Wednesday Briefing

An Appeal to Authors on Behalf of Reviewers

Recently, in a LinkedIn Group, I was answering a thread.  It raised something that I felt needed addressing.  I did what I could in a few words, but I’d like to spell it out more fully here.

We all need feedback, and it’s a subject that I’ve already covered, to some degree.  However, there’s an aspect of it that I missed entirely!  We authors have certain duties to those we ask to provide us with feedback.  The obvious one is to offer a product worth their time, of course.  Or, at least, to genuinely believe that we are doing so!  But how many of us take the trouble to offer review copies in more than one format?  As far as this is concerned, authors using Kindle direct, and especially Kindle Select, are perhaps the guiltiest, I’m afraid.  We must not fall into the trap of believing that we need only concern ourselves with one ebook format!  I have experienced the problem myself – where I’ve been asked to review books but been offered ‘Kindle or nothing’.  That’s really not good!  Of course, it’s possible to convert ebooks to other formats, but if you have elected to employ DRM, then conversion is impossible!  So, I appeal to all authors: produce your books in as many formats as possible!  I’m not saying you have to offer them all for sale.  If you want to stick with, for example, Kindle – then by all means do so!  Just make it easier for potential reviewers!

News On Shade of Evil

I am currently working towards making the paperback version of my novelette, Shade of Evil (Being Part 1 of G1: The Guardians), available through CreateSpace and, therefore, Amazon.  I only submitted it yesterday, but I was amazed to find that it is now available from CreateSpace and will be available from Amazon.com and Amazon’s European stores within about a week!   The links will be added to the book’s page on the blog.  it should, I hope, be easier for some to buy a copy.  If things go well enough, then I’ll be inclined to make my other books available through the same channels.

This does not signal an abandonment of skoobebooks!  Far from it!  I couldn’t be happier with the help and service that I’ve had from them, and I suspect that it is far superior to what I could expect from CreateSpace!  It is simply a reluctant acceptance of an unavoidable fact – more people shop through Amazon, especially internationally!  It is also a reflection of the fact that, sadly, I can’t afford the extra fee for wider distribution (including through Amazon), imposed by skoobebooks.

One last word on skoobebooks!  If you live in the United Kingdom, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend your use of skoobebooks.  Having used both them and UK-based FeedARead, I am very happy to say that skoobebooks  win hands down on service!  From the very first book that I submitted to them, I have been constantly impressed by the help provided, and the fact that they work so hard to get your precious creation printed in the way you want!  Working with Keith at skoobebooks has taught me a great deal, and I can only publicly express my gratitude to him, and his colleagues.  Without them, I doubt that there would have been a printed option for any of my books!

~ Steve

What a Shame!

Blog Browser Day

It strikes me as being a shame that nobody nominated any blogs for Blog Browser Day this week.  To me, this opportunities to bring the spotlight of free advertising to bear are priceless.  Okay, so this one is really intended to direct folk to blogs that we, ourselves, like, but I would have thought that there’s no shortage of those!  Please, my friends!  Don’t be shy about these chances!

What the…?

Those of you who follow me on Facebook too will know about this.  My feelings are, however, still strong on the whole thing!

Yesterday, while doing a quick check on my Smashwords Dashboard, I discovered a whole bunch of my books had been taken off “Premium”!  Now, that setting means that the books can and are sent to numerous other online bookstores.  A very desirable state of affairs, of course.  So removing books from it is devastating!  But why?  Well, all but one had, according to the Smashwords ‘autovetter’, a very, very tiny fault.  Now hang on!  I was under the impression that this system was part of the initial submission process for books.  All of these books have been available for several months!  So why did this happen?  I’d love to know but, to be honest, the folk handling such questions at Smashwords get very defensive and I’m really in no mood for such nonsense.  Suffice it to say that it took me bout 11 hours to make the amendments!

On a Very Much Happier Note…

I was delighted to discover that my short story, Skylord, had received another 5 star review!  It’s on Smashwords (yes, that same place) but I repeat it here:

Skylord is a short story depicting the plight of a young dragon nearing adulthood who is testing his mettle. When he flies too close to Ydren and makes an enemy of her, he tells his parents a lie about their encounter. There is an overabundance of dragons and not enough open territory. His lie leads his parents to go to war over territory. When Skylord learns that he cannot fly in the Phalanx and do battle because he is not yet an adult, he despairs that others will die and he cannot right his wrong. He flies off to the Lost Caverns and meets Belarth, a wise old dragon long presumed to be dead. Belarth gives him some valuable advice which gives Skylord the answer to the problem for which he as been searching. Great adventure fantasy for children ages ten and up.

