In which I celebrate by birthday by giving YOU presents! #BookGiveaway

I'm doing a Buy 1 Book, Get 1 Free Birthday Giveaway!

Until February 26th, 2013, I'm giving away a free e-book (mobi, ePub, or PDF) with every purchase (e-book or paperback from any store worldwide). And the best thing about this is, that you can even purchase the CHEAPEST book, and still claim a more expensive one as your free copy. Cool, right?

But think about this ... if you purchase String Bridge, you'll receive both its accompanying soundtrack, AND a free e-book! Even better, I say. That's almost 20 bucks worth of goods for only 3.99!

Feel free to share this with whomever you like. This deal is valid for everyone, worldwide, as long as the purchase is made between Feb 9th - 26th.

If you'd like to tweet about it, here's an easy copy/paste tweet for ya:
Jessica's giving away #books 2 celebrate her b'day! Learn how 2 get yours here! #BookGiveaway #GreatReads #FreeReads http://us6.campaign-archive2.com/?u=17d5a09abac1d1b1f2599bedd&id=bb65e6fb96&e=8af3236a42

To claim your freebies, just forward me your purchase receipt to jessica.carmen.bell@gmail.com, with B'day Giveaway in the subject line. Easy-peasy!

To see the list of books available and their various purchase links, click HERE.

For those who subscribe to Vine Leaves Literary Journal, you may also claim the purchase of the 2012 anthology.

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PS: If you'd like to get offers like this direct to your inbox in the future, please subscribe to my newsletter.

PPS: My birthday is on the 26th, so don't go sending me b'day wishes just yet :-)

I'm a Nominee in the Goodreads Choice Awards 2012!

Every year I browse the list of books nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award with a starry look in my eyes and dream of being among them ... but this year I don't have to dream anymore!

BECAUSE I'VE BEEN NOMINATED!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!

If you are a member of Goodreads and enjoy my poetry, can you please do me the honour of voting for my poetry book, FABRIC? I would appreciate it so much. While this may be "just another award" for some, for me this is HUGE. It's the biggest recognition I've ever received for my work and I'm flabbergasted, overjoyed, and if I could add more adjectives without sounding like a total ditz I would.

TO VOTE JUST CLICK HERE AND THEN CLICK ON THE COVER THAT LOOKS LIKE THIS:

THANKS SO MUCH EVERYONE!!!

Thank you for getting divorced?

My biological father and his wife are coming to visit this Friday, so we're off to Ithaca for a bit of relaxing in the sun. Jealous? Me too. I want to be there now!

But that's not what this post is about.

I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if my parents had stayed together and I never had the opportunity to be brought up by my (Greek) step father. I most certainly wouldn't be living in Greece, that's for sure. I wonder whether I would have even visited this country at all. I'm sure I would have been a musician, because my father was one too. But would I have become a writer? I'm not too sure about that one. Because when I first moved to Greece, I had a lot of time on my hands, for various reasons I won't get into now, and I wrote my first novel (I threw it away, but it was good practice). I have always loved to write, but hadn't really thought seriously about being an author until then.

I also wonder what job I would be doing now. Being in Greece gave me my first editing job opportunity in the English Language Teaching industry. Now, I definitely wouldn't have got a job like that in an English-speaking country, would I? You know, I could go on and on about the stuff I never would have done, if I hadn't moved to Greece. And if my parents hadn't got divorced, I can't imagine why I would have even come here.

So do I owe it all to their divorce? Ha! What a thought: "Thank you mum, and dad, for not loving each other enough to stay together. I wouldn't be where I am today without your relationship failure." :o)

How about you? What things in your life might be completely different if it weren't for the actions of others?


*Thank you to Jim Murdoch for posting about FABRIC today!


**Enter this easy-peasy logline contest to win a query critique from Chuck Sambuchino of Writer's Digest, and other great prizes!


***I'm taking a ten-day hiatus while my father is here. So I'll see you all again on June 25th!

I'm hungry ...

Sorry ... I couldn't resist :o)

Lot's of things on my plate this month, but it's not food:

Vine Leaves Literary Journal needs to be ready by beginning of July and we've had almost 250 submissions, this time around. That's lots of work for two people. You never know, we might need to recruit editors soon! Some stuffed vine leaves (dolmades) would be nice too ... hmmm ...

I'm participating in BuNoWriMo which is Hart Johnson's brainchild for those who find November inconvenient to do NaNoWriMo. I'm also being a rebel and using it to get a move on with MUTED instead of starting a new project. So far I'm failing miserably at 300 hundred words. But I hope to catch up! Please somebody bless my fingers with the speed to keep up with my brain ...

My Fabric blog tour is still going on quietly in the background. Didn't want to make a big deal about it, but it's still nice to get some exposure. And poetry needs it! If you feel at all inclined, please do me a favour and tweet, FB, it or just tell your friends! Thank you to Beccy, Glynis and Karen for helping me promote from last Friday to today.

