Book Launch

Visit me on www.franorenstein.weebly.com on Sunday, October 31st and Monday, November 1st, to participate in the book launch of The Spice Merchant's Daughter, a YA historical romance novel released this month by Whiskey Creek Press. There is an interview with Katy Dubois, the heroine of the novel. Learn what life was like when she was a girl in 1700. Go with her on an exciting journey when she finds love and danger.

Also meet Stefanie Mandelbaum whose past-life regression inspired the creation of Katy and The Spice Merchant's Daughter.

You might win a signed copy of the book when you enter the contest.

CAN tell a book by its cover!

You CAN tell a book by its cover and also sell it. I rarely considered the importance of cover art until the Decatur Book Festival in Georgia three weeks ago. I brought four 'tween book to sell at my publisher's booth. Of the four, all eyes immediately went to the one in the middle, The Mystery Under Third Base. The cover stood out.

My publisher, Randy Young of Sleepytown Press is a terrific artist and used a photo he took of a student at his school sitting on third base in the town's baseball field to design the cover. The attraction was astonishing. I grew fascinated watching people of all ages look immediately at that book. More than half the sales that day were this book and I almost sold out.

I love all the covers of my books that Randy designed, but we both know that this one was unique because of its realism and stark design.

DECATUR BOOK FESTIVAL

Over Labor Day weekend, Sept. 4th & 5th, I participated in the largest independent book festival in the country, held in the lovely town of Decatur, GA, just outside of Atlanta. Hundreds of authors and publishers displayed and sold books not found anywhere else. Crowds of people wandered through the town of Decatur stopping at booths, talking to authors and publishers and buying books. I was psyched. I got to meet my publisher, Randy Young of Sleepytown Press, his charming wife, Beth and their adorable grandson, Zander, age 5. I made a number of important contacts, was interviewed for a television news show, and sold 25 books. The best part was getting to talk to so many people of all ages who stopped by to check out the books. It was an exciting event, which I hope to attend every year.

Book Review and Interview

What a terrific 24 hours this has been! Fran Lewis reviewed my 'tween book, The Mystery Under Third Base. Randy Young posted an interview with me on www.sleepytownpress.com in the author interview section. Check out the interview at the website.

Now for the wonderful review:

Mystery Under Third Base

Geeks, nerds, brainiacs and really smart kids this one is for you. So what if everyone thinks that you are different. Being smart is definitely cool and as you get to know my friend Huby and many others in this great novel you will learn that using your brain and intelligence to help others pays off.

“ Being a genius and really smart has put me in a strange place. My classmates in school are two years older than I am and they do not accept me as their peer. The fact that I am smarter than them makes it even more difficult for me to make friends. But, then there is Rachel, my princess in shining light, who wants to be my friend and even have lunch with me. My sister and my brother think I am weird and hardly ever say anything nice about me. I guess I am just Weird Willie, or Willie for short. But, then there is much more to tell you. When you read this great novel that Fran Orenstein wrote titled, “Mystery Under Third Base,” you will get to know not just me but my family too.

Just when I thought I was down and out this kid named Huby appeared out of nowhere and my life changed. He says he traveled a lot but does not know very much about things that happen in our century. He agreed to be my friend and when I am with him I feel brave and even tall. My school wants all of the kids to create a project to help the environment and the school and we have this great idea. He even agreed to help me carry out the plans and create them for this outstanding idea. But, first I have to tell you that I have a special hiding place in the cellar. It might not be the cleanest or best place to hide, but I can read my book and contemplate my life down there. I hear noises, voices and more and I think that there might even be a ghost living there. Imagine that! How cool! “ Just who this ghost is and why he’s there is one question this reviewer will not reveal. Willie and Huby with the help of his two friends Rachel and Pete and one special older woman, thought to be a witch, helps poor Daniel find his way home to his parents and his final resting place.


Fran Orenstein introduces Willie Kramer to the reader, his friend Huby and many other kids that learn some really great lessons from these two young boys. Willie’s idea of building a baseball field creates quite a stir but what will happen to his favorite hiding place and a ghost named Daniel who lives in the cellar where he hides from everyone and can be himself? Everyone wants to be accepted by his/her peers, but Willie has trouble fitting in until his teacher Ms. Barley gives him the opportunity of a lifetime to show everyone just how special he is and why being smart is really great! Who is Huby and why does he appear out of nowhere just when Willie really needs him? You have to read this book to find out for yourself. You won’t want to miss a page of it and you won’t stop reading until you learn the answer to this question and much more as the author engages the reader from page one until you read the last word in the book.


