Have you read my book yet? If you haven't, here's an opportunity to purchase it at half-price from now until the end of July. If you're looking for a good summer read, this is a book for you.
OPTIONS is the first book in the Kate Monahan Series. Kate is a paralegal/legal secretary at TechniGroup Consulting who deals with the ups and downs of the corporate world. When her close friend dies mysteriously, Kate finds herself in the middle of a series of bizarre coincidences with her own life on the line.
The second book in the Kate Monahan Series will be released later this summer! Stay-tuned to this blog or the author's website http://www.rosemarie-damico.com/ for updates on publishing dates.
In celebration of summer, read OPTIONS for half price!
Click here http://rosemarie-damico.com/purchase.html to purchase a hard copy for $8.50!
Click here https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2075 to purchase an e-copy for $2.00 (use coupon code SWS50 when purchasing).
I'd love to hear from you -- give me a review of OPTIONS (good, bad or indifferent - I love feedback from readers!). Follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/RoseDAmico and stay-tuned for a new Facebook page.
Happy reading!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Finis! Finito! Finished!
Note the date folks. Sunday, June 27, 2010. I finished my second book. It's a sequel to the first book -- I'm referring to it as the Second Book in the Kate Monahan Series.
I started this book FOURTEEN years ago. Yep, you read that right. Fourteen years ago. 1996. If you're familiar with the story of how my first book OPTIONS came about (if not see my website www.rosemarie-damico.com) you'll know that I wrote that book in "three months of Sundays". About twelve days of writing. Shortly after finishing that book, I started on the second one. I got about 60 pages in (about ten chapters) and stopped. 1996 was a long time ago and I cannot for life of me remember why I stopped writing at that time. I know there were other things going on in my life at that time (change of jobs, three kids, my husband and I owned our own business, busy, busy, busy). I do remember being very discouraged by all the "No thanks" rejection letters I was getting from publishers and agents for my first book so maybe that contributed to me laying down my pen at that time.
Fast forward to January/February 2009. If you've now read my story about how OPTIONS came about, you'll know that I was about to self-publish the book. I barely remembered the other book but for some reason, I decided to dig it out. That's a story in itself. We had moved houses and I had changed jobs so did I have a paper copy somewhere? Did I have a soft copy on my computer at my current job? I nervously started looking and lo and behold I found it. On my computer at work. It had been sitting on the hard drive for fourteen, lonely years.
Excitedly, I clicked on the file name in Word and lo and behold, the computer told me to enter my password to access the document. I had password protected the document and did I mention that fourteen years is a long time??? I had no idea what the password was. I spent the next two days trying to find software that I could get (cheap) that could break the password. That was two wasted days!
I called my sister in Washington. Did she have a paper copy? She didn't think so but she would ask Dan, my niece's better half who was one of my inspirations for self-publishing the first book -- but you already know that because you're up-to-date on my "story" (see above) LOL. Why Dan would have a copy I wasn't sure, because I do know he wasn't around when I started writing the second book....
While I waited to hear back from my sister/Dan, I called the document back up on my computer screen, and when it asked for a password I typed in a word, and it worked. Duh?! I'm not sure how I remembered it, but I did. I quickly removed the password and read the first 60 pages. And I liked it! I liked it alot.
About a week later I was scheduled to fly to Vancouver (about a five hour flight) and was privileged to be flying Business Class. I took my laptop with me and spent a solid five hours writing in the book in my wide, leather seat, uninterrupted. I was stoked!
I've spent a lot of hours over the last 17 months finishing this book -- way more time than it took to write the first book. My first book clearly fit in the category of "write what you know". This second book is a little of that and a TON of new, undiscovered area. I did a lot of research for this book. Many days I would sit down to write and hit a point in the story where I was asking myself all sorts of questions, so I would change direction and spend hours researching. For this book I found out a lot of information about the Food & Drug Administration in the United States, the Securities & Exchange Commission in the U.S., the New York Police Department.
Last July I took a trip to Manhattan with my son Jordan to scout locations. We had a blast touring around and because of that trip some things changed in the book.
