Wednesday, December 19, 2012

12 Days of Christmas Day 10

Holy moly, Batman! Responses yesterday were off the charts! I'm excited so many of you are up for a review. Before I get to the meat and potatoes, here are yesterday's winners: Becky F, Brian B, Kate B, bashashhazbaz, Ginney E, Sheila H, Michael C, Ryan A, and Jacques A. Congratulations to you all! I'll be in touch today to find out where to send your prizes! Snapshot of the random.org drawing:
On to today's prize! For Wednesday, December 19 - Ten people who comment will win an e-copy of Mystic~Bronya! It's the first book of the Mystic series and is Paranormal Fiction.
Now, an impromptu surprise for you all! I'm making a list with links (I know how you all love lists). And the three books I'm buying today are highlighted in the list. Congratulations to those three authors! If you pimped your book, it will remain on my list. I still have four more to choose over the next two days. But come and do the daily tasks at your chance to win some great reads!

Indie authors who pimped their books yesterday were:
Michael Cargill - Underneath Amazon link $3.30 *WINNER*
Jennifer Lafferty - Offbeat Love Stories and More Amazon link $0.99
Jacques Antoine - Sen No Sen Amazon link $4.99
Brian Bigelow - Horror Bent Amazon link $2.99
Seeley James - The Geneva Decision: Pia Sabel #1 Amazon link $5.99
LJ - Fighting Destiny #1 Amazon link $3.99
Eric Dulin - Condemned (Deus Ex Machina Series) Amazon link $2.99 *WINNER*
Deborah Armstrong - Forever Love Amazon link $3.49 *WINNER*
Kate Baggott - Love From Planet Wine Cooler Amazon link $4.99
David Manuel - Killer Protocols (Richard Paladin Series) Amazon link $3.99
Aaron Saylor - Sewerville: A Southern Gangster Novel Amazon link $3.99
Ryan Astaphan - Travelphan: Fear, Faith, & Glory in a Journey Across Asia Amazon link $7.99
Michael Meyer - Deadly Eyes Amazon link $2.99
Ginney Etherton - Looping in Limbo (Lainey Tidwell Series) Amazon link $2.99
S.J. Hunter - Longevity Amazon link $2.99
Felicia Tatum - The White Aura Amazon link $2.99
Brian Author Levene and Anon Beauty - The Other Girls Get Lucifer Everyday Amazon link $4.99 FREE today!
Troy Jackson - The Elementals Amazon link $4.99
Rebecca Elswick - Mama's Shoes Amazon link $3.79

Remember, the rest of you aren't out of the running, you just didn't get chosen today. I chose three today instead of two because I only got to buy one yesterday! There will be two tomorrow and two the day after.

Lovely readers, here's how you can enter to win today:
Follow my reviews on Goodreads. Go read at least one and give it a like (this way you can see how I write reviews and what I look for) I'll get a notification when you like it. Then come back here and tell me what you liked/didn't like about my review process.

Part 2 of your comment should pimp your book if you haven't already. There are still two days left to win a buy and a review from me.

Good luck to you all!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

21 comments:

  1. Copy/pasted from Angela Graff (Author) on Day 9:

    "Woo your comments blew up on this post! Pretty fantastic. Even if I'm late I wanted to comment here. I do book editing, and what I'd really really REALLY love to see addressed is the idea of character development. In specific, making sure people can relate to your characters. Too many times I've read books where the main character is the most specialist, beautifulist, wonderfulist, bestest girl in the whole wide world, and everyone else pales in comparison. I would love to see that idea addressed and why it NEVER works in fiction.

    And if you're still looking for book purchases, I am an author of an Urban Contemporary fantasy book. I'll post the blurb and link below. Of course I think you should buy it because I think it's worth reading, lol, but don't get into it thinking it's typical fantasy/urban fantasy. It deals mostly with the mythos of different theologies and legends coupled with a detective story. I personally think it's a pretty unique idea... but who really knows :)

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AMJDAJ2

    The Awakening is a tale of immortals, ancient gods, and a Detective who doesn’t believe in any of it. Detective Ben Stanford is forced to come face to face with theology, mythos and everything he refused to believe in as his world is turned upside down by Mark, the immortal Gospel writer, who requests the detective’s help in finding his missing companion, Judas Iscariot.

