Black Cow by Magdalena Ball

I'm honored to participate in Magdalena Ball's virtual book tour of Black Cow and to share with you a splendid review by Jan Mitchell.

"The Archer family lives The success lie. Black Cow is a brilliant expose of the life behind corporate success. James has to force himself to become the ‘iceman’ to function as the CEO of the company; Freya, his wife, leaves behind her scientific career to become a real estate agent to people with lives as shallow as her own has become; their children possess every gadget young teens could want, except quality time with their parents. In their attempt to rescue themselves before the family disintegrates totally, the members of the Archer family move from the affluent Eastern suburbs of Sydney to rural Tasmania, where they learn many hard lessons about life and how to be a family." Jan Mitchell, Fellowship of Australian Writers

Enjoy the reading clip...

Learn more about Magdalena Ball... 

Magdalena Ball is the author of the newly released novel Black Cow. Grab a free mini e-book brochure here: http://www.bewritebooks.com/mb/BlackCow/BlackCow.html

Or visit http://www.magdalenaball.com to find out more about all of Magdalena’s books.

Thank you for taking the time out to visit with Ms. Ball today. Please feel free to leave your comments and/or questions so she can interact with you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Best wishes,
Donna M. McDine
Award-winning Children's Author
The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
http://guardianangelpublishing.com/pathway.htm ~ Literary Classics Silver Award and Seal of Approval Recipient and Dan Poynter's Global e-Book Awards Finalist

USA Book News Announces Winners and Finalists of the USA "Best Books 2011" Awards

ME D I A  R E L E A S E

For Immediate Release

Contact: Carolyn Howard-Johnson

E-mail: HoJoNews@aol.com

USA BOOK NEWS ANNOUNCES WINNERS AND FINALISTS OF THE USA “BEST BOOKS 2011” AWARDS

Simon & Schuster, St. Martin’s Press, Random House, Penguin, Harper Collins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill, John Wiley & Sons and hundreds of Independent Houses contribute to this year’s Outstanding Competition!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LOS ANGELES – USABookNews.com, the premiere online magazine and review website for mainstream and independent publishing houses, announced two of Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s books were among those that placed in THE USA “BEST BOOKS 2011” AWARDS on November 1, 2011. Awards were presented for titles published in 2010 and 2011.
Jeffrey Keen, President and CEO of USA Book News, said this year’s contest yielded an unprecedented number of entries. Winners and finalists traversed the publishing landscape: Simon & Schuster, St. Martin’s Press, Random House, Penguin, Harper Collins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill, John Wiley & Sons and hundreds of independent houses contributed to this year’s outstanding competition. Keen adds, “Our success begins with the enthusiastic participation of authors and publishers and continues with our distinguished panel of industry judges who bring to the table their extensive editorial, PR, marketing, and design expertise.”
Award highlights include the following:

(Full results listing available on USABooknews.com)
The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or partnering with your publisher (Second Edition) by Carolyn Howard-Johnson won best business book in the writing category.

Blooming Red: Christmas Poetry for the Rational by Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball was a finalist in the poetry category.

Prodigal Father Pagan Son: Growing Up Inside the Dangerous World of the Pagans Motorcycle Club by Anthony Menginie and Kerrie Droban (St. Martin's Press) was honored in the “Autobiography/Memoirs” category

Oprah: A Biography by Kitty Kelley (Crown Books/Random House) was awarded “Best Biography"

Perfect One-Dish Dinners: All You Need for Easy Get-Togethers by Pam Anderson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) placed number one in “Cookbooks”

The Daughter's Walk by Jane Kirkpatrick (Water Brook/Random House) took home the “Best General Fiction” prize

One reviewer said reading Howard-Johnson’s books is like picking the brains of a master marketer. It received plaudits from industry shakers like Marilyn Ross, founder of Small Publishers or North America and Tim Bete, director of Dayton University’s Erma Bombeck Writers’ Conference. The new one carries endorsements from the likes of Dan Poynter and Tony Eldridge.

Howard-Johnson, an instructor for nearly a decade at UCLA Extension’s Writers’ Program, chose to have the new edition published in both e-book format and paperback in order to give her struggling students and clients affordable and convenient choices. Whichever format a reader chooses, The Frugal Book Promoter assures an author’s book the best possible start in life. Full of nitty-gritty how-tos for getting nearly free publicity, the author shares her professional experience as well as practical tips gleaned from the successes of her own book campaigns. A former journalist and publicist (she wrote media releases for fashion designers like Christian Dior), she tells authors how to do what their publishers can’t or won’t and why authors can often do their own promotion better than a PR professional. Her poetry is published in dozens of literary and review journals worldwide.
USABookNews.com is an online publication providing coverage for books from mainstream and independent publishers to the world online community. JPX Media Group, in Los Angeles, California, is the parent company of USABookNews.com.
A complete list of the winners and finalists of The USA “Best Books 2011” Awards are available online at http://www.usabooknews.com/.

