Patricia Sands

Author

The Bridge Club

Podcast time~a chat with Blondie and The Brit

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There are many different ways authors connect with each other and with people who enjoy reading. It’s a lot of fun and so rewarding to simply have a good chat as we did a few weeks ago, when I was invited to be a guest on BlondieandtheBrit.com . If you have some time, pour yourself your beverage of choice, put your feet up and hang out with us for a while. Help yourself to some goodies from the local pâtisserie!

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Hey, Suzanne Kelman and KJ Waters ~ I just listened to our interview and can’t thank you enough for inviting me to join you. It was great fun!

Patricia Sands — Episode 25 — Love in Provence
Award-winning author Patricia Sands joins Blondie and the Brit for a delightful discussion about Patricia’s passions: writing and France. She shares her best…
BLONDIEANDBRIT.PODBEAN.COM|BY PODBEAN DEVELOPMENT
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Thanks for stopping by today. Watch for Suzanne Kelman to visit here on March 16th for a blog tour stop celebrating the upcoming release of her novel, The Rejected Writers’ Book Club! 
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KJ Waters is the author of Stealing Time,51rddgCwUYL._UY250_ a time travel thriller set during the summer of 2004 where Florida was battered by 5 major hurricanes in less than six weeks.
The second book in the series is in development and expected to be released in the spring of 2016.

Writing~have you found yours?

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753047993I’m visiting over at The Artist Unleashed website of Australian novelist and poet (among other talents), Jessica Bell, who lives in Athens, Greece … how’s that for a story? I wrote a bit about how I first found my writing voice. Have you found yours?

I don’t often post writing/publishing information here since there are many websites that accomplish that task so well. I still have a lot to learn and, well, let’s face it … the learning never stops!

I keep meaning to list links of resources that I feel are tremendously helpful, but so far that is still on my “to do” list. Naming my top ten, when asked to do so, these are my standard recommendations:

1. Joanna Penn’s website The Creative Penn ~ where you will find resources to help you write, publish and market your book. Constantly updating, Joanna reports on the latest trends and brings in experts who advise on all aspects of publishing. Extensive archives!

2. Stephen King’s book “On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft”onwriting ~ part master-blueprint, part memoir, part meditation on the writer’s life, filtered through the lens of his near-fatal car crash and his epiphany on  understanding and appreciating living.

This is what Roger Ebert had to say about it: “A lot of people were outraged that he was honored at the National Book Awards, as if a popular writer could not be taken seriously. But after finding that his book On Writing had more useful and observant things to say about the craft than any book since Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, I have gotten over my own snobbery.”

3. Fostering Success ~ You’ve written a book. Now what? ~ Self-guided online courses.

4. Alliance of Independent Authors ~ A professional association for authors who self-publish ~ a place to connect, network, ask questions, share information and celebrate.

5. Barb Drozdowich ~ Social media and WordPress consultant ~ see the complete series of resource books she has written for authors across all genres.

069e47cc1ed73ef7d7914605c6853b6a6. The Naked Truth About Self-Publishing ~ Published by The Indie Voice, 10 NYT best-selling authors.

7. The Triskele Trail: A Pathway to Independent Publishing ~ Published by a writer’s collective of five.

8. Jane Freidman  ~ Helping authors and publishers flourish in the digital world.

9. David Gaughran ~ Author and blogger ~  Let’s Get Digital.

10. Kristin Lamb ~ Social Media Jedi and Author, founder of WANA International

And then there is the seemingly ubiquitous Porter Anderson, media journalist and consultant ~ His website demonstrates how he has his finger on the pulse of the digital dynamic in book publishing like no one else. Always worth a listen!

These are all people and websites whose information and insights I find  exceedingly helpful. I’m not saying there aren’t more … because there are.

Recently BookBub published this excellent list of their favourite publishing resources. It’s worth bookmarking this link for future reference when you have time to absorb the information.

Along with the available online resources, I can’t stress enough the importance of joining writers’ groups, networking, talking, listening and sharing. Get to know editors, bloggers, reviewers, designers. Engage with readers. Social media is a necessity. Learn to make it a satisfying and enriching experience. Yes you can.

Who and what helped you find your writing voice? Do you  have other favourites to add to this list? Please do! The more we learn, the better.

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Thanks for joining me today. If you like today’s post, please use the share buttons below. It all helps!

