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Three Things About Me- Open Book Blog Hop

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Welcome everyone, no matter where you came from! 

This week’s topic: Tell us three things about you. What makes you unique? How would people describe you? Tell us something we don’t know about you.

 You’d think for a writer answering these questions would be easy. After all, we spend hours building characters and trying to make them believable to for our readers.  But I’m an introvert (Aha! Number 1!) and I don’t like to talk about myself. Plus I’m a private person and am very selective I’ve what I share about myself. So these questions are actually tough for me to answer.

 I like to think of myself as a bundle of contradictions. You’ll see what I mean.

 Let’s start with something easy. I didn’t touch my first computer until I was over 30 years old. Now I earn my living sitting in front of a computer screen as a systems analyst. But I also did a stint as a computer tech, repairing computers and supporting users. (Yes, I was Help Desk. That’s a double contradiction—an older woman doing a job normally held by young guys.) And when I’m home, I’m sitting in front of a computer, writing!


To make it it even more complicated, I’m an old hippie chick. No, I didn’t make it to Woodstock or San Francisco. But I did make skirts out of my old blue jeans, I grew my own food and canned or froze the harvest. I’ve sewn shirts completely by hand, and decorated them with colorful embroidery. I’ve even been known to wear tie-die shirts and headbands.I tried to teach myself to play guitar, but I never learned more than a couple of songs.


Whew, that’s three things,right? What, the introvert thing doesn’t count? Sigh. All right, one more. This one related to my writing.

 I never imagined myself writing a paranormal romance. Heck, I wrote poetry, not books. But when the stories started coming, there was no way to put a stop to them. So I wrote Wolves’ Pawn, figured I got the paranormal thing out of my system and started writing mysteries. But no, Tasha, one of the minor characters in Wolves’ Pawn, DEMANDED I write her story. So I am. My next book will be Wolves’ Knight, Tasha’s Tale. I’m hoping for an October release date. Then maybe I’ll be able to get back to Harmony Duprie and her adventures. (Want to see my books? Check out the My Books link.)



If there’s anything you’d like to our authors to answer, leave a comment. We’re always looking for fresh topics.

 And before you take off to read what another author has to say about this week’s topic, don’t forget to check out Christine Ardigo’s books. You can find them HERE

Here’s the code for hosting:

New Release—A Stitch to Die For

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I’m pleased to welcome Lois Winston and her new release. I love the cover of this book! It’s going on my TBR list.




A
Stitch to Die For
An Anastasia Pollack
Crafting Mystery, Book 5

The
adventures of reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack continue in
A Stitch to Die For,
the 5th book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series by USA
Today bestselling author
Lois Winston.

Ever
since her husband died and left her in debt equal to the gross
national product of Uzbekistan, magazine crafts editor and reluctant
amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack has stumbled across one dead body
after another—but always in work-related settings. When a killer
targets the elderly nasty neighbor who lives across the street from
her, murder strikes too close to home. Couple that with a series of
unsettling events days before Halloween, and Anastasia begins to
wonder if someone is sending her a deadly message.

Excerpt

After
nearly an hour of battling rush hour traffic, I finally arrived home,
relieved to find neither Ira’s van nor Lawrence’s car parked at
the curb. After last night’s chaos, I looked forward to a
relatively peaceful dinner—relatively
being the operative word. After all, I never knew what to expect from
my mother-in-law.

However,
as I turned to head into the house, an unexpected shaft of bright
light caught my eye. Across the street, Betty Bentworth’s door
stood half ajar, the glow from her foyer chandelier spilling out onto
her front porch.

Betty—otherwise
known as Batty Bentworth—spent her life seated in front of her
living room window where she spied on her neighbors. She kept the
Westfield police on speed dial, often calling multiple times a day to
complain about anything and everything, once even demanding the
arrest of her six-year-old next-door neighbor for vandalism. The
child’s crime? She’d drawn a chalk hopscotch board on the
sidewalk in front of Betty’s house.

