Bitter Blessings Blog Tour

Megan has the perfect life, but when her mother dies in an accident, everything spins out of control. With the rest of her family falling apart, Megan must confront her past to uncover the truths that will keep everyone together. Thought-provoking and heartfelt, this book shows that even in times of trial, you can often find blessings.  -Deseret Book.com

Every once in a while I pick up a book that I have to read until it is finished. Bitter Blessings by Christine Mehring was one of those books. I thought I would read a chapter or two while the kids were brushing their teeth and gathering their backpacks for school. A little while later the book was finished. The premise of the story was compelling enough that I kept turning the page to find out what Megan would do about the family's problems.

It is interesting to watch the strugges and triumphs of Megan, and interesting to watch her grow. This is a good read with lots to think about. It would make a great Christmas present for the teenagers and adults in your life.

Variant Book Bomb

What is a book bomb? A book bomb is when we ask people to all buy the same book on the same day. This pushes the book up in the Amazon rankings and provides much needed exposure for the author. I wanted to pass on the information about the Variant book bomb. Larry Correia started this through his blog. Here is what he had to say about Rob Wells and his book Variant:
 
"Normally I wouldn’t bomb the same book again, but Rob is also going through a really tough time. A little while ago he was diagnosed with a severe panic disorder. Basically, something in his brain chemistry has gone out of whack, and his fight or flight reflex is constantly switched on. As a result this has really screwed up his life. He has been trying to get it under control and his doctors have been experimenting with different treatments trying to find the one that will click.


Recently, Rob was laid off from his day job as a result of his illness. This is a real financial hardship for him and his family.


What many people don’t realize about writers is that we keep our day jobs until we have about five or six books in circulation, and sometimes longer depending on how well they are selling. Writing isn’t the most steady of paychecks. (I’m doing well enough now that I could just be a writer, but I happen to love my day job, so I plan on doing it for probably another year). You’ve got to earn back the advance and even then you only get paid every six months. Variant is Rob’s first book on the national market. He had a ways to go before he would be able to quit the day job, but his illness totally wrecked that plan.


So I want to book bomb the HELL out of Variant. I want to shove that thing up the bestseller lists on Amazon and I want to give my friend a hand.


What is a book bomb? Well, Amazon has its own bestseller list. It is calculated hourly and you are given a sales rank based up on how you stack up against the other six million books on there. It is some sort of strange rolling average algorhythm, but what it comes down to is, the more books that are purchased during that particular time frame, the higher you rank. The higher you rank, the more of their top 50 or top 10 lists you show up on. The more of those you show up on, the higher you go, the more attention you get, the more books you sell.


By getting as many people as possible to purchase the book on a single day, it really kicks a book up the rankings."

Variant would make a great Christmas gift for the YA readers in your life. My son will find one under the tree this year. (It's a good thing he doesn't take the time to read my blog).


Amazon link to Variant: http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=monshuntnati-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0062026089&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr