Winner!

I have two contests ending today. I want to thank all who entered. I enjoy holding contests, especially the Hollyweird Tuesday Trivia Challenge. And so we will start there.

I thought this was a really tough one, and debated with myself on whether or not I should put it up. I got 13 correct answers. You guys are gooood!

The Challenge: In what movie did someone say I didn't kill my wife," and who said it?

The Answer: The Fugitive. Said by Dr. Richard Kimble.

The winner is Lulilut of Lulilut's Stack o' Books. You will be receiving your free $10 Amazon gift card later today. Thanks for playing. BTW, Lulilut already won an ARC in the cover contest. She's picked up quite a bit of swag. You go, girl!

The winners of the three free ARCs for my September release novel, Boyfriend From Hell:

Lisa at Cold Moon Violet Books

hmsgofita at Gofita's Pages

Donna at Girl Who Reads

Congratulations to the three ARC winners. I am so excited about this book. Enjoy the ARCs, and if you do, tell a friend. The ARCs will be in the mail in the next two weeks.

I want to also thank those of you who came over from Armchair BEA. I met quite a few new bloggers there. It was a spectacular event. My hat's off to the organizers. Looking forward to next year.

And now, I'm off to write.

Peace

Book Bloggers

Hi. Today is day three of Armchair BEA. Subject for the day: Work The Network. Over the first two days I have met new bloggers and seen some great giveaways. I am not a book blogger, but I wanted to get in on the fun, mainly to sing the praises of book bloggers.

My 2009 debut YA novel, Never Slow Dance With A Zombie (TOR/Teen), sold very... Very, very well. I owe this success to book bloggers. I didn't realize as a debut author, how little publicity support I'd receive from my publisher. And trust me, when I say little, that's probably too big a word for the amount of support I got. But I got loads of support from you guys. Several bloggers held contests on their blogs. One blogger even hosted a Twitter contest that boasted over 1000 tweets of my book title.

I wanted you all to know how important you are to us authors, especially those of us considered mid-list. I also wanted to thank the hosts of Armchair BEA for this awesome idea. I'm having so much fun.

And now for the pitch (That's right, now that I've got you seated, I'm going to try to sell you something) My second novel, Boyfriend From Hell, hits shelves in September. To entice bloggers to get the word out, I am hosting an ARC giveaway. I also host a something I call the Hollyweird Tuesday Trivia Challenge. It's a movie trivia contest where I give away a free Amazon gift card. To participate in either or both click here: CONTESTS.

And now, I have to get back to finishing the new novel.... or checking SportsCenter for updates. Bloggers blog, writer's write, and E.Van Lowe is a master at wasting time.

Peace.

Free ARCs & A New Trivia Challenge

Today is the second day of the BEA. While most of us can't be there, there is a great new site I found while tweeting around (a new expression. Feel free to use it) called Armchair BEA. This is a site for those of us who want to experience the BEA from the comfort of our own armchairs--or, we didn't have the money to go. You can check them out here: Armchair BEA.

Since my Indy Publisher (White Whisker) can't send me to BEA to sit in a booth with other authors and sign ARCs, I will be sitting right here, signing three ARCs of my new YA novel, Boyfriend From Hell, to send to three lucky readers in the mail. All you need to do to enter is write in the comments below: "I want the free ARC" or something like that. This contest is open only to those of you living in the U.S. or Canada. The only other thing I ask is that if you have already won an ARC in the cover contest that you don't enter this one. That's it! I will do a random drawing on Monday, and post the winners here next Tuesday, May 31st. The ARCs are not available yet, but I expect to get some at the end of the week.

Hollyweird Tuesday Trivia Challenge #7

I haven't had a trivia challenge since February. But with the summer Blockbuster movie season starting I thought it would be fun to do a summer blockbuster movie challenge.

While we call it the Hollyweird Tuesday Trivia Challenge, you don't have to enter today. You have 6 days to enter. The drawing closes Sunday evening. So everyone has plenty of time to come up with the correct answer. But just one entry per person will be accepted. The winner will receive a free $10 Amazon gift card. On Monday I will draw a winner from all the correct answers, and post the winner here next Tuesday. Are you ready for the challenge?

In what famous summer blockbuster did a character say: "I didn’t kill my wife!"
And who was the character?

I think this one is easy, but to some of you they're all easy. By the way, you have to answer both questions correctly to win.
As a reminder, there are a few things you will need to do to qualify. You need to do four of the five things listed below:

1) Be a registered follower of this blog, or
2) ...follow me at http://www.evanlowe.com/
3) leave a comment on this blog in the comment section on any of my posts anytime during the week of the current challenge.
4) send your answer to me at info@evanlowe.com
5)mention the Hollyweird Tuesday Trivia Challenge either on your blog or in a tweet the week of the current challenge.
Do 1 +3,4&5, or 2 +3 ,4&5 and you are entered to win. Remember, you must do four things to win.

