Monday, May 27, 2013

Learning the Ropes: Post by author Bernadette Marie


Learning the Ropes
By Bernadette Marie

This morning I had the opportunity to sit down with a young man who just last week graduated from high school. He wants to be an author and get into publishing. I sat down and showed him how I published. 

Okay, I sat and showed him all the apps and sites I used to make my dreams, and those of other authors, come true.

As I explained certain things to him I realized that I had learned the ropes of Indie and Small House publishing from trial and error. What a great way to become an expert on something.

Those who fail and think they have failed…well they have. If you fall down and don’t get back up how will you ever keep walking on your journey?

Failing is a great way to learn. Taking every instance in your life, which didn’t quite go your way, only opens the door for more great opportunity.

If you want to be an author, you have to send your manuscript out into the world. There are many ways to do this. You can give it over to a beta reader and hope they give you good feedback. (By the way, having them say, “Wow, that was good,” isn’t helpful. You need feedback.) You can send it out to an agent or a publisher. That is one of the quickest ways of getting rejection and hopefully they will send some reasoning! 

Take their reasoning and learn from it. When you self-publish, giving your work to the world to criticize, you’re going to learn a lot! You’re going to learn the process (the rights and wrongs of how to get the story out there.) You’re going to learn everything that is wrong with your manuscript, because people love to tell you that. And you’re going to learn how to fix it.

Are these failures? Nope they are learning experiences.

A book will go through a thousand different shapes from its first word through publication and the author will too. Perhaps you’re not a good speller, you’re a head hopper in POV, or your tenses mix. This will be brought to your attention and you will have learned a new skill. Formatting is a crazy thing! The first time you format your book for publication (assuming you might try this yourself) it might take you the better part of ten hours, the first time. In time, with enough emails from the printer telling you what didn’t work for publication, you will learn how to format. In time the process will take, perhaps, an hour.

We’d all like to be perfect right from the start. And even if you’re one of those people who reads every direction and follows it to the word, chances are you’re still taking the time to learn the ropes—and you still might make a mistake. Well, that’s just one more opportunity for growth.

Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty. Whether that’s because you’re working so hard or you’re in the dirt praying for the strength to make it through, you will learn the ropes. And, you will probably become an expert at a few things. One will be failing with the intent to get better. The other—getting up and using your new found skill.




About Bernadette Marie:

Bernadette Marie has been an avid writer since the early age of 13, when she’d fill notebook after notebook with stories that she’d share with her friends.  Her journey into novel writing started the summer before eighth grade when her father gave her an old typewriter.  At all times of the day and night you would find her on the back porch penning her first work, which she would continue to write for the next 22 years. 

In 2007 – after marriage, filling her chronic entrepreneurial needs, and having five children – Bernadette began to write seriously with the goal of being published.  That year she wrote 12 books.  In 2009  she was contracted for her first trilogy and the published author was born.  In 2011 she (being the entrepreneur that she is) opened her own publishing house, 5 Prince Publishing, and has released contemporary titles and began the process of taking on other authors in other genres. 

In 2012 Bernadette Marie found herself on the bestsellers lists of iTunes and Amazon to name a few.  Her office wall is lined with colorful PostIt notes with the titles of books she will be releasing in the very near future, with hope that they too will grace the bestsellers lists.

Bernadette spends most of her free time driving her kids to their many events.  She is also an accomplished martial artist who will earn her conditional second degree black belt in Tang Soo Do in October 2012.  An avid reader, she enjoys most, the works of Nora Roberts, Karen White, Megan Hart, to name a few. She loves to meet readers who enjoy reading contemporary romances and she always promises Happily Ever After.

Author Contact Info:

 

Sunday, May 19, 2013

His Secret Dancer by Faberge Nostromo



Title: His Secret Dancer

Author: Faberge Nostromo

Genre: Adonis

Heat Rating: 4

Publisher: Breathless Press

Formats Available In: All eBook formats

Word Count: 34,000

Blurb: Dan's drab life is a world away from his secret life as Danielle, the burlesque star of Tomasz's transvestite nightclub, Trans-Action.

