Monday, October 23

~~~This post has been updated! Please read to end of post for the new details.~~~

With Conspiracy of Angels due out soon in print and e-book formats, I need to start promoting. I hate promoting. I really do. It's like pulling hens' teeth.

Anyway, I want to do something unique, but I'm on a tight budget right now, so I'm limited to what I can do prize-wise. (I hate this upcoming holiday season, Grrr!) Sending someone a live chicken just isn't a good idea. (Besides, the mailman's still pissed at me for the last one I mailed.)

One prize I do have in the works is author oriented. When I launch my promo contest for CONSPIRACY in print, authors will have the chance to win a cover for one of his or her e-books! Cover will be provided by WCP/FB's incredibly talented artist ,CoverVan, a.k.a. M. E. Ellis' hubby.

So, anyone want to bounce some promo ideas off my thick head?

To Celebrate the First Promo for Conspiracy of Angels!

Marci and Faith are striving towards a November print release date for Conspiracy of Angels. I'm nearly finished with revisions, so the e-book version should be available soon. To launch the promotion of my novel, I'm posting a brief excerpt below.

Now, here's the contest part. Any author who promotes Conspiracy of Angels on a blog, forum, group, or website and does it the most creatively, will win a review of his or her novel posted on my official website to use for his or her own book promotion. (Since launching my website, I've had over 400 hits in the past 8 weeks, so it gets decent traffic.) Leave a comment and link on this entry so I can go look/read and decide who has been the most creative. Contest ends midnight November 1st.

If you're not a writer/author then you may choose one of my current e-books as your prize. (Please, no e-book sharing. See Faith's or Amanda Brice's blogs for details on this issue.)

For this contest, please disregard the guidelines on my website for reviews. I will concentrate on only plot and character development for the review winner. Current review is M.E. Ellis' QUITS.

So, in a nutshell:

Read excerpt and post about it somewhere with a link to my blog and website.
Be creative.
Leave comment/link to your shout-out or promo so I can go visit and judge posts.
Winning author/writer receives free review on my site for him or her to use for his or her own book promotion.
Non-writer winner receives choice of my current e-books (see right side bar.)
Contest closes midnight November 1st.

If anyone has any questions, leave them in the comments or email me and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Now, here's the excerpt.

Conspiracy of Angels

Note: Elizabeth Shaw and her grandmother, Sarah (Grams), have just had a horrible argument.

Elizabeth whirled and stomped into the dining room. She didn’t make it far before guilt hit her, flattening her with its damning weight. Grams was right. Her misery came from deep within herself. She halted by the server station and sighed. She returned to the kitchen door and pushed it open a couple inches.

“Grams?” Elizabeth called softly.

“Hmm?” Sarah didn’t turn around, intent only on the spaghetti she dropped into a roiling kettle.

“I’m sorry.” She studied her grandmother’s plump back and jerky motions.

“It’s okay.” A smile resided in Sarah’s voice. “Now, hurry up and write those specials on the blackboard.”

Elizabeth returned to the cash register and grabbed the box of colored chalk. Over the past three months, it seemed that she and her grandmother repeatedly had the same fight. She was a grown woman with a six-year-old son. What could have been or what should be were of no concern to her any more. She needed to stop worrying about the past and concentrate on her future, a future running a family business with her son and grandmother.

She wrote the specials on the board in alternating white and blue chalk, her thoughts drifting. She and Daniel Rivers had created quite a stir by falling in love with one another. George Rivers, Daniel’s father and the presiding minister, considered Elizabeth a phase that his son would soon outgrow.

Emotion and despair filled her with its intensity, and hand shaking, she snapped the chalk stick in two. A memory brought fresh tears to her eyes, a memory of sitting on the front church pew, sobbing. Minister Rivers had discovered her crying and praying aloud for forgiveness and guidance. His words replayed in Elizabeth’s mind as if she were hearing it for the first time.

“You’ve ruined yourself, and now you’re trying to ruin my son! You’re nothing but trouble, Elizabeth, and I will not allow you to drag my son into hellfire with you!”

“We’re in love, Minister Rivers,” Elizabeth said.

“You’re just like your mother!” George almost shouted. “You’re a wanton woman, who will destroy my son’s life. If you truly love, Daniel, you’ll leave town.”

“God forgives,” Elizabeth cried. “But what about you? You’re comparing me to my mother, but I’m nothing like her! God knows what is in my heart. What right do you have to tell me to leave?” She recalled staring up at his unforgiving expression and asking the one thing that had pushed George Rivers over the edge. “How can you call yourself a servant of God, and yet, treat me like this?”

The minister’s last words had haunted Elizabeth for the last seven years. With fervor in his eyes, George had replied, “Because my son deserves better than you.”

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