Wednesday, July 25, 2012

New eBooks Paranormal Romance series Paisley is published

 In the summer of 2008 I wrote a short story for a contest. That short story gave birth to my favorite character, a white witch named Paisley. Since that time, on and off between writing content, a part time job and living life I have been writing her life stories  as I found a few spare hours. 

 

I decided long ago to make these a series. Much like Amanda Hocking did with her books.  Jennifer Malone Wright who I have known for a few years also made her Vampire Hunter’s Daughter story into a series.  

 

Like their series, mine is paranormal as well.  How could a portal jumping white witch story not be paranormal?  Once Paisley meets Joe, it turns into a romance of sorts. She loves him and without a doubt he loves her.  Will they ever get together in that special way that lovers do? Your guess is as good as mine. Like you I am simply watching their tale unfold.

 

The Gift is the first part of the series. Paisley and Joe are two old friends, who love each other deeply and have for decades. Her royal heritage forbids her from acting out any form of love with a mortal man. Readers will see she often breaks the rules when it suits her, because her heart leads her astray. In this edition of the paranormal romance series, they have a gift exchange straight from the heart.  

 

Purple Flames is the second adventure.  This story is based on the one that was submitted to that contest, so you might say this started it all. Paisley noticed Joe is not his usual self, what is she to do? Her herbs and poultices can only do so much to help. She spends time some time with a client named Sarah, while contemplating Joe’s condition. When she realizes the extent of his condition she makes the ultimate sacrifice in order to cure him.

 

A Paisley Christmas is the third adventure in the series. This one is based on the one I wrote for the Dark Christmas book the Circle 8 Writers group published, but I revised it.  Its Christmas time and Paisley is headed home for the Yule festival. Her special friend awaits her, and truthfully she is more excited about seeing him than she is her family. She is nervous that Joe might be mad at her for saving his life.  Come and celebrate Yule in the Eternals with Princess Paisley and her family.

 

The first book is free, so please go over and download it (link is up there) and leave a review. Have a great day.

Posted via email from Amy Browne's posterous

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Paypal Blocked Thanks Hackers and YCN

I wrote about my experiences of being one of the almost half a million YCN contributors who got hacked when my email address and password were publically displayed for the world to see.

Do those clowns at YCN really realize how bad their slack of security has hurt their writers?  Honestly I do not think they have a clue. In their apology email they suggested we change our passwords, (no chit did that long before your email). However, changing the password is not going to help with some things. Well let me tell you, it was not as simple as changing a few passwords.

The email address that was publically displayed is my main email. Even though, I did not use the same password for all those 100+ websites the email was used on 99% of them. 

Like many writers I have passwords to writing sites, promotional sites, websites which pay me to do advertising or blog posts on my own blogs. That does not even include the other professional websites that I belong too.

When people tried to unsuccessfully log in my accounts and failed after a number of times, my account was blocked. With some accounts it is fine but others it is just a huge pain in the ass.

Like my Paypal. Imagine getting blocked out of your bank, and your money taken by bandits. My Paypal account was hit over and over, at least eight times within the week following the snafu. I am grateful there is a zero spending limit on my account with Paypal, because the thieves cannot steal my money.

However since most of the money I earn is paid through Paypal, I am effectively without money until the spending limit is lifted.  Imagine what the clowns at YCN would do if their paychecks were held up for a week or more. 

~~Goals do not happen as life does. You must work hard to make goals a reality!~~

Posted via email from Amy Browne's posterous

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Snafu email/pass posted online affected the writers more than YCN

By now, everyone has heard about the big snafu with a hacker releasing the emails and passwords of 450,000 freelance writers over at the Yahoo Contributor network. I was one of those writers whose email and password was publicly posted online for millions to see.
 
Most of those affected including myself, were notified by friends who shared the news reports by various websites. It was not until 2 days later that YCN sent their emails to those affected writers.

By the time YCN notified us, writers had changed passwords on various websites multiple times. Every time we fixed one, an attempt would be made on another of our accounts. I changed my face book and twitter accounts so many times it was unreal. It is a giant cluster smuck because some hack wanted to teach YCN a lesson.

Who is really suffering here? Sure YCN is suffering because some writers trust the site even less now. They lost money because they had to fix the mess they made when an employee posted unencrypted emails and passwords on line. To me paying an employee their hourly wage to fix their chit is not suffering.

The people who really suffered here were the writers. Many of us whose emails and passwords were posted rarely write on YCN anymore because the pay is very low. Instead we sought out private clients, other lucrative websites, and other forms of income making opportunities.

I spent the better part of 12 hours changing account passwords on over one hundred web sites that I use on a monthly basis for some aspect of work. Granted not all are money making sites, there are research sites and other typed of depositories and forums.

As I mentioned earlier some of those sites required the password be reset multiple times as different hackers got them locked down. This slowed my work right down. It caused me to spent time I should have been writing for income  on changing passwords. I would have much rather spent the time writing to put food on the table and keep a roof over our heads. 

Some may wonder why I used the same email and password combo on so many websites. The answer is simple, it is ease of use. Can you imagine having to keep track of several hundred passwords? You can bet all my accounts have different passwords now, I keep them all on a spreadsheet on the other computer.

A hacker may snatch control of my Twitter but since my Facebook or Email passwords are different he will not grab control of the others without a lot of hard work.

~~Goals do not happen as life does. You must work hard to make goals a reality!~~
http://www.amazon.com/Amy-Browne/e/B004EW761G/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Posted via email from Amy Browne's posterous

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Freebie Weekend Amazon eBooks

Indie Authors and Books is a group of great Indie Authors. On Friday July 13, 2012 we will begin having a free book weekend. This is our second event and we invite you to join us.  
 

Humor

Spaztastic Zombies  Tammy Lee Morris (July 14)

 

Fiction: Dark, Twisted Short Stories

DestinySteps In (when bad things happen) Theresa Leschmann (July 13 and 14)

Creepy Bits Tammy Lee Morris (July 13)

Devil's Playground Mercy Meyer (July 13 and 14)

Collection of Dark Short Stories Amy Browne (July 14 and 15)

 

Non Fiction

Content to eBooks Amy Browne (14 and 15)

I love You, I hate You- A Bipolar Marriage Alice Madison Young (July 13, 14 and 15)

 

Erotica

Restraint Erica Chilson (July 13 and 14)

Anticipation Sarina Asheford (July 13 and 14)

911 I need Help! Felicity Freedom (July 13, 14, and 15)

If you are an Indie Authors who would like to join our Facebook group, please click this link. We formed this group to learn from each other and to help each other grow. We are very laid back, but we will not tolerate rudeness in any form. Join us to discuss all topics concerning indie publishing


~~Goals do not happen as life does. You must work hard to make goals a reality!~~
http://www.amazon.com/Amy-Browne/e/B004EW761G/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Posted via email from Amy Browne's posterous