M.M. Perry's Blog, page 3

Indie Reviews – Rage of Dragons

This is part of my Indie Book Review series. For more information about this series and what my background is, go here to the first indie book review. Indie Reviews are tagged as such on my blog. Without further ado, here is my review of Rage of Dragons!

Rage of Dragons – Book One of The Burning

Genres – Dark Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery, Epic Fantasy
Contains: one sex scene, lightly detailed. Large amounts of highly detailed violence.

I first found this book while perusing the fantasy subreddit. The author, Evan Winter, had just released it and was excited to show the cover off. It is a fantastic cover. He described the book as Game of Thrones meets Dune/Gladiator. While I don’t really feel this is an accurate description (the Gladiator part is about right), it nevertheless had me curious. I picked up the book and decided to give it a read. I’m glad I did.

Rage of Dragons opens up like a lot of epic fantasy, with an event that happened years before the story and with people who will not be characters in the main story, but will lay the groundwork for the setting. The prologue begins with a battle, which in many ways will never end. The battle quickly immerses the reader in the world of The Burning: there are dragons – which shouldn’t surprise anyone with that cover; there is magic; and there is an endless war between two nations.

There’s a lot to process even in the prologue. Names, ranks in the military, titles of leaders – all will be thrown at you in the prologue, but don’t fret if it’s a little confusing. You’ll have more time with all the titles and ranks as the story progresses.

In the first book of this series, we’re introduced to the main protagonist – who I imagine will be the main character throughout the series – Tau. Tau is a young man close to coming of age at the start of the story. His life is spread out before him. While his choices are slim, he still has them, and makes plans to start out his own life in his own chosen way. His plans are quickly dashed with a tragic event, and he is left with little in his life to aim for, aside from vengeance.

At this point, the book becomes all about Tau’s attempt to achieve his goal and avenge those he loved. He joins the military and trains like no one has ever trained before. He takes steps that no one dares to take. He’s not the biggest, or strongest or even the smartest fighter, but he does have more drive than most of his fellow soldiers put together.

Rage of Dragons is Tau’s story. Throughout the book, we follow as he works toward his goal. With every stumble Tau makes, and he makes a lot of them, we cringe at his mistakes. Tau is a deeply flawed character, so much so it can grate at times how stupidly he behaves. Fortunately, Tau does grow somewhat before the story ends. I genuinely am looking forward to reading book two, and hope that Tau’s newfound growth will inform that book and make it an even better read than the first.

Tau isn’t the only character in the book. There are a host of other characters who color the landscape of Tau’s life as a soldier. There is a love interest, a mentor and a smattering of comrades as well as the targets of Tau’s ire. The characters are nicely fleshed out and lend balance to Tau’s intensity.

The setting of the book is highly detailed and easy to become lost in. In the rich landscape, you get the feeling there is a deep lore waiting to be unearthed. The magic system is intricate and revealed over the course of the book, though the explanation comes in rather large chunks and it would have been nicer to have it revealed a little more slowly.

What is done exceptionally is the slow examination of the caste system in Rage of Dragons, and how it effects the lives of those trapped in it. Everything from who you marry to what you get to eat is determined by your blood in this world. The ramifications of how this effects the people of the book is handled very well. It’s a thoughtful and thought provoking examination of caste systems in a fantasy setting. In many ways, the book is less about Tau’s revenge, and more about Tau’s lot in life, being born a lesser and having to cope with that and overcome its restrictions.

Rage of Dragons is well written and highly polished. It’s an excellent entry into a new epic fantasy world. I was quickly drawn in by the story and was up late into the night to finish the book! I’d highly recommend it to people who enjoy lot’s of sword fighting and magic, and of course dragons. And while I wouldn’t describe it as Game of Thrones mixed with Dune, I would very much describe it as Rudy mixed with Gladiator. Tau is Rudy, the not very impressive soldier with so much ambition and drive, he makes up for the lack of skill in every way possible. Instead of a football, he carries two swords. What’s not to love about that?