Learn more about Howard-Johnson at http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com and http://carolynhoward-johnson.com/.

# # # #

Cover image and media kit available on request at HoJoNews@aol.com.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Best wishes,
Donna M. McDine
Award-winning Children's Author
The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
http://guardianangelpublishing.com/pathway.htm

Award-Winning Poetry Partners Release: Feminist Chapbook for All E-Readers

Award-Winning Poetry Partners Release: Feminist Chapbook for All E-Readers

“Vivid images… distil the lives of the women who wrote them. They speak to all the stages of life—even celebrate ageing--and our roles as women. These are poems [that] will stay with you forever.” ~ Nancy Famolari

Poets living half a world apart naturally understand the value of e-books, the best way for people living anywhere in the world to access a work.
Carolyn Howard-Johnson is a Californian while Magdalena Ball lives down under. Together they have published their fifth in the Celebration Series of chapbooks, Deeper into the Pond, A Celebration of Femininity. And now it can be read by anyone who can find a computer. (See the list of formats available below).

To make reading this lovely little booklet even easier, the two have arranged for an introductory and discounted price of $2.79. Go to: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/75299?ref=maggieball
and use the coupon code HV73F until August 21.
Other chapbooks in the celebration series are Cherished Pulse (for Valentine’s www.budurl.com/CherishedPulse), Imagining the Future (for Father’s Day www.budurl.com/Imagining), She Wore Emerald Then (for Mother’s Day www.budurl.com/MotherChapbook), and Blooming Red (for Christmas www.budurl.com/bloomingred). Deeper into the Pond . (www.budurl.com/DeeperPond) and the other chapbooks are also available as paperbacks on Amazon.
Magdalena Ball runs the highly respected http://www.compulsivereader.com/ review site. She is the author of the poetry book Repulsion Thrust, which was published to unanimous 5-star reviews. Her novel Sleep Before Evening, was a Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson's poetry appears frequently in review journals. She is listed in Poets & Writers and her chapbook of poetry, Tracings (www.budurl.com/CarolynsTracings), was given the Award of Excellence by the Military Writers Society of America and She Wore Emerald Then won its highest honor of gold. One of her poems recently won the Franklin Christoph Poetry Prize. She is also an award-winning novelist and short story writer and instructor for UCLA Extension Writers' Program.
Learn more about these inexpensive chapbooks that are meant to become your most thoughtful greeting cards ever at www.howtodoitfrugally.com/poetry_books.htm

Smashwords offers all these e-book formats: Online Reading (HTML), Kindle (mobi for Kindle devices and Kindle apps), Epub (Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, and most e-reading apps including Stanza, Aldiko, Adobe Digital Editions, others), PDF (good for reading on PC, or for home printing), RTF (readable on most word processors), LRF (Use only for older model Sony Readers that don't support .epub), Palm Doc (PDB) (for Palm reading devices), and Plain Text.

###

Images and media kits available on request: HoJoNews@aol.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Best wishes,
Donna M. McDine
Award-winning Children's Author
The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
http://guardianangelpublishing.com/pathway.htm

The Perfect Mother's Day Gift

Being a mother is very different now than it was when I was a child. Now, because of the boomer generation, more and more mothers are also grandmothers, great grandmothers, even great, great grandmothers. We’re often part of the sandwich generation meaning we’re taking care of our own children and also our mothers and fathers, often ailing. Many of us are juggling two careers (or more!) if we’ve chosen to work outside the home as well as take care of that home ourselves. We partner more with husbands or partners who are sharing responsibilities that once were only under the purview of the mom - of - the - house.

But moms are still the same in many ways. We are still often the fixers, the worriers, the most caring of caretakers. This is a year when moms may need more tender care than they’ve been given in the past.

The trouble is, the traditional ways don’t seem quite right this year.

Flowers seem very frivolous for households on a budget. I’ve always felt sad when I must throw away wilted blooms. Candy sure is yummy, but it is not the perfect choice for many who are diabetic, hypoglycemic or working on slimming their hips. The beautiful cards at CVS often don’t say the rig ht thing or don’t reflect our mothers’ personalities. After all, we’re not all that sentimental, syrupy kind of mom the pastel cards seem; we may resort to humor which then doesn’t reflect our feelings.

