Tuesday, December 13, 2011

FREE Kindle Title - One Day Only Sale!

FOR ONE DAY ONLY
(midnight to midnight - 12/14/11)
Emails from the Edge: A Friendship that Spans the Distance
by Kristie Leigh Maguire
FREE KINDLE DOWNLOAD




*This book is a must read for women of all ages. It helps you to remember the true value of friendship and come to the realization that distance is nothing but space between friends.
Reviewed by (WOW) Women on Writing

* Email from the Edge
is the actual correspondence between an expatriate wife and a Houston housewife who laughed and cried as they shared each other's life on-line almost every day for seven months. You will laugh and cry also as you read this story of deep friendship and understanding. I highly recommend Emails from the Edge to anyone who has at any time dreaded grocery shopping or spending time with family, friends, and neighbors.
Reviewed by Joan Moore Lewis, Southern Fiction Author, Georgia USA

*If you want to know what friendship is all about, this is a truly a delightful read. Both the good and the bad are brought out in this non-fiction story of true friendship. These two women are tough. They are true survivors. A must read book that will leave you laughing and crying. Ms. Maguire's book is definitely a wake-up call to the many spouses of those who move to foreign countries. Military personnel and travel agents should recommend this book to all parties who intend to move their families to a foreign country.
Reviewed by award-winning author, Bobby Ruble, author of "Have No Mercy" and co-author with wife, Kam, of "Black Rosebud: Have No Mercy II."

Product Description

Email from the Edge defies today's world of political correctness where every word is carefully censored so as not to offend anyone. Kristie Leigh Maguire is open, honest, and sometimes over-the-top funny in her email correspondence with her friend back in the States with whom she shares her thoughts and feelings while living overseas as an expatriate wife during the decade of the 90s. Emails from the Edge, gives the reader the feeling of being a voyeur, pulling back the curtain of friendship, and finding out they are not just talking about milk and cookies.

USA Today Bestselling Author Rebecca Forster had this to say, "A bold, honest look at how two cultures collide and lessons learned. Some may think KLM politically incorrect; I say she is courageous to share her honest feelings and inner thoughts. It is really gutsy and fascinating."

Back Cover Blurb:
Saipan is a tropical island with clear blue waters, sandy beaches, tropical flowers, swaying palm trees, gentle breezes and warm and friendly Micronesian South Pacific natives - plus the added bonus of being a U.S. territory with American goods in the stores and with American money as the local currency. What more could a girl ask for?

All of the Japanese people on the tour were oooohing and ahhhhing over all the duty free shops and souvenirs. I was in the local version of Wal-Mart, oooohing and ahhhhing over shampoo and conditioner, body lotion, Pepto Bismol, Tylenol and Motrin - and generally running wild through the aisles like a crazy woman!

I got up before dawn each day and sat out on my balcony by myself while my husband slept. As I watched the sun come up, peace flooded my soul. That old church song, "Precious
Memories", kept playing itself in my mind like Daddy used to sing it in church. I sat out there and watched the colors tint the clouds and the ocean waters while the refrain of "Precious memories, unseen angels, how they ever flood my soul, in the stillness of the midnight, precious memories scenes unfold" played over and over in my head.

I was reborn. I found myself again. I knew that I was on the edge but I had not realized how close I had come to losing myself till that moment.

Kristie Leigh Maguire

Amazon Review:
4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating & Brave, May 16, 2011
By
Rebecca Forster (Palos Verdes Estates, CA, US)
Amazon Verified Purchase
This review is from: Emails from the Edge: When Friendship Spans the Distance. (Kindle Edition)
When the author opens this book with a lighthearted look at an American compound in Saudi Arabia for the wives of American workers, I thought what a fun read. However, like any good author, Kristie Leigh MaGuire took no time and slapped me upside the head with a plot twist that kept me glued to the pages. No longer was she going on shopping trips, sipping tea and playing cards in relative luxury, her husband's next posting to Japan left her lonely, a little frightened, a lot frustrated and clinging to a lifeline provided by emails to a friend back home. What is truly unique about this book is that it is incredibly honest to the point of being courageous. MaGuire did not sugar coat her experiences, she did not choose more politically correct assessments of her host country to keep herself from criticism. Indeed, this is an incredible tale of when two cultures collide. I felt as if I was listening to the author's most private and unguarded moments as she is brought to tears by the simple act of trying to find the grocery, by perceived - and real - slights to her as a foreigner. I could feel her loneliness as well as her continuous hope that things would get better. This is a testament to human spirit - good and bad - and how we all react when thrown into a situation that leaves us no touchpoint of normalacy. Ms. Maguire's observations were harsh at times, but read between the lines and you will find a story that will make you wonder how you would handle yourself in the same situation. For my part, I live in an area where we often have Japanese families come to live for a year or two. Emails From The Edge has made me think twice about how welcoming I am to those who do not speak my language, cannot navigate my city and are lonely for their homes.



