All posts by vica

Special offer: Kindle countdown deal for “The Truth About Family” and “A Spy’s Daughter”

February 10, 2016Books I write, Marketing and Promotions, Writingvica

I’m learning currently a lot about book (and business) marketing and promotions.

The best way to learn this is, of course, by doing.

The most attractive way for the customers is (also of course) by reducing a price.

This is what I am doing for two of my books starting with February 10 and finishing on February 17, 2016.

E-book format of “The Truth About Family” and “A Spy’s Daughter” will be offered for $ 0.99 during this time.

This means that during this period of time you can get each of my books for $ 0.99 at Amazon.com, or all for $ 2.97, which a slightly less than the regular price for either “The Truth About Family” or “A Spy’s Daughter” ($ 2.99).

So, if you like reading books in e-book format, get the books and tell your friends about this deal. Don’t forget that this offer ends on February 17.

The images of the book covers will reveal to you the links to the books on Amazon.com.

A review for “A Spy’s Daughter” by an acclaimed author

February 4, 2016Books I write, Reviews, Writingvica

Réal Laplaine, author of “The Buffalo Kid: Everyone Deserves a Second Chance”, “Twilight Visitor”, “Finding Agnetha: Despite the odds ~ dreams DO come true” — which I read and highly recommend —, and many other well received books has given the following 4-star review for “A Spy’s Daughter”:

“A Spy’s Daughter, by Victoria Ichizli-Bartels, was a surprisingly thoughtful novel. At first I couldn’t tell where this novel was heading – the story seemed so simple, but as it progressed, one starts to live the world of Hannah, the spy’s daughter, and begins to feel her frustration living, if not even stranded, between two worlds, one of them largely hidden from her view. The twists come later in the story – when the ball of thread starts to unravel. The writing style is very nicely done – often touched with descriptive phraseology and metaphors. I enjoyed it and recommend the book.”

I am thrilled to get such a review from an experienced author and I am very motivated to continue my writing adventure.

Here are the descriptions and links at Amazon and CreateSpace for “A Spy’s Daughter” and “Seven Broken Pieces”, where the latter is the prequel to the series “A Life Upside Down” kicked off by “A Spy’s Daughter”.

A Spy’s Daughter: A Novella
(Book 1 in series “A Life Upside Down”)

Description:

Hannah doesn’t have a husband or a boyfriend. She doesn’t have a mother either. Her mother died long ago. But Hannah still thinks of herself as a happy person. Mostly due to her family — her father, sister and her two uncles — who love and support her. And because she has an exciting job, with great colleagues. Which is not that common in the post-Soviet Moldova. Soon their lab will have a state-of-the-art high-resolution microscope to take their research to a new level.

And she, Hannah (who thinks her name is Victoria) must go to collect this microscope from Germany. All she needs is a visa. Which could be a challenge. But she has prepared all the necessary documents to convince the authorities to issue one to her.

The day before her appointment at the German embassy, she finds out that she won’t have any issues with a travel visa, because she doesn’t need one. To her utter surprise, Hannah learns from her father that she has dual citizenship, Moldovan and American. And more surprising still is one tiny additional detail he now reveals about her mother.

That she had been an American spy.

Available at:

Amazon.com,
Amazon.de,
Amazon.co.uk, and
other Amazon sites,
as well as at CreateSpace.

Seven Broken Pieces: A Short Story
(Prequel to series “A Life Upside Down”)

Description:

Young and resolute, still suffering from her sister’s death in Vietnam, Sasha Leroy Palmer decided in the 1960’s to fight the enemy on the other side of the Iron Curtain from within. Even if this meant becoming a spy.

She convinced herself that her sister’s death was the only reason she came here. To help her home country, the one that was truly free, to fight one that wasn’t (even if it proclaimed otherwise). It was the duty of every true American citizen to resist Soviet propaganda and help weaken the force of evil. Especially since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

So why then did every letter from home, secretly passed to her by colleagues in the cause, make her feel that this hadn’t been the reason? That there was an even bigger one for her coming here.

Hadn’t she made peace and accepted her father’s decision? Was she really running away from her responsibilities, as her parents insisted? And if she was, what could make her stop running?

Surely not the man who caught her as she stumbled on a shaky trolley-bus in the capital of Soviet Moldova. Or could he?

