Presentation Skills for the Terminally Introverted Author

I don’t know if isolation is a requirement or a side effect of the indie lifestyle. I do know that I spend a lot of time alone. This tweaks up a whole crazy busload of quirks. I talk to myself. I answer my own rhetorical questions. At times, in my black, coffee-stained hoodie, I could be mistaken for a shorter version of the Unabomber.

And then I write a book and get it published. Sure, I could hunker down with my moldy coffee mugs, fingernails reaching Howard Hughes lengths, husband threatening to hog-tie me and drive me to the hair salon, where I’ll be forcibly pruned and sheared. But I’ve been told by professionals who know these things that a good way to sell books is to actually GO OUTSIDE and TALK TO PEOPLE IN GROUPS. Continue reading “Presentation Skills for the Terminally Introverted Author”

Sneak Peek: Melissa Pearl’s Golden Blood

Today we have a sneak peek from author Melissa Pearl’s book, Golden Blood.

Golden BloodGemma Hart never knows when her father is going to whisk her back in time. Her toes start tingling and she has a few minutes to find a secret haven where she can disintegrate and appear in another time and place. While “across the line,” her training and skills are put to the test as she completes a mission that will change history for the lucky few her father has selected.

Gemma’s parents are adamant that secrecy is paramount to her family’s safety. If people knew what they were capable of, they could be “used and abused”, as her mother always says. Afraid she might accidentally utter the truth and break the ancient oath of her people, Gemma spends her school days as a loner. Only one thing can throw her sheltered life askew… Harrison Granger.

Harrison never expected to talk to the strange Hart girl, but after a brief encounter he can’t stop thinking about her. He begins a campaign to chisel away her icy veneer and is met with unexpected consequences. As he slowly wins this girl over, he enters a surreal world that has him fighting to keep his newfound love and his life.

Golden Blood is available on Amazon.com, Smashwords,  and Barnes & Noble. Continue reading “Sneak Peek: Melissa Pearl’s Golden Blood”

My Hormones Made Me Do It

Hormones. You can’t live with too many, and you can’t live without enough. Yes, my friend, without the proper hormone balance you will curl up like the feet of the Wicked Witch of the West when Dorothy removed the Ruby Slippers. Hormones are fascinating little buggers, and incredibly useful to the premenstrual writer. Sit back and enjoy the scene below as written by a woman in the grips of estrogen dominance.

I am the White Ninja.

One evening I sat at the kitchen table and watched my husband walk around the pool surveying his kingdom. Suddenly, I detested him and was determined to arrest his ability to suck in oxygen that should have rightly been mine. I imagined myself as a White Ninja, creeping stealthily up behind him, unsheathing the gleaming weapon I had sharpened only that morning. He turned, eyes widening as the swoosh of my sword smoothly sliced across his neck, decapitating him. It was a clean and perfect cut. His head bounced twice landing in the pool, the crimson clouds spreading smoothly like crimson cumulus clouds. Continue reading “My Hormones Made Me Do It”