The Dumpster

Enter to win one of 3 copies of "The Dumpster: One Woman’s Search for Love".

Just comment on the post below. You do need to be a NOR Newsletter Subscriber to enter and leave the first bit of your email address with your comment. USA Postage Only. Ends 2/11/2011

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Nicole from The Dumpster: One Woman’s Search for Love

The Dumpster started as a dream. When I woke in the morning, I couldn’t stop thinking about the plot and the characters. The funny circumstances grew in my mind and within a few hours, I was at my computer writing my first draft of The Dumpster. My characters created themselves, but one of my closest friends added some ammunition to help form the characters and their experiences—Some of Nicole’s most embarrassing situations were my own.

Nicole from The Dumpster: One Woman’s search for Love is an average, young American woman looking for love in all the wrong places. She has body image issues, is easily manipulated by men and likes to party with her friends; luck seems to be against her when it comes to love. As Nicole watches her friends settling down and growing up she feels greater pressure to find “the one” so she too can settle down; she doesn’t want to be left behind.

Most of Nicole’s thoughts and behaviors are pretty normal when it comes to the game of love, but many of her experiences aren’t pleasant. In this frenzy to find love, she makes ridiculous mistakes; from drinking too much and telling her life story on a first date to jumping into bed and believing she has a new meaningful relationship with someone she had just met. Nicole seems to have a gift in creating humiliating personal experiences.

What makes Nicole so likeable, is that she loves to laugh and doesn’t take her embarrassing mistakes too personal. She is good at picking herself up and brushing herself off, and when she recognizes that she needs to change, she gets creative in cleaning out the clutter in her life. Nicole makes important changes, gets herself together and stops feeling desperate for love—and only then does she allow true love to find her.

Becky Due

-- About the Author --

Becky Due is becoming the new voice of women’s fiction. She has the courage, honesty and writing style for today’s busy women, and she does not cringe away from hard issues. She will leave you feeling strong, self-confident, independent, and in control of your life.

She has a way of sucking you into the story and changing your life with her fast-paced novels you won’t want to put down. Her novels are not the same story with different characters; she has a unique ability to cross every genre from light-hearted romance to heart-racing suspense to keep her readers entertained and inspired. This talented, intelligent writer is quickly becoming women’s favorite new author.

Her books have been finalists in several independent competitions including the 2010 National Indie Excellence Awards and the 2009 IPPY Awards.

Becky Due, like the main characters of her novels, spent many years running from her life, looking for love, crying a little and laughing a lot along the journey of finding herself. Through writing, she found her passion and is currently working on her next novel.

Happily married she and Scott live in Colorado, Florida and Alberta, Canada with their two “kids” Buddy the Cat and Shorty the Pug.

Becky’s latest book a contemporary romance titled The Dumpster: One Woman’s Search for Love.

Visit Becky Due on the web at www.BeckyDue.com.

Your Character’s Lives

Enter to win a Print copy of "Pairs".

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Look Inside Your Character’s Lives by D.W. Richards

Admittedly I have weakness for the eccentric. Creating characters with all their layers, who are slightly off-the-wall, is a great pleasure.

Pairs is such a story, with an ensemble cast featuring two couples. There is Kayley the greeting card writer with Adam the carpenter and there is Alexandra the former stripper with Henry the math teacher.

Central are the two women, both of whom have their own little niche of quirks. Their complementing contrasts and offsetting eccentricities are the catalysts for what quickly progresses into a deeply caring relationship.

The story begins and ends with Kayley, a single mother who ekes out a living while raising a four year-old, who, unbeknownst to her is psychically gifted. Artistic and spiritual, Kayley is a highly intelligent woman who’s profound love of the written world has resulted in her seeming to have put every poem ever written, published or not, to catalogued memory. And after a couple of glasses of wine, she is apt to share selected passages. Although very skilled in her own right, Kayley’s creative endeavours are thwarted not only by the demands of motherhood but also her lack of confidence.

Alexandra, a tomboy at heart, is a stunningly beautiful woman who possesses a childlike pragmatism and is prone to somewhat literal interpretations of the world around her. However, it should not be construed from her simplicity that she is simplistic. For Alexandra, who had been a teenage runaway escaping sexual abuse, is more than a very accomplished survivor (in the ‘what doesn’t kill her, she will obliterate’ sense), she has thrived. But she has not done so without emotional costs.

These two women discover each other at a cocktail party, thanks in part to the men in their lives. The attraction is immediate for Kayley and carries with it a depth that starts her on a journey of self-discovery. In a story that meshes spirituality with quantum physics, comic books with pantheons, and Wicca with landscaping, Pairs follows the friendship, the love and the incredible sacrifice that binds these two very different people.

About the Author:

D.W. Richards is a member of the Canadian Authors Association and beyond being a novelist he is also a script-doctor and freelance writer. An excerpt from Pairs will appear in the October 2010 issue of the international literary PDF quarterly Cantarville as a standalone fiction piece. In addition to creative writing, D.W. Richards has a Bachelor Degree in Psychology from Carleton University and is a Certified General Accountant. He divides his time between Venice, Italy and Ottawa, Canada.

