Category Archives: General

Jul31

Interview with Katie W. Stewart, Author of The Dragon Box

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Tiffany Turner

Katie W. Stewart, author of The Dragon Box

I had the honor of interviewing Katie W. Stewart, author of The Dragon Box. Katie lives in Western Australia, and is currently a librarian for a local private school. Katie has shared insight for her ideas on her book, what it’s like to be a writer, and her interests besides writing.

1) Where did you get the idea to make a video game come to life?

My eldest son was about ten years old at the time and being teased about his lack of footballing skills. He was (and still is) a keen computer game player, so I thought I’d try to incorporate a computer game into a story that might help him to deal with the bullies. In The Dragon Box, the boys bullying James, the main character, come into the game as ugly little goblins and he uses his problem-solving skills to overcome them. Unfortunately, it took me so long to write the book that my son was too old to want to read it by the time I finished! (He’s a University student now.)

2) What kind of books did you enjoy reading growing up?

I loved all kinds of books. I read everything I could lay my hands on. I especially loved the ones that took me out of my own world, the ones with a touch of magic. One favourite I had when I was six or seven was ‘The Sam Pig Story Book’ by Alison Uttely. The pigs got up to all the same sort of capers that human children do, but in a different context. I also loved books by Elizabeth Goudge and I had a favourite book of English Fairy Tales with scary pictures that I loved to frighten myself with. As I grew older, I moved into the classics. One thing that probably stopped me reading some really good books though, was that I steered clear of anything my mother said I ‘should’ read. I was a bit of a rebel like that.

3) What is it like being an Indie writer?

That depends on how many books I’m selling. If I’m selling lots of books, good reviews are coming in and I’m generally feeling that I’m making some headway, then I love it. On days when nothing is selling, reviews are not so good and I’m tired of trying to market, then it’s just hard work and to be truthful, I wonder why I bother. In general, though, I don’t regret having gone the self-publishing route. I like the control I have over everything, from cover to price. I love the fact that people are reading my stories, which would otherwise be sitting on my hard-drive or on the desk of an agent/publisher for months and I love meeting my readers on the internet, something I might not get to do if I were published traditionally.

4) Do you have a writing routine? If so, what is it?

Er…could you wait a moment while I hunt out a dictionary? R…rou…routine… No, I don’t have one of those. With 3 children and a part-time job, I’m happy to just grab the time where I can. Fortunately, I get school holidays, so that gives me some time to really get down to it every few months, but otherwise it’s just writing when I can. Most of it is in the evenings or on my days off.

4) Do you have any other things you enjoy doing besides writing?

Lots of things! I love reading, of course, and I love drawing and designing – I’m very good at using them to procrastinate when I don’t feel like writing. I also love music. I bought myself a Celtic harp a couple of years ago and spend hours teaching myself to play that. Long walks around the farm where I live are pretty good, too, when the weather’s right, often with my camera so that I can take photos– something else I love doing.

5) What advice would you give to children that want to be a writer?

Read! Read everything. Decide for yourself what makes a good story and learn to write that way. Embrace all those boring English lessons your teachers make you do, because one day all that stuff will come naturally to you and save you lots of time and effort when you’re writing. Learn to study people, their strengths and weaknesses, funny little habits and annoying traits. One day, they’ll become your characters.

6) What upcoming projects or future events do you have coming up?

I’m working on the last chapters of the sequel to my adult’s book, Treespeaker, at the moment, hoping to have it out in the next few months. Then there’s another children’s book I’d like to write and a sequel to my Young Adult fantasy, Mark of the Dragon Queen. That should keep me busy for a while!

For a book review of The Dragon Box, click here.
The Dragon Box is available as a Kindle edition at Amazon.com.

Link to Katie W. Stewart’s website.

