Group 104. Fantasy. Mod K.A.

[K.A.]

Thanks, EP! Zipping along, there!

[E.P.]

Yep! Should have this wrapped up soon!

[Scott]

My review of Daughter of Ravenswood, an intriguing book!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R2Q7E...

https://www.amazon.com/review/R2K1T9E...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[K.A.]

Thanks, Scott!

[Elizabeth]

Thanks Joe and E.p for your reviews.
My review for Fear's Union:
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
Amazon uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R1CZ5...
Amazon.Com :https://www.amazon.com/review/R1I5KR5...

[K.A.]

Thanks, Elizabeth!

[Elizabeth]

My review for Revenge of an Archangel, thank you for the read.
Amazon Uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R2YV2...
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Amazon.com:https://www.amazon.com/review/RJSYOHQ...
This is me done for this round.
Thank you everyone that read and reviewed my book, I am grateful.

[K.A.]

Wow, Elizabeth, good work! See you in another one!

[E.P.]

My reviews of "The Temptation of Dragons" by Chrys Cymri are now up. That's round 3 for me!

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/review/R358GHV...
Amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R2VEV...

[K.A.]

Thanks, E.P.!

[Joe]

My Round 2 review for Penny White and the Temptation of Dragons:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

https://www.amazon.com/review/R37KTH0...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-...

[E.P.]

My round 4 review for The Sapling by Dan Gillis:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/review/R1H8C3F...
Amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R13Q0...

[Chrys]

Thanks for the reviews of my book!

[K.A.]

Thanks, Joe & E.P.!

And you're all done, E.P. - we're not even at the deadline for Round 1 yet! Hope to see you again...

[E.P.]

Awesome, thanks! I may mosey on over to one of the other groups that are forming now and see if I can get in. Thanks for a great read, everyone!

[Dan]

Thanks E.P. for the review!

Also, I was remiss and I must thank Chrys and Elizabeth for their reviews as well.

[James]

Thanks for the review Elizabeth!

[Scott]

My review for Bridgefinders, a very unique novel in the manner of Dr. Seuss if he were a novelist...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Will post Amazon links when they come in.

[Scott]

https://www.amazon.com/review/R173JKW...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R2MZX...

[Dan]

Here is my review for Fear's Union (Round 1).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

https://www.amazon.com/review/R1ZGBPE...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R81YH...

On to round 2! (I am in awe of the speedsters in this round)

[K.A.]

Thanks, Scott and Dan!

And we're all done with Round 1 - a few days early. Good job, guys!

[Joe]

No kidding, Dan. Some of these folks should be running review blogs with the speed of their reading!

[James]

Thanks Dan for the great review!

[James]

Reviews for Delusional here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.amazon.com/review/R1RTFMM...
Amazon.co.uk to follow.

[James]

And here's Amazon.co.uk:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R2LT1...

[Scott]

Hey, thanks! I was glad to hear you're not a typical reader of the genres in this book, but still enjoyed it!

[James]

Thanks Scott,

It's good to read outside the box sometimes! You never know what you'll like.

Cheers

[Chrys]

My reviews are up for 'Fear's Union':

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/RNGKD...

Amazon USA: https://www.amazon.com/review/R3DZV8S...

[Chrys]

And my reviews for 'Az-Revenge of an Archangel':

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R1CR5...

Amazon USA: https://www.amazon.com/review/RQN06E2...

[James]

Thanks Chrys for the honest feedback!

[Chrys]

Thanks James for taking it so well...

[K.A.]

Thanks, Chrys.

[James]

Hey - we all have different opinions don't we? One book is never going to work for everyone.

[Chrys]

Hmm, let's just say I had a rather stronger and more unfortunate reaction from someone (not in this group) when I pointed out her misplaced modifiers--in a helpful way, I thought!

[Scott]

Good point James, what probably bothers me is that some authors, especially those graduates with English majors in university, seem to hold to "rules" of English that go beyond grammar and punctuation. One rule seems to preclude any shifts of points of view within a book or within a chapter. To me, the emphasis is on the story, and sometimes point of view shifts can work, if the reader benefits from knowing the characters' thoughts as they experience the same incident, and as long as it's written in a way that's not confusing whose thoughts those are.

I mean, what's the benefit of writing in an omnipresent point of view, if only one' character's thoughts are allowed? You might as well have all books in a first person point of view, i.e. "I."

Some authors get around this problem by apportioning chapters to certain characters but what rule is there against doing it sparingly within a chapter and making it clear who is doing the thinking and if there is a reason behind revealing those points of view? The story comes first, not hard fast rules that inhibit the telling of a story.

What bothers me is that some reviewers adhere to certain rules that are personally important to them, rather than enjoy the story. I sometimes come across books that adhere to certain rules perfectly, but the story itself it stifling. I also come across books that are wildly written, but are immensely enjoyable to read. To some extent, rules and reading enjoyment jive together well (which is why we have some rules to help with structure) but not always.

One reviewer in this general discussion group even took one of my other books to task by pointing out I should not write, "[Character name] was afraid." Said I should have written, "[Character name"]'s stomach was tied into knots." And it was a children's book too! Sorry, but I'm not going to write about body parts all throughout the story dozens of times where I can cut straight to the chase. And otherwise "afraid" or "fear" would never appear in a story again.

