Posts Tagged ‘the fox’

Give the Gift of Lit!

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

This Holiday season A.P Stephens the author of
THE WHITE SHADOW SAGA: THE STOLEN MOON OF LONDOR
came to Podiobooks.com authors and said join me in spreading the word about literacy for the holidays. Here is what his blog says and her are a few of the authors that jumped on board.
“It is with great pleasure I bring forth and introduce you to The Gift of Lit, a collective effort by many of the fine authors from Podiobooks. Together, we would like to share with you our diverse works and invite you to take a look at the nice selection of books we have spent hours, days, months, or years writing.
The Gift of Lit: Holiday 2009 is now here. If you are looking for a great gift this holiday season, rather it be for a family member, friend…or for yourself, take a look at the list below and give one, some, or all of these books your consideration. There are books to suit your needs this holiday season. Here, you will find fantasy, sci-fi, crime drama, speculative fiction, techno thriller, and much more. Help support these authors and spread the joys of literature. Give spark to imagination.
Below, take a look at all of the different titles offered and follow the links to purchase your own copy for yourself or to give that special someone this holiday. Yet, no matter the time of year, The Gift of Lit will be sure to please all readers.”

And from Lulu

Drew Betty’s Lost Gods

(starts at $15.50 new)

Kweku Anansi is just another member of the African diaspora, trying to
make a place for himself in his adopted home of Toronto, Canada. He
dreams of better days, of a time when he could stop running small time
cons just to make the rent. He dreams of the life he used to live,
centuries ago when he was revered as a god.

A chance encounter with a fellow con man with a dark and secretive
past of his own, plunges them both into the dark world of the lost
gods, gods who would do anything to be worshipped again. Including
destroying the world, if necessary.

How far will Anansi go to reclaim his godhood? What will he give up to
have true power again?

THE VATICAN ASSASSIN TRILOGY by Mike Luoma

Buy it here at >> Lulu << (starts as low as $35.99)

This three in one omnibus edition collects all three novels in the “Vatican Assassin” Trilogy under one cover. “Vatican Assassin”, “Vatican Ambassador” and “Vatican Abdicator” are joined in this volume by an extensive appendix of previously unreleased background material. There are some early concept sketches by Mike Luoma, as well as “The History of The Future”: a timeline developed to extrapolate from today into the future setting for the story; “The Original Story Outline”; “The Story of The Project”; “The Alien Timeline” and more.

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

What is New with Rhonda Carpenter

Sunday, April 5th, 2009

What is New with Rhonda Carpenter

 

Update on what has been happing in the world of Rhonda Carpenter the writer. Things have been rolling along at a very fast clip. The new site for The Mark of a Druid is live and while it is not complete I thought it was better to take it live now then make everyone wait. So you will all get to see it grow as I get to filling in all the blanks and building the pages. Register now so you can play in the contests and talk to the characters as it all goes live.

 

This will be a slow process with all of the things I am involved in, but stick with me this proves to be a fun. The site will be growing every week from here on out and as the next book is completed it too will be housed here as a podcast and in other formats.

 

Summer 2009 I am dedicated to getting The Mark of a Druid available in other media formats such as PDF, E-book (on this site), I-Touch. I will be making announcements as these formats become available.   

I am also dedicated to writing the next book, When Ethers Descend, and begin Podcasting the book this winter.

 

My new project www.Podioracket.com I have joined forces with Heather Roulo the author of, Fractured Horizon, available on Podiobooks.com. Podioracket is an informational podcast for Podiobooks.com. We are giving upcoming, new and present authors a quick hitting format to find out what it is coming out, completing, works. We are also covering the contests and news about those authors. We invite you to enjoy the 2 episodes that are currently available.

 

While doing this project I am getting to have wonderful and informative interviews with authors who are on Podiobooks.com. While PodioRacket is a fast hitting show some of these interviews run longer than we can use in the podcast. These are fascinating discussions with Authors. Here is one of the longer full interviews I had with author of, The Fox, Arlene Radasky. A portion of this interview will also be in an upcoming show on podioracket.

 

Have a great week everyone!

Rhonda R Carpenter   

The Rush is on and the Promo for Dark Matter is Out!

