The Little Things Community

Look Whose Demon Is Talking Now

Page Ansley is the only person who can to put a stop to the ritualistic killing of people in Louisiana; however, her own demon possession makes the task even more difficult.

Littleton, Co. SM Blooding has written her first novel Demons are Jackasses to prove to herself that she can conquer her own demons.

Page the demon talker is the only one who can stop a series of mysterious killings in Louisiana because of her vast knowledge of the occult. Page is in fact herself possessed by an evil demon, which makes her a perfect fit to solve the murders. However, after the Demon is exercised her demon talking ability is compromised, any demon is a 100ft radius is drawn to her now.

However, Page’s own possession complicates the challenge. She comes across the snarky, sexy demon fighter, Dex. Dex has given himself the task for helping her. Why? Because she’s in a lot of trouble, and cant solve this murder case alone.

To save Dex, fight the demon, stop the murders and find her way back home and find her self, Page must see if she is willing to give up something that holds everything together.

SM enjoys photography, learning new musical instruments and new languages. She hopes that after reading Demons are Jackasses, her readers will have the courage to face their own demons.

For more information about Demons are Jackasses visit: http://www.smblooding.webs.com/

For Review Copies or interview requests, please contact:
Caroline Elsea
The Little Things Publishing, LLC
Tel: (248) 515-3029
Email: caroline@tltpublishing.com
(When requesting a review copy, please provide a street address)

The completion of the Harry Potter series has left a Snitch-sized hole in the hearts of his fans and publishers (as well as the film industry) are itching to fill it. An article in the Wall Street Journal suggests that the “next big thing” has already been discovered.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is the story of two young circus magicians who fall in love. It sounds like an exciting read… but the next Harry Potter? We’re skeptical.

What’s more interesting is the WSJ’s observation that “Booksellers that have been hard hit by the recession and the digital revolution have seized on “The Night Circus” as a potential cure for lackluster sales in a post-Harry Potter world. To nurture a new fan base, bookstores across the country are planning publication-day parties that resemble big-budget film premieres. Some are bringing in magicians, jugglers and stilt walkers and serving popcorn, cider, candied apples and other carnival fare to re-create the atmosphere of the book.”

We LOVE this idea and we really try to push our publicists to work with bookstores and other venues to set up author events like those that are being planned for The Night Circus. If you have any ideas about how we can make our own book signing events and launch parties more like Hollywood film release galas, we’d love to hear them. Post in the comments, tweet us… you know what to do.

Detail from "It's a Great Day, Depending on the Outcome" by Matt Maniscalco

While reading an article in The Age, an Australian news outlet, today (what do you do in YOUR spare time?), I stumbled across this quote: “Painters and authors once worked closely to create memorable book covers and there is a push to re-establish the tradition.”

How exciting is that?! The article provides a brief history of the book jacket as a work of art.

At TLT, as usual, we are ahead of the game. We hire artists to work with our authors and our art director, Matt Maniscalco to create stunning pieces to capture the moods evoked by our novels. We value the book jackets as much as we value the words inside the books. The covers have a major influence on a reader’s decision to purchase a book, and even more importantly on his or her state-of-mind while reading the book. Not something to be taken lightly.

Fortunately, we have Matt to create a number of our covers, maintain our “artistic vision” and keep all of our other designers in line. They’re kind of an unruly bunch. Matt comes to us with an awesome portfolio of his artistic and design work. He has participated in a variety of shows in the Black Cloud Gallery in Chicago. He will travel to Michigan in a few weeks to display his painting (detail shown on the left) that depicts endangered animals. Matt has also designed logos for a number of local businesses and is currently working on a large mural at the Harty Boy’s Restaurant’s outdoor patio. In his spare time, he travels the world in a sailboat and slays wild beasts (after he paints portraits of them). And as one of the only dudes on our estrogen-charged TLT team, we’re just going to go ahead and admit it. We all have work crushes on you, Matt. You rock our socks off… in a strictly professional sense.

If you’d like to talk to Matt more about his artwork (most of it is for sale), feel free to shoot him an email at matt@tltpublishing.com.

Also, we’d love to hear your feedback on the cover work that we’ve produced thus far. You can see jackets for all of our books HERE. Which one is your favorite?

JD Gordon never thought that he would end up a writer. He says that in school he was always the guy in the back of the classroom avoiding the teacher’s gaze so he wouldn’t have to answer questions.

Gordon was a professional ?re?ghter and paramedic for 14 years. When he injured his knee and needed to take six months off to recover, his fellow ?re?ghters asked him what he was going to do during his time off. He jokingly replied that he was going to write a book. When his friends laughed at him, he felt challenged and decided to sit down and write out his ?rst novel.

Gordon is now retired due to injuries sustained in the line of duty. He has written ?ve other books and describes his current role as a full-time mister mom. He cares for his wife and two children- a son who is six and an eight-year-old daughter who is currently having her own book published, as well.