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The Book Nook in Second Life

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One of the exciting aspects of the publishing world these days is the continuous opportunity to learn about something new. Today, author Sharon Clare AIbEiAIAAABDCIq9ierswNqzNyILdmNhcmRfcGhvdG8qKDJjMzg0ODE5NmE0NjJkNTFmODYxNGRkZTE3NzhhNzE0MWViNmQ3YTgwAX26kvaFoD5zZJbYlK2Cebd2wiLS is visiting to explain about a very virtual experience for readers and writers.

Read on, please, and I think you will be as surprised and interested as I am!

Take it away, Sharon … 

HIT AN UNTAPPED READERSHIP – PROMOTE YOUR BOOKS

WITH THE BOOK NOOK IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD!

The Book Nook Store Sign 512 x 512

Five years ago, I was intrigued by a documentary about an online virtual world called Second Life. SL is a virtual world where people meet as avatars from all over the globe to engage in socialization, education, business, music, hobbies, role-play, leisure and all sorts of stuff.

After downloading the viewer, I spent a hilarious day trying to navigate my avatar in this world. I quickly saw why people get addicted to these things—it’s not only fun, but I also learned that chatting to my new Malaysian friend while listening to virtual waves roll against the shore was as relaxing as if I’d spent the day on the beach. No wonder Second Life has millions of residents.

I now belong to many writing groups, have met SL friends in real life and have learned to build, teach and run a business. Two years ago, I started a virtual book store where authors can promote and sell their books in world.

According to a state of the industry report by Spil Games, more than 1.2 billion people of all ages and genders play online games worldwide.

If you have a book to sell, why not tap into this market and advertise your books in The Book Nook stores.

Why use The Book Nook in Second Life?

Visibility—Unlike a magazine ad, your book cover is always on display, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in a high traffic area. Unlike a real world book store, books are never shelved side-by-side, book covers always face out. Stuart Applebaum, head of Corporate Communications at Penguin Random House said: ‘We don’t know if getting the word out about the book will sell it, but we know they won’t buy it if they’ve never heard of it.’

Reach—Second Life has on average 60,000 people online at all times. These people log in from all over the world. This is a global audience, and in this age of electronic books, sales are viable and easy. Second Life has been around since 2003, long enough to catch Jeopardy’s notice. It was the answer to a question on the game show recently.

In World Promotion—The London City sim where one branch of The Book Nook is located runs a circulating promotional ad for The Book Nook on their group chat. There are 46,102 members in this group. The London City sim has daily traffic on average of 2,470.The stores participate in grid-wide scavenger hunts. Every ‘hunter’ searches the store for a gift. The gifts are reading related and include a romance sampler (the first 2 chapters) from one of our authors. This looks like a real book with pages that turn and can be read in Second Life. To read more of the story, buy links are a click away. This is a great way to get your book in the hands of readers.

Low Competition—There are very few book stores in Second Life. I’ve not seen anything like The Book Nook.

Play Time—Creative people use Second Life. Most are in world for leisure, so book reading is in keeping with the overall nature of this world.

Affordability—Just $10 for 6 months or $20 for 1 year puts your book in Book Nook stores.

What’s Included?

1. The Book Nook has two stores on different sims, London City Victoria and Art Gallery Route 7. Your book will be displayed in both locations.

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2. Every new book gets at least 2 weeks featured as new to the store.

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3. Each book is linked to your buy link so readers are immediately connected to your chosen web page when they touch your book.

Web Page Link

4. An excerpt or blurb from your book will be displayed on a cycling slideshow that plays in the London store.

Excerpt

5. Your book video added to the Youtube TV that plays in the art gallery store.

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6. Your excerpt or blurb posted on the Book Nook Facebook page here and Google Plus page here.

7. Tweets will be posted with your buy link to announce and then promote your book.

8. The option to have the first 2 chapters (around a dozen pages) made into a virtual book sampler that will be given away with your buy links to store visitors. (This is similar to what Amazon offers, but it’s more fun to read in SL.)

The Bridge Club and The Promise of Provence are both sitting on their own virtual bookshelf  in The Book Nook and I’ll be sending Promises To Keep very shortly. Try it! To have your book included in The Book Nook stores, just send an email to sclare@sharonclare.com.

Thanks for visiting today, Sharon. This is an intriguing concept!

If you’d like to visit Second Life, you can find more about it here. Either download their viewer or use the one Sharon uses, Firestorm viewer. The downloads are here: http://www.firestormviewer.org/downloads/

Find The Book Nook stores here:
Art Gallery: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Phasic%20Foo/188/31/25

London City Victoria: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/London%20City3/213/147/24

 

Take off, eh?

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canstockphoto16657101Ahhhhhh … I can feel it now … there’s something about the takeoff of a plane that is both exhilarating and calming for me. I LOVE IT!

