Welcome to Big on Books, your source for up-and-coming book releases, author and industry professional features, writing tips and links.

BIG ON BOOKS IS BACK and BIGGER THAN EVER!

By: Morgan Mandel
Published:



After a several months' hiatus from Junior's Cave during which I concentrated on putting together my thriller, Killer Career, I've got some exciting new features to include here for your listening and reading enjoyment.

I've added a Blog Talk Radio player where you can click and catch my latest shows. In one, I interview JA Konrath/Jack Kilborn, author of the Jack Daniels mystery series plus a newly released horror novel called Afraid. In the second clip, I interview multi-published mystery author, Robert W. Walker, who has a new mystery called Deadon coming out in July. In the third, it's motivational speaker and young adult author, L. Diane Wolfe, author of the newly released books, Overcoming Obstacles with Spunk and Circle of Friends . Finally, you'll find my interview of English-born young adult author, Barry Eva, who wrote Across the Pond.

I've also included a feed to my daily blog, Double M's Take on Books, Blogs, Dogs, Networking & Life, where you'll find daily blogs on any number of topics, plus occasional author guests.

I hope you enjoy the new features here at Big on Books

Morgan Mandel

You can find Morgan's mystery, Two Wrongs, and her romantic comedy, Girl of My Dreams by typing in the search words morgan mandel at these and other online locations: amazon.com, bn.com, hardshell.com. Available in e-book and kindle. Also available by order at brick and mortar bookstores. Stay tuned for her thriller, Killer Career, set to release sometime this summer.

PICK and CLICK Below




Do You Blog?

By: Morgan Mandel
Published: November 18, 2008 12:17 AM EST

I blog and not just a little. Before I made my commitment to blog daily, which happened at the end of August, I'd just gotten my toes wet. Now I'm in way deep. It's very time consuming, but it's a good way to get my brand out and be known. Since I blog through blogger.com and own blogspots through Google, my blogs turn up fast on Google searches, which is a good thing.

My readership has been slowly growing, as evidenced by Google Analytics. It's too early to tell if it's helping my book sales yet, but I'm building a good foundation.

Blogging is just one of many ways to promote. Once I get this aspect down pat, I'll move on to revamping and perfecting my website. That's later.

Right now, I'm working on building blogger friendships by commenting on other bloggers' sites and clicking their follow buttons. I've also added a blogroll to my personal and group blogs, plus links, photos, and bookmark gadgets.

A good way to promote traffic is to host popular guests. I promote them by announcing their appearance on my listservs and on Twitter.Com, MySpace.Com and all kinds of other places. I tell my guests to do the same. You can never have enough cross promotion.

Next, I'll be looking into search engine optimization to make sure everything lines up as it should. There are things like meta tags and key words I have to figure out. I've heard that it's a good thing to make sure key words turn up a lot so the crawlers can find them.

Once I've conquered the blog frontier, I plan on moving on to my website and revamping that as well. For the meantime, I'm pretty busy getting the most out of my blogs. I'll find out later if it pays off.

Below is a list of the blogs I've got going:

All I Have to Say - http://morganmandel.blogspot.com - This is my daily personal blog about my everyday life and my author's life, which also includes my dog, Rascal, whom I'm writing a children's book about.

Acme Authors Link, http://acmeauthorslink.blogspot.com - My multi-genre group blog, including mystery, romance, humor and YA authors.

Make Mine Mystery - http://makeminemsystery.blogspot.com - My group mystery authors' blog.

Blog Tour Update - http://blogtourupdate.blogspot.com - My blog for listing submitted group tours.

The Blood-Red Pencil - http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com - While I own the other blogs, I'm just a member on this one. We post blogs about editing tips for writers.

If you'd like to climb onboard the blog wagon, check out one or all of these blogs, plus their blogrolls. At first it may seem overwhelming, but if you keep at it, you'll learn a lot, make lots of great cyber friends, and get your brand out.

Try it. You may like it.

Happy writing!
Morgan Mandel
www.morganmandel.com


Don't Go It Alone

By: Morgan Mandel
Published: November 18, 2008 12:06 AM EST

In some ways, writing is a solitary experience. No one can tell you what to put on the page. What goes there comes from your own brain. That's a good thing. It can also be not so good.

What about your grammar? Your sentence structure? What about goal, motivation and conflict? There are so many rules to follow. It's hard to remember them all.

