Usually, I post about the books I read, the friends I find within each story and reconnecting with them. And right now I am reconnecting with Olivia and Gabriel–and all the mystery and magic of Cainsville. But I wanted to tell you about something seemingly unconnected and in the process I will explain the thought train that led to this post.
I love reading, as you know all to well. And I dislike audiobooks because depending on narrator, the book can be enriched through the process of creating an audiobook or it can be ruined by the slightest thing-a name pronounced differently, an accent that is different than what was expected or any other of a million reasons. When we read a book, we imagine the characters, their accents, and a million other things. An audiobook can ruin that because it makes the elements written in stone and each of these things can skew the enjoyment of the book.
I have been a long time fan of the Elfquest comic book series. When I first found them they had been reprinted as a graphic novel and were in color. When they later rereleased the comics in Black and White, they used a similar explanation–that the coloration of the comics limited the possibilities and locked the characters descriptions in stone. Printing the comics in black and white allowed for infinite possibilities and for the enjoyment of the stories in a whole new way.
For years I was a physical book reader, and my daughter still is. For her a book has to have a physical presence in order to be a book. Ebooks do not work for her-without the pages to flip and the smell of the paper and weight of the book in her hands, they do not seem real to her. Now, I fully enjoy all the facets of having ebooks- the ability to carry hundreds or thousands of books in the palm of my hand, rather than having to carry an extra suitcase on trips. I enjoy having multiple copies of the books in multiple places and the ability to transfer from device to device. I was and am a firm supporter of amazon kindles and have been for a long time.
Anyone who reads ebooks should look into the freeware program Calibre. It allows you to organize your library by author or series or even by publication date. It allows you to convert your books from one format to another and that allows you to use multiple devices. It can also manage your devices. You can merge files together (using plugins) and a million other things.
So now I have found the best program for my needs to be google play books. First off, google offers 24-7 tech support on using the play books app for free. In addition to allowing books to be read on multiple devices, with your progress in each book being communicated no matter which device you read the books upon. Google Play has a read aloud feature-it uses a computer voice of your choice. Much like the black and white comics, it still allows me to add the details to the story. It also allows me to speed up the reading so I can keep pace with where I would be approximately without using the read aloud feature.
So, whats the point of this long rambling post? It’s actually quite simple. My smartphone has become my reading device of choice. And protecting that smartphone has become VERY important. While there are a million choices in the market for cases, tempered glass protectors or plastic film protectors I want to speak with you about my experience with a company called Skinomi. They produce plastic film phone protectors. You can buy one just for the front screen, one for coverage of the entire device (front, back and sides), or one for just the front and back. he plastic film is self healing and the have a lifetime warranty on their products. They now have lines that can be used to change the look of your phone from wood to tempered steel or even cool black carbonite looking skin.
They are the best phone protectors out there. I have used a lot of different ones, but theirs have stood the test of time with each of my phones. In addition, they have exceptional customer service and replace your screen protector if there is an error in installation or for some other reason you need a new one. And it is a lifetime replacement on their products and there is a bubble free guarantee. So protect your phone-get a skinomi protector, they are the best on the market and worth the price!
I’m a reader-always have been. What does that mean? It means that from Kindergarten through eighth grade, my favorite day of the month was when the scholastic book order forms came in and then the day the books actually arrived. I always ordered way more than I could possibly read and lugging those boxes of books home was like the eighth night of hannukkah and my birthday all rolled into one…
When my children were younger, it meant reading books sometimes a word at a time, but I always had a book with me and I will admit to great pride that I finished any books at all with my children at toddler age. Now it means always having a book loaded on my phone to play or read every opportunity I get.
For me, books are a necessity. I cannot imagine a world without books. If something was wrong in my life, most times being swallowed into a story would make it better or at the very least put off the problem until I could find a solution. Reading gave me time to assimilate, a place where all my life’s problems could be put on a shelf for a while. I could visit fantastical worlds where magic and all things were possible. I could bear witness to amazing legal battles and see fancy balls from all the ages. I could see love triumph over incredible odds. There was no end to what I might find between the covers of a book.
As I have grown older and my burdens have become heavier, I have found that sometimes books bring me a simple distraction and I have also found that the characters in these books can become friends in a way. I am fully aware that the characters in my favorite books are fictional, but I worry over their lives as I would a friend. And I have found that having these books I love so very much has brought me some true friends along the way. Those friendships start with a conversation when we notice we are reading the same book or author and can develop into deep discussions and speculation.
