Free eReaders AND books?

I am happy to bring you some really cool opportunities.  You can see from the image above, we have three lovely hosts to this opportunity: Book & Trailer Showcase, Coffee Beans and Love Scenes and Full Moon Bites.  Want to win a Nook Glow or Kindle 3G?  Click to win: a Rafflecopter giveaway

I’ve been really blessed to have some great readers, fantastic and supportive fans and above all else, some really great writer friends I’ve met since I started back in 2006.  I want to reward these folks by offering something special.

From December 7th until December 13th, enter to win the following:

A signed copy my best seller, Yoder’s Farm. (Continental US only) a Rafflecopter giveaway
A signed copy of Taking Control (Book 1 in the Control Series)(Continental US only) a Rafflecopter giveaway

A signed copy of Losing Control (Book 2 in the Control Series)(Continental US only) a Rafflecopter giveaway
A signed copy of Immortal Decision (Continental US only) a Rafflecopter giveaway

An eBook copy of any of the above in a reader of your choice. (No restrictions, limited to English only) a Rafflecopter giveaway

That’s a lot of giveaways.  It’s Christmas time and I’m in the giving spirit.

What’s that?  You love books and want a chance to win more prizes?  Okay, because I love you all, I’m giving you the link to three other pages who are also running giveaways for the Christmas Wishes Blog Hop.  Ready?

Angela Quarles

Lea Nolan

GRINELDA MARKOWITZ

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays or whatever your preferred phrase.  I wish everyone a safe, merry and happy holiday.

Hello World!

As you can see from my last post, When a Good Plan Goes Wrong, things got a little nutty in the Mullican house.  I’m glad to say, I have my head above water again!  No pun intended.

Yoder’s Farm is out to beta readers.  The husband and I are meeting with a couple on Saturday to negotiate a price on their property and we’re really hoping to come to terms.  They really want to leave and we really want their property, even if it means I’ll be spending the next two years cleaning up beer cans and garbage.  Once we finish the property, it’s going to be our own little 5 acre paradise.

It’s time like these, when I’m overwhelmed by real life that I find solace in posts like this.  CJ West (whose books I totally recommend)  had a guest post that was truly uplifting, especially from a writer’s perspective.  See, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.  We all have bills, kids and/or family, pets, homes blah blah blah.

And me… well, I’m wound a little tight lately and my doctor recently gave me a prescription to manage my STRESS rash.

Girl’s Night Out is this Friday and I’m looking forward to some drunken debauchery with my ladies.  I’m ready to let my hair down and release this pent up stress I’ve been carrying around.  As a precaution, I’ve installed a breathalyzer on my cell phone and laptop!  😉

I wish you all much peace and safety this week(end).

If you get a chance, pop on over to my new website and let me know what you think!

The Psychological Profile

I joke sometimes, that I minored in ‘Psych’ to my friends.  Truth is, it started in high school when we were forced to take Psychology and Sociology.  I couldn’t stop.  I went to the public library and began checking out psychology books and reading them on my own.  I purchased used college bound psychology books and dove into them as well.  At the time, I had a compulsive need to understand why I had suffered at the hands of a sicko and what I had to do to heal from it.

In college, it was the only subject I seemed to be interested in.  Go figure that I studied business instead.  I don’t want to be a shrink, if reading all those books taught me anything, it taught me that.

And it seems that all my reading has served me anyway.  I still read up on the subject.  I am amazed how much psychology evolves.

Character development is strongly rooted in building a psychological profile.  Readers have a desire to know why the characters do the things they do.  Why do killers kill?  Why do people lose their tempers, laugh at the wrong thing/time, bite their lip or nails?  Everyone has a personality quirk.  These make more sense to us when we can see the cause.

The one thing I notice about writers, is that we are constantly questioning ourselves, our abilities and that  of our characters.  I see it all the time on blog posts and tweets.  I am guilty of the same.

