A Beginners Guide to Instagram for YA authors.

My Instagram reflects my love of travel,
music, books, and photography. It's
 about the challenge of finding the
magical in the ordinary; about
seeing the world through a different
set of expectations and eyes. 

Firstly, a massive shout out to the fabulous website resource, HASHTAGIFY which I have discovered through some research into how to get the most engagement with the Instagram community.

I'm writing this blogpost mostly as a way of capturing some very interesting findings to help my own engagement but hopefully it will give you some little pointers, too. Although I strongly recommend taking a full look Hachtagify so you can match it precisely to your own book world.

I write Fantasy YA fiction (mostly) and I seriously LOVE Instagram. I have made the decision to make my Instagram board a reflection of my Creative Life not just my authoring; so it's predominantly travel, inspiration, creative living, music, books and reading. I have a passion for art and image, and instagram is a great platform for me to play with my passion for photography.

The recurring advice I have collected for beginners on instagram is:

• create a coherent visual theme with a strong message of your values. So mine is very aesthetically focused with strong, rich colours. I have a love of structure and form, and there is a sense of magic and whimsy, with strong alternative overtones. 


•  #HASHTAGS are really important. So as a YA author are you using #YALit #YABooks #YAReader #YAseries #Booknerd #Booknerdigan #kidlit #ASMSG #Author #AmWriting #Books #Kindle #Bookworm #Booklover #bookstagram #booklove (the most successful posts have around 12-20 hashtags!) 


• #yabooks is the most used 55%  #YAbooks is the next with 29% so yes, caps lock matters. (Stats thanks to Hashtagify) 


• Did you know that the peak time for the hashtag engagements linked to the ones above is Sunday afternoon starting at 1pm and peaking at 5pm (GMT) Although strangely, Wednesday is also a strong day. (Thanks Hashtagify)


• SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT - the best way to strengthen your engagement is to, well, engage, and not just broadcast. It's really important to find influencers in your community and like their posts and take the time to comment; this is the best way to get noticed and for people to check out your page. 


• Run engagement posts - ask people to tag and share. Run contests in which they have to tag you, share and tag in order to cross-promote to your followers. 


• TIME investment - as with all human interactions, it takes time to build meaningful, powerful relationships; followers need to get to know you through your board. Organic, genuine growth is always the best way to go, but that doesn't mean you sit back and wait for the garden to grow - get out there and make friends, be bold, be you. 


• My own tip is to make special expeditions and adventures to build up your B roll of film on your phone so that you have a week's worth or a couple of week's worth of images that you can post across the days. This will take some of the pressure off and get you into the habit of posting daily. 


• USE EMOCATIONS - they are the language of Instagram. Think about how you can use them in your bio to really convey who you are, what you stand for and what your belief systems are. In this way, you can tell folks a thousand words worth of things in the 100+ bio allowance. 

FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/katemjohn/ 

After posting this onto AYAA on Facebook, I gathered some more excellent advice, so I'm expanding this post to include the things that are coming of it. 

JESIKAH UNDIN - author and Bookstagrammer. 

find her at: https://www.instagram.com/jesikahsundin/ 

"The best advice I have? Don't self-promote too much. That's a turn-off to this community. It's meant to be social, to discuss your favorite books as fellow readers. So... join the community of readers. Become one of them and ask a QOTD (question of the day) to kickstart conversations. "

And for hashtags, check out a variety of #Bookstagram accounts and see what hashtags they use and borrow them. Use oversaturated ones like #Bookstagram coupled with lesser used ones like #BookDragon and #Booktography. Or themed ones like #BooksandCandles or #BooksandOutdoors.

RESOURCES:

http://hashtagify.me/hashtag/yabooks

https://blog.bufferapp.com/instagram-growth
http://www.melyssagriffin.com/grow-your-instagram-followers/
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/10-ways-to-grow-an-organic-instagram-presence/

Monday Musings. The Dark Mirror of Social Media.

This post explores the impact of  current social media issues on me as a creative, and on our community; it's all getting a little Lord of The Flies. 

Some of you who are members of my 'Fierce Wings' group on Facebook were privy to a post a little while ago that started with 'To be honest, I'm not feeling quite so fierce at the moment.'

I'm not one to sharing the darker, gloomier, depressing sides of being a Creative on a creative journey, and this declaration to my wonderful, kind group was not just unprecedented, but it was really hard to admit things were not all rainbows and signings and flowing words. 

