All posts in category Random Yacking

Vampire Facials…

Blood Sweat and Tears. Number 2

Blood Sweat and Tears. Number 2 (Photo credit: Jakob E)

 

Fellow author Steve Evans was kind enough to share an article with me about a new beauty craze dubbed “Vampire facials”. The essence is that your blood is drawn out, spun around in a centrifuge machine to separate the platelets, and then, in many cases, after your face is “perforated” the blood is then slathered over your skin. or, in other cases, it’s injected into troublesome areas (the treatment, it seems  originated as therapy for sports related injuries).

 

No, it wasn’t Dracula that brought this new craze out into the open, but rather Kim Kardashian who tweeted a bloody faced photo of herself that has since inspired people all over the world to have themselves slathered in their own blood. While Verchiel is all for this, I’m a little bit repulsed (as I like my blood in my veins, not on my face.) But what do you think?

 

Source article: 
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/beauty/8509964/Kiwis-thirst-for-vampire-facials

 

14 Comments
by Joleene Naylor on April 8, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Links, Random Yacking

Posted by Joleene Naylor on April 8, 2013

http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/vampire-facials/

The Great Cover Experiment

When I released the Special Editions I conducted a cover experiment - in other words I went for a more “mainstream” look.  At the time I placed a bet that the more traditional style covers would’t make them sell any better, and so far I’ve been right BUT the other half of that bet pointed out that there are too many variables for it to be a fair test. For instance, since they’re double books,  they’re more expensive. They  have no reviews and there aren’t as many back links to their Amazon/B&N/Smashwords pages.

So, to be 100% fair, I’ve decided to remove a few of those variables by temporarily creating new covers for the books on Amazon Kindle only (this will not effect the paper back versions). If my Amazon sales leap upwards at a higher rate than B&N etc. then that *should* tell me that, yes, the covers are an issue. If not, well, then I win.

Over the next five days I’ll reveal the new covers, so get ready to be… um… inundated. ;)

signature for white

6 Comments
by Joleene Naylor on February 24, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Random Yacking
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Posted by Joleene Naylor on February 24, 2013

http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/the-great-cover-experiment/

Super Sweet Blogging Award

Yes, I am supposed to be writing. As you can see by the snazzy bar over there ( —>) I am making progress, but I’m not quite done. Soon. I promise. But, an award from Barb is worth the pause, don’t you think?

Yes, the great Barbara G. Tarn has given me the Super Sweet Blogging Award! She may not be a fan of sweets but, unfortunately, I am  and it shows. ;)

The rules are:

  •   Show-off the award on your blog.
  •   Thank the super-sweet blogger who nominated you.
  •   Answer five super-sweet questions about yourself.
  •   Nominate your favorite super-sweet bloggers.

The super-sweet questions and my answers:

1. Cookies or cakes?

Cookies because I don’t like frosting – it’s *too* sweet. I will actually skim the frosting off of a piece of cake or a cupcake before I eat it.

2. Chocolate or vanilla?

Chocolate for the win! Vanilla can be good, though.

3. Favorite sweet treat?

It changes depending on the season, but the constants are anything chocolate-peppermint or chocolate raspberry.

4. When do you crave for sweets the most?

Most of the time. Even if I am craving salt, I still like a sweet flavored drink. Though, Christmas is the big chocolate holiday, of course. (Not Valentine’s Day because, until I got with he-who-is-now-hubby, I didn’t get chocolate on Valentine’s Day. Now I do sometimes, LOL!)

5. If you had a sweet nickname, what would it be?

When I was in high school, my CB handle was actually “Sweetness”, so, I guess I’ve already had one.

 

I now nominate the following super-sweet bloggers:

And by the way, speaking of Christmas, the Special Editions are still on holiday sale for $2.99 on Amazon. Waiting for the price to catch up elsewhere (sadly it’s slow the promo may be over before they do!)

9 Comments
by Joleene Naylor on December 1, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Random Yacking
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Posted by Joleene Naylor on December 1, 2012

http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/super-sweet-blogging-award/

For those who wanted to see Hideaki Takizawa

In my Next Big Thing blog hop, I mentioned that Hideaki Takizawa could play Verchiel, but it has come to my attention that his IMDB and his wiki page have no photos, and so here are links to a few (I couldn’t find any CC photos, so I can’t actually post them myself :( )

The guy on the right:


http://www.tokyohive.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/tt.jpg

shirtless:


http://25.media.tumblr.com/Gc0Dylgcmomo2ucmVeUf0SLdo1_500.jpg

Just lookin’ cute:


http://takimaru.bizhat.com/pic_video/Tackey%20-%20Olympus%20myumini.jpg

And though it is semi-unbelievable, I had actually designed Verchiel before I ran into this guy (who happens to have a similar hairdo and almost the right color of hair – it’s in the same family, anyway) But either way I think Tackey is hot, sooooo ;)

10 Comments
by Joleene Naylor on November 17, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Joleene Naylor on November 17, 2012

http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2012/11/17/for-those-who-wanted-to-see-hideaki-takizawa/

Kindelgraph: Not Just for Kindle Anymore!

In August, I posted about the very cool Kindlegraph, a site that lets authors autograph Kindle books for their fans. At the time, it was only compatible with Kindle devices but now *drum roll* not only does it have a new name – Authorgraph – but, in their own words:

…readers can now receive digital inscriptions from their favorite authors regardless of which digital reading app or device they use…

How cool is that? So, if you want your digital book signed, go check out 
http://www.authorgraph.com
 and see if the author has signed up already (thousands have, including yours truly!) and if they haven’t, why not send them a note and say “hey, this is cool!”?

