Who is the piano playing dog? Find out at the AIA Grand Opening Party

Who is the piano playing dog? Visit the Awesome Indies Grand Opening Party today to find out. Watch an amazing video and vote on the best explanation for who the dog is and what he’s doing.  

Click here or on the banner above.

 

And don’t forget to check out the 99c sale.

 

 

(Links are active at 1 am PDT for each day's events.)

The Awesome Indies Grand Opening Party; 26 top reads at just 99 cents each, plus 5 days of partying!

 

You’re invited to the Awesome Indies Grand Opening Party—a sale of 26 top reads at just 99 cents each, plus 5 days of fun. See the new website, meet the authors, join them for games, giveaways and giggles and be in the draw to win the latest generation Kindle.

 

The Awesome Indies have found a way to take the risk out of buying indie. If it’s Awesome Indies Approved (AIA), a qualified publishing industry professional has determined that it’s as good as anything produced by the mainstream. Readers need no longer wonder if that book is really worth downloading. If a book is listed on the Awesome Indies, then it’s worth your time.

 

Click on the banner, or this link, to visit the Awesome Indies to browse the huge 99c sale and learn what you have to do to be in the draw for a Kindle Paperwhite.

(Links will be active at 1 am PDT for each day's events)

 

  

Writer's (Contrary) Thought of the Day

"Calling a wolf an alpha is usually no more appropriate than referring to a human parent or a doe deer as an alpha. Any parent is dominant to its young offspring, so "alpha" adds no information. Why not refer to an alpha female as the female parent, the breeding female, the matriarch, or simply the mother? Such a designation emphasizes not the animal's dominant status, which is trivial information, but its role as pack progenitor, which is critical information. The one use we may still want to reserve for "alpha" is in the relatively few large wolf packs comprised of multiple litters. ... In such cases the older breeders are probably dominant to the younger breeders and perhaps can more appropriately be called the alphas. ... The point here is not so much the terminology but what the terminology falsely implies: a rigid, force-based dominance hierarchy."
 
Mech, L. David (1999). "Alpha Status, Dominance, and Division of Labor in Wolf Packs". Jamestown, ND: Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center Online. Canadian Journal of Zoology 77:1196-1203. Retrieved 21 April 2008. "The point here is not so much the terminology but what the terminology falsely implies: a rigid, force-based dominance hierarchy."

"Dominance hierarchies and dominance disputes and testing are a fundamental characteristic of all social groups... But perhaps only we humans learn to use punishment (and pain - poster's add.) primarily to gain for ourselves the reward of being dominant."

Pryor, Karen (August 1999) "Chap. 4." Don't Shoot the Dog! (Bantam trade paperback ed.). Bantam Books. p.108.

Something to think about when calling the hero of one's novel an "alpha male," not to mention when using the word dominance in other capacities. In an additional note, as someone who lives with a real dog pack - mother, father, four of their offspring and a non-related dog - I can second the above very strongly and suggest that an arrogant, condescending, violence-prone, controlling human man (or woman), and especially one who needs to hurt others to elevate him or herself, isn't anything like a canine "alpha" male (or female), and perhaps ought to only be considered a mentally or emotionally unstable antagonist (or another starts-with-a synonym that isn't alpha). I'm thinking it wouldn't be unfair to imagine that dogs and wolves the world over would be horrified to discover that certain lauded human behaviors today are mistakenly being compared to their own.

(Mama Zoe and two of her pups)

(Quotes courtesy of Wikipedia.)

The Horrors of Self-Promotion

Not every indie author will agree with this article in its entirety, but I imagine most will find one or two points of empathy. Or, if not that, at least enjoy the author's sardonic wit. With a nod to the U.S. movie industry's vague - and, I think, unintentionally funny in its PC-ness - terminology, this article is rated PG-13 for occasional language. And thank you to  The Passive Voice  for the share.

The Horrors of Self-Promotion

Off Duty

We all need a little down time after a busy day.

Kindle Fire Department: Awesome Indies Kindle Book Sale 7/26

Kindle Fire Department: Awesome Indies Kindle Book Sale 7/26: If you’re concerned about quality in independent fiction, then check out the books on the Awesome Indies list. Their editorial staff only give their stamp of approval to books that meet the same standards as the mainstream. They save you the effort of wading through the slush pile yourself.

