Maria Savva's Blog - Posts Tagged "delusion-and-dreams"

Where did February go? Time flies when you're having fun... or more precisely, time flies.

Here's a quick update on what I'm doing.

Delusion and Dreams

It took me a while to decide which stories should be included in my upcoming short story collection, Delusion and Dreams. I also wrote a couple of new ones for it last month, which is why it is being delayed. I am now in the final editing stages before I can pass the book over to my beta readers. I'm hoping to publish it in the next month or so.

Crime Spotlight

My novel, Haunted, is being featured in Fantastic Book Publishing's CRIME SPOTLIGHT!



Here's a link to my interview: http://www.fantasticbookspublishing.c...

There are also some interviews featured with other crime writers from the UK.


Interview

I've also been interviewed by author Marta Moran Bishop, on her website. She asked me about Haunted, and Coincidences, two of my books that she'd read and enjoyed.

You can find the interview here: http://www.martamoranbishop.com/4/pos...

I hope you enjoy the interviews!

You can read the short story, Speed King, from my collection Love and Loyalty, on the BestsellerBound Recommends blog.






Here's the link: http://quietfurybooks.com/bestsellerb...

A quick update on my upcoming release, Delusion and Dreams: I have now received all the feedback from my beta readers and have done the final edits. I will be reading it through one more time and then sending it to one more person before I publish it, just to try to catch as many of those stray typos as possible.

I hope to release the book within the next few weeks. I will be revealing the cover very soon, so watch this space...

I am very excited to show you all the cover of my soon to be released collection of short stories: Delusion and Dreams.

Here it is!



The beautiful photograph is by Martin David Porter, of Mart's Arts Photography He mainly takes band/gig photos, but also takes nature/wildlife photos. 'Like' his page and check out the stunning photographs.

I'll be posting more news about Delusion and Dreams soon!

I am hoping to send my new collection of short stories, Delusion and Dreams, to ebookbuilders to be formatted, by the end of this week.

That means the book will soon be available on Kindle! It will take a little longer for me to finalise the paperback.

I am very excited about publishing this new collection.










I now have a blurb/description for you:


Twelve stories of betrayal, greed, revenge, deception, dreams, and courage.

We all struggle to find our way. What you see isn't necessarily all there is. This collection takes you into the grey area, because the world is never just black and white.

Life is all about perspective. One person's delusion is another person's dream.


(Thank you to Darcia Helle for helping me write the blurb!)

With this book, I'll be doing a blog tour, which I'm currently organising. I'll be visiting many of my fellow indie authors' blogs and chatting about the stories in Delusion and Dreams. I hope you'll follow the blog tour and spread the word about the new release.

Thank you to all my readers for your continued support.

I just wanted to let you all know that I have reduced the price of my most recent short story collection, Fusion, to just 99 cents for Kindle.



"Crime, passion, ghosts, obsession, hope, faith, and new beginnings-you will find all these things, and more, within these pages. A mixed collection of short fiction, by the prolific writer, Maria Savva, who has been praised for her story telling abilities by fellow authors as well as her fans. Sit back, relax, and begin your journey with a story of deep love, and follow through to read insightful tales reflecting our world today, but
at the same time taking you away to a world of fantasy. Thought provoking and eventful stories written to entertain and inspire. Maria Savva's latest collection is sure to please, with haunting and psychological tales, blended with romantic and humourous ones. A diverse assortment, brought together by 'fusion'."


Remember, you don't have to own a Kindle to read Kindle books, you can read them on your smartphone, PC, Mac, iPad etc., by downloading the free apps from Amazon.

The price will stay at 99 cents until my new book, Delusion and Dreams, is published. I expect to be able to send that to be formatted for Kindle in the next couple of days. After that, it may be a week or so before it's available in the Amazon stores. I'm looking forward to publishing that one!

So, while you're waiting for the new book, you can pick up Fusion for a bargain price.

I hope you enjoy the stories.

Here are the links you need:

Amazon.com (includes India): http://www.amazon.com/Fusion-ebook/dp...

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fusion-ebook/...

Amazon.ca: http://www.amazon.ca/Fusion-ebook/dp/...

Amazon FR: http://www.amazon.fr/Fusion-ebook/dp/...

Amazon Germany: http://www.amazon.de/Fusion-ebook/dp/...

Amazon Japan: http://www.amazon.co.jp/Fusion-ebook/...

Amazon Spain: http://www.amazon.es/Fusion-ebook/dp/...

Amazon Italy: http://www.amazon.it/Fusion-ebook/dp/...

