More News

I know I said I was going to skip News Day this week, but almost immediately after that, I stumbled across or was told about quite a bit of news. So here goes...

About News Day: 

Once a week (usually Tuesdays), I post news bits that I've gleaned from my blog visits or that I've been informed of. The news can be about anything in our writing blogger community, so if you would like me to signal boost anything you'd like to share, please mail me at mishagericke(AT)gmail(DOT)com with News in the subject line.

From the Five Year Project:

Announcement on Friday: Don't forget to come back on Friday for an important announcement!

Thursday Guest Post: Tomorrow I'll be featuring a guest post by Terry W. Ervin II. This is part of my plan to regularly feature writers on Thursdays. I have all my Thursdays open in February, so if you'd like to book one, please mail me at mishagericke(AT)gmail(DOT)com with "Guest Post" in the subject line.

Book Release:

The Outlaw's Prize by Susan Kelly

She didn’t believe in heroes until he kidnapped her.

Infamous smuggler Quin kidnaps Dr. Bess Smith with the best intentions. But a few days in the feisty physician’s presence turns his thoughts in a less honorable direction. Soon he’s figuring out ways to keep her.

Bess isn’t impressed with Quin’s good looks and easy charm until she starts to believe he is sincere in his flirtation. Despite the grim medical emergency they battle together, for the first time in her life, she experiences the thrill of adventure with the handsome smuggler.

Then a terrible betrayal exposes the secrets they’ve kept from one another. Secrets that may cost Quin his life and send Bess back into the isolation of her research laboratory. Can she trust a man she believes only used her own ends? Or is he really the self-sacrificing hero she hopes he is?

Available here

About Bloghops

A to Z Challenge

You probably know about this by now, but sign ups for this year's A to Z Challenge will open on 25 January. 

Insecure Writer's Support Group

The Insecure Writer's Support Group Newsletter will feature articles by industry experts, IWSG members, and administrators. There will also be a dozen links to helpful articles for writers in each edition, as well as a special Member Spotlight. Even if you're not a member of the blogging group, you'll greatly benefit from these FREE monthly newsletters.


The first issue goes out on February 24th.

Sign up here.

The Muse Party Blogfest

The Valentine's Day Muse Party Blogfest will take place on Monday, February 15. Sarah Foster will be hosting the party on her blog and you and your muse can come! On that day you can post on your blog and answer the questions she provided. She'll be answering them, too, and visiting all the other blogs to check out your answers! 

If you don't have a muse or don't want to bring them, feel free to bring a character from one of your books (published or not!). If you came to the first party, you can bring the same muse/character or someone different. Maybe we'll get to see how much we and our muses really love each other...

Sign up form and questions can be found here.

Other: 

Annalisa Crawford got shortlisted for a prestigious competition. 

DL Hammons is looking for help with reading the slush pile for WRITE CLUB 2016. 

That's it for today. Got any news for next week? Want to guest post on my blog? Don't forget to mail me. Anyone else signing up to the Muse Party blogfest?

When it rains it pours...

It's late, but I thought I should stop by and post something here. The plan had been to post on Friday and today, but then on Friday, right before I was going to take the time to write something, my laptop decided to die after five years. (Which I think was an awesome run.)

So today, I bought another laptop (which is basically a souped up, more contemporary version of my previous laptop) and spent the rest of it updating programs etc.

I'm pretty happy with the purchase, especially because for some odd reason, I needed zero time to adjust to my new keyboard. (I mean seriously, this has never happened to me before.)

At any rate, my computer dying has put me seriously behind on a lot of things, so I think that, since 1) no one mailed me any news and 2) I had no chance to find news for myself, I'm going to skip tomorrow's post and post on Wednesday.

Hopefully then I'll be able to sit still for long enough to actually visit people. It would be really nice.

How are you doing?

Yet Another Post About Tumblr

So, a while back, I decided to give Tumblr a try.

And in short, to me, it's a love-hate thing. 

What I love: The lay-out. How easy it is to find the community you're aiming for. 

What I don't love: Well. Said community has this way of picking pet "causes" that they're fighting for, regardless of where the facts truly lie. I wrote about the whole thing that went on about John Green back when Tumblr was still seething with all that nonsense. 

Fortunately, we've seemed to move on from there, but unfortunately that just brings home the fact that the community is 100% pro trade publishing. Or 1000% fanatical about it. 

Which isn't a bad thing in itself. I personally have PLENTY of issues with trade publishing as it stands at the moment, but other people don't, so I try to only throw out my two cents when I feel like there are too much bad information out there without someone bothering to understand what's going on.

And Tumblr has this in spades. Which is to say they swallow the trade publishing line on self publishing without a second thought and makes Amazon out to be this monster out to exploit writers. (Ha. Hahahahaha. Ha.)

