My MIL reminded me that I haven’t invited her to chat with “my little writer friends” recently. That’s right, Phil is taking your questions on writing and love, not necessarily in that order. It helps if you give her a birthdate, including time, but she understands if you don’t want to share that sort of info about yourself. She’s kinda hit or miss, is my MIL, so don’t shoot the blogger. And once again, this is all in fun. She’s an amateur, and so am I ;o)
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How many ways have I wasted the last hour? How many can you list?
1. Writing or Reading this post/blog
2. Writing or Reading a blog about posts
3. W/R a blog about loops
4. W/R the loops
5. Visiting “snarky” blogs about whether it’s okay to be snarky or not
6. Compulsively looking for reviews of your own books (especially since the readers say they don’t base their buying decisions on reviews)
7. Compulsively checking your email
8. Rereading the freaking guidelines for some publisher when you know them by heart. (They still aren’t going to pull your book from the slushpile.)
9. Compulsively checking the number of visitors to your loop/site/blog/whatever
10. Weighing yourself again
11. Oh, I almost forgot the most important one–discussing erotic romance
Have you pet your cat or dog today? Told your loved one how much they’re loved? Taken a walk? Written a single freaking word? Note to self: butt in chair, get off internet, at least long enough to write something coherent, if possible.
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I love the gecko, I really do. Not tired of him yet, not at all. Wonder who does the voice? Anyway, the loops (on my mind a lot these days, eh?) are really (it seems) turning into an endless stream of promos. And as I go to add my own, I’ve found myself backing off lately. Some of these posts look almost desperate–”Pick me! Pick me!” So I hope you’ll chime in published authors and tell us what you think really, really works in marketing your ebooks (ebooks or ebook/trade). Here are the ones I honestly think may be a waste of time: banners, chats (live), review posting overkill, bookmarks, etc. They may increase your visibility, which I guess could ultimately lead to sales. It still seems that the best tool may be to hitch yourself to a good-selling company, have several (or many, many) releases. What do YOU think? I do love that gecko. But I’ll never buy Geico insurance. That’s my point, I guess.
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http://www.loose-id.com/detail.aspx?ID=65
Diane Charles Linford
Handle Me With Care
Unfortunately I’m at home where it’s hard to post covers (some screwy AOL thing), but if you haven’t see the wonderful cover of this book, do go look at the link above. Okay, I’ve been meaning (trying) to review this work for quite a while. I’m going to try to make sense, since both Diane Charles Linford’s story (and Chuck, my wonderful supportive pal) are on my mind (and were as I read this). If you don’t know the complicated story behind the story of this book, well…perhaps Chuck will chime in. It’s his call.
I’ll get the easy part out of the way–read this book. It’s not perfect (I haven’t read anything that is), and it’s not always comfortable (I’ll resist all the sage words about things that are worth it…blah blah blah), but it’s very real. I didn’t say realistic, but real. It has an honesty to it that struck me from page 1. Handle Me With Care is a very complex mix of romance, thriller (as a non-thriller fan, I’ll say it wasn’t too much even for me), and…something else, not unlike the book (below) The Mysteries, I was just raving about. Unexpected, that’s the word. I don’t mean that a (very, very compelling sexy) young black man would pursue (and I mean from the heart) an older white woman. Or that they have a paranormal connection, which takes off, and how! The writing is real–except for the borderline tongue-in-cheek stuff and some laugh out loud moments that pull you back into awareness of being a reader rather than the protagonist. Somewhere in the back of my head I think Stephen exists, perhaps because I read this twice. I’m kinda glad he wasn’t killed off (this book was rewritten so that he would survive to make it to the romance shelves), kinda sorry he was. This is an exceptionally hard title to characterize, and I possibly liked it for that as well. It fits fine into traditional erotic romance, whatever that is, I suppose, but to call it that seems to be missing out on what I can only call “literary” elements. Ugh. Buy the book, and stretch your brain a little. This book gets a 4.65348, with an error margin of infinity.
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Well, I really will not share the photos of me in an actual bathing suit, but here I am, dorky hat and all. I also can’t share pics of the husband (he won’t have it), me running from the slow-looking agouti animal (it can move really fast), me at the swim-up bar, me with a monkey named Thelma on my head…suffice it to say we had an awesome time in Mexico. We’re seriously looking at property (with no money–how serious can it be) there. Okay, we’re seriously dreaming of retiring there. Sniff. 11 months to next Mexican vacation.
