BearMountainBooks blog, free stories and reviews - Page 3

dreams · 11-04-2009, 03:10 PM

I loved your other two books and can't wait for this one! I popped over to your blog and did the vote thing... It's at a tie! Hard choice as a cover does draw you to look at a book.

BearMountainBooks · 11-04-2009, 04:14 PM

Thanks, Dreams. You are the best!

I did make some changes to Cover A, based on all the lushes that wanted a martini glass (who could have guessed that FIVE people would make the same suggestion???) So I threw that cover up for a sneak peek. It's not really part of the poll, but I kind of like the way it turned out.

I'm getting great feedback and having fun too. Some of the things that people ask for though--I tell you I couldn't do it, no matter what software I bought. One really cool suggestion was to take cover b and put it INSIDE a martini glass...like a reflection...yeah. That would look cool, wouldn't it???

dreams · 11-04-2009, 04:59 PM

"Sedona is given the opportunity of a lifetime: play an up-and-coming executive with all the trappings of wealth with someone else footing the bill."

Maria, the more I think about your blurb and some comments about needing an indication about the books being a cozy mystery...

Maybe show "Sedona" dressed as a female executive (side or back view) next to some trappings of wealth... getting into the limo, limo outside mansion, behind desk or in front of computer... etc... I think, I saw that the golf scene was only a tiny part (or something)... Just my little 'ol 2 cents..

BearMountainBooks · 11-04-2009, 08:21 PM

I actually do have a drawing of "Sedona" but I'm saving it for something else (and I didn't draw her so I don't want to abuse the permissions given to me--I think it would be allowed as part of a cover, but I'd want the artist to get full credit and so on...so it left me with a bit of an issue if I just used "her" in a larger drawing.)

Requests, requests!!!! Pretty soon, I'll have a drunk Sedona with an empty martini glass!!!!

But you are right--and echoing a few other comments that I have received. I think I probably did a bit of a disservice in picking the golf course to focus on--there are other images that would have worked better.

Next time I'll solicit opinions a lot earlier...with rougher sketches...maybe I'll figure out an alt to offer in time...

dadan · 11-05-2009, 10:37 PM

I cracked up reading your "Two Engineers and.." stories. They sound sooo like my own experiences with my parents

______________________
overnightprints discount

BearMountainBooks · 11-06-2009, 08:19 AM

Thanks, Dadan!

My parents do keep me in stitches...when I'm not trying to figure things out!!!

BearMountainBooks · 11-07-2009, 11:19 AM

I've been invited to participate in an author blog radio show tonight--Nov 7 at 11 p.m EST. Yeah, in the dark of night. When I should be sleeping...so if you hear snores during the broadcast you'll immediately know I am guilty!!!

Here's the link to the party:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bookchatter

Bring your own popcorn and beer (do you think anyone will notice me chewing popcorn???) Hmm...better bring brownies instead. They are quieter.

There is a chat feature--you can ask questions as we babble. I *think* you have to register to comment (name and password and it's free). They have a guest setting, but I'm not sure you can comment as a guest. I tried that last night and it didn't seem to take.

BearMountainBooks · 11-09-2009, 12:51 PM

I should possibly start a new thread, but I'm not sure if that is the preferred method of communication about news books, so to start, I'm going to update this thread. Feel free to chime in with advice.

The final cover for Executive Lunch has been chosen! (The cover is in the attachment--I have no idea how to drop a picture into this post!)

And yes, it is available--early release on Smashwords:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/5791 for $1.99!

Smashwords has Kindle, Sony, HTML and other reader friendly formats. Executive Lunch will also be available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble in the coming days.

Smashwords has a sample and there is also an excerpt on my blog: www.BearmountainBooks.com

Thanks to everyone that stopped by and helped select the cover. Your advice was wonderful and improved the cover greatly!!!

