Accused of Murder by J.Q.Rose #MFRWHooks

Book Hooks Blog Hop #MFRWHooks

 Hello and welcome to the Focused on Story Blog. Today we're joining the Book Hooks Blog Hop sponsored by the Marketing For Romance Writers Group. Each participating blogger shares an excerpt from their book. I'm sharing an excerpt from Dangerous Sanctuary, a romantic suspense novel.

Dangerous Sanctuary by J.Q. Rose
Romantic Suspense

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REVIEW: 

"Another great mystery from J.Q Rose. I enjoyed this Inspirational mystery about Pastor Christine Hobbs. Who would have thought a Pastor would be a suspect in a murder. Add a pot-belly pig and a kangaroo into the mix and... well let's just say strange things happen." Roseanne D.

Abraham the Pig, a star in Dangerous Sanctuary

BACK OF THE BOOK: 

Pastor Christine Hobbs has been in the pulpit business for over five years. She never imagined herself caring for a flock that includes a pig, a kangaroo, and a murderer. 

 Detective Cole Stephens doesn't want the pretty pastor to get away with murdering the church music director. His investigative methods infuriate Christine as much as his deep brown eyes attract her.

 Can they find the real killer and build a loving relationship based on trust?

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EXCERPT FROM DANGEROUS SANCTUARY

Chapter Ten

Pastor Christine and her friend, Lacey, are sitting on the back screened-in porch of the parsonage eating pizza. Cole Stephens, the handsome detective, is investigating the murder of the church's choir director, William.

“The detective practically accused me of killing William, right there, right in the park.” Sitting on the screened-in porch at the rear of the parsonage, Christine expected Lacey to be as angry as she was at such a ridiculous idea.

Instead, her friend held her slice of pizza midway from the greasy box to her mouth long enough to ask, “Hey, you didn’t tell me you were at the park with Stephens this afternoon. How’d that happen?”

“What? You’re more interested in why I was at the park instead of being accused of murdering William? Come on, Lacey.” Planting her feet firmly on the cement floor, she stopped the gentle rocking of the glider. “Don’t you get it? I could be tossed in jail for something I didn’t do.”

“Don’t be silly. You’re innocent. You know it, and so does everyone else.” Lacey popped the last morsel of pepperoni in her mouth. “Anyway, tell me how you met Cole Stephens at the park. He is super cute.” Her friend licked the pizza grease from her fingers and then grabbed the thin paper napkin to complete the grease removal from her lips.

“Excuse me, Lacey. Some people in this town are spreading rumors that I killed William. I wouldn’t be surprised if it weren’t some of my own parishioners involved in spreading them. There were several folks who weren’t too happy to have a young woman for their pastor.”

“You don’t think they’d spread malicious lies to get you out of here, do you?”

“I hope not.” Christine sat back on the glider and sipped her light beer. She was too upset to eat the pizza Lacey had brought over.

“I guess we could always do our own investigation, eh?” She threw it out there to get a reaction from her friend.

“Sure, Sherlock.” Lacey laughed. “We could go to William’s house to see if someone left a note telling us who killed him.”

Christine sat bolt upright. “You’re right! We could run out there and investigate.”

“I’m sure the police have already done that. There’s nothing left to check out.” Lacey piled the paper napkins next to the half-empty pizza box on the patio table.

They sat in silence for a few minutes allowing the peaceful twilight to restore tranquility. Christine couldn’t let go of the idea of checking out William’s home. After all, William had shown her where the key was if she needed to get into his house in case of an emergency. I think trying to find William’s killer could qualify as an emergency.

Christine moved to the patio table. “We’ve got to go to William’s house and look for clues to his killer.”

“We can’t even get into his house.”

“Oh yes, we can. I know where he hides his house key. Come on, let’s go.”

“Hey, what about the pizza?” Lacey asked as Christine swooped up the pizza box and bottles.

“I’ll store it in my refrigerator for a midnight snack. Let’s go now.” Christine was fired up to prove her innocence. Sitting back and waiting to find out who murdered William was no longer an option. She needed to take action toward solving this mystery, so she and her congregation could deal with it and move forward.

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Available at amazon

2^nd edition Kindle http://amazon.com/dp/B07SVPS8N1

2^nd edition Paperback  http://amazon.com/dp/0228609291

↪Click here to visit bloggers participating in the #MFRWhooks  Blog Hop!

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Road Trip to Ohio!!

 

Amazing life-like sculpture in the town square of Newark, Ohio.
Yes, we had a lovely conversation!!

Hello from Ohio! Ted and I visiting friends and touring Amish country. So we are taking a break this week!

