Princess Jones's Blog, page 5

I Want You. . . To Gimme A Review

As a new fiction writer, reviews are very important. And although there’s been a lot of hoopla about bad reviews, no reviews are actually much worse. It makes it seem like no one is reading your work–even if you know that’s not true.

Reviews are very important. In fact, they are so important that I give away books to anyone who reviews my work. Good, bad, or indifferent, a review is a review. If you express your feelings about my work on Amazon, Goodreads, your blog, etc, I want to know about it.

So if you are so inclined, leave me a review in your favorite medium. And then shoot me the link with using this form. I’ll send you a thank you. It’s that simple.

Photo Credit: Colton Witt

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Handling Negative Reviews with All Indie Writers

My first review ever said something like “This book was OK but. . .” and then it went on to name a lot of things they didn’t like. But I was so excited that someone had not only read the book but that it was “OK,” that I forgot to be upset about the rest.

And that’s pretty much my experience on negative reviews. I don’t have a lot of reviews about my work but I firmly believe that while we writers own the copyrights to our books, we don’t own the experience of reading it.

I was fortunate enough to be a guest on the All Indie Writers podcast this past week. Jennifer Mattern and I chatted about some examples of how to handle negative reviews and how not to handle negative reviews. I’d love for you to check it out.

Click the picture to go the podcast.

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What I Read This Month

I read a lot of books. Each month I choose a few of them to spotlight here on my blog. If you have any suggestions for books I should read, send me an email and I’ll take a look

Gathering Blue (The Giver Quartet #2) by Lois Lowry

Gathering Blue is the second in The Giver Quartet. It follows the story of young, crippled girl named Kira as she loses her mother and earns a new role in her village. As she finds her way using her amazing weaving skills, she learns secrets about her way of life that changes the way she sees everything.

Like The Giver, this book is beautifully and simply written. It’s a YA book, so it’s not difficult to read in any way. But it does a beautiful job of conveying strong emotions and themes. The story is unpredictable but it takes a beat longer for the characters to realize certain things than I did. Again, I think that’s because this is a YA book.

The word “quartet” is an interesting way to describe the way these four books are related. This is Lois Lowry’s next book after The Giver but it’s not exactly a sequel. The same themes are present but not the same characters. I plan on reading the next two books so I’ll get to see how it all fits in together.

The Girl in 6E by Alessandra Torre

Jessica is a woman in her early twenties who never leaves her apartment because the urge to kill is so strong that she’s afraid of what she might do to other people. As a webcam sex worker, she has the means and opportunity to remove herself from everyday interactions that rest of us can’t avoid. She has her meals delivered. She buys her toilet paper in bulk over the Internet. She is Amazon Prime’s best customer. But she is forced to leave this life when she finds that one of her regular customers has kidnapped a young girl and she may be the only person who can help.

I rarely give five stars to books. I think they are reserved for stories that are not only compelling and well written, but for stories that drag you into their world and won’t let you go. This is how much I liked The Girl 6E.

I’m not going to say I didn’t have some moments where I was baffled by some of the things the character did. Leaving your door unlocked at all times is one of the stupidest things someone who doesn’t want to kill people could do. But that was a flaw in Jessica’s thinking that she rationalized with believing it would be ok if she killed an intruder, not something the author did wrong.

Also, I think I was reading the extended version. I saw reviews where apparently there was less story in the first version. I think cutting it a little earlier might have benefited the story, though, and I wish it had stayed that way. For now, I’ll stop Monday Morning Quarterbacking and go pick up the rest of Alessandra Torre’s books.

Vanity, Vengeance And A Weekend In Vegas (A Sophie Katz Murder Mystery #6) by Kyra Davis

Vanity, Vengeance and a Weekend is the latest in a series about a mystery writer and her band of fabulously kooky friends who find themselves embroiled in real life mysteries. This time, Sophie’s long time boyfriend Anatoly reveals a secret marriage of convenience to her and they break up. Trying to forget about it, Sophie plans a girls weekend in Vegas with her friends only to find out there’s more to the story than she knew and it has followed her to Vegas.