Most of you know by now that I am usually a little ray of sunshine; a busy little bee flitting around book world, always something exciting happening, always new places being travelled to, new experiences grasped. I pride myself on being a force of good in a community that is increasingly tearing itself apart; I believe in positive affirmation, balancing the universe and the manifestation of true desires, even if they come in a different guise to what we initially thought .... 

but....

As many of you are all to painfully aware, the social media world and the reality world are often very different. It's not that the social media world is a lie - it isn't, it's a truth, or it certainly is in my instance as I don't like deceit, but it is an alternative truth (My bad for sounding like a speech writer for Trump.) 

The social media brand of Katie M. John is honest and a genuine expression of my creativity but it is of course selective; and the things I choose to omit are for a variety of reasons, all of them for reasons other than vanity or delusion or ego. 

For example, if you hit my Instagram account, you'd have to be very observant to note I am a mother to two daughters - they  feature very rarely (and always in abstract) on Instagram because it is a platform I can't fully control; any old weirdo could be looking at them. But it doesn't mean I am creating a false delusion of my life, it's not that I'm trying to 'pretend I'm foot loose and fancy free' - I'm  just choosing to portray a facet of my life rather than revealing all of it in one space - just as when I go out with my clothes on, I am not attempting to hide my body through shame or fear, it's just private, it belongs to me... and the world probably thanks me for that. 

It's a bit like that and my mental health. It's taken me many decades to fully accept and openly acknowledge that I have high functioning depressive tendencies; the kind of depression that switches me me onto auto-pilot, where I still go through the motions of and responsibilities of my life, (God forbid I ever let anybody down and cause disappointment) but it is done with a very different energy to the periods I am 'well'. It's not that I stop doing things - I don't, but the growth stops, the risks seem more overwhelming, projects are completed with stomach churning self-doubt and fear. Avoidances creep in, and less savoury tasks are left until they absolutely have to be dealt with - and where social media used to feel like a place of understanding, shared experience and support, it increasingly feels like a gladiatorial ring. 

Late last year, for the first time in the decade I have been actively engaged on Social media, I was trolled. Someone ripped my whole creativity and work to pieces; they threw vitriolic, hurtful words into a series of 'reviews' with no care that a human being was involved in the writing process. Don't get me wrong, in the ten years I've been writing and publishing, I have had plenty of 1 star and less than positive reviews - but they've always been respectful, always been polite and a genuine expression of their dislike of the story / book / characters - I have a thick skin, or so I thought, but these particular trolling reviews were just plain nasty about me as an author, as a person. They told me in no uncertain terms that I had no place putting my s*@% out there for poor unsuspecting readers to stumble across and waste their time and pennies on. 

These comments shouldn't have got to me in the way they did, but this combined with other world factors and some of the negativity that our own book world has 'embraced' sent me down that familiar old tunnel of high-functioning depression.  

Then, just last week, a fellow book worlder who doesn't actually know me, decided to actively and aggressively call me out over something they chose to interpret negatively - no one else did. This second incidence of social media aggression in the space of two months is indicative of a shift in the social-media book-world - and it's a shift I don't much like. 

There have been a couple of high profile book dramas this week - but that seems to be the case every week these days. Hurtful, cruel, truly damaging things are being said more and more in our community and it's having a ripple effect - people are adjusting to this increasingly hostile and volatile environment by becoming defensive, protectivist, and creating an almost self-fulfilling culture of conflict - and for people like me, that becomes a serious issue of well-being. 

And I understand why it's happening. The book world is over-populated. It's seen an abundant growth of authors and their books, but rather than some people seeing this as a great and exciting thing, rather than celebrating the renaissance of genres, of reading growth, of a sign that the indie and hybrid market is doing things so right that it's flourishing, they have decided to turn it into some Darwinist fight for survival. It is literally turning into Lord of The Flies and I feel like Ralph shouting that we need to build shelters, and nurture community, and care for one another, when there are Jacks popping up everywhere that just want to, 'Kill The Pig! Kill The Pig!"

We all know how that novel ends, in the bloody murder of Simon, in the brutal emotional torture of Piggy, of the physical hunting down of Ralph - any hope for a harmonious, peaceful, productive community burning down around them. 

Simon removes himself away from the tribe when the tensions and conflicts become too much, and I am so sad (and increasingly lonely) to discover that more than several of my dear international author friends are doing the same. They are becoming painfully absent; they are retreating and with that, there stories and creativity are retreating, too - because the devil of it is,  without social media being a financially secure indie author is neigh on impossible, and some amazingly talented, lovely authors are choosing to sacrifice their authoring in order to protect their wider mental health. 