The whirlwind of the past month will slowly dissipate at I settle into my seat on our flight to Zurich, Switzerland, later this afternoon. I’ve felt a touch of guilt (it’s part of a writer’s lot in life, I have come to learn … ) for not posting for almost two weeks here but life has been crazy. The best remedy for me? TRAVEL! And here we go!

First a quick recap:

I’m still processing all the helpful and exciting information picked up at the PubSmart conference in Charleston, SC, last month and blogger extraordinaire, Molly Greene, is PubSmart_logo_290publishing a post I sent her about it. I’ll share that with you here as soon as I get the link later today, so pop back if you are interested. There’s a photo of me with the talented and handsome young Hugh Howey … I was feeling my age when I realized I felt like a proud mother listening to him speak. He truly is a great voice for indie authors!

In the few weeks we were home in Toronto, we had five family birthdays to celebrate plus Mother’s Day. Just catching up with our wonderful, large family, and shmoozing with friends before we leave again, was a challenge! But we did it!

Not realizing what I was getting into, I spent three days at MetalWorks Recording Studios IMG_2013 (… talk about feeling like a rock star when you walk into their studios … that will be another post …what an experience!) creating an audiobook of The Bridge Club. I’ll have to go back and finish in August but I can’t say enough for the very patient sound engineer who has been guiding me along. I now have tremendous respect for the artists who do these recordings as their craft! I ended up sitting on my hands for hours so I wouldn’t wildly gesticulate, as I apparently do!

My new manuscript is with my editor and I am eagerly awaiting her comments. I love this part of the process!  The same accomplished artist who created the cover for The Promise of Provence is at work on the cover for this new novel and he showed me the almost completed work this week. I’m thrilled! At the moment, I feel we are on track for a July release of the ebook and the print will follow.

The subscribers to my newsletter are helping me decide on the title and I love having the involvement of these enthusiastic and supportive readers. There’s a link on the right side of this page or click right here if you would like to join us!

IMG_2042And then there was a terrific all-day writers’ workshop with novelist/blogger Chuck Wendig of the edgy Terrible Minds website. I thought it would be fun for us to say “Hi” to my friend, Colorado writer Susie Lindau, who I knew had met Chuck at the Pikes Peak Writers Conference just a few weeks ago. Chuck does get around!

It was great to reconnect with a lot of local writing friends and, in particular to congratulate Sherry Isaac who, the previous week in Chicago, won the prestigious Fire and Ice award for Women’s Fiction with Romantic Elements. In 2009, Sherry also won the Alice Munro Short Story Award. If you haven’t read any of her work, you should. You’ll find links to all of her exceptional writing on her website.

Okay … so back to travel … which I told you a bit about in my last post. My camera is ready to go to work (I can feel it pulsating … seriously … it’s been almost seven months …) and I have a new iPad Air, so I can try out some video blogs!  I’ll check in with you from Switzerland, France and Vienna and knowing you are keeping me company makes the travel even more pleasure-filled!

While we are on the topic of globe-trotting, here’s a bit about Spain. When I read Marianne’s post this morning, I knew I had to share it!

Here’s the preamble.

My wonderful, adventuresome sister lives in a small village south of Granada (now THERE’S a story … some day …) and I love to spend time with here there. It’s been a few years now but next year it is on the books for certain! I’m not sure why I just told you this … I guess because I have Spain on my mind at the moment and here’s why.

I want to share this link from Marianne’s blog, East of Malaga … a favourite of cartel2014_enmine. A gifted blogger and photographer, she shares her part of the world with us every week and now you can be as overwhelmed as I was with the floral opulence and glory of her visit to Cordoba’s recent Patio Festival.

Cordoba is a “must-see” destination at any time, in particular to revel in the spiritual and architectural splendour that is the Mezquite. Now you can consider planning a visit to coincide with La Fiesta de Los Patios de Cordoba.

Can you imagine watering all those pots?

If you haven’t visited Spain yet, be sure to add it to your wish list. Like every other European country, the history, beauty, food and culture leave you with unique and lasting experiences.

In two weeks, my Friday France posts will be back … on location … OOH LA LA  … be still my heart … from Nice! In the meantime I hope you enjoying hanging out with me wherever I happen to be. I can hear those Swiss cowbells clanking softly now …

Hmmm – it has been a busy time! Do you have any travel planned this year and how do you feel about flying? Even if you are staying home (and sometimes that’s the best place to be!), any time you want to take a trip you can do so from your armchair these days with a good book or a video. Rick Steves’ travel videos are among my favourite ~ just click that link, choose your destination of choice and away you go! Bon voyage!