Publishing in the 21st Century

COMEDY WRITER FALLS RIGHT OVER THE CLIFF ~ Melodie Campbell

Posted on: April 28th, 2013 by Carrick Publishing

Melodie CampbellEver make a really bad typo? I mean really bad.

My worst ever professional mistake was in an Annual Report for a one-hundred-million dollar corporation, in which an innocent little ‘t’ went missing from the word ‘assets.’ The board was not amused by “This year, we experienced an increase in corporate asses.”

Today, I found out what one little vowel can do to ROWENA AND THE DARK LORD.

Okay, REALLY uncool when you misspell the name of your own book on your own blog.

ROWENA AND THE DARK LARD is probably not the best way to get sales for a fantasy series. However, as I do write comedy, I’m thinking about a parody.

Is it okay to write a parody of your own book?

Draft one: ROWENA AND THE DARK LARD
Synopsis 1: Rowena moves back to Land’s End and opens up a bakery.
Synopsis 2: Cedric’s use of dark magic goes totally out of control, and so does his appetite.
Synopsis 3: Thane and Rowena return to Land’s End and become pig farmers.
Synopsis 4: Rowena messes up another spell that causes all who look at her to turn into donuts.
Synopsis 5: Rowena kills off Nigella Lawson in a battle with pastry rollers, and assumes the role of Prime Time Network Food Goddess .
Synopsis 6: Someone takes a totally justified whack at the author. End of series.

Rowena and the Dark Lord
Excerpt from ROWENA AND THE DARK LORD

Men’s voices again, echoing like souls lost in a fog. The mist lifted in one swift movement to disappear into nothingness. In its place, were at least a hundred men.

Bugger. I messed up.

“Houston, we have a problem,” I said out loud. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I must have pronounced one of the spell words wrong.

“Who is Houston?” Lars said.

“Romans!” Gareth hissed. He drew his sword.

“Romans?” I stared at the battle-scarred men before us. They looked exhausted. They also looked bloody, dirty and rather short. Not to mention confused.

How the heck could they be Romans?

Someone yelled “Form Square!” in—yup—that was Latin.

“What the hell?” I stared. The men came to life moving with purpose into a square. Within seconds we were facing a shield wall bristling with spears.

The man on horseback stared at me. No stirrups on his saddle. A helmet that was in history books. Definitely Roman. I stared back at him.

Romans? In this time? What the poop had I done?

“It’s a freaking temporal rift!” My laugh was strident. “Where the hell is Spock when you need him?

Melodie Campbell achieved a personal best this year when Library Journal compared her to Janet Evanovich. She has over 200 publications, including 100 comedy credits, 40 short stories, and 4 novels. She has won 6 awards for fiction.

Visit Melodie at her site: www.melodiecampbell.com
Or at her Blogsite: www.funnygirlmelodie.blogspot.ca

ROWENA AND THE DARK LORD is NOW AVAILABLE at the special introductory price of .99! (regular price $3.99, after May 1.)

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Spring in Canada — a wonderful time (and place) to be a Crimewriter

Posted on: April 17th, 2013 by Carrick Publishing

Arthur Ellis Awards 2013

With all the buzz this month about the up-coming Arthur Ellis Short-list (Short List Events take place April 18, 2013 in cities across Canada), I’d be a naughty little Crime Writer if I didn’t pay homage to the CrimeWriters of Canada (CWC) and their exceptional work in raising the profile of the Crime Fiction and True Crime genres in our country.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL FINALISTS, including my very good friends:

Best Unpublished First Crime Novel: the Unhanged Arthur
William Hall, Cold Black Tide

Best Short Story
Melodie Campbell, “Life without George” in Over My Dead Body Mystery Magazine, August 2012

Best Novella
Lou Allin, Contingency Plan, Orca Rapid Reads
Vicki Delany, A Winter Kill, Orca Rapid Reads
Barbara Fradkin, Evil behind that Door, Orca Rapid Reads

Way to go — I’m so proud of each of you!

You’ll find up-to-the-minute news about the May Awards Banquet at the CWC Website.

The exciting Awards Categories include:

Best Crime First Novel

Best Crime Novel

Best Crime Novella (3-year pilot)

Best Crime Short Story

Best French Crime Book (Fiction and Nonfiction)

Best Juvenile or YA Crime Book (Fiction and Nonfiction)

Best Nonfiction Crime Book

For unpublished authors:

The Unhanged Arthur Award

for Best Unpublished First Crime Novel

Be sure to stay tuned for Short List Announcements!

