Charles W Jones, Author - Blog

Today, I’m welcoming back Harriet Hodgson for the 5th day of her RRBC Spotlight Tour. What Can You Do When Book Sales Stall? By Harriet Hodgson Book marketing is a never-ending task. To track your efforts, you may want to keep a marketing log. Try to take one marketing step a day. Despite your best efforts, your book sales may stall. What can you do? Don’t give up. When seeing an ad or article and order your book, buyers may think they took immediate action. In truth, three or four weeks may pass before a buyer takes action. So you need to continue your book marketing efforts. Learn more about marketing. My current publisher has an authors’ portal on its website. Authors can click on the portal, enter the password, and find information on a broad range of topics. This information includes copyright information, wholesale pricing, and marketing ideas. Bring your book to consumers. The days of autographing books in a bookstore seem to be fading. Instead of having buyers c...

I always find it interesting to read something that isn’t within my normal genre and discover new stories. Ghostly Interference (The White Rune Series) being a romance doesn’t fit into my norm, while the ghost part does. I enjoyed the world that Jan created with Jag and Rena and their almost deadly first encounter. For me, the ghost of Sam could’ve been more frightening at the beginning, but that’s not what this story was about. Throughout the book, Jag and Rena become their better selves, allowing the other to make them stronger. These characters are very well developed and strong, making them feel real as I read. Even the harassment part of the story seemed like something that has happened in real life. I was very impressed with Ghostly Interference and give it 4 out of 5 Stars. About Ghostly Interference Jag Peters has one goal in his quiet comfortable life—to keep his karma slate wiped clean. A near-miss crash with a candy apple red Harley threatens to upend his safe world. He trac...

DAY 1 Turn The Light On–Developing Alessio Terracina and Della Cartwright I started writing Turn The Light On in 2015. I wanted to capture the feeling of suspense and passion between a man who was rarely understood and an older woman that had a big compassionate heart. Two things were important to me when I started writing it: The woman had to be an African American, and that women of color be able to identify with her. Too often I have heard people speak negatively about the Strong Black Women Syndrome as if we were not women who can feel emotional pain or understand the essence of loving a man. The male character is an Italian American living in Europe. His job dangerous. His handicap, Asperger’s Syndrome. Highly intelligent, he comes out of an orphanage. It was hard to write. I put the story aside for months several times. It is not unusual for me to work on three or four stories at a time, so I would work on something else. Once, I let him tell who he was to a small group of author...

Today, I’m honored to host the amazing Harriet Hodgson and her book Calling All Grandmas! Enter the giveaway by leaving a comment. GIVEAWAY: (2) $5 Amazon gift cards Adding Emotion to Nonfiction Writing I’m a non-fiction author, yet my writing contains emotion. Sometimes my emotions are detailed in descriptive sentences. Other times they are expressed with dialogue. Writing about emotions takes extra effort. Why should you add emotions to nonfiction writing? Emotion links the author and reader. Rob Parnell, in his website article, “How to Write About Emotion,” says emotions make us uniquely human. Life isn’t all about what happens, he continues, “it is the way we react to events and people and the things they say that defines our experience of the world.” Emotion serves as a “hook.” Dialogue is one way to hook a reader, according to Mary Jaksch. She expands this point in her website article, “3 Things You Need to Know about Using Dialogue in Non-Fiction.” What makes dialogue a hoo...

Introducing the WATCH RWISA WRITE 2022 Anthology, “Life Is But A Rose Garden,” debuting on Amazon today for only $2.99! We invite you to take a look at the promo for this little gem below, and lastly, we ask for your support by purchasing a copy, as well as spreading the word of its release via your own social media! Friends, thank you for dropping by today in support of this new release! We hope that what you find between the covers brings you much joy and pleasure as you read it, and we also hope that some of what you find here will give you pause – just a little pause, though, before you hop to your feet and spring into action! There are many calls to action in this little gem! Thank you, again, for your support!

Giveaway – (2) e-book copies of GHOSTLY INTERFERENCE SEXUAL ADVANCES IN THE WORKPLACE Hello, and welcome to one of the final stops on my Ghostly Interference blog tour! I am honored to be here today. Sexual advances in the workplace is as common as a coffee pot in the break room. But we tend to think of them as being a man coming onto a woman. In Ghostly Interference, Jag Peters is forced to deal with unwanted sexual advances from his boss Yvette (Yvette Calleiro this in NO way reflects on you). 🙂 His boss continually tries to corner him and it finally escalates to a breaking point. I’ll share a short excerpt. Within minutes, he pulled into the crowded parking lot of the Glass Slipper. He’d make a few minutes of polite talk with his co-workers, then excuse himself. He liked the project Yvette had assigned him, and he wanted to stay there. But he had limits as to how far he’d go. Crowds freaked him out and made his underarms sweat. This place was packed. He squeezed through a grou...

