The NIGHTMARE Collection Tour

Today I'm kicking off my Bookish Holiday Gift Ideas for 2012! For the month of December, I'm going to be offering up suggestions for you to share as presents with your family and friends.

Bookish Holiday Gift Idea #1: Monday Madness brings us some manic and mania with a hint of nightMARE....

A legend is hungry tonight. 

A child monster will get its first taste of blood in Nightmare at the Freak Show. Four friend will enter the forest on December night, but only one can survive in Once Upon a December Nightmare. Almost ten years after Cassie's December nightmare, the monster awakens to hunt again in Nightmare Ever After.

Publication Date: November 17, 2012

Cover art by Nicemonkey at Dreamstime.com. Cover design by Aubrie Dionne. Bookworm logo for Surrounded by Books Publishing created by Cherie Reich.

Please welcome Cherie Reich - self-proclaimed bookworm, writer, freelance editor, book blogger, and library assistant living in Virginia. Her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies. Her e-books include the horror series Nightmare, a short story collection with authors Aubrie Dionne and Lisa Rusczyk titled The Best of Raven and the Writing Desk, the futuristic space fantasy novelette trilogy Gravity, and The Foxwick Chronicles, a series of fantasy stories. She is a member of Valley Writers and the Virginia Writers Club. Visit her on her Website, Blog, Twitter, Facebook, & Goodreads.

Hi Cherie! It's great to have you on Writer's Alley. How did you begin writing?

I used to role-play and write Harry Potter fan fiction, but a character named Yssa, who was the Phoenix Prophetess, really inspired me to write. She started as a character from a Harry Potter role-playing game and involved into her own character with her own background and story in a fantasy world of her own. After three years of daydreaming about her and the other characters in the story, I had to write it.

The person who kept me writing, though, was Christine Rains. We knew each other on the Harry Potter role-playing games, and each week I would send her a chapter of The Phoenix Prophetess. Without Christine's support, I don't know if I would've kept writing.

What are your thoughts about self-promotion, author platforms, and the ever-changing publishing world?

Self-promotion is like being on Survivor. You don't want to push too hard or you'll make yourself a bigger target, and the tribe will vote you out. You don't want to do too little or the other players will think of you as a weak player and vote you out. You have to find the right balance for you. What do you enjoy doing? How do you want to portray yourself? Writers don't have to be on every single social media outlet. Find what works best for them and run with it. The key is balance and finding your niche for your author platform to work along with your self-promotion.

As for the ever-changing publishing world, it's an exciting time to be an author. We have so many more options to get our work out there in front of readers.

You mentioned social media. Let's focus on one aspect of that arena, your blog. Tell us a bit about your experience with blogging.
I started blogging on May 29, 2009 because I heard that was a good way for an author to network. I mainly blogged about my writing at first and then moved on to talking about books and helping other authors. Right now I blog mainly on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and have themed days.

I started blogging for the same reason. Thanks for joining us, Cherie, and best of luck with The Nightmare Collection!


Giveaway:

Cherie is giving away prizes to two lucky people. The prize packages are open internationally and include: a signed copy of The Nightmare Collection, a signed copy of Gravity: The Complete Trilogy, and a $10 Amazon Gift Card.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Nightmare Collection is available in ebook format at Smashwords, Amazon US, UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, JP, Nook, Nook UK, Kobo. Available in print format at Createspace, Amazon US, UK, DE, FR, ES, IT.