Veterans to Benefit from Authors' Benevolence

Howdy!  Anyone who has read our books knows that our stories are based in Houston, Texas and feature military veterans.  It came to my attention today that a group of authors will be doing a #booksigningevent in Houston on 16 August 2014. There are other events as well including an author panel on 15 August 2014.  All events will be taking place at VFW Post 8790 which will be receiving the benefits. For details on times, events, and places visit here. As you can see below if you sign up by

Close Call and Booktastik Are Going Concerns

My friend, Dionne Lister, brought up many valid points regarding

Writers' Roundup

Y'all remember I mentioned an upcoming event? Well partner, I think it's about time I tell you more about it.

Project Revealed

I've been saying for months that we've been working on a special project. Today, I am able to reveal it. First, I have to thank my friend, Mark Wilcox, for inspiring it. Originally, it was to be a Short Story to entice readers. However, as with everything that David and I start, it grew bigger and became a novella.

Yesterday, I mentioned that we had a contract for a graphic artist to do book one, Call Sign: Wrecking Crew (Storm Warning). Since Grindhouse Media took on that challenge, the decision was made to have the graphic artist do this project. Ms. Ellie Bockert Augsburger, owner of Creative Digital Studios, did a most excellent job. I feel compelled to mention that she had great ideas for Storm Warning. When asked to switch, she did so with ease, for this and many other reasons, I highly recommend her. In addition to cover art, she does graphic designs for businesses. She did a silhouette of an eagle similar to the one on Call Sign: Wrecking Crew (Wings of Eagles) for our business logo. 
  
One of our early thoughts for the book cover was to incorporate all the Special Forces' emblems. Ellie asked if Wrecking Crew had one, I asked David and he said why yes they do and it just so happens to match the one for our logo. Knowing this, you'll understand the centerpiece of the cover art.

The title of the novella is:

Genesis - Call Sign: Wrecking Crew Slice of Life

The reader comes into the Operations Center and is treated to the evening's festivities. As with any family gathering, someone says something that irritates another. Eventually the group goes down memory lane and the reader learns more about how the Wrecking Crew was formed as well as glimpses into their personal lives. 

Have I piqued your interest?  If so, you can find the eBook exclusively on Amazon Kindle. Print book is due out hopefully later this week. 

Available exclusively on Amazon 

I also want to mention that I was inspired by Chris Almeida and Cecilia Aubrey's Bytes of Life series. It is my dream that we come up with more Slice of Life stories to share with our readers. 

By the way, remember I mentioned an upcoming book signing? I'll fill you in more on that as I firm up the details. I can tell you this much, all three books will be available to be personally autographed and purchased. 

Have a great one,

Lynn Hallbrooks
Author/Owner
David McKoy
Author/Owner
Call Sign Wrecking Crew, LLC

Realization of a Dream

Have you ever felt like you needed something but weren't quite sure what it was. You go on with your day but it keeps working at you from the back of your brain. Gradually it works its way to the surface, then you go, "Aha! That's what it was I wanted".  That's how it was with me and the book cover for Call Sign: Wrecking Crew (Storm Warning). Dick Black (someone I know and love) and I tried to put something together on Adobe Illustrator.  The result was our first cover art.

Dick Black and Lynn

C.W. Johnson 

After a couple of months, some kind-hearted people pointed out the error of my ways. C.W. Johnson was kind enough to put something better together for us. That one remained the cover art for almost three years. 

The latter part of 2013, the niggling feeling that I'd been having final came forward. The cover art for the print book was not working for us, it was working against us.

Trade Soft cover

I started talking to David about this. I knew we didn't really have the money but the adage, 'it takes money to make money' came out of my mouth. I know David works really hard to support our business, he always has, so I didn't really push the idea full force. 

Around Christmas time, David gets a book that changed his life, I Declare... by Joel Osteen. One day, reading that book, he got a God Vision. In it, he was told that our book would get in to a prominent person's hands. About that same time, I saw a message from a moderator on Goodreads for an up and coming graphic artist.  I got some cost estimates from her and told David. He said go ahead and get the contract started. While we were waiting for our corporate lawyer to review the contracts, I see an opportunity for a book signing nearby. The catch was there were only two tables left. I inquired and sure enough there was a table left so I grabbed it. When I told David what I had done, he wasn't mad, he was actually happy, that's when he told me about his vision.

