Dee Carver, welcome to Romance Lives Forever. I’m Kayelle Allen, author and owner of this blog. For those who don’t know, Dee is also the webmistress on both my own site (click my name above) and on RLF. For this visit, she’s offering a special discount to readers. I’ll step back and let her take the wheel.

Hello Everyone! Kayelle, thank you for having me, it’s great to be back!

The First Story | Marketing and Running a Business | Finally, The Author Returns

As some of you know I began this long journey as an author back in 2005, with my first book La Roe’s. It began with a dream about a dress, and though I can manipulate graphic images, I cannot draw very well. That is where my daughter, Amber, is the most talented. Since I could not draw the dress, I decided to describe it, which led to the woman wearing it. Then the scene came along, the people surrounding her, and why she was wearing it in the first place. Before I knew it, I had a short story about a wedding gown. My neighbor at the time asked me if I was going to finish telling the story and well, I guess that’s what Emerald (the heroine) wanted because I ended up with my first book.
I learned a few hard knocks with my first book, such as everyone needs an editor. Not every publishing house is a good one. Not every writing job is a bad one. Now, later in life, I look back and cringe…

Marketing Crash Course

Like many authors, I had no idea what marketing was or that I was supposed to do anything about it. A friend, and fellow author, asked me a few poignant questions:
“Have you sent out for reviews?”

“Have a website yet?”

“Do you have a Facebook account?”

“Scheduled any interviews?”

Needless to say, the list went on and I learned a valuable lesson. There is a lot of work that comes after the book is published. Writing a book alone is simply not enough. I did blog hops, which helped. I wrote reviews, which also helped. I wrote articles for other companies which helped even more. All to grow my name, so when someone would search me on Google, I could be found. All the while, I spent time creating book trailers, doing interviews, and eventually writing my second story. Well, more like my second heroine told me her story.

After a few years of putting what I had learned towards helping others, a friend, Raven Starr, suggested that I start a business. I have to admit, I chuckled at first, but in 2008 I found myself opening Personalized Marketing Inc and never looked back. I was able to use the information on bad publishers and bad editing to guide authors towards making better choices. I learned White Hat SEO, when it was the only SEO that was being talked about, as well as other methods used for SEO, so we have been able to provide it for our clients. I also learned methods for Organic Growth before it became a ‘thing’. WordPress was even different back then.

The first website I had was a single page that may have been built inside of Word. (Yeah, I know…) However, I found other sites and I wanted one of those… Not only did I want one, I wanted to make one! I had to know how they did it. So, thanks to some Googling, I found a code viewer and it just clicked. I understood that certain lines of code made different things happen. Then came WordPress, which uses PHP, it’s a little different but after a learning curve, I began to see the codes just forming into the structures I wanted. When I began working with WordPress, we didn’t have auto installers or programs that auto connected databases and did auto backups. It was all manual and done with a lot of zip files. Sometimes I miss those days. Sometimes I miss just HTML and CSS or C++.
Cindy: pst, Dee, you’re geeking
In 2017 Cindy came on board, we ended up with not only a skilled editor but also a talented digital artist.
Ahh but the coder and owner is getting carried away and the author must take precedence…

Finally, The Author Returns

A few years ago, I decided to get back to writing, not for other websites or companies but for myself. I thought about the 3rd book, Chocolate Seductions, which I had written but never did anything with, other than one submission. The submission went well, they just wanted a 3rd person P.O.V. So, I thought about it, talked with a couple of friends, tried my hand at it and about made myself sick. I can write 3rd person all day long in business communications, papers, articles, emails, even books that are not mine or not the heroines in my head.
These lovely stubborn ladies, well, they just didn’t want a sideline view of their lives being handed out as though they were not the ones telling their stories. I love to read 3rd P.O.V. stories as well as 1st P.O.V., I enjoy a strong male lead, I enjoy getting to know what is inside of the other characters heads as well. My favorites though have always been those that take you deep inside, that weave a story so well that you feel as though the movie is playing out inside your head. That, even though you are satisfied at the end of the book, you still wish it hadn’t ended because you just did not want to let that character go.
However, after that gut-wrenching experience, I put my stories away again. Then in 2018 I decided with the help of Cindy, that I was going to produce these books, with the editing they deserved. With the call to finish the stories I had begun so long ago; La Roe’s has been re-released with a much better editing job than the original. Cindy has Fay’s Wish, which hopefully does not require as much of an editing job as the first book, we’ll see. Ambrosia, from Chocolate Seductions, has been poking me lately, giving me glimpses into her back story that I don’t really remember from before, which oddly enough is making Grant a little more likeable. One thing about being a 1st P.O.V. panster, I never know where these ladies are going to take me until I get there. It’s great, because I get a new story, but also really frustrating when I thought something else was supposed to happen instead.

Special Discount

https://personalizedmarketing.info/contact-us/pminc-11th-special/
This August is our 11th Anniversary and we are doing things a bit differently this year. We are having guest authors on our blog, as well as offering an 11% discount, if you mention #PMInc 11th Anniversary, for the entire month on everything and anything, including renewals, if you renew during this offer.
August is also my birthday…
Since August is also my birthday month, we are opening the 11% discount early. So, this offer will be valid beginning July 29th through August 31st, if you mention #PMInc 11th Anniversary.
https://personalizedmarketing.info/contact-us/pminc-11th-special/

La Roe’s by Dee Carver

Can Emerald put 300 years of anger aside to save them or will she sacrifice all their futures and kill him as she swore to do?
When Emerald La Roe ran away 300 years ago, she had not planned to return. However after repeated dreams from Goddess Morrigan, Emerald finally realizes she has no choice. Emerald not only finds a magical sword waiting for her, but her dead husband also.
It seems Stefan O’ Duff wants’ reconciliation and help to cure the curse they share. Emerald would rather see him dead than be with him again, she has someone else to consider though. Her new love, Maxwell Howard a werewolf, who through sharing blood with Emerald, now faces the same fate as Emerald and Stefan. For the cure to work, Emerald has to put her hatred of Stefan aside and consent to share his bed again.
Amazon (KindleUnlimited) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Q3PYQK8/

Dee Carver and PMInc Social Media

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