Just my two cents.

[Scott]

Also, some reviewers say that adverbs should not be used in a story. I know Stephen King has said that the adverb is not your friend, but we invented them, and as long as the sentence sounds better with the adverb than without, we can use them. I don't think there should be rules one way or the other; the only rule that should be paramount covers the basics: spelling, grammar, and punctuation (except for dialogue, of course). The key is moderation and knowing what to do with adverbs, not a steadfast rule that is used to rate a book based on adverb count.

[J.D.]

Scott wrote: "Also, some reviewers say that adverbs should not be used in a story. I know Stephen King has said that the adverb is not your friend, but we invented them, and as long as the sentence sounds better..."

J.K. Rowling's use of adverbs in Harry Potter went utterly unreported. Why? The story was good and the usage was appropriate. As with anything, moderation is key, a balance is needed.

Though, I think what Stephen King meant wasn't that adverbs should not be used, but that there are a more appropriate ways to achieve the purpose of adverb by nailing it in prose--that perhaps a reader might deduce "happily" given the pluperfect context.

I use adverbs sparingly, but you know more than anyone (wink) that I could use an adverb (or two or three) here and there, haha. And maybe by King's rule, if one needs adverbs their prose may need refinement.

But then all of the pro's say that story is king! So with that being said, you can write as many damn adverbs as you want, so long as you plot a perfect story.

[Chrys]

I think, if the story grabs me, I overlook these issues. But if I'm bored, I start to notice.

[E.P.]

I'm very suspicious of any advice that says not to use a part of the language--no adverbs, passive voice, etc etc. I have encountered sentences where I thought the use of adverbs was excessive, but that was more about clunky writing in general. The adverbs were just symptomatic of a much bigger problem. Some people are going to prefer a sparer or a lusher style, but there's nothing inherently wrong with either.

[James]

Ok - before this thread gets entirely distracted, here are my reviews for Bridgefinders:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/review/R2E1SVK...
Amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R3NGB...

[Joshua]

James wrote: "Ok - before this thread gets entirely distracted, here are my reviews for Bridgefinders:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/review/R2E1S..."

Thanks for the review.. I'll have to check on the misspellings.. I didn't think I had the misspelled version of Cendan in that copy. I had fluctuated during writing between Cenden and Cendan. I'll check that.

[Scott]

I also found typos in Bridgefinders... lots of them... but I don't know how to extract my notes from my Kindle laptop Mac program. (I don't have a Kindle device).

Some websites say to look for an automatic text file in my directory... I looked but no luck finding it. Some websites say to extract it using a menu feature but my Kindle program on my Mac laptop doesn't offer that drop-down menu option.

[Joshua]

Scott wrote: "I also found typos in Bridgefinders... lots of them... but I don't know how to extract my notes from my Kindle laptop Mac program. (I don't have a Kindle device).

Some websites say to look for an..."

http://www.norbauer.com/bookcision/

Dunno if that's any help.

[Joshua]

Scott wrote: "I also found typos in Bridgefinders... lots of them... but I don't know how to extract my notes from my Kindle laptop Mac program. (I don't have a Kindle device).

Some websites say to look for an..."

http://www.clearprose.com/save-kindle... that might be helpful as well.

[Scott]

I don't see these headings at all... sigh...

I may have to update my Kindle... I have Version 1.12.4. Apparently the current version for Mac is 1.16.0.

[Joshua]

Scott wrote: "I don't see these headings at all... sigh...

I may have to update my Kindle... I have Version 1.12.4. Apparently the current version for Mac is 1.16.0."

Try the second link, that apparently goes through amazon's website..

[Scott]

I updated my Kindle to 1.16.0 but it deleted all books that were emailed to me, not purchased through Amazon.

So my annotated version of your book is gone. At least it was the first book I tried to annotate, so luckily I didn't lose much of my hard work, although I lost all the other free books I got outside of Amazon. Oh well. I had too many Kindle books anyway.

I'd simply recommend you get a paid proofreader. The biggest problem was the missing apostrophe. For example, Oakhearts faith instead of Oakheart's faith. That occurred well over twenty times. I would search all names at least especially names with an "s" at the end of the name, i.e. Oakhearts, Cendans, but I think sometimes the "s" is missing altogether.

[Scott]

Sigh... the Highlights page says I didn't have any highlights. I did a test highlight on your book (which I opened back into the new Kindle version again). Moreover it says:

You haven't added any highlights to the Kindle books that you bought from Amazon.

So does that mean it only works on books I bought from Amazon? Many books from review groups are not from Amazon. So the review group books aren't linked to Amazon.

Anyone can help? I do have the latest version now, so I should be able to do anything anyone can do with personally traded Kindle books.

[James]

Joshua wrote: "James wrote: "Ok - before this thread gets entirely distracted, here are my reviews for Bridgefinders:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.co..."

I still have annotations on my Kindle version. I can get them down into an email for you if you're interested (with approx Kindle locations). Bit of a manual job, but hey!

[Joshua]

James wrote: "Joshua wrote: "James wrote: "Ok - before this thread gets entirely distracted, here are my reviews for Bridgefinders:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Amazon.com: https:..."

Sure. :)