Six Sentence Sunday

Today my six are from a short story ‘The Journey’, which I wrote for Writers on the Wrong Side of the Road. This anthology is an ‘alternative’ read in its broadest sense, having been given carte blanche to write whatever we liked. I remained true to the theme of complex women, a topic I also explored in 'The Path of Innocence'.

In 'The Journey', a wife and mother takes a train ride and is excluded from a spontaneous conversation between a group of nearby passengers. Their comments make her contemplate her own life, and spark a range of emotions – insecurity, indignation, antipathy – until the final delicious twist when we discover she is, indeed, a very complex woman.

Here, Melody is assessing her fellow passengers before the train moves out of the station:

‘Her gaze drifted to the man, already buried within the pages of a geeky tech magazine, eyes locked downwards, studiously avoiding eye contact. His green parka jacket was only half unzipped, but enough to reveal a sweatshirt with a Stargate logo emblazoned across the front. She regarded the wispy strands of hair, longish, yet not in a trendy way, the scant nanny goat beard that spoke of a failed attempt at overt masculinity... yes, definitely a geek.
The woman, too, made to pull a magazine from her bag and Melody squinted to see the cover – Cosmopolitan, she noted. A pair of feline green eyes lifted and caught hers with a cold, unreadable stare. Colouring, Melody twitched an uncertain smile which was not returned.’
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Six Sentence Sunday

Hurray! The rule-wrecking anthology Writers on the Wrong Side of the Road is out BUY link
Read what the editors say at http://tinyurl.com/cj3ywpk and meet the authors at http://tinyurl.com/bnluvdf

To celebrate the launch, we’re offering a KINDLE and other prizes.
Follow the Treasure Hunt at http://bit.ly/sQJeig
Please join in the fun
Best wishes
Megan Johns

Scavenger Hunts

Internet Scavenger Hunts for readers are one of my favourite types of contests.
Whereas they do not generally challenge participants intellectually, they are fun and playful. Also they have an element of competition which engenders a sense of achievement at having collected all the required information. Competition is a fundamental human drive and, in my opinion, the satisfaction at having ‘won’ something through effort, no matter how minimal, is likely to be greater than if a gift is simply given away.
Giveaways have their place in anybody’s marketing arsenal, of course, and the strategy of free downloads being pursued on Kindle would indicate that this is a valid ploy. On an individual level, it seems to me, however, that it is more valid for authors with an existing backlist. For newer authors, like me, although giveaways might generate goodwill and hopefully reviews, hunts actively direct traffic to one’s site that might not otherwise visit.
Do they increase sales?
As with any marketing activity, it is difficult to quantify, but they certainly raise your profile with a potentially new audience.