tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15504595525289204272024-03-19T02:43:13.243+00:00The Self-Publishing ReviewJane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.comBlogger93125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-9775866004102275512011-01-06T10:00:00.003+00:002011-01-06T10:00:04.743+00:00Happy New Year!Here we are in 2011 and in a spirit of optimism, I am making a few changes to The Self-Publishing Review.<br /><br />Regular visitors will have noticed that I've not been posting here much lately. There were two reasons for that: I've been incredibly busy with paid-for writing, which has to take precedence over my blogging activities; and I've been getting so many ugly anonymous comments and emails from this site that I needed to rethink my approach.<br /><br />The good news is that I'm on the home stretch of the book I'm writing; and I've now managed to collect the IP addresses of all of the people who were being less than polite, and I have now reported them to their ISPs. I find joy in such things.<br /><br />So that I can deal more easily with any such sad obsessives in the future, <a href="http://theselfpublishingreview.wordpress.com/">I'm going to move this blog from Blogger to Wordpress.</a> Comments here are now closed, but you can still take part in the discussions over at my new home.<br /><br />I hope to see you there. Thank you, readers and especially writers, for your support over the last year. May 2011 be a splendid and productive year for us all.Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-77688373918640301012010-11-11T10:00:00.000+00:002010-11-11T10:00:08.724+00:00Ordeal, by T K Varenko<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA9sTXqyVOSrvg5n4LWPyOw3iRZ3fHWksPRW8nzL0fzUEQPgyH5s4vQY4PPlxKx4H3Wap3vdihzZZ83IrCxYSREizMY694Q_ur8cJZ6dM9SK9_nq9O8kVMoDQIrUFJ32928l55erAvJtI/s1600/ordeal.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 97px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA9sTXqyVOSrvg5n4LWPyOw3iRZ3fHWksPRW8nzL0fzUEQPgyH5s4vQY4PPlxKx4H3Wap3vdihzZZ83IrCxYSREizMY694Q_ur8cJZ6dM9SK9_nq9O8kVMoDQIrUFJ32928l55erAvJtI/s320/ordeal.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5530883411756846002" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">It is a verse-ornated story</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">About love, betrayal, wrath</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Royal vampires' bliss and glory</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Bringing them straight to their death.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Luella, fierce, strong vampire,</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Falls for a pretty human catch</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Sent on her fiancé’s desire</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">To celebrate they are engaged.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">This unexpected turnabout</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Is doomed to come to a dead end:</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Her human sweetheart's dead to shroud:</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Her fiancé’s avenged for that.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">And she is punished for blood treason,</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Banished into a mortal child,</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Whose human body is a prison</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">For all her powers to bind.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Her memories obliterated,</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">She is to find her love at last</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Who proves to be too much related</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">To the misfortunes from her past.</span><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1450549896?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=1450549896">Ordeal</a> is a vampire story written completely in verse, which follows a simple A – B – A – B four line form. It's a relatively easy form to write if you have a good awareness of rhythm and rhyme; sadly the author of this book appears to have neither.<br /><br />His lines don't scan, his rhymes often don't actually rhyme; he uses words which almost sound good but don't mean what he seems to think they mean; and several of his verses make no sense at all.<br /><br />He has forgotten to put his own name on the front cover of his own book; the cover image he has chosen is extremely unappealing, and brings to mind the inside of a mouldy eyeball, complete with blood vessels; the back cover copy is almost illegible as the font used is over-fancy and out of focus; and the book has no copyright page.<br /><br />The writing is quite astonishingly bad: this verse reads as though it has been dragged backwards and forwards through Babel Fish a few times. I read five and a half pages out of two hundred and twelve despite ignoring several of the author's less significant lapses, and I strongly urge this writer to put in a lot more work on his craft before he even considers publishing anything else.Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-31276993154932264952010-11-04T10:00:00.000+00:002010-11-04T10:00:10.955+00:00Take It Easy: Untangling the Internet: an easy guide to start using the Internet by Ohad Kravchick<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2BQH8osaJvrbnIy-P3nuyFxfhsLZkOHGoDBFNIuy_Vj3NZkhh558X7N3wc1dU9Ww_ROZFjRqpPQ3SUiG8s4WT5XiJxVjjey7fbrUE1x_4zLlUB24ZL7AXaUhmkANxQ6w_uXcLufunfBc/s1600/take+it+easy+untangling+internet.png"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 209px; height: 319px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2BQH8osaJvrbnIy-P3nuyFxfhsLZkOHGoDBFNIuy_Vj3NZkhh558X7N3wc1dU9Ww_ROZFjRqpPQ3SUiG8s4WT5XiJxVjjey7fbrUE1x_4zLlUB24ZL7AXaUhmkANxQ6w_uXcLufunfBc/s320/take+it+easy+untangling+internet.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5530880467759636482" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">If you ever thought it's too late for you to learn how to use the Internet THINK AGAIN!</span><br /><br />In <span style="font-weight: bold;">"Take It Easy: Untangling The Internet," </span>author <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ohad Kravchick </span>guides you through an easy, step-by-step process to using the Internet, by providing:<br /><br />> An introduction to the Internet and the benefits of using it.<br />> A detailed walk-through with illustrations for using your computer and connecting to the Internet.<br />> Real-life Internet scenarios (websites), containing simple and more advanced examples, complete with easy to follow illustrations.<br />> Directions showing how to find the information you need.<br />> A list of useful Internet locations for your knowledge, finance, chores, hobbies, and entertainment.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A MUST GUIDE FOR ALL INTERNET NEWCOMERS!</span><br /><br />Ohad Kravchick has been a professional computer instructor for more than 8 years; he is focused on ease of learning. He earned his master's degree in Computer Science from Fordham University. He lives with his wife in New York City.<br /><br />For more information about this booklet and its publication, log in to: www.takeiteasyseries.com<br />To order more copies call 1-877-377-3311 (toll free)</span><br /><br /><br /><br />I use the internet a lot: I use it for research, for networking, and for blogging. I'm not, however, terribly computer-literate: I depend on my lovely friend Clever Andy to rescue me from technical tangles and I'm frequently grateful to him for all his help. Consequently, I was looking forward to reading this slim book in the hope that I might improve my knowledge of all things internet. Sadly, I was disappointed.<br /><br />This is the single most confusing instruction manual I have ever encountered, and I include in that list the Italian instructions for a fridge which accompanied the DVD player I bought recently.<br /><br />I am sure that Mr Kravchick is a lovely man; he's a professional computer instructor and I bet when he talks to people in his classes he helps them enormously. But he has no aptitude for writing. His sentences range from confusing to unintelligible, and his errors in grammar mean that he often make statements which are completely wrong. I'm very sorry to have to be so damning. But this is a terribly badly written book and I can only see it confusing anyone desperate enough to turn to it for help. I read just three of its sixty-three pages, despite my best attempts to be generous.Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-61525094119253049702010-10-28T10:00:00.000+01:002010-10-28T10:00:06.238+01:00Lost in Juarez, by Douglas Lindsay<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzHmVysSlZK_yasZS0-QIjIGZdxaQkDRM5kEALRcpoMX5j4IPQjDalob7F2xjcFfYxN1lMx-qZPYeDzK6L12sV8C2H7W7dmZrMgurEcKghag9UOqz1P_h7UaF5G-sGsKIH61UPPQQ9Ceg/s1600/lost+in+juarez.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 104px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzHmVysSlZK_yasZS0-QIjIGZdxaQkDRM5kEALRcpoMX5j4IPQjDalob7F2xjcFfYxN1lMx-qZPYeDzK6L12sV8C2H7W7dmZrMgurEcKghag9UOqz1P_h7UaF5G-sGsKIH61UPPQQ9Ceg/s320/lost+in+juarez.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5530876812684195906" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">From the creator of the cult Barney Thomson crime series, comes a darker, more sinister novel.<br /><br />The government is watching.<br /><br />4 million names on the DNA database and counting; CCTV cameras on every street corner; telephone records available to any agency which requests them; restrictions on movements around Westminster; ID cards and the most all encompassing surveillance operations ever conducted. All in the name of freedom.<br /><br />When his latest book is shelved due to government interference, Lake Weston—international bestselling, Bob Dylan-addicted children's author—decides that it is time to stand up for personal rights. He writes and anonymously publishes a scathing polemic, the Animal Farm of its day, about a government which seeks to restrict civil liberties in the name of freedom. The book quickly achieves notoriety. The media is animatedly curious about the author; the government, however, already knows.<br /><br />As the security services close in, Weston find his name dragged through the gutter press. Suddenly he must run for his life, not knowing who he can trust and with nothing in his pocket except a few pounds and an iPod loaded with 1256 Bob Dylan tracks.