How smart IS that cat?

I love my pets. I didn't really have pets until in my 50s, when my daughter asked why we let her father decide whether or not we had animals in our lives. We adopted two cats almost immediately. Those two , Sprite and Dr. Pepper, show up in my first book, More Than A Job. The black and white cat is Pepper. Slainte' (pronounced slawn' cha) was an abandoned, injured adolescent when I found her outdoors at a local  bakery shop. She was hungry and thirsty and the forecast for that day was over 110 degrees. They said to me, "Oh, don't give her food or water. We want her to go away." I made the mistake of picking her up, found the place where her leg was torn, and knew if I put her down there she would die that day. She was thin, pitiful, and yet let me pick her up. I didn't have a box or anything so I took her to my car. She ran around in the car a couple of times but got over her panic in seconds and laid next to me on the seat. I carried her into an animal hospital.  It is expensive to rescue a cat on your own. The shelter doesn't charge full price for the medical care. Slainte' needed to be spayed, had to have some of the dead tissue around her torn leg removed and then the leg sutured, needed de-wormed, and antibiotics to address the infection in her leg. I had just been laid off so had no regular income. What was I thinking?

But as soon as I picked her up I was committed. And she has definitely been worth it. Once she acclimated to the other cats, life settled in and we learned that we had added a very spunky, snuggly cat. She is the model for Dr. Al's cat in Animal Instinct. While my little calico has never saved my life or revealed ancestral secrets, she is a very positive part of my life. When we added a dog - Ollie - she and he vied for the top position in the house by sitting back on their haunches and boxing of all things. Today, though, they curl up together on the bed or on the pet bed in my office.

When my daughter and her husband added a beagle/basset puppy, she let Molly know who was boss, and is the only animal that Molly doesn't attempt to tromp.

Amimal Instinct will be available August 21.

How do two writers work together?

Tami Dee and I are pleased to showcase the cover for the first book in our Time After Time Saga, a series of six books that follow (erratically) the lives of the women of the Heartmark, those who have been marked by an enemy determined to pursue them through time and destroy their happiness.

How did we come to write together? Good question, since we have only met twice in person, and not for long either time. I met Tami in an on-line critique group and because we really enjoyed each others' stories we stayed in touch. Tami was the one who reached out to me a year ago and asked, "Have you ever submitted those books I read?" and urged me to contact her editor. My three contracts and counting with Desert Breeze Publishing are a result of that contact.

Tami has published a time travel series, so when the first thoughts that became this set of books began percolating in my head I dropped her a note, asked her thoughts and in the email back and forth that followed, the ideas for a series came tumbling out.

I know that working with another author keeps me writing and keeps me accountable. We share each work as it unfolds, so although one writer takes the lead, both are involved in crafting the story line and in connecting the book to the others that are coming in the next couple of years.

So join us in celebrating our first cover for this series. The book will be released August 21.

www.lynetteendicott.blogspot.com             http://tamidee.blogspot.com/

www.lynetteendicott.com                           http://www.tamidee.com/

www.twitter.com/LynetteEndicott             https://twitter.com/authortamidee

www.facebook.com/authorlynetteendicott  https://www.facebook.com/tami.dee.7

Buy link at Desert Breeze Publishing: http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-332/Time-After-Time-Book/Detail.bok

How I doubled sales of my book in the last period

I am a novice as promoting my work. As a newly published author (More Than A Job came out in March) I am still learning the ropes. My first check as an author was both exciting - Hey I can get paid to do this! And deflating - All that work for this little return?

So I started paying attention to what other authors were doing. Here is a short list of ways I am promoting them and me:

1. I post to this blog at least five days a week, and feature other authors who (hopefully) bring their readers to my blog, and I can showcase them to my readers.
2. I make the blog visual, and as often as they will share personal pictures, personal. Since I have a lot of pet lovers among my readers, (I find posts about pets get a higher hit rate) pet pics are welcome here. This isn't just about selling my books - it is also about developing a group of friends who read them. I want to connect and animals are a great way to do that.
3. I tweet the blog posts 2 or 3 times a day. Finding a hook - something catchy, controversial or racy -- always brings more lookers to the blog. As do cute animals and the word Christian.
4. I ask my guests to post that they are visiting on their social media - lists, twitter, Facebook, etc.
5. My tweets are automatically posted to Lynette Endicott's Facebook page, and then I like from my my real name and the author page hosted by that name, so they show up to all my people.
6. At least once a week I post something about my writing journey to my real name on Linked In with a link to my blog or website.
7. I "like" other authors, read their posts, retweet, share and otherwise promote the interesting things they are saying.
8. I visit other blogs to be interviewed there.
9. I explore other venues. Right now Klout and Pinterest are possibilities that I'm tracking.
10. I watch the numbers. When there is a spike in blog visits or website visits I check to see why.