Batty
Bentworth was not someone who left her front door open—especially
after dark.

Like
everyone else in the neighborhood, I kept my distance from Mrs.
Bentworth. You never knew what would set her off, and it was best not
to get on her bad side. Not that she had a good side from what I knew
of her.

Still,
I couldn’t ignore that open door. Rather than head across the
street, I decided to call her. Maybe she’d gone out earlier to
retrieve her mail, and the door hadn’t latched completely when she
returned. The stiff October breeze blowing down the street may have
pushed the door open.

I
whipped out my cell phone, scrolled to her number, and placed the
call. The phone rang. And rang. And rang. After a dozen rings I hung
up, sighed, and reluctantly crossed the street.

“Hello?
Mrs. Bentworth?” I called through the open door. No answer. I
shouted her name. “Mrs. Bentworth!” Only the sound of the six
o’clock news blaring from her television greeted me.

I
stepped inside and shouted above the Eyewitness News reporter. “Mrs.
Bentworth! It’s Anastasia Pollack. Your front door is open.”

A
sense of déjà vu washed over me. Less than two weeks earlier I’d
discovered Rosalie Schneider, another elderly neighbor, unconscious
at the bottom of her basement stairs. I took a few steps into the
foyer and turned toward the dimly lit living room. Batty Bentworth
sat on her sofa, a multi-colored crocheted granny square afghan
draped across her lap, her gaze fixated on the news broadcasting from
an old black and white console television set.

“Mrs.
Bentworth, didn’t you hear me?”

When
she didn’t respond, I stepped between her and the television. She
continued to ignore me, but now I knew why. Batty Bentworth was
dead—but not from natural causes.

Buy Links
Paperback
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1940795303/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1940795303&linkCode=as2&tag=loiswins-20&linkId=LBEMP6U7TVMCBQMT

Kindle
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010M9U5Q2/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B010M9U5Q2&linkCode=as2&tag=loiswins-20&linkId=ZRX4XIA2N5VX6ARK

Nook

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-stitch-to-die-for-lois-winston/1122259040?ean=2940150965928

My Idea of Fun- Open Book Blog Hop

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THEME THIS WEEK: Let’s talk fun. What do you consider fun? Drinks with friends, camping, music, shooting pool, picnics, watching television. Show us your fun times.

 Those of you who have reading my blog entries probably think you know where I’m headed this week. Chances are you’re right. But I’m going to make a quick stop before we get there.

 I love to read. Always have, even as a kid. I used to take a book out of the elementary school library each afternoon before hopping on the bus to head home, and return it the next morning. Yes, I’d read a book a night.


 When I got into high school, the demands of school work slowed my reading down—somewhat. I probably only read three of four books a week. Of course, they were also thicker and more complex. As an adult, I’d “binge read.” I’d got through periods where I read constantly, and other times when I didn’t have time to read at all. Now that I’ve started writing myself, my time to read has shrunk even more. Which reminds me, I need to make a trip to the library.

 You can go pack top my post about crafty stuff to read about my love of needlecraft. I’ll  give you one picture to entice you if you haven’t already read it.



And now to where you knew where I was going. Every chance I get, I head to the mountains. Sometimes it’s a day trip, and when time allows, it’s more. I’ve always loved camping. I grew up in the country, and many summer nights we’d drag a few blankets out to the front porch and sleep outside. When I was in the Girl Scouts, I looked forward to our camping trips. When I got a bit older, I volunteered to help with the summer camps. One summer, I worked as a camp counselor and lived in a tent for the whole summer.



Luckily, I married a guy who likes to camp almost as much as I do, and we’ve lived in places where the camping was plentiful and the people weren’t. Nothing better then being in the wilderness with no one else around, sitting by a campfire on a clear night and watching the stars. It’s amazing how many more stars you can see in the night sky when you’re somewhere high in the mountains. Throw in a little background music courtesy of John Denver (or at least a recording of him) and you’ve got the makings of a perfect night. And that’s my idea of fun!





And now it’s time to pimp another of our authors. Because remember, reading is first on my list of ways to have fun!  So if you haven’t checked out Stevie Turner’s books teey, now’s your chance. You can find them at Stevie Turner

To find out what other authors are saying, head over to PJ Fiala’s blog http://pjfiala.com/blog

get the InLinkz code

My Dream Vacation= Meet the Author Open Book Blog Hop

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Hello everyone! IF you got here by way of  Stephany Tuliss’ blog, glad you survived the hop Did you check out her books while you were there? .No? Well, you should! You can tahe a peek at Stephany Tullis. And it’s great how well her cover fits in with my post this week!





Do you like to read? Wouldn’t you like to know more about your favorite authors? Well you came to the right place! Join the MMB Open Book Blog Hop each Wednesday and they will tell all. Every week we’ll answer questions and after you’ve enjoyed the blog on this site we’ll direct you to another. So come back often for a thrilling ride! Tell your friends and feel free to ask us questions in the comment box.
This week’s topic :What’s my dream vacation?


I’m lucky enough to live within a few hours drive of several different mountain ranges, parts of the Rocky Mountain change. I spend as much time as I can in the mountains, but always in places you can get to by road. 

So it may seem strange, but what I’d like to do for my vacation is spend even more time in the mountains. Not in one of the spots I normally go to, however. What I’d like is to have a outfitter take me by horseback to some high mountain lake where very few people get to go.






I know they are used to taking people fishing on those trips, but my goal is not to catch fish.
It’s to sit by the lake and write, at least during the day. Go for a walk if I felt like it, maybe even read a book. At night I want to sit and stare at the campfire, watch meteors flash through the night sky, and listen to the night sounds. The logs popping in the fire, the fish jumping in the lake, the bugs chirping, maybe even a wolf howling in the distance.





Sure, I’d be without a computer or internet access, but that would be okay. I’ve written entire books by hand before. I’d have to be sure to take plenty of paper with me. Not that I’d expect to get an entire book written in a week, but it sure would be nice to have the opportunity to write without worrying about the household chores. The outfitter would be responsible for the meals, even if was just canned chili and some plain old white bread. Hush, I know it’s not nutritional balanced. I’ll have some fruit for desert, all right?


I might not be as productive as I planned in those dreamy days high above the timberline. I might spend too much time staring at the water, watching the water skippers float across the surface and the dragonflies bouncing from plant to plant along the shoreline, but that’s okay. I’d be refreshing my soul.






You say spending my time writing doesn’t sound like a vacation? For me, it would be. I’d get to mix two of my most favorite things to do. Now that’s a dream vacation.


Do you want to find out what author Kelly Williams would do for vacation? Check it out here:
Kelly Willliams. Make sure you check out her books while you’re there. Hope to see you again next week!





#OpenBook #Vacation  #Mountains

Crafty Things – Meet the Author Open Book Blog

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Welcome everyone! If you came here by way of Lela Markham’s   blog, thanks for making the hop.  Hope you took a minute to check out her books. If not, it’s not to late. You can check out her author page on Amazon HERE.




Do you like to read? Wouldn’t you like to know more about your favorite authors? Well you came to the right place! Join the MMB Open Book Blog Hop each Wednesday and they will tell all. Every week we’ll answer questions and after you’ve enjoyed the blog on this site we’ll direct you to another. So come back often for a thrilling ride! Tell your friends and feel free to ask us questions in the comment box.’
This week’s topic: Topic: Are you crafty? Do you like DIY projects? Would you like to be? Share some projects you’ve done.  It could be gardening, crafts, home repairs/remodels, turning a door into a headboard, creating a light fixture out of a crate (I know a stretch), anything.



I think you can already see where I’m going with this post. I’m into needlecraft. Everything on this post is my work. (Except the book covers!) Sure, most of the ones I’ve posted are from kits, but that’s because I’ve given away a lot of things I’ve made to special people in my life that were not kit-based. And I didn’t keep pictures of them.


