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Firebolt
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Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Adrienne,I have read almost quarter of the way into Firebolt, but cannot continue.
I committed to reading your book with the best of intentions, but find that the content is just too ..."
Yeah, yeah. I already corrected someone else on that one on your behalf, so don't bust my... for a little slip.
Hell, I love fighting with you.
Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Adrienne,I have read almost quarter of the way into Firebolt, but cannot continue.
I committed to reading your book with the best of intentions, but find th..."
So we do agree on something after all.
I'll catch you in the next discussion - or I might poke my nose in here from time to time to keep you honest!
Adrienne wrote: "I've got another topic I would like to get your opinion from.Do you think that Elena and Lucian shouldn't be together. Many said that they don't see them really as in love. What do you think?"
First of all, at the beginning, I predicted Blake and Elena to end up together. I thought that Elena was going to end up being the heir and then be the dragonian to Blake (IF THIS HAPPENS ADRIENNE PLEASE DONT SAY ANYTHING. I DONT WANT SPOILERS) so that's my prediction from the get go so when I saw Lucian start to have interest in Elena I got nervous cause I already had my ship in my head. I don't really trust Lucian. I feel like he's sort of sketchy and disappears for random reasons a lot without a good explanation and I still think that by the end of the series Blake and Elena are going to end up together. Even at the end by the campfire they showed qualities that could be dragonian pairs like knowing what the other is going to say. And we don't know anything about Elena's mother so maybe her father is not who she thinks and she is the secret heir. That's my guess so in the long run, no I do not like Lucian and Elena together.
Now here's my review of the book in general. I thought this was a very clever book. It was an interesting topic because you don't read too much about dragons now a days and the human/dragon was a nice twist. Some of the things reminded be a lot of other books I've read like the dragonian bond was similar to that of a parabati in Cassandra Clare's shadowhunter books and the school was a mix of Gallagher girls and hogwarts. The characters had nice development, especially Elena who could definitely not have accomplished what she did at the end near the beginning of the book. I'm not sure if this was just me but in the book the spacing was messed up and some words were smooshed together. Just a side note. Overall I enjoyed reading this book. I think it had a couple slow parts, but the overall book was good and I'm glad to be a part of the beginning of its hopeful very large success!
John wrote: "Adrienne,I have read almost quarter of the way into Firebolt, but cannot continue.
I committed to reading your book with the best of intentions, but find that the content is just too far out of my..."
Hahahaha, thanks for trying though John. I know my novel wasn't going to be for everyone and I made peace with that. If it's not your genre, it's not. No need to apologize on that. Thank you for trying though. It really means the world to me.
Stephanie wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "I've got another topic I would like to get your opinion from.Do you think that Elena and Lucian shouldn't be together. Many said that they don't see them really as in love. What ..."
You and Lisa both think Lucian is evil. hahaha. Like I said to Vicky. My first till eight draft was over 120 000 words and I had to cut since the first novel can only be about 95 000 ya fantasy. Stefanie Meyer got away with 140 000 word with Twilight, how she done it, I don't know. I'm thinking to get the first draft edited properly and re publish that maybe as a third edition. Then you guys will see why Lucian and Elena should be together. I've tried to capture that when I rewrite the draft but lost their bond somehow...and now everyone thinks Lucian is evil. He's the Prince of Tith, I promise you his intentions are good. There is a huge twist in book two but it's not about Lucian at all. I like your thinking though. It's fun to read it.
Stephanie wrote: "Now here's my review of the book in general. I thought this was a very clever book. It was an interesting topic because you don't read too much about dragons now a days and the human/dragon was a n..."Thanks for you honest review Stephanie, I really love people's honesty when it comes to Firebolt. I'm glad you enjoyed it overall and I hope that you would carry on reading the series.
John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Adrienne,I have read almost quarter of the way into Firebolt, but cannot continue.
I committed to reading your book with the best of intention..."
No fighting in my group discussion you two or I'm going to send you both to the naughty corner. hahahaha
Adele wrote: "Lucian and Elena together is ok for now. But Im also team Blake. It would be sooo sweet to see the big bad nasty dragon hopelessly fall for our innocent heroine. .."It would be, ne. I'm not saying anything, you guys must read book two, some things would get answered to who Elena is.
Adrienne wrote: "John wrote: "Adrienne,I have read almost quarter of the way into Firebolt, but cannot continue.
I committed to reading your book with the best of intentions, but find that the content is just too ..."
Thanks for your understanding, Adrienne.
Vicki wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Adrienne,I have read almost quarter of the way into Firebolt, but cannot continue.
I committed to reading your b..."
How do you know that if it's a secret? Or is it our secret only? If so, then it is not a secret anymore.
Damn, I sound like Barry Roux.
