Book Launch Giveaway Winners!!

Happy Friday everyone! Thank you so much to everyone who liked and/or commented here, emailed, visited and/or commented at my website - I have been simply overwhelmed by everyone's support! :)

Book launch day of my young adult ebook, 'Newbie Nick,' was a success and below, as promised are the winners of the giveaway prizes. Because of the weird glitchy things that took place, everyone to emailed or commented here was put in the draw :) Please private message me with your address, and I will get the goodies in the mail this weekend!

Prize Pack #1 - Jacquie Biggar
Prize Pack #2 - Shelley Coriell
Prize Pack #3 - Meg Cassel
Prize Pack #4 - Reggi Allder

One of 5 'Newbie Nick' keychains - Cheryl Zachow-Lange, Gayl Taylor, Manda Purewal, Jennifer McKenzie, Jo-Ann Carson

Congratulations everyone and thank you so much for make my book launch day/week (I'm still celebrating) a memorable success!

Lisa

Welcome to My Book Launch Party!

(Give away change of plans! See below!)

Welcome and thank you for being part of my book launch party!

After much waiting and hype (mostly on my part), my ebook ‘Newbie Nick,’ published by Lycaon Press, is available for purchase and download! You can find it for sale at Lycaon Press, Omnilit and Bookstrand. The book is now available at Amazon, and should soon be available at Smashwords - all this computer stuff takes a bit!

First, I hope you’ll visit the tab (above) that says ‘excerpt’ for – you guessed it – an excerpt of the book.

About the book - When 14-year-old Nick Zinsky secretly busks for money on the downtown streets, he soon learns that keeping his "job" a secret is harder than he thought.

All 14-year-old Nick Zinsky wanted was a guitar of his own and a necklace for his mom, and he wanted to buy both on his own, without anyone's help. Too young to get a real job, he came up with a plan to get the money.

Using a guitar loaned from his high school, he spent the summer and weekends playing the guitar while busking downtown. But he had to keep his "job" a secret from everyone—from his mom, his music teacher, the other kids at school, and especially from the school bully, Beau.

But when a music competition is announced where the prizes would solve all Nick's problems, Nick lacks the confidence to enter the competition. Having a nickname like "Newbie Nick" doesn't help, either.

Does he find the courage to enter? Will he ever get his guitar?

I hope you’ll poke around my site and learn a bit about me, my writing world, and my new book. To celebrate and to say thank you to those who have supported me and ‘welcome’ to those who have just discovered me, I have lots of great prizes as listed below, and everyone who comments will be entered to win one of FOUR prize packs.

Prize pack #1
-‘Go Teen Writers’ by Stephanie Morrill and Jill Williamson is a writing reference guide for teens wanting to write, are already writing, or have written an essay or book and are interested in learning how to get published.
- A journal to get writing, because that’s what writers do – they write!
- A ‘Newbie Nick’ keychain
- A $5 Starbucks coffee card
- A copy of the ebook ‘Newbie Nick’ available in epub file, Kindle content, or Adobe Acrobat Format

Prize Pack #2
- 'Not Your Mother’s Book ... On Being a Parent’ is an anthology of humorous slice-of-life stories about – you guessed it – being a parent (it also happens to feature one of my stories!)
- 'Chicken Soup for the Soul – Just Us Girls’ is an anthology about friendships (and also happens to feature one of my stories!)
- A ‘Newbie Nick’ keychain
- A $5 Starbucks coffee card

Prize Pack #3
- For the guitar players – a string winder, two kinds of pick holders, one of which is a keychain supplied by ‘Guitars Plus,’ a guitar/music store in Victoria, BC
- A set of guitar strings (not shown) valued up to $15.00 (winner will advise what kind of guitar strings required – acoustic or electric)
- A ‘Newbie Nick’ keychain
- A $5 Starbucks coffee card

Prize Pack #4
- Journal
- A ‘Newbie Nick’ keychain
- A $5 Starbucks coffee card

Plus! 5 names will also be drawn to win one of 5 ‘Newbie Nick’ keychains.