And if you’re so inclined, they even have widgets you can add to your blog or website! If you’re logged in you can get it here: 
http://www.authorgraph.com/tools 
 - and unlike most sites it has a WordPress version – yippee! Here’s what it looks like:

Get a free Authorgraph from Joleene Naylor

14 Comments
by Joleene Naylor on November 16, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Links, Random Yacking
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Posted by Joleene Naylor on November 16, 2012

http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2012/11/16/kindelgraph-not-just-for-kindle-anymore/

Radio Interview Tonight!

This kind of radio won’t do you much good, but they’re pretty cool.

Tonight (July 17, 2012)  at 8PM Central (check here for what time that is in your zone) I will be speaking with Dab O’Brien on his blogtalk radio show! I *believe* that you can call in and ask questions (the phone number is on the site) OR you can leave you questions here and I will try to work them in. Previous shows have run between half an hour to an hour, so look for it to last until at least 8:30 PM Central time.

But what if you can’t make it? No fear! Just leave your questions here, and listen later! I will try to embed the show in a blog after it’s over (we’ll see what wordpress allows) OR you can hear it right on Dan’s Radio site!

Hope to hear from you!

3 Comments
by Joleene Naylor on July 17, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Links, Random Yacking
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Posted by Joleene Naylor on July 17, 2012

http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/radio-interview-tonight-9/

Interviews….

Hop over to the blog of Dan O’Brien (author of The End of the World Playlist and other novels) to read an author interview with yours truly .  Here is a small excerpt:

Dan: What should readers walk away from your books knowing, feeling?

Joleene: When they get done it would be nice if they thought “Wow, that vampire is hot! (I don’t even care which one)” but really I just want them to be entertained. There are enough novels out there that want to change the world. I just want to pass an afternoon. That may be an old fashioned concept on entertainment vs art, but, like the quote in the new Avengers movie, “People might just need a little old-fashioned.” And I think its success proves that. It’s great to have movies and books that trash the genres and turn things on their heads, but sometimes we all get sick of that. Sometimes, we just want to see someone get their butt kicked and know the hero is going to save the girl.

Also, be ready tomorrow for my first radio interview at 8pm Central time (though since it is blog talk radio you can listen to it later) .

Hope to see everyone there! ;)

6 Comments
by Joleene Naylor on July 16, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Links, Random Yacking
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Posted by Joleene Naylor on July 16, 2012

http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/interviews/

My First Blog Tour :)

snazzy graphic. Yes, you can snag it.

I’m going to try my first ever blog tour later this month (the 15th – 23rd) . There will be an ebook giveaway at each stop. Though I am mainly promoting the newest book, Ashes of Deceit, since it is a series you will be able to choose which of the four books you want. They will be from Smashwords, so you’ll be able to pick the format: epub, mobi, pdf – you name it.

I’m still in the organizing phase, but I have the stops/dates set up! I will update this as time goes by.

15 – The Intimate Vampire: Danger or safety?? – Top Shelf Books w/ Misty Rayburn - 
http://www.the-top-shelf.com/?p=4088
17 – The History of Vampires – Interrupted – with Barbara G. Tarn - 
http://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2012/06/17/guest-post/
19 – Dark Ramblings with Author Joleene Naylor - with The Williamson Vampires - 
http://julihoffman.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/dark-ramblings-with-author-joleene-naylor/
22- The Power of the Freebie – with Reena Jacobs - 
http://reenajacobs.com/blog/2012/06/joleene-naylor-blog-tour
/
23 -Excerpt of Ashes of Deceit – with Lindsay Downs - 
http://ajessicasalesnovel.wordpress.com/2012/06/22/joleene-naylor-day-9/
Hope to see everyone there! :)
24 Comments
by Joleene Naylor on June 7, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Contest, Random Yacking
Tagged , , , , ,

Posted by Joleene Naylor on June 7, 2012

http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/my-first-blog-tour/

Front Cover for Ashes of Deceit – Final Version

After the feedback from the cover debut, I have made some mior adjustments and am happy to say this is the final version:

As you might notice Malick looks a *little* bit eviler around the eyes, but not super evil (as he is not meant to be instantly identifiable as evil and is often described in the book(s) as “serene”.) buuuut for the sake of cover art a little menace is an okay thing. (You may also notice I have udpated the snazzy animation over to the side ;) Feel free to snag that bad boy by the way and post to your hearts content.)

Also adjusted the tagline position a bit too.

 

7 Comments
by Joleene Naylor on May 4, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Ashes of Deceit, Paranormal, Random Yacking, Vampires
Tagged , , , , , ,

Posted by Joleene Naylor on May 4, 2012

http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/front-cover-for-ashes-of-deceit-final-version/

New Facebook Page!

Yeah, I finally broke down and made an author page on Facebook. After waaaay longer than I want to admit to, I think I have it all set up. By using “apps” i have added a “My Books” page as well as an rss feed of this blog, a contact me page and a twitter page – though the twitter page took a looong time to load when I tested it. Maybe it was just my connection?

Something I have been unable to do is add a *&^% video. They upload for a little bit – about 12% or so and then stop and stare at me forever. Does anyone know why it does this? It’s not a huge deal as I have youtube account(s) so I can always just link (and save myself the effort of uploading!) but the blank button is annoying me.

If you’re a facebook friend you’ve probably already been annoyed with an invite to come like the page, but if you’re not then stop by and give me a like.  Free thank you’s to the first 50 fans.

(Think about that for a second ;) )

In future I may do contests or something with the page, but for now I am going to get back to work.

9 Comments
by Joleene Naylor on May 3, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Links, Paranormal, Random Yacking
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Posted by Joleene Naylor on May 3, 2012

http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/new-facebook-page/

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