Showing posts with label Novella. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Novella. Show all posts

Friday, 26 October 2012

Spellbinding Fun Today!


Today I’m celebrating the launch of my romantic and humorous Halloween flavoured novella How Do You Voodoo? and I’m delighted to have so many fabulous party peeps taking part in what I’m sure will be a spellbindingly fun event both here and on Twitter! #voodoo

 



Blurb: How Do You Voodoo? Loveless fashion model Nola Nichols thinks being beautiful is a curse; that is until she is cursed and her looks begin to fade just a week before the most important photo shoot of her career.

Nola rejects all rational explanation on what might be causing her lost looks and decides she has to find a way to get uncursed. This imaginative quest takes her from the Caribbean to Glasgow’s own City of the Dead. Along the way, she finds herself taking part in a rather unconventional funeral, involved in a voodoo ritual, reveals one or two unrests in her own past and falls madly in love with a doctor. Erm, that would be a witch doctor, right…?

How Do You Voodoo? has already been attracting some fabulous reviews on Amazon UK and Amazon US and has been described by top book bloggers as “a really fun and heart-warming read to curl up with over Halloween” (Love Reading Love Books) and for its novella length “perfect for commuting” (Jera’s Jamboree).


How Do You Voodoo? is available FREE OF CHARGE TODAY


It’s my party gift to YOU. So please click on the links and download it to your Kindle today and be sure to tweet and share and tell all your friends to do the same. It will be back at 77p / 99c tomorrow.



FREE TODAY

Other Amazon sites are also included!
 
No Kindle? No problem. Simply download the Kindle app from Amazon first – it’s free too. Click Here to go to Amazon to get a free app for your iPhone, your tablet, iPad, Laptop, Mac or other electronic mobile device.




I’ve invited you all here today to cast a magic spell – it can be anything you wish – and I can’t wait to see what you’ve all been cookin’ up!


This is my spell: It’s a Spell of Scottish Sunshine! It’s been a very wet and dreary summer here in Scotland or as we like to complain “a dreich and dour” one. So I’m going to rub some suntan lotion into my hands and chant this spell while I evaporate a drop of toads sweat from a silver spoon over a candle flame – and hope it works!
 

 

So now it’s almost time to visit all The Spellbindingly Fun Party Peeps! Each has a magical spell cast on their blogs today, so do pop over and leave a comment, share their links and click on their Twitter button.

On Twitter do remember to include the #voodoo in all tweets and please RT those you see in your Twitter stream today – as there is a prize draw for two of these voodoo love dolls just for #voodoo RT’s and MT’s!
 
Love is bewitching! Sometimes love needs a wee nudge.
Set your sights on your goal.
This voodoo doll gives you a way to spear him like a cupids arrow!
 
There is also a fabulous grand prize draw for all those party peeps who are casting spells and listed below. The prize is a beautiful Scottish Candle from The Highland Collection that reflects the contemporary essence of Scotland. It is a scented candle mixing delicate white heather with sweet Highland honey to produce a sensuous scent evoking the feeling of romance. It is a scent capable of transporting you to the beauty of the heather-covered hills of the Highlands. This candle is beautifully packaged in tartan and in a shade to exactly match the colours and the tartan cover of How Do You Voodoo?
This scented candle, beautifully packaged in tartan and and in the exact shade of the cover of How Do You Voodoo? is capable of transporting you to the heather covered hills of the Highlands!
 

Do click on each of the Party Peeps names below to see what spells they’ve been cooking up. I too will be visiting each and every one of them during the day to read the spellbindingly fun post and to leave a comment.
I’ll also be popping onto Twitter using the hashtag #voodoo to keep up with the voodoo chatter until I need to pop back and refill my chalice with a Voodoo Cocktail (see the fun recipes below for ‘The Voodoo’, The High Priestess’ and ‘The Witch Doctor’!) but take it easy – they are all incredibly potent!

Music: Join me in a wee dance about toThe How Do You Voodoo Playlist’ which contains such classics as ‘Black Magic Woman’, ‘I Put A Spell On You’, ‘Devil Woman’, ‘I’m Your Witch Doctor’, ‘Evil Ways’ and ‘That Old Devil Called Love’. Well, a party’s not complete without some magical music, is it?
 
 
 
Drinks: Grab a drink from the Voodoo Cocktail Bar:
The Voodoo: Dark Rum (to ward off dark spirits), Apricot liqueur, Blue Curacao, Tropical Fruit Juice, Grenadine. Serve tall over ice.

