Archive for the ‘Bloggettiblogblogblog’ Category

Excellent Information on Promoting Authors

Friday, July 10th, 2009

On BTR-PR Author Autobahn

I have the distinct honor to present Kelly Wallace & Frankie Picasso creators of Author AutoBahn. After starting Podioracket.com with Heather Roulo I searcher high and wide for how to promote The Mark of a Druid. I wish Author Autobahn had been around then.

If you are an Author like me who is promoting your own work on line and in the a grass roots effort to build a platform and have other buy and listen to your writing these gals are worth a listen.

We will meet live on air on the BTR-PR (blogtalkradio.com/Podioracket) at Monday  7/13/2009 2:30 PM  here is a link so you can set a reminder. http://tobtr.com/s/569900 

I hope you will come and join me in introducing writers to this resource. 

Bring your questions! The call in number is (347)996-3319!

What’s on My Desk?

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

1. My book The Mark of a Druid in paperback. Yes, it is usually somewhere on the desk in one or more places. It reminds me that I can do it.

2. This is a candle tray full of spooky things from Emzbox and HorrorAddicts.net They remind me to be scary! Boo!

3. This is one 3 oil candles that sit on my desk all the time. I use them all the time.

4. Pencils, pens, and highlighters. Can’t have to many. I hate being without a writing utensil.

5. The Phone. My first link to the world. Don’t know if you can see it, but there is a headset. When it is not on the desk it is on me. I don’t leave the desk without the phone. Crazy I know.

6. Podioracket Coffee Cup and yes there is coffee in it.

7. Podioracket Mouse pad.

8. Couldn’t function without it. My PDA holds my numbers, calendar and vital information. If it is not in the PDA it does’t happen in my world. It is the only way I stay organized and that includes an alarm for the trash to go to the street.

9. Ah the intercom. You see I live in a huge house and the intercom saves the screaming across the house for well… anything from dinner is ready, to I am off the air, to you have a phone call.

10. This is the real life character from one of my upcoming books titled Truth Slithers.

11. My view. I live in a national forest and I could not write without the trees. The whole wall behind my desk is floor to ceiling windows in a bow shape. Yes, I have the money shot!

12. The speaker control for the system. I love this speaker system. It puts the controls at my finger tips and it is where my headphones plug in.

13. The O’Brien families crest. I used the symbols from his crest in The Mark of a Druid in the descriptions of Brian Boru. The things I didn’t number: paperclip holder, sticky notes, chap stick and my glasses. All three are things I use daily.

On the right of my main work area these things are in use everyday too. What you don’t see is the electric stapler.

14. Lazar printer

15. Digital camera station.

16. Headphones hanging on the swing arm lamp.

17. This series of books are as follows: Dark blue binder is operations info for the office and posting on all the different blogs and SMN I belong to, The Synonym Finder, Atlas of the Celtic World, Next to that a print out of Celtic Gods and Goddesses, The light blue binder is The Mark of a Druid, a clipboard with blank pages on it; I use it for interviews. I jot down questions and info I want to cover or lists of sites that need to be posted to for special events, Dictionary Flip (I so love this book), Then a folder of web work that is in progress.

18. My purse which is always on my desk and yes I only carry red purses. Don’t ask why I just like them.

19. My recording mic on its stand and the pop filter is really what you are seeing.

20. My multi purpose printer/fax/copier/color printer.

Behind this section of the desk you can see that the view continues. I have more than enough nick-knacks and pictures to keep my eyes busy and I tend to surround myself with things that make me happy and invoke a memory. You will also notice lots of crystals and rocks of all sorts in the window ledges. And you never know when there will be one of 5 cats on this desk.

Yes my desk is always this clean. The worst time if day for clutter is midday but I don’t go to bed without clearing the desk. It makes me feel accomplished. When I am ready to go to press with the next book, When Ethers Descend, there will be a cover mock up on the window above the desk.

Radasky’s The Fox Has a Trailer Too

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

 

Well Done!

