Snippet Sunday

Weekend Writing Warriors





On Snippet Sunday, authors from a variety of genres post snippets from a work in progress, a recently published work, or a soon-to-be released novel. The snippets are fun to read and a great way to discover new authors.
Check out the link  www.wewriwa.com

Chocolate Couture 

Lily accepts an invitation to the grand opening for Noah's restaurant.

Snippet

   “It’s a welcome to the neighborhood gift.” Maybe she had been a bit too presumptuous, assuming he would see her cake as the friendly gesture she had meant it to be.
    Pointing to the delicate pearls Noah said, “The cake looks like it would be more comfortable surrounded by champagne and caviar, not burgers and fries.”
    “I thought you might like to add some class to the event.” She hadn’t meant for her comment to sound so harsh.  If she hadn’t decided at the last minute to accept the invitation, she might have considered designing a more compatible cake to go with the food. Something resembling a burger, or cowboy boot, or maybe even a loud, towering, slightly trashy red velvet cake would have been more suitable.




To find out more about Chocolate Couture and the other books in my Love by Chocolate series go to my website



Snippet Sunday

Snippet Sunday

WEEKEND WRITING WARRIORS






Sunday weekend writing warriors post 8 lines of something they are writing, something they are editing, or something that is already unleashed on the public. The snippets are fun to read and a great way to discover new and exciting authors. Reading as many snippets as I can has become a Sunday routine .
Check out the link
http://www.wewriwa.com


Chocolate Couture 


Lily and Noah  discover a secret compartment in the vacant store between her pastry shop and his soon to open restaurant. A hidden letter could hold the secret to the success of each of their businesses.


Sunday Snippet

    “Don’t worry about me.” Noah shrugged. “I’m just a burger jock. I have no interest in secret compartments.” 
     She narrowed her eyes and looked up at him. “Be warned, I’ve got an arsenal of recipes that will increase my sales beyond your imagination.”
    “You have no idea what I’m imaging right now.” His confident smile and sexy voice soaked into her like her apricot rum sauce soaking into dry sponge cake. 







Visit my website for more info about Chocolate Couture and the other books in my Love by Chocolate series.

Keep life exciting, eat dessert first.



Snippet Sunday

Snippet Sunday

Weekend Writing Warriors





Sunday weekend writing warriors post 8 lines of something they are writing, something they are editing, or something that is already unleashed on the public. This is my second weekend post for Snippet Sunday.  
Check out this link and read the snippets from new and exciting authors.

Here's my snippet
Last week, pastry chef Lily Peradou discovered a man roaming the alley behind her shop.

"Why are you snooping around the alley?”
“I’ve been meaning to stop in and introduce myself.”
“Why would you want to introduce yourself?” She was strangely flattered by his interest. Perhaps he had heard about her elderflower or chocolate cherry cordial cupcakes. Her ego slipped away as she thought of the risk of speaking to a stranger in a deserted alley— especially, a handsome stranger with a charming smile.



Time for me to check out the other snippets. Last weeks snippets were exiting and thought provoking.

Check out my website for more info about the other books in my Love by Chocolate series.
www.zeldabenjamin.com

Peace, love, and chocolate.
Zelda


Discovering Twitter


 Zelda Benjamin

Where to Start

If you're Twitter savvy this blog post is not for you. There are still many people out there who just don't get the whole Twitter thing. The first thing they need to do is create a Twitter account. 

There are lots of reasons people use Twitter. I'm not a celebrity junkie so I don't follow any stars, but that could be a reason you might want to Tweet. Do you like to hear the news as soon as it happens?  Do you have a book or product you want to promote? Do you want to help your friends promote a product or book? Once you follow someone you can just click retweet and their tweet will retweet to your followers. 

Tweets

The best part of a Tweet is that it is short and sweet. Each Tweet is limited to 140 characters including punctuation and spaces. Twitter will automatically shorten any link you include. As you Tweet, the number of characters you have left appears next to the Tweet button. Did you bake a cake, review a book, or have a cover reveal? Tweet the info and include a link if you want to. No need to try and condense the entire recipe into 140 characters - just add the link.:) You can pre-schedule Tweets just like you do a blog. You can also pay Tweeting companies to put your Tweets out there. I've never done this so I can't say if it works or not. Many of my writing groups are very supportive and we retweet often. Here's one of my Tweets from this morning.

Followers

In the search box put in a name or email of someone you're interested in following. Start with mine if you'd like. My Twitter name is benjaminzelda. If you want to mention me in a tweet you would type @benjaminzelda. People will follow you, but you don't have to follow them back.

Hashtags

Words preceded by a # sign are hashtags. They are used to categorize keywords and topics. Chocolate Couture is a story that has a fashion component. I want people with a kindle, romance readers, and anyone interested in fashion to check out my book.  Step out of your comfort level and use different hashtags.

Analytical Dashboard

This is something new. Twitter is allowing you to see your Twitter activity. Don't panic if you're just getting acquainted with Twitter. You don't have to do this.  It's not on your Twitter page. You have to go to analytics.twitter.com to find the info.
What I like about this feature is that I can check to see if certain hashtags are engaged more than others. I can correlate the number of impressions and engagements with the sales number of my Montlake books on my Author Central page. Do weekends get more impressions and engagements than weekdays? Does the time of day that I Tweet make a difference?

Read Tweets to see what engages you. Which hashtags get your attention. I've found that starting my Tweet with a quote related to the subject of the book I'm promoting gets more engagement than just Tweeting the link.

Happy Tweeting.

Peace, Love, and Chocolate.
Zelda


Snippet Sunday


Weekend Writing Warriors



 Sunday authors post 8 to 10 lines of something they are writing, something they are editing, or something that is already unleashed on the public. Visit this site to read their snippets and discover some exciting new writers.    Weekend Writing Warriors



Background to my snippet

Pastry chef Lily Peradou steps into the alley behind her shop and discovers she is not the only one interested in the vacant shop next door. 

Snippet from Chocolate Couture

The man jiggled the door handle. It was locked, of course.
Maybe he was a relative of Sally’s. If he were related, she would like to talk to him and make an offer for the store. The perfect solution for her space problem was 5 Smith Street.

Dwarfed by the giant metal container, Lily felt a temporary sense of security. She used her advantage to assess the situation and the stranger. He didn’t look like a tourist. There was no sign of a camera or guidebook. He didn’t walk with a leisurely stroll of someone sightseeing. His stride was with purpose.

Hope you enjoy these snippets and follow the wonderful authors who wrote them.

Peace, Love, and Chocolate
Zelda

JELLY BEANS AND SPRING THINGS

TODAY'S FEATURED AUTHOR—MICHELLE GODARD—RICHER She's here today to celebrate the release of two new books for TWRP Jelly Beans and S...