A Quick Google “Search Story”

This is kinda cool . . . and best of all free! It’s called a Google Search Story and you can build your own in a few minutes. I’m not entirely certain of its value as a marketing tool but it’s one more arrow in a writers quiver.

At :35 long you can take the time to check it out and still catch your favorite reality show!

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Indulge Me Thrice, Please!

So today winds up another fun and interesting virtual blog tour. Doing the writing for the guest posts and interviews is work, assuredly, but it’s also enjoyable. But the stops I really look forward to are the book reviews. They are a source of minor anxiety for any author, but the whole reason we share our stories is because we’re curious as to how they make someone feel or think.

In that regard, I got a three-fold return today. In no particular order, I’d be very pleased indeed if you would take a few moments and read each of the reviews below:

• At Cafe of Dreams, by a woman who has guest-posted for me before, April Pohren.

• At Books, Books, The Magical Fruit—(interesting blog title, eh?)

• And a review from Ms. Dorothy Thompson, the woman who has helped steer me through two blog tours and get my name all over the search engines. Her thoughts on The Light, The Dark, and Ember Between can be read at Pump Up Your Book.

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“Magically Brought Real Love To Life”

Quite literally, a book review condensed to six words. Not my words, I assure you, but they do refer to The Light, The Dark, and Ember Between. Wow, huh?

After a few days off I’m back on the tour trail for the last leg of this journey.

The review above came from Ms. Tara Stone Gill at 25 Hour Books. One of my favorite lines from her review is:

I found myself rereading whole paragraphs to just soak in the imagery again and again.

Guess I did something right ;^)

Also today is a quick seven question interview with me at All Voices. Take a few moments to check it out, won’t you?

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Review Me This . . .

As much as I get anxious about book reviews, the fact is that good or bad they play an important role for both the writer and reader. I received the following review from Haley at The Life (and Lies) of an Inanimate Flying Object:

The Light, The Dark and Ember Between is a collection of short stories that show people and events the way they really are. Each story is a beautiful picture of humans and emotions.

Each story in The Light, The Dark, and Ember Between is beautifully set up and developed quickly, by way of characters, setting, and dialogue. I was instantly drawn into each one as quickly as I turned the page.

J.W. Nicklaus is a wonderful writer. His words are fluid and lyric and full of beautiful vivid descriptions, the kinds that you re-read paragraphs because the words were beautiful. His characters are real people living with real situations, fighting to live though their losses. Some stories are funny (Reydeo says “T.V. is dead!” = Radio says TV is dead), some are sweet (“momma didn’t spank me after all, and I told God thank you when I said grace”), some that dabble in the supernatural (“I beheld Satan falling as lightning from heaven.”) and some that make your heart sing (yes, I fell in love with you when you were in second grade and you never knew it.).

I enjoyed each and every one of these stories, and this book will stay on my bookshelf for years. They’re the kind that you read over and over, whichever you feel like reading that day. I look forward to more from Nicklaus, and I encourage everyone to get their hands on this book as soon as they can.

Content: there was an occasional cuss word scattered through some of the short stories, but it wasn’t overdone, overly offensive, or inappropriate.

Recommendation: Ages 10+ to lover of any genre.

I’m trying to remember what I was so worried about ;^)

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Tour II; Day 7 Review and Guest Post

Only three days left . . . not for shopping, but for my second tour. Today has two stops:

• A brand new review of The Light, The Dark, and Ember Between at Reading at the Beach. Two words come to mind: stocking stuffer.

• A guest post I wrote for Market My Novel about one of the ways I write when I’m not actually writing. Bewildered? Check out the post!

Stocking Stuffer, Stocking Stuffer, Stocking Stuffer, Stocking Stuffer . . . ;^)

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Tour II; Day 6 – Chocolate and Baseball

Today I bring you another guest post! Yeah, I know, you’re beside yourself with excitement. But first, a little aside about my small purchase this weekend.

As of this writing Arizona is in the midst of what has been termed a “winter storm.” It’s not your picturesque, Saturday Evening Post kind of storm, I assure you. Temperatures aren’t expected to get much above 60, if that. Around these parts (three feet from Hell) if the temperature dips below 60 then folks are breaking out their heavy coats and whining because “it’s so cold outside.” Yeah, I can see all you east coast and midwest types sneering. You folks think nothing of walking around naked in 60 degree weather.

So what does that have to do with a purchase I made? Well, my writing friend, Unabridged Girl made mention of something called the Cocomotion on her blog. When it’s cold (yes, even wimpy Arizona cold) a tasty mug of hot chocolate sometimes hits the spot. So I picked one up and gave it a go. If you even like hot chocolate, try it. I made some with soymilk and it came out great!

Okay, now once you have that mug of hot chocolate, or coffee, or tea—or whatever—I’d ask you to sit down for a few minutes and have a look at my guest post for today:

• Over at Blogging Authors I relate a story about how a baseball fan and his daughter exhibit a little Christmas spirit of their own during the regular baseball season.

And as always, if you drop by, leave a comment!

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TourII; Day 5 Into The Last Week

Hope you will make a little time to check out my two stops for today. This one is slightly different, because they are interviews in two different formats: The blog interview is hosted by a transplanted American in Australia named Jaime at The Hot Author Report. These were some fun questions!

Next will be a return to Blog Talk Radio with Barry Eva at A Book and a Chat. Show should air live at 9:00pm EST, 8:00pm Central, and 6:00pm MST. Listen in, even call-in and ask a question or two if you’d like!
UPDATE! – The host has had an urgent family matter arise, so the interview is postponed for now. I’ll certainly let you all know when we get a chance to do it again!

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Tour II; End of Week One

If you’ve stayed with me thus far, we’ve arrived at the end of the first week. Today brings us to my first guest post of this tour at The Impression I Get.

What would you think if I said that Christmas is a let-down? Take a look at the post and see what I mean!

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Tour II; Day III

The titles are pretty dull, but I find there’s something about looking at Roman numerals. They’re distinctive, kind of classy. It’s probably just me.

Here’s a quick aside (unrelated to the tour; I can’t help myself):
Some scholars date the beginning of civilization at around 3,000 B.C. The key term there is civilization, and I don’t really have a beef with that. However, some say that the ancient Egyptians were the first to establish a method of written communication — hieroglyphs, of course. Pharaoh needed a way to record the tributes being offered from the many lands in his kingdom, so the hieroglyphs were developed.

Okay, I buy that. But that completely discounts petroglyphs archeologists have discovered all over earth, left by early man, who happened to have been around well before the ancient Egyptians.

Alright, before I get too far off, I’d like to leave you with a more recent piece of written communication: my interview at Working Writers. This time I’m focused more on my perspective on writing — rituals, writers block, books, favorite author, and more.

Drop by and leave a comment!

Friday will be my first guest post for the tour. Hope you stick around for that!

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Tour II; Day II

An Interview plus

Today’s interview was done by the woman who has not only been my tour coordinator both times, but has, in the process, become a good friend and mentor. I had enjoyed the interview itself, but was very much surprised (pleasantly so) to see what she had to say in her introduction.

She has published this interview at the Virginia Beach Examiner and Broowaha.com. If you haven’t seen it yet, the book trailer is at the end of the interview.

I am most pleased to be introduced by, and to introduce to you, Ms. Dorothy Thompson.

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