My First Video Interview!

So excited to share with you my first video interview on my books, my advice on marketing and how to build your social media platform, simple tips for book covers, and paperback vs. ebooks with Andrea Billig and Self-Publishing Mastery.

Check it out here!

Also last week was quite an exciting week. I put my short-story Blow for free and unexpectedly it spent all five days at #1 in two categories and #2 in the third. If you missed out it's only 99 cents and I'm working on the sequel right now.

http://geni.us/blowblog


I've been busy writing guest blogs and I wanted to share the quirky and fun pieces I've put together for some of my writing buddies in the last few weeks to promote my books. 

Seumas Gallacher: Time After Time. -- Why and where I time travel.

Susan Wingate: Clones and Scones -- If I could have a few clones to help me publish books.

Self Publishing Mastery: 5 Tips for Writing a Compelling Series -- 5 tips I use to write my series. 

Guest Blog on Aaron Alber's Blog -- Author interview with Aaron Albers.

Coming soon: Blog interview with Julie Whitley Pamerleau, podcast interview with Mark Combs, guest blog with Jason C. Bourne, feature on the Author Gang and several other fun things in the works. 

Let me know if you have any blogging opportunities, I'd love to partake!


My books are available here:

Blow: http://geni.us/blowblog

Stealing Time: http://geni.us/StealingBlog

Shattering Time: http://geni.us/ShatterBlog

Sign up for my newsletter here and join the fun! 

Susan Wingate -- Heroes, Clones, and Writing the Great American Thriller

Check it out here.  This week we are excited to air a brand new interview with one of our podcast heroes, Amazon best-selling author Susan Wingate. A lot of laughter in this one as it is always a fun interview with Susan. We delve into her latest woman's thriller she is working on, and dream about clones helping us get everything done. She also gave us a behind the scenes of her ongoing success and how she uses google analytics and book awards to promote book sales. What your clone doing today?

Winners of Blondie and the Brit Awards

	Welcome to the first annual Blondie and the Brit Awards and Birthday Bash celebration! If you’ve grabbed your party hat please don it and join in. Thank you for all of your votes, shares and support! This has been a fantastic five weeks of voting. We appreciate all of your support.

First things first. All of our winners will receive:

1.   A Blondie and the Brit award (pictured above),

2.   The opportunity for a second interview on the show sometime in the next year,

3.   A widget for your website with your award announcement,

4.   A Best of Blondie and the Brit podcast with a quick interview update for those who make themselves available,

5.   Listing on our website under Awards Winners, and

6.   Eternal bragging rights.

SJ Hermann Podcast Hero Award

 SJ Hermann

Our first award is one of our Blondie and Brit Hero Awards. Congratulations to SJ Hermann for being our first recipient of The Blondie and The Brit Hero Award. SJ’s is an emphatic supporter of Blondie and the Brit, both in reposting about our books and our supporting our podcast in general, he is also an encouraging advocate for all Indie Authors. One of our earlier interviews, his podcast has far surpassed any other in the number of downloads. S.J. is a writer of paranormal, science fiction, horror and urban fantasy novels. You can find out more about him here on his website. http://sjhermannauthor.blogspot.com/

Category 1 – Best Social Media Tip 

  

Our nominees for the Best Social Media tip are:

Rachel Thompson -- #MondayBlogs

Laurence O'Bryan -- Extending Your Book onto Your Blog

Joey Pinkney -- How to Present Yourself Online

Nicole Persun -- SEO Optimization

Claude Bouchard -- Twitter Growth

And our winner is:

Rachel Thompson

We loved this tip from Rachel Thompson about her #MondayBlogs creation. Rachel had so many great author tips it was hard to pick just one to feature. Congrats Rachel for the win! Please check out her website at http://rachelintheoc.com/.

Here is Rachel’s winning clip: https://clyp.it/yr2crcso

 Category 2 – Most Creative Book Promotion

 The nominees for the Most Creative Book Promotion Award are:

Caragh O'Brien -- California Drought
Ian Mackenzie -- South African Politics
Vaun Murphrey -- Science in the News
Amy Quick Parrish -- Web Series to Pilot to Novel 
Barbara Sissel Taylor -- Living on the Grounds of a Correctional Facility
Emily Drake Carpenter -- Ideas Form in the Bath 

Nicole Waggoner

Our winner in the category Most Creative Book Promotion is the amazing Nicole Waggoner. No surprises here! Her tip on how to pull a potential reader into a second book in a series was a great promotional tool. Both Blondie and the Brit are planning on using this one in their own upcoming books.  Check out her website http://www.nicolewaggonerauthor.com/

