Slight Panic, a New Partner and an Offer for You

Confession time: I panic a little when Teacher starts coaching me at the next level, as opposed to the level where I’m currently hanging.

What I mean by that is if I was in my senior year of high school, he’s acting like I’m already in college.

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Dance Diaries on Tour!

The Dance Diaries virtual book tour is only one week away happening NOW! I have mixed emotions about that fact, but mainly I’m excited.

From September 26 to October 14, Dance Diaries: Learning Ballroom Dance (Dance Diaries #1) and Dance Diaries: Ballroom Budgeting (Dance Diaries #2) will be featured and/or reviewed on a number of websites, most of which are book blogs. Some of them have also requested guest posts or author interviews from me, so their readers can hear from me directly.

I signed up with iReads Book Tours, and they arranged everything for me. Here is the schedule:

Sept 26 – Jaquo Lifestyle Magazine – book spotlight / guest post
Sept 26 – Books, Dreams, Life – book spotlight
Sept 27 – Library of Clean Reads – review of Dance Diaries #1 / author interview / giveaway
Sept 27 – Writers and Authors – book spotlight / author interview
Sept 27 – Books for Books – book spotlight
Sept 28 – The Autistic Gamer – review of Dance Diaries #1
Sept 28 – The Dance Bible – review of Dance Diaries #1 / author interview
Sept 29 – Bound 4 Escape – review of Dance Diaries #1 / giveaway
Sept 29 – Library of Clean Reads – review of Dance Diaries #2 / giveaway
Sept 30 – Northernmsw – review of Dance Diaries #1 / author interview
Sept 30 – T’s Stuff – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
Oct 3 –     The Autistic Gamer – review of Dance Diaries #2
Oct 3 –     #redhead.with.book – book spotlight / giveaway
Oct 4 –     Bound 4 Escape – review of Dance Diaries #2 / giveaway
Oct 5 –     Bookworm for Kids – review of Dance Diaries #1 / giveaway
Oct 5 –     Book reviews nature photos – review of Dance Diaries #1
Oct 6 –     Book reviews nature photos – review of Dance Diaries #2
Oct 6 –     The All Night Library – review of Dance Diaries #1
Oct 6 –     The Dance Bible – review of Dance Diaries #2
Oct 7 –     Rockin’ Book Reviews – book spotlight / giveaway
Oct 11 –    Northernmsw – review of Dance Diaries #2
Oct 11 –   Readers Muse – review of Dance Diaries #1
Oct 12 –   Bookworm for Kids – review of Dance Diaries #2 / giveaway
Oct 13 –   The All Night Library (separate links for review and guest post) – review of Dance Diaries #2 / guest post

Oct 13 –   Book Lover in Florida – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Oct 14 –   Readers Muse – review of Dance Diaries #2

TBD –      XoXo Book Blog – book spotlight
TBD –      Deal Sharing Aunt – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway

You’ll note some of the scheduled tour stops include a giveaway! You’ll have to visit the sites on the appropriate days to get more details, but there may be a chance to win an Amazon gift card! *hint hint*

You can also access the giveaway link here.

You’ll also note just by the names of the blogs that the majority are not dance-related sites. The point of all this is to reach more readers and hopefully introduce more people to ballroom dancing. It’s also good exposure for me as a writer and author. I’m still not exactly sure where this path is taking me, but I want to find out and the only way to do that is keep moving forward!

The mixed emotions I mentioned in the beginning are courtesy of my demons, of course. I’m excited to reach a broader audience and connect with new readers! But there’s always that lingering doubt/fear that I’ll be rejected or called out as a fraud. Or worse yet, my books will be met with a whole lot of indifference!

I know these feelings are normal, and every writer out there can relate. All I can do is take a deep breath and push forward anyway. I keep reminding myself to glance back and acknowledge how far I’ve come despite being terrified. It’s almost hard to believe.

So I hope you’ll tag along and check out some of the stops on the tour. I’m sure the other bloggers who have been gracious enough to welcome me and my books to their websites will appreciate your visit just as much as I do! I’m going to keep this post on the top of my blog page until the tour ends, so it’ll be easy for you to check the schedule and click over to the other sites.

Cheers!

Only Five Days Left!

Hello everyone!

Just a reminder that Dance Diaries: Learning Ballroom Dance is free to download on Story Cartel’s website for only five more days!

You may as well download it now before you forget.

Another reminder: if you post a review about the book by June 6, you’ll be entered to win an advanced copy of the next one, Dance Diaries: Ballroom Budgeting! This second installment of the Dance Diaries series includes all of my secrets, tips and tricks to how I afford to dance while living paycheck to paycheck AND paying down debt. AND it comes with a bonus, but I’m not going to tell you what it is yet!

You can post a review of Dance Diaries: Learning Ballroom Dance on the website of your choosing. Here are the links to a few possibilities:

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Goodreads

Just be sure to copy the URL of your review onto your Story Cartel dashboard so it’s counted in the drawing!

Good luck and happy dancing!

 

Ready, Set, Download

Ok, everyone, Dance Diaries: Learning Ballroom Dance is now available FOR FREE on Story Cartel’s website!

Click here to download your free copy.

Remember, you have the next three weeks to download it and four weeks to submit your review.

BONUS! Everyone who submits a review will be put in a drawing to receive an advanced copy of my next book, Dance Diaries: Ballroom Budgeting. And double bonus: my next book comes with extras. It’s like a transformer book (more than meets the eye).

I know you’re all super excited! Or not, because it’s Monday morning. I understand, I’m still on my first cup of tea myself. But free stuff is still cool, right?

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Book Giveaway!

Dear Readers,

Starting on Monday, May 9, Dance Diaries: Learning Ballroom Dance will be available to download FOR FREE for three weeks!

I’m promoting it on Story Cartel; you’ll be able to go to my book’s page on the website and download a free copy. The catch? The only thing you’ll need to do is provide an honest review. That’s right. I’m giving away my book just to find out what you really think about it!

When I hear that something I wrote helped or spoke to a reader, it makes my day. I love being able to share my experiences in hopes that they will be useful to someone else. I published the first Dance Diaries book and I’m writing a second one for that very reason.

Getting messages from readers helps confirm that I am indeed being helpful! That’s why I’m asking for reviews in this book giveaway. I want to know if you find the book useful or not.

So stay tuned. I’ll post the direct link after the launch on Monday. Once it’s live, you’ll have three weeks (until May 30) to download it and four weeks (until June 6) to submit a review.

Thank you in advance!

Sincerely,

The Girl with the Tree Tattoo

I’ve Got Rhythm

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before: along with lessons with Teacher, I also take private lessons once a week with Teacher’s friend in exchange for working at a bunch of social dances he ran last year. He is all about social ballroom dancing, so we work on American rhythm dances like rumba, cha cha and east coast swing, plus salsa, samba and occasionally bolero, all with that social focus. There are no specific routines or discussion of technique, it’s all about following and musicality.

Quite different from my lessons with Teacher.

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