Jo Robinson's Blog, page 73
October 5, 2014
Meet Special Guest Author Michael Ellenbogen discussing Alzheimer’s Disease
Here is an author to put your publishing woes into proper perspective. Much respect Michael Ellenbogen, and thank you to Chris for sharing his amazing courage on his journey.
Originally posted on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog..... An Author Promotions Enterprise!:
In 2008, at the age of 49, I was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease after struggling to get a diagnosis since my first symptoms at age 39. I was a high-level manager with a Fortune 500 company. As one of the more than 5 million people living with this debilitating disease, I currently live every day to make a difference. In fact, I now advocate for education and the eradication of this disease. I am 100 percent open about the condition because I want others to learn and become educated about something that most people are not even aware of. Difficulty with work-related tasks eventually led to my early retirement.
As a world-renowned Alzheimer’s and dementia advocate, I have been featured in nationally syndicated TV, radio and other media outlets and have written for blogs, newspapers and websites and shared my personal perspective as a guest speaker.
I currently serve on…
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Progress Report 8
Jack’s not sticking to one writing formula – I’m ALL for that! :)
Originally posted on Have We Had Help?:
It might even be located here…
Well, I’ve just finished outlining Chapter Six. Things are beginning to get complicated, or should that read – the plot is taking on a life of its own dictating what will happen next? I’ve just inserted yet another Red Herring. I had no choice, the plot demanded it, so there! That’s the fifth one to date – I think. You’ll have to take my word for it for now. The word count now stands at 11,232.
I have to admit it, I’m really having fun. Thinking about it, I’m in totally new territory in that I have temporarily departed from the way I’ve written up to now. This book is completely different from my normal practice of writing books that I personally want to read. But then again, even though that is the case, it is intriguing enough to hold my interest. That…
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Mihran Kalaydjian Playing Will You Marry Me Part 1
Wow – just amazing!
Originally posted on mihran Kalaydjian:
Mihran Kalaydjian Playing Will You Marry Me Part 1
Proposed Moonlight to Diamond,
As their shimmer began to cascade
Will you put to rest all my sad longings,
The aching my lonely life made.
~ I have heard the North Wind married,
Taking Summer’s Glow as his bride,
Now, they live on the edge of the Morning,
Loving out their sweet days wild and wide,
~ The Sky once courted a Valley below,
Fraught with fog and deep in It’s woes,
The Valley relented then became resplendent,
Their children are all the Rainbows,
~ Will you marry me dear, by the ocean?
Her waves ever making love to the shore,
Surrender our peace to the mountain above
A life of dreams, realized, Mi Amor …
© 2014 Carla and Mihran All Rights Reserved
The Sunday Show – Joan Porte – Astrologer, Gastronome, Author and Blogger.
It’s the Sunday Show with our lovely Sally Cronin, and a really, really interesting one today with the connection between food and star signs. I’m off to buy that book, because now I HAVE to know if my sweet tooth is a fishy old pisces thing………
Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:
My guest today is an astrologer, gastronome, author and blogger who has published a cook book with a difference. Have you ever wondered why, even as a small child you were drawn to certain foods that perhaps your family had not eaten before? Perhaps you wonder about your preference for a particular cultural style of cooking such as Italian or Chinese. In Signs of the Tines - Joan Porte reveals the answers to those questions and also shares recipes and foods that the individual astrological signs are drawn to and prefer.
I do consult my astrological forecasts monthly and I have two or three astrologers that I find are usually spot on. I used to read a great many more forecasts but one day decided to conduct an experiment. I consulted none for a month and then went back retrospectively and chose the two or three who had nailed the…
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October 3, 2014
Reviews – The Good, The Bad, and the Confusing
If you publish with Amazon, you can be pretty certain that at some point or another you’re going to get a review that will make you scratch your head in confusion. The thing I like the most about these odd reviews is that it’s considered very bad form to ever answer one – I would hate to ever have to answer a rotten review. It’s not a good idea to answer any review for your book whether good or bad actually. Amazon reviews are a free forum type thing, and anyone who has read your book should be free to say what they thought about it without any fear of either a rant or a lot of fawning gratitude from the author.
Poor old Hannah. One of the first reviews that my Fly Birdie got was a two sentence one star clonker, where the reviewer said, “I was disgusted by the actions of the “heroine” of the story.” After the initial shock wore off after reading it, I had a good chuckle because it didn’t make any sense to me at all, and I realised that now I really was part of the scribblers club – you have to get bad reviews now and then. It was a rite of passage that all of us writers have to go through at some point or another, traditionally published or indie. Stephen King gets one star depth charges all the time, like this one for The Stand – which was one of the best books I’ve ever read by the way.
1.0 out of 5 stars BORING AND SICKLY, LIKE A NEVER ENDING BAD DREAM, December 28, 2013
By
Detective – See all my reviews
This review is from: The Stand (Kindle Edition)
Why so many 5 star ratings is a mystery to me. What this book reminded me of was a series of bad dreams like you get after eating too much bad food and trying to sleep it off in an over heated bedroom. Problem is this bad dream (book) doesn’t end at dawn, instead it goes on and on and on forever resulting in boring and sickly never ending reading drudgery.
Makes me feel better to know that it’s not just me who will be blasted, although I think that possibly the above guy should eat more veggies and invest in aircon. Still, I take what reviewers say very seriously, and any valid point (valid to me that is) that they make about any of my scribbles that they don’t like, I’ll do my best to work on in future. I also think that it’s fair enough to say so if a story grosses you out that badly, so I’m not likely to get all Stanley about the whole thing. But if you’re going to give a negative low review, at least make sure you totally have your facts straight, because these low stars bring a book’s overall ratings down, and tossing them about willy nilly is irresponsible. In Fly Birdie, an ancient, massive tree is totally ripped up in a storm – roots exposed to the air, and left dangerously hanging over a house. Never mind the rest of the story – although Hannah’s sadness and helplessness at the death of the tree was fairly obvious when the story got to that point, but it’s absolutely not possible to save a tree in that state, that old, or of that size, no matter how much you want to. So this review started out as a bit of a head scratcher to me.
