Synopsis:

Amidst the darkness of turmoil, there is hope.

Blake Solomon had never before heard such heart-wrenching stories until now. Jason gang member, Rebecca a child prostitute, Matthew an African refugee, and Felicity a reckless rich kid, make up the newest group at Blake’s Anchor Beach Rehabilitation Clinic.

Each have seen more than their share of tragedy and have reached a point of desperation where all hope seems lost. Leaving behind worlds tainted with drugs and alcohol, violence and abuse, self-harm, and street life is easier said than done. Unexpectedly, these four young lives collide in extraordinary circumstances as they attempt to salvage any glimmer of strength and self-belief they have left.

Blake’s battle to save all four from paths of certain self-destruction is the toughest he’s ever faced. Is a quick-fix all he has to offer before feeding them back to the lions? Or will he keep his promise to help them face their demons?

Review:

Somewhere during the tumultuous years we call being a teenager, I read a book called Voices that impacted me strongly at the time and stuck with me for many years. The concept of the book was the background and letters of teens who committed suicide, and was based on non-fiction cases. Each time I connected with the kid in the current “story” and each time my mind cried out for them to choose life — things would get better. When I ran across Ashley Sanders’ Facing Demons the write up reminded me of the book which had made such a huge impression on me. So I read the preview and decided to give it a try.

I was not disappointed.

Sanders has penned a powerful story weaving five troubled lives together in a beautiful setting. Blake Solomon rescues four teens from the hospital, transports them to his rehabilitation center, and helps them learn to take control of their own destiny and break their patterns from the past. And you may note that I mentioned five troubled lives, and not four. Blake has some troubles which are revealed through the course of the story as well, which help give him a realness he would not otherwise have had.

Each of the kids in the story come to life on the page, and you will feel like you could meet them somewhere in your own home town. Yet, each of them has a reason to want to die, as well as a reason to live — though they may not know it. While each of their stories has some similarities, they are unique to the character and the voices are well-developed. My only complaint, which probably comes from being a writer myself and therefore used to subjecting my own work to extreme critical analysis, is that despite the use of first person present tense (or in the case of Blake third person present tense), I felt distanced from the characters — like they were at arms length. I wanted to feel their pain, yet felt told about it instead. I am not a huge fan of present tense narrative, but the purpose behind it is to bring the reader into the mind of the character, reducing any distance. Toward the end of the book, the distance diminished, which made me wish the intimacy would have been there from the start.

However, despite my pickiness, Facing Demons is a worthwhile read, and one that teens will definitely connect to. The issues that the teens face have an incredible ring of truth about them. And in delving into Sanders’ background, I discovered that he works as a paramedic, so has seen this sort of thing first hand. What a wonderful way to take personal experience and convert it to an amazingly insightful tale. Facing Demons is about some of the poor choices we can make with our lives, or dealing with the circumstances dealt to us from the deck of life. It has a tremendous message of hope and will have you on the edge of your seat, biting your nails with its exciting conclusion. A definite “must read” for troubled teens, but good for all teens and those of us who still remember the emotional upheaval of those times.

Bravo, Mr. Sanders

What’s even better is that Sanders is currently working on the prequel stories of Jason, Rebecca, Matthew, and Felicity, and I for one can’t wait for them to be out.

Synopsis:

At thirty-two, newspaper reporter Molly Hacker vows to never attend another wedding until she has had her own. And that’s a problem because Molly’s younger sister, Hannah, is going to be married in one year. Armed with snark, wit, and fabulous good looks, “Picky Molly” embarks on a quest to find Mr. Right in her hometown, Swansea, an elegant bedroom community of NYC.

Things get complicated fast. In no time at all, Molly has four “men of interest” and the memories of a lost love to send her overanalytic, befuddled mind into serious overdrive. Determined not to let her “helpful” girlfriends help her right out of another relationship, Molly tries to keep mum on the state of her love life. Her BFF male coworker, Randy, becomes her closest confidant as he stumbles over romantic issues with his new Mr. Right, Kyle. Meanwhile, Molly’s BFF gal pals aren’t too happy about being left out of the loop.

