*LEAVE SEPARATE COMMENT IF YOU PUBLICLY FOLLOW THIS
  BLOG (IF NOT, GOOGLE FRIEND CONNECT ON RIGHT SIDE).

*LEAVE SEPARATE COMMENT IF YOU FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK.

*LEAVE SEPARATE COMMENT IF YOU FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER.

*LEAVE SEPARATE COMMENT TO LET ME KNOW THAT YOU
  RETWEETED THIS GIVEAWAY (LEAVE LINK).

*REMEMBER TO INCLUDE EMAIL ADDRESS FOR ALL ENTRIES.

Giveaway copies are supplied and shipped to winners via publisher,
agent and/or author. This blog hosts the giveaway on behalf of the
above. I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me, in
exchange for my honest review. No items that I receive are
ever sold…they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.
I am not responsible for lost or damaged books that are shipped
from agents. I reserve the right to disqualify/delete any entries
if rules of giveaway are not followed

Where is your favorite place to read?

My answer:
I have 2 favorite places to read, depending on the time of year.  When it is cold or chilly outside, you can find me reading in my recliner in my combined office/library/blogging room.  And now that warm weather is approaching, I will be outside reading either by the pool or on really hot day, sitting on my reading float in the pool.
Do you have a favorite reading spot?  One to call your own?

According to Marcia, “Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.”
                                                From WOW Tours (Women On Writing)

                              The Hachette Book Group                     From Author

 

Lately I have had many requests from authors to stop by, visit and discuss their latest book with us.  And the reason must be that they have heard that here, at CMash, the visitors are fantastic and fabulous, but then I am a bit biased.  Today I have the honor and pleasure to introduce you to Mr. Tony McFadden!

This biography was provided by the author or their representative.
You can visit Mr. McFadden at his website:  http://www.tonymcfadden.net/

I had planned on recycling one of my older blog posts as a guest post, but it occurred to me that this is the perfect opportunity to review what has happened over the past eighteen month to get me to this partiularly exciting place in my writing life.

A year and a half ago, November 5, 2009, I read a tweet written by Richard Castle.  Obviously not the real Richard Castle, because there ain’t no such person.  It made a reference to some of his writing tips and how he hoped they would help all of those writers taking part in NaNoWrimo.

Understand that before this the best I could call myself was a wannabe writer.  I’d been working on a novel for over ten years and was perennially promising myself that this was the year that I’d buckle down and make a real stab at this writing thing, and see if I could make a career out of it.

Hollow, shameful promises, like those promising I make to myself on a weekly basis to stay away from KFC forever.

I did a quick search on the intertubes and discovered NaNoWriMo.  I was entranced.  50,000 words written in a month.  Unheard of.  I took a fairly quick look at my calendar and realised that the only way I would ever pull that off would be if I woke every morning at 4 and wrote for two hours, and completely abandoned all pretence of keeping the yard presentable until December.  To hell with the lawn.  If the neighbours didn’t like it, they could mow it themselves.

I sat down on November 6th and wrote the first line

‘Impressive damage.  The front is almost as bad as the back.’  Samantha Reeves, Miami’s   Chief Coroner, fitted a pair of latex gloves and gently lifted the head of the facedown victim.

I had no idea where I was going, no clue who killed the poor victim and not the foggiest how I -­‐or more

accurately, Detective Dan MacCready-­‐was going to solve the murder.

It was exhilarating.

And it resulted in an absolute pile of horse crap.

I made it to the end, put it down for a couple of months, because ‘that’s what you’re supposed to do’, promising myself to pick it up in February to start the edit process.

In that two months I did some research on writing, and story structure, character development, voice and few other things and vowed never to start writing before I knew what the end was, what the structure needed to be and, generally, what path I was going to take to get there.

‘Scary Barry’ (as I called that first NaNoWriMo effort) stayed in that bottom drawer.  I set a goal of writing self-­‐sufficiency in five years (one year and a bit down) and started putting what I learned to work.

Since then I’ve rebuilt/rewritten two works in progress and wrote a third (‘G’Day L.A.’ a give away on this site) and have finally taken that old Scary Barry out of the bottom drawer.  I’m re-­‐writing it completely.
The overall story/plot stays the same, none of the characters have changed, but I’m re-­‐building it from the ground up.