3.0 out of 5 stars An unkind woman, September 21, 2014
By
marcia riley – See all my reviews
Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
This review is from: Fly Birdie (Kindle Edition)
Everyone loves how kind she was to the bird, but what about the tree? When she learned the tree had feelings and went out of its way not to harm her, she let it be chopped down anyway. She showed no compassion whatsoever for the stately tree. That was not something a nice person would do. For shame……
But then it occurred to me that the story had actually got to this reader. Maybe not in a good way – it clearly upset her. All of us writers want our readers to be emotionally invested in our books, so maybe this isn’t really a “bad” review after all. Everyone has strong feelings for different things. And many people – myself included – have a deep and abiding love for certain types of life, be they trees or dolphins, or any other critter. My judgement has often been clouded in the past by these feelings, where logic hasn’t even come into the equation before the words come out. So to me, even though this seems to be just a negative review, what I get from it is that the reader was moved enough by what she read about that poor old tree to have some pretty strong feelings about it – and that, I reckon, is a very large compliment – when anything you write evokes such a reaction. So – I’m happy with it.
October 2, 2014
A Wonderful Review of Miedo!
Originally posted on Kev's Blog:
Paulette Mahurin gave this wonderful review of Miedo! Thanks Paulette!
The original review can be found on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B00EVXZPI4/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
5.0 out of 5 starsAn easy, fast, good read., 28 Sep 2014
By
Paulette Mahurin (usz) – See all my reviews
This review is from: Miedo: Living Beyond Childhood Fear: 1 (Paperback)
Meido: Living Beyond Childhood Fear by Kevin Cooper starts out like something out of The Exorcist and instantly eases to the gentle gardens the author lived in when a child. The contrast is startling and effective as if comparing Mark Twain’s writing with Stephen King, both equally brilliant. The author masters at scene descriptions: the colors of butterflies, the texture of plants, a caterpillar crawling from a leaf up his arm, the minutiae of description on an ominous spider; all serve to draw the reader into a feeling of being there, a mark of well written prose…
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Authors’ Best Friend Is… Ape!
Yes! Join our awesome, Apesome supporter of indies – Chris Graham. :D
Originally posted on chrismcmullen:
The Story Reading ApeIf man’s best friend is… dog,
Then authors’ best friend is… ape.
The Story Reading Ape, that is.
Chris, the Story Reading Ape, is an avid supporter of authors:
Frequently supporting authors with guest blogs and promotions.
Housing helpful resources for authors on his blog.
Posting words of wisdom for authors.
Supporting authors with reblogs.
The Story Reading Ape’s blog is very author-centric (and therefore quite reader-centric).
Check out the resources on the Story Reading Ape’s blog:
http://thestoryreadingapeblog.com
Once there, click Authors Resources Central. Check out:
Author Promotion
Guest Author
Information about CreateSpace, Kindle, and Smashwords
Proofreaders
Professional Editors
and more
Chris, the Story Reading Ape, had no idea that I was writing this post. He is just so generous in his support of authors, I thought we should do something nice in return. :-)
Don’t get the two Chris’s mixed up. I’m Chris McMullen, not…
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Writer’s Block
Originally posted on Lit World Interviews:
I love it when those super productive plot bunnies come to visit. Those days when ideas for new plots, or new exciting twists for a work in process come streaming in hard and fast, and supply writing fodder for years to come. But then sometimes you have those moments when you hit a brick wall writing a story. You’re scribbling away, and then—. Something needs to happen, and you realise that you haven’t got a clue what that something should be. You think, and you think, and you stare at the screen. You squish your face with the effort and hurl expletives at the world in general. But still nothing comes. A great big pile of nada. It can be quite a frightening moment, and if you carry on pushing yourself for days or weeks to think of what comes next to the exclusion of anything else, you will end…
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September 30, 2014
Telling A Story My Way But Writing It For You
Originally posted on Author P.S. Bartlett:
What’s the point of being a storyteller if we can’t share it?
As much as I, like most of you, write what I want to read, I often read the same books that many of you read, watch the same movies and television shows and follow the same blogs. That’s more than enough to show that if I write what I want to read, odds are, others will want to read it as well.
However, like most of you, I want to know what I’m getting myself into and at least have an idea of the story before I drop my money in the jar and dedicate my precious time to it–whatever it is.
Tonight marks the three day countdown on my book release timeline so I want to share a little about the story and why I love it so much in hopes that you’ll take a chance on…
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African me & Satellite TV by Jo Robinson
A wonderful surprise. Thank you so much for your kind review Clive, and many, many pardons for those typos! It’s been re-edited now, so hopefully all those gremlins are gone.
Originally posted on Random Ramblings:
At first I thought this was going to be a light-hearted humorous read as the early chapters indicated, but then it began to turn to more serious issues. This was all done through the eyes of Suzette; her boring life, her boring (to her) husband and her inability to accept what was going on around her – i.e. Racism.
The realisation that she could step out of her cloistered existence and embrace the world she inhabits, and could actually do something to right its wrongs, is the spine that underpins this novel.
I bought this sometime ago and have only just got around to reading it, and like others who reviewed earlier there were some typo issues with my copy. However, it doesn’t alter the fact that this is still a very good book.
The characters are well rounded and the plot well written. I found myself detesting the villains…
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