Just a Reminder

My five ebooks on amazon.
If you don't have a kindle reader, there is a free app to download to your PC and read to your heart's content. Get it here http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_ln_ar?docId=1000426311
on the right of each ebook page on amazon you will find the link for other free devices too.

MY EBOOKS: Please support

www.amazon.com/Painting-Hazel-Campbell-ebook/dp/B014I5GI3K

Novella:  only $1.99

www.amazon.com/Painting-Hazel-Campbell-ebook/dp/B014I5GI3K
A sentimental love story between Karen and Peter. Were women in the70s more naive? More forgiving?

Actually two stories. You get a brawta - The Ebony Desk

www.amazon.com/My-Three-Moms-Hazel-Campbell-ebook/dp/
B00UMAA300/

A Novel: only $3.99



www.amazon.com/My-Three-Moms-Hazel-Campbell-ebook/dp/B00UMAA300/

 
A story about Destiny's loss of her identity and how she recovered.  Wealthy father imprisoned for fraud -Mother deserts them. She is already fumbling when a surprise letter informs her that Carmen who she always thought was her mother - is not.
Devastated, she resolves to find her real mom only to discover there were two. She is all alone an din danger of being kidnapped, until the lawyer she retains to find her surrogate mother enters the picture.
A very good read.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ESEWI6I

A Novella: only $1. 99

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ESEWI6I


Very much like an Anansi story, wealthy Mr. King, anxious for his daughter's happiness, devises a nutty plan to find the right suitor. The plan backfires and his daughter runs away from home to make her own way in the world of music. After many disappointments, she gets a lucky break, and in the end finds her true love.
This is a modern folk tale from Jamaica.that you will enjoy reading, The song lyrics are hilarious. See the reviews and add your own.

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

A collection of six short stories: Only $2.99 

 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EEAWWCG

When Times Are Strange, people do strange things. If you like short stories (varying lengths) you'll like these six stories. The characters are larger than life.They are frightened, they weep, they have to find courage to face their challenges but they also laugh. Typical Jamaican humour bubbles under the surface.

A broad canvas of life in Jamaica.

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

A collection of six short stories: only $2.99

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

Love is in the Jamaican atmosphere, and our characters have to deal with the peculiarities of relationships as they face their partners.In these six short stories, from first love between teenagers to the aftermath of lost love for the more mature, love doesn't always end in 'happily ever after' even when there's a bit of fantasy thrown in. 'Man and woman' story can be very complicated, and romance, perhaps, merely fictional.My favourite from this collection is Emancipation Park

 I dedicated these stories to Whitney Houston, taking the title from her most famous song as they were ready just about the time she died.

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.”

 

A different read!

Read outside the box today 

Buy a copy

like and review

It's good!

Read the reviews

Check my ebook at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC

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

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

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

My ebook is available.

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

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.

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

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.

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. 

See this page for more about this story

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

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

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/

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

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)

Good Reviews

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

Getting some good reviews on my new ebook My Darling You (love stories-sort of)

Helen 'Billy Elm' Williams   

 Hazel Campbell's `sort of' love stories are certainly original....

Yaz

 Brilliantly written, with strong characters, and although short, well crafted. Kudos!!!!!My Darling YOU (love stories - sort of)

Geoffrey Philp

The stories in My Darling You are engaging in their deft development of character, use of dialogue, and adept handling of plot. But there's more.

Go on over to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC

Choosing the title My Darling You (ebook) #5

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

I was finished writing the six stories in this collection of (sort-of-love) stories My Darling You and I still didn't have a title. Very often, one of the titles of the stories is chosen as the title for a collection, but none of the six seemed right to me. I was probably leaning toward Emancipation Park, simply because it is my favourite story in the collection, but it didn't sound right for the book.
And then Whitney Houston died and everybody was playing her songs, especially I Will Always Love You. I have listened to her singing that song at many different venues and always she manages to project such strong emotion. So I had my book title, not the song title but that first My darling, you - a YOU that includes everybody and makes all women who have lost out on love feel that she was singing that song for them. Since in some of the stories 'happily ever after' is not a possibility, I thought this was just right, and when I passed the idea by some friends they absolutely loved it.


The illustration is an indulgence - a picture of me and my husband at our wedding reception, many, many years ago. So now you know.


I actually dedicated the book to Whitney Houston. The more I listen to her music, the more I realize how superlatively extra special she was. As everybody has been saying, only once in a lifetime do we get a voice (and personality) like that. 
purchase here 

My amazon page

My author page on Amazon
amazon.com/author/hazelcampbell

Regrettably not all my titles published in Jamaica are on sale on amazon

Writing the stories-My new ebook3 -'romance ' or not?

When I was getting my ebook My Darling YOU ready for publishing on Amazon, I was reluctant to use the classification 'romance'. The stories are about people and how they handle love, but they are romantic in the sense of feelings and not the physical contact which seems to be a requirement of the romance genre.And when a friend on facebook commented that he hoped the stories were 'steamy', I sort of cringed. I guess that's why I used the subtitle
 love stories-sort of
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC


Then I read these comments below and realized that I shared some of the ides expressed by the author, hence my reluctance to use the classification of 'romance' 

What do you think?

No one would call Jane Eyre a "romance novel." It would instead be referred to as a "classic love story." The very thing that separates classic love stories from romance novels is that romance novels must by default be bad, tacky even, or they'll no longer be classified as romance novels and will get placed in a higher category.

I find it difficult to respect something that is purposely meant to be a lessor work. One should always strive to do great work. If an author classifies their own story as romance, that tells me that even they don't think much of it. That being the case, neither should we. http://calemccaskey.blogspot.com/2012/01/problem-with-romance-novels.html