Flash! Friday: Prompt #2-51

Well I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! 

It's the final week of year two for the weekly Flash! Friday Fiction contest, but only my second week back writing, so please be kind! Nevertheless, here's my entry, with the required element of "coming of age," 150 words (+/- 10) on this photo:

Help Support the Second Scripting Change Anthology!

Thanksgiving is nearly upon us, to be all too (read: overly) soon overtaken by Black Friday and Cyber Monday. These entirely consumer-driven days have recently begun to be followed by Giving Tuesday, an effort to shine the spotlight on the less self-centered goal of supporting our communities through contributing to nonprofits. 

I hope you will support any responsible nonprofit (please do your research!), on any day of the year of course, but if you haven't yet thought about your charitable contributions, Giving Tuesday donations are often matched by corporate sponsors.

For those who may not have the opportunity to contribute financially, Scripting Change will release their second anthology on December 2nd, which is Giving Tuesday this year (and yes, is the same day Mending Heartstrings releases), affording us all the opportunity to support a wonderful cause! This year's anthology is fighting for literacy, and as always, 100% of Scripting Change proceeds will be donated, since everyone involved in the project is a volunteer. You can do your part to help simply by spreading the word! Sign up for their book blast here.

You can also follow Scripting Change on Twitter or on Facebook to stay informed on their current and upcoming projects!

Flash! Friday: Prompt #2-50

Difficult to believe, but after months of ineligibility allowing me to excuse not writing, I'm once again eligible for the Flash! Friday contest. So I've tried to shake off the dust and actually write something — please don't judge it too harshly!

As a reminder, this year's Flash! Friday provides a photo prompt as well as a required element, all to be encapsulated in a 150-word story (+/- 10 words). This week's required element was to include a puppy, in a story based on this photo:

Ready? Here goes:

Mending Heartstrings Updates!

Just over 17 days remain until the official release of Mending Heartstrings! I should maybe have saved this post for Monday, but I wanted to share & make sure everyone marked their calendars for my virtual release party! Open to anyone, of course, so please feel free to invite your friends. I really hope you'll join me in celebrating with contests, trivia, giveaways & more!

In other news (which I have briefly mentioned), signups are available for a release-day book blitz, being organized by Xpresso Book Tours. Posts will be promo only, so if you'd be up for sharing the word, please sign up and thanks in advance!

7 Pre-Release-Day Tips for Authors

Just over 21 days remain before the official release of Mending Heartstrings (cue the freaking out!).    Signups are now available for the release-day blitz hosted by Xpresso Book Tours, and there are still spots open for the blog tour. The e-book is also available for preorder through Amazon.

Gearing up for the release has been quite the experience, so I've decided to share some of my newfound wisdom (partially as a reminder to take my own advice)! Here we go:

1. Set up your Amazon author page & author central account.
• Author central allows you to keep track of your books, your rankings, both as an author and for each individual book (see point 2!), and the details of your author page.
• Setting up your author page means that when people click on your name, right under your book title, they can see a page dedicated to and controlled by you — you can include a photo and your bio, of course, but also your Twitter feed and even a blog feed if you'd like. This also consolidates all your Amazon books in one place for readers. And it adds  your photo & bio to the "more about the author" section of your book page, which will help engage readers.

Election Day!

I genuinely intended to write a post for today, but Monday decided it didn't like that plan. So instead of my planned post, I just thought I'd remind all those of you who are US citizens that tomorrow is Election Day, and you should get out and vote!

Of course, as a friendly reminder, I encourage you to research the candidates and the issues — even last-minute research is better than uneducated voting. Your voice counts, so make sure you're lending it to the side you actually want to support!

Have a fantastic week!