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Showing posts with label Kimberly Rae. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kimberly Rae. Show all posts

Friday, August 23, 2013

A Taste of Friday: Stolen Woman by Kimberly Rae





Kimberly Rae
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (April 30, 2011)

 

Prologue

 
Asha shivered despite the intense heat. Why had she never considered the brutal fact that she, too, might get caught? Stolen. Sold. Bartered over like one of the pieces of blood-dripping meat in this filthy market.
Someone was following her.
Back home she would not have noticed, but weeks in India had taught her to be wary. All the noise and clamor along the busy Kolkata street could not distract from the shadow that appeared, then retreated whenever she turned to find its source.
The person following her was not very good at the game of stealth. That fact, however, did not make the predator any less dangerous. Who was it? And why was she the target?
Slipping around the nearest corner, a whisper of wind teasing her shawl out behind her, Asha dodged a wandering goat, then turned quickly down an alley to the left hoping to lose whoever was on her trail.
She was already late. But better to make Rani wait than to put her in even more danger.
If that were possible.
Could there be any danger worse than what her friend had already experienced? Sixteen-year-old Rani had traveled to the city following the promise of a well-paying job only to find herself deceived, stripped of all freedom, stolen from all that gave her dignity or hope.
Stolen and sold. Asha could not stop her body from trembling.
She flattened a shaking hand against the wall. Edging forward inch by inch, she angled her head to glimpse around the corner without revealing her face.
Was he gone?
She desperately wanted to remain where she was, clinging to the remote feeling of safety that curled around her in the small, dark corner where she hid. But how could she stay, avoiding risk, knowing that doing so would abandon a friend to the evil of the night while she remained untouched?
Asha’s whole body cringed. What a bad choice of words to think.
Mark had warned her about this. Mark. Just the thought of his lean, contoured face, muscles tensed along his jaw as he tried to convince her to keep away from the very street she was now traveling, gave Asha a sharp pain near her heart.
She should have listened. Should have asked for his advice . . . his help.
Why had she been so stubborn?
“God, help me,” she whispered. Summoning all her courage, she stood and stepped back into the alley, casting a wary eye in all directions before continuing toward the rendezvous point.
Was that Rani waiting beside the mounds of colored spices for sale?
A sudden glimpse of a following shadow stopped Asha cold. Her heartbeat shot up and she broke out in a cold sweat. She had not lost her predator after all.
A quick, desperate look left and right revealed several narrow, shadowed pathways through shanties and market stalls.
Should she run, leaving Rani to think she had not come? Should she meet Rani and quickly tell her they should go separate ways? Surely the public arena of the open marketplace would protect them as they spoke.
However, Asha knew with certainty that once they separated the predator would follow Rani, forgetting about her.
Tears stung her eyes. She took a deep breath.
She would run.
Turning to the left, she quickly chose the closest path. Three steps would carry her, and hopefully the person following after her, into a different section of the market, away from Rani’s watchful eyes.
One step. Two. Asha took one glance back at her friend, her eyes full of regret, when Rani saw her. Rani’s eyes lit up in recognition. She smiled.
Asha’s spirit groaned in defeat. Now what could she do?
She could not keep the fear and confusion from her features. She could tell the moment Rani saw it, too. It was as if Rani’s face immediately transformed from a woman holding on to a shred of hope to a child terrified of the monsters under her bed.
Or worse.
I’m so sorry. Asha wanted to say it out loud but could not get her lips to move.
When the shadow came closer then stopped only a few feet away, she closed her eyes, wishing all of it away. Wishing she could go back to that morning and change the choices that had brought her here into this web of danger and fear.
No, she would have to go farther back than that. Before meeting Rani. Before meeting Mark. Even before her arrival in India.
She would have to go back six weeks ago, to the day of her flight.  To the moments before she left home, when she kept an important truth from her parents. To the first time she decided it was okay to deceive in order to do good.
That first deceit had begun a pattern, a trail that had led her to this moment, this foolish choice to do things on her own without help.
A choice that might destroy her and the friend she wanted so desperately to help.
Waiting for the follower to approach, grab her, and possibly cart her off to a lifetime of slavery, Asha’s mind took her away from the marketplace and back, flashing scenes across her closed eyelids, rewinding through the choices she had made.
Back to the beginning.
To the day she left for India . . .
 