And this has been my desire for the last few months, to run away and hide from the nasty monsters stalking our land, but I know that isn't an option. I love this book world and an army of good needs to fight back. The fires need to be kept lit. The light must continue to shine. I am not willing to surrender  my craft, my stories, my authoring because some people want to cannibalise others. 

I am looking forward to helping be a part of calling to arms when we meet together at Chapter.Con London 2017, a conference model I have imported from the USA, inspired by my incredible mentor and dear friend, Janet Wallace of UTOPiA.Con and Social Deviants,  in which authors gather to share, get to know each other, exchange, support, and create a fiercely positive community that is committed to keeping our book world a safe space - a space where people can grow rather than just survive. 

Rise to the 10 Acts of kindness challenge...

This week is Random Acts of Kindness week. This is a principle I not only believe in, but follow through. I have made regular 'Random Acts of Kindness'  to people in my author / book community and it is now an embedded part of who I am - it really does become a natural way of living after a very short time.

Often it's the smallest acts of kindness that hold the greatest
power. 

 I try to do one significant monthly act, which is often a monetary gift to someone in need or a care package for someone who is feeling the presence of the black-dog, and a smaller daily act, which is often an investment of time or skill. My Fangirl Friday posts are a small part of this belief.

Sometimes, those folks know it is me behind the gift of money, time, sharing, cheerleading, kindness packages, etc, and sometimes they don't. People often find it difficult to ask for help and even more difficult to accept it when it's offered. It's not about rough riding people's dignity or displacing the delicate power balance between two individuals. There's an art to giving, but it's one easily learned.

Now, I know there are some cynics who say there is no such thing as a pure act of random kindness because it makes the giver feel good about themselves - which is a good point, but let's reframe that, in our book community there are plenty of incidences of folks getting all the feels for themselves over being total barstools! Trolling, nasty-reviewing, knocking down other authors, books, bloggers, has become sadly commonplace, and it sometimes feels like we can't get through a day with out some kind of negative drama unfolding.

Kindness is powerful; it's transformative - it has the capacity to literally change lives - and sometimes it's the smallest acts that have the greatest power.

THE  10 ACTS OF KINDNESS CHALLENGE

1) Leave an honest, encouraging review for an author who has under 50 reviews on Amazon.

2) Post on your Facebook timeline, a copy of the book you are reading, tell your friends why you're enjoying it, why they should read it, and tag the author.

3) Head to an author's website and drop an encouraging message into their contact box.

4) Buy a book from an indie who you don't know anything about.

5) Create a fan picture / bookselfie of an author's book and post it on instagram, Facebook etc and tag them.

6) Like an author's Facebook page and write them an introductory message - just say hi.

7) Take $5 and download 5 random ebooks in a genre you love from the bottom of the rankings. (Rankings aren't all about quality, they're a lot to do with exposure - there are some hidden gems lurking in the bottom of the Amazon ranking pool)

8) Create a piece of fan art, photography, colouring, crafting, painting, sketching and post it to their timeline -- I can't tell you how joyful this makes an author.

9) Buy a ticket for a book signing - someone who is starting out and doesn't already have a thousand fans queuing to see them. It's soul destroying to put yourself out there and no one show up. (#BeenThere)

10) For goodness sake, if your friend or family member has written and published a book, buy it - it doesn't matter if it's your kind of book or not - you don't have to read it!
You'd shout them a coffee, a beer or a birthday card - so shout them a book sale. Rankings matter and especially on launch days. Every sale makes a huge difference to Amazon rankings and how much exposure that book will go on to get --- and who knows, you might even enjoy it.

So - this is quite a lot to do in the remaining days of RAK week - but hey, I've always encouraged the healthy breaking of rules -- feel free to do any of these at any point throughout the year. The universe will thank you, and so will the book community xxx

FREE BOOKS! Why I put Books 1 of my series on free.

Who doesn't love a good freebie. Did you know that you can get both Book 1 of 'The Meadowsweet Chronicles', and Book 1 of 'The Knight Trilogy' free on all ebook platforms? Well you can.

I made the decision to put Books 1 of both my series on perma-free after much thought. I'm not a household name, and despite having had some fabulous sales, several best-selling rankings, and beautiful star gradings on all of the various (and sometimes scary) review platforms, I am not a USA Today bestseller or any of that other astronomically awesome stuff, but I do write books that most people who make a punt on, enjoy - and there are many (according to star ratings) who enjoy them very much indeed.

