Showing posts with label Hazel Campbell's ebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hazel Campbell's ebook. Show all posts

Monday, November 16, 2015

Entertaining Read - My Three MOMs - A novel

 Love this review on amazon of my YA to NA novel: My Three Moms
 
http://www.amazon.com/My-Three-Moms-Hazel-Campbell-ebook/dp/B00UMAA300/


 "This book is a really interesting page turner. What's going to happen to Destiny next as she tries to find out who is her mother, and evade very determined kidnappers. The characters she meets as she changes lifestyles are engaging. Some like Yahoo made me laugh. And as to that proposal scene at the end? "A girl could dream", Destiny says - of a more romantic one?  Really funny. I couldn't stop reading until the end and wanted more." 

Get your copy of this entertaining ebook here:

My Three Moms

Monday, September 29, 2014

Thanks for downloading When Times are Strange


Thanks to all who downloaded a free copy of my ebook 

When Times are Strange.

 

The offer ended yesterday, Sunday 28th.

 I hope you enjoy reading the stories. 

Please consider writing a review for the Amazon page. 

Blessings!


 

 /

Monday, November 18, 2013

Changing my ebook cover

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EEAWWCG
One of the good things about ebook publishing is that it is easy to change things which are not working.

My ebook When Times are Strange has not been getting much notice, so I decided to  change the cover which was rather dull to a more dramatic one. 

There are six stories in this collection with strong entertaining characters - very colourful Jamaican characters facing strange times and strange happenings.

Here's a quote from an interview with Jacqueline Bishop.
"Hazel Campbell, a 2011 Silver Musgrave medalist, is a marvellous writer. Her characters literally jump off the pages and you get fully immersed in their worlds" Read the interview here
Hop over to my amazon page and take a look inside, and buy a copy please

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EEAWWCG

 Previous cover for comparison.What do you think? It's all experimental











My ebooks
When Times are Strange http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EEAWWCG
My Darling You  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC
Mr King's Daughter http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ESEWI6I

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Reminder

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC

Just reminding y'all, that my ebook My Darling You is still available on amazon
 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC

Here's an extract from my favourite story in the collection



Extract from Emancipation Park one of the stories in ebook  My Darling You



At five o’clock, Melissa hastened out of her office. She had one hour before her class started, enough time to pass by the park and catch a bus to the Evening Institute where she was a student.

She didn’t need to ask the location of the statues. There was already a small knot of people gazing up at the monument. Some were munching on snacks as if at a picnic and making jokes; but some just stood looking up at the huge figures as if they held some vital secret for mankind.

Melissa stood at the edge of the small crowd. The sight of the man’s very prominent genitals made her uncomfortable. She felt her face growing hot. She turned away and bumped into a photographer, camera pointed in her direction. She immediately panicked, blush disappearing and her face turning very pale. What would Mama say if they published a picture of her looking at the statues?

He seemed to understand her problem. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I didn’t take a picture of you.”

She nodded at him, not sure if she should thank him, and started to walk away.

“It’s all fiction, you know,” he said.

She paused to stare at him, not understanding what he was talking about.
     “The man. Nobody is that big. I mean, I know he is larger than life, but those genitals! Somebody’s wish list, perhaps.”

 

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Relationships!

Relationships! relationships! relationships!

That's what it's all about

Love stories where the lovers don't even touch? Oh yeah!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC
Love is in the air but it's more mental/spiritual than physical- but not any less real or intense.

Check it here http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC

A very good read as the reviews reveal

They are all love stories in some sort of way and, though short, relationships between the characters are clearly defined. StephiiStephii  |  2 reviewers made a similar statement
Brilliantly written, with strong characters, and although short, well crafted. yaz  |  1 reviewer made a similar statement
These are stories of love, hope, promise and sexuality. Sandy Bose    
go there now http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Dangerous Words

The Internet is a strange country. I put up a post about my favourite story in my ebook collection of short stories and I am now getting hits from porn sites. Here's the post about the statues in Emancipation Park
http://hazeldeebooks.blogspot.com/2012/04/my-favourite-story-in-my-darling-you-4.html



I can only imagine that the persons searching must be very disappointed when they reach my post seeing that they are using search words like

black male penis


jamaican penis









nude vagina&peins (sic)










I suppose it didn't help that I also posted

Ban 'vagina' and 'penis' - Censorship in Christian literature

 quite innocuous articles.

