Guest Post: Celestine Nudanu - Haiku Rhapsodies

I'm thrilled to introduce you to my friend, Celestine Nudanu, who is a haiku genius and has recently published a book of her work. I'm looking forward to reading my copy.

Guest Post - Why I Write Haiku

I'm so thrilled to be on my dear friend Nana's blog today to talk about why I write haiku. Actually when Nana asked me to do this I had no idea what to write. I knew I had to pen down something in order to promote my new poetry publication, Haiku Rhapsodies. But then why do I write haiku? My first thought was well... I don't know. I just love the art.

But seriously, I fell in love with Haiku, way into my third year of blogging or so. I was a novice then, (I'm still a work-in-progress, as I love to say for the umpteenth time). The simplicity, brevity and inherent beauty of whatever aspects of nature I want to project, appeal to me so much. For me, the three lines are enough to capture all I want to say in a seventeen or less syllabic structure.  I do love to talk and I talk a lot when in the mood, but despite the fact that I love to play with words, sometimes, writing this short Japanese-origin poem is truly a wonder to me myself.

As Nana will attest, in Ghana, and indeed most of Africa south of the Sahara, we have only two seasons, dry and wet. So very much unlike the four seasons of the West and Europe!  So, writing haiku, which is mostly inspired by nature, is a challenge that I find most rewarding, especially when I blend in the peculiar sights, sounds and rich heritage of Africa.

I lose myself in haiku, both the reading and writing of it. When I see my words on paper or on screen, they tug at my heart; I feel a sense of wholeness. And I mean that. I'm not complete until I write and read haiku.

Blurb

Celestine Nudanu's Haiku Collection is what I choose to call 'minimalist expressionism' with an African flavour. Not only does the poet in true haiku tradition express so much in cryptic, compact and concise language, but she also vests each piece with subliminal artistry. As the eyes navigate the pages, each poem tells its own story in micro seconds, lingering in the mind as it connects with the next poem. At the end of Haiku Rhapsodies, one is nourished by a corpus that evokes pleasure beyond the printed page.

I must emphasise that it is not easy to take a foreign art form, domesticate it and turn it around into a thing of beauty the way Celestine has done. 

For those who like to enjoy poetry with a dose of the exotic, and indeed for all who enjoy micro poetry, Haiku Rhapsodies is just the right tonic.

Author Bio

Celestine Nudanu is a product of the University of Ghana, Legon. She graduated with a BA in English and Theatre Arts, and MA degree in International Affairs.

As well as being a passionate reader and book reviewer, Celestine is also a poet, with a talent for haiku, the short Japanese poetry form. Although she says she is a work-in-progress, her works have been included in two anthologies: Western Haiku: A Collection, and Ballads, both produced by Dagda Publishing UK. Her haiku have also been featured in renowned online haiku journals including Cattails, (Collected Works of UHTS), The Mamba, Journal of African Haiku Network, (of which she is a Supporting Editor) Akita International Haiku Network, Japan, Flamingo Clouds, Netherlands and Failed Haiku, a Journal of English Senryu.

She is a member of the Ghana Association of Writers, (GAW) and the United Haiku and Tanka Society (UHTS), USA.

You can find Celestine at:

Facebook: https://facebook.com/haikurhapsodies/

Facebook: http://facebook.com/cnudanu

Blog: http://readinpleasure.wordpress.com/

Email: cestone40@hotmail.com

Buy Links:

Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/HAIKU-RHAPSODIES-Verses-Celestine-Nudanu-ebook/dp/B01LEZ39YS#nav-subnav
https://www.amazon.com/HAIKU-RHAPSODIES-Verses-Celestine-Nudanu/dp/9988232861/

Arranged Marriage...What?! By Valerie Mann

Who agrees to an arranged marriage in the 21^st century? Beth Malone can’t believe a date request with the 1Night Stand service morphed into an arranged marriage offer. But after a heartbreaking divorce and no knight in shining armor coming to sweep her off her feet, her desire to find that knight and have a family is looking more like a dream than a reality.

After filling out a 1Night Stand questionnaire worthy of the CIA, Christian Ramos is stunned when Madame Eve offers to arrange more than a date for one night: she suggests a wife! What the hell? And after his best friend Jackson Castillo stops laughing, he advises him to consider the offer. Between the fortieth birthday looming on the horizon and his Latino upbringing, Chris is forced to take a hard look at his life. Reality check—time is running out for what he wants—a family and a woman to share his life.