Having found 'her' inner T girl as a student, Danielle has discovered the power of her femininity and her talent to entice and excite—but she realizes that Dan's life is losing the passion it once had.

As Danielle's relationship with Tomasz takes her deeper into both her lover and his world, encountering passions neither thought they dare explore, demure Francine is too often left to her own devices and desires. Her only release is in the fantasies inspired by the customers who pass through her life and her patisserie.

Does she want a man in her life or a woman? Or both...

Seeing her man exploring her wardrobe she decides to embrace the power of her own sexuality. Then a sizzling encounter with Tomasz unlocks the vixen in her and sets their two worlds on a collision course.

Can Dan bring Dan's world and Danielle's together—especially when he discovers Danielle's secret lover secretly loving Francine?

Or will Tomasz come between them both?

Book Links:





Check out the YouTube Trailer

Excerpt:

Tomasz gazed at her, barely able to breathe, let alone speak. Her half closed eyes burned into him. He gazed deep into them for a moment, falling into them, then his attention fell to her hand, still resting on the damp silk mound of her pussy.Her breathing was labored and heavy, her lips, soft and red, parted. His hand cupped the bulge in his perfectly pressed trousers, slowly stroking along the length of its hardness but he couldn't stop.

Her eyes locked onto the movement of his hand. A smile that was halfway between an angel and a slut spread over her face. She looked up and her eyes met his again, hers burning with a fire that held his gaze, and she slipped her fingers inside the dampness of her panties, gently sliding a single fingertip over her still pulsing clit. A soft moan escaped her parted lips like a whispered invitation.

He stepped forward and cupped her face in his hands, gazing even deeper into the post orgasmic haze of the infinite depths of her green eyes. She looked up at him, inviting his kiss, wordlessly, and with her other hand reached for his hand, the hand that was slowly, rhythmically, rubbing up and down the aching need of his rigid cock. She flattened her palm on his and moved with him.

They kissed, no words needed, his mouth on hers, but hers the more powerful, needing to own and control his mouth, her tongue seeking out his. Her hand pressed against his, taking control of his movement now, slowing it so that she could feel how long and hard he was. And he was, so very hard, and long. She wanted that, she needed that, in her, fucking her. She pulled his hand up over his confined erection, slowly, so that they both felt the total extent of his arousal, and then pushed it more forcefully down and out of the way. He complied totally with her direction .He was hers now, hers to play with, to use. The kiss intensified, and her fingers unzipped him, reaching in, finding and grasping him. She felt the wet silky tip of his cock under her fingers as she undid his belt with her other hand, unbuttoning and freeing it so that she could wrap her fingers around the full length of him.

Then he lifted her, his hands on her hips, up onto the tabletop, and pulled himself closer to her. She responded, wrapping her legs around his waist as her fingers eased aside the wet silk of her panties. She guided the moist head of his cock to rub against her clit, still tingling and pulsing, before she slid it lower to rest, achingly, against her pussy lips. She denied him entry, her hot, wet labia brushing, teasing him. Her hand wrapped around him stopped him from thrusting into her, despite his burning desire now to just fuck her hard and fast and unload his tight balls deep inside her. She kept him there, for just a few seconds that seemed like hours to him. She let him enjoy the wet kiss of her pussy lips on the moist tip of his cock, savoring the moment before she let his thickness disappear into her, before she let him become enclosed in the hot, wet embrace of her cunt. She was going to ride him to heaven and he was going to love every second of it.

About The Author:

Faberge Nostromo grew up in the East End of London before escaping to East Anglia. He has been a civil servant, a tea boy, sound engineer, a librarian and an IT consultant but always knew that he was a writer. He now lives deep in the heart of Suffolk with his wife, son and too many guitars.