Kimberly Rae’s suspense/romance novels on international human trafficking and missions (Stolen Woman, Stolen Child, Stolen Future) are all Amazon bestsellers. Find out more at www.kimberlyrae.com

 

Friday, December 28, 2012

Fearless Friday! - Meet Kimberly Rae


Kimberly Rae
Author, Speaker, Former Brave Girl
www.stolenwoman.org www.stolenwoman.blogspot.com http://www.facebook.com/HumanTraffickingStolenWoman
https://twitter.com/KimberlyRae10


 

Kimberly Rae has lived in Bangladesh, Uganda, Kosovo and Indonesia. She has been published over 200 times and has work in 6 languages. Her Amazon bestselling Stolen Series on international human trafficking (see www.stolenwoman.org) has led to another series for younger teen girls. Kimberly is always contracted for a series on living with chronic health problems. Having returned to the US due to health problems, Rae now lives in North Carolina with her husband and two young children.

 

ISBN-10: 1461068932
ISBN-13: 978-1461068938

Human Trafficking…Asha knew nothing about it before meeting 16-year-old Rani, stolen from her home and forced into prostitution in Kolkata, India. Asha must help this girl escape, but Mark, a third-generation missionary, keeps warning her away from the red-light district and its workers. Will she ever discover why? And will they ever stop their intense arguments long enough to admit their even more intense feelings for one another? When Asha sneaks out one last time in a desperate attempt to rescue her friend, someone follows her through the night. Is freedom possible? Or will she, too, become one of the stolen?


Available at amazon.com, kindle, www.stolenwoman.org
 

 
 
 
Your unique talent: I sing and play the piano, and I painted a huge mural of Thomas the Tank Engine on our basement wall for our kids. =)

Share something not many people know about you: I'm afraid of flying (which is ironic, seeing how God has sent me on 18-hour flights with no stops, and to 20 countries!).

Getting to Know You:

Are you a “pet person” or prefer no pets? No pets-I have asthma.

Would you rather travel or stay at home? Love to travel (at least I did before I got sick)

Do you read more or write more? These days I write more because with 2 young kids I don't have time to do both! But I used to definitely read more.

Prefer cake or pie? Cake--CHOCOLATE!!!

Would, or do, ride a motorcycle or prefer to ride/drive a car? Car. I rode the back of a motorcycle side-saddle once in Thailand. That was enough for me!

Bus or taxi or walk? Bus, unless it's a short walk.

Are you part of a big church congregation or a small church? Small church

Do you like to telephone people or prefer to use e-mail? Definitely e-mail.

Are you happy or joyful? I like to be both!

Do you eat at home or eat out? Both, but if I had more money, I'd eat out more. =)

Listen to music or prefer quiet? Music, definitely.
Prefer sunrises or sunsets? Sunsets

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

How to NOT Look Self-Published, Guest Post by Kimberly Rae


Guest post by  
Okay, I'm sharing my secret with you all--for those of you who never noticed (which I hope you didn't!), Stolen Woman was self-published.  I say that with a cringe, knowing the stigma that goes with self-publishing, i.e. the assumption that, well, nobody "real" wanted to publish it so you had to do it yourself.

I know that with the economy tightening budgets in everything including the publishing industry, things have changed, and print-on-demand publishing is becoming a big new option that actually boasts several benefits over traditional publishing (see my post titled "Ever Wanted Your Book in Print?" for more on that).  Nonetheless it still feels just plain weird to tell people I self-published a book.  I always want to add, "But I've been published over 100 times in other places, so I really am a real writer!"

Fortunately, I think, when people see it and hear Stolen Woman was done through print-on-demand, the comment I hear most often is, "Wow, this looks really good.  It doesn't look self-published."  And I inwardly think, "Hooray!"  I worked very hard to make sure it didn't have that homemade look that is a dead giveaway for self-publishing.

And now, since so many people have asked how I made it look so not self-published, I figure I might as well stick it all on here so it's all in one place.

