How to do a Successful Blog Tour. And John Carter! And Prize Package Winner!

Or maybe I should say how to survive a blog tour?

Thanks everyone for your encouraging comments last Friday regarding FandomFest2012 Yes, it will be a bummer that my name won’t be listed on the program for FandomFest, but my wife is more important. Next year!

And special thanks to Chuck at Apocalypse Now for his amazing review of CassaFire. You the man, Chuck!

Cate Masters’ new book, Dancing With the Devil, is now available – congratulations, Cate!

John Carter – review and author revelation

One word – awesome!
This movie more than lived up to expectations for me. It was epic in scope, with a story that remained fairly faithful to Princess of Mars and featured believable special effects. It was adventurous, moving, and at times really funny. And hey, for all the guys, the princess played by Lynn Collins will keep your attention – close to the Frazetta interpretation and easy on the eyes. Shame it won’t do well in theaters as I would’ve enjoyed another John Carter movie.

And something dawned on me while watching the film. Several reviews of my books have stated they hearken back to the Golden Age of science fiction and adventure. While watching John Carter, I finally caught the connection – the innocent adventure portrayed in this type of story mirrored what I tried to capture in my own books. Now I am eager both to devour more stories like John Carter and to dive back into my third book. Not that I’ll create anything as classic or epic as what Burroughs wrote – but now I understand my voice and style. And I’m excited!

So, go see John Carter and enjoy the adventure!

CassaFire’s blog tour – what worked and what didn’t

Another heartfelt thank you to all of my hosts and everyone who posted for the Catch Fire Blog Party. The last two weeks were the most humbling I’ve ever experienced.

First let me tackle the Catch Fire Blog Party. WOW. I visited over two hundred and fifty blogs on February 28 and still missed a few I’m sure. It was overwhelming to see that banner featured everywhere. Will I ever do something like that again? Probably not. I spent over ten hours that day trying to visit every person who posted. And while it was cool to see my book cover everywhere, and many commented they were touched by the support for my book, I think it was too much. I’ll either spread it out or just let people post on their own next time.

Now for the tour itself. My hosts were awesome! Each guest spot was unique. My goal was for my post to generate more comments than normal for my hosts, and many of you visited every post – thank you for that! And the best hosts interacted with the comments, which was cool. There were ten official stops – next time, I might only do five. I don’t want to wear out my followers and I admit I was beat when it ended. Again, thanks to everyone who tagged along for the ride.

And I will need to make plans for a third tour, because this week I launch back into working on the third book, CassaStorm. After seeing John Carter, I am stoked!!!!

Now, for those of you still holding your breath, the winner of the awesome prize package is…

After random numbers generated for tour day and then comment…

Jeremy at Retro Zombie is the big winner!!! Congratulations, dude. And thanks for following my book tour.

Anyone else see John Carter? Share your thoughts on my blog tour? (I’m open to suggestions!) Think “Golden Age” is a good description of my books? Think I should write just one more book? Or are you just mad you didn’t get the CassaFire coffee cup?

And I will still be visiting blogs, but taking a break on posting Wednesday. Awesome guest on Friday though!!!!