I live in a reasonably small town in Virginia and there aren't many serious crimes. So, I was surprised to hear there was a double murder 40 years ago and had never been solved. This is a link to more information and the press conference is embedded below.
http://www.newsleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090124/NEWS01/90124001&s=d&
At this point, the case has been solved and the woman who killed these two young women just died a few days ago. Information about this crime even turned up on CNN over the weekend - it isn't often that this area turns up on CNN.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Some Memorable Rejections
The roving reporter for Promo 101 Virtual Blog Tours - Terry L White - sent this to me this morning and I had a feeling other authors and struggle writers would appreciate the irony in these rejection statistics -
13. A three-inch stack of rejection letters before Terry L. White published a book.
14. About 40 rejections from various targeted agents before Nikki Leigh switched gears and applied directly to the publishers.
To visit Terry - she posts daily about the current virtual tours that we're doing. You can visit her here - http://authorsontour.blogspot.com/
CELEBRATION OF REJECTION
From the pages of, How to Get a Literary Agent by Michael Larsen
1. 112 Books for Louis L’Amour though he received rejections. He received 200 rejections before he sold his first novel. During the last forty years Bantam has shipped nearly three hundred million of his one hundred twelve books, making him their biggest-selling author.
2. 600+ rejection slips wall paper Jack London’s home.
3. 774 rejection slips for John Creasy who went on to publish under 13 pseudonyms 564 books
4. 14 rejected Pearl S Buck finally published The Good Earth
5. 20 rejections didn’t stop Jonathan Livingston Seagull’s publication and you know how famous it became, written by Richard Bach
6. 40 rejections before she sold her first book didn’t stop Mary Higgins Clark
7. 200 rejections Roots by Alex Haley was published.
8. 15 publishers and 30 agents rejected John Grisham’s A Time to Kill before it was finally published.
9. 375 publishers rejected naked in Deccan over seven years before the Baltimore Sun deemed it a classic.
10. Dr Seuss – 24 in his file of rejections before his first books was published
11. 8 years after the novel Steps won the National Book Award, Jerzy Kosinski allowed it to be send out again with a name change to 13 agents and 14 publishers – all of them rejected it, including Random House, which originally published it. Proves the plight of new writers trying to get recognition or a publishing contract.
12. The New Yorker rejected a short story by Saul Bellow after he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
From the pages of, How to Get a Literary Agent by Michael Larsen
1. 112 Books for Louis L’Amour though he received rejections. He received 200 rejections before he sold his first novel. During the last forty years Bantam has shipped nearly three hundred million of his one hundred twelve books, making him their biggest-selling author.
2. 600+ rejection slips wall paper Jack London’s home.
3. 774 rejection slips for John Creasy who went on to publish under 13 pseudonyms 564 books
4. 14 rejected Pearl S Buck finally published The Good Earth
5. 20 rejections didn’t stop Jonathan Livingston Seagull’s publication and you know how famous it became, written by Richard Bach
6. 40 rejections before she sold her first book didn’t stop Mary Higgins Clark
7. 200 rejections Roots by Alex Haley was published.
8. 15 publishers and 30 agents rejected John Grisham’s A Time to Kill before it was finally published.
9. 375 publishers rejected naked in Deccan over seven years before the Baltimore Sun deemed it a classic.
10. Dr Seuss – 24 in his file of rejections before his first books was published
11. 8 years after the novel Steps won the National Book Award, Jerzy Kosinski allowed it to be send out again with a name change to 13 agents and 14 publishers – all of them rejected it, including Random House, which originally published it. Proves the plight of new writers trying to get recognition or a publishing contract.
12. The New Yorker rejected a short story by Saul Bellow after he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
13. A three-inch stack of rejection letters before Terry L. White published a book.
14. About 40 rejections from various targeted agents before Nikki Leigh switched gears and applied directly to the publishers.