I’ve read all of the other books and I’ve enjoyed them. (Which is the reason I picked this one up.) The humor was great. I love that all the secondary characters came back because I adore their banter. Sophie is a firecracker who gets off some really great lines. The plot was little predictable but I won’t hold that against the author. It was still a decent book.

But something seemed off about this one in the series. There were some clear formatting and grammatical errors. It didn’t affect the story but it did throw me off–like seeing the tag on a serial killer’s mask in a horror movie.

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I Left NYC But My Characters Didn’t

I’ve moved a lot. In the past six or seven years, I’ve live in VA Beach, Chicago, NYC, and now Austin. When they say a writer should write what they know, they’re often referring to the small details. It’s easier to get those right when you’ve experienced them yourself.

I started Super when I was still living in NYC. Much of the landmarks described in the book were ones I saw on a daily basis. Some of my own experiences were weaved into the storyline.

But I’d only completed about a quarter of Super in New York. I had to finish it here in Austin. That was hard. It was important to keep it as real as possible but without walking the streets every day you forget the little things. I had to get back in the right frame of mind to write.

I used Google Maps to visit old neighborhoods. You can zoom in close enough to see buildings and streets. You can also go to street view, which is a way to see images of the actual places as if you were standing on the street.

Of course there were some things that I had to make work to go with the story. But those were more artistic license than a result of not being close to the location of the story anymore. At one point someone asked me if my character would make the move to Austin with me. I doubt that. The character is kind of tied to the city and that’s where she belongs.

Photo Credit: NYC Full Moon by Bob Jagendorf

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Asked and Answered: What’s Your Favorite Fruit?

First of all, let’s acknowledge that this is a weird question. People rarely run up to you to say “Hey! I just gotta know something! What’s your favorite fruit, man?” I look at the interviews my author friend are doing about the importance of their books, their cultural backgrounds, and their writing process. And I’m over here getting questions about fruit.

But I do love fruit. It’s like eating candy without the stigma. You walk around with a bag of Snickers 24/7, people think one thing about you. You show up with a bag of apples everywhere, you’re put in a whole other category.

One of the reasons I love fruit is that I didn’t really get a lot of it as a kid. Fruit was foreign to me. I could have mac and cheese any time I wanted but a navel orange was so rare that I craved them. My parents loved us but honestly I ate a lot of junk growing up. When everyone you know eats terribly, you think that’s normal. It’s hard to change your whole perception of what food is after living a few decades not quite understanding that green stuff isn’t bad.

But I was always a little weirdo. I remember seeing some people on PBS or Nick Jr or something eating cantaloupe. I had no idea what it was but I was very interested in it. They seemed to be having an amazing time. So I told my dad that I just needed to get this thing I saw on TV. It was called “cant-a-loop” and had he heard of it? Of course, he had and he’d see what he could do.

A couple of days later, he brought home a whole cantaloupe from the store. I was so happy I was jumping up and down. He pulled it out of the grocery bag and handed it to me. And I held it in awe. Then I said “How do I open this?” I was seriously confused by this new invention called “cant-a-loop.”

But to get back to the question at hand, I’d have to say white grapes. They are on every single grocery list I write. I usually buy two bags. One goes in the freezer and one goes in the fridge. The frozen grapes are great for when you want ice cream or an ice pop. I also used to have this terrible habit of chewing ice and frozen grapes helped me kick that habit.

I often answer reader questions here on my blog. If you have a question, just shoot me an email or submit it through my Goodreads page and maybe I’ll choose yours next time.

Photo Credit: Fruit Basket by Shutter Ferret

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11 Questions for Totally Tyler

Frequently I avoid writing by interviewing another author with questions I stole from The AV Club, The Actor’s Studio, and my old blog. I call it 11 Questions and if you have suggestions for who I interview next, shoot me an email.

