Sunday, November 30, 2014

The Publicist + Giveaway

~ I received no compensation and opinions are 100% my own or my family. ~

Synopsis (from Audible.com): Can one woman change an age-old institution like publishing? Probably not, but Kate Mitchell sure wants to try. As a publicist with a large, respected New York publishing house, Kate finds herself at the mercy of a broken publishing system, books that don’t sell, and author egos that are often, well, as big as the island of Manhattan.

Enter the star editor, MacDermott Ellis: Tall, handsome, charismatic, married, and ready to save the day. Then there's Allan Lavigne, once a revered author - now as forgotten as last year's best sellers and his nephew Nick: Tall, gorgeous, sweet, single, and ready to sweep Kate off her feet. Kate wants to do the right thing but her hormones seem to be driving her decisions.
As Kate tries to navigate the landmine of publicity, over-the-top author expectations, and the careful dance of “I’m sorry, your book isn’t on the bestseller list this week,” she also finds authors who are painfully overlooked by a publisher wanting more romance and sex, more celebrities, and more scandal.
Welcome to the world of publishing. The ego has landed.



One (or more) Sentence Summary: I absolutely LOVED The Publicist.  I can't wait for book two, Shelf Life, to become available on audible.com (it is available in paperback and e-book).  The Publicist has everything I love in a book: a great plot, great characters, amazing friendships, romance and more.

Favorite Character(s):  Kate, of course.  Her relationship with Alan is so special and makes me even like her more.  It is driving me crazy..Mac or Nick.  I know who I want her to end up with, but have no idea the outcome!  Oh my word, what if a third man is introduced..AHHHH.  


Setting:  NYC and I love books set in NYC.  I would have loved to have worked/lived in NYC in my early 20s.  

Fast read/slow read:  I was very fortunate to be able to listen to The Publicist from Audible.com.  I am a HUGE fan of audible books and listen to them all the time.  I am in my car all the time and enjoy so many books via Audible.com. I could not wait to get back in the car to listen to more of The Publicist.  I didn't want it to end and had to make sure there wasn't a "part 2" I needed to download….I absolutely loved it.

Cover:  Perfect! 

What Others Are Saying:  Check out what others are saying on the iRead Book Tours!

Nov 24 - Coffee, Books & Art - book spotlight / giveaway
Nov 25 - The Book Junkie - review / giveaway
Nov 25 - Eargasms Audiobook Reviews - review / giveaway
Nov 26 - Perfect Chaos - review  / giveaway
Nov 26 - Nighttime Reading Center - audiobook spotlight / giveaway
Nov 26 - Nighttime Reading Center - guest post
Nov 27 - Brooke Blogs - review / guest post / giveaway
Nov 27 - Library of Clean Reads - review / giveaway
Nov 28 - Green and Glassie - review
Nov 28 - Seaside Book Nook - review / author interview / giveaway
Dec 1 - Back Porchervations - review
Dec 1 - Dee's Book Blog - review / author interview
Dec 2 - Working Mommy Journal - review
Dec 3 - Toot's Book Reviews - review / author interview / giveaway
Dec 4 - A Bit Bookish - review / giveaway
Dec 5 - The Book Fairy - review / giveaway
Dec 5 - From the TBR Pile - guest post / giveawayDec 8 - Bound 4 Escape - review
Dec 9 - I'd Rather Be at the Beach - review / giveaway
Dec 10 - Pinky's Favorite Reads - review
Dec 11 - Little Whimsy Books - review / giveaway
Dec 11 - Real Army of Moms - review / giveaway
Dec 11 - Life With Katie - review / giveaway
Dec 12 - A Soccer Mom's Book Blog - review / author interview / giveaway
Dec 12 - Pure Jonel - review / author interview

Would I Read Other Books by the Author: Yes, Yes, Yes.  Shelf Life (book two) is available now and The Climax (book three) is available December 15th!


Christina George has worked in publishing for twenty years (give or take). Here's what this book isn't. It's not a slam against publishing (though it is broken) and it's not a slam against authors (though some of them are crazy). This book is not autobiographical though many of the stories are true. No you won't know which ones, hell it's more fun to guess, right? I continue to work in publicity and help authors because at the end of the day I do love books, I love publishing, and I love authors. I hope you'll enjoy this romp through Kate's world as much as I enjoyed creating it.  Connect with Christina: Website  ~  Twitter  ~  Facebook  ~ Goodreads
Amazon |  Audible.com | Barnes & Noble 


This is an awesome giveaway by the author: Spa Gift Basket worth $100 (US only) or $100 Audible or Amazon Gift Card (Internationally).  Good Luck.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Interview with Christina George ~ Author of The Publicist