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I’ll get to the self-nominated books soon, promise. Next up is Lady of Two Lands, and then YOUR book. But on the way to and from Mexico, I got caught up in a bestseller. It’s a bestseller for good reason. The Mysteries, by Lisa Tuttle (the first I’ve read of hers) is stunning. Surprising. Outstanding. Compelling. It will either inspire you to become a better writer, or you’ll throw your laptop out the window. It’s that good. I won’t spoil it, but Ms. Tuttle jumps from several first person characters to third person godlets to diaries to tell the story of folks who disappear. And where do they go? Can anyone pronounce Sidhe? Phew, very, very unexpected. This is the wisest combination of fresh contemporary literature and haunting fantasy, with a dash of supsense and even thriller. Get this book, and see what’s possible when you hone your skills and let your mind really work freely. Okay, got to log off now to throw my computer out the window!
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Back from vacation, rested, if a bit whiney, pining over the missing turquoise water and perfect weather, exotic birds and fascinating sites. Sigh. Anyway, fortunately rested, because I came back to a review that was…well, I’m still trying to figure out what it was. It’s for the Biggest Kahuna, and it’s on one of those blogs were readers get a lot of ego bang for the buck writing their opinions on all things romance. (Not like here, um…). I’m not going to point you to it, because I’m not sure I want to feed the belly of the beast. Funny, good writing, sort of, poor woman’s imitation of “smart bitches”. Gave the book a C+, which maybe is what I’d give it. She didn’t like the heroine. She thought the premise was stupid. That’s fine, honestly. My beef: inaccuracies for the sake of humor. My hero isn’t a near-rapist, does not “force” my heroine to satisfy him without reciprocity. Couples couple in different ways throughout a courtship, and I’d certainly get bored if the formula was always “she does this to him, he does that to her, and then they do it.” The reviewer was given the book (I buy books to review–and I will get to yours, I promise).
So, my question to writers, readers, reviewers: Where do you draw the line? Honesty is good–if all we get are gushing reviews from all the usual suspects, we’ll never learn, the readers don’t get a sense of what to buy (if they read the reviews at all) because everything is great, all the time. But in my opinion, it is really very easy to trash any book and make your trashing pretty funny. When are you serving yourself and not your readers? Once again, I’m struck by how popular it has become to be as sarcastic as possible. I get a good laugh from some of these sites, don’t get me wrong. I even laughed at my own review. But on the flip side, I think it’s extremely important not to mislead readers with inaccuracies for the sake of being told you’re clever. What do you think?
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Thanks Danny for five hearts! “THE BIGGEST KAHUNA is a very unusual story, which will enchant the reader from the first page onward. Ms. Cullen’s idea to use the Hawaiian mythology for a novel is simply brilliant. It is fascinating to get to know the different deities of the Hawaiian mythology. No matter if you take Kal, the Shark God or his sister Pele, the Goddess of Volcanoes, they are really interesting characters. The whole cast of the characters is unique in their own way and absolutely lovable.”
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Wish you were here! Taking a much needed vacation to Mexico, woohoo! Hope you all have a lovely week. I’ll have a margarita for you!
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I’m so proud and really shocked that Just Erotic Romance reviews gave The Biggest Kahuna its Gold Star Award! Here’s a bit of the review:
“This was hands down, the best book of erotic romance I’ve read all year! I was completely blown away by the original storyline, excellent characterization, fantastic dialogue, gorgeous tropical setting, not to mention the scorching sex scenes. I was absolutely hooked from the first line. The plot and pace kept me reading; this is one of those books I had to finish in a single sitting. Moreover, the creative use of the Hawaiian mythos was a stroke of brilliant originality…Kal was so incredibly sexy in that dark, depressed brooding sort of way, and yet tender with old-fashioned gallantry befitting a 2000 year old immortal. In fact, there wasn’t a single character in this book, from Kal’s sister Pele, goddess of volcanoes to the lifeguard Geter that didn’t seem real. The dialogue was so well done that you laughed and cried along with the characters…Interwoven seamlessly was hot, hot sex!…Anyone looking for some good summer reading (or winter reading for that matter) should pick this up. Without a doubt this excellently engaging book deserves a Gold Star. I am so looking forward to reading Pele’s story!”–Sakura Kai
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