Book six, Children of Shadows, is officially unleashed on an unsuspecting world. Join Katelina and Jorick as they battle an ancient vampire cult and meet new allies and enemies.

Katelina only got a seven day vacation on the beach before she had to forsake the ocean surf for the cold of the vampires’ world, but I get twenty-two days away from my blog. That’s twenty-two days of sun, fun, and – since it’s an Amaranthine tour – vampires! So join me as we tour the blogosphere to celebrate the release of Children of Shadows.

Day 3:

Authors to Watch is a blog chalk full of interviews, book reviews and more. Triccia Drammeh isn’t just a blogger, but also an author, so be sure to check out her blog and her work.

Today she has been kind enough to host an excerpt of Children of Shadows, wherein…

Original image via Flickr Creative Commons courtesy of Sodanie Chea

Recently a Facebook friend shared a post with me regarding Indie Musicians versus Indie Authors. It appears our culture has a fascination and reverence for the Indie Musician whereas Indie Authors face an immediate stigma. We authors have to continually prove ourselves, whereas musicians don’t (at least not in the same way). My friend seemed perplexed, but to me it’s very simple.

We’re not even going to address the flood of “bad” books. Many writers rush to publish before they’re ready, don’t secure proper editing, etc. But I feel the issue is deeper and it reflects one of the many challenges authors face and always will.

People give automatic respect to a musician because not everyone can play an instrument or sing. Simple. It’s clear that artist can do something many cannot.

As writers, we have an insidious enemy. People…

As a social media expert, I run into all kinds of strange behavior and tips that make me scratch my head. Social media is social, meaning it’s supposed to be an extension of how we might interact with other human beings in person. Today’s post (obviously) is tongue-and-cheek, but humor can be the best teacher even if we’ve oopsed.

Tip #1—Only Use Automation

Writing a 140 characters is SUPER time-consuming. We aren’t Jack London. Besides, people LOVE talking to robots. I know when I feel lonely, I call AT&T because I know a human being will NEVER answer…EVER. Humans can be so boring and don’t offer us the option of hitting 6 if we want to hear everything they just said all over again. 

Real Life Application: Program cell phones to call friends and family at regular intervals to ask for money. They’d dig that.

Tip #2—Make Sure All Preprogrammed…