We had a really good time creating this trailer for the author Arlene Radasky’s The Fox. Great thanks to Arlene for asking us to help. Gary and Ruth from www.thecelticmythpodshow.com delivered stellar performances in the voice over for this project.  Mark from www.lonewolfsageco.com is learning with every trailer how to make them better and more fine tuned to each authors needs and vision. Please grab the embedded code from this trailer and post it to your blog or link to it on Twitter or face book. Help spread the word and turn someone on to this Celtic novel.

Please Enjoy!

This is a huge week for my dear friend Arlene Radasky. First the trailer release and then a contest! Arlene is looking for book club questions. Email her a book club question and your name will go into the hat for a free autographed copy of The Fox. Contest ends August 1. No time to lose send in your book club question today.

____________________________________________________________
 

Now for What is Happening with Me

This week I booked my first book signing for The Mark of a Druid. I will be appearing at McCabe & Company Bookstore in Crestline, Ca on August 29th from 12:00 to 2:00. There will be a prize awarded for those in attendance and a reading too. More details as the date approaches.

I also invite you to jump over to www.themarkofadruid.com and hear the astounding and emotionally moving pretrial that the 21st century bards from www.thecelticmythpodshow.com so graciously did for my book in there latest special episode number 12-Midsummer 2009 You can hear the full episode (well worth the time to listen, I love their show) to go to their site and listen to this episode, it completely rocks. I will be posting just the section they did of my book at www.themarkofaduid.com today. You are free to listen there as wellas in the player below.
I can not thank Gary and Ruthie enough and if you want to read my gushing thanks while you’re listening to how they brought my story to life, as I saw it when I was writing it pop over to the book site later today.

Contest Update

Have you kidnapped the trailer yet? The Mark of a Druid has released its first book trailer too. Put the link or embedded code on your site, Twitter it, Facebook it, Plurk it or come up with another way to promote The Mark of a Druid using the trailer and then go to Contest 9 and participate you will be registered to win a hug canvas bag full of goodies!

Writing is going better than I expected and I look forward to shooting you all glimpse of the new book in this series in the coming weeks.

Keep Writing, You Know I will!
Rhonda R Carpenter

60,000 Downloads for The Mark of a Druid!

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

Hello Dear Readers!

This has been a astounding week of good news and I got tons accomplished. First off let me thank you all for your continued support of my writing and other projects. The Parsec Nomination Submission is complete. It made it to them on Monday. Here you go.

While Podioracket is on a short break we are still turning out blogs and having BTR-PR Interviews. July is totally booked and August is almost full! I can’t believe how successful this endeavor has become and in such a short period of time. We went live in mid March and at the end of June we are hearing nothing but praise from everyone who is listening to the show. Please feel free to take 2 minutes and leave a comment or review on the site or on Itunes. It will help us receive more notice and Heather Roulo and I completely appreciate it. Oh there is also a voice recorder on the site so please leave us a voice message.

Tomorrow on the BTR-PR Show I will be interviewing Jason M. Kays author of Virtual Vice at 2:30 pm PST. Here is a link so you can join us live on the show.

The call in Number is (347) 996-3319

During the interview I will be playing Jason’s kindly sent reading and his promo. We will talk about what inspired this story and how a lawyer turns novelist!

The Mark of a Druid is about to hit 60,000 downloads

When I first decided to release The Mark of a Druid as a free serialized podcast I had no idea what I was doing. But I grabbed the boot straps and called the many me’s together and jumped in with both feet. I have learned so much since starting the publishing and podcasting of this project. There have been highs and lows but over all I think I am not doing too bad. It hit Amazon officially in February as the podcast simotaniously completed. I never thought in a million years I would have 60,000 downloads.
So what does 60,000 downloads mean??? I asked myself the same thing. Lets look at it in simple mathematical terms. There are 34 Episodes in the book. 60,000 divided by 34 is 1764 listeners. But if you look at the more in depth numbers provided by the host for the podiobooks.com version Episdoe 1 has been downloaded 3861 times. I see that as 3861 potential people who could like what I am doing, leave a comments, rate and review the book. But more importantly that is almost 4000 listeners who could tell their friends! Not bad for a first time novelist. Even if I do say so myself. And I owe that success to all you listeners spreading the word, buying books and downloading. I am not a rich person, but I do want to give back to the listeners and readers. The best way I can think of to do that at this point is to have contests and keep releasing more content as soon as available. If you haven’t Kidnapped the Trailer what are you waiting for. This is the biggest prize yet int he 2009 Contest series. Click here to find out how easy it is to play and win.

