Sherry Morris's Blog, page 7

More Tweeting than Blogging

I'm doing much more tweeting on Twitter than blogging on Blogger. Sorry to have stale content here. Not to say I won't ever blog again, the spirit just hasn't moved me in months. You are very welcome to follow me on Twitter I'm @SherryInk. I do have lots to say, 140 characters at a time.

Movie Review: THE MARTIAN

I was a bit worried about watching The Martian, worried it wouldn't have a happy ending. I require a happy ending. I'd avoided reading reviews, so I wasn't sure. I was happy it didn't start on earth, it started on Mars, with a storm brewing. The movie made me want to learn more, be smarter, think smarter, get smarter. A lone astranaut is left behind on Mars and must put aside his fear/inevitability of impending death and instead use his brain, education and experience to improvise and solve every basic problem:  Food, water, oxygen and how to communicate with NASA and how to get home.

I was quickly on the edge of my seat with my face in my hands. Much better movie than the George Clooney & Julia Roberts astronaut flick. Bravo to the writers of the novel and script. Bravo to the actors, directors and crew.

Some brief rear male nudity, you might not want young kids to see it anyway, since it's kind of scary.

FIVE STARS!!!!!

Handy Dandy Power Bathroom Scrubber

                                     
Our one piece low budget builder installed master bathroom shower stall is 14 years old. We've tried everything to get the grimy soap scum off of it, even boat cleaner. I thought we'd have to rip it out and either replace it or tile it.

I saw this Tub & Tile Cordless Telescoping Power Scrubber  demonstrated on QVC and decided to give it a try. After all, if it didn't work, I could return it, used.

It took me about an hour and a half, including trial and error to get a techinque and groove going the first day. I was able to get the grimy textured floor white! Then the battery died. So I charged it and the next day it took me an hour to do the walls. It was well worth it.

I ended up using the small round head and a lot of elbow grease. Comet on the floor, Scrubbing Bubbles on the walls.

Yes, it works! No you just can't glide it over the surface like in the demo. It's not magic. But, since we'd used lots of manual elbow grease in the past to no avail, I'm tickled to no end that it worked and we have a clean, sparkly white shower stall!

Brown Sugar Bacon Mini Weenies

My daughter made these for her boyfriend last night:

Mini weenies, i used center cut bacon and cut it in 3rds if youu use full size bacon then 4ths, wrap the bacon around the weenie, toothpick, spray w cooking spray, sprinkle generously with brown sugar, bake or broil until bacon is done

Fire Sale

I'm taking my Indie published books out of print this week. The time spent promoting them and obsessively checking sales isn't healthy, since the sales have petered out.  The Master Manipulator and Inappropriate are the only two that still sell, but very very few. I may keep Inappropriate available, it depends if anyone else wants it.

Thousand Dollar Pharaoh is for sale through Eternal Press.
Fully Involved Fire is the first to go today.

Free Books are Trashed by Readers

Want to know the secret to launching a book?

It's not giving it away for free anymore.

The market has been engulfed by a tsunami of indie publishing and now giving away a book to get some buzz going is most likely going to result not in buzz, but in a slew of bad reviews from which you'll most likely never recover. It's been said it takes eighteen 5 star reviews to negate a single 1 star. But if all you have are 1 star reviews, nobody will buy the book because they think it must be amateur crap. Believe me, no reviews are better than bad reviews.

I know this is true because I've given away several books for free and they have received scathing reviews. And that stops sales. Forever. My good reviews are from readers who paid money for my books. Logically they liked the blurb and sample, so they were more likely to enjoy what they were getting into. I have many writer friends who have had similar experiences.

I won't give a book less than three stars. If I really didn't like it, I won't review it. Reading is very personal and subjective. What I don't care for might be a commercial windfall. And what I like might be something no one else gets. I sample dozens of books before I find one I can't put down. Then I buy it. I don't care if it's self-published or a NYT bestseller, free or $25. And I don't read reviews of books, movies or TV shows. It's the promo that piques my curiosity.