In between writing time, our family has expanded. Our oldest daughter had twins in September so they (along with their older brother) have taken me away from writing for short spells. Is there anything more delicious than spending time with grandchildren? Recently, that same daughter broke her ankle, requiring surgery and many, many weeks on crutches, so we've spent more time with her and the babies. Sometimes my job gets in the way of writing, sometimes the garden calls me. Recently, the swimming pool has been beckoning.....
Today is Sunday, June 27, 2010. 405 pages, 112,155 words, so far untitled. I feel a serene sense of accomplishment.
Stay-tuned for updates on the next steps. Editing with my trustee sidekick, Sheila. Cover artwork photography, modelling, and design with my uber-talented son, Jordan. And my 'you-know-who' model.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
I started this book FOURTEEN years ago. Yep, you read that right. Fourteen years ago. 1996. If you're familiar with the story of how my first book OPTIONS came about (if not see my website www.rosemarie-damico.com) you'll know that I wrote that book in "three months of Sundays". About twelve days of writing. Shortly after finishing that book, I started on the second one. I got about 60 pages in (about ten chapters) and stopped. 1996 was a long time ago and I cannot for life of me remember why I stopped writing at that time. I know there were other things going on in my life at that time (change of jobs, three kids, my husband and I owned our own business, busy, busy, busy). I do remember being very discouraged by all the "No thanks" rejection letters I was getting from publishers and agents for my first book so maybe that contributed to me laying down my pen at that time.
Fast forward to January/February 2009. If you've now read my story about how OPTIONS came about, you'll know that I was about to self-publish the book. I barely remembered the other book but for some reason, I decided to dig it out. That's a story in itself. We had moved houses and I had changed jobs so did I have a paper copy somewhere? Did I have a soft copy on my computer at my current job? I nervously started looking and lo and behold I found it. On my computer at work. It had been sitting on the hard drive for fourteen, lonely years.
Excitedly, I clicked on the file name in Word and lo and behold, the computer told me to enter my password to access the document. I had password protected the document and did I mention that fourteen years is a long time??? I had no idea what the password was. I spent the next two days trying to find software that I could get (cheap) that could break the password. That was two wasted days!
I called my sister in Washington. Did she have a paper copy? She didn't think so but she would ask Dan, my niece's better half who was one of my inspirations for self-publishing the first book -- but you already know that because you're up-to-date on my "story" (see above) LOL. Why Dan would have a copy I wasn't sure, because I do know he wasn't around when I started writing the second book....
While I waited to hear back from my sister/Dan, I called the document back up on my computer screen, and when it asked for a password I typed in a word, and it worked. Duh?! I'm not sure how I remembered it, but I did. I quickly removed the password and read the first 60 pages. And I liked it! I liked it alot.
About a week later I was scheduled to fly to Vancouver (about a five hour flight) and was privileged to be flying Business Class. I took my laptop with me and spent a solid five hours writing in the book in my wide, leather seat, uninterrupted. I was stoked!
I've spent a lot of hours over the last 17 months finishing this book -- way more time than it took to write the first book. My first book clearly fit in the category of "write what you know". This second book is a little of that and a TON of new, undiscovered area. I did a lot of research for this book. Many days I would sit down to write and hit a point in the story where I was asking myself all sorts of questions, so I would change direction and spend hours researching. For this book I found out a lot of information about the Food & Drug Administration in the United States, the Securities & Exchange Commission in the U.S., the New York Police Department.
Last July I took a trip to Manhattan with my son Jordan to scout locations. We had a blast touring around and because of that trip some things changed in the book.
In between writing time, our family has expanded. Our oldest daughter had twins in September so they (along with their older brother) have taken me away from writing for short spells. Is there anything more delicious than spending time with grandchildren? Recently, that same daughter broke her ankle, requiring surgery and many, many weeks on crutches, so we've spent more time with her and the babies. Sometimes my job gets in the way of writing, sometimes the garden calls me. Recently, the swimming pool has been beckoning.....
Today is Sunday, June 27, 2010. 405 pages, 112,155 words, so far untitled. I feel a serene sense of accomplishment.
