And the Olympic Readthon has begun! This post will be the update thread for my progress towards my goal of 1000 pages read before August 12th.

Finished Smashwords Book Marketing Guide (Free)
39 Pages

-This is a great book for everyone interested in publishing a book, and a great pair to Mark Coker’s other freebie Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success. Both are written by the creator of Smashwords. 4 Stars.

Reading Secrets of Successful Writers (Free)

 

 A new age is coming…The King will come…and he will rule forever in Avalon. Through the generations the women of Avalon prepare for the coming of the Defender, the sacred king who will guard the old ways of the Britons and save their land from destruction. On the holy isle of Avalon, hidden in the mists between the world of Faerie and the world of men, they wait.

For High Priestess Caillean, facing the Roman foe, salvation comes not through victory, but bitter sacrifice. Two hundred years later her successor, Dierna, faces a new enemy: the Saxon hordes who assail her people like savages.

By the time of Viviane, Britain seems wholly lost. But a Merlin is made amongst the Druids once more, and the day of the Defender, who will come to be known as Arthur, draws close.A spellbinding historical fantasy, Lady of Avalon links the bestselling novels in the Avalon series-The Forests of Avalon and The Mists of Avalon.

For all her whining about leaving Avalon, Teleri is a really lame priestess. Aside from communicating with the temple every once in a while she does nothing magical. She neither performs rituals nor appreciates nature like the Druids would have.  Disappointing

As for the high priestess Caillean, she becomes older and places more of the world’s concerns on her shoulders.

Now bookworms all over can participate in the global Olympic Readathon sponsored by Random House of Canada. 

Between Friday July 27th and Sunday August 12 readers will challenge themselves to a set reading goal.

To join the fun, click here. Add your name, twitter account, and blog to the bottom of the list. 

  “@RandomHouseCA will be using the hashtag #OlympicReadathon to chat about our progress on Twitter, so be sure to join in the conversation and encourage your friends and family to join our challenge.”

 

A trilogy by Nora Roberts follows a trio of magical ladies as they embrace their gifts and learn to love on a fictional island off Cape Cod. This cozy spot in Massachussets has all the trappings of Martha’s Vineyard–  the beach, the history, the small town feel–but the magic is unique. Long ago to escape the Salem Witch trials three women came together to create a place that they could call home.

However a curse exists on the island. To break it, three modern-day women with the island’s magic must be careful not to make the same mistakes as their ancestors. Whether it’s falling hard for a dangerous man, fighting love away as a defense, or trying to control love by giving it all up, each woman must face her challenge.

 

This series spoke to me because I love to summer in Cape Cod. Unlike a lot of the Cape themed novels out today, this has a paranormal witchy aspect to it. I think this series is very unique in that way, and so it may interest readers who love witches, spells, magic, or paranormal thrillers.

Primarily the stories are romance. Taking place in a small town, you are introduced to most characters from the start. The main characters are sweetie-pie chef Nell, aggressive policewoman Ripley, and fiesty bookstore owner Mia.

Three women are imbued with special powers on the island, but that doesn’t mean they are ready to use them against brewing dark forces. Neither are they prepared to fall in love, but they best get ready as both magic and love stalks into their lives.

The first two books were my favorite even though I adore Mia as a character. Mia spotlights in the third book but by then the fantasy aspect of the series neared conclusion. As a device in the first two books the curse was great, but the lead up to the climax was the achilles heel of the trilogy.

Renowned romance author Nora Romance does a great job with the relationships, love, sex, friendship and warm fuzzies. I was pleasantly surprised by her depiction of witches and found it to be a nice balance between fantasy and realism. She writes some great rhyming spells and her scenes of witchcraft are well written. Magic has impressive effects but doesn’t seem too powerful.

For a beach or comfort read, dig into the books. Just don’t expect a masterful wrap-up to the island curse plot. I found myself skimming the parts about the curse in the midst of book three, just waiting to see how the romance would end.

This book supports the message that all ladies can be powerful goddesses. And that I will always be willing to read.

Description:

Once upon a time, I (Wren Doloro) took a writing course and came up with a great idea. Buoyed by the enthusiasm of my classmate’s reaction to her favorite piece, I wrote a novel soon after.

I’m still editing the novel, but since it’s so fun to share..here is the piece that inspired all the rest. 

 Oliver’s mouth opened in a cry of pain, and sea water choked him. His helpless body scraped along the rocky bottom. 
 
There was only one creature who could hear the sickening snap of his broken leg over the ocean’s roar.

The waters calmed and a ray of sunshine filtered through the churning blue above. It glinted off her pointy teeth as she drew him into her lair beneath the sea. Her tail left a stream of bubbles in her wake. 

 

 When Oliver came to, he heard a fire crackling and a woman singing. Her voice melted over him and sunk into his skin. Trembling and weak, his muscles refused to move. 

Oliver gasped as he escaped his body to meet her lips, drawn into her song. His fibers twisted into her notes of triumph, love, and conquest.He did not know this woman, but already he would have given her anything. 

Oliver lay transfixed as her smile revealed two rows of shark’s teeth. They opened wide. 

Mwahaha thanks for reading my short story! Please stay turned for more about my work in progress, as of now entitled Line of Isis. 

The following is the first in a series by Wren Doloro entitled On Making Goals for Writing and Life. A later post in this series is: 7 ways to Write Everyday

How do you make Alphabet Soup into Success?

Despite all this, I am rather organized. Every major thing in my life I’ve wanted to get done, I got done. And reasonably fast, too. For what I lack in a linear process, I gain in enthusiasm and passion. This drive gets me to ‘Z.’

To travel you need destinations before deciding a route

 Something very important to me in my process is to write the goals down. Let me say this again: Write the goals down.

To write goals down, fuzzy ideas have to become concrete. Once the goals are concrete, todo lists and plans can fall into line. How can anyone hit the bullseye without the bullseye?

If you don’t have a clear idea of what you want to do on a trip with another person, this happens all the time. I know, I’m a travel brat.

Guess what? Real life is full of other people! If they have a clearer goal than you, they’re more likely to get it.

Incorporating your Passion into your goals gives you super powers!

 Ok so you say you know everything you want to do. Do you have it on your wall so you see it when you wake up? By where you brush your teeth? In your kitchen? Even in a notebook you use for your project? On your corkboard? No? No motivational collage? No related background for your computer or cellphone? None of the above? Really?

Well then sure, you know, but then you might

•   go a bunch of days without thinking about it

OR worse

•  stress yourself out because you have to constantly remind yourself of your goals to get them done.

OR even worse

• You don’t actually care about your goals. They have not been articulated well enough for you to stay excited.

You should want your top goals. You should crave them. A burning urge to cover ground on your goals fills you every time you see that motivational picture, or that goal written out.

Write goals in the present. Examples are:

• I am driving a teal convertible to my mansion on a hill.
• I am calling a crowd of 500 people to save the whales
• I am finished my first draft by September 2012.

When in doubt, read!

 

What is Wattpad? It’s a site with a mobile app where you can find free books that other readers have voted up to recommend. In minutes you can fill your phone up with a stack of books to read, follow authors as fans and comment on stories.

The site Wattpad is made for readers to give feedback to new authors and give their work a try. This is a great tool for authors to get their works out to the public, build excitement and get great reviews. Some books have been downloaded by millions!

In addition, Margaret Atwood is also assisting the fundraising for Fanado.

“Fanado: (n) fan.ad.o /fe’nado/:a person who is totally into and wildly knowledgeable about great artists of any and all kinds.

She wrote an eight week comic about these new technologies for readers. Anyone can subscribe to the eight week comic by donating one dollar to Fanado.