Faith Blum’s newest novella is available! This one is double trouble! Not only is it about twins, but these twins have reckless and adventurous spirits. When they go against their family, they run into more trouble than they bargained for.

About the Book

Just as I am, without one plea

Eve and Evangeline Collins are adventurous twins who decide to take a risk and head west as mail order brides. Their parents are less than pleased, but do nothing to stop them. Eve and Eva don’t realize their danger until they stop just outside Cheyenne. Will they ever see their family again? 
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About the Book

About the Author

film enthusiast and incurable Anglophile, she enjoys geeking out about Harry Potter and Dr. Who, playing word games, singing in church choir, and hiking in Philly’s Fairmount Park.

Excerpt

Giveaway

You’re almost there! Just a few clicks here and a few clicks there and you’ll arrive! Arrive where? Why, you’ll arrive at the rafflecopter page to enter the creative giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule 

The mages of old saved their world, but left it in eternal darkness. Now it’s time to bring back the light. 

After two years of training his magical gifts, Rafe returns home to a land wracked by war. Desperate states struggle to protect their resources of luminous quartz. Magic pulses and earthquakes devastate a world on the brink of extinction. Rafe’s old enemy Karzov has gathered a band of prodigies obedient to his will. He seeks the power of the ancient mages for an audacious and sinister purpose. It’s up to Rafe and his ally, Isabella, to stop himóand undo the mistakes of the past to put their world right again.

The Sunless World series

About the Author
I create weird worlds full of magic and machines, and write characters who are called on to be heroes. I’m fascinated by light and darkness, transformation, and things that fly. Giant squid and space dragons appear in my work – you have been warned! A native of Pakistan, I now reside in Northern Virginia, where I read, write, doodle, avoid housework, and homeschool my children.

Find me online at:
Website: http://www.rabiagale.com
Newsletter: http://www.rabiagale.com/thank-you/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rabiagalewriter
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rabiagale

Book Blurb
When 9 year old Alice Carroll disappears during a school shooting she is left wondering if time travel is all it’s cracked up to be.
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Science Fiction, Time Travel, Girls & Women
Pages: 310
Release Date: 12 July 16  

When Alice Carroll is in grade three she narrowly escapes losing her life in a school shooting. All she remembers is the woman comforting her in the moments before the gunshot, and that one second she was there, the next she wasn’t. It’s bad enough coming to terms with surviving while others, including her favourite teacher, didn’t, let alone dealing with the fact that she might wink out of existence at any time. Alice spends the next few years seeing specialists about her Post Traumatic Stress as a result of VD–Voldemort Day–but it’s not until she has a nightmare about The Day That Shall Not Be Mentioned, disappears from her bed, is found by police, and taken home to meet her four-year-old self that she realizes she’s been time travelling. Alice is unsure if her getting unstuck in time should be considered an ability or a liability, until she disappears right in front of her high school at dismissal time, the busiest time of day. Worried that someone may find out about her problem before long, Alice enlists her best friend (and maybe boyfriend), Pete, to help her try to control her shifting through time with limited success. She’s just about ready to give up when the shooter is caught. Alice resolves to take control of her time travelling in order to go back to That Day, stop the shooting, and figure out the identity of the stranger who’d shielded Alice’s body with her own. Buy

Buy I Was, Am, Will Be Alice at Amazon, Google Play, iTunes and Kobo.

Excerpt from I Was, Am, Will Be Alice

The first time it happens, it happens like this: I’m huddled beside the bench in the grade three cloakroom, head scrunched against my knees, hands clasped behind my head. I hear the shots, three of them, and I swear my heart stops pumping each time. There’s a woman next to me, kneeling, whispering in my ear, telling me it’s going to be okay, but I’m either too frightened or it was too long ago to remember exactly what she says. Her hand grips my shoulder firmly, and there’s a familiar quality to her voice that’s somewhat soothing. The man’s heels clack into the cloakroom and the gun cracks as he readies it for the next shot. The woman stands and I can tell by the air she moves with her that she’s taken a step toward him. Her lips make a wet sound as if she’s parted them, and she draws in a breath as if to speak, and then the gun booms─it’s deafening─and she goes down. I scream and I go away. When I come back the woman is gone. So is the man with the gun. The classroom door opens with a whoosh. My breath catches in my throat and my heart thumps in my chest and I hear shoe clacks again…

