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Showing posts from July, 2007

Christine Norris' Visit to My Blog

Hi, how’s it going? I know, right now you’re asking yourself if you’ve clicked the right link, or if you perhaps mis-typed the blog url. Nope, this is Marilyn Meredith’s blog, but I’m not Marilyn. My name is Christine Norris, and I’m a YA fantasy author. Marilyn has been kind enough to allow me to mooch her blog for today and pimp my new book to all of you. When she agreed to this, I asked what I should write about. She said, ‘why don’t you write about the inspiration for the book?’ ‘Good idea!’ said I. ‘Sounds like a plan.’ Wait, I guess I should tell you the title of the book first, huh. Return to Zandria . So, you’ve probably guessed there is another book, since this one is about Returning. You’d be right. The first one is called Talisman of Zandria . That’s really where I should start, because the two are interconnected, inspiration-wise. The first book came about really as a bit of a lark. I had finished reading the first three or four Harry Potter books. I came late to the game o

Gearing Up for A New Book Promotion

The galleys arrived for Judgment Fire. I made the corrections and sent the pages back the fastest way possible. I'm on a panel about publishing at the San Joaquin chapter of Sisters in Crime on August 4th in Fresno--it'll be a miracle if I have books for that. I have been promised books by August 11th when my book launch is scheduled at the Springville Visitor's Center (my hometown). I'm publicizing it, so all I can do is pray. Speaking of praying, since Monday I've been one of the helpers at Vacation Bible School at our church. I've been herding around 6 12 year-olds, 3 boys --2 act like they are about 6, and 3 girls, one who acts or thinks she's does anyway, 18. We have lots of older teen helpers and the girls flirt with the males outrageously. My job is making sure they all behave as we go from Missions, Music, Recreation (wild and involves getting wet), Bible Study and Crafts. I'm not sure this is such a wonderful job for a 73 year old great-grandma

Animals in Life and Books

We've always had animals. We raised three kids and lots of animals: cats, dogs, chickens, ducks, snakes, guinea pigs, and that was when we lived in the city. We have plenty of animals in our life these days. Three inside cats, Sundance (looks Siamese), Butch (gray and white tuxedo), and Shirley, multi-colored and mother of the boys. Outside are a bunch of feral cats, where they come from we don't have a clue. Hubby feeds them along with a gangling mixed breed dog named Beau who loves the cats. In my Deputy Tempe Crabtree series I have yet to include an animal. Why, I don't know. Perhaps it's because I haven't taken much from my own life experiences for these books. It's a different story in my Rocky Bluff P.D. series. The idea for that series came directly from my friendships and acquaintances with the police officers who lived in our neighborhood though not at the time we were living there. When my daughter married a police officer, his story telling added to w

Promotion Etc.

Life would be so much easier if all an author had to do was write books. Instead, a great deal of time is spent on promotion. If you don't do promotion, it's possible no one would hear about your books or have the opportunity to read them. No longer is it the publishers' responsibility to make sure the word gets out about your book. Oh, sure, if your a big name author, money will be spent on promotion for his or her latest book, but it doesn't happen for the midlist author, or the author problished by a small press. Because I have a new book coming out, I'm spending a lot of my free time thinking up ways to promote. My contest is one--see detail below. Actually, I've received some very good entries and it will be hard choosing which is the best. Might even have to give a second prize. We'll see. If you haven't entered yet, please do. It's free--and you might win copies of the earliest books in my series. I hope all of you are managing to stay out o