Totally Tyler is a legend in his own mind who aspires to be a legend in yours. After his birth in 1973 to a vending machine filler-upper and a grocery store cashier, he learned that he liked boys and disliked math. He didn’t learn these things immediately after his birth, mind you. He still likes boys and dislikes math. This is why he overtips. He spent his early years in small-town Indiana and his later years in big-city Georgia. Now, having run out of retail stores in which he hasn’t worked and boys on whom he hasn’t crushed in the South, he’s escaped to Manhattan, where he toils away as an event planner.

Boys, Booze & Booty Calls is his second book, and is a sequel of sorts to his first book, Your Boyfriend & Other Guys I’ve Kissed. He plans to write more books but until then, you can read more of his musings at TotallyTyler.com.

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?

When I was a teenager, I mowed people’s yards for money and I hated it. I’d get hot and sweaty and grass and dirt would stick to my legs and I had to deal with bugs and nature. I tried to wear my walkman but the lawn mower was so loud that I couldn’t hear my Debbie Gibson cassette tapes. And then after I finished mowing the yard, my dad would check my work and nit-pick if I missed a spot or didn’t get close enough to a tree. And I only made a measly $5 per yard.

What did your parents want you to be?

Straight.

If you could have any famous person alive be your best friend, who would it be?

You already know the answer. Madonna. We’d work out together and gossip about guys because we both like them young. And I’d tell her to stop wearing those grills.

What is your favorite curse word?

It’s a tie. ‘Fuck’ as a verb and ‘cunty’ as an adjective.

How would your enemies describe you?

They would describe me as “a selfish slut who wears too much purple and is unwilling to travel to New Jersey.”

If a deli named a sandwich after you, what would it have on it?

I guess ham, bacon, swiss cheese and a healthy dollop of mayonnaise, toasted on whole wheat bread because I loathe those giant, tough buns delis use for sandwiches. Actually, this question made me miss our chats about food, Princess. Now I’m going to have to go eat some chicken cordon bleu balls.

[Interviewer's note: Yes, I too would like some bleu balls. Or some Long John's Silver. Or some Chiptole. Great. Now I'm hungry.]

What’s the worst living situation you ever had?

In Savannah, I lived with a couple of guys who used Q-Tips to “relieve” their cats when they were in heat. (The cats, not the guys.) And when I first moved to New York, I lived with a Jewish, lesbian lawyer who somehow managed to embody every stereotype for all of those things.

Who could you take in a fight?

Idris Elba. I mean, I would try to, anyway, preferably in a kiddie pool full of lube.

If you are ever arrested, what should we all assumed happened?

If you see me drinking a can of Red Bull in public, it’s safe to assume half of it is actually vodka. One time, I was walking down 8th Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen and a cop who had followed me for two blocks finally stopped me and asked what I was drinking. She—yes, it was a lady cop—snatched the can out of my hand and smelled it while eyeing me suspiciously but I had just finished the can and it was empty. So, I’m going to go with public intoxication. I know you wanted a more salacious answer but the age of consent in New York is 17 so leave me alone.

What book do you wish you had written?

I can’t be a smartass when I answer this question! I really enjoy David Sedaris’s books, so anything from his body of work. I’m also a big fan of edgier, controversial authors like Bret Easton Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk. I think American Psycho and Fight Club are pop culture staples. Of course, Sex and the City spawned an iconic television show so I have to give Carrie Bradshaw, I mean, Candace Bushnell props as well.

What are the top five songs on your coma playlist?

Wait. What’s a coma playlist? Is that music we listen to that puts us asleep? I don’t listen to music when it’s time to go to bed—I normally read myself to sleep—but if I did, it would probably be something new-agey or classical like Craig Armstrong or maybe some old school jazz like Billie Holiday.

Bonus: I’m going to ask the next person I interview one question from you. Give me something worth asking.

What is the most ridiculous lie you’ve ever told and gotten away with?

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Asked and Answered: What’s the Most Blatant Lie You’ve Ever Told

I’d like to start off this Asked and Answered session with the declaration that while I have many sins, chronic lying isn’t one of them. This is for two reasons. The first is that I talk too damn much to be trying to remember shit I said. And second, I just am not embarrassed or ashamed by enough things to lie about them. In fact, I’m much more likely to just say “Yeah, that’s none of your business.”

