American Destiny by Greg Sandora

It's the steamy summer of 2016 in…
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Added by Greg Sandora on January 21, 2013 at 2:24pm —
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So what about me?
I’m me. I’m a private eye. I work alone.
I wear a fedora and a trench coat even when it’s a hundred and five in Sacramento. I pack an 11mm Marley I bought at the Archie Goodwin estate sale. I know which end the slugs come out of. But 11mm slugs? Hard to come by these days. People say I’ve got attitude. Attitude they don’t…
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Added by C. M. Albrecht on July 5, 2012 at 1:30pm —
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The twenty-first century is witnessing a new kind of modern-day slavery and bondage. This is called human trafficking. It has become a big business for the many individuals involved in this criminal act. Human trafficking, also called trafficking in persons, is one of the greatest human rights challenges of our time. The practice is present across the globe in different dimensions, such that some countries are used as sources, some as transit, and some as destinations. Trafficked victims are…
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Added by Bright Mills on February 6, 2012 at 9:02am —
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I just put together a Facebook fan page for Author Neil D. Ostroff. http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Facebook-Page-of-Author-Neil-D-Ostroff/124794694205967?sk=info
I sent out a bunch of notices through social marketing and guess what? I already have almost 2,000 likes. The internet is just amazing! Anyway, I’ve got everything in place for my winter marketing blitz. I’ve got programmers and search engine specialist listing my book sites, I’ve…
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Added by Neil D Ostroff on December 20, 2011 at 2:59pm —
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It’s done! I’ve just put money into promotion. A pretty good chunk, actually. I’m starting with Kindle Nation Daily site. I’ve done some research and heard a lot of positive things about this site and what it can do for your sales. They even have a statistics page that shows you all the books whose ranking went down after placing ads. I signed up for two campaigns. One, the bigger one, won’t start until March, which is fine because hopefully there’ll be many more Kindle owners by then. The…
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Added by Neil D Ostroff on December 16, 2011 at 9:00am —
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My brother sent me an article the other day that inspired me beyond belief. I’ll attach it at the end of this post. Basically, it’s the story of a self-published success. I know, I know, I’ve read a thousand of them, also. But this one struck me different, mainly because this author did everything I have done to market and promote with one exception. She used the pay promotion on her sites and I have not. See, I’ve been mistakenly foolish with my numbers. I was putting book sales in…
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Added by Neil D Ostroff on December 13, 2011 at 12:15pm —
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Been doing the interview thing a lot lately and I think it’s starting to pay off. Not only does my name come up more often in search engines but I’m noticing visits to my blog and website are increasing. Of course, this could also be the result of my article experiment, which I’m waiting for the final stats. Speaking of my Author’s Den website, I recently signed on with GoDaddy to build a website myself that I can update, and let me tell you, it’s not nearly as easy as they claim. I spent…
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Added by Neil D Ostroff on December 10, 2011 at 12:14pm —
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Do you know if you write a page a day that within one year you will have written a book? How many times have I heard that one? If that one book takes a year to write then the revision process would have to take many years. Truth is, writing a first draft is the easy part. I can usually belt one out in a few months. But the revision; forgetta’bout it. That’s the time consuming stuff, though I am getting better at it as I get older (and hopefully wiser). I’m also getting better as a writer.…
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Added by Neil D Ostroff on December 7, 2011 at 2:10pm —
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Hit 6,000 words today on my new novel. It's an easy and exciting write because anything can happen in a world that isn't real. I see the book getting a little deep in the philosophical area once the characters begin to realize the nature of their existences and how it all could just disappear. We'll see where the story takes me. Right now, I'm still developing characters and relationships and setting the scene for a wild ride through the possible and impossible.
…
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Added by Neil D Ostroff on December 6, 2011 at 9:06am —
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As some of you know I started a new book a few days ago. The title is IMAGINATION and it’s the wildest concept I’ve had yet. Here’s the preliminary tagline: (What if everything around us, our friends, our surroundings, the universe, what if all we experience is just a figment of someone’s imagination? And what if that someone is dying?) I’m very excited about this one as I’ve been thinking about this possibility for a long time. The book will be written in the style of one of my earlier…
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Added by Neil D Ostroff on December 5, 2011 at 11:29am —
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Okay, well… here it is. The $55 article written for me. Now,
the next step is the company will send this to three hundred article submission
services, and people, and companies looking for content. My Blog address and
Author’s Den address will be attached to the article so readers can connect
with me. I reset my site stats to zero and will closely monitor that over the
next ten days (the run I was promised). I average about twenty-five bio hits a
day on my AD site and…
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Added by Neil D Ostroff on December 1, 2011 at 4:33pm —
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It’s raining today. Drops slide down my window like translucent
snails. Water puddles in the street. Worms
tunnel up from drowning liquid and sprawl across the sidewalk. And here I sit
in front of my computer belting out another novel. I forget who said it, but I
remember a quote that summed up the writing life completely. The quote went
simply; being a writer is like having homework every day for the rest of your
life. And that’s true for the serious, passionate…
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Added by Neil D Ostroff on November 29, 2011 at 3:04pm —
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I just did something that I’ve never done before. Something
I ignorantly hoped to avoid but always knew would happen. I just paid hard
earned dough to promote my books. Well, not my books individually, but my blog
and author’s site. I signed up for two marketing ideas that I believe may
actually work. I also have a third PR person in line to do search engine
optimization. Who would have thought being a writer and selling books could get
so complicated. The first site…
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Added by Neil D Ostroff on November 27, 2011 at 1:52pm —
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Happy Thanksgiving to all! That said, I have to tell you
that since I’m in the service industry, I work every Thanksgiving. So today,
black Friday, is my day to celebrate. Oh it’ll be a hoot. Got the family coming
over, got friends of the kids stopping by, got lots of food and drink. By the
time most of you read this I’m going to be knee-deep in overindulgence. But for
now, I must write. This post is only the beginning of about two hours I’ve set
aside this morning to…
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Added by Neil D Ostroff on November 25, 2011 at 11:07am —
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Got a new book coming out next
week and I must say it’s a great feeling. Not because I finished another book,
but because I finished a book that I started writing in 1997. As I slowly weed
through more than two decades of manuscripts, there’s a certain joy that comes
each time one is finally declared “finished”. Even as I re-read the manuscript
for the thousandth time, I could still picture myself fourteen years ago,
sitting upstairs in my sweltering bedroom pumping…
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Added by Neil D Ostroff on November 21, 2011 at 3:30pm —
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I applaud Kindle and the new digital revolution for allowing
me to publish and sell my books. I’ve spent the better part of the last twenty
years writing non-stop and have accrued quite a collection. Like a diligent
author, I market and promote heavily online, but have yet to hire an actual
publicity person (that will come in time). That said, I just got my monthly
royalty statement from Kindle Direct Publishing. Now, the amount won’t allow me
to quit my job and move…
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Added by Neil D Ostroff on November 19, 2011 at 12:49pm —
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I’m sitting on the dock this morning, my fishing rod baited
with a shrimp and hoping to catch some lunch when a strange thought occurred to
me. Fishing and becoming a successful author are similar activities. Except
when you’re fishing, you use bait to catch stuff and when you’re a writer you
use your books to try and catch something, that something being an agent,
publisher, or audience. The analogy expounds even further. With fishing, the
quality of bait is directly…
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Added by Neil D Ostroff on November 5, 2011 at 3:54pm —
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As I write this I am on vacation. Yes, vacation. That magical two weeks a year when you leave your cares behind and head off into the sunset. In my case, this is Key West Florida. It’s beautiful! Right now it’s 82 degrees and sunny with low humidity. I watched the recent snowstorm in the northeast on television and thanked my lucky stars that I left Pennsylvania two days before it hit. I do write on vacation, usually in the morning before the high heat of the day sets in, but it’s not nearly…
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Added by Neil D Ostroff on November 3, 2011 at 3:53pm —
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I’ve been doing a lot of marketing/promotion lately for my
books and have come up with a “must-be-on” list for writers who want to promote
their books. These website provide free services that can really get your books
noticed. There are many other sites out there but I highly recommend you
concentrate your marketing efforts on these. Did I mention that they are…
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Added by Neil D Ostroff on October 25, 2011 at 11:11am —
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I work at a country Inn rumored to be
haunted. And I’m not just saying that. The Inn has been
written up in books about haunted places and actual ghost hunters have spent
nights trying to capture on film inhabitants of the great beyond. One of more
frequent questions I get asked by people who know the Inn’s
history is if I have ever seen anything out of the ordinary? Now, I’m at the
Inn late at night, I’ve done inventory in the “haunted” wine cellar at two in
the…
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Added by Neil D Ostroff on October 23, 2011 at 1:00pm —
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