Book 1. 'Witchcraft' is free on all eBook platforms.
Go to www.katiemjohn.com to pick up the links

But there are just so many authors out there shouting to be heard - many authors who are amazing, and who tell the most bewitching and talented stories, but who get lost in the bun-fight. Way before I was an author, I became a reader - and I know how it is... it takes a lot to invest in a book, especially when you have a fearsome reading habit and a purse that doesn't match it. And it isn't just money - there's this silent communication of trust that runs between a reader and an author when you pick up a book - it's a don't let me down kind of thing; I've trusted you, I've invested in you - please don't be crap LOL

Well, my view as an author is, I want to share stories more than I want to make money (although it would be nice to be able to pay for luxuries like food, light, school shoes for the kids, notebooks and wine... most importantly wine)

My thought is, if I give you book one of my series, (both of which took over a year to write and over a thousand pounds to produce - not accounting for my actual time because authors often like to deny the idea of actually having a salary, but let's say we do take that into account - at least 20 thousand pounds if I was running my own sweat shop, which I am...) then if you like it, you move onto the next book priced at a fair (and some would argue, still too cheaply priced) $2.99-$3.99 / £2.99-£3.99

I know there have been some readers who have found this policy annoying. They think that if Book One is free then all other books from that author should be free - well, yeah, you guys are smart enough to see why that a) isn't sustainable and b) just isn't fair.

Book 1 'The Forest of Adventures' is free on all
ebook platforms. Head to www.katiemjohn.com to
pick up the links. 

The other thing we (as reader and author) are doing, is sticking up to Amazon just a little - not that I don't love love them (I really do love you Amazon, honest) You see, what most readers don't realise is that Amazon (I love you) have this really (some might say 'evil') policy that if you are an author and you price your book under $2.99 then you can only reap a 30% royalty from them. Yep, that's right, folks, every single $0.99 book you ever buy, the author gets just $0.33!

However, as soon as a book is priced over $2.99 then the royalty goes up to a whopping 70%. Now you know how the market has been swamped with $0.99 deals, and how that has forced the market into thinking that is a new norm - well it isn't, and quite frankly, it's a little sickening to sell your book for a 1/3 of the price of a coffee, knowing that you are going to get just $0.33 (£0.20p) from each sale.

Personally, I would rather give you the book and we set up this whole reader, author relationship of trust, whereby I provide you stories you like, and you support my writing by future purchases at a fair price that plays the Amazon game sweetly - and if you feel so inclined, to leave a review as well that would be amazingly awesome - because weirdly, the more reviews you have (whatever star rating) it pushes you up the rankings and makes you more visible on searches etc.

So there we are - that's why I give away my books - not because they're crap but because I love you.

They're free on all platforms - and if you head over to www.katiemjohn.com - right there on the landing page is the links to Amazon and iBooks - you can't miss them. And whilst you're there, feel free to take a little tour around at my other 7 books ;)

Introducing the founder of Little Bird Publishing....

That will be me.

Many of you don't realise that as well as being a 'full time' (that's a bit of an inside joke) writer, I am also the founder of Little Bird Publishing House.

Originally, I set Little Bird Publishing House up as my own unique press. It was designed to be the business front of my indie publishing career, and it worked really well. This was way back in 2010 when the idea of owning your own publishing house was still quite a novelty in the whole indie book world.

However, with the boom in indie books and authors, I began to see a LOT of dream paddlers; people offering to take your book, charge you a couple of thousand pounds and turn it into a bestseller - yeah, right!

It wasn't right - and it wasn't fair, and by late 2013, I had learned SOOO much on my steep learning curve, it felt time to help some other folks out. I began branching the idea of a publishing house with the establishment of two anthology projects. Dark Heart & Night Shade. It was an amazing way of testing the ground to see if I was ready to actually become not only an indie author, but a publisher, too. The Dark Heart & Night Shade projects led to some fabulous author friendships, and two of the authors are now fully-fledged Little Bird authors.

Fast forward to 2016 and we are a publishing family of ten; Hazel Robinson, Toya Richardson, Helen Whapshott, Alison Clarke, Martin Ferguson, Jo Richardson, Jill Turner, Katie M. John (me) and in 2017 Brandon Robb and L. Keane will be joining us. And when I use the term family, I don't use it lightly. As a collective of authors, we support each other, encourage, build, lend a hand, and generally hang out on social media.

My mission with Little Bird is and always has been that we are stronger together. That when we begin to work as a community of artists, amazing things happen - and they do.

