Page to Page Promo has just posted an author interview about both of my novels, Stars Shine After Dark, and On Higher Ground. You can see the interview here. mcundy.wordpress.com alicenscott.com https://www.facebook.com/groups/596948707038168/It's the same interview on both blogs. I found their questions to be quite interesting, and I hope you enjoy my answers. Be sure and push the social media buttons, and give their sites a little more traffic.
On Higher Ground just got another review by Kari Trumbo on her blog. http://themightycrow.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/on-higher-ground-paula-hrbacek/She gave the book three stars. Evidently, she doesn't like my angels, and thinks that everything I said about the "still small voice" should have been attributed to the Holy Spirit. She's right. Everything I said could be caused by the Holy Spirit. But that's not the point. The angels discuss why God says no to this prayer, and yes to that one. They look at God's will from a different point of view than the humans do. I had to use angels to do that. I can't use the Holy Spirit as a character, because there isn't anyone else for Him to talk to. The Spirit is one part of the Trinity. They don't need to discuss their own plans, because they already agree on everything. On Higher Ground is a work of fiction. It's based on research, but it's still a fictional story. And to make a story interesting, it has to include dialogue. To accomplish that goal of being interestin, sometimes fiction has to take a step away from being real
I've received my first review on Amazon for my latest title, "On Higher Ground". The review is both a compliment and a complement.
A compliment is when someone says something nice. The review was a compliment because it said nice things, and gave the book four stars. Compliment is spelled with an I that looks like a person who is saying something.
A complement is something that makes another thing complete. A complementary color is on the opposite side of the color wheel. When both colors are mixed, all three primary colors are present. It's spelled with an e that looks like a color wheel that is divided in half.
The review was a complement because the reviewer sent me a private email that included a list of typos I didn't catch. One of them was the word complement, which sent me running to the dictionary to see what he meant. One of them was a glaring mistake. So, if you're planning on buying the book, please give me a week to correct those mistakes. I want you to have the best book I can write.
Melanie Worlds has run out of luck; no job, no friends, no future. Desperately wanting to replace the middleclass life she once knew up on “the Hill”, her faith is being tested to the limits. JT, her newest friend, is up to something, but Melanie isn’t sure what it is. And then Brad, her high school crush, comes back to town. She can’t let him know how bad it is, or he’ll lose all respect for her. And, to make matters worse, someone is trying to break into her apartment. None of her prayers are getting answered, and she feels all alone. But she’s not. Two guardian angels have been assigned to help these three humans. The angels know God’s plan, and it’s going to take everything they’ve got to pull it off. To battle temptation, the angels will need to instill courage; courage to dare, courage to dream, and most of all, courage to love one another. People who have read the manuscript have this to say. “A stunning story of angels, wonder and redemption. Prepare to be amazed.” Duffy Brown, author of “Iced Chiffon” and “Killer in Crinolines” “This is a novel with a lot of heart and soul. But it's also a very grounded one, thanks to the vivid, sometimes gritty details that Paula Hrbacek weaves into the narrative. So many spiritual novels aren't, and the characters end up being mouthpieces for the author's beliefs. That doesn’t happen with “On Higher Ground”. Hrbacek gets her message across without ever losing sight of the story itself or making her characters into cardboard cut-outs. The main characters -- Melanie, J. T., and Brad -- are fully fleshed out. We see them -- faulty lines, good intentions, and all -- and we care about what happens to them.” -- T. J. Banks, author of “Sketch People: Stories Along the Way”. Paula Hrbacek is the author of “Stars Shine After Dark” and four non-fiction craft books. She won first place in an international writing contest sponsored by Echoes of The Right to God in 2011. She majored in journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and writes two newspaper columns for The Examiner, an online newspaper. “On Higher Ground” is available in paperback, Kindle and Nook from Amazon and B&N. ISBN-13: 978-1492197300 ISBN-10: 1492197300 Size 5x8 364 pages Kindle version: $2.99 Paperback: $14.95 Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F2RSBQG Author website: http://paulahrbacek.weebly.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/PHrbacek Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=104609576&trk=tab_pro Facebook fan page: www.facebook.com/pages/Paula-Hrbacek/199054570166688Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/author/paulahrbacek