The Mark of a Druid is now also available on www.tailcast.com.  I am so pleased that they got the audio upload function working on their site. It is a wonderful place for writers and artist to show off their work and make friends.

Last thing: I huge thank you to Cyrus A. Webb for the glowing 5 star amazon review on the book. It means the world to me. Cyrus is an advocate for literacy and the creator of the new Television show “The Write Stuff” Which begins airing June 27! He is also a long time radio host of Conversations Live and has asked to interview me about the book. This interview is Scheduled for 7-23-09 at 5:00pm Pst and will last 30 minutes. When it gets closer I will post it here. Find out the about the show at www.thewritestufftv.com.

Here is what he said:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE MARK OF A DRUID is the Best of Both Worlds for the Reader, June 27, 2009
By  C. A. Webb “Conversations Book Club” (Jackson, MS) – See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Rhonda Carpenter gives hungry readers exactly what they expect from a tightly woven storyline: a book you can not only lose yourself in but find a part of yourself after you are finished. Why do we believe the way we do? Who truly influences the way we evaluate our lives and those of others past? Just because we can’t wrap our minds around something does that make it any less real?

These are all discussions that any book club or group of friends will have fun dissecting and debating as they maneuver from chapter to chapter.

Carpenter has truly left her “Mark” with this one, and the literary world is a better place because of it.

On to another busy week Stay tuned for more.

Keep Writing, I know I will,

Rhonda R Carpenter

The Mark of a Druid Nominated or a Parsec Award

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

Welcome Readers,

I am very happy to announce “The Mark of a Druid” has been nominated for a Parsec Award for 2009 Best Speculative Fiction Story (Novel Form). The emails started going out on Thursday from www.parsecawards.com. I along with many of the podiobooks.com authors, as well as podcasters have a big thank you to say to our fans.

The Parsec awards are fan nominated. So thank you for nominating The Mark of a Druid. And you like me maybe asking what happens now? Well, the way I understand it the nominees need to provide a submission to the committee. That mean I need to pick between 1 and 6 samples for the podcasted book. This submission can be no longer than 60 minutes including a new 30 second intro. The drop dead date on this submission is next Sunday.

From these submissions they will choose 5 nominees from each category. The competition is stiff in all of the categories. While I don’t expect to win I am truly honored to be nominated by the fans. From the five selected by the committee one will win. The awards will be announced on September at Dragon Con 2009. Best of luck to everyone.

Now how to choose what to submit? Since I have never done anything like this before I am clues as to how to choose an hour if sections under 6 to give the judges an idea of what the book is about. I mean really with 5 plot lines and 2 time frames in the book I am having a bit of a time picking sections to include in the submission.

Also Podioracket was nominated for an infotainment awards. But Heather and I don’t believe we meet the criteria since Podioracket is not yet 6 months old. So maybe next year but we totally appreciate the nomination.

Best of luck to all the nominees in this years Parsec Awards.

Kidnap the Trailer contest is under way. Grab the trailer today and put it on your face book, myspace, or blog. Tweet or Plurk the link and then let me know on the book website under contest number 9, in the contest section.

Matthew Wayne Selznick on BTR June 25

Mathew Wayne Selznick, one of the spearheads of the DIY podcasting world, will be joining the Podioracket Blog Talk Radio program on June 25 at 2:30 PM Pacific/5:30 PM Eastern. You will not want to miss this one. He is going to tell us all about Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights and what’s new for Brave Men Run.

 

Keep Writing, I Know I Will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

So What is Shaking in Rhonda Ville?

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

Welcome Readers,

This was one of the most exciting weeks! I started the week off with an interview on Author Autobahn on Blog talk. The interview with Kelly was great and I can’t wait to interview them about their new services for promoting authors on July 13. Podioracket declaring it J.C. Hutchins week and I have to say this guy is an unstoppable marketer. Just in case you didn’t hear all the hoopla, Dark Art Personal Effects hit the bookstores and Amazon and other on-line booksellers with resounding success. I personally can’t wait to receive my copy. There were two killer interviews with J.C. and he is so gracious!