I hope you'll leave a comment! Be sure to return on Friday June 20th, 2014, to see if you won!
Thank you so much for stopping by my party - hope you come back soon!

NOTE: Some folks have been having issues in trying to comment. If that was you, and you still wish to do so (everyone loves hearing nice things, right?) please email me at lisamc2010@yahoo and your name will be entered into the draws! Apologies all over the place!

Prizes as shown – no trades or swaps. Giveaways only available to those drawn winners in Canada or the US – there is no monetary replacement allowable. (Giveaways are available for drawing to those who comment between 12:00am (PST) Wednesday June 18, 2014 and 11:59 pm (PST) Thursday June 19, 2014)

Yahoo! My upcoming contemporary young adult ebook, 'Newbie Nick,' is now up for pre-sale on the publisher's site, Lycaon Press (release date June 18th). My book is their launch for their new contemporary line, and I couldn't be more thrilled!

It will be up on all the other good places like Amazon, Kobo and many others, so stay tuned!

And remember that June 18th date - I'll be having a launch party right here on this site, so I hope you'll stop by and leave a comment - there'll be prizes!

Lisa

Blog Hop - What is that?

Laura Langston (www.lauralangston.com) invited me to participate in a ‘blog hop.’ Before I explain further, I just want to thank Laura for inviting me to participate. Laura and I met many years ago through the Vancouver Island Chapter of Romance Writers of America, and have stayed in touch personally and professionally. Her current release, “Hot New Thing,” is published by Orca Books (I read it – fabulous! The signed copy is on my keeper shelf!)

Getting on with things...

For those of you new to it all (as am I), a blog hop is like a game of tag between authors where they promote each other. Below are four questions each tagged person answers on their site, and then I ‘tag’ three other authors who, in turn, answers the same four questions on each of their blogs/sites, tagging three other authors to do the same, and so on, and so on, and so on....

It sounded like fun; a perfect chance for me to tell you a bit more about myself (as if you REALLY needed to know MORE), and an opportunity for you to learn about other writers, as well. So without further adieu, here we go...

What am I working on?

Wow – that’s a big first question. Well, I’m right now in the middle of promoting my upcoming young adult novel, ‘Newbie Nick,’ published by Lycaon Press. ‘Newbie Nick’ is about 14-year-old Nick Zinsky who secretly busks for money on the streets of downtown – a ‘job’ he soon learns is hard to keep secret. Since first signing the contract, I have been in a flurry of edits, website building, author/computer-techie stuff, and just plain old excitement. All that, and more, has eaten up a lot of scarce writing time – but in a GOOD way! Since I’m sort of in a ‘lull’ between edits while waiting for the bit release day in June, there’s not much I can do other than start another young adult novel (stay tuned – it’s kind of heavy and ‘dark’), and continue to name-drop my upcoming book here and there.

Newbie Nick.

So juggling my teen boys, home life, and my day job, all with a book coming out, has been a bit chaotic. This is not a bad thing, mind you – I mean, who doesn’t want their own book to be published? So for now I excitedly anticipate the release date, all while busy prepping marketing stuff, writing blog posts when I can, working on edits for various anthologies for my slice-of-life stories that have (happily) popped-up unexpectedly, and try to keep all the ideas for other young adult novels sorted in my head.

How does my work differ from others in it’s genre?

Another big question for being only the second question out of four – I hope the next two aren’t as difficult.

Well – how does my work differ from others in it's genre? I have been compared to Erma Bombeck time and again. However MOST flattering and MOST honouring, I couldn't ever compare myself to the queen of all that is slice-of-life.

Saying that, however, I would say – or I would like to think – that my writing differs from others because I have my own distinctive writing voice. I try to write as if I’m chatting to a friend over coffee (me blabbering a mile-a-minute, mind you), while trying to entertain, keep things light and humorous, all with an attempt at offering insight and inspiration. That’s not to say that I am ‘the knower of all things.’ I don’t claim to know everything. But we all have experiences and insights, so why not share them - nicely and with humour - in the hope of helping someone else?

