THREE WOMEN, THREE JOURNEYS by Sheila Roberts

Enter to win a print copy of Small Change by Sheila Roberts!

Just comment on this post! One lucky commenter will be chosen.

Include the first part of your email address with your comment. You need to be a NOR newsletter subscriber to enter. You must be 18 or over to enter and a legal resident of the the USA. USA Shipping Only. No Purchase Necessary. Contest Ends: 4/23/2010

***

THREE WOMEN, THREE JOURNEYS by Sheila Roberts

This may be my favorite book to date, simply because learning to live well on what we make is a subject near and dear to my heart. I firmly believe that if a woman is creative she can triumph over financial challenges . . . which is exactly what the three friends in my new novel SMALL CHANGE do.

So, meet Rachel, Tiffany, and Jess, women with distinctly different money challenges but all in the same leaky financial boat. I’ve got to tell you, there’s a little of me in each one of these women. Maybe there’s a little of you, too! Let’s find out.

Rachel, whose husband’s midlife crisis has left her divorced and a little (okay, a lot) bitter. Rachel has gotten rid of all her romance novels and sworn off men. Bad enough she has to cope with bills and an uncertain job future, but to make matters worse, she finds herself competing with her ex. The grand prize: her children’s affection. Of course, her children know exactly what buttons to push. 

Doesn’t that sound like real life children? How many times do we find ourselves spending money we don’t have to make our kids happy? Anyone ever go overboard at Christmas or am I the only one? Rachel eventually realizes she’s a guilt spender. I think you’ll enjoy seeing how creative she gets when it comes to giving her children the good life. You’ll be happy to know that she rethinks her bad attitude about romance novels when a handsome Prince Charming enters her life. Still, he’s not what he appears.

Tiffany is a world-class bargain shopper. There is no bargain she can’t sniff out and as far as Tiff is concerned fifty percent off are the three sexiest words in the world. Unfortunately, Tiffany’s bargain safaris have created a bad credit card problem and she is in big trouble. Especially with her husband, who is worried about money. If she’s going to keep her marriage she’s going to have to deal with the emotional needs that are turning her into a shopaholic. 

There is definitely a little Tiffany in me. I love to find bargains. I start my Christmas shopping every year with the January sales. And then there are the summer white sales, President’s Day, Thanksgiving weekend. Oh, heck, I even brake for garage sales. I get a buzz from bargains. Years ago, I got a department store charge card; a good way to establish credit, etc., etc. It was also a good way to rack up a big bill. What a mess! That charge card finally went bye-bye and now I only spend what I have in my bank account. (I know, what a concept!) This January has been both awesome and a killer for me. I got some amazing heels at Penney’s for eighty percent off.  Eighty percent!!! And I got some black heels, a great new blouse and several presents for next Christmas. But I had to quite when there was still so much cool stuff left at the end of my money. Wah! Still, I reminded myself of an important truth someone once told me: A bargain isn’t a bargain if you can’t afford it. If Tiffany learns that, she can save her marriage.

The last of my trio is Jess, a middle-aged career mom whose husband’s job is about to vanish. This is bad timing. They have debts, bills . . . and their son has returned to the empty nest. What can a girl with no career experience do to help the family finances? Oh, you’d be surprised. There’s definitely a lot of Jess in me. And, by the way, that incident where she trips over the balance beam in the gym? Yes, that is based on a true story. And that’s all I’m going to say about that!

I hope readers will enjoy my characters’ journeys as they sort out their finances and their love lives. I know I certainly enjoyed my time with these three women.

Sheila Roberts

Author Biography

Sheila Roberts lives in the Pacific Northwest. She's happily married and has three children. She has had twenty-five books published, both in fiction and nonfiction under different names and in different languages.  Her novels have been optioned for book clubs and film. Her book Angel Lane was an Amazon Top Ten Romance pick for 2009. When she’s not hanging out with her girlfriends or hitting the dance floor with her husband, she can be found writing about those things dear to women’s hearts: family, friends, and chocolate.  

You can visit Sheila at her website (http://www.sheilasplace.com). You can also find her on Twitter (http://twitter.com/_Sheila_Roberts) and

Facebook(http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#/pages/Sheila-Roberts/76502579853?ref=ts) 

Publishing - The Two Sided Coin by Marilyn Randall

Win a Print Copy of "My Heart and Soul" by Marilyn Randall

One lucky winner will be chosen from all the entries.

You need to be a NOR newsletter subscriber to enter. Include the first part of your email address with your comment. You must be 18 or over to enter. Entry open to USA citizens only - USA Postage Only. No Purchase Necessary. Contest Ends: 4/23/2010


***
Publishing - The Two Sided Coin by Marilyn Randall

Just like any other industry there tends to be traditionalists and new age thinkers and they sometimes disagree even among themselves on the best way to become published.

Traditional thinking allows the authors to pursue the avenues of established publishers, submitting manuscripts to several companies and waiting for that letter of denial or acceptance with baited breath.

