Monday 31 August 2015

RRBC 'Back-to-School' Blog & Book Block Party

 Link to Block Party listings page

Today the MILELE SAFARI BLOG is tickled pink to be one of the first hosting venues for RAVE REVIEWS BOOK CLUB'S 'Back to School' Block Party People!


You are currently somewhere near  LAUNCESTON in NORTH CORNWALL, UK! 


BUT FIRST here are my...

GRRRRR-eat GIVEAWAYS!

(I'm happy to ship outside the UK!)

For SEPTEMBER 1st only I have some 

BRILLIANT PRIZES FOR 4 LUCKY VISITORS...

(Here's some jungley music while you're browsing!)




 LATE ENTRY - BONUS GIVEAWAY! 


Because we had so much fun yesterday, I decided to put in a bonus prize which will give visitors after September 1st a chance to win one of my Giveaways too...

So ~ the first person to answer this question IN ACCURATE DETAIL correctly wins!

 WHAT EXACTLY GIVES THE DISTINCTIVE FLAVOUR OF AMARULA LIQUEUR? 

(for those of you who've got the book - the answer's in there somewhere!)


AND THE LUCKY 1ST OF SEPTEMBER WINNERS WERE...

 1ST PRIZE - goes to BRUCE BORDERS! 


A basic white or black T-shirt from my ZAZZLE shop
with a choice of 3 designs inspired by some of my favourite African National Parks
(email me back with your size: small - 4XL and your snail mail address)


Mosi-oa-Tunya (Victoria Falls)


Etosha & Namib-Naukluft (Namibia)


 2ND PRIZE - goes to NONNIE JULES! 


A signed paperback of Milele Safari
(email me back with your snail mail address and preferred dedication!)


 3RD PRIZE - goes to C.S. BOYACK! 


An eBook edition of Milele Safari
(email me back with your preferred eReader platform (Kindle, Nook, Kobo etc) I will email you the ePub or PDF version)



 4TH PRIZE - goes to S.M. SPENCER! 


An exclusive 2016 printed desk calendar from Vistaprint 
with the same photo stock from my personal collection as used on the Milele Freebies page
(email me back with your snail mail address)



And now a bit more about my first novel and how it came to be...


 link to Amazon page

CLICK COVER TO GO TO AMAZON
Paperback also available at all good online stores, or by ISBN in your local high street

This follows the programme for my first ever Blog Tour (courtesy of 4Wills Publishing) back in June 2015 -


 If you want to skip ahead here's the links to the other Milele Blog Safari destinations 


Zambia Tanzania Biafra Zimbabwe Uganda Zyanda Kenya



The childhood ordeal of tragic Biafran war orphan, Teresa Olatunde, is the fateful catalyst for the savage events at the heart of Milele Safari
Deciding where to start a story is not always clear cut and, because I came at this book with a story plan that was loosely based on The Canterbury Tales, that followed several people's experiences, there's a fair amount of flashbacks and jumping ahead, whilst following along the main timeline of the safari. I hope I succeeded in making sense of the flow in the novel, but when I began to look ahead to marketing issues and found a need for a book blog, I quickly realised that I needed to streamline things more, so people could get a flavour of what goes on, and where, in the story more clearly.

We first meet main character, Sophie Taylor and her safari companions on the Zambian side of Victoria Falls, and the story roughly follows their itinerary from there into Zimbabwe and then Uganda and finally, after it's over, into Tanzania where Sophie starts her new job. A magazine treatment, based on their journey (with the odd deviation when the backstory dictated) gradually presented itself as a useful solution for the blog, as it gave me an opportunity to include some of my own personal background, influences and research information on the countries in which Milele Safari are set, and to including short synopses on each of the Tales that 'happen' in that region.

What's good for my own blog should surely work for a blog tour too! So, this is your personal invitation to join me on a 'blog safari' that tells the true-life inside story behind Milele Safari, through the real and almost real lands depicted in the book...


... the Tales play out through the auspices of several point of view characters and their narratives, some through flashbacks into the past, or through a journal device that joins the various strands of their Tales together.


CLICK ON A COUNTRY ON THE TOP MENU 
TO CONTINUE ON THE MILELE BLOG SAFARI TRAIL!




BOOK LINKS

NOW AVAILABLE in PAPERBACK and KINDLE formats on AMAZON





SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS



LinkedIn  

Author blog - Jan Hawke INKorporated    



 HAD FUN HERE? 

This party is still going on today September 12th - boogie on over to 


and CLICK HERE

FOR OUR PARTY VENUES ALL THROUGH SEPTEMBER


AND FINALLY
as that Sleepy Lion slinks off into the dawn...

 HAKUNA MATATA! 


(check out the utterly brilliant Jimmy Cliff's version of Elton John's classic)

Sunday 28 June 2015

THE MILELE BLOG SAFARI

Well, this is my very first professional foray into blog tours courtesy of 4Wills Publishing and RRBC fellow author/member Jason Zandri.
I'll be visiting 7 others blogs over the next week ending on the 4th July :-D

CLICK HERE to go to the 1st episode! :-D

Saturday 9 May 2015

Here's hoping this interview embeds properly...



Check Out Books Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Rave Reviews Book Club on BlogTalkRadio

If not then you can find it HERE - it's the oldest 'BEYOND THE COVER' interview so you may need to scroll down a bit! :-)

Not bad for my 1st taste of promotional media work! :-P

Milele Safari's on web radio today!

- I'll be talking to about my book MILELE SAFARI & more May 9 Noon CDT/6 pm UK

Saturday 14 February 2015

Milele in motion(ish)!



I have a book trailer! lol

It's actually better as a presentation but at least this way you get to see it online without any clunky powerpoint downloads :-P
Now I'm getting my marketing/promo act together finally this will be going the rounds with me at other signings and book club appearances etc to I'll keep you posted as to when and where (having done a sneaky recce at Kingsbridge Library last week! :-D)

Monday 5 January 2015

My bad...

... been neglecting things big time in here, but it WAS because I've been busy editing and publishing a fantasy anthology for DreamWorlds Publishing and giving my friend and editor Sue Bridgwater's novel Perian's Journey a bit of a redesign and a new eBook edition.
Really busy getting it all out in time for Christmas, but on the plus side for Milele the online review/ book club I joined up with had me as their member of the month in December so Milele's had a bit of a push sales-wise and hopefully will grow some more reviews soon :-D
Will try and get in here a little more often this year...