Available at:

Amazon.com,
Amazon.de,
Amazon.co.uk, and
other Amazon sites,
as well as at CreateSpace.

“Nothing is As it Seems” Chapter 11

February 3, 2016Books I write, Free books and stories, Writing, Writing exercisesvica

Elizabeth shuffled on her feet. There, in front of her was her mother, of whom she, all her conscious life, thought was dead. And she looked almost dead now, as she sat there motionless in her chair, her face muscles atrophied after many years of not being used. Smooth and even with not trace of a wrinkle. Neither those of sadness, nor those of merriness.

Only her eyes, full of tears now, showed that she was alive. And her heavy breath, as Elizabeth started noticing. And her trembling hands.

Elizabeth searched for the pockets in her tight jeans and hooked her thumbs in them. “Um.” What should I say? Slowly and with trepidation she raised her gaze to her mother’s eyes.

Claire blinked several times. Her tears fell on her cheeks and ran down heading to her motionless neck supporting only the tiny for an adult head leaning on the headrest behind it.

Elizabeth panicked. She felt her hands raising to her waist. Shall I wipe the tears?

Claire’s eyes gazed in front of her.

Elizabeth followed her gaze, looked at the brightly lit spot on the wall, and read. “No, you don’t have to.” What? Did I say those words out loud?

Claire typed, “Yes you did. :-)”

Elizabeth turned to Claire. “Oh. I’m sorry. I just—” Then as she saw her mother typing, Elizabeth turned back to read.

“Look here at my right.” Claire’s fingers flew across the keyboard. “There is another keyboard. We can chat together. It might make things easier for you.”

Elizabeth looked and saw the second white keyboard with several brightly coloured smiley-stickers grinning in all directions from its perimeter. She noticed Claire typing again and turned to the wall to read.

“Alice, Ingrid and most visitors who make it up here find chatting with me in writing easier. Only children and Patrick talk to me directly.”

“How do they do it?” Elizabeth was surprised about her own question. She turned to Claire thinking that it was unthinkable to talk to the screen instead of her mother. Claire’s eyes smiled without producing wrinkles around them. Then they guided Elizabeth’s back to the wall.

“They do it, just like you did. They look at the screen on the wall when they talk to me. But…they sit close to me…when they do this.”

“Oh.”

“Let’s start with chatting, shall we? :-))))) Will the chair below the keyboard suit you?”

Elizabeth shook her head sideways. She needed to shake this confusion away. She turned hurriedly to her mother. “Yes, yes.” Then she walked to the chair, lifted the wireless keyboard, sat and put it on her knees. Big red sticker with words “Push here”, which she didn’t notice before directed her to the “ON” button. She pressed it and stopped. What shall I ask? Should I maybe say, no, write, something, I don’t know…nice maybe, before asking? But what?

Words on the wall appeared. “It’s OK. Let’s take it slow. I don’t think I will fall asleep for another hour. I am too excited to see you. Would you like me to tell you what happened?…To you…here?”

Elizabeth drew a deep breath and typed. “Yes, please. But before that…Before that, please tell me what happened to you…I…I don’t remember, I’m afraid. I don’t remember…you.” Tears clouded Elizabeth’s eyes and hindered her to delete what she had just typed.

Picture: Barborky cut by my son, husband and father-in-law during past winter holidays and blooming now in my parents-in-law’s living room.

P.S. Chapter 12 will be written and posted latest in two weeks time.

P.P.S. You can find the complete story written so far at “Free Online Books”.

P.P.P.S. If you think your friends might enjoy this story, then let them know about it and forward it to them.

Sharing secrets: Prequel to series “A Life Upside Down” is out, and we are going to celebrate it

January 31, 2016Books I write, Special Offers, Writingvica

A secret surprise. I’ve pressed “Submit for Publishing” twice today. Once with Kindle Direct Publishing (e-book) and once with CreateSpace (paperback).

Both for the prequel to the series “A Life Upside Down”. It is a short story and its title is “Seven Broken Pieces”.

You can find its description here or directly on Amazon.com.

The first book in the series “A Spy’s Daughter” was published shortly before Christmas.

How it feels. I’ve published “The Truth About Family” during the night and “A Spy’s Daughter” during the day. It is three o’clock in the morning as I write this, which is less than half an hour after pressing the button “Publish” or the second time today for the “Seven Broken Pieces”.

