Revision is a Process by Catherine E. McLean

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Revision is a Process –

How to Take the Frustration Out of Self-Editing

by Catherine E. McLean

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GENRE: Self-Help, Self-Improvement, Non-Fiction

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BLURB:

A first draft holds the possibility of what will be a great story. Revision turns that rough diamond into a spectacular gem worth a reader’s money and time.

Writers are individuals but to be a producing writer means creating a system to revise and polish a work so the reader thoroughly enjoys the story. REVISION IS A PROCESS is a guidebook for writers and authors that shows how a simple 12-step process can be tailored to eliminate the most common and chronic maladies of writing genre fiction. This valuable guidebook contains secrets, tips, practical advice, how-to’s, and why-to’s for taking the frustration out of self-editing.

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Excerpt:

From Section 7, Show Don’t Tell – What to Cut or Change

One rule of fiction is to show more and tell less.

What does that mean?

A very simple example is that saying it’s a flower is telling but to say it’s a white rose, its petals edged with a mist of ruby-pink is showing.

Showing means providing an instant, vivid image so the reader sees in their mind what was meant.

Yes, showing requires more words than telling, but how much detail is too much detail when showing?

Keep in mind that readers will stop reading and skim over sentences and paragraphs of details in order “to get to the good stuff” of drama, action, and something happening of interest. So it’s best to choose all descriptive words carefully and keep the passages succinct.

Now— Go through your manuscript and highlight all descriptive phrases and passages so you can see how much of the total text is description.

If using your word processor’s highlight feature, pause to zoom down to view entire pages and look at the end of pages to see how much carried over to the next page.

If you have exceeded three sentences (20-60 words) of description or explanation at any spot, that may be overkill. Determine what needs to be cut, pared down, rewritten, or reparagraphed for visual effect and immediacy, and what is too lengthy, mundane, or bordering on boring.

It’s also important, when revising such areas, to remember that the replacement words should be in keeping with the story’s or scene’s narrator—and not you, the author, stepping onto the page with your voice, (that’s a type of Author Intrusion that readers hate).

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Catherine E. McLean’s lighthearted, short stories have appeared in hard cover and online anthologies and magazines. Her books include JEWELS OF THE SKY, KARMA & MAYHEM, HEARTS AKILTER, and ADRADA TO ZOOL (a short story anthology). She lives on a farm nestled in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains of Western Pennsylvania. In the quiet of the countryside, she writes lighthearted tales of phantasy realms and stardust worlds (fantasy, futuristic, and paranormal) with romance and advenure. She is also a writing instructor and workshop speaker. Her nonfiction book for writers is REVISION IS A PROCESS – HOW TO TAKE THE FRUSTRATION OUT OF SELF-EDITING.

• Hub Website: http://www.CatherineEmclean.com

• Website for writers: http://www.WritersCheatSheets.com

• Writers Cheat Sheets Blog: https://writerscheatsheets.blogspot.com

• Linked-In:

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/catherine-e-mclean/7/70b/372 

• Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/catherine.e.mclean.5

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/CatherineMcLea7

• Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/catherinemclean

• Amazon Author Page:

http://www.amazon.com/Catherine-E.-McLean/e/B00A3BVG6I/

• Link to buy REVISION IS A PROCESS at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0988587440

• Link to buy REVISION IS A PROCESS at Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/revision-is-a-process-catherine-e-mclean/1126295618

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More About the Author

When not writing, what can you be found doing?

Sewing. I find it rewarding to have clothes that fit and which are distinct. I have been sewing since I was seven years old. At ten, I joined 4-H, then I became a 4-H leader (who retired last year after twenty years that covered two states and four counties). Looking back, I touched the lives of and educated more than three hundred and fifty kids.

Since age ten, I have won numerous prizes and ribbons at the local fairs with my sewing projects, which have ranged from elegant and fancy aprons to finely detailed and tailored coats.