The answer is a book of poetry. One that reflects many aspects of motherhood and all the relationships surrounding it. Mom won’t expect all the poems to fit your relationship with her; instead she’ll get to reflect on motherhood in general and choose the passages that have special meaning for her. Those may reflect ways she relates to her own mother, reflect the ways she relates to you, or maybe even open a subject you should have talked about with her long ago.
Magdalena Ball and I have written such a chapbook of poetry for mothers with photos by May L. Lattanzio. The title comes from one of my wistful poems, “She Wore Emerald Then . . .” We hope you’ll consider ordering it for your mother from Amazon. They’ll ship fast and you can give it alone or slip it into a the box filled with a pashmina scarf, a pair of silver - tone earrings, and appreciation from thou!

Find it at www.budurl.com/MotherChapbook.

Here is one of the poems from it:

Wishing to Be a Child Again

She goes too long

in the telling of a story.

Gutters between her brows

make her angry

even when she's not.

If I had know then

I would not have looked so hard,

have listened for the sweet

notes, ignored how on and on she went

I would have loved what I had.

And here is the cover of that book in colors Mom will love: 
It is from our Celebration Series of chapbooks. A new concept in poetry chapbooks, as nearly as I can tell.

Happy Writing and Promoting,

Carolyn Howard - Johnson

Celebration Series of Poems iPad Bound

Media Release

CONTACT:

Carolyn Howard-Johnson e-mail: HoJoNews@aol.com

CONTACT:

Magdalena Ball e-mail: maggieball@compulsivereader.com

For Immediate Release

Celebration Series of Poems iPad Bound

Technology is ever changing. It’s almost impossible to keep up with the latest news, gadgets, and trends, especially when it comes to e-books and reading habits.

Yet the least likely of tech-geeks, authors Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball, are always keen and to meet their readers’ needs, and when Smashwords.com announced its new deal with Apple to produce formats suitable for the iPad and Apple’s new iBookstore, the authors immediately agreed, and jumped into action, pulling together the appropriate formatting for all of their celebration series books and putting them forward for conversion.

The celebration series has been designed specifically to replace the trite, cliché sentiments of greeting cards, at prices that are little more than the cost of a high end card. Many of the books are beautifully illustrated with paintings or photographs, with poetry designed along themes that focus on mothers (She Wore Emerald Then, www.budurlcom/MotherChapbook for the paperback and http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/8846 for the e-book versions), fathers and other men (Imagining the Future, www.budurl.com/Imagining for the paperback and http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/11189 for the e-book versions), and love (Cherished Pulse, www.budurl.com/CherishedPulse for the paperback and http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/8086 for the e-book versions).

More books are in the works, including a Christmas chapbook. Hard copies of all the books are available at Amazon as giftable, low-priced paperbacks, or you can pick them up in whatever format suits, including the iPad, Kindle, Epub (Stanza reader), .pdf, LTF (for Sony reader), and more at Smashwords.com, http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/maggieball. Note: As this date Smashwords doesn’t accept coauthor listings. That these formats are evolving is evident!

So, though two authors are involved, this page lists only Ball who set the page up.

As far as Howard-Johnson and Ball are concerned, whatever format suits their reader suits them. It’s all good.

Magdalena Ball runs the highly respected compulsivereader.com review site. She is the author of the poetry book Repulsion Thrust, which was published in December 2009 to unanimous 5-star reviews. Her novel Sleep Before Evening, published in 2007, was a Next Generation Indie Book Awards finalist.
Carolyn Howard-Johnson's poetry appears frequently in review journals. She is listed in Poets & Writers and her chapbook of poetry, Tracings (www.budurl.com/CarolynsTracings ), was given the Award of Excellence by the Military Writers Society of America. She is also an award-winning novelist and short story writer and instructor for UCLA Extension Writers' Program.
For more information on any of the chapbooks in this poetry series, contact either of the authors or visit media rooms at http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com/ or http://www.magdalenaball.com/.

###
Support material available electronically or by post on request.

Poets Suggest The Real Thing Should Compete with Greeting Cards

Media Release

CONTACT:

Carolyn Howard-Johnson e-mail: HoJoNews@aol.com

CONTACT:

Magdalena Ball e-mail: maggieball@compulsivereader.com 

For Immediate Release

Poets Suggest The Real Thing Should Compete with Greeting Cards

Award-winning poets Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball have developed a new concept for inexpensive holiday gifts--an idea for poetic greetings apart from greeting cards.