Some people only read free books. Even if it's not in a genre they enjoy. Some people find writing bad reviews a fun sport. Some people are just mean.

I wrote THE IMMACULATE DECEPTION in three hellish weeks. The 100K word story just poured into my keyboard. Even though it's paranormal, the emotion is very real and the heroine is so close to my soul. Two more drafts and it was good enough to be contracted by Cerridwen Press. The edits were brutal but the finished product won a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award for Best Small Press Paranormal Romance. I traveled to Pittsburgh to accept the award at the Hilton.

I later took my rights back and self published the book. And made the mistake of offering it for free. Those readers trashed it. Now no one will buy it. But the immediate sequel, THE MASTER MANIPULATOR is doing well, perhaps because it doesn't have any reviews. Too bad nobody knows the beginning of the story. Because they won't buy THE IMMACULATE DECEPTION because the reviews are terrible.

I feel this is the best book I've ever written and probably ever will write. Sigh.

Trashed by Free Readers

Want to know the secret to launching a book? It's not giving it away for free anymore. The market has been engulfed by a tsunami of indie publishing and now giving away a book to get some buzz going is most likely going to result not in buzz, but in a slew of bad reviews from which you'll most likely never recover. It's been said it takes eighteen 5 star reviews to negate a single 1 star. But if all you have is one star reviews, nobody will buy the book because they think it must be unprofessional crap. Believe me, zero reviews are better than bad reviews.

I know this is true because I've given away several books for free and they received scathing reviews. And that stops sales. Forever. My good reviews are from readers who paid money for my books. Logically they liked the blurb and sample, so they were more likely to enjoy what they were getting into. I have many writer friends who have had similar experiences.

I won't give a book less than three stars. If I really didn't like it, I won't review it. Reading is very personal and subjective. What I don't care for might be a commercial windfall. And what I like might be something no one else gets. I sample dozens of books before I find one I can't put down. Then I buy it. I don't care if it's self-published or a NYT bestseller, free or $25. And I don't read reviews of books, movies or TV shows. It's the promo that piques my curiosity.

Some people only read free books. Even if it's not in a genre they enjoy. Some people find writing bad reviews a fun sport. Some people are just mean.

I wrote THE IMMACULATE DECEPTION in three hellish weeks. The 100K word story just poured into my keyboard. Even though it's paranormal, the emotion is very real and the heroine is so close to my soul. Two more drafts and it was good enough to be contracted by Cerridwen Press. The edits were brutal but the finished product won a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award for Best Small Press Paranormal Romance. I traveled to Pittsburgh to accept the award at the Hilton.

I later took my rights back and self published the book. And made the mistake of offering it for free. Those readers trashed it. Now no one will buy it. But the immediate sequel, THE MASTER MANIPULATOR is doing well, perhaps because it doesn't have any reviews. Too bad nobody knows the beginning of the story. Because they won't buy THE IMMACULATE DECEPTION because the reviews are terrible.

Trashed by Readers

Want to know the secret to launching a book? It's not giving it away for free anymore. The market has been engulfed by a tsunami of indie publishing and now giving away a book to get some buzz going is most likely going to result not in buzz, but in a slew of bad reviews from which you'll most likely never recover. It's been said it takes eighteen 5 star reviews to negate a single 1 star. But if all you have is one star reviews, nobody will buy the book because they think it must be unprofessional crap. Believe me, zero reviews are better than bad reviews.

I know this is true because I've given away several books for free and they received scathing reviews. And that stops sales. Forever. My good reviews are from readers who paid money for my books. Logically they liked the blurb and sample, so they were more likely to enjoy what they were getting into. I have many writer friends who have had similar experiences.

I won't give a book less than three stars. If I really didn't like it, I won't review it. Reading is very personal and subjective. What I don't care for might be a commercial windfall. And what I like might be something no one else gets. I sample dozens of books before I find one I can't put down. Then I buy it. I don't care if it's self-published or a NYT bestseller, free or $25. And I don't read reviews of books, movies or TV shows. It's the promo that piques my curiosity.

