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Thursday, August 1, 2013

The Granite Key Book Tour: Guest Post and Giveaway with N.S. Wikarski

Hi, everyone!

I am pleased to participate in the Book Tour hosted by Orangeberry Book Tours for N.S. Wikarski's The Granite Key.


About Nancy:

Nancy Wikarski is a fugitive from academia. After earning her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, she became a computer consultant and then turned to mystery and historical fiction writing. Her short stories have appeared in Futures Magazine and DIME Anthology, while her book reviews have been featured in Murder: Past Tense and Deadly Pleasures. She has written the Gilded Age Chicago History Mysteries series set in 1890s Chicago. Titles include The Fall Of White City (2002) and Shrouded In Thought (2005). The series has received People's Choice Award nominations for best first novel and best historical. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America and has served as vice president of Sisters In Crime - Twin Cities and on the programming board of the Chicago chapter. She is currently writing the seven book Arkana Archaeology Thriller Mystery series. Her work on the Arkana volumes has prompted Kindle Nation to call her one of its favorite authors.

CONNECT ONLINE WITH NANCY: 

Welcome to Darlene's Book Nook, Nancy!

Nancy has written a guest post, so I will now turn the floor over to her.



Pet Peeves Of The Publishing Industry
By N.S. Wikarski


Everybody knows that one of the chief benefits of hitting yourself over the head with a hammer is that it feels so good when you stop.

The hammer analogy aptly describes my experience with traditional publishing (aka legacy publishing). My first two books were published conventionally and I suffered through all the usual steps of producing a trade paperback. Editor, proof reader, formatter, cover artist, printer, distributor, publicist, book signings, fan conventions. I learned an enormous amount about the book business but, unfortunately, all the effort expended didn’t translate into much net income.

Then came Kindle ebooks and Createspace print on demand paperbacks. At first, I was hesitant to go the digital route but an author friend pointed out that since I still controlled the rights to my work, I might as well make a few pennies by selling electronic copies of what I’d written. Fortunately, my previous work experience included a few decades as a computer consultant so I was quite comfortable with formatting my own manuscripts. Given how many years I’d spent designing graphic user interfaces, I was equally comfortable with designing my own covers.

The distance from writing a novel to seeing it sold online was shortened by a couple of years. The markets that I could reach via Kindle and Createspace were global, not local. I could promote my work via cyberspace tours rather than packing a suitcase to head to yet another low turnout book signing.

Considering the months and months of work it took to create, warehouse, distribute, and market the legacy print copies, I was staggered to discover that my net royalty for each ebook or print on demand copy was exactly the same as what I was netting for the legacy print version of the same book. Best of all, in two years as a digital author, I’ve sold twice as many copies of my work as I was able to sell in nine years as a print author.

In my opinion, digital books are every writer’s dream come true. So why isn’t everybody doing this? I’ve had this conversation with several of my writer friends who are hesitant to take the plunge. For some it comes down to technical timidity. They’re afraid to format their own books much less tackle the daunting task of designing the covers. I have pointed out that they can hire knowledgeable people to help with these chores but they shrug their shoulders. They have no head for business. It’s not for them.

Other writers are extremely uncomfortable without the blessing of an agent and editor from a big six publishing house. It doesn’t occur to them that in order to receive that blessing, they are parting with their own intellectual property and the lion’s share of the income it could generate. These writers have forgotten that without the content they supply, the entire structure of legacy publishing would crumble like a house of cards. I believe the marketplace, not an agent or editor in New York, should decide the value of a writer’s work. Amazon has removed the middleman from the equation. As far as I’m concerned, Vive La Difference!
Thanks so much for joining us today, Nancy!


One lucky winner will win a digital copy of Nancy's Archaeology Thriller, The Granite Key!


SERIES: Arkana Archaeology Thriller Mysteries, Book #1
AUTHOR: N.S. Wikarski
PUBLISHER: N.S. Wikarski
PUBLICATION DATE: January 28, 2012
FORMAT: Kindle Edition, 241 pages
GENRE: Archaeology Thriller
ASIN: B004NIFTI8



“Think ‘Medium meets The Lost Symbol’ and it only begins to describe the pleasures of The Granite Key – 5 Stars.” (Kindle Nation)

A Wake-Up Call

In a nightmare, nineteen year old Cassie Forsythe sees her sister attacked by a man in a cowboy hat who demands something called “the key.” Her nightmare mutates into reality before the night is over. Cassie is called to identify her sister’s body–murdered exactly as her dream foretold. Cassie dismisses her vision as a fluke and fights to get on with her life. Disconnected and aimless now that her only family is gone, she drifts until the evening when she catches the man in the cowboy hat ransacking her sister’s apartment. He bolts with an odd-looking stone cylinder–the granite key. From that moment, Cassie’s normal world evaporates.

A Secret Society

She learns that her sister led a double life–retrieving artifacts for a secret organization called the Arkana. The Arkana’s leader, an elder named Faye, explains that her group performs a controversial kind of archaeology. They scour the globe for evidence of ancient pre-patriarchal civilizations in hopes of salvaging the lost history of the world. Their network of troves safeguards artifacts from highly sophisticated goddess-worshipping cultures on every continent. Cassie’s sister had the psychic ability to touch an artifact and relive its past. Cassie has now inherited this gift. Faye wants the girl to take over her sister’s role in the organization. Cassie doubts her powers but agrees. Now an insider, she is transported to the Arkana’s mysterious underground vault in the countryside outside Chicago where the group tackles the mystery of her sister’s murder.

A Dangerous Cult

The Arkana learns that the man in the cowboy hat is a hired mercenary named Leroy Hunt and that he is working for a fundamentalist religious cult known as the Blessed Nephilim. He takes his orders directly from the cult’s domineering prophet–Abraham Metcalf. The granite key which Leroy stole is inscribed with hieroglyphics revealing the location of a mythological artifact reputed to have mystical powers–the Sage Stone. Although skeptical of its legendary capabilities, the Arkana is still afraid to allow the relic to fall into the cult’s hands. Abraham’s fanatical belief in the power of the Sage Stone could be the catalyst to start a war of religious genocide.

Unlocking The Key

Before she died, Cassie’s sister took photos of the strange markings on the granite key. The Arkana decodes the hieroglyphics which point to the ancient ruins of Minoan Crete as the hiding place of the Sage Stone. Faye hastily assembles a retrieval team including Cassie, her newly-appointed bodyguard Erik, and a British researcher named Griffin. The band of treasure hunters is mismatched and wildly dysfunctional from the start. Griffin has never gone on a field mission, Erik treats his inexperienced colleagues with contempt, and Cassie second-guesses her psychic hunches. She battles to prove herself to Erik at every turn. Their internal clashes rival the bigger crisis of what to do when they come face to face with their enemies.

A Matter Of Life Or Death

Even as they rake through megalithic tombs and Minoan palaces for clues, Abraham dispatches his son Daniel and hired gun Leroy Hunt to recover the Sage Stone. The Nephilim operatives won’t hesitate to kill anyone standing in their way. Will Cassie and her teammates avert global disaster or find themselves casualties of Abraham’s mania to exterminate the world of unbelievers? The Granite Key holds the answer.

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This giveaway is open worldwide until 12:00 AM CST 

on August 8, 2013. 
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Tour Participants:



5th June – Book Feature at Peace from Pieces

6th June – Twitter View with OB Book Tours

7th June – Twitter Blast with OB Book Tours

8th June - Book Review & Guest Post at Mommy Adventures

9th June – Author Interview at The Bunny’s Review

10th June - Twitter Blast with OB Book Tours

11th June – Book Review & Guest Post at Author’s Friend

12th June – Book Review & Author Interview at The Reading Cat

13th June – Guest Post at Blog-A-Licious Authors 

14th June – Guest Post at The Crafty Home

15th June – Book Review at UnEnding TBR Pile

16th June – Author Interview & Book Review at Page Turning Books

17th June – Book Review at Life Altering Reads

18th June – Guest Post at Imagination in Books

19th June – Orangeberry Sidebar

20th June – Author Interview & Book Review at Creating Imaginations

21st June – Book Review at Creating Imaginations

22nd June – Guest Post & Book Review at Next Big Book Thing

23rd June – Excerpt & Book Review at Book Connoisseur

24th June – Book Review at Nobody Important

25th June – Author Interview & Book Review at A Novel Design

26th June – Guest Post & Book Review at Pages to Pages

27th June – Author Interview at Books Are Magic

28th June – Book Review at eInk Reviews

29th June – Author Interview & Book Review at High Class Books

30th June – Guest Post & Book Review at Top o’ Mornin’ To Ya

1st July – Book Review at Non-Stop Reads

2nd July – Excerpt & Book Review at Book Lover’s Dream

3rd July – Author Interview & Book Review at Journey’s thru Books

4th July – Book Review at Lonely Heart

5th July – Guest Post & Book Review at Paws on Books

6th July – Author Interview & Book Review at Brainy Books

7th July – Guest Post & Book Review at Just My Opinion

8th July – Book Review at Working for Books

9th July – Guest Post at The Crafty Home

10th July – Author Interview & Book Review at Author’s Going Places

11th July – Book Review at Me, You & Books

12th July – Guest Post & Book Review at Kindle Nook Book

13th July – Author Interview at  Voicu Mihnea Simadan‘s blog

14th July – Book Review at Books on the Open Range

15th July – Author Interview & Book Review at Pages to Pages

16th July – Guest Post & Book Review at UK Book Club

17th July – Book Review at Reading Away Life

18th July – Author Interview & Book Review at Farm Girl Book

19th July – Guest Post & Book Review at Top Shelf Books

20th July - Book Review at Dreaming Pages

21st July – Author Interview & Book Review at My Reading Problem

22nd July – Book Review at Zoo of Books

23rd July – Author Interview & Book Review at Pages to Chapters

24th July – Guest Post & Book Review at bit’s ‘n Bobs

25th July – Book Review at Paws on Books

26th July – Author Interview & Book Review at Books & More

27th July – Guest Post & Book Review at Reading the Dream Life

28th July – Book Review at Gentleman Reads

29th July – Author Interview & Book Review at Book Sane

30th July – Guest Post & Book Review at Love Books

31st July – Book Review at Book Professor

1st August – Guest Post at Darlene’s Book Nook

2nd August – Author Interview at UnBiased Book Reviews

3rd August – Book Review at Living Books

6th August - Orangeberry Book of the Day

13th August - Tweet Me A Storm with OB Book Tours

6th January – Guest Post at There Will Be Another Sunrise

1 comment:

  1. Wow, I have not heard of The Granite Key, but it does sound fascinating to me. Thanks for the great guest post about the author Nancy Wikarski!

    ReplyDelete

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