Book Blast you could win $25.00

TITLE: Book Blast: Wacky Wishes by Susette Williams, Illustrated by Jack Foster
Title: Wacky Wishes By Susette Williams Author, Jack Foster Illustrator

About the Book:

Tommy and Suzie find a wishing well and like children do, they begin making wishes. Imagine their surprise when their wishes start to come true! Are spacesuits the new dress code at school? What’s Tommy going to do with three heads? You’ve heard of, “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” When Tommy and Suzie's wishing gets out of hand, will they be able to wish away the mess they've created before their wishes run out?
Buy on Kindle Susette Williams Author, Jack Foster Illustrator Susette Williams is a Best Selling Author. She loves writing various genres, both for children and adults. She usually can't resist the urge to let her ornery sense of humor shine through in one of her characters and has always believed that laughter helps you deal with the obstacles life puts in your way. Susette and her husband have six wonderful children, all with intriguing and different personalities, like the characters she creates in her novels. Jack Foster has illustrated over 25 children's books. He is a Sunday school teacher, art teacher and the father of five terrific children and eleven wonderful grand kids. He lives just outside of Chicago with his lovely wife, dog and cat. Check out his work at www.jacksillustrations.blogspot.com Follow Susette Williams Website | Facebook | Twitter

Interview Laura J. Marshall

Interview and Free Book

Today we are speaking with Author, Laura J. Marshall.  Her Novella, Persistent Love will be free May 14th & 15th on Amazon find the link below.  

Laura, tell us a little about you?
I have five sons and work full-time from home at my "day job". I love to sew (I make rag quilts) and I love to read.

  


Were big Pet lovers here do you have any pets?
Yes, I have a female cat and a female dog..I prefer to think the three fish my son has are females as well, then I'm not so outnumbered. My dog follows me from room to room during the day. She's a black lab.

Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Yes, since high school, but I never thought seriously about it until I started writing children's stories when
my children were young.

When did you start writing?
I've been writing seriously for about six years (meaning...with the belief I could actually write a book).


What would you like to tell us about your current book?
Persistent Love is Christian romantic suspense. The story is about the main character, Tara, who is planning to run away to India to find answers to her mother's death, which she witnessed as a child. The story takes place at Raven's Cliff Castle in the late 17th century in England.

How did you get into Self Publishing?
I had some really great responses from publishers and agents over this book. I actually changed the story quite a bit at one request and then realized it had lost "its heart". So, I changed everything back and decided on one last ditch effort at a publisher. That publisher really took a lot of time with me and with a critique, but I heard yet again..."do this and resubmit". I did take her wonderful advice and implemented the changes, had two editors who I hired go through Persistent Love, and then decided not to wait to launch. I had the tools I needed through friends who had self-published to do it myself.


Did you learn anything along the way as you wrote the book?
Many things. One of the best lessons though was to not let fear rule what I do in regards to writing. This book is about Tara and her fears and in the end, the lessons helped me to release the book to the world.

From start to finish, how long does it generally take you to write a book?
If I am working on it every day, it takes me about a month to write a book..that's not counting editing. My nonfiction devotionals take me about three months from start to finish and that includes edits.

Thanks for visiting with today helpful information would you like to pass on to our Indie Readers. 
There are some amazing Indie authors out there. I have discovered some of my favorite authors along the way to be Indie authors. I say give them a chance and see what awesome things independent Christian writers are doing out there to glorify God.

Persistent love is free May 14th & 15 check it out

 

Download on Kindle ( http://amzn.com/B00CHAE3QS)

Free Tuesday May 14th and Wednesday May 15th

Persistent Love:

Christian Romantic Suspense Novella set in 1685, England.

Fear has been Tara's constant companion since age nine when she witnessed her mother's murder. Tara's father moves his family to the ancient castle of Raven's Cliff, far from the ships that could carry her back to India and the answers she believes lie there. Andrew offers her friendship and guides her gently to the One who will give her peace. Will she find hope for something other than revenge?

A Brief Q&A with the Author, Laura J. Marshall.

Q: Can we expect to see the characters from Persistent Love in another story?

A:  You can expect to see Tara’s little sister in her own book, tentatively titled “Reckless Kate”. She somewhat stole the show every time she was in a scene and I couldn’t resist thinking of her as she grew up and how her own passionate, reckless faith effected those around her.