AUTHOR BIO: Jan Sikes is an award-winning Texas author who has been called a wordsmith by her peers. She openly admits that she never set out in life to be an author. But she had a story to tell. Not just any story, but a true story that rivals any fiction creation. You simply can’t make this stuff up. It all happened. She chose to create fictitious characters to tell the story through, and they bring the intricately woven tale to life in an entertaining way. She released a series of music CDs to accompany the four biographical fiction books and then published a book of poetry and art to complete the story circle. And now that the story is told, Jan Sikes can’t find a way to put down the pen. She continues to write fiction and has published many short stories with a series of novels waiting in the wings. She is a member of Authors Marketing Guild, The Writer’s League of Texas, the RAVE REVIEWS BOOK CLUB (RRBC), the RAVE WRITER’S INT’L SOCIETY OF AUTHOR (RW...

Today, I would like to congratulate Harriet Hodgson (I’ve posted about her before) for winning the KCT Int’l Literary Award for her book So, You’re Raising Your Grandkids! You can find more information about her on her page at the Rave Reviews Book Club . HARRIET HODGSON BIO Rochester, Minnesota resident Harriet Hodgson has been a freelance writer for 38 years, is the author of thousands of articles, and 36 books. She has a BS from Wheelock College in Boston, an MA from the University of Minnesota, and additional graduate training. Hodgson is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi). She is a contributing writer for the Open to Hope Foundation, The Grief Toolbox, and The Caregiver Space websites. Visit www.thecaregiverspace.org/authors/hhodgson to read her articles. Hodgson has appeared on more than 185 talk radio shows, including CBS Radio, dozens of television stations, including CNN, and dozens of blog...

How “Tanked” Evolved by Laurel McHargue “Laurel McHargue, how do you come up with such bizarre story ideas?” This is a question I’m frequently asked, along with, “And what were you on when you wrote that?” Truth be told, unless you consider crisp Colorado mountain air a drug, I’ve never been on anything when crazy ideas pop into my head! For instance, the vision of an orb floating above a friend’s head came from nowhere one day, inspiring my story “Orbs,” and my Waterwight trilogy emerged from a dream I shared with another author friend, Carol Bellhouse, who insisted I must write a story about it. Since I was a child I’ve dreamt in Technicolor, and I’ve never been shy about sharing my sleep world—often to the chagrin of whomever is the target of my sharing. My dreams are quite full of detail. They’re gifts, I believe, and once I started Chapter One of Book I of Waterwight, they continued to provide new characters and situations over the course of several years as my trilogy evolved. A...

“Chasing the Rainbow” Blog Tour Day 1 About the Book: “Journey to the Rainbow’s End: A Drag Queen’s Odyssey” A collection of poetry that describes the coming of age and coming out of a man who struggled with his self-worth and identity, in the hopes to show others who share similar struggles that they are not alone. Writer’s Q&A When did you start writing and what inspired you to write? Answer: I began writing when I was twelve years old after experiencing one of the most depressing times of my life. The summer of 1987, I attempted to end my life. I struggled with a great many things, such as identity and traumatic stress caused by events that occurred my earlier childhood. Events I do not talk about very often, but one day put them pen to paper, as they say. Anyways, to make a long story short, the fall of 1987 I was lucky to have an incredible English Teacher by the name of Mrs. Carr. Now our school was not the prettiest or the fanciest, but we were lucky to have passionate instr...

Today, I welcome back Harriet Hodgson, who’s dropped by to share a yummy sounding recipe. Red Pepper Dip for Vegetables Because writing is a sedentary job, I try to eat healthy. Each day, I eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables. If you don’t like vegetables, this recipe may tempt your palette. If your kids don’t like vegetables, this dip may spark their interest in them. The dip comes together in minutes and doesn’t mask the flavor of the veggies. This recipe is from The Family Caregiver’s Cookbook. Ingredients: 1 scallion, white and green parts, minced ½ cup light mayonnaise ½ cup sour cream, fat free (or plain yogurt) ¼ teaspoon garlic powder Dash black pepper Dash hot sauce Bite-sized raw vegetables: green pepper strips, broccoli florets, cauliflower florets, celery sticks, carrot sticks, cucumber slices Method Drain red peppers, dry with paper towels, and cut into chunks. Puree peppers in food processor or with a hand blender. Add remaining ingredients. Chill 45 ...

Finishing off the week, I welcome back Bernard Foong, who has dropped by with Vignettes Parisian. Please, enjoy, and leave your comments. Vignettes Parisian Vignettes Parisian is a collection of four short stories about the Author’s past and present experiences in the French City of Love and Romance, commonly known as Paris. Christian Dior Couturier Du Reve It is impossible not to have a close encounter with fashion when I am in Paris. Even if I had to wait in the freezing cold for an hour and a half to enter the Christian Dior Couturier Du Reve (Christian Dior Couturier of Dreams) exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs ( Museum of Decorative Arts ). My husband, Walter, and I were the lucky few who arrived early before the museum opened its doors. The late arrivals were banished to the back of the queue for a five hours wait before admission was granted. This spectacular exhibition was worth the wait. Not only were the lives, times, and accomplishments of Christian Dior, one of ...