Weekend Coffee Share, What’s New?

Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer. It has been an exciting weekend, and today I am relaxing with green matcha tea, letting my breakfast settle before taking my son to the gym in a little while. Today is decompress day and family day.

So, what was the excitement about? Yesterday, I had a Zoom interview about my books and my writing process with Rave Reviews Book Club, and online reading/writer’s club that I have belonged to since 2016. They have so many activities and opportunities for sharing our work and learning about marketing; I only usually join in on some of them due to working full-time, but I plan to join in on more of them! Why should I hide my light? Why should I pay hundred of dollars a month to advertise my books? I suppose opinions could differ on that, and I am still unsure, but I felt really good about the interview and will share the link when it is available!

The promo page for the interview can be seen here: https://ravereviewsbookclub.wordpress.com/rrbc-rrbceyesonthebook/

Another cause for excitement was learning that I was 1st Runner Up in a short story contest! My short story, Crossroads Diner #205 won 1st Runner Up in the Alpha-Omega Short Story contest with Rave Reviews Book Club. I really enjoyed doing this, and it has encouraged me to write more short stories.

Crossroads Diner is sort of other-wordly and metaphysical, all while set in a typical diner with jaded staff and weary travelers. However, everything is not as it seems. Check it out and read it for yourself! Sometimes a stop along the way serves an important purpose in our journey: https://www.amazon.com/Crossroads-between-Pamela-Schloesser-Canepa-ebook/dp/B098269VSN

Well, I almost escaped! 😉

Last night, my date, someone I’d dated years ago and have been seeing again for four months, took me out to dinner with some of his close friends at a waterfront restaurant, and afterward, we went to an Escape Room with the Old Jail theme in St Augustine. It was fun searching for clues and trying to beat the clock! I have a lot of fun with this fellow, so it’s not surprising. 🙂

That’s all for now. Have a great week, everyone!

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Fuel for a Writer’s Heart. #RRBC

Happy New Year, followers!

I’d like to invite you to visit the ALL-NEW RAVE REVIEWS BOOK CLUB at our new location > RaveReviewsBookClub.wordpress.com.

 

-If you are an author looking for amazing support, #RRBC is the place for you!

-If you are looking to grow as a writer, #RRBC is the place for you!

-If you are looking for a community where your peers push for your success just as hard as they push for their own, #RRBC is the place for you!

 

When visiting, we ask that you #follow our site so that you’re kept up-to-date with all the awesome news that we’ll be sharing in 2020.

If you like what you see after looking around the site, then please, JOIN US!  We’d love to have you!

 

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Weekend Coffee Share. “Life Goes On.”

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Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Allison at Eclectic Ali.  It has been another busy week, but I ended it with a day off for an appointment.  I was getting nervous about this appointment anyway, because if something didn’t look right to them, something could possibly be wrong, so I decided I would not go back to work after it and requested a whole day of leave.  Though it turned out okay, I am still glad I did.  Well, I lived through the uncomfortable appointment, a re-check mammogram and ultrasound, and after long waiting periods, was told that everything is fine and I just have a little cyst.  “No problem, you’re just getting older and things change.”  Whatever.  Thanks for the reassurance.  At least I don’t have to go for any further testing, but I tell you, this also happened last year.  I don’t like it, but I’ll rejoice that it wasn’t something more serious.

Yes, I was slightly worried as there is a lot of other stress in my life.  Not only is there a unique amount of risk to being a woman, but there is a unique amount of risk to being  a teacher these days.  Just watch the news.  Yada, yada, yada.  All of this in addition to state testing.  These last two things also burden our students, and when emotionally burdened, some of them act out.  I’ve been handling it.  I’ve also been looking inward and wondering if I am coming to a crossroads.  Is something wrong with me?  How will I face it?  Shoot, I have asked that question regarding school shootings as well.  One good end product of this week, however, is that I have been talking to God more.  I go out and walk the dog and see the beautiful night sky, and I know the world and the heavens are still there, no matter what happens to me.  I have told him I will face it like a champ and do my best.  There are so many others less fortunate, who have fought or lost battles with their health or fought to save the lives of children.  I would never go down without a fight in either scenario.

The sum of my week’s anxiety was that I am healthy, maybe getting old and changing, but healthy.  So, the rest of the day consisted of relaxing and then discovering my hair stylist could fit me in for a cut and style.  I need this hair to be easier to do in the morning.  I’m really going for asymmetric.  Hey, my chiropractor has told me one leg is longer than the other.  We all are pretty asymmetrical, so let’s celebrate it!  🙂

In between and in the waiting room, I had done a lot of reading and just started The Gum Thief.  I must say, I’m really enjoying it.  Although, in its paperback form (which I had ordered) the print is small enough to require me to wear readers and remind me I am not thirty anymore.  Blah, blah, blah.  No complaining here!