Before retiring from owning and showing Morgan Sport Horses, I made hunt seat, saddleseat, sidesaddle, driving, and western riding attire. I’ve even made my daughter’s medieval costumes.

Currently I’m having a great time creating Erte (the Father of Art Deco) outfits for a fashion doll named Darq – https://jewelsofthesky.wordpress.com/2014/01/

This doll has become the avatar-heroine of my sci-fi adventure novel JEWELS OF THE SKY – http://tinyurl.com/jewelsofthesky-book. New photos of her antics and outfits are posted at the book’s blog –  https://jewelsofthesky.wordpress.com.

My most recent sewing project was a tote bag to use at a large spring writer’s conference. I wanted a clear plastic pocket on the outside to display the cover of my sci-fi romance novella HEARTS AKILTER – http://tinyurl.com/HeartsAkilter-Amazonlink. I also needed pockets for pens, paper, business cards, personal items, etc. Best of all, my tote is sized so a folder or two and my Samsung tablet can easily be carried and accessed. (There are a total of eleven pockets.) The tote has a handle-strap as well as a removable, leather shoulder strap. This tote was entered in the local fair and took a blue ribbon.

One thing some people find odd is that I don’t quilt. Okay, I might quilt a pocket or something small, but making a bed-sized quilt? No. Sorry. Quilts and quilting that large a project just doesn’t appeal to me.

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One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.

a Rafflecopter giveaway.

Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:

 http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2017/11/virtual-book-tour-revision-is-process.html

Bargaining with the Boss by Jennifer Shirk

Bargaining with the Boss

by Jennifer Shirk

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GENRE: Romance

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BLURB:

Kinsley just wanted to have some fun for a change. Then she wakes up in a stranger’s bed, with her bridesmaid dress on backward and a hazy memory of what happened at her friend’s wedding. With a quick escape, she can get back to her predictable life. But then she meets her new boss—the same guy she’d woken up next to—and seeing him with a clear head doesn’t make him any less attractive.

Mixing business with pleasure has never been Damon’s style, and easily avoided, but the hotel he just bought comes with an unexpected perk—its manager. “Sensible” Kinsley today is as alluring as “impulsive” Kinsley was the night before, and she talks him into a deal. If she can turn around the hotel by the end of summer, he won’t tear it down to put up a more profitable casino.

Their plan is simple…until falling for each other becomes more than they bargained for.

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Excerpt:

Damon pierced her with his blue-eyed gaze for several long seconds, as if debating something in his mind before finally taking hold of her hand. “Good night, Kinsley.” Then he leaned in and brought his mouth across hers. Once she got over the shock of his lips on hers, she kissed him back, tightening her grip on his hand for balance.

Oh, but he had a nice, soft, giving mouth, like their lips were two puzzle pieces fitting perfectly together. The world around her disappeared as he wove his hands into her hair, tilting her head back. He trailed light kisses down her neck, bringing every nerve in her body to high alert and begging for even more of his touch. She’d never felt like this before with a man—maybe it was the excitement of him being a virtual stranger or maybe just the man himself, but her body came alive. She didn’t want it to end.

And for once in her sensible life, she wanted to do the insensible thing.

She eased back slowly, gaining confidence when she heard him exude a low moan. “Um, yeah, well then.” She licked her lips, growing dizzier when she tasted him again. “On second thought, maybe…we don’t have to say good night just yet. I mean, if you’re still interested,” she hastily added.

A slow, lethal grin stretched Damon’s lips as he took hold of her hand again. “Yes. I’m definitely interested.”

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Jennifer Shirk is a USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of sweet (and sometimes even funny) romances for Montlake Romance and Entangled Publishing. She loves coffee, wine, the people living in her house and God. (Not necessarily in that order). Strong literacy and library advocate as well.

She resides in a beach resort in NJ, so when she’s not writing or working on her tan, she’s taking care of her most treasured possessions: her husband, daughter, puppy (Sox) and four hermit crabs.

Lately she’s been on a serious exercise kick. But don’t hold that against her.

