Pages

Chat With Your Favorite Author On Kindle!

After the release of A Charming Crime, the first novel in the Magical Cures Mystery Series, I wanted to connect with my readers on a deeper level. 

I already have a very active STREET TEAM where my readers and I connect on a very personal level and I LOVE it! But what about you guys that don't have a Facebook or aren't on my STREET TEAM that do read my novels? 

I want to reach every single reader. And this means thinking outside of the box. I already belong to online book clubs, Skype book club, Google Plus book clubs, and in person book clubs. 

My last KINDLE chat was only open to my STREET TEAM, but now I'm opening it up to everyone! I want you to join us! I want you to see how you can connect to your favorite authors. I might not be your favorite author or you might not have read my novels, but that's okay! I want you to see how it works! 


On Tuesday, December 4 at 9pm EST, I will be on my KINDLE FIRE in A Charming Cure novel (YES....you have to own the novel in order to participate. It's only 2.99 for a best seller.)

When you tap on the menu at the bottom, you will see a little chat bubble. The bubble is where you can leave a comment about the book anytime you are reading and the comment will stay there forever. Sometimes I go in my novels and see what readers write and sometimes I write back to them. I want my readers to know that I'm just like them. I put my pants on one leg at a time too.

The Kindle chat isn't just about A Charming Cure, you have free reign to ask me any questions you want about anything! 

Here is a blog post I did about the Kindle Chat in August. We had so much fun! 

So come on over and join us on Tuesday!! We'd love to have you! And if you  haven't had time to read Monday's post on the Thanksgiving that WASN'T, you still have time to go over and leave a comment for an opportunity to win a free copy of my Christmas short story, A NEW TRADITION!

If you can't come to the chat. . .how would you like to meet up with me and discuss?

I Hosted Thanksgiving dinner. . .NOT!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know you are all DYING to know how my Thanksgiving day dinner turned out since it was my coveted time to redeem myself since the last time my family LET me host Thanksgiving six years ago. If you happened to miss that story.  . . you can find it here!

Let me start off by saying that we have a law in my family, The Lowry Law. Lowry is my maiden name and the law is a lot like Murphy's law. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen at the wrong time and the wrong place.

For example: I have paid for several vacations and ended up having to cancel due to sickness from me, child, animals etc. . .OR go on the vacation of a lifetime and there is a hurricane or some big disaster. . .AND this Thanksgiving wasn't any different.

Here is how it played out!

Tuesday night/Wednesday morning my dog starts with throwing up and diarrhea at 2 AM. I get up with him because my sweet husband goes to work and I get to stay home. I'm up cleaning the carpet in my family because my poor little dog can't make it outside. After cleaning up I went back to bed to get woken up an hour later with the dog back at it. So. . .I just stay up with him.

My husband gets up at 5:30 and gets ready for work. Now both my dogs are sick at this point. I call my vet and luckily she can get me in. With a few pills to stop the spewing from all ends, we leave the vet by noon to come home and find my NEVER sick husband in bed with a 102 fever.

I smile.

He responds, "Lowry law."

I walk out to find the pills my vet had given the dogs hadn't worked, so I start to clean up the carpet in the family room. . .again. After cleaning the carpet, I knew what I had to do. Change Thanksgiving to my sisters, who happens to do everything right, and hang my head. I had already bought two turkeys, one ham, and all the fixings, so I packed them up and took them to her house for her to fix the next day for Thanksgiving.

There was no way my husband was going to be better by then.

Thanksgiving, my guys and I leave my husband and the dogs in bed while we head on over to my sister's for the Thanksgiving dinner I was supposed to have. Yes, there was a bit of jealousy in my tone. Damn it! It was MY Thanksgiving dinner!!! And taken away, yet again!

Still, it was nice not to have to clean up. Anyways, my sweet, dear husband had been sick for 36 hours by the time we got home that night. Of course I had called him several times to check on him and he sounded a little better each time.  I could still hold out for our family Christmas tree tradition where we go to my mom's the weekend after Thanksgiving. If you want to read that story, go here.

I had packed my husband a plate just in case he was feeling better.

WAS HE FEELING BETTER!!!

I came home to ripped up carpet in the family room!!! He said that he got so tired of scrubbing the carpet and the idea of having dog mess on there made him even sicker, so we were getting hardwood floors. . .sigh.






Friday my husband and dogs were much better and on the mend. The hardwood floors were picked out, paid for and going to be installed the next week (which is this week). Okay, so my Christmas tree was going to have to wait to be put up in my house, but the family tradition of heading to Lexington, making cookies, and going to see the lights did happen and it was wonderful as usual.

