This course comes with a 100-page printable workbook entitled Energize Your Writing Toolkit: Cheat Sheets for Character Emotions that has 4,000 emotional phrases already arranged in logical lists. It is AMAZING!
Up until now, I hadn’t paid much attention to non-verbal cues in my writing. In my reading, yes. A scrunched up red face meant embarrassment or anger. But I’m writing about facts, so why would I bother with these at all? It turns out, I should. When I’m describing how the crooked president of the association disregarded my comment during the community meeting as happened in La Yacata Revolution, I could have shown his disdain by the distance he put between us and a turned head, since he said nothing at all. Hmm. Food for thought! With the excellent value I felt I received with just this course, I am hyped to keep learning with Shortcuts for Writers and I’m sure you will too!
There are 39 products worth over $5000 for $97. This bundle is priced a bit more than most of the Ultimate Bundles offerings, but it is SO worth it. There are 5 eBooks, 32 eCourses, 1 template and 1 membership site.
Plus there are bonuses and special discounts worth more than $800.
30 days free of the Social Content App from AngieGensler.com
30-day trial of ConvertKit + automations PDF
FREE 12-Month Premium Candidate Membership from ProBlogger
Hardcover Copy of Decoding Greatness from Ignite80
The Write Plan Planner from The Write Practice
3 Months Trial of ProWritingAid Premium
Access to the 2020 Fiction Marketing Academy Summit from BookAds
Discounts:
$250 off 1000 Storybooks’s start to finish Children’s Book Publishing Service
30% discount on the yearly plan for the first year from StoryOrigin
50% off all book cover packages from 100 Covers
30 Day Trial and exclusive $15 discount code from Literature & Latte Ltd.
Early Bird Bonus if you order by June 8:
3 Story Grid Books for Free: Story Grid 101, The Four Core Framework, The Writers’ Common Language from Story Grid worth $59.97
Breaking down this enormous bundle, there are 7 resources for crafting your book (which is where my contribution is included), 7 resources for those that want to master freelance writing, 6 resources on marketing (the writer’s bane), 6 resources on productivity (no more procrastinations for you), 6 resources on publishing, and 6 resources about writing fundamentals.
I couldn’t wait for the official release and have started my first course already and am loving it! So if you are serious about getting your book written and published, then The Writer’s Toolkit is the bundle to invest in!
Daisy Monroe decides that marrying a rancher through a mail-order bride service will help her family’s finances. En route, a stage coach robbery traumatizes Daisy. The first on the scene is handsome Henry Thomas. When Daisy finally gets to town, her intended isn’t the type of man she would have chosen as a husband, but a deal’s a deal. Before the wedding date, romantic feelings between Henry and Daisy bloom. But Daisy has a secret that she isn’t sure an upstanding man such as Henry would want to know.
Although the story wasn’t exceptional, the idiomatic expressions the author used were riveting. Flannelmouth, nailed the matter to the counter, acknowledged the corn, having a hog-killin’ time, bone orchard, threw up the sponge and countless more made deciphering the dialogue a bit of a puzzle. These terms certainly added to the feel of authenticity of this Western love story. So, despite the tired old story of a mail-order bride who finds love, I found A Love to Mend Her Broken Heart: A Historical Western Romance Novel by Etta Foster an interesting read after all. Perhaps you will too!
April’s 2021 Reading Challenge was a paranormal romance. While I expect those Vampire/Mortal romances would fall into this category, I went with Saving Cassie by by L.A. Remenicky. There are no vampires, shapeshifters, or witches in this small-town romance. On the other hand, there are demons, ghosts, and a seer or two.
Cassie Holt returns to Fairfield Corners, where everyone, except the new Deputy, knows her. Strange things are happening in the house she grew up in and inherited from her grandmother. Her best friend, the Chief of Police, lives next door with his family, but even he is unable to protect her from supernatural death threats. All of the current problems stem from a cult leader that killed Cassie’s parents when she was just six years old. Even though that man is dead, a demon has been unleashed and is stalking her. A romance blossoms between Cassie and the new Deputy, but will he be strong enough to save the woman that he loves?
I appreciated that this book was a romance, rather than just a paranormal book. It kept the gore to a minimum. Without the supernatural element, the book follows the girl returning to her hometown and falls in love plot. There were a few lurid sex scenes and some tense paranormal interactions. Overall, it was a light and easy read.
I would have liked more descriptions of the town, grandma’s house, and the bookstore. The action moved along quickly, perhaps a little too quickly in parts. Some sections seemed a bit rushed. But, for a small town romance with a twist, you can’t go wrong with Saving Cassie by by L.A. Remenicky.
I did a short promotional piece for the Self-Publishing 101 webinar on the Canadian radio last week. It went well, I think. Feel free to listen and let me know what you think! You can find the link here.
Amazon has made it much easier to compile your series. Before, you would have to edit each book, adding series information. Now, if you hadn’t intended to write a series but ended up writing one (which happened to me), then you can set them up so they are all together so that your loyal readers will be aware there is more for them to enjoy.
When you go to your KDP bookshelf, you’ll see a new series section. Click to create a new series. You’ll be taken to the series setup page. Choose the language your books are written in. Then create a series title. All the books in the series will have the same series title, although each one has its own book title.