Here is the winning clip https://clyp.it/aagp4wv2 (Nicole)

Category 3 – Best Fangirl/Boy Story

Our nominees in this category are:

Camille Di Maio -- How she presented her book to Paul McCartney 
Tom Nichols -- Hollywood Hills with Tarintino 
Kim Hunt Harris -- Diana Gabaldon Ultimate Fan Girl
Edward Stanton -- Paul Stanley of KISS Fame Keeping his Identity Secret

Kim Harris

Congratulations to Kim Hunt Harris for winning Best Fangirl story. Kim’s interview was hilarious and we really loved hearing her story about meeting Diana Gabaldon. Diana is KJ’s favorite author so I agree with our audience on this one for sure. Thank you Kim for giving us a great interview with such a great clip. You can find out more about Kim on her website http://kimhuntharris.com/.

Here is the winning clip (Kim) https://clyp.it/ocyoowjm

Category 4 – Funniest Podcast

 Our nominees for this category are:

Kerry Schafer -- Twitter Shenanigans
J.D. Lexx -- Lightning Round Hilarity
Sharon Anderson -- Phone a Friend
Luke Romyn -- Bicycle Underpants Story
Lynn Lamb -- Burning Down the House

J.D. Lexx

There were many podcasts we could have included in this award as we have had so much fun with so many authors, however we had to narrow it down and the winner in the category with the most votes from our podcast audience is J.D. Lexx with his incredible wit who kept us laughing through the whole interview. Learn more about J.D. on his website http://www.jdlexx.com/.

Here is the winning clip from J.D https://clyp.it/he1vz3v4

  

Susan Wingate Podcast Hero Award

Susan Wingate

We are honored to introduce to you to another amazing author who is recipient of our second Blondie and The Brit Hero Award. Susan Wingate is not only a fabulous writer but she is also a great support and resources for other writers. Over the last year we have felt Susan's support in so many different ways from helping us through our book launches and Facebook parties to interviewing us on her own podcast. Both a traditionally and Indie author she extents herself in so many way to support the writing community, through her classes, her online influence and her whole-hearted devotion to her craft. We can't think of a better choice for our special hero award. Thank you Susan for all you do. You can find more about Susan by visiting her website here: http://www.susanwingate.com/

Category 5 – Best New Author Story 

Our next category was Best New Author Story where authors shared how they were discovered. Our nominees are:

Darynda Jones -- Agent Beauty Contest
Susan Spann -- Ten Years of Tenacity
Patricia Sands -- Every Day is a Gift
David Estes -- Accountant to Full-Time Writer on the Beach

And the Winner is: Darynda Jones

Congrats! Darynda was our very first aired interview on October 1, 2015. Her story of being discovered by St. Martin’s Press after winning the Golden Heart Romance Award was a very inspiring. Thank you Darynda for giving us your time and talents for our debut podcast. You can find out more about Darynda at http://www.daryndajones.com/.Here is the winning clip from Darynda  https://clyp.it/notykb11

Category 6 – Most Helpful Writing Process

Nominees for the Most Helpful Writing Process award are:

Melody Robinette -- The Pomodoro Method 
Graeme Ing -- Scrivener Software for Writers
Deb Lund -- Increasing the Conflict and Suspense in Fiction
Terry Persun -- Fostering Creativity in your Life to Enhance Your Writing 
Ellie Alexander -- Writing in Layers to Enhance the Story 

Melody Robinette

We are excited to announce the Most Helpful Writing Process winner is Melody Robinette. 

Our listeners deemed this as the Most Helpful Writing Process. We were so glad to meet this great author and KJ has already tried and used this writing tip successfully. Melody Robinette was our winner with her great Pomodoro technique. Find out more about Melody on her website: https://melodyrobinette.com/

  

Here is the winning clip from Melody https://clyp.it/whgefrkc

Category 7 – Most Inspired Storytelling

The nominees for our Most Inspired Storytelling category are:

Melody Robinette -- The Pomodoro Method 
Graeme Ing -- Scrivener Software for Writers
Deb Lund -- Increasing the Conflict and Suspense in Fiction
Terry Persun -- Fostering Creativity in your Life to Enhance Your Writing 
Ellie Alexander -- Writing in Layers to Enhance the Story 

 VaunMurphrey

Vaun Murphrey is the winner of the Most Inspired Storytelling with her description of what inspires her science fiction writing. I loved this clip where she shares the scientific articles that were the spark for two of her novels. Congratulations Vaun! We loved your interview and were glad you were able to stay up past 8:00 pm to talk to us. Check her out on her website http://www.vaunmurphrey.com/.

