Score Some Books, Win Some Prizes!

Special Edition! It's 11/11/11, and from what I hear many babies are scheduled to be born, Veterans are being honored, Lotto tickets are being bought...

And some great friends are releasing the paperback versions of their books! So Happy (book) Birthday, and bring on the bestsellers!

STRING BRIDGE (link to my review)

Buy the book Today, get the Sountrack for FREE!

Today is THE day to help STRING BRIDGE hit the bestseller list on Amazon, and receive the all-original soundtrack, Melody Hill: On the Other Side, written and performed by author Jessica Bell, for FREE!

All you have to do is purchase the book today (paperback or eBook), 11-11-11, and then email the receipt to

jessica.carmen.bell(at)gmail(dot)com. 

Jessica will then email you a link to download the album for free!

To purchase the paperback:

Amazon USA (and Australia)

Amazon UK

To purchase the eBook:

Amazon USA (and Australia)

Amazon UK

To listen to samples of the soundtrack, visit iTunes.

Connect with Jessica:

String Bridge: http://www.stringbridge.com/
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/jessica_bell
Website: http://www.jessicacbell.com/
Blog: http://thealliterativeallomorph.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/author.jessica.bell
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MsBessieBell

And be sure to Tweet about it using #StringBridge!

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EXILED (link to website)

My friend RaShelle Workman (link) is teaming up some of her writer-friends (Dark C.A.R.M.A.) in a Twitter kickoff party for their books today at t 11 a.m. MST (1 p.m. EST), and then later at 6 p.m. MST (8 p.m. EST).

Use #DARKCARMA to win cool prizes, including books by other Indelibles authors.  

Join them on Twitter or hop over now to the Dark C.A.R.M.A. blog to enter to win a $100 Amazon gift card! Follow these guys on Twitter at: @ali_cross, @AuthorCKBryant, @RaShelleWorkman.

Turn sixteen, become immortal. Live out eternity as a princess. If only life were that simple.

Stubborn, sixteen-year-old Princess Venus of Kelari wants one thing, to become a kelvieri, that is, until someone exiles her to Earth, kills her irrihunter and takes her family. Now she wants revenge. 

First she’s got to get home. But before she can return to Kelari, the Gods have commanded her to help an arrogant boy named Michael find his soul mate. Only she doesn't know the first thing about love. 

Rather quickly, her inexperience with human emotion is obscured by other matters—alien-controlled psychotic teens that are out to kill her, and a government group that is set on capturing and dissecting her. 

Worst of all, Venus will suffer a painful death-by-poisoning, thanks to Earth’s atmosphere, if she remains on the planet longer than one week. Still, Venus is a Princess and she's got a plan. Surely, with her help, Michael will fall in love with a human. 

But time is running out and Michael is falling for the wrong girl—her.

Available on ebook now; Paperback available Today!

AMAZON.COM - Kindle
SMASHWORDS.COM - Kindle, Nook, iBooks, any ereader
BARNESANDNOBLE.COM - Nook 

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Fun stuff, great prizes. Grab a few books and have a lucky day, reader- and writer-friends! Til Monday~ <3

Historic Times and Personal Media

So the last seven days, right? First we have the worst tornadoes in recorded history sweep through my state, followed by a Royal Wedding, followed by the killing of the (arguably) worst terrorist leader in U.S. history.

If that weren't enough, I finally found my sea legs and got my writing mojo back. And I ventured more actively into the world of Twitter.

All these historic events got me to thinking... What next? Locusts?

Source

Seriously, it got me to thinking about two things in particular. First the international events. I was impressed by the solemnity of the Royal Wedding. It seems the era of Paris Hilton-style heirs and heiresses has ended and a restrained elegance has returned.

I'm all for that. I mean, you all know I love a party, but can we keep our panties on? Or at least while the cameras are out? (And while we're entering or exiting the vehicle or climbing stairs...)

Have I officially become Grandma? Do you agree or disagree? Are these Royal Fuddy-Duddies too young to be acting so old?

Next is the killing of Osama bin Laden. I had friends who figuratively threw a parade over his death. My response was more sedate and solemn, sadness remembering the evil this one person wrought on the lives of so many.

But on the third hand, I have friends who've confided in me they don't believe it really happened. Or, they believe it happened a long time ago and for whatever reason, it's just now being announced. Very Wag the Dog.

