Month: August 2015

Launch Team Volunteers Wanted

~ Jonna Hawker Turek ~ Leave a comment

My current work in progress,  A Body in the Belfry, the second book in The First Ladies Club series, releases in mid-December, so now is a great time to join my Launch Team.

Members of the launch team will receive an Advance Review Copy (ARC) of the book (ePub or Mobi) in exchange for posting honest reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble or other outlets of your choice on the release date, as well as spreading the word to all your friends, neighbors and far-flung relations in the meantime via word-of-mouth, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

If you blog, post a review on your blog, or post an interview with the author (that’s me!)

Send an email to jbhawker@jbhawker.com with the Subject: Launch Team and I will add you to the list.  As soon as the completed manuscript is available I will email you the ARC.

In the meantime, I will keep you up-to-date on the progress of the book, including the final cover reveal and promotional snippets to help you increase interest in the book.

Thank you for all your support!

Upcoming September Excitement

~ Jonna Hawker Turek ~ Leave a comment

We’re still sweltering in August heat here in Northern California, but September will arrive soon. Many of our California schools resume classes in the second week of August, but in my heart September remains the beginning of the year and a time for starting new programs, projects and looking ahead to my favorite holiday celebrations.

This September is living up to my expectations with two wonderful opportunities for readers and authors alike.

The first is a Facebook Event happening on September 12, for one day only, beginning at midnight EST. The event, Mystery Writers Revealed, can be accessed here: Mystery Writers Revealed

On the day of the event, dozens of participating popular & award-winning authors will be logged in for an hour each to answer your questions, tell you about our books and offer prizes. We will each offer a featured digital book for the way cheap price of 99 cents. I will be featuring The First Ladies Club .

Next, only four days later, I will be taking part in a month-long September Back-to-School Book Blog Block-party (say that three times fast!) hosted by the Rave Reviews Book Club. Many highly-regarded independent authors will be posting a special, fun blog post on their special day in September. My special day is September 16. This is a mid-week date different from my usual weekend posting schedule and I will be interviewing a very special surprise guest.

Everyone who drops by this blog on September 16 and leaves their email address will be eligible to win one of three super prizes: the paperback book of your choice from my published works, signed by me; a $10 Amazon gift certificate; or the free download of a J.B. Hawker or Jonna Hawker Turek digital book of your choice.

I’m excited and looking forward to seeing you on these special September days.

P.S.

The Midlist is running a promo of my book, Hollow, today. Check it out here .

New First Ladies Club Cover Reveal

~ Jonna Hawker Turek ~ Leave a comment

First Ladies Club final new cover revealed!

We went inFLC Final Cover a lot of directions with this one, but thanks to some super advice from my friends and supporters, including the Sweet Cozy Mystery Writers Support Group and Clean Indie Reads Facebook groups members, we found the yellow brick road, at last.

A special shout out of thanks to author Amanda Lee for her wonderful design and generous spirit. Traditionally published authors have many advantages over us indies, status being one of them, but they don’t get to experience the incredible sharing and support for those of us banding together to live our common dream of being successful authors.

Writing to the Review is like Teaching to the Test

~ Jonna Hawker Turek ~ 2 Comments

Working in the education field, I sometimes hear teachers lamenting about how the Federal regulations have them teaching to the tests, rather than teaching children the love of learning. They say this is taking much of the joy out of their job, since they aren’t free to be creative, spontaneous and remain true to their gifts as educators.

For writers, there is a temptation to remodel our writing style to fit the comments of reviewers, in essence, to write to the review.

While we certainly need to pay attention to constructive criticism, using reader feedback to improve our craft, if we try to please every reviewer there is a risk of losing the joy of writing and of transforming our unique voice into a counterfeit, or even losing our passion for writing.

When the criticism is about the quality of my writing, I try to take it to heart and keep honing my craft.  But, when a reviewer comments on the content of the story or the personalities of the characters, I try to remember they are simply expressing a personal preference.

I recently began reading a book by a new author, planning to provide a review, but the author’s style and subject matter were so personally off-putting, I couldn’t finish reading the book. Since I was not the person this author was writing for, I chose not to post any review. I didn’t think it would be fair.

Rather than removing the essence of who I am, in an attempt to please everyone who picks up one of my books, I’m going to try to target readers who will appreciate my style by being as clear as possible about that style in every book’s description.

Someone once told me, “Follow your passion, whether anyone follows you, or not.”  If you are one who writes from the love of writing, that sounds like good advice.