Here is the winning clip from Vaun https://clyp.it/lg0xzeqi

Martin Lastrapes Hero Award

Martin Lastrapes

We are so excited to introduce to you to our third amazing author who is the recipient of our Blondie and The Brit Hero Award. Martin Lastrapes was a great support to us and our podcast when we first launched and featured us on his Podcast for an in depth interview. Martin is an award-winning novelist, a Buffy enthusiast, and a podcaster. His debut novel, Inside the Outside, has been praised by readers and critics alike and in the spring of 2012 it won the Grand Prize in the Paris Book Festival.  You can find out more about Martin here on his website: http://www.martinlastrapes.com/

Category 8 – Best Professional Publishing Tip 

Nominees for the Best Professional Publishing Tip are:

Andrea Hurst -- How to Approach an Agent
Gisela Hausmann -- Advice for Contacting Book Reviewers 
Evan Marshall -- What Does an Agent Bring to the Equation
Jeri Walker -- How to Choose and Editor Carlie Cullen -- Common Writer Mistakes 

Jeri Walker 

Our winner for the Best Professional Tip is Jeri Walker! Congrats! Jeri joined us on the program to talk editing and we ended up learning a lot about blogging and other author marketing resources. Thank you for sharing your expertise Jeri! For more great book marketing and writing advice check out her blog http://jeriwb.com/.

Here is Jeri’s winning clip: https://clyp.it/hnrc3l20

Best Overall Podcast -- Blondie’s Choice 

The last category for us is our overall personal favorite podcasts. We both chose the one we had enjoyed the most over the whole year. 

I’m so excited to announce Blondie’s Choice award for my favorite podcast of the year. Rachel Thompson!

I chose Rachel’s podcast for this award because of the endless great advice contained within. We gave you her clip on #MondayBlogs but it truly was hard to choose the best one in the interview that we spread out into two podcasts because it was so full of great author and book marketing tips and advice. Rachel gives back so much to our author community with her #bookmarketing chats Wednesday nights, her great articles on her blog and endless great content and tips.

Thank you Rachel! Stay tuned because next week we will have an update from Rachel on the podcast about all of the new and exciting things she is working on now.

Best Overall Podcast -- Brit’s Choice – Terry Persun

For the Brit, there was no contest for this award. This author was not only gracious, funny, and informative. He was also one of the most versatile and knowledgeable authors I have ever met. We ended up interviewing him twice for an hour each time and he had new and interesting things to say. I also had my writers “ahh” moment during one of those interviews. 

Terry Persun 

I am excited to announce that the Brits favorite over all podcast interview went to the amazing Terry Persun. Thank you Terry for all you do for authors and for the amazing creative spirit you are.  You can find out more about Terry at http://www.terrypersun.com/

Here is Terry’s winning clip: https://clyp.it/rrrkmyfd

Congratulations to all of our Winning Authors 

Thank you for all of your support of the podcast and Suzanne and KJ.

Don't miss an episode, subscribe on:

Podbean: http://blondieandbrit.podbean.com/ 

or iTunes 

Free Chapters of KJ Waters' Upcoming Release! 

As a party favor KJ is offering the first two chapters of her next novel, Shattering Time. Please click on the link here. http://www.kjwaters.com/shattering-time-book-2

You can have the first six chapters of Shattering time (the sequel to Stealing Time) by subscribing to her newsletter here. http://www.kjwaters.com/

Blondie and the Brit Birthday Bash and Podcast Awards

Blondie and the Brit Birthday Bash and Podcast Awards 

Friday October 14 6:00 pm EST

This Friday (October 14) we will be celebrating our one year anniversary with a super fabulous Facebook party where we will announce the winners of our Audience Choice Podcast Awards.

Join our Facebook party here to get the full scoop. You have to click join to see the posts.

Suzanne Kelman and I have a blast at our parties so please join us and come along for the ride. We will be giving away some books and I will have some exclusive content for those who attend the party! 

The schedule for the grand evening is based on East Coast Standard time so make adjustments as you need to.

8:00 pm -- Party begins with a toast and I promise to wear a really stupid hat. Well maybe not but you'll have to come to the party to see.
 
8:05 -- S.J. Hermann Podcast Hero Award


8:15 -- Category 2 – Most Creative Book Promotion Winner


8:30 – Category 3 – Best Fangirl/Boy Story Winner

8:45 – Category 4 – Funniest Podcast Winner


9:00 – Susan Wingate Podcast Hero Award Winner


9:15 – Category 6 – Most Helpful Writing Process Winner


9:30 – Category 7 – Most Inspired Storytelling Winner


9:45 – Category 5 – Best New Author Story Winner


10:00 – Martin Lastrapes Hero Award


10:15 – Category 8 – Best Professional Publishing Tip Winner


10:30 – Category 1 -- Social Media Tips Winner


10:45 – Best Overall Podcast Winners -- Blondie’s Choice and then Brit’s Choice 

11:00 –- End

We hope to see you at the party!

