For Kassi, giving up her ballet dreams to relocate a world away wasn't easy. Worse, an ancient force has awakened, and it doesn't want humans on her turf. Now it's up to Kassi, jockboy Noah, and artsy hacker Jacqui to save Mars Colony 1.
Hey, guys! I'm hosting a RaffleCopter giveaway of my new YA sci-fi with a paranormal twist, Beneath the Red Sand. Enter between 11.17.21 - 11.30.21 to win the ebook. Add it to your to-read GoodReads list, and don't forget to share with any friends you think might enjoy reading Kassi's story!
For my fellow YA sci-fi & fantasy authors and readers out there, I'm also interested in opening up my blog to Author Spotlight posts, as well as booking a spotlight post on your blog, so if you're interested, give me an email or leave contact info in the comments section here. Best of luck, entrants! If you don't win, I am also willing to share the pdf as a review copy in exchange for a review on Amazon and GoodReads, so let me know if you'd like me to send you one! <3 Lora
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For Kassi, giving up her ballet dreams to relocate millions of miles away with her parents wasn’t easy. Worse, an ancient force has awakened, and it will stop at nothing to destroy Mars Colony 1. Hey, guys! I'm excited to share the news that my YA sci-fi with a paranormal twist, Beneath the Red Sand, is now live on Amazon! It's been a long haul. This was my NaNoWrimo 2014 novel, and after years of sporadic editing, it's now available for purchase. EBOOK PAPERBACK Today on The #WriteSkills, I'm excited to welcome fellow Clean Reads author Krysten Lindsay Hager to tell you all about her True Colors Series. Here's what she has to say about her amazing and successful series: The Landry’s True Colors Series is an award-winning clean reads middle grade series about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, middle school (and worrying about high school!), frenemies, and self-image. It’s a clean reads book so it’s suitable for ages 10 and up. Landry Albright is an 8th grader who just wants to be one of the interesting girls at school who always have exciting things happening in their lives. She wants to stand out, but she also wants to fit in, too. Landry tries to make new friends, but gets caught up between wanting to be herself and conforming to who her new friends want her to be. Along the way she learns that being in the spotlight is nowhere as glamorous as it seems, how to deal with frenemies, and that true friends see you for who you really are and like you because of it. Reading Guide for at home discussion and writing exercises: As schools closed down for social isolation and as summer is starting, I thought I’d offer a reading guides to go along with the book series for at home learning opportunities. These reading sessions include some of the group activities I do with readers at book events. Normally I do these as presentations where I share info and the students or readers can ask questions, so I adjusted the usual presentation and questions so they can work for discussions at home with an adult, as writing exercises, or they can be done with friends online. There are also writing exercises that can be shared or used as journaling prompts. These are great ways to discuss what’s going on at school and it can be helpful to have the adults share their own experiences along with them. Some of the themes we focus on are talking about developing healthy friendships, dealing with having issues fitting in, self-esteem, finding your tribe, and positive self-image. Since I often have preteens, teens, and younger kids in the mix, these questions and prompts can be used for different ages. Sometimes younger siblings attend events and I had a teacher’s helper suggest that the younger kids can draw pictures instead of doing the writing exercises, so they can be included as well. Usually the readers for the Landry’s True Colors Series are around ages 10 and up. Landry is in 8th grade, but kids like to “read up” age-wise. I will have different sets of questions up on the blog each week as we go through all three books in the series during the summer. All the links will be on the main page. https://www.krystenlindsay.com/teacherparentbook-club-guide.html Review of True Colors for Readers’ Favorite Reviewed by Anna Smith True Colors (Landry's True Colors Series Book 1) by Krysten Lindsay Hager is a middle grade book about fitting in and learning to love yourself. Landry desperately wishes to have an interesting life. She wants to be one of the girls at school that has a funny and clever story to share with her friends. But she feels that her life is too boring. She is ignored and chosen last in gym class. She doesn't fit in, let alone stand out to the popular crowd. Because of this desire to fit in, Landry agrees to audition for a teen reality show modeling competition with her best friends, Tori and Ericka. Landry is nervous but impressive and makes it to the next round. When her friends get cut from the competition, Landry realizes how little they were her true friends when they stop speaking to her at school. She