Hey, lovelies!! It gives me great pleasure today to host C. W. Allen and her new book, “The Secret Benefits of Invisibility,” here on FAB!! For other stops on her Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in this post.
Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to win a $10 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble Gift Card!! Also, come back daily to interact with C. W. Allen and to increase your chances of winning!!
Thanks for stopping by!! Wishing you all lots of good luck in this fabulous giveaway!!
The Secret Benefits of Invisibility
The Falinnheim Chronicles
Book Two
by C. W. Allen
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GENRE: Middle Grade Adventure Fantasy
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BLURB:
For Zed and Tuesday, adjusting to life in modern-meets-medieval Falinnheim means normal is relative. Lots of kids deal with moving, starting new schools, and doing chores. But normally, those schools aren't in underground bunkers full of secret agents, and the chore list doesn't involve herding dodos. The one thing that hasn't changed: all the adults treat them like they're invisible.
When a security breach interrupts a school field trip, the siblings find themselves locked out of the Resistance base. With the adults trapped inside, it's up to Tuesday, Zed, and their friends to save the day. And for once, being ignored and underestimated is coming in handy. After all, who would suspect a bunch of kids are capable of taking down the intruders that captured their families, let alone the murderous dictator that put them into hiding in the first place?
Turns out invisibility might just have its benefits.
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EXCERPT ONE:
Snowflakes the size of baseballs were falling outside, which was ironic, since baseball didn’t exist anymore.
Zed had never cared much for organized sports, so the loss of baseball wasn’t so horrible, in his opinion. He cared a great deal about snow, however. In his last house, he’d had a favorite windowsill in the upstairs hallway that was deep enough to sit in and read while looking out the window. Cloudy fall afternoons made for excellent reading weather, but an early morning snowfall was even better, because school might get canceled, and then he’d get to stay home and read as long as he liked. That was before the move, though. His new home had school too, of course, but no windowsills. You don’t need windowsills in a place with no windows.
His older sister Tuesday was not such a fan of the “organized” aspect of baseball—she’d had some unusual barriers to making friends in her last town, not least among them her name, and it’s tough to play baseball by yourself—but she did enjoy sports, because sports are something you can win. You can’t win at reading a book in a windowsill. And anyway, she reminded Zed, baseball technically still existed, somewhere. It’s just that no one else in Falinnheim had ever heard of it.
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GUEST POST:
Writing Goals That Stick
Most resolutions fail—but yours don’t have to!
The beginning of a new year is a traditional time to take stock of your habits and decide whether your lifestyle patterns are actually leading to the results you’d like. Studies say 60% of Americans set resolutions in January, but only a tiny fraction achieve them. Of course there's no need to wait for January to roll around to set yourself a writing goal—you can start any time you need to begin a new project. But no matter when you begin, it's important to start with a plan.
So the question is, why do so many resolutions fail? The problem is that people think they’ve set a goal, but in fact only have a dream—a vague desire for a different outcome, but without set parameters for getting there. Dreams are important; they inform what goals to set. But goals need to be much more specific than “get healthy” or “write more” if they are to succeed.
Goals ≠ Dreams ≠ Assignments
In order to be successful, a goal needs a few guideposts. It must be:
• Specific. If you set a goal to “write more”, how will you know when you’ve achieved it? What does “more” even mean? “Finish a first draft of a novel” or “submit at least 3 poems to journals” are specific enough that you’ll know whether you’ve met the mark.
• In your control. “Publish an international bestseller” or “Be chosen as US Poet Laureate” are admirable long-term dreams, and they are specific enough that you’ll know whether or not they’ve been achieved, but they’re not entirely in your control. You can do everything right, but still fail. Choose goals you have control over—finishing or submitting work, rather than how it is received.
• Your ambition, not someone else’s. Yes, you may need to submit a project for work or school, or have that thing a boss or family member is always bugging you to work on. But if you don’t care about it enough personally, the goal will feel like a nagging burden rather than put stars in your eyes. Choose a goal that is personally meaningful and inspired by your long-term dreams.
Make a Roadmap to Your Goal
1.) Assess your long-term dreams and ambitions, then choose a realistic goal that will point you in the direction of that ambition, but is still within your control. Your goal should stretch your abilities, but not so much that it’s not within realistic reach.
2.) Divide the goal into short-term, measurable steps. If you want to write a 75,000 word novel in a year, you’ll need to write a minimum of 6,250 words a month, which is about 1,560 words every week. Whatever your goal is, find a way to break it into bite-size chunks. Keep track of every day or week that you meet this quota, like by marking your word count on a calendar or journal.
3.) Build in breathing room. You might get sick, have to travel, or have an urgent deadline at work or school that throws a wrench in your schedule. Set your measurable steps with a grace period built in. You might decide to shoot for finishing a year-long goal by the end of November instead of the end of December, or set yourself a higher weekly word count than strictly necessary. That way, when (not if!) something comes up, you still have enough space to succeed.
4.) Don’t give up when you slip up. It’s tempting to say, “Well, I don’t have time to meet my quota for the week, so why bother putting in the time at all?” But all progress is progress. Ten minutes is better than nothing, even if you’d really hoped for an hour. Writing three days this week is better than taking the whole week off, even if seven simply isn’t possible.
5.) Stay accountable to yourself and others. Write down the goal, and the steps you’ve set to achieve it, someplace you’ll see it often. Tell friends and family about your goal so you’ll be motivated to keep working on it. It’s easy to give up when no one knows you were even trying. The support of people who want to help you reach for your goals and long-term dreams is far more motivational than obligation or guilt.
What are your dreams for your writing career? Which goals will help you get there? By setting specific goals that are within your control and building in some checkpoints along the way, you'll be well on your way to making those dreams a reality.
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AUTHOR BIO:
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C. W. Allen is a Nebraskan by birth, a Texan by experience, a Hoosier by marriage, and a Utahn by geography. She knew she wanted to be a writer the moment she read The Westing Game at age twelve, but took a few detours along the way as a veterinary nurse, an appliance repair secretary, and a homeschool parent.
She recently settled in the high desert of rural Utah with her husband, their three children, and a noisy flock of orphaned ideas. Someday she will create literary homes for all of them. (The ideas, not her family.)
Relatively Normal Secrets (Cinnabar Moth Publishing, Fall 2021) is her debut novel. She writes fantasy novels for tweens, picture books for children, and short stories and poems for former children. Her work will appear in numerous anthologies in 2021. She is also a frequent guest presenter at writing conferences and club meetings, which helps her procrastinate knuckling down to any actual writing.
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CONNECT WITH C. W. ALLEN:
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/cwallenbooks
Cinnabar Moth Publishing Author Page:
https://cinnabarmoth.com/cw-allen
Goodreads Author Page:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2983485.C_W_Allen
Goodreads Book Page:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60716812-the-secret-benefits-of-invisibility
Amazon Author Page:
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BOOK BUY LINKS:
Amazon US Kindle eBook:
Amazon US Paperback:
Amazon US Hardcover:
Amazon CA Kindle eBook:
https://www.amazon.ca/Secret-Benefits-Invisibility-C-W-Allen-ebook/dp/B09WDKG5MX
Amazon CA Paperback:
https://www.amazon.ca/Secret-Benefits-Invisibility-C-Allen/dp/1953971474
Amazon CA Hardcover:
https://www.amazon.ca/Secret-Benefits-Invisibility-C-Allen/dp/1953971482
Barnes and Noble NOOK eBook:
Barnes and Noble Paperback:
Barnes and Noble Hardcover:
Booktopia AU Kindle eBook:
https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-secret-benefits-of-invisibility-c-w-allen/ebook/9781953971494.html
Booktopia AU Paperback:
https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-secret-benefits-of-invisibility-c-w-allen/book/9781953971470.html
Booktopia AU Hardcover:
https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-secret-benefits-of-invisibility-c-w-allen/book/9781953971487.html
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GIVEAWAY INFO:
C. W. Allen will be awarding $10 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble Gift Card (Winner’s Choice!!!) to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a purchase is made, I may receive a small commission to help support this blog. This does not cost you anything, it just helps pay for all those fabulous community outreach projects and awesome giveaways on here**
This contest is sponsored by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish Promotions. Prizes are given away by the sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.
Thank you for hosting!
ReplyDeleteGreat excerpt the book sounds really good.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your guest post and book details, I have enjoyed reading about you and your work and I am looking forward to reading The Secret Benefits of Invisibility with my grandchildren
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great excerpt and guest post. The book sounds very intriguing.
ReplyDeleteI would love to be invisible for a day or two!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a very good read.
ReplyDelete