    As Ben dives deeper into the world of broken Theology, ancient religions and terrifying Greek gods, he’s forced to come to terms with the world where vast forces struggle in their endless game of power. He must make his way, with the help of companions he doesn’t believe in or trust, to try and stop a potential global disaster."

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    1. Angela, WOW! Welcome to the blog and congratulations on your double win!

      I hate perfect characters. They all need a flaw otherwise there's no story to begin with. I preach here often about how characters should change from page 1 to page 400. Unless you're gonna totally destroy that perfect character, give them major flaws :)

      Your book sounds right up my alley. I can't wait to read it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE mythology. :)

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    2. Yay double win! (I commented on your newer entry under my review blog... Lol sorry!) And I agree, without character growth, they're two dimensional and it's tough to finish reading a character you can't relate to!

      I hope you like the book!! I'm obsessed with all sorts of mythology and theology, so the series is going to be packed full.

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  2. i like how you review things. seems similar to how i like to review books, too!

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    1. Thanks, bashash! I try to be in-depth but not ruin the story, you know?

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  3. I selected a book I've read and one I want to read to give me a better idea of how to "rate" your reviews. I like them! Short, quick,and to the point. You immediately point out any special qualities you really like about the books you read. It takes me about 4-5 sentences to do that ;) Nice job!

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    1. Thanks, Andrea! I like to be to the point and honest. Above all, you get honesty from me. :)

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  4. Hi Jo,
    I went to your Goodreads page and tried to find one of your reviews for a book that I've also read, but unfortunately for me we don't have a lot of books in common. I tend not to read much Fantasy and I don't even know what "Urban Fantasy" means. (Or "Steampunk" for that matter.) I'm a bit old-school I guess, though strangely not that old, though age is relative isn't it? Still, I read some of your reviews and I like your honesty. (If there wasn't enough zombie head-bashing then there wasn't enough zombie head-bashing! :) ) I also like that you separated the more structural bits out. I find it so hard when writing reviews to not allow typos and spelling or grammatical errors to colour how I feel about the entire book.

    And now to my book: The Truth about Dandelions. It's literary fiction with a cross-over to chick lit. Good for book clubs but a bit edgier than most of those. Here's a blurb:

    Mara isn't a slut; she just can't find what she wants. She wants to forget her mother's death, her father's hypocrisy, and the plane crash that follows her. As a child she couldn't understand why the grass never got cut, and now as she gropes her way through university life, all those weeds, those dandelions, have stayed with her, haunting her dreams.

    She can't see a way out of her dark hole until she gets hit by a car on an Ottawa street and starts spending time with Jack, the guy behind the wheel. Kind, thoughtful, and a virgin - he's the last person she'd ever expected to fall for.

    As she opens up to Jack, the wounds she’d been trying to ignore surface, and she’s forced to finally choose between running from or facing the past that’s been haunting her all her life. Through nights out looking for release to the ultimate event that forces her to face herself, Mara finally learns the truth about dandelions.

    Jo, you can read an excerpt on Amazon and if it interests you, I'd be more than happy to send you a free review copy.

    Great website by the way. I enjoyed your piece on dialogue. It's the blocking between the dialogue that I always struggle with.

    Cheers, and have a great day!

    Hayley Linfield
    hayleylinfield.webs.com
    hlinfield@me.com

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    1. Welcome to the blog, Hayley! I've picked up your sample and I'm looking forward to getting into it.

      Urban Fantasy is fantasy in an urban setting. Steampunk is clockworks, gears, and integrated life forms (if you have a clockwork horse that's still a horse, that's Steampunk). Hope that helps.

      Thanks for the compliments. I hope you love Mystic~Bronya :)

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  5. I perused your review of "Twenty-Two Shades of Dead" by L.C. Mortimer. I like the way you separate the "reader's perspective" and "editor's perspective" parts of the review and that you show how you come up with your number of stars for the review. I especially liked reading that, as a reader, you wanted to see "more squishing of zombie heads." lol!

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    1. Thanks, Becks! I read another zombie novel first, just to give the genre a taste, before I dove off into a new author's first work. Wanted to be fair and educated about the commonalities. :)

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  6. (CUT AND PASTED FROM DAY 9...SORRY ABOUT THAT)

    In researching your site, I've found that I'd like to see a topic on research...and how it can either enhance or bog down a narrative.