desperately wants new friends, but has to choose between being herself and impressing her new potential friends. And along the journey, she begins to see how unglamorous modeling can be. She learns how to deal with mean girls, her newest crush, and that true friends are those that accept you for who you are, not what stories you have to tell. True Colors is a fantastic middle grade story with a healthy message for tweens. The story is definitely geared toward 8th graders and 12 to 13-year-olds. It is a fun story, with the characters modeling, having sleepovers, and hanging out at the mall a lot. Krysten Lindsay Hager did a great job of capturing that young tween voice and I think young girls will absolutely love this story! And parents will certainly approve of the healthy message about friendship and staying true to oneself. Review of Landry in Like for Readers’ Favorite Krysten Lindsay Hager's young adult and preteen coming of age story, Landry in Like: Landry's True Colors Series, Book 3, continues the story of Landry and her friends in their last year of middle school. Hager touches on the many social issues facing young teens, including self-esteem, meanness and bullying, and transitioning from middle school into the high school atmosphere. Her main character, Landry, shares her deepest fears about losing her friends and her conflict between wanting to stay at home and play video games or go out to a teen club. This is the third book in Hager's True Colors Series, but I felt instantly at home with the story even though I hadn't read the first two books in the series. This novel should go a long way towards helping adolescent readers realize that they're not alone in having to cope with the mean girls and rude boys who seem to be targeting them, and help those being bullied understand why and learn to develop their own coping strategies. Landry in Like is well-written and while boyfriends, kisses and dancing are inevitably part of any coming of age tale, this story is squeaky clean and recommended for preteens as well as young adults. Review of Landry in Like by Literary Classics. "Being a teenaged girl has its challenges. And life for Landry is no different, even though she somehow believed things might be better for her this year. But she thought wrong. Nothing seems to be going her way, and to make matters worse, it seems her best friend is leaving her behind for a new group of friends. Staying true to herself and maintaining a positive attitude isn’t always easy when it seems like she’s always on the defensive. Author Krysten Lindsay Hager captures the true essence of life for teens today in book three of the Landry’s True Colors series. Packed with a cast of well-developed characters and highly plausible scenarios, this book sends just the right message to young girls today who are trying to navigate troubling teen years. Recommended for home and school libraries, Landry in Like has earned the Literary Classics Seal of Approval." Author bio: Krysten Lindsay Hager writes about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, frenemies, crushes, fame, first loves, and values. She is the author of True Colors, Best Friends...Forever?, Next Door to a Star, Landry in Like, and Competing with the Star, Dating the It Guy, Can Dreams Come True, and In Over Her Head: Lights, Camera, Anxiety. Her debut novel, True Colors, won the Readers Favorite award for best preteen book and the Dayton Book Expo Bestseller Award for children/teens. Landry in Like is a Literary Classics Gold Medal recipient. Best Friends...Forever? is a 2019 Readers' Favorite Silver Medal Winner in the Children - Preteen genre Competing with the Star is a Readers' Favorite Book Award Finalist. She received her BA in English and master’s degree from the University of Michigan-Flint. Krysten's work has been featured in USA Today, The Flint Journal, the Grand Haven Tribune, the Beavercreek Current, the Bellbrook Times, Springfield News-Sun, Grand Blanc View, Dayton Daily News and on Living Dayton. Author Video: https://wiki.ezvid.com/m/5-women-penning-exceptional-ya-fiction-MhyCIxeJuG1q9 Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFp2fPFbvTQ Purchase the Series: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074CH4WVM Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/2UqkRj2 Book Depository: www.bookdepository.com/author/Krysten-Lindsay-Hager Author links: Website: http://www.krystenlindsay.com/ Discussion Sessions: https://www.krystenlindsay.com/teacherparentbook-club-guide.html Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/krystenlindsay/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KrystenLindsayHagerAuthor Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/krystenlindsay/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/KrystenLindsay Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Krysten-Lindsay-Hager/e/B00L2JC9P2 Thank you, Krysten, for joining me on the blog today. It was great to have you here! Dear #WriteSkills readers, once you've checked out this series and discussion questions, leave a comment to let me know what you think!
