Celebrating with a Kindle Give-away

In celebration of the upcoming release of FATAL ERROR (sequel to The Traz), I will be making a draw for a Kindle. I already have it in my possession as you can see from these pictures.

Everybody who posts an Amazon review of either THE TRAZ or SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT between now and when Fatal Error is released next month will get their name put into that glittery gold draw box.

I have been running various contests and eligible events since THE TRAZ debuted last fall. I made a draw this spring to celebrate the release of THE TRAZ 2nd edition and THE TRAZ School Editions, but my daughter won. I gave her the prize but bought another Kindle and kept everyone else's name in the box. (I banned all my children from entering this time.)

So if you entered at one of my signings or presentations or participated in one of my contests or answered one of my eligible questions...yes, your name is still in there and you can enter again.

If you review both books, I'll put your name in twice.

Reviews posted elsewhere online, such as on Goodreads, Smashwords, or your blog are also eligible, but you must let me know where and when they are posted so I can enter your name.

If you don't live in the U.S. or Canada, you will receive the optional $100 US gift card because I've been told this Kindle may not work outside North America. $100 should be enough to buy yourself a basic Kindle from your local Amazon site...or lots of eBooks if you already own one.

A Canadian or U.S.winner may opt for a gift card as well.

Good luck!

Here are the purchase links for my books. Just click on the titles.

THE TRAZ (only 99¢ until the end of August)

SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT (only $2.99)


Eileen Schuh, Canadian writer
www.eileenschuh.com

One mistake & someone dies...

 

One mistake & someone dies > FATAL ERROR < Loss of data. System crash. No recovery. His vacant blue eyes will haunt her forever. Coming soon...

I’m practising pitching my upcoming release, FATAL ERROR. The anticipation is driving me nuts! Yesterday I finished the edits requested by my publisher, Imajin Books, and emailed the manuscript back to her. It will again be reviewed by an editor before I do one final read-through and proof. Then...off it goes to the printer and to online bookstores.

In the meantime, my publisher will soon send me an ARC (that stands for Advanced Reading Copy). It is a draft version of the book that I will ask accomplished authors and noted reviewers to peruse. You will get to read what they thought of this action-packed adventure thriller because I’ll be shouting out excerpts from their reviews across my social network. Also, my publisher’s favourite review lines will appear on the cover and inside pages  of FATAL ERROR.

Also in the meantime, (there are lots of meantimes in the publishing industry...lots of waiting as the experts do their things) the cover for FATAL ERROR will be designed. As this novel is the second in my series, you can expect its cover to hold similarities to the cover of THE TRAZ (2nd edition). Other than know that, I have no idea what Imajin Books has in mind. Despite warnings to the contrary, we all know that people judge books by their covers, so you can bet Imajin Books will get me the most fantastic cover design ever!

Also in the meantime (told you there are lots of meantimes), someone out there with technical skills of which I can only dream, is putting together a book trailer for FATAL ERROR. This video promo for the book, with pictures, graphics, and text set to music, will get uploaded to YouTube, and to my website, and to my blog and to many other places eager to promote my novel. I will play this trailer on my laptop during my book signings and presentations, to attract the attention of potential readers.

In the meantime, I will be arranging book-launching parties (both real and virtual), visits to schools, bookstores, libraries... last time, during the launching of THE TRAZ, I even visited a facility for young offenders and talked to the kids about issues addressed in The Traz such as the dangers of gangs and the importance of good decision-making. 

As I await the September 2012 release of FATAL ERROR, I will continue promoting my published novels: THE TRAZ and SCHRÖDINGER’S CAT.

For the next 3 days, Wednesday, August 15th through to Friday, August 17^th all those who use Twitter be sure to stop in at the Imajin Books’ Summer Sizzles Twitter Party. Search #ImajinAuthors to find us and pick up your virtual margarita. Follow the witty conversation, join in, ask a question, answer one...have fun. We’d love to hear from you.

And don’t forget, during the entire month of August THE TRAZ and THE TRAZ School Edition ebooks are both only 99¢. And my adult Sci-Fi novella, Schrödingers Cat, is on sale this month, too! 

My books are all available as paperbacks as well, and can be purchased from any fine online bookstore. If you want to purchase my books online, click on the titles of the books below. If they are not in your local library or neighbourhood bookstore, you can ask to have them brought in for you. 

THE TRAZ Amazon.com
THE TRAZ Amazon.co.uk
SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT Amazon.com
SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT Amazon.co.uk

Eileen Schuh, Canadian writer
www.eileenschuh.com
Twitter
Facebook Author Page

She was afraid...

It was a dark and lonely time in my life when she came to me…a tiny girl on a ridge, lying on her belly, watching danger unfold in the valley below. Listening.

Grasped tightly in her fingers were autumn grasses.

Her anticipation was so intense it hurt my lungs. She was barely breathing. Afraid to move.

I saw her there whenever I closed my eyes. She was waiting…

Each night, night after night, as I lay down to sleep, she came to me. Afraid. Excited. Alone. Always on her belly on an autumn ridge. One night I felt the  thump, thump, thump of an approaching helicopter shaking the ground beneath her belly. Once I heard the scream of sirens.

There came a night when I could stand it no longer; I needed to know who that young girl was. Why was she on that ridge? What was happening in the valley below? I flicked on the lights and made my way to my laptop.

There was no one but me in that tiny cabin in the forest that night--and it would only be me the next day…and the day after. There was no one I had to meet in the morning, nothing I had to do, no place I had to be.  There was no one to care if I stayed up all night, ate breakfast in my pyjamas, slept all day.

I snuggled down on the sofa, pulled an afghan around me, and began to write the young girl’s story.

Her name was Katrina. In the valley below was The Traz biker gang compound. Speeding in from the horizon was the police tactical team. And off in the distance was a rescue chopper… 

Katrina’s life unfolded, novel after novel after novel... 

And thus there came to be The BackTracker series.

THE TRAZ (Book I) also comes in a School Edition because that young girl had much to teach.

Also in paperback.

FATAL ERROR (Book II) soon to be released by Imajin Books.

 












Eileen Schuh,
Canadian Author http://www.eileenschuh.com

Also the author of SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT

The end of the journey...

I'd wanted to go for a walk in the forest alone. To weep, perhaps. To think. He wanted to come, though...the two-year old. I did not say no.

He was exhuberant, drinking in the summer sun, wading through the meadow grasses...chasing his shadow. Trying to hide from me in the bushes. Insisting on taking the 'other' path.

I watched him running down the trail. His arms outstretched and and his face tilted to the sky.

I did my thinking...remembering when I was a child and the entire world was new and exciting and oh so beautiful. I thought that my Mom, too, had been a child once, had likely run down a summer path ahead of her mother, and basked in the glory that is our world.

I do not know when Mom learned that life was not forever...that she was here but for a short time.  Whenever it was, she did not let that news bother her at all.  She took it in stride. Death was just what happened at the end of life...and was of little importance and worthy of no worry or seeking or wondering. Life was where her focus was, where her energy went.  Unlike me...

I was very young when I discovered death, perhaps 3 or 4. While others my age were contemplating faerys and rainbows, I was desperately trying to wrap my mind around the concepts of infinity and mortality. Many were the nights when I would not be able to sleep...terrified of the dark and of dying. I'd creep down the stairs and fling myself into my mom's arms, sobbing about matters for which I had very few words.

I remember Mom became exasperated by my fretting, by my questions that have no answers, by my negativity. Why do we live if we're only going to die? Why? Why? Why? What will happen to you, Mommy, when you die? What will happen to me? Who will hold me? Kiss me? Dry my tears? Love me? Who will do that when you die?

"I won't die until you're ready for me to die," she'd finally promised in an effort to allay my panic and get me back to bed.

Mom passed away last month at the age of 94. I guess I was finally ready.

Eileen Schuh, Canadian Author
 www.eileenschuh.com

 ___________________________________________

THE TRAZ School Edition Kindle eBook

Only $1.99

  Click on these links for info& purchase links for the various editions of THE TRAZ:

THE TRAZ School Edition eBook: http://ow.ly/auLeO
Also available on Amazon U.K.
Also available in paperback 
Regular Edition eBook 
Regular Edition paperback

 ___________________________________________

Purple circles twice a day

Grieving 

Purple circles

Twice a day

Not that I'd take too many

But that I'd dump them

Crush them 

Flush them down the drain

Anticipate the darkness

The blackness

The pain

That should be

Could be

Would be

If I didn't swallow 

Purple circles 

Twice a day.

Eileen Schuh, Canadian writer www.eileenschuh.com

Writing away your troubles...

I am mourning the passing of my mother and although I don't feel like doing much of anything, I thought it may help to pay a tribute to this strong, family matriarch.

I partially followed in my mom's footsteps--she was a published author, too. She wrote children's short stories for magazines. One of her stories was adapted for use in a grade school reader. She loved kids, and always had a passel of them around. Cousins of all ages spent time with us on the farm, sometimes for weekends or summer vacations and sometimes for a year or two because life in our little house in the woods was better than their lives in the city.

I didn't inherit Mom's passion for raising other people's children, but I did inherit her love of books...and writing. She taught me to read at age 3 (at my insistence).  I was a January baby and in those days, unless you were born before the end of December, you had to start school the next September.  Although I was almost 7 by the time I stepped onto that yellow school bus and thrived on the learning part of Grade 1, I found the social aspect of the experience extremely difficult. Most of my days were spent wishing I was home with my mommy.

Last week as I was going  through old pictures to help my daughter create a video collage for Mom's memorial service, I came across some letters...that I wrote.

Mom told me that whenever I missed her at school, I should write her a letter. My teacher apparently told my mom I talked funny. She was probably right, judging by the way I sounded out some of the words and phrases in those lonely, homesick letters...

Dear Mummy I want to see you now. I guess I will aftoeweat (have to wait) to see you. Begose (because) it is not time to go home. I have a lope in my trot (a lump in my throat). I swlod (swallowed) it now. I hop it will not come again. I hop you are doing fin. I am doing fin.I gaive your letter to Miss.young. I! LOVE! YOU!

good-by for now Eileen p.s. over....

[My editors will notice my love of the exclamation mark started at an early age. My readers will notice I began to develop my story-telling abilities at a young age, too.]

It is reses (recess) now. I am tayerd (tired) now. our ool (whole) Room had a esy(easy) test. I will till you now how I made in it. [Notice how I am building suspense.] I made 100 in It. It is lache time (lunch time) now. I wate (want) you very much. I guess it is chast (just) ubout time to go home. I have not-hing to say for now But just went (just wait) [again, building suspense] mayBe I have yes! I do! I can not find aneybody to play with. I think I will tow (?) I can wat to see you now be gouse (because) it is Jues (just) about home time. Soo good-by.

love Eileen

********

I was obviously learning the therapeutic benefits of writing. I also quickly learned other benefits, too, like asking for things. A few months prior to the above letter, I was in bed upstairs with chickenpox when I sent this note down with my little sister: 

Dear Mummy

I am fanneg [finished] eating now. I am egie [itchy]. It is shallie [chilly] up here and I want you to make my bed

*******

Today I am that sad little girl again...missing her mommy.

Maybe I'll write Mom a letter...

Eileen Schuh, Canadian Author 
www.eileenschuh.com

 ___________________________________________

Prefer paperbacks to eBooks? No problem!

Both of my books, SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT and THE TRAZ,

qualify for Amazon.com's "4-for-3" promotion.

Buy 4 eligible books and pay for only 3!

Click here to buy SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT paperback

Click here to buy THE TRAZ 1st edition paperback

 ___________________________________________

Click on this logo for more info

Eileen Schuh, Canadian writer www.eileenschuh.com