Laura J. Marshall is the full-time mother of five sons and part-time writer and blogger. She operates a popular blog called The Old Stone Wall. Laura is the best-selling author of the Battle Cry Devotional Series. Visit www.LauraJMarshall.com to find out more about Laura’s books.

Originally posted on Indie Authors 4 - U 
 http://indieauthors4u.blogspot.com/2013/05/v-behaviorurldefaultvmlo.html

Samantha Fury is the author of  the Street Justice Series

She's written many articles on book covers, for Indie Authors.  

She operates several Indie Groups. Editing Services, Cover Artist, 

Helpful Indie Facebook Groups, and a wonderful Forum 

just for Indie Authors.

Best text to speech part 2 Review of Imtranslator

Best Text to Speech options part 2
I'll be talking about what I feel is the top eight or ten software programs for text to speech.  The first one on our list is Im Translator, and these are not in any particular order.  We'll be talking about what I've learned from using this program and from testing it.





Imtranslator
I'm Translator is an on line text to speech and translator, you can use it to imbed into your web site for non noncommercial use. The reader would be to me a 8 on a 1 to 10 scale. As far as I can tell this is a free product as long as it is not used commercially.

I downloaded this to firefox as an ad on it seems safe and works really good.  Once it's on your browser you can right click on any set of text, and it will do various tasks. If you want to read a section of text that is 1000 characters highlight the text and then right click on the text and click on Imtranslator tools then over to Imtranslator tts.

The reader is really good, he pauses very well at periods and commas.  I did notice he does not seem to recognizance the & sign. I used it also to translate something one of my German friends said, I really liked it, there was about four options to decide which translation I wanted to go with. I can't speak German so I can't say how well it worked, but it did give me the idea of what he was trying to say. 

Here is a sample and another screen shot.  I think this is really a cool bit of software and I give it a rating of 8.  I would give it a ten if it would read more words at a time and if you could ave it to mp3.


I must say I tried to use their embed code and at this time it is not working. But here is the link. http://tts.imtranslator.net/Oje8


Pro's 
You can print, change voices, get a translation. The pop up screen has a dictionary, a spell check. You can email your pop up box. Embed it, change the text size. It has about every language you could ask for. It's really nice when you're too tired to read to be able to just highlight something, right click on something and have a nice sounding voice read something to you. I really like this program.

Con's 
A con I have is that I could not find anywhere to create an account, or to save the work as a mp3 file. I'm not saying that you can't do either, I just did not find these options. Now and then on the main page the pop up window will not expand, but if you are using the downloaded version it opens just fine.  There are a lot of adds and commercials since this program is free. All in all it's a handy little piece of software.

I found several ways to find this program so I'll post the links
Imtranslator Home
Translate & Speak
Compare Translations
Try it for yourself and hear the quality here

Screen shots are from imtranslator.

Rating 8 out of 10

Thanks for reading and come back soon to find out more about the best text to speech out there.

Don't forget to subscribe by email 

Samantha Fury is the author of  the Street Justice Series

She's written many articles on book covers, for Indie Authors.  

She operates several Indie Groups. Editing Services, Cover Artist, 

Helpful Indie Facebook Groups, and a wonderful Forum 

just for Indie Authors.

Images thanks to Bigstock photographers. 
Javier Brosch
Edward Fielding

The Best Text To Speech for Authors part 1

Text to Speech
I love this new age that we live in, and all of the toys that we Authors have at our finger tips. We will be looking in detail at the different options authors have these days. for text to speech.  There are many choices and we will be trying to cover the best options available.


 



Subscribe 
I know this will take more than one blog post to cover all there is to say on this subject so hang into your seats and book mark us so you don't miss one post.  I don't blog a lot so your inbox won't be filled with useless post that say nothing at all. If you want to join this blog with your email account just click on the cute puppy and add us to your list.



Uses for Text To Speech 

Editing 
I use text to speech for two reasons. Editing, and Reviews.  Listening to your own book in audio form is a great way to edit, and to catch those mistakes that you might not otherwise catch. It's also a great way to entertain yourself while you're working.  Listening to a story, your own or another author, is a great way to make washing the dishes just fly by.


Reviews 
It's also a good way to swap reviews, authors don't have a lot of time so we need to use every minute as wisely as possible. Just be sure and don't do anything that needs a lot of attention, we don't want you running into the ditch or burning supper because you're so lost in an audio that you forget where you are.




 
Choices 
The choices are many and I'm sure that I have not collected information on every text to speech out there but I hope to hit the top eight, and tell you what I have learned about all of them. We as Indies all have our own reasons why we want a product so your choice may vary from mine, to which one of these is really the top text to speech readers.