In all of these, I have several strategies:

• Set up an account in my author name that is separate from my real life and focuses on writing.
• Get the word out to as many people as I can to like, join, follow. Continually ask readers to act to follow the cause.
• Support other writers, and they will support me and sometimes even become my readers.
• LIMIT the time spent on all this. I set a goal of finishing within an hour a day.
• Keep up with the latest through subscriptions (usually in digest form) regarding marketing on the internet, social media, 

Result? Well, my second check was more than twice as much as my first, so the good news is that I'm getting better at this. Since the next book, Animal Instinct with Tami Dee, is out August 21 I want my skills to be up to the task.

Tami, by the way, has an author ap on Android, iPad, iPhone etc. Download it and check out her books and this new ADDITIONAL way to market!

You can check out More Than A Job at http://www.amazon.com/Lynette-Endicott/e/B008E8P1AO/ref=sr_tc_2_rm?qid=1341245772&sr=1-2-ent

See Tami's books at her author ap or http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Tami%20Dee&search-alias=books

WHO-HOO - First Draft of Animal Instinct Finished

The first book to be released in a new series - Time After Time - is finished at least in rough draft. I participated in Seekerville's challenge to finish a book in a month to get it done. It is the first book I've written on proposal - only the first few pages were finished with my publisher accepted it.

This is going to be a fun series. Author Tami Dee is working with me and we anticipate a series of six books. I am taking the lead on three and she is taking the lead on the other three.

The first to be published will be Animal Instinct, set in the 1970s. Allison Green is a veternarian and the descendent of a line of women who bear the Heartmark, a heart-shaped birthmark that identifies them as the target for Mildreth. Sean Barnett is the new detective in town. An evil from the past threatens to destroy the love developing between Allison and Sean. Will ancestral memories hold the key to freedom, or overwhelm them with fear? Allison must find a way to hold onto love. Will Sean be the man to help her break free of the ancient enemy who has traveled through time in order to cheat her of love?

There will be a sequel and four prequels.  Here is an excerpt to whet your appetite. You can find another on my website at http://www.lynetteendicott.com

This is from the original story, the one that sets the structure for all the others. It is the prologue for Animal Instinct:

There is nothing so evil as this woman scorned. Mildreth's sword shone blood red, raised above the couple's heads, as she intoned swore she would keep them apart. Aleena pressed closer to Colin, cold fear curling in her chest. Was that blood running down the blade? She cried out when a steaming drop fell from the sword tip and burned into the flesh of her bare shoulder, leaving a heart-shaped mark. She clung to Colin, even though there was no warmth in his chest at her back. Aleena was unable to breath as terror and pain swirled around and within her.

"Know from this mark that not only you, but also your daughters will be hunted by me across the generations. They will have great tribulation in love, and a sword shall divide them from the mate of their soul."

The sword moved down swiftly, the tip leaving a cold breeze as it barely missed her cheek, aiming for the ivory that lay on the ground in front of her, accurately dividing in two the broach that Colin had presented to her as a wedding gift, before the beauty of their lovemaking, before the horror of Mildreth's appearance.

A flash of evil green sparked at the division, but before it could grow it was countered by a ball of golden light, coming from a motion of the Prophetess. Mildreth backed away from the warm glow of goodness and love that countered her evil intent. Before hope could rise in her breast, the Prophetess turned sympathetic eyes on them.

"I cannot take away the Mildreth's anger and evil intent, but I can give you hope." Her voice was as soft and airy as a summer breeze. "If Mildreth is intent on doing wrong to you and your daughters, I will protect you, at least in part. She can only intervene before their wedding vows are taken. Her desire to hurt your daughters has backfired. She will be thrown through time by her evil desire to harm you and yours, generation after generation.

"You," here she pointed the wand at the cowering enemy, "will be the instrument of your own evil anger, doomed to live through all generations, to find the offspring of Aleena, and to prevent her happiness if you can. You cannot do actual harm to them or those who love them, but you can attempt to derail their happiness if you must. I pray one day you will see the error of your hatred and replace it with love - but until you do, you may attempt to keep those who love apart from each other."

The prophetess turned glowing, sapphire blue eyes to them, the expression on her beautiful, semi-translucent face kind and full of empathy.