Author Fran Orenstein’s creative way of presenting her characters, descriptions of the two kids who went down into the cellar and learned a hard lesson of what happens when you are in the wrong place at the wrong time and one young boy from somewhere out there, will endear you to Willie and his friends forever.

What happens when three kids and one alien decide to rid a cellar of a ghost with the help of a one woman they assume is witch? What happens when Willie and his friends present their ideas to the town council and there is opposition to what they propose? Adults, tweens and even kids from third grade and up will love reading about Huby, Willie and his friends and learn the true meaning of friendship and honesty. Parenting lessons, understanding that every child is not an athlete and accepting someone for who they are and not what you want them to be are just some of the great lessons learned in this humorous and heartwarming book.

Fran Lewis and Willie Kramer: Reviewers and Please don’t forget HUBY!

EBOOK WAR?

I just heard an interesting program this morning on NPR radio that Wylie, one of the leading and largest literary agencies now putting out classics on ebook with an exclusive with Amazon Kindle. It seems the publishing world is up in arms, angry both at Wylie for getting into the ebook business and at Amazon for once again grabbing a big bite of the market. It appears that publishers are now refusing to publish authors with Wylie.

The war between publishing houses and Amazon has raged for a while now, ever since Amazon decided to get into the publishing business as well as sales. Now literary agencies are getting into the business, too. It seems that everyone wants a piece of the pie...

Apparently the literary agency disagrees with the amount of money authors make from the ebook sales and thinks they should get more, hence their emergence into the market. Of course most of the agency's authors make millions, so it doesn't affect us lowly indie authors who couldn't get a foot in the door, anyway.

Any insight into what is happening?

How to End a Book!

I'm rewriting an old 'tween historical novel and expanding it into the next level of reading, a teen/adult historical romance by doubling the number of words and upgrading the concepts and vocabulary.

Now it getting away from me and I can't seem to end it. I feel like I'm running on some endless track that winds around and around with no finish line in sight. The book just goes on and on and on and I'm getting bored, so I wonder what a reader would think; "She should have stopped 50 pages ago?"

Therefore, as enamored as I am of my words and the historical facts I'm trying to cram into the story...I'm going to get a sharp axe and commit story murder. It may get emotionally bloody, but ENOUGH!

Homage to a Classic

Today, July 7, 2010 is the 50th anniversary of the publication of a classic in literature, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Every writer's dream is to be like Harper Lee, for she didn't just write a book, she created a masterpiece that will live on forever in literature, enjoyed by young and old alike. Once you've read the book, you will never forget precocious Scout and her brave father, Atticus Finch and the rest of the characters who make up this incredible story set in the south, so appropriate for the era that heralded the civil rights movement.

So I pay homage to this fantastic author. If you read this and you haven't read To Kill a Mockingbird, read it now. This was her only book, a loss to the world.

Fran Orenstein
www.franorenstein.weebly.com

Marketing Indie Books

Thank you to those who turned out for the Billie Williams Blog Tour yesterday... Norm, Linda.

It's so hard for indie authors to market their work in this financially tough economy and to reach people who don't know anything about the authors or the quality of their writing. That's why something like a blogtour gives readers a chance to learn more about the authors and their work.

All we ask is that you the reading public give us a chance. Everyone has to start somewhere and in this downsizing of major publishing houses and a tough economy, look to the ebook for good reading material. You don't have to own a fancy, expensive reader, you can download a book to your own computer for 1/2 the cost of a hardcopy book or even less.

Think electronic age!!!!!