Rage of Dragon’s is available on Amazon!

The Arbiter on sale this week $0.99! Everywhere!

First off, after some hiccups with the process, The Arbiter is now available everywhere! Going forward, all my fantasy books will start wide. For now, my sci fi titles will remain on Amazon exclusively, but that should also change starting next year.

If you haven’t had a chance to pick up The Arbiter yet, I have it on sale for $0.99 all week this week. Here’s a universal book link to all the stores that currently carry The Arbiter: https://books2read.com/u/m0xvNY

You might notice this has a different cover than the one you’re used to. After a lot of testing and polling, this is the design that won out among authors and readers alike, so hopefully you’ll enjoy it as well.

In addition, if you aren’t a member of my newsletter, you might be interested to know that Molly’s Tale, a prequel to The Arbiter, is free to members of my list. That’s also the only way you can get it. If you’re interested in that, you can grab it here from Bookfunnel:

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/cbfrixw24b

I’m so sorry it’s been so long since readers have heard from me. I’ve been away because a family member passed recently. I’ll be updating everyone on my publishing schedule as I resume all the things that were put on hold while I took time to be with my family. I have a couple of posts I’m going to work on over the holidays for you, one a new Indie Review of a book I’m excited to tell you about, and another for indie authors about a service I’ve recently used that I found rather helpful for finding new readers. I’m also close to finishing my giveaway for the Of Gods & Mortals trilogy, so look for that to be announced soon. Have a terrific week, readers!

The Magic of Stranger Things

There’s a moment in Stranger Things, Netflix’s brilliant, creepy, nostalgic gem of a show, where I knew it was going to be one of my favorite things ever – something so wonderful that I’d be able to watch it time and time again without feeling bored. No, it wasn’t the title sequence, a thing so immediately recognizable as 80s that I dubbed it the most 80s thing ever as soon as I saw it. No, it wasn’t the music, which was undeniably awesome and synthy and made me want to buy the score before it was even available. It was a sheet. Yes. The sheet in this picture.

I grew up in the 80s and 90s. I was born in 1977, so I was pretty much exactly Drew Barrymore’s age in the movie E.T. when it was released. To say I’m an easy mark when it comes to 80s nostalgia is an understatement. I love 80s stuff. I adore that it’s the in thing right now, and I’ll be forever grateful that in this time of terrific television, the 80s is once again in the spotlight.

Netflix put Stranger Things on my suggested list as soon as it was available. I saw the title font and couldn’t click fast enough. I binged the first 4 episodes until 2 am, crawling to bed, knowing if I stayed up any longer watching them I wouldn’t be able to go to sleep. When I finished the series, I made a list of people I thought would enjoy it and sent them messages. That’s how much I liked this show.

I knew it would take off. It was too good not to. But I also knew it would draw the inevitable analysis that comes with something that successful. Sure enough, dozens of articles listing the hundreds of things that made Stranger Things so 80s started cropping up as the show took off. Buzzfeed lists of all the places you’d seen this scene or that scene were shared. Frame by frame captures showing the bona fides of the show and it’s place in our collective nostalgia were posted.

Normally when I obsess about things that I’ve consumed completely, I tend to read all I can about them to try to stretch out the enjoyment. Game of Thrones, Gone Girl, Fallout… When I finish a really good game, book, movie, or television series, I’ll pour over articles that go over the stuff I’ve missed. The internet culture of dissection and analysis have all but banished the magic of discovery. In a lot of ways, Stranger Things made me more cognizant of this than I had been for a long time.

I knew I could read through those lists of factoids and see that this scene was a replica of something from E.T. or that was from Goonies, but for the first time I decided I didn’t want to see behind the curtain.

