Book Talk with Rebecca Rivera

What is Smashwords? Smashwords.com is a place where you can browse ebooks and find great new authors and some authors you may already know. There are almost 490,000 books published to date; over 77,000 of them are free. So if you are looking for freebies, Smashwords is a great place to check out. Creating a profile is absolutely free. You can also browse the site without a profile to get the lay of the land with zero commitment. What if you're a writer or publisher? What can Smashwords do for you? Well, Smashwords offers ebook publishing completely free. If you are comfortable on a computer and can follow directions, you can format your own novel according to their free format guide (available for download on their website) and upload your book and its cover from your computer. There is also a team available with individuals for hire if the work of formatting is not for you and you have some extra money you're willing to spend on your novel. After you publish your novel, ...

Five years ago this past Monday, on June 25, 2013, I conducted my first ever newspaper article interview for The Sampson Sun. I had no experience, and I was nervous; but I instinctively knew how I wanted to conduct the interview. I just let my curiosity take over and I had plenty of questions. I interviewed the manager of the local movie theater about the recent change from film reels to digital film. My article was sooo long, but the editor/owner of the paper I was writing for printed it without a word. On my next assignment she casually mentioned to make the articles "not so long that the reader gets tired." Haha. I guess she got a little tired reading on and on about those new digital film projectors. Stephen King calls it having  word diarrhea . I felt I had to include all  of the information from the interview. Every little tidbit was interesting in my opinion, and I wanted to do right by the manager and by the topic of these new projectors. I think I spent 2-3 hours ...

Sometimes there are those inexplicable videos that change your life. Sometimes they come from unlikely sources. Here is the one that did it for me today. It's some kind of seminar by a man named Tom Ferry, whom I've never heard of before today. Sounds like he's a real estate agent talking to other real estate agents, but what he said really made sense to me. I had one of those moments when it feels like the world is opening up for a moment and a dazzling ray of hope shines through, a moment of possibility and understanding. I don't know if this video will do the same for you, but I'd like to share it, just in case. You may think "Yeah, I've heard all this jazz before." If that's your reaction, this video might not be for you, or it might not be the right time. If you're the one who's feeling a pull in your heart when you see the title and wondering if it just might be possible that you could be rich one day, then you may be the one this ...

I first started on the Sweet N' Sour Kisses series, I had been looking for some teen fiction I could enjoy. Most of it just did not suit my taste. When I came across Cindy's books, they were different; there were guidelines to these teens' lives and morals at stake, and I was hooked with First Kiss. As I continued the series, I began to try other genres in between the books of this series. In the process I discovered some books I really liked or at least enjoyed the challenge of reading even if my overall opinion of said books wasn't great. Coming back to finish up this series has been a bit of a bummer. I think these books would still be great for the teen age group or those who truly enjoy teen fiction. (I have never been a true fan. It was more "wishful thinking" than anything. I just couldn't make it work. :/ ) I've found myself just kind of waiting out the events of books #2-4 so I can find out how everything turns out for Brooklyn in book #...