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Review of "Never Tell Them" by Norma L. Hinkens

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Hi guys! This is a book by one of my new favorite authors in the suspense and thriller genre. I could not put it down! Check it out Never Tell Them by N.L. Hinkens My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have read other books by this author and enjoyed them, so this was no exception. I found that the story was fast-paced, suspenseful and it caught my attention quickly as I got pulled into the story. I have to admit, Norma threw me off guard once the real story came out and I began to see what was really going on. Well done! I am a suspense and thriller author myself so when I read other authors I am always thinking outside the box when I read a good thriller, trying to see if I can figure out what the surprise element of the story is. Did not see that ending coming! I am eagerly awaiting the next book by Norma Hinkens in November! View all my reviews

New Landing Page Is Up!

Hi guys! Check out my new landing page here !   I have had a few setbacks over the past few months, what withCovid and all.  Thankfully, we didn't get sick but many of our friends and family were not so lucky.  Hope that you all are well and that you have not suffered through unforeseen loss as a result of Covid-19.  but I am now getting back on track.  I had to delay my upcoming book release, Dissemble: A Detective Millicent Harvey Case File , due to some familial obligations that including me moving from my lifelong home to an apartment. (More on that later)  But keeping it short and sweet, just wanted to let you know that I have revamped my website and all, so head on over there .  But be sure to sign up first because I have a contest or two coming up soon.  You won't be sorry!  For your trouble, you will get a sample prologue and chapter of one of my favorite books to date, "The Doctor: An Oliver Perritt Thriller" , which is soon to...

Episode 6 - Many Hands Make Write Work - Book Launch!

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Hi guys! So here we are, at the finish line for the creation of a novel. Again, I want to thank you for following me through this writing project. If you are just joining me and you want to read what I've talked about so far, by all means, click  here  so you can catch up. Also, you can  join my mailing list  to learn about my upcoming books, contests, events, and more. Once we have a word document(or whatever program is used to write out the story)now comes every author's nightmare: formatting(ugh) But it doesn't have to be hard at all. Formatting is how you put the word document together in which it can be formed into an eBook, PDF or mobi (a type of file used for the kindle reader) file.  It's also important that the word document transfers over to ePub(or whichever)with things in the right place, hence the term formatting.  Sometimes formatting will change how your file is laid out and the document won't look 'right'. To solve this issue, many authors u...

Episode 5 - Many Hands Make Write Work - Book Marketing

Hi guys! Are you starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel in creating a novel? I am and it feels exciting because that means I am close to releasing another story to my readers. :-)  If you are just joining me and you want to read what I've talked about so far, by all means, click  here  so you can catch up. Also, you can  join my mailing list  to learn about my upcoming books, contests, events, and more. Let's talk about book marketing and promotion.   This is KEY in order for a book to do well.  Can I write a story and just put it up on KDP(more about that in a moment)  Sure!  But if no one is seeing my story or knows who I am and where to find it this kind of makes my book pointless unless I do something about it. So, here's what happens when the story creation, blurb, cover, and beta-readers/editors have torn through everything to give you a basically completed copy of a book: You can go two ways.   Choice one, if...

Episode 4 of Many Hands Make Write Work - Book Cover

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Hi guys! Thank you for sticking with me through this project as I am hard at completing work on my upcoming novel, Dissemble.   If you are just joining me and you want to read what I've talked about so far, by all means, click here so you can catch up. Also, you can join my mailing list to learn about my upcoming books, contests, events, and more. The creation of the book cover is probably my favorite part of doing a writing project because it's where I am really comfortable, outside of the actual writing of course lol. I actually have a graphic background and in the past, I have done web sites and other graphic projects.  So when I decide to start working on a cover, of course by now I know exactly how the story is going to go.  This is very important because the cover should convey the overall feel/theme/tone of the entire story.  A bad cover can make or break a sale, meaning that I could potentially miss reaching the type of readers that may have enjoyed my ...

Episode 3 of Many Hands Make Write Work - First Draft and Book Description

Welcome back!  If you haven't had a chance to read the previous episodes, you can do so here and dive right in from the beginning. We are just about halfway through working out the book and today I am going to talk about finalizing the first draft . The first draft  is a sloppy, marked-up-with-red-pen sheaf of papers at this point, but we are well on the way to cleaning it up and making it suitable for reading.   This is when I would reach out to a professional editor to have them go through my manuscript with a fine-tooth comb. In all honesty, I did not always use an editor when I first started out because I didn't know any better, but now I do and it DOES make a difference.   Authors are too close to their own work to view it objectively, so an editor is definitely necessary. Anyway, once the editor looks it over, I get it back and make the necessary changes. Then they may or may not go over it once last time to be sure that it's perfect and then it's tim...

Episode 2 of Many Hands Make Write Work - Plotting and Outlining

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Welcome back! If you haven't read the intro from last month, you can check it out right here before you read any further. So, does it all begin at Chapter One, Page One? Hardly! That's a part of it, but for me, that doesn't come until a bit down the line.  Where it actually starts is at 'inception'.  Inception is when I start getting weird and crazy thoughts in my head that swirl around in there, sometimes for months, as I try to think up the next big suspense or thriller plot that hasn't already been done or overdone. Sometimes I'll bat stories around for months before I even write a single word. With my very first book, a romantic-suspense called "Broken Pieces", I had written on that story off and on for about ten years. The reason it took long for me to publish it was fear. Fear that it wasn't good enough or people would laugh or worse, they wouldn't want to read it at all. I pride myself on being able to come up with these wild...