Check out her website for News and Links: http://www.jennifershirk.com

Feel free to friend her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JenniferShirkBooks

And don’t forget to join her mailing list for a chance to win monthly giveaways and free ARCs: eepurl.com/Q6TH1

Website: jennifershirk.com

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/jennifer-shirk

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/JenniferShirk

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/JenniferShirkBooks

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/jennifershirk

Instagram: https://instagram.com/ocwriter_jen/

Newsletter:  eepurl.com/Q6TH1

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Jennifer Shirk will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:

http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2017/12/blurb-blitz-bargaining-with-boss-by.html

Relatively Crazy by Ellen Dye

Relatively Crazy

by Ellen Dye

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GENRE: Women’s Fiction/Romance

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BLURB:

On her fortieth birthday housewife Wanda Jo Ashton is expecting her husband’s standard gift of an E and E from T-that being Elegant and Expensive from Tiffany’s. However, what she gets is the news that her formerly successful, dependable corporate attorney husband is leaving her to pursue the rich life of a kept man. Left with nothing she has no choice but to escape the San Francisco area, with her sixteen-year-old daughter in tow and head toward the mountains of West Virginia and the quirky family she left behind twenty years ago. Here Wanda Jo must carve out a future, complete with career and home in the midst of family feuds, computer phobias and the occasional homebrewing explosion before she finally figures out life can indeed being again at forty.

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Excerpt 

Okay, there is was. Looking no different than twenty-two years ago. A small opening in the woods marked by a gray, metal, utilitarian mailbox and a graveled trail that passed for a driveway in these parts.

I was home. Oh God help me. Please.

I depressed the brake pedal, leaving behind the paved surface and tried not to wince as what sounded like millions of tiny gravel bits pinged against the underside of my car.

The azaleas lining the drive still looked the same. The one at the very end caught my attention, I could have sworn it jiggled. Oh no, it couldn’t be. Surely it was impossible now.

Suddenly the bush jumped in front of the car.

I slammed on the brakes, pinning Olivia to the seat with my outstretched arm. In the fashion of mothers everywhere I was protecting my offspring from flying through the windshield by crushing her windpipe while invoking the Maternal Arm.

I looked toward the hood and the half-dozen bobbing azalea twigs in front. I sat resolved as they rose and wre followed by an old pith helmet and a face which looked a bit older than I’d remembered, although it was hard to tell precisely, given the layers of green and black greasepaint. A body followed, dressed in a set of ancient Army –issued fatigues.

“Gun,” Olivia croaked, pointing.

I simply nodded, there would be plenty of time later for my daughter to find out exactly what was swimming around in the waters of the gene pool from whence she’d sprung.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

At the age of nine Ellen Dye decided she was going to be a writer when she found her Aunt Nettie’s trunk of True Confessions magazines and spent untold hours reading the lot, a bag of Munchos potato chips and a frosty RC Cola at her side. Then, being nine, she promptly forgot all about it as she got lost in the pesky business of growing up, And then one very lucky day she spotted a confession magazine on the grocery store shelf and began to tap out her own stories which were a delight to see published. Now she spends her days tapping out her characters’ happily-ever-afters for The Wild Rose Press.

Visit anytime at www.ellendye.com

Ellen is always up for meeting new friends at Ellen Dye Author on Facebook

Amazon sale link

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Ellen Dye will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better their chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:

http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2017/11/blurb-blitz-relatively-crazy-by-ellen.html 

 

Dark Child by Miriam Newman

Dark Child

by Miriam Newman

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GENRE: Romance

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BLURB:

Born at a royal banquet for King Conor MacNessa of Ulster, Deirdre is predicted by Conor’s own druid to be blessed and cursed with a beauty that will make kingdoms contest over her.  He names her “Deirdre of the Sorrows” and urges the king to slay her.  But Conor, unwilling to murder a babe, takes her under his protection only to fall prey to the curse when she is nearly grown.  Captivated by her youth and beauty, the aging king will go to any extreme to possess her.