High quality books, exciting new authors, great prices.

Some Books Are Harder to Write Than Others

To celebrate her newest release,  Demon's Grip, the third book in the  Diamond Peak Series, I'm honored to feature a guest post by the exceptional author, Tahlia Newland, on the challenges and rewards of writing metaphysical fiction. As Tahlia has kindly noted, I've had the great fortune to work as an editor or her outstanding fantasy and magical realism novels and highly recommend her original and creative blend of adventure-filled magical fantasy and real world metaphysical reflection.

Some books are harder to write than others

 

Sometimes I wish I could write a story that is just a story, not one threaded through with philosophy like my stories, but I never could, because that isn't me. It would be a lot easier though, and that appeals to my lazy side, but it wouldn't satisfy me. I like novels with a touch of metaphysics in them, and authors always write the kind of books they like to read.

The most difficult aspect of writing metaphysical fiction is that you need to remain true to whatever philosophy you're working with without it being either didactic or extraneous to the story line. It also needs to be expressed in universal terms that relate to people of different world-views, otherwise it becomes religious fiction which has a different purpose.

I find myself faced with interpreting the technical language of my area of study, Buddhism into simple language that means the same thing but doesn't have religious overtones. Also, my books have teens as their main characters so the language has to be teen-speak.

Before you can simplify anything without destroying its integrity, you need to have studied the philosophy enough to understand it well. I can confidently say that I have done that, and I have no problem interpreting the simple concepts and weaving them into the story, but I was ambitious (sometimes I think foolish) enough to choose a theme for a series that required me to go deeper, and that's when things can get tricky.

Book one sets the scene with a simple idea, that of demons that are an external manifestation of emotions. My characters use skills learnt in meditation to defeat the demons, but before my central character, seventeen-year-old Ariel can do this, she must learn how. So, within this book are genuine and complete meditation instructions, and yet the word meditation does not appear even once. 

Yet this is essentially a new adult fantasy with all the elements of any great example of that genre ie romance, adventure, humour and life threatening battles!

I have just released book three, Demon's Grip, and it was the hardest book to write, because it had to explore the difference between wanting something and craving it. Why? Because the demon lord, Emot, bodyguard to the Master Demon, feeds on craving.

Finding the right words wasn't easy. Luckily I have a fabulous editor, Krisi, who by questioning the meaning of what I had written helped me to write it as clearly as possible.

All this talk about  concepts might make the book sound heavy, but it isn't. The demons are pretty sleazy, as demons should be, but all my writing has a light touch. There's a grumpy but amusing talking cat, a mysterious magician, a handsome young man, a gutsy nearly eighteen- year-old and a quirky but wise old man, and it takes place in our own time, in a realm hidden within our world.

 

Here's some perceptive things people have said about the series.

 

 “I can't even begin to describe all of the action you'll find in this highly imaginative journey. This is a fantastic depiction of a fight between good and evil.” Crazy Four Books.

"A magical world with an exceptional well-written ribbon of 'real world' weaved throughout."  Twisted Sense Book Blog

“This world is the context for Ariel, a young woman in the grip of a prophecy, desperately trying to rescue her mother before her mother is killed... or worse.” Ruthanne Reid, author of The Sundered.

 

“A beautifully written, exciting fantasy-adventure with vibrant description.” Krisi Keley, author of Mareritt.

 

It’s always best to start at the beginning of a series though, so to inspire you to do just that, book one in the series is only 99c until the 6th July on Kindle and Kobo, so pick it up and read your way to the top of Diamond Peak.

 

You can also pick up a FREE short story prequel to the Series here.

If you’ve read books one and two, you can find Demon's Grip at your Kindle Store , Smashwords & Kobo

Post by Tahlia Newland, the award-winning fantasy and magical realism author with a metaphysical twist. If you enjoyed this blog post, you can join her on Facebook , Twitter or Google+ You can even fan her on Goodreads. When not reading, writing, reviewing or mentoring authors you may find her being an extremely casual high school teacher or making decorative masks. Tahlia began writing full time in 2008 after twenty years in the performing arts and a five-year stint as a creative and performing arts teacher in a High School. In 2012, she set up the Awesome Indies List to showcase quality independent fiction. She has had extensive training in meditation and Buddhist philosophy and lives in an Australian rainforest south of Sydney. Creativity is her middle name!