Maria

Back Blurb:

Sedona is given the opportunity of a lifetime: play an up-and-coming executive with all the trappings of wealth with someone else footing the bill. The catch: find out who is stealing company funds before the criminals find out that their program is being debugged.

Sedona runs into danger, the corporate glass ceiling, and an occasional chance at romance in her quest to figure out who is stealing money from Strandfrost.

Terisa de morgan · 11-09-2009, 02:26 PM

Well, I'll tell you about the books because I'm going to buy them. And, about your travel, did you like Malaga? I don't know it (although I'm Spanish) And I'm thinking about going to Rome next year.

By the way, the cover I like the most is the chosen one.

BearMountainBooks · 11-09-2009, 04:51 PM

Hi Terisa, and Thanks!!!

Malaga was okay; a LOT bigger than we actually expected. I'd HIGHLY recommend the Malaga Footsteps Guide:
http://www.guide-to-malaga.co.uk/ by Brian Jones for anyone that goes to Malaga. He does a great job of highlighting the best things to see. Otherwise it looks like this big city with one or two attractions and it would be impossible to know about most of them. There's actually quite a bit there.

My only complaint about Malaga was that we couldn't seem to find a good restaurant. I kid you not, two of the places we ate at were almost unedible. The one was kind of expected; we were running into siesta and stopped in what looked kind of like a local fast-food place, but the other place was recommended. We tried paella and it was...not good. My own version of paella was a lot better and I don't even have the special pan! (I do have saffron, which I obtained from Glandeves (http://www.french-saffron.com/) --GREAT little place in France from a local farm. I'm guessing you can get it anytime you want if you live in Spain!)

I tried to buy saffron at the Barcelona market, but that place was so packed, I never found any! The market was pretty expensive as well. All the spices that I did see were "mixes." I like to cook so I wanted to buy specific things -- not buy "Pizza mix" or "pasta mix." The market itself was...wow. Lot of food and a lot of people!!!

That southern part of Spain (Malaga) is quite arid for being so close to the coast. We went into the mountains (El Torcal) and it was very interesting terrain.

I'll be posting more about Spain now that Executive Lunch is out--the blog will go back to regular type postings, including me finishing up the travel log!!!

If we go to Spain again, I think I'd like to see the area North of Barcelona--that coastline looked pretty fabulous when I was researching. I'm an outdoors girl; I like to see a castle or three, but then I want to stretch my legs and do some hiking!!!!

Maria

Terisa de morgan · 11-10-2009, 02:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

My only complaint about Malaga was that we couldn't seem to find a good restaurant. I kid you not, two of the places we ate at were almost unedible. The one was kind of expected; we were running into siesta and stopped in what looked kind of like a local fast-food place, but the other place was recommended. We tried paella and it was...not good. My own version of paella was a lot better and I don't even have the special pan! (I do have saffron, which I obtained from Glandeves (http://www.french-saffron.com/) --GREAT little place in France from a local farm. I'm guessing you can get it anytime you want if you live in Spain!)

Paella at Malaga? Nop. But fried fishes, gazpacho, salmorejo, they're very good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I tried to buy saffron at the Barcelona market, but that place was so packed, I never found any! The market was pretty expensive as well. All the spices that I did see were "mixes." I like to cook so I wanted to buy specific things -- not buy "Pizza mix" or "pasta mix." The market itself was...wow. Lot of food and a lot of people!!!

I don't know Barcelona market, but now, spices are easier to find at a store than at a market (except if there's a specific shop). And yes, markets are very full places.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

That southern part of Spain (Malaga) is quite arid for being so close to the coast. We went into the mountains (El Torcal) and it was very interesting terrain.

It's very, very hot, and very few rain, so it's quite arid.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

If we go to Spain again, I think I'd like to see the area North of Barcelona--that coastline looked pretty fabulous when I was researching. I'm an outdoors girl; I like to see a castle or three, but then I want to stretch my legs and do some hiking!!!!

Maria

Yes, it's a nice zone but it would be better if you avoid very popular places, like Salou or Lloret. There're too much people and few nature.

BearMountainBooks · 11-10-2009, 08:25 AM

Terisa--Thanks!

Now see, I should have asked you before I went to Spain, not after!

You are right, mom had the gaspacho and she loved it. I only had the fish that was in the Paella and it did not seem very fresh. We did not see fried fish on the menu at the other place, although there was at least one fried fish at the place where we ate paella. Sadly, in any case, I am not so fond of fried things. Not that I am an health nut, but I do try to watch the amount of salt and fat... This was a problem in Malaga as fried things abounded!!! Everything came with a side order of french fries; it seemed to be a local favorite. We all commented after the trip that it was difficult to find any fruits or vegetables on the menu. We went to a small grocery and there they did have fruit. We purchased some cheese and crackers and European cookies.

I have been to Europe before and generally loved the food. Of course, I am a foodie anyway, so usually I can find a few local dishes that I love (and then come home and try to copy!!!)

If I go again, I'll be sure and get your advice. At the moment, I'm pretty happy sitting in my easy chair trying to get caught up!!!!

Maria

Katti's Cat · 11-10-2009, 07:48 PM

Hello Bear

just read your short stories - I loved them. You have written them so beautiful that I could easily picture my parents and myself in them. I guess we all have stories like that.

Now I am going to try and get your books. The reviews of the other members made me curious and I always love to find an unknown (to me) author.

Keep them coming.

BearMountainBooks · 11-11-2009, 08:09 AM

Katti, Thank you for the kind words!

I hope you enjoy the books. If you have any problems downloading them, let me know!!

Maria

dreams · 11-11-2009, 06:27 PM

Maria, I'm adding your new one to my cart at Smashwords and really looking forward to another fun read.

11-09-2009, 12:51 PM	#38
BearMountainBooks Maria Schneider Posts: 3,746 Karma: 26439330 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Near Austin, Texas Device: 3g Kindle Keyboard	Here it is! I should possibly start a new thread, but I'm not sure if that is the preferred method of communication about news books, so to start, I'm going to update this thread. Feel free to chime in with advice. The final cover for Executive Lunch has been chosen! (The cover is in the attachment--I have no idea how to drop a picture into this post!) And yes, it is available--early release on Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/5791 for $1.99! Smashwords has Kindle, Sony, HTML and other reader friendly formats. Executive Lunch will also be available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble in the coming days. Smashwords has a sample and there is also an excerpt on my blog: www.BearmountainBooks.com Thanks to everyone that stopped by and helped select the cover. Your advice was wonderful and improved the cover greatly!!! Maria Back Blurb: Sedona is given the opportunity of a lifetime: play an up-and-coming executive with all the trappings of wealth with someone else footing the bill. The catch: find out who is stealing company funds before the criminals find out that their program is being debugged. Sedona runs into danger, the corporate glass ceiling, and an occasional chance at romance in her quest to figure out who is stealing money from Strandfrost. Attached Thumbnails