Barbara Mojica on Aug. 16, 2013 :

Thank you so much, Barbara!

And Finally…

Apart from being able to get the brand new ebook version of Shade of Evil from Smashwords or any Amazon store, with the great new cover by Chris Graham, the 2nd Edition paperback is being prepared right now.  In addition, my new novel is with skoobebooks and will, hopefully, be available in paperback by the launch date of 10th September.  In fact, and this is very exciting, it may also be available in hardback!  The ebook will be processed on the launch date, simultaneously at Amazon and Smashwords.

More exciting news:  I have an artist friend looking into producing illustrations and a new cover for Skylord!  The illustrated version, a fully fledged children’s book, will, I’m afraid, not be available as a free ebook, and the text only version will be withdrawn at the end of this month.  This will reflect the additional work involved in producing an illustrated book.  I will do all I can to keep the price down but ebooks generally can’t be priced below $0.99 USD.

~ Steve

Blog Tours, Teasing and More

Home Page: What It’s All About

Yesterday, I completely revamped the blog’s home page, which is listed as What It’s All About.  This reflects some changes in circumstances.  There’s nothing staggeringly revolutionary about its content, as it mainly indicates what the blog is all about (if you hadn’t guessed).   The significant change is that, sadly, there is no longer any intimation that there will be, or is, an entity known as either Imagineer ebooks or Imagineer Books, in publishing terms.

Blog Browser Day: 10th August, 2013

Abroad in the Yard

A wonderful compilation of historical articles and photos from around the web.  Since I write ‘prehistorical fiction’ I find inspiration and information here.

Blog Class: General Blog

Recommended by: Aura Burrows

Rating: 5 stars

Confirmed Family Safe?  Yes.

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Hari’s got tales

Hari gives descriptions, facts and sometimes histories about the Chinese and Indonesian recipes he posts as his main theme, however, he also wanders into other topics like local superstitions, the meaning of names in his country, etc.

He has a friendly, chatty style and loves to laugh and interact with anyone who comments.

I always enjoy my visits to his blog and his visits to mine 🙂

Blog Class: General Blog

Recommended by: Chris The Story Reading Ape

Rating: 5 stars

Confirmed Family Safe?  Yes.

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The Diesel-Electric Elephant Company

Ian Hutson’s very inventively-named blog is a fascinating place to visit.  You will find all manner of things here. and most of them given Ian’s unique treatment!  Be wary, though: he invented irreverence!  But he’s good people and ready to give his support to many others.  The one thing he doesn’t do?  He doesn’t get in your face about his being an author!  Don your own pith helmet and go hunting through the pages of his blog.

Blog Class: Writing and General Blog

Recommended by: Steve K Smy

Rating: 5 stars

Confirmed Family Safe?  Yes.

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Wandering On Wednesday

The Delight of Unexpected Reviews

I was thrilled to discover that two of my books were reviewed and given 5 stars! Shade of Evil and Evil Under The Circle, Parts 1 and 2 of G1: The Guardians, were reviewed by Chris The Story Reading Ape and the reviews can be found on Goodreads, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.  You can find all of Chris’ reviews on Goodreads.  Of course, you can also find Chris’ reviews on his own blog.  I would like to express my sincere thanks to Chris for his kindness and honesty.  Having friends who understand fully that you only wish to receive absolutely genuine reviews of your works is beyond valuable.

I was further delighted to find a 5 star review of Intruder from the Thief series of free short stories!  The review, posted on Barnes & Noble is so heartening!  I quote it below:

This book kept me on the edge of my seat until the last word was read.

There is a serious threat that exudes evil and wants to claim the land in this sci-fi fantasy.  Mages, which this author describes as magicians of a sort, are sought to help go up against the evil.

Characters are richly described and likable and fascinating.  This is a novella which is a quick read but this reader did not want the story to end.  The author is a very talented and creative storyteller. I will be reading many more of his stories. This is an excellent choice of reading for YA.

Review by jesNH, 6th August, 2013.  5 stars awarded.

I would like to thank jesNH for such a glowing review!

Going for a New Look – Again!