Please listen to our two full podcasts here where we review provide the best tips from our first year of podcasting. 

Part 1

Part 2 

To listen to these amazing authors please visit our podcast here or on iTunes here.

Blondie and the Brit #Podcast Launch -- Writing Publishing and Beyond

I'm so excited to announce that on October 1, 2015, Suzanne Kelman and I (KJ Waters) are launching a new podcast for authors called Blondie and the Brit -- Writing, Publishing and Beyond. 

In celebration of the launch and to get more followers, we have created two giveaways for $25 amazon gift cards (and more) and a facebook party for October 2 at 5:00 pm EST.

You can listen and subscribe to the podcast HERE on podbean and HERE on iTunes.

Check out our new website: www.blondieandbrit.com

Welcome to Blondie and the Brit

and our podcast Writing, Publishing and Beyond. 

The goal is to be a resource and inform writers in all stages of the careers about their craft.  

Every week we will air an interview with those in the Indie and traditionally published arena about writing habits, publishing tips, and marketing strategies.

Giveaway #1 

Giveaway #1 ends September 30, at midnight EST.

To enter the giveaways simply click on the link below. We are giving away a $25 gift card to Amazon and a signed copy of Stealing Time and The Rejected Writer's Book Club, the books Suzanne and I have each penned.

Click here to enter a Rafflecopter Giveaway #1

Giveaway # 2

The second giveaway ends October 7 at midnight EST. To enter this you will need to subscribe to the podcast either on iTunes or on podbean. 

Click here to enter Rafflecopter Giveaway #2
a Rafflecopter giveaway  

We have two prizes for this giveaway -- A $25 amazon gift card AND a signed paperback from Susan Wingate of her award-winning book The Deer Effect. 

Facebook Party

Please join our facebook party as well where we celebrate with the authors we've interviewed for the podcast. The party is Friday, October 2, 2015, from 4:00 to 6:00 pm est. We will be giving away more prizes and announcing the winner from the first Rafflecopter contest.  

Join the facebook party/here!

Click here to join the party. You will have to join the link on facebook to get all of the party activities. 

Mailing List

We would be very honored to have you join our mailing list that will keep you up to date on all of the podcast guests and happenings. Click here to sign up! We are also on facebook and twitter. 

Here are the Authors We Have Coming up in October.

Darynda Jones

NY Times & USA Today

BestSelling Author

 October 1, 2015

Darynda shares how she got her big break into publishing and how she creates her amazing characters.

Susan Wingate

Award Winning and Best Selling Amazon Author

October 1

Susan Wingate shares some of her top social media tips that have helped her become an Amazon Bestselling author.

Dave Perlmutter

#1 Amazon Bestselling author in True Crime in the US, Australia, India and Spain. 
October 1.

David talks about the story behind his life changing book and some of his best social media tips including his #cheekymarketing campaign.

Other authors coming up in October:

October 8 -- Munir Bello a British dating game show host and author of the book The Break Up Recipe.

October 15 -- Jeri Walker who is an editor, indie author, and blogger of WordBank Writing and Editing.

October 22 -- Seumas Gallacher author of The Jack Calder Series and Blogger of the Year winner for 2013.

I welcome any support you can give to promote our podcast and these exciting authors on your blog or social media. Feel free to share this post, reblog however you would like, with the utmost gratitude!

About KJ Waters: 

When I'm not working on the Stealing Time series you can find me on my social media at the links below. My novel is out on amazon here.

I am also the CEO of Blondie's Custom Book Covers, a company that helps authors and publishers create stunning book covers. Please follow our links here.

• Check out my website: www.kjwaters.com

• Follow me on twitter at @kamajowa

• I'm on facebook at 

• http://www.facebook.com/pages/KJ-Waters/206720056103502 for my author site, or my 'jury-rigged work around so I can like you back' facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/kj.waters.39

• I have some photographs up on Fine Arts America at: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/kj-waters.html for sale, check it out!

• Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/kamajowa/

• Audioboo voice messages:  http://audioboo.fm/KJWaters 

• All About Me page: http://about.me/kjwaters

• Brand Yourself Profile: http://brandyourself.com/

• Check out our website here.

• We are on twitter here.

• Facebook link here.