🎄A delightful Christmas book that will leave you with a lovely fuzzy feeling! @Susan_Buchanan @rararesources #contemporary #fiction #christmas #books #win #books #authorgiveaway

The Christmas Spirit

By

 Susan Buchanan

Christmas is coming, but not everyone is looking forward to it.

Rebecca has just been dumped and the prospect of spending the holiday period with her parents is less than appealing.

Eighty-two year old Stanley lost his beloved wife, Edie, to cancer. How will he cope with his first Christmas without her?

Jacob’s university degree hasn’t helped him get a job, and it looks like he’ll still be signing on come New Year.

Workaholic Meredith would rather spend December 25th at home alone with a ready meal and a DVD box set. Can anything make her embrace the spirit of the season?

The enigmatic Natalie Hope takes over the reins at the Sugar and Spice bakery and café in an attempt to spread some festive cheer and restore Christmas spirit, but will she succeed?

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Fancy an excerpt?

Here it is!

(Meredith’s assistant Sophie has been ill, but now she has succumbed to it – and she wasn’t terribly sympathetic with Sophie)

‘Hi there, nice to see you again,’ the woman greeted Meredith warmly, as she entered the bakery. The smell of fresh pastries and just brewed coffee assailed her senses and Meredith breathed in deeply, before another coughing fit racked her body.

‘Oh dear, that sounds awful. You should get that seen to,’ the woman offered.

Thanks, Einstein, thought Meredith uncharitably. She gave the woman a tight smile, then said, ‘Do you have any Gluhwein?’

‘I’m afraid we don’t have a licence.’

‘Right. I see. Well, do you have any Christmas drinks, any specialties?’

‘We do have a cinnamon drink and also a cranberry tea, and I’ve made cranberry and white chocolate muffins in honour of the season,’ Natalie pronounced.

‘Yes, cranberry tea sounds good. Cranberry’s good for you when you’re not feeling great, isn’t it?’ Meredith asked.

‘That’s right; cranberries are high in antioxidants.’

‘Well in that case, I’ll have cranberry tea and the muffin, thanks. In fact, can you make that two muffins? Sophie will probably want one, too, although I don’t know whether she likes them or not,’ Meredith thought out loud.

Just then another fit of coughing came over Meredith. She withdrew a handkerchief from her coat pocket and coughed violently into it. But she didn’t stop. She kept coughing and coughing and then started wheezing and turned blue. The bakery patrons looked on in horror. She couldn’t seem to get a breath.

‘Let’s sit you down, dear,’ Natalie said, but just as she was coming around the counter to help her, Meredith’s legs gave way and she collapsed. A man sitting close by jumped up to try to catch her, but didn’t quite get there in time and Meredith fell, her head grazing a chair on the way down.

‘Jacob, get some water, please,’ Natalie called. ‘Stand back, please,’ she said to the customers, ‘I’m a first-aider.’

The shocked customers cleared a space around Meredith.

‘She’s awfully pale,’ one of them remarked.

Natalie checked Meredith’s airway wasn’t blocked. Her breathing was still raspy, but at least she was breathing. Her pulse was faint.

‘Jacob, call an ambulance,’ Natalie said, as she moved Meredith into the recovery position.

Jacob rushed around the counter and dialled 999.

The paramedics arrived within ten minutes. There was no change to Meredith’s condition; she was still unconscious. Whilst they were waiting for the ambulance, Natalie had kept an eye on her, but also asked if anyone knew where she worked. No-one in the café knew her and unfortunately they had no way of contacting Sophie. After a few minutes Natalie had the brainwave of checking for an ICE in her phone; hopefully she would have her emergency contact listed. Jacob searched through her bag, until he found an iPhone. Unfortunately it was locked and they had no way of knowing the password. Then Jacob came across a business card wallet. Withdrawing a card, he read Meredith Storm, Storm Communications. He dialled the number on the card and asked for Sophie.

