Coffee and Cake

     Let’s see, I have been reading a lot of information out there about blogs and ‘How yours can succeed,’ and have noted that I seem to be ignoring all their advice, which isn’t good. I’m wondering how people do it without life getting in the way, really people; help me out on this one. Somehow I don’t think work would let me reduce my hours just so I can keep up on top of  this or all the other marketing that’s needed to get your book noticed by more than family and friends.

     The thing is it’s all about marketing, you wouldn’t believe what I have on my Amazon wish list for goodie bags. I think that somewhere down the line you actually have to write a book and let someone take charge of your baby but even with their help you are still expected to get out there. Don’t people become writers so they can barricade themselves in their homes, never to see the light of day again? Well they may pop out for the odd book signing though you can do that via Kindle nowadays.

     So I need to be honest, I did set up this blog to get noticed but I don’t want to sit here and do a weekly rant, though I’m doing a good job right now. I want to be able to help, if I can, with those in the same position as me or maybe you are just setting out and thinking about writing and want some advise. Maybe you are a reader rather than a writer and therefore reviews and trailers are more your style?

     Seeing as though I have to get back to the daily grind of coffee and cake, no scratch that, what am I saying, I mean writing of course, I will leave you with two books that have been a great help to me recently.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Things-Should-About-Writing-ebook/dp/B005D4Y2GQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1353930255&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Building-Blog-Readers-Matters-ebook/dp/B0086QQ5DG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1353930322&sr=1-1

250 Things you should know about writing didn’t exactly tell me anything I didn’t already know, but it is a great moral boost, that really helped me.

I had to include a blog book and out of all the information floating around out there, I found this very useful.

 

Enjoy!

    

More than magic - Semester Abroad

Jen was about to spend her summer on board a cruise ship, studying and seeing the sites. What she does see, will change her life forever. She meets a strange group of people, who do and say things that cannot be possible. Here she is thrown into an unknown world, where the strange and unusual are common place and something on the ship lies in wait.

Elizabeth’s writing is relaxed and easy and you are quickly drawn into the story. I must admit at first I thought we were heading down the Twilight route, with a group of strangers and a girl who observed things others didn’t. I was pleasantly surprised then when we were shown a world of magic and love. As Jen is completely new to magic, she asks questions that we want answered ourselves yet at no point did it feel like the information was dumped into our laps. I liked the way she is unsure about everything and questions the necessity of certain things.

The fight scenes were well thought out, letting the reader clearly picture every detail.  The relationships between the group works really well and they all have a distinctive personality. At times, the pace did slow a little too much and I felt a couple of the scenes could have been reduced. Saying that, I did like the intertwined lives of all the different types of magic, which included vampires and werewolves but also mermaids and elementals. I will look forward to reading the next in the series.

 

Sveta (Neuri series) - Poppet

Sveta, jumps straight into action as we read about a horrendous attack on a human and the description almost lets you hear the ribcage snap. There is a rogue vampire group wanting to frame the Neuri for the attacks but there is something deeper behind their reasons.

In amongst all this violence is the love between Sveta who is neuri and Zena a human.

As I am new to this author, it took me some time to get use to the style of writing. The book is written all in 1^st person but rather than staying on one character, it constantly switches from one point of view to another by simply putting the person’s name at the top of the page. Rather than swapping all the time it might have been easier to write the whole thing in 3^rd person.

This is an unusual story with a love theme interwoven in its layers. If you can get passed the writing style, it is well worth a read.

 

Willow (Blood vine series) – Amy Richie

From the very beginning we found out that Willow is not a typical teenager. She is a werewolf and has known for sometime, so she isn’t allowed to act like a normal girl. No connections, no friends, the only company she has is a narcissistic foster mother, Bella and an annoying little sister, Ivy.

As life moves on she is thrown into a new terrifying situation, she has been chosen to lead a pack of werewolves that she didn’t even know existed.

The book is written with a nice sense of humour throughout. I like the connection she makes with her new pack and her relationship with Gage, which of course provides an important part of the story. The writing is nice and easy and flows well. Richie draws a good picture of the world she created in a not so run of the mill werewolf story and it keeps you reading to the very end.

S.P.I.R.I.T (Fire Storm) - Dawn Gray

When Samantha Rickets suddenly finds herself in the middle of an unknown town, when she was in bed a few moments ago, she ends up in the arms of Zander. He is a military man under a special task force dealing with the paranormal. Chasing ghosts and demons, Sam is soon dragged into the fight.

You quickly realise that there is a special bond between them and they tap into their own powers and uncover a mystery that has been pulling them towards each other for years.

Dawn Gray has a lovely style of writing; it is fast paced and never slows down. You are thrown straight into the story and it slowly unfolds before you in lovely descriptive tones. The adult content is well written without being crude and I really enjoyed the read. The main characters are well developed and I wanted to know how it would end for them.

There are questions that I feel were never answered, such as the identical town, had they been drawn into a parallel universe, were there now two sets of parents but it did not distract me enough not to want to know what happens next.