Amazon Brazil: http://www.amazon.com.br/Fusion-ebook...

I am pleased to confirm that my new book, Delusion and Dreams, has now been published!

You can get a Kindle copy from Amazon worldwide.

Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Delusion-and-Dr...

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Delusion-and-...



Twelve stories of betrayal, greed, revenge, deception, dreams, and courage.

We all struggle to find our way. What you see isn't necessarily all there is. This collection takes you into the grey area, because the world is never just black and white.

Life is all about perspective. One person's delusion is another person's dream.

Includes five bonus stories.

********


I'm sure you'll be reading the book, and thinking, 'Wow, the formatting is fabulous,' (the stories too I hope!!)
I wanted to mention EBook Builders, who did the formatting. I am very happy with the results, and would highly recommend them if you're an author looking for someone who can help you publish on Kindle, ePub, or even Smashwords.
Here's a link to the website: http://www.e-bookbuilders.com/

My blog tour will start on 31st May. There will be a giveaway, including the chance to win a signed paperback copy.
I'll be keeping you updated with the blog posts on the tour. Hope to see you all there :)

I've arranged a blog tour to promote my latest book, Delusion and Dreams.

The tour will run from 31st May to 21st June, and there will be a Rafflecopter giveaway. You could win a signed copy of the book. There are also runner up prizes of an e-book version of Delusion and Dreams and e-books from Darcia Helle, J. Michael Radcliffe, Wendy Laharnar, and Helle Gade!



Here's a list of the dates for the tour as well as details as to what you can expect on each stop. I'll be updating this blog with links to each stop on the tour.

I hope to see you all there!

31st May: First stop, Darcia Helle's blog! My guest post there is all about why some of the stories in “Delusion and Dreams” are told from different characters’ viewpoints: http://quietfurybooks.com/blog/2013/0...

1st June: Interview on J. Michael Radcliffe's blog. Michael was one of my beta-readers, so he asked me lots of questions about "Delusion and Dreams": http://michaelradcliffe.wordpress.com...

2nd June: I'll be stopping at Seumas Gallacher's blog. There'll be an excerpt from one of the stories from "Delusion and Dreams": http://seumasgallacher.com/2013/06/02...

3rd June: There will be a New Release Spotlight for the book on the BestsellerBound Recommends blog! http://quietfurybooks.com/bestsellerb...

4th June: I'll be at Savannah Rayne's blog, telling you all about the book trailer for "Delusion and Dreams": http://savannahrayne.blogspot.co.uk/2...

5th June: I'll be at The Secret Writer's blog, where my guest post will feature a few sentences about each of the stories included in my new collection: http://thesecretwriterblog.blogspot.c...

6th June: I'll be K.B. Walker's blog, telling you how I chose the cover for the book: http://nutsandcrisps.wordpress.com/20...

7th June: I'll be at Pinky Pollock's blog with another interview: pinkypollock.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/m...

8th June: I'm featured on Kathleen Valentine's blog, with a behind the scenes look at how I put the collection of stories together: http://www.kathleenvalentineblog.com/...

9th June: One of my short stories from a previous collection will be featured on Ben Ditmars's blog: niceoldspice.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/d...

10th June: My guest post on Helle Gade's blog will be all about what writing is like for me: http://hellegade.wordpress.com/2013/0...

11th June: I'll be at Bitsy Bling Books with a post about the BestsellerBound Short Story Anthologies: http://bitsybling.blogspot.co.uk/2013...

12th June: I'm at Jaime McDougall's blog with another excerpt from "Delusion and Dreams": http://inkyblots.com/guest-author-mar...

13th June: I'm at author Merita King's blog talking about my novels: http://meritaking.com/2013/06/12/delu...

14th June: I'll be featured on Jenny Hilborne's blog. My guest post there is about why I like short stories:
http://jfhilborne.wordpress.com/2013/...

15th June: I'll be on Wendy Laharnar's blog, talking about the recurring theme of 'dreams' in my books. Or should that be 'recurring dreams'? LOL: http://wendylaharnar.blogspot.com.au/...

16th June: I'll be on Claire Voet's blog recommending some of my favourite short stories by independent authors: http://clairevoetauthor.blogspot.com....

17th June: I'll be at Orchard Book Club's blog with a guest post about the importance of reviews: http://orchardbookclub.wordpress.com/...

18th June: Back here at the Goodreads blog, with a short piece about how each of the stories came to be in the collection: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...

19th June: I'll be at author Geoffrey D. West's blog, with a guest post about my other short story collections: http://geoffreywestdotcom.wordpress.c...

