Tag: writing

Stella Book #3: Book Cover Reveal, Blurb, Release Date

Title: The Road to Freedom – Joseph’s Story
Author: Yecheilyah Ysrayl
Release Date: Friday, February 12, 2016
Event Details: TBA

Cover Reveal:

Cover Design by Melchelle, Copyright © Melchelle Designs
Cover Design by Melchelle, Copyright © Melchelle Designs

Blurb

Wealthy and clueless are just some of the words Joseph uses to describe his family. Deeply concerned about the state of Black America, a fight with his brother compels a young Joseph to leave his mother’s house and join his friends for a trip to Atlanta for SNCC’s (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) second conference. Excited to live life on their own, Jo and his friends have left school and the lives they were living for a chance to become part of the movement. With no money and essentially no plan the seven friends, three black and four white, set out for the road when they are stopped by a racist cop who makes them exit the car. The teens are unaware that a mob of Klansmen also awaits them at the New Orleans bus terminal.

Find out in the 3rd installment of the Stella Trilogy how Joseph and his friends discover the truth about themselves in the Jim Crow south on The Road to Freedom.

***

That’s right people. Promotion for Book #3 of The Stella Trilogy has officially begun! I want to give a special thanks to M.S. Fowle, digital artist for Melchelle Designs for the excellent cover. I’d been searching for a long time for a cover that would capture my vision for this book and I’m so happy to have come across Mel.

Fundraising for this release will start soon and your support would be most appreciated. Until then, be sure to grab your copy of Beyond The Colored Line. All proceeds will go toward the release of The Road to Freedom.

***

The Stella Trilogy is Almost Complete!

                         Stella front26372935 TheRoadToFreedom_Ysrayl

Interracial Blog Feature Reminder for 10/29/2015 –Final Guest and Surprise Gifts

7802944-120875522_3-v1
I totally almost forgot about the reminder!

Just want to remind you to join me tomorrow for another interview on the topic of Interracial Relationships. As you know, for the rest of this month I will be posting interviews I have conducted with some individuals on their thoughts on the topic of Interracial Marriages and the role race plays in relationships in general. This feature was inspired by the release of book two in my Stella Trilogy, “Beyond The Colored Line” this summer and will post every Thursday of this month. Join me tomorrow at 8:00a CST to meet another good friend of mine. You don’t want to miss his answers!

7037634-120875522_3-v1

We have made it to the end of the month and so this is the final interview. As a token of my appreciation, I will be giving away a free gift to each of the Interviewees. Hope to see you in the morning!

 

In Case You Missed It:

Week #1 with Misty Thomas
Week #2 with Lisa Tetting
Week #3 with Allison Wells

Join The Team!

4034761-120875522_3-v1

Firstly, it looks like I am not going to get to Writer’s Quote Wednesday today. But, the good news is that I am going through my list of email contacts and while I am at it, have decided to share this message with you, my blogging buddies. Since undergoing a change in my first author website (I really didn’t like all the clutter I had going on). I have had to do away with my previous newsletter along with the website but I have finally settled enough to spend some time getting it back up. I am asking if I may invite you to subscribe.

Below is a link to the recent newsletter that went out as of today 10-28. If you like what you see, and you hate spam (I really just get straight to the point) just find the Subscribe button and sign up! I promise these Newsletters are few and far between so they won’t invade your email’s privacy! (Don’t you hate when that happens?) If you decide to sign up please just remember to check your Spam and Junk folders periodically, just in case these newsletters try to hide around in there. For those of you who are subscribed please check your folders if you did not get today’s letter.

I am still working on getting a widget up on the new site, in the meantime visit this link and hit the subscribe button. If you have any problems with the subscription button just comment to this post and I will add you manually.

http://us8.campaign-archive2.com/?u=8c80adcc06970972a9d53f7aa&id=377bd30b6b

3637939-120875522_3-v1

I am extending this to my blog only because of the changes I’ve recently had with switching sites, but I will not always do this. Being a follower of this blog is not the same as subscribing to the newsletter, as there is information I will not always share here. That said, I will not always post the link to the newest issue. This is my first and only time doing it in the attempt to update you all on the change.

FYI: My husband said my cartoon’s eyes looks a little too big in this picture. I promised him all I had was vitamins.

Coming Soon

poster_from_postermywall

On Sunday, November 1, 2015, I will be announcing the release date for the final installment of the Stella Trilogy (The Road to Freedom: Joseph’s Story) along with its book blurb and cover reveal.

file(1)

I am excited to be on the brink of having all of the books finished and ready to be made available as a set or individually. Now I can focus on book signing campaigns and events for The Stella Trilogy as a package while re-writing my first novel, whose release I have pushed back to next year sometime.

