Cover Reveal - Chasing Memories by Tia Silverthorne Bach

Hello everyone! Jo here. I'm very excited to bring you a cover reveal for a book edited by INDIE Books Gone Wild. Without further ado, I give you the cover of Chasing Memories by Tia Silverthorne Bach.

About Chasing Memories (Tala Prophecy, Book 1)

There isn’t another way; not now. The others are coming. I can’t let them have you…

Seventeen-year-old Reagan has a problem: She can’t remember what happened the night her brother was taken. Now, the dreams haunting her from the incident are becoming more intense by the day. All the while, the lines between what’s real and what’s a product of her paranormal-obsessed mind are becoming blurred.

Is she losing her mind or has she just stepped into a world she thought only existed in books?

Caught in a web of worried parents, competing boys, Wiccan relatives, protective amulets, and psychiatrist babble, Reagan must determine the truth before it’s too late.

Expected Publication Date: June 10, 2013

Add Chasing Memories on GoodReads.

Cover design by Jo Michaels.

About the Author

Tia Silverthorne Bach is an avid reader, sometimes runner, involved wife and mother, and rabid grammar hound in addition to being a multi-genre writer. Her three daughters were born in Chicago, San Diego, and Baltimore; and she feels fortunate to have called many places home. She's the award-winning co-author of Depression Cookies, a coming of age story written with her mother. Tia's office is wherever her laptop takes her and any place that's conducive to allowing a wild imagination like hers to flourish.

Please visit her at her blog, on Facebook, on Twitter, GoodReads, and read more about her here on INDIE Books Gone Wild. After all, she's one of our wonderful editors!

Not only did we edit the book, we also formatted it for digital and print, designed the cover, and did the final proofread. Check out this gorgeous interior design that plays well with the fonts on the cover:

It takes a team to publish a book!

I do hope you'll check out Tia's amazing book, Chasing Memories. You won't be sorry you did.

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Small but Important -- the Apostrophe

Hello to our readers! It's Tia here with my first blog post for IBGW. The first of many. 

I'm a geek for all things related to words. Without further ado...

Isn’t it amazing how important the smallest of punctuation marks can be?

Consider the apostrophe--small in stature, a simple ’, but huge in importance. After all, an apostrophe either takes the place of missing letters or assigns ownership. It is also used to show multiple letters, such as the student received many A’s on her report card. More on that in a moment.

If Charlie has a dog, it’s Charlie’s dog. The only somewhat confusing aspect to making names possessive… names that end in s. According to AP Style, the newest consensus is to leave off the additional ’s. So it would be Charles’ dog and not Charles’s. However, it is not incorrect to say Charles’s, and that style is favored by Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, although to me it is quite clunky.

In the case of biblical references, everyone seems to agree—Jesus’ and Moses’ is the way to go.

Interestingly, this was a debated enough issue that the Arkansas House of Representatives introduced a bill to clarify the state’s possessive, known as the Arkansas’s Apostrophe Act.

And of course there is the exception of it’s. Since it’s is it is, the possessive of it is its, no apostrophe.

Back to the student that received many A’s on her report card. The A is not A is and it’s not possessive, so why the apostrophe? Because otherwise it is the word As (same problem for the letters I and U which would become Is and Us without an apostrophe).

How big of a deal can a misplaced or missed apostrophe really be?

Let me give you a quick example…

The girls decision meant life would never be the same.

In a story, it’s important for the reader to know if that sentence should read girl’s or girls’. Writers don’t want their readers scratching their head for too long, because then readers disconnect from the story. Never a good thing.

How can anybody remember all these rules, especially ones that the grammar experts disagree on?

That’s just one of the reasons a good editor is important. They do the research and give you their advice. Just as importantly, they make sure it is consistent throughout your work. Your readers will thank you for it.

Tia

The Disappearing Girl - by Heather Topham Wood

Hello, lovely people of the page! Jo here! I'm excited to announce the release of Ms. Heather Topham Wood's book, The Disappearing Girl.

I did the proofread for INDIE Books Gone Wild on this book. All I have to say is: "Wow. What a heartbreaking tale!"

Without further ado, I give you the cover, links, and summary:

Summary:
Kayla Marlowe is slowly vanishing…

Last year, Kayla’s world imploded. Her beloved father died, leaving her alone with a narcissistic mother who is quick to criticize her daughter’s appearance. During her winter break from college, Kayla’s dangerous obsession with losing weight begins.

Kayla feels like her world changes for the better overnight. Being skinny seems to be the key to the happiness she has desperately been seeking. Her mother and friends shower her with compliments, telling her how fantastic she looks. Kayla is starving, but no one knows it.

Cameron Bennett explodes into Kayla’s life. He’s sexy and kind—he has every quality she has been looking for in a guy. As Cameron grows closer to Kayla and learns of how far she’s willing to go to stay thin, he becomes desperate to save her.

Kayla’s struggles with anorexia and bulimia reach a breaking point and she is forced to confront her body image issues in order to survive. She wonders if Cameron could be the one to help heal her from the pain of her past.

***New Adult Contemporary-Ages 17+ due to language and sexual situations.

Kindle version: The Disappearing Girl - $2.99
Print version: The Disappearing Girl - $9.99

I do hope you'll all go check it out. As always, when a book with work by one of us gets published, it gets a link on the sidebar. So if you don't get a chance to check it out today, come on back anytime and grab a copy. You won't be sorry.

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Flexing Your Dialogue Muscles

Hello, good people of the page! Today I'm gonna talk a little bit about the writing class I give here on INDIE Books Gone Wild. I call it: Open Critique Services.

Over the last week, I've written posts over on my blog, Jo Michaels ~ Author, that help you flex your dialogue writing muscles. Those are a part of the OCS class I give here. If you'd like to check them out, here's a handy-dandy link for you:
Dialogue Exercises

You can find the links to all fifteen exercises from that page. In open critique, I read the work you've written via the exercises I assign and provide detailed, inline feedback to help you become a better writer. You'll discover your strengths and weaknesses, and learn what to look for when you edit your books, all in just four weeks.

In addition, you get a handy book pack you can keep and reference any time.

So, if you're a beginning writer or know someone who'd like to become a writer but just needs a little education, point them to the Open Critique Class here. I'll be updating the page with an outline of my lesson plan next week.

One of our own, Ms. Tia Silverthorne Bach, participated in the A-Z blog challenge last month. Her theme was literary devices. If you'd like some education on tools you can use to write a better novel, check out her posts over on Depression Cookies. I'm linking you to the letter Z, but you can find the others from there.

We'll also have an announcement soon on the release date for a couple of books we've been working on. One is Heather Topham Wood's book, The Disappearing Girl. The other is Tia's book, Chasing Memories. I hope you'll all come back for that!

Well, I have an inspirational book that needs some editing! So that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo