Gregory S. Lamb's Blog, page 13
January 18, 2013
Indie Book Review: “Adrift in the Sound” by Kate Campbell
I am so glad I stumbled on this novel! Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down. This very well may be the best independently published novel I read this year!
Elizebeth “Lizette” Karlson is an artist like her deceased mother was at one time. The origins of Lizette’s recluse lifestyle and fragile mental state unfold in a story that takes place during the early 1970s, a period when the United States was ripped apart by a distant war in Vietnam and a fractured society. The setting is the San Juan Islands in the Puget Sound, a place where peaceful nature abounds and native people cling to spirits of their ancestry.
“Adrift in the Sound” is a story of reconciliation and coming to grips with both the past as well as the here and now. Flawlessly written in a flowing style of descriptive prose, Kate Campbell introduces each character at a pace allowing the reader to come to know them. The lifestyle of the young, seemingly lost generation that Lizette gravitates toward is raw and gritty. Her friend Sandy is a stripper who courts a boa constrictor as part of her act. Hard drugs are at the center of everything in the lives of the young men living next door.
Lizette’s relationship with her father and the role her mother played in her life are sprinkled in along with the rest of the story. Campbell uses symbolism and metaphor by tying the lives of the native people living on Orcas Island to the land and the creatures of the sea, in particular a large Orca, dubbed “Looney,” that hunts in the sound.
Though dark at times, this story has a warm glow to it that comes in the form of Lizette’s family friends, Native Americans with roots to Lummi and Salish peoples of the Pacific Northwest. “Adrift in the Sound” is ideally suited to readers participating in book clubs. Campbell includes some discussion questions at the end of this wonderfully written, thought provoking story.
January 12, 2013
5 Star Book Review: “Millicent Marie Is Not My Name” by Indie Author – Karen Pokras Toz
I gave 5 Stars to this Contemporary Young Adult Novel – Not just for girls or “Tweens”
I loved this story for so many reasons. To begin with , the author must be a master observer to have been able to capture the voices of good dialogue between twelve year old girls. The story’s structure was perfectly suited to present some real world issues important to the target age group.
Bullying in schools has always been an issue for students of all age groups, but presently, with the wide spread use of social media, cyber bullying is now a reality. Although bullying is one of the themes Toz presents, it doesn’t over power the other messages the story hits on. “Millicent Marie is Not My Name” addresses issues important to young people facing that awkward period of pre-adolescence.
The main character, Millicent Marie, uses the alias Amanda on her blog because she doesn’t like her name. She thinks her parents are weird and her younger brother is a nuisance. She just wants to fit in and be noticed by other students in her 6th grade class. She wants to go to a dance with a boy she likes but is too shy to talk to and she also wants the meanest girl in her class to quit bothering her. The tables turn when she discovers that by using her blog, she actually has influence. In the end, she feels bad when she discovers that she too has participated in bullying to some degree. The story is also about self discovery and forgiveness.
Toz’s writing is perfectly suited to the target age group. She gave her main character a sense of humor that every young person could relate to. I would recommend this young adult novel to teachers, parents and pre-high school aged youth. It is a fun read and packed with wholesome themes.
January 10, 2013
Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award – 2013
I’ve gotten a lot of help from local PDX experts on how best to craft a “pitch” for Amazon’s upcoming Breakthrough Novel Award submissions. Readers of this blog have already seen earlier versions. This one I think nails it:
The People In Between: A Cyprus Odyssey
The Berlin Wall fell in 1990…
And the Iron Curtain in ’91…
Outlasting them both is a green line on a map, marking the DMZ that cuts through the heart of Nicosia—Cyprus’s capital city. When Nora Johansson is invited to tend an artist’s gallery, she embarks on an adventure to the Mediterranean, where she finds romance with a handsome, easygoing man. He shows her the charms of sunny Cyprus, along with its turbulent history—a history still in the making, where its citizens struggle for a national identity.
Nora’s adventure is temporarily interrupted by some urgent news she receives from her father. He reveals a family secret: Nora’s mother, who died in childbirth, had a younger sister who may still live in Cyprus. Nora begins a search for her lost aunt, but the search is put on hold when she returns to the United States to follow her dream of becoming a diplomat.
