Book Review Link Up Starts NOW! #Amazon #Giveaway

<a href="http://cymlowell.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="CymLowell" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2442/3960797566_f11cfb2f41_o.jpg" /></a>

Welcome to Book Review Party Wednesday.

It is real simple. Link up any (old or new, any genre) book review that you have
written to the below MckLinky.

A couple of things to remember while you're linking.

1. Add a permalink to your specific post, not the main page of your blog (only one review per blog will be included in the giveaway). Permalinks from Amazon & other Book Review Sites are permitted.
2. Add my Book Review Wednesday Badge or a simple link-back to the party at the end of your review post.
3. List the name of your blog, Title of Book or Genre. Be sure to use spaces and limit characters to 50. For example: The Lost Symbol, thriller - or whatever you want to say!

4. Visit the other linked up reviews and leave comments....it's a party, have fun!
5. I will announce the winner in a weekend post. The winner is chosen from the linked up reviewers using Random Number Generator. All included.

I am so excited to be reading all the reviews! This is always so much fun and gives me the opportunity to add new books to my list. Last week's winner will be announced this weekend!

-CYM

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Winner of Wednesday's Book Review Link-Up!

     
*all winners are selected by Random Number Generator *

And the winner of the 4 book bundle giveaway from Wednesday's Review Party is...

(**Drums Rolling in the Background**)

Congratulations to Create with Joy!!



Be sure to check out Create with Joy and leave a comment!


Send me your mailing address.

Warms-
CYM

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Alexandra Hamlet, Author UPDATE!

Author Spotlight UPDATE:

Since I first spotlighted Alexandra Hamlet on 7/27/12. Her book, The Right Guard, has won 7 book awards and is up for 5 more. Also, Hollywood came calling and they are in negotiations for an option film from an academy-award winning director!

Take a look at Alexandra's interview on writing/publishing.

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/interview-with-military-thriller-author.html

Congrats!!

The Right Guard

by Alexandra Hamlet

Synopsis:

Over one million military weapons and equipment are missing from the U.S. military inventories across the country. Who is stealing the weapons and why? CIA operative Eric Brent, and his revolutionary light weapon invention, is used by CIA to flush out a secretive, phantom group hostile to a wildly spending, intrusive U.S. Administration that threatens to destroy the American economy and shrink individual freedoms.

Hamlet takes you through the twists and turns of the secretive world of intelligence as the undercover assignment goes astray. Eric exposes a far-reaching and well-planned movement and an event that could alter the United States forever.

Strained loyalties arise as the phantom group appeals to Eric and his superiors. At the height of his infiltration, a former lover, Jill, reenters his life and places them both in danger. Loyal forces within the intelligence community struggle to learn who is involved and organize counter-moves yet stay undetected. Each question ends in surprise as personal and professional conflicts for Eric arise. He is forced to reach back into his high-ranking father's Nazi Germany past...to solicit help.
The year is 1978, yet The Right Guard resembles the present state of the political and economic climate of the U.S. and a possible, eerie scenario and outcome.
The Right Guard is an exercise in gripping, fast-paced realism that keeps the reader mesmerized through the eyes of those who live in the intelligence world.

About Alexandra Hamlet:

Alexandra is a cultural and defense anthropologist, an international lecturer and a former TV and print journalist. She consults on cultural affairs and international business. She was an auxiliary nurse in London; Visiting Fellow at Harvard University; an executive search specialist for world-wide C-suite positions; and is a consultant on irregular warfare. This is her first novel.

Other Resources:

Amazon

TheRightGuardNovel

AlexandraHamletBlog

Thank you Alexandra for being this week's Author Spotlight!

-CYM

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Book Review Link-Up Party Starts NOW...4 - Book Giveaway!!

This week's prize pack!!

<a href="http://cymlowell.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="CymLowell" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2442/3960797566_f11cfb2f41_o.jpg" /></a>

Welcome to Book Review Party Wednesday.

It is real simple. Link up any (old or new, any genre) book review that you have
written to the below MckLinky.

A couple of things to remember while you're linking.

1. Add a permalink to your specific post, not the main page of your blog (only one review per blog will be included in the giveaway). Permalinks from Amazon & other Book Review Sites are permitted.
2. Add my Book Review Wednesday Badge or a simple link-back to the party at the end of your review post.
3. List the name of your blog, Title of Book or Genre. Be sure to use spaces and limit characters to 50. For example: The Lost Symbol, Thriller - or whatever you want to say!

4. Visit the other linked up reviews and leave comments....it's a party, have fun!
5. I will announce the winner in a weekend post. The winner is chosen from the linked up reviewers using Random Number Generator. All included. This week will include 4 Books, as seen in the above picture!

I am so excited to be reading all the reviews! This is always so much fun and gives me the opportunity to add new books to my list. 

