Ronovan Hester is an author/poet/blogger, with a debut historical adventure novel Amber Wake: Gabriel Falling now available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.
"5.0 out of 5 stars: Now, I want to warn you… this is not your typical pirate tale! It’s BETTER!"
"5.0 out of 5 stars: Totally unpredictable and a real gem of a discovery - Highly Recommended"
"5.0 out of 5 stars: An action packed journey to piracy and revenge – all in the name of the crown, queen and county – set in 1705."
He shares his life of problems, triumphs, and writing through his blog RonovanWrites.com. His love of writing, authors and community through his online world has led to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews and interviews known as LitWorldInterviews.com.
Everyone has their own way of doing a book review and in a way that is how it should be. Always remember a book review is an opinion. That being said and out of the way, I do think there needs to be some common considerations taken.
I don’t believe published book reviews on volunteer sites should:
Be for tearing down an author and that author’s work.
Nor do I think a poorly written book should be praised.
And being paid for a review just doesn’t cut it, unless you work for a site that has ads and also gets paid for the service of book reviewing like major newspapers or magazines. But that’s a job, not a volunteer thing. And even then, honesty is the best policy. For most of us, receiving a good book to review is a nice perk of book reviewing.
Poorly Written Books
Yes, I’m beginning with the tough one. I’ve read books with a great idea, but poor execution. I’ve written books like that as well. We all have to learn and we get excited to get that book out and into hands. I’ve put my novels away, come back to them months later, and found so many mistakes that I didn’t realize were there before.
Personally, I offer the author an out up front. If I read the book and the review is less than a 3 out of 5 Rating, they can choose not to have it published or go forward with it. It’s up to them. If less than a 3 and published, I will make a note I have the consent of the author to do so. This consent is a question on the LWI site Book Request Submission Form. (Why do I give this out? I feel that by putting faith in me and providing a copy of the book to me, they at least deserve that option. If I buy the book myself…I have the option to post as I see fit.)
If the author says to publish, then make certain to be professional and do not write to destroy and tear down. Your Rating will give the reader one idea of what the book is, while your words explain things. Some people want to see a reviewer go off on an author and make fun of them. You won’t find that on LWI. We’re mature adults who are teachers, professors, doctors, lawyers, authors, and university students. We take our role in the career of an author seriously.
Great Books
You have to decide ahead of time what your idea of a great book is. Some may protest at this idea, but there needs to be some reference point to go by. If you are considering F. Scott Fitzgerald or Hemingway as the great, a 5 Star read, then a 4 may be an extremely great review from you. I tend to lean this way, but I do still let the book itself stand on its own merits. I do give a 5 or a round up to a 5 from something like a 4.8 at times. But for me to do that it MUST be a great book and MUST connect with me. As always, every review is an opinion. The more books you read in the genre areas you like with a reviewer mind the more you come to recognize great writing in those areas. But then you have entertaining writing as well. Book Reviewing is not easy when you are doing it seriously.
Keep in mind that even though the book is great there still might be that something you didn’t like or that bothered you. Is it something worth sharing? Did it stay with you? If if did, then you may want to refer to it. Why? Credibility. You want your review to mean something.
Book Information
For the LitWorldInterviews site we include the basic information for the book such as Author, Title, Publisher, Publication Date, ASIN and so on. You can look at any of our Book Reviews and see our basic layout. Many Book Review sites include this information. We do add some to it, such as Author, Title, Genre, sometimes formats available and pricing (If I remember to do it on mine). You can checkout Book Review of Dancing to an Irish Reel by Claire Fullerton to see how I put a book review together and how the Book Information looks.
Author Information
A Book Review, for me, is a way to advertise for an author. Therefore, I include as many of the online ways to connect to the author as I can, and I include a profile/bio of the author.
Writing the Review
Most likely if you are reading this you are wondering what you should include in the review. There isn’t a magical formula. Things I attempt (as always depending on my memory and excitement level) to include are:
At least the basic story idea and main characters.
Things that I connected to without giving away too much of the story.
How the flow of the book is.
How engaging and immersing the story is.
If the characters and voice are authentic.
If the setting is authentic, especially if describing an actual place. (You may not know this part but if there is something described that nags at you, such as a high-rise building in the middle of a swamp, then that may be an issue for you.)