The High Priestess: New Orleans Vodka, Mango Juice, Anisette Liqueur. Serve with ice and mint leaves (to ward off evil spirits).
 
The Witch Doctor: (Recipe courtesy of the Voodoo Lounge in Las Vegas) Light Rum, Dark Rum, Peach Schnapps, Cruzan Raspberry Rum. Pineapple Juice. Grenadine. Sour Mix. Stir and serve over ice.
 
 
The Spellbinding Party Peeps
 



Lizzie Lamb (RNA Page)
 

 
 

So please do have a voodoo drink, have a wee voodoo dance, visit as many blogs as you can over the day and make your presence known to all the spellbindingly fun party peeps. Pop onto Twitter and use the hastag #voodoo to get together with other voodoo tweeps. Do send and RT tweets in your timeline with the hashtag  #voodoo to be entered into the draw for the Voodoo Bewitching Dolls.
If you are curious about the research I did for this novella at Glasgow’s ‘City of the Dead’, I’m talking about it over at The Romantic Novelist’s Blog today while over at the wonderful magazine style blog Loveahappyending.com there is a special promotional voodoo post that you might want to tweet and share.
Lastly, don’t forget to download your FREE copy of How Do You Voodoo? today and spread the word to your friends and followers.
It’s FREE for TODAY ONLY!
Get How Do You Voodoo?
Other Amazon sites are included!
Oh - and please leave a comment here on my blog – I’d love to know if you’ve enjoyed the whole voodoo party thing and, if you do read and enjoy ‘How Do You Voodoo?’ I’d also love you to consider leaving a favourable review on Amazon.
Thank you for all your support.
Love, Janice xx
 
 

Tuesday, 18 September 2012

The Next Big Thing!


The Next

BIG Thing!


I’ve been tagged in The Next Big Thing by fellow author Melanie Robertson King, who is at the Kansas Book Festival this week launching her debut novel, A Shadow in the Past. I’m instructed to tell you all about my next book by answering these questions and then to tag five other authors about their Next Big Thing. So here I go!
What is the working title of your next book?
 
It’s called ‘How Do You Voodoo?

Where did the idea come from for the book?
Like many of my ideas, this one was sparked off by a real life event. I was on a flight from the Caribbean a few years ago, which had originated in Haiti. During the flight, I witnessed a ‘spat’ between two female passengers. One went on to become quite ill during the flight. Some people clearly thought it was because she’d drank too much alcohol, but as the meal on board hadn’t been very palatable, I thought it could have easily been down to the food. But then, my writerly imagination kicked in, and I thought - what if one had put a voodoo curse on the other?’

What genre does your book fall under?
Contemporary women’s romantic fiction with humour.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald would be perfect as Nola, who is the Glasgow born heroine of the story. Someone like Queen Latifa or Whoopi Goldberg could play the voodoo ‘mambo’ priestess. As for the hero of the story, well I’ll leave him totally to your own fabulous imaginations!

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Top model Nola Nichols thinks being beautiful is a curse, that is, until she is cursed and her looks begin to fade.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I’m not represented by a traditional publisher anymore but I really don’t like the term ‘self-published’.  It implies that an author is ‘going it alone’ and that certainly doesn’t apply to my kind of publishing.  As an Indie ‘independent’ author, I enjoy every aspect of control over my career but I also I have the support of a network of enthusiastic, capable and talented people. I’m part of several writers’ groups, who offer friendship, advice, and both moral and practical support with the writing as well as the marketing and promotion of my books. I employ an editor and a cover designer to help me produce a totally polished and professional end product and I’m continually striving to develop my brand and adapt to industry changes. So, by the time one of my novels reaches my reader, it’s very far from being ‘self’ published.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
How Do You Voodoo? is a novella, a special release for October and Halloween. At 20,000 words it has taken me only four weeks to write a first draft. I’ll do a few subsequent drafts to polish the story and then it will be professionally edited before being formatted for the Amazon Kindle.  A total time scale of eight weeks. During this time the cover will go through several stages of design until we are happy with the final version. As you can imagine, a complete novel would take me much longer than this; usually a full year.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I don’t know. I haven’t read anything similar. I’d be interested in knowing if any of my readers and reviewers can answer this question?

Who or What inspired you to write this book?
See my answer to question two - “Where did the idea come from for the book”.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
If you are looking for spellbinding read on your Kindle this Autumn, you might enjoy my romantic magical novella How Do You Voodoo?  I’m planning a fun launch party on my blog on Friday 26th October and I will be telling you more about this on Friday of this week.  So stay tuned!
 
Here are some great authors I’ve tagged to tell you about their Next Big Thing!