Jul18

Not a Vampire, Not a Superhero, But A Kid That Saves the Day

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Tiffany Turner

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Chaderick Not a Vampire. Not a Zombie. Not a Superhero written by Lauren DW Luchsinger Fox

Chaderick is a typical nerdy kid. He reminds me of Encyclopedia Brown, if he lived in a town of superheroes. Chaderick, which doesn’t prefer Chad, is a not so average kid with not typical neighbors. He stands out since he’s one of the few people that isn’t a superhero, vampire, or zombie. Really, what could be left? The biggest lesson of all to learn, that being yourself can save the day.

Chaderick Not a Vampire. Not a Zombie. Not a Superhero. is by Lauren DW Luchsinger Fox. The book focuses on the problem of what to do when you don’t fit in. With his sidekick Hollanda, or Hole, Chaderick searches for the solutions to different mysteries in the town of Hero Town. Why did someone tie up the cafe owners and steal the mustard? Why was there a mysterious fire? Could there be evil afoot with a town full of superheroes? But of course, Chaderick isn’t the only one on the case. Pyroman, Super Dan, and if the local police are out to catch the culprits. But Chaderick wants to prove that you don’t have to be a superhero to save the day.

This is a great book for kids to build self-esteem and have trouble reading. The language is simple and direct for a middle reader. Chaderick is a misfit in a hero filled world. He’s very endearing to anyone that has felt like they don’t stand out in a crowd. The interplay between his friend Hole is masterful. It’s a sidekick relationship you can buy into. Plus, the plot leads to an ending that is satisfying, but with a fun twist. I only had trouble with Chaderick getting tricked into a box trap by the villain. I thought he’d been established as being smarter than falling for it.

Overall, Chaderick Not a Vampire. Not a Zombie. Not a Superhero. is a great read for those wanting a book of misfits in a world full of superheroes. Parents will love the direct humor that will help a lower reader. With lots of free summer time, this would be a great book to entertain during any family vacation.

**** Four Star Rating
Available at Barnes and Nobles and Amazon.com.

Jul17

Finalist in the Efestival of Words Best of Indie Ebook Awards 2012

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Tiffany Turner

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The Lost Secret of Fairies is a finalist for the Efestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook Awards

I am happy to announce that the first book in the Crystal Keeper Chronicles, The Lost Secret of Fairies, has been listed as a finalist in the Efestival of Words Best of Indie Ebook Awards 2012.

I have to admit, I was amazed this morning to see an email listing credits on my book profile with an award. Curious as a cat, I hit the link to see where it would lead. It showed me a listing of several categories, with 6 finalists in each category. A total of 48 finalists for this year’s award including my own book listing.

Several people listed are fellow Indie writers. One Indie I know, Sybil Nelson is also listed as a finalist. I have done a book review of her nominated book, and interviewed her as well. A couple of other names popped out at me as well. Debora Geary and David Dalglish are also listed as finalists. They frequent a writer’s board for Kindle authors. It is a great support site for other Indie writers, and I am so happy to be listed with other Indie author friends that I know.

The eFestival of Words is a blog site that is dedicated to getting the word out about Indie books. There are finalists in 27 different categories are up for voting. Members will vote for the winners for the next month. August 17-19 are the book fair dates.

I feel so bolstered to be a finalist. I can only guess what exposure this is creating. In fact, I’ve done a few happy dances in anticipation of where this could lead. Really. It’s always good to have exposure. Voting is up now. Even if I don’t win, it’s still an honor to be nominated.

Jul12

Why Be A Bat, When You Can Be A Cat

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Tiffany Turner

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The Batman series is an incredible inspiration. It’s got some of the best villains. I guess that’s why I loved the original TV series and later movies so much. I know a lot of kids grew up looking to Batman for inspiration and general hero worship. But when I was a kid, it was Catwoman I truly wanted to be. Really, why be a bat when you could be a cat?

