Category: Inspiration

Amazon Kindle, Books, Family, Inspiration, life lessons, Strong Women, Writing

Strong Women Grow Here-Free Excerpt

Mona Alvarado Frazier

 

Strong Women Grow Here-Free excerpt on amazon.com-alvaradofrazier.com
Strong Women Grow Here-Free excerpt on amazon.com-alvaradofrazier.com*

Have you ever felt like you’ve been down for so long it’s hard to take that next step.

I know most of us have had those times. So it’s the little things that keep a smile on the face, and the eyes looking forward.

And sometimes, just sometimes, something comes along that puts the pep back in that step. Something BIG.  I’ve been doubly blessed, I have two BIG things:

My brother is now recuperating fairly well after a tortuously long operation and three week hospital stay. Care taking has been a little difficult for the past month, but it’s worth seeing the tiny progress each day.  I can’t go into detail, he’d been very cross with me, even though he doesn’t read blogs.

The other bright news is that Amazon announced their Quarterfinalists in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA) 2014. 

Amazon capped the entries at 10,000 for five genres. In March , they whittled the entries down to 2,000. On April 14 they pared the submissions to 500 novels.

My heart thumped like a snare drum gearing up for the big game when I found out I made it to this round.  

From now until May 23, 2014, Publishers Weekly reviews each Quarter-Finalists’ full manuscript and scores it on prose, plot, hook, etc.

Amazon customers can download the 17 page excerpt to their Kindle, or  download a free Kindle reading app for IPhone, IPad, Mac, or Android.

When you click on the banner above, it will take you to my novel page, (that’s so exciting to say!)  and you will see an image on the right hand side that looks like this:

Look for this image to download a free Kindle reading application
Look for this image to download  app

Any customer (sign up is free) can download, rate, and review excerpts and/or provide feedback to Amazon Publishing Editors about submission.

You can read the reviews for Strong Women Grow Here and a two page excerpt here.

Customer reviews are important to me and I’d love to read any constructive feedback you have on the excerpt.

Semi-Finalists are announced on or about May 23, 2014.

Those lucky enough to be a finalist receive a publishing contract and a cash advance.

Amazon then creates a poll asking customers to vote for their favorite of the finalist’s excerpt. The one with the most votes wins a larger advance and Grand Prize.

What an adventure! Thanks for reading and I do hope you will take a few seconds to read the excerpt on my YA novel, Strong Women Grow Here.

 

*The image of the woman’s hands in chains comes from an art exhibit and was untitled. The artist name is Kelley Connelly.

 


Authors, Inspiration, Shelly Lowenkopf, storytelling, Toni Lopopolo, Writing, Writing classes, writing tips

Some Things You Should Know about Story (Six, to Be Precise)

Mona Alvarado Frazier
The Storyteller-Michael Shaheen, Flickr
The Storyteller-Michael Shaheen, Flickr

 

Writers want to write the best possible stories they can. Often, like me, writers have the best of intentions but fall short on delivery.

There is an art to storytelling, in the written form, and we writers flock to find out just what makes up this art.

One of the best teachers I’ve come across is Shelly Lowenkopf, a USC professor, who has a Lifetime Achievement Award, and is a consultant and author.

I’d like to share a recent post he wrote on his agent’s blog: 


lopopolo's avatarToni Lopopolo Literary Management

By Shelly Lowenkopf

(1) Whose story is it?

A dramatic work has only one central character. There may be secondary characters of equal importance to the overall narrative, but in the vast majority of literary accomplishments from Dracula to Candide, Tootsie to RichardIII,Madame Bovary to Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, there is only one central character. This character’s motive—what he/she wants in terms of a goal or objective–drives the story. This is the engine, the seminal force of the action. Action is the operant word in story, fluid and unrelenting, not to be confused with activity, which is often casual and directionless. The central character’s determination to follow what is often an obsessive course propels the action. This energy connects us to the central character. This dominant skein in a story commands our attention.

This imperative may also be subtle. Take Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet;

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