As the paramedics put Meredith into the ambulance with the café clientele watching them and Natalie filling them in on what had happened, an out of breath Sophie appeared from round the corner.

‘Oh God, what happened?’

‘Are you her daughter?’ the paramedic asked.

‘No, she doesn’t have any children. I’m her assistant. Can I come with her?’

‘I suppose that would be all right. Get in.’

~ ~ ~ 

  

And now for the giveaway!

 

Giveaway – Win e-copies of Sign of the Times and The Dating Game

(Open Internationally)

*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome.  Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will be passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for the fulfilment of the prize, after which time I will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

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About the author Susan Buchanan.

Susan Buchanan lives in Scotland with her husband and their two children. She is the author of four novels: Return of the Christmas Spirit, The Christmas Spirit, The Dating Game, and Sign of the Times. She is currently working on books five and six: The Proposal and Just One Day.

Susan is also a proofreader, editor and translator, and when not working, writing, or caring for her two delightful cherubs, loves reading, the theatre, quiz shows and eating out – not necessarily in that order!

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Help, my book's not selling!

by

Louise Wise

It can happen to the best of us.

Sometimes a book won't hit the spot with your readers, maybe the cover isn't right or the blurb is wrong? Maybe you're hitting on the wrong readership? Over-priced?

How do you know if any of the above apply to you?

Trial and error, but most importantly be honest with yourself.

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My dark romantic comedy had become stagnant in the Amazon charts and the few reviews it received (luckily all good) weren't enough to advertise it on sites such as BookBub. 

I tried all the usual things authors do to get the book moving: composing mini blurbs for Twitter, rewriting the blurb, redoing the tags, joining a tweet gang all which resulted in a flutter of sales.

I did the above again the following month, and again. All I received were flutters in return. For a highly researched book that took years to write I wasn't about to give up on it so quickly. But despite my efforts in October/November time last year the book was flat lining and needed a defibrillator QUICK! 

Something was wrong with the book.

I looked at the title with critical eyes and it screamed: literary! The title, The Fall of the Misanthrope, didn't portray dark, comedy romance so I began thinking up suitable names. 

I took a look at other dark comedies high in the charts and checked out their titles (I didn't want the same), but I wanted to see what was selling. Chick lit titles seem to do best with clichés as titles or words from a song or even just expressions, dark comedies had titles that were self-mocking or just mocking.

Jane Dixon-Smith

I composed a list of titles I liked and put them against my book, but I found the cover all wrong. Time to spend money and design a new one. I called on the designer of the original cover, Jane Dixon-Smith and together we came up with how the cover looks today, and I think it's a HUGE difference, and brings alive the book's theme perfectly--comedy.

With the title and cover all sorted I needed to do one more thing, and that's get word out about my relaunch. I didn't want to waste money on buying promotion from sites that take your money and don't offer much of a return, so I looked to my romcom groups on Facebook: Chick Lit Goddesses and The Official Chick Lit page. 

Great people came forward, and I didn't even have to force them! They offered! In return, I took great pains in writing something worthwhile on the themes of their choice. I made sure everything was correct and my links worked.

Hiring a blog tour organisation will take you to bloggers who specialise in hosting authors, so you may get better results from them, but I was after free and I wanted it NOW. Here are my articles:

Kristina Knight  - cover reveal
Susan Buchanan -  Why an Overhaul is Needed
Caroline Fardig -  Keep Calm and WRITE
Deb Nam-Krane - author interview
Courtney Giardina - Bridget Jones for a Day

Georgina Troy - character interview
Monique McDonell -  Mental Illness: Nurture of Nature?

Alissa Baxter - Is Romance Harmless Escapism?
Matt Posner - author/general interview
Do Authors Dream of Electric Books?  - Just Writing a Book isn't Enough!

Next, I lowered the price to a bargain 99c/77p and will keep it low until the end of May.

So, all in all, has this hop been worth it? 

