Jo Robinson's Blog, page 97
April 11, 2014
International Day for Street Children
Every child should have a safe space to play and learn. Every child should know they are loved and have a daily experience of that love. Every child should have the right to access a minimum standard of education – Gill Sainsbury needs everyone to read what she has to say.
Originally posted on gillswriting:
April 12
th
every year is the
International Day for Street Children
. Whilst I am not a fan of the proliferation of “dedicated days” that have dropped from the skies over the past decade, I do care about this one.
The objective is awareness and so I ask each of you around the globe to take a moment and consider… what do you know about the issues in your immediate neighbourhood, nearest city or country as whole. If you are here on this page then I hope you know a little about my perception and experiences of street children in Tanzania, but this is a global issue.
Awareness can be raised by you and me. We have that power. Take some time and google street children, get a feel for the scope of the problem, take a few moments to care, consider signing the petition to demand a day.
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Apart From Love by Uvi Poznansky – FREE from 11th April to 12th April
Uvi is an awesome author, artist and poet – it’s your lucky day thanks to Chris!
Originally posted on Chris The Story Reading Ape's New (to me) Authors Blog:
My book APART FROM LOVE will be FREE 04/11/2014-04/12/2014. Please let your readers know about it.
Secrets, passion, betrayal…
Written with passionate conviction, this story is being told by two of its characters: Ben, a twenty-seven years old student, and Anita, a plain-spoken, spunky, uneducated redhead, freshly married to Lenny, his aging father. Behind his back, Ben and Anita find themselves increasingly drawn to each other. They take turns using an old tape recorder to express their most intimate thoughts, not realizing at first that their voices are being captured by him.
Meanwhile, Lenny is trying to keep a secret from both of them: his ex-wife, Ben’s mother, a talented pianist, has been stricken with an early-onset alzheimer. Taking care of her gradually weighs him down. What emerges in these characters is a struggle, a desperate, daring struggle to find a path out of conflicts, out of isolation, from guilt…
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Today Only Smashwords Users Get Holliday’s Gold by Steven R. Orr – FOR FREE
Freebie time on Smashwords from TSRA. :)
Originally posted on Chris The Story Reading Ape's New (to me) Authors Blog:
Today Only Smashwords Users Get Holliday’s Gold For Free
Today only, if you are a Smashwords user, you can download the Holliday’s Gold e-book – in your choice of format – FOR FREE.
First you need to go to Smashwords. To do that, just click HERE
April 10, 2014
Happy Harare
Just found this – and that’s why I fell in love with Zimbabwe. You guys rock!
Glass Houses
Many established self-published authors are very helpful to newbies, sharing the knowledge that they have gained on their individual scribbling trips. There are also loads of books available too these days covering everything from formatting to marketing. Some things are pretty straightforward to learn, but other things are just opinions, no matter how strongly they’re voiced. Like giving your books away for free. Some authors are quite scathing about there being so many free books out there, that they feel they are losing out on selling their own. Then there are the calls for gatekeepers to stop the badly edited, formatted, or written books from ever making it out there, and thereby offend readers so badly that they will never so much as glance at a self-published book again, thereby also taking food out of “legitimate” self-published authors mouths.
I’ve made pretty much all the mistakes any newbie can flying solo in this indie world – still making them – and I doubt that any other self-published author will have got everything perfectly right their first time at the party without quite a lot of help and the shelling out of amounts of cash that not everyone has access to. What bothers me a little just lately is that some of the authors making the most noise started out themselves by publishing books with errors, and giving those books away on free Amazon promotions. It seems wrong to me that now that they are on their way as far as polished publications are concerned, they have built solid online platforms, and they’re writing their sixth or seventh novel, that they expect everyone else to never give books away for free, even if it’s their very first one, because this could make them lose a potential book sale.
Naah. Not everyone who self-publishes has the same aspirations. Some people publish purely because they want a couple of paper books to hand down to their children, or have a few bound copies of their photos and poems for their coffee tables. Some write stories for their children, and couldn’t be bothered if they never sell one to a stranger. Scientific papers, theses, and all sorts of things find their way to Amazon. Then there are the guys doing it purely for the money – they don’t even write their little books themselves, but hire ghostwriters instead, and churn out hundreds of short stories (extreme erotica) and tiny how to books. And then there are those guys who do write their own, but only because they desperately want to collide head on with the fame and money monster, and not because they love to spin a yarn and write it down for others to, hopefully, enjoy. That’s what I do. I write because I love to write. And so do thousands of other writers.
Regardless of why anyone self-publishes their book, it is entirely up to them what they do with it. If they want to give away thousands of free copies then that’s their choice. Most ebooks downloaded on free days lurk on kindles all over, and are never read before being discarded. But a small percentage are, and for an author totally new to this indie game, the future readers and reviewers gained this way are pure gold. The millions of free books floating around are not going to go away any time soon, so it’s totally pointless whining about them. Think up new ways to sell your books, or don’t use Amazon if their freebie policy is so offensive.
