Want 1000+ views on a single post? Book yourself in as a guest on The Artist Unleashed.

Every Wednesday of every week is The Artist Unleashed. If you'd like to write a guest post to help promote your blog, website, service, or books, or anything else you want to draw attention to, please contact me via jessica.carmen.bell@gmail.com to book yourself in.

I have slots available from Wednesday, October 1, 2014.

All posts for this feature must be inspiring and/or motivating, and encourage discussion. I will not just post your book blurb, cover, and purchase links. One, because you are more likely to attract attention to your work if you have something interesting to say. And two, because I would like my blog to offer useful and interesting information for my readers, not blatant advertisements.

I will tweet and Facebook your posts several times during the week to get it as much exposure as possible. Highest views on a single post = 1000+. If you want to reach that 1000 views mark it means you need to provide interesting content and make an effort in sharing the post on various platforms as much as I do. This is a collaborative effort.

When you send me your post, please include:

• A title (you'd be surprised how many people forget!)
• A call to action at the end (A question related to your post to ask readers, which will make it easier for them to leave a comment.)
• A head shot (JPEG please, do NOT embed it into your Word Doc, I need it as a separate attachment)
• A 3rd person bio 50-100 words including all your web links
• Word count: 500-1000 words

It is your responsibility to send me your post on time. If I do not receive it two days before you are scheduled to post (i.e. Monday) at the latest, I will arrange for someone else to take your place, and your post will then be pushed back to the first available date. I will send you one reminder the weekend before, but that is it.

Also, please only book yourself in if you are serious about sending in a post. I realize that things can happen to cause delays, and I'm very understanding when life interferes with your good intentions, but the amount of people who cancel (multiple times, sometimes) at the last minute is rather astonishing, and I'm left to scramble for replacements. Please do your best to avoid this. A bit of respect is all I ask.

To view all past Artist Unleashed posts, CLICK HERE.

The earlier you secure a date the better. Whenever I publish announcements the slots disappear like hot cakes.

Please contact me via jessica.carmen.bell@gmail.com to book.

Have a great week!

________Announcements________

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Using Colour to Accentuate Theme

I like to use the symbolism of colour to strengthen a common theme(s) I want to explore in my writing. I am fascinated by symbolic references in the books I read too (even if they do not have anything to do with colour), and believe they bring a richness and depth to what we read, even if it is not immediately evident to us.

If you would like to read about how I go about implementing the symbolism of colours into my work, please visit Laurel Garver's blog, where I am guest posting about it today.

Comments are disabled on this post. 
Please leave one at Laurel's instead! :-)

The Story That Wasn’t, by Leigh Talbert Moore

All of my stories come out with romance in them. That’s no surprise. In the case of The Truth About Faking, the comedy was the big surprise—to me at least. Originally, I had a completely different idea of how this story would go, and it started with the movie Signs by M. Night Shyamalan.

No, the book wasn’t going to be science fiction.

I saw Signs the first time in the theater with my husband and two friends about a week before my oldest daughter was born. At that viewing, the theater was packed, and the unknown girl sitting next to me kept screaming every time the aliens would appear. Naturally, I giggled every time she screamed, and basically I missed the subtext of the film.

Fast-forward seven years, and Signs comes on HBO one night. Hubs and I decide to watch it again, and upon second viewing, I was struck by the other story of the film: The minister who’s lost his faith, who no one will allow to stop being a minister, who tells his brother-in-law about the two kinds of people in the world—those who see miracles and are optimistic and those who believe we’re in this thing alone and are afraid. And the minister who says he’s never praying again.

I love that story! And I was determined to explore it in a book.

So the book that’s out now, which was originally titled Shadow Falls, was going to be more dramatic and serious, and I was going to explore these fascinating themes for myself.

The only problem was Harley. She kept coming out funny.

I’d write a scene where she’s leaving the gym, and wham-o! She’d get hit in the head with a basketball. I’d have her failing to make the cheerleading squad, and her best friend would get her on in spite of her one jump, “The Banana.”

When Jason appeared, things just got better. And it’s funny, because writing the book, I felt myself relating more to Jason than any other character. He loves Harley’s funny self and all her big ideas, which are really ridiculous. And he’s willing to wait for her (or help her) to get over herself and date him.

So for whatever reason, those two characters took over the story, and what was going to be very thoughtful and sad came out wrapped in pink tulle with a sparkly bow on the side.

I think that’s okay. It’s a matter of not forcing our characters to be what we want them to be when they’re really something else. And I think the end product, while it still deals with serious matters, leaves readers smiling.

That’s equally as good as frowning, contemplating heavy thoughts. All that frowning causes wrinkles anyway.

Thanks for having me, Jessica! I hope readers enjoy the story that is.

Book description:

Jason just wants a date with Harley.

Harley just wants a date with Trent.

Trent's still getting over Stephanie.

When Harley and Jason decide to fake date, they uncover a school of deceptions. Trent's got a secret, but so does Jason. And the more time Harley spends secretly kissing her fake boyfriend, the further she gets from her dreams with Trent.

Worst of all, Harley's mom is getting cozy with her hot massage therapy student, and even Harley's Reverend Dad can't fake not being bothered by it. But when the masks finally come off, can everyone handle the real truth?

Purchase Links:

Amazon 

Barnes & Noble 

Smashwords

Kobo

Author Links:

Blog

Facebook

Goodreads

Please Welcome Amy Saia, author of The Soul Seekers.

First of all, I want to thank Jessica for letting me write a guest post today. She has always been extremely supportive of fellow writers and bloggers! Second, I’d like to tell you who I am: not your typical writer. That’s something Jessica and I share—we’re musicians who write. If you ask us whether we're musicians or writers, we might have a mental meltdown. It’s a tough question. Sometimes I feel guilty for wanting to do both. There are tons of madly gifted writers who sacrifice so much every day for their craft, and here I am switching off and on between trades.

I grew up in a small town library that my mother was employed at for many years. Books were my friends. Libraries are silent, and even though I’ve always had music running around in my head, there was something beautiful about the silence. Nothing but words and more words; character’s troubles, not mine; towns, and people, and relationships. It filled me. It was enough to keep me. It developed in me a desire to string words together in the same, beautiful kind of way, so that other little girls, and boys, could escape their town, and their life.

But music was my parallel of desire. I wanted to be Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline (I’d seen both movies and was obsessed with having a blue chiffon dress and bright red lipstick). I wanted to wail, to croon, to make peoples’ hips sway in time. That’s quite a different effect than fiction.

What I found is, though still not easy to balance both, that I could mix both so that one wasn’t just writing and one wasn’t just music. There’s a heck of a lot of reference to rock and roll in THE SOUL SEEKERS. And in my music there is a literacy that is quite defined. The most important aspect is that I ENJOY doing both, and when I don’t, I can stop and catch my breath until it all comes back again.

I hope you enjoy your talents. Don’t let it become a chore. Find the love, find the music, find the silence in what you do. Thank you for reading this, and thank you again to Jessica Bell for having me here! Did I leave any wine glass stains on your sidebar? Yeah, sorry about that! I’ll just . . . clean that up.

Amy's BLOG

The Soul Seekers, on Amazon

From the Mundane to the Sublime: a guest blog by Magdalena Ball

I know you're all probably wondering how my trip to Canada was (WONDERFUL! And I miss Dawn like hell already). And if you follow me on Facebook, you probably know my flight back home was cancelled twice and I spent two days in airport limbo. I am probably still on the plane as you read this as I scheduled it while waiting at Heathrow airport!

But I'll give you more details next week because today I have the pleasure of introducing you to Magdalena Ball. She is an amazing author and I am a HUGE fan of her work. And this blog post is a part of her blog tour for her latest novel, Black Cow.

Drum roll ... welcome Maggie!


As a writer, I've always been intrigued by the mundane. By mundane, I'm thinking, not of dull or tedious, but rather of it's alternative meaning of being 'of this earthly world', secular, temporal. These are the details of our lives - those things that other readers will recognise - the day to day world that surrounds us. Most of the time we're too busy to stop the endless doing and observe and perceive. But this is a writer's job. To look closely at those moments and allow them to morph into something extraordinary. Morph? What is that? Are we talking magic realism or sci fi here? No, this is real life, such as the observation of a common beetle or bird in the garden - something utterly ordinary. In that moment where we turn our gaze deeply into the thing, we suddenly transcend the limits of our human condition and see things with a certain transformative eye where the detail contains the whole.In Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg puts it this way: "Go so deep into something that you understand its interpenetration with all things. Then automatically the detail is imbued with the cosmic; they are interchangeable." That all sounds grand and esoteric, so how, specifically, as writers, do we create this kind of transcendence, without making the work so dense that it loses its connection to the everyday?

Here are a few tips:

• Use of point of view. We all come to each situation we find ourselves in with a welter of memories, issues we're currently grappling with, and desires. In short, at any moment we're all in the 'midst of life'. If you take that 'midst', in other words the situation of your characters, and filter it into those things that surround them - the butterfly landing on their hand, the rain that just won't stop, or even the dishes that are being done, the mundane suddenly is infused with the whole of your character perspective. In the early twentieth century, this tended to sit with stream of consciousness writing, where the inner thoughts of characters become apparent to the reader, but it doesn't have to be a random stream. Those thoughts can be anchored in the moment, and reasonably logical, while still coasting across all those desires that make up any character.

 • Step out of the stream. Stop for a moment and let your characters see the bigger picture. You can do this with a third person narrator, or just allow the characters a momentary glimpse at the bigger picture. For example, a young girl may be struggling with bullying, but just for a moment in the midst of the highest conflict, give her a glimpse of the future or even of the broader context of her life and let her see the pain she's struggling with for what it is - momentary and transient. Those kinds of epiphanies are the stuff of character transformation and will progress the story perfectly.

• Use symbols. Symbols do exactly what we're talking about here. They turn the mundane into the sublime, by referring to something else. An office cubicle or conference room might symbolise oppression. A tourist visit to the Statue of Liberty might symbolise freedom. A bird song or plot of dirt might symbolise freedom or getting back to roots or even shaking off a depression that has become overwhelming.

All of these things are subtle, and have to be dealt with carefully, with poetic skill. But being able to use the everyday to hint at a deeper meaning; a secret sub-story below the surface, is what makes art. As readers, we instinctively look for it in the books we read. As writers, we're always aiming to create it.

Magdalena Ball is the author of the newly released novel Black Cow. Grab a free mini e-book brochure here.


For more about Magdalena visit her website.

 

Knocking Down the Walls ...

I'm over at A DEAD GOOD BLOG today talking about Narrative vs. Lyric (not) ... :o) Would love to see you there ...


Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Confession: I have literary tourette's.

Things on my manic mind today are ...

Source

• The possibility of going to Australia with my mother mid January.
• Getting a band together and wishing I could overcome this horrible stage fright.
• I love my coffee cup.
• Finally getting around to reading the books I bought for MUTED research.
• Wishing there was a second-hand book store in Athens so I could relieve my shelves of gastroenteritis.
• I need more coffee, cake, chocolate and ... yoga.
• The relief I feel knowing I've been guaranteed a year's worth of steady freelance work.
• The worry that this freelance work is going to interfere with my creativity.
• VINE LEAVES LITERARY JOURNAL
• Really want to read Dawn Ius' manuscript. Been on my Kindle for way too long!
• All the money I owe left and right. (When will the bills stop coming???)
• Writing guest blog posts for Roz Morris, Kristie Cook and Karen Gowen. 
• Where did that extra kilo come from???
• Finishing Talli Roland's Build a Man and writing a review (awesome book!)
• Starting Michelle Davidson Argyle's The Breakaway in order to write an endorsement for the cover.
• Whether Pantera Press will want to publish Bitter Like Orange Peel.
• What did you say? I can't hear you! I'm reading submissions!
• OMG, I love you so much, (you bloggers know who you are)
• Now I know what editors feel like having to sift through less-than-publishable submissions or to deal with submitters that don't even take the time to find out your name ...
• When am I going to get paid?
• I want some spare cash so I can purchase the latest season of BONES, and the first few seasons of FRINGE.
• Do I really have to do the dishes?
• When am I going to start writing again? And how do I keep marketing String Bridge without shoving it in people's faces?

What's on your mind today?

Miss my special announcement yesterday? Click here!

The Liberating Effects of Writing a Memoir. Please welcome Karen Walker, author of Following the Whispers!

Please welcome Karen Walker today to talk about the liberating effects of writing a memoir in celebration of her memoir, Following The Whispers, being released as an e-book!

Karen Walker is a writer who has published essays in newspapers and magazines, as well as an anthology series. After a 30+ year career in marketing and public relations, she went back to college to complete a Bachelor's degree and graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2005 from the University of New Mexico's University Studies program with a major emphasis in Creative Writing. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with her husband, Gary, and their dog, Buddy. When she’s not writing, you can find her doing international folk dancing, singing at retirement communities with her trio, Sugartime, hiking, reading, or hanging out with friends.


Take it away Karen!

I wouldn’t have chosen to write a memoir if I felt I had a choice. Well, we always have choice. But I was compelled to write mine. I unexpectedly lost custody of my then 3 1/2 year-old son in 1978. It catapulted me into a deep depression; I was filled with self-hatred and despair. To save my sanity, I began keeping a journal. As a child, I’d fantasized about being a writer, like Jo in Little Women, but that’s all it was--a fantasy.

Keeping journals helped me process what was happening, sort through the complexity of emotions and feelings, and somehow make sense of my life. A seed was planted that someday I’d write about a nice, middle-class Jewish woman who wasn’t a prostitute or a drug addict but who somehow lost her child.

I had to wait until 1999, when my current wonderful husband offered me the opportunity to write full-time to begin that process. Probably the most difficult part of the writing was pouring through hundreds of journals, highlighting parts I thought were important, then typing them into the computer. There were times when I collapsed, sobbing on the floor, unable to continue as I relived my pain. It proved, however, to be extremely cathartic.

The memoir began as a story about losing custody, but after several drafts, I realized it was more about having grown up in a dysfunctional family, been sexually abused at seven years old, and how those kinds of events shaped the person who ended up divorced and without her child at 28.

Writing memoir is not for the weak. It takes courage to face your past--to look deeply at your life and the choices and decisions you made that may have hurt others and probably hurt you. And it takes even more courage to put those out for the world to see.

But memoir serves an important purpose--it shines a light on a life in a way that helps us look at our own lives and perhaps learn lessons we need to learn. That is why I was compelled to write my story. I knew there were others who suffered the same kind of pain for similar reasons. Mine is a journey towards healing and I am content now--something I didn’t think possible. And I think that writing my memoir played a key part in that happening.


Thank you so much for coming today, Karen. It's been an absolute pleasure!

You can find Following The Whispers here:

http://www.amazon.com

http://www.smashwords.com

I'm guest posting over at Operation Awesome!

Hi all! I'm over at Operation Awesome today talking about why I chose to self-publish my poetry book Twisted Velvet Chains.

Also, if you missed out due to the blogger crisis yesterday (just my luck!) please sign up to participate in my STRING BRIDGE BOOK & MUSIC BLOG TOUR!

International Romance, Sponge Bobish & Greek Goddesses

I'm guest posting over at Carolyn's blog, Serendipity, today, as a part of a series called International Romance! Go check it out! :o)

You can also read the first two posts in the series HERE and HERE.

PS: I'm at the recording studio ALLLLLL day today to do voice overs for very weird characters - Sponge Bob-like imitations mixed with Greek Goddesses (Aphrodite, Demetra, Athena).  Yes, I'll come back with a craoky throat. Luckily for the Internet I won't have to speak to read and comment and reply to comments, etc. :o) See ya later!

What Is This Thing Called Poetry? A guest post by author & poet Mark Van Aken Williams

Today I have the pleasure to introduce Mark Van Aken Williams, an amazing author and poet, who has generously accepted the opportunity to guest post about writing poetry today. I couldn't resist asking him after reading a wonderful collection of his called Circus by Moonlight.

What Is This Thing Called Poetry?

Mozart claimed that his letters came from God. Seamus Heaney said that his poetry came from a metaphorical dig, to uncover the hiding places of his power. For each, the result could be referred to as the source of creative inspiration.

So what is it and where does it come from? There are concepts of poetry that developed in separate ancient civilizations, which had no contact with each other. Yet their ideas and notions about poetry had similarities.

From the beginning in Western culture, there has been a dual attitude toward this source. The poem is made not only by the poet, but it is given to him by a deity or spirit. From this tradition, we still equate inspiration with divine gifts or with some sort of spiritual enlightenment. We think of the very best poets, as those who submit to influences stronger than they are, because what they perceive to see seems inconceivable to them (things that as humans we can only have an inaccurate and vague notion of).

In the New World, the Mayan culture believed that poetry enraptured man, and intensified his emotions and perceptive powers. It enabled him to perceive what he (as a human) ordinarily could not. Once enraptured, the poet would speak the only truth on earth.

I do not subscribe to the influence of an enlightened spirit or Muse, or God. I see poetry as a way to plumb the depths of my imagination, through what I have experienced (especially childhood), and what I have read (here I’m talking about development of the intellect). For me, a poem is something that says more in a few words than a novel can in five hundred pages, with wit and word-play. It has an extraordinary mixing of music and thought. The job of the poet is to choose the right words, not only for sound (the music of poignant language) and connotation (landscape), but even for the countenance of them.

The poem corresponds to a centrifuge of sound, alliteration and rhythm. The reader will be walking into a world for the very first time; a world of terseness and parsimony. True poetry is derived from the poet’s peculiar type of knowledge, which is the fruit of his authentic inner experience, the result of intuition (perhaps this is the part many mistake for spiritualism). So the poem becomes a profound expression, through symbol and metaphor, of what the poet has intuitively and mysteriously discovered.

Sylvia Plath wrote in her journal, when discussing the creation of some new poetry, “I feel my mind, my imagination, nudging, sprouting, prying & peering.”

I could not have said it better.

Another person said, “What makes a good poem? A good poet.”

Thank you so much, Mark, for this wonderful post! If you'd like learn more about Mark and his work you can do so by clicking the following links:

His official website

Facebook

Blog

Purchase The Prophet of Sorrow on Amazon

Purchase Circus By Moonlight on Amazon

So how about you? Do you dabble in poetry? How do your ideas come about?

Guess Blog Post for Matthew Rush Today!

Hey everyone,

I'm doing a guest blog post over at Matthew Rush's The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment today.

Would love it if you all could check it out! :)

Cheers!