Interesting.

I love listening to conspiracy theories, although I rarely believe them. I do agree it seemed out of the blue, and following all the garbage about Obama's birth certificate, you'd think our President would want to bombard us with proof of death.

But we are not barbarians. We do not videotape the slaying of our enemies or place severed heads on pikes. C'mon, people. I think we're going to have to go with our military on this one and take their word for it.

Do you agree or disagree? Am I the naieve one here?

As for Twitter, I'm learning to be loose and float randomness into the ether. My first few weeks, I decided the whole system was weird. I'm more of a relational social-media user, and Twitter seemed very isolating to me.

I never knew when friends were there, I tweeted at folks never to hear back from them, I tweeted and wondered why.

I was about to throw in the towel when suddenly it opened up for me, and I started finding people.

I was online at the same time as friends. I downloaded an app to my phone that plays a little tune whenever I get an @ message. I might disable that one soon...

There's been some discussion about types of social media and what's going out or staying or dying. I think it depends on your personality and your goal.

For quick networking with others doing what I do, it seems Twitter is good. For really getting to know people who do what I do (Writers), sharing and supporting, blogger seems ideal. And then for keeping up with family and friends, Facebook has been great.

What do you guys think?

That's it for me. I'm just over 7K words in the new MS, and it's very exciting. I wish I could do nothing but write (#amwriting), but I can't. I'll be around.

Have a great weekend, reader-friends! Til Monday~ <3

P.S.
BIG HUGS to you all for the outpouring of encouragement and support on Monday. It really got me out of my funk, and demonstrated my point up there about blogging. What would I do without you, my long-distance, international support group? Love you guys~

And Twitter, too

So KarenG's a superstar. I picture her doing the Molly Shannon "Superstar!" right about now...

And I'm sending her all the B-love for giving me an excuse to befriend some of you cool folks I've been seeing around the blogosphere w/o seeming creepy or stalkerish...

In my ice distribution, I read a funny post where one of my new blogging buddies was feeling "old" because she didn't get Yo Gabba Gabba (Vicki).

You know what made ME feel old? Twitter.

I'm sure I'm over-thinking it. And friends I hang with in person always give me heck because I don't text either.

But that's largely due to the fact that the mobile communication industry still hasn't streamlined their product.

I mean, seriously, people. You buy a PC, regardless of brand, and you know how to use it.

You buy a Mac, you scratch your head for six months, you figure out how to use it, you fall in love with it, you realize there's no software for it and the only people using it are graphic designers, then you go back and buy another PC and fondly remember the days when you had a Mac and it was SO COOL.

Sorry... digression.

But am I the only one who is tired of having to learn a new phone every two years? My contract's up, but I'm holding on to my little pink flip phone til it thunders.

Which brings us back to Twitter. You're really supposed to tweet from your phone, right? And anybody can follow you. You don't "lock" your tweets. That's like blocking anonymous comments on your blog...

See? I am trying. It's just weird to me. Because, for one I'm not convinced I'm that interesting. And for two, well, I end up knowing all this personal stuff about people I don't really know.

Like for example: Natalie Fischer had a cold last week.

[Fast bkg: I did a webinar w/Ms. Fischer a week ago (Thanks, Candy!) and she specified we had to have a Twitter account. I've actually had a Twitter account for three years so I went back and played with it, added Fischer as one of my "Follow"s, and now I get her updates all the time.]

I now know Ms. Fischer's a recovering Cheez-It addict (like me) and when she was sick her boyfriend brought her liquid Nyquil. This made her very unhappy...

(Personally, when I was pre-kids and sick, I chugged liquid Nyquil like it was Coke. It was the night time sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, why am I on my bathroom floor? medicine. Remember that?)

But good lord, we are not friends. She is not my agent. She might possibly be my agent one day, but at this point she's a total stranger to me. And yet I know all this about her life... I feel like a creepy stalker!

On Friday, when I sneaked a Cheez-it while packing the girls' school snacks, Natalie Fischer crossed my mind...! And I'm supposed to be doing this with hundreds... thousands of people?

All charting my every move?

So in the same way I argued with Vicki--"all the music for Yo Gabba Gabba is by Mark Mothersbaugh! They have Biz Markie doing the beat of the day!"--feel free to argue with me about Twitter.

Help Grandma understand The Twitter, people. Did I just hear thunder?

B-love~