventually brings understanding and hope.

The road, throughout the novel is representative of one’s life path and sense of curiosity and discovery.

I wrote it because I challenged myself to write a better book than John Grisham. Now, don't misunderstand. That I have a small percentage of his success would be wonderful. I just wanted to write a book that was more meaningful and see if I could get it published.
When I chose to get this book in print I chose Publish America. I could have went with I-Universe or a similar type of company and paid up front but I didn't want to go to what I thought was a vanity press. After the papers were signed, I realized all the controversy surrounding the publisher and read many complaints as well as people who had good experiences. I can only say that my covers were designed with my supervision and were my photos and they did a great job putting them together. There were typos and they did clean them up. It is frustrating to deal with them with the email only communication, but they have done what they said they would do. Many of the vociferous attacks on them have come from self-promoting authors who want to put down others to make themselves look better so they propagate threads on their websites and contribute little to the literary world. I think some of the complaints stem from people who have never been published and they want their book to be "perfect" in every way and it doesn't work that way with any publisher. There are always mistakes. I had my manuscript edited twice and proofed twice and there were still typo and formatting errors that occurred. I think that they have published things that probably shouldn't have reached the public, but again they are a POD and in the process of making money they have allowed acts of sloppiness to damage their reputation. I cannot fix their problems, but I wish they would bring their current standards up as their reputation is important to survive in business world. I on the other hand had a good experience, but because of the perceived and actual problems it has been difficult to get reviewed because of the Publish America stigmata. Let's face it, the publishing world has always been an exclusive enclave of "country club" mentality and this new wave of POD's and electronic distribution is a threat to democratize the business and the publishing business has been in trouble for many years. Some major publishing house are already turning to POD for their "lesser" titles and limited run books. If JK Rowling and the Harry Potter series had been published by a POD, would the validity of their writing be in question? Does the way something is brought to print affect the quality of the work? I think it is a transition from the old to the new and in the process there is pain, stupidity, and competitiveness that obscures the art for it's own sake. If the stories hold up, and the literary quality is there then it should not matter. I am proud to have a book that I know turns the lights on in a room and hopefully those who read it see things they haven't before. I leave the arguing over the way it is brought to the public to others.

My cross-over to the land of the dead, my flatlining and death experience that imitates the book I wrote years earlier is incredible but many people avoid wanting to talk about it. I think their religious beliefs or perhaps their own disbelief of anything metaphysical keeps them from wanting to hear the experience. It is almost as if it is a threat to their perceived "blanket of security" that their faith and/or lifestyle keeps them from being open minded to other possibilities of life after death. It is not just strangers and friends, it extends to my own family. No one wants their applecart upset.

Some advice for would be novelists:
Don't assume! Never assume that the world needs another book. Why is yours so special?
What makes it stand out? Does it stand out? Remember this-your finished a novel. 99% of the people who start one don't and rarely does anyone even begin one. You are part of 3 billion people in this world. Do the percentages. One percent of 3 billion is 30 million, one tenth of that is 3 million and one tenth of that is 300,000 and that is roughly how many books get published each year. That means you have 1/100th of a chance to be a part of 300,000 books that are for sale. That's a sobering thought! So don't get your hopes up or your expectations too high. On the other hand, do it for you! That's who counts anyway. You did it, you accomplished an incredible thing. Don't downplay it because you aren't on Oprah, or the movie of the week isn't based on your book. Life is about the little things. Enjoy them and be proud! Smell the roses.

What started for me as a documentation of a wild teenage vacation across country and through California at age 16 and changed my life permanently, morphed into an attempt at showing life's bittersweet ride on the road to acceptance that our humanity is all we can embrace regardless of whatever technology we can muster.

Nick Oliva
Author of ONLY MOMENTS
http://www.onlymomentsbook.com/index.htm

Tags: book promotion, book publicity, author interviews, blogging authors, guest blog, guest bloggers, book blog, virtual book tour, online book promotion, Nick Oliva

If You Have the Desire to Write, Just Do It! by Hazel Statham

I don't know if I am what you would call a typical published author, but when I began writing at the age of fifteen it was with no thoughts of publication - I just had this compulsion to write. Over the years, my outlook remained the same, I wrote to amuse myself and friends, still with no thoughts of approaching a publisher. However, my outlook changed when I joined a writers' group at our local college and the lecturer who headed the group badgered me into trying to submit.

I work mainly on the computer and it was to the internet I turned when looking for a suitable publisher who would accept submissions electronically. Unfortunately, there seemed no such publishers in the UK therefore I turned my attentions to the USA. I had several novels under my belt but 'Dominic' a Georgian Romance, was the first one I sent out to All Romance Books - an ebook and POD publisher. They loved it and asked if I had any other manuscripts so I submitted 'My Dearest Friend', a Regency. They took both books but my debut was cut short when, due to the owners demise, All Romance Books was forced to close.

At that time, I was awaiting a heart bypass operation and, believing I had had my five minutes of fame, thought my publishing career was over. However, shortly after the operation, I decided to try submitting once again. I sent the two manuscripts out to Wings ePress who, within five weeks, offered me a contract on both books. At the same time I approached Triskelion with 'The Portrait', which they immediately took. Wings then accepted 'His Shadowed Heart' and with four books waiting for release, I began to feel that I was making some headway toward becoming a 'published author'. However, things don't always run smoothly in the publishing world and once again I was doomed for disappointment when Triskelion filed for bankruptcy before 'The Portrait' hit the shelves and, along with the other Triskelion authors, I am now awaiting the release of my rights so that I may submit elsewhere.

I write for the love of it and don't work to a trend or formula - I write what pleases me. I usually make a brief outline as to where I want the story to go and then just let it unfold. It's like watching a play evolve and quite often my characters take me off at a tangent. For instance, I didn't know that Stefan had an illegitimate daughter in 'My Dearest Friend' until the sergeant strolled onto the stage and told me.

In my youth, I never envisioned myself becoming a published author and even now, when I stop and think about it, it doesn't seem quite real. Nothing is ever completely certain but I say if you have the desire to write - just do it!

Hazel Statham
Author of DOMINIC
http://www.hazel-statham.co.uk/

Tags: book promotion, book publicity, author interviews, blogging authors, guest blog, guest bloggers, book blog, virtual book tour, online book promotion, Hazel Statham, historical romance