What's Around the Town Books Been Up to?

Around the Town Books is a blog I always meant to get back to but never had time for with all my other writing and publishing initiatives.

My primary blog is Robert Stanek's Books & Things. This blog is where I do most of my actual blogging and it's a popular destination for readers and writers alike with many, many posts and about 100,000 visits.

The other blog I maintain is Read Indies Blog. This blog is also a popular destination for readers and writers alike, including deep insights into publishing and promotion. With over 200,000 visits, it's even more popular than my primary blog. Some few of the posts here are contributed, most are written by me.

Some of the top posts at Read Indies:

Book Promotion Sites Ranked & Rated Part 1: AwesomeGang, FussyLibrarian, Ereader News Today, EbookSoda, ReadCheaply, BookBub

With millions of published books out there from authors, there’s no shortage of book promotion sites looking to cash in. Some of these are...

A Tribute to William Robert Stanek, an American Author Who Should Be on Everyone’s Must Read List

My name is Jennifer Blake. This guest post is in honor of William Robert Stanek, an author recently named "an American author who should be on everyone's must read list . . . "

Authors Who Trash Competitors

My first book was published by Macmillan in 1995. That bestselling book—Electronic Publishing Unleashed—and it’s bestselling follow up . . .

Finding Success as a Writer and Becoming a Bestselling Author

I'm Robert Stanek and today I'm writing about finding success as a writer and becoming a bestseller.  In 1995, I attended a writer’s conference . . .

Book Promotion Sites Ranked & Rated: More Thoughts & Tips for Getting into BookBub from BookBub, Plus 20 Questions & Answers with BookBub

So many have pinged me about Book Promotion Sites Ranked & Rated and asked questions that I added more to the article originally and . . .

More on Social Media Promotion Services: BuckBooks (NO!) and BKnights (Maybe!)

BuckBooks, operated by ArchAngelInk (AKA ArchAngelEST, Matt Stone, Rob Archangel, Buck Flogging, et al), is a promotion service that . . .

A Lifetime of Books – 30 Years of Robert Stanek Books

My name is Emily Asimov. When I heard of Robert Stanek’s lifetime achievement nomination, I jumped at the chance to write a tribute. Robert Stanek . . .

Authors “Writing” Their Own Reviews

I’ve been silent on the topic of authors “writing” their own reviews for far too long. Partly because I’ve been tracking the activities of . . .

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Happy Reading!

Debits, Credits, & Finding Balance with Ashley Fontainne

Earlier this week I talked with Ashley Fontainne about her books, Accountable to None and Zero Balance. Today, I decided to take a closer look at her books here at Around the Town Books.


The Eviscerating the Snake series is set inside a large, fictional accounting firm in Phoenix, Arizona. The first book, Accountable to None, is about Audra Tanner. Audra was a brilliant CPA that for years worked the grueling hours her job demanded as she made her way from lowly grunt auditor to a minority partner at the firm. One night she met with a managing partner, Olin Kemper, to discuss a promotion but learns she has to give something to get something in return. She doesn't want to and it leads to her violent beating and rape.

Five years later, Audra sets out to take down Olin, and all those in power at the firm who knew about Olin's plans to coerce her that night and looked the other way. Now head of the IT department and a self-taught hacker, Audra digs in and takes the opportunity to exact revenge on all those responsible for her pain.

Without getting into spoilers, in the sequel, Zero Balance, Audra gets a starker lesson in reality than she hoped for. She learns she only wounded the snake, and that the snake is out for vengeance of its own.

I'll leave it to your imagination, and reading of the book, to determine whether the snake is metaphorical or physical. I will tell you that bent, but not broken, Audra may learn to dance in the the hurricane raging around her.











Sound interesting? Want to watch Audra make a few debits and credits to balance the ledger? Then check out Accountable to None and Zero Balance.



Learn more about Ashley Fontainne at her blog. Ashley's also on Facebook and Twitter.

Stepping Outside the Classroom with Greta Burroughs

Recently, I talked with Greta Burroughs about her teaching days and her books. Greta Burroughs loves to read. No matter where she is, there is always a book close at hand. Her love of reading began at an early age and blossomed over time to include many different genres, her favorite now being fantasy.

As a preschool and elementary school teacher, Greta tried to instill the joy of reading in the children she worked with. Books were an important part of her classroom and story time was the highlight of the day.

It has been a while since Greta was in a classroom but she had lots of experience in reading to children of various ages and remembers what they enjoyed listening to. She tries to incorporate that knowledge into her work as an author and believes it makes her a better writer of children's books.

"Patchwork Dog and Calico Cat" was written several years before the book was published. The manuscript was put away while she concentrated on her career as a freelance journalist and before that in aviation education. When medical issues kept her from being able to work outside the home, the writing bug hit her and the old manuscript was dusted off, rewritten, illustrated and published.

"Patchwork Dog and Calico Cat" is a collection of five stories about a couple of friends who learn valuable lessons while out on their adventures. There are illustrations to go along with each chapter and questions at the end of each story. The target audience is ages 5-8 but the book can also be read aloud to younger kids.

Greta has also published a young adult fiction fantasy novel entitled "Gerald and the Wee People". Wee People was written for teenagers but adults also enjoy the exploits of the two main characters as they literally fall into another world and interact with the villagers, helping them to defeat a forest god intent on destroying their world. Greta has plans to write a sequel called "The House on Bo-Kay Lane."

Her one nonfiction narrative, "Heartaches and Miracles" describes the roller coaster ride she has been on fighting an autoimmune disorder called ITP. In this book, the author and several other ITPers give an insight into this chronic blood disorder and try to give words of encouragement to others trying to cope with ITP. "Heartaches and Miracles" is also Greta's way of telling the world what ITP is, how it affects its victims and that it is more widespread than most people realize.

That is not the end of her literary itinerary; Greta has several other children's and young adult books in mind for the future--and hopefully, she'll come back and tell us about them.