Here's the thing I hope the searchers stay to explore more of my articles AND buy a book. I could dream not so!!!!!!!

This might offend some of my friends. So be it It's the INTERNET!!

My ebook

Thursday, August 30, 2012

The stories in My Darling YOU


















These are the titles of the stories in my ebook My Darling You. Read some comments I have made on the stories by clicking on the links

The Santa Picture 


Emancipation Park

The Empty Jam Jar

A Caribbean Princess

The Search

Now you may well ask why I have not commented on the other stories.

I have no answer to that. If you have read the stories and would like to interview me I'll gladly answer your questions. Meanwhile, I continue to wonder about their genesis. The muse is very fickle and sometimes obscure

Read some good (unsolicited ) reviews of the book on the page
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC

Please support me by buying  a copy. I think you will enjoy the stories
Thanks

Friday, August 24, 2012

Who Are These People?




Like many other persons who teach writing fiction courses, I advise my students to make detailed character sketches for the persons they put in their stories. This is a must for the protagonists and any other significant characters in the story.
We go down the usual check lists : name (nickname if any); age; physical description; primary relationship(s) MOTIVATION etc

You know the list. As a writer/creator you should know every aspect of your characters' lives. This will help if you run into a roadblock in the story-knowing how your character responds to various situations etc.

Good advice, but not all writers write in the same way.

My characters tend to be born whole. I don't have to work at creating a back story, they come with it. I often find that as I write I am following the character with great interest to find out just what it is they are planning and will get up to next and they tell me why. Once I know what it is I want to say, I can start writing and trust the characters to do their thing. Characters even force their way into my stories. I find that these are usually very interesting persons. They very often add another dimension to the story. (see my earlier post on this blog at http://hazeldeebooks.blogspot.com/2012/04/my-favourite-story-in-my-darling-you-4.html

I tell my students that they need to know the 'rules'  - i.e. what usually works for writers, but not to be so hard bound by the 'lessons' that they stifle their own creativity. The guidelines work for some, but not for everybody.

See my ebook of short stories My Darling You at
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC

Appreciate your support Please buy a copy

Friday, August 17, 2012

BACK to normal

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC
My two days free download of my ebook My Darling You have ended. Thanks to all who took the time to get a copy.I hope you like the stories. If you read AND liked the stories, please consider writing a review, clicking the 'like' button and telling others about it.
If you scroll down this blog you will find some insights as to how some of the stories in this ebook came to be written, as well as a couple of free stories. 
My favourtie story in the ebook is Emancipation Park. Here's why.
http://hazeldeebooks.blogspot.com/2012/04/my-favourite-story-in-my-darling-you-4.html

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

My ebook is available.

B007U78HEC
My ebook My Darling You (love stories - sort of )  Short stories from Jamaica. Please help me get into the top 100.  Please buy  a copy and write a review.Thank you.  
 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC
Some great reviews on the page. Check it
You don't need to own a kindle to read ebooks on your PC.Check the right side of the page for a free app which allows you to download the ebook and read it on your PC.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

I didn't know it took so much work

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC


When I published my ebook  My Darling You (love stories -sort of) I didn't realize it would take so much work to get people to go to the amazon page and most of all purchase a copy. Four months later, I am learning that it takes a lot of work, especially as a new comer, to get noticed. I am now knee deep in using social media, making contacts here and there, writing blog entries, begging sites to list my book etc.  -  all of which takes away time from writing. But that's life. If I succeed, my pocket will be heavier and perhaps, next book, I can hire a service to do some of  this for me.

Most useful have been the writers groups on Linkedin. I have got very solid advice from my groups about what to do to promote my ebook 
ALSO
Here's very useful advice from smashwords for writers wanting to publish an ebook at www.smashwords.com. 


Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success (Smashwords Guides) is also available freee at amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Publishing-Success-Smashwords-ebook/dp/B007P8H80A/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1344939941&sr=1-1&keywords=Secrets+to+Ebook+Publishing 

Check it. It's free and remember you don't need to own a kindle to read ebooks. Check the amazon page for a free app which allows you to read ebooks on your PC

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Another way to sell/buy ebooks


http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC



Here's how you could get to buy my 'ebook' if you do not have a USA credit card facility to order online.
 
Some days ago ,I posted on Linkedin my frustration at poor sales of my ebook despite very good reviews. There were many useful replies suggesting ways of finding my niche and getting more contacts and sales.
In response to one of the suggestions to sell to friends, acquaintances, church buddies etc, I had responded that I live in Jamaica and many persons had said to me that although they would love to buy the ebook, they did not have the foreign credit facility to purchase books via a USA credit card.

Here is my respondent's great reply:

"To get over the problem of foreign credit facilities (if you have access to foreign credit facilities) have you considered taking orders yourself and then via amazon.com you can 'buy' a copy as a gift for someone else!"

Very good idea, IF I myself had a credit card facility BUT it occurred to me that this is something a book store like Bookophilia in Jamaica could take on.

Persons could go to the bookstores and ask them to order Hazel Campbell's ebook ,My Darling You (love stories –sort of ), pay them what they work out as the cost and they would then order it from amazon and 'gift' it to the person ordering. On the amazon page, the purchaser is allowed to send the book as a gift to someone's kindle or computer You don't have to own a Kindle to read the ebook since there is a free download which allows you to read ebooks on your computer. Instant download,by the time you get home the book would be there for you to read.

This is just one step up from ordering physical books.(cheaper too) I wonder if anybody has thought of this possibility. Please let me know if it exists.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Left or right brain? Find out

Which side of your brain do you use more? Take this test, it may help you determine how to approach writing. I am definitely on the right.Click on the link at the end of the box.

Right Brain/ Left Brain Quiz
The higher of these two numbers below indicates which side of your brain has dominance in your life. Realising your right brain/left brain tendancy will help you interact with and to understand others.
Left Brain Dominance: 5
Right Brain Dominance: 11
Right Brain/ Left Brain Quiz
see my ebook here

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

First Love from My Darling You ebook


First love sweet so till
First love! Sometimes it mek you bawl
First love’s joy lingers through a lifetime of memories
It mek them say ‘ole firestick easy fi ketch up’
Handle first love with a great deal of care
Like a pressed flower, even when color and smell are gone
Its brown age keeps the secret that once it bloomed.

This poem introduces this story about two late teens falling in love but having to postpone a relationship. 

Buy a copy of My Darling You (love stories-sort of)  my first ebook venture at 

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Why is it not working?

Okay! So why is this not working. I am doing all the recommended things.( except paying for advertising- no funds ) Persons are clicking on my blog (can't tell if  they are actually reading it, though) and sales are almost nil for my ebook,up on Kindle from April14. My Darling You ( love stories-sort of) 

I have a couple of good reviews and I am using social media as recommended. Any ideas, anyone? And yes - the stories are worth reading.

If  you are curious as to why I used the subtitle love stories-sort of, scroll down and read my other blog entries.
Help!

see my other blog for writing for children http://jambooks-fiction.blogspot.com/

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Why I dedicated my stories to Whitney Houston



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC


The stories in My Darling You ( love stories-sort of) are dedicated to Whitney Houston. I have been asked why. There is more than one answer.

First, I was completing putting them together in February 2012 when she died, and everybody was playing her music. I started listening keenly and fell in love with her voice and personality. The title, My Darling You, comes from I Will Always Love You. Nobody can sing that song like she does, even if they copy the range of her voice, her timing,control and emotion elude all imitators. The emotion she puts into that song reaches every woman who has had to step away from love. At one of her performances, I  watched a woman in the audience re-living her personal experience while Whitney sang. When she holds on to 'I' and 'You' as her voice climbs up and down the notes one understands why they are called personal pronouns.

