Signed, Hopelessly in Love - Lauri Kubuitsile (Guest Author)

Hi Everyone, my guest today is a writer I admire a lot. I found Lauri's blog, Thoughts from Botswana, sometime last year and have followed her since. I knew Lauri was a talented writer from her blog, and knowing she had 13 novels published was an encouragement and a challenge. Now I've read some of her short stories and a couple of her romance novels, it's confirmed. I'm in love! :)

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Lauri Kubuitsile

1. I’m a naturalised citizen of Botswana; I was born in the USA. Botswana doesn’t allow dual citizenship so I renounced my American citizenship more than 10 years ago.

NaNoWrimo 2011

"At midnight on November 1, armed only with their wits, the vague outline of a story, and a ridiculous deadline, more than 250,000 people around the world will set out to become novelists. Why? Because November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, the world’s largest writing challenge and nonprofit literary crusade. Participants pledge to write 50,000 words in a month, starting from scratch and reaching “The End” by November 30." Nanowrimo 2011 Press Release

Yes, I have signed up again this year, and hope to finish the first round editing for A Fiery Love and also have the draft of a new book cranked out this November. I know I'm going to need lots of coffee, caramel ice-cream, and newly discovered yogurt smoothies to get through this. The other thing that keeps me going is your awesome support. Thank you all. I look forward to the coming week and to November. Mwah!

Top Posts Giveaway - And the Winner is...

The picture is a screenshot of my stats page with the top posts all time. In a previous post, I listed the top ten posts on this blog (All Time) and asked readers to guess the top 5. A $25 Amazon gift card, and my two books free for those in Nigeria, were up for grabs. Well the following people attempted it and I was surprised at how close they came. The winner is Naija4Life with four correct guesses. Congrats and do send me your email address and how you'll like to receive your prize at myne@ mynewhitman.com. And this is Naija4Life's guess.

How to support your Birthday author

A friend on FB made that picture as a birthday card for me. Afronuts also gave me a Photoshop makeover. Thanks also to Harry and Mike for the shout outs. For those wondering what gift to give, follow these links or go to your nearest book retailer, online or in stores. :)

ALR - (US, Canada or UK)
AHTM - (US, Canada or UK)
Complete distribution in Nigeria

Teralyn of A Writer's Journey recently listed ways to support your favorite authors, and I knew this was especially important for me as an independent author who does not have the weight of a big-name publisher behind me. I always smile, part happiness and part disbelief, when I receive my sales reports. Who are all these people buying these books, and how did they hear? For sure, I wouldn't be where I am today - bestselling author, public speaker, budding publisher - if many of you had not done the following;

Announcing a new online Nigerian News Aggregator

Zoomheader.com is a new online nigerian news aggregator website for Nigerians both home and abroad. It has a user-friendly interface that will make it easy for readers to find out the latest headlines from top Nigerian sites.

These sites include, 234Next, Sahara Reporters, Vanguard, PM News, Linda Ikeji, Guardian, Compass, TheNET, Bellanaija, Information Nigeria, Kick Off, Celebregion, Leadership, CP-Africa, National Daily, Nollywood, Zazugist, and of course Myne Whitman Writes :), among others.

Stand a chance to win Love at Dawn by Lara Daniels

Romance Writers of West Africa (RWOWA) is a group dedicated to the growth of African romantic fiction worldwide and I am one of the founding members, YAY! We have set up our website, and will be rewarding our subscribers each month with a book from the published members. For October, the group will be giving away a free copy of Lara Daniels, “Love at Dawn. How to enter:
- Subscribe to RWOWA. The email form is on the right lower corner of the website.**

- Follow @RWOWA on twitter

- Like the RWOWA page on Facebook.

Birthday in pictures - A Surprise Helicopter Ride

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes on my last post. I was blown away by those who actually called, and everyone that sent text messages or email, I appreciate you all.

To be honest, my head is still buzzing from the events of the past two days and I can't coordinate my thoughts. Below are the pictures from the surprise that Atala gave me on Tuesday - a helicopter ride! It was an amazing experience and one I'll treasure for a long time. Enjoy...

How to find out what your blog readers want

As a blogger trying to stay on top of my game, one thing I do is look through my blog stats. They give me an idea about what my audience likes, what brings new readers etc. I have a free account with Statcounter.com that gives some pretty robust figures.

Also, the local blogger stats also tells me where most of my traffic come from (Google and Blogger) as well as what they're searching for (Myne Whitman and Relationship questions). These stats help me decide which of my blog ideas to turn to posts and which to postpone, or simply discuss with friends and family.

Nigerian Residents Only - Write and Win!

This is a promo for a friend's effort to get people writing and reading in Nigeria. The full details are at her website, Dianah's Place. All you have to do is write a piece with the Theme "Make Each Day Count For Good"

RULES
500-1000 words max
No obscenities
Nigerian residents Only
Full names Must be included in the mail
MAKE EACH DAY COUNT FOR GOOD should be the email subject to dianah@dianahsplace.info
To qualify just follow @diai227 on twitter and follow her blog

Loving the one who loves you back

Sympathy love or not?

This is a situation that has always intrigued me especially since I have found myself in that scenario a couple of times. You meet a guy and you are friends for a while, and then you notice that he wants to be more than "just friends". This is the typical nice guy, he won't rush to jump your bones, or to define a romantic relationship. He only showers you with attention and affection. You name and he will do it, or has already done it. What will he not do? When I was in Uni, a guy said he would do anything.

"Anything?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.