BOOK SPOTLIGHT & GIVEAWAY: VISIONS OF ZARUA

On the eve of my blog tour, Wendell over on Bookwraiths has kindly set up my first ever Rafflecopter giveaway. Why not check it out and you could win yourself an ebook. Best of luck.

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visions of zarua blog tour
visions of zarua

Visions of Zarua by Suzanne Rogerson

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Stand alone

Publisher: Self Published (November 16, 2015)

Author Information: Website | Twitter | Facebook 

Length: 472 pages

Two wizards, 350 years apart. Together they must save the realm of Paltria from Zarua’s dark past, as an ancient darkness haunts the realm.

Apprentice wizard Paddren is plagued by visions of a city on the brink of annihilation. When his master Kalesh dies in mysterious circumstances, the Royal Order of Wizards refuses to investigate.

Helped by his childhood friend, the skilled tracker Varnia, and her lover Leyoch, Paddren vows to find the killer.

The investigation leads Paddren down a sinister path of assassins, secret sects and creatures conjured by blood magic. But he is guided by a connection with a wizard from centuries ago – a wizard whose history holds the key to the horror at the heart of the abandoned city…

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Rosie’s #Bookreview Team #RBRT THE SAPPHIRE LEGEND by @ELTenenbaum #Fantasy

My review last month for Rosie Amber’s book review team. #RBRT

Be a better writer with Evernote

This sounds like a great device for any writer, especially busy and disorganised ones like me.

Amir.H.Ghazi's avatarWorld of Horror

image

In the late 1940s, Jack Kerouac wrote his iconic Beat-era novel “On the Road” in a series of notebooks. In 1951, he typed the manuscript out on a continuous 120-foot scroll of paper. It took him three weeks and, as legend has it, a friend’s dog ate the original ending.

More than six decades later, the laptop holds court where the typewriter once reigned. We still carry trusty notebooks, but now we can easily digitize the words within to keep them safe. The tools have evolved, but the need to turn ideas into written words is still vital to work and life.

You may say you’re not a writer. But if you have a job that requires communicating with others, you are. If you keep a to-do list, that’s writing. If you draft a project plan, report or meeting agenda, that’s writing. And, if you’re like most writers, you want…

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Author Interview: Suzanne Rogerson

I’ve been busy with a Q&A session over on Book Savvy Reviews. Please check out the post and the blog, where you’ll also find lots of great reviews.

Sissy Lu's avatarBook Savvy Reviews

I was fortunate enough to have a Q&A session with Suzanne Rogerson, author of Visions of Zarua. A huge thank you for filling out my extensive questionnaire!


  1. What sparked the idea for your debut novel “Visions of Zarua”
    Visions of Zarua started with a single scene that came to me as I scribbled in my notebook. A young woman was hunting in the woods with her two hounds, when her prey disappeared without trace. The whole story evolved from that point.
  2. Were there any key people in your life that inspired any characters in your novel?
    I didn’t have any real life people to inspire the characters in this book, but I did once base an antagonist on a rather smarmy boss.
  3. When you write, what are your essentials?
    All I need to write is a notebook and a nice pen, though I do love my little pink laptop.
  4. What would you tell…

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Visions of Zarua (Review Exchange)

I am very pleased to share this brilliant review of Visions of Zarua by Angela on Pooled Ink.
Please check it out and see her other reviews. I’ve already added some of her suggestions to my TBR pile.