When I was a kid I went to a magic show with my school. There were so many of us there that they put some of us near the wings of the stage. The whole time everyone else was ooh-ing and ah-ing as rabbits appeared and disappeared, I wasn’t – because I could see all the secret hatches and boxes the tricks were coming from. While it was interesting at first, I lost interest in the act before it was over. It was, after all, just a guy pulling a rabbit out of a box and pretending that was special.

Reading about every trick Stranger Things employed to give it that 80s vibe would be like sitting in the wings at that magic show. I’d feel like the movie was using a nostalgia equation and just inserting all the appropriate variables to make me feel warm and fuzzy. And I don’t want that. I don’t want to ruin the magic.

Movies and television are an elaborate illusion designed to transport you to a time and place of the creators’ choosing. I don’t want the illusion ruined. If I didn’t catch a reference, that’s okay. Knowing precisely how it was done would take away that vague sense of familiarity that made the show so endearing.

So I won’t be reading any analysis for why the show was shot this way or that. This way, when the next season airs, I’ll be transported once again to a time capsule from my youth, letting the magic of the show take me there. I’m good with that.

And about those sheets? This tidbit shouldn’t ruin the magic for you, and I hope you find something similar in the show that few others might get – I had those exact sheets as a kid. For me, that was the best trick Stranger Things pulled out of a hat.

Indie Reviews – Beneath the Silver Rose

This is part of my Indie Book Review series. For more information about this series and what my background is, go here to the first indie book review. Indie Reviews are tagged as such on my blog. Without further ado, here is my review of Beneath the Silver Rose!

Beneath the Silver Rose – Book 1 of the Shadyia Ascendant series

Genres – Dark Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery, Epic Fantasy
Contains strong language and explicit sexual scenes

Beneath the Silver Rose is a strong start to what promises to be an exciting series full of mystery and action. Shadyia is a courtesan, but she’s not just any courtesan. She’s feisty, loyal and tough. The book opens with a terrible choice for Shadyia, either she allows a noble to humiliate and beat her as a petty revenge toward a rival noble who enjoys Shadyia’s company, or she strikes him down and endangers the lives of all the sisters she lives and works with. What she chooses to do in this moment will have lasting repercussions throughout the entire first novel in the series, repercussions that effect not only those who work in the Silver Rose, Shadyia’s place of employment, but also other players in a far more deadly game for power.

Over the course of the story, we learn that there’s a lot more at stake than just the fates of Shadyia’s sisters. Fairly quickly, we are introduced to dark forces that are centuries old. This ancient power is busy manipulating the world around Shadyia without her knowledge. We catch glimpses of what this being is doing as Shadyia struggles to survive with her decisions and the changing atmosphere at the Silver Rose. Needless to say, Shadyia faces more problems than the ire of the nobility.

T.S. Adrian has deftly created a rich world in which to play out this tale of intrigue. Characters are full of life, settings are detailed and varied and the history of the world Shadyia inhabits is full of interesting lore. Adrian’s narrative style is almost conversational, as if each time the narrator takes control, you’re actually peeking through a characters eyes, without resorting to using first person, giving the story a well-rounded feel with many perspectives to explore.

There’s a fun twist around the half-way point related to these inner thoughts that I won’t spoil for you. I had one of those “A-ha” moments as I read the reveal. It’s clever and made me wonder if I should start all over with a more careful eye to detail to fully examine the central mystery of Beneath the Silver Rose. The conceit Adrian uses is genuinely one of the more interesting things I’ve read in a book in quite some time.

The pacing of the book is brisk – you won’t find the story lagging as Shadyia bolts from one challenge to the next. There’s lots of excitement to be found among the pages of Beneath the Silver Rose, whether it’s detailed sword training that has a breathless feel to it, or exploring for the secrets beneath the Silver Rose late in the book. Adrian keeps the movement flowing and as a reader, I couldn’t help but be swept up in the current, reading late into the night to figure out what happened next.

