Book reading from The Naked Truth

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The Naked Truth Press Release

Contact: Alex Blackwell
President
White Seahorse
Division of Knowledge Clinic Ltd.
Port Aleria, Rosnakilly, Kilmeena
Westport, County Mayo, Ireland
+353 87 624 3907
ablackwell@knowledgeclinic.com
www.coastalboating.net

For Immediate Release

Announcing the New Release:
The Naked Truth
A nautical murder mystery
by Daria Blackwell

14 February 2017, Westport, Ireland:  White Seahorse is pleased to announce the release of The Naked Truth - A nautical murder mystery. It is Daria Blackwell’s first novel. She is the co-author of several previous non-fiction works.

Alex Blackwell, White Seahorse President, independent publisher and author said, “This novel complements our existing line of self-published works, each of which takes on a degree of a nautical theme, but weaves an intriguing story around adventures on the high seas. It’s not the typical diary of an Atlantic circuit. It has multiple twists of plot that are unexpected but highly plausible. It’s a story that anyone who has ever thought about sailing away will find amusing and intriguing. They may even glean several valuable lessons from the narrative.”

When asked how she developed her story, Daria Blackwell explained, “When we sailed across the Atlantic and through the Caribbean, I kept meticulous notes and wrote missives to our friends and family throughout the trip. But I knew I didn’t want to just tell our story as a travelogue. I wanted to use our real experience as the backdrop to a fictional story, one that would be full of twists and turns. So I just started writing, and one day the idea of stringing together a series of disparate yet potentially connected events came to me, and The Naked Truth was born.”

The story begins with Xander and Jessica anchored in the Canary Islands. They had sailed off in search of adventure. Sailing across oceans on their own boat was exactly the kind of restorative voyage the Lynches craved. They quit their high powered jobs, sold their house, and cast off the lines. When Jessica witnesses a series of murders in exotic settings, their adventure sets her on the course of a murder trail. On finding no evidence – no bodies, no signs of struggles – their quest to answer unasked questions begins.  Tormented by helplessness, Jessica experiences bizarre dreams within which lay the clues that evaded the professionals. They embark on a convoluted course to uncover the naked truth.

The Naked Truth is set in the Atlantic Islands and the Caribbean. The description of crossing oceans as a lifestyle is based on the author’s experience. Everything else is fiction.

Paperback: 418 pages

Publisher: White Seahorse/CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Launch date:  February 10, 2017

ISBN10:  1540793745      

ISBN13: 978-1540793744

SRP: $15.00        

About the Author

Daria Blackwell is the co-author of two critically acclaimed non-fiction books Happy Hooking - The Art of Anchoring, Cruising the Wild Atlantic Way and Onyx, The Cruising Kitty. The Naked Truth is her debut novel, a murder mystery set in the midst of sailing adventures. She has written numerous articles for sailing magazines and websites on both sides of the Atlantic. Daria is a USCG-licensed captain with three Atlantic crossings and a year’s sabbatical sailing in the Caribbean to her credit. In a former life she was a scientist, a science writer, a creative copywriter, a strategic planner, and a top level executive in marketing and communications firms. She is the author of several publications on cultural competence. A dual citizen of the US and Ireland, Daria has taken on a mid-Atlantic mind set. Follow her blogs at http://dariablackwell.blogspot.ie/ and http://aleriasadventures.blogspot.com/.

About White Seahorse

White Seahorse (www.whiteseahorse.com) is a division of Knowledge Clinic Limited based in Westport, County Mayo, Ireland (www.knowledgeclinic.com). White Seahorse is dedicated to providing information, products, and consulting, marketing and communications services to the marine leisure industry. White Seahorse’s publishing arm provides support for independent authors who self-publish.

• High resolution art is available from ablackwell@knowledgeclinic.com .  
• Booksellers interested in carrying any of the White Seahorse titles should contact ablackwell@knowledgeclinic.com. They may also order directly from CreateSpace.com.
• For more titles, visit http://www.whiteseahorse.ie.

https://www.whiteseahorse.ie/publishing/NakedTruth/NT-Release.html

Soon to be released: Self-Publishing for Success, Every book deserves to be published.

https://www.prlog.org/12622784-new-book-release-the-naked-truth-nautical-murder-mystery.html

Moving to Ireland

When we first moved back (actually my husband moved back, I went with him) to Ireland, we were eager to work and share the immense amount of experience we had in very relevant professions.  I had been a top level executive in pharma and related businesses; my husband was a marketing, printing and new media specialist with multinationals. I have cultural competence as a specialty, which is very rare. I was told, "Oh we have plenty of people with your profile." So we started our own business, were let down by a government agency, and began writing books instead. It's been an interesting ride.

I do love living here. Life is real here. No alternative facts. But many people have a very limited understanding of what the world out there is really like. It's a story I'm looking to tell.

