Twelve Days of Giveaways DAY ELEVEN with Stacey Joy Netzel

I'm soooo excited to feature AUTHOR STACEY JOY NETZEL on my Twelve Days of Giveaways!! This is a special blog where Stacey is paying it forward for the holidays!!! Be sure to leave a comment for you free ecopy of MISTLETOE MATCH-UP!! Be sure to go out and buy your copy or gift a copy of MISTLETOE MAGIC! The winner will be announced at the end of tomorrow's blog post!

**********************************************************************

My new author tradition is to pick one of my Christmas books and donate 100% of my December royalties from that book to someone or somewhere that could use the help. Last year I donated $300.00 from sales of Dragonfly Dreams, and this year I'll be donating much more.

This year's book is MISTLETOE MAGIC. It's Book 2 in my Romancing Wisconsin series, and since my heroine runs a no-kill animal shelter, the recipient of my Dec. royalties is a local Wisconsin shelter; Happily Ever After Animal Sanctuary, Inc. 

Major Mark Riley plays Court Jester to Janelle Walsh's Snow Queen at the Christmas Parade and is instantly captivated by the cute redhead whose grandpa just happens to be Santa. When Mark learns she's the tenant he evicted from his newly purchased property, it's going to take a little bit of Santa's mistletoe magic to save their romance. 

EXCERPT:

Janelle skipped down the stone steps of the main lodge Tuesday morning, Duke and Daisy on her heels. She paused to give each of the Huskies a warm greeting before continuing into the barn with a light step. She had a big day ahead of her. Regular chores, stalls to get ready for two new horses arriving after lunch, a meeting with the bank to see if her loan application had been approved, and then the present wrapping party at the school that night.

The thought of seeing Mark Riley again had secured a permanent smile on her face. She shouldn’t let herself look forward to the evening in his company so much, but a frown simply couldn’t be summoned. Even the animals sensed something was up. Her whistled Christmas carols while serving their breakfast perked lots of ears.

Including George and Jasper, the dark bays who pulled the parade wagon, there were six horses and one pony currently occupying the twenty-stall structure. The other stalls housed three llamas, one goat with four kids, a buffalo, two sheep and a skunk. A smaller shed out back housed twenty-three cats, not counting strays, with a separate section for chickens and rabbits.

She’d adopted the two huskies this past spring after Maggie passed away, and they had free reign of the property all day while enjoying the shelter of the lodge at night.

Janelle finished cleaning all the enclosures and readied the stalls for the newcomers before noon, which allowed for a short break to sit with the skunk, Rose. Someone had a sense of humor. The striped animal had come to her a few days ago and would leave by the end of the week to go to a lady in Milwaukee who ran an exotic pet rehab/rescue from her home. His previous owners had bought and de-scented him before ever checking if Wisconsin law allowed skunks for pets—which it didn’t.

In the nine years she’d worked with her friend Maggie in the animal rescue business, Janelle had never dealt with a tame skunk, but information on the internet told her she needed to show the little fella lots of love. If she’d needed to keep him longer than a week, she would’ve set him up inside the lodge with her, but for now, the stall would have to do. Apparently, skunks were like mischievous two-year-old toddlers, and she’d have to childproof the entire lodge before bringing him inside.

The curious, friendly little creature was nothing like she thought a skunk would be. Yesterday she’d removed her old winter coat only to have the little guy drag it into the pet carrier she’d provided for his den. He’d tugged and pushed until the material was stuffed inside just so, and this morning he’d been snuggled up so nice and cozy, she didn’t have the heart to reclaim the jacket.

After about an hour of playtime, the critter was tuckered out and crawled up to cuddle against her neck for a nap. His soft fur tickled her skin.

“If I had more time to spend with you, I’d keep you here little guy,” she murmured. “But things will be better for you where you’re going. You’ll get all the love you need.”

Her stomach reminded her she’d missed lunch just as the dogs started barking. Janelle set the skunk in his makeshift den and smiled at his sleepy blinks. Once she stepped outside, the dogs quieted. Her grandpa parked his truck and horse trailer next to the large double doors of the barn. Looked like she’d have to wait on lunch.

