Looking to go out of this world, travel back in time or maybe into the future?

The new issue of the Authors' Cave Exclusive Science Fiction eZine is full of authors who will take you wherever you want to go!

Look inside for chapter excerpts, book trailers, audio clips and author videos! Maybe you'll find your next favorite adventure!





Happy Mother's Day to all of you wonderful moms out there!

-Ginger

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Have you tried Audio Books?

Have you considered turning your books into audio books?  I recently converted six of my books into audio books using the Amazon acX platform and have to say I am very pleased.

SO HOW DOES IT WORK?

First, you enter your ASIN or ISBN number into their search bar to find your book.

Then, it will bring up their Agreement which basically states that you are the rights holder and want to convert your book into an audio book - in many more words, of course. After you have agreed to their terms, it will load your description from the book's listing on Amazon. Check it carefully, because it doesn't bring in some of the punctuation correctly (ellipses, contractions, etc).

On the same screen, you will enter the Copyright information and the genre of the book. This is also where you will enter information about your preferred narration producer including gender, language, accent, age and style. 

Once you have entered this information, you will be able to provide a short description which is also your sales pitch to the producers to hopefully entice them to audition for your book. Make it good! if you have been a best seller, make sure to mention that.

Next, you will enter any script notes to the potential producer. This is where you give them a sense of how your characters should sound, so they have something to work with. If you have an actor in mind that can be helpful, otherwise, they are shooting in the dark a bit. You will then upload your manuscript here in pdf or txt format.

On the next screen, you will enter the word count and territories you have the rights to, as well as how you would like to pay for the production. You have the option to pay the producer up front or let them share in the royalties. The chart below outlines the various options and the royalty rate you will receive.

Additionally, they have a Bounty program where you can earn $50. ACX pays Rights Holder and Producer $50 every time the audiobook is the first audiobook purchased by an AudibleListener™ member on Audible. The $50 payment is split 50-50 between Rights Holder and Producer, amounting to $25 each.

Once you have entered this information, it will bring up your listing to review one final time before posting.

Now, all that is left, is waiting for producers to audition. They will submit a short audition reading and you will be notified via email when someone has submitted an audition. When you receive the one that you like, you select them and the process begins!

They will submit a 15 minute sample and this is when you want to be careful to make any notes back to them on things you would like to change. Once the 15 minute sample is approved, they will start producing each chapter and uploading those for your review.

It probably will take a bit of tweaking because quite frankly, they aren't inside your head. It takes some teamwork to get the narration right.

Once you have approved all of the chapters and a short excerpt for potential buyers to listen to, acx will review the files to make sure everything is correct. Once they approve the production files, they will make the book live which usually takes 10-15 days. They will also send you 25 codes for free downloads that you can provide to readers.

Here are my two books if you would like to listen to the samples.

Click here to listen to a sample of Crash Landing

Click here to listen to a sample of Conflict Rising: Episode 2 of the Aurora Conspiracy series

Click here to listen to a sample of Calm Before the Storm

Click here to listen to a sample of The Dark Days

Click here to listen to a sample of The Dark Days 2: Dorian Lennox

Click here to listen to a sample of Dark Days 3 - The Others

Hope this is helpful to you! Let me know if you would like to receive a code for a free download. I still have some left and would be happy to provide them in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks!

-Ginger

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The Write Place: Author Showcase: Ginger Gelsheimer and Christina K...

So, this post has sort of morphed into a journal where I can share my favorite things, random things, and strange things with you.

It started with this..

Christina and I were featured on Author Showcase by Chameleon Author...

The Write Place: Author Showcase: Ginger Gelsheimer and Christina K...:      Quest of the Hybrid by Ginger Gelsheimer and Christina Keats is the first book in the Aurora Conspiracy Trilogy. Nineteen-year-...

Then I thought it would be fun to share some other things with you...

Come write with me - sometimes when I am working on one of my latest projects, I will post the link to the Google doc here. If you click it, you can actually come into my "writing patio" and see what I am working on real time. The words could even change on the page before you!  Enter Ginger's writing patio!


My favorite song

So, I was listening to Counting Stars by One Republic the other day and it occurred that it was written for me! If you did know me, I'm can imagine that you would agree!

Here are the lyrics Counting Stars by OneRepublic.

Oh yeah, and I like coffee with my cream! Love my Keurig!

My favorite videos - and Sam Claflin could be a good cast for Marcus in Quest of the Hybrid with his smile! He just need to give him some shaggy dark hair!

My favorite celebrities - How could I forget to mention that I am a Johnny Depp fanatic? I fell in love with the guy when he played the preppie Glen in Nightmare on Elm Street. He is like fine wine...

My art work-

This is a charcoal drawing I did years ago on 16x20 paper

I love Dali. This is an oil painting I am working on in his honor  "Tribute".

These beauties are from my garden!

So, I find it interesting that there are so many different flavors of cat and dog food at the store. Hmmmmm...last time I checked Fido wasn't doing the grocery shopping. Although, I will say that my black lab Arnold does not like lamb.

I love Lindsey Stirling! I had no idea you could even play a violin the way she does! She's amazing!

I like to spell the color that is made with white and black as grey! You will notice that in all of my books.

I figured it was time to share this recipe because it is one of my favorite ways to grill chicken and I'm pretty darn good on the grill...just sayin'

Key West Chicken

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons of soy sauce (less salty is fine)

1-Tablespoon honey

1-Tablespoon vegetable or canola oil

1-teaspoon lime juice

1-teaspoon chopped garlic (yes I cheat on garlic and buy the organic minced in a jar)

however many skinless, boneless chicken breasts up to 4 breast halves

Directions:

In a shallow bowl, or even a 1 gallon zip lock bag, mix all of the ingredients. Trim the breast halves of fat and cut desired proportions. Marinate the chicken for an hour, making sure to turn halfway through if necessary to coat all sides. 