International included. *Shipping will not occur until August 28th.*

-CYM

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Havana Cafe of The Pearl in Rosemary Beach, FL - REVIEW

via

Havana Cafe in the Pearl of Rosemary Beach Opening

The beautiful Pearl of Rosemary Beach opened the restaurant, Havana Café, on 6 August. We reserved tables for 12 community friends. Between us, we sampled the cocktails, entire menu, wine selections, and, of course, deserts. Each course was largely passed around the table so everyone could be a taste tester.

The décor of the Havana Café is Cuban. There are blown-up pictures of the Cuba of today, taken by Rosemary Beach artist Tommy Crow. Upon entering the first floor restaurant from the cobblestone street, the panorama of the Western Green, the ocean, and a setting sun provide glorious backdrop for the restaurant itself. The polished wooden bar is long and inviting. I expected Ernst Hemingway to turn, wave a hand with cigar between his fingers, inviting me to join and discuss next novels. Of course, there is a Hemingway cocktail, which had the flavors of a Cuban original.

After a couple of rounds of drinks, we sat down. Our host, Mary Alice Johnson of Premier Realty, assigned the seats, so that spouses were not sitting together. She also segregated me from my political friend, her husband, so that we would not delve into all the problems of the world boring our dinner mates.

I had the world class French Fries as an appetizer, followed by onion soup, collards, and green beans as the main course (my kind of food). Chef Edward, from Edward’s across the street from the Pearl, was at our table and ordered an excellent cab. Our friends ordered a full range of lamb, local fish, steak, and soups, all of which were delicious. For desert, I had sorbets and sampled the lemon tart, s ’mores, and other delectables of my friends.

The Havana Café was packed upon arrival, reflecting opening night at the Oscars (for Rosemary beach). The hotel has been abandoned for four years, now open and glowing.  The service was impeccable, quite amazing for an opening night.

We look forward to meeting you at the Havana Café for one of those Hemingways!

Warms, Cym

My iphone photos

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Standard Pages for A Fiction Website | Author Media | Growing Your Platform Online

by 

Shaney Lee

on 

July 30, 2013

Are you a fiction writer building your own site? If so, this post is for you.

Through our experience in working with dozens of fiction authors, these are the pages that we’ve found every fiction website needs.

1. Home

This is your landing page, the first page your visitors will see when they navigate to your website. Therefore, you will want your home page to make it clear who you are and what you write. Don’t make your visitors guess.

Your home page will set the tone for the rest of the website, so focus on easy-to-understand navigation, clear calls to action, and a design that reflects who you are as a writer. Your book(s) should be featured prominently.

Many writers also opt to have their blog on their home page, which is perfectly acceptable. You can also choose to keep your blog on a separate page.

2. About

This is your bio section. Don’t get too bogged down talking about all the minute details of your life story; that will get monotonous rather quickly. Instead, focus on hitting the highlights of your life, especially those that pertain to why you started writing or where you get inspiration for your books.

Choose a professional headshot for this page.


Read the rest of the article here. There is much more!


-CYM

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Launch of a Novice Fiction Writer’s Path

I am pleased to report that I have been writing thrillers for almost 20 years. It began with a daughter studying at Oxford and having to write a novel in a tutorial. She picked out an event that actually happened to us on a train ride through Switzerland. There were a few places where she needed some additional life experience to fill in blanks in the story. I became hooked.

Over the years, I have written 4 manuscripts. I never submitted them to anybody. Just  enjoyed the process of writing. I have spent almost 40 years writing professional international taxation books from prominent publishing houses. I naively hoped that success as a non-fiction writer would make climbing the fiction ladder a simple process.

 Wrong!

My sweetheart read the manuscripts and suggested that they had potential. I chose one that I thought would have appeal to readers. Since I knew nothing about the fiction publishing business and heard horror stories about authors who lose their rights to bankrupt or unethical publishers, I decided to self-publish that first book, which became Riddle of Berlin in 2008. Reviews have been generally positive. Through the social media process, sales continue at a pace to indicate that there may be potential in my stories.

Beginning about years three ago, I became serious in wanting to improve my writing and fiction marketing skills. I took an Author Buzz course from MJ Rose on developing a marketing plan. In the course of working with MJ, she suggested that my manuscript for Dust Scenario had potential. She suggested that I engage a skilled developmental editor, which is an expert on framing manuscripts to be successful thrillers. 

I then engaged a wonderful editor. She advised that her comments would be detailed if she thought the story had potential, minimal if she had little interest. I received 26 single-spaced pages of comments. I took this as a positive sign. It has taken me almost 18 months to revise the text in line with these comments.

When the development process had run its course, the editor suggested that I needed to engage a line editor to review for syntax, punctuation, style, and what not. I am in that process now.

I have now completed the manuscript for Dust Scenario. In essence, it is the story of a woman’s war after her husband has been murdered, children kidnapped, and told to be quiet. He was a Super Bowl champion quarterback, then Wall Street success, and Secretary of Treasury when his plane crashed into an iceberg with polar bears. To recover her family, Jaspar must become a warrior doing things that would have been inconceivable in her prior life.

I will post a synopsis shortly as I commence the “line editor” process.

Warms, Cym

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