Happy New Year From #OurAuthorGang

Happy New Year from Our Author Gang!

Read our authors' accomplishments in 2017 and wishes, hopes, and plans for 2018

Rich

Accomplishments:

• Published Luin the Sapphire, Book 5 of the Aglaril Cycle.
• Revised many short stories in my short story collections.
• Submitted a story to the NESW Anthology

Plans:

• Publish Carne the Ruby, Book 6 of the Aglaril Cycle.
• Attend as many events as I can to sell books.
• Continue to work on short stories and poems.

Rebecca

Accomplishments:

• Independently published the following books
•  The Rashade': Chronicles of the Coranydas Vol 1
• A Guardian Falls: Chronicles of the Coranydas Vol 2
• Neutral Space
• Published through Hoffman & Hoffman 
• For Their Sins

Plans:

• Independently Publish the following books
• Dragons of the North: Box set
• Descendants Rising: Chronicles of the Coranydas Vol 3
• The prequel to Chronicles of the Coranydas
• Finish at least one other project for publication
• Submit a novella to an anthology 
• Start attending local events and increase my marketing efforts

Joe

Accomplishments:

Independently Published the following books and novella:

• Mad Shadows II: Dorgo the Dowser and The Order of the Serpent (2017 Semi-Finalist in the Golden Quill Award.)
• Three Ghosts in a Black Pumpkin, co-authored by Erika M. Szabo (Winner of the 2017 Golden Book Judges' Choice Award for Children's Fantasy)
• The Power of the Sapphire Wand, co-authored by Erika M. Szabo
• Mad Shadows: The Weird Tales of Dorgo the Dowser, won the 2017 Golden Book Readers' Choice Award for Fantasy.)

• "The Pirates of Penance," published in Pirates in Hell, volume twenty in the Heroes in Hell series created by Janet Morris and published by Perseid Press. 

Plans:

• To see the two short stories, one novella, and one novel I sold get published.
• To work on another novel of Dorgo the Dowser
• To work on a new story for the next edition of the Heroes in Hell series.
• To do some vacation traveling.
• To regain my health and stay healthy.

Mary Anne

Accomplishments:

     • Published The Du Lac Princess (Book 3 of The Du Lac Chronicles)

Awards:

    The Du Lac Chronicles

    • The Golden Box Book Publishing Golden Book Award 2017 Finalist 

    • Discovered Diamond Award 2017

    The Du Lac Devil (Book 2 of The Du Lac Chronicles)

    • Readers' Favorite Finalist 2017

    • IAN Book Of The Year Award Finalist 2017

    • Golden Quill Award Winner 2017

    • Chill with a Book Readers' Award 2017

    • BooksGoSocial Readers Choice Award Shortlisted 2017 

Plans:

    • To finish and publish Book 4 in The Du Lac Chronicles seres.

    • To continue to blog and increase my readership!

Grace

Accomplishments:

     *Richard's Relics, Book 5 of the Acorn Hills series, The 2017 Golden Box Book               Publishing Golden Quill Awards Semi-Finalist

     *Richard's Relics, 2017 Bronze Winner, Authordb cover contest

     *Published ebook IF ONLY...A DIVA TO THE GUIDES PREQUEL

     *Published ebook/paperback holiday novel PROTECTED BY HIS GRACE

2018 Plans:

     *Complete Moonlight Wedding

     *Complete Poppy Tuck

     *Complete Health & Wellness trilogy

     *Participate in community events to promote my books

     *Coordinate an autumn author forum

     *Increase my readership by being more active on blogs

Ruth

Accomplishments:

• Read a ton of books
• Kept last year's seasonal job - worked part time through the year
• Feeling healthier than I have in several years
• Writing a weekly garden column 
• Designed the Bitter cover for the bindup of Bitter Blood, a short story, and Bitter Nights
• Joined A Small Gang of Authors

2018 Plans:

• Finish Bitter Nights
• Start second Bitter novel
• Pick up where I left off on Hunter's Moon (a planned four book series)
• Keep working that part time job
• Add more books to my book website ~ Alien Star Books

Toi

Accomplishments:

• Joined A Small Gang of Authors
• Joined the IWSG Book Club (took on moderator position)
• Blogged something at least twice a month
• Read and reviewed at least 50 books

2018 Plans

• Continue to blog at The ToiBox of Words at least twice a month
• Continue to blog with A Small Gang of Authors
• Read and review at least 50 books
• Continue to be active with the IWSG Book Club
• Work on a complete rewrite of the Eternal Curse Series for the 10th anniversary edition
• Work on a secret project and see if it reaches a point where I want to share it with the world.