Tweaking Molly’s last nerve is the town’s most visible socialite, Naomi Hall-Benchley. For self-serving reasons, Naomi is hell-bent on setting up “Picky Molly Hacker,” and she doesn’t care who she has to manipulate or hurt to do it. Just how far will she go?

“Molly Hacker Is Too Picky!” takes the reader on a yearlong romp through Molly’s mind and a joyride through her life. Her dating life, town secrets, a group of quirky, crazy characters, and Naomi’s machinations collide head-on at a holiday gala that will change the social landscape of Swansea forever. As the New Year rolls in, Molly gets earth-shattering news. Can she go on? Will life ever return to abnormal again?

Review:

I loved this book. I tried to think of another way to start this review, but that is the overwhelming thing that comes to mind. Reading Molly Hacker Is Too Picky! is like getting together with an old friend you haven’t seen for a while and catching up on all that has happened in her life during the past year. You know the experience… two friends sitting down over coffee, refilling cups a few times, but then ultimately gabbing as the coffee turns stone-cold. People nearby are muttering because you’ve held down the best table in the joint for hours and show NO signs of moving on. And when you pull out your phone as the conversation winds down, you’re shocked to find that so much time has passed, I mean, really, you only started talking half an hour ago, right?

Molly Hacker, reporter for the Swansea Herald, is very single when the book opens, attending a wedding with her best-friend Tony whom she has always been in love with, but he happens to be married to his high school sweetheart. She is still trying to get over a broken heart from her last relationship with Leo, but is having a difficult time with it. And friends, family, and enemies are NOT helping. In fact, the helping hand of friends, while not responsible for the end of her last relationship, gave it a good shove in that direction. But with her nemesis, Naomi Hall-Benchley, Molly’s single status is a challenge, and she considers Molly’s say in the matter immaterial. As we romp through this romantic comedy, Molly winds up juggling no less than four men, in the small community of Swansea where everybody knows everybody else’s business and considers it their own. That’s not a feat most women (or men) could pull off. *Whispers* And Molly is no different.

Maybe one of the reasons I connected so well with this book is that like Molly Hacker, I took my time to find the right guy. Before I took the trip down matrimony lane, I wanted someone I fully connected with, someone who wasn’t second-best or settled for. Because I knew that was a recipe for a quick trip through divorce court. I also had the pressure from friends and family (although thankfully none from my mother) about when I’d finally settle down. And like Molly, I didn’t give my heart easily, but when I did, it was completely.

Brodey does a fantastic job with the characters, even down to Molly’s cat, Captain Jack. I expected no less because last year I read, Squalor New Mexico, and thoroughly enjoyed Brodey’s character development in that book. Randy was an instant fave and the banter between him and Molly is priceless. The only one who borders on caricature is Naomi Hall-Benchley, and it works and I believe is deliberate… and haven’t we all had a Naomi in our life in one way or another?

My life has been in hyper-busy mode of late, and there appears to be no end in sight on the to-do list, so I thought I’d read Molly Hacker Is Too Picky! a chapter a night before going to sleep. Yes, it’d take me longer to read, but at least I’d feel like I made progress with it since it is something I have been wanting to read prior to its release. Well, as things go, one chapter turned into two, and two into three, and so on. Molly Hacker Is Too Picky! cost me some precious hours of sleep, but it was well worth the resultant bags under the eyes. And before I conclude and tell you that you’ll be missing out on a great romantic comedy if you skip this one, Molly has been blogging for the past year on her website and the posts are just as charming and engaging as the book, with illustrations created for each post. It is well worth a read and a comment or two. Stop by and check it out. And below is Molly as she raps about her experiences. So??? What are you waiting for? Pick up a copy of Molly Hacker Is Too Picky! or put it on your to-be-read list today.