Donna Carrick – April 17, 2013

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Hooray for March!

Posted on: March 3rd, 2013 by Carrick Publishing

At Carrick Publishing, we’re thrilled to (nearly) see the end of winter!

True, it’s had its moments of glory, with plenty of snowfall for the kids to enjoy and lots of socializing for the adults.

And it was a productive season, with e-Books and appearances galore! Plenty of work for this formatter, as Carrick Publishing celebrated its 50th Kindle e-Book on Amazon.

Still, this writer is craving the rejuvenating rays of Spring, and that annual burst of creative energy that comes along with it.

So, what’s on the agenda for us in the up-coming season?

By mid-March we plan to put out another cross-genre author call for the second anthology in our EFD series. If you haven’t already done so, be sure to download EFD1: Starship Goodwords for your Kindle. Don’t miss out — the e-book features 21 of today’s hottest storytellers!

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Want to see it included in our second EFD anthology?

Stay tuned for news on how to submit — to be announced at this site by March 15th!

Also in March, yours truly (Donna) will be featured in the CrimeWriters of Canada’s “Crime Time” newsletter. Watch for my article Starting from Scratch — The role of Social Media for Writers.

Are you a serious reviewer? Our EFD1 authors need exposure. For 5 days, from March 7 – 11, we’ll be offering EFD1: Starship Goodwords absolutely Free for your Kindle!

We’re so sure you’ll enjoy these authors that we invite your Amazon reviews and comments!

Also in March, we’ll be offering Knowing Penelope, a selection of 5 chilling tales by Donna Carrick, free for your Kindle. Watch for it from March 21 – 25.

From February 27 to March 3, be sure to download your Free Kindle copy of “Three Scoops” Is A Blast! by Alex Carrick.

With a fresh season just around the corner, we’re looking forward to sunshine and long, leisurely days spent writing on the back deck.

Here’s to a renewed supply of creativity!

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What, Why and How? Carrick Publishing welcomes author Mariam Kobras

Posted on: October 28th, 2012 by Carrick Publishing

Our guest this week is none other than author Mariam Kobras, whose latest book Under the Same Sun (sequel to The Distant Shore) was launched earlier this month.

In Mariam’s own words:

What, Why, and How

One evening, while chatting with my publisher, I once again gave in to yammering about the looming blog hop because I never had any ideas, and it kept me away from the real writing.
With a slight edge to her normally gentle, lovely voice, she tossed a couple of questions at me, and asked me to answer them.

Here they are:

What story would you really like to write, but won’t, and why?

None.

Well, that’s not quite accurate, since I’m actually writing exactly the story I want to write.

Initially, when I began writing, I didn’t have any idea where it would lead me. I certainly never thought of writing a second or third book about Jon and Naomi. But the story grew and grew. It’s like a hydrangea bush, you know. You buy one for a couple of dollars at some flower stall outside the grocery store, and it’s a teeny tiny thing with one single blossom. You keep it inside for a while because it’s still too cold to plant it in the garden, and you enjoy that single blue or pink or white blossom. Then after a while you do plant it outside, and a year later, it has grown and is suddenly a big bush in full bloom. And the longer it grows, the bigger it gets and the more flowers it has.

So that’s how it went. The Distant Shore is really nothing more than a love story, a story about two people and their lost and recovered love.

The new book, Under the Same Sun, is the sequel, but it’s also more than that. It expands the storyline. People who are mere bystanders in The Distant Shore, well, maybe I should say minor characters; Naomi’s father is certainly no bystander. So people who only have supporting roles in book one, now take over the stage and tell their own story.

The setting broadens, too. Where in The Distant Shore, the characters move only between Norway, London and the US, now they go to meet the family of Naomi’s mother in Italy.

See, the longer you work with or write about characters, the more you find out about them, and the people surrounding them. They have families, friends, foes, neighbors, and every one of them has their own tale to tell.

Right – which story would I really like to write, but won’t…

To be honest, there is something that I would like to write, but won’t, and that’s an epic space opera. I mean, a real, deep space, galaxies and generation ships, one with alien planets, and alien people, and beasts that seem terrible, and ferocious, but in truth have a brilliant civilization hidden away somewhere.
But I won’t, and that’s because I really suck at physics, and because my imagination can’t top what others have already written.

So I’ll stay on Earth and deal with humans and their small problems.