You know what you mean, but can anyone else tell? You need an impartial eye to be the judge. That's where writing groups and/or critique partners come in. Someone else looks over your manuscript for problems. Once you know about them, it's your decision whether or not to make the changes. Most of the time you can tell whether or not they make sense.

Romance Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America, library or bookstore groups, even other writers, can be a great source for this type of assistance.

I know I never would have gotten published without the help of my local chapter, Chicago-North RWA. Some people can go it alone and make it to publication, but most of us need a little help from our friends.

If you haven't already, consider joining a writing group in your area. Once you're there, you'll be on your way to a better manuscript.

Happy writing!
Morgan Mandel
www.morganmandel.com




SETTING

By: Morgan Mandel
Published: July 02, 2008 11:00 PM EST

When setting your novel, engage the reader’s senses. Of course, you’ll include the obvious, such as location. You’ll weave in hints about your character’s country, state or city by mentioning area landmarks or traditions.

Don’t stop there. Supply descriptions of the neighborhood or physical characteristics of the terrain. Is it in the country or the city? Are there hills or mountains or desert? What do the dwellings look like? Are they rundown or well manicured? What type are they? Apartments, condos, single-family homes, trailers, mansions, ranches?

Part of the setting is the season the novel takes place, which includes weather. It’s no coincidence that in scary novels you’ll find rain, storms, lightning and darkness, while in happy ones you’ll find sunshine, light breezes or maybe even snow.

Another part of setting is smell. You can include pleasant aromas, such as bread baking, roses in a garden, or gritty smells, such as sweat, diesel fumes, or the coppery smell of blood, depending on the mood you’re trying to convey. Smells are great for grounding a reader in a setting.

While you’re at it, include sounds particular to the area. The cry of a loon hints at a North Woods location. Look for other animal sounds particular to the area of your book, or go for the urban sounds, such as the screech of a subway train or the swish of traffic on the expressway.

These are a few hints I’ve thought of, but there are a great many more. Now that you get the idea, think about whether or not you’ve included any such elements in your setting. If not, it won’t hurt to find ways to do so. Your readers will love you for it.

Happy writing!
Morgan Mandel
www.morganmandel.com


MY FAVORITE SPORT

By: Morgan Mandel
Published: April 02, 2008 7:56 AM EST

Some people enjoy baseball, football, basketball, wrestling and hockey. My husband is one of them. He’ll watch any sport on TV, except for WGN news or the Honeymooners. Sometimes I can con him into watching the Grand Old Opry.

On the other hand, I get bored watching sports. Although I attend step classes and aerobics, I do it not for fun, but to stay healthy. I walk to the train, which isn’t too bad, but if I lived closer, I would be happier.

Right now the Sox game is on TV, but I’m barely glancing at it. That’s because the sport I enjoy is not physical. I love to kick around ideas, bounce words around and wrestle with sentence structure. My idea of a hit out of the ballpark is a bestseller.

Some may think what I do is dull, but it’s my kind of fun. I’m a writer.

Morgan's Bio

Morgan Mandel is a past president of Chicago-North Romance Writers of America and presently serves as the Library Liaison for Midwest Mystery Writers of America. She’s an active member of Sisters In Crime and EPIC, The Electronically Published Internet Connection, and the creator of the Internet network, Book Place. She previously freelanced for the Daily Herald newspaper.

Morgan creates novels onboard the Metra commuter train as she travels to her day job as an administrative assistant in Chicago's Loop. She and her husband enjoy suburban life with their dog, Rascal, who lives up to her name.

Morgan’s current release, the romantic comedy, GIRL OF MY DREAMS, is a Cinderella story about a straitlaced assistant who turns vamp in a reality show to save a dying TV studio. She may win the millionaire, but can money make her love him?

Morgan’s debut novel, the mystery, TWO WRONGS, #6 in the Preditors & Editors Poll and a Top Ten Read at MyShelf.Com, is a tale of revenge and a second chance at love, set in Chicago, containing such area references as Marshall Fields before it became Macy’s, Frango mints, DePaul University basketball and Chase Park.

Her books are available at www.hardshell.com, in print & ebook, www.amazon.com, in print & kindle, www.fictionwise.com. Also by Order at Bookstores and other online sites.

Morgan’s website: www.morganmandel.com Morgan’s Book network: http://bookplace.ning.com Also at: www.myspace.com/morganmandel, http://acmeauthorslink.blogspot.com, http://mysteryturtles.blogspot.com, on Youtube.com if you search for morganmandel.