11-09-2009, 04:51 PM	#40
BearMountainBooks Maria Schneider Posts: 3,746 Karma: 26439330 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Near Austin, Texas Device: 3g Kindle Keyboard	Hi Terisa, and Thanks!!! Malaga was okay; a LOT bigger than we actually expected. I'd HIGHLY recommend the Malaga Footsteps Guide: http://www.guide-to-malaga.co.uk/ by Brian Jones for anyone that goes to Malaga. He does a great job of highlighting the best things to see. Otherwise it looks like this big city with one or two attractions and it would be impossible to know about most of them. There's actually quite a bit there. My only complaint about Malaga was that we couldn't seem to find a good restaurant. I kid you not, two of the places we ate at were almost unedible. The one was kind of expected; we were running into siesta and stopped in what looked kind of like a local fast-food place, but the other place was recommended. We tried paella and it was...not good. My own version of paella was a lot better and I don't even have the special pan! (I do have saffron, which I obtained from Glandeves (http://www.french-saffron.com/) --GREAT little place in France from a local farm. I'm guessing you can get it anytime you want if you live in Spain!) I tried to buy saffron at the Barcelona market, but that place was so packed, I never found any! The market was pretty expensive as well. All the spices that I did see were "mixes." I like to cook so I wanted to buy specific things -- not buy "Pizza mix" or "pasta mix." The market itself was...wow. Lot of food and a lot of people!!! That southern part of Spain (Malaga) is quite arid for being so close to the coast. We went into the mountains (El Torcal) and it was very interesting terrain. I'll be posting more about Spain now that Executive Lunch is out--the blog will go back to regular type postings, including me finishing up the travel log!!! If we go to Spain again, I think I'd like to see the area North of Barcelona--that coastline looked pretty fabulous when I was researching. I'm an outdoors girl; I like to see a castle or three, but then I want to stretch my legs and do some hiking!!!! Maria Last edited by BearMountainBooks; 11-10-2009 at 08:26 AM.

11-10-2009, 07:48 PM	#43
Katti's Cat Wizard Posts: 2,259 Karma: 175640 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Brisbane Australia Device: Sony PRS-600	Goota get your Books Hello Bear just read your short stories - I loved them. You have written them so beautiful that I could easily picture my parents and myself in them. I guess we all have stories like that. Now I am going to try and get your books. The reviews of the other members made me curious and I always love to find an unknown (to me) author. Keep them coming.

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11-04-2009, 03:10 PM	#31
dreams It's about the umbrella Posts: 25,112 Karma: 56250158 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: Sony 505\| K Fire \| KK 3G+Wi-Fi \| iPhone 3Gs \|Vista 32-bit Hm Prem w/FF	I loved your other two books and can't wait for this one! I popped over to your blog and did the vote thing... It's at a tie! Hard choice as a cover does draw you to look at a book.

11-04-2009, 04:14 PM	#32
BearMountainBooks Maria Schneider Posts: 3,746 Karma: 26439330 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Near Austin, Texas Device: 3g Kindle Keyboard	Thanks, Dreams. You are the best! I did make some changes to Cover A, based on all the lushes that wanted a martini glass (who could have guessed that FIVE people would make the same suggestion???) So I threw that cover up for a sneak peek. It's not really part of the poll, but I kind of like the way it turned out. I'm getting great feedback and having fun too. Some of the things that people ask for though--I tell you I couldn't do it, no matter what software I bought. One really cool suggestion was to take cover b and put it INSIDE a martini glass...like a reflection...yeah. That would look cool, wouldn't it???

11-04-2009, 04:59 PM	#33
dreams It's about the umbrella Posts: 25,112 Karma: 56250158 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: Sony 505\| K Fire \| KK 3G+Wi-Fi \| iPhone 3Gs \|Vista 32-bit Hm Prem w/FF	"Sedona is given the opportunity of a lifetime: play an up-and-coming executive with all the trappings of wealth with someone else footing the bill." Maria, the more I think about your blurb and some comments about needing an indication about the books being a cozy mystery... Maybe show "Sedona" dressed as a female executive (side or back view) next to some trappings of wealth... getting into the limo, limo outside mansion, behind desk or in front of computer... etc... I think, I saw that the golf scene was only a tiny part (or something)... Just my little 'ol 2 cents..

11-04-2009, 08:21 PM	#34
BearMountainBooks Maria Schneider Posts: 3,746 Karma: 26439330 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Near Austin, Texas Device: 3g Kindle Keyboard	I actually do have a drawing of "Sedona" but I'm saving it for something else (and I didn't draw her so I don't want to abuse the permissions given to me--I think it would be allowed as part of a cover, but I'd want the artist to get full credit and so on...so it left me with a bit of an issue if I just used "her" in a larger drawing.) Requests, requests!!!! Pretty soon, I'll have a drunk Sedona with an empty martini glass!!!! But you are right--and echoing a few other comments that I have received. I think I probably did a bit of a disservice in picking the golf course to focus on--there are other images that would have worked better. Next time I'll solicit opinions a lot earlier...with rougher sketches...maybe I'll figure out an alt to offer in time...