Amazon Review:
4.0 out of 5 stars A Fun Glimpse into Life Abroad, February 17, 2011
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Emails from the Edge: When Friendship Spans the Distance. (Kindle Edition)
This is a fun glimpse into a private conversation between two women, talking about Japan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States and touching on friendship and what it means to live abroad. It's quick, interesting read with an intimate feel, like finding an open email box when you're in a cybercafe somewhere abroad and snooping in on someone's interesting conversations. You know you shouldn't, but you keep reading, curious to find out where the conversation turns next.


Amazon Review:
5.0 out of 5 stars Legal Eavesdropping, December 1, 2010
By
Doobie Doobie (Alabama)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Emails from the Edge: When Friendship Spans the Distance. (Kindle Edition)
Have you even wanted to eavesdrop on a conversation between friends just to see what they are thinking?
Well, Kristie Leigh Maguire gives you that opportunity.

This is the real life conversations that occurred between friends when one of them was in Japan. It carries you through all the drama, hardships and laughter that the author went through in trying to adjust to life as an American in a foreign country.

If you ever thought it would be fun to "hack" into someone's email to see what makes them tick, this is your chance.
You will laugh, cry and laugh again at the trials and tribulations that an American in Japan would go through.

I recommend that you join the author and her friend in their lives.....well, just eavesdrop on them.


Amazon Review:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Profound And Compelling Story of Survival In a Foreign Country and The Dynamitics of True Frienship.., March 23, 2011
By
Sunny (Columbia, SC) -
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Emails from the Edge: When Friendship Spans the Distance. (Kindle Edition)
This was a very compelling story of how a woman survives having to live in a foreign country with all the difficulties of not being able to communicate with the local people and not understanding the new culture or being able to fit in. Especially, since this was a civil job in another county without the benefits of living on a military base and without the company of other Americans. It is a total foreign world where you feel closed in because you are unable to communicate with anyone. Can you imagine having to shop and not be able to read the labels on the food? Or not being able to know what kind of meat you are buying?

It was a very thought provoking story of what it means to experience real friendship between two people who met and becames friends while their husbands worked in Saudi Arabia. I enjoyed the personal relationship between Marge and Sandy. After leaving Saudia Arabia, Sandy went back to her home town in Texas and Marge having gone to Japan with her husband as a contractor. Marge is feeling so isolated and alone. Sandy becomes the person, Marge has to confide in and talk to and it reflects such an intimate relationship.

It was very profound just how lonely you could be in Marge's situation. She was so fortunte to have found such a loyal friend in Sandy. It goes beyond a superficial relationships. These two became like family when they met in Saudi Arabia and their friendship continued to thrive after they had parted. The ironic part is that if Marge and Sandy had met in the United States they probaly would not have been firends due to such differences in personalities and backgrounds. But, it shows how we can reach out beyond our own walls when in need of a friend. And what a wonderful and unique bond these two women found in each other.

The conversations by email, phone and letters were those of two real people who shared their personal lives with all of the joys and sadness. It was the only way Marge had to remain connected to anyone while living in Japan. I found it very interesting at how these two people developed such a excellent bond and relationship. It is rare that we ever meet and are able to an make such a deep committed friendhip. It is a excellent insight of the importance and values of real frienship. I also enjoyed a lot of humor in this story.

A new insight on an age old problem of loneliness and friendhips. A voice from the real world. The bonds that we build can be of the moment or a lifetime. However, it proves that we all need someone and especially a friendship that binds as these two did. A terrific and fast paced book of a real life story. A unique Story of frienshsip and courage. I recommend this heartfelt and well written story by Kristie Leigh Maguire.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Dean Wesley Smith on The New World of Publishing - Agents?

Why Bad Agent Information Gets Taught

For decades, the business of publishing fiction didn’t seem to change much. In fact, for a major industry, it stayed stuck solidly in practices decade after decade, with only slow and often minor-seeming shifts. But now something changes daily in this business.
The point of this blog is to try to explain why some myths exist and why some bad information gets taught still by very smart people. And I hope the best way to show this is to just show the changes in agents over the years.
So let me take on once again the biggest and most powerful myth of all: Agents. And how we writers got into this mess.
Follow along with the changes in writers and agents from 1940 until today.

1940

In the era around 1940, literary fiction agents existed, but only in a minor way. Fiction writers still dealt directly with editors, often going to their offices. Some agents worked with writers for Hollywood and some agents worked with a few writers to deliver manuscripts to New York editors for writers who lived outside of New York. But agents did very little else. And they took 10% when they did manage to place a story for a writer.
95% or more of all writers sold their own manuscripts directly to editors.
Read the rest of the story.
Every aspiring writer needs to read this ... and some experienced writers as well!

