Monday Morning Musings - Cyber Monday Sales

There are a lot of terrific sales going on for Cyber Monday, and this is my preferred way to shop rather than deal with the crowds at the stores over the weekend. I found a website, Cyber Monday 2013 Deals, that has 29 pages of links to special deals. I like being able to find things in one spot, rather than having to check all the online retail sites. 

A special sale on e-books has begun with 50% off all titles from Untreed Reads, This includes books published directly by Untreed Reads, as well as books they distribute for publishers like Uncial Press and Books We Love. The sale runs until just before midnight tonight, and most short stories only $0.25 each. There are hourly special deals, as well, so check the main page of the store to find out about those. I'm pleased to have my holiday short story, The Last Dollar, as part of that sale, along with my other short stories, so this is a good time to load up an e-reader for yourself or as a gift.

The Holiday show I have been working on at the local art center will open this Friday, so I am going to be busy all week with the last minute things that always seem to pop up. This is a special show that has some music in addition to a short original play, Calliope's Christmas. The story concept was developed by a local lady, and she gave me free rein to adapt the story to a stage play. It has some wonderful characters, primarily a cat and a hare who learn the meaning of Christmas, thanks to Max, the dog.

It has been great fun working with the kids to prepare the show, and I have had great assistance from so many people who have helped with costumes and set decorations. Many hands working together certainly does make any job easier and more fun. But I must say it was quite a challenge to make a costume so the boy playing the hare would look like a real animal.

Are you taking advantage of the Cyber Monday sales? Did you do Black Friday? Are there favorite holiday shows that you like to see at a theatre or on Television?

Birthday's, Gifts, and Bargain Books

I know, it's Tuesday and I don't normally post on Tuesday, but there are so many neat things going on this week, and this month, I just had to tell you about them.

First, of course, is my birthday on July Fourth. The other day my friend, Alex J. Cavanaugh suggested we have fireworks to celebrate. What a novel idea. I think I'll try that while my kids are here at "Grandma's Ranch" helping me not to feel too bad about reaching another speed limit number. By the way, it is not the speed limit that is recommended to get the best gas mileage. In fact, one should not even watch his or her gas gauge while driving at this speed. 

It seems that July is the month that lots of publishers and authors have decided to run special sales on their books. I told you last week about the sale Untreed Reads is having on short stories - 4 For the Fourth - in which you can purchase 4 short stories for a dollar.  There's a list of books, as well as all the details on my blog post Special Sale For the Fourth of July.

Tying into the themes of birthdays and gifts, I decided that this year on my birthday, I should give a gift or two, so I am giving one person who comments on any of the blogs from last Wednesday through tomorrow all four of my short stories that are at Untreed Reads. All you have to do is leave a comment, with a contact e-mail please, and I will draw a winner on Thursday morning and arrange the gift. The short stories are; The Visitor, a retelling of the Goldilocks story; Making it Home, a story that was first published in Lady's Circle magazine; The Last Dollar, a holiday story with a message for any time of the year; and SAHM, I Am, a humorous story about a woman and a home computer.

One of my publishers, Books We Love, is taking part in the month-long sale at Smashwords, where many books are priced at 50% off. What a terrific deal, and my short story collection, The Wisdom of Ages, is offered in the sale. As is my YA novel,  Friends Forever. 

Here is the opening of the book:

"Growing up isn’t easy,” Debbie’s mother said as she worked a touch of yellow into the flowers coming to life on a canvas in front of her. “Goodness knows it’s never been easy, but the worst thing I had to worry about when I was your age was whether I’d get a new pimple on the night of my first date. We didn’t have to deal with drugs or wonder if someone was hanging around school with a gun.”

Debbie stood there half-listening, impatient to be off to meet Lauren. She knew her mother meant well, but really. How many times did she have to listen to this same litany?

Her mother’s voice droned on. “I’d never heard of uppers or downers. The only pills I’d ever seen were aspirins. The first time one of those melted in my mouth, I decided I’d never...”