What genres the book falls into as far as you feel. A book may be classified as a Romance by a publisher but in reality be Literary Fiction that has a relationship in it, but has very little to do with what people consider as Romance.
Comparison to any big ‘stars’ of the literary world that may help people connect to the feel of the story and thus prompt a person to purchase the book.
Is it a MUST to include all of the above, or even half of the above? No. Those are suggestions, and there are plenty of other things people include. Your goal as a Book Reviewer is to give your opinion of if the book is good or not and provide enough information to send a reader off to purchase the book.
One thing to remember about Book Reviewing is to find your voice. There are a great many reviewers out there and in order for you to convey what you are wanting to say you need to say it with honesty, and that will come out as your voice. You can look here on LitWorldInterviews and see we all have different styles and voices. My style is dictated by the book and my enjoyment of it and you can easily tell by a review I have done if I truly loved a book or not before you even get to the Rating at the bottom.
A Book Review isn’t all about proper sentence structure. Sure, you want to be professional, otherwise people will wonder what do you know about reviewing a book. But you are reviewing for story, engagement, flow, and things of that nature. You are telling a story of your own when you write a review, and as James Patterson says, “Focus on the story not the sentence.”
Ronovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com, a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources. For those serious about book reviewing and interested in reviewing for the LWI site, email me at ronovanwrites (at) gmail (dot) com to begin a dialogue. It may not work out but then again it might.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a CPU and working on your own book, then you know how much I’ve enjoyed a book called Dancing to an Irish Reel by Award Winning author Claire Fullerton. But I made a mistake with that book review. And I want to correct that up front. I wrote the review too soon after reading the book and failed to give time for reflection and full comprehension to take place. I didn’t take it all in and examine all the nuances hidden within the story. Every day since then I’ve been working on some aspect of the Claire Fullerton Experience. Yes, I call time spent working with an author an Experience like that because it does not normally end with a review and/or an interview. There is a lot more going on in the background than anyone other than one of my authors knows.
During the Experience I realized just how much Claire put in her book and how much she put in to her book. The more I think about it, the more I love the book. I don’t normally dwell very long after a review and interview, I always have the next to go to and I have since. But this would had a truth about it, a realness that one connects with and it stays with you. But before I get too carried away, unless I’m already too late, let’s get to my discussion with Claire Fullerton, Award Winning author and #1 GoodReads Irish Romance.
Claire, for a book that finds itself at times falling into the category of Romance, I have to say I was surprised by what I found with keeping that genre in mind. Did you set out to write a Romance? Was that your goal?
I’m so glad you asked this question, Ronovan. Actually, “Dancing to an Irish Reel” is literary fiction, which is a genre that means true to life. It’s a story about those near misses people experience on the road to a love that endures. I can’t think of anyone I know who hasn’t been in this situation before; where all the variables of attraction are in play, while two people are coming to know each other, yet for one reason or another, they can’t seem to get it together. But there is always such hope, and I think new love is typically replete with uncertainty. There is excitement and high hopes, yet on the flip side there is unpredictability and attendant fears. Extending oneself in new love can be risky and can leave one feeling vulnerable. It’s my belief that most people experience uncertainty and doubt when in the throes of new love, it’s just a question of to what degree they’re going to admit it! This is what “Dancing to an Irish Reel” is about. This is also why this book does not fall into the romance genre, but it does explore the subject.
Actually when I was thinking about this interview and the book I thought of real life with those moments of almost romance, or more relationship to tell the truth.
I think so as well. This is why I gave the reader Hailey’s thoughts throughout this book. I’m fascinated by the way people will say and do things in order to project a certain appearance, while thinking something completely at variance with their words and actions. I wanted the reader to know Hailey’s personality as she made her way in rural Ireland; that she saw things from an American frame of reference for much of this book, yet as the story progresses, that frame of reference was changed as she came to understand the Irish culture. I think this is what people do in life: they tend to resist what is new because their mind is already made up, but if one allows themselves to be influenced, there is much to learn!
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The role of Hailey Crossan is a strong woman who knows who she is and what she wants. Where did those characteristics come from, as far as a model for her?