I guess next year just might be my Thanksgiving to host.

Anything crazy happen on your Thanksgiving or did you go shopping?

One lucky comment gets a free ebook copy of my new Christmas romance short story: A New Tradition.

The Next Big Thing




Release Day Revealed
The lovely and amazing Jen Tucker, author of The Day I Wore My Panties Inside Out and The Day I Lost My Shaker of Salt, tapped me for the blog post, THE NEXT BIG THING.

Be sure to check out Jen's books! 



Thank you, Jen! Now. . .here is more about my upcoming December release!

What is the title of your book?

 Strung Out To Die, A Divorced Diva Mystery


How did you come by the idea? 

I've been writing cozy mystery for over two years now, and I love the genre. Cozies are set in small towns, and there is usually a craft involved: quilting, cooking, knitting etc....and there hasn't been a beading one since 2007. I co-owned a beading company for five years and it was a perfect fit. Now...the divorced divas are a whole force to reckon with on their own! I was driving by my church one day and there was a sign in the yard: DIVORCED? MEETING HERE ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT.

Then it clicked! How funny would it be if there was a group of women who meet at the bead shop that come up with all sorts of ways to kill their ex-husbands. . .pretending of course *wink wink*


I wrote a short mystery story where the characters are introduced to readers, BEAD OF DOUBT.

What genre does your book fall under? 

It's definitely a Cozy Mystery. It has the women sleuthing, small town, and beading theme, plus a cute pig, Willow. Everyone loves a cozy animal.

Can you give us the blurb for STRUNG OUT TO DIE?

Holly Harper's life is finally getting back on the right track after her divorce from "what's his name." She and a group of divorcees have formed a strong bond plotting creative ways to get back at their exes and created a self-help group known as The Divorced Divas where their meetings are held in Holly's bead store, The Beaded Dragonfly.

It’s no secret that Holly’s ex husband, Sean Harper, and the wealthiest bachelor in Swanee, Doug Sloan, don’t get along because Sean is constantly fixing all of Doug’s shoddy handy man work. Plus all the Divas would love to get their claws in some of Doug’s money.

When Doug ends up dead on the floor of The Beaded Dragonfly with a string of cat eye beads around his neck, it’s up to Holly to figure out whose framing her.


Will your book be self-published or traditional? 

I own my own publishing company: MagiCal Press!

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I've been told by beta-readers and my editor that the Divas remind them of Fern Michael's series The Sisterhood. WHAT AN HONOR! BUT...my Divas are a bit more cozy.


How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? 

I was writing it for my then agent and I write pretty quickly, so it took me two months.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? 

It's funny, heartwarming, and a little romance! 

Each of the Divas have a different quirky characteristic to them that keep them fun to read about. They all have different personalities, different financial levels, and ages range from 20-60. 

In the back of the novel, I have included beaded bracelet patterns anyone would enjoy making.

You have really amazing covers! Tell me about them.

OH! I'm so very lucky to have the amazing and talented Laura Morrigan (lauramorrigan.com) on my publishing team! We work very closely with each series, and novel to get the perfect fit/picture. 

We haven't completed the cover for STRUNG OUT TO DIE, but I can tell you. . .it's going to be fun!

You have an amazing STREET TEAM! Since you started yours, I've seen so many authors start one, but you are blazing the trail for authors! 

I'd like to thank all my amazing readers! I'm super close to them. I started my STREET TEAM because I wanted to give back to them. In this economy, I still can't fathom how a reader takes time out of their busy day to sit down for five minutes and get lost into my crazy made-up, make-believe word! It's truly is an honor to me. I'm so grateful for them!

STRUNG OUT TO DIE  will be released December 18, 2012

I'm passing "THE NEXT BIG THING" torch to two amazing authors! I hope you check them out!

AJ Lape debut  YA novel, GRADE A STUPID, just released! Be sure to check out all on-line book sellers to get your ebook copy or print copy today! 




A. J. lives in Cincinnati with her husband, two feministic daughters, an ADD dog, a spoiled hamster, and an unapologetic and unrepentant addiction to Coca-Cola...and sweets. Sweets of any kind, really...the prerequisite being they pile on the pounds.

Check out AJ's blog!








AND

Barbara Silkstone is a fellow mystery writer among other genres! Her books are laugh out loud funny with amazing plots and hilarious characters! You can find Barbara's books at any online book seller!