Oh, you thought those were paintings? Nope. They are all done with yarn. Well, the ones you’ve seen so far are.If you zoom in you can see the individual stitches.Several different techniques were used in these samples of my work.


The lion is done with a technique known as longstitch. It’s done on a fabric canvas, and one stitch can cover several squares. It’s done in a vertical fashion, unlike the next project. That’s traditional needlepoint, and the stitches are made in a diagonal pattern. (Continental stitch) It’s also done on a fabric canvas, and each stitch covers one of the “intersections” of the canvas threads. Yes, folks, that’s a lot of stitching in that project. Also a lot of variations of the colors used. I had to make sure I worked that one in good lighting so I didn’t mess up the shading.

The unicorn pillow is a combination of needlepoint techniques. It uses the standard stitch (continental) like the pansy picture, but it also uses satin stitch and french knots.If I recall correctly, it also uses a stem stitch and an outline stitch, It was inspired by a kit I made for someone else, but I liked the design so much I copied it and made on for myself.

Before I go any farther, let me apologize.  A photographer I am not. And it’s difficult to get a good shot when the object is hanging on the wall in an odd spot. But I did the best I could.





The eagle and the two pillows are a different style of needlecraft known as crewel embroidery. It’s done with yarn on a special cotton fabric. You can create different effects by using different of kinds of stitches. The eagle only used about four kinds of stitches, but the pillow below used about a dozen. There are many different kinds of stitches you can use—there are entire books filled with the instructions for how do the numerous variations.

Let’s move on to another category, one that perhaps people are more familiar with. Embroidery. It’s done with special thread (floss) on cloth. You’ve all seen items that are machine embroidered, but I do my stitching by hand. What you see below is one corner of a very large tablecloth. Large enough that if I tried to fit it into a picture, you’d lose the sense of detail. It took me five years to complete this project. Yes, five. Granted, I did some smaller projects during that five years when I got tired of this one, but I never gave up on it.


This is my most recent project—a baby quilt I embroidered for my grandson. It’s done in cross-stitch—stamped, not counted. The request for the quilt was the second thing out of my daughter’s mouth when she told me she was pregnant. I’d made one for each of my kids, as well as several nieces and nephews, and there was no way possible she wasn’t going to get one for her baby.She didn’t even need to ask. It only took me about five months to do. I’d allowed myself more time than that, but he came early and I put aside my writing to get it done before he came home from the hospital.



I’m not working on anything right now so I can’t show you any works in progress. I’ve been concentrating on my writing as my creative outlet. But if you want to know more about these crafts, there are lots of books available.If you know how to thread a needle, you can buy a basic kit and start there. The kit will include instructions.

Find out what author T.L. Clark does besides write. Check out her post at T.L. Clark.  Don’t forget to check out her books while you’re there!

Cooking with the Authors- Open Book Blog Hop

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Do you like to read? Wouldn’t you like to know more about your favorite authors? Well you came to the right place! Join the MMB Open Book Blog Hop each Wednesday and they will tell all. Every week we’ll answer questions and after you’ve enjoyed the blog on this site we’ll direct you to another. So come back often for a thrilling ride! Tell your friends and feel free to ask us questions in the comment box.

 If you came by way of Stephany Tullis’s blog, glad you survived the hop over here! Did you check out her books while you were there? If not here’s your chance..Stephany’s books  But don’t forget to come back when you’ve had a look-see!

This week’s top is food: share a recipe or two and why you love it. Where did you get the recipe or from whom?

I’m not a fancy cook. I like to keep things simple and easy.I also don’t like to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I have other things to do—like write my next book. (Hint: The Free Wolves are back!) But I’m a fan of comfort food, and this recipe will do the trick. I actually forget where this recipe came from—no, it’s not an old family recipe, I think I found it in the Intranet.