Synopsis:

For Rose Gardner, working at the DMV on a Friday afternoon is bad even before she sees a vision of herself dead. She’s had plenty of visions, usually boring ones like someone’s toilet’s overflowed, but she’s never seen one of herself before. When her overbearing momma winds up murdered on her sofa instead, two things are certain: There isn’t enough hydrogen peroxide in the state of Arkansas to get that stain out, and Rose is the prime suspect.

Rose realizes she’s wasted twenty-four years of living and makes a list on the back of a Wal-Mart receipt: twenty-eight things she wants to accomplish before her vision comes true. She’s well on her way with the help of her next door neighbor Joe, who has no trouble teaching Rose the rules of drinking, but won’t help with number fifteen– do more with a man. Joe’s new to town, but it doesn’t take a vision for Rose to realize he’s got plenty secrets of his own.

Somebody thinks Rose has something they want and they’ll do anything to get it. Her house is broken into, someone else she knows is murdered, and suddenly, dying a virgin in the Fenton County jail isn’t her biggest worry after all.

Review:

I think I’ve said this before, but I love mysteries. I cut my reading teeth on the cozies of Agatha Christie — I have read every single one more times than I or anyone else can count — and it didn’t stop there. After mastering the entire Christie collection, I moved on to the works of P. D. James and her Adam Dalgliesh series, got hooked by Elizabeth Peters and the capers of Amelia Peabody, Vicky Bliss, and Jacqueline Kirby, love the animal antics of Rita Mae Brown’s books written with Sneaky Pie Brown, and have shivered through many a Mary Higgins Clark, and in recent years have added Linda Welch’s paranormal mysteries to my “must have” list.

While my list is a little less than comprehensive, you get the picture. And now, I must add another to the must have list, and that is the southern mystery of Denise Grover Swank’s Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes and her main character, Rose Gardner. As you might be able to tell from my listed reading selections above, I enjoy the characters as much if not more than the mystery aspect. And I’ll admit to loving the fluffy grandmotherly Miss Marple more than the efficient, symmetrically-driven Poirot — although I enjoy both. And with Rose Gardner, Swank gives us a character to root for. Through the book, we get to watch Rose blossom into the woman she wants to become. After being kept firmly under her mother’s thumb for twenty-four years, Rose has had enough. She’s had enough of the small town of Henryetta pointing their fingers at her until she shrinks into the background, she’s had enough of having to hide the person she is inside, and as with all “breaking out” situations, sometimes it takes a bit of forcefulness to make it happen. And with Rose there is no exception.

Only not everyone chooses to break out and start living their life on their own terms at the same time their mother is murdered. And then there’s Joe, the cute next-door neighbor, who wants to help her through the situation of being accused of murdering her own mother, but can she trust him? And of course, there is the whole having-seen-your-own-death-in-a-vision thing — and Rose is never wrong in what she sees. The list is delightful, and yet sometimes bittersweet, and provides the backbone to the story.

I don’t want to give any spoilers, but will say that Swank gives us a character to identify with and takes us on a ride with more curves and twists than a backwoods mountain trail. I read this on Kindle and it is a rare occurrence, but I purchased it in print, so I can have the author sign it when I see her in person.

Through the years, PJ would contact me and ask for advice on things. When we first corresponded, she was over the moon because someone thought her “little scribblings” had value. Then as time went on, she became frustrated because sales weren’t happening. Her frustration didn’t stem from the lack of monetary gain, but because she simply wanted to get her books into the hands of readers. She suffered a huge disappointment when she tried to give her books to schools and they wouldn’t accept them. So I asked, if she was willing to give them away, why she didn’t give them to shelters?

