Bigfoot and Steve on the Loose!

When you write a novel about Bigfoot, but still have more of the story to tell, what do you do? Write a sequel, of course! That’s how the 2018 novel Bigfoot CSI led to last week’s release of Bigfoot and Steve. 

Like the first book in this Flashfire Series, Bigfoot and Steve is exciting, funny, tinged with young love, and full of Sasquatchy goodness. Best of all, it’s just in time for holiday gift-giving. Don’t think there’s anyone on your gift list who deserves this hilarious book? No problem. Get a copy for yourself. You deserve a cuddle-up-by-the-fire-in-your-new-Christmas-jammies book. Or, if you're lucky enough to live in Florida among the Skunk Apes (i.e. Florida Bigfoot), it’s a perfect beach read any time of year.

Bigfoot and Steve continues the story about sixteen-year-old Piper O’Connell as she continues to grow into her calling as a “scrub.” Her job is to track down and destroy the bodies of dead Bigfoot so the race won’t be discovered by human hunters. Everything she does must be kept secret from her family and friends, which causes conflicts when she tries to have a normal teenage life full of school, dating, and extracurricular activities. Even something as common as learning to drive is more challenging for a scrub whose mom was killed in a car accident three years ago while trying to destroy the body of a dead Bigfoot.

If you read Bigfoot CSI two years ago: Thank you! If you didn’t, there’s still time to pick up a copy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, etc. in either paperback or ebook format. Then scoop up the brand-new sequel Bigfoot and Steve. It even answers the eternal question “How does Bigfoot celebrate the holidays?”

Enjoy! And happy holidays!

Walk Up Not Out

The Walk Out movement is an effort on the part of kids to keep attention on the problem of shootings in American schools by walking out of class. Students feel they must try to stop these assaults, since adults haven’t done anything to end them

An alternative that's been suggested to walking out is walking up. The idea behind Walk Up is that students should walk up to a fellow student and offer friendship and kindness. It’s that simple. Invite a kid to sit at your lunch table; pick the kid for your gym team who never gets picked; say something nice to the kid who seems upset. The hope is that these actions might keep others from feeling isolated and angry.

Regardless of its ultimate impact on school violence, I love the idea behind Walk Up. Ten years ago I wrote a novel for young readers called FULL TO BURSTING that’s about a seventh grade boy who moves to a new city and uses Walk Up-style strategies to make friends and improve life for kids at his school. It’s a hopeful novel about the benefits of thinking outside the box to make your small corner of the world better.

I’ve always loved this book, but after some near-misses with traditional publishers, I eventually self-published it under a different title. The other title and the old cover never worked for me, and I never did much promotion. Finally, a few months ago, I decided the book needed another chance, so I gave it a round (or three) of edits, added a new cover, and went back to the original title of FULL TO BURSTING. It’s now available as a free ebook download on Smashwords.com. Here’s a direct link to the page https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/210724 where you can use the coupon code and download for free. It’s on Amazon, too, but it’s not free. It’s not a Kindle exclusive, so I can’t make it free on Amazon. The best I can do is 99 cents.

I’m also trying to figure out how to offer it as a free download on my website, but right now I’m nursing a sinus headache, so that will have to wait for another day. The advantage of Smashwords is that you can choose which format you want to download. (Kindle, PDF, etc.)

If you know any kids (or adults) who would enjoy a funny novel about how an average 12-year-old managed to improve his life and his school, please download and share. I’m in the process of putting together a print version of the book, although that one can’t be free because it costs something to have it printed.

Please be kind to each other.

Full to Bursting

Moving to a new city is hard. Moving to a new city when you’re a kid and it’s the middle of the school year can seem impossible. That’s what’s happening to seventh grader John Regan in the new novel Full to Bursting, coming next week from Kissing Frog Books. He doesn’t want to move, but since his dad is being transferred for work, he doesn’t have much choice. He’s convinced he’ll be as lowly as an earthworm crawling along on his belly through the hallways of the new school.

I wrote this book a few years ago and originally published it under a different title. To put it mildly, it didn’t exactly set the world on fire. That said, my husband insists it’s his favorite story I’ve ever written. Then I found a book cover that suited it perfectly, and I decided it was time to give it a fresh start. It’s funny and optimistic and doesn’t have any monsters in it at all. I hope lots of people read it and enjoy it. If you do, could you please post a review on Amazon or somewhere? As a big thank you, I’ll be posting a discount coupon on Smashwords when Full to Bursting is released.

Thank you and happy reading!

Giving stuff away for fun and profit

Whether authors are publishing their own books or they're with a traditional house, a central concern is how to get more books sold and into the hands of readers. And that's exactly what I'm obsessing about lately. Since the spring when I released STONES OF ABRAXAS and its sequel HEROES OF ABRAXAS under my Kissing Frog Books imprint, I've been trying to figure out how to effectively promote them. And what I've discovered is that promoting a self-pubbed book is even more of an uphill battle than getting a traditionally published book out there.

I've had a few books traditionally published (including the original edition of STONES OF ABRAXAS in 2006), but I've never done the self-pub thing before. So I did some research and asked other authors who've been successful with publishing their own books. The authors all generously gave me advice that worked for them. I implemented their advice, everything from using social media (including this very blog here), to trying to get reviews, to setting the price for the first ebook in my Abraxas series at free so people will get hooked and want to buy the next book. Then I sat back and waited for the royalty checks to roll in. I'm still waiting.

I had especially high hopes for the tactic of setting the price of the STONES OF ABRAXAS ebook at free, since it's worked so well for many other authors. So I priced it as free at Smashwords, then found out I can't make it free at Amazon's Kindle store unless I join the Kindle Select program. On its surface, Kindle Select sounded great because among other things your book is part of a lending library program and you earn royalties every time it's downloaded through the library. But I learned that the problem with Kindle Select is that you have to promise to exclusively publish your ebook through them for at least 90 days. I didn't like the idea of shutting out other booksellers, so I published my books for Kindle, but didn't enroll in Kindle Select.

Did that mean I couldn't set the STONES ebook price at free? Not necessarily, according to fellow YA author, Megg Jensen. She told me that Amazon wants people to let them know if a book is available for less than their price at another website. So I let them know it was free at Smashwords. That was a month or two ago, but it hasn't changed yet at Amazon. Not to worry, says Megg. She said that I might have to make a nuisance of myself until the price eventually gets changed. So Nuisance Land, here I come.

That's where I'm at right now as far as trying to promote my three self-pubbed books. If anyone has any suggestions that might help further, please let me know. Obviously, I can use all the help I can get.