Gotta love that holiday gridlock

Whew! Just got back from a family get-together that would normally be a four-hour drive, but instead took six. The later in the day on Sunday after Thanksgiving you find yourself driving, the slower go the cars around you. No reason. Just too many cars. It's good to be back!

new webpage finished

The new webpage is finished, we had a page devoted to reviews of Wild Evolution.
Check out our new addition to the pack.
muddymuttsacres.com

the review is in

A review of Wild Evolution was recently published by monsterlibrarian.com as follows:


Wild Evolution by C. Fern Cook *New Review

Penumbra Publishing, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-9819614-3-9

Available: New

The life of Dan Tucker, a normal rancher in a normal Colorado rural town with all the normal small town characters, is turned upside down when he suffers a bite from what he believed was a wild dog. After cutting off the wild dog’s head to test for rabies, then finding a human head the next morning in its place, Tucker discovers the wild dog was in fact a werewolf and he has been contaminated by its bite. Tucker embraces this transformation, but not without ramifications, such as murder, and the subsequent deteriorating friendship with his best friend, the local cop, Tony Ramirez.

In this first book of her paranormal Wild Series, C. Fern Cook takes a unique spin on werewolf mythology. She uses her knowledge of the Colorado landscape and small town atmospheres to take great care in describing the settings and interactions of her characters with nature and each other. Additionally, her background as an officer of the law helps in accurately depicting scenes involving police officer Tony Ramirez, his dealings with his fellow co-workers, the community at large, and his investigation methods.

Cook’s writing style will reach a wide variety of readers in a variety of age ranges. Wild Evolution is easily accessible for adult readers as well as older young adults. She uses very little profanity, and her descriptions of violence and gore are just enough to produce the desired fear and suspense effect without being overly graphic. Added bits of romance provide another conflict element, but without overpowering the main focus of the story. The story moves quickly beginning from the very first page, and it ends at a perfect cliff-hanger for her next book in the series. Readers will itch to get their hands on the second book as soon as possible. This is an ideal book for a public library collection, and an absolute must have for small town, rural public libraries.

Contains: Mild violence & gore, mild sex

Review by Kelly Fann

Winner from Coffee Time Romance chat

The winner of the signed copy of Wild Evolution from the Coffee Time Romance chat is Beverly G. from Missouri.

Penumbra Publishing Author's chat

Join us on a multi-author chat on coffee time romance chat site
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/karenfindoutaboutnewbooks

There will be four Penumbra Publishing Author's:
Dallas White, eroctica author
Dana Warryck, paranormal romance
Willa Kaye Danes, fantacy romance
C. Fern Cook, paranormal thriller

So there will be something for everyone. The chat is Wednesday November 18th from 9-11 PM. Hope to see you at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/karenfindoutaboutnewbooks
for our chat.

The topic will be about "Keeping Secrets", so it should be an interesting topic.

C. Fern Cook blogging at "Love those Shifters"

Hey all,

Just to let you know, author C. Fern Cook is blogging right now at http://lovethoseshifters.blogspot.com/ about her werewolf series that begins with "Wild Evolution." Go over there and check it out. Fern's book is a unique take on the werewolf mythology and she's giving away an autographed copy to bloggers who comment and send their email to her web site.

I already went over there and the info Fern has to offer about her law-enforcement experience is an eye-opener! Way to go, Fern!

Gwynn E. Ambrose
coming soon - The Cat's Fancy

Where is my team?

I get a little frustrate when it comes to promoting my book. All lot of it is hit and miss. It has been a learning experience for future books. It is just me; I don't have a publicist or an agent to help me out, that's what happens when you are little fish in a big pond. I have to depend on me alone while I try to swim with the big fishes and not get eaten up.
In my attempt to get known I have invested some money in author website promotions and can tell you what I have learned from this past year. It all boils down to double checking and making sure the people you have paid money to do the job they said they would do, do it.
Take Today for instance, I thought I had two guest blogs set up, guess again. One says she never received the information for the blog, that could be very well true, things happen and emails end up in the dark void of the universe, but the other one has not answered my multiply emails about the event so I am thinking someone is asleep at the switch.
It is human factor, we are not machines, we all make mistakes and let things fall through the cracks. But when it is common place to receive excuses, look elsewhere.
Case in point: this weekend we had a huge turnout for the promo at Bitten By Books. There is a reason they are rated so highly; they have their act together.
Pay attention to the signal they are sending you when you are checking things out. If you get red flags like unanswered emails, excuses of why this or that was missed maybe you should think twice about plopping your money down.
I have learned a lot this past year and I am not going to waste those lessons by repeating the same mistakes. I will make sure my information is received, I will pay attention when emails go answered, and ultimately I will take responsibility for my own promotions. After all you can not count on anyone but yourself.

Bitten by Books Author Chat and Book Giveaway

Hey all you readers looking for fun and free books, visit Bitten by Books before NOON on Friday Nov. 6 to register for the all-day blog/chat and book giveaway featuring authors and books from Penumbra Publishing.

Here's the RSVP link for this event...

http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=12603

All you have to do is RSVP for the event and make a comment during the event to be registered for 15 - count 'em - 15 book giveaways. Five print books will be mailed to lucky winners with US/Canada addresses, and 10 ebooks will be emailed to lucky winners worldwide. Winners get the book of their choice from any available direct from Penumbra Publishing's web site at www.penumbrapublishing.com

chats and blogs

I have three blogs schedule this coming week. The first is a multi-author event scheduled this Friday on Bitten By Books website. There will be something for every type of reader at this chat. Come see what some of our authors from Penumbra Publishing have to say about Secrets, Lies, and Cover-ups.