Friday, January 30th, 2009

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

There is nothing I have found more exciting as seeing a desire or dream happen and happen bigger than you ever imagined.

When you spend years doing something and then find this incredible way to put it out into the world, for me it is tremendously excited. I hope that all of you will get excited too. Things are changing in the publishing world and while I believe there will always be paper books I think that podcasting and audio as well as PFD and other electronic forms are just going to become more and more popular.

I have struggled with many aspects of putting this book out there, The Mark of a Druid, into print and podcast; having said that, it has been fun to take this first journey into publishing in several different venues at the same time. The journey is not over by a long shot. When Ethers Descend is in progress and I am so excited about having time to write on a grander scale.

Marketing is one of my biggest challenges. So please bare with me through this weekend when the formal release happens. I will be twittering about the numbers on February 1, 2009 throughout the day. We Arlene Radasky and I will be telling our friends on all of our social networking sites. It will be this one day that we are asking you to help us rise in the Amazon.com rankings by purchasing our books and/or rating, commenting, reviewing The Fox and The Mark of a Druid.

Our interview with www.horroraddict.net went live last night. It is very funny and the bloopers are classic. Gary and Ruth from the www.celticmythpodshow.com have placed a written interview in their blog. www.Podiobooks.com have posted an author news blog about the rush called the Celtic Bums Rush.

Learn more about upcoming web event at The Buzz http://www.themarkofadruid.com/mod/?page_id=376

Remember to enter The Mark of a Druid 2009 Contest #2 in the 2009 Contest Series at http://www.themarkofadruid.com. This week’s winner will be announced in just a few hours in the weekly blog! Win a free singed copy of The Mark of a Druid and other very cool Celtic stuff this week it is a Sterling Silver Celtic Cross. The Next Winner to be announced 2/01/2009 During the Rush!

This weeks recommendation. Do you like horror? Then you should check out Dark Matters By Michele Roger She is so spooky!

Keep Writing, I know I will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

What is in a Number?

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

I love the era we live in as I write this blog I am listening to Mathew Wayne Selznick perform a live virtual concert from his home on usteam.tv. Amazing stuff is happening out there and I encourage you all to join in the fun. I mean really how cool is that! I must say though, it is hard to hold your bic in the air and type at the same time. The concert rocked. Thank you Mathew Wayne Selznick hope you do it again soon.

So numbers, I have been sort of watching numbers since I started podcasting The Mark of a Druid and since the book became available on Amazon, I have watched the numbers in comparison to what I am doing to promote the novel in all its forms online. And while it is totally cool to be in the charts on podiobooks and I expect to be back there when the book is out in its entirety. So as of today here is were the numbers stand or lay as the case may be. What I love is that people are listening and reading and commenting so thank you all!

Subscribers through Podiobooks.com 295 folks are listening on Podiobooks.com

Itunes counts their downloads singularly so there is no way to know exactly how many subscribers there are but so far 13,873 files have been downloaded of 25 available episodes from the Itunes format.

The hosting company that shows the numbers says to date total downloads from the first episode to now is 18,604. Love it!

4015 of those are from www.themarkofadruid.com

Juice and Zoon are neck and neck with 335 each. Then there are several small numbers from other locations on the web.

Now lets look at amazon.com. These are ranking numbers and the lower you get the better. That a means if you have a number 1 book that is as good as it gets. The category that The Mark of a Druid falls under is General Fiction/Fantasy. Huge category, which means lots of competition and I will be the first to admit that I am just learning about all of this ranking and numbering stuff. But I do understand that the lower your number the more frequently a book will come up in the search criteria for Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

There is a beta site http://www.titlez.com/welcome.aspx that shows sales rankings Their best raking so far has been 116,187 The worst 957,793 Not bad. Today The Mark of a Druid is Ranked 1,360,834. Here is where you guys come in. Amazon’s ranking today#852,705 in Books. Each time you leave a comment, rate the or buy the book, the ranking changes. On February 1, 2009 I hope to see this ranking drop under the hundred thousand mark. So please Join in the fun and watch the numbers with me.

