Cover of the Year - Asking for Your Vote

I just scanned the covers for Cover of the Year on Erin Aislinn's website and saw a lot of familiar covers - many were on my Judge A Book By its Cover blog last year :)

I invite you to visit http://www.erinaislinn.com/BookCoveroftheYear2007.htm and I hope that you will vote for Lady Lightkeeper which is one of my covers and it is listed as the winning cover for September.

If you prefer the easier route - feel free to email webmail@erinaislinn .com and put "VOTE for Lady Lightkeeper" in the subject line. I appreciate every vote :)

Nikki


Book Promo 101 - NOW AVAILABLE
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"Coastal Suspense with a Touch of Romance"
Would you like information about the newest
blog tour option? Ask me for details and visit
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Silk Palace by Colin Harvey

Who causes friction in the story?

The plotters and the Royal Family that they’re plotting against – pretty much everyone is rubbing up against one another and getting up each other’s noses!

Do you prefer bad guys or bad gals?

Oh, bad girls every time! Oh, sorry, are we talking about writing here? Being serious, I don’t see any difference between the two. I’ll use bad guys or girls as the occasion arises.

How do you use your bad guys?

Often to provide a mirror to the hero, to highlight a view of him or her that we wouldn’t otherwise get.

Do you enjoy writing the bad guys or do you find it difficult?

I find it quite difficult, but I hope that I’m getting better at it. My first baddie was almost a mustache-twirling villain, but as I’ve gone along I’ve tried more and more to portray them as flawed, or as ordinary people who make bad choices.

Whether you enjoy writing them or hate writing them, we'd like to know why you feel that way?

Because one-dimensional villains are basically Hollywood ; they reduce the challenge to the hero, which reduces the effect of his or her victory. Without sacrifice, the victory is meaningless.

Who is your favorite bad guy in any of your books? Which bad guy and which book are they in?

Arial from The Silk Palace; his only real sin is to be over-ambitious, and to think that he can control an elemental force. But that lack of sin doesn’t mask the terrible consequences of what he does.

Who is your favorite fictional bad guy -- that's not in your books?

Alfred Bester’s Gulliver Foyle, from The Stars My Destination (I grew up knowing it as Tiger! Tiger!) – the ultimate anti-hero.

Please provide your website link.

http://www.geocities.com/colin_harvey/TheSilkPalace.html

What is the link to buy your book?

In the USA ; http://www.amazon.com/Silk-Palace-Colin-Harvey/dp/1934041424/ref=sr_1_1/103-3811783-1271041?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193587154&sr=1-1

In the UK ; http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silk-Palace-Colin-Harvey/dp/1934041424/ref=sr_1_1/203-2993755-7182356?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193586998&sr=8-1

Or electronically: http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/eBook51966.htm?cached

Blog Tours - What Would You Like to Know

I'm doing a tele-seminar next week about blog tours and I would love input from you all.

There are many things to discuss about blog tours and I worked out some initial questions to get people thinking - they are:

Discover Ways to Promote Your Book on a Virtual Blog Tour to Gain Greater Visibility and Sales

• What are the benefits of doing a blog tour?

• Should you promote your book in a blog tour?

• Should fiction and non fiction books be promoted differently in a blog tour?

• Should you organize your own blog tour?

• Why hire a publicist to organize your tour?

• If you hire a publicist, will you still need to work on the tour?

• Can you use a blog tour to promote anything besides books?

• Is there a new option in book blog tours?

But, now I need to create a couple of handouts and I'd love your input. Is there any specific info about blog tours that any of you think would be most helpful? Some folks here have done tours, some have hosted touring authors and I bet some of you have thought about doing a tour. So, since many of the people here are authors, I figured it would be a great place to pose the question. What information would you suggest I offer in handouts? Thank you all for your thoughts. There will be plenty of blog tour info coming very soon .

Nikki Leigh

PS - The answer to the last question is - most definitely. Stay tuned for much more information about that option - SOON. Or, contact me to be added to the mailing list - nikki_leigh22939@yahoo.com with Mailing List in the subject line.

The Last Free Men - by Jack Everett & David Coles

The Last Free Men - by Jack Everett & David Coles

We want to hear about the bad guys, bad gals and villains in your book. Even if you don't have a murderer, thief or other "bad guy" there should be some negative force.

Who causes friction in the story?

Iavolina. She is the wife of the Commandant of Fort Throp, a real fort close to Hadrian's Wall which, almost two thousand years ago separated Scotland from Britain. Iavolina is a spoiled Roman girl who, we can surmise married her ageing husband Septimus as a way to family money. Unfortunately, she had not reckoned with life on Rome's North West frontier; she took lovers and since her latest seemed too good to miss, she left the provincial little marching fort. After causing a great deal of mayhem - all of which furthered the story - she makes a totally undeserved fete.

Do you prefer bad guys or bad gals?

No preference

How do you use your bad guys?

To add conflict to the story, to add another thread, to give an alternative viewpoint.

Do you enjoy writing the bad guys or do you find it difficult?

Yes, we enjoy it.

Whether you enjoy writing them or hate writing them, we'd like to know why you feel that way?

Creating an evil character or even a merely bad individual is a challenge because the narrative still has to be enjoyable as well as gripping the reader and making her want to continue When it comes out right, the effort is really worthwhile.

Who is your favorite bad guy in any of your books? Which bad guy and which book are they in?

Our favourite bad guy is called Calupsis; he is the leader of what is left of King Arthur's Knights after chivalry has been entirely forgotten. He is pretty horrible. Calupsis appears in the young adult's fantasy novel Merlin's Kin, available as an eBook from Mobipocket.com. (A few paperbacks are still available … email us from our websites.)

Who is your favorite fictional bad guy -- that's not in your books?

Undoubtedly this is the anti-hero Cugel in Jack Vance's “Dying Earth” fantasy books: “the Eyes of the Overworld” and “Cugel's Saga”.

Is there anything else about your bad guys that we need to know? Feel free to share

As good guys are not wholly good, so bad guys are never all bad. However, it's difficult to find anything of a redeeming nature in either of our books that we mention above; both are made bad by their own self-serving nature. It's worth noting that only some of our bad guys end up with their just deserts.

Please provide your website link.

http://www.davidBColes.co.uk
http://www.JackLEverett.me.uk

What is the link to buy your book?

http://www.virtualtales.com/StoryProducts~tn~Last+Free+Men.html

Thank you for telling us about your bad guys. We love to meet the "evil ones".