Barbara Silkstone is the best-selling author of The Secret Diary of Alice in Wonderland, Age 42 and Three-Quarters ~ Wendy and the Lost Boys ~ London Broil ~ The Adventures of a Love Investigator, 527 Naked Men and One Woman ~ Zo White and the Seven Morphs ~ Criminally Funny Fables - Boxed Set.

Silkstone's writing has been described as "perfectly paced and pitched - shades of Janet Evanovich and Carl Hiaasen without seeming remotely derivative. Fast moving action that shoots from the hip with bullet-proof characterization." 

Check out Barbara on her Facebook page!

It's a FAMILY TRADITION!


Today isn't actually Thanksgiving, but close enough...tomorrow I'll be cooking that big dinner I told you about a few posts ago in Let's Talk Turkey, and I will be busy working on the meal. I wanted to make sure to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

I also wanted to touch on why I love Thanksgiving so much and it's my favorite holiday (besides by birthday because no one gets to celebrate my birthday but ME!).

Growing up Christmas had to be my ultimate favorite. Of course! Who doesn't like getting presents from the jolly, happy toy maker from the North Pole. But as I got older, there were things that my parents did before Christmas that became a tradition and not about the presents. It was about family and the importance of it.

My parents were ever so clever in teaching us the family tradition way. The last thing you want to do when you are sixteen is spend ALL of your Thanksgiving break with your parents!

Here is how it worked. We had Thanksgiving with my aunts/uncles/cousins etc., which was fun. But the real magic came the days following Thanksgiving. NO! It didn't involve shopping or black Friday. As a matter of fact. . .I don't participate in shopping on those days. I get my shopping done before Thanksgiving and don't CARE about any deals!

Okay...back on track....

The days following Thanksgiving my parents would say "let's go get the Christmas tree." Yes! They were thinking along the lines of presents! I could totally skip my friends for a few hours to do that! Then they'd say "before we do that, why don't we go out to dinner and then drive around looking at Christmas lights."
DUH! What teenager doesn't like free food?? So generally we didn't get home until late and the tree lots were closed, but it was okay because we were going to go the next day and have lunch out!

The next day, I'd get up to Christmas music playing throughout the house. It made me warm and fuzzy just thinking about that new purse I was going to get or the new shoes that was going to go with the new outfit I had picked out from United Colors Of Benetton (yes, that was my store!). And the smell of breakfast wafted through the house. I yanked my long phone cord that was wedged between the side of my water bed (yeah, I had one of those too) and tried to uncurl it before I rotary dialed my best friend to let her know I was doing the "Christmas thing" to keep my parents off my back! Oh. . .was I pulling one over on them! Life was good.

We were on our way! We had a little lunch, we got a tree, and then went home. We couldn't decorate because the tree needed to "fall," meaning the branches needed to warm to room temperature before we put the ornaments on it, so that would have to wait until after church on Sunday. BUT THAT WAS MY LAST DAY OF BREAK!!!!! But I wanted those shoes sooooo bad.....

Like a good teenager, I sucked it up, after all. . .there was a purse too! So on Sunday, my mom had Thanksgiving left overs (which I love) and put on the music while my dad sat back and watched us decorate the tree. Oh. . . and she made apple cider along with homemade goodies!! All in all, that is how all my Thanksgiving breaks went.


Boy! My parents were sneaky!

As I got older, I expected we were going to do those things. Even when I moved away, I still went home longing for the ride through the neighborhoods to see the lights, pick out a tree, listen to carols (and sing them at the top of my voice), have family meals, and then finish off break by decorating the tree.

It become a tradition and my favorite holiday!

As I had my guys (13, twins: 15) my family and now husband, continued to do this tradition. We still go to my parent's house, and do it all the weekend after Thanksgiving. Of course the driving around looking at lights has turned into driving through the Kentucky Horse Park to see their display or this year we are going to downtown Lexington for ice skating and the Christmas tree lighting, but we are together as a FAMILY TRADITION!

My guys are at the age where they value their break just as much as I did. . .or at least I thought they did. One of the 15 yo guys said, "We are going to Granny's to decorate, right?"
The other 15 yo said, "yeah, why would we miss that? We do it every year."
Then the 13 yo said, "do you remember last year when y'all got mad because I put all my ornaments with my face and stuff on them in the front? AND I put one as the angel on top?"
I smiled, listening to their conversation because that was exactly how last year went and I had totally forgotten about it! But what struck me most was that I too had instilled this long standing tradition in my guys.  A tradition that didn't include presents, but being together as a family and learning how valuable those times really are.
I have to say. . .I'm one proud momma!

