Somewhere Over the Sun

Lyrical and beautiful expression of love between a father and a son. Perfectly captures my sentiments of words, and feeling a natural calling, a pull to words, experienced by writers and editors and others who work with and toy with language as a way of life. 

The storyline is witty, smart, funny, entertaining, warm, deep, and heartfelt. It is completely accessible, and the story is told effortlessly, transitioning with flashbacks and from one point of view to another with characters’ voices distinct and clear. This is rare for any book, but especially for a new writer, I think. 

By page 5, I was hooked. By Chapter 3, I was in love. By the end, I had decided to recommend the book to every reader I knew.

-Stefanie Siefert, 5-star review via Amazon

Somewhere Over the Sun sales figures are almost the same as all Stieg Larsson novels combined, give or take 27 million copies.

Dear Adi Alsaid,

 Congratulations!  Your book, Somewhere Over the Sun, was chosen as an Honorable Mention in the Mainstream/Literary Fiction category of the 19th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards.

Competition was particularly fierce this year, your accomplishment is truly impressive. All winners have been notified, and will be formally announced in the April 2012 issue of Writer’s Digest and on our Web site, www.writersdigest.com.

We’re extremely pleased at the quality of the winning books, and indeed, at the level of self-publishing quality evidenced by a great many of our entrants.  We wish you continued success in the publishing and marketing of your writing, and hope we’ll see you among the entrants in our 20th annual competition.

Your certificate and brief judge’s commentary will mail later in the year, and a Coupon Code worth $50 towards Writer’s Digest Books will be emailed to you in the next few weeks.

Thanks again for your participation and for proving how self-publishing can be a vital and successful option for today’s writers.

Sincerely,

Jessica Strawser
Editor 
Writer’s Digest

Hi there! Isn’t it silly how little there is standing between a stranger and an acquaintance? Just silence, really. You are a conversation away from meeting someone. Many of you have been following me for a while and know tons about me (Mexican, recent uncle, star of the most ridiculous basketball picture ever taken). But for those of you I haven’t conversed with, let me tell you why I’m here.

I started this blog a little over a year ago to help promote my debut novel, Somewhere Over the Sun. I wanted to tell people about my book, share reviews, share some writing tips, and hopefully use your readership to become a best-selling author. That hasn’t happened quite yet. So I’ve updated this site’s purposes to include giving away the occasional free copy of my book and luring you in with some original short stories.

Because I have a few more copies of Somewhere Over the Sun than I can foresee needing anytime soon, I’m going to have another giveaway/contest! I want more people to read my book, so here’s your chance to do so for free. If you’d like to see if this book is right for you, please check out the synopsis and customer reviews on Amazon.

Here are the guidelines:

• Send a tweet with the hashtag #SomewhereOvertheSun and a link to either this site, my Amazon page, my B&N page, my Facebook page or my Goodreads page = 1 point
• Tweet/post a link with the hashtag #SomewhereOvertheSun and a link to your favorite blog entry of mine = 2 points
• Recommend Somewhere Over the Sun to your Goodreads friends = 1/2 point per friend
• Get your friends to visit my site and e-mail me your name = 1 point per friend
• Get your friends to visit my site and e-mail me your name and what is their favorite blog entry of mine = 2 points per friend
• Mention my Facebook author page in your Facebook status = 2 points
• Reblog this or any other of my blog entries on Tumblr, adding that you are doing so for the sake of this contest = 2 points per reblog (1 additional point for every reblog stemming from your reblog)
  
• Tweet/blog a picture of you doing something awesome along with the hashtag #SomewhereOvertheSun = Sliding scale from 1 point to 300 points, depending on awesomeness
• Get a celebrity to tweet #SomewhereOvertheSun = Sliding scale from 1 to 1,000 points, depending awesomeness of celebrity 
  
• Get a celebrity to add Somewhere Over the Sun to their Goodreads reading pile =  400 points
• Other publicity efforts I have not thought of will be rewarded points according to, of course, a sliding scale of awesomeness.
• Top three point-earners will receive a free, autographed copy of Somewhere Over the Sun.
• Contest ends 9/29 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.

Good luck. 

And by all means, swing by and say hello.