<br /><br />About the books of Douglas Lindsay:<br /><br />"Gleefully macabre... hugely enjoyable black burlesque." The Scotsman<br /><br />"Pitch black comedy spun from the finest writing. Fantastic plot, unforgettable scenes and plenty of twisted belly laughs." New Woman<br /><br />"Lindsay's burlesque thrills offer no sex, no drugs, no desperation to be cool. Just straightforward adult story: fantastic plot, classic timing and gleeful delight in the grotesque." What's On<br /><br />"Extremely well-written, highly amusing and completely unpredictable in its outrageous plot twists and turns." The List</span><br /><br /><br />I really wanted to enjoy <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0954138775?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=0954138775">Lost in Juarez</a>: it has a good jacket design, and the book feels balanced in my hands thanks to its professional production values (although I would have preferred a matt laminate on the cover—those glossy finishes always feel a bit too low-end to me). Despite the rather clumsy back cover copy the quotes which accompanied it really got my hopes up, and its premise appealed to me: so I started work on this book with some enthusiasm.<br /><br />I was very disappointed.<br /><br />The first hurdle I had to overcome was the book’s poor internal layout. The paragraphs are indented by only a single space, making reading difficult and tiring; and the font used throughout the book is just a trifle small. The problem with the font size is just a personal preference (amazingly, I seem to be getting older and find such close type wearing to read for long), so I didn’t include it in my tally of problems, but such typesetting issues have to be considered by self-publishers: they directly affect the readability of the book, and are likely to make potential readers turn away from this book without really knowing why they’re doing so. If you want to sell as many copies as you can it’s important to put as few barriers between the reader and the text as possible, and by making it even a tiny bit difficult to read the text, you’re shooting your book in its metaphorical foot.<br /><br />Sadly, though, I felt that this book had more troubling issues than the size of its typeface. The author's style is staccato and repetitious: he frequently uses sentence fragments and seems to be aiming for a hard-edged tone which at times morphs into pastiche. There were several confusing passages; a few lines which made no sense at all; a scattering of odd punctuation choices including an ellipsis of magnificent proportions; and a post-coital scene which was so full of adolescent self-importance that I found myself cringing as I read it.<br /><br />I stopped reading after that sex scene, so read just sixteen pages out of two hundred and twelve. It's a shame, as further on in the book the writer gets into his stride more, and the text does improve: but that’s too late if he wants to grab browsing readers who will usually begin at the book’s first page.<br /><br />I’ve skim-read this book to the end and am convinced that with a better editor this book could have been significantly improved, and would probably have earned a recommendation from me. In its current state, however, I found it a clumsy and uncomfortable read on several levels. Nevertheless, there is something about it that I liked and I hope to see more from Mr Lindsay in the future.Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-52019514983712772862010-09-25T07:37:00.002+01:002010-09-25T07:40:45.351+01:00I'm Still Here!Apologies for my silence over the last month or so: I'm just a little bit busy with other projects but I will be back here in the near future, reviewing the stack of books I have by my side. There are a couple of treasures in that stack, I'm pleased to say. I'm still happy to receive submissions for review, and am blogging pretty much as usual on <a href="http://howpublishingreallyworks.com">How Publishing Really Works.</a>Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-50765604586564916882010-08-26T10:00:00.000+01:002010-08-26T10:00:01.752+01:00The Faith Of A Child: Stefan G Lanfer<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9pW1jKzLmes0pGOPqBRVf70opnvEGOsdn38gsOyTTNtECd_Xanv_5np08sizMm4uJXfdlpGf2YgJ9IS_zdcTvYDqamw-Jdd1kqZ99A5ftla7uo2tldIUbBBQeyF0i5hinHSXbsEFZcmU/s1600/faith+of+a+child.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 107px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9pW1jKzLmes0pGOPqBRVf70opnvEGOsdn38gsOyTTNtECd_Xanv_5np08sizMm4uJXfdlpGf2YgJ9IS_zdcTvYDqamw-Jdd1kqZ99A5ftla7uo2tldIUbBBQeyF0i5hinHSXbsEFZcmU/s320/faith+of+a+child.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469609577782372194" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Preparing for fatherhood? Freaked out? Help is here.<br /><br />Playwright Stefan Lanfer has penned a vital new book on the struggles of dads-to-be.<br /><br />When a woman prepares for motherhood, other women guide her on her way. Not so a dad-to-be, who gets pats on the back, corny jokes, or vague assurances he'll do fine. Until now, his best hope was by-moms-for-moms baby books--a gap filled by Stefan Lanfer’s The Faith of a Child and Other Stories of Becoming and Being a Dad, in which the author chronicles his own journey to, and into fatherhood, lending a comforting and humorous peek into the vagaries and joys of being a dad.<br /><br />According to Lanfer, "When my wife was pregnant, I was STRESSED out, and the guys around me were no help--until, just in time, I hosted a group of dads at our home. I fed them dinner, and they fed me their stories." As he listened, says Lanfer, "I got inside the head space of a dad, and, finally, I felt ready."<br /><br />To pay forward this gift of stories, Lanfer shares his own in The Faith of a Child. To dads-to-be, Lanfer says, "If you want tips, tactics, and advice for childbirth and parenting, you've got dozens of choices. But, if you want real stories that actually let you picture fatherhood, The Faith of a Child is for you.</span><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0557134528?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=0557134528">The Faith Of A Child</a> is composed of a series of vignettes from Lanfer's life with his wife and, eventually, two small children. He writes in blank verse, which I didn't find particularly successful: his writing is neither tight enough nor lyrical enough to shine in this form (to see blank verse working well, read <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0099512467?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=0099512467">Sharp Teeth</a> by Toby Barlow, a book I adore). And while he presents this as a book of stories to prepare men for fatherhood I'm not convinced that fathers will find the stories collected here at all useful: most are without any real resolution or message, and far too personal to Lanfer to inspire or instruct anyone else.<br /><br />It's a shame, as there are occasional glimpses of beauty: for example, the title story is touching and rather lovely. But the few gems there are are muddied by Lanfer's rather unfocused style, and they're hidden among a lot of other stories which only invoked a reaction of "so what?" from me, I'm afraid.<br /><br />A reasonable effort, then, let down by a lack of clarity and focus. While I think it's wonderful that the author finds his family life so compelling, he really needs to look at his stories with a harsher, more critical eye in order to recognise which are worth working on and which should be kept as a private, more personal record. I read thirty-two pages out of one hundred and fifty-five.Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-49920453590461298192010-08-19T10:00:00.000+01:002010-08-19T10:00:02.926+01:00Where Spirits Live: Omri Navot<span style="font-style: italic;">When a new boy moves into the neighbourhood, everyone thinks he's as strange as can be. But not Angela. She finds herself drawn to this mysterious boy, and with his help discovers that there's more to her world than she ever imagined. Together, they journey to mystical realms where they learn secrets about themselves and each other. A touching book about youth, spirit, and friendship, Where Spirits Live is bound to enchant you with its mystery and magic.</span><br /><br /><br />I did try to find a cover image to use here, but without any luck: perhaps the author could add one to his own blog. Just a thought.<br /><br />The simplistic tone of this book and its young main character made me wonder at first if it was intended for a younger audience: but its focus on spirituality makes that unlikely and so I'm still not quite sure where this book would be shelved and what its target market is.<br /><br />The writing is mostly competent although I noticed a couple of peculiar paragraphs which had little to do with the text which surrounded them, and which would have been much better cut; there were a few sentences which were so poorly constructed that although I could work out what I think the author intended to say, the actual meaning of his words was nonsensical; and a pivotal scene in which the main character's parents have the first of many fights comes as a complete surprise as until that point they've been portrayed as happy and settled.<br /><br />Despite these quibbles the pages turned at a decent pace and I suspect that a good editor could turn this text into something much cleaner and sharper and ultimately more rewarding. My main concern for this book, though, focuses on bigger things. Its plot feels far too familiar; I found nothing new or exciting here, and feel no compulsion to read on; I am not convinced by either of the two main characters (the boy seems more than a little creepy); and I'm particularly uncomfortable with the boy’s suggestion that if the girl ignores her parents fighting it will all just go away.<br /><br />A valiant effort, then, and a book not entirely without merit: but it is too deeply flawed for me to recommend it, I'm afraid, even though I read forty-one pages out of one hundred and fifty-one.Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-30139102953048021902010-08-12T10:00:00.000+01:002010-08-12T10:00:04.999+01:00The Turning: Paul J Newell<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2S4Sywzz8UA5VlbiNj4-nHG1KyPeJIdpAYrUX_WsP7EOtICzAalHEW_newFexY8oWkUM8toOY4L0oTxFOGeeX17mg_TfndBkSalqRLxa-HFa2-KFkhNJUk5WifkvzWhqE63vgFpIW2Aw/s1600/the+turning.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 104px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2S4Sywzz8UA5VlbiNj4-nHG1KyPeJIdpAYrUX_WsP7EOtICzAalHEW_newFexY8oWkUM8toOY4L0oTxFOGeeX17mg_TfndBkSalqRLxa-HFa2-KFkhNJUk5WifkvzWhqE63vgFpIW2Aw/s320/the+turning.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465894371048784626" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">The world is Turning. He can sense it. Now he has to stop it.