Podioracket, that is Heather Roulo author of Fractured Horizon and I have added a Blog Talk Radio Show to our Podioracket.com endeavor. I am still experimenting with the show times while not over doing it so that I can continue to write. Right now the calendar is booked out July 13th. I invite you to come and join us in chat and on the phone lines with all of our special guests. Last weeks show with J.C. Hutchins live we gave away two autographed copies of his book and there were 100 live listeners 56 in chat and 19 callers with 23 eligible questions and 16 people emailed for a prize. SnowMedic and Cobalt both won and I want to congratulate them. There have already been over 2000 archive listeners to the show! I am ecstatic! Now that is building a buzz.

I also release a video for Thewritestufftv.com and it is available at YouTube on their stream. A vlog went out on the Mark of a Druid Feed for the new contest and we released our first video trailer for the book. That makes contest #9! Can you kidnap the trailer? I hope so. As most of you know I am not a rich person so free advertising for my book has to be creative. If there is one thing I am it is enthusiastic about my fans. So I truly want to give back. This contest will have 3 winners each receiving a singed copy of the paperback, in a canvas promo bag full of The Mark of a Druid Promo items. So what are you waiting for go kidnap the promo and enter the contest! Details available here. At over 56,000 downloads and climbing every day I am thrilled with the success of The Mark of a Druid. I couldn’t do it without the Readers! This is completely your success as well as mine. I am humbled by all of the positive comments, ratings and reviews. Keep them coming! The more people who spread the word the more notice this novel will get and that is what I want. I want to spread the word far and wide.

I know allot of you have been emailing about the next book, When Ethers Descend, so here is an update: I have canned another chapter that makes 8 and am consistently moving forward. I believe I am on target for a winter podcast schedule but we will see how it goes.

This is another jam packed week coming up Monday at 2:30 pm PST I will be interviewing J.D. Sawyer Live on BTR-PR, (BlogTalkRadio.com/Podioracekt) Dan is the author of Predestination and other games of chance as well as being known as a hell of a guy in the pod-o-sphere. He has graciously agreed to do a live reading. You won’t want to miss this. Oh heck, I don’t want to miss it. His cover and links are over on the right side, it is the one with hot chick on the purple sheet. Smoken’ cover! There will be a new Podioracket episode released this week. Stacey Cochran and J.P. Moore with contests and news, new releases and completed works on Podiobooks.com. I can’t talk this site up enough! I think it is brilliant and I am so looking forward to 2.0 to be rolled out.

Huge thank you to all the new subscribers to the new book site. www.themarkofadruid.com. If you haven’t subscribed it is really easy and quick. I hope you will join now. Until next time, take care.

Keep Writing, I Know I Will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

Dark Art Personal Effect Straight from the author’s Mouth

Monday, June 8th, 2009

Interviews & Announcements Abound! You heard it here first.

Saturday, June 6th, 2009

Welcome Readers!

This is a revealing week for Podioracket, J.C. Hutchins, Cyrus A Webb, Stacey Cochran and for myself.

Monday we at Podioracket.com kick off “Support J.C. Hutchins Week.”  Swing by Podioracket and join us in the fun and make some noise about the print release of Dark Art Personal Effects on June 9th, commit yourself to the Brink, subscribe to Personal Effects Sword of Blood and leave a message on the new voice recorder on the front page of the site and tell us how you supported J.C. Hutchins.

Tuesday 10:00 Am PST I’ll be interviewed on BRT-Author Autobahn and during this interview I’ll be announcing the new contest for The Mark of a Druid.  If you miss the interview check out the contest section of www.themarkofadruid.com on Tuesday after noon. This one is going to be fun!

It is Dark Art Personal Effects release day. If you don’t want to wait go pre-order your copy now! 

Wednesday Podioracket.com drops a new episode featuring J.C. Hutchins. This is a great interview. He is a totaly blast to talk to and makes me look like I never push my work. Fanny shaking lessons taken to heart J.C. Can you feel the earth moving?

