WALL STREET JOURNAL'S Tom Nolan Reviews CITY OF GHOSTS

Critics and bloggers alike are intrigued City of Ghosts, Kelli Stanley's third novel in her Miranda Corbie mystery series.

Tom Nolan praises, "Kelli Stanley's atmospheric mystery-adventure of art thieves and smugglers, murderers, and possible foreign agents in the Bay Area in 1940, makes quite an impression."  Who wouldn't be impressed by "art thieves and smugglers, murderers and possible foreign agents."   Read Nolan's complete review at the online edition of WSJ.

And head over to Lesa's Book Critiques where Lesa tells book-lovers, "If you want to understand pre-war America, the looting of Europe's art treasures, San Francisco's history, or the story of a strong, gritty woman, a woman with a past, and a city with a past, Kelli Stanley's City of Ghosts is a must-read."  Read her full review on her book blog.

To get started or continue your adventure in the Miranda Corbie series, visit the author's official website and for even more information and updates, follow her on twitter.

Posted by Stacy Briscoe @SLBriscoe

The New Super Hero: Science Fiction Writers

When I was in high school, I took a science fiction class because I'm awesome and nerdy like that.  Actually it was because, although I fancy myself a book nerd, my home library was lacking in the science fiction department.

We read everything from Mary Shelly's Frankenstein to Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game.  No matter the year written, background of the author, or what characters he or she decided to portray, the running theme was always the evolution of man: Where did we come from?  What are we doing here?  Where are we going?

Our author Garret Calcaterra has written a very detailed article for the online edition of Black Gate on the science fiction genre and how the imagination of the present day mind helps shape our future.  So what great debacle should the Sci-Fi author tackle next?  Calcaterra's gentle suggestion: global warming.

Read the full article entitled Can SF Save the World From Climate Change? on the Black Gate website and feel free to add your thoughts to the debate in the comments section.

Garrett Calcaterra is a talented "author of dark speculative fiction."  His latest work Dreamweilder has been received by the literary community with rave reviews and his eBook The Knight's Dog has received over 34k downloads on Wattpad. To learn more about him, his writing, and latest full-length novel, check out his official website.  And don't forget to follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

Posted by Intern Stacy Briscoe, whose biggest sic-fi pet peeve are people who think sic-fi and fantasy are the same thing (they are NOT, read the difference here).

Book Bloggers Review TJ O'Connor's DYING TO KNOW

A dead detective solving his own murder mystery?  Book bloggers are blowing up their pages about TJ O'Connor's unusual perspective of a classic genre.

"The reader is treated to unique antics and seeming magic," says Joseph Arellano from Joseph's Reviews.  "Well recommended."  See the full review here.

And J.P. over at CrimeSquad.com found O'Connor's novel "to be highly entertaining and completely addictive [...] a great debut into a competitive section of the crime genre and hopefully the first of many in this 'Gumshoe Ghost Mystery' series," rating it a 4/5.  Check out the complete review on the site.

And who loves mysteries more than a site entitled I Love A Mystery?  Aylah Foureste highly recommends this "fascinating read."  Read the short but sweet review here.

So, dying to know more?  Read more reviews posted on our blog.  And check out TJ O'Connor's official webpage and connect with him on Facebook for more information about this novel and other works by TJ O'Connor.

Posted By Intern Stacy Briscoe @SLBriscoe

Diversion Books Blogs: "Garrett Calcaterra on DREAMWIELDER and the Magic of Books"

Get the inside story from author Garret Calcaterra in his guest blog for Diversion Books.  He discusses his latest release, Dreamwielder, and his experience as an emerging science fiction and fantasy writer.  Click here to read the full post.

Dreamwielder is now available in print, eBook, and audio.  Get your copy on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, the iBookstore, Kobo, or Audible today.

For more information about Garret Calcaterra and his other works, please visit his official website.  You can also follow him on twitter @GCalterra.

Post brought to you by intern Stacy Briscoe @SLBriscoe

Building an Online Presence: Tumblr

Hi, Intern Kenny here again with another installment in my quest to help you build an online presence.  This post is all about Tumblr.  In essence, Tumblr is a blog but it is so much more.  Because of the vast personalization abilities, Tumblr nowadays is used by many as a base website.

First of all, to most easily explain and give tips on Tumblr, I have to include what I view as the best usage of Tumblr.

gracehelbig.tumblr.com

This Tumblr site belongs to internet darling, Grace Helbig and it acts not only as her blog but also as her main website.  As you can see, it is a very simple and attractive layout that includes everything you need on a website.

Here are some quick tips for those who want to use Tumblr instead of spending the vast amounts of time and money to build a personalized website.

Tip #1: Personally, I like it personalized

Tumblr has a lot of base templates in which you an build your website but the best way to do it is to pay for one of the premium templates.  These are relatively cheap and require little to no active maintenance.  Refer back to Grace's Tumblr; her site is a premium template where she can choose the tabs and basic placement of her feed (the video), heading, and her description.  These will make your Tumblr stand out without having to go into an overcomplicated program such as Dreamweaver.

Tip #2: Hashtags and Reblogs

One important aspect of Tumblr is to fully immerse yourself into the Tumblr community.  Tumblr allows you to label every post with a bunch of hashtags to make it easily searchable.  Their system works in the same way that Twitter's hashtagging system works and the use of hashtags will help you build a following.  It helps a lot that you, as a content provider and personality, reblog posts from other people.  By helping out other people through the easy act of reblogging, you will build a stronger connection with an audience through directly connecting to them.  

Tip #3: The Perfect GIF

On Tumblr, GIFs (pronounced with a hard "G") reign supreme.  GIFs are animated pictures often taken from videos.  An example is provided below:

via buzzfeed.com

These short animated moments dominate Tumblr and while you may not need to create your own, reblogging some of your favorites will help you appeal to the Tumblr audience much more.

For more up-to-date news, please follow Kimberley Cameron & Associates on Twitter @K_C_Associates and on Facebook at Facebook.com/kimberleycameronandassociates.