The thing is, it is all free. You can write a book and publish it as an ebook and a paperback for not one single cent. How you sell it is your problem, and having a bitchfest about what everyone else is doing with their books is not going to make the free go away, or force people to buy your book because there are no freebies about. I don’t like the idea of being forced to buy anything anyway. As far as crappy editing and formatting goes – formatting is easy if you take the trouble to learn how to do it. My formatting faux pas on Amazon was not due to anything I did wrong, but because they loaded an extra corrupted ebook. Editing errors are totally my fault, and excuses are useless in this instance. So – fix them and move along. I do have access to outside editing now, and I’ll never let loose a new book that hasn’t been properly gone over again, but not all new writers can afford to pay for editing – it’s expensive.
I’m not excusing badly put together books, but I am saying that what self-publishing IS, is being allowed to publish whatever you like. Self-publishing is a totally different animal to traditional publishing, and now that you’ve made your own mistakes and have a nice backlist of immaculate books, you want to deprive other indies of that same experience? Not fair! If you like the way traditional works, then do that, but stop yelling at newbies and authors who fancy a free promo to round up some new readers. I’ve downloaded loads of abysmal books for free, but I would never have paid for them, so no harm no foul as far as I’m concerned. When I pay money for a book, I don’t just blindly hit the buy button. I look inside, look at the blurb, occasionally look at reviews, and if I do buy it and it’s just rotten through and through, I have the option to return it within three days of purchase – not so keen on that option mind you, but I’ve never used it personally, because I’ve never paid for a self-published book that so appalled me.
The problem is that when a lot of people make a lot of noise about something, sometimes the powers that be change things – just to shut them up. Sometimes they might not make the changes the shouters were looking for, and they could find themselves bitten in the bum in ways they never expected. That’s what happens when mice start blowing raspberries at lions. As far as indie scribblers go, I say leave them be, and tend your own roses. Let those newbie writers walk their own path, and feel all the joys and pains that you already have. So what if you think that a book being #1 on a kindle free promotion means nothing? Those fresh faced new indies are just as entitled to feel the rush of seeing their books downloaded on to strangers kindles, and they should be allowed to take any kudos and knocks along their own trips to where you are today.
Rock those freebies indie scribblers!
April 9, 2014
A series not to miss (and happy birthday or day the world became better place, Charles)
Happy Birthday to Charles Yallowitz! :)
Originally posted on readful things blog:
Check out Legends of Windemere: Beginning of a Hero– today, on
Amazon.com.
April 8, 2014
Stranger than Fiction
WARNING! Contains a link to adult content!
My blog is PG rated because, apart from the occasional little swear, I don’t post adult content. Today only, I’m posting a link to another site with a post having a photograph of a totally naked man on it. So if you are under 18 or will be shocked by such an eyeball scorcher, please DO NOT click on the link. The reason that I’m posting this is because I think that this blogger is actually doing a really good thing. Generally when I get this kind of stuff on any of my sites, I delete, report, and block the sender. It never occurred to me to name and shame any of the perv trolls I’ve come across, but now I’m thinking that in some cases it might not be a bad idea. Maybe if they get seen by interweb users who are not scared or intimidated by their gross little attacks, and possibly laughed and scorned under tables all over, they might be a little more careful who they send pics of their willies to.
I’m not sure whether my one one star review for Fly Birdie could be called a troll review, because that reader could have genuinely hated the story, so I’m totally cool with it. Other than that I believe all the reviews I have are genuine, so I can’t claim to know how it feels to be review trolled. But the flasher trolls – well – I’ve had my fair share I reckon. Some of them are worrying, because you wonder what else they’re getting up to online, and it’s pretty obvious that some of those pervs would be properly dangerous if they ever found out where you lived.
But then there are some that, while their behaviour is cringeworthy, they just make me laugh myself off my chair. I’m going to post the link to the first blog post I opened today, but I repeat – before you open it, be warned that it contains a selfie of a completely starkers man – totally in the buff – so DO NOT click on the link if you don’t want that sort of thing burned into your retinas for a bit. Personally, I’m still crying a little from laughing so hard. Seriously guy – what were you thinking?
I grew up in Johannesburg. Back in the eighties, Hillbrow was filled with the coolest shops and restaurants, and generally the in place to be as far as fun was concerned – just as long as you didn’t tell your parents. In the afternoons it was also the place of choice for flashers to hang out. I never went there alone though – I was always with a group of friends, so generally when these brave guys leapt out of doorways and alleyways to show the world their awesome wares, all they got every time was teen screaming, running away, and then lots of laughter and jeering. This had to be what they expected – right? Or did some smelly old cretin really expect to be pounced on by a group of teenaged girls overcome by lust at the very sight of their dangly bits?