Some people only read free books. Even if it's not in a genre they enjoy. Some people find writing bad reviews a fun sport. Some people are just mean.

I wrote THE IMMACULATE DECEPTION in three hellish weeks. The 100K word story just poured into my keyboard. Even though it's paranormal, the emotion is very real and the heroine is so close to my soul. Two more drafts and it was good enough to be contracted by Cerridwen Press. The edits were brutal but the finished product won a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award for Best Small Press Paranormal Romance. I traveled to Pittsburgh to accept the award at the Hilton.

I later took my rights back and self published the book. And made the mistake of offering it for free. Those readers trashed it. Now no one will buy it. But the immediate sequel, THE MASTER MANIPULATOR is doing well, perhaps because it doesn't have any reviews. Too bad nobody knows the beginning of the story. Because they won't buy THE IMMACULATE DECEPTION because the reviews are terrible.

LOVE, LATTES AND DANGER by Sandra Cox

LOVE, LATTES, AND DANGER
Sandra CoxRelease

Blurb: It’s a dirty job, but some mutant’s got to do it…Joel Eisler is a mutant with special talents. He can detect an oil leak in the ocean simply by tasting the water. Because of this unique ability, he’s been purchased by a large oil company, along with his dolph sister, Amy. The upside of spending his days and nights in the ocean is that it gives him the opportunity to save the lives of his brother dolphins. The downsides are life as a closely monitored slave—and that he can’t be with Piper, the dolph-girl he loves…To make matters worse, Joel discovers the lab he grew up in has extracted his sperm and Piper’s egg and created a baby, and his handler, Craven, is plotting to kidnap Amy for more experiments. Now Joel must rescue the infant, bring her to Piper, and find a way to save Amy. And if that’s not enough of a challenge, he needs to convince Piper she belongs with him instead of her all-too-human boyfriend—if Craven doesn’t get to them first…Warning: Content contains mutants, friendly dolphins, a crazed scientist and a mutant hating bigot.Bio:Multi-published author Sandra Cox writes YA Fantasy, Paranormal and Historical Romance, and Metaphysical Nonfiction. She lives in sunny North Carolina with her husband, a brood of critters and an occasional foster cat. Although shopping is high on the list, her greatest pleasure is sitting on her screened in porch, listening to the birds, sipping coffee and enjoying a good book. She's a vegetarian and a Muay Thai enthusiast.
Links:EKensington: http://www.ekensingtonbooks.com/book.aspx/31628Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Love-Lattes-Danger-Mutants-Book-ebook/dp/B00PP2ZXC8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1436539798&sr=8-2&keywords=sandra+coxBarnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-lattes-and-danger-sandra-cox/1120791625?ean=9781616506087Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/love-lattes-and-dangerBlog: www.sandracox.blogspot.comTwitter:  http://twitter.com/sandra_cox
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SandraCox.Author

Unchained Melody 5

Melody glanced at Susan and Johnny. He was nuzzling her neck and whispering as she softly moaned. The last thing she wanted was to go home with them and have to listen to the headboard banging the wall.“Sure, I’d love to take a look at the bookstore. I’m a big reader, just haven’t gotten to the library in ages. I guess I used to be a big reader then.”* * *What’s that dancing in the porch light? As Melody climbed the three steps to her cousin’s house, she shook her head. Mosquitoes. In February. She fumbled her key into the lock. The door pulled open, taking her arm with it. Adam Wright  said, “Hello, Angel.”Just great. Just what I need, him again. “What are you doing here?”She stepped inside as he shut the door behind her. Melody unzipped her fawny-brown parka and hung it on a hook under the foyer mirror, next to Johnny’s brown leather bomber jacket, and Adam’s tailored black leather suit coat.
“How are you? And the baby?” Adam smiled as he persuaded her into the living room. A fire was softly burning in the fireplace.