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Excerpt:

On the fairest of summer days, Naisi sat beneath a tree on a hillock making music yet more fair.  It was that which pulled Deirdre in, of course.  She could no more resist it than a trout does the lure and when she saw the sheer, pure beauty of the man making it, that drew her more strongly yet, for she knew him from her dreams.

Still, Leabhar had raised her to be circumspect, so no word did she say.   Instead she only passed Naisi, eyes downcast  like any modest maid’s so that no evil could be said of her.  But beauty speaks for itself and Naisi, seeing it, was struck to the heart and he spoke:  “How fair a doe my music has called.”

“What use to be a fair doe where there are no bucks?” she responded.

Now the son of Usna was no fool, being himself a chief in Ulster though a young one.  He had heard of Felim’s daughter secreted in a fortress of the king and suspected this must be the girl, so he tested her, saying, “I think you have the prize buck of this land.”

“Yet if I were to choose,” Deirdre persevered, “I choose the young buck.”

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Fantasy poetry driven by myths and legends has been my passion for as long as I can remember. I was published in poetry before catching the romance writing bug. I bring that background to my writing along with a lifelong addiction to horses, an 18 year career in various areas of psychiatric social services and many trips to Ireland, where I nurture my muse. My published works range from contemporary fantasy romance to fantasy historical, futuristic, science fiction and historical romance. Currently I live in rural Pennsylvania with a “motley crew” of rescue animals. You can see my books at www.miriamnewman.com.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dark-child-miriam-newman/1126646912

www.thecelticroseblog.blogspot.com

Miriam Newman Author

twitter@miriam newman

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Miriam will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:

 https://goddessfishpromotions. blogspot.com/2017/12/book-blas t-dark-child-by-miriam-newman. html

 

Fire by Sam Rook

Fire

by Sam Rook

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GENRE: Fantasy

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BLURB:

The thrilling conclusion to the Knights of Av’lor trilogy!

Trapped on Av’lor and left for dead by her betrayer, Kathryn’s unrelenting determination is the only thing that might overcome the invading Zahkrinon army.

With the portal destroyed and the Zahkrinon army fast approaching, Kathryn and Lanclor have no choice but to focus on the survival of the Knighthood before they can consider rescuing Rachel. Unexpected events threaten their victory and the combined Av’lorian and Earth forces struggle to survive as their numbers dwindle.

They find the Zahkrinon are more dangerous than they had ever imagined.

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Excerpt:

The momentum of her flight drove the sword completely into the back of the Zahkrinon’s neck along with her hands, up to her wrists. She felt pieces of bone cut through her gloves and she clenched her teeth from the pain. A dark wave of energy left the creature’s hands just after impact and drove into the dark elves instead of Hal’s group. Kathryn forced her spell through the blade and felt the Zahkrinon’s muscles tighten under her as it screeched in pain.

She clung to her sword for dear life as the Zahkrinon’s arms struggled to rip her from its back as it twisted back and forth in an attempt to throw her. Tucking her wings, she made herself smaller and poured more power into the fire spell. The smell of burning flesh made her gag, but she didn’t relent.

The bastard took forever to die and it was bound and determined to take Kate with it. With an agonized scream, it fell from the building and tried to turn itself in midair so it fell backward. Kate let go of her sword and pushed herself to the left before they hit the ground. Her effort was enough not to get crushed, but failed to dodge the Zahkrinon’s wing which caught her body and thrust her against the ground.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Sam Rook lives in Vermont with her husband and two children. Her passion for fantasy novels began in high school with her desire to write following shortly thereafter. Software engineer by day, fantasy author by night, she strives to give her readers a chance to enjoy worlds that transport them away from the stress of everyday life.

Website:

www.samrook.com

Buy links:

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/fire-104

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fire-sam-rook/1127522366?ean=2940154631225

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/759750

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Sam will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: 

 https://goddessfishpromotions. blogspot.com/2017/12/book-blas t-fire-by-sam-rook.html