Visit his website at www.pairsthenovel.com or connect with him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DW_Richards.

You can purchase a paperback copy of Pairs online by clicking here or order the Kindle edition by clicking here.

Book Launch on Your Blog

Enter to win a Print copy of "Dear Sparkle: Cat to Cat Advice From the World's Foremost Feline Columnist".

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How to Throw a Pawsome Book Launch on Your Blog By Sparkle the Cat


Since I am an indoor-only cat and am rather shy around humans I don't know, I could not have an in-person book launch. I could have sent my human off to do one, but considering that I wrote a cat-to-cat advice book, not cat-to-human advice, it wouldn't have been in the spirit of my topic. I do, however, have a very active blog with lots of readers and am part of a lively community of blogging cats (there are at least a couple hundred of us and we all support each other), so it only made sense to have my book launch online. It was very successful! I sold enough books that weekend to get up to #5 on Amazon's Books > Entertainment > Humor > Cats, Dogs & Animals category (there is actually some pretty stiff competition there), engaged my readers, and raised money for a cause I was passionate about. Let me tell you a little bit about how I put it together.

• I have a blog that I update regularly and am part of an online community.


Yes, I mentioned that already, but it bears repeating. Instead of trying to drum up book launch attendees out of thin air, they should already be there. Be involved in online communities in your topic or genre, and run a regularly updated blog that others enjoy visiting for information and/ or entertainment. You don't have to update every day, but you should have new posts a few times a week. You want to have lots of blog readers for your book launch.

• Mention the book launch a few times in the weeks prior to having it, but do not make an official announcement blog post until a few days, no more than a week beforehand.


Memories on the internet tend to be short, and if you announce your book launch too far in advance, your readers will forget about it. I made my official announcement three days ahead of time, on a day when my blog typically got a lot of visitors. I also made announcements and reminders on my Facebook fan page and Twitter accounts. You do have those, right? If not, you should!

• Make it an event!


Write a post for your book launch day that is pertinent to your book, but also fun and festive. This IS a party, after all. We blogging cats throw parties on our blogs for birthdays, adoption anniversaries and such and we usually "cater" them by finding mouth-watering photos of chicken, shrimp and ham, and offer "niptinis" and playful activities. So think of ways to make this day's visit to your blog extra fun.

• Feature giveaways.


I had lots of them at my book launch. Everyone who commented on my book launch post got a bookmark from me if they requested one (I had really nice bookmarks made up - two-sided on extra-heavy, glossy cardboard). The ones who bought books also got a paw-tographed book plate from me to put in their books. I also gave away a prize, which was a Furminator (a special kind of de-shedding brush - I was given an extra from the company that makes them). I'm sure you can think of something that your audience would want. You can either buy it yourself or see if the company may want to comp you one for the publicity.

• Do NOT give away your book.


Since it is a book launch, you want readers to buy a copy of the book, not wait to see if they won one. I did have book giveaways at other times of the year.

• Make it a benefit.


In addition to the giveaway, I donated money to one of the cat rescues that I like. I actually gave a dollar for every book purchased by my readers that weekend - they just had to let me know they bought it. You can do it that way, or if you have an Author's Central account with Amazon, you can keep track of book sales there and offer to donate, say, a quarter for each book purchased the week you have your book launch. If you sell your book yourself, it is even easier for you to track sales. Or you can offer to donate a set amount for each comment your book launch post receives, such as a quarter or fifty cents per comment. This is a great way to give back to your community, or promote a cause you care about in addition to promoting your book. I also ran a "ChipIn" widget on my blog for the cat rescue I featured for a whole month, so people could donate directly to the rescue any time they wanted.

• Give it a beginning and an end.


This is especially important if you are doing giveaways and/ or holding a benefit. You need to give it an ending date so that you can tally up your results, and so that readers can't comment on your book launch post three months later and expect a free bookmark!

With a little imagination, a small budget and an eye for fun, I'm sure you can come up with a great book launch for your blog! Of course, you can have an in-person book launch too... but I bet if you put some effort into an online book launch, you can kick up even more sales - and on a more widespread level!

About Sparkle

Sparkle is an award-winning author, blogger, advice columnist and supermodel. She is also a cat – a ruddy Somali of champion lineage, in fact, whose father, GC Tajhara’s Miles Davis, was twice on the cover of Cat Fancy. Sparkle’s first book, Dear Sparkle: Advice from One Cat to Another, won the Wild Card category at the 2007 Hollywood Book Festival and honorable mentions in several other contests. She also recently came home with the Pettie Award — the pet blogging equivalent of an Oscar — for Best Cat Blog. Sparkle lives in Los Angeles with two humans, two feline roommates (both rescue cats), and (unfortunately) a dog.

Dear Sparkle: Cat-to-Cat Advice from the World’s Foremost Feline Columnist (Adams Media) is her second book.

You can visit Sparkle’s blog at http://www.sparklecat.com.

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