I have one note of caution to potential readers; Shadyia’s journey is dark and twisty. The book is not for the faint of heart. If you prefer your fantasy lighter, seek more whimsical fare. Shadyia’s life, and the lives of those around her, is unpleasant and full of hardships. It’s a tough look at what life is like for a courtesan. Adrian pulls no punches in showing this. However, if books like Game of Thrones are your thing, you shouldn’t find anything objectionable as you follow Shadyia through this book.

Highly recommended for fans of dark fantasy with tough female characters and an epic feel. Beneath the Silver Rose is available on Amazon for $0.99! A great price to be introduced to the series. The second book in the series, The Penance of Pride, is also available on Amazon.

Looking for Inspiration in All the Wrong Places

When I was getting close to releasing The 13, one of my readers asked what inspired that story. I’ve gotten a lot of comments about the names of the ships – the Nimoy is a favorite – and where the idea came from. The answer is a lot of places.

When I went to college, I thought I was going to be a doctor. I took all the classes: the five credit hour chemistry that met every day of the week including a three-hour lab slot, the biology course in the giant lecture hall where I personally believe they were doing something meta and trying to make you feel like an insignificant individual cell in a giant living organism, the calculus courses – because we all know that there’s a lot of calculus involved in determining an illness ;). I did all of it for a year before I had to stop and take stock of what I really wanted.

I’ve never been good at memorizing things. Something in my brain revolts at the very idea of it. I love math and I excelled at the physics and calculus classes. But, as soon as I attended my first Organic Chemistry lecture sophomore year and they put a gigantic carbon chain up on the screen for the students to look at, my brain nearly rioted. I knew then and there I wasn’t cut out for that stuff. I dropped my science courses and enrolled in a bunch of 100 level intro courses to find my passion. I tried psych 101 – the first lecture was about how one of the four professors who taught the course could sit with us for 15 minutes and know more about us than we knew about ourselves. I know it was supposed to impress, but I just found myself annoyed. I stuck with the course, and there were some really interesting things taught, but it didn’t enthuse me. I took econ 101, because I did like math and figuring out problems, but it was a little dry for my tastes. And I took PoliSci 101.

Breathe deep. Look at this cat. I will not be talking about politics here.

Oh no. Politics. Not here. Not now. Nonononono! Don’t worry. That’s not what I’m going to talk about. In those days, what really and truly drew me into Political Science was the comparative politics branch. Where I went to college, you chose two political science disciplines to focus on from four: American Politics, Political Philosophy, Comparative Politics, and Statistical Models. You took a little of all of those, but you took more on your chosen two fields. I chose American Politics – because I was 19 and an American so it seemed like it was one of those “in my wheelhouse” things.

The 12 releases September 6th!

Just a quick note to say we’re on track for releasing The 12 on September 6th. I’m already starting to get comments back from ARC readers and everything looks pretty great so far! I’m super excited to bring you the next book!

In other news, you’ll start seeing more of my books on other outlets, like B&N, this weekend. This is a bit of a trial run for me. I’ve had most of my stuff exclusively on Amazon for a while now, in part because exclusivity is required to be a part of the Amazon Select program. For those who don’t know, the Amazon Select program is the subscription service where readers can read all they want from a pool of books.

I like the program, and a decent portion of my royalties come from it, but I’ve had many requests from B&N readers to give them a crack at my other books. The B&N crowd has been very welcoming and warm, as shown in their outpouring of positive reviews.

Vellum Press Review

Hello all! This post is for those who are interested in the publishing process – maybe because you’re curious, maybe because you’re looking to publish. Either way, I hope it’s informative. The next post will be back to stuff about my books. Happy reading!

Vellum. For those independent authors out there, you’ve probably heard about this software. Maybe you even own it, but aren’t sure if the upgrade is something you need or even want. I’m going to take you through some of the benefits of the software and my reasoning for my own upgrade.

(Do you have Vellum already and really want to know about the new paperback feature? Go right to that section here!)