Synopsis: Can one woman change an age-old institution like publishing? Probably not, but Kate Mitchell sure wants to try. As a publicist with a large, respected New York publishing house, Kate finds herself at the mercy of a broken publishing system, books that don’t sell, and author egos that are often, well, as big as the island of Manhattan.
Enter the star editor, MacDermott Ellis: Tall, handsome, charismatic, married, and ready to save the day. Then there's Allan Lavigne, once a revered author - now as forgotten as last year's best sellers and his nephew Nick: Tall, gorgeous, sweet, single, and ready to sweep Kate off her feet. Kate wants to do the right thing but her hormones seem to be driving her decisions.
As Kate tries to navigate the landmine of publicity, over-the-top author expectations, and the careful dance of “I’m sorry, your book isn’t on the bestseller list this week,” she also finds authors who are painfully overlooked by a publisher wanting more romance and sex, more celebrities, and more scandal.
Welcome to the world of publishing. The ego has landed.


I am so excited to share this interview with author, Christina George with you all.  Tomorrow, I will share my review of The Publicist….hint, I LOVED it!



SBN: What contributes to making a writer successful? 

Christina George: This is going to sound sort of “DUH” but write a good book. That’s it. At the end of the day you can throw thousands of dollars are marketing but none of it will matter if your book isn't good. Second, be realistic with your goals. Sure, I’d love it if HBO called and said “Hey, The Publicist would make a good series.” But whether or not that will ever happen is anyone’s guess. Will I be disappointed if it doesn't? No, not really. I try to stay focused on realistic things. For example, if I got three emails from readers reading this interview who said they loved what I had to say or loved the book – I’d be stoked. Three readers who love you could turn into 10 or 30 or 300 who love you if they help spread the word. That’s how it starts: small. Small rocks.

SBN: Do you have any advice for writers? 

Christina George: Yes, I think it’s that you should really be vigilant with your marketing. You know stuff takes time – I always say that. But the key to a solid marketing plan is an author who is engaged in their own success. When you are engaged you’re commenting on blogs, you’re dialoging with your reader and you are careful about who you hire to do your marketing. Look, no one can do miracles. I’m on this book tour and it’s great but will I sell a thousand books? Probably not. That’s not why I’m doing it. I’m doing it for exposure. Get enough exposure and you’ll sell books. But don’t expect every “ping” you get to warrant a big blockbuster sale because it may not.

SBN: What do you consider the most challenging about writing a novel, or about writing in general? 

Christina George: I think keeping the story coherent, frankly. I met an author years ago who writes 50 books a year, frankly I don’t know how she keeps all the characters straight.

SBN: Did writing this book teach you anything and what was it?  

Christina George: YES it did! It taught me that writing, good writing isn't easy. Look, I don’t know if you’ll read my book and say “wow, that’s good writing” or encourage me to keep my day job. But my editor loved it (and I didn't pay her to say that) and some of the initial reviews have come back positive so to that end, I think I did a good job. But it’s hard work, don’t let anyone tell you any different.

SBN: What movie do you love to watch? 

Christina George: I love, love, love Love Actually. I think it’s just such a good and feel good movie.

SBN: I don't believe I have seen Love Actually.  I will need to watch that movie!

SBN: Sometimes it’s so hard to keep at it - What keeps you going? 

Christina George: I really do love what I do. You know you never want to get into publishing for the money – you do it because you love it. Do what you love and you’ll never work another day in your life – as they say.

SBN: If you could do any job in the world what would you do? 

Christina George: I love what I’m doing now, but I’d love to work in film. I have cousins who do film editing and I’ve always had a knack for cobbling together good videos so I’d love to try that.

SBN: I think I would have to say a very famous author or a famous scrapbooker!  

SBN: What is your next project? 

Christina George: Glad you asked! I just finished up with book three in The Publicist series called Climax, and I’m very excited. It launches December 15, 2014.

SBN: That is fantastic news.  I can't wait to read the second book, Shelf Life. I hope that is due out soon on Audible!

Look for my review on The Publicist tomorrow and thanks to iRead Book Tours for setting up this interview with Christina George!


Thursday, November 20, 2014

The Tree of Water Guest Post





Synopsis (from Amazon): The epic voyages continue in The Tree of Water, the fourth adventure in bestselling author Elizabeth Haydon’s acclaimed fantasy series for young readers, The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme.