Listening to her recordings is great, but her performances were outstanding.(Thanks Youtube)  She was bubbly, charming, witty, graceful, beautiful – one could go on and on. The comments on Youtube, for example, show how overwhelmingly she was loved, despite the relatively few disgruntled idiots who must always give vent to their negative feelings.

So after watching those performances (as well as the many interviews), she didn't feel like a stranger any more. My favourite performance is Live in Washington 1997 (the second performance).

Then there were the songs like: All at Once, Heartbreak Hotel, Where do Broken Hearts Go? Didn't We Almost Have it All – If there is a theme for the six stories in this collection, My Darling You, it is that love is a choice and sometimes the main characters (as in real life) do not get to choose. Some of Whitney's songs reflect that theme.
So there you have it.

It's only $2.99. Hop across and buy a copy http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

THE SEARCH from My Darling You

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC

I had started exploring the thinking behind the stories in my ebook My Darling You (love stories-sort of) and this is the continuation of that exercise. The last story is titled The Search, and is perhaps the most enigmatic as it suggests rather than spells out what happened. My stories are usually event driven (the influence of writing for children) but this one is an encounter between lovers long after the affair ended.She had disappeared after an accident and he had spent quite some time trying to find her. When he does, she tells him “I have a new lover, you know.”
What is he to make of this? She has moved on to a place he cannot follow. He is probably the least pro-active of my hero types. Usually they are very sure of themselves and laugh a lot. (as in Emancipation Park, another of the stories) I was sorry for him. 
Once, there was a lady who appeared in one of the videos I produced and she wanted to send a copy to a male friend in another Caribbean country. Then she hesitated and admitted that he was a former lover from her younger days and she didn't think she wanted him to see her as she looked now. I think that conversation stuck. It's one to which  many women can relate. That partly influenced this story, I think. One can never really be sure. There are so many echoes. 

Buy a copy of My Darling You on Amazon . Only 2.99 and tell me what you think. ( There's a free app which will allow you to read kindle books on your PC)

Monday, May 28, 2012

Laughter


I laugh a lot, at a lot of foolishness and the older I grow it seems there are many foolish things to laugh at. – both people and things. Gets me into trouble sometimes, especially if I am around persons without a sense of humour.

The other day, I saw a close up on television of a rabbit eating and had to laugh out loud. Everything on its face twitched and wiggled as it chewed. It occurred to me that God must have a sense of humour.

I have always laughed at the wrong times. Once when I was in fourth form (a long time ago), the whole class was in detention for making a noise.For some reason I had a reputation for excessive talking and when the form teacher (Mrs. Veitch) came in to ascertain who was responsible for the noise, of course my name was called. I stood up indignantly to declaim. "Miss, I was not spoking at the time." The class, of course, tittered and I collapsed into helpless laughter which earned me an order mark (serious thing).

Then there was the time I was a young teacher and the class had to make a report on their favourite music. One bright spark talked for 3 minutes about her love of 'raw soul.'
If you know Jamaican bad words, you will know how that sounds when pronounced as one word..A teacher should not laugh in such circumstances – right? RIGHT!

There was another day when my car was in a stationary traffic line near where some higglers were selling.  One of them suddenly went into the 'spirit' - tongues and bending, jerking body and all. Then she came out of it, as suddenly as she had gone into it, as if nothing had happened. I was scared at first, as I thought something had gone wrong with her, only to hear her friend asking: "Wha' happen,Missis? How you get into spirit so early in the morning?". She answered quite mildly: "Ah, mi chile, ah so it go sometimes." I laughed all the way to work.

Needless to say, my children don't find my stories funny. They roll their eyes a lot while I am laughing at my own story. I forgive them. They live in stressful times. It seems not much is funny these days. Which brings me to the problem of writing humorous stories for the present generations. What makes them laugh?  I will have to research this. If you see me quietly chuckling while in a waiting room somewhere, I'm not going mad, just enjoying a joke which nobody else can see. And then perhaps I'll put it in a story.

Here's a link to one of my humorous stories. have fun reading  Very High Science
 


Check here for my ebook My Darling You (love stories -sort of)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC