H.S. Stone's Blog, page 39
March 25, 2012
Book review: Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
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Description:
Since she'd been on the outside, she'd survived an Aether storm, she'd had a knife held to her throat, and she'd seen men murdered. This was worse.
Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland—known as The Death Shop—are slim. If the cannibals don't get her, the violent, electrified energy storms will. She's been taught that the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outside...
March 23, 2012
To review or not to review
Up to now, I haven't posted any formal book reviews on this blog. I've mentioned some books I read, like the Hunger Games trilogy (loved it) and The Stand (hated it), but there have been no posts dedicated to reviewing a book. That's about to change.
There are a few reasons why I want to start posting book reviews now:
I believe that reading should be a big part of a writer's life. Reading more makes me a better writer. Therefore, any blog about my adventures in writing should also talk about...
There are a few reasons why I want to start posting book reviews now:
I believe that reading should be a big part of a writer's life. Reading more makes me a better writer. Therefore, any blog about my adventures in writing should also talk about...
March 17, 2012
The revival of short stories
For most of my life, I read short stories from two sources: anthologies and magazines. If you were a famous writer, like Isaac Asimov or Stephen King, publishers were willing to put out a collection of your short stories or include them in an anthology of short stories along with other famous writers. Otherwise, your best hope of publishing a short story was to submit them to magazines. I took that route. However, with the popularity of the Internet and factors, many of these magazines died o...
March 14, 2012
Results from last free promotion day
Numbers Plus Four went free on Monday, March 12. It was the last free day under my current KDP Select enrollment period. Unlike the previous free day on a Monday, my results this time were underwhelming. There were a total of 19 downloads, and the book didn't break #4,000 in the ranking of "Free in Kindle Store."
March 12, 2012
March 10, 2012
Numbers Plus Four will be FREE March 12
I have one more free promotion day left as part of enrolling in the KDP Select program. Based on my previous four days' experiences with making Numbers Plus Four free, I'm choosing Monday, March 12, as my final free day. Monday was by far my most successful day with making it free, and I hope next Monday will be just as successful.
March 3, 2012
Writing in different genres
The news about J.K.Rowling's new book emphasized the fact that the book will be for adults. It made me think about writers who publish books in more than one genre. I recently read two books by authors who have done that. A couple of weeks ago, I read John Grisham's The Associate. I'm a big fan of Grisham's legal thrillers, even those like The Associate that didn't get good reviews by the wider reading public. However, when I read A Painted House, Grisham's attempt at literary fiction, I was ...
February 25, 2012
J.K. Rowling's new novel for adults
Like many people, I'm a big fan of the Harry Potter books. So I was happy to learn that J.K. Rowling is publishing a new novel! So far, details are few, aside from the revelation that the new novel will be for adults and will be very different from her Harry Potter books. The purpose of the press release seemed to be to generate buzz for Little, Brown, the publisher of the new novel, rather than to provide any concrete information about the book itself. Regardless, if Rowling's novel is in a ...
February 18, 2012
Why you won't read my book (and I won't read yours)
I read an average of one book a week. That has been my pace for the last two years, which is far greater than it was in previous years. If I continue at this pace for the next forty years, that will come out to about 2,000 more books for the rest of my life. Assuming that I've already read 1,000 books to date (which is generous), that means I'll have read 3,000 books in my life. With almost 130 million books out there, that means there is roughly a 0.002% chance that I'll read any published b...
February 13, 2012
First blog interview
My first ever interview is posted on Jenna Elizabeth Johnson's blog today!
Check it out and learn, among other things, what my hidden talent is. :-)
Check it out and learn, among other things, what my hidden talent is. :-)