When she said she didn’t know where to start, I put her in contact with another friend, Linda Welch, author of the successful paranormal mystery Whisperings series, who was able to get her started and give her some pointers on how to proceed. She was ecstatic and the children loved her stories. But the next time I heard from PJ, she was distraught. Her husband had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and PJ herself has a degenerative eye condition which is causing her to go blind. She thought she’d have to give up her writing altogether, which saddened her, but her husband had to be her first priority.

Shortly after, I was delighted to hear that she decided she needed the creative outlet and she wanted to give away as many books as she could before she completely lost her vision. She proceeded to build up her list of shelters for donations to twenty. To assist her sight, she bought a 40-inch monitor and uses a magnifying glass to help her see, and hired an assistant to help with some of the things she cannot do.

Shortly before the holidays, I received an email from PJ — and she had been on my mind, isn’t that usually how things work? The email was to advise me that her husband’s condition was worsening at a rapid rate, and she needed to give him her attention and love. And her eyesight was also failing at a more rapid rate, and she would now have to give up writing. She was going to send a last batch of books to the shelters on her list, and would be moving to assisted living to ensure appropriate care for both her and her husband. Her one regret? To not be able to give more book donations.

And that’s when it hit me … this is somewhere I can help… and so can you. I’d like to issue a challenge to all: Purchase one or two of PJ’s books and send them to a women’s shelter or a children’s shelter. Give the gift of books to children without, and make an author, who can no longer follow her passion, happy. Let’s carry on PJ’s legacy… It’s not about the money — it’s about the children.

If you’re interested in reading my reviews of PJ’s work, they are:

• Michael O’Brien and the Magic Hat
• Tilbee Toadlet’s Trip to Town
• Giggle Grump Gurgle

The delightful illustrations are done based on PJ’s concept by Mike Motz.

PS – My niece and nephew LOVE PJ’s books and David’s favorite books right now are the dragons because he gets to Rawr!

Through our POD websites, we should have access to the ability to create a preview, and once again, I recommend that everyone does. I also recommend customizing the preview, because most people who take a look at it don’t care about the blank pages, copyright page, etc. that are a required part of book formatting. Give them a good section of your book to read – one or two chapters. By the way, I find it annoying when someone customizes their preview and starts the preview half way through the book. How can I appropriately meet the characters and learn who they are and understand the psychology of the moment if you just plop me down in the middle of the action. I’m more likely to be confused and not want to read any farther. You may feel like you are sharing the most pivotal section of your work and are trying to use it as the hook to grab a reader’s attention. That’s all well and good, but if truly the case, maybe it should be the beginning of the book.

Leaving my soapbox behind, I’ll get back to how to effectively use previews. I use a preview for my book, Misfit McCabe on both the Lulu site as well as Amazon.com by using the Search Inside feature. These, while working for the sites which host them, were slightly unsatisfactory to me for use with my own websites. I wanted to have a nice graphical presentation so visitors to the site could easily browse the book. About the time I was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the previews I had available, I found the BookBuzzr widget. This was exactly what I was looking for. A nice user interface, which has a nice book-like feel to it, that provide me the code to embed it directly on my website, and the best part is that it is free.

How do you get a BookBuzzr widget? Simply go to BookBuzzr and sign up. You will be required to upload your book in PDF format, and can then customize to show as much of your book as you want. Because of its portability, it makes an especially nice addition to the reviews we do, and we hope the utilization of previews along with the reviews increases the exposure for your writing. I hope everyone takes advantage of our offer to post a preview. I’d like to share a few examples of how the reviews look with previews (the previews are found at the end of the review).

Review 82: Natalie’s Good Fortune by Anthony R. Fanning – This is an example of a review with a link to the Lulu preview.
Review 32: Misfit McCabe by LK Gardner-Griffie – I couldn’t resist giving an example of my book with the BookBuzzr widget.
Review 52: Briefs for the Reading Room by Dan Marvin – This uses the BookBuzzr widget for the preview.
Review 70: Along Came a Demon by Linda Welch – Another BookBuzzr example

The above should give you an idea of how the previews work and how they will help provide additional exposure to your writing. So, if your work has already been reviewed and you’d like us to update the review with a preview – send us a link. If your book has not been reviewed and you are contacted to provide the PDF for review consideration, be bold, send us the information for your preferred preview along with the PDF. I do recommend the BookBuzzr widget, but whichever choice you make, please provide a preview.