<br /><br />People are disappearing.<br /><br />When Lleyton Quinn is arrested in connection with a missing woman, he insists he knows nothing about it. He's wrong. Soon he comes to realise that he is intimately entwined in the whole mystery. And when the female detective who arrested him pleads for his help, he is dragged to the centre of a phenomenon that could change everything. This is more than just missing people. The very fabric of society is being slowly unstitched by an unknown seamstress, and Lleyton has been chosen to pick up the threads. Before it's too late. Before he disappears too...<br /><br />This book is an intriguing blend of crime-thriller and science-fiction. Comic, dark and surreal in places, the story is based in the near future, in a world not too dissimilar from our own. Rich in thought-provoking concepts, this novel touches on all aspects of humanity, culminating in an evocative new theory about the nature of our world. This is fiction... that promises to teach you something.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0955224500?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=0955224500">The Turning</a> is the sort of book that would might well accrue a stack of personalised rejections and offers to consider the writer's next book when sent out on submission to mainstream publishers and agents. It is so very nearly excellent: but because of the author's inexperience in both writing and editing it doesn't quite reach the mark.<br /><br />I can sympathise with Mr. Newell, because he makes the same sorts of mistakes that I make in my first drafts: we both over-write, we both use cliché, and we both like to hammer our points home and then some. The difference is that I then try to edit all those mistakes out, whereas Mr Newell seems content to leave them standing.<br /><br />Overall, then, an impressive attempt which is let down by a lack of skilled editing. It's a shame, as beneath all the extraneous stuff Newell's writing is bright and pacey and engaging, with a light humour which reminds me a little of <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.co.uk%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D0%26ref_%3Dnb%5Fsb%5Fnoss%26y%3D0%26field-keywords%3Dmyron%2520bolitar%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Dstripbooks&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=ur2&camp=1634&creative=19450">Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar novels</a>. Newell shows real talent and potential, and if he pays much more careful attention to his editing skills in future projects he might well go far. I read sixty-six pages out of two hundred forty-two to find my fifteen mistakes: however, I will almost certainly read this book right to the end and so I recommend it, despite its faults.Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-63491373143599722322010-08-05T10:00:00.000+01:002010-08-05T10:00:01.939+01:00Life Skills 101: A Guide To Understanding The Seasons In Your Life: Lori J Parker<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZC6rERKzlhjgsoS3v-jFOqEbqaK_3lOmabuOGUxfqarycl_msKVMHwloDRE_boE_YBa3sAF9F9jamn5U6SaZHatJ8-DiVXuli-LKaRQErl-Qu68372mHqzPsGEFe4V99cl2ptxCd4OE8/s1600/life+skills+101.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 105px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZC6rERKzlhjgsoS3v-jFOqEbqaK_3lOmabuOGUxfqarycl_msKVMHwloDRE_boE_YBa3sAF9F9jamn5U6SaZHatJ8-DiVXuli-LKaRQErl-Qu68372mHqzPsGEFe4V99cl2ptxCd4OE8/s320/life+skills+101.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469606339274034018" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">As the magnitude of trials continue to escalate in the world today, Christians need to understand the seasons of preparation that God has for each of them. In Life Skills 101, Lori Parker identifies why we experience various trials. She offers practical ways to identify and overcome these trials so we will be ready for the Lord's return.<br /><br />Lori Parker, is an anointed author, conference speaker, and founder of One Choice Ministries. God has given her gifts of compassion, joy, and boldness. She has a passionate desire to see people develop an intimate relationship with the Lord. Lori preaches Biblical truths that stir the Body of Christ into action.<br /><br />"I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see."~Revelation 3:18</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1449966012?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=1449966012">Life Skills 101</a> gets off to a poor start. Its back cover copy discusses the trials we will all face in life, and informs us that the book has a strongly Christian perspective: then on the first page of its introduction it tells us that it's actually about our relationships with money and with god.<br /><br />It implies that everyone reading the book will have little money and an irresponsible attitude to the little they have; that everyone who appears to be doing well is really hiding a mountain of debt and misery; and that the reason so many people overspend is that they are too proud, and feel they deserve better than they have. The author seems to resent college graduates, especially those who go on to postgraduate education; and she states that Christians should be exempt from rules which apply to non-Christians, as they can depend on god's guidance. It would have been useful if god had given the author a little guidance on the rules of punctuation and grammar, but perhaps he shares my view that writers should learn how to do these things for themselves.<br /><br />This book gave me a very interesting glimpse into another world—but that doesn't mean I think it's any good. The author attributes all sorts of things to god's grace but doesn’t discuss why this might be so; she shows no understanding of social or psychological failings, she implies that we have no need to take personal responsibility for our mistakes or problems, and makes no allowance for the fact that sometimes terrible things happen to people which they simply cannot overcome even if they believe and trust in god. And that's where this book fails.<br /><br />If the author had attempted to encompass more shades of grey—to recognise that not everyone believes in god, for example, and that often, hard work can be far more practical and effective than prayer and contemplation—this book would have been much better. As it is, it's a judgemental, disappointing and patronising text which encourages us all to live our lives responsible only to god, and to make no efforts to resolve our own problems or improve our lives other than by praying for god’s guidance: and that means it's only going to be taken seriously by people who already agree with the stance it takes; and that people like me, who disagree very strongly with most of the claims made in the book, are going to dismiss it.<br /><br />If I were this writer, then, how would I improve this book? Instead of discussing abstract groups of people who are disappointed in their lives I would write about specific people and tell their stories in more depth; I would stop making insulting generalisations about people who did not share my beliefs; I would learn a little about logic and fallacy and apply what I'd learned to my writing; and I'd stop being so very disapproving about the way other people live their lives.<br /><br />I read fifteen of this book's one hundred and thirty seven pages, and won't be reading any more.Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-80366563664240138092010-07-29T10:00:00.000+01:002010-07-29T10:00:01.092+01:00Nymphas’ World: Rachel Haldane<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1nSMkWd7xuGtmNIuEuyBU__DEXMB35YF8vlA5z3ICBSbbdstdKwx4-GA8xMkqTfYfqnKfLn8fHah_uZfxzWm6zqJP1F_R8oUKhmHkiyc_jYFjIkNsYl4AzYbCGvGbEjp7VLClrtVnxU8/s1600/nymphas+world.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 104px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1nSMkWd7xuGtmNIuEuyBU__DEXMB35YF8vlA5z3ICBSbbdstdKwx4-GA8xMkqTfYfqnKfLn8fHah_uZfxzWm6zqJP1F_R8oUKhmHkiyc_jYFjIkNsYl4AzYbCGvGbEjp7VLClrtVnxU8/s320/nymphas+world.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469601837524901890" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Nymphas' World<br /><br />Although Kay is only ten years old, she always knew that she broke away from the ordinary. However, she did not anticipate ever acquainting herself with a fairy. Kay discovers a new world of old that no other human has ever trespassed before, meeting mythical creatures, strange beings and experiencing magic!<br /><br />Kay and her brother Rob explore the land of Nymphas and learn much about fairy origin. There are, however, evil Nymphas as well as virtuous. Rob is snatched by the Onyx Nymphas and Kay has no choice but to go...<br /><br />Beyond the Onyx Mountains.</span><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1616670037?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=1616670037">Nymphas' World</a> has the most off-putting cover I've seen on a book for a long time. It's an ugly image, badly executed, without any comedic value to lessen its impact.<br /><br />The back cover copy is, as you can see, confused and confusing, and can't even manage to remain in one tense. And then we get to the text inside.<br /><br />It takes a lot of effort to write a novel and this one is relatively substantial, at nearly four hundred pages long: I applaud Ms Haldane’s efforts for getting so far. But I'm afraid that her writing is nowhere near good enough to be published.<br /><br />She makes so many of the basic errors that I wondered at times if it was intentional: she writes in a very passive voice; she lists almost every action her characters perform, so reducing her pacing to a plodding, pedantic crawl; her sentences are so poorly constructed that it is often difficult to extract any meaning from them; and she has a tendency to sacrifice clarity in favour of big, impressive-sounding words.<br /><br />These are issues that even the most skilled editor could not fix: with all due respect to Ms Haldane her writing just isn't up to a good enough standard, I'm afraid. I went out of my way to be lenient here, but even so I read just four pages out of three hundred and eighty-four. I strongly advise this writer to read more, and to learn more about the craft of writing, before she considers publishing anything else.Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-47280726433430216492010-07-22T10:00:00.000+01:002010-07-22T10:00:00.907+01:00The Darkness: Bill Kirton<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz3k3YkYCYfENVpdZmxvu1sS0xBlV-ebqkapYecasPTi5ndQ40F30yXG8FalJPZmuPEyd3ewA1frjNYVt_jAHcwDp1nXPbTnZ53PHctIh68btWDfBLXicVTKL5sWJfvGYqWDwesFlA3o8/s1600/the+darkness.