 Melanie Worlds has run out of luck; no job, no friends, no future. Desperately wanting to replace the middleclass life she once knew up on “the Hill”, her faith is being tested to the limits. JT, her newest friend, is up to something, but Melanie isn’t sure what it is. And then Brad, her high school crush, comes back to town. She can’t let him know how bad it is, or he’ll lose all respect for her. And, to make matters worse, someone is trying to break into her apartment. None of her prayers are getting answered, and she feels all alone. But she’s not. Two guardian angels have been assigned to help these three humans. The angels know God’s plan, and it’s going to take everything they’ve got to pull it off. To battle temptation, the angels will need to instill courage; courage to dare, courage to dream, and most of all, courage to love one another. “A stunning story of angels, wonder and redemption. Prepare to be amazed.” Duffy Brown, author of “Iced Chiffon” and “Killer in Crinolines” “This is a novel with a lot of heart and soul...one with fully fleshed-out characters that we come to care about.” T. J. Banks, author of “Sketch People: Stories Along the Way” This cover was designed by Lisa Hainline at LionsgateBookDesign.com "LIKE" her and get more tips for Christian authors at:facebook.com/ChristianBookCoverDesignLisaHainline.comOn Higher Ground will be published by Create Space in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for more information, or see the author's profile at https://www.amazon.com/author/paulahrbacek
 This review of Stars Shine After Dark was written by Tanya Vought who hosts the Book Obsessed Momma blog at www.thebookobsessedmomma.blogspot.com. It has been reprinted with permission from the author. Do you like a nice clean no swearing, contemporary/Christian book... then Stars Shine After Dark is definitely for you! Mona is a young childhood star and is starting to feel drained/tired of acting. She would like a break and wants to go off to college. When she goes to college she see this hunky football star Tim. When they meet things change and they want one another, but can it last or be another celebrity divorce? Tim is a football star and doesn't drink/party like typical football players. He sees Mona in the stands is in awe of her. She ends up going to a party after the game and they hit it off. It leads to many dates and falling in love with her. He wants to marry her, but is what he thought of their future enough to stand the test of time or just another failure? Mona and Tim are two remarkable people for their age. I enjoyed their banter, frustrations, friendships, got sad a few times during a few things... but that is what a relationship is about. This book showcases real life and things people hide from others and when you hide. Things often don't go the way you hope. However, the question is can Mona and Tim be a great couple, can they find the spark or will lies, rumors and photos be the end? Or possibly can they find the "ah ha" moment and realize what is in front of them and remember all that matters? ... LOVE matters and when they can find/remind themselves of that all can be better! I think this was a wonderful book and didn't want it to end. I wanted to know more about them! :) If you love a book that is sweet, contemporary, Christian, family/relationship values etc.. this is the book for you! Go check it out!!
 I'm trying to put together a cover for my next novel. I made the cover for Day Camp in Hawaii using Paint, a basic photo editing tool that comes on most computers in the Accessories folder. It's a beginner's program for cropping, adding words, or touching up the color here and there. This was only my second attempt. The reason it wasn't used on the published paperback is because Create Space crops the image by about half an inch on all four sides. The words on the bottom of the page were cut off because they are too close to the edges. Lesson learned. This time, I made sure to give myself lots of room, but after three attempts, I just wasn't satisfied with the results. The blurb is superimposed on a tree, and the leaves make the words hard to read. I tried using the airbrush to darken the sun spots and new shoots, but it looked amateurish at best. (take a look below.) So I posted a cry for help on Facebook. My daughter sent me this link http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pixelbasedwin/tp/freephotoedw.htmto a site that reviews the free photo editing programs available on the internet. She suggested Paint.Net because it is very similar to Paint. Well, it's not. Paint actually works! If you don't know how to do something with Paint, you can click on Help and find the answer. This program's help button takes you to Ask AOL, which lists the help programs for every other editor out there except the one you're looking for. The forums are not sorted by category, there's no beginner's guide to get you started, no search by subject like you get in Word, and the tutorials are only accessed by the people who wrote them. So, this project may take a little longer than I planned. The first step is to keep looking for a good photo editing program, and hope I don't use up all my memory before I find one that a grandma can use. If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments section below.