Social Networking to promote your works

eBiz MBA has ranked the top social networking sites. There is no doubt that self-publishing required disciplined self-promotion. So it pays to know where you can have the most impact. Facebook and YouTube are are the clear winners when it comes to delivering sheer numbers of users. But Twitter, especially now that with our supreme TOTUS has us wondering, "What next?"

"Now I lay me down to sleep 

wondering what the Trump will tweet."

But seriously, as opposed to most social media which depend on pull to intercept people who are already there, Twitter is a push medium that can distribute a message to the entire universe of users interested in a particular subject with a simple #. It's how the #resistance is growing. It's a very powerful medium so tweeting your message is very important. The following is today's report from eBiz MBA. Each of the sites has it's own appeal. Use them to your advantage. After all, they are free, except for your time. Use it wisely. 

My book is live on amazon

We uploaded the pdf and approved the proof last night. I checked this morning and, voila, my book is live online at amazon.com. Thrilling and chilling. Will anyone want to buy it?  Will they read it? Will they like it?  It's terrifying to lay yourself out there like that, baring your soul to the world. What will the naked truth turn out to be?

And here it is on amazon.co.uk...

Now to get the Kindle version up and start promoting it. The real work begins. I have just created a page for it on Goodreads. So much more to do.

Short Memoir by a Ukrainian American Irishwoman

I wrote a short memoir for a competition to be included in the Fish 2017 anthology. It's about my journey as a Ukrainian American Irishwoman and my search for home. I started developing my thoughts in my blog about what it means to be Ukrainian in the diaspora. This competition forced me to edit them into a story. The reviewer loved my piece and suggested I pursue a radio version as the story is very relevant and needs to be told. So my next project is underway. I have contacted the RTE Documentary on One, and am developing a proposal for their consideration. This could be fun.

Final phase of publishing for The Naked Truth

Yesterday, I completed the proofreading of the Create Space printed proof.  I found quite a few typos, so I took the opportunity to fix a few little things I did not like as well. It's interesting how much more you see in print than on the screen. We made a new pdf and I checked that to make certain nothing went wonky, which can always happen. It was fine. So Alex uploaded the revised pdf to Create Space.

This morning we received a new proof pdf to check, which I did again. Despite their indication that there were a few low res images in the book, I did not see anything I could identify as low res. We're going with it.

Final word count: 95,480. Final page count 400. Plus author bio and promotional pages for our other books. We always take the opportunity to promote the others when we can.

So yipee! I am finished with this phase. Now the marketing begins in earnest. Wish me luck.

Two spaces at the end vs one

No.  We don't use typewriters any more.

No. We don't use typewriters any more. 

I've been hunted by people who chide me for the modern ailment of instinctively using two spaces at the end of a sentence. The young ones rant about how it is totally unacceptable to use two spaces. That all the style guides use one space.

Welcome to the computer era when spacing is precisely calculated. I grew up typing on a manual typewriter. Yes, manual, long before electric. The spacing was erratic. In typing courses, which were required in high school, we learned to type two spaces after a full stop punctuation mark. What becomes rote at that age stays with you for a lifetime, trust me.

Look back in history and you will see that it was typesetters in the UK who first decided that one space would be the accepted standard in order to alleviate the mess in typography at the time. People were using one, two or even three spaces to make different typefaces more readable. To eliminate the inconsistencies, they made a new rule. That rule was adopted in America much later.

I happen to think that sentences are much more readable with two spaces between them, especially as my eyes age (I'll spare the rant about type size and color selected by young whipper snappers for another post.). But I'll accede to the masses, as it's a small and invisible point that could stand in the way of being published.

So when I am finished with a manuscript, I simply find and replace two spaces with one. See if you can tell the difference? At least it gives me more characters to tweet. Just wait 'till I whip out my typewriter when the grid goes down!

Oh, and by the way, in their new style manual (2017), the APA has returned to two spaces for readability.  Chicago Style Manual recommends one.

English is hard

Did you know there are 3000 words in English for being drunk? But having many ways of expressing yourself is only one of the difficulties with the English language. For me, homonyms are the worst. Read and Red, sell and cell, fair and fare, wine and whine, meet, meat and mete are just a few. For years, I thought Puff the magic dragon had something to do with ceiling wax rather than sealing wax.

Goodreads

I chose to express my author profiles differently on different websites.  On amazon, I wrote short bios that a publisher would likely prefer. On Goodreads I chose to write a more reader focused bio. Why, because I think Goodreads is run by readers and it's the person not the book that may appeal to those who administer it. We'll see if my logic works.

And here's a review of Turtle Bunbury's excellent book 1847 that I posted on Goodreads.

The Author Profile

I have been busy creating and updating my author profiles on sites like amazon, Goodreads, and Smashwords. The latter is a really interesting resource for indie publishers and self-publishers. It distributes eBooks to everyone but amazon. They take a small percentage of sales revenue and the author gets the lions share. Can't wait to see how it works.