The new age thinking allows the author to purchase the publishers packages and for a fee a book can be available to the public and marketing can begin within a few months. Either way an author chooses to go there are headaches and drawbacks and yet many genuine rewards at the end of the day. One has to have a deep pocketbook to publish with the "vanity" publishers and anything less than serious research into the company you choose would be a set up for failure. One also needs to be a little more "thick skinned" to put up with the remarks and put-downs from the traditionalists. There is definately a line drawn in the sand over which way is the better way to go about publishing your book.

My children's books have a strong spiritual and moral theme and I chose the progressive thinking "vanity" publishing because I didn't want anyone changing the basic value of the story by telling me I couldn't use the word God, angel, praying or faith within the story, which I was told would happen by the traditional publishing companies. For me it was important to adhere to the strong faith values of my stories and take my chances that the public would accept and even appreciate their value as I wrote them and so I paid my fees and worked with my publisher to produce the on demand books that are becoming more and more popular. I also made sure that my books could be available for e-downloads so that they would be accessible to families having difficult financial times in this recessive economy.

The public has many choices available and so the next step after publishing is the marketing and again, research is the key to understanding the industry and learning about the different marketing strategies that are available to us. Social networking and picking the team of people that best meets our individual needs is a key factor to becoming successful. If you are weak in certain areas of knowledge about what is needed for your product, choose someone with that expertise to assist you. Determine what your strong points are and do the work in those key areas yourself, saving thousands of dollars in fees that would otherwise go to agencies to do the same job.

Understanding the difference between the two ways of publishing is a vital step in understanding the industry and I believe that success can happen either way if one takes the proper steps and becomes familiar with all the pros and cons of both sides of the industry. The Internet has changed many industries; publishing and the ways to publish that are available to us is only one of the changes this tool has made happen in today's electronic world. For better or worse the public has thousands more choices available to them for choosing that great, afternoon read and those undiscovered golden nuggets will be sifted and sorted until the best surface in this new industry as happens in the traditional way. To overlook the value of a read just because of the difference in the chosen publishing would be a tragedy we can't afford to let happen.

Marilyn Randall - Author/Illustrator 


Marilyn Randall has an extensive background in the graphic design industry. Her art background is varied, including business logo design, printing design, silk screened shirt design and miscellaneous mediums for her paintings and illustrating. She published her first book of poetry and prose in 2009 titled My Heart And Soul, following soon after she published six children's books which she has both written and illustrated. Her newest book and first fiction novel is Quicksand. She is currently working on her seventh children's book which she plans to release in the summer of 2010. Originally from Medford, Oregon, she continues to write from the serene surroundings of her home on Whidbey Island in Washington State. More information about her and her books can be found at her website www.marilynrandall.com.

(Marilyn will be giving away a print copy of her book, My Heart and Soul)

Every Girl Remembers Her First Novel... by Mary Carter

Enter to win a Print copy of "My Sister's Voice" by Mary Carter.

One lucky winner will be chosen from all the entries.

You need to be a NOR newsletter subscriber to enter. If you are not already a subscriber sign-up now or leave our full email address and you will be added to our newsletter. If you are already signed up...include the first part of your email address with your comment. You must be 18 or over to enter. Entry open to USA citizens only - USA Postage Only. No Purchase Necessary. Contest Ends: 4/16/2010

***


Every Girl Remembers Her First Novel... by Mary Carter

I started writing my first novel, She’ll Take It, in January 2002.  It was my New Years goal to write a novel. In the beginning my sights were not set on publication, I just told myself—“If I died tomorrow”, it was something I could be proud of, an accomplishment I would never forget.  I have always been a writer, but up until that point I had only attempted short stories, essays, poetry, plays and a screenplay.  With the help of a ton of books on writing and an online writing course, I started the task of writing my own novel.  By the end of the first year, I had made quite a bit of headway, but the project wasn’t finished and I hadn’t been working on it consistently.  Enter New Years goal number two— finish the novel!  By September of 2003 I had done just that.   

      Now thoughts of publication started creeping in. I asked half a dozen friends (who were also big readers) to read the book.  Results were positive, and I decided to take the next step of finding an agent.  I bought The Literary Marketplace Digest, and read through pages of agents, what types of books they represented, where they were located (I wanted New York) and what their submission requirements were.  I sent 15 query letters, and received thirteen rejections and two requests to read the manuscript.  The first agent to read the manuscript called me, and although she was turning down the book, she gave me encouragement and invaluable feedback as to what she didn’t like about it.  Some of her notes struck a chord with me, and I knew the changes needed to be made.  I was in the process of outlining how I could make those changes (she said she’d be willing to read it again if I didn’t get another agent) when another agent called, said he loved the manuscript, and offered to represent me.  His only note was that it was too long for a first novel-- I think it was 94,000 words at the time and he wanted it around 80,000.  At the same time I made the cuts, I also incorporated the notes I had received from the first agent.  Four months later the manuscript was sold to Kensington Books.  She’ll Take It came out in March of 2006, one year later.  In June of 2010, my fourth novel, My Sister’s Voice, will be released.  I never could have imagined that a personal new year’s goal would lead to a larger dream coming true.  But just like the saying goes—you can’t win the lotto if you never buy a ticket, you also can’t publish a book unless you first sit down and write it.  

Mary Carter

www.marycarterbooks.com