So be sure to tune into this blog and to keep your eyes on my social media for the cover release, blurb, and release date celebration of Stella Book #3. You never know, there may be some treats in store!

Are You Just Seeing Your Writing on The Side?

file(2)

“Is your writing going to be a lover in the center of your life? The thing you pulse toward, the fever in your soul? Or is your writing life more of a casual crush, something you think about, but don’t do much about? You know how when you are in love, lying with your lover, time stops–goes so fast and doesn’t move at all? You feel mushy and goopy, and you are wet and hot and cool and loved and lovely, all at the same time?

Here’s the thing, there is one way to make time stop. And only one way: Fall in Love.

512yJqNDE9L._SX355_BO1,204,203,200_
When you have a lover or a baby, you fall out of time, and into the beloved. Love is the only time in our lives when we are out of time. To create a writing life, you will need to fall in love–deeply, seductively, passionately–with your writing life. It will become not a habit or a job, but a lover. If you keep it a second-string lover, your back-up lover, your Tuesday night sex-as-friends kind of lover, it might always be cranky with you. But if you make your writing life so lovely you can’t take your eyes off it, you will space out during meetings, and dream about it as you go through the day, just like when you’re in love. – Heather Sellers, Page After Page, Chapter 3

***

Heather Sellers is an Award winning writer and professor who has taught writing workshops for twenty years, has a Ph.D. in writing and is an associate professor of English. Her book, Page after Page, is a great resource for writers looking to jump-start, begin, or keep the writing juices flowing. She presents great advice on how to dedicate yourself to writing, enjoying the process, and writing exercises to help keep you passionately, seductively, and totally in loooovveee with writing.

8 Tips to Market a Book

Great tips on Marketing your book! This is need to know info.

Steven Capps's avatarBard & Books

Hi there fellow Bloggers, I have had a crazy weekend due to my military obligations so I was unable to get this post up yesterday. I hope you forgive the delay, and I hope you enjoy this week’s A Bit of Business. 

8 Tips to Market a Book

Marketing requires its own type of mind but can be fun once you get the hang of it. One of the best parts of being a Financial Representative was closing on a sale. There were certain tips that can make the sale more likely.  A new writer must struggle through the sea of other authors just to get a chance at earning a reader.

Know your Audience

Understand the type of people that your work would appeal to. Plugging your new novel on your personal Facebook feed might earn a few readers from family and friends but many of the people who would…

View original post 528 more words

Things Bloggers Need To Stop Worrying About by Elena Peters

As I am accustomed to doing, if I can’t find a re-blog button for your article and I really enjoyed it I’ll share it the old school way: Link up.

So anyway I found this article on Twitter (after promptly following Elena) and I really love what she has to say about what bloggers need to stop worrying about. To her credit I am only going to except a few key points. Please visit her blog for the entire article.

THINGS-BLOGGERS-need-to-stop-worrying-about
From Elena Peters Blog

Google/Alexa Ranking
I am no expert and unless you are on this topic or you can afford to pay someone to handle website optimization, you need to stop worrying about your ranking. I am not saying that you shouldn’t use Yoast, add keywords and complete alt tags on your pics. However, I find the excessive obsession with ranking a complete waste of time. I do what I need to do when I create a post and then I step away.

EC – Psst: (This is a good point. Good thing I don’t even know what Alexa Ranking is or Yoast for that matter lol)

Number of Followers
And by this I mean on your blog and all of your social media. I know a lot of people look at my accounts and see that I don’t always follow back. That is because I refuse to get on the follow me and I will follow your back train. You must understand that on some platforms, particularly FaceBook, having a huge number of followers that never look at your page actually hurts you. I personally have seen accounts with thousands of followers and no retweets, no likes and no pins. How did their huge following help them? In reality, not at all.

Automatic follow threads and follow backs do not necessarily bring you more traffic and can be a huge waste of your limited time. If it doesn’t work for you, stop.

Reciprocation
I am here to tell you that you don’t have to read, comment, like, tweet back, pin etc. to absolutely everyone that has been nice enough to do that for you. Unless you have figured out time travel or your days have more than 24 hours, you will never be able to keep that up forever.

Conversely, you need to stop obsessing with keeping track of which bloggers you have done the above for. Be understanding. Maybe that blogger that didn’t read or comment back on your post isn’t interested in your topic or maybe they have a niche of bloggers that they are already committed to sharing with. Don’t keep a scorecard.

KEEP READING ON ELANA’S BLOG