20th June: I will be at Angela Turpin's blog where I will be telling you what I'm working on now... http://angelalamturpin.com/?p=970

21st June: The final stop in the tour. I'll be at Mark Rice's blog with another excerpt from Delusion and Dreams: http://metallicdreams.wordpress.com/2...

I think this tour is going to be a lot of fun. If you bookmark this blog post you can come back daily and find links to each of the stops on the tour. Don't forget to enter the giveaway for your chance to win a signed paperback of Delusion and Dreams, as well as some fabulous e-books by some of my favourite authors.



Here's a link to the Rafflecopter Giveaway, which will go live when the tour begins: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Following the release of my latest collection of short stories Delusion and Dreams, I have a special promotion on all my earlier short story Kindle books. You can purchase each book for the price of $1.99/£1.32 for a limited time. remember, you don't need a Kindle e-reader to read Kindle books; with the free apps from Amazon, you can read the books on your smartphone, iPad, Mac, or PC.

If you're an Amazon Prime member, you can currently borrow Delusion and Dreams free from the Kindle Lending Library.







Here's a bit about each book, and the links you'll need:

Pieces of a Rainbow

'Pieces of a Rainbow' is a collection of seven short stories, each one based on a different colour of the rainbow. You will find a full spectrum of emotions within the stories. Some are sad, some uplifting. There are not always happy endings, but the tales reflect the real world, and the forces of nature at work in our lives; sometimes beyond our control. The stories are diverse in style, and the characters, although fictional, are true-to-life. There is something for everyone in this inspired collection.

Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Pieces-of-a-Rai...

Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pieces-of-a-R...

Love and Loyalty (and Other Tales)

Love and Loyalty (and other tales), is Maria Savva's second collection of short stories. This is a diverse collection of stories, written over a period of ten years. Many of the stories were short-listed in various short story competitions. These are thought-provoking, memorable tales of life and love, luck and loss, deceit and lies, the unexpected and the true to life.

Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Love-Loyalty-Ot...

Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Loyalty-...

Fusion

Crime, passion, ghosts, obsession, hope, faith, and new beginnings-you will find all these things, and more, within these pages. A mixed collection of short fiction, by the prolific writer, Maria Savva, who has been praised for her story telling abilities by fellow authors as well as her fans. Sit back, relax, and begin your journey with a story of deep love, and follow through to read insightful tales reflecting our world today, but at the same time taking you away to a world of fantasy. Thought provoking and eventful stories written to entertain and inspire. Maria Savva's latest collection is sure to please, with haunting and psychological tales, blended with romantic and humourous ones. A diverse assortment, brought together by 'fusion'.

Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Fusion-ebook/dp...

Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fusion-ebook/...

I hope you enjoy the stories!

For today's stop on the blog tour for my new release Delusion and Dreams, I've brought you back here to my blog so I can tell you a bit more about how the collection came to be. I've added a reminder about the tour-wide giveaway, at the end.





******

A while back, I found some short stories I had written, saved on my computer. I had initially written them as entries for short story competitions, but then forgotten about them. Most were written in the early to mid noughties. I was thinking of putting them together as a collection and publishing them.

Then, I found some more old stories on a floppy disk (which I must have written in the late ’90s). Of course, I didn’t have a floppy disk drive, so I purchased one from Amazon in the hope that the format would still be compatible with modern computers. I managed to salvage two or three of the old stories from the floppy disk, but some were unreadable, so they’ll have to wait until I’m more technologically able to find a way to read them.

So anyway, I now had quite a few stories that could be collected together for a book.

Not all of those stories made it into the selection for Delusion and Dreams, and I wrote some new stories for the collection. So here’s how each story found its way into the new collection:

Delusion and Dreams - Part I - This story was one I’d written a few years ago, and I found the handwritten version among some papers in a drawer when tidying up one day. I really liked it when I read it, so typed it up.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow - This is a new story, written this year. Originally, someone sent me a message on Goodreads saying they were looking for comedy stories for a new anthology. I’ve never written a comedy, as such, before. Although many of my stories and novels contain some humour, I’d never written a story intending it to be a comedy. So, this story was a challenge I set myself. It turned out to have quite a bit of serious stuff mixed in with the comedy element. It also turned out to be too long to submit to the comedy anthology, at almost 5000 words, so I put it in Delusion and Dreams instead.

Happy New Year - This is probably the darkest story in the collection, crime fiction, and is a new one that I wrote specifically for the collection.

Friends and Neighbours - This is one of the old stories I found on my computer. I edited it a bit, but it’s basically in its original form. It had been originally written for a short story competition, in the mid noughties, I think.

