Category: Audio

Posted in Audio, Book Signings, Giveaways, My Books, Newsletter, Savage Champion, Sen, Southern Crime Family series, Workshop

Newsletter: Author Carla Swafford – Same Old…

Posted on by Carla Swafford, Author

If you’ve been looking for my Author page (carlaswaffordauthor) on Facebook, you won’t find it. I was hacked and I notified Meta. It’s a terrible long story that taught me that criminals will play the long game to get it. (No, I did not click on a link of any type.) Meta shutdown that portion of my FB. So I still have my personal page where I accept “friends.” Meta has been trying to get my Author page to come back up, but it’s looking like that will not happen. At least, if it stays down, the criminals can’t use it too. There are two parts of this that make me even more sad: 1) all of my photos are gone. So many memories. Sure, I probably have copies lying around the house, but still…you know. 2) There were over two thousand people following me. It took me a few years to build that up (I started the page in 2011) and I doubt I can do that again without spending money. Anyway, I had been drifting away from FB the last couple years and this might be the final straw to push me to stay on Instagram the majority of the time. TikTok is too much of a pain in the ass to deal with though I do post some there. Yet, I won’t leave FB totally because the groups are so helpful in keeping in touch with family, friends, and communities of interest. So be careful who you believe. ALWAYS go to the source and ask questions.

Booksigning

In my last newsletter, I told you about Bookfest in Sumiton, AL. It was a beautiful day and we had nice crowds to come through. They are planning a third one for October 2025 and it will most likely be indoors. So if you live in Alabama USA or nearby states, plan to visit. Lots of authors and book related goodies. Here’s a pic of me. I sold all of my Savage Champion books except for one.

Workshop

The North Shelby Library has asked my writers group to present a writers workshop this Saturday (10/19). Here’s the info on it. Link at bottom. I don’t believe it will last to 6 p.m. We should be finished by 4 p.m. I will be presenting Plotter vs Pantster. That’s referring to the type of writer you could be and will help you relax and accept whatever method you use is okay.

Fiction Focus: All-Day Writing Workshop

10:00am – 6:00pm

North Shelby

Registration Open

Library Branch: North Shelby

Room: Mueller Annex Classroom

Age Group: Teens, Adults

Registration Required

Seats Remaining: 34

Event Details:

Are you ready to captivate readers with your words? Just starting out and don’t know where to begin? Join us for this writing workshop designed to ignite your creativity and elevate your writing skills to new heights. It’s free.

Register here: https://northshelby.librarycalendar.com/event/nanowrimo-event-11944

Writing

Sen’s book is coming along. I came across an unique problem for me. Now, I don’t usually know who the bad guy is until I’ve written most of the book, but this time I was so certain who it was, but then bam! I realized I was wrong. So be on the lookout for a twist in the story. Hopefully, you won’t be disappointed.

That’s it for now. Here’s hoping the storms stay away for the rest of the year and everyone chill during elections. Scary times for sure. So keep reading romance and you’ll know there is a happy future for the couple (or more). Reading helps our mental health. It’s good to believe in happy endings.

Hugs.

Carla

Posted in Audio, Book Signings, Newsletter, Savage Champion

Newsletter: Author Carla Swafford – Staying Busy

Posted on by Carla Swafford, Author

For any of my newsletter followers who are barely (or not presently able) to read this for they are dealing with real life issues of a partial or fully destroyed home and/or lost family members, I’m keeping you in my prayers. We never know when or where a natural disaster will strike, and Hurricane Helene has certainly reminded us of that.

In case you’re one of the lucky ones and not dealing with Helene’s aftermath, be sure to prepare ahead. Hurricanes, tornados, snow, fire, heat, terrorists, locust, anything can interfere with our lifestyle. The government has a website for a survival kit. You can click here for the list of items needed.

Reviews

Well, from what I hear by emails/messages/texts, readers are enjoying Savage Champion and even giving it lots of five stars. Bookbub has one written review (thank you, Bleem58, whoever you are). There’s a nice comment on one of my ads in Facebook, and two written reviews at Goodreads.

And WOW, the long one from Suzanne (I don’t know her, I swear) makes me feel like a genius. The awesome review blew me away. Though she gave it four stars (negative due to world building-that’s okay-I know I can always improve), she said so many nice things. Her recommendation was “…for Lovers of darker paranormal romance with multi-dimensional characters and situation-mandated moral ambiguity on a frequent occasion. Fans of series by J.R. Ward, Nalini Singh, or Laurell K. Hamilton will find just the right dose of suspense, supernatural creatures, and romance they love.”

Audio

I still have free codes for Savage Champion’s audio (U.S. and U.K.). If you have friends or relatives ready to listen to a paranormal romance in time for Halloween, let me know, and I’ll send them a copy or you can forward to them. The code will only allow one download. When it comes to the review, they can do just stars. By the way, the prologue has a gory scene. You can skip through the first couple minutes if it bothers you.

Bookfest

You can find me at Sumiton’s (Alabama, USA) Bookfest October 12, Saturday, starting at 9 a.m. and ending at 5 FOUR p.m. I think the time is right. There will be many other authors, and vendors selling book related items. Plus food vendors. Got to have eats! Hope to see you there. Let me know you’re a newsletter subscriber and I’ll give you a small gift.

Writing

There are only six chapters left to write in Sen (A Southern Crime Family Novel – book 2). I hate it has taken me so long to finish this book. Hopefully, the next one, Ethan, will go faster. Then I have several books /ideas lined up (a paranormal, hockey, or billionaire romance). Surely, I’ll make up my mind by then what to write.

Per John Steinbeck, “I guess there are never enough books.” So true.

Happy reading.

Carla

Posted in Audio, Savage Champion, Special Price

Free Audio Copy of Savage Champion

Posted on by Carla Swafford, Author

Are you interested in receiving a free copy of Savage Champion’s audio? As a subscriber ANYONE CAN AS LONG AS SUPPLIES LAST – go to message form – click here [updated 9/18/24]you can. You will receive a code and instructions on how to download. Only one user per code is allowed. All that I ask is that you review it on Goodreads and/or Audible.

Note: I presently only have 20 copies each for USA and UK. Be sure to let me know which you want.

Here’s a short blurb about it.

From bestselling author Carla Swafford a new genre for fans of her gritty romantic suspense books. When a private investigator tracks down a client’s lost sister, he discovers she’s not lost or the client’s sister. The woman is a vampire on a campaign of vengeance. Somehow he must stop her killing spree and protect her at the same time.

Thanks!

Carla

Posted in Audio, Movies, My Books, Newsletter, Sen, Southern Crime Family series, Writing

Newsletter: Author Carla Swafford – Short One

Posted on by Carla Swafford, Author

I’ve decided I need a friend called Sam. They’re loyal. They’ll follow you into danger and protect your back, tell you when you’re wrong, support you when you’re right, and so much more. Why do I say that? You may have already guessed. As many of you have done, years ago, I’d watched all of the Lord of The Rings movies. Now, I’m watching the Game of Thrones series. When it was originally on, I missed numerous episodes. So I decided to watch them from beginning to end. I’ve already seen several I had missed. You may remember in the two series, they have a main character whose best friend is name Sam (or Samwell). I wouldn’t be surprised to find other series with loyal friends with the same name. There has to be a reason they’re called Sam.

Writing Tip

How often have you read about the shape of a character’s furniture or the way rain hits a puddle of water? If I kept those type of descriptions in a short sentence or two of setting, I believe most people would find the description interesting enough. Even a list of items in a room, no longer than a sentence, can be entertaining. It’s when an author types paragraphs and pages describing rooms, plant uses, or the weather (etc.) that bores me. I usually skip over it. While for other people they claim such writing gives the story layers. I guess my imagination doesn’t need all the extra words to help a story along. All of that is something to think about, heh?

Next Book

Presently, I’m working on the next book of the Southern Crime Family. It’s been a rough go, because I couldn’t get a handle on Sen (middle brother) and what his deal was. Finally, I figured it out and it’s coming together. Sorry for being vague, but I should provide excerpts before too much longer.

Here’s what the cover will look like.

Audio Coming Soon

The narration for Savage Champion should be finished in a few more weeks. I keep saying it, but I’m so excited. There are two narrators (female and male) and I think you’ll enjoy it. More details to come as soon as I’m notified they’re finished.

This is the cover for the audio. Note the narrators.

As you can tell, this is a short newsletter this time.

Take care. Read, read, read. And be sure to let people know about any books you enjoyed.

Carla

Posted in Audio, Giveaways, Love In A Small Town, Loving The Small-Town Hero, Loving The Small-Town Preacher's Son, My Books, Newsletter, Savage Champion

Newsletter: Author Carla Swafford – Book Covers

Posted on by Carla Swafford, Author

This is not certain, but this may be the hardcover design beneath the jacket wrap with the original cover (same as ebook and paperback–gold apple wrapped barbwire). It will probably be released in September with the audio. You are the first to see this.

Audio, you say? You caught that, did ya? Yep. The narrators are working on it now. I’m so excited. If you knew me, you would know I rarely get excited about anything. Happy, yes. Excited, no.

As this is the hardcover design, I’ve been thinking of changing the cover design on the ebook. Maybe after Christmas. What do you think of a sexy person or couple? Or it could be similar to the hardcover? What do you think.

Speaking of covers, what do you think about the wave of romance books with artistic designs or cartoon covers? I don’t know about you, but when I see cartoon covers I think rom-com or sweet (closed-bedroom-door) stories. And I think women’s fiction (no or a little romance) for the artistic ones. Yes. I know my vampire book had the apple. Not very vampire-ish, but think Twilight.

I suspect there are two reasons for this. First, newer readers love paperback and hardcovers. They are embarrasses by the clutch or bare chested men on the covers. I think they are gorgeous, but I always kept in mind, people around me might not appreciate the view. So when I worked and took a book with me (for breaks and lunch), I turned it upside down. On the books I released last year (Loving The Small-Town Preacher’s Son & Loving The Small-Town Hero), I had bare-chested men on the ebook covers and farm scenes on the paperback with that same thought.

The second reason is social media (especially TicTok). Even though you can mark your sites for 18 and over, there are adults who complain (makes you wonder if some are competitive authors) and others who get upset when their child sees the pictures, even though most social media have age limits (13?). It’s hard being a parent nowadays. Kids want to participate in what’s popular, but most of social media is adults only. Plus TikTok is strict (no male nipples, no people with guns even if book covers, you know, like on suspense books). Yeah. I’m a little bitter about that.

Party Online

On July 16, there will be an old-fashioned online party in the Facebook group called Southern Sizzle Readers. If you’re interested in meeting new authors, hearing about their books, and possibly winning a prize or two, come and join the group. Be sure to put 7 p.m. central, July 16, on your calendar. Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/southernsizzle

Errors In Books

The other day, I was on an author panel and the question came up about why do so many books today have errors, even the big name authors with the big publishing houses.

If you’ve been reading my posts for a time, you know I make errors. My posts are edited by only me. Shocker, right? Ha! While my books, and hopefully all the books by other authors, have been edited by professional editors. Not by your cousin who made A’s in English, or the guy down the street who’s a big fan. After I write a book, I go over it twice more (includes reading it out loud). Then send it to my copy editor. She makes comments and corrects the obvious mistakes I missed. And she sends it back to me. I go over her notes and make more changes. And yep, I send it back to her and she checks it once more. After that, I look at it again. Yep. Once again.

At the big publishing houses, the editor looks over an author’s book and makes notes to send to the author to make changes. That editor is only looking at the whole story. (I’m going to use female pronouns to make it simpler). Then after the author makes the changes she agrees to, it’s sent to the copy editor. The copy editor then corrects the grammar and make more notes for the author to check on possible needed changes. After the author changes or okays what the copy editor has done, it will go back to the copy editor and/or the editor. Then sometimes, it’s formatted and sent to the author one more time to look for anything that might have been missed.

Speculation only: If you noticed I mentioned the editor and copy editor suggest changes. I believe sometimes they will not suggest changes to the storyline, if the author is a big name. Thus why we often read our favorite New York Bestselling author and get frustrated by the errors or long dragged-out scenes in their books. It’s like they didn’t want to take a chance of messing with the author’s “magic.”

Look Out

For those who haven’t asked for the short story, Kidnapped For A Day, be on the look out. It should show up free on B&N, Amazon, etc. In September, I plan to discounts several of my books. I’ll remind you again.

Hugs. Keep reading,

Carla