R.’s Comments (group member since May 22, 2014)

R.’s comments from the Genre Specific Review Groups group.

Sorry. I forgot. Now that we have six participants, we are going to have two rounds of reviews. Both rounds have been published in the first post on this topic.

R.

Authors:

I believe that all stories have been posted in comments. The review assignments have been published in the initial post of this topic. The due date for reviews is September 6, but reviews can be posted as replies to the stories anytime before then.

Have fun.

R.

Annie wrote: "Thanks, Mr Francis!

I gotta warn you flash fic pros, I don't have anything amazeballs. I just whip up stuff for fun with my readers. Plus, they're all super duper short and unedited cuz I give mys..."

Annie:

If you want in, let me know. I have no problem setting up a one round schedule with five. If we have six, I will set up a two round review schedule.

R.

L.N. wrote: "I take it it's too late to join this group, I have a very short story, which I'm not sure is classed as flash fiction as it is only 402 words long =)"

Okay, L.N. You're in. As soon as you post your story in a comment to this topic, I will publish the review schedule.

R.

Edema

"Not Guilty?!!!" Louisa could not believe it. After the jury saw the pictures of her, the ones that hurt even while she sat for them. How could they? The layers of ignominy piled up. Being treated like a lemon by the police, like an annoyance by the prosecutor, and like an oddity by her neighbors paled in comparison with today's addendums. Serigone's evil smirk as he blew her a kiss from the defendant's table competed with the realization that she was now branded a pain lover, a masochist. Like she actually wanted him to do that to her.

The one image she could not get out of her head was those people in town, sitting around on their porches, consuming hotdogs, corn on the cob, and whispered jokes, while she sat on the plaintiff's side of the court, silently screaming.

Louisa changed everything. She moved. She took a new name. She learned a new trade, something blue collar totally unlike the office work that used to pay her bills. She morphed her body and appearance into different hair, eyes, and build. She tried to leave behind everything Louisa.

In time, the scabs fell away. The scars faded to watermarks upon the flesh. When innocently touched by a man, the urge to flinch pervaded her, but she masked it in manners and aloofness. It took years to become the new her.

And then he found her.

Serigone acted as if they had a consensual relationship that could be brought back to life like CPR for a heat attack. He sent her letters. She burned them unread. He called her on the phone. She disconnected it. He came by her home. She triple locked the door.

Finally, she met him at her place of employment, and they came to an understanding.

At the end of the work day, she hung up her apron. She remembered writing the name of her old home town on the label glued to the overleaf of the box. That thought spawned a crooked grin. She flinched for only a moment, when the reflection of her face in an office window reminded her of Serigone in that courtroom so long ago.

She pulled her jacket off the hook by the door. It was emblazoned with the name of her employer on the back. Reading that name filled her with pride and a sense of accomplishment in being a meat packer and sausage maker.

Okay. The details are posted in the initial post of this topic. Once all the stories have been posted in comments, I will add the schedule of reviews.

R.

Authors:

I was surprised that there wasn't more interest in this group. Steve wrote to me about the possibility of going ahead with four stories. How do Vera and Francis feel about that? If it is okay with them, we will change how this works a bit. On Monday, we will all post our stories as comments to this topic. By Tuesday, I will have posted assignments for a single review round. (Since I believe that Vera and Francis are married and no one here wants to endanger that union, they will not be assigned each others works to review.) On Tuesday, we will each read our assigned story and post a review as a reply to the story's comment.

Is everyone up for that?

R.

Maggie wrote: "Aphrodyi wrote: "I'd love to sign up and participate.

Talisha Snow White: And Her Little Munchkins"

Hi Aphrodyi! I'm unable to message you through Goodreads - please send a copy o..."

You should be able to message her from her Goodreads page at https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2....

Authors:

We are moving on to the scheduling phase. The schedule of review has been published in the initial post of this topic. Please go over it and let me know about any conflicts.

R.

Carolyn wrote: "David wrote: "I think it's ridiculous we are being so specific about all this! I honestly could not care less and just want it sorted who is reading it! Lol"

David, I couldn't find a contact butto..."

Go to David's member page at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show.... There is a gray down arrow to the right of the Follow Author button. Click the gray down arrow. A menu will be displayed. On the menu is a Send Message option.

Authors:

We are now six. (Whew!) A schedule has been published in the initial post of this topic. Please let me know about any conflicts as soon as possible.

R.

K.T. wrote: "Then can I jump back on this review group? I can do Frost Burn or my more romantic based book Zendar: A Tale of Blood and Sand."

You are most welcome.

R.

Authors:

I have expanded the definition for this group. I will issue a broadcast message soon. Sorry for the difficulty. I will see if we can get this group off the ground.

R.

David wrote: "Surely we can sort this out now? If we have people who want to review Blade of Exile I'm happy to provide copies."

Since L.N. and James cannot review each other's works, there is no way to generate a schedule for five participants. Nothing is stopping reviews independent of this group, but that will make generating a schedule here more difficult, if and when we do find a sixth.

Let's give it another couple of days. If we do not find a sixth by then, we may not be able to do so within a reasonable time frame and it might be best for the people who volunteered for this group to arrange for independent reviews.