I'll be honest with you, for this book, no. I enjoyed the blogging process, and my name and articles are on the web for as long as the blogs are there, so that's a plus. 

The flutter of sales (pity sales from my hosts maybe?) didn't make this hop a success. My other romcom, A Proper Charlie, which although sees better sales, still doesn't bring in a huge amount, so maybe it's the genre?

My sci-fi romance Eden and Hunted are doing very well in the Amazon charts, so maybe romantic comedy is too swamped for any new author to do well in it? 

I'd love your thoughts on the subject.

Introducing...

Oh no, I've Fallen in Love!

All Valerie Anthrope wanted was to be in control of her destiny.

In a short-sighted decision, she employs ‘mad as a hatter’ Ellen Semple as her assistant in her financial brokerage, only to find her life being taken over by the domineering older woman. And to add insult to injury, client, Lex Kendal, seems equally determined to own her.

77p / 99c until end of May 2014

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When Valerie’s bitchy ‘Devil Wears Prada’ image is ignored by Ellen and a turn-on for Lex, her only other defence is to close her heart to the pair of them. But it cracks when a bedraggled kitten finds its way into her life, making it easy for Lex to swoop in and Ellen to declare herself Valerie’s fairy godmother.

But just who is Ellen Semple? Where did she come from? Why does she want to help Valerie so badly? And how come she seems to know Lex even though they’ve never met before?

When Valerie can’t fend them off any longer and allows them into her life, her past rears its ugly head to remind her just why she’s alone in the world.

An interview with travel writer Holly

A character interview with Holly from the novel 

Sign of the Times by 

Susan Buchanan

Holly, travel writer extraordinaire and heroine of Sign of the Times, kindly agreed to be interviewed on one of her very favourite topics, travel!

Q: Hi Holly, welcome and thanks for agreeing to talk to us about your favourite topic.

H: Well, it’s no secret that I am a bit of a travel nut. I have the best job in the world and thank my lucky stars every day for it. My latest book, as yet untitled, is set in Tuscany, but I’d like to keep that under wraps for now. I will say, however, that there are lots of stunning places to be uncovered and you’ll be able to pick it up soon for around ten pounds.

Q? So can you tell us about your previous books?

H: Sure. Secrets of the Neapolitan Riveria was a bold step for me to take. I’d only recently ventured into travel writing, but I caught a lucky break and the book and the TV series that followed became a huge success. Here’s hoping the same is true of the new one!  If you’re not familiar with the area, the Neapolitan Riviera, an amazing region, contains some of the most beautiful spots in Italy: the charming town of Pisa, with its leaning tower; every art lover’s dream - the city of Florence; Sorrento and the amazing Bay of Naples, as well as quite possibly Italy’s shadiest city - Naples. Fortunately it has the saving grace of having absolutely amazing food.  Not to mention the fabulous city of Pompeii - it really does humble you and I swear, when you are there, you really feel as if you have travelled back through the centuries. Be warned, though, take water with you.  I suffered from serious sunburn and dehydration. You simply don’t realise how hot it is and because you are so awestruck, time passes very quickly.

Q: So what does Secrets of the Neapolitan Riviera cover that other travel guides of that area don’t?

H: Well, naturally there will be some overlap with other guides, but I spent over a year visiting villages there and when I visited the cities, I didn’t focus on the Uffizi art gallery in Florence or any of the other big hitters. I went behind the scenes, to places where I wouldn’t find tourists. Often you only need to go two streets away from the main drag and you will find restaurants overflowing with Italians, with virtually no tourists - they’re not brave enough, as they’d need to speak Italian.  Being fluent certainly has its advantages!  Plus I didn’t concentrate solely on places of interest, but gathered stories from street vendors, old men sitting in squares, Italian mamme cooking. There’s a bit of historical info in the book, too, about each area, very local to those villages which are covered in the book, but done in a new and I hope interesting way.