Erika

Accomplishments:

• Started A Small Gang of Authors blog
• Published a children's book Metoo, The Annoying Little Sister
• Published the Creepy Hollow Adventures series with my coauthor, Joe Bonadonna
• Kind of mastered Photoshop and I've been creating a lot of book covers, banners, and logos
• My historical fantasy, Protected By The Falcon, was chosen as one of the winners of the Golden Quill Award Contest
• My children's book, Pico The Pesky Parrot won the Readers' Choice Award, and Three Ghosts in a Black Pumpkin with my coauthor, Joe Bonadonna, won the Judges' Award in the Golden Book Award Contest

2018 plans:

• I grew a lot as a writer in 2017, therefore, I'm planning to rewrite The Ancestors' Secrets series which I published in 2013
• I have the outline of a new historical fiction novel. Hopefully, I will start writing in 2018

COMMENTS

Toi Thomas

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly

 

Happy New Year A Small Gang of Authors!

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Mary Anne Yarde

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly

 

Happy New Year, everyone! What a busy year 2017 was!

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Rich Feitelberg

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly

 

Talent in spades. Cool.

 

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Ruth de Jauregui via Google+

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly

 

The authors of A Small Gang of Authors share their 2017 accomplishments and 2018 goals! Stop by and say hi!

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Ruth de Jauregui

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly

 

Wow, what a great group of authors! May you all reach your goals in the coming year.

 

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Rebecca Tran

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly

 

Congratulations to everyone on their accomplishments and best of luck on their goals.

 

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Joe Bonadonna

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly

 

This is very cool! We all accomplished so much. Congratulations, everyone . . . and Happy New Year!

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Joe Bonadonna via Google+

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly

 

Today on A Small Gang of Authors . . . something different from us. It's New Year's Day, and we each take a turn listing things we accomplished in 2017, and what hope, plan, dream, and wish for in 2018. Check us out, and thank you all for your support since we formed our gang, and we hope to add new members and to keep us and this blog site growing. Happy New Year!

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Erika M Szabo

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly

 

We have accomplished a lot!

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Erika M Szabo via Google+

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly

 

Happy New Year From #OurAuthorGang
Happy New Year from Our Author Gang! Read our authors' accomplishments in 2017 and wishes, hopes, and plans for 2018 Rich Accomplishments: Published Luin the Sapphire, Book 5 of the Aglaril Cycle. Revised many short stories in my short story collections. Su...

Our Guest Today is Author Phil Hall #OurAuthorGang

Let's welcome Phil Hall to our blog today.

Born and raised in Iowa, corn-fed and happy! When I'm not writing, I'm a systems administrator/network administrator for a company in Iowa City. When I'm not working,  I'm with my lovely wife and spending time with my beautiful granddaughters. (I never thought I'd be a Grandpa!)

In my authorly persona, I'm just a guy with a simple dream: tell a story people like. I hope I've accomplished that with my first two novels: Memories of the Dead, and Minimal. For me, it's not about the reviews, it's about connection with others. There's nothing better than when someone reads my stuff and says "Wow!" I live for that. I hope they'll like my next work, too...and the one after that...and the one after that. (I have more than a dozen ideas in little folders on my computer. I can only hope to get to them all)

I'd love to visit with you, so feel free to contact me.

https://twitter.com/philhall1969
https://www.facebook.com/MemoriesoftheDead
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5623701.Phillip_R_Hall

http://a.co/bBylNTa
(for mature readers 18 yrs and older)

Lorcano, when he was a boy of sixteen, was envious of vampires: they were elusive, immortal, strong and powerful. But that was when he was foolish and young; and now, knowing what he knows, he understands that they are nothing but a plague on humanity--a disease that needs to be removed. He despises them because of the things they did, and continue to do, to the unknowing populace: treating humanity like nothing more than cattle. And, for that, they must be destroyed. This, his private journal--his memories--left for those who may find and read it, is a living record of the time when his destiny was first intertwined with unspeakable evil.

http://a.co/ePIBEDS

(for mature readers 18 yrs and older)

The Count is unleashed!  A serial killer has the police on edge. The Count's victims are identified by the tags he's left draped around their necks bearing a single designation: a number. Each removed organ was carefully wrapped in plastic, labeled, and the piecemeal corpse was left to be purposefully found. Previously, victims One and Two were located, Four has just been discovered, and pretty, young Bree Wilson has just disappeared.  Could she be next? With precious little to go on, Detective Zac Toumille and his partner, Jenny Clark, are dragged along in a media circus as the nightmare continues--all in the hope to end the reign of The Count and free the missing Bree before it's too late--before she is reduced to just parts--before she becomes--MINIMAL.