After publishing Taking Control, I read a post that said every character is part of us and I thought holy shit!  I have a seriously demented serial killer in that book.  I couldn’t possibly…

Do you question your characters? Yourself? How do you overcome your insecurities?

Creme Cheese Masochism

Building conflict is essential in a novel.  This has been drilled into our heads over and over again.  It’s easy to build conflict with a killer on the loose with real, well fictional, life or death situations.

Conflict… doesn’t always have to be life or death.

I’m the epitome of conflict as I have an obsession with baking in the midst of bikini season.  I mean really, who bakes a rhubarb pie, two loaves of bread and dinner rolls while walking miles each day with her daughter to try to remove the evidence of our creme cheese addiction?

I’m a masochist.  Today, we add weights to our workout routine… and maybe another mile.  I’ve gone up two sizes and if this doesn’t stop, when I walk it will look like two muskrats fighting in a gunny sack when I walk.  I like my cheese on a bagel, not on my legs!

My daughter has put on 8 pounds since the end of school.  But, she was a size zero so she could afford the extra weight.

Someone should lock me out of the oven.  But then again, I’m creative.

I’m considering seeking professional help for my baking addiction.  I’m certain it has something to do with growing up poor and not wanting anyone to be hungry… or the smell of anything baking in the oven…or a nesting instinct…  Maybe I have mommy issues.

HELP?

Any other masochists out there?  How do you keep yourself in check?

 

Not 21 Anymore! My Boob Hurts.

With the spouse working an ungodly amount of hours, summer break here and our half of the summer with our children, it’s been all responsibility and no adult time for weeks.  So my parents took my kids for the weekend, his daughter stayed with friends and his adult son watched the dogs for us.

What did we do?  Oh, we forgot that we’re not 21 anymore.  We partied with friends Saturday night, then slept for a few hours before taking the three hour long drive to Michigan International Speedway.  Tired and a little hungover I figured I could sleep in the car.  Wrong.  I just couldn’t get there with my head bouncing off the doorjamb and Pantera blaring at 20 billion jigawats!

Driving through three hours of rain, it wasn’t looking good for the race.  I had checked the weather the day before and it called for rain in the morning, but it looked like there would be a race.  Now, I wasn’t so sure and in the state I was in, my judgement definitely needed questioning

We huddled under a large umbrella and commenced taking in a little Hair of the Dog.  Thanks to the rain gear and alcohol, we really didn’t care much that it was raining.  We made friends with our neighbors, as we most often do tailgating at any NASCAR track.

The rain finally cleared and we made the nearly two mile walk to our spot in turn 4 of the infield.  Sitting in the sun, I finally was able to doze of for awhile, despite the roar of the race cars.

Poor Joey hit the wall

My girlfriend, her husband and I took the nearly mile walk to the restrooms halfway through the race.  On the way back, my attention span was that of a peanut.  So much to look at, trying to see the cars, fatigue and a little intoxication I wouldn’t have noticed a freight train coming at me.  So when I heard, “Look Out!” it was too late.  I caught a football in my right breast.

My friends were worried.  The football hit me hard.  I kept walking and told the guy as he tried to apologize that I was fine.  I grew up on a farm surrounded by boys and it wasn’t the first ball that hit me.  It’s actually not the first ball to hit the chesticle either.  By the time we got back to our seats, it really hurt.  I took a water bottle from the cooler and tucked it inside my bathing suit.  Truth was, dad may have taught me to be tough, but I was crying inside.  My BOOB?  REALLY?  Not the ta taas!

I’m trying to smile… really I am.

I finally got some sleep, re-hydrated and I’m off and running today.  I have to drop my dog off for x-rays, drive half an hour to get my kids then go clean a house.  The chesticle still hurts a bit today but thankfully, I think the girls will be just fine.

But, I’m too damned old to party like it’s 1999 any more.  My boobs just can’t take the heat!

Take a bite

We love samples.  That’s why there are ladies standing with little folding tables in the grocery store to give you a taste of the product.  More often than not, people will accept the bite, the taste.  Some like the product and buy some for home, some move along, because hey, you can’t please 100% of the people 100% of the time.