Where do you come up with your ideas?

This is a funny question, because so far I’ve really only had one idea, and then expanded on it. Truth is, I don’t have any ideas when I start writing a new book. I just start. I pick a situation, a setting, and start out from there, and the rest sort of develops from that. It’s a bit like an avalanche. I start with one snowball, and everything else is set in motion from there. On the way down the mountainside my snowball gathers up stuff—trees, stones, even houses and people—and mixes them into the great mass of snow.

That’s how it works for me.

When I started out writing Distant Shore I had no idea there would be this shooting at the Academy Awards. No idea. I didn’t even know it would be Jon’s former girlfriend who tries to kill Naomi. But somewhere along the line, I think when she shows up just before Jon and Naomi’s wedding, I thought, “hmm….what can I do with Sophie?” and wham, she got a gun. Worked well enough to convince a publisher!


Same thing with Under the Same Sun. When Naomi meets Parker on the plane and he offers her a drink I had no idea how that would all end up.

So all I can say is that I really get my ideas from within the stories. They run in my head like a constant movie, I hear the characters talk, I watch them act, sometimes I even play one role or the other myself. You might say the people in my books live their own lives, and all I have to do is document them.

Now I can hear the publisher say, “See? It wasn’t all that hard, was it?” as she smiles at me. It’s true though. It wasn’t all that hard. In fact, it was fun!

This was the eleventh stop in Mariam’s Blog Hop celebrating the launch of her latest book, Under the Same Sun (Book II in the Stone Trilogy) which hit the Amazon.com bestseller list on its first day on sale!

We hope you enjoyed her guest post, and invite you to write a comment below about this blog post for a chance to WIN one of three copies of Under the Same Sun (plus some pretty gosh, darn, yummy chocolate)!

You can get additional chances by following Mariam at every stop on her hop and leaving comments after each post. And hey, while you’re here, why not follow this blog—you won’t regret it.

Join Mariam tomorrow, 10/29 when she stops by Leanne Gagnon’s blog. Join us there!

Check our blog for the full calendar and more details about Mariam and her books!

Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Mariam lived in Brazil and Saudi Arabia with her parents as a child before they decided to settle in Germany. She attended school there and studied American Literature and Psychology at Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen, where she met her husband. She lives in Hamburg, Germany, with her husband, two sons and two cats.

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Amazon Kindle Canadian Literature TopSeller list, Oct. 14, 2012

Posted on: October 14th, 2012 by Carrick Publishing

BIG NEWS!

3 of the Top 5 spots on Amazon Kindle’s list for Canadian Literature are being held today by Donna Carrick’s novels!

#1 – The First Excellence

#3 – The Noon God

#5 – Gold And Fishes

At Carrick Publishing, we’re proud to bring you only the best in quality books and e-books. Check out all our titles, for your reading pleasure.

And don’t forget to visit our “e-book Promotions” page, for frequent updates on Free e-books!

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ePublishing: The Changing Landscape, Saturday, November 10, 9am-12pm

Posted on: September 15th, 2012 by Carrick Publishing

Join Donna & Alex Carrick for this lively interactive workshop, brought to you by Vaughan Public Libraries!

WHEN:

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 9 AM – 12 PM

WHO:

DONNA AND ALEX CARRICK

WHERE:

Pierre Berton Resource Library
4921 Rutherford Road
Vaughan, Ontario, L4L 1A6 Canada
(905)653-READ(7323)

WHAT:

USING GENEROUSLY PROVIDED LIBRARY WIFI, PARTICIPANTS WILL BRING THEIR LAPTOPS OR OTHER MOBILE BROWSING DEVICES.

DONNA AND ALEX WILL INTRODUCE WOULD-BE E-AUTHORS TO THE HOTTEST PLATFORMS, INCLUDING KINDLE AND SMASHWORDS.

WE’LL DISCUSS THE “CROSS” OF E-PUBLISHING:

CONTENT
RECOGNITION
OPPORTUNITY
SIZE
SPEED

ADMISSION: $ 30.

If you’re in the GTA on Saturday, November 10, you won’t want to miss this exciting opportunity!

Hope to see you there,
Donna & Alex

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Carrick Publishing Presents… EFD1: Starship Goodwords, available Sept. 14/12

Posted on: September 15th, 2012 by Carrick Publishing

Ta da!