MINIMAL is free for a limited time on Kindle Unlimited (KU.)

GUESS > VOTE > WIN

Guess if our blog will reach 100,000 by December 31st

If you guess correctly, you could be the lucky winner of a great prize package of ebooks and/or signed print copies.

 https://goo.gl/forms/N3u2eNWCvqiV1c2I3

We Write #OurAuthorGang

Enjoy some of our book trailers and book introductions

Muffin's Ear-drops #OurAuthorGang

A short story by

Erika M Szabo

Muffin’s Eardrops

Charlie and Mary got a Labrador puppy from their friend. They never had a dog before, so they were very excited. They treated the puppy like he was their own baby. They chose the best puppy food for the little guy, and they bought lots of toys for him to play with.

Naturally, the puppy preferred to chew their slippers to shreds and ignored the squeaky toys. Mary was knitting doggy sweaters for the winter, and Charlie bought three different doggy beds for him to choose the one he liked the best.

Of course, the puppy chose to sleep on the bathroom rug.

One afternoon Charlie called me and said, “I took Muffin to the vet because he was scratching his ear and cried. The vet said that he has ear mites in his right ear and they gave him ear drops.”

“Okay…” I answered wearily because knowing Charlie, I never knew what to expect when he called. A childhood illness left him with a mild cognitive disability and Mary wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed either. “Did you put the ear drops in his ear?” I asked.

“I can’t decide which one is his right ear!” Charlie replied.

“Umm… what do you mean” I asked, feeling confused. “There is only right ear and left ear. Why is it confusing?”

“Well, when I’m facing Muffin, I touch his right ear with my right hand, so it must be his right ear. But when I stand behind him, I get confused because the ear I touched is now on the left.”

Oh, boy! - I thought - How on Earth am I going to explain this to him over the phone?

“Well, stand behind the dog and touch his right ear with your right hand.” I prompted him.

“Got it!” he answered.

“Now put the phone down and put the ear drops in his right ear.”

“Okay, but don’t hang up!”

“Don’t worry; I’ll stay on the phone.”

I heard rustling, whispering then muffled cursing, and then Charlie picked up the phone and said, “I don’t get it! I can’t put the drops in staying behind Muffin because he keeps turning his head to look me.  But when I face him, I’m confused again about which ear is the right, and which ear is the left.”

Not knowing what to say or how to explain without further confusing him, I had a brilliant idea. “You know what Charlie? Just put the drops in both ears!”

“Are you sure it’s okay? The doctor said his left ear doesn’t have mites.”

“Yes, I am sure. Just put the drops in both of his ears, it wouldn’t hurt him. My friend, Marie is coming up the driveway, Charlie. I must go now, but good luck. I’ll call you later.”

“But wait! Can you come over?"

"I can, but not right now, Charlie. I haven't seen Marie for months and I want to spend some time with her, but I'll go over later."

"Oh... okay," Charlie sighed. "I'll just do it myself. But are you sure it's okay?"

"Charlie, just put the bloody drops in both ears."

"Okay, don't shout! I'll do it."

I felt guilty saying no to the sweet guy but I missed my friend and I was eager to spend some time with her. I'll go over when Marie leaves, I thought and went out to greet her.

I thought the problem was solved and Muffin got his medicine because my phone didn't ring for about an hour. I enjoyed Marie's visit, we had a lot of catching up to do. Then the phone rang and I heard Charlie’s excited voice, “I still wasn’t sure and decided to call the vet. He tried to explain, but then he told me exactly what you said. He said ‘put the bloody drops in both ears’. I did, and Muffin was a very good boy, he let me do it.” He announced happily.

“Fantastic!” I replied feeling happy that the doctor's firm words saved me from spending time with my friend feeling guilty.

Read about me and my books: 

http://online.pubhtml5.com/ahsh/mobl/

GUESS > VOTE > WIN

Guess if our blog will or will not reach 100,000 views by December 31st

If your guess is correct, you could win an eBook package or signed print in this giveaway by our authors. https://goo.gl/forms/N3u2eNWCvqiV1c2I3