At the end of the day, Mom and I had dinner together at a little neighborhood restaurant/bar.  There was karaoke outside so we went out and had a drink.  It was fun to people watch, but I decided I wanted to sing.  It’s been a while, and why not celebrate my nutty, fearless self!  I sang Bobby McGee by Joplin and Back on the Chain Gang by the Pretenders.  Mom had great fun just watching me and talking to other people around.  I am so glad I took her outside for the fun.

My current read is pictured above, and I am loving it!  Two people who work together and have weird observations on life share their perspectives when one of them finds the other’s journal.  He is a budding writer, lonely and middle-aged.  She is a young Goth complete with black lipstick.  It’s really entertaining!

Oh, I am seriously looking forward to summer and all the writing and reading I can do (though I’ve started the reading already)!  Before this, I just finished Kindred by Octavia Butler and loved it!  See my review at Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2075655367

 

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

I have also been thinking on ideas for my WIP, Malachi, and at the same time, the character of Ellie, who pops up in Malachi’s life, is getting stronger.  Here is a visualization I found this week of Ellie at one point of her life: https://pamelascanepa.wordpress.com/2019/05/09/character-visualization-and-wip-detours-in-time-series-amwriting-scifi/

That’s my week in a nutshell! I am healthy, Schrodinger’s cat has been released, better safe than sorry, and all those other lovely platitudes.

You all have a great week!

#RRBC: Author Exposure and Support!

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Want to know how I got to be on an online Blog Talk Radio program in August last year?  Or how I’ve worked my way up to over 1,000 Twitter followers?  How about the author who has posted my author interview on her blog?  The truth is, it wasn’t all that difficult, and it wasn’t just because I published a book on Kindle.  It all happened thanks to the help of some powerful networking, a tool no indie author could really live without, especially if they want to stay the course in these sometimes lonely waters.  Let me tell you about Rave Reviews Book Club!

I imagine one could pay to have a PR company promote them.  There are many book promo. sites that will tweet for you.  I simply didn’t feel I could foot the bill for such a thing.  You may have heard me mention Rave Reviews Book Club before.  It is a grounding point for me as an indie author.  I truly feel as if I am not alone since finding this community of writers and readers whose main goal is to show one another reciprocal support.  Therefore, I may have joined this club in order to receive author support, but I remain, as my responsibility as a writer is to encourage other writers, to respect writing as an art, and to appreciate and promote other worthy authors, after all, I am still a reader and an appreciater of books and great Literature!

How does it work, you might wonder?  Rave Reviews Book Club requires a nominal fee once per year, and with that, you are a member!  Membership means you will get news of excellent books being published or going on sale, and as a writer, you will get to share your books and news.  Your requirement is to follow other members on Twitter, purchase 4 books by fellow members yearly and review them on Amazon, and to share/retweet fellow members’ news of their books.  In return, you will be supported with shares of your tweets and book information, you’ll have your book looked at, purchased and reviewed, and at some point, yours will be chosen as the book of the month.  This all means much more exposure, what every indie author needs.  Besides all of this, they have a blog talk radio show, a channel on Whatsapp (which I haven’t joined yet), and special programs such as the Back to School Blog party.  It is amazing just how many types of author support they provide!  I haven’t partaken in every little bit, but I just wanted to show that there are so many opportunities for networking and spreading news of your book at this club.  After a few months, I had been chosen as Member of the Week, which is a huge Twitter support storm, and about a month later, I was chosen to talk for a few minutes about my book on their Blog Talk Radio show, which was an exciting opportunity!

A.M. Manay, @ammanay on Twitter, a talented fellow member, made a graphic and Twitter blasted it during my Member of the Week “reign.”

I’ve had the opportunity to read and review such excellent authors as Bruce A. Borders, author of Over My Dead Body, http://amzn.to/2d1w7Qw and J.R. Barrett, author of Winnerland, http://amzn.to/2d1uC4H.  By the way, I highly suggest you read both of them!  These are books I might not have discovered otherwise.

Another type of author support some of the members use is author promotion on their blogs.  Check out the site of Kim Cox, http://twitter.com/KimCoxAuthor, fellow published author and RRBC member!  This is the link to the author interview she posted on her blog for me: http://kimwrtr.wordpress.com/2016/09/17/the-writers-journey-guest-author-pamela-schloesser-canepa/

Are you interested in the policies and perks of the Rave Reviews Book Club?  I encourage you to visit their site and join up at http://ravereviewsbynonniejules.wordpress.com/join-here/ and if you sign up, tell them Pamela Schloesser Canepa sent you there!  Yes, they even have perks for getting new members signed up.  I seriously love being a part of this Book Club.

Go now, check out Rave Reviews Book Club at the site above!

-Pamela

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