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 107px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz3k3YkYCYfENVpdZmxvu1sS0xBlV-ebqkapYecasPTi5ndQ40F30yXG8FalJPZmuPEyd3ewA1frjNYVt_jAHcwDp1nXPbTnZ53PHctIh68btWDfBLXicVTKL5sWJfvGYqWDwesFlA3o8/s320/the+darkness.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465899463362887554" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">When Tommy Davidson is found with his throat cut, his brother Andrew's shock turns to thoughts of vigilante retribution. Known villains, including the person indirectly responsible for the death, begin to disappear. Thanks to the efforts of one of Cairnburgh's cleverest lawyers, each has managed to evade justice. But not any more. Meantime, rape victim Rhona Kirk starts a new life in Dundee but finds it difficult to shake off her past. As DCI Jack Carston tries to find what links the various missing persons, he's aware of his own darker impulses and of an empathy between himself and the vigilantes. His investigation becomes a race against time and against the pressure of darkness.</span><br /><br /><br />The jumbled and dull back cover copy for <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1849232970?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=1849232970">The Darkness</a> is no indication of the quality of the text of the book itself: I found a lot here to keep me interested, and would like to see what happens to Bill Kirton's work when it is passed through the hands of a competent and demanding editor.<br /><br />The problems I found—a tendency to exposition, a lack of clear characterisation, a couple of clichés and a few punctuation problems—are all fixable because the underlying writing is strong, clear and fast-moving. Kirton has a raw talent which gives an edge to this book that most writers will never achieve: if he focuses on revising his next text to a higher standard I can see him doing very well indeed.<br /><br />I was particularly harsh with Mr. Kirton in my judgement of his book but despite that, I read twenty-four of his three hundred and thirteen pages. If I had found this on the slush pile, I would almost certainly have asked to see more: as it is, I am going to cautiously recommend this book despite its flaws.Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-24754034914107846592010-07-15T10:00:00.000+01:002010-07-15T10:00:03.806+01:00Moonlight: Keith Knapp<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgklh15pSGpyvvG_Qz95mufLNVq4gozuO5_s2gbD9eTYlBEtqT5yvgjPvjz-BBsLhrZfeVYgQl9TXofzdNlYykHatz9VfK-QG6zd01IHmdkcvUWgFWW9tMEdEXR3CHMOLptv_IFqyf90MY/s1600/moonlight.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 100px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgklh15pSGpyvvG_Qz95mufLNVq4gozuO5_s2gbD9eTYlBEtqT5yvgjPvjz-BBsLhrZfeVYgQl9TXofzdNlYykHatz9VfK-QG6zd01IHmdkcvUWgFWW9tMEdEXR3CHMOLptv_IFqyf90MY/s320/moonlight.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465892090478264146" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Fiction/Horror<br /><br />No more room.<br /><br />It began with a power outage. A power outage that went beyond lights and televisions. Clocks stopped telling time. Cell phones no longer received signals. Cars became dead relics that wouldn't start.<br /><br />As the world around them becomes darker, so do the inhabitants of the small town of Westmont, Illinois. A mysterious and evil presence has taken a hold over the village, making the once peaceful town a place of violence and despair<br /><br />A small group of individuals, untouched by this presence, must uncover the mystery of why they remain normal and discover what—or who—is taking control of their town, one soul at a time.<br /><br />Because the Man in the Dark Coat is out there. Hunting them.<br /><br />And not everyone can remain untouched forever.<br /><br /><br />In the tradition of Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Clive Barker, Keith Knapp tells a horrifying tale of innocence and sin, and what people will overcome to defeat their own innermost demons in the search for hope. This is his first novel.</span><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1432715658?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=1432715658">Moonlight</a> shows great potential. It has an interesting premise and the writer's style is immediate and very accessible, full of believable characters dropped into tricky and surprisingly plausible situations.<br /><br />Where the book fails is in its editing. I found numerous problems with its punctuation (when will self published writers learn the difference between hyphens and dashes?), a few clichés; redundant statements, some lapses in tense; and a lot of repetition of various plot-points. I understand this last was intended to reinforce the plot but I found it patronising and infuriating, and it only really served to slow the pace of an otherwise fast-moving story.<br /><br />The author would be wise to improve his editing techniques, too. There is a scene in which a generator will not work which I found particularly irritating: I've lived off-grid for the last thirteen years and we've had several different diesel generators during that time, as have our off-grid neighbours: I've never seen a single generator to work in the way described here. I'll admit I've not had hands-on experience of every single model of generator that there is, and I'm no expert in their workings: but I know enough about them for this description to jar me right out of the narrative—which is exactly what writers should aim to avoid.<br /><br />In summary, then: a book with real promise and a writer who could do well, let down by basic errors in editing, technique and research. All these should improve with experience, so I hope for better from Mr. Knapp in the future. I read twenty six pages out of a total of four hundred and sixty five, and would have read more had that generator been a little more true-to-life.Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-30133872602235926932010-07-08T10:00:00.000+01:002010-07-08T10:00:04.118+01:00Red Poppies: S. P. Miskowski<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIRe2Ma3tmi5lDiriyk0DHVAcqqS9URnsSsO-irZx228xqMy7fAoD62jXSYXJHhtgAXfKZdpVvmq8iD04aumuO67ovRa4F09u3VzuyLyujrH8EQKfjAL_71C9YobPPURkprNGVU3nRpN0/s1600/red+poppies.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 107px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIRe2Ma3tmi5lDiriyk0DHVAcqqS9URnsSsO-irZx228xqMy7fAoD62jXSYXJHhtgAXfKZdpVvmq8iD04aumuO67ovRa4F09u3VzuyLyujrH8EQKfjAL_71C9YobPPURkprNGVU3nRpN0/s320/red+poppies.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469608766474886258" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Five stories revealing the chilling reality behind the roles women play every day. A sense of dread pervades the atmosphere in these wickedly funny, dark tales of female desperation.<br /><br />Red Poppies<br />A house cleaner becomes the muse to a crazy trophy wife and then finds her status threatened by a newcomer.<br /><br />A Personal Recommendation<br />A bright student will do whatever it takes to pay for her education.<br /><br />You Never Know<br />The eccentric subjects of a documentary offer more strange behaviour than the filmmakers expected.<br /><br />Next to Nothing<br />A bitter catering company employee reaches the breaking point during a party at a wealthy client’s house.<br /><br />Idiot Boy<br />Some siblings live large and others are born to clean up the mess. (Idiot Boy was originally published by Identity Theory.)</span><br /><br /><br />First, the bad news. The back cover copy for this book tells me nothing about the book or its author and needs to be substantially reworked; the layout of the front matter needs addressing; and the image on the jacket is muddy and dull, and could be vastly improved (it would help, too, if the title were easier to read). All these things do affect sales, and with self-published books being so difficult to sell it seems foolish to me that so many writers shoot themselves so firmly in the foot by producing covers and layouts which are below par.<br /><br />And now, on to the writing. The short story is a very difficult form to master. There's no room for even a single mistake: every word has to earn its keep, and in an anthology every short story has to work alone and in conjunction with the others that it shares space with.<br /><br />In <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1849238464?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=1849238464">Red Poppies</a> there are a few glitches in punctuation which I mostly ignored, because I found the writer's voice so clear and compelling; some of the plots felt a little trite; the writer has a tendency to exposition which on occasion chopped into the flow of text. However, if she continues to refine and improve her work, and reads widely in the genre, I suspect we'll see more from Ms Miskowski in the future. This a good collection, which could do with a little more polishing and a few more stories: but which nevertheless carries with it echoes of Grace Paley and Aimee Bender. I read it all, and recommend it.Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-53913314419357891072010-07-01T10:00:00.002+01:002010-07-01T10:00:04.496+01:00Leviathan's Master: David M Quinn<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZXu89W40f-h76l7Q4eL13Vd63yxigUE_TMLg3k3TisrJk9xeZIJnV_DNqr33gvbyAiHKsJLs5sG8Cv1d0wuNXPPXannBgKfhVH9EUl7Ht7JIUz6OH3yMF8wZbLzplDip37v823R_hYQo/s1600/leviathan's+master.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 104px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZXu89W40f-h76l7Q4eL13Vd63yxigUE_TMLg3k3TisrJk9xeZIJnV_DNqr33gvbyAiHKsJLs5sG8Cv1d0wuNXPPXannBgKfhVH9EUl7Ht7JIUz6OH3yMF8wZbLzplDip37v823R_hYQo/s320/leviathan's+master.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465897572877582914" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">HISTORICAL FICTION</span> <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">It was the biggest sailing vessel ever built</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> and the world's first supertanker. In the winter of 1907, the T.W. Lawson, a four-hundred foot schooner with seven masts, makes her first transatlantic crossing with more than two million gallons of kerosene to be delivered to London.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">With almost fifty years of sailing experience, Captain George W. Dow Is not intimidated, despite the Lawson's checkered history. But hurricane winds and an angry sea conspire to defeat man and machine. Bereft of her sails, the giant ship is trapped in treacherous shoals off the southwest coast of Britain. Seventeen lives are lost, including a local pilot trying to avert disaster. Now, Captain Dow is called to account—most especially to himself.