Monday, November 28, 2011

Cyber Monday Specials from author Kristie Leigh Maguire

Desert Heat: What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas (Erotic Romance)
Regular Price: $3.99
Discount Price: $2.99

 Product Description

Romance of the Year - Affaire de Coeur Magazine
Affairs of the Heart (Book One)
"Maguire singes readers' eyes with the fire of her love scenes." - Romantic Times Book Club Magazine

"Come take a journey to the Mojave Desert where the weather is hot and passion runs high. Ms. Maguire weaves an erotica filled with more than just fun and games." - Just Erotic Romance
*****

Do you like your romance novels hot, steamy, and ultra-sensual? Do you yearn for something different, something special, something you've only dared live in your wildest fantasies?

Are you ready?
...for a writer who can elicit feelings of exquisite passion with words that slither over your moistened lips and curl themselves around your tongue?
...for an author whose love scenes sizzle with sexy, scintillating, scandalous emotions that will heat your brain to the boiling point and set your body on fire?

Are you ready?
...to meet an author who is capable of taking you to places you've never been before?
...to take a step above the average, and enter Kristie Leigh Maguire's realm of fiery intimacy: the exotic, erotic, delicious, capricious world of your ultimate fantasies?

Are you ready?
...to read Desert Heat: What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas, the first novel in the ultra-sensual Affairs of the Heart series by Kristie Leigh Maguire?

Kristie Leigh Maguire presents the ultimate in ultra-sensual modern day romance. She takes you "beyond the kiss" without crossing that tenuous line between eroticism and vulgarity. Her characters are real everyday, ordinary people, not impossibly created heroes and heroines who could only be real in the pages of your average romance novel.

Don't expect the typical romance story with this novel. There are no shrinking violets or shy maiden virgins who long to be taken against their will in Desert Heat. Marcie is a savvy businesswoman who knows what she wants and is willing to go against the odds to get it.

Marcie and Steve have a long-time and mutually satisfying marriage. However, when career changes force them to move from a metropolitan city in Texas to a small crossroads town in the Mojave Desert in Southern California, a surprise is in store for them that neither Marcie nor Steve could have ever anticipated in a million years. Marcie commits the unthinkable. She falls in love with her handsome new boss, Jim. How will Marcie handle being in love with both Steve and Jim? Will this be the end of Marcie's marriage to Steve, the guy who has been by her through thick and thin?

Read Desert Heat and get swept away to another world. Come visit the desert where it is always hot, hot, hot! Live with Marcie, Steve and Jim as they explore the shades of difference between love, sex and friendship. You may never view love or the desert through the same eyes again!

Continue Marcie's story with Cabin Fever: And the Flames Burned Higher - Affairs of the Heart (Book Two). e it is always hot, hot, hot! Live with Marcie, Steve and Jim as they explore the shades of difference between love, sex and friendship. You may never view love or the desert through the same eyes again!
Continue Marcie's story with
Cabin Fever: And the Flames Burned Higher - Affairs of the Heart (Book Two)

Product Description

Top Ten - Preditors & Editors Poll
Affairs of the Heart (Book Two)
Kristie Leigh Maguire presents the ultimate in ultra-sensual modern day romance. She takes you "beyond the kiss" without crossing that tenuous line between eroticism and vulgarity. Her characters are real everyday, ordinary people, not impossibly created heroes and heroines who could only be real in the pages of your average romance novel.

The beautiful and sexy Marcie Treyhorne is a steel magnolia who knows what she wants and isn't afraid to go after it. Marcie's story began in DESERT HEAT. Her saga continues in CABIN FEVER. Marcie leaves the blistering heat of the desert but the searing passion she carries to the northern Nevada mountains will melt the deepest of winter snows. The ending is a twist that will hit you like a runaway train. You won't want to miss this one.

Reader Nina Osier stated, "Once again the Treyhornes' bedroom action fairly scorches the pages, but this time we readers are in for more than a tale of unconventional romance. As we pass through a turning point in Marcie's life with her, the questions she asks herself seem eerily familiar. Enjoyable resolution to what really does turn out to be the second half of a two-part tale.
 