"Look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, what do I want to do everyday for the rest of my life? Do that." -Gary Vaynerchuk During this tough time while we all face the coronavirus pandemic together, what strategies do you use to navigate through it? I've focused on learning and applying new skills: setting goals, developing productive habits, marketing, honing my writing craft. I want to give back by sharing what I'm learning, hence the birth of my newly minted blog, #TheWriteSkills. Welcome to its very first post! Last night, the inspiration struck to carry out a spring cleaning and redesign of my author website. Authors, have you made over your online presence lately? If you're considering a fun, fresh change to your website, I hope you find some of these tips helpful. Please let me know in the comments. I'd love to hear from you! 1. Research SEO Optimization SEO optimization is one major key to your site's discoverability because it affects its rankings in the major search engines. I'll admit, it's a topic I need to research much more. When I understand it better, I'll put together a blog post on the topic for you all. One of the first things I did in overhauling my website was checking for broken links. Having broken links penalizes you. Yes, broken links left untended can cause a literal penalty on your website in terms of rankings by Google. If, like me, you haven't maintained your website recently, you'll probably find some to remove. On a longtime blog or website with many pages, you may want to use a resource like Broken Link Checker to help find those pesky broken links. So, how do you improve your site for SEO? My next step was testing out some free website diagnostic tools online, such as Website Grader and SEO Checker. They turned out to be another fantastic resource, because they showed me where I could improve the title and website description, content length, speed of loading, and other issues affecting quality and SEO. All of this led to reorganizing the pages for better flow. Be sure to tell me what you think, whether you're new here or have visited before! Another SEO optimization tip I discovered while watching a YouTube video mentioned keyword tracking tools that provide stats on the most searched keyword terms. My favorite one so far is the Wordstream Free Keyword Tool. Using the keyword terms can be a powerful way to understand what others are searching for and optimize your content so it's easily found in search results. 2. Select a Fresh New Design for the Website While it was helpful to gain a greater understanding of SEO and keywords, and I'm excited to see the results as I apply what I'm learning, I love playing around with design. After trying out several banners, I finally settled on this background. The calm elegance of flowering branches drew me in. It fits with what I want my brand to stand for -- beauty, inspiration, and growth. In redesigning your website, it's a wonderful opportunity to think about your brand and how the overall look and feel of your site embodies that. I hope the new changes have inspired you! 3. Improve Organization and Functionality Today I spent most of the day reorganizing and updating the website. I moved my book blurb back to the home page, deleted a "For Purchase" page, and collected all my short stories onto a single page. I deleted broken links and elements preventing my site from loading quickly. On #TheWriteSkills, I established its new name and wrote the blog description. Then, I added my picture and contact icons. I'm planning to monetize blog and YouTube content I create someday, so I rediscovered my old Adsense account. I added my RSS feed to my GoodReads and Amazon author profiles. If you're thinking of working on your author website, I hope you'll find these tips useful! If you enjoyed what you read today, leave a like and share, and be sure to tell me what topics you'd like to see me tackle in future posts. Your feedback will help me connect you with the skills, information, and resources you need.
A special thanks to Priyanka of MagicAuthor.com for this opportunity to spotlight this great resource for authors!
MagicAuthor.com
MagicAuthor.com was founded in the year 2012 by Mr. Saptharishi Suresh, with a humble mission to help aspiring writers to establish themselves. Mr. Saptharishi Suresh is an avid reader and a published author. His challenges with publishing his first book compelled him to think of something else, a platform where writers can publish their work without the hassle. His journey to create MagicAuthor.com was a long road. It took him nearly 5 years to create MagicAuthor.com and make a recognized platform by authors, readers, and publishers. Along the way, he noticed it was very difficult to publish books in regional languages, where there are many options for books in English. So, he wanted to create an online space for the literature that includes English as well as regional languages.