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Leviathan's Master is a true story, transformed into a gripping historical novella by the captain's great, great nephew.</span> <div style="text-align: center; font-style: italic;">Praise for David M. Quinn’s<br /><br /></div> <div style="text-align: center; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">It May Be Forever—An Irish Rebel on the American Frontier</span><br /><br /></div><ul style="text-align: center; font-style: italic;"><li>"Master storyteller, David Quinn, erases time.... To transport the reader is the writer's job. Quinn does just that." Mary Sojourner, Novelist and NPR Contributor</li><li>"A beautifully written historical novel filled with excellent research and characters! Highly recommended!" USABOOKNEWS.COM</li></ul><div style="text-align: center; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Visit the author's website: www.davidquinnbooks.com</span><br /></div> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />iUniverse Editor's Choice</span><br /><br /><br />This is a momentous day for, after more than a year of reviewing books here, I have finally found a self-published writer who understands the difference between the hyphen and the em-dash. Hurrah! Here ensues much rejoicing.<br /><br />Right. That's quite enough of that. Because apart from Mr. Quinn's impeccable em-dashery <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1440155356?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=1440155356">Leviathan's Master: The Wreck of the World's Largest Sailing Ship</a> fails on the same old points: his writing just isn't strong enough. His dialogue is wooden, and veers queasily between an oddly-formal, Hollywoodesque archaic pattern and a more modern idiom: he uses dialogue to present great big chunks of exposition, so reinforcing its woodenness; and I found several contradictions, lapses of point of view and tense, and problems with logic: for example, the narrator describes the house he is in from various points outside; but he is bed-bound, and was brought to this house following an accident: he can't even walk to his bedside chair, let alone walk around the outside of the house; so how could he possibly know what the house looks like from the outside?<br /><br />Once again, then, this is a story with potential let down by lacklustre writing. A better editor would have picked up these mistakes: but then a better writer would not have made them. I did my best to be kind, and managed to read fourteen pages out of one hundred and nine.Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-65797170090077828902010-06-24T10:00:00.000+01:002010-06-24T10:00:01.840+01:00More About The Song: Rachel Fox<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJtMbMPjWjwXo90dX-aloIoBMFyCs4unBSIxMaAnLcA50378ID0HHM7ildq-aH9RldeNQ9SSg-lYiDq9-QA55De-8caWnnLuXeHi8ri2FmanjOEIL9XImExx8nIfxwGON_67h8v33MwkE/s1600/more+about+the+song.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 113px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJtMbMPjWjwXo90dX-aloIoBMFyCs4unBSIxMaAnLcA50378ID0HHM7ildq-aH9RldeNQ9SSg-lYiDq9-QA55De-8caWnnLuXeHi8ri2FmanjOEIL9XImExx8nIfxwGON_67h8v33MwkE/s320/more+about+the+song.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465895541643437442" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Exposing</span><br /><br />Does a blurb ever lie?<br />Can it tell what's inside?<br />Go on, open me up<br />I have nothing to hide</span><br /><br /><br /><br />Poetry was the first thing I ever had published: I've read a lot of it, I've written a lot of it (mostly bad), and, more importantly, I expect a lot from it. I expect poetry to have some sort of lyrical beauty even if it's a harsh or bloody kind; I expect its language to be at once sparse and pure, and dense with meaning. I want to read poetry which makes me think more deeply, surprises me, and which stays with me for days after I've read it. It's a very restricted form and so, more than any other, poetry cannot afford to have even a single word misplaced.<br /><br />What poetry should not be is unfocused, meandering or trite. It shouldn't remind me of that boring bloke I sat next to on a train once who insisted on telling me all of his poorly-informed opinions about things I'm just not interested in.<br /><br />I'm afraid that Rachel Fox's <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0955922003?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=0955922003">More About the Song</a> fell into the category of my second paragraph, not my first. Her language is plodding, her imagery almost non-existent, her rhythms are unreliable and her ideas are trite. She hammers her points home in a way which is entirely unpoetic: and although I read this slim collection right to its end I cannot recommend it. It left me feeling dismayed and faintly embarrassed, which I don't suppose was the author's intended effect.Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-75676463338792971092010-06-17T10:00:00.000+01:002010-06-17T10:00:03.195+01:00Maids Of Misfortune: M Louisa Locke<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkkY6puyyhSm5d9-s4jGmv8tRmdWYKBTrHx4vM2ZAYxxu2ai64s_xzz0fRGYTKnHVEnZ4fxRH2yM3G5JNWe__YVVNvtc161ULHQSesmj47ogx1t1xy4H8wcnkyEYXVBnkZf3-TonE3tBM/s1600/maids+of+misfortune.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 107px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkkY6puyyhSm5d9-s4jGmv8tRmdWYKBTrHx4vM2ZAYxxu2ai64s_xzz0fRGYTKnHVEnZ4fxRH2yM3G5JNWe__YVVNvtc161ULHQSesmj47ogx1t1xy4H8wcnkyEYXVBnkZf3-TonE3tBM/s320/maids+of+misfortune.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469603530537306098" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">HISTORICAL FICTION<br /><br />It's the summer of 1879, and Annie Fuller, a young San Francisco widow, is in trouble. Annie's husband squandered her fortune before committing suicide five years earlier, and one of his creditors is now threatening to take the boardinghouse she owns to pay off a debt.<br /><br />Annie Fuller also has a secret. She supplements her income by giving domestic and business advice as Madam Sibyl, one of San Francisco's most exclusive clairvoyants, and one of Madam Sibyl's clients, Matthew Voss, has died. The police believe his death was suicide brought upon by bankruptcy, but Annie believes Voss has been murdered and that his assets have been stolen.<br /><br />Nate Dawson has a problem. As the Voss family lawyer, he would love to believe that Matthew Voss didn't leave his grieving family destitute. But that would mean working with Annie Fuller, a woman who alternatively attracts and infuriates him as she shatters every notion he ever had of proper ladylike behaviour.<br /><br />Sparks fly as Anne and Nate pursue the truth about the murder of Matthew Voss in this light-hearted historical mystery set in the foggy gas-lit world of Victorian San Francisco.<br /><br />The author is currently living in San Diego with her husband and assorted animals, where she is working on Uneasy Spirits, the next instalment of her series of historical mysteries set in Victorian San Francisco. Go to www.mlouisalocke.com to find out more about M. Louisa Locke and her work.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1449925030?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=1449925030">Maids of Misfortune</a> is competently written and clicks along at a pretty good pace, once you get over the frequent blocks of exposition which stand in your way. There are a few clichés to interrupt the flow, which could easily be remedied; and a couple of places where a more modern idiom intrudes on an otherwise Victorian world.<br /><br />It's a light, bright read which can't be taken too seriously: and in the end it was this frothiness which let the book down for me. I couldn't quite believe in any of its rather flimsy characters; the situations which they found themselves in were just a little too sanitised and lacking in depth to fully catch my attention; and despite the author's evident skill I found her main character almost scarily cheerful, and longed for her to reveal a darker side.<br /><br />Despite my reservations, though, I read ninety-three pages out of three hundred and twenty-nine, and might well dip back into this book. It is well above the average of the books that I read for this blog, and consequently I'm happy to cautiously recommend it to you.Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-18316092192622707742010-06-10T10:00:00.000+01:002010-06-10T10:00:06.382+01:00Stubbs And Bernadette: Levi Montgomery<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT7U7f6NZXoHfyGBCjyJ-2oFxrlujlGqnkgJY3Vz5m8MoN_h77ixposVThqq8qX178sM7902910MAB-5uUSJWcUlPxr7R0xiTzVrWbRYd1DgorB0kYg4ILiNMN7-ijEn6waU6DYG4zS48/s1600/stubbs+and+bernadette.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 104px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT7U7f6NZXoHfyGBCjyJ-2oFxrlujlGqnkgJY3Vz5m8MoN_h77ixposVThqq8qX178sM7902910MAB-5uUSJWcUlPxr7R0xiTzVrWbRYd1DgorB0kYg4ILiNMN7-ijEn6waU6DYG4zS48/s320/stubbs+and+bernadette.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469604367852362898" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">You cannot be yourself, until you know who you are.<br /><br />Her name is Bernadette Elsbeth McIntyre, and she hates it. There's a whole story about the people in the family she’s named after, people she's never met, never seen, never heard from, but she tries to not learn it, tries to not remember it. She hates names in general, and her name in particular. She hates the whole concept of names. Names make things real. Names give things substance. Knowing names gives people power. Only someone who knows your name can get you into trouble. Think about it — what's the first thing the cops always ask you for?<br /><br />Alone, at home, in bed, he goes again through the long catalog of her imperfections, trying to make sense of this whole thing, trying to scare himself off, away from this whole spooky set of new feelings. Her hair is wild and uneven, her ears stick out a little, her eyes... well, all right, there is absolutely nothing wrong with her big green eyes. Her nose has been broken, and it's a little crooked, her lips are a tiny bit thicker on the left than the right, her chin is pointy. Her cheekbones, her collarbones, the bones of her wrists and knees, her hipbones, are all just a tiny bit too prominent, her arms and legs a tiny bit too thin. To top all that off, she's weird — she dresses oddly, shouts at teachers, smashes peas on the lunchroom tables...<br /><br />Why why why is she the most attractive girl he's ever seen? Why can't he stop thinking about her? Why can't he sleep?<br /><br />Levi Montgomery lives in Northwest Washington. He has been married for nearly thirty years, and he and his wife have six children, four of whom are active-duty United States military personnel.