Back in the day, Catwoman was played by the fabulous actress, Eartha Kitt. Her accent and body language hinted at the mysterious. Everything a little girl tries to be, young and mysterious. Later in Batman movies, Catwoman is played by Michelle Pfeiffer. I’ll never forget the opening when Catwoman first meets Batman. There is a moment when they are frozen looking at each other. Catwoman says one thing, “Meow.” A giant explosion is directly behind her distracting her exit. How could anyone not want to be that cool?

Of course, the heroes of any comic book tend to inspire. Do the villains? I’d rank the wanting to be Catwoman similar to wanting to be Tabitha from Bewitched. I saw the characters on TV and tried to imitate them. But when I was older, Catwoman took on a new meaning. She was caught between the need to be good, but kept falling to the wayside. But that is probably why we like the villains in any comic series. They walk the line between good and bad.

Villains inspire us to try to be good. Catwoman would sometimes try, but just kept slipping. She wasn’t perfect, like most of us might feel a lot of the time. But really, where would the line for good and evil be if we didn’t have the villains to draw it in the first place?

To all of you celebrating the inspiration of comic books at Comic Con, don’t forget the villains. They help give the heroes the reason to fight, draw the line on what is bad, and entertain us with their next attempt to rule the world. What happens next is up to them.

Information to Note: Eartha Kitt played Catwoman on the classic Batman series in the last two years of its run. Michelle Pfeiffer played Catwoman in the second Batman movie, Batman Returns(1992). For more information, link to batman.wikia.com.

Jul2

What Happens When A Villain Turns Good

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Tiffany Turner

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Featured Indie Book and Author

Welcome! I am featuring an Indie Author that writes amazing Middle Grade/YA fiction. Author Laura Lond has written a book series with a balance of humor and a twist to the normal hero. Her protagonist is a villian.

I’ve reviewed her first book, My Sparkling Adventure, and have recently reviewed her second book, My Royal Pain Quest. Your blog tour begins with the book review of My Royal Pain Quest. Follow the links below to enjoy an interview with Laura Lond from last summer. Plus, the review for her first book is also linked. I hope you enjoy this fabulous Indie writer.

Characters usually have the problem of not drifting to the dark side. In the second book of the Lakeland Knight series, My Royal Pain Quest by Laura Lond, Lord Arkus has the opposite problem. He’s already a villian, and keeps drifting towards the light, goodness, and all those pesky hero traits. He’s tried his hardest not to be good. But after he is stuck with a sparkling, an inherently good creature, his deviant path of badness keeps leading him to be a hero.

My Royal Pain Quest by Laura Lond

In the first book, My Sparkling Misfortune. Jarvis, the now incognito sparkling, infleunces Arkus with goodly ways. At the end, his sword is used in evil misdeeds, and he is put into a coma state as punishment. The second book opens with Lord Arkus guarding his friend Jarvi, and trying to figure out how to restore him to normal. It’s a very big step to becoming a hero, a very unvillain-like thing to do.

The book takes you on a quest of hero feats, all to help restore Jarvi to normal. Along the way, Lord Arkus picks up a sidekick, a highway woman named Cassandra, that only helps for the right price. Lord Arkus treads down the path to heroism and becomes less of a villain as he completes each task.

The hero elements are there, like having mermen allies after Lord Arkus inadvertently saves a mermaid. He has to work with a previous enemy, Prince Kellemar, as a quest. And lastly, helps with a new group of critters to find a lost boy. The hodgepodge of completing them lends to the humor. Hero acts keep piling on Lord Arkus, and the inner rebellion against being a hero starts to wain.

Cassandra, the highway woman, is an fantastic character. She’s a woman that can kick serious butt with a sword. Prince Kellemar, from the previous book, plays a part in the quests, going through a transformation of his own. All the twists in opposites does keep the plot interesting.