As Royal Reporter of the land of Serendair, it is the duty of young Charles Magnus "Ven" Polypheme to travel the world and seek out magic hiding in plain sight. But Ven needs to escape the clutches of the nefarious Thief Queen, ruler of the Gated City, whose minions are hunting for him. His friend, the merrow Amariel, has the perfect solution to his dilemma: Ven and Char will join her to explore the world beneath the sea.
As they journey through the sea, Ven finds himself surrounded by wonders greater than he could have ever imagined. But the beauty of the ocean is more than matched by the dangers lurking within its depths, and Ven and his friends soon realize that in order to save thousands of innocent lives, they may have to sacrifice their own. For everything in the ocean needs to eat…


Interview with Elizabeth Haydon, documentarian, archanologist and translator of Ven’s journals, including The Tree of Water

SBN:  The main character in The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme series is Charles Magnus "Ven" Polypheme. Tell us about him.

EH:  Ven was an interesting person, but he really didn’t think so. He and his family were of a different race than the humans who made up most of the population where he lived, the race of the Nain. Nain are an old race, a little shorter and stockier than most humans, with a tendency to be on the grumpy side. They live about four times as long as humans, are very proud of their beards, which they believe tell their life stories, don’t like to swim or travel, and prefer to live deep in the mountains.Ven was nothing like the majority of Nain. He was very curious, loved to travel, could swim, and longed to see the world. He was actually a pretty nice kid most of the time. He had the equivalent of a baby face because only three whiskers of his beard had grown in by the time The Tree of Water took place, when he was fifty years old [around twelve in Nain years]. He had a great group of friends, including the merrow and Char, who were mentioned earlier. It is believed that his journals were the original research documents for two of the most important books of all time, The Book of All Human Knowledge and All the World’s Magic.The only copies of these two volumes were lost at sea centuries ago, so finding the Lost Journals is the only way to recover this important information.

SBN: What is/are the most difficult part or parts of writing/restoring the Lost Journals?


EH: Here’s the list, mostly from the archaeological digs where the journals have been found:
1] Cannibals
2] Crocodiles
3] Sunburn
4] Sand flies
5] Dry, easily cracking parchment pages
6] The horrible smell of long-dead seaweed
7] Grumpy members of the archaeological expedition [I could name names, but I won’t]
8] Expedition food [when finding and retrieving the journal for The Tree of Water,we ate nothing but peanut butter and raisin sandwiches, olives and yellow tea for six months straight]
9] When salt water gets into your favorite fountain pen and clogs it up. This is very sad.
10] Unintentionally misspelling a word in the Nain language that turns out to be embarrassing [the word for “jelly” is one letter different from the word for “diarrhea,” which caused a number of my Nain friends to ask me what on earth I thought Ven was spreading on his toast.]

SBN: What do you enjoy about this series that cannot be found in any of your other books? 

EH:Getting to write about a lot of cool magic stuff that used to exist in our world, but doesn’t anymore. And getting to travel to interesting places in the world to see if maybe some of it still does exist. Also getting to show the difference between merrows, which are real, interesting creatures, and mermaids, which are just silly.

SBN: What do you hope readers take away from this book? 

EH: I hope, in general, that it will open their eyes to the wonder of the sea, which takes up the majority of our planet, but we really don’t know that much about it down deep. There is a great deal of magic in the sea, and I hope that if and when people become aware of it, they will help take care of it and not throw garbage and other bad stuff into it. I have a serious dislike for garbage-throwing.Probably the most useful secret I learned that I hope will be of use to readers is about thrum. Thrum is the way the creatures and plants that live in the ocean communicate with each other through vibration and thought. As Ven and his friends learn, this can be a problem if you think about something you don’t want anyone to know about when you are standing in a sunshadow, because everyone gets to see a picture of what’s on your mind. Imagine how embarrassing that could be.

SBN: Are there more books coming in this series? 

EH: Well, at least one. In the archaeological dig site where The Tree of Water was found was another journal, a notebook that Ven called The Star of the Sea. We are still working on restoring it, but it looks like there are many new adventures and different kinds of magic in it. The problem is that it might have been buried in the sand with an ancient bottle of magical sun tan lotion, which seems to have leaked onto some of the journal’s pages. This is a very sad event in archaeology, but we are working hard to restore it. As for other books, it’s not like we just write them out of nowhere. If we haven’t found one of Ven’s journals, there can’t be another book, now, can there? We are always looking, however. We’ve learned so much about ancient magic from the journals we have found so far.

SBN: Tell us where we can find your book and more information about where you are these days. 

EH: You can find The Tree of Water anywhere books are sold, online and in bookstores. There are several copies in my steamer trunk and I believe the palace in Serendair also has one. I also sent one to Bruno Mars because I like his name.At the moment, I am on the beautiful island of J’ha-ha, searching for a very unique and magical flower. Thank you for asking these interview questions—it has improved my mood, since I have only found weeds so far today. I am hoping for better luck after lunch, which, sadly, is peanut butter and raisin sandwiches, olives, and yellow tea again.