PROMOTING IS HARD

Have you ever had to promote something that no one ever heard of?

We did. Last year. It was the first year of the +C3Conference and we had no idea how to go about letting people know about this conference. You can look at the fun we had by click the link: Creatures, Crimes and Creativity

We immediately took to +Social Media Explorer and started putting it out there for people to find us.

We were shocked by the turnout! We had over 100 registered attendees to a conference that was the brain child of  +Austin Camacho .

We gathered authors and fans of Sci-Fi, Horror, Paranormal, Mystery, Thrillers, Suspense and Fantasy in +HuntValleyInn to celebrate these genres.

We had great food, had lots of laughs and even took over the bar. We were so surprised at the reviews afterwards.

John Gilstrap has spoken about how great of a time he had last year and he plans to join us this year. We have some great folks lined up.

+Eric Von Lustbader, +Rebecca York, +CJ Ellison and +Brad Parks will be our headliners this year and we have already signed up over 2 dozen writers.

We have an anthology that will be given away and will never be sold. This is a way to get fans to enjoy new authors and their stories.

Our on site bookstore was always busy and some of the authors actually sold out of their novels.

We had a first time authors panel and a spouses panel where we got to hear all about some of the authors secrets while they were working on their latest novel.

So why not take a chance and go to our website and see what we are going to do this year. We promise you that you will not be disappointed.

ROMANTIC-SUSPENSE JUNKIE

Hi, It's me again, Author Deliah Lawrence and Yes, I’m a romantic-suspense junkie. You may be wondering what that means and I’ll tell you that it’s the best of both worlds. There are some folks who enjoy reading a good romance novel, especially one that’s filled with characters staring lovingly into each other’s eyes, exchanging sweet kisses and locked in warm embraces? Well, for me that would only last for a split second before I start looking for the action. You see I like non-stop action where the protagonist is on a quest to solve a murder and still finds time for a lot of kisses and warm embraces.

Typically when you think of non-stop action, you think of thrillers with high drama, a rush of emotions and excitement that truly keeps you on the edge of your seat. Thrillers are villain driven where the protagonist must overcome some obstacle amidst the desire for justice and their morality. Just think of novels by John Grisham, Tom Clancy, and Michael Crichton or movies like The Bourne Identity and Taken or some of my favorite TV shows, The X-Files, 24 and Prison Break. The action truly never stops when reading any of these novels or watching any of these movies or TV shows. Unfortunately, it doesn’t slow down enough to care too much about the romantic side of things.

Mysteries on the other hand, can be less dramatic. It involves giving the readers clues or “red herrings” to allow them to find out who committed the crime. They also contain less violence than thrillers. For example, a cozy mystery is full of clues and its plot is not full of action. It’s more of a mind game between the criminal and the detective. However, an amateur detective mystery involves a detective who gets involved in the plot by accident. These amateur sleuths don’t follow the same rules as the police but it’s fun to read how they solve the cases. Here too, not enough time is spent on romantic relationships.

There are many sub-categories of a thriller (e.g. psychological thrillers, crime thrillers, erotic thrillers, spy thrillers, etc.). However, suspense is an integral part of thrillers that builds up the “on-edge” feeling for the audience. So, for me, writing romantic-suspense novels where I strive for a balance between heart pounding action and sexual tension between the characters guarantees that my readers will be turning the pages. In my debut novel, Gotta Let It Go, the protagonist is on a quest to solve a murder, throw in unresolved feelings for a soon to be ex-husband, attraction to a hot detective and a few death threats and you have a roller coaster ride of a romantic-suspense novel. Although my novel, won the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Finalist Awards in the multi-cultural fiction category, the ultimate praise for my novel came from a family friend who said that her husband asked if she wasn’t coming to bed. When I heard this, I knew that I’ve done my job as a writer!