I enjoyed the way the book continued the villain struggle for Arkus. It’s a unique twist in character inner struggles. However, there is a sense of seriousness that seems to lose the humor from the previous book. It does fall in line with the plot of trying to save the sparkling. I also thought the ending was a bit too fairy tale like. It lent to some humor, but I think there could have been more to Cassandra and Lord Arkus building their relationship.

In the end, the plot and characters are so strong, they pull you through the book. My Royal Pain Quest works as a sequel, and I am definitely ready for book 3. This can be a great start to your child’s summer reading list, or for any adult that enjoys a fun read.

***** Five Star Rating
My Royal Pain Quest is available at Amazon.com, Smashwords.com, and Barnes and Noble.

*Link to a Review of the first book, My Sparkling Misfortune.

*Link to an interview with author, Laura Lond.
To continue with your INDIEpendence Day Blog tour event, link back to the Indibles Writers Blog.

Jun28

INDIEpendence Day July 2-4

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Tiffany Turner

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Wanting more than just your average book? Next week, declare your independence from the Mass Book market. Come to the wild side and see what independently published books are out there.

A blog hop is being hosted by the Indelibles, a blog site with 25 Indie Authors. Over 60 blogs are participating that will feature an outstanding Indie Author’s book. It’ll get you set with your summer reading. A range of different books will be available. The Indie Children’s Authors Connection is proud to be participating.

If you are a blogger or an avid reader and would like to get involved, here are the steps:

1) PICK A BOOK: Pick an indie (self-published or small press) book that you either HAVE READ AND LOVED or WANT TO READ.
2) WRITE A POST: On INDIEpendence day (July 2nd), write a post about that book. It can be a review, an interview with the author, or simply a post highlighting the book.
3) CLICK BELOW: to join the link that will tie the blog hop together on July 2nd. See the Indelibles for more details.

Jun22

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Tiffany Turner

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Updating to send out on RSS feed.

The Indie Children's Authors Connection

Sometimes you can find some really good ideas on Writing Boards. Some turn out to be fabulous ideas. Back in Dec. 2011, I noticed some posts on kindleboards.com in the Writer’s Cafe about a back door way of getting your books to go free on Amazon. I’ve heard from another author this is even difficult for traditional publishers to do. Amazon tends to not let books go free. Unless you know the back door.

The key ingredients to start the experiment turned out to be Smashwords and having your book on the Premium Catalog. Other authors tried this with having their book published on the Apple Store as well. I don’t have a directly published edition through Apple, but it is something to be noted. This way was possible as well.

I listed my first book, The Lost Secret of Fairies, as $0.00 on Smashwords. It takes a few…

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Jun21

The Amazon Price Matching Experiment

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Tiffany Turner

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Book 1 sold over 9,000 free copies in over a month.

I listed my first book, The Lost Secret of Fairies, as $0.00 on Smashwords. It takes a few weeks for it to set to that price on the other websites like Barnes and Nobles. But I noticed that it went free on the Nook within 2 weeks. Once it hits a big site like Barnes and Nobles, Amazon will often price match it with the Kindle edition. Then the fun really begins.

By the end of January, I’d sold 400 free books of The Lost Secrets of Fairies. Amazon matched it on Jan. 24, 2012. I watched the numbers climb to 1,739 to 2,037 by the next day. I noticed it averaged about 200 free downloads in one hour. As I tracked the numbers, it slowed down to 100 free downloads an hour over the next few days. By the end of January, I had 5,386 free downloads for my first book. The second book in my series, The Lost Secret of the Green Man, had 21 books sold.

February was a fun month. The sales continued with free downloads changing to 100 a day for The Lost Secret of Fairies. Sales of the second book followed. My first book returned to its normal price of $0.99 by March 15. The total free downloads for Feb. included 3,642. There were only 9 refunds in that time. Making the total free downloads for end of January, February, and beg. of March at: 9,894.

To see if all this would benefit my second book sales, I crunched some numbers. There were 21 sales of the Secrets of the Lost Green Man in January. February had 35 paid sales, and March had 24. The grand total of sales was 80. So, for about every 125 free downloads, I had a paid sale for my second book.

