Interview with Nicholas Rossis about his children’s book Runaway Smile, and writing and life in general. A really fun read — my personal favorite being the “Do you write naked?” question. Plus his book looks fantastic!
All You Need is a Smile: RUNAWAY SMILE by @Nicholas_Rossis #kidlit #authorinterview
Categories: Random
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New Book Trailer for Imminent Danger (Animoto)
I’ve seen a couple of cool Animoto book trailers floating around the internet, so I thought I’d try my hand at making one for Imminent Danger.
It’s a grand total of 30 seconds long, and there’s no way to control how long the images or text stay on-screen. That being said, there are lots of themes you can choose from, and it’s literally just plug and play. So if you’re looking for a super easy way to make a book trailer, I’d definitely recommend Animoto.
The book trailer:
Special shout-out to Celeste DeWolfe for her awesome fan art that’s featured in the trailer!
In other news, Imminent Danger will be free to download on Amazon this weekend (Jan 31 – Feb 1). I’ll obviously do reminder posts when those days actually arrive, so this is just a heads-up in case you’ve always dreamed of reading my book but haven’t had the funds to do so.
Unrelated media of the day:
Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/5dzhPeu
Categories: My Works, Self Publishing
Tags: animoto, book trailer, books, ebooks, miss universe, self-publish
17 Comments
Tweets from the Worst Cruise Line Ever
I dug up an old thumb drive and was going through some old files when I discovered a document called “YOLO Cruise”. It appears to consist of a series of “tweets” that I created, written by the world’s worst cruise line. Some of them were pretty funny, so I thought I’d share. I’ll also post them on my Twitter page (@michellishelli), because why the heck not?
Without further ado, I present to you: Tweets from the Worst Cruise Line Ever!
Captain completely plastered. If you can still walk in a straight line, report to command deck ASAP. #captainforaday #yolocruise
All lifeboats now replaced with bottles of rum. In case of ship evacuation, drink rum and use bottle as flotation device. #yohoho #yolocruise
Lost the first mate. Our stay in Barbados now extended until we find him, or until we run out of power, whichever comes first. #marcopolo #yolocruise
Random shore excursion day! Pick a bus and hope the fates are with you. #eeniemeenie #yolocruise
Our tech guys screwed up. From now on, there will be roving wireless hotspots. Grab your laptop and get moving, because the hotspots never stay in one place for long. #battleroyale #yolocruise
Chefs went on strike, so we tossed them overboard. Anyone with cooking experience (fast food counts), report to Deck 9. All volunteer cooks will get a chance to loot the chefs’ cabins. #omnomnom #yolocruise
Unrelated media of the day:
Source: http://clayyount.com/
1 Star Rating Silliness on Goodreads
So following the re-release of Imminent Danger, I was over on Goodreads doing some editing — making sure the new purple cover shows up when you search for the book, making sure the reviews transferred over from the old edition, etc. And I discovered something very odd.
A gentleman named John Hayward (probably not his real name) had given a 1 star rating to all three of my published works — i.e., Imminent Danger, as well as the two free short stories. Fair enough. He hates my writing. A bit weird that he didn’t bother reviewing any, just slapped on 1 star ratings and called it a day, but whatever. No, wait, that is really weird …
So I went to his profile page. He joined Goodreads December 2014. He left three 1 star reviews — all for my books — on the same day in the span of 3 minutes. He hasn’t posted a single rating or review since then.
Yeah, something fishy’s going on.
I contacted Goodreads about it — this guy is obviously trolling — and I got an email back from them yesterday. The bottom line is they do have a system in place for removing false ratings and reviews, but this user didn’t have enough red flags on his account to justify an investigation. Basically, they were sorry about it, but they can’t do anything. They were very professional and polite, and they urged me to contact them again in the future if I found more suspicious circumstances.
Here’s a screencap of Mister Hayward’s profile page for your viewing enjoyment:
And here’s his profile page if you want to see for yourself: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/37879516-john-hayward
I don’t blame Goodreads for not taking down this guy’s ratings — they have a system, and I get that. So that leaves me to wonder what I’m supposed to do about it. It also makes me wonder what this guy’s deal is. Did he really, honestly, truly read all three of my books, hate them all, and create a Goodreads account just so he could leave 1 star ratings? Is he someone I’ve pissed off, and he’s trying to get back at me via online ratings? Is it some random troll just passing through? Only time will tell.
Thus ends my tale. Any insight is welcome and appreciated!
Unrelated media of the day:
Prepare yourself for some major feels (i.e., sad feelings) …
Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/NLtCD9V
Categories: My Works, Self Publishing
Tags: bad review, books, ebooks, Goodreads, troll, Weasley
53 Comments
So You Wanna Kill a Character?
He took the words right out of my mouth …
Yahoo Image Search
I was going to be serious and some of these suggestions will be in that category. Yet I find myself in a silly mood, which means we’ll see what happens. So what are some things to consider when killing off a main character?
- Make sure the readers will care. If a central character dies and there’s no reaction then something went wrong. Maybe you forgot to include them in the previous parts of the book? Perhaps you forgot to explain what the character’s purpose was besides getting shanked in the giblets. Either way, you might want some beta readers to make sure this doesn’t happen.
- Have it be memorable. Nobody likes a forgettable death scene.
- Have it be simple. Only so many ‘life story’ speeches a character can do without a gaping chest wound. Unless they’re in a Metal Gear game and then they seem to have…
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Assorted Swag from Andrew Toynbee and Danielle E Shipley
Before Christmas, I received assorted swag in the mail from Andrew Toynbee, author of A Construct of Angels, and from Danielle E Shipley, authoress of The Wilderhark Tales.