To visit Terry - she posts daily about the current virtual tours that we're doing. You can visit her here - http://authorsontour.blogspot.com/
Friday, January 23, 2009
A Good Dog Story
Anyone who has pets will really like this. You'll like it even if you don't and you may even decide you need one! Mary and her husband Jim had a dog named 'Lucky.' Lucky was a real character. Whenever Mary and Jim had company come for a weekend visit they would warn their friends to not leave their luggage open because Lucky would help himself to whatever struck his fancy. Inevitably, someone would forget and something would come up missing. Mary or Jim would go to Lucky's toy box in the basement and there the treasure would be, amid all of Lucky's other favorite toys. Lucky always stashed his finds in his toy box and he was very particular that his toys stay in the box. It happened that Mary found out she had breast cancer. Something told her she was going to die of this disease....in fact ,she was just sure it was fatal. She scheduled the double mastectomy, fear riding her shoulders. The night before she was to go to the hospital she cuddled with Lucky. A thought struck her...what would happen to Lucky? Although the three-year-old dog liked Jim, he was Mary's dog through and through. If I die, Lucky will be abandoned, Mary thought. He won't understand that I didn't want to leave him. The thought made her sadder than thinking of her own death. The double mastectomy was harder on Mary than her doctors had anticipated and Mary was hospitalized for over two weeks. Jim took Lucky for his evening walk faithfully, but the little dog just drooped, whining and miserable. Finally the day came for Mary to leave the hospital. When she arrived home , Mary was so exhausted she couldn't even make it up the steps to her bedroom. Jim made his wife comfortable on the couch and left her to nap. Lucky stood watching Mary but he didn't come to her when she called. It made Mary sad but sleep soon overcame her and she dozed. When Mary woke, for a second she couldn't understand what was wrong. She couldn't move her head and her body felt heavy and hot. But panic soon gave way to laughter when Mary realized the problem. She was covered, literally blanketed, with every treasure Lucky owned! While she had slept, the sorrowing dog had made trip after trip to the basement bringing his beloved mistress all his favorite things in life. He had covered her with his love. Mary forgot about dying. Instead she and Lucky began living again, walking further and further together every day. It's been 12 years now and Mary is still cancer-free. Lucky? He still steals treasures and stashes them in his toy box but Mary remains his greatest treasure. Remember....live every day to the fullest Each minute is a blessing from God. And never forget....the people who make a difference in our lives are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care for us. If you see someone without a smile today give them one of yours! Live simply. Love seriously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God A small request: All you are asked to do is keep this circulating. Dear God, I pray for the cure of cancer. Amen In memory of anyone you know that has been struck down by cancer or is still living with it. Note From Nikki I just got this in my email from my aunt Sylvia and I had to share. Lucky reminds me very much of Muze - who this blog is named after - yes, Muze is real :) I got Muze about a week after I started working from home fulltime. To say he's spoiled would be a huge understatement - he is in crisis when I got to the grocery store and he watches each trip to the mail box -- its not that far from the house :) But, he is also very sweet and affectionate. He loves to lay next to me while I work and he'll sleep for a long time and then raise his head and stretch his paw to touch my leg and a couple of times and then go back sleep. Other times when I'm deeply into a book, he sits beside me and taps my face with his paw -- its like he's saying, "I'm here, remember me." Shadow can be very sweet too, but Muze is the affectionate cat around here. What would I do without my boys :) |
Monday, January 19, 2009
Proof That it Takes All Kinds
Hear my radio show that caused a listener to call me disgusting, a fraud and a disgrace -- no kidding. They didn't call in, but their thoughts were posted in the chatroom. Sadly, the person's user name included Hillary - its sad to see someone acting like that and associating it with Hillary. This person obviously didn't hear the very good things we mentioned in the beginning about Hillary Clinton and anyone who read Earl Ofari Hutchinson's columns knows he is a staunch Hillary supporter. Learn more about How Obama Won on this call - www.learnhowobamawon.blogspot.com
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nikkileigh/2009/01/19/Nikki-Leigh-Talks-with-Earl-Ofari-Hutchinson-About-How-Obama-Won
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Would You Like FREE Excerpts From How Obama Won?