MagicAuthor.com, a writing platform for all age groups, they have started an initiative where kids can upload and showcase their works online. It can be an artwork, or stories or a video/photo of craftwork.
He wants MagicAuthor.com foray into podcasts and audio-books; he aspires to make MagicAuthor.com LinkedIn for the authorâs community.
MagicAuthor.com is one of a kind platform, in which, using their book wizard authors can create eBooks from scratch and also design a cover image and publish them online. If you've already created an eBook in PDF or ePubformat then you can simply upload it to their e-commerce platform. It is a unique initiative dedicated to authors, designers, and publishers, etc. to create eBooks in formats like ePUB, PDF, and MOBI.
MagicAuthor.com is a publishing services provider. They provide authors with tools and services that enable them to publish and sell their own books. MagicAuthor.com also distributes eBooks to Google play store.
Unique Features of Magicauthor.com:
Saptharishi Suresh (Founder of MagicAuthor.com):
Saptharishi Suresh is a published author and an art enthusiast. He wrote his first story at the age of ten and done many paintings during his childhood. Later, as an adult, he reproduced the same online at Saptharishi - Thinketh Undefined. Though his interests were in arts and literature, he couldn't pursue it as a profession, thanks to the lack of guidance and peer pressure. He decided to pursue engineering and became a software engineer in the year 2005. After a couple of years into the profession, he realized the need to revive his childhood interests as something in him was feeling lonely. He set up a blogging website called Saptharishi - Thinketh Undefined in 2008 and started writing on a wide variety of topics like short stories, painting, spiritual, tourism, and even technology. With the website getting popular, he decided to take the plunge of publishing his first novel TheWake-up Call" in the year 2010. Getting his first book published was not easy at all and he learned a lot about the challenges involved in the process. Being a software engineer he thought of leveraging his software skills to aid in the publishing process. He wanted to make life easy for other authors. Hence he set up the platform called "Magic Author" (https://www.magicauthor.com) in the year 2012. Since then he has helped authors and creative artists build their reputation online. He spends most of his time exploring how authors can leverage the internet benefiting both themselves and the communities around them.
Catch up with Saptharishi Suresh On:
I'm so excited to share that The MirrorMasters is now an audiobook! You can snag your copy through Audible. The narrator, Melissa Schwairy, does an amazing job bringing to life the story and all the feels, and to celebrate, I'm doing a giveaway of two copies. If you're one of the lucky winners, I'll email you a code that you can use to get your free audiobook. Good luck!
This giveaway is promoted at Online Sweepstakes.
Check out what arrived in the mail the other day! To celebrate the print version of The MirrorMasters, I'm hosting a GoodReads giveaway. Between May 15 - May 23, 2017, enter to win a signed paperback. Just click on the widget below for your chance to win! Good luck!
Goodreads Book GiveawayEnter GiveawayHailey kitty wants to announce that a print version of The #MirrorMasters is forthcoming! Mrowr. Further details will be announced as soon as they become available, so stay tuned <3 #books #ya #fantasy #mustread
Hi, all! I'm so excited to announce that The MirrorMasters cover by the amazing Cora Bignardi of Cora Graphics is in InD'tale Creme De La Cover contest! Love the cover? I absolutely love it, too, and I'm so thrilled it was selected for the contest! I'd love it if you'd take a moment to vote to help it win. Thanks, guys, for your vote! You're all awesome :) http://indtale.com/polls/creme-de-la-cover-contest Only twelve days to go before the anthology's release, and I'm so excited the day is almost here! Isn't the cover gorgeous? If you like dark YA retellings of biblical stories, you'll love this amazing collection. Seriously, put this one on your Goodreads TBR list. www.goodreads.com/book/show/25946627-in-the-beginning
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AuthorHi! I'm Lora Palmer. I wrote THE MIRRORMASTERS, a YA fantasy adventure. Contact Me
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