It is with great pride that we bring you the first in our series of ‘cross-genre’ anthologies, EFD1: Starship Goodwords, featuring more than 20 of today’s talented authors.

Now available at Amazon for your Kindle or Kindle App.

Compiled and edited by Donna and Alex Carrick, this collection includes: Mystery, Crime, Flash Fiction, Poetry, Literary, Paranormal, Science Fiction and Humor.

There’s something for every reader in this exceptional sampling.

Contributors by Genre:

Foreword, Donna Carrick
Crime Fiction, Catherine Astolfo, Family Recipe
Crime Fiction, Donna Carrick, Corner Store
Crime Fiction, Alexander Galant, Remember Me
Crime Fiction, Joan, O’Callaghan, Stooping to Conquer
Flash Fiction/Crime, M.H. Callway, Incompetence Kills
Flash Fiction/Crime, Sylvia Maultash Warsh, Family Values
Flash Fiction/Literary, Kathleen Bjoran, Giving Thanks
Flash Fiction/Literary/Humor, Melodie Campbell, The Battle of Beavercoat
Poetry, A.C. Cargill, Treasures in the Attic
Poetry, Rosalind Croucher, Dance
Poetry, Sheila Jeffries, Finding Calm
Poetry, Michael C. Slater, Murmur
Persuasive Article, Paulissa Kipp, Fostering Humanity Manifesto
Literary Fiction, Melanie Robertson-King, Cole’s Notes
Literary Fiction, Tracy L. Ward, Running Parallel
Paranormal/Fantasy, Susan M. Botich, The Minstrel’s Spell
Paranormal/Horror, Dayna Leigh Cheser, The Legend of Corkscrew Swamp
Paranormal/Horror, Troy Lambert, The Mighty Pen
Paranormal/Science Fiction/Humour, Ira Nayman, The Predator’s Prerogative
Humor/Fiction, Alex Carrick, My Wife and I Argue over our Travel Plans (Hey, I’m not Cheap but…)
Humor/Anecdote, John Thompson, “Oh, Okay, and the Good Soldier Schweik”

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EFD1: Starship Goodwords Anthology, cover is ready! Sept.5/12

Posted on: September 5th, 2012 by Carrick Publishing

Ladies & Gentlemen, we have a cover!

Our thanks to talented graphic artist Sara Carrick, who, incidentally, is the designer responsible for many of our covers.

A ‘jpg’ copy of the image will be emailed to all contributing authors today, along with written permission to use this image in any of their promotional work.

Formatting is still underway toward the Sept. 9 e-publishing target date. Watch this site for news.

Again, our thanks to all contributing authors. When the e-book goes live on the Kindle selling page, your names will all appear in the e-book description.

Thanks to one and all from Alex & Donna of Carrick Publishing!

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EFD1: Starship Goodwords Anthology Update — Sept.3/12

Posted on: September 3rd, 2012 by Carrick Publishing

Targetted Kindle e-Publication date: September 9, 2012!

For those who have been anxiously awaiting e-publication of our first cross-genre multi-author anthology, here’s the latest update:

Artist Sara Carrick has nearly completed the cover design for EFD1: Starship Goodwords.

Editing and Formatting are almost finished. If you have not sent your Author Bio, image and links yet, now is the time to do so. Please email these to Carrick Publishing at your earliest opportunity.

Here is the author/title list, shown both by Genre and by Author Name:

By Genre

Crime Fiction, Catherine Astolfo, Family Recipe
Crime Fiction, Donna Carrick, Corner Store
Crime Fiction, Alexander Galant, Remember Me
Crime Fiction, Joan, O’Callaghan, Stooping to Conquer
Flash Fiction/Crime, M.H. Callway, Incompetence Kills
Flash Fiction/Crime, Sylvia Maultash Warsh, Family Values
Flash Fiction/Literary, Kathleen Bjoran, Giving Thanks
Flash Fiction/Literary/Humor, Melodie Campbell, The Battle of Beavercoat
Poetry, A.C. Cargill, Treasures in the Attic
Poetry, Rosalind Croucher, Dance
Poetry, Sheila Jeffries, Finding Calm
Poetry, Michael C. Slater, Murmur
Persuasive Article, Paulissa Kipp, Fostering Humanity Manifesto
Literary Fiction, Melanie Robertson-King, Cole’s Notes
Literary Fiction, Tracy L. Ward, Running Parallel
Paranormal/Fantasy, Susan M. Botich, The Minstrel’s Spell
Paranormal/Horror, Dayna Leigh Cheser, The Legend of Corkscrew Swamp
Paranormal/Horror, Troy Lambert, The Mighty Pen
Paranormal/Horror, Ira Nayman, The Predator’s Prerogative
Humor/Fiction, Alex Carrick, My Wife and I Argue over our Travel Plans (Hey, I’m not Cheap but…)
Humor/Anecdote, John Thompson, “Oh, Okay, and the Good Soldier Schweik”