But I have lied, of course. I think the most blatant lie I ever told was that I was pregnant. I actually did say I was pregnant. I was on a city bus and I wanted a seat so I just pretended to be pregnant.

Now, any of you who have ridden public transportation know that in a perfect world someone gives up a seat for the pregnant, elderly, or disabled on the bus or train. But in the real world, you also know that when you see that pregnant lady with three kids wobble onto the train car, you’re thinking “FUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKK. I don’t want to stand up for an hour.” And then you play that game of chicken with everybody else there. You don’t want to get up if you don’t have to but you also don’t want to be the douche who didn’t.

Commuting in NYC is hard. It’s tiring. It’s smelly. Sometimes it’s an obstacle course. You just wanna get home now. And if you’re doing it during rush hour, you’re likely standing for most of it holding on to some tiny piece of a handrail while uncomfortably close to a stranger–a stranger who doesn’t smell nice.

On the day in question, I was tired. Really tired. And I was the only one standing on the bus. So I decided to put this belly–from Chipotle, not a fetus–to use. I pushed it out as far as it would go, rubbed it, and tried to make my face look like I was making a baby. The only problem is that I’ve never been pregnant and I don’t really hang out with pregnant people. So I probably just looked constipated.

Still, it worked. A man offered me a seat. I sat down for the next 25 minutes and then got off the bus. And no, I don’t really regret it.

I often answer reader questions here on my blog. If you have a question, just shoot me an email and maybe I’ll choose yours next time.

Photo Credit: Pregnant by Jerry Lai

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I Had a Pinterest-gasm at The Writing Barn

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to attend an event at the Writing Barn. I recently moved to Austin, TX from Queens, NY with my husband, our three year old niece, and our 13 year old Shih Tzu in tow. Between the changing cities and the changing dynamics of our household, I was having a harder time making connections here than I have in the past.

I told my friend Natalia about it and she suggested that I join a writers group on Facebook called the Austin Binderettes. Immediately after I joined, there was a post about a meetup for the ladies. I clicked “Yes” and a week later I found myself at the Writing Barn.

And then I had a Pinterest-gasm, which is what happens when you see so much cool stuff you can’t take it and you mentally pin them to the Pinterest board in your mind.

The Writing Barn is a writers retreat set on a former horse farm. Writers take classes, have meetups, and just get some time to focus on writing. Their most recent addition is the Book House.

There were deer. Yes, deer. I know I’m in Texas but I just got here. And there were deer.

Old Books for New Teachers was taking donations. The organization helps new teachers buy books for their classrooms. I learned a few of these facts from the presentation:

There were handmade hair pins made out of dictionary pages as party favors. My hair has never been so well read.

Natalia’s car got stuck and I helped lift it up. There was no picture available for that one.*

I got to meet and chat with a whole room of local women writers who inspired me to do more and write more.

For more information about The Writing Barn, check out their website or contact owner/operator Bethany Hegedus.

*Ok, there was a picture available of Amy and I lifting the car, but I looked fat in it so I left it out.

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What I Read This Month

Pegasus by Aerin McKinley

“Because she was a princess she had a Pegasus.”

What a great way to start a story. Just jump right in and put it out there. Unfortunately this is where the swift storytelling ended. Sylvi is a young princess who is bound to her own pegasus per ancient law and finds that unlike the others who have undergone bindings, she can actually speak to her pegasus. This causing great disruption among the court, particularly the magicians who are supposed to control communication between people and pegasi.

Robin McKinley is my own personal writing hero and I adore her writing style. Once again she created a world and made it real for me. Her vision of pegasi is different than anything else I’ve come across and I appreciate her imaginative storytelling.

However, I wasn’t aware when I picked up this book that it was likely a part of a series. I was maybe 80% in and still waiting for the story to start. It was only when I saw the progress bar hit 95% that I realized that I wasn’t going to get a full story.

That said, I’ll likely pick up the next one at some point.

