Hello!

This page is for bloggers who are interested in hosting a guest post and book drawing during my upcoming Nightshade blog tour. If that's you, read on. If you're still interested by the time you've finished the description of the tour, the questions below may help you decide whether your blog is right for the tour (and whether my guest post is right for your blog!).

The Nightshade blog tour will consist of approximately 15 blog visits during the last two weeks of March and the first week of April—posts that appear Monday-Friday each week. (The book's publication date is April 1). During my visits, I prefer to do a guest post on a prearranged topic (you'll find a list below). I'll send the post and photos (if there are any—some of the topics don't lend themselves to photos) to the host blogger, who pre-posts them and sends me the URL. I'll take a look and we'll sort out any technical issues. The post will go live at 8 a.m. ET.

There will a book drawing (first edition copies of Nightshade) for each of the host blogs. Visitors have three days to get the link from the host blog (the link is part of my post) and go to a webpage where they register for the drawing. (All this is managed through the magic of my webmistress, the miraculous Peggy Moody.) The drawings are held at noon on the second day following my guest post. Books will be mailed to the winners.

The purpose of this tour is to introduce Nightshade to new readers who might not have heard about the series. On my last tour (The Cottage Tales Tour, November 2007), several hundred of my blog readers and friends of The Cottage Tales series came along for the ride. Judging from their emails, they enjoyed reading new blogs and meeting new bloggers. The host blogger benefits from this increased traffic by gaining new blog readers. One of my blog hosts on The Cottage Tales Tour wrote: "Wow. The traffic on my blog spiked by over 500% on the day of your visit, and stayed almost that high for the following two days, when people were coming to read and entering the drawing. Some readers are still coming back, too!"

A blog tour takes a bit of work, but it's an enjoyable, interesting process that helps everyone!

Here are the questions you need to answer (by February 24, please):

1. What is your real name (not your blogging name)?

2. What is your email address?

3. What's the name of your blog?

4. What is its URL? http://

5. What kind of audience(s) does your blog appeal to?
   (Examples: readers of mystery fiction, lovers of place, gardeners, herbies, foodies, knitters/weavers, etc.)
   

6. It's always hard to predict numbers, but experience suggests that I would be bringing several hundred visitors to your blog over a three-day period. (That's the length of time people have to visit each blog and put their names into the drawing pool.) I'm looking for blogs that already have a substantial visitor base. About how many people visit your blog on an average day?

7. I'll be advertising the tour in my weekly/monthly eletters and on my websites. Would you be willing/able to add to the buzz about the new book by 1) letting your blog readers know about my visit a couple of weeks ahead of time and reminding them frequently and 2) posting a note to appropriate listservs? yes / no

8. Would you be willing/able to pre-post my blog entry at least 4 days before my visit, so we can fix any technical glitches? yes / no

9. Would you be willing to post my entry by 8 a.m. ET on the day of my blog visit? yes / no

10. Would you be able/willing to give me your visitors' statistics for the day of my visit plus the following two days? (You'll need a site counter like Sitemeter, or the statistical package that comes with your blog.) yes / no

11. Here is a list of topics that I'm considering for my posts during the blog tour. Which two of these do you think might be right for your blog?
    1. The Notorious Nightshades (the nightshade is the signature herb for this book)
    2. From One Book to a Series (how a series writer thinks about the shape/structure/arc of a series)
    3. In Search of China's Father: Bleeding Hearts, Spanish Dagger, and Nightshade. The arc of a three-book trilogy within the series
    4. China Who? Growing a Character (how China grows from book to book; character change in an extended series)
    5. Pecan Springs: Growing a Town (how Pecan Springs is portrayed in different books in the series; the importance of the town; sense of place)
    6. The Texas Hill Country and the China Bayles Series (the natural setting for the town, social/political aspects of the Hill Country)
    7. China, Nancy, Kinsey, Jenny, and Annie: What I Learned from My Sisters in Crime (Carolyn Keene, Sue Grafton, Nancy Pickard, and Carolyn Hart—inspirations for the China Bayles series)
    8. What's Cooking? Recipes in the China Bayles Mysteries (foods, cooking, recipes, kitchens—food as a story-telling device)
    9. McQuaid and Nightshade (point of view; shifting from China's voice to McQuaid's voice; changing points of view in an extended series)
    10. The Pecan Springs Gang: Ruby, Sheila, Cass, and the Whiz (the use of ensemble characters to enlarge and enliven the story)
    11. Majors and Minors: Plots, Subplots, and Linked Plots in the China Bayles Series (developing a central plot and the various subplots that fill out each book and connect one book to another)
    12. Prime Thyme Mysteries 1: Herbs in the China Bayles Mysteries, Books 1-4 (thyme, monkshood, catnip, rosemary)
    13. Prime Thyme Mysteries 2: Herbs in the China Bayles Mysteries, Books 5-8, (rue, love-lies-bleeding, chile peppers, lavender)
    14. Prime Thyme Mysteries 3: Herbs in the China Bayles Mysteries, Books 9-12 (mistletoe, bloodroot, indigo, dill)
    15. Prime Thyme Mysteries 4: Herbs in the China Bayles Mysteries, Books 13-16 (dead man's bones, bleeding hearts, yucca, nightshade)
    16. One, Two, Three, More? Writing Multiple Series (managing multiple writing projects, research and writing, book promotion)
    17. The Other Half: Bill Albert Talks About Team Writing

12. Would you like to suggest another topic?

13. Anything else you'd like to add?