Guest Post and Giveaway with Lilian Duval, author of You Never Know

Hi, everyone!

I am pleased to participate in Lilian Duval's You Never Know Virtual Book Publicity Tour hosted by Pump Up Your Book.

 

About Lilian:

Lilian Duval lives with her husband George, a native of Singapore, in a small house in New Jersey overlooking a large county park. They have two sons and a daughter, all independent and ambitious, and several cats. She’s an amateur classical guitarist and enjoys attending concerts and plays in New York City.

But writing has always been her calling. In her own words, “The most enjoyable activity I can imagine is to invent some characters, make them a little larger than life, set them bickering and thrashing against each other and their fates, and enact a fictional resolution that makes more sense than the chaos and unpredictability of our complicated lives.”

Lilian’s latest book is You Never Know: Tales of Tobias, an Accidental Lottery Winner.

You can visit Lilian’s website at www.lilianduval.com. Connect with her on Twitter at @lilianduval and Facebook at Lilian Duval.

Welcome to Darlene's Book Nook, Lilian!

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

Guest Post by Lilian Duval:

How to Stop Procrastinating and Start Writing!

1. Give yourself a start date and start time. When that time comes, and not one minute later, sit at the keyboard and start writing, even if you think it's awful. Or get out your pen or pencil and start jotting down ideas. This will get better, I promise!
2. Give yourself an end time, and start short -- I mean, require yourself to write for at least 10 minutes. After a few days, you can up this to 20 minutes.
3. Make yourself do this exercise at least 3 times a week, every week, no matter what!
4. After a few days of this, put your notes together and start editing.
5. Pretty soon, you will start to like what you're creating, and you won't need any more rules... that is, until you have to start the next new chapter or story.
6. When that time comes, return to Step 1 and do it again!

Happy writing from Lilian Duval

 

Thanks so much for joining us today, Lilian!

Giveaway:

One lucky winner will win a paperback copy of You Never Know.

This giveaway is open to entrants from Canada and the United States only at the author's request.

Title: You Never Know: Tales of Tobias, an Accidental Lottery Winner
Author: Lilian Duval
Genre: Fiction
Published by: Wheatmark
Publication Date: January 1, 2011
Format: Paperback, 354 pages
ISBN 13: 978-1604945201

Synopsis:

What happens when an ordinary person becomes extraordinary?

Tobias starts out in life much the same as any of us—not rich, not poor, with imperfect parents and unlimited ambition. When he’s twenty years old, his future is altered in irreparable ways after a tragic car accident pushes him down a new path. The once-promising anthropology major is forced to abandon his dreams in order to care for his orphaned, brain-damaged younger brother.

In his late thirties, Tobias works in a bookstore, trying desperately to make ends meet to support his family. His daily grind only reinforces the sadness that broken dreams and bad luck bring in their wake.

How many times have you heard someone say, “If only I won the lottery?”

When Tobias finds he has won the Mega Millions lottery, his unimaginable bad luck seems to have changed into unimaginable good luck … or has it?

Over peaks and valleys, this uplifting journey will challenge the limits of luck, life, and what we value most.

Find out more about the complications of Tobias’s friendship and rivalry with his best friend, Martin; the effects of all this bad luck and good luck on his marriage; and the struggles of his brother, Simeon, once a talented cartoonist, in … You Never Know.

To enter the giveaway, please fill out the Rafflecopter entry form below.

This giveaway is open to entrants from Canada and the United States only until 12:01 AM EST on November 18, 2011.