I’m wandering a bit here.

What I’m trying to say is that you can either take ten years to write a novel (Matt’s War-­‐that one I’d been plodding through) or less than a year (for G’Day L.A.).   In fact, the first draft of G’Day was written during NaNo2010.  All 92,000 words of it.  In less than a month.

The difference?  A good six weeks spent planning and detailing what the end game is.  Planning your story. Nutting out your plot.  defining in advance what your character arc is. from the middle of September 2010 to the end of October I planned.  And plotted, and schemed, and figured out exactly what my story should be. I wrote it in November.  Took December off and spent the last few months cleaning up the spelling, grammar, voice and voila.  Here we are.

Sure, it’s a bit of hard upfront work, but do you know what?  Once that’s done, there are virtually no more instances of writer’s block. You know the endgame and the general path and the words flow like wine.

Happy writing.
Tony

ABOUT THE BOOK

Ellie Bourke, alumni of “Home and Away”, one of Australia’s longest running TV shows and a leading character in Bart Sweeney’s cult-classic horror “Beast of Bondi” moved to Los Angeles to further her acting career almost a year ago.

Bart loved working with her in “Beast”, and encouraged her to make the move. He believed her to be talented enough to make it on the big stage.

A year later and she’s still finding that success elusive. She’s thinking of packing it in and heading back to Sydney when Joel, her roommate and best friend, is found dead in his tub, a case of suspected suicide.

That pushes her over the edge. She books flights and packs her bags and is ready for the airport when she learns that Joel didn’t kill himself – he was killed.

Can Ellie convince the police that Joel’s death wasn’t suicide? Or accidental?

Can she stay alive herself, now that the killer knows what Ellie knows?

And can she find a career in a city that cares more for what’s on the outside than on the inside?

THANKS TO THE GENEROSITY OF

THE AUTHOR, TONY MCFADDEN,

I HAVE FIVE (5) EBOOK EDITIONS TO GIVE AWAY.

CLICK HERE TO BRING YOU TO

THE GIVEAWAY ENTRY PAGE

DISCLAIMER

Giveaway copies are supplied and shipped to winners

via publisher, agent and/or author. This blog hosts

the giveaway on behalf of the above.



*LEAVE SEPARATE COMMENT IF YOU PUBLICLY FOLLOW THIS
  BLOG (IF NOT, GOOGLE FRIEND CONNECT ON RIGHT SIDE).

*LEAVE SEPARATE COMMENT IF YOU FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK.

*LEAVE SEPARATE COMMENT IF YOU FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER.

*LEAVE SEPARATE COMMENT TO LET ME KNOW THAT YOU
  RETWEETED THIS GIVEAWAY (LEAVE LINK).

*REMEMBER TO INCLUDE EMAIL ADDRESS FOR ALL ENTRIES.

Giveaway copies are supplied and shipped to winners via publisher,
agent and/or author. This blog hosts the giveaway on behalf of the
above. I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me, in
exchange for my honest review. No items that I receive are
ever sold…they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.
I am not responsible for lost or damaged books that are shipped
from agents. I reserve the right to disqualify/delete any entries
if rules of giveaway are not followed

Where is your favorite place to read?

My answer:
I have 2 favorite places to read, depending on the time of year.  When it is cold or chilly outside, you can find me reading in my recliner in my combined office/library/blogging room.  And now that warm weather is approaching, I will be outside reading either by the pool or on really hot day, sitting on my reading float in the pool.
Do you have a favorite reading spot?  One to call your own?

