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Beginnings by Nina Soden

provided by author

Book Title: Beginnings

Series: Blood Angel

Author: Nina Soden

Publisher: Self-published

-eBook: www.BookTango.com (paperback coming soon)

Reading Level: Teen & YA

Genre: Fantasy/Supernatural

Content Rating: PG

Number of Pages: 268 pages

Purchase Links: Kindle

 

Book blurb

Having lost her family Alee has been thrown into a new life and a new world. Camouflaged by the mundane happenings of a high school existence she would never have guessed what was happening below the surface in, “The Underground”.  If she thought hunting in the wild and drinking blood was bad, what will she think when she becomes the hunted? Newly armed with the knowledge of being half witch and half vampire Alee, the only surviving Dhampir in history, is forced to learn to control a lifetime of magic and vampire powers if she wants to survive. Will she overcome the challenges she faces or will her destiny prove more powerful than she?

 

Author bio

provided by author

Nina has always been creative, be it art, theatre, film – anything but singing – you don’t want to hear that! She earned her bachelor’s degree in Theatre and Military Science from EMU where she spent most of her time either on stage, rappelling down buildings, or working one of three jobs. After college she moved to Los Angeles, like so many other actors, in pursuit of her dreams. In 2008, after some major life changes, Nina self-published her first book PRIVATE WORDS UNSPOKEN, a compilation of poetry. Since then, her dreams have gotten bigger and she likes to think her storytelling ability has gotten better. She has done everything from secretarial work to business development to being the Director of a private preschool. She has fired a M16, jumped out of a C130, and given birth – TWICE – but she always returns to her art.

Though she’ll forever be a Michigan girl at heart, she now lives in Alabama with her husband and two beautiful children. If she’s not working on her latest story, you can find her lounging with a good book, playing with her kids, or indulging in her unhealthy addiction to Starbucks coffee.

Author Links: Blog | FaceBook | Twitter

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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Guest Posts

Awaken by Nina Soden

provided by author

Book Title: Awaken

Series: Blood Angel

Author: Nina Soden

Publisher: Self-published

-eBook: www.BookTango.com

-paperback: www.createspace.com

Reading Level: Teen & YA

Genre: Fantasy/Supernatural

Content Rating: PG

Number of Pages: 376 pages

Purchase Links: Kindle | Amazon

 

Book blurb provided by author

Awaken is set in a world very much like our own, yet Atlanta isn’t just an ordinary city and Alee Moyer isn’t just an ordinary girl. Having barely survived her childhood it will take the death of her father for the truth of her true bloodline to come out. Even if it means losing her life, or at least her identity she won’t be able to escape her true destiny as the first surviving Dhampir in history. Surrounded by a new world where the horror films she grew up watching have become reality and the most unlikely characters have become her lifeline, Alee will struggle to find herself and her purpose.

Part horror thriller – part tender romance, Awaken will leave readers wanting more!

Come back next week, October 7th to learn about the second installment in this series.

provided by author

Author Bio

Nina has always been creative, be it art, theatre, film – anything but singing – you don’t want to hear that! She earned her bachelor’s degree in Theatre and Military Science from EMU where she spent most of her time either on stage, rappelling down buildings, or working one of three jobs. After college she moved to Los Angeles, like so many other actors, in pursuit of her dreams. In 2008, after some major life changes, Nina self-published her first book PRIVATE WORDS UNSPOKEN, a compilation of poetry. Since then, her dreams have gotten bigger and she likes to think her storytelling ability has gotten better. She has done everything from secretarial work to business development to being the Director of a private preschool. She has fired a M16, jumped out of a C130, and given birth – TWICE – but she always returns to her art.

Though she’ll forever be a Michigan girl at heart, she now lives in Alabama with her husband and two beautiful children. If she’s not working on her latest story, you can find her lounging with a good book, playing with her kids, or indulging in her unhealthy addiction to Starbucks coffee.

Author Links: Blog | FaceBook | Twitter

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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Guest Posts

How to Avoid the Slush Pile by Stefan Vucak

First of all, what is as slush pile? Well, in the golden days of publishing, it used to be a large waste bin next to the submission editor’s desk where he would dump your book. Today, it’s likely to be the delete button on his e-mail Inbox. Either way, it’s bad news.

You have written your masterpiece and you are all fired up to mail it to every agent and publisher in the world, traditional or e-book. If you are self-publishing, you needn’t bother reading further.

Someone told me a long time ago that writing the book is the easy part. I spent a better part of six to nine months writing the damned thing. How can it be the easy part? All right, let’s look at your book using a very simple checklist.

  • Is it finished? Amazing how many writers approach an agent or publisher with a half-baked potato.
  • Is the book properly formatted? An agent or publisher may have specific requirements. Before submitting, it is prudent to make yourself aware of what they are.
  • Is the internal layout correct? This means, do your chapters start on a new page using Word’s page break function? Do you have tabs, extra spaces at end of a last sentence in a paragraph, manually centered headings, not spell checked? Starting a paragraph using the Tab key?
  • Has the book been thoroughly edited? Lots can be said about what ‘thoroughly’ means, but I think you get the idea.

If your Page One has any of these tripwire items, you can guess what will happen. Editors and agents get dozens of submissions a day. Even if your book is the next Gone with the Wind, if you haven’t presented it correctly – slush pile.

Having been diligent and done everything right, you’re still not ready to send the thing off. You have just done the easy part. Okay, so what’s the hard part? Making the submission, of course. What’s so hard about that? Churn out a letter and post the damned thing. Time for another checklist.

  • Do you have a polished submission letter that will sweep that agent or editor off his feet?
  • Does the submission letter contain the agent or editor’s correct name? Not much good if all it says ‘To whom it may concern’, or ‘Dear Sir’. It tells the person you haven’t bothered to research the agency or publisher.
  • Have you written a short and long blurb for your book? You’ll need this with your submission letter or e-mail.
  • Is your book synopsis done? This is where many writers suffer agonies of withdrawal symptoms. They can write a Gone with the Wind, but they cannot write a two-page synopsis even if their life depended on it.

The above items will be the first thing an agent or editor sees. If you cannot get past the submission letter – the slush pile. Let’s leave the submission letter and talk about the book blurb. You must write a paragraph, boiling your book down to about 100 words or so, that tells somebody what the book is about, injecting drama, suspense, tears, a shootout – whatever is the theme. Think about making a sauce. Your pot has all the necessary ingredients and is half full of water. To make the sauce, you boil the mess until only a gooey residue is left on the bottom. That’s your book blurb…

To see the rest of this article and learn more about Stefan Vucak, please visit the ECS blog.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords