Rumour has it that it is not Xanga that will close, but all Xangans who will disappear, having being beamed up to the great Mother Ship now hovering over North America. 

Another theory is that Xanga will not vanish instantly, but will implode, collapsing inwards, the last bit to go being Theologian Dan, whose icon will evaporate from the edges, the last bit to go being the smile, like Alice’s cheshire cat.

In either case, I am on facebook under my real name >>>>>>>

https://www.facebook.com/graham.worthington.77

…and on grahamworth@hotmail.com

…and on author bios at Amazon >>>>>>>

http://www.amazon.com/Graham-Worthington/e/B002UV8QTE/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

And thanks to all the Xangans I’ve met over the years, and thanks to all who have helped me out at times. Best wishes, Graham.

I knew this book was a must-have as soon as I saw the chapter sub-headings. Not only has Shane Lee researched the success methods of twelve successful authors, he has extracted the key points and questions that each author has addressed strongly, and this hit me straight between the eyes, as all are questions that have troubled to me in my own marketing struggles. 

The debate between the fading glamour of traditional publishing and the almost punk of self, the must of independent editing (which may not be a must) the relevance or not of the much-touted social networking: Shane’s twelve hit the lot. 

There are many ‘How To’ books on the market in the field of self-publishing and book marketing, but in too many of them the source of guidance is the book’s author alone. I’ve read a bunch of them. ‘That sounds logical,’ I often think, chewing on one of the nuggets of wisdom asserted, ‘but is it really that way? Who is this guy insisting I must do this, or that, while so and so says just the opposite? Both tell us firmly how to market fiction, but has either written as much fiction as a short story?’

The answer is usually no.

Shane here takes a better, sounder route, standing aside as interviewer to let us listen directly to twelve real people, who have not only trodden the long, lonely road from blank page to final manuscript, but done it many times. Twenty times, in one case, which makes my own twice pretty tame. Yet, paradoxically, some have hit success on the first shot. 

Without minimising the many difficulties to be overcome to achieve marketing success, Shane writes in an encouraging, up-beat manner as he interviews twelve authors to identify the ever changing does and don’ts. Each had a different story, and differed on some points I’d thought fixed and beyond argument, yet all agreed on points I’d have thought a matter of opinion; all in all, very enlightening.

Reviewed by Graham Worthington, author, Wake of the Raven and Zorn.

A list of Xangan authors and associates available in print or ebook, compiled by Graham Worthington, author Wake of the Raven and Zorn.

The latest title is Dateline: Atlantis by Xangan author Lynn Voedisch

All authors are listed in alphabetical order, by book cover.

Including stories by several Xangan authors

Heather Anastasiu   Carsten Aretz

Saadia Ali Aschemann           

Melinda Clayton  Jerry J Davis  Jase Donaldson  

Ian Eviston Joseph Falletta 

Barbara Fifield

J E Glaze                            

Barbara Everett Heintz Solea Ket Kelly    

John Lindensmith             V G Lee

   Jeff Markowitz         

Thomas Michael       Dr Lucia Matthews

Andrew F. O’Hara     

Bill Poppen and Terri Verrette     Anita Rinaldi

David Salnave  Zakiah Sayeed

Smaranda             Rosa Sophia 

Vila Spiderhawk          

Amy Thomas

Smoky Trudeau           

Ricky Tsang Lynn Voedisch            

Adele Ward   Kevin Richard White  

Graham Worthington Thirty Authors from Xanga    

Elizabeth Zelvin    

Some are in the Xangans collection, some have their own work published, some have both! If you’re on Amazon, but not on my list, let me know, and I’ll add you.

Today, Sunday 12 of May 2013, you can get a free download of Daddy was a Punk Rocker  by British author Adam Sharp onto your Kindle or Kindle for PC. 

Sharp’s true account of his birth and upbringing in by drug using parents in the era of punk rock is recently published, and has already received several 5-star reviews on Amazon.

I got my copy this morning, and my review will come later.

By Graham Worthington, author of Wake of the Raven and Zorn. 

This Tuesday 9 April 2013, ending midnight, I’m making my most major novel, Wake of the Raven, available free for download on Amazon’s Kindle e-reader. The zero price lasts just for the day, but the download onto your Kindle is permanent.

If you don’t have a Kindle, no problem. You can have the novel downloaded directly to your computer, providing you first download ‘Kindle for PC,’ from Amazon, which costs nothing and takes two minutes to place a Kindle reading program onto your computer.

I published this novel a few years ago, and as Amazon in its great wisdom recently deleted most of my reviews, I’d love some more, especially from the Xanga community.

Link to my Amazon Kindle page              Kindle for PC application link

Enjoy.

Congratulations to Xangan author Lynn Voedisch on the publication of her third novel, Dateline: Atlantis.  

DATELINE: ATLANTIS is a contemporary fantasy featuring a female Indiana Jones
who dives underwater and accidentally finds what just might be the lost world of
Atlantis. After she and her photographer document fabulous pyramids under the
Caribbean sea, they return to their newspaper in the Los Angeles area, only to
have all their evidence stolen. The sea rolls back and reclaims the ruins, and
their photographer is kidnapped.

Someone doesn’t want the undersea world
found.

The simple news assignment becomes more complicated with each turn, and takes Amaryllis Lang (pen name: Amy Quigley) on a whirlwind investigation to Chicago, Florida, Mexico and the Bahamas, where Amaryllis must deal with a cold-case murder, a red-hot editor eager for a Pulitzer, two men desiring her love, deadly traps, and a chance to re-write history.

Recently I had some minor annoyance with… let’s not be specific. Nothing to do with Xanga, or the internet. Just old fashioned, trouble seeking, whispering gossip from a family I (unfortunately) know, whose pea brains apparently lack the capacity to appreciate the big joys of life, and instead go scraping through petty quarrels to find entertainment.   

“They behave as though we’re still in the jungle” as my old mother would have said. But if handed lemons, make lemonade, or so the saying goes. Therefore, a little poem suitable for little people, especially those who cannot learn or grow:

As jungly as our grandsires were, so did our parents grow

As jungly as our parents were, so grew my wife and I

As jungly as my wife and I, so did our children learn

As jungly as our children are, so will grandchildren be

To the jungle! To the jungle! To the jungle boom boom boom!

Link to my Amazon author’s page

D. F. Bailey’s style of writing is easy to read and unpretentious, and makes no exaggerated claims for the method he has developed after practicing various systems.

I personally have practiced meditation for many years, and though I have not necessarily used the same methods (there are many systems) I can state firmly that meditation has made a great and noticeable improvement to the quality of my life, to the point where I could say that I need and appreciate it as much as I do the blood that sustains me. While I don’t wish to take the attitude of a fanatic, I would go so far as to say that it is the most valuable of the many useful things that aren’t (unfortunately) taught at school.  

A great benefit of this book is that it is short and concise, and before describing his techniques Dr Bailey makes several essentials points, one being that meditation has nothing to do with religion in the sense that it is limited by, or invented by, or the property of this, that or the other religion. That we listen too much to the ramblings of our “monkey minds,” is another, and indeed we do. We need to schedule our time to fulfil our meditation needs before we let the busy day start to take its bite from us – again, this I’m fully in agreement with, from my own practical experience. 

He also makes many highly essential but often overlooked points, such as that we need to have a secluded place for our daily practice, and outdoors may not be the best place. Lastly, he gives many useful links to studies conducted on the benefits of meditation, which, apart from a greater sense of peace, may include improved physical health, and lessening of dependence on drugs and alcohol, etc., which is certainly something this world needs more of.

(This is a reproduction of my 7 March 1913 review on Amazon)

My own Amazon Author’s Page

New to Kindle, a novel of life and illicit love by V G Lee, acclaimed British writer and author, set not in a lurid cities such as Las Vegas or Paris, but in the quiet seaside town of Bittlesea Bay in East Sussex.

There, as Christmas gives way to the wretched English winter, Margaret longs for her globe-trotting partner Georgie, and vows to keep a diary for one year. At first it seems that it will be filled with nothing but notes on the number of layers of clothing needed to keep the cold at bay, but as Spring’s buds emerge from the snow, so does passion blossom.

Diary of a Provincial Lesbian will be free on Kindle until the end of Tuesday 19 of February 2013.

Just click the icon.

It can also be downloaded onto a “Kindle for PC” programe that can be downloaded to your laptop or PC from Amazon, at no cost.

After watching the movie three times, I’m definitely buying no more furniture from Ikea, or any other Swedish store.

What dark desires must lie in the hearts of men selling items with names like “Mortlong,” “Valj,” or “Munt?”

My author’s pageon Amazon