Regina is the woman everybody loves to hate and hates to love. Behind the gorgeous, demurred façade lurk selfish ambition, ignorance and a desperate need to find her happily ever after. The search for a man to rescue her and make her dreams come true follows a sinuous, often obscure, but entertaining path. Regina may try to deny it, but she is no innocent princess, Prince Charming can be a beast in disguise and modern-day happy endings are nothing like their fairy tale version.
I happen to like December and all its seasonal frenzy – well, most of it, anyway… December is also the month I started this blog. Pure coincidence 🙂 . Four years ago, I was trying to self-publish Parallel Lives around Christmas time and in my mind, getting the blog set up for it was a must.
You know how it goes, the best-laid plans… Truth be told, Parallel Lives wasn't exactly one of my better laid plans, it was something that took shape along the way, and I simply needed to go through with it. The book ended up being published a few weeks later, and my blog quickly veered off its promotional path, becoming a hodgepodge of moments, photos, thoughts and fiction. That's just life, we write our story as we go, from one second to the next.
Meanwhile, my blog has developed a few traditions of its own. One of them is my December token of appreciation, and this year I'm starting earlier than usual. You can download Parallel Lives and Glass Slippers and Stilettos for free until December 25th. Feel free to share the links below with anybody you think might enjoy the books or offer them a copy as a gift. Enjoy!
Last but not least, thank you for bearing with me for yet another year and for sharing your stories and thoughts on your own blogs, allowing the reader to glance into your souls. Have a nice December, everyone!
and on iBooks, of course.
It's summer in the Northern Hemisphere and winter in the Southern Hemisphere. This can mean only one thing: it's time for the 9th annual Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale!
The sale kicks off this Saturday July 1 and runs through end of day July 31.
Each year, tens of thousands of Smashwords authors, publishers and readers participate in this global ebook celebration that offers FREE and deep-discounted ebooks.
Visit the promotional catalog at https://www.smashwords.com/books/category/1/newest/1 Check back frequently because hundreds of new books will join the promotion each week. Coupon codes are clearly marked for participating titles: SW100 for 100% off; SSW75 for 75% off; SSW50 for 50% off; and SSW25 for 25% off.
In case you enjoyed the sample fragments from Parallel Lives and Glass Slippers and Stilettos by Ana Linden, take advantage and download them for free using the SW100 coupon code during the Smashwords Summer/Winter sale.
Reviews are welcome and appreciated!
In the early days of this blog, I also started an early Valentine's Day tradition. As my little gift to you (it isn't much, but that's the best I can do to show my appreciation during what many consider to be the month of love), you can download my books, Parallel Lives and Glass Slippers and Stilettos, for free. Given that neither one of them is a typical "they lived happily ever after" romance and they portray rather unconventional, uncomfortable twists and turns of relationships, they might also be a good choice for those of you not really in the mood for celebrating this year. Whether you get them for yourself or as a gift for somebody else, I hope you enjoy my small token of appreciation 🙂 . Feel free to download as many copies as you want form iBooks, Smashwords.com, Barnes&Noble, Kobo or Inktera, and share them with your friends.
December is rapidly slipping away and taking stock of the year about to end is something most of us tend to do. Here's yet another reminder – a nice one, this time. Three years on WordPress… Thank you all for putting up with me for 12 more months! Thank you for your support and encouragement! And thank you for sharing your wonderful stories and opinions, for drawing me into your worlds each time I read your posts.
It was this third year of blogging that gave me the opportunity to put together and self-publish a collection of short stories, which started off as posts on this site. It was also this year of blogging that led to a very interesting collaboration (more on that and the book that resulted at a later time). So thank you for reading and since Christmas is near, here's my small gift to you – you can download Parallel Lives and Glass Slippers and Stilettos for free until the end of the year.
As soon as that much desired snow covered everything, it seemed that those to complain about it most bitterly were the very people demanding it the loudest a week ago. Who would have thought?… Forget about that white fairytale-like magic so craved over Christmas, now it's all about freezing cold, snow and ice covered roads, impossible traffic… and the cold, oh the cold… and did I mention the cold? I must have – after all, that's what everybody keeps talking about.
2. Glass Half Empty, Half Full, Or No Glass At All?
I may be able to come up with quite a variety of words to describe myself, but 'optimist' is not amongst them. I'm a realist. And as a realist, I cannot help having my moments of stifling pessimism, just as I also cannot help having hopes and dreams from time to time. As for that one person of the two who know me in real life, and have also been told about this blog – no, I don't suffer from multiple personality disorder either… Or if I do, the one typing right now certainly has no idea about it. But we'll go back to that later.
I hope it's been a decent year for all of you. Happy Holidays!