And that love of books brought me to this blog. In reaching out to my favorite authors I found that they were struggling. Niche Publishing Houses had gone out of business, and the big publishing houses were mismarketing the books{marketing an urban fantasy book as a traditional romance, leaving the consumers of both urban fantasy and traditional romance unhappy)-so that when contract negotiations for more books began, the publisher could point to bad sales. The publishing house has complete control over when the books are released as well–and with a few different authors, they keep announcing dates, then pushing them back with no communication. That led to a number of angered fans, some of whom have sworn off the authors entirely. Also, some of the authors had felt very comfortable with the niche houses and so left broad areas in their contracts because of the level of trust that existed. Now those broad areas are leaving them with little contractual wigggle room, allowing the big houses to do many things without the authors input or consent. Bad pairings were being made between authors and editors which led to bad books and a loss of loyal fans.
A few of those authors told me that the best thing I can do to help is write reviews and generate buzz around their latest releases. This led me to this blog and now I am finding that I need to generate followers in order to get electronic ARC’s so I can create bigger buzz leading up to the release of the books.
So, I need your help. First, find my facebook link at the end of this post and like the page. There is also a twitter account associated with the blog. In order to raise my Search Engine rankings, please search for my website address in whichever search engine you use whenever you have a chance.
If you should decide to buy one of the books or anything else, try using one of my amazon links so I get a small commission. Or leave a donation using the link below-every little bit helps!
I look forward to discussing all of this with fellow fans at my site bestbooklover.net and at the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BestBookLover/
If you want to support the blog and keep getting great content make a donation at paypal.me/Bestbooklover/
Fist, an apology of sorts. I went radio silent for the last little bit of time. There are many reasons for this, but I am only going to bore you with a few of them:
1. I went on a trip with my deceased husband’s family. We do this every year since Jerome died. We all go somewhere for a week-his parents and grandparents, Me and my girls, his brother and his wife and kids and his sister and her husband. For the past two years we have been going to a remote home in the smoky mountains, which is in a gully, beside a river. But there is no cell service and internet is only available from midnight to 5 am. So I wasn’t able to publish anything… I did a lot of reading and will be catching up on reviews here really soon.
2. I have had some family drama and my head space has been an ugly place to be in and I didn’t want to taint anyone else
3. I asked for help with seo and this was a huge mistake on my part. I have been flooded with calls and emails yelling me how awful my sight was and how they needed to fix it. For an exorbitant price. And after explaining what I envisioned for the website over and over to people who just couldn’t get it through their heads that I am not an expert commerce site. I would be thrilled if anyone clicked to give me a coffee or a PayPal donation, both of those links are in here somewhere.
4. I have been drifting a bit and lost focus on what I was doing with this site. And I have been watching with a morbid fascination as a publishing house baffles and confuses a loyal group of fans for a major author. It’s like someone read the cliff notes version of the series, randomly selected a Character to be the second main character in a long running and popular book series. And it’s not even in all the books, this second main chatacter. I think you guys all know who and what I am talking about, if not here is a big clue, she recently scrapped her release for 2017 and told her fans it will be sometime in 2018 before book is out.
I think from what I’ve read in blog posts that there is a mismatch between the editor (who has recently come onto the scene) and the author. At least that’s what it seems like to me. And I have seen this particular publishing house do something similar to one of my favorite authors to talk about, Karen Chance.
But now for the good News! Karen Chance released a new Dorina Book, Lover’s Knot. She had been issuing it a chapter at a time but now the full book is out and available as a freebie on amazon and smashwords… So what are you waiting for.. Go get it..!
So, here is the deal with whats going on with me, this blog and the lack of content you are probably noticing…
My transition online went a little like this. I’ve used FaceBook for years to share pictures with people far and wide as my kids aged. And I used email when I tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to keep in touch with the family of my heart (my friends) and the family of my blood. I started a blog back then because I was writing these long emails to keep everyone up to date on all the cute things my kids were doing. Then the online social world took off, right around the time I became a widow. And an online presence was the absolute last thought on my mind-although it is why I finally joined facebook.
I read books on my kindles, which changed through the years and managed my ebooks on my laptops. I joined goodreads when it came about and followed my authors via their webpages and blogs. And about a year ago, I started writing reviews of my books on goodreads and amazon. There was so much negativity out there aimed at the authors and I wanted the authors to know that there were readers who weren’t negative and appreciated all the effort that went into their books.
I started reaching out to the authors (and their media minions) to offer support. And some of them told me the best thing I could do for them is write reviews and write blog posts. SO I started a tumblr blog-mostly to build up one authors body of work. And when I went to upgrade my netgalley account and sign up for amazon ad links, I was told tumblr wasn’t considered a respectable platform. Youtube and twitter are, but not tumblr. So, I needed a real website or a twitter following.
And I have spent the last month or so transitioning to wordpress and driving myself insane rying to make it look right, to get the tags right, to get the categories right. I’m still not there! But I realized if I didn’t start posting again the appearance wouldn’t matter-no one would see it!
So, I’m spending most of my time on the appearance! And I will try to remember that I have to post too! I want this site to be a place where book lovers can come and hear my thoughts on the latest books and share theirs. I will work to make it that- so please leave comments or crosspost me!
