Jo Robinson's Blog, page 30

Review of Go Set a Watchman- Harper Lee

Originally posted on INVOLUTION: Science and God: Reality Redefined:
Go Set a Watchman- Harper Lee ‘Go set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth…’ In the midst of the current and tempestuous outcry I intend to dive right in. I do not want to wait until the water grows placid and the angers are…

Saturday Round Up – Dragons, Engelbert, Fairies and anyone for tennis?

Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:
Time to take a break from the garden where we have been having a massive overhaul. It is amazing how some plants take over when given half a chance and suddenly you realise that not only your house needs to be decluttered to show…

Indie Rage and Public Relations

The Indie author does much more than write. There are all the learning curves, fiddly bits, and marketing. We are our own publicists. Hugely successful authors like Ann Rice can have as many wobblies as they want to online, but they’ll still be selling lots and lots of books. She’s also traditionally published anyway, so…

Book Tour – ‘You’re Not Alone’ by Ian D. Moore & Friends

Originally posted on Hugh's Views & News:

Hugh’s Views And News is very honoured to be supporting this wonderful new book, in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.

 

100% of the royalties earned or accrued in the purchase of this book, in all formats, will go to the Pamela Winton tribute fund, which is in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.

 

You’re not Alone

by Ian D. Moore and friends

 


An anthology, themed on relationships, of more than 20 authors 



from around the world . 


From urban fantasy to stories that bring tears to the eye.

 

 

 

Quick Details:

 


Release Date:  July 11th, 2015      


                           

Cover Design by Christine Southworth

 

 

 

What can be better than a good book and the satisfaction of helping others at the same time? 

An international group of…

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Infinite Waters: 9+1 Speculative Fiction Short Stories now Released!

Originally posted on Nicholas C. Rossis:

Woo hoo, exciting stuff! As promised, Infinite Waters: 9+1 Speculative Fiction Short Stories has now been released and is available on Amazon. In fact, it’s free on Kindle Unlimited!

I was planning on a big promo, but all of my funds are currently frozen (they have even forbidden us access to our safety deposit boxes). Even worse, PayPal has suspended operations in Greece (although I’m busy opening a new, UK-based account). So, I would very much appreciate any help in spreading the word while this mess is sorted out!

The anthology includes the following stories:

“Infinite Waters“: A woman seeks her future at a carnival. She discovers more than she expected.”
“The Things We Do for Lust“: Beware of Greek gods bearing gifts.

The Twist in the Tale“: A confused woman meanders through a sleepy town. But not all is as it seems.
“

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Fun with Visuals and Book Promo Images Part 2

jorobinson176:

Cool cover art from our lovely Furry Friend for ten bucks! It’s a steal – better add some bananas. :D

Originally posted on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog:

Yesterday I showed how to make images a little more interesting, like this:

But today, I’d like to show you how Book Promo Images can be made a little more interesting.

You could use Google to find the various programmes and online sites where you can make 3D versions of your book covers, or, use Google / Amazon / Apple to find some free programmes / apps that will enable you to make your own, e.g.:

Take this cover I made,

(Since this is already pre-made, it could be YOURS for £10 / $15 excluding Title, etc, Text)

(Contact Details HERE)

Doesn’t it look a little more interesting like this?

Even better doing this?

Here are some more Spoof Covers I made :D

(these are NOT for sale)

So now you know what I get up to (sometimes :D )

Tomorrow, I’ll reveal some more pre-made covers :D

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Tales from the Garden – Trouble in Paradise – Part One.

jorobinson176:

Oooh! What did the dwarves see?

Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:

In special gardens you may be lucky enough to find that fairies have set up home. Since ancient times they have preferred to build their invisible houses beneath the shade of a magnolia tree. This is a tree that has seen thousands of years of history and survived the earth’s changes and turmoil. The fairies know that its strength will keep them safe and that its roots, so deep under the ground, will always gather fresh water to filter into their homes.

Other creatures within the garden bring their bounty to the tree as well. Bees seek out the sweetness in the blooms that form and die so quickly. But, not before little pouches of honey are stored within the heart of the flower, for the fairies to collect at night. Honey is almost as ancient as the magnolia tree itself, and despite the short harvesting season, it never spoils…

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Useful Free Tool for Writers

Originally posted on :

I downloaded the trial version of Scrivener a couple of years ago, but at that point it all went completely over my head. So many people seem to love it so much that I downloaded it again recently, and after completing the tutorial realised that it isn’t all that complicated and quite a brilliant tool. I don’t think I’m going to keep it though, because it seems limited when it comes to inserting images for eBooks, and I quite like using Microsoft Word. When the new 2010 version arrives at the end of this month there will be a whole lot of useful new functions for us scribblers to use too, including having multiple browsers viewable on your desktop simultaneously. My favourite things on Scrivener are the corkboard and the ability to open two different documents at the same time. I already can, and do, open and work on two…