Yes, I’m afraid I’m going to be tinkering again!  The main page of posts can be rather overwhelming, especially when the posts are long!  I’ve decided to try to improve things by making use of a WordPress post facility.  This will involve adding the codeword More to all long posts, which will mean that only part of the post will appear on the main page and you will need to click on the More… link in the post to read all of it.  One advantage of this is that it will give easier access to other facilities, such as commenting, sharing, rating and liking.  In respect of special days (Book Promo Day and Blog Browser Day), I will endeavour to place the codeword in such a place that the link has to be clicked or some of the detail information will be lost to the reader.  Obviously, this will be subject to any feedback – positive or negative – as to whether I continue to use the codeword.  Also, I will not be going back to posts already displayed.  I simply don’t have the time to edit all those posts (around 270 of them)!

If you wish to provide any feedback on this change, at any time, please  contact me using the contact form on the blog, or via email if you have my address.  I would suggest not using Facebook or Twitter, as messages are too easily lost unless the direct message system is used.

Uncovered: The Naked Manuscript

If by any remote chance you’re waiting for Part 4 of G1: The Guardians, which will also be the first novel I will have released, I’m afraid the waiting must continue.  It still lacks a cover.  My son is extraordinarily busy now, with negligible time for such extra projects.  My own attempts have been woeful, to say the least, and I simply can’t afford to pay anybody to provide a more professional cover.  I can assure you all that I am more frustrated than anybody else.  I even considered abandoning my original vision for the cover, even if only for the first edition, and going with an extremely simple cover.  So desperate have I become!  There has been a consequence to this situation, too, in that the work on Part 5 is crawling along.

“Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”

No – they dream of having more storage space  built into their main circuitry!  How do I know?  Well, I have a Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830i and it is forever complaining that its built-in memory is almost or actually full!  The kind folk of Samsung allow the use of micro SD cards to obtain more space.  Unfortunately, that really doesn’t help because they have been so miserly as far as the built-in space is concerned!  Don’t misunderstand me.  This isn’t a problem unique to Samsung,  I had, for a short while, an Android tablet, and that suffered from exactly the same problem!  Sure, most apps are installed to the SD card, along with things that they handle – such as the Kindle app and the ebooks that you download for it.   I was amazed, having watched TV adverts talking about the vast number of available apps, that this ‘phone has so very little actual capacity.  Every app installed contributes to the space consumed in the ‘phone itself, regardless of where the app itself is installed to!  And even more annoying is the fact that there are pre-installed apps which you can’t uninstall!  Some of these are massive (‘bloatware’) and I know that I’ll never use them, but Samsung have decided that they should be locked in, untouchable.  I find it increasingly difficult to understand how Samsung, and most other Android device manufacturers, expect to compete with Apple’s devices!  For example, the internal, built-in storage of the iPod Touch is impressive.  Sure, you can’t expand it, but at least most of the storage is available without all the nonsense problems of the Android competition.  Yes, there are locked apps with Apple too, and yes, it would be hugely beneficial if we could remove them, but even then I can get loads more apps on the standard, basic iPod Touch than I can on the Android smartphone!

(Apologies to Philip K Dick, author of the book whose title I have stolen for this section!)

Regarding Reviews and Ratings

A Book Review

I was blown away!  Staggered!  Kandy Kay Scaramuzzo, who has delighted us all with the wisdom of her good friend Pie, posted a review of my book Evil Under The Circle (second in the G1: The Guardians series) that is truly humbling in its enthusiasm.  With her kind permission, I repeat the review below:

This is an absolutely amazing story. It has all the great elements, unknown monsters, mystery, special sources, wiccans, druids and dragons. Who could ask for anything more.? I love the way the Special Forces are really special with special powers. Even though they work for the government and have all resources at their disposal, it takes the ancient druid and his baby dragon to help them out. The evil is unknown and is about to break out of his prison of many years. I won’t ruin the story for anyone else, but the druid and the Wiccan are a force to be dealt with. This story starts out nicely and ramps up quite quickly. The characters are well developed and described. It gives you a head start on the series that looks truly fascinating from the beginning. The guardians are some forces that need to be checked out. This is a book that will appeal to people who like action stories, sci fi stories, or stories of the supernatural. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

(This review may be found on Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, Amazon* or Kandy’s own website.)

I can only express my deepest gratitude to Kandy.

* The review on Amazon doesn’t appear to have gone live as yet.

Regarding Reviews and Ratings

I should reiterate, here, that I am always happy to receive reviews, whatever the opinions expressed, though I do only pay heed to those which are polite even when being critical.  Failing a review, a star rating is fine, though I do have reservations about such.  To me, it is far too easy to hide behind anonymity when awarding star ratings, whether they be high or low.  Getting friends to apply positive ratings has, sadly, become commonplace, and is very unfair to those of us who don’t believe in begging for such artificial support.  Equally, malicious types can happily apply very low ratings knowing that they don’t have to worry about explaining themselves, which would often reveal their maliciousness with bad critiquing and, frequently, the kind of language which most review sites are happy to remove.

In recent times, I have been approached by several individuals and ‘companies’ on the question of reviews.  These offer, in various terms, reviews in return for remuneration from myself.  I can state that they are wasting their time!  Even if I could afford such things, I wouldn’t ever pay for reviews.  It is, without any shadow of a doubt, unethical in the extreme.  How could anybody, the writer or readers, trust such reviews to be honest?  A company willing to pay reviewers out of funds raised in other ways is fine.  That’s no different to other walks of life, such as film critics and restaurant critics.  If those were being paid, directly or indirectly, by the subjects of their critiques, I can just imagine the reaction of the general news media!  Why, then, do these people think that authors should behave any differently to film makers or top end chefs?  Or are they, perhaps, exploiting a certain gullibility?  If you’re a reviewer, and you receive payment from a ‘company’, I beg of you: check on where they get that money from!  Remember, it’s your reputation on the line, too.  If you, as an author, are approached by such a ‘company’ or individual: think before responding!  If all authors refuse to hand over money to these people, I seriously believe that we’ll all be better off!  Perhaps I’m misguided, or just plain wrong, of course.  You can always give me some idea of what you think about paying for reviews in the poll below (no, I’m afraid there’s no prize! LOL).

~ Steve

“Defender” by Chris Allen – A Review

Defender by Chris Allen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I started reading Defender just a few days ago. The fact that I have now finished reading it is very significant! I am not a fast reader, not by any stretch of the imagination. That’s a fact I always make very clear when asked to review a book. In this instance, I wasn’t actually asked to read Defender but I so enjoyed it, how could I not do so?

Those who have read my reviews know hat I say little that’s specific about storylines. I have no desire to give away anything of importance to potential readers – and how can I know what they think is important. So I’ll stick to my formula!

Defender introduces us to the shadowy Interpol branch: Intrepid. It launches us into the violent, tangled-web world that combines espionage, soldiering and policing. The agents are hard, efficient people dedicated to a cause: the protection of the innocent, whatever the cost, whatever the means. The world has turned hard and harsh. Criminals are just a small part of the tapestry of threat. Terrorists, brutal governments that don’t respect their own people let alone international law, arms dealers, drug dealers, business cartels interested in profit at any price, government agencies that cross the line between national interest and criminality. These are the shadows that Intrepid’s agents must navigate through, bringing justice, one way or another. And here, in Defender, we meet Alex Morgan, one of Intrepid’s best agents, locked in a battle to bring the coldest and most dangerous of criminals to book. A country wrecked to satisfy corporate and personal greed, a rogue with no loyalties except to himself, cravens and the callous. And behind it all, that corporate entity which directs it all. Caught up in it all are the thousands of innocent victims of a nation thrown into savage chaos, bystanders with no part in any of it, and a few brave ones, like Alex Morgan, other Intrepid agents, police forces as dedicated as those of Intrepid, and a young woman, Arena Hall, hurled into this most dangerous of environments.

Death stalks the pages of this book. Sudden, violent death. Can Alex Morgan and his comrades and friends bring justice where it is due? Only time will tell. But the campaign will travel across half the world, until it culminates in stunning climactic action in Sydney. Success and failure are never more than a heartbeat apart.

I had great trouble putting this book aside, for any reason! It’s a breathless ride, with very few opportunities to relax. Would I recommend it? Do apples grow on trees? This is one of those books which I will treasure as part of my library! I can only offer my strongest recommendation to anybody who likes to feel their pulse occasionally! Yes, there are moments when you may be made to feel uncomfortable, but know that those passages reflect an ugly reality we are (mostly) protected from. This is a book for adult readers who enjoy the very best writing.

Five stars? I’d double that if I could!

View all my reviews

~ Steve

See also:
Review of “Hunter” (Intrepid #2)
The Intrepid Chris Allen

A Case of Personal Crisis – “The Guilty” by Gabriel Boutros: A Book Review

The Guilty by Gabriel Boutros

I received the ebook version of this novel from the author.  This has not influenced my judgement in any way with regard to this review.