First comes love, then comes marriage isn’t part of their matrimonial situation, but neither Beth nor Christian anticipated the immediate attraction and contentment that comes with saying, “I do.”

I hope you love Chris and Beth as much as I do! Madame Eve definitely knew what she was doing bringing these two lovebirds together!

You could win $25 USD in Amazon funny money to spend on anything you want (heaven knows they get lots of MY money pretty regularly), plus I’m giving away a 3-book e-book bundle—you choose the great reads!—from Decadent Publishing, and a Decadent audiobook of your choice from Audible.com!

Only one thing is mandatory: You MUST purchase First Comes Marriage (http://goo.gl/kjTk6h) from Amazon before midnight tonight. It’s only 99 cents, but for the chance to win awesome prezzies...so worth it!  Email me the receipt—a screenshot of the Amazon receipt or confirmation email is fine—BAM! You’re in the running for the big win!

If you read First Comes Marriage and leave a review, please let me know! I plan to give away ANOTHER bag of prizes to one reviewer at the end of August.

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Valerie is the co-owner of a Decadent Publishing, as well as Wizards in Publishing, a company that provides editing and formatting services for authors and publishers. 

Where to find her:

Email|Twitter|Facebook|Blog|Amazon|Goodreads|Manic TRR|GooglePlus|Tsu

Guest post on Alissa Baxter's blog

Today I'm doing a guest post on Alissa Baxter's blog. Talking about something most of us do at some point in time or another. Sometimes it's embarrassing, but mostly it's cathartic (huge wink).

http://alissabaxter.blogspot.com/2013/11/swear-words-to-use-or-not-to-use-by.html

The Story Behind The Cover: Shake Down the Stars by Renee Swindle #giveaway

Renee Swindle is on a blog tour sponsored by CLP Blog Tours.I adore the book cover for Shake Down the Stars. Renee Swindle here to explain where it came from. Renee is giving away  $30 Amazon gift card.

I’m so glad readers are responding to the cover of Shake Down The Stars.  I’ve heard more than once, I love the cover, and I love hearing that!  I wish I could take credit for it, but the art department at New American Library (Penguin) designed everything. Initially, the house they used on the cover looked like a house in the south. My editor checked in with me to see my thoughts and asked if the house looked Californian or not.  When I told her it didn’t, she asked me to send pictures.  I went to various realty sites and sent a variety of cottage homes and stucco houses in the area. We ultimately went with the house that’s on the cover now. Choosing the right house was the only minor blip along the way, though.

There’s a lot of family drama (with a capital D!) in Shake Down The Stars, and I thought the art department’s idea to put a house on the cover instead of some indiscriminate family was perfect.  Piper, the narrator of the story, isn’t close to her mother nor sister.  I think she represents many people who feel like the outsider in the family. The flowers in the front, to me, symbolize Piper’s beauty and strength. Piper tries to overcome a tragic loss by sleeping around and drinking. But she’s ultimately a strong character and the book is actually funny and offers hope—at least I’ve been told! At any rate, those flowers in a sense remind me that there’s beauty in everyone and I think that’s a major theme in the novel. 

Finally the stars and night sky harken to Piper’s love of astronomy.  It’s when she gazes at the stars that she feels happiest.  The art department also came up with the idea to put a light row of stars and faint moon at the top of every page of the book. 

I have to say, I lucked out when it came to the design of the novel and the wonderful staff at NAL/Penguin.

The Blurb

When you’re in trouble, and sinking fast, who do you call?

Piper Nelson is stuck. She can’t quite stay away from the husband she divorced. She isn’t always attentive to the high school students she teaches. And even she admits that she’s been drinking too much and seeking out unsuitable men. Piper’s mother, married to a celebrity evangelist, and her sister, immersed in plans to wed a professional football player and star in a reality TV show, are both too self-absorbed to sympathize with Piper’s angst. They tell her to get a grip. But how can Piper ever really recover from the blow she suffered five years ago, when a car accident took the life of her young daughter?

When Piper’s ex-husband announces his new girlfriend is pregnant, Piper is forced to take stock. Realizing that it’s time for a change is one step, but actually making it happen is quite another. And despite what she thinks, Piper can’t do it alone Lucky for her, a couple of crazy, funny new friends are ready to step in when she needs them most…and show her how to live and laugh again.

Author Bio:

Renee Swindle is the author of Shake Down The Stars (NAL/Penguin) available now.