Remember to enter The Mark of a Druid 2009 Contest #2 in the 2009 Contest Series at http://www.themarkofadruid.com. The winner will be announced in next Sundays blog. You must play to win but there is no purchase required. Contest #2 is a Sterling Silver Celtic Cross. The Next Winner to be announced 2/01/2009 on the formal release date of The Mark of a Druid in print form.

On February 1, 2009 Arlene Radasky and I are formally releasing our two Celtic novels. Please go to  Valentines Sweet Idea for your sweetheart. Help us be seen on Amazon.com.

Keep Writing, I know I will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

Spreading the Word

Sunday, January 18th, 2009

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

I want to shout out a huge thank you to a number of folks who are going out of their way to leave reviews, rate and leave comments for The Mark of a Druid. Then I am going to do the same thing for a number of folks who are out there playing our duel release promos and other promos in support of Arlene Radasky’s The Fox and Rhonda R Carpenters’ The Mark of a Druid.

Podiobooks: Thank you, Rennie, JaneInPA, Barry, Theresa, Ren&Merlin, Emerian, Rowan, Arlene, Miss Amie; You are all very kind and it truly a joy to have comments good or bad so that I can gage how I am doing in the endeavor and it really helps other people decide to listen.

Itunes: Thank you, Audrey67, Tabitha, Winerebel; I know Itunes doesn’t make it easy to leave a review so I wanted to be sure you knew I do appreciate you reviews and am so please you are loving the book. One of you said that you couldn’t wait and went and bought a copy, Thank you and if you email me your address I will be happy to send you a free signed bookplate so your copy is autographed.

Amazon: A.R., Devoted Reader, P.B., Rowan, Dr. Sally Witt; You thoughts and comments a truly appreciated and on Amazon mean more than just a comment they help this book move up in the rankings so that it comes up on searches in its area more frequently. So Thank you!

And a huge thank you to all the podcasters out there that are playing the push promo and helping us spread the word. JDAZE podcast, Edwardgtalbot.com, Celticmythpodshow.com, Michele Rogers, Horroraddicts.net, The Dr. Sally Witt Show, Jeremy James. Thank you for all you do!

Learn more about upcoming web event at The Buzz http://www.themarkofadruid.com/mod/?page_id=376

Yesterday Arlene Radasky and I did a very fun interview with Dr. Sally Witt on Blog Talk Radio. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Dr-Sally-Psychic-Healer/2009/01/17/Two-Celtic-Time-Travel-Themed-Authors-Psychic-Rhonda-Carpenter-open-for-Readings This interview is two fold and available in the achieves of her show. The first hour Arlene and I talk about how we met and why we are releasing our books together in time for Valentines Day. You can hear each of us read from the books and it is a fun hour, the second hour was an open reading hour with myself and Dr. SallyWitt! Very fun!

Today Arlene and I had a recorded interview with Emerian Rich of http://www.horroaddicts.net and http://www.emzbox.com. I had so much fun doing this interview too. Emz is a h00t. I love her show and I am soaking up her tips on how to more scary! I believe Episode #016 will air on 1/29/09 where the co-authored horror short that Arlene Radasky and I wrote, Walk-In will be played for your listening pleasure.

In Honor of Emerian Rich I am featuring her this week.

 

http://www.horroraddicts.net/

Tune in and listen to what is happening in the Horror Addicts world of books, movies, music, events and podcasting.

Emerian Rich

Emerian Rich

This is a face you just want to sew buttons on? Hold Still!

There you go. Now you belong forever! All messing around aside, I love her show and I am enjoying her pod novel Nights Knights By Emerian Rich and you can get that free here http://podiobooks.com/title/nights-knights  

Remember to enter The Mark of a Druid 2009 Contest #2 in the 2009 Contest Series at http://www.themarkofadruid.com. This week’s winner will be announced in just a few hours in the weekly blog! Win a free singed copy of The Mark of a Druid and other very cool Celtic stuff this week it is a Sterling Silver Celtic Cross. The Next Winner to be announced 2/01/2009.

I actually got time with all the marketing going on to write some on the next book in The Mark of a Druid series, When Ethers Descend.

Keep Writing, I know I will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

Get This Story Out of My Head!

Sunday, January 11th, 2009

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

This has been a very interesting busy week here in what I call the Vortex.