And if you notice radio silence for too long, don’t be hesitant to email me and remind me that I’m doing this to build up my favorite authors-large and small!!!!
So, I’m supposed to be finishing up “Lover’s Knot”, a freebie Dory novella, only Penguin needs the fourth Dory novel in earlier than expected, and you know, I have to eat. So, in the meantime, I thought I’d do a couple of things to keep you guys busy. First, about the next Dory book, tentatively entitled Shadow’s Bane. That title hasn’t been approved yet, by the way, so may end up changing. Call it a working title for now. Anyway, you can find the first few chapters on the Books page, under the not-a-cover I’ve got there as a placeholder until the real one is finished. Enjoy!
Secondly, since I have a lot of “Lover’s Knot” already written, I thought I’d post a chapter a week of the finished stuff (unedited) for anybody who wants it now. The first post will go up late today. It’ll be on the Freebies page as usual. For those of you who’d prefer to wait and read the whole, edited, spit and polished version, just avoid the weekly posts. I’ll make a note on the blog and FB etc. when the finished novella is up on Amazon and Smashwords, and you can download the whole thing then. Okay? Okay. I gotta go write; you guys have a nice week. 🙂
Posted on goodreads bc Amazon would not let me for some fucking reason. So, *ahem*….
Bought ARC through Read the Pixels event.
Absolutely great book. Let’s start there. This is the second half of the previous book that, due to length, the publisher forced Ms. Chance to break in 2. Ride the Storm is over 600 pages, not a quick read. Whereas the last book set up everything with only a few bits of plot resolved, this book went forward in leaps and bounds. It was fast paced and detailed. There is betrayal and heartbreak, revelations about her parents and others in her life. We meet new characters that may forever change the dynamics Cassie has with the Circle and Jonas. New allies are picked up along the way and Cassie puts in motion ways to protect her old ones from “friendly fire”. I absolutely loved this book…..BUT it does take a while to get several big story arcs concluded. There were a few times that I felt there were extra pages and details that seemed superfluous to the point while reading I had wished the author was able to combine one of two events so to trim down a hundred pages. Overall a good 4 out of 5 stars. It would have been 4.5 out of 5 but the small cliff hanger at the end (set up like the ones in the early books) was annoying especially since it relates to one of the main story arcs that had only partially resolved. The ambiguity made me want to grind my teeth.
I highly recommend this book to read especially if you were upset about the lack of resolution in the previous book.
***Mild spoiler below****
This book will nearly resolve the love triangle. I say nearly because the small cliff hanger at the end implies complications that may hinder her choice. It may not be what you expect or what you hoped for.
Ok, so this is helpful…of course for those of us who have been waiting a long time, we kinda knew most of that. Given that Karen has been diligently plugging away at the publisher for a long time…I would have been shocked if it was LESS than 600 pages. And given that Karen isn’t sure of publishing another one…well the cliff hanger is gonna suck! No, honestly…
I have long been a fan of Paranormal Romance and Jr Ward has been one of my authors. All the readers out there know what I am talking about. We each have a few authors whom we adopt. We preorder their books months in advance and wait anxiously for release day. We are at Barnes and Noble when the doors open or we order from Amazon to make sure we get the book on release day. Sometimes we buy more than one copy to make sure we have the book no matter what happens. JR Ward was one of my authors. But something happened with the Black Dagger Brotherhood right around book 8 and they changed. I wanted to love the books as they came out and with some of them I was successful, with others not so much. The characters were there but the trials they faced were just so awful. Some of it felt contrived. And some of the stories had so many storylines trying to interact, it was easy to get lost in the shuffle. In hindsight, I see that the books had to change and given the strong emotional investment we had in all the characters the jumping around was necessary. Then things got worse. The Happily Ever After endings stopped coming. Some of the characters died and it was worse than the first time around. It felt like the world in the books was every bit as bad as the real world. Tragedy dogged the steps of our favorite characters and rather than resolution we got abdication.
A lot of fans left. And they were vocal about their defections. And a lot of the fans that remained were more cautious. Yes, we wanted to read it. We wanted to see how our characters were doing. But the excitement was tempered with trepidation. What big bad thing was going to happen now? So, I was ambivalent when I got my copy of the Chosen. I have to say that after reading it I am cautiously optimistic for the series. And JR Ward is back to being one of my authors. I’m a little frightened for the next book because I think its going to be about one of my favorite couples and I don’t want anything bad to happen to them.
I could write a long review of the Chosen, but since I am releasing this review on release day I will hold my tongue. I will say this, though. The Chosen has restored my faith in the BDB. So, I will wait with bated breath for our next book and I recommend that the readers who defected recently over a certain death might be surprised by what happens in this book.