Delusion and Dreams - Part II - This continuation of the story was written specifically for this collection. When I read the original short story, Delusion and Dreams, I was inspired to write more. The characters in this story all have such interesting backgrounds, so I thought it would be nice to explore those in more detail.

Getting Away With It - This is one of the oldest stories in the collection, found on a floppy disk. I edited it slightly, but it’s more or less the same story. It was originally written for a short story competition.


Friends and Neighbours - Revisited - This is a new story, written for this collection. It was inspired by the older story, Friends and Neighbours. I wanted to show the story from the point of view of Jill’s neighbours. It’s a dark story, more in keeping with the direction my writing is going.

Seeing is Believing - This is another of the old floppy disk stories. Again written in the late nineties for a competition (I used to enter a lot of short story competitions years ago, and found it was a great way to keep my imagination and creativity active). I edited the story slightly for this collection, but again, it is still the same story as the one I found on the disk.

Delusion and Dreams - Part III - another new story, written as a continuation of the series.

Merry-go-round - This was an old story found on my computer. Again slightly edited for this collection.

Courage - This story was originally written as the “yellow” story for my short story collection Pieces of a Rainbow. But I wasn’t happy with the story in the form that it was in when I originally wrote it back in 2009, so I didn’t include it in that collection. When I found it again on my computer, I thought it would be a good story with a bit of editing. So that’s what I did. I edited it and it’s now one of the stories in this collection.

Delusion and Dreams - Part IV - The final part of the story. Written this year, for this collection.

I hope you'll enjoy the stories.

Here's a reminder of all the stops on the tour, and the links so you can catch up!

31st May: Darcia Helle's blog: http://quietfurybooks.com/blog/2013/0...

1st June: Interview on J. Michael Radcliffe's blog.: http://michaelradcliffe.wordpress.com...

2nd June: Seumas Gallacher's blog: http://seumasgallacher.com/2013/06/02...

3rd June: BestsellerBound Recommends blog! http://quietfurybooks.com/bestsellerb...

4th June: Savannah Rayne's blog: http://savannahrayne.blogspot.co.uk/2...

5th June: The Secret Writer's blog: http://thesecretwriterblog.blogspot.c...

6th June: K.B. Walker's blog: http://nutsandcrisps.wordpress.com/20...

7th June: Pinky Pollock's blog: http://pinkypollock.blogspot.co.uk/20...

8th June: Kathleen Valentine's blog: http://www.kathleenvalentineblog.com/...

9th June: Ben Ditmars's blog: http://niceoldspice.blogspot.co.uk/20...

10th June: Helle Gade's blog: http://hellegade.wordpress.com/2013/0...

11th June: Bitsy Bling Books: http://bitsybling.blogspot.co.uk/2013...

12th June: Jaime McDougall's blog: http://inkyblots.com/guest-author-mar...

13th June: Merita King's blog: http://meritaking.com/2013/06/12/delu...

14th June: Jenny Hilborne's blog:
http://jfhilborne.wordpress.com/2013/...

15th June: Wendy Laharnar's blog: http://wendylaharnar.blogspot.com.au/...

16th June: Claire Voet's blog: http://clairevoetauthor.blogspot.com....

17th June: Orchard Book Club's blog: http://orchardbookclub.wordpress.com/...

There are a few more stops to go:

19th June: I'll be at author Geoffrey D. West's blog, with a guest post about my other short story collections: http://geoffreywestdotcom.wordpress.c...

20th June: I will be at Angela Turpin's blog where I will be telling you what I'm working on now... http://angelalamturpin.com/?p=970

21st June: The final stop in the tour. I'll be at Mark Rice's blog with another excerpt from Delusion and Dreams: http://metallicdreams.wordpress.com/2...

Don't forget to enter the giveaway. You could win a signed paperback copy of Delusion and Dreams as well as runner-up prizes of Kindle/e-book copies of great books by some of my favourite authors! The details and entry form are at the following link a Rafflecopter giveaway


Good luck!

The blog tour for Delusion and Dreams is now over and the winners have been notified.

Congratulations to those who won a prize! Thanks to everyone who entered the Rafflecopter giveaway.

I'd also like to thank my fellow authors and bloggers who participated in the blog tour, allowing me to take over their blogs for a day!

If you missed any of the tour, you can catch up here: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...

I'll have news of a free Kindle promotion for Delusion and Dreams shortly.

The paperback version is available to purchase through Lulu.com. At the moment you can get 20% off if you buy it there!

Here's the link you need:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/maria-savva/...



I'm currently editing a new collection of short stories. More news about that soon!