Bernard Jan's Blog, page 12

The Wottaread Interview: Knowing Bernard Jan

I was lucky to start the new 2019 year with giving an interview for Wottaread! Wottaread is a new and young book promotion website.

If you want to learn something about me, my hobbies, my first writing steps, habits and plans, read this interview.

I hope you enjoy reading it because it uncovers more of me than I'm usually ready to tell!

I want to thank I.M Redwright for choosing me to be the first Wottaread interviewed author! I'm grateful for the honor with hope we did a good job!

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

Bernard Jan

Mo Mo Mo! Merry Christmas, Maureen! Book Review

Mo Mo Mo! Merry Christmas, Maureen! by Jonathan Hill

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


If I’ve read this novella during the Xmas time, I would be less depressed than I was on that day.

Jonathan Hill is again brilliant in making me laugh with his natural sense of humor. Throughout the whole story you grin at Maureen’s wickedness and silliness, and then he makes your eye shine with a stranded tear of her kindness.

Even if Xmas is not your favorite time of the year, you will like the warmth and find joy in reading Mo Mo Mo! Merry Christmas, Maureen! story.

Thanks, J, for your gift!

BJ
www.bernardjan.com


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Bernard Jan

A New Year's Gift

Happy 2019!

I will start the new 2019 year with something nice, a small gift of $2 discount on my novella Look for Me Under the Rainbow. The whole week its Amazon price will be only $0.99 so please mark these days and share them with anyone you know and care about.

Thursday, January 3, 2019, 8:00 AM PST through Thursday, January 10, 2019, 12:00 AM PST

This is a 67% discount on my story about the harp seal pup Danny and the group of Rainbow Warrior environmentalists and activists trying to save baby seals hunted for their fur. My readers love this story and the message it carries.

If you've read and loved it too, please leave the honest review. Your review will help it shine and sparkle in the constellation of the millions of books. With your love, it will find a way to its new readers.

"Jan has provided an intense connection filled with love, fear, bonds, and touching moments we can easily translate as humans. From oil spills to getting caught between the ice, we understand the struggles of animals who can only do so much to protect themselves or their young . . . Without getting into any gory details or making it uncomfortable, Jan has truly shown a different side of life in the ocean. Death is never easy. Loss is profound. Through wonderful imagery, lyrical text, and strong emotions, he's got a winner with Danny's story."
—James J. Cudney, author of Watching Glass Shatter, Father Figure, Academic Curveball and Broken Heart Attack

Many thanks and best wishes for glorious and glowing 2019!

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

Bernard Jan

Peace, Love, Empathy

These are the days when we are full of love and show more kindness than anytime during the year.

These are the days when we want peace and happiness to everyone, when we are ready to give getting nothing in return.

But these are also the days when we take the most. When we deprive others of their happiness and peace, when out of ignorance or lack of care we sit at the family table and take their lives.

Opening our hearts—to everyone—is important. We are so capable of grand and beautiful things and, truth is, we can live and be happy without taking from our animal families.

Please think before you choose your meal and show them mercy. Join me in honoring life and fill this world with kindness and love for everyone. Don’t let any animal be killed for our celebrations and festivities, we are all entitled to freedom and happiness.

My love to you and your beloved ones and every single creature that swims, flies, crawls and walks the earth.

Best wishes and happy holy-and-every-day!

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

Bernard Jan

Another 3rd Place

All contests for my book Look for Me Under the Rainbow in 2018 are over! In the last contest for the book of the year, Look for Me Under the Rainbow got 61 votes and won a 3rd place in YA and Middle Grade Book category in TCK Publishing 2018 contest. To see complete results in this category, please browse to page 12/16.

What is interesting about this contest is that in YA and Middle Grade category my book ended up 3rd out of 65 books while in all 16 categories it won enough votes to end up as 13th out of 672 books which competed in this year’s TCK Publishing contest.

So the year 2018 ended up with the following ratings for Look for Me Under the Rainbow:

- A review in The Book Designer’s e-Book Cover Design Contest for April by the guest judge Kit Foster, an award-winning graphic designer who specializes in book cover design;
- 6th place in AllAuthor cover contest for May by votes of the readers;
- 3rd place in AUTHORSdb Fiction Small Category—Cover Contest Only for the cover of the year by votes of the readers;
- 3rd place in TCK Publishing contest in YA and Middle Grade Book category for the book of the year by votes of the readers.

Enough reasons to be pleased, happy and grateful to all of you who gave your votes and support to my novella. Your support is not only to its beautiful cover designed by Mario Kožar from MKM Media and my writing; it also goes to the message it carries and the call for the protection of our planet and animals who share it with us.

Thank you!

BJ
www.bernardjan.com


Bernard Jan

Academic Curveball Book Review

Academic Curveball by James J. Cudney

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


After Watching Glass Shatter (still have to read it) and Father Figure, James J. Cudney is back to deliver us his third book, Academic Curveball, the first in his Braxton Campus Mysteries. And, oh boy, I’m glad he is!