So if I name my series “A Woman’s Guide to Living in Mexico” then that’s the heading the book series will be found under. The individual books retain their titles. Thus, A Woman’s Guide to Holidays in Mexico is a book in the A Woman’s Guide to Living in Mexico series. The series can be ordered, written to be read in a certain order, or unordered. An unordered series can be read in any order.
Amazon will compile an image for your series using the covers of the first three books. Next, you’ll be asked to write a description. For a better visual experience, use HTML codes for line breaks, bold, italics, and so on. If you don’t write a description, the book description from the first book in the series will be displayed.
After you “Submit updates,” you’ll be given a chance to add books to the series. Since I am compiling a series from books I have already published, I choose the +Add existing title button. If I were adding a new book to a series that has not been published, I would choose +Create new title. A popup will appear with all your published books. When you pick one, you’ll be asked how the book relates to the series. It can be classified as main or related content. The main content includes the books in the series. Related content might be novellas, prequels, or short stories related to the series. Right now, related content won’t appear on your Amazon listing for the series, but that feature is being developed.
You’ll then be asked to confirm the inclusion of the book in the series. Amazon will then review the series and if approved, you’ll have a series page within 72 hours.
If you write a book and want to add it to a series, you can do that from your KDP bookshelf as well. The three ellipses to the far right of the listing will now show “Add to series” as an option.
When the series is live, you’ll be able to manage it from your KDP bookshelf. You can edit the details, add existing or new titles, remove a book, edit book order, change whether books are main or related content, or delete the series.
Once a book has been added to a series, the listing on your KDP bookshelf will reflect that and it will appear on each of the individual book listings on Amazon. There will also be a series page that readers can access by clicking on the series image on the book listing.
The series page shows your series description and lists the books. Readers can buy the books individually or bulk buy using 1-click ordering. The series page can be seen on the Amazon US, UK, and Germany websites, apps, e-readers, and Fire tablets.
Having a bonafide series is a great way to cross-promote your books. The more, the merrier as they say!
Assignment: Compile a book series from your books.
Join the PEI Writers’ Guild for Self-Publishing 101 with indie Author C.E. Flores (that’s me) on Wednesday, May 19th! Explore the concept of self-publishing! Decide if it is the right course for you!
You’ll also get suggestions on how to format the best manuscript possible and learn from the mistakes I made.
The workshop will run on Wednesday, May 19th as a Zoom webinar. The cost is $30 for Non-members and $25 for PEIWG Members. After registration, participants will be emailed the links. Please email the peiwritersguild@gmail.com if you would like to be considered for a bursary to this workshop.
As you are probably aware already, I participated in the A to Z Blogging Challenge again. This year I opted to highlight women writers. Although again, I didn’t get much traffic from other participants, I felt content that I completed the challenge (missing just a few letters) and that I visited a good number of other sites. I also was able to promote women writers and discover some great books in the process. (Look for reviews later this year highlighting some of the books I discovered!)
Many of these women are indie authors, so I was pleased to help with their book promotion. It’s not easy out there in the publishing world. If you are thinking about self-publishing, I invite you to join me for the PEI Writers’ Guild – Self-Publishing 101 course on May 19th and find out the nitty gritty. You can find out more information here.
So in case you missed it, here’s the complete list of women writers featured in the 2021 Virtual Book Tour.
Janett Zizumbo was born in Chicago, IL, USA and currently resides in Veracruz, Mx. She has received a Bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University and a Masters degree from University of South Florida. She is a writer, illustrator, visual artist, and teacher.
Being bilingual as a child, she always found it difficult to find resources to help with her fluency. Specifically, having grown up in the United States she only had the opportunity to learn English academically and learn Spanish through conversation with family. This is where she got the idea of creating stories for bilingual children to read and have easy access.
The Kangaroo / El Canguro
During my stay in Australia, the family and I spent some time in one of the nature reserves in Melbourne, Australia. We went during dusk and had a small picnic watching kangaroos hopping around completely unfazed by our presence. It was such a surreal moment to live. A pair of joeys playing with each other inspired me to write this book. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it.
Durante mi estadía en Australia, la familia y yo pasamos un tiempo en una de las reservas naturales de Melbourne, Australia. Fuimos durante el anochecer y tuvimos un pequeño picnic viendo a los canguros saltando completamente imperturbables por nuestra presencia. Fue un momento tan surrealista para vivir. Un par de joeys jugando me inspiraron a escribir este libro. Espero que lo disfruten tanto como yo al escribirlo.
Readers are absolutely perfect for building fluency. These readings include a story, along with reading comprehension questions and a writing/drawing exercise all in Spanish and English.
This reader is a bit more advanced aimed at 1st grade–2nd grade students slightly advanced with fluency.
Los Readers son absolutamente perfectos para desarrollar la fluidez. Estos Readers incluyen una historia, junto con preguntas de comprensión de lectura y un ejercicio de escritura/dibujo, todo en Español e Inglés.
Este lector es un poco más avanzado y está dirigido a estudiantes de 1º a 2º grado ligeramente avanzados con fluidez.
What it contains/ lo que contiene:
An E-book in Spanish and English/ un E-book en Español e inglés
Reading comprehension questions in Spanish and English/ Comprension de lectura
Vocabulary/ Vocabulario
Writing portion/ejercicio de escritura
Drawing portion/ ejercicio de dibujo
crossword puzzle/ crucigrama
Total of 17 pages/ 17 paginas en total
An audio will be included on the website to help the student understand the pronunciation
C.E. Flores 