Prices
As usual prices will range from free to way too much. How much you want to spend will depend on how often, how picky, and what you plan on using this product for.  Also some are pc only and some you can save as a mp3 files so you can carry your little creation every where you go.



I hope to have our first look at the top eight text to speech soon. Be watching for it. :)

Thanks for reading Samantha

Part two can be found here

Samantha Fury is the author of  the Street Justice Series

She's written many articles on book covers, for Indie Authors.  

She operates several Indie Groups. Editing Services, Cover Artist, 

Helpful Indie Facebook Groups, and a wonderful Forum 

just for Indie Authors.

Images thanks to Bigstock photographers. 
Javier Brosch
Annette Shaff
Edward Fielding

March Madness Sale

 Sorry this sale is no longer available. 

Irsh Gold Hop an Interview with Angel Morganson

Irish Gold Blog Hop   Join in on the fun and check out the link at the bottom of the page. There are free gifts here and there sprinkled along the blog hop path.  Don't miss out on all of the fun.







At the end of the rainbow

 Did you ever really wonder what was at the end of the rainbow.  Well that's the question today.  I won't tell you what I think, but I will let Angel Morganson tell you about his pot of gold that he hopes to get his hands on one day.

Angelo Morganson

Angelo walks in sits his coffee down on the desk and situates his long legs under his desk and leans back.  He looked at me with this what did you need look and I smile and say.   "So we finally meet, face to face.  Do you mind if I call you Angelo.  I think it suits you to a T."

"I don't mind." He says reaching out to take a sip of his coffee.  "But as you know I'm always busy fighting crime and waiting for the next case, so lets make this quick."

"Sure. I'd like to know what do you consider is your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and I am taking notes."

Angel leaned back in his chair and smiled. "Being alive at the end of the day is a good place to start."

"I'm sure it is, and for an undercover officer I'm sure that's on your mind a lot, but lets take things to another level.  Tell me, going past that, to something deep within your soul what you see as the true pot of gold."

"Souls, you're not going to start preaching are you. I get a fair amount of that from Charlie and Nyssa."

"No," I laughed. "I'm not preaching today.

"Good, and for my thoughts on rainboys and what might be at the end of them, I think it can vary, and that there are many rainbows that we come to in our lives.  I like to think of every day as a little pot of gold.  I love waking up to see another sunrise, and I love a day when it's nothing but me and the bike on some two lane backroad."

"I think Charlie is having more of an effect on you than you'd like to admit."

Angel laughed that deep throaty laugh that I love so much, he reached up pushed his fingers through his dark hair and gave me that smile that made us all fall in love with him.

"Maybe." He drew out a breath and leaned forward, "But, you didn't hear it from me."   He once again looked at his watch and I knew that it was my que to leave.

"So your final words is that every day is a blessing, and that you hope to have many rainbows in your future."

"Yeah, that's my take on the matter, but I'm a guy what do I know about rainbows and gold.  Now, if you want to talk about guts, guns and glory, that will be something I know more about."

I rose to my feet and looked at Angelo. "I think I'll save that for another day."  He smiled and gave me a slow nod.  "Any final words," I asked?

Angel rubbed his chin, and gave it a little thought. "I suppose in a way it's how you view life in general.  Some people might think a pot of Gold was winning the lottery, to others, a trip to a foreign land, and to some it could be nothing more than a four leaf clover at the end of a hard day's work."

"Thanks Angelo, I'll come back another day and we'll talk about guts, guns and glory."

"Promises, promises." 

I hated to turn my back on him but it was time to go, "Be  careful out there." I called over my shoulder, and in that cocky tone that I'd learned to expect I heard him call out.

"I don't have to be careful I've got a gun." 

I'll be giving away five free E-copies of Book 1 Street Justice Charlie's Angel via smash-words.  If you are one of the first five to comment add me as a friend on face book and PM me with your email. :)  If you already have book one I'll get you a coupon for book two.   If things go really well I may give away a few more of both!!

Thanks for dropping by check out my great friend Dave King he might have a gift up his sleeve too.

View other blogs here

A Rafflecopter Giveaway

Interview With NaNoWriMo Executive Director Grant Faulkner

This Monday we are going to Interview NaNoWriMo Executive Director. If you are a NaNo fan, please join us. 

The show will air this Monday Live at 9 pm eastern time