</span><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1448680573?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=1448680573">Stubbs and Bernadette</a> is an extraordinary book, and Levi Montgomery is a writer of rare potential. He has created some wonderful characters who would veer close to caricature in the hands of a lesser writer: but with him in control they are complex, compelling and utterly believable. I love the stream-of-consciousness flow of his text, and the intimacy and subtlety with which he writes.<br /><br />Where he lets himself down, though, is in the editing of his work. He frequently takes far too long to make his point; he makes the same point over and over, which gets a little irritating for the reader; and he makes far too much of some things which add nothing to the forward movement of his story, or to the depth of his characterisations.<br /><br />Stubbs And Bernadette is readable and enchanting: but it would be significantly better if a good editor got her hands on it and helped Montgomery pare away all of his unnecessary meanderings. It would result in a tighter, more compelling narrative without sacrificing any of the beauty and subtlety of Montgomery's text. I read fifty-two pages out of two hundred and two in order to reach my score of fifteen: but I will be reading this on to the end, and despite its flaws I recommend it wholeheartedly. It's a beautiful, bewitching book with the potential to be even better.Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-9485608750783843292010-06-03T10:00:00.000+01:002010-06-03T10:00:00.950+01:00ASO: Lindsey Mackie<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSr8HQ5UFpcEk9y5ccfRntDquhmwdypnRLJuZawFrKfBXMl8f4Xb0jDchGtZAsbNhqKqXJUnDfXRXVypoFhkigS1oMzXSEfOhM5XWmTbpnD5gnyQ3MvbalB_HhKpiDUyBN3D7l1riQs3Y/s1600/ASO.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 98px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSr8HQ5UFpcEk9y5ccfRntDquhmwdypnRLJuZawFrKfBXMl8f4Xb0jDchGtZAsbNhqKqXJUnDfXRXVypoFhkigS1oMzXSEfOhM5XWmTbpnD5gnyQ3MvbalB_HhKpiDUyBN3D7l1riQs3Y/s320/ASO.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469611422954762418" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">It has taken ruthless dedication for Rachel Develin to achieve her in the status as a Fidelis Officer in ASO, a society born from the remains of old Britain. Here in 2050, the role of the family has been redefined and, under the leadership of Magnamater Beatrice, people live in age-related regions. In Abovo, trained professionals named Maters rear all children before they graduate to Suris, where they stay and contribute until they reach 55 and are obliged to resort to Olim. It is a time of limited resources when all energy and water supplies are strictly controlled, each garment is recycled and every child is an eagerly awaited prize.<br /><br />Rachel's highly developed physical and intellectual abilities have always commanded respect, but privately the strain is now telling. While her fragile union with Ben has survived his infidelities, she struggles to suppress the need to be with her daughter, Bera, and to ignore the growing social unrest.<br /><br />Her latest assignment begins with a routine interrogation, but her investigations are forced in a more unpredictable direction by the unaccountable Death of her superior officer, Josie Kitchener, with whom she has had a long and volatile relationship.<br /><br />Her discoveries, and the punishments she must administer and endure, force stark choices that irreversibly change her loyalties and threaten the stability of ASO itself.<br /><br />Accompanied by a CD featuring original music tracks written and performed by the author.</span><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1906510458?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=1906510458">Aso</a> is a perfect example of why editors are needed. The author has a tendency to slightly wooden and over-formal dialogue, and her writing is occasionally rather muddled, an effect which is exacerbated by her habit of head-hopping. Despite these faults she does have a mostly smooth and fluent style—which she then scuppers with numerous errors in punctuation, which range from minor errors to problems which completely cloud her intended meaning.<br /><br />This tendency to confusion—both in the writing style and the misuse of punctuation—leads to a rather unsatisfactory read of a book which might well have shone had it been edited more effectively.<br /><br />Mackie shows promise: she seems proficient at world-building, and there is an undercurrent of a lovely, lyrical tone: but she needs to pay more attention to detail, and to have more awareness of some of the pitfalls of the craft of writing, if she is going to fully realise that promise. I read eleven pages out of three hundred and three.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">This review should have been published a long time ago: my apologies for its delay.</span>Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-33855309450338963872010-05-27T10:00:00.000+01:002010-05-27T10:00:05.834+01:00The Wave Queen: Caroline Harris<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Hmg8bOSaIbWe7hMyFeDL-gYwvyhF_r6EKasOBfgf47UH1S8JF0NvyI3qkqsk1PJI5Jm6sQTGNUP-a7eWmd27baeroLSYm0Odh11v6O1XEKPa8wBgS_H9bYhJEhtFzQxbT9i1s7lvH3Y/s1600-h/wave+queen.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 107px; float: left; height: 160px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442533149223442002" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Hmg8bOSaIbWe7hMyFeDL-gYwvyhF_r6EKasOBfgf47UH1S8JF0NvyI3qkqsk1PJI5Jm6sQTGNUP-a7eWmd27baeroLSYm0Odh11v6O1XEKPa8wBgS_H9bYhJEhtFzQxbT9i1s7lvH3Y/s320/wave+queen.jpg" border="0" /></a> <div><em>Adventure Romance Suspense<br /><br />After inheriting a diary written by a 19th century ship's cook, together with a handwritten will and USA naturalisation papers I was inspired to tell the story of the voyage of the Wave Queen, a merchant vessel, from Shoreham, England to Valparaiso, Chile in the year 1872.<br />Three years of research and the book became a fictional adventure story based on fact.<br />The hero, Charles Hamilton-Bashford is an eighteen year old Eton School-boy. He recklessly squanders his five thousand pound annual allowance and being hard-pressed for the payment of debts, begs his father to give him an advance. On refusal he in his desperation steals and forges his father's cheque to settle his debts.<br />Charles' father, a retired Major and a respected Magistrate, discovers the forgery and sends Charles to serve on a cargo ship separating him from his sweetheart, Florry.<br />Charles escapes before the ship sails, and reaches his aunt ‘s London home only to be recaptured and sent back to the</em> Wave Queen<em>.<br /><br />Meanwhile Florry is propelled into a series of tumultuous events.<br /><br />What adventures will befall them ?<br />Will he returned to England?<br />Will he ever be re-united with Florry?</em><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1438911203?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=1438911203">The Wave Queen</a> is full of careless errors. I found misplaced commas, missing quotation marks, inconsistent formatting, comma splices, and some random capitalisations. Charles, its central character, uses a modern idiom throughout while his father talks more like Mr. Banks, the father in Mary Poppins; and the heavies who visit Charles in order to encourage him to pay his debts complete our Disney picture by talking a pastiche of English which owes more to Dick Van Dyke than to 1872, the year in which this book is set.<br /><br />The author has failed quite spectacularly with some of her more basic research: for example, she provides Charles with an annual allowance of £5,000 <a href="http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/">which equates to an income of £2.7m today</a> which could be possible, I suppose, but it's a heck of an amount for an eighteen-year-old to have unsupervised access to while at boarding school.<br /><br />The text lacks detail, colour and sophistication and despite my very best attempts to be lenient, I read just three pages of it. </div>Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-40911773025414361642010-05-20T10:00:00.003+01:002010-05-20T10:00:04.799+01:00Songs From The Other Side Of The Wall: Dan Holloway<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzjeDAkFOkOAeVyY6RZFu5vW6Ms0SApLc8GZDr3iGlrFVxvPs3NzQuR9gpMlUq5USad3s7dl1ijpOpIKh0gaiXSqSdJUk52g5k8h3FLV-z2CnC83YJWghAWFohg0eaboRb2eeMielEZJs/s1600/songs+from+the+other+side.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 196px; height: 299px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzjeDAkFOkOAeVyY6RZFu5vW6Ms0SApLc8GZDr3iGlrFVxvPs3NzQuR9gpMlUq5USad3s7dl1ijpOpIKh0gaiXSqSdJUk52g5k8h3FLV-z2CnC83YJWghAWFohg0eaboRb2eeMielEZJs/s320/songs+from+the+other+side.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471821488069334770" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">The day the Berlin Wall came down, Jennifer returned to England, leaving her week-old daughter, Szandi, to grow up on a Hungarian vineyard with 300 years of history. Now 18, Szandi is part of Budapest's cosmopolitan art scene, sharing a flat and a bohemian lifestyle with her lover and fellow sculptress, Yang. She has finally found a place in the world. Then a letter arrives that threatens everything, and forces her to choose once and for all: between the past and the present; between East and West; between her family and her lover.<br /><br />Quirky, contemporary, and ultra-cool; sensuous, seductive, and heartbreaking: Songs from the Other Side of the Wall is a coming of age story that inhabits anti-capitalists chatrooms and ancient wine cellars, seedy bars and dreaming spires; and takes us on a remarkable journey across Europe and cyberspace in the company of rock stars and dropouts, diaries that appear from nowhere, a telepathic fashion mogul, and the talking statue of a bull.</span><br /><br /><br />I found a few things to criticise in the production of this book: its cover image is far too low-resolution to work well; its front-matter and end-matter are jumbled and unfocused and so fail to do their jobs properly; but the typesetting of the main text is elegant and spacious and very readable, which immediately set it apart from most of the books I have looked at for this blog. Some of the characters used in the italic fonts were overly heavy and so distracting, and really should be corrected; but that’s a tiny thing which I hope will be resolved in subsequent editions of this book.<br /><br />And now onto the really important stuff.