Please Take a Moment of Your Time.

One of our fellow writers needs our help. His 16 year old son was seriously injured in a longboarding accident and the medical costs are piling up.  Let's show him what the writing community is made of. Today we are spreading the word. Please join the Donation Bomb and take the few minutes to tweet, Facebook, blog, pin about Ben Wolverton and his road to recovery.

Taken from the Help Ben page:


Ben Wolverton, age 16, was in a tragic longboarding accident on April 3rd, 2013. He suffers from severe brain trauma, a cracked skull, broken pelvis and tail bone, burnt knees, bruised lungs, broken ear drums, road rash, and pneumonia. He was in a coma, but has recently awakened. His family has no insurance.

Ben's treatments are already over $1,000,0000.
Ben will need extensive therapy as he relearns how to walk.
Please consider donating money to his cause. Learn more at www.HelpWolverton.com

Other Ways You Can Help

You can help by telling others about Ben. Tweet, Facebook, pin, blog, or email others about it.

You can also help by purchasing the award-winning young adult fantasy thriller Nightingale by David Farland or the science fiction trilogy The Golden Queen by David Farland. Proceeds will be donated to Ben. The books are available on Amazon.com ( http://www.amazon.com/Nightingale-ebook/dp/B006P7SEBY/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_kin?ie=UTF8&;qid=1367443875&sr=8-1&keywords=Nightingale) and Barnes and Noble ( http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/nightingale-david-farland/1107084747?ean=2940016100463).


T-shirts are also being sold to help raise money. Learn more here: http://www.helpwolverton.com/p/buy-t-shirt.html

Keep in touch with Ben and learn about other ways you can help at http://www.helpwolverton.com/

Please spread the word!

I am....

Over at Falling For Fiction today, critiquing a query. Stop by and share your thoughts.

A Saturday Quote

Secondary Characters Bloghop!

Today is the day we've all been waiting for! At least I have!!! It's the Secondary Characters Bloghop! 

Sometimes secondary characters steal the show, (or the book) and become our favorites. We want you to tell us about your favorite secondary characters from books or movies, or both!

Whether it's the funny best friend or that goofy kid next door,

we want to know what secondary characters

you just couldn't get enough of and why.

Theresa Paolo, Kelley Lynn, Jessica Saylor, Jenny Morris and Suzi Retzlaff were all generous enough offer critiques as prizes! These ladies are brilliant, wonderful critiquers. I am also planning on giving away a three chapter critique along with an ebook of Secondary Characters, which releases on May 28th.

Cassie Mae and Kelley Lynn will also pick a winner to get either an ebook of Reasons I Fell for the Funny Fat Friend, or a signed copy of Fraction of Stone. 

So sign up over at Rachel's blog it's not too late!And Rachel Schieffelbein's debut novella comes out on the 28th! Make sure to order your copy!! Just click here.

I love when secondary characters steal the show! Sarah Dessen is one of my fave writers and one of the reasons I love her is because her secondary characters come to life. They make me want to jump into the book and become part of the friend group, community, work place, in which she has created. However, today I'm not going to talk about secondary characters from books. I'm going to go the movie route. 

When I think of secondary characters I think of John Hughes. From Buzz, Kevin McCallister's mean older brother in Home Alone to the Pigeon Lady in Home Alone 2 to Ferris' best friend, Cameron, in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. John Hughes is the master of secondary characters. I've picked two of my all time faves! 

Who doesn't know Long Duk Dong? And if you don't please go find a copy of Sixteen Candles and sit back and watch the awesomeness that is Dong. If you don't have time right now, I'll fill you in. Long Duk Dong is an exchange student living with the main character's, Samantha (Molly Ringwald) grandparents. He steals every scene he is in. And I can guarantee if you ask anyone what they remember about Sixteen Candles they will say Long Duk Dong.

My next favorite:

Iona from Pretty in Pink. She is Andie's (Molly Ringwald) boss and friend. From her wacky outfits and even more bizarre hairstyles to her outrageous personality, I fell in love with her from the very first minute she was on screen. I wanted to work for her. I mean she has to be the coolest boss ever! And her weapon of choice, a staple gun! I also love how she mentored Andie with years of her own mistakes and regrets.

Here's a clip of the awesome Iona:

Your turn! Who are your favorite secondary characters???

Happy Monday!

I'm over at Falling For Fiction today. Stop by and play match the book to the bad review.

A Saturday Quote

Marketing Wednesday! Book Trailers!

It's been a while, huh? Sorry about that. I was caught up with stuff I can't quite talk about just yet, but as soon as I can I will fill you all in. I can't wait! So I had to refresh my memory and see what I've already talked about so I don't go repeating myself. So a quick run down.

Past posts have been on:

1. Pinterest
2. Social Networking (Twitter)
3. Facebook
4. Websites
5. Cupcakes
6. Covers
7. Databases
8. Bloghops
9. Free Book at the Movies?

I can't believe I haven't posted a new MW since the end of Feb. Oops. Let's jump right back in. Today I want to discuss Book Trailers and would love to hear your thoughts on them as well, so please be sure to leave a comment :)

A book trailer, like a movie trailer gives you a glimpse of what the book is about. Some people may argue that book trailers are a waste of time and money. I have to disagree. The reason why, go on Youtube and type in book trailers. 95% of the book trailers that pop up are fan made. The fans want them. So much so they make their own.

It's something else to spark interest in your story and something else for your readers to talk about. To take the experience of the world you created one step further. It's like a mini movie. They get a visual of the characters they have fallen in love with. Or want to fall in love with, so much so they purchase your book to get the whole story and not just a snippet.

If you don't want to spend the money on a book trailer, have the fans do it for you. Have a contest for them to create a book trailer based on your book and submit it. Have a deadline, guidelines to length and whatever else you want and  pick a winner that you will feature on your website/blog/Facebook/Youtube or all. Have them post it to YouTube and send you the link. You can tweet ones you love, satisfying the creator as well as getting more people to see your book. And now do you not only have one book trailer but you have many. And guess what? It didn't cost you a dime. Though, personally I would offer a pretty kick ass prize to the winner.

My favorite book trailers:

All three of Simone Elkeles' for her Perfect Chemistry series. And what is so great about these is she creates short movies. The first one a rap video! She also now has three guys as the face of her series. I'm not exactly sure if they are from the book trailers. I haven't compared. But she is using these actors/models/guys for posters and signings. She has taken it to a whole new level and I think she is a marketing genius. I mean, a great story and cute boys. How could you go wrong?

You can view them all here http://simoneelkeles.com/videos/

What do you think of book trailers? Do you watch them?