I love your use of the word role! I, too, see this book as a movie! You’ve just made my day! But seriously, and to your astute point, I know more women like Hailey Crossan than otherwise. When I consider all the close girlfriends, with whom I was lucky enough to grow up in Memphis, I realize they are all nobody’s fool. My mother was the same way. The women in my life have always been self-confident and self-reliant. They have a savvy, keen eye with regard to sizing people up. And the thing I’ve found with many of my friends is they rarely let on. They prefer to keep things close to the vest, so you have to know them for a while before you realize how aware they really are. This is how I wanted to write the character of Hailey. It was necessary that she was self- sufficient and sure of herself in order to move to another country without fear. She had to be able to hold her own in her new environment because she was a fish-out-of-water, so to speak.
I think your description of close to the vest fits Hailey well, now that I think about her. Cautious is another word that comes to mind. Recently I became a fan of a young man named Hozier, an Irish blues singer/musician/songwriter of about 26. I couldn’t help but picture him during my reading of Dancing to an Irish Reel. Did you have any images in mind, anyone in particular when you were writing Liam Hennessey?
Generally yes, but no one specifically. But I’ll use Hozier to make a point because the look of him is a good example; it is common in Ireland. There are many with dark hair and fair skin. And having lived in Ireland myself, I found the men to be subtle and beautiful, almost with a graceful, feminine quality. And those artistically attuned are the sensitive sort. This is what I had in mind when I created Liam Hennessey.
Oh, and one other thing before we move on, why that name, why Dancing to an Irish Reel?
Spiddal Pier Shore Galway Bay, Ireland
In Irish traditional music, a reel is a tune that is circular; it goes back and forth and in and out in its execution, and to the listener it may seem unstable, but it is not. A reel has a plan! The title “Dancing to an Irish Reel” is meant to evoke this concept. It refers to the push and pull of the story and the search for stability. Hailey’s navigation of Ireland as an outsider and her sometimes off, sometimes on relationship with Liam Hennessey left her in the position of having to artfully manage a shifting tide, so to speak. She had to learn the ways of the Irish culture in order to live there inconspicuously, and the unpredictability of Liam Hennessey’s actions left her constantly searching for solid ground!
I’ve seen your handling of Ireland compared to that of one of Ireland’s most famous and beloved authors the late Maeve Binchy. When you see comparisons like that what comes to mind?
With regard to Maeve Binchy, because she was Irish, she handled Irish nuances effortlessly, as a matter of course. They were not unusual to her at all, but she reveled in their specific, unique quality. With regard to Ireland, she was in it as well as of it, yet able to stand back and observe the islands peculiarity in a way that celebrated its facets. I sought to do exactly this in “Dancing to an Irish Reel” because I carry a love and appreciation for the land and its culture. I find the Irish people earthy and authentic, unpretentious and in possession of a good perspective with regard to what is important in life. They place importance on quality of life and seem to me to accept life on life’s terms, as opposed to trying to manipulate their way through it.
When you were writing the book, was it an organic experience or did you have a specific outline in mind first? And whichever way, is that the same way you wrote A Portal in Time, your previous release?
Spanish Arch Galway, Ireland
For both books, I had a point to make, as in something to say. I started with a premise as a statement then set about getting there via a story that unfolded. As for an outline, my process is very loose. I leave room for the story to tell itself, which is something best exemplified as I write dialogue. I never know ahead of time what the dialogue will be, yet I aim for information to be revealed. We learn about characters through what they say and what other characters say about them. In both books, I was mindful of the spirit of intention and had a loose outline of what was going to happen with regard to turning points. I simply held a firm impression of who the characters were to make the events in both books plausible.
Reading your book and the description of A Portal in Time, I get the feeling of your enjoyment of writing about past lives, mystical and spiritual elements. Is this something that comes natural to you, I mean as in the aspects of writing?