In time, Nora is posted to the U.S. Embassy in Nicosia, and she reunites with her lover and resumes the search for her aunt. Their search uncovers more secrets that tie them together in ways they never imagined with a passion for a united people in a country divided.
January 4, 2013
Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award - 2013
Reblogged from Gregory S. Lamb - PDX :
Submissions for Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award for 2013 open in just under two weeks. The first obstacle for an Indie Author is to be among the first of the 10,000 submissions accepted before Amazon shuts the door. That may prove to be a bigger challenge than most Indies are ready for.
Regardless, I built my submission package (Manuscript, Excerpt, Pitch and Bio/photo etc).
I'm making updates to the "Pitch" based on input from some very generous and informed novelists, editors, and bloggers.
January 1, 2013
Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award – 2013
Submissions for Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award for 2013 open in just under two weeks. The first obstacle for an Indie Author is to be among the first of the 10,000 submissions accepted before Amazon shuts the door. That may prove to be a bigger challenge than most Indies are ready for.
Regardless, I built my submission package (Manuscript, Excerpt, Pitch and Bio/photo etc). I’m posting the “Pitch” here to get used to seeing it and making changes according to recommendations from anyone stumbling onto this blog:
The People In Between: A Cyprus Odyssey, by Gregory S. Lamb
Kiraz “Nora” Johansson and her troubled twin Nils, are raised by their father in America’s heartland. Years later as a young twenty something, Nora accepts Nils’s invitation to tend an artist’s gallery in Cyprus. Her journey lands her in the arms of the easy going Greek Cypriot Aydin Kostas. Nora quickly discovers the charms of sunny Cyprus as well as its complicated and turbulent history, marred by a capital city still divided by a demilitarized zone.
From their terminally ill father Nora and Nils uncover the secrets of their family’s past. Nora learns that their Turkish Cypriot mother, who died while giving birth to them, had a younger sister possibly still living in Cyprus. Meanwhile Nils finds out he isn’t to blame for their older sister’s untimely death. Nils’s discovery launches him on a path toward reconciliation with his estranged wife while Nora returns to the United States to follow her dream of becoming a diplomat, putting her love life on hold and preventing her from finding her lost aunt.
Through her relations with influential people during her initial visit to Cyprus, Nora lands a posting as Cultural and Press Attaché’ returning her to Nicosia, Cyprus where she reunites with Aydin and resumes the search for her aunt. Meanwhile, they both are working toward a larger hope that Cypriots will become something more than a people united in a country divided.
Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award – 2014
Submissions for Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award for 2014 open in just under two weeks. The first obstacle for an Indie Author is to be among the first of the 10,000 submissions accepted before Amazon shuts the door. That may prove to be a bigger challenge than most Indies are ready for.
Regardless, I built my submission package (Manuscript, Excerpt, Pitch and Bio/photo etc). I’m posting the “Pitch” here to get used to seeing it and making changes according to recommendations from anyone stumbling onto this blog:
The People In Between: A Cyprus Odyssey, by Gregory S. Lamb
Cyprus is the only nation in the world today with a capital city split in two by a demilitarized zone. Through the lives of one American-Cypriot family we get a riveting story of international proportions as other nations interfere with Cyprus’s sovereignty. For Kiraz “Nora” Johansson, discovering the roots of her family’s past in Cyprus becomes a passion and an obsession.
Accepting her brother Nils’s invitation to tend an artist’s shop, Nora goes to Cyprus, where she meets Cypriot Aydin Kostas, and visits places her American military father and Cypriot mother spent time together when they courted thirty years before.
Follow Nora on her journey and discover who her Turkish Cypriot mother really was. Through artistically presented description, emotional prose and contemporary dialogue, the turbulent history of the rare and beautiful island nation of Cyprus comes alive. Nora’s story is a love story. Not just between her and Cypriot native Aydin Kostas who grew up in Greek Cyprus, but her love and passion for a land with a tragic history where the people are united in a country divided.
December 26, 2012
Indie Author Book Review: “The William S Club” by Riley Banks
I was hooked from page one but must warn that some of the passages in this novel are explicitly for adults only. Banks’s mystery thriller opens with William Harvey snatching up property during the blitz in WWII London setting up a legacy of wealth for the Harvey family.