The Lost Secret of Fairies became the top in the Free Store for several listings. On Feb. 6, it listed as #1 children’s books/social situations. On Feb. 7 it was #1 children’s books/self esteem and respect. I witnessed it topping out at #110 in the Kindle Free Store around the same time.

After my first book returned back to $0.99, the free bump kept it selling at 2/3 higher than normal. My average sales is about 10 books a month. In March, it was at 64 sales, and for April dropped in sales down to 29.

About the end of March 2012, other authors noticed drops in sales ratings even with free book sales. After a while, people reported back trends on the Writer’s Cafe board that Amazon must have changed their algorithms in regards to free book sales. Free book sales were no longer being counted the same as paid book sales. The ratios seemed to work out to 10 free book sales equaling 1 paid book sale.

For the month of May, things returned to normal. The Lost Secret of Fairies had 12 Kindle Ebook sales while my second book, The Lost Secret of the Green Man, had 9.

What did I learn from this experiment? I’ll benefit from the over 10,000 sales of my first book, free and paid. I have an awesome reader base now. This will help when the third book is ready for release this fall(2012). Plus, for every 60 copies downloaded for my first book, a second book was bought. The Free Download bump raised my sales for two months. I even received 3 new reviews on Amazon, and 4 new reviews for the Nook. They were all positive. In addition, there were fewer refunds than I thought.

The most important thing I walked away with; I have thousands of new readers introduced to my series. That, in itself, is priceless.

Crystal Cluster **The Crystal Keeper Chronicles are available on Amazon.com as paperback or Kindle editions.
Also available on Smashwords.com. and the Nook by Barnes and Nobles.

Apr26

A World Beyond Video Games

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Tiffany Turner

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The Dragon Box by Katie W. Stewart

If you love video games, The Dragon Box by Katie W. Stewart might be the next fantasy read for you. James is friends with the eccentric, but friendly old man next door, Mack. On one of the strange visits to see Mack, James is given a new video game. It has no screen or normal controls. But when he sits on his bed to give it a try, it takes him into a world beyond his dreams. Literally.

James is transported into a new world in which a dragon needs his help to save the kingdom from an evil witch. James is the unlikely hero, and has to figure a way to save the day. But he has to make some choices that help him realize, there is more to being a hero than being able to wield a sword. And the reset button might not work.

I was surprised on how much I enjoyed this story in the end. Stewart has a way of charmingly describing the action in a gentle, funny way. The relationship between Mack and James is a classic wizard and boy hero joy that has you smiling until the end. Between the video game twist and the world of fantasy brought to life, I was cheering for James to figure out the solution for each challenge he endured. This is a great read for any child that loves adventure, fantasy, and video games.

***** Five Star Rating
The Dragon Box is available as a Kindle edition at Amazon.com.

Apr13

Only The Shadow Knows-Teens Are People Too

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Tiffany Turner

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Rita Morse and the Sinister Shadow by Holly Hook

I recently read Rita Morse and the Sinister Shadow by Holly Hook. It was quite an interesting read with the main character being a female. This book gives young girls a chance to be whisked into a town controlled by shadow people. These shadow people feel that teens should be seen and not heard. So it is up to Rita and her two best friends to put an end to this madness.

This war on teens by A. Gist, the leader of the shadow people, was trying to get all teens put in their place. Yet, Rita Morse, a strong willed heroin, would not let that happen. She battled with her friends to defeat the evil A. Gist.

Rita Morse and the Sinister Shadow has a great ending with optimistic opportunity for a sequel. I would give this book 3 stars. It starts out with a bang and then has a few slow spots in the middle, but picks up at the end. My teenage daughter enjoyed reading this book along with me.

*** Star Rating
Available on Amazon.com and Smashwords.com.

Written by guest blogger,
Debbie Cogliandro