 

To start, I’ll mention briefly what Vellum is. Vellum is software that takes your manuscript and turns it into a well-formatted ebook for various vendors. It can read most text formats and convert them. Once converted, Vellum allows you to export your book into one of the formats supported by the top five ebook vendors (this includes the generic epub version).

When reading about Vellum, I often hear, “Why do I need this if I can make my own ebook without it? Vellum for Ebooks is $200. Not to mention it’s Mac exclusive. I hate Macs.”

I’m going to tackle the Mac question in a second, but first I’ll tell you why I decided to purchase Vellum even though, yes, I was able to make my own ebooks without it.

Let’s just say you aren’t interested in the attractive formatting options Vellum provides. You can see a number of their clean, pleasant formatting options on Vellum’s splash page, so I won’t show any examples here. I will say, achieving these effects on your own without something like Vellum takes a lot of time. There are good arguments for why attractive formatting isn’t essential – mainly, most people don’t really care about it. If your book is good, the formatting doesn’t matter. If your book is bad, the formatting doesn’t matter. So, let’s say you’re only interested in Vellum’s functionality as an ebook creation tool. $200 sounds like a lot for just that when you can do it for free.

The problem with that argument, for me in any case, is my time is worth something. Any time I spend struggling with formatting my ebook is time I can’t be writing. Every writer knows you have to keep producing content or your sales will drop off. I’m fairly technically competent. I know how to do some basic programming in C++ and used to train people how to use software and hardware. So when I say making an ebook is time consuming, I’m coming from the standpoint of someone who doesn’t have trouble understanding how to make an ebook. Some people are starting from a place where formatting for an ebook is hard because they haven’t been trained how to do it.

Not only is formatting for an ebook time consuming, every vendor has their own quirks and requirements for their formatting. This means you’ll need to make separate copies of each book for each major vendor you want to upload to. This is a pain twice over. Since you have to maintain all these different versions of the book, anytime you update your book you need to remember to update every single version. Do you write really clean prose with no errors so this isn’t a problem for you? Then you might consider how nice it would be to be able to change things like the “Also by” section in the back of your book easily.

All these elements can be added or moved around with drag and drop. You can even move them from one book to another, making it easy to update things like About the Author in all your books.

Vellum makes all of this a snap. You can have one copy of your ebook and Vellum will take care of generating all the copies for all the vendors every time you make a change to your book. I’ve uploaded books from Vellum to all the major vendors and never had them reject them for formatting issues. I haven’t been so lucky without Vellum, particularly when I tried to get into Smashword’s Premium catalog. I must have stripped every shred of formatting from my book trying to get it right for Smashwords. Every time they found something wrong. When I finally purchased Vellum, I imported that same book and exported it as an epub. It was accepted into the Premium Catalog within 48 hours.

Making the ebook is super simple and intuitive. If you use Word to write your book, for example, when you import it to Vellum, it automatically creates the chapters, the title page and the table of contents. Vellum calls special sections of a book elements. An “element” in Vellum is a distinct section of the book: a copyright page, a dedication, an author bio. Adding things like copyright pages or About the Author is as easy as picking it from a menu of elements. There are tons of nice features in Vellum that make it easy to generate copies of your ebooks without fussing. Say you want to link to your other books from your “Also by” page. Since Barnes & Noble will reject your book if it has an Amazon link in it, you’d have to make sure each copy of your ebook had the proper links. In Vellum, you can create something called a “Store link” which will automatically choose the right link based on what version of the ebook you generate. So mobi files will only have links to Amazon, and your Barnes & Noble epub will only link to Barnes & Noble copies.

Some of you might be saying, “That’s great and all. But I’m Amazon exclusive for all my books. I don’t need this.”

Granted, there is less argument for Amazon exclusive authors to pick up Vellum. But most of my books are Amazon exclusive at the moment. I’d still buy Vellum again, even if all my books were Amazon exclusive. The time saving is that valuable to me. It used to take me an hour at best, several at worst, to create a simple ebook with all the elements I wanted to have. Testing it in Calibre to make sure it looked right. Adjusting it when it didn’t. Testing again. Realizing my About the Author displayed funny. Adjusting again.

