Stephanie Bates's Blog

Check out talesbehindthestories.com. Hopefully this site will soon automatically go there but for now this simply click the link!

Coming in the future is a new site! It will still be ran from Wordpress but will have a slightly different web address. Details to come!

Good afternoon everyone!

It's been about a week since I put one of my books up for giveaway at Goodreads! Since then 33 Goodreads users have added it to their to-read shelves. That is 33 more people who know about my book and are planning to read it than before.

The more impressive news is the actual giveaway itself. In the last week or so, 216 people entered to a win a free contest. For those of you who are interested, it's not too late to enter! The contest will go through december 1st!

In addition I want you to know there is no obligation to it. All you have to do is give your name and address and your entered. I am responsible for all cost so even better, right? It won't even ask for a credit card number. No billing what so ever. It does ask that you write a review but it isn't required. Keep in mind that if you do write reviews that you are more likely to win in the future!

Don't forget there is also the Facebook give away. Be one of the top 100 to like my page, Shattered Souls, and you'll be entered to win a free book! Like the Goodreads giveaway it will be arranged so that I only need your name and address. All expenses are covered by me.

Don't miss out!

Hope to be sending free books very soon!

Free Book!

It is now available! The give away is happening at Goodreads! It will run until the December 1st. At that time someone will be picked to receive a free copy of my book, Shattered Souls.

Click this link:

Shattered Souls Giveaway

If you aren't part of Goodreads, check it out, Sign up, click to enter my contest! It is a great site for those of you who love to read. It tells what is coming, what has been as well as details about the authors writing the book! There is more than just my contest as well. Other books are being offered by all kinds of authors everyday!

In addition to this there is also my Facebook page: Stephanie Bates and Shattered Souls The first 100 people to like Shattered Souls on Facebook will also be entered into a drawing to win a free book.

For more information on Shattered Souls click here: Shattered Souls

Hello everyone!

Today is a busy day! If you like Barnes and Noble on Facebook: Barnes and Noble Facebook you will get a 30% off coupon! That can be used even in combination with my book bringing it down to around $7.10 (give or take a penny or so.) So, head on over and check it out!

Also, I'm working on a free giveaway! There will be a couple of these coming up. Right now, there is one on Goodreads which is in the works and will be available soon. It will run through december 1st! Be sure not to miss it! I will also post a better and direct link as soon as it come available. In the meantime there are many other books that you can try to win as well. I'm part of Goodreads and find the website amazing!

That's it for now! Hope the day is well everyone!

Hello!

Good news is that I'm selling books! I never wrote Shattered Souls to sell. Really, I was twelve when I started writing it. Then finished the book when I was fifteen. It was a skeleton at best. I tried a couple more times but nothing really came of it. So after I picked up reading about four years ago I got down to business.

At first the story was really sort of silly and started with "Don't forget the taco salad!" When a drive would take three days to drive to her aunt's house in the middle of winter. That was the first thing I knew that had to go. I was twelve! What do you expect.

after a couple of years of learning to type quicker I found that there was more to the story than a child's book. Kengraallie, my main character, found out that there is a lot more to life. She also went from being a twelve-year-old girl to being a curious teenager with more of a life and death situation.

I admit it. I like to think I'm a fairly nice person. Torturing characters can be oddly fun. As an author I find there are times when slaughtering your characters or beating them up can be highly amusing and stress relieving. Sometimes even great for breaking through writer's block.

Many of those don't make it into my book. I can't say if they will or won't in the future… You'll have to keep reading to find out.

Also, check back soon to find out more about the Dyuniva world.

Kengraallie's book is just the beginning. There is more to her world as she is just beginning to find out.

I really need to work on my blogging skills! I was never a diary writer either. I've promised myself that I would start writing everyday about my life. Turns out that my life can be pretty boring. For a while it went sort of like this:

Wake

Eat

Work

Home

Write

Dinner

Bed.

Boring, right? Yeah, I thought so too. So I tried to get a life. The problem is that when I do, I forget that I need to write more than just the stories that I take time out for. On a greater note I attended the Smart Chicks Kick it Tour. It was great to sit and listen to seven great authors tell their stories on many different levels and also to hear about how they got started as well as some great tips. It was very inspiring.

I also had all of them sign my book. At first I thought it was a little weird but they were all very nice and even encouraging. I was excited when Carrie Ryan took a moment of her time to even read the synopsis.It was small but I really didn't expect more than a signature.

I have taken some time today to think more about my book. It's available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble but why not try to really get it published? So my next project will be working on trying to send it to publishers or agents. That's going to take some time to figure out though.

Not that it matters. It really doesn't to me. I put my book out for the story. Not to make money on them. I hope it stays fun. It's not something I ever want to feel is a task. People tell stories because they are entertaining. Isn't that why anyone ever told a story besides to pass history from person to person?

This weekend I started on Dyuniva 2! That's probably a really good thing. Thinking about what is coming next has driven me in circles.

I don't expect to be a famous author. I just want to write and share my stories with who ever is interested in reading them. So writing feels good when I've been working on trying to figure out what the best way to get word out about the first book. I've gone crazy setting everything up the past week though it's nice to finally have most of it done.

Everything is set for Barnes and Noble though I do wish that i could show a picture of the cover of my book. It doesn't do that.

Amazon is a bit of a different story though I hope within the next few days there will be a Look Inside link on there so that everyone can read some of my book. From what I heard it might be the first 10% of it.

Createspace store is all set as well.

After all that it's up to promotional work. You can now also find me on Good Reads now. For those of you that aren't on there, you might want to check it out. There is always a lot of stuff happening. It's more than a place just to find out about books. You can keep tracks of the ones you read, make comments about them, check out the author of them, see their information as far as web site, blog and other details go. There are also message boards where you can discuss topics and make new friends.

In the explore tab there is one that says giveaways where many authors offer up their books. I'm looking into this right now so you might want to check it out. I don't know how many will be available yet but it's sure to happen!

Lastly there is this blog. Right now it's a bit small, and I know that, but it is a work in progress. Soon I'll be posting more on the book, offering short stories about characters and their worlds as well as what Dyuniva is going to come to mean.

In the mean time, keep checking back and I'll try my best to keep new information coming!

Today was a beautiful day! I spent most of it outside walking the beautiful grounds of the Renaissance Festival! But that was after I found out that my book is now available and can be found by searching my name at Barnes and Noble! It might seem silly but writing a book really isn't a small thing. So when I went online this morning and searched my name to see Shattered Souls there, second book down, I couldn't help but to throw a small celebration party in my mind. I never thought I would ever see anything like that. Sure, I know that just about anyone who really wanted to could get their book on there but somehow it felt really special to look at it and say that I'm a published author!

For more information on Shattered Souls as well as where else you can find it for sale, click here: Shattered Souls

   I'm not from a big town but I do have one big imagination that takes me farther than any road ever could. I've grown up in a small town most of my life. On my way to work I don't see large buildings but rather lots of trees and fields which fuel much of my imagination. I work in town where most of the buildings date back about a hundred years. It is also here where my novel has taken shape and come out in the form of a published book.

It's taken me a while to write and there are days when I do nothing but write.

I'm kicking things off with my new book of which you can find by clicking this link: Shattered Souls.

All of this is fairly new to me but there will much more information coming soon! Take a moment to explore some of the extras. You can find more about me or Shattered Souls on Facebook and twitter! (The links are to your right!)