“Alice?” a man says when the clacking stops. It’s loud enough to snap me from my trance. “You’re covered in blood! Are you okay?” I blink at him. “I don’t think it’s mine.” The man, Principal Cotton, clucks his tongue and says, “For God’s sake, girl, why are you still here?” I shrug my shoulders. I have no idea. His shoes click away. When they click back he has a woolen blanket in his hands. I feel the warmth of his body as he nears and the wet warmth of his breath at the back of my neck as he drapes the blanket over me. He’s a smoker. I can tell. The blanket’s scratchy, like Daddy’s beard on a weekend morning. It starts to slide off me, but I grab as much of it as I can and pull it close. Mr. Cotton holds his hand out to me. I take it and let him lead me to the office.

It’s weird sitting in the Bad Kid Chairs, and I get A Case of the Nerves waiting for my parents to come. I have to breathe deeply and evenly; the last time I got A Case of the Nerves, I went away, and I don’t want to do that again. Not here. Not now. By the time my parents come for me, Mr. Cotton has let me get washed up. My clothes are sticky in places where the blood is still wet and hard where it’s dried in others. We sit in his office, the four of us around a small, round table. I try to picture us sitting this way in a coffee shop, waiting for the waitress to take our orders. Mom orders a latte, lactose free and with three sugars. Dad orders something slushy. Mr. Cotton looks like a tea man to me. I order something fruity and icy with lots of whipped cream. Mr. Cotton says, “She was curled into a ball when I found her,” spoiling the illusion. “She was just glued to the spot, huddled into a ball and holding her breath.” “Where did the blood come from?” Mom sniffles. I hate it when she cries. “We don’t know. She seems physically unharmed.” Mr. Cotton shuffles the papers on the table in front of him. “I want to give you this.” He hands her a pamphlet. “Grief councillors will be here for the foreseeable future to talk to the children who need it, but seeing as Alice was so close to…well, to the action, Post Traumatic Stress is a likely possibility.” Mom gasps. “Oh God!” Dad reaches for her hand. I sit in my chair taking long, deep breaths, willing myself to grow smaller and smaller until I disappear. “Call this number, Mrs. Carroll. There are councillors there to help you cope, too. Support groups and the like.” Mom reaches for a tissue from the box on the table. She blows her nose, looks at her lap, and continues to weep. “Thank you, Mr. Cotton,” Dad says. He stands up and shakes the principal’s hand. He touches Mom’s shoulder and she stands, too. She nods and forces a smile at Mr. Cotton. “Come, sweetie,” Dad says to me. He takes my hand and pulls me from my chair.

The drive home would be silent, but for Mom’s sniffles and snorts and gasps. When we get there, she announces, “I’m going to lie down for a bit.” She smiles at me and says, “You can lie with me if you like, Alice,” as an afterthought. I nod. I don’t feel like being comforted by my mother. I feel embarrassed at losing control. Ashamed at being found by Mr. Cotton of all people, just sitting there, crying like a baby. I want to eat chocolate cake till I puke and crawl into a hole somewhere and die. “Ice cream sundaes, kiddo?” Dad asks. I nod and smile in spite of myself and follow him into the kitchen.

About Elise Abram:
Elise Abram is high school teacher of English and Computer Studies, former archaeologist, editor, publisher, award winning author, avid reader of literary and science fiction, and student of the human condition. Everything she does, watches, reads and hears is fodder for her writing. She is passionate about writing and language, cooking, and ABC’s Once Upon A Time. In her spare time she experiments with paleo cookery, knits badly, and writes. She also bakes. Most of the time it doesn’t burn. Her family doesn’t seem to mind.