There is something neat when you set a mystery story in a cozy rural area and spice it with a dead body, a possible culprit as a member of your family, a net of intrigue, an affair connected to the college's athletic program, memorable and sarcastic residents (Nana D you rock!), and a mad cliffhanger! James (or Jay as he prefers to be called) gives us all that in a right and timely manner and his rich and capturing writing style.

I don’t like baseball (which is probably a weakness of 99% Europeans) but I like Jay’s curveball. If the real game is as half as interesting, intriguing and exciting as his book is, baseball would have many more followers outside the States. As things look from my point of view, baseball will remain a nationally popular home game while Academic Curveball and Braxton Campus Mysteries will enchant the hordes of both domestic and international fans. And that is not a bad thing at all!

BJ
www.bernardjan.com



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Bernard Jan

Volcanic Momentum Book Review

Volcanic Momentum: Get Things Done by Setting Destiny Goals, Mastering the Energy Code, and Never Losing Steam by Jordan Ring

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Volcanic Momentum: Get Things Done by Setting Destiny Goals, Mastering the Energy Code, and Never Losing Steam is the second book by Jordan Ring I’ve read this year after Book Launch Gladiator: The 4 Phase Approach to Kindle Book Marketing Success in 2018. As it was the case with Book Launch Gladiator, I sailed through it with ease, satisfaction and a healthy dose of humor.

Reaching our dreams is possible as long as we have faith and believe in ourselves and are ready to grow. Although Volcanic Momentum may seem to be a small book, its impact on our lives can be much bigger, if not life-changing. The formula is simple: setting our goals and moving toward them!

In Volcanic Momentum Jordan Ring introduces us to three types of goals: Small Attainable Goals, Big Hairy Audacious Goals and Destiny Goals, of all three the most important. As the author says for our Destiny Goals: “These are the goals that go beyond you. These are the goals that you want to achieve to leave a legacy. These completed goals blow up the entire mountain, changing the view of the landscape for now and generations to come.”

Who wouldn’t want to make such a positive impact on our world and help others to benefit from our existence, right?

There are many takeaways to learn and apply to inspire us to take action and grow until we reach volcanic momentum. I want to share with you the following few takeaways that most impressed me: Move forward because we are never neutral; we are either moving toward completion of our goal or backward away from it. Fail (often and hard) because the best way to grow quickly is to learn from our mistakes. Master our priorities and learn to say NO in order to find time for the things we want to do and to spend time with the right, positive and stimulating people. Read more to succeed and take action on what we learn to move toward a better future.

Dreaming about our goals is great but reaching them is even better. Volcanic Momentum is here to inspire us, to show us how to become motivated and successful and, what’s more important, how to do it today instead of someday. Jordan Ring is genuine in his wish to help us with that.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com



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Bernard Jan

More Happy Than Not Book Review

More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Savagely beautiful and painfully moving. Silvera shows little mercy to his characters and his readers while he guides them on this sad quest for happiness.

How can so much love shed so many tears?

The best debut possible!

I won’t forget you.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com



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Bernard Jan

Bronze

Do you remember November 2017 when my book A World Without Color won the 1st place as the cover of the year in a Literary Fiction category of AUTHORSdb contest?

This November my other book Look for Me Under the Rainbow won bronze in Fiction Small Category - Cover Contest Only. Happy!!

I also submitted it to The Book Designer’s e-Book Cover Design Contest for April where it received a nice review by the guest judge Kit Foster, an award-winning graphic designer who specializes in book cover design, and to AllAuthor cover contest for May where it ended up #6! I am sure its rank would be much better if it didn’t enter the contest with one day and 140 votes delay due to an error. But this is also good, very good!

What is more important, Look for Me Under the Rainbow is still competing in in YA and Middle-Grade Book Category of the TCK Publishing 2018 Reader’s Choice Awards and it is practically certain it will win the second place in that category! If you think it deserves more, you still have time to vote for it so please browse to page 12/16 and give your votes here now!

THANK YOU.

And thanks to Mario Kožar MKM Media for the beautiful design!

BJ
www.bernardjan.com


Bernard Jan

Nightmares and Zombies: Book Review

Angel's Nightmare Adventure 1.5 by Angel Ramon Medina

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


If you are a fan of Angel Ramon Medina and his Angel’s Nightmare Adventure series, stay calm because you won’t be disappointed with his latest installment! On the second thought, don’t stay calm because Angel is true to himself in throwing high-packed action with plenty of killing and carcasses in front of you!

In Angel’s Nightmare Adventure 1.5 he takes you all the way to the beginning of the timeline of events leading up to the series which you can now purchase also as the Ultimate Nightmare Set. Cool, right?

So, don’t delay, grab one (or all his nightmare books) and get ready to play the game! Zombies are waiting for you!

BJ
www.bernardjan.com



View all my reviews
Bernard Jan