Mod
I sometimes think they need their own thread for all their comic relief
Mod
Personally, I think Elena doesn't need a love interest.
I'm a big Sammy fan, she's so funny
Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Adrienne,I have read almost quarter of the way into Firebolt, but cannot continue.
I ..."
No - let's keep them guessing. Isn't that what good fiction is all about?
Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Adrienne,I have read almost quarter of the way into Firebo..."
Good. Now stop talking to me - they'll get suspicious. And we're occupying Adrienne's thread - she'll send a pair of those dragons after us.
Vicki wrote: "Ask Lisa to start a thread called the Vicki and John chronicles."Our own show? Pressure. Do we co-write the script?
Vicki wrote: "Ask Lisa to start a thread called the Vicki and John chronicles."Hey, I just noticed: why the 'Vicki and John Chronicles' and not 'John and Vicki'. Thought you could slip that one past me, did you?
Vicki wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Adrienne,I have read almost quarter of the way into Firebolt, but cannot continue.
I committed to reading your b..."
Hhahahahha.
John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Adrienne,I have read almost quarter of the w..."
I'll send Blake. Hahahahaha. You are going to duck and dive Mr.
Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "Ask Lisa to start a thread called the Vicki and John chronicles."Hey, I just noticed: why the 'Vicki and John Chronicles' and not 'John and Vicki'. Thought you could s..."
Are you still using that foreign editor? John is British, not Norwegian.
Adrienne wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Adrienne,I have read almost qua..."
I'll keep an eye on the horizon, Adrienne.
Vicki wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "Ask Lisa to start a thread called the Vicki and John chronicles."Hey, I just noticed: why the 'Vicki and John Chronicles' and not 'John and Vicki'. Thoug..."
No, it must be the JoVi Chronicles, or I'm not playing.
This is the last word on the matter, Vickee. You can't always get your own way, like that Ariel chick.
And Adrienne is getting mightily ...off with us. Please go shopping or something now.
Adrienne wrote: "My first till eight draft was over 120 000 words and I had to cut since the first novel can only be about 95 000 ya fantasy. Stefanie Meyer got away with 140 000 word with Twilight, how she done it, I don't know."It's done when it's done, isn't it? Well done for cutting some, but don't get too hung up on length. The bigger question is pace and plot, if those are strong, the length is a secondary concern.
John wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Adrienne,I hav..."
Hahahaha, it's going to turn into something like Reign of Fire, poor Blake. At least he can shift into a human when it gets too much. hahahahaha
Vicki wrote: "Vicki wrote: "John wrote: "Vicki wrote: "Ask Lisa to start a thread called the Vicki and John chronicles."Hey, I just noticed: why the 'Vicki and John Chronicles' and not 'John and Vicki'. Thoug..."
You can do whatever you want as long as you have fun
Vicki wrote: "Marc wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "My first till eight draft was over 120 000 words and I had to cut since the first novel can only be about 95 000 ya fantasy. Stefanie Meyer got away with 140 000 word ..."If you self publish it isn't a problem, but you do get problems when you are going a traditional route or a publishing route. I didn't bargain on getting a small publisher myself as I was still busy with the agent etc route. With them you must obey by the word count rules for your first novel. It doesn't apply for your second etc. I know it sounds dumb but it's the guidelines that they have on most of the sites. Ya usually falls in the 80 000 to 90 000 as this is a YA with sub genre fantasy. If it was a fantasy then you can go with 120 000 words max even more. It just depends which genre. So I had to cut on some scenes as I really wanted an agent but ended up going with a small publisher as the agent thing is really hard to get.
Mod
I was recently told that Dickens was paid per word. Now I understand...
I had to rewrite my masters research 25 times and it's only 11 pages long... So I feel some of your pain
Lisa wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "Vicki wrote: "Marc wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "My first till eight draft was over 120 000 words and I had to cut since the first novel can only be about 95 000 ya fantasy. Stefanie Me..."Wouldn't it be amazing if an author could get paid per word.
Vicki wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "Vicki wrote: "Marc wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "My first till eight draft was over 120 000 words and I had to cut since the first novel can only be about..."That is the truth. I think it's bull for amazon to pay two months later only. I mean to wait two months for this months sales....so not awesome. I would've loved the big sum with traditional publishers but we all got to start somewhere, so hopefully with the next couple of books, different series off course, I could land an agent. Fingers cross. Without them no traditional publishing is possible.
I has been my intent to read Firebolt. I've read the other SA monthly reads, but I am reading a very long novel previously obligated. (A gift from my spouse - "When are you going to read it?") I may join the party quite late.
Vicki wrote: "Never mind per word, I just want to get paid, full stop."Hear hear. And then Amazon discount your selling price anyway (print) so you sell and make a few cents per copy. All part of the fun ;-)
Anyway, back to Firebolt. I thought it a book of thirds when I read the ARC copy a while back - strong start, meandered a little in the middle which is partly I think because I'm not a big romance reader, so the romantic subplot wasn't so interesting for me - and then the final third picked the pace up again.
Fantasy is funny. I think the largest Potter book hit 250K words. Anyway, quality, quality, quality ...
Buck wrote: "I has been my intent to read Firebolt. I've read the other SA monthly reads, but I am reading a very long novel previously obligated. (A gift from my spouse - "When are you going to read it?") ..."Thanks Buck. Not to worry, whenever you can join is fine. Thanks for reading my novel. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea and I hope you are going to like it.
Marc wrote: "Vicki wrote: "Never mind per word, I just want to get paid, full stop."Hear hear. And then Amazon discount your selling price anyway (print) so you sell and make a few cents per copy. All part of..."
Oh I'm a huge Harry Potter fan and I think J.K Rowling is just an amazing author. I couldn't put her novel down. A couple have said the middle was a bit boring as Elena comes to terms with everything she got to deal with. One thing I would like you to keep in mind as I know my world wasn't properly fanned out in Firebolt. This is written through her point of view so I can only build around what she sees through her eyes, and in Firebolt it's a tiny bit of Elm and most Dragonia Academy. Book two is a lot more world building as Elena is finally going to see what the wall is about, she is also going to see a Warbel game, it's like rugby, football and soccer for us, hehehehehe. And obviously places in her summer vacation spending with Sammy and Becky in Tith before Only around chapter twelve will she be going back to Dragonia, which I also fanned out more as she explores more of the academy this time. Now that I think about it, first person is really hard to write as you are in your main character's head the entire time. Most fantasy novels are written in third as they can fan out the world building more. I just hope that it wasn't too boring and that you would read my second novel too.
I hate it too that Amazon discount your prices. I mean Firebolt was originally sold, paperback, at 15.99 dollars, it's down to 12, and my ebook was at 5.99 and went down to 3.77.Huge difference at the end of the month. But I've got to admit, you do sell more copies the less your novel is. My publisher is going to do a month tour for me in June and then I'm going to do a freeby for a whole weekend. So, we'll see what she is going to say about it, if that would be possible at all.
Adrienne wrote: "Stephanie wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "I've got another topic I would like to get your opinion from.Do you think that Elena and Lucian shouldn't be together. Many said that they don't see them really..."
That's interesting that we both thought that but I understand now that that you didn't have enough time to really capture their relationship
Adrienne wrote: "Stephanie wrote: "Now here's my review of the book in general. I thought this was a very clever book. It was an interesting topic because you don't read too much about dragons now a days and the hu..."Adrienne wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "Vicki wrote: "Marc wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "My first till eight draft was over 120 000 words and I had to cut since the first novel can only be about 95 000 ya fantas..."
Thank you for sending it to me and I would definitely love to review the rest of the series for you! Such a fun time!
Mod
Huge difference a..."
That's because there are certain skelm people like me who put books on wish lists and wait for prices to drop:-)
Stephanie wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "Stephanie wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "I've got another topic I would like to get your opinion from.Do you think that Elena and Lucian shouldn't be together. Many said that they don'..."
I should have just stick to the first draft, maybe plenty of things would have made sense. I'm really contemplating on doing my first draft as a 3rd edition when all the series are done.
Stephanie wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "Stephanie wrote: "Now here's my review of the book in general. I thought this was a very clever book. It was an interesting topic because you don't read too much about dragons now ..."THANK you for reading it. It means the world to me, and I'll send messages to everyone that reviewed the first one to see if they would like to read the 2nd one too
Lisa wrote: "Adrienne wrote: "I hate it too that Amazon discount your prices. I mean Firebolt was originally sold, paperback, at 15.99 dollars, it's down to 12, and my ebook was at 5.99 and went down to 3.77...."
Hahaha, Lisa. The copies are much cheaper on Amazon though.
I have read almost quarter of the way into Firebolt, but cannot continue.
I committed to reading your book with the best of intentions, but find that the content is just too far out of my reading range. I would be doing neither of us any good by persevering through to the end, as I would not have anything worthwhile to comment on, or to say in a review. You're getting good participation from the group, so I do not think my input will be missed.
Please accept my sincere apologies, Adrienne. If it is any consolation, I only made it half-way through the first Harry Potter volume before I tossed it aside. I thought I would give magic another try with your book, but I find that I still cannot bring myself to inhabit the fantasy world of dragons and demons. I suppose that says more about me than it does your book.
I wish you great success with your Dragonian Series. You certainly have the imagination required to achieve just that. Well done!
PS If I was a dragon, I'd want to be a Sun-Blast. Ariel would be a Fire-Tail, wouldn't she, Vicky?
Have fun, group!