Thursday is a double header for BTR-PR. We have two killer live interviews. First I will be interviewing Cyrus A Webb 2:30 pm PST. Find out all about his good works with literacy and his new creation The Write Stuff Reality TV Show that starts airing this month across the country.

Then at 6:00 PM PST J.C. Hutchins joins BRT Podioracket where we will be awarding two callers autographed copies of  Dark Art Personal Effects. The Call in number is  (347) 996-3319 ! Call in during the show and asked J.C.  a question and you could win his book.

Friday Podioracket has a guest blogger! Stacey Cochran the author of Claws will be talking marketing for his new print release. We are proud to bring a Claws sighting to Podioracket.

The Mark of a Druid has been nominated for a parsec award. I don’t expect to win one but it is so cool that people nominated the audio. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has rated, reviewed and commented on the first book in this series. I wish I could see the reviews in other countries on amazon and Itunes. If anyone has a fix for this I would love to hear it.

The next book is coming along not as quickly as I would like but I am working on When Eithers Descend steadily. There will soon be a horror short coming out on www.horroraddicts.net in the Wicked Woman Writers Contest when it hits I will let you all know so you can go vote. I am so excited for the new season of HA that I can’t wait for tomorrow.

Another one of my favorite podcasts had its first contest announcement. Have you ever wanted to learn another language? I have always wanted to speak Gaelic. So you can bet I enter the contest already. Get the details in the Celtic Myth Podshows Episode 27.

Well if this isn’t enough news tell me what else you would like to hear about.

Keep writing! I know I will!

Rhonda R Carpenter

Blog Talk Radio Interview about Podioracket!

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

Contest 8 has a winner!
Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

Contest #8 closed last night at 12:01 Am PST!

The Winner is Cyndi30107! Your Prize will be shipped on June 1, 2009. Congrats you will be receiving a singed copy of The Mark of a Druid!

I so enjoyed answering the questions for the Meet the Characters Contest and we will be doing this one again in the next few months. As always if you want to ask a question of the characters please just go the meet the characters section of www.themarkofadruid.com and click on any character and ask your question. The next time we run a meet the characters contest you will be automatically entered to win if you shoot me an email and tell me that you asked a question. Send those emails to infor@themarkofadruid.com.

I am so thankful for my listener-ship I truly want to give back and have been tossing around some ideas for extra Mark of a Druid material that I can proved while you are so patiently waiting for the next book, When Eithers Descend. If you have ideas about what would hold you over and keep you interested just let me know and I will see what I can do. Email me at info@themarkofadruid.com.

The next contest will be announced in just a little while and it is all about ratings! I hope you will join in the fun and enter this contest!

Announcement

Heather Roulo and I will be interviewed tonight on Behind the Mike with Joel M http://www.blogtalkradio.com/BehindTheMike/2009/06/01/Relay-For-LikePodioracket  Go there now or listen in archive!

Keep Writing! I Know I Will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

The Mark of a Druid Meet the Characters contest about to end!

Sunday, May 24th, 2009

Welcome Readers,

We already have one winner in the Meet the Characters Contest #8 and there is still a week to go. On May 31, this contest will end and on June 1, 2009 the Winners will be announced.

The section Meet the Characters will still be under development. Don’t be surprised even after the contest ends if your name is selected for a bonus prize because you talked to the characters. This will be a random

I have received several new reviews and comments on the book. So I would like to thank those on Itunes because there is no way to reply to them.

Thank you for Reviewing and rating The Mark of a Druid! It means the world to me

Tracey Tay, Cassiopia, Jedanatc, Finisp, Artnerd, Obedientfollower, DannyCat, PollyP, Geoggrrr…4, Jacksongril1998, Suuu. You all rock! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review and rate the book. Please feel free to post the review on Amazon too and help spread the word.

Coming soon will be a new trailer for the book. I am currently knocking out about 1000 word ever two days on the sequel, When Either Descend. At the same time I am working on, Truth Slithers.

The next contest will start on June 1, 2009.

Huge thank you to all the new subscribers to the new book site. www.themarkofadruid.com. If you haven’t subscribed it is really easy and quick. I hope you will join now. Until next time, take care.

Keep Writing, I Know I Will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter