What's Your Risk

I usually say put some mystery in your life, but some mysteries aren't so good. (This has nothing to do with writing, but I think it's a great tool.) I found this website to help you measure your risk for all kinds of health conditions.

• cancers
• diabetes
• heart disease
• osteoporosis
• stoke

You just have to answer a few questions and they give you your risk. They also give you tips to lower your risk. Some of these tips I have never thought about before. It says it works better if you are over 40 and have never had cancer before. But you can still take it if you are under 40

click here

KJ

Release Day

My first book has been released today.

Blurb:

Ex-cop and brain tumor survivor, Vincent Maxwell has been recalled for a special assignment: Capture a killer. With no obvious common links or clues, Maxwell must work fast before another body turns up. What he discovers suggest more than his reputation is at stake. Wrapped up in an unbelievable world of superpowers, he’s dragged in deeper with a connection he never thought possible. Can he use the information to his advantage and stop the killer? Or will death strike before he finds answers?

Buy Link

KJ
Put some mystery into your life

The Flock

I watch a lot of stupid movies like Office Space, Blades of Glory and Dodgeball. Usually my husband will turn them on and before I know it, I'm sucked into them. A couple of nights ago it was Semi-Pro. It pulled me in like a pit of quicksand. I had to sit still until it released it hold on me...a.k.a. - the credits rolled.

I also like the chick-flix movies. Ever After, Never Been Kissed and Fried Green Tomatoes. But the one that memorizes me is The Notebook. Can't do anything when that one is on.

Now, I don't like horror. Sometimes I can get into a good thriller. With the upcoming release of my mystery ebook, I've decided I need to branch out and add mysteries to my list of movies. Not being able to sleep Saturday night, I flipped through the movie stations and found The Flock - a mystery with Richard Gere and Claire Danes.

The paranoid registrant administrator of the Department of Public Safety Erroll Babbage is forced to an early retirement due to his abusive behavior against the sex offenders that he should monitor, and shall spend his last eighteen days training his replacement Allison Lowry. When the seventeen years old Harriet Wells is considered missing in his area of work, Errol is convinced that her disappearance is related to one of his parole sex offenders. However, his superiors do not believe on his investigations and he convinces Allison to follow him in the sick underworld of pornography and perversions trying to find the missing girl.

Riveting! I couldn't walk away. Babbage is one scary fellow, but the guys he tracks are far worse. One can't help but understand why he does the things he does.

KJ

Put some mystery in your life.

GUEST BLOGGER - Sunny Frazier

DAVID VS GOLIATH

Small publishing vs. BIG PUBLISHING.

Every Author sets out with high hopes of publishing their book and seeing it on the shelves of the big chains. They deserve to be there. After brain-sweat and sacrifice, the reward should be wonderful book signings and lines of buyers waiting for an autograph.

That's the carrot that keeps writers pounding away at the keyboard. It happens to a lucky few. But sometimes the author published by a major publishing house is a one-book wonder and left to contemplate why the publisher deserted them. Sometimes they can't meet the sales expectations of their publisher on the second book and get pushed to the sidelines. Sometimes the economy downsizes them right out of their career as big publishing can't balance cost of putting out a book with a frugal public. Authors never fantasize about that aspect of the industry.

Then there are the small press authors. We're the ones who looked at the slush pile and the long lines in front of agent's doors and said, “I can do better.” We rolled the dice and took a gamble on a small outfit, a one-man-(or woman)-band. We were impatient and wanted our work out there before we were too old to travel and promote.

I started my career by joining with two girlfriends and putting out a regional mystery anthology of our prize-winning short stories. Anthologies are tough to get published, but nobody told us. We found a reluctant publisher, designed the cover and each paid $2,000 dollars to co-publish. The publisher put in a thousand dollars. Soon it was apparent that no store, not even the independent book stores in our city, would carry the books. It was also apparent that we had a public delighted to read about the San Joaquin Valley. We had published the first mystery anthology in this region.

I'm lucky to have such a rough start. It banished my own illusions of the publishing world. I actually had to learn everything from the ground up. I knew when my first novel was published that my success would happen under my own steam. I love having a big say in how I market, it makes me feel in control of my career. I didn't hand my work over to corporate strangers and trust that they would have my best interest at heart. I bounced off the contacts and savvy I'd learned from the first books I published. I had a readership in place salivating for the next book in the series. I also delved into Internet promotion and invited several of you to join me.

What I love about being with a small publisher is that I feel nurtured. I know my talent is respected. I still get to be a player in the literary world. Some may feel they are too big for small publishing. I feel you can't promote what doesn't exist, so while some authors spend time looking for an agent and a publisher and hoping lightening strikes, I'm out selling my next book.

Small publishing is a choice. My career is what I make it, not what a faceless committee decides. I choose to enjoy the freedom, explore the possibilities and reap the fruit of my labors.

Sunny Frazier