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My introspection must be showing! In truth, I’m not completely decisive on the subject of past lives one way or the other, but I do love the mystery. Perhaps the idea of past lives shares a blurred line with genetic memory, who’s to say? If you consider the idea of genetic memory, what it basically proposes is that we carry the impressions and experiences of our forebears because they are past down to us through genetics like imprints. This explains inherited talents and proclivities in an understandable way. And if you look at, say, the Druids, they didn’t believe so much in past lives as they did in the transmigration of the soul, meaning we are souls gathering wisdom in this business of living on earth, but it takes many incarnations to accumulate something with staying power. We can’t just get it all in one lifetime, if the aim is enlightenment, i.e, perfection. And because it is an ongoing endeavor, the idea is we return to this earthly plane repeatedly, where we try on different hats. I think there is confusion over the idea of past-lives because it places importance on the experience of the human as opposed to the experience of the soul as it seeks alignment with the divine, however you choose to define the divine. But this subject is important, and it’s enough for me to be mindful of the question. I think Sting touched upon something beautiful when he proclaimed we are spirits in the material world, and I know he wasn’t the first to posit this, but he did make a proclamation that brought it to the public fore.
Everyone that’s read my review of your book knows I loved it, and that I suggested a sequel. We’ve talked about it and it hadn’t come to you as an idea until then. But you set it up so well with the tarot card reading of Hailey. Do you think maybe some of those outside forces were guiding your story during certain parts? Maybe they want you to take another trip to Ireland.
Actually, I have been back to Ireland since I wrote “Dancing to an Irish Reel,” and I plan on going again! As for going back to Ireland in a sequel, I never thought along those lines because “Dancing to an Irish Reel” is a self-contained story with a point to it, which is to say we make our choices in life and from them our lives are set on a consequential course. As of this interview, I am not ruling a sequel out. I’ll let Hailey decide.
Now let’s get something a little more personal. We have a lot in common. Southern. Music business. Location of living for a time. How does your time in the South influence your writing, and is that part of your heritage something that you think might have drawn you to Ireland?
Ireland and the American South share something in common, but do keep in mind that much of the American South was settled by the Scotch-Irish, so perhaps it is something inherent in the area. Both areas spawn terrific communicators in possession of the gift of the entertaining story. It is a cultural way of being in the world, and therefore something passed down to each generation. In both the South and Ireland, I’ve found extremely colorful characters, completely unabashed in personality. As for the South influencing my writing, all I can say is that I write as I think, from the internal monologue I have in my head as well as how I see the world. The South has clearly influenced this as an environment because it is my frame of reference.
What’s the most satisfying thing that has happened to you so far while you’ve been an author?
The writer’s life style. I write daily for one reason or another. It has transpired that with two books in the world and the dynamic that promotion brings therefore, that I am always writing something, and this is due to the affiliations my books have given me. Take for instance the Irish online community “The Wild Geese.” They’re a group of the most erudite, Ireland loving writers I’ve ever come across, all with the desire to communicate and share their love of the island. I contribute to this community regularly by writing pieces that appear as blog posts, but what they really are is a way to celebrate the business of what it means to be Irish! So there is that gift, but I have also spent the last two years writing my third novel, which has been a joyous process. Then, of course, I contribute to magazines. It seems I’m always writing something and sharing it, which to me is simply the high art of communication for its own sake. All this is my idea of fulfilling days with a purpose. Can’t get more satisfying than this!
Do you have a favorite line in Dancing to an Irish Reel?
Yes, it is this: “There’s a feel about Galway that you can wear around your shoulders like a cloak.” It is very true.
Thank you, Ronovan. This has been big fun! Thank you for supporting writers through your exceptional blog.
About Claire
Claire Fullerton grew up in Memphis, TN and now lives in Malibu, CA. She is the author of literary fiction, “Dancing to an Irish Reel,” which is set in Connemara, Ireland, where she once lived. She is also the author of “A Portal in Time”: A paranormal mystery that unfolds in two time periods set on California’s hauntingly beautiful Monterey Peninsula, in a little village called Carmel-by-the-Sea. Both of Claire’s novels are published by Vinspire Publishing. Claire is a three- time award winning essayist, a former newspaper columnist, a contributor to magazines including Celtic Life International and Southern Writers Magazine. She is a five-time contributor to the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book series and can be found on Goodreads as well as the website under her name. Currently, Claire is writing her third novel, which is a Southern family saga based on her award winning essay in the 2013 San Francisco Writer’s Conference.