Social Media Links:
 Here’s where you can learn more about Elise and her writing:

Rafflecopter Giveaway: a Rafflecopter giveaway

3.) Where it says “default URL”, paste in the link to where your book is available on Amazon. Even if you’re not in the US, you might want to use the link to the book on the Amazon US site, since that’s the most commonly used one. That’s where the global URL you’re about to make will take people if the system can’t figure out where they are in the world, or if their country doesn’t have its own Amazon store.

Be sure you know whether the link you’re using is to the paperback edition, or the ebook. Either will work, but you want to know what you’re directing people to. 🙂

4.) Open a new tab and go to https://kdp.amazon.com/, then sign in to access your KDP Bookshelf. Next to the title of your book, there’s a drop-down menu that says “view on Amazon”. There, it has links to all the different Amazon stores around the world where your book can be found (US, UK, etc.)

Click on the links to open each one in a new tab.

5.) Back at the Smart URL site, go to the section that says “Country Destinations”. Where it says “Country”, type in the name of one of the countries where Amazon has a store, e.g. India. Then go to the tab you opened where you can see your book in the Amazon India store. Copy the address from there and paste it into the bar that says “URL” next to “country” on the Smart URL site.

6.) It’s possible that the site will then automatically fill in the names of more countries and your book’s address in them. However, it may not include them all. Check back on your Bookshelf to make sure every country with an Amazon store is really represented in the list. If not, click on the orange circle with the + on it, to the right of the URL bar back on the Smart URL site. It will open up a spot for you to do fill in the information again with a new country. Keep doing it until you’ve entered the information for all the different Amazon stores.

If you want to test the links, you can copy them one by one and past them into your browser. You should see them take you to your book’s page in the other Amazon stores. However, I’ve never had a problem with the system filling in incorrect links.

Here’s how mine looked when I was done with this step (though depending when you read this, I may have gone back and added more countries as Amazon adds more stores):

7.) Below that, where it says “Organize (Optional)” you can create a custom alias using the name of your book, or part of the name. For example, I have http://smarturl.it/gladiatorguard for my book The Gladiator and the Guard.

8.) “Description” is just for your own reference. In mine, I wrote “The Gladiator and the Guard from any country.” If you plan to do this for multiple books, it’s helpful to have a description that will remind you which one is which.

9.) I don’t use anything below that in the online form. If you want to look into it, you’re on your own. 🙂 But the most important part is, make sure you click the orange “Save” button at the bottom!

10.) After that, you’ll see a button at the top right in the black bar that says “my smartURLs”. If you click on it, you’ll see the one you just created, with a “Create smartURL” button at the bottom that will let you create more. Here’s what my screen looks like, with all the smartURLs I’ve created for my various books:

If you hover your mouse over the word in the first column, you’ll see three little icons appear. The middle one, shaped like a clipboard, will let you copy the URL to your clipboard. You can then paste it into your email signature, a document of your own for offline reference, a form on a promo site where you’re submitting your book, etc. And anyone, anywhere, who clicks on it will then see your book in their own country’s Amazon store!

Several weeks before the release date, I used SignUpGenius to create a form where people could sign up to host my new book on their blog on certain dates. I love that site – it makes everything so convenient, and keeps track of all the information in a nice organized format! If you haven’t used it, I highly recommend checking it out. (Best of all, it’s free!)

I used Rafflecopter to set up my giveaway. In case you’re not familiar with how that works, it’s another great free site! It creates a form that can be embedded in or linked to from a blog or website, and the same form can be placed on multiple sites. People can enter the drawing for the giveaway – in this case, to win an Amazon gift card and a digital copy of my first book in the series, The Collar and the Cavvarach – through a number of means. I set it up so that those included retweeting a tweet about the giveaway, following me on Twitter, liking my author Facebook page, etc.

I set up the blog tour to last about six and a half weeks, which in retrospect was too long. At least, it was too long for me, what with my day job and other things going on in life. I just didn’t have the energy to keep up with everybody’s blog posts toward the end! For each day, I gave bloggers several options for different types of posts: author interview, excerpt, review, basic premade post, or “other” (with a place for them to fill in their suggestions). That meant that most days, four or five different people were featuring my book on their blog at once. Which was great for exposure, but it got to be a lot for me to keep up with in terms of sharing the links on my social media and visiting each one. And I think my Facebook friends got tired of me crowing over all the places The Gladiator and the Guard was being talked about every day!