According to Marcia, “Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.”
                                                From WOW Tours (Women On Writing)

                              The Hachette Book Group                     From Author

 

I would like to explain how this came to fruition. Hubby and I were having a discussion about the old days, (for the young’ens reading this..a little history lesson) but before the dark age. When Sundays were special and had traditions and rituals. Sunday mornings Church, come home to a big gravy (sauce) cooking on the stove, a big Sunday dinner, then either off to visit relatives/friends or wait for relatives/friends to drop by. We would spend the afternoon sitting around the table, talking, catching up, having coffee, pizza, calzones, etc etc, dessert. And now, how sad, all those traditions are gone. And then I got to thinking, why not have something similar here on my blog. This past year, I have met so many amazing and wonderful people (some I now call friends) through blogging, and how I am in awe of what they do and accomplish. How much respect I have for them, for their honesty, integrity, credibility and so enjoy when a bit of their personality shines through. So every Sunday, here at my place, the coffee will be on, the dessert is on the table and friends will be stopping by. And I will be rolling out the red carpet for my Sunday Shining Star Blogger guest.

I was told when I first found this community of book blogging that “book bloggers were the nicest bloggers there are” and I have never forgotten those words. And over the past year, I have truly met the nicest people. I also believe, even though we live behind a screen, a bit of our personality shines through. That is one of the reasons I am having so much fun with this weekly event, and hoping you are too, because we are getting to know those “nicest bloggers” around and about bloggyland a little bit better.

Before we meet and greet today’s guest, I have a question.  Is it only me or has everyone else noticed that the boys. (ok…men…Jeff and  Steve…Lori and my hubby) seem to be behaving lately now that the weather is getting nicer and they are golfing while we get together on Sundays?  Thought so..lol. 

Now back today’s guest.  I participate in a weekly meme on Saturdays called A Bit Of Me, where each week Danielle asks a question to get to know bloggers a little bit better.  Well today, we are going to get to know Danielle.  Today our Shining Star is DANIELLE from THERE’S A BOOK.

When and why did you start blogging?
My first book review was posted in November of 2009, with my son also reviewing the book (I’ve Seen Santa! by David Bedford). When I initially started my primary focus was to help readers, and parents especially, find books they would love. I found that trying to pick up books for my son when he was very little to be incredibly challenging and quite expensive. We lived in a small town at the time and our library definitely left something to be desired. Because I knew I couldn’t be alone in this struggle I decided to start sharing the books my children loved and the reasons why they did in the hope that I could help other readers (young & old) find just the right book for them.

How and what made you decide on the name of your blog?
My byline for my blog is “Because sometimes there’s a book that can transform a child’s world.” When I started looking into blog names I came up with this with the help of my mom and “There’s A Book” popped out!

What would you say is the main content of your blog?
Primarily book reviews, author interviews and giveaways. I also provide book news pieces and other random bits I hear through the grape vine.

Of books, what genres do you mostly read?
My primary focus is Children’s books including Picture Books, Early Readers, Middle Grade and Young Adult books. I do also read a large amount of Women’s Fiction/Chick Lit for the other site I review for, Chick Lit Reviews (http://chicklitreviews.com)

How often do you post?
It varies, but at least once a day sometimes as many as three times daily depending on what’s going on in the book world.

What are some of the things that you love about blogging?
Absolutely, without any doubt, the community of book bloggers. I’ve never met a more generous group of people. Not only with the books they have, but there time, energy and general love & concern for others. It’s fantastic and I’m happy to be a part of it.

Outside of the community factor, I’d have to say books in general. Before I was a book blogger I had no idea about the number of books there really were out there and the variety I could expose my children to. Not just because of review copies, but from getting to know publishers by looking through catalogs and reading other blogs I’ve discovered new books that I’ve fallen in love with because of being a book blogger. It’s wonderful!

What are some of the negatives?
Being overwhelmed. I have a hard time saying no. Also feeling as though I need to get through every single book that comes through my door and post a review for it. I’ll be the first to admit, I stay up way too late reading and answering emails, because I love it. But sometimes I need to remember to take a step back and enjoy what I really love about blogging and reading.

Name 1-3 favorite items/postings that you have/do on your blog?

Any advice you would give to new bloggers?
Breathe. Relax. Enjoy. Stop worrying about getting ARC’s, they’ll come and then you may change your tune. Get to know more book bloggers. Be involved and enjoy the activities that are put together. There’s a lot of fun to be had and it will not only take you to new friends you never knew you could have, but it will also bring people back to you.