Get your FREE E-book which gives you a look inside How Obama Won – see the table of contents and read selected excerpts before making the decision to buy your own copy of How Obama Won --- http://tr.im/9lrt
How Obama Won by Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a provocative, hard hitting critical assessment of the issues, events, forces, politics, pressures and controversy that shaped and ensnared Barack Obama in his historic 2008 presidential campaign. Cut through the endless numbers and statistics to learn get straight to the key issues that made the difference.
Political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson examines the impact of race and gender, campaign strategy, the key political players, the nature of presidential politics, the changes in the Democratic and Republicans parties, the importance of the black, Hispanic, youth, women and blue collar white worker votes, the role of corporation and special interests in American politics. Hutchinson goes to the heart of the matter to tell us what the first African-American to win the White House means to America and the world.
How Obama Won by Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a provocative, hard hitting critical assessment of the issues, events, forces, politics, pressures and controversy that shaped and ensnared Barack Obama in his historic 2008 presidential campaign. Cut through the endless numbers and statistics to learn get straight to the key issues that made the difference.
Political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson examines the impact of race and gender, campaign strategy, the key political players, the nature of presidential politics, the changes in the Democratic and Republicans parties, the importance of the black, Hispanic, youth, women and blue collar white worker votes, the role of corporation and special interests in American politics. Hutchinson goes to the heart of the matter to tell us what the first African-American to win the White House means to America and the world.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Would Appreciate Your Vote If You Have a Minute TODAY
Just a quick note to ask if you have a minute or two to place a vote for me. Wednesday January 14th is the last day to vote. Preditor & Editors has a yearly competition for authors and my promotional articles and the blog are currently in 2nd place. This is the link if you would like to vote for me -
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/nonfiction.shtml
To vote - click the dot beside Book Promo 101 and then enter your name and email at the bottom of the page. You will receive an email, confirm that and your vote is complete.
This is the blog if you would like to take a look - http://promo101articles.blogspot.com/. Feel free to stick around and read some articles. I also plan to use this blog to add other promotional articles and also to post information which will be an addition to the promotional tips in Book Promo 201: Learn to Promote Using Web 2.0 which I hope will be out later this winter. Trust me, you will hear about the release when its ready to order.
Thank you very much to everyone that takes the time to vote for me :)
Nikki Leigh
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/nonfiction.shtml
To vote - click the dot beside Book Promo 101 and then enter your name and email at the bottom of the page. You will receive an email, confirm that and your vote is complete.
This is the blog if you would like to take a look - http://promo101articles.blogspot.com/. Feel free to stick around and read some articles. I also plan to use this blog to add other promotional articles and also to post information which will be an addition to the promotional tips in Book Promo 201: Learn to Promote Using Web 2.0 which I hope will be out later this winter. Trust me, you will hear about the release when its ready to order.
Thank you very much to everyone that takes the time to vote for me :)
Nikki Leigh
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
BREAKING NEWS - How Obama Won is Now Ready to Ship
The first shipment of the print copies of How Obama Won just arrived this afternoon and they are still cold from being in the UPS truck - its cold in Virginia today.
We have an ebook available to people around the world (emailed one to Germany this morning) and we have books ready to ship throughout the US and to Canada. For more information and to place your order now - visit
Obama - Print Book Shipped within the continental US
http://nikkileigh.plimus.com/jsp/buynow.jsp?contractId=2174946
Obama - Print Book Shipped to Canada
http://nikkileigh.plimus.com/jsp/buynow.jsp?contractId=2241948
Obama - Ebook to be emailed around the world
http://nikkileigh.plimus.com/jsp/buynow.jsp?contractId=2174906
Please contact us with any questions -- here or at howobamawon@gmail.com
For more details about the book and to read several excerpts, visit http://learnhowobamawon.blogspot.com/2008/12/excerpts-from-how-obama-won.html
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