Preheat oven to 350°
Ingredients:
1½ lbs hamburger
1 egg
1 pkg dried beefy
mushroom soup
1 cup bread crumbs (or
substitute crushed saltine crackers)
1/3 cup water
2 cans condensed Golden
Mushroom soup
Mix the above
ingredients. If you want to make a slightly smaller amount, use 1 lb
meat, and use only about ¾ cup breadcrumbs while leaving everything
else the same. I usually don’t change the amount of water. If you want a little extra zing, add about 1/2 of a green bell  pepper.
Put the mixture into an
8×13 pan (or smaller if you want) and form into a loaf. Use one can
of the condensed soup to coat the loaf. The original recipe I had
said to do this halfway through cooking, but I do it before I put the
meat in the oven and it works out great.
Total cook time for the
meat is 1 hr. Ten minutes before the meat is done, it’s time to
make the gravy with the other can of soup. Put the condensed soup in
a saucepan and add about ½ can of water. Take the meatloaf out of
the oven and add the drippings from the pan to the soup mixture. (if you’re using lean burger there won’t be much in the way of drippings. That’s okay.) Return the meatloaf to the oven and finish cooking.
Heat the
soup/water/drippings mixture over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
This will be your gravy.
Serve with garden
salad, mashed potatoes, and a vegetable of your choice, and you’ve
got an easy meal. You’ll notice it uses no tomato, which is great
for folks with “delicate” stomachs, but you don’t lose any
flavor.
Fair warning: the hardest part of this recipe is finding the Golden Mushroom soup. Not everyone carries it. So plan ahead and keep your eyes peeled when you’re in the soup section of your favorite grocery store.

Now, because of the cook time, I usually only make this recipe during cold weather, which means I haven’t made it for awhile. But just remembering how good it tastes has my mouth watering. Happy eating!

To find out was PJ Fiala is cooking, head over to her blog at PJ Fiala, Don’t forget to check out her book page while you’re there. And maybe we’ll see you back next week.

Open Book Blog Hop – Music to Live By

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Do you like to read? Wouldn’t you like to know more about your favorite authors? Well you came to the right place! Join the MMB Open Book Blog Hop each Wednesday and they will tell all. Every week we’ll answer questions and after you’ve enjoyed the blog on this site we’ll direct you to another. So come back often for a thrilling ride! Tell your friends and feel free to ask us questions in the comment box.






If you’ve come this way from PJ Fiala’s blog, hi! Did you have a chance to check out her books while you were there? If not, head over to her Amazon page PJ Fiala and then come back here! Please and thank you! 
And if you come from somewhere else, nice to see you!




Now for this weeks question:
Let’s talk music. What do you like? What are your favorite songs? Band? 


I may have mentioned this before, but some people might consider me an old fart. I actually remember when the Beatles first hit it big. I didn’t quite understand why the older girls on the school bus got so excited just talking about them, but I did enjoy their songs. 



I was introduced to a lot of other music from various sources as well. My mother enjoyed Frank Sinatra and Big Band Era musicians. My father liked country and western (And it was Country and Western back then, not just Country) My older brothers were into some of the early rock bands. 

Later my awakening to the singer-songwriter movement and anti-war protest songs happened. At the same time, my school was teaching us the basics of classical symphonies. Quite a heady mix.

When I went off to college and met my soon-to-be-husband, he opened my eyes to yet another genre of music. I like to say he courted me to the music of John Denver, The Wings That Fly Us Home Elton John, and Pink Floyd. And that pretty much describes the interesting mix of music I still listen too—an eclectic mix of just about anything. I’ve even been  know to listen to rap on occasion, although  it’s rarely my first choice.

I like to listen to music while I write. Or while I clean house, or read, or drive or just about anything else else you can think of. It helps me to concentrate.I’m always discovering new artists and new songs to add to my list of favorites.