Do you have any traditions you'd like to share?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

The winner of the copy of COLOR ME A CRIME is Nora Adrienne! Please email me what ereader you have so I can send you a copy!

The winner of the copy of A NEW TRADITION is Lisa Thomas! Please email me what ereader you have so I can send you a copy!


Writing With Audrey Hepburn



The first question people ask me when I tell them I'm a writer is "do you have anything published?" AND the second question is "where do you get your ideas?"

I absolutely love answering the second question because I think it shows how the mind of a writer is so complicated and well. . .strange! 

Here is my response: I get my ideas from anywhere and everywhere. I might overhear a conversation while standing in line at Auntie Anne's Pretzel Shop at the food court in the mall (single mom Liz Day opened a shop in Grandberry Falls just like the owner of Auntie Anne's), I might get a little blip of something off the reality televisions shows I'm addicted to (Honey Boo's mom is a hoot of a character is so is Granny Hazel in Never Tell Your Dreams), and the list can go on and on.

But the magic of writing comes in as I take that one little conversation or the way someone talks and start to add the meat to the story. That is the fun part! My characters start talking to me and they develop their own identities. 

There are always stories coming and going in my head. Some of them I will jot down, and some of them I don't. Sometimes I just have to let the idea simmer for a few months and then ready to write the story.

Over the past year, I have been focusing on paranormal mystery and releasing my Magical Cures Series (which there are several more in the series to be released! I love that Madame Torres!). Years ago, I started out writing romance (hence the Grandberry Falls series and Carpe Bead 'em) and a few months ago I got an email from a reader asking me when I was going to release more romance novels. And then more and more emails started to pour in from more readers.



One thing about me. . .I can't write several different novels at once. My characters aren't very nice to each other and we might just have a murder mystery if I did attempt writing two different novels at once. So I keep on a schedule, maybe NOT sooo tight, but pretty close to it.

Here it is for 2013:
November: Color Me A Crime (An Olivia Davis Paranormal Mystery, book two)
December: Strung Out To Die (A Divorced Diva Mystery Novel, book one)
February: A Charming. . .(need title, A Magical Cures Mystery Series, book three)
April/May: Crimped To Death (A Divorced Diva Novel, book two)
July/August: A Magical Cures Mystery Series, book four
November/December: A Divorced Diva Mystery Novel, book three

I'm exhausted thinking about it!!! But that is my tentative schedule on my calendar for 2013...and ZERO romance! I love romance, I do and I do sprinkle a hint of some in all my mystery novels. 

Plus I love small towns! So the more emails I got, the more a story started to write itself in my head. But I like quirky characters and I've been waiting for the right moment to put a certain quirky characteristic a friend of my sister has in a book....

My sister's best friend LOVES the movie Gone With The Wind (mind you, they are in their mid-forties with families)  and every time Gone With The Wind comes on TV, she dresses up in a ball gown and watches it. Now...that is really funny to me and quirky! Just something I need for one of my characters.

I love Audrey Hepburn....so I put my own spin on a story that has been brewing, that was sparked by those reader emails. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time to write a full romance....

I'm always buying short stories for my Kindle Fire because I have three teenage boys who have orthodontics appointments, dermatologist  appointments, sports practices, rides to the mall etc...I love to read as well as write. Short stories are perfect for those times I'm waiting on my guys.

When I read novels, I like to have a big chunk of time so I can get right back into the story, unfortunately I don't have BIG CHUNKS OF TIME. So my idea of a short story series continued to come to life. . .in my head. I started to bring the idea to life by talking about it, then the characters joined the conversation. . .

Here is my plan. . .
My readers are the most important part of my writing. How can I give my romance reader what they want and still continue to write the mysteries? Short stories! 

They don't take me long to write and I can wrap up a sweet story with meat in under fifty pages in about a weekend. 

What if, just what if, I did a series of holiday short stories set in different small fictitious towns across the United States? There would be one for Valentines Day, Easter, Memorial Day. . and so on. . .and you never know, one of these small town stories just might find their way into a full length romance novel.

That is how A NEW TRADITION came about! I'm excited to say it's now available to readers as the first in the SMALL TOWN ROMANCE SHORT STORY SERIES! 

And I did fit my sister's friend into the story! Holly Englehardt loves Audrey Hepburn. Every Christmas Eve, Holly and five of her girlfriends dress up in their ball gowns and tiaras just like Breakfast at Tiffany's. One problem. . .due to unforeseen circumstances, Holly is having to make A NEW TRADITION this holiday season and it involves a hunky neighbor! 

