Black Cow Blog Tour Day 5: Brummet's Conscious Blog

The Blog Tour is progressing nicely as I move around the world in some 30 days (without a plane ticket).  For today's stop, I'm in British Columbia, Canada at Brummet's Conscious (and conscientious too...) blog to talk about, among other things, what I wanted to be when I grew up, what makes for a good story, on the types of genres that appeal to me as a writer, how much of my own characteristics there are in my writing, my favourite authors, some surprises and lots more.  Please drop by and don't forget to comment, retweet, or share in some way or another to enter our blog tour comp.

Free Autographed Bookplates now available

If you’d like to turn your garden-variety copy of Black Cow into a nifty autographed copy that suddenly seems much more gift-appropriate and collectable, just email me your postal address and I'll get one out to you straightaway.  If you want it customised for a particular occasion, just let me know and I'll happily scribble to suit.  At the moment, I've got two lovely designs to choose from, the big owl/small owl plate (left), and the owl border (right). You can pick which one you like, remove the adhesive backing, stick in your copy of Black Cow, and voila, you've got an autographed copy.  If I've got some bookmarks in stock, I'll throw one of those in too. 

Black Cow Blog Tour Day 4: Interview at Nancy Famolari's Place

The tour continues with another stop at Nancy Famolari's Place where we chat about the origins of Black Cow, about my challenges in writing the book, and a discussion about traditional publishing versus self-publishing. Please drop by and say hello, tweet, FB and generally interact to get another entry into our blog tour draw.  See you there!

Black Cow Blog Tour Day 3: New review by Terri Forehand

Today's blog spot is a new review by blogger Terri Forehand at Writing and other ways into the heart.  "This is a heartwarming story of the Archer family. The Archers have been living the high life, big corporate lives with money, fame, and everything a family needs. But there is something missing. Would you be able to leave corporate security with the paycheck and prestige attached if it meant you could gain the family connection back?"  Drop by Terri's blog for the rest of the review. 

Black Cow Blog Tour Day 2: New review and reading vid

Today is the 2nd day of my Black Cow Blog Tour. Drop by Write What Inspires You!, Donna McDine's blog, to read a lovely review written by Fellowship of Australian writer president, and author of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor Jan Mitchell, and to check out my reading of the opening pages of the book.  Don't forget to retweet (#blackcow), share, or comment to be entered into our great blog tour giveaway.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

To celebrate the Black Cow book launch, enter at Goodreads for a personally autographed hard copy sent anywhere in the world. 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Black Cow

by Magdalena Ball

Giveaway ends March 24, 2012.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Black Cow Blog Tour Day 1: Characterisation in Picture books

Today is the first day of the Black Cow blog tour.  Educationtipster Kathy Stemke has a post from me on the topic of characterisation in picture books.  Here's a taste:

"Normally when writing instructors speak of the 'character arc' they're talking about textual based fiction, but all good books, from novels to children's picture books use characterisation well. So why is characterisation important? There's one key, critical reason and that is because everyone reading your book is going to be a person who will need to relate to and accept (even if temporarily) as real. To achieve good characterisation in a novel you need details, specifics, visual impressions, motion. This can be achieved just as well with images as it can with text."  

For the rest of the post, which references some of my favourite picture book characters, the Lorax and Little Bear (how I love those books - as a child and as a parent), drop by Kathy's blog.  Don't forget to retweet (use #blackcow), update your FB status or comment for an entry into the Black Cow Blog Tour Giveaway!  Everytime you do it you get another entry.