The beautiful young present day investigative journalist Charlotte Burke is invited on an international press tour by the Harvey property corporation, but Burke has a secret to protect from the Harvey family. She stopped using her real name, Victoria Baker to distance herself from her father Paul Baker who was imprisoned as a result of his own dealings as an employee of William Harvey.
The story is action packed and full of twists and turns as Burke slowly uncovers the underbelly of the Harvey family secret. However, her investigation is not without danger. For Burke and her colleagues, some of the danger comes from their entanglement in the twisted debauchery that William Harvey Jr. feeds upon.
The author wants readers to despise the antagonists and uses graphic sexual situations to drive those aspects of the story to the forefront. In the opinion of this reviewer, the story would have held it’s own without the graphic detail of these passages. The suggestion of debauchery and lurid sex would have been enough for readers to get the idea.
The two sets of secrets, the Baker’s and the Harvey’s collide in a suspenseful conclusion. For a debut novel, Riley Banks cranked out a good one. However, the mixing of the lurid sex and erotica into what would have made for a well crafted and well written mystery thriller might be off putting to some readers. I’m looking forward to reading another from Banks without the extras.
December 14, 2012
The Indie Ebook Review Site: Market Madness
The Indie Ebook Review Site: Market Madness.
The People In Between is one of the ten featured titles!
December 12, 2012
Updates from an Indie Author
With NaNoWriMo in the rear view mirror, December is a month of catching up and giving something back by reading and reviewing the work of others.
In addition, we “Indies” need to do house cleaning and a bit of self care. I’ve accomplished the first priority on my list; fixing the “few” but important copy edit issues readers of “The People In Between: A Cyprus Odyssey” appropriately identified. As a result of the generous assistance of my readers, I’ve had the latest version of the manuscript copy edited again and the latest revisions are now out for sale and distribution.
Digital editions are available from Smashwords and Amazon at reduced prices. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to lower the price of the paperback. It is already at the lowest price possible for international distribution. It breaks my heart that I can’t lower the cost as I am so passionate about the story getting out for consumption by the broadest of audiences. Regardless, I wanted to be sure readers are rewarded with the best possible product I’m able to provide.
For those who received or purchased a first edition with the 2010 original copyright, in spite of the copy edit errors, I thank you for your support. I also wish to remind those readers of the history surrounding the evolution of commercial publishing and fledgeling novelists. I urge those interested to go back and investigate the rationale behind multiple copyrights, editions, and releases of works of fiction. It wasn’t uncommon in those days to see the same kinds of copy edit errors in a first edition, which is why they are so valued today.
December 7, 2012
Indie Book Review: “Plundering the Till” by Ken Brimhall
Brimhall’s first novel will take you places that will surprise you. “Plundering the Till” is set in a South Texas border town called San Miguel. The title reflects the novel’s theme, where corruption pervades at every level depending on where one is looking.
Through detailed prose and nicely blended back story, readers will come to know and care about Brimhall’s characters and all the gritty aspects of their lives. Brimhall cleverly illustrates the blending of American border town culture and Latino American culture stretching between the U.S. Mexican border all the way to Antigua, Guatemala.
You’ll feel like you’re there with Ty Bentancourt and Phil Strias as each faces the consequences of the corruption they encounter, both dealing with it in different ways. As a rebel journalist Bentancourt puts himself in the thick of it while his best friend Phil, a school teacher is a voice of reason. It seems everyone in San Miguel knows everyone else, including the “politicos.” There is no place to hide from those who wish to continue “plundering the till.”
Brimhall includes some nice comparative and artistic metaphoric symbolism within each of the chapters. In a few places he describes the leaf cutter ants stripping away at the sparse living greenery of the local settings, just as the mayor and sheriff of San Miguel take their own cut of money from tax paying citizens, emulating the corruption that led to civil war in Guatemala. The leaf cutter ants on the novel’s cover blends in nicely with the story’s theme.
For me, this novel was a satisfying read suggesting Brimhall has even more to offer within the pages of his other two recently published novels.
