We authors are all trying to figure out this new beast called the book trailer. Some have been more successful than others. Here's a great example of a trailer that works.
Why does it work? Because it perfectly captures the persona that actress/author Jane Lynch has created for herself. Rather than fill the video with text snippets, still photos and earnest music, we get a snappy look into what Jane might do at her local bookstore. Of course, she wouldn't really do this. Neither would you or I. But I think any author who's found one title of her book hidden in a corner wishes she could do something like this.
Showing posts with label humor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label humor. Show all posts
Friday, August 26, 2011
Book Trailers that Work: Jane Lynch's Happy Accidents
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
CFBA presents SAVE THE DATE by Jenny B. Jones
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I write Christian fiction with a few giggles, quite a bit of sass, and lots of crazy. My novels include the Katie Parker Production series and So Not Happening. I would also like to take credit for Twilight , but somewhere I think I read you’re not supposed to lie.When I’m not typing my heart out (or checking email), I teach at a super-sized high school in Arkansas.
My students are constantly telling me how my teaching changes their lives and turned them away from drugs, gangs, and C-SPAN.
Okay, that’s not exactly true.
Some facts that are true include:
I've always been refined!
A. I got my camera confiscated by big boys with guns at the American Embassy in Europe this past summer. O la la!
B. I once worked in a seed mill office and cleaned out mice on a regular basis. Ew.
C. I’m a former drama teacher.
D. I didn’t pass my drivers test the first time. Or the second…
E. I attract stray animals like a magnet.
F. I used to assemble and test paint ball guns for a local factory...
Since my current job leaves me with very little free time, I believe in spending my spare hours in meaningful, intellectual pursuits such as:
-watching E!
-updating my status on Facebook
-catching Will Ferrell on YouTube and
-writing my name in the dust on my furniture
I’d love to hear about you, so drop me a note. Or check me out on Facebook.
ABOUT THE BOOK
When the funding for Lucy’s non-profit job is pulled, she is determined to find out why. Enter Alex Sinclair, former professional football star and heir of Sinclair Enterprises—the primary donor to Lucy’s Saving Grace organization. Alex Sinclair has it all . . . except for the votes he needs to win his bid for Congress. Both Lucy and Alex have something the other wants. Despite their mutual dislike, Alex makes Lucy a proposition: pose as his fiancée in return for the money she desperately needs. Bound to a man who isn’t quite what he seems, Lucy finds her heart – and her future – on the line.
Save the Date is a spunky romance that will have readers laughing out loud as this dubious pair try to save their careers, their dreams . . . and maybe even a date.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Save The Date, go HERE
THOUGHTS FROM JEN
Jenny B. Jones has made a permanent place in the hearts of young girls (and the young at heart) with her YA novels. But with Save the Date, her second foray into fiction aimed at a slightly older audience, she is now firmly ensconced in the hearts of anyone with an XX chromosome set. With her signature sass, Jones has written a book that will not only make you laugh, but give your emotions a good old-fashioned tug. Mark it down on your calendar... you don't want to miss Save the Date!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
STUFF CHRISTIANS LIKE by Jonathan Acuff... It'll make you laugh yourself silly
by Jonathan Acuff
ABOUT THE BOOK
Sometimes, we fall in love on mission trips even though we know we’ll break up when we get back. Sometimes, you have to shot block a friend’s prayer because she’s asking God to bless an obviously bad dating relationship. Sometimes, you think, “I wish I had a t-shirt that said ‘I direct deposit my tithe’ so people wouldn’t judge me.”
Sometimes, the stuff that comes with faith is funny.
This is that stuff.
Jonathan Acuff’s Stuff Christians Like is your field guide to all things Christian. In it you’ll learn the culinary magic of the crock-pot. Think you’ve got a Metro worship leader? Use Acuff’s checklist. Want to avoid a prayer handholding faux pas? Acuff has you covered. Like a satirical grenade, Acuff brings us the humor and honesty that galvanized more than a million online readers from more than 200 countries in a new portable version. Welcome to the funny side of faith.
GETTING TO KNOW JONATHAN ACUFF
Who is Jonathan Acuff?
For the last ten years, I've written advertising for clients ranging from the Home Depot to Chick-fil-A. I also write a blog called Stuff Christians Life. My wife and I live with our two daughters outside of Atlanta, Georgia.
Tell us a little bit about your background and your family.
I grew up in Massachusetts with two younger brothers and a younger sister. My dad is a minister and that’s how I learned about a lot of the things I write about on SCL.