The office building of Longaberger baskets. Gorgeous baskets.
The building is empty now. Such a shame. Do you have the high-quality basket in your collection?

Have a fantastic week! I'll see you next Wednesday!!

Finding Keywords for Your Amazon Book Description

 

Tools and Tidbits for Writers
#toolsandtidbitsforwriters
by JQ Rose

<Red-faced> this morning when I realized this is Wednesday already! I apologize for being late in posting this article. Anyone else lose track of the week? Labor Day was Monday, a holiday. That is my excuse. It hurried the week along. I hope you'll enjoy this information about Finding Keywords for Amazon Book Descriptions originally published in 2019.

Finding Keywords for your Amazon Book Description

Keywords
Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay 

Keywords are very, very, very, very important for readers to discover your books, blogs, writings and your book descriptions at online booksellers. These words are words people type into the Google search bar to find sites/books related to what they are looking for. These words are the targets used in the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) program.

SEO is a robot (bot) that combs thru every page of every thing online. When it spots a keyword like "cozy mystery" (yes, a keyword can be more than one word and can be a "long-tail" keyword,( a string of words e.g. a cozy mystery located in Michigan), the bot recognizes it when someone types "cozy mystery" into the search box. When your keyword pops up, the SEO bot directs the searcher to your book. 

Hopefully you'll figure out that golden keyword that will bring your audience to your book. However, that is quite unlikely, so you need to have a lot of golden keywords and change them often if you can. With traditional publishing, the publisher has to do that for you. If you're an indie publisher, you can experiment with different words.

When you consider there are 8-9 million books floating around in amazon land, you need a way to let people know one of those books is yours. Keywords do that. If a mom or teacher types in "good books for girls age 12," her search will pull up my non-fiction book, Girls Succeed! Of course, it may be on page 75 of the search because Nancy Drew, the Boxcar Kids, and for some reason books about lawyers show up too. But out of 9 million books, even if you're #212 on the list, at least you have a chance someone will see your book. Reviews help you get noticed and ranked better on amazon, but that's a whole other topic.

The FREE tool I'm sharing today, Keywords Everywhere, helps you know how many folks use that keyword for searching and offers related words too. Besides the volume of people searching globally or in one specific country every month, it also tells you the CPC and the competition data.

KE explains all that jargon below.

Search Volume: This is an average of the total searches that people have performed for this keyword per month over the last 12 months. For e.g. a search volume of 1000 means that people have searched for this keyword an average of 1000 times every month for the last 12 months. 

NOTE: I choose keywords with a volume of about a1000-10000 searches. Below that means it's not used much, but again it could mean you might rank in a small niche with not as much competition. More than 10,000 searches a month means there is a LOT of competition making it more difficult to reach a good ranking.

CPC: The cost per click (CPC) is the amount that advertisers are paying for a single click for this keyword in Google Adwords.

Competition: The competition is a gauge of the number of advertisers that are running ads on Google AdWords for this specific keyword. The number goes from 0 to 1, with lower values signifying less number of advertisers and higher values signifying more advertisers.

Take a peek at how this all shakes out on your computer screen. I searched "life story writing" since I am at the moment putting together a journal for folks interested in writing life stories. 

In the screenshop above, the top left arrow is pointing to the keywords automatically generated when you type a search word(s) into the search box. Notice, next to the keywords is the information about the volume, CPC, and competition for each word.

Keywords and information from the search word box

Not only do we get these keywords, but in the image below notice the arrows on the right side of the page. More keywords that are related to the word in the search box. Plus another bonus, a section for People Also Search For with information for you. These are actually more searches done by readers.

Related keywords and People Also Search For keywords
are also available on the right side of the page!

Keywords Everywhere tool is added as an extension to your Google or Foxfire browser. Click here to discover everything you want to know about Keywords Everywhere in Chrome.

I've seen several reviews of this program and all have been favorable as a good tool for those of us just getting into researching keywords and finding that golden nugget that will put your book in front of readers. 

Do you research keywords for your title, sub-title, and book description? If so, what method do you use? If you've tried KE, please give us your opinion of it. 

Click here to connect online and like my Author Page on Facebook.

Thanks for stopping.

IWSG Blog Hop: Defining My Success as a Writer

 

Insecure Writer's Blog Hop

Always on the first Wednesday of the month.

#IWSGbloghop

Happy IWSG Blog Hop Day!

What is the Insecure Writer's Support Group?

Founded by author Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writer’s Support Group offers support for writers and authors alike. It provides an online database, articles and tips, a monthly blog posting, a Facebook and Instagram group, Twitter, and a monthly newsletter. To find out more, click this link:  Insecure Writer’s Support Group

The purpose of the group is 

* to share and encourage. 

* Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. 

* Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. 

*It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! 

You're invited to become a member of this supportive group. Click here to sign-up.

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Thanks to our awesome co-hosts for the September 1 posting of the IWSG   Blog Hope: Rebecca Douglass, T. Powell Coltrin @Journaling Woman, Natalie Aguirre, Karen Lynn, and C. Lee McKenzie!

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Question mark
Photo courtesy of geralt / 23304 images at Pixabay

September 1 question - How do you define success as a writer? Is it holding your book in your hand? Having a short story published? Making a certain amount of income from your writing?

I have to admit I felt the exhilaration of pride and accomplishment when I held my paperback book in my hand. I mean, opening the box of books from amazon was akin to the excitement of opening Christmas gifts when I was a kid. I feel that way with every one of my published books. Check out the video at the bottom of the page. I am opening the amazon package containing the paperback copies of my memoir, Arranging a Dream. A certified emotional moment for me.

When I started writing, my publisher only pubbed eBooks at a time when hardly anyone had heard of eBooks, let alone read them. I was thrilled to have the published eBooks and felt successful in having them accessible to readers online. But instead of promoting my eBooks at book signings (however, you cannot sign eBooks), I spent more time teaching visitors to my table how to order them and explain how to read them on a reading device. 

I did a happy dance when my publisher decided to sell my books in paperback. Afterall, the dictionary definition of a book is "a written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers." 

I still consider eBooks as books worthy of being read. They just don't have actual book covers and pages to turn. I enjoy a story no matter if I click or turn the pages. How about you? Please leave a comment or question below. As a writer, is having an eBook published equivalent to the feeling of success as having a paperback or hardcover book?

Click here to visit more bloggers participating in the IWSG Blog Hop.

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Enjoyed this post? 

Click here so you never miss out on future Focused on Story blog posts.

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VIDEO: And What About Your Memoir? #memoir #lifestorytelling

Memoirs and More

Hello and welcome to the monthly series,

Memoirs and More! 

 

Last month I introduced you to my friend, author, life storytelling teacher and Youtube host, Judy Sheer Watters. She offered helpful tips on writing memoirs. Please click here to take you to that information-packed post, So You Want to Write a Memoir? after watching the video we did together on her YouTube channel.

Judy and I met online in a FB group, and we connected. It was a privilege to be her guest on her YouTube channel devoted to offering thought-provoking writing prompts for life storytellers and interviews with memoirists.

Arranging a Dream: A Memoir by J.Q.Rose

We had a delightful time "zooming" along, talking about my memoir, Arranging a Dream, and discussing memoirs and writing. This interview was the first time I introduced the release of my paperback book to inspire middle-grade girls with biographies of successful women--Girls Succeed! Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Women.

Girls Succeed! Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Women by J.Q.Rose

Please, pull up a chair and take a break. Relax with a cup of tea or glass of lemonade. The video is right here on the page.

 

We would appreciate it if you could leave a comment about the video and/or information on where you are in your life storytelling journey.

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YOUTUBE VIDEO: Judy Sheer Watters - You have a Story to Tell. 

Author Interview with J.Q. Rose

Author Interview with J.Q. Rose

Thank you for watching!

Download the eBooks for Arranging a Dream and Girls Succeed! at your favorite online bookseller.

Paperbacks for the books are available at amazon.com

Enjoyed this post? Click here so you never miss out on future posts.

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Long and Short Reviews 14th Anniversary Party

Are you ready for a party? This week, Long and Short Reviews is celebrating their 14th Anniversary with giveaways of two $100.00 Amazon Gift Cards and lots of prizes! 

I will be blogging about my romantic suspense novel, Deadly Undertaking. Yes, this is the paranormal novel that takes place in a funeral home. This is kind of an autobiographical story because my parents were in the funeral business. But trust me, there never was a shadow man in the place--that I know of.

Click here to visit me on Thursday, August 26th. The link will be live on Thursday morning at 6 a.m. EDST. 

The Rose Courier

Click here to sign up to receive the updates, articles, freebies, photos and fun in the Rose Courier. 

Thank you.

That Pesky Shadow Man! #MFRWHooks Blog Hop

 

Book Hooks--excerpts from novels

   Book Hooks Blog Hop #MFRWHooks

Hello and welcome to the Focused on Story Blog. Today we're joining the Book Hooks Blog Hop sponsored by the Marketing For Romance Writers Group. Each participating blogger shares an excerpt from their book. Today, I share an excerpt from Deadly Undertaking, romance, mystery and the paranormal.