I’m not offering you just a bite, but the whole plate totally free.

Now through June 19th, you can download Immortal Decision totally free.  I published the book awhile ago, and I could use a few more fans.  This is my one and only vampire novel so far.  It has one review on Kindle.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Vampires with a twist January 10, 2012

By JC

Format:Kindle Edition

Kim Mullican tells a unique vampire story that will stick with you long after you finish her book. The characters are fun and believable and her writing flows well. Angels, priests, humans and vampires intertwine to create a well crafted story and an intriguing back story as well. You’ll definitely be hooked after this one and anxious to see more.

 

I would love a few more fans of Immortal Decision.  So, for a limited time, I’m offering it free to all Kindle Owners.  Don’t own a kindle?  No problem.  You can download Kindle for PC, iPad and just about any other device.  Visit Amazon for details.

 

So come, take a bite out of me.  Let me know how I taste 😉

YumDay

Mondays blow.  Everyone complains about them.  Me particularly?  I work from home, so Monday is no different than Wednesday.  But, for all my special people out there, in dire need of something to look forward to…

I hereby deem Monday now Yumday.  Every Monday Yumday I will be posting a little eye candy for both my male and female readers.  Feast your eyes on today’s Yumday candy.

For those wanting to gaze as male awesomeness, I bring you:

Yum, that’s why

At 42, Matthew is my eye candy of choice.  Who doesn’t love a guy that plays the bongos naked… especially when he looks like this?  Pshaw on his neighbors for complaining!

Bedroom Eyes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For those who’d like to gaze a the female hotty of today, I bring you…

Gina Carano, MMA beauty queen

Gina Carano!  This breathtaking beauty is a brawler.  Hard to believe that face has taken a beating.

Yes… she can kick your ass

We love strong women.  Gina epitomizes that.  She’s strong, successful and sexy.  That’s why Gina is my girl crush of the week.

I hope you’ve enjoyed Yumday.  Stay tuned for next week’s Yumday eye candy!

Things Just Stay Weird

I’m a skeptic.  I never believe something someone tells me.  I always do the research and I believe that qualifies as continuing education.

We now live in a world with real zombies.  I don’t enjoy zombie books or movies, but in the year 2012 we have bath salt eating zombies.  Hooray for us.

We’re a bit different in the Mullican house.  If you’d like to find out why (and maybe get a chuckle) you can find out by reading:  The Reason I do not Write Romance; Where’s my Bio Hazard Suit; When Prissy Just Won’t Do; My DNA Ends up in the Weirdest Places or yes, it’s titled: Shaving my Kitty.   Rereading some of these has given me a good laugh.

If you would have asked me a decade ago, if I would have been on the phone being interviewed by a ghost hunting team, I would have laughed in your face.  But today, I had just such an interview.  Over the last five years or so, we’ve had… issues in our home.  The kids no longer believe the bullshit excuses I’ve come up with so it’s time for help.  Thanks to shows like Ghost Hunters, people are less afraid to admit such a problem exists.

Now I’m certain that if we have ghosts, they think I’m just as scary when they see me Yelling At My Laptop.  This is probably the reason they like to throw stuff around my house.  I’m okay with people thinking I’m bat-shit crazy, nuttier than rat shit in a pistachio factory or maybe just a little eccentric.  Yes – we have ghosts.  I have evidence.  And if you don’t believe in them, stay a night in my house… walk down my hallway without turning on the light.  Grown adults can’t do it.  My kids can’t do it.  The spousal unit and I seem to be the only ones able and I still get the creeps.  I usually talk to the cat on my way down the hallway as a distraction.

Great, now I’m the crazy cat lady too.  Phenomenal.

If you haven’t left yet, welcome aboard the crazy train where lamps fall over, growls come from thin air, my animals chase non-existent things into corners and growl, items lift off of tables and walls, random disappearing people walk down the hall and our imaginary friends crawl into bed with us.  Oh yes, there is a boogey man.  No, I no longer tell my children, “there’s no such thing as ghosts.”  And no – your comforter is not a magical barrier against all things scary.