Heat grill for direct heat. Grill chicken for 2-3 minutes then flip and pour remaining marinade over chicken. Cook 2-3 minutes and flip again, but turn horizontally to add crisscrossed grill marks. Flip again in 2-3 minutes and continue this process until chicken is cooked thoroughly to 165 degrees.

Remove chicken from grill, drizzle with your favorite cheese if you desire and wrap in aluminum foil for 2-3 minutes.

Sometimes, I throw the chicken on a bun and have as a sandwich, sometimes I mix with rice. You can also use a meat tenderizer to thin out the breasts for the sandwiches. I leave them thick most of the time!

OKAY - so this revelation is the coolest thing ever for me! It's been there for some time, but I finally expressed it in words. I make a living at helping others follow their dreams! I can't ask for anything better than that! If you haven't already, check out my site at www.authorscave.com where creative people like to hang out. I'm always there!

Look at this beauty from my garden! Beautiful butterfly!

This is the best gift I can give you guys! Here is a shooting star that you can wish upon each day! LOVE LOVE LOVE this!!!

I'm so excited to have finally put a trailer together for one of my books! Here it is for The Dark Days series - Inspired by The Hunger Games prequel. Would love to know what you think!

Here is a fun tribute I did to Steven Spielberg when asked by Jaipdeep at Goodreads who I would like to live 1 day in the life of!

So, my mother took me to see this crazy villain when I was a kid and I have been scared of him for 30+ years!

So this year, I faced my fears and entered the Michael Myers' Halloween haunted house at Universal! Here is the entrance, pay close attention to the upstairs windows. They did a fantastic job with the haunted house and at one point there was an open room with 10 or 12 lurking Michael's with raised butcher knives. For the cherry on top, they had one last Michael waiting outside after you exited the house to scare the beejesus out of you! If he had not gotten the people in front of us, I would have peed my pants for sure! 

Way to go Tampa Bay Lightning on your 5-1 win over the Detroit Redwings in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Round 1 Playoffs! Had awesome seats right off the glass! Excellent game full of fights and points! Just how I like 'em in hockey!

What a great Sunday! Super productive this morning, but taking a break watching O Brother Where Art Thou?  I can't help but sing with these guys every time I watch this scene!  Love it!

What is your scariest experience? 

Is it...

or...

Bless you Johnny Depp! I loved you when you were just Glen!

My most terrifying moment was being trapped in a severe lightning storm with my daughter who was about 2 and my ex. We had hiked up about a mile in Pikesville, Kentucky and it was a beautiful day. All of the sudden, bolts were crashing down around us and the only thing other than us were the trees. Thank you Pat and Ron Saros for coming to our rescue!... many times!


Check back often for more deep thoughts and entertaining things! 

-Ginger

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Goodreads Time Travel Group Giveaway - Quest of the Hybrid

Goodreads Time Travel Group Giveaway begins today, March 1, 2014!

Welcome to the final post in the scavenger hunt for the Goodreads Time Travel Group giveaway for Quest of the Hybrid! The final password is: TIME TRAVEL.

If you missed the 1st password, go to the Aurora Conspiracy FB page at Aurora Conspiracy
Enter all three passwords in the comment section at the bottom for this blog and you will be entered in the drawing to give away 5 copies of Quest of the Hybrid (mobi or epub).

For a special surprise, the first three episodes of the Aurora Conspiracy prequel series are available to download for free at Amazon.

Crash Landing $0.99

They want to kill us...only she can save us!

The clock ticks down for 19-year-old Jesse Proctor as she embarks on a quest to discover the truth behind her mother’s disappearance into a windmill 10 years before--the very windmill conspiracy theorists believe an alien met fate with in 1897 in Aurora, Texas. Desperate to find answers, she uncovers an enigma--a dimension portal, which opens the doorway to some of the most mysterious places in the universe including: the Bermuda Triangle, the Pyramids of Giza and Atlantis. Could it also lead her to the love of her life?

After Jesse meets Aurelius, an alien from Planet Erebus, she discovers a secret that will throw her into the middle of an age-old war with the Celphians, who desire to extinguish the hybrid-infested human race. Danger and mayhem await them at every turn. To make matters worse, her mother is being held captive on Planet Celphi.

Or is she?

Quest of the Hybrid is the first book in the Aurora Conspiracy Trilogy.

Formerly titled Aurora Conspiracy: The Story Didn’t End with a Crash…The Epic Journey Began!  We listened to our readers and have refreshed the entire novel with new cover and title, more polish and all new scenes.

Sometimes you need a new dress!

So, after a year on the market with Aurora Conspiracy: The Story Didn't End with a Crash... the Epic Journey Began...yikes! (It's okay-we say that too!) and a cover that looked like this...

Okay, yikes again! Who is this guy in the hoodie anyway? We decided it was time to put on a new dress. A dress that was more suitable for our target audience-Young Adult.

We spent what seemed like hundreds of hours going through hundreds of cover designs and are proud to release the new cover and new title for Quest of the Hybrid! It's hard to make drastic changes, but we knew what we had inside the cover was special, and it deserved much more thought and a firm stance with our publisher, who originally chose the cover and title.

So lessons to be learned? Don't rush to market. Don't let someone make you wear a dress that doesn't fit! Change is always an option.

The new book will be available by the end of this week, and I will add the link here once it is posted. Would love to hear from you to see what your thoughts are on the changes we made, or if you have had a similar experience you would like to share.

-Ginger