I have to start this review by saying what a remarkable novel this is.  It  is in a genre I have never read before, and it has left me wondering what I may have missed.  Gabriel Boutros demonstrates a true gift for his craft as a writer, right from the beginning, and manages to draw you into the story with consummate skill.  At the outset, his protagonist is anything but likeable.  He’s arrogant, self-satisfied, ready to declare his personal genius to all and sundry with or without prompting.  Yes, in the beginning, his relationship with his daughter is shaking him, but not in the ways it should.  He belongs very firmly in that subspecies: homo sapiens lawyerensis.  There is only the vaguest hint of humanity about the man.  So how come you carry on reading about this undesirable?  Because you want to see his fall!  You are drawn along waiting to witness his utter ruin.  There’s a part of you, sparked into existence by the brief sentence on the cover, which is also waiting to see just when and how this reprehensible person will meet his personal epiphany and explode into a Fury of Retribution.  And that’s part of Mr Boutros’ skill.  He has lived the life and knows it intimately.  Not that he bears any resemblance to his protagonist, of course, but he must surely have encountered those who shared at least elements of the character’s personality.

I mentioned the main character meeting his personal epiphany.  Well, it demonstrates Mr Boutros’ skill that he so easily handles the fact that very few truly  experience an epiphany!  Our awakening is rarely one of those single, dramatic, life-changing moments.  In fact, it can be, and usually is, a slow, painful, confusing process.  As a reader coming from books which require episodes of intense action, The Guilty proved to be a remarkable experience for me.  There were, very definitely, events, but none were exactly describable as action.  I was amazed to find that I had been drawn along with such excellent writing that action sequences really weren’t required.  Indeed, they may well have turned an excellent novel into something far more ordinary.  Like a patient angler, with a prize fish (you) on the line, Mr Boutros allows you to twist and turn on the line, your mind darting off down  side alleyways of possibilities, but always, inescapably, you are drawn ever closer to the waiting net – the conclusion.  And I will say only this: the conclusion is very satisfying – though the characters are, by then, so a part of you that you’d love to hear more about them.  I genuinely regretted the book ending.

If you’re looking for a Perry Mason or other similar fictional lawyer, then you’ll be disappointed.  There’s a disturbing ring of honesty about the portrayed lawyers’ defects.  You’ll find those you can happily despise, but you’ll also be confused by those who exhibit more humanity than you would expect.  They are complex people.  They have lives.  You could, with little effort, imagine how they live their lives away from the spotlight of the  story.  There’s everything from the ‘wet behind the ears idealist’ youngster, just beginning their lives, to the jaded veteran who simply does what they’ve always done, without ever considering the consequences because they live only with the Law – not real people.  And of course the full spectrum  in between the extremes.  I haven’t read anything with such strong, real characters before.  Everything else, I could always take refuge in the underlying knowledge that I was reading fiction, even when it got a little too uncomfortable for my liking – or especially then.

I’m not going to include details of the plot or the events even in broad terms.  This book is too good a read to spoil with anything beyond general observations about its worth.  I do, however, have a request: when you’ve read The Guilty, come back and tell me whether you’re pleased that I recommended it to you, or not!

My rating?  A very definite 5 stars!  Who would I  recommend this book to?  Anybody who enjoys reading!

More information:

Author’s website

I’m Back and a Roundup of News

My Gratitude for Many Kindnesses

During the last couple of months, I have been well and truly blessed with numerous demonstrations of that old-fashioned thing: Human Kindness!    It is astonishing and not a little overwhelming to have received so many kind  wishes from so many people.  I am humbled.  Deeply so.  There is certainly no way that I can ever repay such warmth.  My recent incapacity was met with even more such kindness, for which I can only offer my most sincere thanks!

I hope that things are now returning to normal.  The most significant aspect of my absence was an unpleasant tendency to fall asleep without warning with great frequency, which made focussing on anything impossible.  It may sound not particularly trying, but it was unfortunately associated with other even less tolerable factors,  So it’s fingers crossed time, that the problem has passed.

My thanks to my son, Damien, for posting about my absence and fielding comments as best he could!  Considering how busy he is himself, it was no small thing for him to do on my behalf.

I Must Refuse!

Recently, I have had several emails from, apparently, other authors.  These offer to ‘send business my way’ if I join the person’s network by clicking on a link in the email, which always involves the website http://www.referralkey.com.  I would like it to be known that I will not ever,under any circumstances, take up such invitations.  I have a very strong suspicion of all such things, I’m afraid.  So, if you have my email address in your contacts and you choose to subscribe to whatever this service might be, I would be grateful if you ensured that you do not submit it to the service.  I should point out that I have attempted to bar such emails, and ‘unsubscribe’ from them, to no effect, which suggests that things are worthy of suspicion.