"Aleena, Colin, know that your daughter's daughters will not be alone as they battle this enemy. Each will be given three helpers.'

A soft golden glow shown around the prophetess as she uttered her assurances.

"First, each will have a helper from among the animal kingdom, as represented in the carvings of the broach. This animal will be given knowledge beyond its kin, and will protect each child, and will help to bring her together with the one who will complete her soul and give her joy.

Her glow became brighter as her healing words flowed over Aleena.

"Second, your daughters and their true loves will be given memories, passed on through generations, dormant until they are needed, which will assist them in the time of greatest need."

Now the glow was so bright, Aleena shielded her eyes with a trembling hand.

"And finally, the broach." The carvings of the two parts began to glow in response to her words. "Aleena, pick up the center, the part with the clasp."

Aleena's hand trembled as she reached for the sleeping cat carved in ivory, which formed the center of the piece. It was unexpectedly cool to her touch.

"This," said the Prophetess, "shall be passed down to the daughters who bear the Heartmark." She gestured to the heart-shaped burn on her shoulder. "When they find the part that completes the broach, they will know what is needed to break the curse."

The Prophetess turned her attention to Colin.

"Colin, pick up the remainder."

Colin did as he was told.

"Hold it in your left hand and take out your Sgian Dubh with your right." He pulled the dagger from his hose, below his kilt. Both began to glow in his hands.

She nodded her approval. "Press them together."

The handle of his long dagger was plain bone. When it touched the remainder of the ivory broach, however, the carved relief of the animals from the broach melded into the handle. "You will pass the knife to a man you deem worthy, a friend whose valor saves your life or the life of one you love. Tell him this story, and the blade will always find its way to the lover of her soul when a daughter of Aleena is in need."

In a flash of green and yellow light, both enemy and Prophetess were gone.

Aleena let out a shuttering breath and pressed closer to Colin, turning to bury her face in his chest. Immediately his warm, strong arms came around her, and she sobbed for several long moments as he stroked her hair and murmured reassurances in her ear.

"Hush, love, you're safe. We will survive this."

"Are you sure?" She leaned back a little, and the cold flat of the Sgian Dubh brushed her shoulder as Colin shifted his hold, and with his other hand, tilted her face up toward his own.

She still held the broach in her hand. In that moment the carving on the broach was drawn to the relief on the handle. They came together in a perfect fit.

Aleena stared at the joined carvings, then shifted her gaze to the green, clear eyes of her husband. She shook her head in disbelief. "Is this real?" Her voice came out in a raspy whisper. "What does it mean?"

"I think it means that, for our generation at least, we are safe from any further interference from Mildreth." His shadowed eyes snagged and held hers. Sadness simmered within their green depths. "But God help our daughters."

Finish a book in a week? a month? a year?

I wrote More Than A Job in a Book in a Week challenge with a writing group I belonged to over in San Jose, CA.  My prior books had been years in the making, so this was quite a new concept to me. While of course there was critique and editing to do afterwards, the book was finished, so that when my friend Tami Dee said she would refer me to her editor if I could send a manuscript within the week, I could do that. The release yesterday of More Than A Job was the result.

I have a book contract for a book that is only about half way finished. Animal Instinct is the first to be published of the Time After Time series that Tami and I are working on together. I have an outline to two other volumes in that set. When I signed up for SPEEDBO it is with the goal of finishing Animal Instinct AND an earlier book in the same series set on the Western plains of the US around the beginning of the 20th Century. So starting today I am going to WRITE, WRITE, WRITE!

Speculative Christian Fiction

I read an interview today with Jennifer Hartz, author of the Future Savior series. She labled her genre Speculative Christian Fiction. See the interview at http://abooklovingirl.blogspot.com/

That rang a bell for me immediately! Tami Dee and I are working on a series that is definately Speculative and we have struggled a little to keep a fantasy story line within our Christian values.

Fantasy has a tendency to go anywhere the imagination can go - so keeping it true to what we believe has become an ongoing conversation as we are finishing the first book of the series.

So tell me, what does Speculative Christian Fiction mean to you?  I think of some of my favorites, in the worlds of Narnia and Middle Earth, where good and evil are sketched out in detail that is true to our values and yet lets the imagination be pulled in.

What are your favorites?

Time after Time Saga: Animal Instinct

Watch for this one August 21:

An evil from the past threatens to destroy the love developing between Allison and Sean.

Will ancestral memories hold the key to freedom, or overwhelm them with fear? Allison must find a way to hold onto love. Will Sean be the man to help her break the ancient curse?