On Writing by Stephen King

On Writing is a nonfiction book about the craft of writing by Stephen King–someone who obviously knows what he’s talking about. He divides the book into three sections. The first is a collection of snapshots of his life that have contributed to or added definition to his writing career. The second is about how he writes and his instructions for how to write fiction. And the final is about his near fatal accident while in the midst of writing this book and how he got back to writing afterwards.

I usually don’t write reviews for these types of books but I really liked this one and wanted to talk about why. I picked up this book because there are tons of memes out there with quotes from it and people keep recommending it to me. Also, I’m at a tough point in my writing career and it was nice to hear from someone on the other side of that.

I’d like to point out that this is not an instructional manual. It’s more like having a beer with a mentor who is in a talkative mood. Honestly, I prefer that to the manual. Also, Stephen King really, really loves his wife. He talks about her a lot in the course of the book. She is his “Ideal Reader.” He also mentions a lot of books and gives examples of things he likes and things he doesn’t. In the back, there is a list of books he reads, but he warns us that his not Oprah and he does not have a book club.

Finally, I would disagree with Mr. King about TV. He says it hurts the writing process. But he thinks we should all read as much as possible as widely as possible to sample other stories I’ll allow him to have it because he is older than TV and it makes sense that he would not look at it the way someone younger would. But there are some amazing stories in the form of movies and television if you are willing to look. And we’re all storytellers, right? Stories come from a lot of places.

To Love a Witch by Debra Geary

To Love a Witch is a short story about Jake, a kind of a witch social worker who finds young witches in bad situations, and Romy, an untrained witch he finds about ten years too late. Still, Jake tries to help her come to terms with her magic with the help of a few friends.

This story features an older Italian witch who makes amazing food, a cute kid witch with the power to see bits of the future, and a band of merry delinquents. There’s a fire. There’s a flying motorcycle. Don’t forget the boundary pushing psychic mother. And then exactly what you thought was going to happen happens.

I’m gonna wrap this review up because it’s almost as long as this story was. But I don’t want you to think that I didn’t like it. I did. It was a quick read. The author handles light humor with a light touch. I’d probably read another of her books in the future, which is probably the point of this one.

Ultimately, I had an hour to kill and I read this book to fill the time. Mission accomplished.

What are you reading these days? Anything good? Tell me about in the comments section below.

The post What I Read This Month appeared first on Princess Jones.

11 Questions for Taylor A. Bain

Frequently I avoid writing by interviewing another author with questions I stole from The AV Club, The Actor’s Studio, and my old blog. I call it 11 Questions and if you have suggestions for who I should interview next, shoot me an email.

Taylor A. Bain writes dark, dystopian fiction with a hint of romance. With Bain’s books, you can expect action, gore, sex and violence. You know, the good shit.

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?

Door-to-door sales. I was new to the state and only 15. A van would pick us up and then drop us in a neighborhood and we’d each take a street and knock on doors to sell newspaper subscriptions. Most of the time, I had no clue where I was and I always, always, always had to pee.

What did your parents want you to be?

I’m not sure they ever really cared about that. I remember one time my dad made an appointment with an army recruiter and had him meet me at school. That’s about the only interest either of them showed, that I can remember.

If you could have any famous person alive be your best friend, who would it be?

Gordon Ramsey.

What’s your favorite curse word?

I generally like fucker, but I also like ones that I can break up into two words for emphasis—like ass HOLE and bull SHIT. But really, every swear word is beautiful.

How would your enemies describe you?

OH MY GOD—DO I HAVE ENEMIES? WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME? Okay, for real, I can remember one person who used to work for me telling another employee that I was a bitch so … I guess … as a bitch?

If a deli named a sandwich after you, what would it have on it?

Avocadoes and bacon, for sure. And then, whatever else goes with that. And NO ONIONS.

What’s the worst living situation you ever had?

It’s a secret.

Who could you take in a fight?

No one. I could take absolutely no one in a fight.

If you are ever arrested, what should we all assumed happened?

Someone cut in front of me in line.

What book do you wish you had written?

None—because if I’d written some of the books I loved, they would be totally different than they are.

I’m going to ask the next person I interview one question from you. What would you like that question to be?

What are the top five songs on your coma playlist?

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