So if you ask me my favorite band or singer or song, it’s going to change depending upon my mood.But  my go-to answer for who’s my favorite singer is John Denver. I’ve got a large collection of his albums., everything from vinyl to DVD’s and everything in between. And my favorite song I’d name as Funeral for a Friend (Love Lies Bleeding) by Elton John.Love Lies Bleeding


I have to mention my love for various female singers. Buffy Sainte-Marie, Running For The DrunJoan Baez, Joni Mitchell  and Janis Joplin to name some of them. There are plenty more—Adele, Amy McDonald, Stevie Nicks and The Cranberries. I appreciate women who don’t feel like they have to flaunt their bodies to get people to listen to their songs.

Want to know what Traci Wooden-Carlisle listens to? Head on over to her blog at here: Traci  Don’t forget to check out her books while you’re there.

New Release-Doctors in Hell

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I’m please to welcome to welcome Janet Morris and the newest release in her Heroes In Hell Series, Doctors in Hell.

Damned souls wail as plagues wreak havoc, doctors up their fees, snake-oil salesmen make a killing, and Satan turns his hit-man loose. Be there when Erra, the Babylonian plague god, and his 

seven personified weapons, spread terror throughout the underverse! 

Rookie authors write prescriptions for perdition, while veteran hellions diagnose the damned: Deborah Koren, Andrew P. Weston, Janet Morris, Joe Bonadonna, Matthew Kirshenblatt, Chris Morris, Michael H. Hanson, Rob Hinkle, Jack William Finley, Bill Snider, Richard Groller, Paul Freeman, Nancy Asire. 


Victor Frankenstein and Quasimodo develop a vaccine — with diabolical results… 


Satan looses Daemon Grim, the Devil’s personal hit man, and damned souls cower… 


Bat Masterson finds himself caught between plague victims and Wyatt Earp… 


Judas learns you can’t teach an old dog new sins… 


Calamity Jane and her Sinchester carbine defend hell’s last uninfected outpost… 


Nietzsche and Lilith, Adam’s first wife, face the Beast and come to fiendish accord… 


Doc Holliday tries one last gambit, and unleashes all hell’s fury… 


And there’s worse to come, even an excerpt from bestselling author Andrew P. Weston’s forthcoming Heroes in Hell novel! If you think life is tough, try the afterlife, where the doctor is always wrong, sinners never win, misery runs amok, and all hell’s damned get their just deserts — eternally.






Available on Amazon 

http://www.amazon.com/Doctors-Hell-Heroes-Book-18-ebook/dp/B00Z753EX8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1434849983&sr=1-1&keywords=doctors+in+h

Janet Morris began writing in 1976 and has since published more than 40 novels, many co-authored with her husband Chris Morris or others. Her debut novel, written as Janet E. Morris, was High Couch of Silistra, the first in a quartet of character-driven novels with a female protagonist. According to original publisher Bantam Books, the Silistra quartet had over four million copies in print when the fourth volume, The Carnelian Throne was published. Charles N. Brown,Locus Magazine, is quoted on the Baen Books reissues of the series as saying, “Engrossing characters in a marvelous adventure.”
.
She created, orchestrated, and edited the Bangsian fantasy series Heroes in Hell, writing stories for the series as well as co-writing the related novel, The Little Helliad, with Chris Morris.


Open Book Blog Hop- Diet & Exercise

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Do you like to read? Wouldn’t you like to know more about your favorite authors? Well you came to the right place! Join the MMB Open Book Blog Hop each Wednesday and they will tell all. Every week we’ll answer questions and after you’ve enjoyed the blog on this site we’ll direct you to another. So come back often for a thrilling ride! Tell your friends and feel free to ask us questions in the comment box.


If you came here from PJ Fiala’s blog, hello! And if you came via Facebook or Twitter or somewhere else, welcome! If you haven’t checked out Patti’s books yet, you should. Her amazon page is here: PJ Fiala. Pt if you didn’t take the time to explore her blog, it’s Here.
This week’s question is:
Do you diet? Do you exercise? Tell us what you do to stay healthy.

Quick discloser: I work for an organization that stresses giving its employees the skills they need to live  a healthy lifestyle. We are even given “health coaches” to encourage us in our path to wellness as well discounts to health clubs. Our cafeteria offers foods for a nutritious diet, including a salad bar, along with more “traditional” cafeteria-type foods. I know what I should be doing.