Deadly Undertaking by J.Q. Rose
Romantic suspense

BACK OF THE BOOK: 

Lauren Staab knew there would be dead bodies around when she returned home. After all, her family is in the funeral business, Staab and Blood Funeral Home. Still, finding an extra body on the floor of the garage between the hearse and the flower car shocked her. Lauren’s plan to return to her hometown to help care for her mother and keep the books for the funeral home suddenly turns upside down in a struggle to prove she and her family are not guilty of murdering the man. But will the real killer return for her, her dad, her brother? Her mother’s secrets, a killer, a handsome policeman and a shadow man muddle up her intention to have a simple life. Welcome home, Lauren!

EXCERPT: 

What you need to know--The excerpt begins after Lauren ushered the "loved one's" family out the door after the visitation that evening. After they left, Gary, the police officer who was her childhood friend, shows up to check the house to be sure no bad guy sneaked in during the visitation for the public. Henry is the shadow man who seems to show up at the wrong times. Lauren's mother is in the memory care unit in the nursing home.

"You don’t need to prove how brave you are or offer any opportunity for someone to take advantage of a situation. You could be in extreme danger.” 

“That’s what I thought we had you guys for, to protect us.” She folded her arms across her chest. 

Locking his gaze on her, he said, “We can’t always be in the right place at the right time. So don’t give the bad guys any openings, okay?” 

“Duly noted, Officer.” She could hear the concern in his voice, and she liked it. “Got time for a cup of coffee? I’ll make some fresh while you check out the house.”

“That sounds good. Let me take a look around.” 

“Great. I’ll meet you in the family room. That’s where the coffee pot is.” He walked through the living room, checking for some creepy guy hiding behind the curtains she supposed. 

Lauren hummed as she made yet another pot of coffee, but this time it was for her and Gary. She was looking forward to chatting with him and catching up. As she measured the water into the carafe, the temperature in the room dropped, and she sneezed three times, a sure sign Henry was lurking nearby. 

“Hi Henry.” She never turned away from the counter. “Nice of you to wait till the family left for the evening. But Gary’s here now. No need for you to stay around, right?” Lauren caught his shadow out of the corner of her eye. 

“I guess you’re right. Bad timing on my part. I don’t want to interrupt your rendezvous with your old sweetheart.” Henry bowed low, then stood and leaned on his umbrella. Lauren chuckled as she faced Henry straight on. 

“Gary’s not an old sweetheart. He was a good friend in high school though. We were very close especially since he could work out those trig problems for me.”

 “Oh, I guess I was mistaken. I thought you two were a couple.” 

“Say what?” She wrinkled her nose at the thought. She and Gary, a couple? She put her finger to her chin to think about that. Well, he does look pretty sharp in his uniform, broad shoulders, and those eyes. Somehow the nerdy boy with the big glasses and zitty face had evolved into a muscular cop. 

Henry interrupted her thoughts. “How was your mother today?” 

“About the same. Still confused. But she remembers me, Henry. I’m hanging on to that. She still remembers me, but she doesn’t remember that Dad goes every day to visit her. I wonder if she doesn’t know him.” 

“Oh, sorry, Lauren.” Was that Gary’s voice? Lauren spun around to see him standing in the doorway. As he walked into the room, he said, “I heard you talking to someone, so I thought I’d better check in.” 

He looked around and returned her gaze with questions in his eyes. Her face flushed with embarrassment. 

“Oh, uh, no. Nobody’s here. Just me talking to myself, I guess.” She searched Gary’s face to see if he bought it. Definitely a better explanation than telling him she was talking to a shadow. 

“Come on in. The coffee should be ready in a minute.” Lauren motioned Gary to have a seat on the couch in the family room. 

“I’ll be back after I check out the garage.” Gary smiled. “I take it black.” 

“Oh, yeah, ok, the coffee.” 

Her palm smacked her forehead with the knowledge Gary must have heard her talking to Henry. She glanced at the shadow and smiled back at him through clenched teeth. 

Gary turned his back and headed down the hallway to the garage. 

She felt as if Henry could see the steam escaping from her ears. She was so angry at that cocky shadow for staying to watch and see how she was going to explain her talking to him. 

“Talking to yourself. That was good.” Henry stood up straight. “You’re pretty quick on your feet.” 

“Henry,” she hissed in a whisper. “Go away. I don’t need you around here tonight. I have company,” 

“I guess it’s a bad time for us to have a talk now that Lover Boy is here.” 

Lauren bit her lip so she couldn’t yell at the annoying Henry. She certainly didn’t want Gary to hear her give that shadow a piece of her mind or he’d be back in a second with more questions. 