Last Week’s ‘Book Promo Day’

If anybody’s wondering to last week’s Book Promo Day, it’s a shame but there were no submissions for the day. It is a source of some amazement to me that it can often be such hard work to persuade my fellow authors to take advantage of free advertising!  If you’ve availed yourself of the offer yourself, and maybe even derived some benefit from having done so, perhaps you would be so kind as to suggest to your own contacts that they might like to do the same.  So far, I have received just one submission for the next Book Promo Day.

The Ossilan Affair Reviewed!

I am delighted to say that my novelette, The Ossilan Affair, has been reviewed.  The review can be found on Amazon and is also to be found on LizzieRossWriter.com.  I’d be very grateful if you took a look at one location, or both, and maybe leave some feedback, if you feel so inclined.  Personally, I have to thank Lizzie Ross for her kind review, the award of four stars and her very useful observations.  It is an excellent demonstration of how a review can be helpful to both potential readers and the author.

~ Steve

News Roundup

I am delighted to tell you that I have had an article, or guest post, put on the Indies Unlimited site.  You may find it of some interest.  If you do, it would be great if you could make that known over there.

I have more news.  I now own a new Samsung Galaxy Ace Android smartphone, thanks to my eldest son!  I quite like Android as a system but this ‘phone suffers from what would appear to be a common problem with such devices.  The ‘phone itself has very limited storage and relies on you using a memory card.  Sounds okay, until you find the glitch in the system.  Basically, there’s a bunch of apps preloaded, many of which you probably won’t need, but which you can’t delete, so when you find apps you would like to use, you soon run out of space for them!  What happens is that the apps install to the ‘phone and not the memory card and you can’t move them across.  So you actually find yourself with a device with maybe four or five apps you chose and a mass that you didn’t.  I don’t wish to sound ungrateful, because I’m not, but it seems a very clumsy system…

Because of problems I was having with my health, I spent several weeks unable to go out of the house.  Needless to say, I started going just a little nuts.  In fact, it takes very little time for me to develop mild agoraphobia, which simply makes going out even harder, when it does become possible.  Well, yesterday’s lack of a blog post was a direct consequence of the fact that I managed to not only leave the house, but I travelled around 25 miles to my daughter’s!  It isn’t without a price, of course, as road conditions are such that I’ll probably need most  of this coming week to recover, and I got a whole 30 minutes sleep last night.  Still, I did go, and I even spent the day sat outside.  That’s how I discovered that I am distressingly pale.  My hands were amazingly white, and I’m used to them being quite brown long before this time of year.  All said and done, though, it was great to get out and to see my daughter and her family!  I even  got to see my eldest son and his kids en passant.  That was a touch amusing as he brought the kids out to the car to say hello.  Naturally, I opened my door.  The moment the youngest, a little girl, couldn’t retreat fast enough when she saw me and spent most of the time hiding behind her Dad’s leg.

There will be something of a delay in new books being published.  My younger son is absolutely swamped with work, which means that, between that and his family, he can’t devote time to producing the cover artworks.  Naturally, while this is immensely frustrating, I do fully understand.  It means, however, that the second edition of Shade of Evil and my novel, both from the G1: The Guardians series, will not be appearing for a while yet.  It may be of interest to you to know that I have gotten a fair way into the next tale in the series, too, which is showing every sign of being a second novel.  As a side issue, I’ll be posting another segment of background to the series this week, so keep an eye out for it!

And Finally…

I’m looking for willing volunteers!  I’d dearly  like to hear from anybody who would like to review the tales in the G1: The Guardians series.  Naturally, I am willing to provide free review copies, in whatever ebook format is required.  I am not looking for any ego massaging!  I would truly like some honest reviews.  It would also be fantastic if said interviews were published on the following:

1. Amazon,
2. Smashwords,
3. Goodreads,
4. The reviewer’s blog,
5. any other bookstore site (kobo, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, etc.)

Obviously the review could be copied and pasted!  I would also like permission to include such reviews here, on this blog, and some might well be included in any advertising/marketing I do, and even potentially in the books themselves, or as part of the blurb!  I do not offer anything beyond a review copy of each ebook!  If you’re interested, please use the contact form below.  I will be extremely grateful for all reviews.

Please indicate sites you may be willing to submit your review(s) to in the “Remarks” field.

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