It has been challenging with all of the things happening on the marketing front, Podcasting front and personal front to get any new writing done. I ask myself this week why aren’t you writing. This story is screaming in your head and you need to get it out.

I discovered to my shock and horror that the answer was, “I don’t have time.” Immediately my personal coaching brain said, “Liar! Yes you do. You must make time in what ever way you can with your schedule. Stop with the excuses and just do it.”

The internal struggle was on. You know that fight that goes off in your brain about where to put something you want to do when things are really busy. My fight went something like this. “Take something off your plate so you can put this on. There isn’t anything I can take off. Get a platter! No, no, no, you will get sick if you take on anymore. You are running on 4 to 5 hours of sleep a night and you know if you don’t get at least 6 to 8 your migraines are worse. Think outside the box, Rhonda.”

That was the key! I simply hadn’t thought of the option I had in front of me. I didn’t need to write it or type it to get it out of my head. I needed to be able to save it. Right? So out comes the micro recorder and I so could have done this on my computer if I had been in the office, but I wasn’t going to be. I had to be out for several days this week. The time in my car is pretty much downtime. I don’t talk on a cell and drive. I usually listen to books or music on the road. I was caught up on the books I committed to reviewing so this was a prefect way to still get the story out of my head and saved. Sure, I would have to type it later but that is easy to do and there is ALWAYS editing to do.

Problem solved. I reordered that part of the story and will type it up in a few days. See I get up every morning and want to write. It is a joy to bang out a story and play and develop the characters and plot lines. And just because I am marketing for the formal release of The Mark of a Druid and the 2009 Contest Series doesn’t mean I should stop the creative process of writing forward.

I guess you could apply this to anything you want to do. Maybe you answer isn’t’ a micro recorder, but if you think outside of the box and don’t place limits on what the answer might be it will come to you.

So what stops you from writing? Put yourself in check. Stop letting your excuses win. If you love to write like I do—then it is time to write in whatever way you can. Let me share this secret with you. No one is going to write it for you. It is your story, your idea, maybe even your dream. Don’t give up on it. Don’t procrastinate. Don’t let it keep rattling around in your head. You will feel better if you get it out and by doing so you are creating a stronger desire to go for the dream.

Announcements

Remember to enter The Mark of a Druid 2009 Contest series at http://www.themarkofadruid.com under last weeks blog you will find the questions for Contest #1 and the Contest 2009 page has all the rules. Win a free singed copy of The Mark of a Druid. The first Winner to be announced 1/18/2009.

Write to you next week!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

Can Marketing Your Novel be Fun?

Sunday, January 4th, 2009

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

Until February 2008 I had never marketed my business. As a professional psychic all of my clients were referral only. As Clinical Hypnotherapist I to relied on refferals to build my client base, the most marketing I ever did was in creating www.lifefirst.com and nurturing it to over 3 million hits a month with little effort on my part. I simple provided a great layout and easy navigation (via a brilliant Web Guru) and give people what they wanted tons for free content and not a lot of sale pushes. Word of mouth, client to client is still the best way to get business by far.

But as a published author I need to learn all the ways I can tell people that my book is out and available, hopefully by not being obnoxious. Because I dislike shameful promotion I try not to go there and am very aware that there is the backlash effect that can occur if you try and ram your stuff at people. And to be honest completely, the here’s what I think about me, what do you think about me thing is boring and seems narcissistic to me.

The thing I want to do is have fun with my writing, publishing and marketing things I do. Here are a few things I have done in the past few months to market my book that were fun for me.

  1. I started social networking big time on the web.
  2. I started writing blogs in a very consistent way.
  3. I have started a contest for the book which kicks off tonight on www.themarkofdruid.com
  4. I teamed up with other writers who are either podcasting and/or publishing. (the ideas these folks have are amazing)
  5. I have done and agreed to do several interviews on blogtalkradio and other internet podcasts which can just be a blast.
  6. I have met and made friends with all kinds of podcasting folks who are more than willing to play a promo read a chapter of my work, add me as a contributor to their site, read a story so far for their podcasts.