“Mom,” Debbie glanced at the door. “Could we talk about this some other time? I promised to meet Lauren and I’m already late.”

There are lots of great books being offered in these sales, so I hope you find some good books and stories to add to your summer reading list. I have grabbed a few and plan to spend some early mornings on my deck enjoying them.

What do you have on your summer reading list?

Wednesday's Guest

As you might have guessed from the title of this blog piece, I will be devoting Wednesday's to guest blogs. If you would like to be my guest, send me a message at maryann@maryannwrites.com with a proposed topic. I prefer shorter blogs - around 500 to 700 words - and that they not be just a book promo. They don't have to be writing related, either. On some Wednesdays, I will continue to offer essays from my friend, Slim Randles, and hope you enjoy his offering today.

I just heard from Slim and two of his books are finalists in the New Mexico Book Awards competition.   According to his publisher, Rio Grande Books, both Sweetgrass Mornings, an outdoor memoir, and A Cowboy’s Guide to Growing Up Right, advice for young people, were named. The winners will be named in November.  

A huge congratulations to Slim.

I am over at Venture Galleries with a new weekly blog, so I hope you will go over and check it out, along with the other wonderful blogs there.

I would also like to announce that another of my publishers is having a terrific contest. Win a Kindle for Christmas contest started at Books We Love this week. They are giving away two ebooks a week, a Spa Basket, a Sweets Basket, ebook sets, and a Kindle before Christmas. 
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If they ever give a Nobel Prize for reading about science, our guy Bert Underwood would be a shoo-in. His own career had been strictly non-scientific, but his retirement absolutely reeked of cutting-edge discoveries, which he read about and tried to pronounce.

It was like that the other night when the Mule Barn closed. We had taken our wives down to split either a chicken-fried steak the size of a saddle blanket, or a fish and chips large enough to feed a cavalry regiment.  We stepped out into the chill of the night and looked up at the many stars.

“Nice night for neutrinos,” Bert said. His wife, Maizie, groaned quietly and looked for something in her purse.

“Neutrinos, Bert?” Doc said.

“You know what neutrinos are, of course, Doc,” Bert said.

“I think that’s the chess team in Fairweather, Doc,” Steve threw in.

“You’re wrong, Steve,” said Mrs. Doc. “Those are the Machismos.”

“So the neutrinos … aren’t they dogs that have been fixed?”

Bert was ready to bust a gut. “Are you kidding? You don’t know what neutrinos are? You don’t study astronomy?”

“Well, no, actually…”

Bert smiled in the darkness. “A neutrino,” he pronounced, “is a sub-atomic particle. It doesn’t have an electrical charge, and it flies around at the speed of light going through things. The word neutrino means ‘small, neutral one’.”

“Just like Gilbert’s Chihuahua. He charges around going through things… and I’m pretty sure he’s been neutralled.”

“I don’t know why I even bother bringing up these scientific things,” Bert said, in despair.

“Me neither,” said Dud.

“You probably don’t know about charmed quarks, either, I’ll bet.”

“Charmed, I’m sure,” said Steve.

Doc made wing-flapping gestures. “Quark, quark … QUARK!”

Bert got in the car and drove off.

Sometimes drive-by knowledge can hurt innocent bystanders.

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Brought to you by Slim’s new book and great stocking stuffer “A Cowboy’s Guide to Growing Up Right.” Learn more at http://www.nmsantos.com/Slim/Slim.html

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Just a reminder about the contest my publisher for Play it Again, Sam is holding to celebrate its fifth year in operation. To join in the fun with a scavenger hunt and daily prizes, click on the birthday banner on the right panel of the blog or CLICK HERE  The major prizes are a Kindle and a KOBO e-reader, and every day an e-book will be given away free.

New Stories

 The Wisdom of Ages - A Short Story Collection,  my new short story collection was just released by Books We Love Publishing Partners.