Angela's avatarpooled ink

Visions of Zarua by Suzanne Rogerson (2015)
4 StarsVisions of ZaruaFiction | Fantasy

Blurb:

“Two wizards, 350 years apart. Together they must save the realm of Paltria from Zarua’s dark past.
An ancient darkness haunts the realm of Paltria.
Apprentice wizard Paddren is plagued by visions of a city on the brink of annihilation. When his master Kalesh dies in mysterious circumstances, the Royal Order of Wizards refuses to investigate.
Helped by his childhood friend, the skilled tracker Varnia, and her lover Leyoch, Paddren vows to find the killer.
The investigation leads Paddren down a sinister path of assassins, secret sects and creatures conjured by blood magic. But he is guided by a connection with a wizard from centuries ago – a wizard whose history holds the key to the horror at the heart of the abandoned city of Zarua. Can Paddren decipher his visions in time to save the Paltrian people from the…

View original post 771 more words

Fun and Frolic with Amazon

I had to reblog this post because there is so much useful information to share. I can’t wait to update the key words for my novel on Amazon and make more use of the Amazon Author Central pages.

moonrox's avatarRoxanne's Space

amazon works

I love Amazon. They have so many tools in place to help an independent author succeed. Here are a few ways to make Amazon work for you.

Don’t think of Amazon as a store.

Think of it as a search engine. As an author, you don’t need to rank higher on Google. You need to rank higher on Amazon.

Amazon works as a search engine very much like Google or Bing so you need to think SEO (search engine optimization) for your book. That means metadata. Most authors’ eyes glaze over at that word. But metadata simply refers to the keywords that are associated with your book and its category.

TIP: Your previous Amazon searches will influence your results, so be sure to log out to clear your past viewing history before conducting any keyword or category research.

Keywords will help you enormously on Amazon.

Nowadays, keywords are phrases. No…

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Revised #Review of Fire, Bed and Bone – Henrietta Branford #childrensbooks

It’s been an interesting experiment, asking my husband and children to read ‘Fire, Bed and Bone’. It is a children’s book, but one that I really enjoyed and rated 5 stars.
My husband, a huge fantasy reader, said it was ok but he didn’t feel very involved with the characters.
My son, 11, enthusiastic reader of children’s fantasy books, rated it 4.5 out of 5. He said he really enjoyed it, as he has other books by Henrietta Branford, though he didn’t have the same emotional response as I did to it.
My daughter, 9, who loves to read animal stories and books about witches and magic, stopped reading at the end of chapter 4. She enjoyed it up to this point but when two of ‘Old Dog’s’ puppies were killed she found it too scary to continue.

I have found this a really fun challenge and look forward to sharing more books with the family and talking about them.

Have you read the same books as your family, and were you surprised by their views?

Below is the original book review:

Suzanne Rogerson Author's avatarSuzanne Rogerson Author

My Rating 5 out of 5.

Pages 136.

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Blurb from the front cover, which makes an interesting change.

‘A revolt is brewing. The year is 1381 and unrest is spreading like plague. England’s peasants are ready to rise against their unjust landlords. The violent upheaval will affect everyone – even dogs, like the old hunting bitch through whose eyes, ears and nose these dramatic events are revealed.’

Children’s book – I’d say 9+ but the book doesn’t state. I would be happy for my 9 year old to read it, and I think my son (11) would enjoy it too (in fact my son read ‘White Wolf’ by Henrietta Branford a couple of years ago and said it was one of his favourite books).

My daughter bought Fire, Bed and Bone at her school fair. She said she really liked the cover and the blurb and that’s why she picked it out of loads of other books…

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Dialogue Tags – An Editor’s Worst Nightmare (almost!) #writingtips #writinganovel

This is great advice that I follow every time I read through my drafts. It’s also advice I’ve passed along to the ladies in my writing group. It’s amazing how many dialogue tags you can get rid of when you really try, perfect for reducing that word count!

10 Things That Make A Book Successful

Great article to get you thinking and may just point out where you’re going wrong!

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Why are some books successful when others aren’t? Lots of reasons. A new release carries a lot of excitement by all parties because it’s NEW. Your excitement as an author spills over everywhere. Ea…

Source: 10 Things That Make A Book Successful

2015 in review

I’m proud of these stats as I only started blogging back in August 2015. Now blogging feels like a natural part of my day. I’ve enjoyed meeting new people and growing my following. There is so much to learn from others as well; I can’t believe it took me so long to discover the fun of blogging.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,100 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 18 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.