Janelle waved when her grandpa got out and fed Duke treats from his pockets. Daisy hung back at a safe distance. Butch tossed a couple treats her way while Janelle stepped up to the passenger side of the truck and opened the door. “Hi, Grandma.”

Judy Walsh climbed down from her seat. “Are you all ready for us?” 

Janelle nodded. “Yep. You look like you’re feeling much better than you were on Saturday.”

“I am, thank you. Though I hear I missed quite the show from a certain young man.”

Janelle grinned. “It was definitely entertaining.”

“And you’re seeing him again tonight?”

“Grandpa.” She scowled at Butch across the truck bed. “You don’t leave nothing out, do you?”

“Yer grandma demanded details, Janey. You know what that’s like.”

They all laughed. Indeed she did. Judy pulled her into a tight hug. “It’s about time you start dating again.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Grandma.”

“I’m not, don’t worry. However, any brother of Eric Riley’s—”

“Grandma,” Janelle cut in with a warning tone.

A loud commotion sounded from inside the trailer. Powerful hooves struck repeatedly against the back doors. Janelle faced the trailer with raised eyebrows. “Whoa.”

Judy wrapped an arm around Janelle’s waist. They walked over to join Butch by the barn entrance. “That would be Zara. She’s going to be a handful, so you’ll need to be very careful.”

“I can hear that.” Janelle didn’t mind the challenge. She was just thankful her grandmother had decided to drop the subject of her upcoming non-date.

They worked for the next half hour getting the new horses into their stalls and settled—or as settled as the little black mare, Zara, would get. Thank God for reinforced stalls. Janelle fought tears more than once at the sight of the two horses’ malnourished bodies, every rib visible even through their thick winter coats. While the chestnut thoroughbred was calm, listless even, the black mare had a spirit that refused to be broken. The scars and more recent welts on her shoulders and hindquarters told the story of how her previous owner had tried to break her. Janelle set her jaw, thinking how just once she’d like to get that person alone for five minutes.

After her grandparents left, she spent the rest of the afternoon with the horses, hoping to get them somewhat used to their new home before she had to leave for the evening. The chestnut perked up a little and ate the small amount of grain she poured in the feedbox, but the black mare stayed at the rear of the stall with her ears pinned back against her head.