Dawn and I have teamed up to write an awesome children's series (top secret!), and I've got a huge hankering to get a move on with it because it's freaking brilliant if I say so myself. Dawn also has a ton of other projects on the go, one of which I am designing a mock cover for, because I love to design them, and I love Dawn, so double win! :)

Oh yeah, and there's that day job that takes up the majority of my time. I've also got my father and his wife visiting from Australia in a couple of weeks, so will take some time off for that too.

Ack ... there's more ... I'm sure of it ... oh, yeah, getting excited about the retreat with Chuck Sambuchino this August! And also getting excited about some good news that I can't talk about yet. Hehehehe ... sorry folks!

Now ... I need some breakfast. *snaps fingers* Oi! Bring me a bowl of Special K, yeah, cereal, with sliced banana and strawberries in it, and I want the milk really cold, like on the verge of being frozen but not, ... okay ... a cup of coffee will do ...

Have a great week, all!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Source

So I'm taking a mini hiatus until next Thursday because tomorrow I'm off to Zurich, Switzerland, for both business and pleasure. Who ever said you couldn't mix the two, huh? Ridiculous :o)

I'm meeting up with my sister, Allison, after three (two/four? lost track of time ...) long years of not seeing each other. And I'm also going to meet the team I work with at Education First. Absolutely lovely bunch of people over email. Let's hope I have the same reaction when I see them face-to-face! (hehe ... joke Joyce)

But before I go, let me say a big thanks to those who have, and will, be promoting Fabric while I'm away. Yesterday the lovely Theresa Milstein wrote a great post by giving it a personal touch, and Stephen Parrish put my announcement up on his blog too. Today, Hart Johnson, in the midst of her own busyness, posted my announcement as well. While I'm away, Kemari Howell, June Ash Moore, Jodi Cleghorn and Brittany Rose are helping spread the word. So thank you, all you wonderful bloggers! :o)

Have a great weekend and see ya next Thursday!

The Only One Left Standing ...

Source

I’m weighed down by a thick need
tangled between a man who doesn’t care
a waitress who seems to care
and a conscience that cares too much.

Cuban tunes lace Mexican dreams;
cloud the reality I left behind
tucked under a cushion
on our dirty cream suede couch.

I sip my margarita, watch them dance
feel the thump, the twang, taste the tang.
Senioritas twirl, orange skirts become a blur
behind the mumble and slur of his speech.

Then I remember.
I’m still in Greece.
In the restaurant near the bus stop.

The only one left standing.

This is a poem from my latest collection, Fabric, which is now available. Please support the life of poetry today by spreading the news about Fabric. Perhaps you might even like to purchase a copy for yourself?


The e-book is only $1.99 and the paperback $5.50.

Check out the trailer:

Here are the purchase links:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Goodreads
Barnes & Noble
Book Depository

Let's keep poetry alive! ... Please help spread the word :o)

Special thanks to Matthew MacNish, Cathy Powell, Eightcuts Gallery, Glynis Smy, Karen Jones Gowen, and LM Preston for helping me promote yesterday and today!

Another baby of mine is born into the crazy jungle ...

Today I'm celebrating the release of my new poetry collection, Fabric ... Wait! Please don't close the tab at the the mention of poetry! 

My poetry will not baffle you with phrasing that scholars award for academic genius and that can only be understood by those who wrote it. My poetry is for the everyday reader. In fact, it is even for those who don’t like to read poetry at all. Because it is real, stark and simple.

The poems in Fabric are no different. They explore specific moments in different people’s lives that are significant to whom they have become, the choices they’ve made. It’s about how they perceive the world around them, and how each and every one of their thoughts and actions contributes to the fabric of society. Perhaps you will even learn something new about yourself.

So, even if you do not usually read poetry, I urge you to give this one a go. Not because I want sales (though, they are fun!), but because I want more people to understand that not all poetry is scary and complex. Not all poetry is going to take you back to high school English, and not all poetry is going make you feel “stupid”.

You can still say to people that you don’t read poetry … I really don’t mind. Because if you read Fabric, you’re not reading poetry, you’re reading about people. And that’s what reading is about, yes? Living the lives of others?

Are you still here? I hope so!

Please support the life of poetry today by spreading the news about Fabric. Hey, perhaps you might even like to purchase a copy for yourself? The e-book is only $1.99 and the paperback $5.50.

Check out the trailer:

Here are the purchase links:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Goodreads
Barnes & Noble
Book Depository

Let's keep poetry alive! Because not all poetry is "dead" boring ... Please help spread the word :o)

Special thanks to Maggie for interviewing me today. You can read the interview HERE. And to Leigh T. Moore, Janice Phelps Williams, Angela Felsted and Dawn Ius, for featuring me on their blogs to help promote! Thank you!