Then I went home for the holidays and totally forgot about said swag. But now I’m back! And I wanted to share my ill-gotten loot with you all, so we can all marvel at how shiny it is.
Thus, without further ado …
Signed copies of Andrew Toynbee’s fantasy series! Wooooooooo!
A sweet bonus keychain! Wooooooooooo!
Last but not least, a gorgeous bookmark from Danielle E Shipley. Wooooooooooo!
Thank you so much to Andrew and Danielle for the awesome swag!
Unrelated media of the day:
Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/phO81uu
Imminent Danger is Officially LIVE!
That’s right, ladies and gentlemen — Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It is re-released on Amazon and ready for your reading enjoyment! (Scroll to the end of the post for links.)
The 2nd edition features a variety of exciting updates, including:
- A brand new cover!
- Revised interior text! (the story didn’t change or anything, my editor and I just did another run-through to tighten up phrasing, remove some minor logistical errors, punch up the wow! factor, etc.)
- An affordable print edition! ($12.99 list price on Amazon, compared to the previous $21.99 atrocity that iUniverse created)
- An affordable ebook edition! (it’s enrolled in KDP, so I’ll probably be doing some free days in the near future)
- A shout-out to my fellow WordPress bloggers in the Acknowledgments section! (if you’re reading this, you rock, and never forget that)
For anyone just finding this site for the first time, here’s the cover and description of Imminent Danger:
High school junior Eris Miller thinks she’s having a bad day when her roommate’s boyfriend catches her stepping out of the shower wearing nothing but a towel. Then she gets abducted by scaly six-armed aliens with a strange fondness for the color blue, and her day suddenly gets a whole lot worse.
Trapped on a spaceship bound for the slave markets of Sirius B, Eris fears she’ll never see her home again. But then fate whisks her away from her reptilian captors and into the arms of Varrin, a fast-talking space pirate who promises to deliver her safely back to Earth. He claims to have her best interests at heart, but Eris soon discovers that her charming rescuer has a hidden agenda.
As they race across the galaxy, outrunning a villainous figure from Varrin’s past, Eris begins to realize that their relationship is putting her planet, her life and her heart in imminent danger. She knows that trusting Varrin could prove deadly … but what other choice does she have?
***
Check out the book here:
***
Call for reviews:
If you have at some point in the past read Imminent Danger and enjoyed it, please consider posting a review on any of the above sites. The reviews from the old edition did not carry over to the new edition, so currently Imminent Danger is sad and review-less. Thanks!
SHWOOP.
Categories: My Works, Self Publishing
Tags: amazon, books, ebooks, imminent danger, kdp, kindle, sci-fi, self-publish, teen, writing, ya
16 Comments
Chasing Nonconformity by Michelle Proulx
Another reblog for you — this is a review that the truly awesome Dave Higgins wrote for the as-yet-unreleased sequel to Imminent Danger, Chasing Nonconformity. It is not a serious review — in fact, it is completely random. There’s an explanation at the end for anyone who’s confused 😀
Note: this review is based on a copy so advanced the book has not actually been written yet. As such the writer specifically offers no warranty that it will bear any relation to the book once it has been written. A fuller explanation follows the body of the review.
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Categories: Random
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Kindle Unlimited Myths
A brilliant analysis on the Kindle U situation from Chris McMullen. If you are published on Amazon or intend to be published there, check it out 🙂
KINDLE UNLIMITED MYTHS
There are many myths about KDP Select floating around.
We now have several months of data, including data released directly from KDP.
In some cases, these facts debunk popular myths.
Let me begin by answering a question that may be on many authors’ minds, and then I’ll get to the myths vs. facts about Kindle Unlimited.
WHAT DID KINDLE UNLIMITED PAY IN DECEMBER, 2014?
Kindle Unlimited paid $1.43 per download read to 10% in December, 2014.
This brings me to the first myth.
MYTH #1: KINDLE UNLIMITED IS GOING DOWN EVERY MONTH
Actually, it’s gone up a little the past two months.
In October, 2014, it was $1.33. It climbed up to $1.39 in November, 2014, and again to $1.43 in December, 2014.
Despite the extra holiday traffic in December—especially, the after-Christmas traffic with people who received new Kindles—the Kindle Unlimited payments went up.
I think that’s…
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Categories: Random
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New Imminent Danger Fan Art!
On this most glorious of Tuesday mornings, I am thrilled to share with you a new piece of fan art!
This was done by my friend Denise Gow-Morse. Fun story — we met in South Korea, where we both taught English at the same private school (or “hagwon”). Then I moved back to Ontario, she moved back to Halifax … and then I moved to Halifax, in a house approximately 5 minutes from hers. This was all purely coincidental.
Enough rambling. Enjoy!
Artist: Denise Gow-Morse
Note: Not to alarm anyone, but I totally just successfully published the shiny new version of Imminent Danger on Createspace and Amazon. Why am I not making a bigger deal about this? Because I had to do some fiddling (mainly to get the old book version to stop linking to the new Kindle version), so I don’t want to start going nuts with the OMG IT’S PUBLISHED EEEEEK! stuff until it’s all set up properly. But until that day comes (in approximately 3-5 business days), if you do want to check out the shiny new and published Imminent Danger, click here.
Read me!
Sequel out now!
Michelle Proulx - Author 