What draws you to follow someone’s blog?
Someone who interacts with me on a fairly regular basis and a pretty regular stream of content. I’m absolutely not going to fault someone for taking a few days off, it’s a blog not a career for goodness sakes, but at the same time I want something to look forward to when I return to their site. I also quite often need nudging to get out and about by way of a comment here and there on my own site. Leave a comment on my site and you’re almost guaranteed a visit from me plus more in the future. 🙂

Do you have any “pet peeves” that other bloggers do?
I cannot stand auto-play music, period. This will have me close a tab in a browser quicker than anything else. Outside of that, not really. I guess I’m not a huge fan of people who are overly negative or use foul language in their posts, but I don’t really see that a whole lot.

Would you please share 5-7 things about the person behind the screen so that we get to know the “real” you!!
I’m the mom to two fun and incredibly energetic reading kiddos which I’ve nicknamed the Turkeybird and Littlebug.

My hubby and I, before getting married, spent two years apart and wrote only snail mail letters to each other while serving missions for our church.

I’m a classically trained professional flutist.

Currently I have 3 books I’m completing that will be published soon, one Middle Grade and two Young Adult.

And I absolutely love to travel! Which is obvious since I’ve now lived in nearly a dozen states and have never spent time in any military service nor has my family.

Any other info you would like to share.
I also review at Chick Lit Reviews and am one of the Co-Founders of Armchair BEA!

Thank you so much Cheryl! I’m honored to be featured and so grateful you asked me (even if it took me some time to get it to you)!

Danielle, thank you for being my guest today and sharing “A Bit Of You” with us.  I found that this was truly a treat.  I can’t even find the words to express the respect, awe and amazement I have for Danielle after learning so much about her.  Her devotion, talent and energy definitely makes her a SHINING STAR!!! 

I would like to explain how this came to fruition. Hubby and I were having a discussion about the old days, (for the young’ens reading this..a little history lesson) but before the dark age. When Sundays were special and had traditions and rituals. Sunday mornings Church, come home to a big gravy (sauce) cooking on the stove, a big Sunday dinner, then either off to visit relatives/friends or wait for relatives/friends to drop by. We would spend the afternoon sitting around the table, talking, catching up, having coffee, pizza, calzones, etc etc, dessert. And now, how sad, all those traditions are gone. And then I got to thinking, why not have something similar here on my blog. This past year, I have met so many amazing and wonderful people (some I now call friends) through blogging, and how I am in awe of what they do and accomplish. How much respect I have for them, for their honesty, integrity, credibility and so enjoy when a bit of their personality shines through. So every Sunday, here at my place, the coffee will be on, the dessert is on the table and friends will be stopping by. And I will be rolling out the red carpet for my Sunday Shining Star Blogger guest.

I was told when I first found this community of book blogging that “book bloggers were the nicest bloggers there are” and I have never forgotten those words. And over the past year, I have truly met the nicest people. I also believe, even though we live behind a screen, a bit of our personality shines through. That is one of the reasons I am having so much fun with this weekly event, and hoping you are too, because we are getting to know those “nicest bloggers” around and about bloggyland a little bit better.

Before we meet and greet today’s guest, I have a question.  Is it only me or has everyone else noticed that the boys. (ok…men…Jeff and  Steve…Lori and my hubby) seem to be behaving lately now that the weather is getting nicer and they are golfing while we get together on Sundays?  Thought so..lol. 

Now back today’s guest.  I participate in a weekly meme on Saturdays called A Bit Of Me, where each week Danielle asks a question to get to know bloggers a little bit better.  Well today, we are going to get to know Danielle.  Today our Shining Star is DANIELLE from THERE’S A BOOK.

When and why did you start blogging?
My first book review was posted in November of 2009, with my son also reviewing the book (I’ve Seen Santa! by David Bedford). When I initially started my primary focus was to help readers, and parents especially, find books they would love. I found that trying to pick up books for my son when he was very little to be incredibly challenging and quite expensive. We lived in a small town at the time and our library definitely left something to be desired. Because I knew I couldn’t be alone in this struggle I decided to start sharing the books my children loved and the reasons why they did in the hope that I could help other readers (young & old) find just the right book for them.