Stay-tuned for updates on the next steps. Editing with my trustee sidekick, Sheila. Cover artwork photography, modelling, and design with my uber-talented son, Jordan. And my 'you-know-who' model.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Read an E-Book Week - WOW What a Success!
Thank you to everyone who took advantage of Read an E-Book Week to download a free copy of my book Options. 55 of you took the time to go to http://www.smashwords.com/ and download the book. Some of you even stopped by here first and read my blog entry before going to smashwords.
I took advantage of my 100+ friends on Facebook and reminded them everyday this past week that it was Read an E-Book Week and gave them a link to my blog to get a free copy.
It's hard slogging to get the word out about a self-published book and this week has definitely paid off. There are now 55 more copies of my book out there and hopefully some of those readers will post a review of the book on smashwords, or send me an email with their comments (rosemarie@rosemarie-damico.com). All comments, good, bad or indifferent are welcomed.
My book also showed up this week on http://www.kobo.com/, which is the website for Chapters/Indigo that sells electronic books. So, the word is spreading and thanks to people like Mark Coker (founder of Smashwords), self-published authors are actually getting a toe-hold (albeit tiny) in the publishing world. Now if I could only convince Heather Reisman to put my hard copy book on the shelves at Chapters!
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Free E-Books
Have you have tried reading e-books on an e-reader (Sony, Kindle, i-Phone, etc.) or on your computer? I have and I LOVE it!
I hear a collective gasp out there and about a year ago, I would have sucked in my breath too at the thought of someone my age accepting the new technology. But it was Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords (http://www.smashwords.com/) who was the reason I self-published my book Options (http://www.rosemarie-damico.com/) in the first place.
You see, it is now easy to publish your own book, and a big piece of doing that is having your book in an electronic format (.doc, .pdf, etc.). I think the only people in the world not to 'write' their books on computers would be the Amish, so you know what I mean when I say having your book in electronic format is the first step. Once it's written in Word or WordPerfect or whatever, it's easy to convert it to a format that allows readers to read your book on their e-reader of choice. My son-in-law does all his reading on his i-Phone, which has a screen far too small for me to enjoy but the generation behind me are using smaller and smaller devices for their reading. Imagine reading a book on a cell phone? I don't think so!
Smashwords published my book on their website as soon as I gave it to them in Word format. They converted it to several various e-formats and it is available for sale on their website. They have since signed agreements with Barnes & Noble, Sony, Amazon, Kobo and a few others to sell our books through those websites too.
In January this year I made the big step and purchased an e-reader for myself. After much research I chose the Sony e-Reader and I am VERY happy with it. I still read paper books and will never give those up. It only makes good business sense as far as I'm concerned, being an "electronically published" author as well as a "paper published" author, if you know what I mean. I can store up to 3,500 books on my e-reader and that makes travelling a heck of a lot lighter. Now my suitcase/briefcase isn't loaded with books when I travel -- I just have to throw my e-reader in my purse!
e-books are generally less expensive than print books. AND, imagine how happy I was to find out that my local library has e-books which I can borrow for 20 days (plus two renewals). Fantastic! So, don't knock it until you've tried it. Log on to your local library's website, search for the e-books, and download a couple to your computer (the library will likely advise you to download some free Adobe software first). Try reading a book on your computer.
Go to http://www.smashwords.com/ where my book and several hundred more are FREE starting March 7th (until March 13th). Smashwords are participating in a global event -- "Read an e-book Week".
To view my book and download a free copy starting on March 7th, go to http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2075
If you find that e-books aren't your cup of tea, I would be glad to sell you a paper copy of my book. Just go to http://www.rosemarie-damico.com/ -- I will even autograph your copy!
Happy reading!
I hear a collective gasp out there and about a year ago, I would have sucked in my breath too at the thought of someone my age accepting the new technology. But it was Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords (http://www.smashwords.com/) who was the reason I self-published my book Options (http://www.rosemarie-damico.com/) in the first place.
