Autograph or Kindlegraph

My book, Love, Lies & Deceit is an ebook and also available as a Kindle download. When anyone mentions a booksigning to me, I shutter at the thought of how am I going to sign an ebook. This is not an uncommon question among ebook authors and today, I found one solution. Have you ever heard of a Kindlegraph? It's a way for authors to autograph their Kindle books.

So, this morning I signed up for it. It's a pretty cool concept. A reader who wants to have their Kindle book signed can go to the web site and search for my book and request the Kindlegraph. I receive an email saying someone wants their ebook signed and I can then go to the Kindlegraph web site and "write" a personal message and sign it. Once I hit enter, it takes about 30 seconds for the reader to received a copy of my book cover with the personal message and my signature below it on their Kindle. Here is a copy of Tina Fey's newest book with a Kindlegraph.

Drawbacks? Oh yes, there are drawbacks. Right now, the signature that you receive isn't my real signature, but one that is as close to my handwriting as I could get. There are several samples of handwriting to chose from, or you can try and put your own signature on the site using the mouse as your pen. I tried that and oh my, it looked even worse than my own writing, which is pretty bad. So, until I can master better handwriting with the mouse, you'll get a signature that is pretty close to my own.

You also have to have a Twitter account to log into the site and have to register your Kindle in order to receive the signature on your device. You'll need to know the email address for your Kindle.

Another drawback is the size of the signature. When I signed up for the service, I went on there and requested my own Kindlegraph for my book. When it arrived, I found it to be very small. I would have liked for it to be a little larger so I could see it better.

Still, it's a pretty neat concept and at least one way of being able to sign my book. If you're interested, click on Kindlegraph and see what you think.

Until I can get some postcards made up for me to sign, this will have to do for anyone wanting my autograph.

Carol

Fandom Fest weekend comes to a close

It was a very long, hot weekend, but also a very productive one. FandomFest ran in conjunction with the Fright Night Film Fest in Lousivlle, Kentucky. It's mostly a Sci-Fi, Horror, Fantasy show, but with the Literary track, many other genres were also included.

Lots of celebrities were on hand for photos and autographs. Unfortunately, I was too busy attending some of the panels and workshops. However, the panels and workshops were really good. I learned many new things about writing and met some fantastic authors, publishers, and editors. That's always a good thing.

Did I mention how hot it was? Oh my gosh, the convention hall was so hot. I'm sure the fact that we are having triple-digit temps had a lot to do with it, but I also understand that the air conditioning in some of the guest rooms at the hotel was not working either. Luckily, I stayed at the Holiday Inn across the street and didn't have that problem. Well, actually I did at first. When I checked in and went to my room, I couldn't get the air conditioner to come on. I was sure I was working the thermostat right, but with my luck, I was probably doing something wrong.

I called the front desk and the clerk told me he would bring me key cards for a new room. He arrived a few minutes later and I asked him to check to make sure I was setting the thermostat right. It wouldn't come on for him either. So, I moved six rooms down the hallway and viola, I had a cool room.

All in all, I had a pretty good weekend, My only regret was that I forgot to take pictures of some of the strange costumes that many of the attendees were wearing and there were some very strange costumes. Oh well, maybe I'll remember next year.

Carol

Fandom Fest this weekend

This weekend I'll be attending Fandom Fest in Louisville, Kentucky. There will be tons of actors and celebrities that I'm looking forward to seeing. Have I mentioned I collect autographs. I'll make sure and report in if I can get any good ones. Mostly, I'm going for the Literary Track and will be going to lots of the panels and maybe a few workshops. It will be great fun connecting with some other authors and readers for the weekend. Check back next week for some photos. Keep cool everyone.

Carol

Tired Woman

I made it home from my trip to Mississippi this morning. It was a very quick trip. I flew down Saturday afternoon and drove back with my daughter about two hours after my plane landed. She wanted to come home for a visit before her husband returned from his deployment. It's too long of a drive (12 hours) from there to Indiana for her to come alone, so I agreed to fly down and drive back with her. We both were very tired and probably switched off driving about every hour or two, especially after getting into Tennessee until we got to Indiana. In a couple weeks, I will do it again in reverse order. Hopefully, she and I will be a little more rested before we start off.

