The Cone Stories by Stuart Real

A clever and funny idea which made me smile from the onset. Absolutely loved how the ‘characters’ were portrayed and so believable! Great line, “…they (the cones) are naughty, in fact they are very naughty…”

A fun and delightful read.

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Certainly very knowledgeable about Role Playing Games, Nick Smith engages the reader at once with this fast paced particular genre. The graphics are excellent and the switch between narrator and character pick up the pace even more.

Clever – and I would say a delight for ‘gamers’ everywhere.

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A Sprinkling of Thought Dust by Steven and Margaret Larson

Nobody could ever be disappointed with the Larson books.

This one is full of wonderful descriptions, fabulous characters and packed with action. Its charm oozes fantasy and magic with lines such as, ‘Spilling thought dust on the wind’, and Electrum inhaled the Tween World night air as he flew behind Silverthorn’.

Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended.

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Awkward Places by SR Dupree

I could see at once that this account was a very personal and heartfelt journey. It is written in an easy to read style and embraces questions we all, at one time or another, ask: ‘Why am I here?’ and ‘What is the meaning of life?’

SR Dupree sets out the explanation for these beliefs in an honest and direct way.

Thought provoking at the very least.

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Why Fenella is Awesome by Edward McAndrew

Supportive. A unusual and funny way of dealing with such problems. Great to have such a loving brother.

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The Inspire Place by Dory Maguire

A simple string of words that make a beautiful necklace for the heart.

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Legendary Sidekick – in 4D by John M Haley

Great stuff.  What a fantastic sense of humour threaded through it.  Fab name, Zeek Mcgeek!  And although there is a mass of info at the start it’s written in such a way to be fun and interesting, interspersed with enough ‘action’ to keep an easy flow.

Brilliant!

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I Should Write This Stuff Down by Bruce Behymer

What a great title – definitely a way to create interest.  Insightful, deep and meaningful.  I could relate to the philosophy of change and how we must embrace it.  For yes, how else would our lives flow into the rivers of our future and the ‘just maybe’ seas?

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Terrific.

I was drawn from the first…what a great way of describing a character without being boring, giving immediate interest. A fantastic idea, which is written in such a way as to make it entirely ‘real’ – an almost ‘world weary’ voice of someone who ‘just has to get the job done’.

Clever.

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In The Dark
by Elise VanCise

Intriguing.

I liked the undercurrent of humor in this quick-moving story. A great cliff-hanger beginning.

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Worth a look!

Great taster at the beginning to spur the reader into turning the page. Such mastery of words, painting glorious pictures. Observant too – with such lines as (about death) ‘…is a clumsy thing of the darkness…discovered in the dawn.’ Terrific. Mystery from the onset, this is a story of action and surprise. ________________________________________________________________________________________

Realm of the Dead by James Stewart

Intriguing from the first, providing a dark tale.

Great atmosphere…can really feel Isa’ terror in a strange and violent world.

Good command of language.

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Rise of the Queen by Katie Jones

“A Good Start”

Some good description, e.g. ‘…the ageless sky, twinkling with far off diamonds…’ and some great names.

An interesting beginning to a promising story.

I’d love a portal of my own!

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I was excited to receive a hard copy of Richard Garfinkle’s Exaltations in the mail to read and review because it is the first hard cover book I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing produced from Lulu.  The physical quality of this book is outstanding so I’d like to share a few of my own photos of it for other authors who might be considering a hardcover edition of their own work.

The cover art itself is some of the best I’ve seen for a self-published work: a current century man in the company of some historical characters that seem to be coming to life out of a mosaic.  The book’s dust jacket is a fine glossy stock despite that infamous white line at the bottom that I myself had trouble with last year, and the lack of use of space on the book’s spine.  The author and book name on the spine are tiny.  But the inside flaps are flawless and include a color photo of the author along with the publisher’s imprint and a few illustrations. Removing the jacket reveals a nicely bound black book with the author’s name and the book title embossed in gold on the spine. Such detail and quality must come with a price tag though.  The book is listed at $40.80!