    I also left the following comment in the FACT or CRAP topic:

    GREAT TOPIC. Here are my two cents: The beauty of a well-written book is its ability to transport, to enable a suspension of disbelief. A step further would be to blur the line between what we KNOW to be real with what we WISH or FEAR is real. Myths exist, I think, because of a human desire for them to be real. At least, that's what I told Santa Claus in my annual letter to him.

    Also- Jo - speaking of blurring the line between reality and fiction, I submit my new political thriller SEDITION. It takes a real plot from 1820 England and retells it in modern day Washington DC. It was a "thriller of the month" on the website e-thriller, it's getting favorable reviews, and it'll have you wondering where the real world ends, where the make-believe begins, and whether or not a unicorn could be president.

    Thanks very much for your consideration.

    Best,

    Tom

    @seditionbook

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    1. No worries, Tom! Thanks for correcting :)

      Welcome to the blog!

      I snagged the sample of your book and a unicorn for president sounds like my kind of story :) We'll see if I click with your book. Thank you for taking the time to pitch!

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  7. Followed, liked, and friended you on Goodreads. I love that site!

    I read the review for Dragon's Mind...I love how you do it from different perspectives, that helps me to know if I'm going to bang my head into a wall while reading it. I also like how you described why/how you decided the rating. Very nice job :)

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    1. Thank you, Felicia! Dragon's Mind was way out of my norm. I usually don't read a lot of sci-fi. But I enjoyed that one. Vered is an excellent writer. I love Goodreads, too! :)

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  8. Another copy/paste from Day 9 Sarwah Osei-Tutu:

    "Hi, I think I have got the hang of it.....sometimes I am just too slow, please tell me I am not alone.

    Bingo, One woman's journey through life
    http://www.amazon.com/Bingo-woman%C2%B4s-journey-through-ebook/dp/B009BK18RY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355942806&sr=1-1&keywords=bingo+one+womans+journey

    Bingo is my biography passionately composed over decades. It contains my fantasies, and desires within historical events, which have resulted in a range of emotions. A powerful journey with setbacks and disappointments along the road from abuse, depression, love, struggles ‘And Still I Rise’, as my heroin Maya Angelou has claimed throughout her life."

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    1. Hello, Sarwah! Welcome to the blog! I snagged your sample. Looking forward to reading it. Thank you for taking the time to pitch your book to me!

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  9. And another from Day 9 Sulci Collective:

    "The topic I'd like to see is Politicking The Box - can politics and literature ever mix?

    My book is "Time After Time" a scifi romantic dark comedy. http://amzn.to/QX4th9

    The same man, the same woman, the same chat-up line, but a huge variety of different outcomes for how the seduction shakes out. And the reason the man needs to get close to the woman... is he needs to kill her. And just what is the precise role of the shadowy DJ who spins records that not only appear to soundtrack their seduction, but actually predict it? The novel comes with a link to the Spotify playlist of the 40+ songs that appear in the book.

    probably should have put that my name is Marc Nash @21stCscribe on Twitter"

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    1. That's a great suggestion, Marc. Welcome to the blog! I love your book cover, by the way. I grabbed your sample and I'm looking forward to getting started! Thanks for the pitch and the suggestion!

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  10. And, the last from Day 9 Mark:

    "My novel Kristen Flemings in a Ghost Story was a spur of the moment idea I had to quickly rush to come up with days before I had to take an Advanced college writing class. Up until then, I was content to have Kristen first being introduced in another novel I wrote, Genesis, the Elizabeth Chronicles, I've have no regrets writing it.
    Here's the link to the 0.99 Kindle Edition if interested.

    http://www.amazon.com/Kristen-Flemings-Ghost-Story-ebook/dp/B00AMNFVJK/ref=la_B0054EB7PY_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355962778&sr=1-2

    Kristen Flemings, age 16, cheerleader, student newspaper editor in chief, daughter, best friend, sister, and her friends find themselves embroiled in murder, witchcraft and human sacrifice over the course of a week."

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    1. Kristen sounds like a strong woman. Welcome to the blog, Mark! I look forward to diving into the sample of your book I snagged over on Amazon. I'm hoping Kristen turns out to be as awesome as I think she will. Great cover image, by the way.

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