I really wonder what the guy who sent his 18+ naked selfie to Feeling the Fiction was expecting. When I opened the post, I was totally not expecting to see naked guy, so the first thing I felt was offended and grossed out, but after reading her post I was laughing my head off. But then, recalling all the other eyeball scorchers I’ve been dealt while innocently sipping my tea and catching up on the interweb, it occurred to me that while I’m laughing now, this sort of thing is absolutely criminal and can be really damaging if received by any sort of innocent.
We are all the product of our life experiences, and I suppose that I’ve seen enough to find this particular perv pathetic enough to laugh at, but I wonder. Now that the flashers, who in the eighties had to risk being caught and arrested or beaten up by offended groups of ladies, have the anonymity of the internet to cruise around, what else are they getting up to? There has to be something deeply twisted in the mind of anyone who thinks that it is acceptable to send naked pictures of themselves to total strangers, whether a magnifying glass is needed or not. Maybe blacking out his face was too kind though – if you’re going to send pictures of yourself like that to complete strangers you totally deserve to have people know who you are.
Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice
Yargh – crap! I mean that in a very literal sense. I have over 8 000 email notifications built up from my absence still left to open, and strangely, rather than being a massive chore it’s been more like opening pressies every time. I love what I do, and I love the friends I have now, and I love the new books, and reviews, and meltdowns, and celebrations, and every little thing you all share. Love all of you. Apart from the trolls of course – nobody thinks that you rotten, vicious little asses are cool. Anyway.
So, back to the crap. Getting Bella the puppy was a really big deal for me. Because I spend so much time on my own I wanted to get a dog. The feathered horde head off to bed at sundown, and apart from anything else there have been some really nasty housebreaking attacks around here, so a dog is really a must – and maybe a tazer now that I’ve sold my 9mm Browning. Or maybe I’ll just get another. I’m not into violence, but after what I’ve seen in the papers about what’s been done to innocent grannies and little girls, I’ll be more than comfortable taking a vicious murderer down.
Again – back to the crap. Sorry for the side route. Bella has totally ignored all of her official puppy toys – feet, magazine racks, the couch, and all sorts of other things are much more fun to chew apparently. She is the sweetest, cleverest little soul though – apart from the crapping, as I said. There are bits of you name it all over the house. It’s been raining, so she’s covered in mud – me too – and the carpets. This has the feathered horde behaving incredibly badly though, and I’m really worried that someone is going to get munched.
They reckon that her bed is the place to be. Her food has obviously been stolen from them, and they’ve all been bouncing on her head at every opportunity to reclaim it. Little buggers – I thought that I would have to protect my innocent birds from a possibly marauding dog but it turns out that the dog is the one who needs protection. The feathery little guys are absolute barbarians and bullies! I’m going to have to be totally on the ball all the time to make sure that none of them get accidentally noshed. So.
I’m hoping to get back to my scribbling in a day or two, editing and checking of published scribbles at the top of the list, but more than anything I can’t wait to zone out again and immerse myself in Shadow People two and three. I’m seriously considering ditching marketing totally, and just having fun with my blogger and twitter buddies, and writing – just writing for the love of it.
Chris (The Story Reading Ape) Graham
Our beloved Story Reading Ape, Chris Graham, and Ailsa Abraham in the same room – it doesn’t get any better!
Originally posted on Ailsa Abraham:
Well, he FINALLY arrived at the Bingergread Cottage.
I could tell when he did, all the local wildlife went streaming through the open front door and out through the previously closed back door before disappearing into the tangled overgrowth called (imaginatively, considering it was the Council’s choice) ‘The Bingerbread Cottage Enchanted Forest’!
It was also evident when, after the last Squirrel had disappeared, I heard a loud CLATTER of my precious motorbike hitting the ground, followed by an equally loud “SORRY – I WAS ONLY LOOKING AT IT, NOT TRYING TO GET ON IT” from my Guest.
Yes, you’ve guessed who my Guest is – the biggest, strongest, furriest Blogger in the Cyberworld – Chris, The Story Reading Ape!
After Badger reluctantly assisted him to get untangled and out from under the motorbike Chris finally made it through the now permanently open front door (it was no longer attached to…
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April 7, 2014
So Long and Thanks for All the Fish
I hope Sarah stays. I think her success so far is brilliant.
Originally posted on Sarah Daltry:
I want to start positive. For all of you who have supported my work and been there through this process, thank you. I will be eternally grateful. I wish I could have done more, could have been more, because it means so much to me that you’ve stuck by me. For the characters – especially Jack – thank you for trusting me with your stories. I love you with a part of myself that will always belong to you. I’m so sorry I didn’t do you justice and that you trusted me rather than someone who could have truly given you a voice.
You may have noticed that I’ve been slowly fading out. Well, I’ve decided this is the end for me. It was not an easy choice, but I cannot continue. It breaks my heart, because I always dreamed that someday, all my schooling and effort and hard work…
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