Three big dreams, two Mouse Ears and one J-1 visa. What could possibly go wrong in the happiest place on earth? When Catherine Ryan Howard decides to swap the grey clouds of Ireland for the clear skies of the Sunshine State, she thinks all of her dreams - working in Walt Disney World, living in the United States, seeing a Space Shuttle launch - are about to come true. Ahead of her she sees weekends at the beach, mornings by the pool and an inexplicably skinnier version of herself skipping around Magic Kingdom. But not long into her first day on Disney soil - and not long after a breakfast of Mickey-shaped pancakes - Catherine's Disney bubble bursts and soon it seems that among Orlando's baked highways, monotonous mall clusters and world famous theme-parks, pixie dust is hard to find and hair is downright impossible to straighten. The only memoir about working in Walt Disney World, Space Shuttle launches, the town that Disney built, religious theme parks, Bruce Willis, humidity-challenged hair and the Ebola virus, MOUSETRAPPED: A Year and A Bit in Orlando, Florida is the hilarious story of what happened when one Irish girl went searching for happiness in the happiest place on earth. (PLEASE NOTE A SECOND EDITION OF THIS BOOK WAS RELEASED FEBRUARY 2011. IT IS ALSO AVAILABLE FROM AMAZON.COM. SEARCH FOR ISBN 978-1456559816)

Mousetrapped: A Year and A Bit in Orlando, Florida

Travel

HOWARD, CATHERINE RYAN

United States

Createspace

The bestselling travel memoir by the author of Backpacked: A Reluctant Trip Across Central AmericaThree big dreams, two mouse ears and one J-1 visa. What could possibly go wrong in the happiest place on earth? When Catherine Ryan Howard decides to swap the grey clouds of Ireland for the clear blue skies of the Sunshine State, she thinks that all of her dreams (living in the United States, seeing a Space Shuttle launch and, um, owning a Starbucks card) are about to come true. Blissfully ignorant of the realities of moving thousands of miles away from home - and woefully unprepared for the logistics of setting up a new home once she gets there - Catherine trusts the Orlando of her daydreams will be waiting for her just as soon as she steps off the plane. But not long into her first day on Floridan soil - and not long after a breakfast of Mickey Mouse-shaped pancakes - Catherine discovers that amongst Orlando's baked highways, monotonous mall clusters and world famous tourist attractions, park tickets are overpriced, pixie dust is hard to find and thick, wavy hair is downright impossible to straighten . . . PRAISE FOR MOUSETRAPPED: "A unique book by a brilliantly witty, instantly loveable author. I couldn't put it down." --Trashionista.com, Top 10 Reads of 2010 "[A] unique story that proves that dreams really do come true." --WanderlustandLipstick.com "Catherine writes with such honesty and humor that this is one of those books that you just keep reading and reading until you find you have finished it . . . A very entertaining bit of escapism." -- D. Jones, #1 Top Reviewer and #1 Hall of Fame Reviewer on Amazon.co.ukSee also More Mousetrapped: A Little Bit More From That Year and A Bit (e-book only) PLEASE NOTE: To avoid disappointment, readers should note that Catherine worked for a global hotel chain at their property in Walt Disney World; Mousetrapped is NOT a memoir about working for The Walt Disney Company.

Mousetrapped: A Year and a Bit in Orlando, Florida

Travel Writing

Createspace Independent Pub

Self-Printed: The Sane Person's Guide to Self-Publishing - How To Use Digital Publishing, Social Media and Common Sense To Start Earning a Living as a Writer Through POD Paperbacks and E-books (And Do It Without Saying "Gatekeepers" or Shouting "Down With The Big Six!")  Do you think that no one has the right to stand between you and your published writer dreams? That the publishing industry is going down in flames and self-publishers are going to rise like a 99c phoenix from the ashes? That all literary agents are interested in doing is blogging sarcastically about the rhetorical question at the start of your query letter, that editors will just use your submitted manuscript for kindling and that you'll be senile before you hear back from either of them? That once you've uploaded the book you finished yesterday afternoon to Amazon, it'll be mere minutes before the money starts rolling in and you can quit your day job? Do you say things like gatekeepers, The Big Six, Dan Brown, legacy publishing and indie authors a lot? Are you self-publishing to "show them all"?   If you've answered yes to one or more of these questions then I do apologise, but this isn't the book for you.  This book is for writers who consider self-publishing to be a good Plan B, or even a sideline to traditional publication. Who want to do it the cheapest and easiest way possible while still producing a quality product. Who understand that much like Starbucks outlets and Nespresso coffee machines, traditional and self-publishing can peacefully co-exist. Who know that they don't have to sell a million copies of their book to start earning a living from their writing, but that they do have to work hard and treat it like a business. Who are blessed with common sense and live in the real world at least most of the time. Who find my jokes funny.  If this sounds like you, then SELF-PRINTED: THE SANE PERSON'S GUIDE TO SELF-PUBLISHING may be just the "How To..." guide you were looking for. It will tell you everything you need to know in order to publish a Print On Demand paperback and e-book, and - crucially - sell them, without sounding like anti-Big Publishing propaganda produced by the Ministry of Truth.  Be warned: you are now entering a No Saying "Gatekeepers" Zone...  Visit SelfPrintedbook.com to see the full table of contents.  ABOUT CATHERINE: Catherine Ryan Howard is the coffee-guzzling twenty-something behind the popular blog, Catherine, Caffeinated. In March 2010 she self-published her travel memoir, Mousetrapped: A Year and A Bit in Orlando, Florida, using the Print-On-Demand service CreateSpace, Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing and Smashwords. Using free promotional tools like blogging, Twitter and Facebook, she managed to make Mousetrapped an Amazon bestseller and sell 4,000 copies of it in a year. Her success story has been featured in The Sunday Times and The Sunday Independent newspapers, and Catherine has been interviewed on BBC Radio Ulster, Newstalk and RTÉ Radio's Marian Finucane Show. She lives in Cork, Ireland, where she divides her time between her desk and the sofa. She wants to be a NASA astronaut when she grows up. (She's 28.)

Self-Printed: The Sane Person's Guide to Self-publishing

Reference

Writing, Research & Publishing Guides

Catherine prefers bath robes to bed bugs, lattes to lizards and mini-bars to malaria. So why is she going backpacking?Catherine Ryan Howard isn't the backpacking type. Working for one of the world's biggest hotel chains, she and her employee discount have become accustomed to complimentary bath robes, 24-hour room service and Egyptian cotton sheets. As for holidays, Catherine likes places that encourage lying - lying on the beach, lying by the pool, lying in bed... She's been on what feels like one long holiday in Florida when her fearless best friend, Sheelagh, announces plans to backpack across Central America. With Catherine's US visa about to expire, her having no desire to return home to Ireland just yet and her common sense, evidently, on a day off, she agrees to go along. After all, how bad can this backpacking thing be? Um... very bad, actually. Catherine soon finds herself showering with the threat of electrocution, living with mutant cockroaches, sleeping on wooden planks, suffering from all but one of the side-effects listed on her bottle of anti-malarial tablets (liver failure, in case you were wondering) and riding a horse up the side of a smoking, lava-filled volcano known for its unpredictable eruptions and bandit activity. And that's just the first week. Picking up where her bestselling memoir, MOUSETRAPPED: A YEAR AND A BIT IN ORLANDO, FLORIDA left off, BACKPACKED is the wry tale of what happened when one very reluctant backpacker hit the backpacker trail and discovered that beyond the mosquitoes, bad coffee and flea-infested hostels lie bigger mosquitoes, even worse coffee and flea-infested hostels whose bathrooms have no doors.

Backpacked: A Reluctant Trip Across Central America

Central America

The fully-revised and updated third edition of Catherine Ryan Howard's pragmatic 'how to' self-publishing guide Do you think that no one has the right to stand between you and your published writer dreams? That the publishing industry is going down in flames and self-publishers are going to rise like a 99c phoenix from the ashes? That all literary agents are interested in doing is blogging sarcastically about the rhetorical question at the start of your query letter, that editors will just use your submitted manuscript for kindling and that you'll be senile before you hear back from either of them? That once you've uploaded the book you finished yesterday afternoon to Amazon, it'll be mere minutes before the money starts rolling in and you can quit your day job? Are you self-publishing to "show them all"? If you've answered yes to one or more of these questions then I do apologise, but this isn't the book for you. This book is for writers who consider self-publishing to be a good Plan B, or even a sideline to traditional publication. Who want to do it the cheapest and easiest way possible while still producing a quality product. Who understand that much like Starbucks outlets and Nespresso coffee machines, traditional and self-publishing can peacefully co-exist. Writers who know that they don't have to sell a million copies of their book to start earning a living from their writing, but that they do have to work hard and treat it like a business. Who are blessed with common sense and live in the real world at least most of the time. Who find my jokes funny... If this sounds like you, then SELF-PRINTED: THE SANE PERSON'S GUIDE TO SELF-PUBLISHING may be just the "How To..." guide you were looking for. It will tell you everything you need to know in order to publish a Print On Demand paperback and e-book, and (crucially) sell them, without sounding like anti-Big Publishing propaganda produced by the Ministry of Truth. Be warned: you are now entering a No Saying "Gatekeepers" Zone... PRAISE FOR SELF-PRINTED: “An exceptional breath of realism, real knowledge and hard experience—don’t dream of self-publishing your book without it. This is the self-publishing guide to read if you actually care about the quality of your writing and your readers.” --Nicola Morgan, award-winning author of 90 books—including the Carnegie-nominated WASTED and WRITE TO BE PUBLISHED— and the blog Help! I Need a Publisher! "SELF-PRINTED is my self-publishing bible. It taught me how to format, create and upload my e-books and print-on-demand paperbacks. It showed me practical things such as how to build a website/blog and how to promote my books. More importantly, it taught me how to compete with the professionals - just look at the results! Jam-packed full of hints and tips all in one place, I’m always referring back to it. In a word, it’s priceless." --Mel Sherratt, author of TAUNTING THE DEAD, Top 10 Amazon UK bestseller of 2012 "Whenever anyone asks me for a tip on self publishing, I tell them to go buy your book." --Kitty French, USA bestselling author of The Knight Series “The best thing about Catherine is that she not only lives the dream, but offers you a stepladder up to join her. The advice she gives is utterly practical—because she’s done what she describes—and the whole [book] is suffused with humour. I am a fan.” --Alison Baverstock, author of IS THERE A BOOK IN YOU...? and senior lecturer on the Publishing MA at Kingston University (UK) “The BEST book on self-publishing ... Seriously, GET THIS NOW!” —David Wright, co-author of the bestselling YESTERDAY'S GONE series

Self-Printed: The Sane Person's Guide to Self-Publishing

A debut thriller that channels Gone Girl, from the newest writer to watch, Catherine Ryan HowardThe day Adam Dunne's girlfriend, Sarah, fails to return from a Barcelona business trip, his perfect life begins to fall apart. Days later, the arrival of her passport and a note that reads "I'm sorry--S" sets off real alarm bells. He vows to do whatever it takes to find her.Adam is puzzled when he connects Sarah to a cruise ship called the Celebrate--and to a woman, Estelle, who disappeared from the same ship in eerily similar circumstances almost exactly a year before.To get answers, Adam must confront some difficult truths about his relationship with Sarah. He must do things of which he never thought himself capable. And he must try to outwit a predator who seems to have found the perfect hunting ground ...

Distress Signals Lib/E

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Thrillers & Suspense

Blackstone Publishing

At the age of twelve, Eve Black was the only member of her family to survive an encounter with serial attacker the Nothing Man. Now an adult, she is obsessed with identifying the man who destroyed her life. Supermarket security guard Jim Doyle has just started reading The Nothing Man--the true-crime memoir Eve has written about her efforts to track down her family's killer. As he turns each page, his rage grows. Because Jim's not just interested in reading about the Nothing Man. He is the Nothing Man. Jim soon beings to realize how dangerously close Eve is getting to the truth. He knows she won't give up until she finds him. He has no choice but to stop her first ...

The Nothing Man Lib/E

Literature & Fiction

The Nothing Man

At the age of twelve, Eve Black was the only member of her family to survive an encounter with serial attacker the Nothing Man. Now an adult, she is obsessed with identifying the man who destroyed her life. Supermarket security guard Jim Doyle has just started reading The Nothing Man--the true-crime memoir Eve has written about her efforts to track down her family's killer. As he turns each page, his rage grows. Because Jim's not just interested in reading about the Nothing Man. He is the Nothing Man. Jim soon begins to realize how dangerously close Eve is getting to the truth. He knows she won't give up until she finds him. He has no choice but to stop her first ...

The Nothing Man: A Survivor's Search for the Truth

Blackstone Pub

A debut thriller that channels Gone Girl, from the newest writer to watch, Catherine Ryan Howard.  The day Adam Dunne's girlfriend, Sarah, fails to return from a Barcelona business trip, his perfect life begins to fall apart. Days later, the arrival of her passport and a note that reads ''I'm sorry --S'' sets off real alarm bells. He vows to do whatever it takes to find her.  Adam is puzzled when he connects Sarah to a cruise ship called the Celebrate --  and to a woman, Estelle, who disappeared from the same ship in eerily similar circumstances almost exactly a year before.  To get answers, Adam must confront some difficult truths about his relationship with Sarah. He must do things of which he never thought himself capable. And he must try to outwit a predator who seems to have found the perfect hunting ground.

Distress Signals: An Incredibly Gripping Psychological Thriller with a Twist You Won't See Coming

Genre Fiction

Corvus

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