Gordon also umpires high school and travel league baseball during both the spring and summer. He is a member of the International Association of Fire?ghters and is on the Board of Directors for the Chicago Writers Association.

About JD’s Charity:

Keeping in touch with his paramedic roots, Gordon has chosen to support Paramedics For Children. He will dedicate a page at the end of Dartboard to help raise awareness for the charity. PFC cares for nutritionally deficient children in Guatemala and Honduras. They have also provided school supplies for 2,000 children in the 25 high mountain schools of Copan Valley.

Our first book signing for our first 2011 release is around the corner!  Come be part of history and get an autographed copy of Melissa Buell’s The Seventh Blessing on August 20th, from 3:00- 5:00.  Not only is the book turning into a cult read, but who wouldn’t want to meet a woman who has more books than bookshelves, quotes Dr. Suess, and wears pink polka-dot rainboots?  Honestly.

Come pop in (or take a plane) to:

Book Carnival
348 S. Tustin Avenue
Orange, CA 92866

We hope to see you there!

 After many quite impressive submissions, Melissa Buell has finally (with some difficulty) chosen a winner for her The Seventh Blessing Trailor Contest!

May we award Julia Castillo with the prize, beating out many other worthy competitors and blowing our socks thoroughly off.

Watch her trailor here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2Putk-xOKg, and go to the TLT Youtube channel to see everyone else’s submissions. 

 Her prize is a signed autograph copy of The Seventh Blessing, which we’re sure she’ll place on her fireplace mantel.  Congrats!

Today is our amazing CEO’s, Randi Ertz’s, birthday!  Not only has she built her own publishing house from the ground up this year, but has also written her first novel The Chosen Historian.  Busy busy couple of twelve months eh?  We expect she’ll be accomplishing bigger and badder things yet. 

Now fellow followers, fans, and friends- we wish we could share this cake with all of you (even though it’d be a sliver each), but while you’re here wish Randi a happy happy birthday! Kinda like signing a birthday card : )

Ok, so maybe it's a butterfly... we never claimed to be scientists!

What are you doing tomorrow night? Wanna come hang with the coolest publishing company crew around? We will all be at Martyrs’ (3855 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago) for the monthly “Moth” story slam. It’s a really cool event that started in NYC- instead of authors slamming their poetry, people get up and tell 3-5 minute personal stories based on a theme (so no beret or finger-snapping required). This month’s topic is “fireworks.”

Check out The Moth podcast!

Doors open at 6pm and the show starts at 8pm. Tickets are $8 at the door. We recommend getting there early to guarantee a seat and to grab a drink (or two) with us before the show. Yes, we know it’s a Tuesday…

Fairies… enchantments…a kick ass princess that does more than spin around in ball gowns?  Yes please.  While our craze for the Gymandrol series is reaching slightly obsessive heights (thank God there’s going to be more books), what we’re really getting interested in is the author behind the pages.  Clever, insightful, and a self-proclaimed nerd- Melissa Buell is an author we had fun getting to know.  Learn more about Princess Samantha and her author by stalking her blog here http://bit.ly/nOtrH5

(Disclaimer: we are not responsible for the massive amounts of time you’ll lose being sucked into this blog)

To pre-order The Seventh Blessing (and get 30% off, you’re welcome) click here: http://bit.ly/rhsBrf

By now, you’ve probably all heard the news. Borders is going out of business. For good. All of their remaining stores will close their doors and thousands of jobs will be lost. This is a big hit for the publishing industry, but not one that was completely unforeseen. Borders was too late to jump on the ebook bandwagon and it’s ereader just couldn’t stack up to the Kindle or Barnes and Noble’s Nook. Even though they caught the trend in time, the future is still looking kinda shaky for B&N.

Here’s an article from the International Business Times about the effect that the collapse of Borders will have on the other industry giant.

The final line of the article is dismal. “Ultimately unless Barnes & Noble can find a new, innovative way to start selling hordes of books in those major stores, it would be wise to finally sell to a willing buyer.”

We at TLT like to stay positive and focus on the solution, rather than the problem. What do you think Barnes & Noble should do? When was the last time you bought a book from one of their stores? Be honest. I can’t remember the last time I did and I used to work at one!

I worked at the largest store in the Chicagoland area during the holiday season two years ago to learn more about the retail process. Now, I’m no retail expert. I can tell you what you need to know about how to set up an author event or the best way to identify your target audience, but throw last quarter’s sales numbers at me and it’s likely that my eyes will cross and I’ll start drooling. However, even I know that when the managers are walking around with grim expressions and lunchroom bulletin boards are plastered with unfulfilled sales goals at CHRISTMAS, things are pretty bad.

Fortunately, I no longer work for B&N, but my heart does go out for the thousands of people who may lose their jobs if the company is sold or, God forbid, goes under. Let’s help these folks out. They sell our books and host our events, and I think that if they keep their minds open to change, all is not lost.

What ideas do you have that may help Barnes & Noble (and brick and mortar bookstores everywhere) avoid collapse? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below!