How did you get started in writing?
A teacher in the third grade laminated some poems I wrote and I fell in love with it then.
How do you find time to write?
I get up at 5AM before anyone in my family is up.
What would you say to someone who wants to become a published author?
Pick a time to write and then do it. Don’t debate whether you will write each day, just write.
Where did you get the idea for the blog... which then became book?
There was a popular site called Stuff White People Like. I feel like it’s weird that we Christians always steal popular secular ideas like making “Got Milk?” say “Got God?” I thought it would be a good idea to discuss that problem by committing that problem.
What are the major themes?
I try to clear the clutter of Christianity away so we can see the beauty of Christ.
What do you hope readers will take away from your book?
That they’ll know how fun and full of laughter a life of faith can be.
There aren't many books that make me laugh out loud. The problem with Stuff Christians Like
is that it had me laughing so much, it threw me out of stealth reading mode. My teenage son quickly realized he was missing out on the fun. From then on, it was a battle to see who'd pick up the book first and get to say, "Oh, you've got to hear this."What makes Stuff Christians Like
so funny is the honesty of it. Anybody who's been in church for awhile can relate to these short entries with titles like Dominating the "Please Turn to..." Bible Race During Church, Side Hugs, and Using "Let Me Pray About It" As a Euphemism For "No." But don't fear. Despite his razor sharp wit, there's never a question about Acuff's motives. He's one of us, and he's laughing with us, not at us. If you need a pick-me-up, do yourself a favor and get a copy of Stuff Christians Like. Just don't read it during church... unless you want to cause a commotion.NOTE: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for reviewing purposes.
WHAT STUFF DO YOU LIKE?
As a part of the release celebration of Stuff Christians Like
, you've got a chance to share your favorite "stuff" Christians like. In 500 words or less, write your own version of Stuff Christians Like and you could be featured on Jonathan's blog - which reaches over 120,000 readers each month and has been read by 1.4 million people since it began two years ago. Check out http://stuffchristianslike.net/ for examples and inspiration. Post your entry on your blog or Facebook and email the link to info(@)blogtourspot.com. Entries must be received by midnight, CST Friday, July 2.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Welcome Guest Blogger Camy Tang!
To be honest, people are very accepting of the fact it’s a different American sub-culture, Asian American.
I think that part of the reason is that people want to know more about the Asian American culture. It’s different and a little mysterious to people who don’t know many Asians in their everyday lives.
Another reason is that people who have read the book recognize their own family culture in the foibles of the Sakai family. Even though the characters are Asian, they have the same type of exasperating family dynamics as, say, an Italian American family, or a German American family, or a Russian American family.
I get so many reader letters of people who say, “My Swiss/Norwegian/Spanish/French grandmother/mother/aunt/cousin is JUST like Grandma Sakai!”
(That’s actually kind of scary, and I say a prayer for them.)
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: No matter what your ethnicity, families are all alike.
Including the ones that make you want to run away to a third world country and never be found again.
I also have to say that I didn’t base Grandma Sakai off of any real family members. In fact, I really try hard not to base my characters off of family members, because I think that’s just rude.
And I was like, “There is NO WAY you are ANYTHING like Venus’s mother. Venus’s mother is a nag and slightly psychotic. You are not a nag and not psychotic at all. How can you be thinking that?”
I hope I was emphatic enough that she can get rid of the notion she is anything even remotely like Venus’s crazy mother.
But doesn’t that make you want to read the book now? ;)
Thanks for letting me guest blog, Jennifer!
Camy
And thank you, Camy, for spending some time with us. It’s always fun to hear from you! May God continue to bless you in your writing journey!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Camy Tang writes romance with a kick of wasabi. She used to be a biologist, but now she is a staff worker for her church youth group and leads a worship team for Sunday service. She also runs the Story Sensei fiction critique service. On her blog, she gives away Christian novels every Monday and Thursday, and she ponders frivolous things like dumb dogs (namely, hers), coffee-geek husbands (no resemblance to her own...), the writing journey, Asiana, and anything else that comes to mind.
JEN’S REVIEW
I’ve read all three of Camy’s book and have thoroughly enjoyed each one. Single Sashimi was particularly fun, though. From the first page, Camy grabbed me and pulled me into this story of compulsively clean Venus, who’s neat life creating virtual worlds starts to unravel. As always, Camy seamlessly weaves in a strong spiritual thread that never comes off as preachy, but leaves you completely satisfied. Do yourself a favor and pick up Single Sashimi. And if you haven’t already, pick up the first two books in the Sushi Series. Your funny bone will thank you!
