A to Z Challenge-- My Favorite Storytellers- Z

My last post of the challenge! I have had such a blast with this challenge, seeing some of your amazing blogs, and making some new friends. I am very hopeful that those of you who have stopped by during April will come again.

DId you think Z was going to stump me? Well, you were wrong. Z is for...

Elly Zupko

And I am totally biased on this one, as Elly and I studied creative writing together in school. Eight or nine years ago, I was reading some amazingly detailed and rich prose from her, so I was excited but less than surprised when she published her first, very brilliant novel.

The War Master's Daughter is everything I typically dislike in terms of genre fiction. I don't like historical fiction, don't like the journey story, and often have little patience for the rich, privelaged girl narrative. Elly, however, interweaves all of these items into this beautiful story. Flawless characterization, and enough action to keep you in make this one worth checking out.

You can see it in my collection of best loved fiction here on Amazon. It's also well worth a visit to check out Elly's blog: http://ellyzee.blogspot.com/.

Thank you all for a great challenge.

Let's hear it for the testy and dejected!

Or, OK, truth be told, its the REjected and not DEjected I am rooting for today.

See, you work hard, you write a book. You send it to publishers for months or years asking them to like it. You get so many demoralizing rejection letters, while your very-patient friends reassure you that even J.K. Rowling got rejected dozens of times.

Finally one amazing, wonderful publisher does like your book, and even publishes it! And the elation fills you with a fever pitch to keep writing, and keep going, and you write another book and then...

... start another round of rejection letters. I got my latest this yesterday, on a day I was already home sick with a cold.

And I am a "professional" writer. I KNOW form letters saying "thank you for sharing... not for us" are not a reflection of my talent or lackthereof. Furthermore, I work in marketing! I 100% know that there is a vast difference between "good" and "marketable" in the type of fiction I write.

But it still makes me sad.

So, I think we should all do something nice for the writers out there, just in case anyone is having a day like me and is feeling a little dejected.

What's that you say? A contest?

Yes! Of my normal ilk! Go to Amazon, find a book you like that was self-published, or written by a first time writer, or published by a small press, and leave a review about how much you liked it. You will make some author's day, for sure....

... and then come back here, leave a link to the book, and you're in the contest. One winner will get a $20 Amazon giftcard. I'll announce a winner by 1/31.

If you would like some independant or small press publications to consider, think about maybe:

• Twisted Velvet Chains by Jessica Bell, amazing poetry by an up and coming star. Its available for Kindle for only .99, or paperback as well.
• The War Master's Daughter by Elly Zupko, strong and engrossing historical fiction. On Kindle for only $2.99, or available on Paperback as well.
• String Bridge by Jessica Bell, which also just rocked my world
• of (of course) Max and Menna or Listening In, bother available on Kindle for $3.99 and $1.99 respectively. Max and Menna is also in paperback and hardcover, and Listening In will be available in paperback soon.

Come on, make someone's day... and maybe win a prize as well :)

Yup, I'm admitting I was wrong...

So I said for months and months and even years that I was not a Kindle person. I like paper. I like the way it smells, I like jotting notes in margins and folding up pages and the soft weight of a paperback rising and falling on my chest when I fall asleep reading.

And then I got a Kindle.

I still LOVE everything amazing about paper, and how books look on my shelf, and smell and feel, etc. But I've discovered that I love the Kindle as well. I read faster on my Kindle. It makes it easier to read at night without getting up to turning on the light. It means I am never without a book.

So, I've just finished the Hunger Games triology, and am gearing up to read the Warmaster's Daughter by Elly Zupko. Any other good suggestions on what I just must get on my Kindle?