Vellum took all of this and streamlined it for me. I can create a beautiful ebook in fifteen minutes, from start to uploading on Amazon. Vellum allows me to real time preview what the book will look like on both a Paperwhite and a Fire. If I want to make sure my Call To Action displays all on one screen on both devices, that’s easy with Vellum. I’ve more than paid off my investment in Vellum in time saved. Additionally, Amazon exclusive authors will find a lot more to love about Vellum Press which I talk more about below.

So what, you might say. I hate Macs. I’m never going to use this.

Yeah. If I’m completely honest, I’m right there with you. I wish this were on PC. Being Mac only was the biggest hurdle. I’m not going to get into a lengthy discussion of Mac vs PC. I’m still a PC, but after being forced to use Mac in order to have access to Vellum, I’m less vehemently against Mac. I’d say this is the power of Vellum, but I think the truth is, Mac has tried very hard over the years to become as much like PC as they can to soften the learning curve of switching. There are still some quirks about Macs that drive me nuts, (loathe the lack of a backspace key) but you don’t have to be an expert Mac user to use Vellum. Even if they did have a PC version, I’d wager it’d work on PC almost identical to how it works on Mac. If you can use Windows, you’d be able to work with Vellum.

This is essentially what I have and it works fine. $400 is still an investment, so MacinCloud would be a much cheaper option.

You don’t have to own a Mac to use Vellum either. You can use MacinCloud. MacinCloud basically allows you to rent a Mac online. I tried it out and it works fairly well. It’s like any remote desktop, though, and can be a little laggy. If that’s something that would bother you (Like me. I’m fussy when it comes to computer responsiveness) then any simple Mac would do. You don’t have to get fancy. Vellum isn’t Photoshop. I run it on an old Mac Book I picked up used and it works just fine. In addition, if you do want to put your books on the iStore, getting a Mac makes that much easier. I don’t even know if it’s possible to upload your books without a Mac or a MacinCloud account. I couldn’t find a way to do it from PC, but it might be out there.

Would I buy Vellum again if it came out on PC? In a heartbeat. I work primarily on PC and my time with a Mac hasn’t convinced me to switch. I’ve been on PC too long. I type very fast – having to learn the new keyboard shortcuts alone would be frustrating and time consuming. The funny way Mac deletes would cause me no end of stress whenever I slipped back into a PC way of typing. Because of this I still write on my PC, which means I need to switch back and forth between the Mac and the PC when I’m ready to make my ebooks. Having everything on one machine would streamline things just that little bit more.

Vellum Press

Okay, so you know what Vellum is now and why I recommend it. Or maybe you already have Vellum and you’re not sure you want to upgrade yet. Here I’ll talk about Vellum Press, it’s features, how it’s improved my workflow even more, and why I think it’s a good investment.

Vellum Press does all the things that Vellum Ebooks does. It also makes paperbacks. Even Amazon exclusive authors should find a lot to like about that.

If you don’t already know, Amazon makes it pretty easy to add a paperback to your listing. All you need to do is provide the properly formatted pdf and away you go. You don’t even need a full cover, because Amazon has a nifty cover creator that will help you snap something together that looks fairly nice. You can even use your ebook cover for the front. I’ve done that and it doesn’t turn out bad. CreateSpace works very similarly, which makes sense since Amazon bought them up and is probably just using the same software. Getting your book uploaded for sale is the easy bit. The harder part is getting your manuscript formatted correctly.

A hammer will not help much. Vellum might, though.

Have you followed me on Bookbub yet?

It’s really easy to do. Just go here: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/m-m-perry and click on follow.