The action of trying to make the marketing fun has been very successful. I love getting up in the morning and twittering from the Vortex, there is a new The Mark of a Druid group on facebook and while myspace is not my favorite I am still trying it out. So I invite you to join me in the marketing party. If you have a book, podcast, blogtalkradio show or a Ustream show or other media event send me a promo and a short one line elevator pitch with a picture of cover if you like and let me help you get the word out! Send your email request to info@rhondacarpenter.com.

I am looking forward to sharing a prolific year with all of you. Please keep the comments coming and the reviews and ratings on Amazon, iTunes and podiobooks they really help!

Remember to check out the contest announcement for the first giveaway at http://www.themarkofadruid.com under the contest 2009 page.

Happy 2009 lets have a fabulous year together!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

Here comes the New Year whatcha gonna write about?

Sunday, December 28th, 2008

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

A whole new year of writing to look forward to. And I so am looking forward to writing new and fun projects in 2009. Believe it or not I do have a plan for two new books. The first is a family story a Murder mystery, called Truth Slithers and the sequel to The Mark of a Druid called When Ethers Descend.

Marketing is top priority in 2009 as well expect to hear all about the kickoff of the contest of the Mark of a Druid to be announced this week and the first of many book signings to be announced after the first as well. The blog you have come to read this year will continue and I plan on maintaining the same schedule of 3 blogs cranked out for Monday morning reading. There is also going to be some fun things coming up to bring authors and readers closer together. And maybe a monthly blog talk radio show about what is new in pod booking. Interested? Let me know I would be interesting in your thoughts on what you would like to know about pod-booking in 2009. And lets not forget the wind up of The Mark of a Druid on Podiobooks which should be done by March and completely out there in audio form.

Personally we will be putting our house on the market in January. The kids are moving out and healing up… so time to downsize. I want to spend more time writing and less time cleaning. LOL ! We are even considering moving out of California. Nothing set in stone yet. It will depend on the market and how fast this huge house sells. If we do move out of state we are looking in Arkansas, but I sure will miss this mountain and all the great people we have met here. But we shall see what the universe holds in store for the family. Lets face it last year was cool for me but there were more injuries and healing done in my house than anywhere I know of.

I am looking forward to a prolific year and please keep the comments coming and the reviews on Amazon and podiobooks they really help!

oh for all of you who follow me on twitter you may have seen that I rescued two kittens from a wet cardboard box last week. We are keeping one and the other has gone to his new home as of a few hours ago. Ladies and Gentleman meet the latest writing Kitty C II. Who looks just like Cosmo the cat that pasted away about 2 years ago fighting a raccoon at 16 years old. This one seems to have the same personality. Welcome C II to our home!

 

C II

C II

Happy New Year

Rhonda R. Carpenter

To be scary or not to be scary at Christmas?

Sunday, December 21st, 2008

Photo by Henry Diltz

 

Welcome Readers!

On this Christmas week I would like to wish you all a fabulous time with your family and friends.

Is there a time to be scary? Can I be scary? My kids certainly think I can be scary! I am not usually someone who writes horror and for the challenge for Horror Addicts I had to call in a dear friend, Arlene Radasky. My writing leans toward the very emotional intense side as apposed to blood, guts and gore or Vampires and Werewolves or Zombies. So for this story we went psychological. This is not a gory story but there is blood hehehehe.

Walk-in By Arlene Radasky and Rhonda R Carpenter has been slatted for the 16th Episode of Horroraddicts.net. And if you listened to HA this week you heard Emz give me 13 things I could do to be more scary! It was a crack up and I really appreciate Emz using me to get the word out about all the scary things happening on her site and many others! Thanks Emz!

There is a preview here of the story and at www.radasky.com but please be sure you listen to the episode too. Click on Short Stories Page and listen there to Walk-in! And subscribe to www.horroraddicts.net and hear it there January 29, 2009!

Christmas is family time for me and everyone comes to my house, which in this weather and be super scary, so I will be off line for the holidays for the most part. The next episode of The Mark of a Druid should go live tomorrow on podiobooks.com and this was a very difficult episode to do. See the http://www.themarkofadruid.com for more on the ins and outs of the issues and results.

This weeks Got Insight blog proves to be inspirational, Holiday Joy…  

Merry Christmas folks and here is to having a safe and joyous holiday and to all a good night.

Rhonda Carpenter