WIN FREE STUFF FROM CAMY!
Visit Camy’s website at http://www.camytang.com/ for a huge website contest going on right now. She’s giving away ten boxes of books and 30 copies of her latest release, SINGLE SASHIMI. She’s also giving away books in her monthly newsletter contest. Good luck!
Friday, August 1, 2008
Meet Mary Connealy - Interview & Book Giveaway
THE BIO
Mary Connealy is the author of Calico Canyon and Petticoat Ranch. Alaska Brides, a Heartsong anthology containing her book Golden Days will be out in August. She has recently signed an exclusive contract to write for Barbour Publishing for the next three years. Mary’s dream is to tell love stories that make people laugh. She lives on a farm in Nebraska with her husband, Ivan. She just moved her youngest child to college and the nest is so empty it echoes.
THE INTERVIEW
JA: Please tell us about your latest book, Calico Canyon.
MC: Calico Canyon – Lassoed in Texas Book #2 is a suspenseful, inspirational, historical western, romantic comedy. In Petticoat Ranch I talked about a man who’d never been around women, dropped into an all-girl world, so I decided to do the flip side of that story in Calico Canyon. I took prissy, Miss Calhoun, the school marm, and shoved her, completely against her will, into an all-male world.
The main trouble between Daniel and Grace isn’t the fact that they loathe each other—although that’s huge. It’s the fact that Daniel completely blames himself for his first wife’s death in childbirth, plus how brutally hard it was for him to survive with newborn triplets. He is so deeply traumatized by it that he won’t risk having another woman be with child. But he has a God given, perfectly natural attraction for his new wife—once he calms down and accepts his fate of course.
So there’s a war inside Daniel and, torn between desire and terror, he handles it as badly as humanly possible. And Grace? Well she’d been rejected so many times in her life that she expects it. Convincing her to risk their heart would be hard for anyone, but nearly impossible for the man she married.
JA: Your heroine, Grace Calhoun, made a brief appearance in Petticoat Ranch. At that time, did you plan for Grace to get her own storyline?
MC: Yes, absolutely. In fact Grace did NOT appear in Petticoat Ranch as I originally wrote it. Nor did Daniel. I went back and rewrote the book specifically to create book #2 in this series. I did this all long before Petticoat Ranch got published.
JA: I love the internal conflict you gave Daniel Reeves and his constant push and pull with Grace. What’s your favorite thing about Daniel?
MC: I wanted Daniel to be the result of absolutely no female influence. For five years he’s completely committed his life to raising his sons the best way he knew how so I wanted him to have a really wonderful, loving heart, but be a savage. Just absolutely none of the refinement living with a woman might give you. And maybe that’s not done in a fair way. Men can have manners and be totally civilized. But Daniel wasn’t and neither were his boys.
Here’s a moment with Daniel I loved. He’s ‘teaching’ his son Mark.
“Grace...uh...that is, your ma...is here to stay. So, we’ll use our smarts to figure out a way to get along with her.”
“And Miss Calhoun is smart too, or least ways she kept acting like she was.”
Daniel shrugged his shoulders. “She might be smart. No sign of it anywheres I can see. And besides, there’s smart and there’s smart.”
“What’s that mean, Pa?” Mark scooped up a handful of snow and seemed to be studying the house.
Daniel had to bite back a smile. “It means—smart is what you do with it.” Daniel nodded his head at the house. “I’ve known a few real educated men, got through high school ’n everything, who didn’t have a lick of sense. And I’ve knowed some men who couldn’t read nor write, who didn’t have a day of book learning, but I’d trust ’em with big decisions about real important stuff, like my cattle, even.”
“So, we’ll just see what kind of smart Ma turns out to be.”
Daniel sighed again, this time the sound seemed to come all the way from his toes. “Yep, the good news is, since we’re stuck with her for life, she’s got a lot of time to learn.”
I think this was a pretty common mindset back then. Common sense, practical skills and hard work trumped a shiny diploma nearly every time. And Daniel’s respect for those practical skills over schooling were typical. But he’s trying, in his own lunk headed way, to teach his children.
JA: You do a great job tempering serious topics with humor. So tell us, have you always been funny? MC: Humor just happens in my books. I seem to be unable to resist letting my heroine sass the hero. I love it when the hero, knowing he’s hit on a sensitive subject, looks his woman in the eye and chooses the worst possible way to respond to her. That’s entertaining to me, to write like that. And I pretty much write to entertain myself, like a normal person would play golf, so of course I’m going to go for the laugh.