Last year, I completed my second novel which I am currently working on publishing with Lulu.  I decided to record my experience which can hopefully be used as a resource for other writers, or be read as a boring soap opera as I work on polishing my book for publication.  However you choose to see it. 

Right now I’m in the editing and book cover creation stages and have invested just over $200 dollars of my own money.  I hope you will check out this new tab and feel free to ask questions or offer feedback as I go through this process.

Thanks, Mark!

But Lulu has always been a very different star shining down on the great big world of POD by not charging its users any up front fee for producing a product. Lulu basically takes the manufacturing cost and gives the author the opportunity to make money by marking up the product at their leisure. For instance, at present, Lulu’s cost calculator shows the production cost of a 6×9 perfect bound 150 page black and white print trade paperback as being $7.53. If I was the author of such book, I’d probably mark it up at least 5 dollars. That makes the retail price of this book $12.53. That’s not too bad for a trade paperback.  Having no control over pricing when I published with Xlibris in 2003, the retail price of my 176 page book was $19.99 for a paperback.  My cut of a sale was 10%.  End of story.

However, Lulu could easily tack on another 3 or 4 bucks onto this business model, ultimately increasing their cost to counter the fees Amazon will probably bestow upon them. Heck, if Amazon’s fees are going to be as high as most blogs are saying they are, Lulu could double their manufacturing costs to cover their expense. But this would quickly throw them into the expensive pricing realm that authors all too often experience with other POD publishers. Would it even make a difference by now?  Who knows? Only time will tell. But consider this….will this increase only affect authors who purchase an ISBN to get their book listed on Amazon, B&N.com, etc?  If so, that would probably require Lulu to build an additional set of services (and pricing) only for those who plan to get their book listed on Amazon.  For the author who plans to just use Lulu for set-up, binding and printing, but not purchase an ISBN, should an increased pricing structure apply?  Chances are it will across the board just so Lulu doesn’t have to come up with a separate business model for ISBN purchasers.

At this point, I highly agree with Angela Hoy’s advice she gives to BookLocker authors.  I quote:

1. Remove all Amazon.com links from your marketing materials – website, ezine, blog, email signature, press releases, articles — everything.

2. Change those links to your book’s page on BarnesandNoble.com. To obtain that link, search for your book’s title at http://www.bn.com. All Booklocker.com print books are on their website.

3. Don’t forget to contact Amazon to tell them what you’re doing in response to their horrible actions!

Angela has done a magnificent job at Writer’s Weekly of covering this issue. Catch up with her blog here.

As Angela states, the success of a POD book is really left up to the author.  It’s all about self promotion and marketing.  Your readers will more than likely buy the book from wherever you tell them to.  You DON’T have to send them to Amazon.  Almost all POD publishers, Lulu included, support their own online bookstore.  Lulu even prints a link to your book on their marketing materials.  They have free BUY links available to you as well which you build onto your websites and blogs. And if your book has an ISBN, then B&N lists your book as well.

Book Reviews: Check back this weekend for this month’s first review:  OH Brother by Paul Ciccone, Jr.

Amazon claims it can print and bind a book on site in its facility in about 2 hours (yeah, I’m sure that’s quality), allowing it to be married with multiple purchases made at the same time by a single customer and they can all ship together at once.  This will help to save shipping costs and fuel.  I wonder if this savings will be passed on to the customer?  It’s true.  Amazon does already offer free shipping on orders over $25.00, but that doesn’t mean they ship your items the same day.  It also doesn’t mean they use a preferred method like UPS or Fedex.  I seem to recall a multi-item purchase I made once that took 7 days before they shipped it, and they shipped it in two boxes days apart from one another using the postal service although all the items shipped from their Kentucky warehouse.  14 days later I got one box, and the other arrived a few days afterward.  I would have received the items in 3 days had I just paid the shipping.  Amazon might have saved here, but I certainly didn’t.

