The Great INDIE Summer Read Giveaway – Day #9

DAY #10

Forgive me for being a bit late with today’s post. There’s a reason for that however: it’s Midsummer weekend which means all the grocery stores will be closed for several days, so I had to go and stock up on some food — though maybe a few days with a water diet would have been cleansing.

Today we have a guest post by Christine Nolfi. And as always, commenting on this post will grant you an extra entry also.

In Praise of Book Bloggers

by Christine Nolfi

I have a confession to make. I’ve fallen in love with book bloggers.

In the last month I’ve been checking out book blogs in the hopes of finding a few reviewers for Treasure Me, now available in the Amazon Kindle store.

A few more confessions: I’m rarely in cyberspace. I don’t own a cell phone. If I find time to sit in front of the tube, it’s usually for a dose of BBC America or to watch a movie with my four young adult children. We have a rule: Mom can’t spoil the film by revealing the plot when she figures it out. If I am on my computer, it’s usually to flesh out a first draft. Most revisions (and more revisions and more revisions) are completed longhand. Usually with Nala staring at me as I scribble away in my easy chair.

Sandy, my golden retriever, also harasses me as I revise (biscuit! biscuit!) but I don’t have a pic of her presently; she’s wandering the house in search of socks to steal.

Back to book bloggers. They’re amazing. Sweet, special people drifting through cyberspace with the message that literature is a good thing and you ought to pick up a book and read.

Regardless of your tastes, there’s a book blog that’s right for you. Women’s fiction, high literature, mystery, suspense, romance, experimental fiction–somewhere on this pretty blue planet a dedicated bibliophile is spending her precious time posting on her blog so that you’ll know what to read, what’s new, what’s not-so-new but damn good so you should hurry to the library and dig the book out from the stacks. Some bloggers are open to reviewing e-books—thank the heavens—allowing many novels that weren’t published in the traditional method to reach the light of day.

Here’s my last confession: I spent several years watching my various novels garner interest with the heavy hitters in NYC. I was sure Random House would pick up Second Chance Grill. An editor at Penguin was so enthusiastic about publishing Treasure Me, and the rest of the Liberty series, in hardcover, that I spent several months sweating bullets while writing a series proposal. When Wall Street melted down, so did the editor’s interest. Which I understand. It’s difficult to consider releasing a debut novelist when your publishing house is laying off your compatriots in droves.

Through it all, book bloggers continue to write about books they love and books they dislike. They keep interest in literature alive and—I suspect—they introduce younger readers to the delights of fiction. You can never get beneath another person’s skin. IMHO the closest you’ll get to understanding another human heart is through fiction. So please read. And visit those book bloggers in cyberspace for the sweetest celebration of literature you’ll ever enjoy.

About the author

Christine owned a small public relations firm in Cleveland, Ohio. Her articles and press releases have appeared regionally in The Plain Dealer, The Akron Beacon Journal, Cleveland Magazine and other media outlets. Her short story, Night Hour, appeared in Working Mother magazine. Christine closed the firm fifteen years ago after she traveled to the Philippines and adopted a sibling group of four children. She has been writing novels fulltime since 2004. “Treasure Me” is the first book of the Liberty, Ohio series. “Second Chance Grill” will be released Summer, 2011.

EXTRA ENTRIES

Gain an extra entry by following Christine’s blog: http://christinenolfibooks.blogspot.com/
And by following her on Twitter: @christinenolfi

TWEET IT!

Tweet today’s post either using this example tweet or make up your own! You can gain one extra entry by doing this.

http://goo.gl/7oG0B Guest post by @christinenolfi at The Great #INDIEsummer Read Giveaway – Day 9 #litchat #bookgiveaway Please RT!

FIRST TIME HERE?

How can you win? Simply by filling out this form and you’re then in the drawing that will happen when the giveaway is over on 31st of July.

You can gain extra entries. The daily posts will have snippets of the books in the giveaway, guest posts and interviews. Each day you will get links to webpages relevant to the presented books. You get extra entries by commenting on the daily posts, following the linked author blogs/websites. You need to tell on your daily comment if you’ve done some of the other things granting you extra entries. It’s important for you to use the same nickname & email combination throughout the giveaway so all the extra entries can be added up.

You can also gain extra entries by tweeting the giveaway! You can use the example tweets to tweet on the daily posts if you don’t want to come up with something of your own. Always remember to use the #INDIEsummer hashtag.