Squeezing her eyes tightly closed, she said, “You’d better be gone when I open my eyes.” Not that she could do anything if he didn’t leave. Lauren squinted through her right eye. Not seeing the shadow, she opened both eyes wide and swept the room, sighing with relief. At that moment the basket full of sugar packets flew off the table onto the floor. 

“Henry!” She couldn’t stop herself from yelling his name out loud. He didn’t respond. He had slipped through the slice of time into another dimension.

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Click the link below to download your copy of Deadly Undertaking from your favorite online bookseller. 

 AmazonUS  

Kobo 

 

Barnes & Noble 

 

Smashwords 

 

Books We Love 

Dear Friends, I am taking a break this week, but I will catch up with you this weekend! Have a great blog hop!! J

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↪Click here to visit bloggers participating in the #MFRWhooks  Blog Hop!

The Rose Courier 

Click Here to receive updates from J.Q. Rose, articles, 

newsworthy events, giveaways in the Rose Courier. 

Delivered to your inbox once a month.   

Thank you!!

Tools and Tidbits for Writers: What IS SEO?

 

Tools and Tidbits for Writers
#toolsandtidbitsforwriters
by JQ Rose

What IS SEO? by J.Q. Rose

I bumped into the wall known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) when I began contributing articles on gardening to an e-zine several years ago. (FYI- E-zine is now known as an online magazine.) No longer could I just write an article packed with information for gardeners. Instead, I had to include keywords in the post to optimize results for search engines to find the article among the thousands of available articles floating around in cyberspace. The importance of using SEO in my articles was new to me. Now, 12 years later, more writers are familiar with Search Engine Optimization, but have no idea what it means.

Using SEO in your blog posts is like using a GPS to direct readers to your site. Popular keywords are used to drive readers to your website when readers put a keyword you use to describe your site or article in the search engine. The link to your post will be seen by readers wanting to learn about the information related to that keyword. Your ranking in the search engine improves every time someone clicks on your keyword hopefully landing you on the front page or at least one of the first pages of Google.com or other search engines. 

Think about how you would talk to your friend about the article you just finished (or your book, short story or product). Use words you naturally use and ones your readers would use when searching for a topic. 

Let's try "author resources" as the keyword--yes, you can use more than one word. In fact, I have heard contrary discussions about the length of keywords. I choose words that sound natural and that are short and to the point.

Notice how many links related to authors resources pop up. Can you see how SEO will drive traffic to your website if you can find the right keywords to use?

How do you find popular keywords that increase Search Engine Optimization?

The secret to finding words that readers look for is simple and free. Popular keyword research tools are Google, Amazon, Youtube, and/or Pinterest. Place a topic you are writing about in your blog post in the search box. The predictive text will give you searches made with that word. 

An example:

Talking about keywords like I am today, I typed "keyword" into the search box on Google. The predicted word or phrases show up because users have selected these words to find articles and videos on the topic.

To make my blog post about keywords turn up on a Google page, I should include some of these words and phrases that came up when typing "keyword" into the search box. These have been used by folks searching for information about that topic.

*Look back through this article to see if I snuck any of the suggestions in places where they are unobtrusive. You can't put keywords everywhere so they become obvious and annoying to the reader.

*Don't overload your copy with the keywords, but add them where it's natural such as in the title of your post, subtitle and a few times in the article. And of course, in Blogger, labels are keywords to direct readers to your site.

*Don't be afraid to try out adding keywords to improve the SEO for your online works. After 3 or 4 months of using keywords, see if you see an increase in traffic to your site. You may also like to go back to older posts that received a lot of interest and add keywords to get even more traffic. 

I hope I have simplified this complex method of getting readers to your website. If you have questions, please ask in the comments below. If you have information to add on SEO or keywords, please do so in the comment section. I'd appreciate that and so would the readers. 

Check out these articles below for more information and search for educational articles and videos using your favorite search engine.

Click here for How to Use Keywords on Your Site by Nate Shivar.

Click here for What Does SEO Stand For by William Alexander

This post originally appeared on this blog in May 2019.

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Girls Succeed! Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Women
Non-fiction biographies of 16 contemporary role models for girls 10+ years old

Meet these contemporary role models in
Girls Succeed! a book to empower middle-grade girls

TODAY! Girls Succeed! is now available in a new, updated and revised edition, including new content! AND it is now in print! Yes, that eliminates the interactive attraction, but my 12-year-old granddaughter wanted the book in print. So, I gave in.

NOW! The eBook and Paperback to inspire girls to dream big are ready for girls 10+ and older. 

EVEN BETTER! During this launch period, the eBook is only 99 cents!

Click here to download it from your favorite online bookseller.

Click here to order the paperback for the girl in your life.

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