Cutting Out blog tour
November 11, 2014 at 6:31 am | Posted in Bottom Drawer Publications, Cutting Out, Promotion, Reviews | Leave a commentTags: blog tour, Cutting Out, promotion
The title of this blog post kind of gives it away, but Stuff is happening, people! Stuff to do with Cutting Out! I am about a third of the way through a blog tour, where there are excerpts, giveaways, reviews, blog posts and interviews happening all over the place. So far there have been visits to:
Love Bytes Reviews, where there’s an excerpt and a giveaway
Book Reviews & More by Kathy has another excerpt (featuring the introduction of the thorn in Shane’s side, his mate Zach) and giveaway
Multitasking Mommas gives Cutting Out 5 stars in their review, and they are also hosting a giveaway
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words, who gave Cutting Out a lovely review a few days ago. I stop in there to talk a little bit about the Christchurch earthquake and its aftermath, which features pretty heavily in the book. Melanie is also hosting a giveaway.
So feel free to stop by one of those places and take a look, and good luck if you enter the giveaways!
Brief Encounters reviews Reasonable Force
March 25, 2012 at 8:02 pm | Posted in JMS Books, Reasonable Force, Reviews | 2 CommentsTags: JMS Books, reasonable force, reviews
I’m delighted to report that Cole from Brief Encounters Reviews gave Reasonable Force an A- rating. He says:
…what I most enjoyed about this story is the fact that I’m not given the answers. It’s not great, vast plotline. It’s a pretty simple short story actually. But that style of storytelling lets the reader’s imagination become more active in the story. I like a story that is different to me than anyone else, and I have a feeling that that might be true with this story…I’d recommend this one and I hope everyone who reads it enjoys it as I did!
What a lovely way to round off my weekend. Thanks to Cole and BER!
Puppies, cover art and more reviews for Equilibrium
August 10, 2011 at 10:33 pm | Posted in Dreamspinner Press, Equilibrium, Novel, Reviews | 2 CommentsTags: cover art, dreamspinner, equilibrium, real life, reviews
At the end of this week I’m going to have quite a lot of work to do, because I’ve got publisher edits on a novella due and I’m also trying to write something new in time for a deadline of September 1st. So of course I’m procrastinating like my life depends on it. I do have a cover art questionnaire open even as I speak, but I keep getting distracted by pictures of the West Australian outback and lovely panoramic photos of Perth. But if I don’t write down anything about these photos I’m looking at on the questionnaire, then I won’t get them on my cover, will I? No. No, I will not.
But mostly I’m thinking about getting a puppy. An opportunity has presented itself, and while it’s the absolute worst time for me to be getting a pet I am seriously considering it. Because I am the least practical person in the world when it comes to tiny, supercute little puppies. And I haven’t had a dog in a long time and I’m finally starting to miss it.
Anyway. I’ll make that tomorrow’s problem.
Today’s problem, which is not a problem at all, is that Equilibrium has gotten a lovely review on Amazon. Greek Reader gave it 5 stars and said:
I liked this one a lot. Both main characters and those surrounding them are described in well-rounded and lively detail. Michael has flaws and issues, some of which he’ll always struggle against, but he tries not to wallow and ultimately won’t be defined by them. Ryan has led an easier and more charmed life, but he has a streak of realism that allows him to understand Michael and to stand by him.
It’s a rather quiet and tender love affair, as they often are in real life, but never boring. Highly recommended.
So that’s got me all warm and fuzzy today! Puppies and a good review = a pretty good day, really.
Equilibrium review
August 1, 2011 at 10:17 pm | Posted in Dreamspinner Press, Equilibrium, Reviews | Leave a commentTags: dreamspinner, equilibrium, reviews
In its first non-Goodreads review, Raine from Reviews by Jessewave gave Equilibrium 3.75 stars out of 5. In her very fair and balanced review, she describes Equilibrium as having “Great Australian background detail with a real sense of place”, and says:
This book displays a very good breadth of view in beautifully recreating an unusual environment filled with details of different social lives. For me the main hero wasn’t appealing enough to lift the book onto another level. However there is a lot here that is enjoyable and other readers had none of my particular problems with Michael.
Yeah, she didn’t like Michael very much, but that’s totally OK! Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, and I am fully aware of the potentially unlikeable aspects of Michael’s personality, so it’s no surprise to me to find that someone doesn’t like him. She loved Ryan, which is great because I love Ryan too; in fact, my favourite Goodreads review describes Ryan as a “superfine outback cowboy”, which just makes me laugh like a lunatic every time I think about it.
So, yes. Reviews! They never get old, and I appreciate every single one I get.
Writing and other stuff.
November 22, 2009 at 10:24 pm | Posted in Links, Reasonable Force, Reviews, Torquere Press, Writing | Leave a commentTags: links, reasonable force, reviews, writing, writing progress
This morning, I was 3,000 words behind where I wanted to be in the current thing I’m writing, and now I’m not. I even managed to get all of it done before NCIS, which was even better.
The current thing I’m writing needs to be at least 20,000 words for me to submit it where I want to submit it. This morning I thought it wasn’t going to make it, but now I think it will, which is good since I dislike useless padding intensely. Also, the stuff I wrote on Thursday night is absolutely shithouse and needs to be deleted, but I want to finish the thing first before I go deleting anything. It’s at 14,200 words now, and there’s quite a lot that needs going into the back end, so that should be fine. Plus, I’ve been skipping around writing the scenes which take my fancy in order to just get stuff done (I’ve come to realise that if I force myself to write a scene I’m finding difficult first before writing anything else that comes after it, all I’ll do is brood over it and not write a thing. At least if I skip around, I’m writing something and not nothing), and I’m realising there’s some stuff going into the back end that really needs foreshadowing before then, so that will have to go in, and there’s also half finished scenes all over the place which I’ve just highlighted so I know I have to go back to them (I do this at work too. That way when I’ve left something until last and then forgotten I have to do it – which I always do – I see it when I’m scrolling through the document one last time before I send it off I see it, and think, “What’s that highlight…OH. BUGGER.” and can do it. Saves sending something off and then having to email back with the right version, haha).
So. Long story short – should make 20,000 fairly easily. Excellent.
Speaking of writing, the Care and Feeding of Demons anthology has gotten a five-star review at Rainbow Reviews! How weird and exciting that is. The lovely reviewer called Reasonable Force ‘stylish’, a description which thrills me to no end. I will hug it and love it and call it George.
In other, more disconcerting news, here is a story demonstrating how someone can write exactly the same story as somebody else, completely by accident. The most horrifying part was probably this part:
I spend the rest of the day (that would be two weeks ago last Monday), reading and doing a cross story analysis. And I came up with one very definitive truth – I could not write the book I’d been writing.
Similarity included: the triggering event, the fact that this event happened around 20 years in the past, the villain, deaths of old friends, and, of course, the location. I’m just being general here. Trust me, the core elements of the stories were very similar.
Granted, the way I was telling the story, and the way the other author told their story were different, but it didn’t hid the fact that there was too much the same.
How awful. And what are the chances, god. But still, it can happen, and this is why in cases where someone is accused of plagiarism – where the accusation is a similarity of events rather than a wholesale copying of text – I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt until there’s actual proof of wholesale copying. They do say that there are no new ideas under the sun, after all.
Anyway, that’s enough for now. Bed is calling, because it’s work tomorrow, woe. Monday comes around with such monotonous regularity. If only the weekend came around so quickly and lingered so long.
Crossposted to all my journals today, because I’m lazy and want to go to sleep. Apologies to those who see this multiple times.
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