How did I get bloggers to sign up? Well, I posted in four or five different author groups that I’m part of on Facebook, asking people to click on the link to sign up to host my book. Then I went through my records in my author email account and also on this blog, and made a list of every author who I had ever hosted or whose books I had helped to promote in any way. I typed up a form email describing my new book, explaining about the blog tour, and asking if they’d be willing to help. But I sent it out to one person at a time, personalizing each email by addressing them by name and sometimes making additional comments based on how well I know them or what interactions we’d had in the past. And for each participant, I offered to include one of their social media links in the Rafflecopter (so that following them on Twitter, for example, was one way for people to enter the drawing).

Although I included the link to the SignUpGenius form in my email and asked people to put their info there, it was amazing how many people did not click on it but instead just emailed me back to say that yes, they could help. With some, it took a few emails back and forth before they understood that SignUpGenius was the place to let me know what kind of post they wanted to do on what day. A few never did fill it out, so I just filled it out for them. (Besides keeping all the information in one place, the advantage to having it on SignUpGenius is that the system will automatically email participants a reminder about what they signed up for a couple of days beforehand.)

Responses came in thick and fast, several per day for the next couple of weeks before eventually fading off to a trickle. I didn’t want to lose track of who I had already communicated with about what, so I created an Excel spreadsheet with columns for the blogger’s name, their response (if they were willing to help or not), what I did in reply (e.g. sent them a review copy of the book if they requested it), what I still needed to do (e.g. send them the links for where to post their reviews, once the book was live). Unfortunately, SignUpGenius does not allow people to leave links anywhere on their form, so authors had to email me separately to tell me their Twitter handle or Facebook page to include in the Rafflecopter. So, I made another column in my spreadsheet to keep track of that information and whether or not I had added their link yet. Then I made a final column to fill in later, to indicate when I had sent all materials they had requested for their blog.

Many busy bloggers requested the premade post. I posted it on my own blog too; you can see it here. It included basic info about the first book in the series, plus the covers of both books. I also included The Gladiator and the Guard‘s back cover blurb, buy links, my own social media links, and a brief author bio and author pic (though I didn’t include those last two on my own blog, since my readers already know me and that info is available elsewhere on my blog). Of course the Rafflecopter giveaway was on there as well. I offered to send all this to bloggers in html, so that they wouldn’t have to format everything and put in all the pictures separately. Almost everyone enthusiastically took me up on the html offer, with only two or three people asking for the text and pictures separately so they could set it up themselves. I always prefer html when I’m hosting someone else’s post on my blog. It’s so much quicker and easier!

I know from my own experience in hosting others’ blog tours that I don’t always remember exactly what I’ve signed up to do, especially when I sign up far ahead of time. It helps when the author emails everyone a list of who is doing what kinds of posts on what dates, or when she sends me a specific email with the exact info I need. When she sends one email with fifteen attachments to everyone who signed up, saying, “Download and use the ones that apply to you,” it’s a lot more confusing. (But SignUpGenius makes it easier for everyone to check exactly what they signed up for.) Anyway, I sent out separate emails to people, giving them exactly (and only) the materials they had requested, which I think helped to avoid confusion and frustration. It did take me a little longer that way, but I’m glad I did.

As a blogger myself, I know that many bloggers host lots of authors’ books and help with various blog tours. When I emailed people about the event, I made sure to mention the name of my book each time. After all, I often get confused when someone sends me an email that just says something like, “Please add a note to the bottom of your post to tell readers my book will be free at the time,” with no mention of what their book is or when it’s scheduled to appear on my blog.

I asked every blogger involved if they would please tell me the permalink to their post once they got it set up. Only a small handful did (maybe 10%?) though a few others emailed me the day their post went live to let me know. In most cases, I had to simply search online to find that person’s blog in order to share the link on my social media. If you’re featuring someone, I suggest you let them know exactly where and when! You want them to help drive more traffic to your site, right? And it’s easy to set up a post ahead of time, at least on Blogger. (I can’t speak for WordPress, but I know people who do it there too, so I don’t think it can be too hard.) Just use the “schedule” button at the right to choose a date, and click on “permalink” to see the exact link to that exact post. (I’m editing this to add: someone who blogs on WordPress just told me it’s easy there too. You can do it through the calendar icon to the right of the “publish” button.)