What do you think? Do you think this is a good idea? Or would you rather have those full length novels all the time?

One lucky comment will win a copy of A NEW TRADITION for your eReader! I'll be posting the winner of this blog post and the Let's Talk Turkey blog post on Thanksgiving!

Let's Talk Turkey!

WOW! Can you believe that Thanksgiving is just around the corner?

And guess who is hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year?

Yep!



(EECK!)


Why do I dread it?
It's not the cooking....which I don't claim to be a great cook, but I have a fantastic recipe book for all the Thanksgiving fixing.

It's not that I don't like to have all the company! I do. If there is one thing that you should know about me....I'm loyal as loyal can be. I LOVE my family and enjoy every second being with them.

BUT hosting the family Thanksgiving dinner for twenty was taken away from me six years ago.

Well...they never said, "Um....Tonya, you can't have Thanksgiving anymore." They were a little more subtle, "Your sister is going to have it. OR Mom is going to do it this year."

I guess I couldn't blame them. After all, six years ago I did screw up Thanksgiving dinner.

(YUMMY)

This is how I dreamed of my turkey six years ago. It was going to be a grand dinner. After all, me and my guys had just moved into our new house, the paint was barely dried on the walls, and the house was going to be filled with overflowing love.

Our new neighbors were having a WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD party for us the night before. (The night before Thanksgiving is a BIG party night in the town that I live in. I mean all night parties!) And we were very excited about meeting all the new families and celebrating the upcoming holidays.

Carefully I put my 30 pound uncooked turkey in the sink to help finish the thawing process before I put it in the oven overnight for slow, tender, juicy cooking. We have a fabulous wood burning stove, which was blazing because of the four inches of snow we had on the ground. There is nothing better than warming your bum with a wood burning stove! I added more wood to the fire and made a mental note to send one of my guys to check on it during the party. After all, we JUST moved in and I didn't want to burn the house down! 

After letting the dogs out to go potty, off the six of us went, with a cocktail in hand, we made our way to the neighbors.


Plenty of food and drink to go around. Everyone was so welcoming and inviting! It was fabulous! Two hours into the party, I glanced at my watch. It was time. Quietly, I called one of my guys over and begged him to go check on the fire and dogs. Of course he protested at first because he was in the middle of some XBox game with another neighborhood kid, but I sent him anyways.

Minutes later he was running into the party, flailing his arms, screaming my name. "Oh my God, Mom! Come quick!" I yelled for my husband to follow me. I didn't even bother to thank the host for having us, I just knew I had to get home. 

Frantically I raced to the house, sure it was on fire! My guy had ran ahead of me, I didn't get a chance to ask what was wrong. I just ran....like Forest Gump.

"What? What is wrong?" I asked my son as I looked around the inside of our house. I didn't see smoke, I didn't smell smoke.
"There!" He pointed. I followed his finger to the worst scene imaginable.

My dogs had gotten the turkey out of the sink, dragged it into the family room and feasted on my uncooked meat right in front of the wood burning stove!

Raw turkey and dogs.....Throwing them in the car, I rushed to the emergency vet clinic. They told me to watch them and wait. So....$100 and one hour later, I put them back in the car, with Thanksgiving on my mind. The Walmart sign off the interstate caught my eye. Surely they would have some Turkeys!

WRONG!!! Completely out!

The next day I got up bright and early, going to every single grocery store you can possibly imagine in the greater Cincinnati area. NO LUCK!

Defeated, upset, and mad, I noticed the Cracker Barrel Restaurant was booming. They had Thanksgiving dinners! I whipped my car into the parking lot and with hope in my heart, jogged right on in and up to the hostess stand.

Long story short....it was too late to order a dinner for over twenty people. 

With less than one hour until my guest arrive, I did the only option I had left. No turkey for Thanksgiving.

I already had the hors d'oeuvres made, sides for the dinner and the desserts. Thanksgiving would go on without the turkey.

Hours later, after me pushing the snacks, we were all seated at the beautifully designed table scape. I didn't say a word and neither did my guys (because I threatened them with their lives!) and we passed all the sides around. Everyone's plates were filled to the edge, there wasn't room for turkey anyways.

Then....my dad....."Give me a leg." He rubbed his hands together with a smile on his face. 
"Where is the wishbone?" My niece gleefully asked. It was tradition that she got the wishbone every year because she is the only girl in the family.