Billie Williams Blog Tour

WELCOME TO THE BILLIE WILLIAMS BLOG TOUR

Best-Selling, Award winning Mystery/Suspense author Billie A Williams is the author of MONEY ISN'T EVERYTHING and THE ZODIAC SLEUTHS mystery series. She is a fiction, non-fiction and poetry author and has won numerous contests for her short/flash fiction stories, essays, and poetry with over two dozen works published. She is published in various magazines such as the literary magazine Thema; Guide, a Magazine for Children, Novel Advice.com, Writing Etc. WritingNow.com, and Women In The Arts newsletter as well as

Sister’s in Crime, to list but a few.
Her articles, columns and features have appeared regularly in newspapers. Short stories, Flash fiction, poetry and book reviews have appeared in Mystery Time, True Love Magazine and various anthologies and on line e-zines and web sites. She writes a bi-monthly column titled “Whodunit?” for Mystery Fiction’s Voices in the Dark and is a contributing editor for Writingnow.com a Blueberry Press Newsletter.

Billie also hosts her own writer’s group, Word Mage Writers and Readers as well as The Amberg Writers Group that meets at her home monthly. She is an active blogger; http://printedwords.blogspot.com/ and http://onewomansgarden.blogspot.com/ a Free Writer’s course Titled Pens In Motion is a five week series of writing lessons pulled from her four published books on writing how to write and is available by email.

Williams is currently a member of The Wisconsin Regional Writers Association (WRWA) Upper Peninsula Writers Association (UPWA)National Association of Women Writers (NAWW) Sister’s in Crime, Women in the Arts Program, Electronically Published Internet Connection (EPIC), Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. (SCBWI) and Children’s Book Insider, and the Children Writers Coaching Club. Visit her at her websites http://www.billiewilliams.com/ or http://writingwide.com/ and sign up for her Newsletter Word Mage

She lives with her husband, Tom, and Lady Slipper, (the kitten she acquired the day she got the contract for The Pink Lady Slipper novel from Wings ePress, Inc,) in Amberg, a small Northern Wisconsin community where the winters are cold and long, but the people are warm and friendly.

HOW TO CLAIM YOUR FREE GIFT, EMAIL YOUR NAME AND CONTACT NUMBER TO franoren2@yahoo.com;

A WRITER'S LAMENT

I am a professional writer and editor and have been doing this in some form or another for nearly 50 years, so I can tell you from experience that nothing should ever leave your computer, typewriter, pen and paper, quill and parchment, or chisel and stone that hasn't been edited and proofed.

There are always mistakes, that is inevitable, and they jump out at me from even the most famous author's books, but to send out something that has many obvious errors is unacceptable. There are publishers, hungry for money who will take anything, but they are not reputable and this lack of integrity will always come back in their faces one day...people won't trust their publications any more. This is something I have seen happen.

Rule Number One: YOU CANNOT PROOF YOUR OWN WRITING!!!!! You are too close to it and we all make the same mistakes every time. For me it's typos because I type very fast... and I just did it and had to correct it...always typing it's for its or you're for your.

Rule Number Two: YOU CANNOT EDIT YOUR OWN WRITING!!!! Because every writer loves every word of everything they've ever written and it's like cutting off a limb to change something, or sanding flat the stone and chiseling a new hieroglyph. Imagine if Moses didn't like the wording in one of the commandments and sanded it down and rewrote it...I wouldn't want to be standing near any burning bushes after that.

So be smart and diligent and find someone who can proof and edit your work, who is objective, good with grammar and the English language, and doesn't have a stake in your well-being, because you may not like some of the suggestions. That's the beauty of the process, you can argue with the editor and get the reasons behind the change and then make your own choice.

So write the great American novel, but make sure that before you send it anywhere you find someone who can proof and edit the masterpiece. Good luck!

THE MYSTERY UNDER THIRD BASE

My latest 'tween novel is a second edition of a book originally published as The Ghost Under Third Base. Sporting a brand new title, THE MYSTERY UNDER THIRD BASE features a beautiful new cover by artist, writer and publisher, Randy Young of Sleepy Town Press.

Kids, ages 9-14 will enjoy following the adventures of Willie, the smartest kid in town who meets a strange new boy, Huby who can appear and disappear in a sunspot, knows things he shouldn't know, and has magical abilities...or seems to. A loner, Willie comes up with an idea for the town to build a ball field (with a little help from his new friend) and wins a school contest. But before anything happens, Willie must solve THE MYSTERY UNDER THIRD BASE.

Find out more information at

http://www.sleepytownpress.com/ or at my website, http://www.franorenstein.weebly.com/