11-05-2009, 10:37 PM	#35
dadan Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 16 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: none	I cracked up reading your "Two Engineers and.." stories. They sound sooo like my own experiences with my parents ______________________ overnightprints discount

11-06-2009, 08:19 AM	#36
BearMountainBooks Maria Schneider Posts: 3,746 Karma: 26439330 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Near Austin, Texas Device: 3g Kindle Keyboard	Thanks, Dadan! My parents do keep me in stitches...when I'm not trying to figure things out!!!

11-07-2009, 11:19 AM	#37
BearMountainBooks Maria Schneider Posts: 3,746 Karma: 26439330 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Near Austin, Texas Device: 3g Kindle Keyboard	I've been invited to participate in an author blog radio show tonight--Nov 7 at 11 p.m EST. Yeah, in the dark of night. When I should be sleeping...so if you hear snores during the broadcast you'll immediately know I am guilty!!! Here's the link to the party: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bookchatter Bring your own popcorn and beer (do you think anyone will notice me chewing popcorn???) Hmm...better bring brownies instead. They are quieter. There is a chat feature--you can ask questions as we babble. I think you have to register to comment (name and password and it's free). They have a guest setting, but I'm not sure you can comment as a guest. I tried that last night and it didn't seem to take.

11-09-2009, 02:26 PM	#39
Terisa de morgan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,227 Karma: 11768331 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Madrid, Spain Device: Kobo Clara/Aura One/Forma,XiaoMI 5, iPad, Huawei MediaPad, YotaPhone 2	Well, I'll tell you about the books because I'm going to buy them. And, about your travel, did you like Malaga? I don't know it (although I'm Spanish) And I'm thinking about going to Rome next year. By the way, the cover I like the most is the chosen one.

11-10-2009, 08:25 AM	#42
BearMountainBooks Maria Schneider Posts: 3,746 Karma: 26439330 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Near Austin, Texas Device: 3g Kindle Keyboard	Terisa--Thanks! Now see, I should have asked you before I went to Spain, not after! You are right, mom had the gaspacho and she loved it. I only had the fish that was in the Paella and it did not seem very fresh. We did not see fried fish on the menu at the other place, although there was at least one fried fish at the place where we ate paella. Sadly, in any case, I am not so fond of fried things. Not that I am an health nut, but I do try to watch the amount of salt and fat... This was a problem in Malaga as fried things abounded!!! Everything came with a side order of french fries; it seemed to be a local favorite. We all commented after the trip that it was difficult to find any fruits or vegetables on the menu. We went to a small grocery and there they did have fruit. We purchased some cheese and crackers and European cookies. I have been to Europe before and generally loved the food. Of course, I am a foodie anyway, so usually I can find a few local dishes that I love (and then come home and try to copy!!!) If I go again, I'll be sure and get your advice. At the moment, I'm pretty happy sitting in my easy chair trying to get caught up!!!! Maria

11-11-2009, 08:09 AM	#44
BearMountainBooks Maria Schneider Posts: 3,746 Karma: 26439330 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Near Austin, Texas Device: 3g Kindle Keyboard	Katti, Thank you for the kind words! I hope you enjoy the books. If you have any problems downloading them, let me know!! Maria

11-11-2009, 06:27 PM	#45
dreams It's about the umbrella Posts: 25,112 Karma: 56250158 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: Sony 505\| K Fire \| KK 3G+Wi-Fi \| iPhone 3Gs \|Vista 32-bit Hm Prem w/FF	Maria, I'm adding your new one to my cart at Smashwords and really looking forward to another fun read.