choices made

My experiences leading to the publication of my novels - Choices Made: The Street Years and Choices Made: Fathers and Sons - for sale now at WWW.ChoicesMade.com. This is something I never even dreamt of and it's happening.

Name:
Location: Wisconsin, United States

Always enjoy trying new things and when I find a new interest, I tend to immerse myself in it.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

What does it take to be a Best Seller

Hi:
Well, just listened to 1.5 hours of a pat it on your back club. I tuned into an audio seminar about how to market your book and they were very enthusiastic about what they had done for each other. So, it all comes down to the bottom line hoping you will hire them. The fact of the matter is that all the marketing in the world doesn't matter if people aren't talking about your book. If one person said, "Have you read Chris' new book - Choices Made: Fathers and Sons" and "I picked it up on Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com", I would be a best selling author.

It's a known fact that word of mouth has more to do with sales than any amount of newprint. I know why the people in the audio conference were repeating their titles over and over - it sticks in your mind and soon you are on-line buying. Well, I wrote Choices Made: The Street Years and trudged through trying to get reviews at all the right places but being self-published, there are very few who will even take you seriously. Those who read the book gave me 5 stars and that did include a professional reviewer. Those who picked up Choices Made: Fathers and Sons are all waiting for Book 3 - Choices Made: Missouri or Misery. So, can you guess my website? http://www.choicesmade.com/ Stop in and shop for the book or if you want to remain anonymous - go to Amazon and buy it there. I would love to have you pick up a copy and review it. I want to hear what you have to say.

I am working hard on Choices Made: Missouri or Misery and am excited about all the challenges Jamy faces. Sometimes his tough guy nature and the hatred for what happened to him comes out in the form of vengence and that's the part I'm writing now. The question is how far will vengence take him???
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HERE'S THE FIRST DRAFT OF THE PROLOGUE FOR BOOK 3:
We met Jamy Chance MacGregor at his mother’s funeral in, Choices Made: The Street Years, when, at just fifteen, Jamy, in a decision based on emotional trauma and lies, ran from the foster care system in an attempt to find his biological father.

After a harrowing night on the streets, and becoming a victim of a vicious sexual attack, Jamy no longer held the idea that his father would want him and succumbed to the ravages of street life. A victim of repeated rapes and abuse, he fought with the history of his own genteel upbringing and his new life in a violent world as to what was right, and wrong. Even as his dead mother’s warnings echoed in his mind, he placed the needle to his arm as a heroin addict who soon became Street Lord, the local dealer; and head of the largest gang in St. Louis, the Forty-second Street Gang.

Time, and a new life in the birth of his son when only sixteen, pushed Jamy deeper into trouble with his becoming the favorite dealer and party-boy for the head of the St. Louis syndicate, the Drug Lord, Mr. Granges; but that same child reawakened a remembrance of a peaceful life and his yearning to bring up his son in a non-violent world prompted Jamy to gather his strength and turn his back on the Forty-second Street Gang, and Granges.

An aspiring artist, he used his talent in his quest for help. Isaac Sands, Professor of Art at the local university, and Gene Bradley, the owner of a popular art supply store, opened their arms to Jamy and his young family. Syl Anderson also wanted to help but Jamy’s life as a Street Lord conflicted with his own as a Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drug (BNDD) undercover agent. As their worlds collided and intermingled, Jamy found his chance to escape in a blood-bath that nearly left him dead.

With his body slowly healing, we moved along with Jamy in, Choices Made: Fathers and Sons, where we found him struggling with his past as he ventured into a future in the hometown of his biological father. Leaving his child, JamyNick, and best friend, Nick, behind with his friends Isaac and Gene, Jamy entered the Witness Protection Program managed by Syl Anderson and a man Jamy had grown to hate, his stepfather, Paul Linders, who he believed abandoned he and his mother during her illness for the sake of his job.

In the chasm of his emotions, he struggled, feeling abandoned and lost. In St. Louis lived his son, his friends, and his stepfather. In Juxton, Missouri, lived the man he believed to be his biological father, James MacGregor, and his hoped for future.

Though he found friendship in Sam MacGregor, Sheriff of Juxton and his caretaker while in the Witness Protection Program, his dream of family pushed him into a confrontation with James who violently denied him and, unknowingly sent Granges and his murderers to Jamy’s home.

A bloody narrow escape and his forced return to St. Louis by the BNDD, brought Jamy to a joyous reunion with his son, JamyNick, but also found him situated in the home of his step-father which opened wounds of what his life would have been had the man not turned his back on them. Confrontations between Jamy, his past, and Paul, who was also an agent with the BNDD, kept the wounds raw as Jamy teetered on an emotional brink during his testimony at the murder and drug dealing trial of Granges. His artistic renderings brought forth in the trial revealed his life as a dealer, addict and prostitute which only enforced Paul’s anger against what Jamy had become and in the skewed belief that Jamy would not be a good father for JamyNick, he took his son from him.

Realizing what his testimony had done to any possible future with either his father or step-father and the subsequent abandonment by his friends, Jamy reached out to a total stranger who had mysteriously appeared during the trial and claimed to be his father’s black-sheep brother, Ian MacGregor. Snatching at any glimmer of hope, Jamy with Ian, rescued JamyNick from his intended future where betrayals had shrouded the child in a cloak of confusion.

Not trusting Ian, but desperate, Jamy followed his lead to a secluded cabin in the Pristine Forest located on MacGregor Land, back in Juxton. Spending time away from the demands of his past, Jamy’s body healed and his physical strength grew. Learning of his family’s history and the truth of his birth began the slow process of emotional healing. As time edged forward, not all his questions could be answered at the cabin and his dream of becoming an artist and his youth propelled him away from all that he had known. Traveling with JamyNick and his Uncle Ian to Paris, France, and taking on the new name of CeCe Chaumbers, Jamy left Missouri or, as he pronounced it, Misery, behind, or did he?
Does Jamy revert to his dark past or does his dream propel him to a bright future. Follow me now as we join Jamy, in Choices Made: Missouri or Misery.
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Get Choices Made: The Street Years and get to know Jamy, follow him in Choices Made:Fathers and Sons and see what his family does to his dreams. Get Ready for the next!!! In the meantime, I challenge you to send the link to my site to all of your friends and tell them to pick up a copy of a great cliff hanger!!