Three stories; four men whose lives take unexpected turns. Meet Samson who wonders what is down that country road that draws people so. Should he get in that old truck and go see? Mel and Rube have been having dinner at the Leavenworth Grill every Wednesday for years. One day the menu changes and so does life for Mel. Tom would give anything for his life to change. Can he beat back the effects of a crippling stroke by sheer force of determination? Growing old is not for the faint of heart.

"These three gems will make you think about time and how you use it. Maryann Miller has a rare gift for taking the pulse of ordinary lives and spinning that into extraordinary tales." -- Craig Lancaster, author of 600 Hours of Edward"and The Summer Son

"Miller shares her skills as a writer and her humanity in this inspiring glimpse into the realities of aging and the heartbreak of letting go." Paula Stallings Yost Editor/Author, What Wildness is This: Women Write About the Southwest

"Sometimes the best stories come at the end of our lives, and so do the strongest lessons. Read Maryann Miller's poignant vignettes about aging and let them tug at your heart-strings. They capture the very essence of our tender humanity." ~ Dani Greer, author, editor and Special Projects Coordinator for Little Pickle Press,

 I like working with a publisher who does all the work of getting a cover, ISBN number, and getting that all up on Amazon and other sites for e-readers. But I have also been experimenting with putting my own content up. That can be very time consuming for someone like me who has a steep learning curve when it comes to new technology, but I am learning.

Last Friday I announced that I have two new short stories up on Amazon for the Kindle. SAHM I Am and The Visitor  They are both priced at 99cents and make a good, quick read.

SAHM I Am is a humorous sci-fi story. Technology may be on the verge of having sophisticated home computers that run an entire household, but have the scientists taken into consideration the human factor? When SAHM, a Sensor Activated Home Manager, is field tested at the O'Neal home, he's up against the biggest challenge a computer has ever faced; one Shanna O'Neal.


The Visitor was first written as an assignment in a writing class to adapt a classic fairy tale, and I chose Goldilocks and the Three Bears. A camping trip in the Rockies becomes most interesting when a stranger shows up and the Cantrell family has to find out who has been sneaking into their cabin.

New Opportunities in Publishing

This is an exciting time for writers with all the new avenues of publication opening up with e-books and digital publishing, and I have enjoyed hearing of the success of writers like Joe Konrath, LJ Sellers, and others who have sold hundreds of books. (They also have great tips and advice on self-publishing.)

I have put some titles up on Kindle and Smashwords myself, but recently decided to go through Books We Love Publishing Partners and let them do all the formatting for the different venues. I am not technically savvy and my learning curve for all things computer is very steep. Just ask my kids who dread the e-mail from me with the subject line "Help."

There are pros and cons to going with a publisher as opposed to uploading books independently, and one of the reasons I decided to do the former is because I've had a long relationship with Books We Love. They have been in the business of connecting authors and readers for several years and that connecting is still going on with the publishing arm of the business. Sure, I will still have to do a lot of my own promoting, as most of us writers have to do now, but BWLPP is doing some, too. That is a real advantage for me, as well, because promoting is my second least favorite thing to do.

BWLPP is taking a small percentage of the book sales, and I am willing to give them that for the ease of publication, as well as the added promotion. Many other writers are doing it all themselves, and I admire them for that. But it is not for me, and I think we all need to take the path of most comfort when it comes to taking advantage of these new opportunities.

What about you? Would you go totally independent, or take advantage of a publisher?

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One Small Victory is now available in paperback. It has been on Kindle and Smashwords for almost a year and BWLPP just released the paper edition via CreateSpace on Amazon.

Friends Forever is enjoying a new life in paperback and as an e-book, also through BWLPP. It has been revised and updated since it's first brief publication years ago.

Sizzling Summer Sweepstakes

I belong to a promotional site along with a lot of other terrific writers, and lest that sound too boastful, I was trying to find a way to leave myself out of the terrific category, but there was no other way to write that sentence.