When the book was live, I emailed everyone who had agreed to review it and gave them the links to several places to leave reviews: Amazon, Goodreads, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Kobo. By the next day, there were 10 reviews up on Amazon, but only a few in any of the other places (though someone did point out that you can’t leave a review on Smashwords if you haven’t actually obtained the book from there). More reviews trickled in over the next few days and weeks from people who couldn’t quite make the deadline. I found I didn’t mind too much about the delay. I’m grateful for reviews any time I receive them! But I do wish more people had left reviews in more of the places I’d asked them to.

I have no way of knowing how many people visited each blog when my books were featured there. However, I definitely noticed that I had more entries in the giveaway when the title of the person’s blog post mentioned the giveaway. It makes sense. Not everyone cares to read every blog post, even by a blogger they like. But if they know beforehand that they could win something – well, who doesn’t like free stuff?

Each day, I made sure to visit each of the blogs that was hosting The Gladiator and the Guard that day and leave a comment thanking the blogger. I’ve always been told that’s good etiquette, and people seemed to appreciate it. I admit that I did get a little behind, especially toward the end of the blog tour when things got busier in my non-writing life, but I caught up on all of them eventually. I also made sure to share the links on my social media every day (though I didn’t do that for the ones who just posted the premade post, since I figure none of my friends wants to read the same description day after day). Each time, I tried to say something unique and interesting about it, such as a hint of what the excerpt was about, or a question or two from the interview, to get people curious and make them want to click on the link. I always tried to tag the blogger when I did so, so that their friends would see it too. I was surprised at how many of the bloggers did not say anything on their social media when the posts went live on their blogs. I’ve found that doing so is the best way to drive traffic to my blog. (Well, that and having other people share the links too.)

Anyway, here are a few of the main points that I took away from the whole blog tour experience. I intend to make sure I apply both the suggestions for authors and the ones for bloggers from now on!

Suggestions for Authors:
If you have a premade post for people to share on their blogs, get it formatted on your own blog first, and then give them the option of receiving it in html format. It saves bloggers time!
Only send each blogger what she really needs. Including lots of attachments that don’t apply to everyone just makes it confusing and makes more work for people who are doing you a favor.
Mention the name of the book being featured each time you communicate with a blogger.
When emailing bloggers individually, mention the date on which they will be featuring your book (at least if they have not sent you the permalink to the post. If they have, they’ve obviously got it scheduled and don’t need a reminder).
Visit each blog that is hosting you when the post is live, and leave a comment to thank the blogger.
When you do, check the box that says you’d like to receive email notifications when anyone else comments (so you’ll know if other people are talking about your book or the post).
Share about each blog stop on your social media to help direct more traffic there.
When you do, tag the bloggers involved.


Suggestions for Bloggers:
Even if an author sends you a pre-formated post in HTML, look through it after you paste it into your blog. It might still need minor adjustments to look right. (Yes, I speak from unfortunate experience.)
If you’re hosting a giveaway, mention it in the title of the post. (e.g. “The Gladiator and the Guard: an Exciting new Adventure Story with a Giveaway!”)
If you’re hosting a giveaway, say so when you share about your blog on social media.
If you share on social media about an author you’re featuring, tag her so she can easily share your post, retweet your tweet, etc. Plus, then her friends and followers will see it too.
Set up the post as soon as you have the necessary materials and schedule it for the day you agreed to post it, so you can’t forget closer to the time. 🙂 (I had several bloggers who forgot!) 
Then send the author the permalink right away. Why wait till the day it goes live?
If you agreed to review the book, post your review in all the places the author asked you to. If for some reason you can’t, or if you can’t do it by the agreed-upon date, email her and let her know so she doesn’t think you just can’t be bothered.

Authors and bloggers, do you have any suggestions of your own to add to these? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!