“It’s okay, Zara, we’ve got plenty of time,” Janelle said softly.

~~~~~

So here’s the deal:

·         Mistletoe Mischief is FREE: Amazon, BN, Apple, ARe, Kobo, SW

·         Mistletoe Magic is just $2.99 and 100% of my December royalties for this book goes to HEA Charity: Amazon, BN, Apple, ARe, Kobo, SW

·         Mistletoe Match-Up is also just $2.99: Amazon, BN, Apple, ARe, Kobo, SW

 

Grab your copies today, or gift the books to a friend.

Better yet - do both and enjoy!

Rose says, "Thank you!"

Christmas is a season of giving; What's your favorite charity?

Stacey Joy Netzel

Website and Blog:  http://www.StaceyJoyNetzel.com

Facebook: Facebook.com/StaceyJoyNetzel

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/StaceyJoyNetzel

Award-winning author Stacey Joy Netzel fell in love with books at a young age, so for her the graduation to writing them was natural. An avid reader and fan of movies with a happily ever after, she is thrilled to call herself a full-time writer after 20 years as a travel agent. She writes romantic suspense, contemporary romance, and the occasional paranormal romance short story. Colorado is one of her favorite settings for her books, followed closely by Wisconsin and Italy.

She lives in her native Wisconsin with her husband and three children, a couple horses and some barn cats. In her limited free time she enjoys gardening, canning, and visiting her parents in Northeastern Wisconsin (Up North) at the family cabin on the lake.

PAINLESS EDITING!

As I'm sitting on the beach this week....YES! I'm at the beach!

But I'm in my most least favorite part of the publishing book process. . . EDITING! It's the second book in A Magical Cure Series, A Charming Cure. And if you don't write mystery, you should know that I write my mystery novels backwards.


And my editor would be more happy to tell you that she has to go over my work at least twice!

I have come up with some great tips to help me and YOU get us through the editing process with a little more with ease.

1) Take your time.

I know that we have our muse and want to start writing on the next project, but if you don't slow down and take your time, your novel will suffer by not becoming the best novel it can be.

An easy way to do this, and what I have done while I'm at the beach, is to break my finished novel into four parts. Literally, I take the page count and divide it by four.

This helps me work on one section at a time and not temp myself to work ahead. I'm a tad bit lazy in this editing department and anything I can do to get through it I do. Breaking it up doesn't seem so daunting.

2) Don't worry with the meat of the bones on your first round of edits. Make sure that you have the story down. Make sure the story is going exactly where you wanted it to go. Don't worry about the dialogue tags, or the description at this point. I'm sure you have most of that in there, but we are just looking at the story structure of the novel.

3) If you are further into your editing process, change the font on your computer. We have a tendency to know our novel so well that we can skip through it as if you were skipping through a meadow of flowers on the most perfect day. Nothing jumps out. BUT if you edit in a different font than you are use to, things have a tendency to stick out a little more.

4) When you are in your final draft of editing, send it to one of your readers! I have two GREAT readers that I trust with my novels. I have met only one of them in person and the other I have not. I trust them completely with my genre. They are avid readers. When they tell me something is off, or a character hasn't developed enough for them, I listen.

Do you have any editing tips that will help us like the process a little more?

TAG me, LIKE me, LOVE ME!

Over the past couple weeks I have been hearing a lot about tagging and clicking like on Amazon books. This is really nothing new. But it hit me like a ton of bricks!

It's new to all the traditional authors or writers who have decided to let go of the traditional route and self-publish. It's nothing new to the indie community. We have been tagging and liking books for YEARS.

As a matter of fact, this time last year tagging and liking Amazon books (any retailer for that matter) was a big controversy. The issue was how it was misleading to "the reader" when the person tagging or liking the book hadn't even read it. Even Amazon went as far as deleting ebook tags for a little while but then they  brought them back.

I saw it as a BIG BUNCH OF CRAP!

(REALLY GROSS, BUT I LOVED IT!)

I didn't give into the controversy because tagging and liking works for me. I do like the author and I do think they have tagged their books correctly. AND there is a reason those likes and tags are there.

1) The more likes you have your book moves up in the Amazon algorithms which helps with visibility. I'm not an expert on algorithms and I really don't care how they work just as long as I'm in there somewhere. 

2) Tagging your books help readers, YES READERS, find your book. A CHARMING CRIME is my latest novel. I tagged it magical, witches, potions, mystery, woman sleuth plus more. When a NEW reader who hasn't read me types in witch mystery or cozy mystery, my novel will pop up in the search as possible books they might like. BUT you have to have a lot of tags to get up in those algorithms. 

3) Liking and tagging your author friend's book is a GREAT way to pay it forward! It really is easy to do and takes no time at all. I always make sure that when my closest author friend's novel comes out, I go and tag/like the book. 

4) Tagging and liking groups. YES! I'm in a couple groups where we tag and like each other's books. One is a closed group, while the other is on the Kindle Board Author Tag Exchange. It's a great way to get some quick tags when your book is released and climb higher in those algorithms. 