By Author

Astolfo, Catherine – Family Recipe, Crime Fiction
Bjoran, Kathleen – Giving Thanks, Flash Fiction/Literary
Botich, Susan M. – The Minstrel’s Spell, Paranormal/Fantasy
Callway, M.H. – Incompetence Kills, Flash Fiction/Crime
Campbell, Melodie – The Battle of Beavercoat, Flash Fiction/Literary/Humor
Cargill, A.C. – Treasures in the Attic, Poetry
Carrick, Donna – Corner Store, Crime Fiction
Carrick, Alex — My Wife and I Argue over our Travel Plans (Hey, I’m not Cheap but…), Humor/Fiction
Cheser, Dayna Leigh — The Legend of Corkscrew Swamp, Paranormal/Horror
Croucher, Rosalind – Dance, Poetry
Galant, Alexander – Remember Me, Crime Fiction
Jeffries, Sheila – Finding Calm, Poetry
Kipp, Paulissa — Fostering Humanity Manifesto, Persuasive Article
Lambert, Troy – The Mighty Pen, Paranormal/Horror
Maultash Warsh, Sylvia – Family Values, Flash Fiction/Crime
Nayman, Ira — The Predator’s Prerogative, Paranormal/Horror
O’Callaghan, Joan – Stooping to Conquer, Crime Fiction
Robertson-King, Melanie – Cole’s Notes, Literary Fiction
Slater, Michael C. – Murmur, Poetry
Thompson, John — “Oh, Okay, and the Good Soldier Schweik”, Humor/Anecdote
Ward, Tracy L. – Running Parallel, Literary Fiction

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EFD1: Starship Goodwords is preparing for Takeoff!

Posted on: August 28th, 2012 by Carrick Publishing

Big news!

We’re ready to roll with EFD1: Starship Goodwords, the first in our series of cross-genre anthologies. Our heartfelt thanks to all contributing authors. We were blessed to receive submissions of an exceptionally high quality from a variety of genres.

The following is an update — please peruse carefully and let me know if there are any errors or omissions.

E-Publication will commence with Kindle KDP Select (exclusive) to allow for broadest exposure for all authors. At a later date, to be determined, it will branch out to include Nook, Sony, iBooks, Kobo etc. The idea is to offer these worthy wordsmiths a wide readership.

All contracts have now been received in good order — thank you for your help with that!
…
The author list includes:

Astolfo, Catherine – Family Recipe, Story
Bjoran, Kathleen – Giving Thanks, Story
Botich, Susan M. – The Minstrel’s Spell, Story
Callway, M.H. – Incompetence Kills, Story
Campbell, Melodie – The Battle of Beavercoat, Story
Cargill, A.C. – Treasures in the Attic, Poetry
Carrick, Alex – My Wife and I Argue Over our Travel Plans (Hey, I’m not Cheap, but…), Story
Carrick, Donna – Corner Store, Story
Cheser, Dayna Leigh – The Legend of Corkscrew Swamp, Story
Croucher, Rosalind – Dance, Poetry
Galant, Alexander – Remember Me, Story
Jeffries, Sheila – Finding Calm, Poetry
Robertson-King, Melanie – Cole’s Notes, Story
Kipp, Paulissa – Fostering Humanity Manifesto, Article-Persuasion
Lambert, Troy – The Mighty Pen, Story
Maultash Warsh, Sylvia – Family Values, Story
Nayman, Ira – The Predator’s Prerogative, Story
O’Callaghan, Joan – Stooping to Conquer, Story
Slater, Michael C. – Murmur, Poetry
Thompson, John – “Oh, Okay, and the Good Soldier Schweik”, Anecdote
Ward, Tracy L. – Running Parallel, Story

Our Cover Artist has been contacted and when she agrees to take on the creative imagery, we’ll confirm it is underway. Once we have a cover, we’ll give formal permission to authors to use the cover in their promotion and on their sites.

That’s it for now! Our very best to one and all!
Donna & Alex

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