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Cops and Robbers Part Two

Not a happy bunny.  We had another break in attempt, and the wobbly shock is just starting to set in now.  This time the sods managed to get away with a very expensive laptop that Angus bought not so long ago.  I heard Bella barking at around four this morning, had a look outside and didn’t see anything so I shuffled back to my office to my computer.  Then I heard a little noise but wasn’t overly worried because it was quite windy.  I went through to the lounge anyway, and there it was.  An arm sticking through the burglar bars waving a rake around.  I was so shocked that I never wondered why it was waving a rake around, but just freaked right out.  The only thing around that I could lay my hands on was a long fluorescent light tube, so I just grabbed that and whacked the arm, yelling “Get out of here, you f****r”.  Rude word I know, but really appropriate at the time.  The tube shattered, so I zoomed off to fetch my big knife, although my yelling had woken Angus up, who was now also beating the daylights out of the tenacious bloody arm. I reckon he’s chipped a bone on his own arm too in all that chaos, and there’s broken fluorescent glass all over the floor and blood all over the curtains.  It was really shocking the way that the arm just kept coming for more.  Not cool.
Even more not cool was trying to figure out what the arm and rake was doing in the first place.  At some point they’d already managed to hook the laptop off the dining room table onto a nice soft chair, and then they pulled the chair to the window and got hold of the laptop that way.  They really wanted it too considering that they’d added a wire hook to the side of the rake, so they must have been very busy fellows outside for quite a while.  There was a strong garden broom lying snapped in two on the floor, which I reckon they might have used to try and pull out the burglar bars first.  They’d got the broom and the rake by first getting into a locked outside room through a window they managed to open.
The police took a while to get here this time, but I’d also phoned the neighbourhood watch, who were really cool and arrived in force, but didn’t stay long after the cops got here when they got a report of a car being broken into up the road.  Walking around outside with the police we discovered that the thieves had dropped a carved walking stick.  I’ll take a picture of it later because we’ve been told not to touch anything till the fingerprint people come, and I’m a bit too shaky anyway to get a decent shot right now I reckon.  Looking at it did make me wonder how many people have been clouted with it during the course of their general activities.  Also makes me wonder if they’ll come back again, and then third time could be the charm for them.  And then even more wondering if they might think about retrieving their walking stick.  It’s obviously some specially made thing, and the head of it looks like a carved baboon face, or monkey, so I’m guessing that whoever dropped it isn’t overly happy about losing it.  Thieving sod.
I think I may have got a new reader though, as long as he’s cool with typos and a lot of scribbling and scratching out in a book.  While the one policeman was getting all the details down, he asked me what I do, and when I said I write books, the senior one asked to see them.  I haven’t actually got any around here right now apart from the old original proofs because I’m holding off ordering any until I update the back covers.  I showed him those, and he sat reading the two “diary entries” by Christopher that I put in the back of African Me while I finished giving the statement.  When they left he said he loved it and wanted to read the whole thing, so with fair warning about it being the very first proof and not looking really good at all I gave it to him.  He then thanked me for all of them and tootled off, so now I better move my jacksie and order some more.  Who knows, he might spread the word.
Right.  Now I’m off to strongly spike my tea, give Bella a big bone for saving the day a second time, and Freddie a smaller one for sleeping through the whole thing.  And now the last letter of the alphabet has gotten stuck down on my keyboard too.  Bah humbug.

 

 

 

 

Five Star Treatment – Meno-What? A Memoir by D.G. Kaye

jorobinson176:

I read and reviewed this book BEFORE tracking down the author’s blog – just in case anyone’s watching. Seriously though – this book is hilarious, and written so cleverly that it literally had me laughing out loud enough to attract attention, while at the same time demystifying the whole process – like having a hair with serious attitude grow on your chin at the exact same time one pops out of your cranium. Ten stars from me!

Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:

As we go into the summer months I am going to be selecting books for the series as well as asking you to contribute your own books or those of authors you would like to recommend.  There are now over 50 books in the series all with 5 star reviews and covering a very diverse range of subjects.. The link is at the bottom of the post.

It is safe to say that any woman who has reached 50 is in the middle of one of the most natural but often challenging transformations of a human body.  There is life after menopause and in fact there are countless advantages but during the process as hormones fluctuate up and down like a rollercoaster, physically, mentally and emotionally we also take the ride of our lives and usually drag hapless husbands and family members along with us!!

Ten years on for me…

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