I treat every single one of the books that run through Little Bird as dearly as my own, from the first initial edits, to the art work, to the marketing, to the love of the story - all Little Bird books are my beautiful nieces and nephews. Every author I work with is respected for their own unique and beautiful voice - that's what Little Bird is about; not crushing authors and creatives into a marketing book, but giving unique voices a chance to shine.

Every single Little Bird Book is worked until it is of a quality ready for readership - and the reviews, awards and fan-bases prove that.

I don't worry about markets and sales trends when it comes to selecting the stories we are going to publish, I focus on the story, on the author behind the story - and it doesn't matter if it sells 10,000 copies, or 10, every single story is important. Every single author's voice is important.

The thing about writing and defining oneself as an author is that it's freaking scary as hell. You're terrified that someone is going to 'out' you as a fraud, that someone is going to knock you down so hard that your'e never going to quite get up - and although it isn't always the nicest of worlds, by creating a community of authors who have genuine friendships grown through shared experiences and belonging to something a little bigger than being all by themselves, it makes the whole thing a lot less scary, and a hell of a lot more exciting.

In 2017 we see the next big step for us as a publishing house. We are the primary sponsors of Chapter.Con London and many of the Little Bird Family will be attending and manning our Little Bird super table, and we are also going to have a full publishing table at Leeds in 2018 with Hourglass Events. We are always growing and despite sometimes feeling like I have a million hats to wear, editor, designer, publisher, marketer, author, business woman, it's an amazingly fulfilling way to live.

If you want to find out more about Little Bird Publishing, or if you are an indie author who thinks that they might like to try a different kind of indie publishing, then you can see our public website www.thelittlebirdbookstore.com, which also has a link for authors to our publisher's website www.littlebirdpublishinghouse.com 



You can also come over and give us a LIKE at our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter at @LittlebirdPub - which amusingly is not a place you can procure beer from, but keep up to date with what we are all doing.

One of The World's Tiniest Book Launches in One of The World's Tiniest Cocktail Bars.

#StartSmallDreamBig

I'm heading off to UTOPiA in a month and having been nominated for a couple of awards for my book 'When Sorrows Come' and my series, 'Beautiful Freaks', I was feeling under increased pressure to find a drop-dead gorgeous evening gown (not that I need any encouragement, I love evening dresses) 

However, several weeks later and having tried on over 40 different dresses, every single one somehow wasn't right - either that or it looked pretty much the same as one of the 5 I have already hanging in my wardrobe. 

I was sat having a coffee, feeling a little deflated when I got to thinking that £200 / $300 was a hell of a lot of money for a dress I was going to wear just a handful of times. I began to think of ways that I could perhaps spend that money more wisely on attaining my life-plan. 

Coincidentally, the very next day, we stopped off at a new shop that had opened in my home town. It is the HQ office of a cocktail hamper company, founded by an interesting female entrepreneur. She wanted to create an office that was a joy to work in rather than the industrial unit office she had currently been renting. She chose one of the cute little Victorian fronted shops that had once been a florists, and now, as well as having a pretty office, she opens up the front of it as a tiny miniature cocktail bar. 

EUREKA, I would take that £200 and hold a perfectly miniature book launch party / signing. The cocktail bar will take just about 10 people - the perfect number of people as one of my very first solo signings. 

Then, life is strange; there are several other creative projects happening in my life at the minute, and for some reason, they all seem to be connecting with one another. One of these projects is working with women in the local community who have turned their back on traditional, patriarchal corporate jobs and professions to pursue their own path, create their own companies, and to sell their own services. TAP (The Academy of Possible) has recently been established, and it's a social evolution project that aims to connect women with skills with one another, so we can become cheerleaders and supporters for each other, both on a very practical sales level, and on an emotional, motivational level. 

As part of these two strands of my life, I had the idea that I would use the miniature signing in the miniature cocktail bar to make a miniature documentary on the theme of #StartSmallDreamBig, with the aim of inspiring other people to take that first step into doing something bold, social and extraordinary.

I'm not going to lie, the thought of a signing, where I will be reading, petrifies me. I'm still coming to terms with my identity as an author - which by 8 books down, I should have nailed already. And yet, there are reasons why I am 8 books down and never done a social launch party for one of my books... reasons that are complex and reasons that I know many others share. 

That's the aim of this project, to inspire folks to step outside of their comfort zones, but in a safe way - a bit like a controlled explosion, only just not with quite so much wreckage - although who knows what will happen with the added ingredient of cocktails. 

I'm being ultra brave, and fighting the fear by inviting a local journalist, the manager of a local national book store, and a high profile blogger to attend and be of the 10 guests that will be invited. I don't know if they will come, but I do know that if you don't ask, they definitely won't come. 

