Guest Blog & Contest with Jackie Gamber

I have two author guests this week and I have to admit I don't really know either of them that well. However there are hundreds if not thousands of authors out there who are brilliant writers that I will never hear of who contribute to the the Paranormal and Fantasy genres. So now and again I like hosting someone new here on Amberkatze's Book Blog and hope that my readers will come across an author they would have never read if it wasn't for their appearance here.

My first guest is Jackie Gamber and her book Redheart, the first in her Leland Dragon Series is available in hardcover, trade, and eBook format.

Enjoy Jackie's guest blog and make sure you check out her books. Maybe they will appeal to you and Jackie will get some new readers! Also make sure you enter the contest. Jackie has put together an amazing prize package which includes a copy of her book, Redheart.

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What in the World Am I Doing?

By Jackie Gamber, Author of Redheart


I’m a writer. Which means I’m an artist, and words are my medium. As a painter takes oils or watercolors, and expresses her world through the end of her brush, or as a musician combines this note with that one to convey his world through his instrument, I use verbs and adjectives to articulate my world into my stories.

Some days, I wake up, put my feet on the floor, and smile. I am living my dream job, my great calling. My medium is ready and waiting, and all I have to do is plunge my hands into it. Those are the best days.

They are usually the days when my tablecloth is freshly cleaned, the dishwasher is empty and ready to collect soiled plates, and there is no laundry on the living room chair, awaiting folding. My smiling days are when I have communed with my characters while I slept, and have awaken ready to write them. When the day is empty and ready to be filled with my words.

And then some days, I wake up, put my feet on the floor, and wonder just what in the world I am doing. I’m cranky from staying up too late (again), I have to spin the dryer once more to fluff the clothes that have been balled inside it for three days, and when I reach to make my green tea latte, I’m out of milk. All because I’ve been so busy arguing with the people in my head, wrestling to make sense of a storyline, and trying to wring fresh words out of my dried-up brain that I’m too tired to think about chores.

Fiction is no easy task. There are rules these days (well, at least guidelines) for appealing to readers, capturing attention of publishers, and making stories resonate with “a fresh, new angle”. Being relevant. The next big thing. Fiction is no longer (if it ever was) a simple act of storytelling.

One of my most difficult challenges, being the artsy, eccentric, gypsy soul that I am, is managing the pressure of the “have-to”s. Those business aspects to the industry that are deadlines, starred reviews, and sell-through. The shaking of the right hands, the collecting the right business cards, the making of the right connections. Add all that left-brain anxiety to my over-taxed right brain language centers, and let me tell you. It can all add up to one heckuva dreary wake-up call.

But whether I climb out of bed smiling, or I roll out of bed with a groan, I’m never quite sure which day will be the day. The one where the words fall into place, settle themselves onto a page, and sing. The day when I realize I’m not just writing a character, I’m writing a reader who is going to see herself in my story, or who will know those words are meant for him, or who will just, for one moment, forget her own life story and will live in mine.

That day when I know I nailed it.

That’s why I’m a writer. Because on those days, I know I could never be anything else, could never live anything else. Those blissful, surprising days are the ones that again remind me: oh, yeah. It’s this.

This, in the world, is what I am doing.

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Jackie Gamber is an award-winning freelance editor, as well as award-winning author of the fantasy novel Redheart, available now through Seventh Star Press and ebook at a special rate of $1.99!

A veteran of the USAF, she is now, among other things, a rosarian, a professional BookTaster, and an avid believer in imagination. Visit Jackie and her BookTastings on the world wide web

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Contest Time

If you are a dragon love then you will love this prize package! The winner of this weeks contest will get a softcover copy of the Redheart, full size poster, book marks, set of 5X7 prints and set of 3 magnets! All that is open to international entries as well!

How To Enter


Do you have a favourite dragon? It could be from a cartoon, book or movie. It will be interesting to see which dragons you all mention! ;)


No answer = No Entry


Earn more entries for each link you place about this contest on the net. You can post on Facebook, Twitter & MySpace but make sure you add links here for me to confirm your entries! However please do not make individual postings for each entry. Please post all your entries in one post.

Advertise Amberkatze's Book Blog on your site and get an extra entry for this and every other contest!

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You can also earn extra entries by emailing your friends about the contest. Just make sure you send a copy of your email or receipt to me at Amberkatzes_book_blog at gmx dot net.

Make sure you post your links here so I can confirm your entries.

Keep the contests going by using the Bookdepository.com and Amazon.com links/Banners below and around the site!





The contest will stay open until Sunday 22nd of May 2011 4pm CET and the winner will be picked by a randomizer. Entrants should check back to see if they have won. I do not hunt down winners and will pick new winners for any prizes not claimed within 7 days.