I just find this incredibly frustrating, because the Tumblr-ites are single-minded in believing what they're told, and if they get told anything else, it simply does not compute.

And this, simply put, is making me wonder if Tumblr is really worth my time. I mean, if they're going to ignore my book simply by dint of me refusing to be screwed over by publishing houses, without actually bothering to listen to reason, I can only assume that there's not much left to do or say, is there?

On the other hand, I'm not only on social media to market my books. In fact, the marketing aspect mostly comes second. But if being active on a platform does both (marketing and meeting new people), why should I bust my butt trying to get in on one where the community can be downright punitive toward people with different opinions?

Are you on Tumblr? How do you find it? 

News Day

Hey everyone! Welcome to our first News Day Post of the year. For those of you who've missed this piece of information, News Day will be a weekly feature where I share information from around the blogosphere. This can be anything from cover reveals (although the space will be shared with other news bits), book releases, competitions, bloghops to anything else we think people might want to know. I'll be trying my best to gather news, but I'd love if you'd please mail me any bits you'd like to share. Contact me at mishagericke(AT)gmail(DOT)com with NEWS in the subject line.

Heads-up from my blog:

Next week, I'll be making a big announcement, so please don't forget to keep an eye out.

Guest Feature on Thursdays: 

I'll be opening up Thursdays as a regular guest post feature for people in our writing blogger community to visit my blog. It's open to anyone, regardless of where they are on their publishing road. Also, I won't only be doing guest posts on Thursdays. I just thought it would be nice to have a regular posting day for all my blogging peeps to get some exposure. If you're interested, please mail me at mishagericke(AT)gmail(DOT)com with Guest Post in the subject line.

Book Releases:

Raised by an overly protective wulfkin pack, Daciana leaps at the chance to venture into the human world for her one-year independence ritual. But after someone steals the endangered bear cubs she’s been assigned to protect, she must locate them or lose her job and return home in disgrace. The sexy inspector on the case isn’t making this any easier. He knows nothing of her kind, and wulfkin rules forbid relationships with humans.

Newly divorced Inspector Connell Lonescu trusts no one but himself. He’s convinced relationships are a waste of time and thinks burying himself in work will ease the pain. Yet he’s attracted to the gorgeous and mysterious Daciana, even if there’s something slightly odd about her. Can Connell learn to trust the sexy but secretive woman?

Cloaked is the prequel to Cloaked in Fur, book 1 in The Wulfkin Legacy Series. Find out how Daciana and Connell fell in love and set in motion the paramount events that forever change their lives and those around them.

Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Goodreads | Amazon

Book Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Google Play | iTunes

Blog Fests:

Lost and Found:  Valentine's Edition - February 1st!

Do you remember  that special feeling of love found?   And who hasn't experienced the emotion of love lost?  Some of you might have even lost a love only to find that person later for another go around.

This challenge asks you to tell your fictional/non-fictional story about love -- lost or found -- in the first special Valentine's blogfest for the month of February.  

Your post can be a short fiction, an essay, poetry, or even a song--let your imagination run free.   Any genre is fair game, be it romance, historical fiction, memoir, fantasy or science fiction.   After all there are no limitations when it comes to love. There's no word limit, but common sense shows that short and sweet is the go!

Don't be left out!   Sign up to participate by adding your link to the list here or on any of the bloggers' sites mentioned above!

WEP - February Challenge: February 17th to the 19th

Most of you are familiar with WEP (Write...Edit...Publish). Yolanda Renee and Denise Covey have got it together for February and are saluting, you guessed it, Valentine's Day. 

Now some of us love Valentine's, others hate it. Our blogfest gives you a chance to write about this 'romantic' day in whichever way you wish. 

Some ideas to get your creative juices going...maybe the angst of young love waiting for a Valentine's card from a school yard crush...the outsider who misses out and sees all her/his friends getting loads of cards (not that she's/he's worried about that)...the nasty boyfriend who texted her on Valentine's Day to break up with her...or, the husband who surprises his wife with a secret Valentine's Day trip to the place of her dreams...etc etc.

Endless possibilities.

The WEP linky will go up soon on the WEP website, as well as further information for this challenge. Posts are on the third Wednesday of the challenge month. This time it's February 17 - 19. Please consider joining us for our first challenge of 2016. There is an Amazon Gift Card of $10 for the winner. Judge will be Francine Howarth, intrepid Regency Romance author.

Special Mentions:

Yesterday, I did a guest post on Beth Fred's Blog, but we got attacked by gremlins, so the post went live late. So I'd LOVE if you guys could please go give it some love. It's about how I deal with insecurities, which seems like a good subject for this time of year. 

That's it for today! Do you have any news to share for next week? Let me know!