They suggest a real chapbook of poetry and have released the first two in a series in time for the holidays. So far the series includes Cherished Pulse (for anyone you love) with artwork from California artist Vicki Thomas and She Wore Emerald Then (for mothers on your gift list) with photographs by May Lattanzio. New booklets are coming for Father's Day and for Christmas 2010.

The small books, a tradition in the poetry world since Elizabethan times, are priced to compete with greeting cards. The poets' idea is that, in general, cards from the rack seldom say what we'd like and that a small book of poetry would be more thoughtful.

Cherished Pulse may be ordered from Amazon at www.budurl.com/CherishedPulse and She Wore Emerald Then at www.budurl.com/MotherChapbook.

This us the second edition of Cherished Pulse. The first may well have been the first e-chapbook of poetry. This edition comes in paperback with a newly-designed cover; Ball and Howard-Johnson felt issuing a paperback essential considering the popularity of the e-book version. That e-book was offered by online gift-giving giant of 35 years, Celebration Express to its clients in 2007.

Magdalena Ball runs the highly respected compulsivereader.com review site. She is the author of the poetry chapbook Quark Soup, which won a 2006 "Noble" Prize from MyShelf's Back to Literature site, and a poetry book Repulsion Thrust, due out in December 2009. Her novel Sleep Before Evening, published in 2007, was a Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson's poetry appears frequently in review journals. She is listed in Poets & Writers and her chapbook of poetry, Tracings (www.budurl.com/CarolynsTracings ), was given the Award of Excellence by the Military Writers Society of America. She is also an award-winning novelist and short story writer and instructor for UCLA Extension Writers' Program.

For more information on any of the chapbooks in this poetry series, contact maggieball@compulsivereader.com.

Celebration Express can be found at: http://www.celebrationexpress.com.au/ 

Learn more about Howard-Johnson in the media room at www.howtodoitfrugally.com . And more about Ball at http://www.magdalenaball.com/.

###

Support material available electronically or by post on request.

E-mail: HoJoNews@aol.com

Award-winning Poets from Two Hemispheres Awarded for Chapbook

M E D I A R E L E A S E


For Immediate Release

Contact: Carolyn Howard-Johnson
E-mail: HoJoNews@aol.com

Reflections on Motherhood a Prize Winner

Award-winning Poets From Two Hemispheres Awarded for Chapbook

"a different kind of future
airy and permanent
the dry bliss of yellow bows
and shiny shoes"

She Wore Emerald Then: Reflections on Motherhood was conceived by Californian Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Aussie Magdalena Ball as part of their poetry chapbook series designed to commemorate holidays; their efforts were rewarded October 19 when it was named as a finalist for poetry book by USA Book News.

They believe that many need an alternative to the cloying greeting cards usually available for mothers' birthdays, Mother's Day and other holidays in card shops for about the same price as a card but--being poetry--with a high perceived sentimental and monetary value..

Howard-Johnson's first chapbook, Tracings (Finishing Line Press) was honored for excellence by the Military Writers Society of America and named to Compulsive Reader's Ten Best Reads. Her poetry has also been published in journals like Pear Noir, Montana State University's literary magazine, Writings from the River, Mt. St. Mary’s College journal Mary, The Pedestal magazine and in the soon-to-be released anthology by UCLA’s own Suzanne Lummis. She is the author of several other award-winning books. She is also an instructor for the UCLA Extension Writers' Program.

Ball’s novel Sleep Before Evening received unanimous 5-star reviews for its linguistic beauty and the intensity of its plot. She is also the author of an award-winning poetry chapbook Quark Soup, and a nonfiction book The Art of Assessment: How to Review Anything. Her website The Compulsive Reader, http://www.compulsivereader.com/html, has become a benchmark for high quality online literary criticism.

Artwork for She Wore Emerald Then is by May Lattanzio. She is a freelance writer/photographer, and author of Waltz on the Wild Side -- An Animal Lover's Journal and contributor to Native West's anthology Least Loved Beasts of the Really Wild West - A Tribute".

Learn more about Magdalena Ball at http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/images/MediaRoom.htm

Learn More about Carolyn Howard-Johnson in the Media Room at http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com/

Find a catalog of Lattanzio's writing at http://maylattanzio.blogspot.com and her photographs at http://www.jpgmag.com/people/may or http://www.thelensflare.com/u_may.php.

Find She Wore Emerald Then is available on Amazon at: http://budurl.com/MotherChapbook  

####

Support materials are available on request.