So here goes:
HOW TO NOT LOOK SELF-PUBLISHED

1.  No flat colors on your cover.  Even if you want a main background color, find some kind of texture, however faint, to give it some depth.  I can't think of any mainstream published book that has a flat color on the cover.  

Stolen Woman's black cover is a photo of a shawl I bought in Indonesia, taken by my husband and tweeked on Photoshop to be lighter on the back cover and darker on the front.  On the front cover, it's barely even noticeable, which was the idea.  Most people would think it was just black, but it did not stand out as just a flat black, and that's the idea--to not have sections that stand out as "homemade."



2.  Use quality digital photos.  Nuf said.

3.  Put a lot of time into making your back cover "hook" good (that's the 1-2 paragraphs on the back that summarize the story with just enough of the plot to tease a reader into wanting to buy/read your book--it's important!).  Sometimes writing that one paragraph to hook potential readers is harder than writing the whole book!  Ask for help, write several options and have people who know nothing about your book help choose between them.

4.  Add details on the back cover.  Pull down 3-4 of your favorite books from your bookshelf and look them over for small details that you never really notice normally.  It's interesting that those details that we don't notice if they're there, we notice if they are absent.  Those are the details you want, such as:
   *author photo placement and bio
   *credit to cover design person
   *credit to cover photographer
   *price listed in US and Canadian (easy to check with an online converter)
   *usually the publisher is listed with a logo, put something in that spot, like your website, blog, anything
   *endorsements if you have any

5.  Play with color effects on your words.  With Createspace, the print-on-demand option I used, they had a downloadable template for the cover design.  My husband put it into photoshop and used it as a base, then added everything we wanted, playing especially with the effects on color for the words.  Small touches, but they made a big difference (see www.stolenwoman.org for a close-up look at the cover).  Oh, and please don't use bubble-shaped words or rainbow-curved words or any other style that is a little too creative to be professional.  If you go to the library, you'll notice that nearly every book's font is pretty close to the same, with color and texture changes to make them unique.

6.  The boring info page.  This is probably the biggest way that even the average reader will notice you're self-published.  You know that page, about the 2nd page in, that has all that boring copyright info and Library of Congress stuff?  I doubt anybody actually reads any of it, but if your book just says your name and a copyright right date, it screams "self-published."  Again, pull down some of your favorite books and see if you can borrow any of their boring info.  I put in stuff about the version of the Bible I used, a long useless paragraph about not copying anything without permission, etc.  You can also get a library of congress number for free (google how to) and put that on there, too.

7.  Chapter image.  I think it's nice to have some little graphic at the beginning of each chapter--something that represents or accents your style of book, even just a swirly-whatever to add to your interior.  It should be the same throughout, changing it for each chapter would look odd.  Again, check the books you like.  What did they do?

8.  Fonts.  Using a special or italicized font for your Chapter headers or the first letter of the chapter is another thing I noted from my favorite books and utilized in mine.  Again, it just sets you apart in little ways.

9.  The extra stuff.  Author page, thank-you-to-everybody-and-their-grandmother page, etc.  There's a fair bit of freedom on where to put those, but you'll want to check other books to see where they put things and how they expressed themselves.  I find acknowledgment pages extremely boring (unless you're one of the people thanked of course), so I put mine in the back and made it short.

10.  Lastly, don't go cheesy.  I really wanted to put some photos in from Bangladesh to show some of the scenes in my book.  It might have been a nice idea, except that NOBODY in traditional publishing would do that, so it would plop me down in the self-publishing camp for good.  Your book is a piece of professional work, so like a resume, you don't need to add in photos of your grandchildren or long lists of how you came to write the book, etc.  Readers do like personal info, but those are the kinds of things you can put in your website or your blog for the ones who want to get to know you instead of just read your writing.

Make sense?  So hopefully the above will help you put out something that people will say, "Wow, it doesn't look self-published," and you, too, can inwardly say, "Hooray!"
If you thought of some questions, please post them--
you may be asking something somebody else wants to know the answer to!

Please check out Kimberly Rae's blog at http://stolenwoman.blogspot.com/