On the following Monday I have a blog scheduled for the Manic Reader website and Author Island website. The topic for Monday will be how my experience in Law Enforcement, especially my crime scene investigation classes, shows in my writing style.

I hope you can stop by for at least one of them.

C. Fern Cook
Wild Evolution

Crystal Clear Storm Ryder.

Congratulations Dana for a tale well done. If you like classic sci-fi stories you'll love this story.
I just finished reading and I am still a fan.

Measure twice, cut once, and avoid the chain saw

MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE...

The carpenter’s adage holds true for many things, including writing. Case in point: A couple we know were building some shelves for their storage shed. The wife (the brains of the operation) was charged with the task of planning the construction and providing the dimensions for the cuts, while the husband operated the power tools.

The husband had a general idea of how everything would fit together and decided to go ahead with dimensions from a preliminary drawing. However, when he assembled cut pieces, he found that allowances had not been made for the width of one of the two-by-fours, and so the legs had to be notched to fit the standard width of a sheet of plywood. Because the unit had already been constructed, the husband decided that the most expedient tool to cut through the double layers of two-by-fours would be ... yep, his electric chain saw!

This same scenario can easily apply to writing ... planning your story ahead of time and knowing how all the pieces are supposed to fit together will spare you the trouble of going back with a chain saw to hack away parts that don’t fit the finished product.

In carpentry as well as writing, it's always a good idea to plan ahead – measure twice and cut once. It may take a little more time up front, but saves a lot of effort later. And the finished product looks neater too!

Dallas White
author of
Dominatrix-Online.com - Mistress Blackheart: Policeman's Prerogative

Oh where, oh where did my story go...

“Oh where, oh where did my story go? Oh where, oh where could it be?” That's the last little ditty any writer wants to sing (to the tune of “Where oh where did my puppy-dog go”) when looking over a half-finished story. Here's what usually happens to make that tune pop into a writer's head...

You have a basic idea of what your story is about. You sort of have a handle on your main characters, and those characters are interacting and talking to each other in your head, convincing you that you're ready to start writing. You're happily writing along until suddenly, at about page 100, you realize the story's taken a sharp left turn, and you don't know where you are or what's supposed to happen next – and your characters are refusing to give you any clues! This happens to many writers, even those who diligently plot or outline their stories ahead of time. There are many reasons for this, the most common being...

1) Sometimes the characters seem to 'take over' the story, running like a child with the loose end of a ball of yarn. The farther the child (your characters) runs, the more unraveled the ball of yarn (your story) becomes. At this point you have two choices: either rein in the characters and backtrack to the point where the yarn started unraveling, or take the story where it stopped and write more to lead it back to a place that makes sense. Either choice involves a lot of work on your part.

2) Sometimes the basic idea of a story seems terrific, enough so that you’re eager to start writing before you’ve thought it through carefully enough to have contingency plans at major turning points in the action. When this happens, you need to go back to the drawing board and readdress the strengths of your story, perhaps by adding a few details and other underpinnings to shore up the story ahead of time, so that it will withstand a good pummeling when the tide of readers washes in. This requires a lot of time and thinking power and effort on your part to tie things together so your story will stand strong under intense scrutiny.

Whatever your reason for stalling on a story, digging in and doing the necessary work to salvage what you have is usually better than just chucking the story altogether and starting off with something else.

Dallas White
author of
Dominatrix-Online.com - Mistress Blackheart: Policeman’s Prerogative

Whose story is this?

One of the most important decisions a writer can make when crafting a story is to choose who the stars of the story are. Every story has a main character, a protagonist, about whose major life struggle the story revolves. This character is often categorized as the hero (or heroine). The villain (antagonist) is the individual or force the protagonist struggles against, creating the central conflict of the story. Serious trouble arises when the author can’t figure out who the story is really about. There are several possible causes for this.

The Scene Stealer. Sometimes a minor character (or the villain) becomes more interesting and steals so many scenes that the main character seems dull or plodding in comparison. Gradually the story becomes about the minor character, or at least so much that the tale becomes fragmented or torn in two or more directions, ruining the cohesive structure necessary for the reader to identify with and empathize with the main character, the star of the story.

The POV Mish-Mash. The author’s choice of point of view (POV) can have a miraculous or devastating effect on the story. Authors who choose to mix POVs within a scene (also known as ‘head-hopping’) run the risk of confusing the reader by presenting the thoughts and feelings of several characters all at once rather than confining each scene to one character’s point of view. The problem with mixed POVs is the reader almost needs a scorecard to keep up with whose head the scene is in at any given moment.

Diametrically Opposed Storylines. In the desire to craft a story rich with conflict and subplots, the author finds two very strong but very different storylines with separate characters existing within one story, creating an undesirable conflict in the cohesive nature of the story as a whole. The author may end up trying to alternate two opposing stories that are so different, they may not converge until well past the middle of the book. This kind of separate path approach may split the story down the middle and cause the reader to lose direction before the two dissimilar storylines merge and make sense.

Whatever the situation, the author should do what is necessary to bring cohesion to the story to keep the reader on track. In a future installment we’ll devote a detailed discussion to the very important (and sometimes controversial) issue of POV!

Willa Kaye Danes
author of
Pixie