5) Do you LOVE to view the who bought your book bought this book? Guess what? The tagging and liking helps put you in those streams too!! 

As you can see, liking and tagging is a great promotional tool. BUT beware....There is a down side to tagging. Readers can go in and add their own tags. Or even jealous writers can tag your novel. That is a very nasty thing to do, but it does happen. 

So it's super important to make your tags relevant to your books. Go ahead! Tag and like!

. . .Oh! If there was a LOVE click...I'd do that too!

What are your thoughts on tagging/liking? Do you do it?

Random Acts of Kindness BLITZ!

A smile. An encouraging word. A thoughtful gesture. 
Each day people interact with us, help, and make our day a bit brighter and full. This is especially true in the Writing Community. 


Take a second to think about writers you know, like the critique partner who works with you to improve your manuscript. 
The writing friend who listens, supports and keeps you strong when times are tough. The author who generously offers council, advice and inspiration when asked.


So many people take the time to make us feel special, don't they? They comment on our blogs, re-tweet our posts, chat with us on forums and wish us Happy Birthday on Facebook.

Kindness ROCKS!
To commemorate the release of their book The Emotion Thesaurus, Becca and Angela at The Bookshelf Muse are hosting a TITANIC Random Act Of Kindness BLITZ. And because I think KINDNESS is contagious, I'm participating too!


I'm BLITZING Author Gerri Brousseau! She is amazing and helps writers with marketing and promoting their blogs through the group WRITERS on Facebook. She's always willing to help and promote other authors. I love being able to recognize her for her unselfish act of paying it forward.

Gerri, for my RAOK, I'm offering you a copy of The Emotion Thesaurus! You are going to love it! I use this information in a lot of my writing.
I really appreciate Gerri, who blogs at Nights of Passion. If you have a minute, please stop in and tell her how awesome she is!


Do you know someone special that you'd like to randomly acknowledge? Don't be shy--come join us and celebrate! Send them an email, give them a shout out, or show your appreciation in another way. Kindness makes the world go round. :)
Becca and Angela have a special RAOK gift waiting for you as well, so hop on over to The Bookshelf Muse to pick it up.
Have you ever participated in or been the recipient of a Random Act Of Kindness?  Let me know in the comments!

WoMen's Literary Cafe~UNITING A LITERARY COMMUNITY

Starting next week, I'm going to become a part of The WoMen's Literary Cafe (WLC) elite blog team!
This isn't the same old blog or even just a writer's blog, like my grog I co-founded The Writer's Guide To EPublishing.
This is a different blog, in fact it's a website. There is NOTHING like it out there. It's a website to UNITED THE LITERARY COMMUNITY!!
What do I mean by that?
As you know, I'm published with a small publisher and self published. I love to pay it forward and help any author no matter what publication journey they are on. I'm a true believer in doing it all. That includes being a part of a community of authors, writers, bloggers, editors, agents, publication companies, format professionals, cover designers, and more!
The more the merrier in my book.

WLC is a site where author will learn to cross promote with other authors, like the PR Buddy system I've talked about at WG2E and in my co-authored promotional and marketing book with Misa Ramirez, THE TRICKED OUT TOOLBOX~PROMOTIONAL AND MARKETING TOOLS EVERY WRITER NEEDS.

We are not only promoting authors, we are promoting bloggers, readers, and more. WLC is going to focus on blog tours, author spot lights, ongoing promotions, and how to live in this ever changing publishing industry.
Our author forums provide an opportunity for authors to hang out and share tips/tricks, and an opportunity to connect with readers.

For authors, there is free promotion that includes facebooking, tweeting, and blogging. It costs nothing! You just have to visit and fill the form out.
If you review books, we want to send you some!
Be sure to stop by and check out the site!!

If you want to check out the elite blog team, you have to click the blog tab! The blog is not the focus of the site, it's only there to pay it forward and help you!
Here is the blog schedule:

Monday - Maureen will be doing interviews w/WLC authors and Desiree is our resident Book Club Specialist

Tuesday - Carrie will be focusing on PR while Tonya will touch on  publishing and writing, 

Wed - Beth is talking about marketing and publishing, Johanna is hosting fun stuff for readers

Thurs - Stacy is going to tackle POV interviews w/WLC authors, Sirra  is talking editing

Fri - Eliz Cassidy, Humor as it pertains to life along with Maureen who has more interviews w/WLC authors

Sat - Dominique continues our week on editing, 

Sun -  Chris Morgan discusses the techy stuff that we really do need to figure out! Stacy will be back with more on  POV.

This is an amazing line-up! I hope you join us!

"Writing is not a competitive sport, neither is blogging or reviewing. There is room for everyone to succeed and now there is a venue to bring us all together." ~WLC founder, Melissa Foster

To learn more about WoMen’s Literary Café (hosting both men and women), please visit:

www.womenslitcafe.com

AUTHOR Promotions: http://womensliterarycafe.com/content/winter-events-authors

READER Events: http://womensliterarycafe.com/content/winter-events-readers

JOIN OUR TEAM: http://womensliterarycafe.com/content/support-wlc-authors