So how much do I do? Not enough. I don’t smoke, I’ve given up soda and I’ve never been a coffee drinker, so I can check those bad habits off my list.

And I’m lucky. For many years, I was more than moderately athletic, and that has helped me stay in good shape even now that I’ve slowed down. I hate calisthenics, always have, but I walk whenever I get the chance. I’m in pretty good shape for an old fart.

I don’t “diet” but I do watch what I eat. My biggest problem is that I love to snack. And there isn’t much in the way of “healthy” foods that I like  to eat.

But I make an exception for blueberries.

It may be because I grew up in an area where, every August, my friends and I would go pick wild huckleberries. Even better, we knew of an abandoned farm with a few domestic blueberry bushes. Although we tried to take enough berries home to share with our families, we’d eat a good portion of our find as we were picking. So eating blueberries now reminds me of those happy summer days.

But I know my downfall. Like so many others, I love chocolate. Dark chocolate especially. Hey, it’s good for your heart, right?

So yes, there are still things I need to change to meet the standards that the health industry wants us to follow. But my motivation to do them is slim. And maybe someday I’ll regret not doing more. Or not.

To find out what Traci Wooden-Carlisle does to stay healthy, drop by her blog Traci’s blog. You can find her books on Amazon at Traci’s Amazon Author Page.

Open Book Blog Hop- Exclusive on Amazon?

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Do you like to read? Wouldn’t you like to know more about your favorite authors? Well you came to the right place! Join the MMB Open Book Blog Hop each Wednesday and they will tell all. Every week we’ll answer questions and after you’ve enjoyed the blog on this site we’ll direct you to another. So come back often for a thrilling ride! Tell your friends and feel free to ask us questions in the comment box.

For those of you who “hopped” here from Kelly Williams’ blog, thanks for coming. Did you check out her books while you were there? If not, you can find her author page on Amazon at Kelly on Amazon.






And howdy to everyone! 


This weeks question:is:

As an author, do you sell your books exclusively on Amazon or do you sell your books on  all platforms? Why or why not? Which platforms do you like best?


Before I started into the publishing game, I spent quite some time on authors’ loops on Yahoo, and this question came up—a lot. And I thought about it when I was ready to release my first book and gave it a try. As a new author, I hoped to get some traction from Amazon’s Kindle program,


Well, it didn’t work. I released Wolves’ Pawn in January, and in May (after a quick edit for some typos my early readers caught) I put it up on Nook, Kobo, and  iTunes. First day I had it on Nook, someone bought a copy. That cemented in my mind that I would never be exclusive again.


Then the Amazon Kindle program happened. And I was tempted. Very tempted. But other authors were having mixed results so I held off. I held off for several months. Then I put the book on sale over the Christmas holidays, and thought why not. So I pulled it off the other platforms and enrolled it in the lending program. I figured I couldn’t lose.






When I saw the first borrow, I got excited. That didn’t last very long.The book got borrowed 3 times the first month, and 2 times the second and third months. The good part is I earned more from the borrows than I did from the actual book sales per unit. The bad part? I have no idea how many sales I might have made on other platforms that same period if the book had been available elsewhere.


So my second and third books, The Oak Grove Mysteries, haven’t been Amazon-only releases. I won’t say never, but I have no plans to ever make them exclusive on Amazon. I may only sell a few on other sites, but to me every reader counts.Besides, I’m an old hippie, and I don’t believe in monopolies! 


Oh, if you want direct links to any of my books, see the “My Books” page of this blog. 





































So while I think the concept of Amazon’s borrow program is interesting, it didn’t work for me, although I do get most of my sales from there. But to find out if it worked for Stephany Tullis, head over to her blog and get her take on the question.  Stephany Tullis  You can find her Amazon author page at Stephany Amazon.






I hope you’ll come back next week for our next question!