JA: What do you hope people take away after reading Calico Canyon?
MC: I look at the different ways Daniel reacted to his sons and Clay reacted to his daughters and all the mistakes they made and all the wrangling they did with their wives and I hope the love comes through. People do their best and they fail and fail and fail. I think the primary motivator for most mothers especially is guilt. But if you truly love your child that will come through and it’s what makes a child into a good adult. Not the exact right word or the perfect level of discipline. Just your whole life with your children and your spouse heavily seasoned with love.
I also loved the moment when Clay finally finds out Parrish has been terrorizing Sally. I think this kind of trust lays a foundation for a child that they carry with them all their lives.
Clay looked at Sally and crouched in front of her. “Let me see your hand, darlin’.”
Sally held her palm up. The bruising was dark and there were several cuts in her tender flesh.
Pa gave her hand a kiss, then lifted her into his strong arms as he rose and hugged her tight. He pulled back far enough to look her square in the eye. “You could have told me. I’d’ve listened. You’re not a little girl to tell lies and I’d’ve trusted you.”
JA: What’s next for you in the writing arena?
MC: I’ve got a three book Heartsong series coming soon and a three book cozy series. And the sequel to Calico Canyon comes out in February. Gingham Mountain, it’s Hannah’s story. And Hannah, the way she kept collecting children in Calico Canyon, despite the hardship to herself, well, she finds a whole lot of children to save and an adoptive father who is nothing like her own. But he’s got his hands full convincing Hannah of that.
JA: You’ve signed an exclusive contract with Barbour Publishing for eighteen books over the next four years. Big congrats on that! What was it like when they approached you about this?
MC: I suppose nothing is a sweet as that first contract. Such a fantastic moment. But once you’ve got that contract you immediately start thinking am I a one-book wonder. My dream beyond getting a book published to begin with was, “I wish I could have a career.” Well, with eighteen books coming from Barbour, I’d say I have one. So it was a dream come true that I barely dared to hope for.
JA: Is there something people would be surprised to know about you?
MC: I honestly consider myself to be the most normal person imaginable. That fact that I have books in bookstores is so wildly beyond any hope I ever had that it’s stunning. I’m mostly a homebody. I have a full time job teaching GED. I was a stay-at-home mom for twenty-seven years. Pretty normal stuff. No great glamour involved in being a writer, just hours alone in front of a computer. That suits me fine.
JA: Last but not least, how can people keep up with your latest publishing news?
MC: My website has my books listed and their release dates and contact info if anyone wants to email me. http://www.maryconnealy.com/
I’ve got three blogs. Two with groups of authors and we have so much fun on them. Seekerville about writing contests: http://www.seekerville.blogspot.com/
Petticoats and Pistols about western romance: http://petticoatsandpistols.com/
And my personal blog that has current news about my books: http://www.mconnealy.blogspot.com/
Thanks for hanging out with us, Mary. May God continue to bless your writing journey!
JEN’S REVIEW
If it seems like you’ve read this review already, you probably have. I posted it during Mary’s CFBA blog tour in June. But I thought it would be nice to run it again with Mary’s interview. Don’t worry… you’re not going crazy!
I absolutely loved Petticoat Ranch so I had very high expectations for Calico Canyon. I'm happy to say I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I found this book to be even stronger than the first, which is saying something.
Mary Connealy knows her way around emotions. She can make you laugh out loud one minute and tug on your heart the next. In Grace and Daniel she's created two characters you love and root for, even while they are contemplating knocking each other silly. It's a match reminiscent of classic movie pairings like Tracy and Hepburn or Gable and Lombard. Grace and Daniel are just as much fun... and romantic.
She also has some interesting secondary story lines which will almost certainly pop up in her next book in the series, Gingham Mountain. While this book can stand alone, I think you'll enjoy it more if you read Petticoat Ranch first. Not only will you have a proper introduction to Grace, but you'll get to read another fast-paced and fun romance.
WIN THE BOOK
If you’d like to be entered to win a copy of Calico Canyon just leave a reply to this blog. I’ll pick a winner at random on August 8th. Please leave an email address so I can contact you if you're the winner. (To prevent spammers from trolling for your email, please use this format with the brackets--you [at] yourmail [dot] com--or something similar.) Good luck!
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