I get it some people don’t want to give out their email because they just don’t want another newsletter, no matter how infrequent they are. Following an author on Bookbub means you don’t have to share your email with me, but you still get many of the benefits of my newsletter. For instance, Bookbub will let you know if a book I’ve written is on sale through them. They’ll also alert you if I have a new title out. It’s a convenient way to get new book alerts if you already have a Bookbub account. It’s nice for me as well, because Bookbub is an efficient way for me to alert people of my new books. It will link out to all the places I sell them from one spot.

Maybe some of you don’t know what Bookbub is. When it comes to finding deeply discounted or free titles, Bookbub is the cream of the crop. All the authors I’ve ever talked to want to get their books in Bookbub for discounts. But Bookbub is very choosy and doesn’t let just anyone advertise with them. Because of that, readers trust them to bring them good books every day. They also let you pick which types of books you want to see, so it makes it really easy to customize your daily mail from them. And, unlike most other discount book lists, Bookbub gets a lot of traditionally published authors advertising with them as well. I don’t subscribe to many of those booklists because it gets a little overwhelming, but I keep Bookbub.

My dad, who only really reads non-fiction these days, used to gripe a lot because it’s hard to find good non-fiction discounted. He uses Bookbub now and hasn’t gone without something to read in a long time. I mention this because a lot of lists don’t have non-fiction. From my time as a librarian and working in a bookstore, I know non-fiction readers are many and are just as eager to find a good deal as fiction readers.

Full disclosure, I haven’t been paid to say any of this. I just really like Bookbub. This is a genuine endorsement of the service from one fan to you. If you’re a heavy reader, you’re probably already subscribed. But for anyone who hasn’t heard of them, I just thought I’d pass along this info about it.

Side note: The beauties in the picture there are Posy the pug and Winky the cat. I also have another cat named Basil, but he’s off chasing a moth somewhere in the yard. I do have some photos of him lounging, because he’s a cat so that’s what he does a lot of, but he’s just over a year old and is still rather rambunctious. I’ll share some more pictures of him later. My plan is to have a lot more conversational type posts that are just fun. It’s easy for me to put those out without taking a lot of time away from writing. And they are a nice way to take a break.

My next planned post will come out this week and will be more informational. I’m going to be posting my rave review of Vellum 1.0, now with paperback creation. I’ll include lots of screenshots and some pictures of the end product to help people decide if the purchase or upgrade is worth it. (spoiler, I think it is.)

Preview The 12!

I know I haven’t been making blog posts lately. I’ve been busy editing my book and making it perfect. I’m in the home stretch now, doing my final edits. I’m excited to say I have the first two chapters ready for everyone to read! You can head on over here and pick those up right now if you like. All you need to do to get them is sign up for my newsletter. You never have to worry about spam from my newsletter. I only send out announcements of my new books. I don’t send you weekly requests to buy my stuff, or share your email with anyone else. So if you are okay with six or seven emails a year from me, then sign up!

If you’re already signed up, you should’ve gotten a link to the chapters in the newsletter earlier today. If you didn’t get that, you can email me at authormmperry@gmail.com and I’ll make sure you get your copy of the preview.

You could also get your copy of the preview if you signed up to be a member of The 12 Advance Review Team. Let me tell you a little about what the team is expected to do.

In a few weeks (fingers crossed) you would get a copy of the book. What you’re getting is the 95% completed work. That means it’s been sent to an editor, proofread no less than five times (unlike my blog entries

Indie Book Reviews : The Wave at Hanging Rock

In one of my Facebook groups, another author said he was doing a year of indie books. He was going to read only indie books for a whole year – at least that was my understanding of what he was doing. I liked the idea so much, I decided to run with it in my own way. I’m going to start up a series on my blog where I review independently published books that I think are just as good as any traditionally published book. You might wonder what my qualifications are to make such a distinction. In many ways, they are the same as yours. I don’t really think it takes someone with a degree or a career in critiquing books to determine if an independently published book is as good as a traditionally published one. Unless you live your life only by doing things others tell you to, you have your own ideas about quality entertainment. But it might help you to know my background if you’re trying to decide if my opinions have some value to you.