You see, it is now easy to publish your own book, and a big piece of doing that is having your book in an electronic format (.doc, .pdf, etc.). I think the only people in the world not to 'write' their books on computers would be the Amish, so you know what I mean when I say having your book in electronic format is the first step. Once it's written in Word or WordPerfect or whatever, it's easy to convert it to a format that allows readers to read your book on their e-reader of choice. My son-in-law does all his reading on his i-Phone, which has a screen far too small for me to enjoy but the generation behind me are using smaller and smaller devices for their reading. Imagine reading a book on a cell phone? I don't think so!
Smashwords published my book on their website as soon as I gave it to them in Word format. They converted it to several various e-formats and it is available for sale on their website. They have since signed agreements with Barnes & Noble, Sony, Amazon, Kobo and a few others to sell our books through those websites too.
In January this year I made the big step and purchased an e-reader for myself. After much research I chose the Sony e-Reader and I am VERY happy with it. I still read paper books and will never give those up. It only makes good business sense as far as I'm concerned, being an "electronically published" author as well as a "paper published" author, if you know what I mean. I can store up to 3,500 books on my e-reader and that makes travelling a heck of a lot lighter. Now my suitcase/briefcase isn't loaded with books when I travel -- I just have to throw my e-reader in my purse!
e-books are generally less expensive than print books. AND, imagine how happy I was to find out that my local library has e-books which I can borrow for 20 days (plus two renewals). Fantastic! So, don't knock it until you've tried it. Log on to your local library's website, search for the e-books, and download a couple to your computer (the library will likely advise you to download some free Adobe software first). Try reading a book on your computer.
Go to http://www.smashwords.com/ where my book and several hundred more are FREE starting March 7th (until March 13th). Smashwords are participating in a global event -- "Read an e-book Week".
To view my book and download a free copy starting on March 7th, go to http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2075
If you find that e-books aren't your cup of tea, I would be glad to sell you a paper copy of my book. Just go to http://www.rosemarie-damico.com/ -- I will even autograph your copy!
Happy reading!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
In the category of "every little bit counts".....
.....831 words produced tonight. Not a ton, but yours truly is proud of herself for doing some writing on an weeknight when I'm usually brainbusted!
January 6, 2010: 831 words!
January 6, 2010: 831 words!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Another Fruitful Day
Another banner day.
I was lucky to have a visit this morning from my grandchildren so I didn't get down to the writing until about 1:00 p.m. It's now 5:45 p.m. and I'm calling it a day. Two chapters completed! Yay me!
January 3, 2010: 3,111 words
I was lucky to have a visit this morning from my grandchildren so I didn't get down to the writing until about 1:00 p.m. It's now 5:45 p.m. and I'm calling it a day. Two chapters completed! Yay me!
January 3, 2010: 3,111 words
Saturday, January 2, 2010
The Final Leg of the Race
Okay, it's the New Year and time for resolve and determination. I have about two-thirds of my second book done and haven't made the time in since the end of September to get back at it.
Today, January 2nd I cleared the decks and spent the WHOLE day writing. What a giddy feeling......writing excites me so much! The day is almost done and I'm happy to report that I've written almost 5,000 words today. Which means if I'm aiming for a 125,000 word novel, I have about 8.5 days of writing 5,000 per day left to finish the book.
Now I'm not kidding myself to think that I might be lucky enough to clear the decks for eight and half days of straight writing or that I can write 5,000 in each sitting but .... there does appear to be an end in sight. Yeah!
I will keep this blog up to date to keep us all informed of progress.
January 2, 2010: 4,387 words
Today, January 2nd I cleared the decks and spent the WHOLE day writing. What a giddy feeling......writing excites me so much! The day is almost done and I'm happy to report that I've written almost 5,000 words today. Which means if I'm aiming for a 125,000 word novel, I have about 8.5 days of writing 5,000 per day left to finish the book.
Now I'm not kidding myself to think that I might be lucky enough to clear the decks for eight and half days of straight writing or that I can write 5,000 in each sitting but .... there does appear to be an end in sight. Yeah!
I will keep this blog up to date to keep us all informed of progress.
January 2, 2010: 4,387 words
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