And if the filming is rubbish, if the reading is wobbly, if the whole thing is a little less than perfect, it doesn't matter, it will be perfectly imperfect and I will have learned a whole lot of lessons. 

Watch this space for more updates on this project, and I really look forward to hearing where you arrange your miniature signings having been inspired by this idea. 

Drop a reach out in the box <3 nbsp="" p="">

Precious Things.

It's only taken 5 years for me to finally claim the cupboard under the stairs as my own, but now that we are moving and have had to get the house ready for viewings, I've done it! And the thing that I love about it the most is that I finally get to have an author shelf.

Here it is. A lovely shelf of purple loveliness.

I love it and I thought you might be interested to hear a little bit about it. So from Left to Right here is a tour around my shelf.

Far Left: This beautiful hand-pressed woodcut is from the Witches House in Salem Massachusetts U.S.A. This was brought back from Salem this summer by my very dear friend Alison Stacey. We taught together for fifteen years and became more family than friend. She has been alongside me on this crazy journey right from the very start. She has never doubted. Always believed and I can't wait until she retires next year so that she can come on many U.S author road trips in the years to come.

The reason it is here is because my newest series, The Meadowsweet Chronicles is partly set in Salem, and the main character, Jeremiah Chase is a descendent from one of the original Salem Witch Hunters.

Middle: This small laser cut piece of paper art is from the Porte du Secrets exhibition centre in Paimpont, The Foret de Broceliande, Brittany. It depicts the forest and standing together in conversation, the wizard Merlin and Morgan Le Fay. The Forest of Broceliande is one of the primary settings of book 3 of the Knight Trilogy. Home to Merlin's Tomb, The Crystal Lake, The Knights Templar Chapel, The Valley of No Return, The Fountain of Eternal Youth, the forest of Broceliande and Paimpont is a magnet for all those who follow the Arthurian legends.

We go camping each year in Paimpont (Or Paint-Pot as it's affectionately become called by my family) and I drag the hubby and the two Mud-Puddles around all the various Arthurian landmarks, much to their excitement LOL.

Right: This selection of semi precious stones, Rose Quartz, Amethyst and Cornelian are some of my favourite stones. I'm a believer in Earth energy and I find them both beautiful to look at and calming. I like to be surrounded by beautiful things, and for me, semi-precious stones are some of the most beautiful things to be found in nature.

Right Top: This is where my author life began, with the writing of 'The Forest of Adventures'. When I began writing it, I truly believed that this was my one and only novel. It was a story I had been wanting to write since my own teenage years and there is so much of myself and my teenage experience woven into the pages of this dark fairy tale. I had no idea with the writing of those first words that I would go onto write and publish a further 8 books, countless short stories, travel around the world as part of an amazing book world, become the founder of a really special publishing company and the creator of a UK book convention.
For a long time I hid this book away. It's not the very best of my craft, little could I have known how much I would grow and develop as a writer, but I've come to acknowledge that it is the very best of my soul - and now it sits proudly as a reminder of where I started and where I have travelled to. This book will always be the most special of all of them.

You can find out more about me and my books over at my official website www.katiemjohn.com

So what's on your special shelf? I'd love for you to share in the comments box.

SERIAL READER.

Welcome to day 8 of the OctoberFrights Blog Hop. Today I'm talking serials and introducing you to my new dreadpunk, gothic, detective, fairy tale serial coming out in December called 'Beautiful Freaks'.

Leave a comment to be in with a chance of winning these really fab Jack earrings and a paperback copy of the orginal novel, Beautiful Freaks, which inspired the series.

I know that many of you have  fallen in love with drama series thanks to NETFLIX, HBO and FOX. And having the technology to record, store and consume episodes has made following series an even more delectable experience. I'm a series junkie too; Hannibal, American Horror Story, Game of Thrones, The Following to name a few that have captured my adoration over the last few years. There are many approaches to the consumption of serials, but whether you are a binger or a pacer, the one thing most people agree is that serials allow the viewer to really engage in a world, and to bond with the characters in a very unique fashion.

So T.V series are fab, but have you tried the same principle with your reading? I'm not talking traditional novel series, where each full length book is released at eagerly anticipated 12+
month intervals, but a weekly, Thursday downloadable episode, each of a short novella length and designed specifically to keep you on the edge of your seat as you wait for Thursday to come around again.

Whilst attending UtopYA I came across this amazing concept and curious, I became hooked. I love the whole experience of consuming an episode and then being forced to wait with anticipation for the next.

