I’ve finished my tour of the blogosphere! It’s been a fun, if pretty tiring, few weeks. Here’s the last third of my journey, so you can catch up on any of my posts you missed.

You can also hop back and read the list of April’s posts and the first part of May. If you want all the posts as one simple list, plus a bit of explanation about the tour, that’s here.

The links to my guest posts below will open in a new tab/window, so you don’t lose your place here.

Tuesday 15th May – Connection Revolution (Pace & Kyeli Smith)

Write From the Heart and Find Your Voice

Pace and Kyeli are two of the loveliest people in the blogosphere. Their blog, Connection Revolution, is all about changing the world, whether that’s for one person or on a grander scale. I was thrilled to score an interview with them for Aliventures, all about changing the world with your writing, which you can listen to here. In my post, I covered a topic that all writers face … finding your voice.

Voice is that hard-to-pin-down quality that makes your writing come alive. It’s not something you can impose on your writing (though you can practice using different voices). It needs to come from who you are – from the heart.

(Read more…)

Wednesday 16th May – Day-Timer (Jeff Doubek)

Stress-Free Writing: How to Finish Your Essays and Projects Before Your Deadline

The Day-Timer blog is a companion to Day-Timer’s tools and apps, which help you plan things and check your tasks and calendars on the go. Jeff came to me with a great topic suggestion (which was very welcomed, because planning the tour took up a lot of brain-power)! Although I don’t talk much about academic writing here on Aliventures, I’ve done my share of years in university … and I had lots of deadline-meeting tips to share.

Have you ever forgotten an essay, or found that you had much less time than you realized? If you’re badly organized, you virtually guarantee that you’ll be stressed out trying to meet your deadlines.

(Read more…)

Thursday 17th May – Cheryl Reif Writes

How a Virtual Book Tour Can Help You Publicize Your Book

Cheryl not only waited patiently for her post (since I was blogging about virtual tours, I wanted to leave writing it till I was well underway!) … she also wrote a lovely review of Lycopolis on Amazon. (Thanks, Cheryl!) Her blog is packed with great advice for fiction writers: check out the links in her sidebar, too, to lots of useful resources and other writing-bloggers.

A virtual book tour has many of the benefits of a live book tour … without all the travel. Instead of going from town to town, doing talks, readings, or signings in book stores, you go from blog to blog, sharing useful information in the form of a guest post or interview.

(Read more…)

Friday 18th May – Creativity Ninja

Ten Ways to Ensure No One Will Ever Read Your Novel

I had a lot of fun writing this post, as you can probably tell…! Dave, who runs Creativity Ninja, is one of the loveliest guys I know. When I went out to LA for BlogWorld last November, he took me out to dinner, and drove me to Venice Beach the Observatory … I was so grateful for his kindness and hospitality. (My husband Paul may or may not have him on a hit list now. ;-)) Dave has just relaunched Creativity Ninja after a break, and I highly recommend checking it out.

Any idiot can write a bestseller. It’s more of a challenge, surely, to write a unique, obscure, novel that no-one ever reads. Maybe a century or two after your (artistically tragic) death, someone will discover it and realize your true genius.

(Read more…)

Monday 21st May The Lyon’s Tale

Why Editing Matters and How to Stay Motivated to Do It Well

I got really stuck into writing this post for Annette … so much so, that once I’d finished, my brain clearly packed in. I left it sitting on my hard drive for two weeks (whoops). Annette very graciously took it anyway! She’s an award-winning novelist, and has a site packed with great articles, well worth checking out. In my post, I covered editing from the motivation side … I know many writers find it tough to face yet another draft.

If the creative bit of writing is what excites you—seeing a blank page fill up with new words and thoughts—then editing may feel uninspiring. You may be very tempted to just call it “done” and publish your blog post or send off your book manuscript as-is. But here’s why editing matters…

(Read more…)

And… that’s the lot! It’s been an action-packed tour, and I hope you get the chance to dig into some of the posts.

All this has been to help promote my supernatural thriller / contemporary fantasy novel Lycopolis, which has a dedicated website over here where you can find out more, download a free sample, or read the prequel short stories.

If you have a book-related blog and might be interested in a review copy of Lycopolis, you can download the information sheet here (pdf) or just contact me at ali@aliventures.com for more details. 🙂