A Life Without Love Is A Year Without Summer

Summer is the time of love and marriage and candlelight dinners on floating boats. It’s also the time of bug bites, sunburns, flip flops, bad horror movies, and hot, hot, HOT. So grab your iced lemonade, sunscreen, bug spray, flip flops and head outside by the pool to nestle down with a book. Or, if you're sensible like me, stay inside with the AC, lemonade with ice that won’t melt in three seconds, and that comfy chair no bird has ever pooped on to read. Whichever you prefer, check out Epstein LaRue’s novel Crazy thoughts of an Online Romance.

I have several thoughts about online romance, but don’t worry, I won’t share. Mostly because they’re crazy, and have to do with the whole…nevermind, this isn’t about my nutty thoughts—it’s about the book.

It’s actually three books. 1) A fictional nursing duet: Crazy Thoughts of Passion.  2) A story of love nurtured online: Love At First Type: On Online Romance, Based On A True Story.  And 3) the added NEVER RELEASED Epstein’s Guide To Online Romance. All for $19.99 (which may as well round up to $20 if you ask me…I sound like a commercial). Now if you’re a math geek like me, you’ll have worked out it’s about $7 bucks for each book. Can you say bargain? I can. (Buy one and you get one free…just kidding. You buy one, you get one.)

We’ve all had nutty thoughts over other people. It’s like you see them for the first time and all you can do is…*drool*…ahem. What was I saying? Oh, yes, crazy thoughts of passion will drive you crazy, but you can’t live without ‘em. (Or is it with them?) In Crazy Thoughts of Passion, Kaitlyn Malloy is a registered nurse and insanely attracted to gorgeous Lance Rosanthol. Only problem…he’s the son of her patient. Enter nursing ethics to complicate the already complicated situation. And we’ve all dealt with those. Minus the nurse part for me, because, seriously, hello..needles. But we can relate to those situations where your brain screams NO, NO, NO…and something else (heart, maybe) is all YES, YES, YES!  So, like romance, general craziness and passion? Here you go.

Love At First Type comes with a great pun and a great story. Nurse Kathy meets Jack over the internet and it’s love at…well, you know the rest. However, they’re not only separated by 1000 miles, but also, wait for it…24 years! Yikes. How will they make that work? But love knows no bounds, and after chit chatting more and more, Kathy and Jack want to make their Cyber Relation a Reality Romance. Odds are against them, but love is love. Or something like that. And, stunningly, it’s based on a true story, one of Epstein’s own love.

At the end, Epstein imparts her own tips for online dating, which, judging by her real life experiences, must be golden and successful. And, besides, who doesn’t want a guide to online romance nowadays? Everyone’s on those dating sites; just watch TV to hear all about those people Match-ing, e-Harmony-nizing or ChristianMingle-ling. It can’t hurt to have a guide. And, if all else fails, it’s amusing to read how you should do it even if you’re intent on doing it wrong or not doing it at all.

So, sit down. Read. Like romance? Here’s your next book. Not your usual cup of tea? Branch out and try it anyway. No harm ever came from reading a book. (Except in The Mummy. Bad Evy. But let’s not go there.)

Check it out more at http://www.starpublishllc.com/id20.html

Star Publish LLC steps up to ebook challenges

"It's so easy, you can do it yourself." That's what THEY say. Like so many things in life, nobody seems to know exactly who THEY is. Without being able to identify them, how do you know if you can trust them?

As both an author and the Marketing Director for Star Publish LLC, many people have told me that it is pretty simple to submit an ebook to Amazon, Lulu, or any number of other places and it is FREE. Anybody who knows me, knows that I like free. But when it comes to my books, I don't have a clue how to do all of the formatting, create a cover, and all the other things that go into coming up with a professional looking good final product. If my books don't look good, nobody will ever know how good the story inside the covers is. That's why it's much easier for me to leave all of that to somebody who knows how to do it. I admit I am not that person; I don't know how to do it, and I don't have any interest in learning. I'd rather be writing, or even marketing my books.

The growth of the ebook market is astonishing. It is advancing by leaps and bounds. I have not been a huge fan of ebooks. Maybe it comes with age. I prefer to think that it is because I spend so much time staring at a screen that when I sit down to relax with a book, I want to do it in the old fashioned way. Still, every time I do any sort of personal event about my books, more and more people are asking me, "Are any of your books available as ebooks?" or they are saying, "I only read on my Kindle, Nook, etc." So, I have given in to the demand and some of my books are available as ebooks. Eventually, I hope they all will be.

If you are in the same boat, that of not knowing how to do-it-yourself and don't want to learn, Star Publish LLC offers a great deal for getting your books available to the public as ebooks that includes a full professional edit, creating a cover, doing all the formatting, getting it listed on hundreds of places where people can find it, and just about everything you need. It sort of reminds me of the old Greyhound Bus ads, "Take a bus, and leave the driving to us."

Here is what they offer, as well as the price, and if you have more questions, contact tcmcauthor@hotmail.com. Don't wait. Every day you don't take action could be the sale of at least one copy of your book.

E-book Only Production Fees:

Base production fee starts at two hundred ($200) USD and must be paid at signing of contract.

Further costs must be agreed upon using the details below:

Editing (must be paid in advance of service):

Star full edit: $200

If editing has been done outside of Star and is acceptable in quality, i.e.: the manuscript is free of careless errors, the cost of the edit can be reduced to $100

Cover designs (must be paid in advance of service):

Author provides cover (must be up to Star quality standards): Free

Star creates cover from photo author provides: $50

Star creates cover using their own photographs or doing manipulation on provided photographs: $100

Star creates cover using artwork designed and painted by Star artist $200 to $500 depending on the complexity of the project.

Formatting (includes file types for Kindle, Nook, Apple, Sony, Kobo and other popular devices and must be paid in advance of service):

Must be done by Star Publish $100

Including any extras including images or non-standard fonts: $200

Any further formatting, i.e. any text deleted or added after production, warrants another $100 fee

  With the fees paid here, and this agreement, Author is also entitled to a reduction in publication fee for the Star print version of their Work in Trade Paperback if ever they choose. The credit shall be that of four hundred ($400) USD. The Star print package for any Author with this contract, therefore, will be eight hundred ($800) USD.