The story itself follows Peter Refton who is a “hunter of human lives.”  But Peter is not a killer.  He’s a biographer and somewhat of a time traveler as he journeys to different worlds in history and literally collects the life stories of several lesser known people who might have been responsible for shaping our history books.  There’s the brave knight of reformed Charlemagne’s army, a wise man who was responsible for China’s expansion and control, a lovely sorceress, and twin warriors.

The storyline is a maddening twist of Stephen King’s The Drawing of the Three and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.  When the tables are turned and it’s Peter’s life story that becomes the huntee, he uses his character collection to help him defeat what is known as the “Quest.” Although I’m not a big fan of reading fantasy, Garfinkle shapes a plot that is definitely worthy of the handiwork that went into putting such a beautiful book together.  He doesn’t clutter the story itself with too many minor details that end up making many stories of this genre top 500 pages.  His words are very tight and precise and push the story to its limits almost as fast as his main character moves through time…

The Story had promised them all knowledge, but he did not have all knowledge to give. The lies of the story echoed throughout the far-flung group Quest had tried to snare. They all head and knew that a voice was speaking deception to them. They would hear it and know it as a faithless spirit.

Although the book suffers from the same mistakes that haunt many self published books such as spelling, spacing, and phrasing, there is one detail to the body of text that I found distracting.  The book is divided into traditional chapters but then the chapters are also divided into various passages.  Several passages throughout the whole book are introduced with headings like [ACCEPTANCE] or [REJECTION] or [ACCEPTANCE AND REJECTION].  To me, they made me think I was actually reading a biography manuscript and that these were editor’s notes.  They served no real purpose to the story itself for me and only took up space.

With a good polish and tightening the body of the book, I think Richard Garfinkle would have a real winner with Exaltations.  Of course, there is also that heavy price tag to consider which is why I’m giving one lucky reader out there the chance to get a free copy.  If you’d like my hardcover edition of of this book, post a comment on this review.  One lucky person will be picked at random.  The winner will be announced August 31st.  U.S. Residents only.

Read the first chapter of Exaltations here!

Reviewed by:
Harry E. Gilleland, Jr.
Poet, Author

As a grandfather to five grandchildren, aged seven to ten, I was interested to learn what this book has to offer in the way of advice on how to be a grandparent. The answer is it has much to offer. The two authors offer great insight with ideas and suggestions that should be beneficial to any grandparent, but especially to the new grandparent.

The 124-page book is arranged into four sections. The first section has eight chapters with suggestions of things to do before the baby arrives. The helpful ideas range from pampering the expectant mother in various ways to preparing yourself to be the family historian for the grandchild by starting a time capsule on the day of the birth and gathering family history. One chapter lists potential memento gifts to commemorate the birth, as well as ways to make the first meeting with the new baby more enjoyable for the new mother (flowers, food, keep the visit short, take charge of any older siblings). I’m sure if these suggestions are followed, the first meeting will go smoothly.

Section two has the meat of the book. Its dozen chapters cover the philosophy of being a good grandparent and discuss how you can best interact with the grandchild as an infant, a toddler, the middle years, the teen years, through their becoming grownup grandchildren. Weis and Johnston offer great advice on communicating with the parents and working with the parents for the best interests of the grandchildren. This section has suggestions for how best to handle babysitting. It even presents the authors’ thoughts on diverse topics like adopted grandchildren and long-distance grandparenting. I especially liked the notion that grandparents could take the lead in starting and/or maintaining family traditions with the grandchildren. As a poet myself, I was particularly fond of the authors’ proposal that the grandparent could be the family storyteller that introduced the grandchild to the older family history and fleshed out their impression of other family members. With my own grandchildren soon to become teenagers, I found their advice to listen without being critical or “parenting” since the teenager needs someone they can trust to talk to about things that they may not want to discuss directly with their parents to be great advice. I plan to remember their advice!

The six chapters of section three provide useful ideas for hosting baby showers, stocking the freezer, creating floral arrangements, gift giving, vacationing with the grandchildren, and being a “spontaneous grandparent”. It is a section that would be referred to often by the grandparent.

