Labor Day weekend Kindle Book Giveaway!

Standing Stones on Amazon

Just for this Labor Day weekend, you can download STANDING STONES at no cost.

Click here to check it out on Amazon!

Share with friends, if you’re already a fan. And thank YOU for being a follower of my blog.

This story began my love affair with the McDonnell's. Here’s the blurb!

In 1842, Lord Gordon claims his new estate in Northern Scotland and plans to replace farmers and fishermen with sheep. 

Mac McDonnell, suspicious of Lord Gordon from the beginning, leads protests – despite the impact his actions will have on his sister and three brothers. When evictions begin, a second protest at Westness turns violent. What will Mac risk to protect his family, his sweetheart, and his livelihood?

Set in the Orkney Islands during the time of the Clearances, Standing Stones won an award from the Pacific Northwest Writers Association for historical fiction and was called “a very promising work, with appeal to a broad audience, peppered with a variety of characters the reader can identify with sympathetically or instantly distrust.”

PRAISE FOR STANDING STONES:

“Well-developed characters and well-researched background & history made this an excellent book that I found hard to put down. I felt as if I was a friend of the McDonnell family, living on the island and sharing their love and hardships.”

Update on other writing: Working on final revisions for The Seventh Tapestry, a contemporary romantic-suspense set in Scotland with plans to publish before year-end. Here's the blurb: 

Newly hired museum curator Sandra Robertson is pulled into danger when she finds clues to an undiscovered 16th Century tapestry in Scotland and attempts to rescue it from the black market with help from Neil McDonnell, Edinburgh’s Art Crimes Unit.

May the end of summer bring you a sense of celebration as those leaves turn from green to brown and families gather.  Beth

October 7: Mermaids for free

ALERT: Just for today, October 7, my collection of short stories, The Mermaid Quilt & Other Tales, is FREE on Amazon (KINDLE only) at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0090VHKBC   I'm hoping for a few reader reviews. Shameless self-promotion I know, but I'm trying to learn about marketing. Slowly!

Now for today's poem. The prompt comes from Octpowrimo (click to read other writers) and asks us to write a poem about friendship.

My Best Friend

Our daughters played together first.

Your slashing New York wit scared me, but

I found you work editing a hundred-page

horror of a manual on springs and coils.

It paid well. When a teaching job opened,

I spoke for you. You already had a reputation.

Our offices were next to each other. At coffee time,

one of us would thump the wall.

At department meetings, I kicked your shins

when it was time to be quiet.

You taught me how to argue.

Our daughters grew up, each finding haven in our houses.

We live in different states now, sisters still. 

One day we will sit on the porch

of a run-down retirement cottage facing the sea,

aging mermaids with ear buds tuned to Mick Jagger.

SUNDAY ROW80 UPDATE. Slow going this week, but the 40-page program for the Quilt Show is done! Only the proof on Monday, then 4,000 copies. Now to my 'real' goals:  

WRITING: So far, so good on writing a poem a day. Best is earlier in the day before reality intercedes. I feel a bit scrambled on my main wip, though. I circle what must be done. Am I ready for true revision, this being my third time through? I work on writing exercises and am seduced by research. I did find a new way to get into the imagery of places I have not visited. I make a table in Word with images on the left and my comments (and source) on the right. When I slow down and really look at the image, I learn about what my characters might see close up. Birds, kelp on rocks, the slant of a wave. I still need to diagnose what's missing -- plot holes, character flaws. But my progress here is nothing measurable.

READING: OK slow going here, but I did read one magazine. Not good enough. Finished a novel (JANE by Robin Maxwell) and another for review (SECRETS by Rick Bylina). Also pulled down several more books to review from Review Seekers on Facebook. Now to write Rick's review -- and at least two crits for writers on NOVELS-L on the Internet Writing Workshop.

MARKETING. I really don't like this part, but I will persevere. Some successes to report. I'm more comfortable on Twitter, following the mantra of reading and posting 2x a day. It's kind of exciting to find writing-related articles so easily. Most say limit the time (and I agree). 10 minutes. If the articles are really worthwhile, I return to them . . . later.  

I actually lost my draft marketing plan somewhere. Is that a joke? But I've started a new one AND because of what folks online have said about reviews being important, I took the plunge and signed up The Mermaid Quilt & Other Tales for a free day, just for today, October 7. Already, by 8:30 am, I've "sold" 34 books. Maybe someone will post a review (that's my goal). I learned you can't be picked up by Kboards (a marketing goal of mine) unless you have at least 5 reviews. Aargh, what writers have to do!

May your week go well.