I wonder if this means they actually have Booksurge printing facilities in every single warehouse?  How much money will they spend on programming to make sure your POD book purchase actually prints in the same warehouse where your other items are in stock to ship?  Will they pass on that fuel and shipping cost savings to the POD publishers, or charge them an ungodly fee for file uploads, storage, and PRINTING!?  If the publishers get hit, you can bet that will then increase the fees bestowed upon the author, and probably the pricing of the actual books as well.

True, Amazon claims you can continue to print your books as you like and just ship them about 5 to keep on hand to fulfill orders.  Hmm..an excellent way to slap POD publishers with a storage fee, inventory upkeep fee, receiving fee, etc.  So, Amazon saves on shipping and fuel, and makes money by charging POD publishers like crazy for their service!  It will be interesting to see if Booksurge soon becomes the preferred method chosen by POD authors and/or who will be the first POD publisher to go belly up (if any).

For now, Amazon is no longer my preferred method for shopping!

Based on their press release, it sounds like PublishAmerica is backing down. They plan to work closer with other distributors and with B&N to combat the issue. Remember a few weeks ago when Starbucks closed for three hours to retrain employees, and all the other indie coffee shops jumped at the chance to gain that business? Let’s hope that B&N comes up with a plan and is ready to step up to the plate!

Although not much has been released as of yet, I’m sure other POD Publishers will be approached by Amazon soon. Who knows what this means for Lulu, but keep your eye on this Lulu forum to find out. Based on a quote, it seems that Bob Young has already been approached. Here’s the quote from the forum…

Publishers will “have to abide by Amazon’s pricing,” said Bob Young, CEO of Lulu Inc, a print-on-demand publisher based in Raleigh, N.C. Mr. Young said he believed BookSurge’s prices to be “slightly higher” than other printers. An Amazon spokesman declined to comment on that issue. “A significant number of our authors do request for their books to be available on Amazon,” said Mr. Young, who hasn’t yet decided whether he will agree to Amazon’s terms.

For someone like me, who uses Amazon almost everyday as a informational book source for work, and is also a POD author with a book on Amazon, this news really saddens me. It reminds me of a move another billion dollar company made a few years ago. It was all the rage on the internet and made lots of money while making lots of shoppers happy. Then, it started raising it’s pricing and making lots of rules, tightening the grasp it already had on the www market share. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? It’s called Ebay.

It’s sad that a POD author’s most valuable online marketing tool, someone we probably thought was a friend to our industry, would choose to do this. So what do we do now? Check out Angela Hoy’s article on the subject if you’d like Amazon’s contact information to send a letter and voice your own concern to them. Good luck though! Amazon’s quite known for not really listening to its consumers. Who knows? Maybe Amazon will become a fad and another site will take over as the ever-growing internet continues to change. I’ve already tried to use B&N and Abebooks a bit more these days for purchases. And I suggest you do the same!

And hey, while you are looking for an outlet to support, try your local bookstore. You know… That building on the corner with bookshelves filled with books. There’s a person standing in it to help. You take the book off the shelf and walk up to a cash register. You reach in your wallet or purse for cash, a credit card, or a check book. That’s right! You have to GO to the bookstore. The postman doesn’t bring the book to you. While you are there, if you are a POD author, take a copy of your book with you and put it in the hands of the manager or community relations manager. Don’t be pushy! As a matter of fact, thank them for being there. Tell them your book is a thank you gift even and that you’d appreciate their support in return. I’ve always thought Amazon might end up bringing about the demise of the brick-and-mortar bookstore, but let’s NOT let it monopolize the POD industry too.