R.

Authors:

We need one more participant to make six. I did include a reminder in my recent broadcast message to the membership that this group was still open for sign up. Hopefully we will find the sixth soon.

R.

Authors:

For the first time, Genre Specific Review Groups has a reader-only participant in a review group. I have thought about this for a while, opening up review groups to members who are not currently interested in having their own work reviewed but are interested in reviewing the work of other writers. How this will work is that when the schedule is generated, any participant who would be scheduled to review Skye's work will instead get a bye for that round.

R.

Okay. We are going to give this a try. Go to https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... and review the guidelines. If you want to participate, post a comment under that topic to sign up.

R.

In joining this review group you have agreed to review the novels assigned to you on a two month schedule. This review group is now in the review phase and no longer open for new sign ups.

This is the Flash Fiction review group. (The maximum size is 2,000 words. It will work a bit differently from other review groups.) As with other review groups, you will be expected to read and give an honest review of the works assigned to you. Assignments will be made after the group sign-up has filled.

On the first day of the schedule, each author will post his or her Flash Fiction in a comment here. (Comments are limited to 12,000 characters, which will act as a de facto word count limit. If the story cannot be fit within a comment, then it is too long to be considered Flash Fiction.) By the second day, a schedule of reviews will be published here. Each participant will read the assigned work and post his or her review as a reply to the comment containing the story.

All stories must be posted by the end of the day on Monday (September 5, 2016).


THE AUTHORS AND BOOKS ARE:

1 Vera Mont

2 R. Leib

3 Francis Mont

4 Steve Ross

5 L.N. Denison

6 Annie Arcane


THE ORDER OF REVIEW:

September 6

Vera Mont reviews Annie Arcane
R. Leib reviews Francis Mont
Francis Mont reviews Steve Ross
Steve Ross reviews R. Leib
L.N. Denison reviews Vera Mont
Annie Arcane reviews L.N. Denison

September 7

Vera Mont reviews Steve Ross
R. Leib reviews Vera Mont
Francis Mont reviews L.N. Denison
Steve Ross reviews Annie Arcane
L.N. Denison reviews R. Leib
Annie Arcane reviews Francis Mont

Authors:

Your voices have been heard. A new Children's review group has been opened for sign up at https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/.... Please read the guidelines in the initial post. If you agree, sign up by posting a comment with your name and the name of your book under that topic.

R.

In joining this review group you have agreed to review the novels assigned to you on a two month schedule. This group is now in the review phase and is no longer open for sign up.

This is the Children's Book review group, which can include any books written for children including picture books, chapter books, and middle grade. As with other review groups, you will be expected to read and give an honest review of the books assigned to you. Assignments will be made after the group sign-up has filled.

Participants are expected to post reviews to Goodreads. If the review is positive (three stars or higher on Amazon), the review should be posted to Amazon (US and UK) as well, if the book is available there. This makes having accounts with both Goodreads and Amazon.com a requirement.

If a reviewer and the author agree that the review should not be posted to Goodreads due to quality issues, the reviewer is relieved of the requirement of posting the review. If this occurs in the first round, the second reviewer is relieved of the requirement to read and review the book. This is entirely at the discretion of the reviewer and is not intended in any way to manipulate the rating of any book.

Contact the authors you are scheduled to review to arrange to receive a review copy of their work.

Please post to this topic, both when you receive review copies and when you post the reviews.

If you are going to be late with your review, either post to this topic as soon as possible or message the author and the moderator.

If your book has not been reviewed by the deadline for either round, contact the review group moderator. This is necessary to make certain that the review process is fair for everyone.

Note that any participant who makes no effort to fulfill his or her commitment to this group will have all reviews of his or her work resulting from this group deleted and his or her membership in the Genre Specific Review Group will be terminated.


THE AUTHORS AND BOOKS ARE:

1 Maggie M. Larche - Striker Jones: Elementary Economics for Elementary Detectives

2 A.J. Culey - Tyrabbisaurus Rex

3 Sonal Panse - The Panchatantra Retold: Part 1 - Mitra Bheda

4 Ash Toroid - Tooth Goblins

5 Vera Mont - The Trouble with Whatchamacallits

6 Nigel Weight - Mr Bingle Bongle

7 Aphrodyi Antoine - Talisha Snow White: And Her Little Munchkins


THE ORDER OF REVIEW IS AS FOLLOWS:

September 3 to October 3

Maggie M. Larche reviews Aphrodyi Antoine
A.J. Culey reviews Nigel Weight
Sonal Panse reviews A.J. Culey
Ash Toroid reviews Vera Mont
Vera Mont reviews Maggie M. Larche
Nigel Weight reviews Sonal Panse
Aphrodyi Antoine reviews Ash Toroid

October 3 to November 3

Maggie M. Larche reviews Ash Toroid
A.J. Culey reviews Maggie M. Larche
Sonal Panse reviews Aphrodyi Antoine
Ash Toroid reviews Nigel Weight
Vera Mont reviews Sonal Panse
Nigel Weight reviews Vera Mont
Aphrodyi Antoine reviews A.J. Culey