What’s on my iPod: “Moves Like Jagger” by Maroon 5
The last person I followed: @jennybrooks
What I’m Reading: Possession by Elena Johnson

1. Crystal on Writer Unboxed

Crystal was featured on Writer Unboxed this week sharing her five MUST-DO publicity tips.

“You’ve done the hard part and written the book(s) – okay, well maybe you’re procrastinating a tad bit by being online reading Writer Unboxed when really you should be polishing off that manuscript. All is forgiven, however, because you’re here, getting a leg up by reading about your book’s publicity – something that, far too often, is thought about late in the game.”

Here are Crystal’s 5 tips:

1. Make it personal

2. Timing is Everything

3. One pitch is never enough

4. Think like a journalist

5. Let it go

For full details, check out the complete article.

2. The D Word on Reviews by Molly

THE D WORD by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke is featured on Reviews by Molly this week. Here is a highlight from the article:

“Liz and Lisa used the right blend of fantastic characters, humor and women’s complicated feelings to create a wonderful and entertainingly epic chick lit novel. I give this novel a high recommendation to every lover of chick lit, along with high 5 star praises. Definitely worth the laughs, the “what ifs” and the roller coaster ride that these talented ladies take their readers on. Well done, ladies!”

More about THE D WORD

Jordan Daniels and Elle Ryan thought their lives would become less complicated when they walked away from their respective relationships one year ago. But instead, they find themselves vying for a relationship with the same divorced man.

As a spiritual counselor, newly single mother Jordan Daniels makes her living predicting other people’s futures. If only she could foresee her own. A year after filing for divorce from her husband, Kevin, he seems to be the one moving on effortlessly, while Jordan still can’t bring herself to fill his old underwear drawer. But it’s not until Jordan’s polar opposite, Elle steals Kevin’s heart, that Jordan becomes convinced she’ll be replaced both as a wife and a mother to her five-year-old son, Max.

When Elle met Kevin, the last thing she wanted was another relationship. Especially not with a man with baggage-she already had enough of her own. She left her fiancé, Chase right before their wedding to avoid the imminent D word, something she’s convinced runs in her family like a disease. But a year later, she’s no closer to becoming less skeptical about marriage. And despite her attachment to Kevin and his son, when Elle sees just how far Jordan’s willing to go to win Kevin back, Elle starts to question if she should have left Chase in the first place.

In THE D WORD you’ll walk in the shoes of Jordan and Elle as they discover that sometimes you’re not that different from the person who makes you feel the most insecure.

3. Crush Control on The Electric Book Cafe

Jennifer Jabaley’s CRUSH CONTROL is featured on The Electric Book Cafe this week. Here is a highlight from the article:

“However , CRUSH CONTROL dealt wonderfully with the funny, over-the-top consequences of using hypnotism and added a lovely, healthy-sized dallop of romance into the mix.

:I enjoyed reading this novel, it was a perfect summer read, romance filled, light (no thinking required. A high school graduate must!), funny and cute.”

More about CRUSH CONTROL

Willow Grey is about to learn a thing or two about life, love and total mind control!… Willow has spent most of her life as her mother’s sidekick in a popular Las Vegas hypnotism show. So when she and her mom move back to their sleepy southern hometown to start over, she thinks she’s in for a life of quiet normalcy. Except that her new life turns out to be anything but, when she decides to hypnotize Quinton, the hottest guy on the football team, to fall madly, deeply, head over heels in love with her. But what started out as an innocent way to make her best friend, Max, jealous soon gets way out of hand and Willow begins to wonder if the mind—and more importantly, the heart—is something you can really control.

4. Dr. Andrea Bonior on Let’s Talk Live

Dr. Andrea Bonior explores the perceived celebrity baby boom, and whether Hollywood’s views on marriage and children may influence our own.

5. Elise Allen POPULAZZI Launch

Mark your calendars for Elise Allen’s POPULAZZI book launch at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena on August 6th at 2:00 p.m.

More about POPULAZZI

What would you do if you had the chance to erase your past and reinvent yourself as the person you’ve always wanted to be? Would you grab it? Would you stick with it, no matter what the consequences?

Cara Leonard always wished she could be one of those girls: confident, self-possessed, and never at a loss for the perfect thing to say. One of the Populazzi.

It always seemed impossible… but now could be her chance.

When Cara moves to a new school just before junior year, her best friend urges her to seize the opportunity and change her life… with the help of The Ladder. Its rungs are relationships, and if Cara transforms herself into the perfect girlfriend for guys higher and higher on the Popularity Tower, she can reach the ultimate goal: Supreme Populazzi, the most popular girl in school.

The Ladder seems like a lighthearted social experiment — a straight climb up — but it quickly becomes gnarled and twisted. And when everything goes wrong, only the most audacious act Cara can think of has a chance of setting things even a little bit right.

ALSO ANNOUNCING…

The first issue of The Spark – Spark PR’s monthly e-newletter – was released on Thursday!

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