<br /><br />Dan Holloway writes with a wistful, writerly tone which he handles with great skill. However, he hasn't edited this book rigorously enough and so at times his writing is overly complex or descriptive (or both), which drags down his pacing. He risks losing his readers’ attention because of this which would be a shame: but it could be easily fixed if he could force himself to be a more ruthless editor. I would also like to see more variation in tone: while wistful is good it can get rather wearying if it's not lightened occasionally with joy or laughter of some kind, and I wonder if this is something that Dan might find more difficult to fix.<br /><br />Please don’t think that I’m dismissing <a href="http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/songs-from-the-other-side-of-the-wall/5459586">Songs From The Other Side Of The Wall</a>: I’m not. Despite my criticisms I think that this is a lovely book written in that rare thing: beautiful, lyrical prose. Dan Holloway is a writer of talent and great potential who we should hear more from. I read it all and recommend it.Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-22432752862851655672010-05-13T10:00:00.000+01:002010-05-13T10:00:03.227+01:00The Chronicles Of Bobby Isaacs: Stuck In The Friend Zone: LG Putzer<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhksMYb3qTU3z_ZdgplqeaCKqWZmbUdc9eThZP2Iwrwvvd0a0p9d4HB0cjroFU94OEFyORh4J5nOpIxRJcm3FmjzzWBDYQSCTkjjVqiiAWUWnBZlKm4Wm9C7X-d9gUEXbkzz13F7-hElsc/s1600-h/bobby+isaacs.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 104px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 160px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438116426523115282" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhksMYb3qTU3z_ZdgplqeaCKqWZmbUdc9eThZP2Iwrwvvd0a0p9d4HB0cjroFU94OEFyORh4J5nOpIxRJcm3FmjzzWBDYQSCTkjjVqiiAWUWnBZlKm4Wm9C7X-d9gUEXbkzz13F7-hElsc/s320/bobby+isaacs.jpg" /></a><em>When eleven-year-old, band geek, Bobby Isaacs falls in like with his best friend, Jenna Richards, he uncovers a secret about Chris Kruger, the school bully. In a plot to impress Jenna, Bobby enters a spelling bee, hoping to come in first place. Desperation drives him to do something that gets Chris Kruger's attention. After the two fight, Bobby discovers Chris's terrible secret, but not before Chris destroys Bobby's most prized possession.<br /><br />Stuck in the Friend Zone is a story about two of the most fundamental yet important universal concepts Forgiveness and Understanding.</em><br /><br /><br />I've received quite a few books like this one lately: books with an engaging tone, from writers who are competent and who show potential: but they are all let down by careless errors which should have been caught at the copy-editing stage.<br /><br />Of the fifteen issues I found in <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1601458967?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=1601458967">THE Chronicles of Bobby Isaacs: Stuck in the Friend Zone</a>, all but three concerned basic copyediting issues (double hyphens used for some of the dashes; some random and rather odd capitalisations; several extraneous commas, etc). Two of the remaining three focused on some clunky exposition; and the final point was that while I understand that all children are different I don't believe that a boy with Bobby's background would be showing such an interest in girls while still only eleven years old.<br /><br /><br /><br />I can see that he might be vaguely aware of girls; but I don't believe that awareness would have developed as far as it seems to have done in this book. If the passages concerning Bobby's feelings for Jenna had been written in a more <em>"something is happening here but I don't quite get it"</em> tone I might have believed it more but as it is written, I just didn't.<br /><br />So: I would advise Lena Putzer to pay a lot more attention to copy-editing her work in future; to be more alert to the dangers that exposition poses to her pacing and tone; and to see if she could make this major part of her storyline—Bobby Isaacs’ feelings towards Jenna—a little more believable. Because if she resolves these issues then she could have a fabulous book on her hands: her writing is lively and funny and gave me a real sense that I was acquainted with the characters, and that I understood their world. It's a shame she failed on the basics having done so well with the more difficult stuff: I read seven pages out of a total of two hundred and forty-one.Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-88912789745110359282010-05-06T10:00:00.000+01:002010-05-06T10:00:01.803+01:00Eternal Horizon: A Star Saga; David Roman<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmE-HvKfHoxvHPYjkoJ0hyEXKULaVA2HZbIJXIqFj1wIkT8WbVRhi6tJ20wRqSI4w7hhgXuxUkg9lStYDwb9VC8qKnz5Iv9fPNYHMh1r-MIDOqjyJBUToIQasBzumaE8398OY6r6BQAZU/s1600-h/eternal+horizons.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 112px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 160px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437825345681175698" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmE-HvKfHoxvHPYjkoJ0hyEXKULaVA2HZbIJXIqFj1wIkT8WbVRhi6tJ20wRqSI4w7hhgXuxUkg9lStYDwb9VC8qKnz5Iv9fPNYHMh1r-MIDOqjyJBUToIQasBzumaE8398OY6r6BQAZU/s320/eternal+horizons.jpg" /></a><em>Chronicles Of Vincent Saturn<br /><br />An Illustrated Novel-Encyclopedia By David Roman<br /><br />Eternal Horizon is a science fiction saga about a secret brotherhood of ten men with psionic powers and their internal conflict that decides the fate of an entire galaxy. It's a tale about war, love, adventure, and the relentless hunger for supremacy. The story follows a man bent on recreating reality, a general seeking redemption for his past sins, a loyalist, a megalomaniac, two brothers, and a mysterious man from an unknown system called "Earth."<br /><br />CHARACTERS, + STATS & BIO, SHIP DIAGRAMS, + TOP & REAR VIEW<br /><br />ETERNAL HORIZON<br /><br />Eternal Horizon incorporates sci-fi, fantasy, superhero, and role-playing-game elements to bring you the very first novel-encyclopedia. Aside from having a powerful tale that will take you beyond the stars, Eternal Horizon has more than 70 illustrations.<br /><br />ROBOTS, VEHICLES, CHAPTER OPENERS, TROOPS, & MORE<br /><br />Chronicles of Vincent Saturn<br /><br />Oryon Krynne, a dissident member of the brotherhood, is ambushed by the evil general Zeth on his covert mission. Fatally wounded, Oryon makes it to his ship and blasts off, heading for an unknown direction...<br /><br />Vincent Saturn is a spontaneous federal agent who’s investigating a crashed alien vessel. His brief contact with Oryon changes his life for ever. Vincent wakes up on a distant planet with a hazy memory and falls into the hands of Oryon's cohorts—a faction determined to free the galaxy from a terrible regime called "Imperial Republic." Lost, vilified, and dubbed a liar, he follows the colorful group on their trek across multiple worlds. Refusing to accept that he's stranded and the idea that some bizarre power is boiling in his veins, Vincent struggles to find his way home, all the while getting closer to his companions and a beautiful alien princess...</em><br /><br /><br /><br />I can sympathise with this writer: I have a strong tendency to overwrite, just as he does. The difference is, though, that over the years I've learned to recognise some of my worst excesses and to correct them before I let even my closest friends read my work: whereas Mr. Roman has made his book available to the world in all its overwritten glory.<br /><br />It's a shame. There's a tension to his writing which hints of greater things to come from him: he might not yet have acquired enough skill or experience to self-edit effectively, but he does demonstrate a raw talent that most others lack. I'd advise him to join a writing group, to find good writers who are willing to give him some advice (as always, Absolute Write is a good place to start), and to read as much as he can if he really wants to improve.<br /><br />It wasn't his writing that really let <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0615306772?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=0615306772">Eternal Horizon</a> down, though: its cover is quite embarrassingly bad. The artwork for the front cover doesn't fit the book’s format, leaving a band of plain black along the bottom of the book; all of the artwork is low-resolution, and can't stand up to the scrutiny of being reproduced at this size so it's fuzzy, and the text is all out of focus; the black-and-white illustrations on the back are muddy and grey; and the layout is amateurish and unattractive.<br /><br />Add to that a lamentably bad blurb, which I found confusing and full of cliches, and you'll understand how I found my first ten problems on the cover, despite several attempts to be generous.<br /><br />I read less than one full page of this book but would probably have read quite a few more pages if the jacket had shown even the slightest nod towards professionalism. This is a poor result for a writer who does show signs of talent; but a perfect demonstration of how self publishing is often a poor choice for a writer to make.Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-8847319431787597712010-04-29T10:00:00.001+01:002010-04-29T10:00:28.453+01:00First Wolf: Carol Anne Carr<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOyVo2wNe-naBOajVjvRvbcMHsSM4SdnZlYcZ1OTBdPis28fDEPXp25Z2oEiUwYFS_2CR7U7qFXP9dWAcCWXj4ewpa577f4691-Gs6iqYY1F2wN6JbZ_n-7h1YqUzui2XPcac53pp0MIU/s1600-h/first+wolf.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 108px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 160px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438049353962328242" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOyVo2wNe-naBOajVjvRvbcMHsSM4SdnZlYcZ1OTBdPis28fDEPXp25Z2oEiUwYFS_2CR7U7qFXP9dWAcCWXj4ewpa577f4691-Gs6iqYY1F2wN6JbZ_n-7h1YqUzui2XPcac53pp0MIU/s320/first+wolf.jpg" /></a> <div><em>It was Toland's twelfth year of life when his father hurled the wolf's head at the mighty Eorl Uhtred, bringing his childhood to a violent end. These were dangerous times, with people driven from their settlements, tribal wars, and bands of robbers on the roads, but Toland must keep his solemn promise to save the Lindisfarne Gospels from the Vikings, protect his family, and find his father. With his faithful hound Bodo, he sets off on his quest through Anglo-Saxon Northumbria and his many adventures lead him to the mysterious hermit on Inner Farne, the mystery of the stolen jewels, a blood debt, and a terrible discovery at the White Church...</em><br /><br /><br />I had high hopes for <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0955981808?