Why do I write what I do?

Now that’s better - an easier question.

I write what I do because, as I said in the previous question, I write to entertain and to hopefully make you laugh (what’s funny to one person is not so funny to another, I know). I also hope to make you cry, but in a good way, because then that would mean that what I wrote mattered, and made you think, feel and ‘be.’ And I hope what I write inspires you to better yourself (not to sound conceited). We all are trying to get through this thing called life – one step at a time.

How does my writing process work?

Process? What process? There are a million ways to do things, and there is no one right way for everyone. I try to write every morning between 4:30 and 6am before heading off to my ‘day job.’ Everyone’s in bed so I have the whole place to myself. I try to write at lunch and sometimes, if I’m lucky, on Saturday nights I head over to a local coffee shop and cram/write hard for two hours.

I get an idea – usually from a snippet of conversation, an image or scene from a book or movie, or come across a quote that inspires me - and then it snowballs from there. It pays to be snoopy and eavesdrop. Then I think, I make notes, I think, I make notes, I think some more, and then I try to make sense of all my notes. For my fiction work, it usually takes about seven or eight versions of the first two to three chapters before I really get the ball rolling. Very often as the story progresses, it completely changes from when I first started – and that’s okay. It’s the constant writing, pushing the story along and allowing to screw up and accept change along the way that makes the story progress. Some hair-pulling ensues, but that’s okay. It’s all part of being a writer! Just keep writing, just keep writing....


And there you have it – a little about me and my writing! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll also visit me at my Sassy Scribbler website!

And now I would like to introduce you to three authors I admire - Ryshia Kennie, Jenny Watson and Jodie Esch. I hope you stop by their own blogs around June 9th and say ‘hi!’

First, I’d like to introduce Ryshia Kennie. We met online (not in ‘that way’) and for the life of me I can’t remember where or how. I think we just ‘found each other’ in the online writing circles we frequent. She’s always one to offer a supportive comment or two and I am inspired by her often-posted writing-words-of-wisdom, as well as the numerous publications under her belt.

Bio: The Canadian prairies are where Ryshia Kennie makes her home. The winner of her city’s Writing Award in 2011, her novels have taken her characters from the depression era prairies in her first book “From the Dust” to the ancient stones of Angkor Wat in her latest book, “Intent to Kill”. For more, visit her website at www.ryshiakennie.com

I’d also like to introduce you to children’s author, Jenny Watson. Jenny and I have recently become acquainted through the Vancouver Island Chapter of Romance Writers of America, as well as through the Victoria Children’s Literature Roundtable. Most recently I spotted her current release “Prove It, Josh,” (published by Sono Nis Press) during my travels on the BC Ferries!

Bio: Jenny Watson grew up in small-town New Zealand, dreaming of big adventures in faraway places. When she was 18, she spent a year as an exchange student in Thailand, where she learned to speak a little Thai (nit noi) and to eat curry and sticky rice with her fingers. After returning to New Zealand to earn a Master’s degree in psychology, she moved to San Diego and trained to be a technical writer. Jenny, her husband and their small but feisty parrot now make their home in Victoria, B.C. where they grab every opportunity they can to go sailing with friends until they launch their own plywood sailing dinghy. Find her at www.jennywatson.ca

Last but not least is Jodie Esch. I met Jodie years ago through the Vancouver Island Chapter of Romance Writers of America, and have come to know and admire her personally and professionally. A former teacher, she has directed her love of writing towards writing for kids (makes sense to me!), and her book “Little White Castles” is part four of ‘The Girlfriends Series.’

Bio: Jodie Esch lives on an island in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, dog, cat, chickens and alpacas. When not living in her fictional world, she spends her time as the ‘Waste Management Queen’ picking up manure on the property. She is passionate about words and is obsessed with writing and reading. Find her at www.jodieesch.com