Two contests, two chances to win. Thanks for participating.

Adding Humore To Your Writing--POV

One of the keys to unleashing your humor is the point of view chosen for your story or characters. When Charles Schultz looked at the world through the eyes of Charlie Brown, or Lucy Van Pelt, we laughed. It was the same world we were looking at every day, but through the eyes of insecure, Charlie Brown, and extroverted, Lucy, we got a glimpse as to how funny our world could be. Point of view allows you to comment on things that might not seem funny at first glance. It’s all in the angle of attack.

Charles Schultz did it with kids, but you can do it with any of your characters. A few years ago I was starting a novel about a girl whose father was a corporate whistle blower. The family went into the witness protection program, relocating from New York City to a small community in Denver. My protagonist was faced with the unhappy situation of leaving her friends and everything familiar behind. A situation like this can be traumatic for any fifteen year-old. But I wanted to take the trauma out of it, and show how resourceful my protagonist could be. So I infused in her the attitude that starting over was good:

If I have to go where nobody knows me, then why not start over as a fourteen year old? she thought. I’ve already made all the fourteen year old mistakes. And I will know all the work in school, since I just completed ninth grade. This, she realized, would give her more time for her fabulous social life.

By changing my protagonist’s point of view, I have given her the chance to be funny. There’s no humor in the story yet, but with this POV it will be easier to write humorous situations. I bet you can think of two or three funny situations you could see her in as you read this.

If you give your stories or characters a slightly off-center POV, they will more easily lend themselves to humor. Do not shoot down the middle when you want to add humor. How will you know if you’ve got the right POV? If you’re smiling as you think about it, you’re on the right track.

My Publisher

I had an editorial meeting last Thursday. That's my publisher at the meeting holding Boyfriend From Hell. Cool looking guy, right? The smile is genuine. He's smiling because he loves the book. My editor loves it as well. If you're a writer reading this, you know how good that makes me feel.

That's a beta copy of the book in his hands. I was going to give some betas away, but there were too many mistakes. Not to worry, the ARCs will be in soon. They should have been here by now. He says in two weeks. Editorial issues. Not the book, but with the layout.

Of course I will be having at least one contest giving ARCs away. I hope some of you will hosts contests as well. I can't wait to share the book with you. It's really good. I mean really. I am growing as a writer. You'll see.

My publisher (the man, not the imprint) is great guy. I am so lucky to have the opportunity to experience the publishing process through him. He has taken me along every step of the way. One thing's for sure: I do not want to be a publisher. I'd rather spend my time creating. But I am glad he included me in the process. I've learned a lot.

Speaking of creating, it's time to get back to work. ARC's coming soon. So stay tuned.

Peace.

A Word From Sal

Those of you who have been following closely know I started my novel writing career a long time ago as Sal Conte.

Today I started a new Sal Conte short story. It's straight up horror. That's what Sal writes. But there are no monsters in this one. The horror is a dentist. I had a dream about going to the dentist. The dentist was Sam Jackson. He was cursing up a storm (as always) and telling me how he liked to inflict pain. I woke up in a sweat, and realized I had the concept for my new Sal Conte Short story. The Toothache Man.

I started writing it today. I plan to have it available along with the vintage Sal Conte Splatterpunk stuff in October. If all goes according to plan I will be posting them on kindle in time for some Halloween fun. All will retail for a paltry 99c each.

I will keep you posted on how it's going. Hope some of you will support the horror work. If horror is not your thing, no prob. My new YA paranormal, Boyfriend From Hell, comes out in September.

I have something for all your morbid tastes.


Peace.

Branded!

This is a post about branding, which I admittedly know very little about, so it will be a short one. The one thing I know is that we writers need to brand ourselves. We need to find the one thing that distinguishes us from others in our genre. I write paranormal YA romance with a comedic twist. That's how I plan to distinguish myself.. until that proves not to work. Then I will come up with something else.

A few months ago I was talking to a friend about branding. I knew the friend as an actress who acted in a pilot I did back in 2005, when we met. What I didn't know was that before acting, she worked in branding. She gave me a wealth of advice, most of which I believe has to to with physical products and not me--a person. One thing she said that I liked is that a brand should have a distinguishing mark, or logo. I don't know what I will do with a mark or logo, but I had one designed. I designed it after the Facebook and Twitter icons. This is it below:




I also had one done in green, but I like blue best.




So what do you think? That drop of blood is kind of sexy, right? Or maybe that's just my morbid side showing. Oh, well...

Is this logo a waste of my hard-earned cash? I have a tiny one I can use as my signature on blog posts and emails. Guess I will start there. Unfortunately, it's too late to load it for this post. Next time. Let me know what you think.

Peace.