This December sees the release of my own 12 episode serial called 'Beautiful Freaks'.

BEAUTIFUL FREAKS: A 12 PART SERIAL
STARTING DECEMBER 3rd 2015 until 28th FEBRUARY 2016

PRE-ORDER YOUR DOWNLOADS NOW TO RECIEVE THEM INSTANTLY TO YOUR KINDLE OR E-READING DEVICE ON RELEASE DAY.
 

A dark and twisted saga that winds its way through the Victorian streets of London like a luxurious and lethal ribbon.

When a series of terrifying and seemingly paranormal murders occur at a rapid rate, panic and fear grip the city. Still haunted by the ghost of the Whitechapel Ripper case, Inspector Steptree is forced to admit the murderer he now pursues maybe even more wicked and brutal. As the case closes down on the mysterious No.7 club, owned by the enigmatic Evangeline Valentine, Steptree discovers that evil is far from a fantasy.

It is against this backdrop that Kaspian Blackthorne turns eighteen and begins his apprenticeship under the scientific maverick, Doctor Greyson, a pioneer in brain surgery, and human transplantation. Whilst Kaspian is introduced to the horrors and wonders of man’s scientific progress, he also begins an epic adventure of self-discovery and infatuation. Guided into the decadent and luxuriant world of the London West End night scene by his new friend Hugh Denvers, Kaspian tastes the sweet temptation of a life less ordinary, but such a privilege comes at a terrible price.

A cast of timeless characters and dark, grown-up fairy tales interweave to create a rich and haunting tale of fear and desire.

Based on the original novel, ‘Beautiful Freaks’ written and published in 2013 by Katie M John, this series is a development of that world. This is the first season of a planned three seasons.

You can find out more about this season and forthcoming seasons on the official site. www.katiemjohn.com

#Gothic #Dreadpunk #Paranormal #Demons #Fae #FairyTales #Phantoms #Vampires #Creations #Frankenstein #ParanormalRomance #Murder #Detective #Horror #SecretSocieties #CrossOver #UpperYA

 Published by Little Bird Publishing, Katie M John is the author of the U.K No.1 best-selling YA Paranormal Romance and Dark Fairy Tale series, The Knight Trilogy.

You can find out more about Katie and her books over at her Amazon Author Page

Katie's Amazon Author Page

www.katiemjohn.com

@KnightTrilogy

LINK TO EPISODE 1 & 2 Of Beautiful Freaks out on Thursday 3rd December 2015
EPISODE 1
Amazon.UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B0164JRJYU
Amazon USA http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0164JRJYU EPISODE 2
Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0164K9GKY
Amazon USA http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0164K9GKY

DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE YOUR COMMENT. RANDOM WINNER SELECTED IN THE NEXT WEEK OR SO. LEAVE YOUR TWITTER HANDLE TOO.

Let's play Beautiful Bodies.

It's day 6 of the #OctoberFrights blog hop and I'm having such a good time. Thank you to all of you who have swung by the blog, read some posts, played some games and generally hung out and had fun.

It's Tuesday. Personally, I have always found Tuesdays to be the most underwhelming day of the week, so let's change that - let's have some fun, play some games, get a conversation going and rock this whole Halloween thing out.

Win a beautiful Venetian style
Halloween Ball Mask
like this one. All you got to
do is play along.

Well done to those of you who came over to play Three Little Words last week. There were truly some very awesome 3 word flash fiction pieces. Prizes will be announced in a week or so.
Today we are going to play a game that the Surrealist brotherhood called, 'Beautiful Bodies' - but rather than drawing, we're going to use words.

HOW TO PLAY:

I am going to start off a creepy little tale of woe and wonder here at the bottom of this post. It will be an opening paragraph. The first person to arrive and open the comment box is going to add a paragraph onto the story, and then the next will write the next paragraph, and so on and son on, reaching out into the far and distant future.

Try to leave a little hook for the following person to work with - the aim of the game is collaboration, but feel to twist and turn that plot and genre - that's part of the fun. If you're feeling really cruel then you can leave the sentence half-finished.

RULES:
Keep it clean - snogging is totes allowed. Chopping up is allowed, but don't do dead babies, rampant nookie or any crazy psychosexual weirdness.

Your paragraph maybe as short as you like, but no hogging - you're allowed a total of 50 words. Keep it tight guys.

PRIZE - A masquerade mask - because after all that's what Halloween is about - oh that and a packet of Garabaldi biscuits because we're keeping it surreal folks. All you got to do is play, and one lucky winner will be picked at random in a week or so. Happy writing.