How and what made you decide on the name of your blog?
My byline for my blog is “Because sometimes there’s a book that can transform a child’s world.” When I started looking into blog names I came up with this with the help of my mom and “There’s A Book” popped out!

What would you say is the main content of your blog?
Primarily book reviews, author interviews and giveaways. I also provide book news pieces and other random bits I hear through the grape vine.

Of books, what genres do you mostly read?
My primary focus is Children’s books including Picture Books, Early Readers, Middle Grade and Young Adult books. I do also read a large amount of Women’s Fiction/Chick Lit for the other site I review for, Chick Lit Reviews (http://chicklitreviews.com)

How often do you post?
It varies, but at least once a day sometimes as many as three times daily depending on what’s going on in the book world.

What are some of the things that you love about blogging?
Absolutely, without any doubt, the community of book bloggers. I’ve never met a more generous group of people. Not only with the books they have, but there time, energy and general love & concern for others. It’s fantastic and I’m happy to be a part of it.

Outside of the community factor, I’d have to say books in general. Before I was a book blogger I had no idea about the number of books there really were out there and the variety I could expose my children to. Not just because of review copies, but from getting to know publishers by looking through catalogs and reading other blogs I’ve discovered new books that I’ve fallen in love with because of being a book blogger. It’s wonderful!

What are some of the negatives?
Being overwhelmed. I have a hard time saying no. Also feeling as though I need to get through every single book that comes through my door and post a review for it. I’ll be the first to admit, I stay up way too late reading and answering emails, because I love it. But sometimes I need to remember to take a step back and enjoy what I really love about blogging and reading.

Name 1-3 favorite items/postings that you have/do on your blog?

Any advice you would give to new bloggers?
Breathe. Relax. Enjoy. Stop worrying about getting ARC’s, they’ll come and then you may change your tune. Get to know more book bloggers. Be involved and enjoy the activities that are put together. There’s a lot of fun to be had and it will not only take you to new friends you never knew you could have, but it will also bring people back to you.

What draws you to follow someone’s blog?
Someone who interacts with me on a fairly regular basis and a pretty regular stream of content. I’m absolutely not going to fault someone for taking a few days off, it’s a blog not a career for goodness sakes, but at the same time I want something to look forward to when I return to their site. I also quite often need nudging to get out and about by way of a comment here and there on my own site. Leave a comment on my site and you’re almost guaranteed a visit from me plus more in the future. 🙂

Do you have any “pet peeves” that other bloggers do?
I cannot stand auto-play music, period. This will have me close a tab in a browser quicker than anything else. Outside of that, not really. I guess I’m not a huge fan of people who are overly negative or use foul language in their posts, but I don’t really see that a whole lot.

Would you please share 5-7 things about the person behind the screen so that we get to know the “real” you!!
I’m the mom to two fun and incredibly energetic reading kiddos which I’ve nicknamed the Turkeybird and Littlebug.

My hubby and I, before getting married, spent two years apart and wrote only snail mail letters to each other while serving missions for our church.

I’m a classically trained professional flutist.

Currently I have 3 books I’m completing that will be published soon, one Middle Grade and two Young Adult.

And I absolutely love to travel! Which is obvious since I’ve now lived in nearly a dozen states and have never spent time in any military service nor has my family.

Any other info you would like to share.
I also review at Chick Lit Reviews and am one of the Co-Founders of Armchair BEA!

Thank you so much Cheryl! I’m honored to be featured and so grateful you asked me (even if it took me some time to get it to you)!

Danielle, thank you for being my guest today and sharing “A Bit Of You” with us.  I found that this was truly a treat.  I can’t even find the words to express the respect, awe and amazement I have for Danielle after learning so much about her.  Her devotion, talent and energy definitely makes her a SHINING STAR!!! 

From Danielle’s blog:
We all leave our “footprint” on the world, in one way or another. We each, individually, do something or are someone that makes the world a little better just by being here. I created this weekly meme to get to know the blogging community I love just a bit better. To know what makes them tick, outside of books, that is. Each week I will post a question to be answered in the following week’s “A Bit of Me(Me)”. Check back each Saturday to get the info for next week’s post and link up with your current post right here.
This week’s question: What’s your earliest memory?