 

Monday, November 21, 2011

David Baldacci, Amanda Hocking and Stephenie Meyer Join the Kindle Million Club

Hocking is the second author to use Kindle Direct Publishing to reach this milestone
 
Amazon.com, Inc., today announced that David Baldacci, Amanda Hocking and Stephenie Meyer are the latest authors to join the Kindle Million Club, selling over 1 million paid copies of their books in the Amazon.com Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). They join 11 other authors in the Kindle Million Club: Stieg Larsson, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Charlaine Harris, Lee Child, Suzanne Collins, Michael Connelly, John Locke, Kathryn Stockett, Janet Evanovich and George R.R. Martin.
As with John Locke before her, Amanda Hocking sold the majority of her 1 million Kindle books independently using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Since its launch in 2007, KDP has provided a fast, free and easy way for authors and publishers around the world to make their books available in the Kindle Store. In addition to the more than 2 million books sold by John Locke and Amanda Hocking, 12 KDP authors have sold more than 200,000 books and 30 KDP authors have sold more than 100,000 books.

"Our customers love reading all kinds of books on their Kindle, and it's thanks to them that the Kindle Million Club keeps growing so quickly," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content. "It's exciting to see both long-time Amazon best-selling authors from the traditional publishing world and independently published authors join the club."

Read the rest of the story.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

A Reader’s Guide to Amazon Reviewing

Amazon Reader Reviews: 12 Things Everybody and His Grandmother Needs to Know

...Amazon reviews, which were only mildly significant three years ago, now have a make-or-break impact on an author’s sales.
When you’re buying an ebook, there’s no helpful bookstore clerk to tell you what might be appropriate for your nine-year old niece, or if there are any new cozy mysteries you might enjoy, or whether the new Janet Evanovich is up to her usual standards.
Instead, you check reader reviews and Amazon’s “also bought” suggestions. These are all generated by consumers, which gives the ordinary reader immense power.
But most readers, especially those over 45, don’t have a clue this power exists.
If you’ve got favorite writers who aren’t superstars, they can use your help, right now—whether they’re with a small press, indie, or even published by the Big Six. The demise of bookstores and print book reviews means online reviews can make or break a new title. If you see a book hanging out there in cyberspace with only a couple of reviews—or none—remember that with just a few minutes of your time, you can jumpstart that writer’s career.
Here are some helpful tips to get you started:

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Sandy's Spotlight

Sandy's Spotlight

Today's special guest author is
Kristie Leigh Maguire

Today I'm introducing you to author Kristie Leigh Maguire. We are featuring her western romance novel, Second Chances: Love Lost, Love Found.

Kristie has lived such a fascinating life. Here's a little about Kristie and her books taken directly from her website:


 The Affaire de Coeur Magazine named Kristie Leigh Maguire the Best Up and Coming Romance Author of the Year and her book Desert Heat as Romance of the Year in 2003. Her novels Cabin Fever and No Lady and Her Tramp placed in the Top Ten at the Preditor & Editors Poll. Her latest release Second Chances was Number 2 on the Best Seller List in Western Romances at Amazon.com. 

Kristie Leigh Maguire and her husband have lived all over the United States and many foreign countries while following his career. While living in Japan in 1997, she found it very difficult to find books to read that were written in English. This situation was intolerable as she was an avid reader and had been known to resort to reading cereal boxes if nothing else was available. Have you ever tried to read a cereal box written in Japanese? It was not a pretty picture. Ms. Maguire began writing her own books just to have something to read. She discovered a new passion in writing.

Read the rest of the interview.

Watch the Video on You Tube.

Download Second Chances for your Kindle for only 99 cents.
Download Second Chances for your Nook for only 99 cents.
Download Second Chances from Smashwords for only 99 cents.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

425 Second Chances and Counting!

Kindlers have downloaded 425 copies of Second Chances so far in the month of October. Have your downloaded yours yet? It's available from Amazon for only 99 cents. CLICK HERE to get your copy. Or get the paperback version HERE.

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,502 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Jane Porter's dreams of marrying Mike Farley, the handsome cowboy who lives on the neighboring ranch, are shattered when Mike suddenly marries a redheaded stranger he met at the Wild Horse Saloon in Casper, Wyoming. After Mike stomped all over Jane's heart with his cowboy boots, can Jane ever trust her heart to a man again?

Mike Farley marries beautiful Samantha Jo Smith after a whirlwind courtship with no thought to Jane Porter, his childhood sweetheart and the woman everyone in Fremont County thought he would marry one day. Mike soon learns to regret his hasty marriage to Samantha. Can Mike win back Jane's heart even though he had shattered it into a million pieces?

Longtime friends and neighbors Jim Porter and Liz Farley turn to each other for support after the unexpected death of their spouses. Will Jim and Liz's friendship turn into something deeper even though they both feel they have had, and lost, their chance at love?

Is it ever too late for love? Is it ever too late for second chances?

Set in rural Wyoming, Second Chances is a sweet contemporary western romance that will warm your heart. One reader stated, "I read it through in an evening, and felt as if I had spent that evening with 'salt of the earth' folk." Another reader said, "I loved the double, no triple, second chances. It was a very sweet ending."