Anyway, Books We Love has a great contest every summer with ongoing weekly prizes and a grand prize at the end of the summer. This year we are giving away a Border's Kobo e-Reader as the grand prize. Weekly drawings are for e-books, and a copy of my One Small Victory is on the prize list.

Entry instructions for all prizes are on the Books We Love Web site: To enter the contest simply visit five of the author pages displayed on the Web page index and sign the guest book of the author you choose to visit. Then fill out the entry form on the Web site and click submit.

PRIZES: (1) Every week until July 31 we will draw one winner to receive their choice of an ebook from any one of our Books We love authors. (2) On May 31, June 30 and July 31st we will draw three winners who will each receive an autographed copy of one of the print books displayed on the page. (4) GRAND PRIZE: Borders KOBO EREADERS. On July 31st one lucky winner will receive a Kobo and their choice of any five Books We Love ebooks.

Enter Now: http://www.bookswelove.net http://www.bookswelove.net/>

BWL Scavenger Hunt

Just read on the Books We Love Readers group on Yahoo that the Scavenger Hunt contest has been extended and incorporates a membership drive. I was busy all weekend so I didn't see that things had changed until today.

Books We Love (BWL) is a great place to find new authors and new books to read. On the actual BWL site readers can meet the authors and read excerpts of books. On the new BWL Readers group, people can join in daily discussions about books, read more excerpts, and get to know more about the BWL authors than maybe you want to know. :-)

So, here is the info on how the Scavenger Hunt contest is going to run.


Scavenger Hunt/New Member Drive

From now through the end of April, the BWL Reader's loop is having a grand opening Scavenger Hunt and new member drive. The events promise to be fun. Twenty authors have put up prizes, many of them autographed print copies of their books. The "travel/road map" for the Hunt will be posted daily on the BWL readers list. Answers to the questions are clearly displayed in excerpts, teasers, and descriptions on the designated websites on the travel/road map. Come and play, join the loop, you might get doubly lucky!

Please fell free to pass along the information.

To join: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BWL_Readers

Fun Scavenger Hunt

Tomorrow on Books We Love Reader's loop at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BWL_Readers

we'll be hosting a grand opening Scavenger Hunt. It promises to be fun. Twenty authors have put up prizes, many of them autographed print copies of their books, including me. A copy of Play It Again Sam is one of the prizes.

The answers to the questions you'll be given are clearly displayed in excerpts, teasers and descriptions on the designated websites on the travel map. Come and play.

This was organized by Ginger Simpson, who is terrific about promoting fellow authors as well as her own work.

The "road map" will be posted on the loop tomorrow morning and you'll have until Sunday at noon to email your answers to Ginger. Her e-mail is listed on the group.

The winners will be announced Sunday evening there. Hope to see you.

Great Contest Coming

YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THIS! In celebration of the grand opening of the new Books We Love Reader's Group at yahoo, BWL_Readers@yahoogroups.com, we're asking you to get acquainted with some of our authors by participating in a fun scavenger hunt. We promise it isn't hard. You just have to follow the provided links listed on the loop the morning of March 20th and answer some really easy questions. The answers are all there...you just have to find and collect them all to be entered into a drawing for one of eighteen books. Some will even be personally autographed. You'll have two days, with the contest ending Saturday at midnight. All entries must be received by Ginger Simpson at mizging@gmail.com by noon on Sunday, 3/22. Winners will be announced shortly after.

Whether you come to play or not, we hope you will join us in celebrating the beginning of what we hope will be a stimulating and pleasant group experience. If you aren't familiar with us, please visit http://www.bookswelove.net and get an idea of who we are and what we're about. I'm sure you may have already played in a contest or two there. Jude Pittman has assembled a wonderful group of talent, but without readers, we don't have much purpose. Come join us, won't you. Remember, Friday, March 20th.

Join us in welcoming Spring!