New Zigon TFC has two new Five Star Reviews on Amazon!

My book has two new five star reviews on Amazon: 

"Highly Recommended: This book was very enjoyable to read and was beautifully written. The characters feel very real and relatable and the story felt very visual and fast paced. I was quickly [drawn] into the story and stayed up very late finishing it. I highly [recommend] this [book to] readers of any age."

"The Next Harry Potter! New Zigon a Wondeful Creation: I couldn't put this book down. It was obviously written for the Harry Potter generation but I belong to the Baby Boomer era. The character development was great, The world created and the explanations for extraordinary powers was so very imaginative.

My favorite part was the development of the relationship between the two main characters."

This gets me excited to get New Zigon available in paperback and dig into book 2!!!

My first blog review!

New Zigon has it's first blog review!  Alison, of The Cheap Reader Blog, accepted a copy of my book in exchange for an honest review.  I was absolutely thrilled when she agreed to read The Founder's Curse.  Many bloggers are inundated with review requests, and most won't accept self-published novels, which makes this review all the more exciting.  Allison runs a great blog that you may want to add to your news-feeds.

Here is her review:  http://thecheapreader.wordpress.com/2014/11/17/book-review-the-founders-curse/#more-13503

Do you know... #4

Do you know...     #4

Do you know whether the spelling of the color of shadows is spelled "gray" or "grey?" 
The answer is that it is spelled both ways.  Americans prefer "gray" and Brits prefer "grey."  Does that mean "Fifty Shades..." is British?  Not necessarily; either spelling is acceptable.

Made-up Monday - Crystavis

Crystavis is one of the first words I created for New Zigon.  One of my early concepts is that I wanted the characters to have a piece of jewelry (amulet and/or ring) that could help them focus their "power."  I spent several weeks going through a Latin-English dictionary and using Latin translation and information websites on the internet, looking for words or parts of words that I could use.  When translating "power," "force," and "energy," I continually came across the Latin word "vis," defined as "force, violence, STRESS, strength, energy, strain."  I have used "vis" in several of my New Zigon terms.

Translating "crystal," I found words such as crystallum, crystallus, and crystallinus.

You shouldn't need to consult the Letter People to see how the word Crystavis came about!

New Zigon is on sale for only $.99 now until Monday!

The book is in one last Kindle Countdown deal starting today. It is only $.99 over the next three days. Then it goes up to $1.99 for another three days before ...returning to its regular price.

This is the last time I will be participating in a Kindle Countdown Deal, as I can only do this when Amazon is my sole distributer.  After the sale, I will be selling the e-book on #Goodreads.  Once I have it out in paperback, it will be available on several sites. This means it will no longer be in the Kindle lending library! If you want to borrow it for FREE, do it NOW! (I still get royalties, so win-win!)  Click on the picture of the cover (on the right side) to get the book on Amazon.

Thanks!

 
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Do you know... #3

Do you know...     #3

Do you know whether or not you hyphenate "short term?"  The answer is yes and no; you hyphenate when used as an adjective before a noun.  e.g.  One of my short-term goals is to paint a little every day. 

When "short" describes "term," and "term" is a noun, you do not hyphenate.  e.g. In the short term, I will go to the library every day. 

Made-up Monday - New Zigon

Made-up Monday is where I will share the background behind the creation of a word or term in New Zigon.  I put a lot of thought into every new word I created or picked.

I'll start first with the series title, New Zigon.

I've shared before that the concept for New Zigon started about ten years ago when my oldest son wanted a "new" story at bedtime.  The story I gave him evolved into the Prologue of the book.  About five years later, my two oldest boys were deep into the #Webkinz craze and had just discovered Club Penguin.  They had to create usernames.  Before they picked their final "#handles", "Zigon" came up, and I latched onto it for my book title.  It made me think of both "Zion" and "Zodiac."

When I started writing my book earlier this year, the working title was simply "Zigon."  I had even set up my blog and facebook page under "Zigon."  The problem was, that when I googled "Zigon," I got lots of hits for people with a last name of "Zigon."  I wanted a unique title that would bring my novel to the top of a search engine list.  By calling it "New Zigon" I obtained that objective, and it better aligned with the storyline.  Now my blog and facebook page both use "NewZigon" in their URL.

As a side note, the second part of the title, "The Founder's Curse," didn't get defined until the book was nearly finished.