I head back to work tomorrow and hope that my co-workers don't find me looking like this during the work day. Oh yes, coffee will be a must in the morning.
Have a great week everyone. I'm heading to bed.

Carol

Weekend Getaway

I'll be making a quick trip to Mississippi this weekend and will try and post something when I get back. Everyone have a great weekend and stay cool in this hot weather.

Carol

#SampleSunday

Below you will find a rough draft of the beginning of a new novel that I am working on that I hope will be come a mystery series. I'm working on it this month as my Camp NaNoWriMo project and hope to get published as a Kindle book by this fall. Remember, in NanoWriMo it's a rough draft, no editing until it's finished, so pardon the errors so far.

Carol

Mystic: The Beginning
A Nathan Perry novel

The lunch crowd had filled The Witch's Cauldron café on this cold January morning in Mystic, Massachusetts. Nathan Perry stood at the door looking for an empty table. Finally spotting one near the rear of the room, he started back.

"Nathan? Is that you?" a woman said from one of the tables.

He stopped at the table where a cute brown-haired, brown-eyed woman sat. She looked familiar and then it came to him. "Dana Tyler?"

She stood and they hugged.

"You look great, Nathan. What are you doing back in town?"

"I have a job interview," he said.

"Really? Why don't you sit down and tell me about it. We need to catch up."

Nathan slid into the booth on the opposite side. Dana had been his on-again, off-again girlfriend in high school. He glanced at her right hand looking for a wedding band and saw none. If he ended up moving back to Mystic, Massachusetts, it might be nice knowing a single girl in town.

"So, job interview, eh? Does this mean you're moving back home?" she asked.

"If the job pans out, I might."

A waitress came up to the table. "I thought you were eating alone today, Dana. Who's your friend?"

"This is Nathan Perry. We went to high school together and he just walked in. Nathan, this is Ginger Raines. She owns this place."

"How do you do, Ms. Raines?"

"Oh honey, please don't call me that. I'm Ginger to everyone."

He wasn't sure how to take the flamboyant woman with bright red spiked hair and a little overweight. She seemed to accept him without reservation. "It's nice to meet you, Ginger. Please call me Nathan."

"What can I get you from the menu, Nathan?"

He picked up the single sheet laminated menu. "I'll have a turkey club and some iced tea."

"Be right back," Ginger said, turning and heading to the kitchen.

"Tell me about this job interview," Dana asked.

"It's an interview for the detective job with the Mystic Police Department."

Camp NaNoWriMo

This month I am participating in Camp NaNoWriMo. If you have followed my blog for a while you know that during every November, I participate in NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month and have done so for the last nine years. The goal is to write a 50,000 word rough draft novel in 30 days. I have never managed to make to the 50,000 words, but use it to give me a jump start into writing a new novel.

My novel, Love, Lies & Deceit was my NaNo novel for 2004, I believe. I was able to complete the novel later and it was published it in 2009.

Two years ago, I decided to give a shot at writing a contemporary mystery involving a police detective in a town in Massachusetts. I completed the first four chapters and then sat it aside to go back to work on a romance novel I was writing. For NaNo last year, I started writing a second mystery novel that was a sequel to the one I started the year before and completed five chapters. Again, after the end of November, I sat it aside to finish that same romance. So, when Camp NaNoWriMo came around in July, I wanted to participate in it. I had just started plotting out a short novel that I want to self-publish on Amazon Kindle that would actually be book number one in the mystery series. It will explain how and why the main character came back to his hometown to become the police department's first detective, while working to solve a rash of unusual thefts around town.

The timing was right to use that storyline for Camp NaNo. I started on July 1 and as of last night had completed 4403 words. I'm way behind the normal writing schedule to complete the 50,000 in 30 days, but I'm okay with that. I'm not sure the novel will be that long anyway. If I can just get it close to being finished so I can get it up on Kindle, I will be happy.

Keep your fingers crossed and wish me luck. Of course, I could do a whole lot more words had I not stopped to write the blog entry. ;-)

Carol

Review: The Maverick Experiment

The Maverick Experiment by Drew Berquist

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I love CIA novels. The author's details were great. The plot kept my interest, and the characters were believable, but there were a lot of typos in the book and that distracted me.



View all my reviews