The fourth section has one whimsical chapter entitled “If Grandmothers Ruled the World”. Oh, if only they did!

“Welcome to Grandparenting” is truly a useful guide filled with great suggestions and ideas for activities appropriate for any age grandchild. It would be a wonderful introduction into the world of grandparenting for any new grandparent. Even experienced grandparents would benefit from reading this book. I know I did. Although the book is aimed mostly at grandmothers with its numerous suggestions for food preparation, flower arrangements, shopping and gift giving, throwing baby showers, there are still plenty of suggestions contained within the book to make it useful for grandfathers to read it also. In summary, I heartily recommend this book, especially for any new grandparents, but also for experienced grandparents. You are never too old to learn new ideas. The authors are to be commended for a job well done. This book would make a great gift as well as a valuable addition to one’s own library.

First, special thanks for all of your birthday wishes, and congratulations to all of our winners who took home prizes…Linda Welch, Edwin Ong, Dawson Vosburg, Paul Ciccone Jr, and Doeray Griffin.

We were also interviewed by the Lulu Blog this month.  Thank you to Lulu.com and to Carol Housel for that.

We conducted a few interviews of our own with Smashwords CEO Mark Coker to celebrate Read an E-book Week, and with Mike Motz, children’s book illustrator.

We posted seven reviews this month, our best this year, and we have just as many coming up in April!  Special thanks to our review team that makes it happen!

March was our first full month on Twitter which has allowed us to post frequent updates and requests, connect with new readers and authors, and to answer your questions quicker.

We received a total of 14 new book queries on the Pick Me tab in March.  Keep them coming!  We are always accepting book review requests and have never closed off submissions since the blog started a year ago!

Besides more book reviews in April, we’re celebrating Teen Lit Day on April 16th with two teen book reviews this month.  Reviewer LK Gardner-Griffie will also be posting about teen literature awareness. Reviewer Dan Marvin will be doing a feature on “truly self-publishing.”   We’ll also have a marketing tips list we’ve been composing, a post all about book trailers featuring several of your own videos, and we’ll discuss the results of the book sales poll.

It’s going to be a great Spring season!  Warm weather!  Good Books!  See you next month!

Well written and thought provoking, this is an excellent example of social history. Although a very personal view, its colourful style paints a variety of fabulous images that both delight and shock the reader.

I loved the characters, especially the mother, whose heroic efforts in bringing up her children can only be admired. A role model that none could fault.

Phrases like, ‘..one holler…’ (the distance within which the children had to play) and ‘…demon rooster…’ (I’ve always hated chickens) made me smile, while the hard justice and violence provoked feelings of sadness and anger.

The ending was clever and worthy of such a terrific book. I would recommend this to anyone.

The Lily Fair One by Jean Carver

A wonderful tale set in the 19th century in the Appalachian Mountains, West Virginia and created from a thought provoking song. It has all the ingredients for the perfect ghost story.

Extremely well written, not only its glorious description but also its believable characters. I especially liked ‘Padric’ – he alone would make a fabulous mystical story.

I loved it to its clever and surprising end (no spoilers) and would recommend this book to everyone.

Fantastic!

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Total money invested on this project to date (after book sales only): $216.95 (debt)

Profit made to date on this project after all sales and services: $300.18

With this being a short month, I almost expected to receive December’s Kindle sales today as well, but in the past that has come through on the 27th.  December totaled $70.53.  January of this year was the same, except 1 dollar less, and so far February has only reached $50.00.  But with the release of the new Kindle 2 yesterday, I’m hoping the coming months will go back up again.

February 28th: I still haven’t received the December deposit for Kindle sales.  I guess they follow their 60 day rule to the tee which means I’ll be waiting at least one more day.  However, I spoke too soon in my last post about February being a slow month.  This week alone my sales have almost doubled and I’m sitting at $84.00 for the month now.  That’s my best month overall, and my highest since last September which was $83.13.  Thank you, Kindle 2 owners!