Today is my birthday. I've gotten several greetings on Facebook, but there are a few other things you can do to celebrate an author's birthday, or any other occasion. It only takes a few seconds of your time, no money, and it will be greatly appreciated. Cheap birthday gifts to give an author:
Write a review on Amazon for her books, if you've read them. It doesn't have to be a great essay, just a few sentences will do. Be honest. Even bad reviews help, because once a book has 20 reviews it will start to be indexed in the site's search engine.
Click the yes button on "was this review helpful?" on another review on Amazon. Your response will help the book get more attention from the site's search engine, and will also encourage the reviewer to keep reviewing books.
Click "like" and "share" on an author's post that her book is featured on a blog or online
article. For example, this one http://thebasementlevelfive.blogspot.com/2013/07/blogger-book-fair-paula-hrbacek.html
Click the tweet, G+ or like buttons on the blog article.
Doing any of these things is better than just saying "happy birthday". It's actually making the birthday happy.
 Self published authors need to be on the lookout for inexpensive opportunities to promote their books. One opportunity is to swap blog posts with another blogger who has a site about books or book reviews.. Swapping posts means that both authors get a chance to promote their books on another site. I post about your book, and you post about mine.
To participate in this opportunity, it is important for the author to have a story that is already written and ready to go. The story should read like a feature or author interview, not an ad. That means that all opinions should be put in direct quotes and attributed to someone. Instead of saying "this book will change your life" like an ad would say, a feature story would attribute it as someone's opinion--"This book changed my life," said Joe Smith.
The story should contain all the information the reader needs to know before making a purchase; what the book is about, the author's motivation or reason for writing it, the author's qualifications or past publications, the average star rating on Amazon or Good Reads, quotes from reviews, and the purchase info of price, binding, ISBN number and where to buy it. The story can also include the author's social media sites such as a web site, Facebook page or Twitter address. If the story is ready to go, most bloggers will edit it to suite their style, and appreciate the ease of posting the article.
The author then finds bloggers that are willing to swap stories. One place is on Linked In, in the Book Promotion group. Triberr, a service for bloggers who want to expand their reach on Twitter, also has a discussion group for bloggers who are seeking guest posts.
It's a simple "you rub my back, and I'll rub yours" trade. It's best to find bloggers in the same subject or genre as your book, because that is where your customers are. An author who blogs about science fiction is not the best place to promote a romance title, but a blog about relationships and dating would have readers who are interested in falling in love.
 Day Camp in Hawaii is a new leader's resource for any type of youth program, summer camp, summer school, recreational program or day camp. It has games, activities, crafts, art projects, music, dancing and other ideas that use a tropical theme, for grades 1-6.
The following five star review was posted on Good Reads. The author, Jim MacLachlan, moderator of the DYI review group on Good Reads gave permission to repost his review.
Day Camp in Hawaii by Paula Knoderer Hrbacek is for grades 1 - 6 according to the title page. I disagree. It's not just for day camp, Hawaii, or those ages. With very little imagination, it gives any parent a lot of fun ideas of things to do with kids singly or in groups cheaply, whether you're on a trip, have a rainy vacation day, or a birthday party. Baby sitters should read it, too.
My kids are long out of Indian Guides, Scouts, &/or Pony Club, but I did my time as a leader & volunteer in all those organizations& more. I've never run a day camp, but I've faced the problems of how to keep the little monsters busy for weekly meetings, weekend camp outs or days when our best laid plans just made the gods laugh & we had to find
something else for them to do. I wish I'd had this book!!!
Although this book has the Hawaii theme, the suggested activities could easily be changed for any place & Paula is a woman after my own heart - a scavenger. Seriously, the funding for activities is always minimal & the prep time is huge & often complicated. She lists a lot of quick, cheap ways to do or make a lot of neat things without a lot of time, special tools, skills or anything else. Under her tutelage, you don't even need a lot of imagination to come up with something special.
The author provided me with a free copy for a review to spread the word. It wasn't a chore, but a joy to go through this. I even got a couple of ideas for awards that my wife, a school bus driver, can use. I can't recommend this highly enough for anyone with kids. There are a lot of things I would have or did use to keep my own kids busy. Much better than planting them in front of the TV.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/636929855
5 stars
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