So I’ve published again during the night.

It does feel special and somehow very intimate. Just me and my book. I’d say this feels like celebrating a New Year’s Eve in an empty house or flat, alone with one’s sweetheart.

The two of us here, the rest of the world out there.

Or sleeping. Like the three sweetest people in my home right now. I’m smiling as I think about telling my family that I sent my third book for publication.

How we are going to celebrate. The digital launches are quiet, without clinking of glasses with Champaign, sharing chocolate and cake, and readings in a bookstore. But they are still very special. Particularly for the authors. So there is a wish to celebrate, to offer more surprises.

This is what I have planned already for quite some time and glad that I can finally tell you about it.

The e-book price for the “Seven Broken Pieces” will be (and remain most of the time) 0.99 $ at Amazon.com.

This was of course not the part of the celebration I meant.

Here it is: I have arranged that from February 10 to February 17 the price for “The Truth About Family” and “A Spy’s Daughter” will be set down to 0.99 $ each.

It means that in this time-frame you will be able to buy (currently) all of my three e-books (”The Truth About Family”, “A Spy’s Daughter”, and “Seven Broken Pieces”) for 2.97 $, which is less than the regular e-book price for “The Truth About Family” or “A Spy’s Daughter”, which is currently 2.99 $ each.

Right before this promotion starts, I will notify you again on this, so that you can purchase one or another of my e-books at a discounted price, if you didn’t purchase it (or them) yet, but would like to.

What I am up to now. The next project, which will see the light soon, is also a short story, which I will offer as a free e-book on my site. It is called “Between Grace and Abyss”. And of course there are few other projects in writing. But this news will come in another letter.

In the meanwhile, here is the e-book cover for my new short story

P.S. Great thanks to my brilliant cover designer, Alice Jago, for another wonderful creation for my books.

Optimist Writer’s Business News: January 2016

January 26, 2016Businessvica

Similar to this month’s writing news, also the business site of my venture was very busy since mid December.

For the business part there are two projects, which I have been pursuing in December and now in January: Resources on generic Business Rules overview and S1000D Business Rules step-by-step guide.

The generic Business Rules resource has been completed and I will start preparing it soon for publication. This means that I will self-edit it (a couple of times), send it for reading to friends and colleagues, who also deal in their life with business rules and maybe also someone who doesn’t know about business rules but would like to.

A call-out here to you, who is new to business rules but you are whether also a business owner or responsible for a project or product in your organization and need an overview of a product life-cycle and also of business processes around it. Then you might be interested to beta-read my Business Rules book. Beta-reading means that you would read an early copy of it and provide comments for its improvements. What’s in it for you? You’ll learn a lot, of both what is there, but also by analyzing the content in the book you will gain practical skills on business rules definitions, since their definition is nothing else but analysis, structuring and content generation, all mixed up together. And there is a little something extra. I usually send a signed paperback copy of my book as a thank you gift to my beta-readers and all other who actively participate in shaping my books. So take a look at the resource here, and if its content appeals to you and you would like to participate in beta-reading of this book, then contact me at vib@optimistwriter.com.

Due to the generic Business Rules overview being finished now in its first draft, I will focus the generation of business content on the S1000D business rules step-by-step guide. Since the last newsletter it has been already reworked twice. One change was in respect to the numbering of the links with the specification for separate BRDPs. They are not sequential anymore but show which place in the chain the given BRDP occupies. And the second change is that I started structuring the S1000D Business Rules step-by-step guide in a similar way how I structured the generic Business Rules guide. This is also a great test for the second one in action.

A lot is happening right now in publishing, teaching and marketing parts of my business, so I will reduce the frequency of blog posting again to once a week for each category: one post on writing and one post on business topics.

Before I finish, I would like to mention another resource I am planning for the nearest future. It will be a short white paper or rather a short e-book on project dis-entanglement. More precisely, a collection of questions and tips, which by answering and applying will help you to find solutions for your stagnating projects. I will offer this resource for free download on my web-site. And as subscribers to this site you will be the ones of the very first to find out about this and to receive a copy of it.

I wish you success in your endeavours and look forward to further interact with you here, through the coaching services I offer, or other ways of collaboration and communication.