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=0955981808">First Wolf</a>: it has an above-average front cover (although the author's name is in the wrong font, the wrong colour, and wrong position); and although the back cover copy is flawed (it contains a tense-change, is a little confusing, and at times reads a bit like a shopping list) it could be brought up to standard without too much trouble. The book's premise appealed to me too, with its echoes of Alan Garner and its roots in a particularly spectacular part of our landscape and history. But, as is often the case with self-published books, the text is in need of a strong edit, and that's what lets this book down in the end.<br /><br />In my view, it suffers from a surplus of commas. I realise that not everyone will agree with me on this point: but I prefer text to be as clear and clean as possible and including commas when they're not strictly needed makes this impossible. Before you all shout me down here, bear in mind that my preference for clarity-without-commas hasn't developed simply because I dislike the look of them on the page: it's because their overuse often hides a fundamental problem with the text which they adorn.<br /><br />Too often, commas are used to prop up an inadequate sentence structure, or to try to improve a syntax which is forced and lacking in fluency: and that's what has happened here. A good editor would have helped the writer correct all those errors and let the fast-paced story shine: as it is, the story's excitement is dulled by the writer's slightly confusing writing, her oddly over-formal tone, and her frequently illogical statements. Which is a shame, as with a proper edit this book could have been much improved. I read seven pages out of one hundred and fifty-five, and despite their flaws rather enjoyed them. </div>Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-6946566545927204172010-04-22T10:00:00.002+01:002010-06-06T08:33:52.821+01:00Einstein And Human Consciousness (Eternity Is An Instant): Brad Buettner<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnYTDHF_rnDfNX6U-WMu3URMvj844uvsTqsWmW_CvOaEcswDGYk8E69SkNNvpTig5rT0FqKECQalFG-tSHGoMTz3nW5H2acL99MvHzt7LyFkOBl8kcWVZOx_LoGCdnUoRVcdtNXrp_m8/s1600-h/einstein+and+human+conc.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 107px; float: left; height: 160px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440777397264022930" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnYTDHF_rnDfNX6U-WMu3URMvj844uvsTqsWmW_CvOaEcswDGYk8E69SkNNvpTig5rT0FqKECQalFG-tSHGoMTz3nW5H2acL99MvHzt7LyFkOBl8kcWVZOx_LoGCdnUoRVcdtNXrp_m8/s320/einstein+and+human+conc.jpg" border="0" /></a><em>HEALTH/INSPIRATION<br /><br />Which is more important: the practical or the sublime? Are you a Doer or a Dreamer? Brad Buettner has over twenty-four years of experience utilizing his physics degree in a wide array of engineering and management assignments. With this background he examines early twentieth-century physics and human relationships observed during his professional tenure to illustrate how Einstein's theory of relativity pertains to our perception of time and how it explains divisions in our outlook. By applying the theory of relativity to human consciousness, Buettner discovers the motivation for personal inclination toward either the practical or the abstract.<br /><br />Buettner defines total reality as containing more than the reality our senses perceive. When discussing alternate forms of reality, however, he insists on measurable and observable conclusions, eliminating references to mysticism, magic, or mystery. He outlines an engaging search for the unlikely possibility of interaction with the reality that existed before the Big Bang.<br /><br />Einstein in Human Consciousness: Eternity is an Instant provides stunning revelations concerning human reality. Does your world extend beyond that perceived by the physical senses? If so, why? Buettner offers the answers to these questions by explaining an aspect of reality that was previously elusive.<br /><br />Brad Buettner received physics and metallurgical degrees from Benedictine and Lehigh Universities, which he applied to a varied career in engineering and management. He's lived or worked in New York City, Baltimore, Princeton, and the Chicago area. He has a wife and two sons and currently resides in the Chicago suburbs.</em><br /><br /><br />Brad Buettner might have written his book <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0595521916?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=0595521916">Einstein and Human Consciousness: Eternity is an Instant</a> around an interesting theory, and he certainly has an easy, fluent writing style. But both were spoiled for me by his repeated reassurances that I would be able to understand his reasoning if I only tried, even if I wasn't very highly educated. I found some of his comments about this patronising, and at times almost insulting.<br /><br />When Buettner commented, <em>"Dreamers have a different view of reality than Doers, and the reason is that Dreamers concentrate on a different reality altogether. Dreamers have found a peculiar aspect of human consciousness that has different properties than the physical reality that our senses detect"</em> I wonder if he realised that he was casting Dreamers as "other"?<br /><br />Buettner is at his best when he explains proven, accepted concepts: his account of relative time is clear, elegant and interesting. His writing is good; his text is beautifully error-free. But in trying to reach a wider audience he's only succeeded in patronising us all; and he's perhaps revealed more about himself than he had planned to in places. I stopped reading on page nine, when I came across this:<br /><br /><blockquote>Imagine the ridicule simpler minds must have given Einstein when they first heard his proposal.</blockquote>I don't like the implication that anyone less clever than Einstein (which, let's face it, includes pretty much most of us) would have automatically ridiculed him for proposing his theory: most, I suspect, would have asked him questions and tried to understand it for themselves. The human race is usually more curious than it is judgemental: if we weren't, we would never have escaped our more superstitious beliefs and reached the moon. Because of that I'm not going to judge Mr. Buettner for apparently thinking so little of his readers: instead I'm going to wonder how much better his book would have been if he'd worked with someone who challenged his ideas and edited out all of his more patronising bits. How good could it have been then?Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1550459552528920427.post-29517909099631028232010-04-15T10:00:00.000+01:002010-04-15T10:00:03.894+01:00We Were Not Lost: Constance Kopriva<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJsQ4-MYTKaGQKrwV8h0bL45UvMeYhRr4UUWbBHz6JUUfag4a0yfTXrRXNgb875GPe0dAngJcLidCc5zq2PgUIhuoLNeYjwPbcR-BGjt4y9Je9loL3Vxud_xilbEFzPxHGUafpdJeB1cc/s1600-h/we+were+not+lost.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 107px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 160px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440757701898080274" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJsQ4-MYTKaGQKrwV8h0bL45UvMeYhRr4UUWbBHz6JUUfag4a0yfTXrRXNgb875GPe0dAngJcLidCc5zq2PgUIhuoLNeYjwPbcR-BGjt4y9Je9loL3Vxud_xilbEFzPxHGUafpdJeB1cc/s320/we+were+not+lost.jpg" /></a><em>They are not Indians. That is a name some European gave to a people they thought were lost. They were not lost; it was the European who was lost.<br /><br />Trenda, a young Pomo woman, lives in 1791 in the Valley of the Moons, which will become known as Sonoma Valley, California. Everything is alive, and all is holy. It is a perfect world with harmony and beauty between man and nature. Trenda tells her own story about being a shaman, seeing the future in her dreams, and learning to help heal her people. Eventually, she must leave home to marry Yosomo, a Miwok from the tribe by the sea. She is both happy and sad. When the Spanish come and destroy her perfect world, Trenda is separated from Yosomo. Treated like animals, they are forced to work. Trenda longs to be reunited with her husband and wants only what any human wants: to be free in the world she loves.<br /><br />Constance Kopriva lives with her husband of thirty-three years in Sonoma, California, a forty-five mile drive north of San Francisco. They now own a few acres that long ago were part of (General) Vallejo Rancho. Obsidian shards and arrowheads, stone pestles, and mortars found on their land are evidence that early native people once lived there. After taking a class about Sonoma history and hearing a different version from a Pomo descendent regarding the Spanish conquest of early California, she was inspired to tell this story, We Were Not Lost.</em><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1424155207?ie=UTF8&tag=howpubreawor-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=1424155207">We Were Not Lost</a> should not work as a book. At times it reads like a Hollywood cowboys-and-indians script with its talk of "many moons" and "pale faces"; despite the writer's obvious preference for a stereotypical, stilted writing-style I found several instances where a more contemporary language intruded; and at just fifty printed pages long it is no more than an over-long short story printed in book form. The author clearly doesn't know the correct use of "lay" vs. "lie"; and I found some of the final sequences rushed and unbelievable. But you'll notice that I mention the book's final sequences: and that's because I read it all in just one sitting.<br /><br />Despite its problems, this story is clean and sparse and engaging. Not only it is fast-paced and vivid, it’s also a remarkably clean text with very few minor errors. And although I have my misgivings about the stereotypical view it gives of the people and events it portrays, I did enjoy it.<br /><br />If I were the author I would strongly consider rewriting it with the aim of making it far less stereotypical. I would strip out the Hollywood-movie phrasing and replace it with a language which was less likely to set people's cliché-alarms clanging; and I'd extend the story to include sub-plots, and to introduce more shades of grey into the central story: at present it's very much "white equals bad, Pomo equals good", and this means that the story is predictable and lacking in depth.<br /><br />So, the writing is flawed, the storytelling lacks subtlety and texture; and yet I read it right to the end. For that reason I recommend it, but with reservations (and no, that's not a pun). I hope that this author continues to write because despite my reservations I think she could eventually become very good, if she gets the right guidance and advice.Jane Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03411253302725735470noreply@blogger.com0