Her first novel, Please Please Please, was published by the Dial Press/Dell. Please Please Please was also published in Germany as Mehr Mehr Mehr and published in Japan.  Please Please Please was an Essence Magazine bestseller.

Renee Swindle earned her BA from UC Irvine and MFA in creative writing from San Diego State University. She lives in Oakland, California 

Connect with Renee!

www.reneeswindlebooks.com

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Pimping out Aneta Cruz author of Heartbreak Hotel- Guest post and #giveaway

I’d like to welcome Aneta Cruz to my blog to today. We like to tease ourselves about pimping each other out (as authors). Today it’s my turn to be the Pimp Mama. 

I’m very grateful to the wonderful Nana Prah who has invited me to write a guest post for her blog during the promotion of my debut novel, Heartbreak Hotel.

Nana has asked me to write about the joys of writing. In response to that, my jaw dropped and my eyeballs popped out of my head onto the floor. “The joys of writing?” I asked no one in particular since I was home alone—a very rare occasion. Then I collected my eyeballs off the tile and sent Nana a message: I HATE WRITING!

I hate sitting in front of the computer for hours at a time, letting my ass grow larger and larger as it sculpts itself into the mold of the chair. I hate that my eyes hurt from the white blank page that gets slowly filled with words which seem to be sneering at me because they know they will eventually be deleted. “You’re wasting your time,” they seem to spell when I’m nearly cross-eyed and all I see are black shadows stretching across Mount Everest my page has become. I hate not being able to sleep because all I can think of is that damn dialogue that needs to be re-written first thing in the morning. I hate my migraines that come precisely at the moment in which the Muses have decided to dance around in my head, but my head refused to join the fun. I hate saying good bye to my characters and leaving them in the world in which my presence is no longer needed because the words The End have made me an outcast.

Then I take a deep breath.

And I smile.

I love imagineering. I love building a world out of nothingness, one word at a time. I love describing sceneries that cause me to stare in awe with my inner eye. I love being surprised by the sudden turns in the story that make me say, “How come I didn’t think of that?—Oh,wait, I just did!” I love creating characters who will tie everlasting bonds with their readers. I love bursting out in laughter when I depict the antics of my characters. I love that my eyes water when my body can no longer contain the sorrow my characters feel. I love that they feel. I love telling their story, and I love sharing it with the world. And when I re-read my story and my eyes linger on the words The End, I realize

I LOVE HAVING WRITTEN.

Heartbreak Hotel blurb

Always falling head over heels for men who have nothing to offer her, and running from those who do, Kara realizes that her quest to find Mr. Right is harder than expected. As if her “mostly ludicrous” dating escapades weren’t enough to deal with, her unusual combination of friends—one gay, one a virgin, one dating a married man, and one always telling her to “give it up on the first date in order to start a flourishing relationship”—isn’t of much help in matters of the heart either. Perhaps a kiss in the middle of the Charles Bridge could finally bring her happiness. But wait! That’s just an old myth, isn’t it?

Author Bio:

Aneta Cruz was born and raised in the Czech Republic. She spent most of her childhood hiding in the library because her friends called her a liar. In her defense, she was only “telling stories.” There Cruz fell in love with books and vowed to become an author. She’d heard that dreams come true in America, so she packed her suitcase and got on the plane shortly after her twentieth birthday. Since then Cruz has earned a BA in English Literature, MFA in Creative Writing, and published a-Muse-me[a]nt, a Collection of Poetry and Prose. Her works can be found in Badlands, the GNU, the Global Alchemy Forum, and Mused. Cruz is the winner of the 2011 Desert Literary Society Fiction Award.

You can find Aneta Cruz at:

http://www.anetacruz.com/

http://conundrumcorner.blogspot.com/

FB https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aneta-Cruz/377093035716929?fref=ts

Twitter @AnetaCruz

Buy Links:

Black Opal Books

http://blackopalbooks.com/shop-our-store/blackopalstore/product/109-heartbreak-hotel

Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Heartbreak-Hotel-Aneta-Cruz/dp/1626940606/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379553821&sr=8-1&keywords=aneta+cruz

Barnes and Noble

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heartbreak-hotel-aneta-cruz/1116884664?ean=2940045264693

Giveaway!

Aneta is giving away 3 signed copies of a-Muse-me[a]nt on 9/30/13. All you have to do is LIKE her Facebook Author Page (link above) to get into the drawing. Good luck!