Meantime, we are still waiting on corporate lawyer, who was really busy. David's friend heard about our dilemma and offered a solution. He read the contract for us, then he asked what we envisioned for it. We told him. He knew a guy who was able to put our vision or as I call it our dream into reality. The result being our latest book cover by Grindhouse Media.

Latest by Grindhouse Media

As usual, there are technical glitches which we hope to have resolved soon but I thought I'd share our new cover art with you, today. Tomorrow, I'll share the other part of this dream.

Until then, have a great one!

Lynn Hallbrooks

Owner/Author

David McKoy

Owner/Author 

Helping Debut Author help Aspiring Authors

Click here to see this book on Amazon

Deena Rae Schoenfeldt has been a friend to authors for many years.  She has helped many an author format their eBooks with her own brand of magic. In her debut book, Navigating the World of E-Book Publishing, she tells about her beginnings and the things she has learned along the way. 

She gives sage advice which can be appropriate not only for the aspiring author - set to take the writing world by storm - but also for those of us who have published before.  

Please don't skip the introduction - that's where you'll get to know a little about her and how she came to write this book. As an added bonus you'll get to see some of her magic in action. 



Here's more about Deena in her own words. 

E-BookBuilders is my online alias. I was born and raised in Texas — home of bluebonnets, boots, beef and big hair — into a family that was in the printing and publishing industries. My father was a computer programmer for major newspapers when the equipment took up whole rooms and my mother has been a publisher for almost 30 years — trying, unsuccessfully, to bring me into the family business. I have been told I am a second-generation genetically perfected super-nerd.

http://www.e-bookbuilders.com/

I was happily living my life, having three genetically perfected super-nerds myself, but then through a series of events (unfortunate and fortunate), I officially joined The Book Connection — my mother’s publishing and packaging company — as the Digital Director, to create the e-publishing division in 2011. My computer skills, willingness to help authors, love of literature, no-nonsense attitude and quick wit has helped shepherd many authors through the maze of digital publishing.
Through my work with E-BookBuilders, I have been able to meet authors and writers from all over the world and in every genre imaginable. My wit, obscure sense of humor, awareness of the absurd, and a love of literature all which led to the creation of Bluebonnets, Bagpipes and Books, the NSFW publishing discussion podcast I produce and host with Janet Wrenn and Peter Burnett. My no-nonsense attitude makes for some hilarious discussions and plenty of “Oh my God, did she really just say that?” moments. Sometimes it is as if there is no filter between my brain and mouth. But if I like you I try to be nice – sometimes. I also have a safe-for-everyone author interview show, B3‘s Bookworm. You can find me most hours of everyday attached to my computer either researching, tweeting on the 6 accounts I maintain, posting on my different Facebook timelines and pages, coding e-books for my fabulous friends/clients or with my nose buried in my Kindle reading.

By the way, I was privy to a version of this book prior to it being finalized.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it all came together. 

If you are wondering what happened to that podcast with Deena Rae in December, well let's just say we are going to try for third time's the charm. 

Hope y'all are having a great one!

Lynn Hallbrooks

co-author to David McKoy

co-owner of Call Sign Wrecking Crew, LLC

Connections and Timing

The other night, I got on to Facebook to share a limited time offer with a friend.  That moment I took to help one friend gave me an opportunity to help and support other author friends, including Josh Cook. For those that don't know, Josh helps run the Free Book Dude website.  This site sponsors many GiveAways and this month our books are among them. It is simple to enter to win book packages, just log into Facebook and follow Josh's gameplan:  a Rafflecopter giveaway Rafflecopter - Giveaway :) www.rafflecopter.com

"Bestsellers"

Lynn Hallbrooks
co-owner of Call Sign Wrecking Crew LLC with David McKoy
co-author of Call Sign: Wrecking Crew series with David McKoy
author of Many Is the Dream 

You can find our books available for sale on any of our websites: 

http://www.callsignwreckingcrew.com

http://cswcwingsofeagles.homestead.com/

http://lynnhallbrooks.homestead.com/