I gave my guys the eye. You know...THE EYE!  And continued to shovel the sweet potato casserole in my mouth, with a roll chaser. But the questions were followed up by my mom heading into the kitchen to look for the turkey platter. The slam of the over door could've been heard from three houses down.

"Tonya, where is the turkey?" She gave ME the eye! Yep....you know...THE EYE!

"Funny thing about that turkey...we decided to go without this year." I continued to eat. 

"You know, Tonya dear." My aunt patted my uncle's hand, and whispered,  "She's an artist. Sometimes they eat meat, sometimes they don't. Just fill up on the rolls."

Now after SIX loooong years, I finally get to host a REAL THANKSGIVING DINNER in our house. This time the turkey will go straight from the refrigerator to the stove!




HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Do you have any funny Thanksgiving tales? I'm giving away a copy of my new book COLOR ME A Crime (out Thanksgiving week) to one lucky comment! Winner will be picked on Thanksgiving night!




GREAT Holiday Promotion!!






Books make terrific holiday gifts, but finding perfect books for friends and family is always a challenge. If only we could flip through a few sample pages on our own schedules. If only if the bookstore could come to us. Well guess what readers, we’re doing just that!

Twelve amazing authors have come together to offer you an amazing opportunity to sample their latest novels just in time for the holidays—12 awesome samples and quirky holiday-themed interviews in one FREE downloadable PDF.

Whether you like to read mysteries, romance, young adult, women's fiction, or suspense—this group has a book for you.

First Snow – Christine Cunningham
After The Fog - -Kathleen Shoop
A Charming Crime -  Tonya Kappes
Come Back To Me – Melissa Foster
Read Me Dead – Emerald Barnes
The Halo Effect – MJ Rose
Dancing Naked In Dixie – Lauren Clark
The Last Supper – Michaelene McElroy
The Hurricane Lover – Joni Rodgers
The Hounding – Sandra de Helen
Milkshake – Joanna Weiss
The Ninth Step – Barbara Taylor Sissel
Each excerpt is prefaced by information about the book and its author. Concluding each excerpt is an order page with clickable links to several online retailers
You can download the PDF “Holiday Sampler” here http://bit.ly/eBookSamples, and share it with friends by sending them this link: http://bit.ly/eBookSamples.
So go ahead and sample these fantastic novels from amazing writers! And don’t forget to help spread the word!
Happy holidays and happy reading!

Tips On Reaching Blog Tourists

Last month I did a blog on reviews and why reviews are important, here!

One of the points I was trying to make is that most bloggers that you will set up your blog tour with requires you to have at least ten reviews.

Now that you have those ten, it's time to set up your blog tour.



As you know, I'm a big believer in word of mouth and that is why I started my STREET TEAM. I love having new readers join my street team, and I have done that by going on blog tours and reaching more and more readers.

I'm not saying blog tours are easy or hard, they are very time consuming. Some authors have blog tours that last for a month or two. Neither is right or wrong. It depends on what the blogger's availability is and sometimes you might be able to recycle a blog post that you wrote for another blogger.

Recycling isn't tacky. It's smart. You can alter a few sentences or add some new points by catering it to the blogger's target audience.

Keeping all of this in mind, I have a few tips that will help you reach your maximum readership with a blog tour.

1) Pick the dates you would like to go on a blog tour.

2) Find a list of blogs that you would like to inquire about being a guest. Be sure to professionally send them a letter, include a press kit along with the dates that you are available.

3) After you get a list of blogs, be sure to promote every single stop you are at! Get your street team to promote the stop too!!!

4) If you are going to recycle a couple different posts, change them up! Add some more jokes, new pictures, different contest...be different than the rest!!

5) Comment back to every single person who comments on your tour! You have to be present and genuine.

6) Think outside the box. Do a skype interview with the blog host or video chat. You can even voice record the interview or your guest blog. Dare to be DIFFERENT!

7) Have fun! Remember, you want the blog audience to like you. There is nothing more fun than connecting with a reader on a personal level.

I'm in the process of organizing a new blog tour with many new tips that aren't listed here. I won't list them until I try them. I'll let you know how they work out!

Now....GO OUT THERE AND FIND NEW READERS!

Do you have any blog tour tips to add?


ANSWERING A READER QUESTION

AMAZON COZY MYSTERY BOOK CLUB: https://amzn.to/35jiXar GOODREADS COZY MYSTERY AMAZON BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION: https://www.goodreads.com/topic...