Here is the beginning of our dastardly tale.

Maria looked in the mirror and smoothed her hands over her silk wrapped hips. Tonight was going to be a good night; a very good night. The moon was full and the winds had changed from the warm southern winds to the cold northern gusts. It was the perfect night to.....

DAY 7: UtopYA from Your Armchair + Epic-scale Swag Giveaway

Welcome to Day 7 of my virtual UtopYA con, bringing the wonderful authors taking part in the UtopYA Authors and Readers Con straight to your armchair in good ol' Blighty. Today it is my great pleasure to introduce you to the virtual stands of Michele G Miller, author of the series, 'From the Wreckage' amd 'The Prophecy of Tyalbrook' as well as several other standalones; also the author, Chris Cannon, author of the 'Going Down in Flames' series.

Don't forget to enter the epic-scale UtopYA Swag giveaway at the end of the post. You can enter everyday of the virtual con and a full list of prizes and details can be found in this post HERE

Michele G Miller

***Free Download***

 

Blurb: 'From the Wreckage' series.

 

(From The Wreckage series) The storm is only the beginning...

 

“In a matter of minutes on a Friday night, I lost my school, my identity, the security of my first love, the personality of my sweet fearless brother, my best friend, my town, everything as I knew it. Everything changed.”

"Minutes - that’s all it takes to change your entire life. How do you deal with that?”

For high school senior Jules Blacklin surviving the storm is only the beginning. Faced with the new reality of her life, she must find a way to rise From The Wreckage and answer the question - how do you get back to normal, when everything that was normal is gone?

 

Blurb: Never Let You Fall (The Prophecy of Tyalbrook Book 1)

Their journey began with a promise…

“I won’t let you fall. You will not die for me. I can’t live with that, Xander, and I would rather let them take me before I let them kill you.” He opened his mouth to argue, but I held up my hand. “Don’t argue it. There’s no point. I’ve made up my mind.”
He shook his head, but didn’t argue. Instead, he promised as he always did, “If anything happens to you… if we get separated, if you martyr yourself… anything, Skye. As long as I am breathing, I will always find you. Always.”
Those were precisely the words I’d counted on him saying.

AN ORPHAN with no memory of her past and no hope for her future.
A GUARDIAN determined to keep her safe.
A DESTINY neither of them expected.

 

About Michele

Michele writes novels with fairytale love for everyday life. Romance is always central to her plots where the genres range from Coming of Age Fantasy and Realistic Fiction to New Adult Romantic Suspense.

Having grown up in both the cold, quiet town of Topsham, Maine and the steamy, southern hospitality of Mobile, Alabama, Michele is something of an enigma. She is an avid Yankees fan, loves New England, being outdoors and misses snow. However she thinks southern boys are hotter, Alabama football is the only REAL football out there and sweet tea is the best thing this side of heaven and her children's laughter!  

 

Find out More www.michelegmillerbooks.com

Follow on Twitter @chelemybelles

Download FREE copy of Book One of 'From the Wreckage' at Amazon.co.uk

Follow on FACEBOOK

Visit Michele's AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE HERE 

 

 

Chris Cannon

 

Blurb: 'Going Down in Flames' series.

 

Finding out on your sixteenth birthday you’re a shape-shifting dragon is tough to swallow. Being hauled off to an elite boarding school is enough to choke on.Since Bryn is the only crossbreed at the Institute for Excellence, all eyes are on her, but it’s a particular black dragon, Zavien, who catches her attention.Zavien is tired of the Directorate’s rules. Segregated clans, being told who to love, and close-minded leaders make freedom of choice almost impossible. The new girl with the striped hair is a breath of fresh air, and with Bryn’s help, they may be able to change the rules.At the Institute, old grudges, new crushes, and death threats are all part of a normal day for Bryn. She’ll need to learn to control her dragon powers if she wants to make it through her first year at school. But even focusing on staying alive is difficult when you’re falling for someone you can’t have.

 

About Chris

 

Chris Cannon lives in Southern Illinois with her husband and her three dogs, Pete the shitzu who sleeps on her desk while she writes, Molly the ever-shedding yellow lab, and Tyson the sandwich-stealing German Shepherd Beagle. She believes coffee is the Elixir of Life. Most evenings after work, you can find her sucking down caffeine and writing fire-breathing paranormal adventures.

 

 

Find out More www.chriscannon.com

Follow on Twitter

Buy Book One of 'Going Down In Flames' at Amazon.co.uk

Visit Michele's AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE.
 

 

Epic-Scale UtopYA Swag Giveaway UK

 



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