Are you ready for two new giveaways?
I certainly am! Opening for entry today are my two latest Goodreads Giveaways. I have two copies of both of my books available to win.
To sign up to win a signed copy of Forever: Click Here
To sign up to win a signed copy of Through Shade and Shadow: Click Here
Are you excited? I know I am! I love the feeling that comes when I drop a book in the mail for someone.
I have two giveaways getting ready to start next week over on Goodreads. Two copies of Forever and Through Shade and Shadow will be available.
Click here for Through Shade and Shadow
Both giveaways open on the 18th of April and will be open through Aptil 26th. Both are open to the US, Canada and the UK.
If you win, you will get a signed copy of the book with a note from me.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately on book promotion and how to get new readers. Some of my fellow authors have small “street teams” or early review teams who help get the word out, get reviews up early, and talk about their books on various social media platforms.
Are you interested in joining my team? I’m still getting the details together, but there would be benefits. First of course, you would get an electronic copy of a new book before it’s release so that you can review it as soon as it’s available online.
I’m still considering perks. Maybe something like, leave a review on 5 different sites (amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, goodreads, barnesandnoble.com and your blog maybe), and I’ll send you a signed hard copy?
And, yes, I am still trying to build up reviews on both Forever and Through Shade and Shadow. If you have read either, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review on any amazon site and/or any other site you see reviews on.
If you want to be a part of my team and be among the first to receive an electronic copy of In Shades of Sage when it’s ready, comment below or email me at natalie@nataliejcase.com.
As a writer, I am a people watcher. I love finding spots where I can sit an unobtrusively observe the world around me. I find the lives of others endlessly fascinating, even in the most mundane activities.
Each person has their own story. Some of them more than one. They all come from somewhere. They all are thinking about things I can’t know about. I live in an area where people watching can be a very rich sport.
Some of the most stand out people though are those I observe on my daily commute. I live east of San Francisco, and I take the BART train into the city 3 to 5 days a week. Most of the time the ride in is quiet. Everyone is busy catching up on Facebook and email or trying to catch a few more minutes of sleep before the day really begins.
The ride home though…that is a treasure trove of people watching. Young mothers with small children, teenagers with their backpacks and music banging out of their earphones, construction workers looking tired and worn, business people in their suits….it’s like a microcosm of the Bay Area.
When it’s really crowded, like the scene above, and my agoraphobia ratchets up, I pick out a single face and I start to tell myself a story about that person’s life. That guy in the suit looking like he just spent an hour at the gym…it was his third interview that week, but so far nothing had panned out and he was tired, exhausted really, but he knew he needed something better. He’s crammed into that corner trying to study the text book in his hands so he’ll be prepared for class that evening, after he goes home and feeds his baby and kisses his wife and promises her that things will get better.
Some of those little stories create characters so vivid for me that they end up in a book I’m writing. There are a few of them in Through Shade and Shadow. Can you spot them?
I have had a Patreon account for a while, but didn’t really put any effort into it because I wasn’t really sure I wanted to pursue it, and what I could offer as rewards, but I’ve spent the last few days working over there to get something set up.
You can find me at https://www.patreon.com/nataliejcase.
I don’t expect this to make me a fortune, but I am hoping it will help me put aside some money to invest in books for signing events and the like, as well as save up to be able to afford voice talent to record audio books.
My rewards levels are all pretty low, starting at $1. At $3, you get first look at the weekly micro/short story. I will be writing one per week to some prompt and they will get posted first to my Patreon blog. I will migrate them over here after a couple of weeks, but they will be first for my Patrons.
Most of the levels are under $20, with varying rewards. So, if you like what I do enough to consider coming along to play, pop on over and have a look.
I’m sure a lot of writers get repeatedly asked the question about where our inspiration comes from, how do story ideas start. I can’t answer for others, but for me they literally come from everywhere.
A snippet of overheard conversation, a random image, a song lyric, a picture can all feed my imagination. Even random words can be the catalyst for a poem or story.
I see almost everything like it’s a starting point, a place to begin a new journey or carry on with a journey I’m already on. I feel a need to create a story for things, like this fellow on this road in this picture.
There’s a reason he’s there. There’s a reason he’s walking and walking on this road. What’s behind him? What lies ahead? What kind of person is he? What does he want?
Lots more questions of course, but it starts me off and I immerse myself into the questions…
Theodore Dane walked out the door one morning in early spring, his hood pulled up, his hands in his pockets. The screen door slammed shut behind him and his worn sneakers scuffed along the gravel driveway as he walked to the quiet, two-lane country road that ran past the house where he had lived his whole life. There was nothing left holding him to the place but memories. He turned right and set off down the road. The hills rose in the distance and somewhere beyond them was a world that was still waking up, a world that he had only glimpsed through books and the rare treat of time to watch the television. A world he was ready to fall into, sink or swim.
I think provocative images provide some of the best story inspiration. I think maybe I’ll start posting a story image and original short story once a week. Have an image you’d like me to tell you a story about? Email me at natalie@nataliejcase.com.
I’m a big coffee drinker. I like mine dark and fairly strong. And yes, I freely admit my caffeine addiction. A day without coffee is a day without sunshine.
As I have many friends who are also authors, it is fairly routine for us to get into conversations where we imagine ourselves in the worlds of our characters, or in the worlds of favorite books.
Recently we started talking about dystopian futures and post-apoc worlds. It got us talking about living without the common modern conveniences we take for granted. We talked about our survival skills, how we would cook without stoves and ovens and microwaves, how we would hunt or fish, etc.
There was one thing we all agreed on, however. That one thing was coffee. We could survive any apocalypse, as long as there was coffee and a way to make it. How about you? Coffee-fiend? Or is there something else you can’t do without?
My publisher, Creativia, is working with instaFreebie to offer first chapters for free on many of their books, including my first novel with them, Forever.
All you have to do is click the link above to the Creativia page on instaFreebie and browse through the titles to find one you’d like to try. Claim the chapter and read at your leisure.
If you like what you see, you can purchase the whole book.
Can you think of a better way to see if a book is for you?
Here’s the direct link to the Forever isntaFreebie page. But if you’re hungry for more, Creativia is home to many talented authors writing in any number of genres. So while you’re poking around for new reading material, be sure to check out all of the offerings from Creativia.
Please feel free to share with friends! Invite everyone to come find something that suits their reading needs!
The first book in the Shades & Shadows series, we only meet a few of the women who will become a big part of the series moving forward. We met Emily Lambrecht, the mother to Alaric, and wife of the leader of their clan and Sahara Katan, a Shifter without a family who reluctantly takes on the responsibility of the two underage Shifters, Mila and Maddie.There are a few minor characters as well, Victoria, Cassandra, Raven and others.
In the second book, however, the women start to come to the fore. Raven Ivany steps up into a more prominent role, as a Shade who works for the same organization as Mason. New to the story is Zero, who is a teenage Sage on the run from her father. Keisha joins the cast, a Sage midwife and mother to two teenage boys.
I look forward to introducing all of you to these characters as we get closer to the book being finished.
I hope a bunch of you were able to get your hands on the free Kindle version of Through Shade and Shadow while it was on promotion! If not, don’t worry, you can still get it for the low price of $2.99.
And for you who prefer the feel of a real book in your hands, you can get a paperback too. If you want to order on from me, which I’m happy to sign before I send it your way, you can visit my facebook store.
Meanwhile, I’m hard at work on the sequel. I can’t wait to introduce you to some new characters!
Today is the last day of February, and tomorrow we begin a new month. Time flies faster all the time. Grab ahold of something meaningful today and let kindness shine.