I think I will start to name the mischievous little bastards.

I cracked a joke via Twitter that with two large breed dogs (1 American Bulldog at 120 lbs and a 5 month old English Mastiff who is now dwarfing the bulldog) and a room full of guns that I wasn’t afraid to be home alone at night, “not even from bath-salt eating zombies.)  Truth is, I can deal with the zombie.  I can kill it.  How do you deal with something that’s already dead?  Something that is frightening otherwise pretty damned brave children?

Deep Breath

I did it!  I received all edits back, made corrections and uploaded the files.  I was excited and proud.

Another book on the shelf.

But then… when my proof copy of the paperback came in, I nearly puked.  I uploaded the wrong file.  Not once, not twice but three times.  The Kindle file, the Nook file and the paperback file were – THE UNEDITED VERSIONS.  Much to my dismay, two copies of the eBooks were already sold.

Can I puke now?

I raced to take the eBooks off sale on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  But then, (oh yes, it gets better) Comcast isn’t so Comcastic and my damned internet service went down.  Can you believe it?

An authors reputation is tenuous at best.  A beginning author can’t really afford to put unedited crap out there with their name on it.  It’s not that I’m big time and anyone really knows who the hell I am yet, but seriously. . . huge enormous faux pas.

The correct file has replaced the rough draft (yes, it was a rough draft that went out.)  😦

There are already a group of people posting on the Kindle Forums on how to avoid Indie Authors.  Some of their complaints are founded.  I’ve bought books from other Indies and wanted to scream.  They worked very hard on their book blurb and I was convinced to purchase.  I wished that they’d have spent a fraction of the time on the book as they did the description.

I’ve beta read numerous WIPs and recall the worst ever being an erotica that had to be written by a fourteen year old virgin.  It was so bad that people were moaning in extasy (yes, that’s how it was spelled through the whole novel) from having their belly kissed.  It was difficult for me not to instruct the writer to have sex before writing erotica.

But now, two people may have the same opinion of me.

So I took a deep breath.  There’s nothing to do now but continue writing and to learn my lesson.

Marketing 101

The last 48 hours I’ve literally spent nearly every waking moment all my spare time on marketing.  Not only am I marketing my three books, I’m also marketing my small business.

Full disclosure:  I totally suck at marketing.  I’ve worked in sales and took tons of business classes for my bachelors degree, but still… marketing is changing.

So what have I done?  Well, for my small business, I needed to think locally.  I ran an advertisement in a publication (and did not receive one telephone call or email.)  I went old-school and printed up a flyer with pull tabs at the bottom.  BINGO.  The freaking grocery store… that’s where my customers are coming from.  Great, I can work with that.  Time to hit the other grocery stores.  The flyer is blank (I noticed today while buying some tonic water 😉  So tomorrow, I’ll be pinning up a brand new flyer.

For my books, I’ve made two trailers.  Granted, I am an amateur at best, but what the hell.  They’re getting hits, people are seeing them and I’ve noticed a small spike in book sales… mainly because I’ve put those damned trailers up everywhere I can think of.  My local paper refuses to run press releases, so I’m getting  a copy of my three books and mailing them to the paper.  If that doesn’t work, I’m going to take a naked photo of my best endowed female friend and send that in with three more books.  I considered a bomb threat, but jumpsuit orange isn’t in my color wheel.

I’ve considered giveaways, but I need to face the fact that funds are limited.  Since old school worked for my small business, I’m moving on with that theme for my books.  No, I’m not hopping off the net, quitting blogging and writing my manuscripts with pen and paper.  But as money becomes available, I’m going to order books and “autographed copy” stickers and throw myself out there for book signings.

I’m all up for advice.  What’s worked for you?  Any marketing campaigns been effective for you?  I’m all ears (and eyes, and fingers and toes…)