Beta Readers needed by author Viv Drewa for the following. Please contact her at the-owl-lady(at)att(dot)net with interest. She is a great supporter of Indie Authors.
MIDNIGHT OWL
(A Joe Leverette Mystery)
Book 1
By Viv Drewa
When the dismembered body of a young woman is found Detectives Joe Leverette and Philip
Marsden are assigned the case. After investigating the Port Huron, Michigan area where the six body
parts were found there’s a twist in the case: The murderer goes after each individual who found the parts,
Leverette becomes interested in one of the women, Carole Sage, a sensitive, but because of the
case he’s not able to take it any further. Everyone on the police force sees his infatuation, but Carole
Each of the six witnesses has a dream about the murderer removing the particular body part they
found the night. They are startled awake and hear an owl hoot three times. None of them want to reveal
Carole sees the actual murder and each murder as it happens to the witnesses. The police chief,
Billingsley, understands her ‘gift’ and sets up a sting to catch him. It fails and they have to regroup to think
of something else. Two witnesses are dead and they don’t want a third to die.
Author: Claire Fullerton Title: Dancing to an Irish Reel File Size: 373 KB Print Length: 237 pages Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0990304256 Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited Publisher: Vinspire Publishing (March 6, 2015) Publication Date: March 6, 2015 Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc. Language: English ASIN: B00UCOZJXM Text-to-Speech: Enabled Word Wise: Enabled Lending: Enabled Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction, Literary Fiction Kindle: $1.99 Paperback: $13.99 Audible: $17.95
I received a copy of this book from the author for an honest review. And of course with me, you know that’s what you get. Good or bad. Here we go!
What happens when an L.A. music exec goes on sabbatical to Ireland? Well this is a romance, so I’ll say romance, along with love, music, and most of all confusion—caused by love, language, and longing. You might think a Southern girl who moved to L.A. might be accustomed to culture shock and speaking a different language, but Ireland is an island unto itself.
Dancing to an Irish Reel is about American Hailey meeting real Ireland and new-to-love Liam Hennessey. What you get is a story of Hailey learning about the place she comes to call home and as she learns about it and begins to understand it, she also begins to understand the man she falls for.
I like the character of Hailey. She is not your stereotype romantic leading lady that people like to think of. She is strong, knows what she wants, has common sense, and above all—she doesn’t do the typical damsel in distress routines.
Men, you will like this book. I say that because men need to realize that a great deal of books with Romance in the genre are not exactly what you may think. Movies men seem to like have romance in them and could be labeled as such in genre. So get a clue.
In other words this will hit with all people.
I found this book a bit of a surprise in some ways. Things don’t happen the way you expect, which to me is good. You want to be surprised these days. I do want to say that the character of Liam, well—Fullerton does a great job of explaining the Irish male in several places from different viewpoints. Very interesting, I thought.
You might at times want to hit Liam over the head with something, like his accordion, but then, he is a man, it’s love, and he’s young, so what else would you expect? And that is one thing that makes this book real and allows the reader to connect with it. No one is perfect in the book. Even those thought to be perfect are flawed deeply, and not entirely due to their own doing. And as for the accordion, it’s a loved instrument in Ireland and makes Liam somewhat of a local celebrity.
I loved the description of Ireland, the people, how the language works and the culture itself works in so many different ways. Those parts alone make you think you have read a much larger book because you learn so much. I view the romance part of the story as a side by side symbolic representation of Hailey’s coming to terms and coming to understanding Ireland itself.
How does the book end? Is it a happy ending? That’s something you have to find out for yourself. Does Fullerton leave things open for a sequel? Could there be a trilogy or even a series of Hailey books? Personally, I would like to see more of Hailey in Ireland. How Fullerton uses Hailey to teach us about the real Ireland is something that needs to be revisited.
Recommendations:
I recommend this book to lovers of Ireland, real people, common sense romance, and reality.
Character Believability: 5 Flow and Pace: 5 Reader Engagement: 5 Reader Enrichment: 5 Reader Enjoyment: 4 Overall Rate:4.8
You may be looking at that Reader Enjoyment number and wondering why. There were certain characteristics of Liam that somewhat annoyed me at times. I think maybe it was because I’m American and he’s Irish and as Claire Fullerton explains in the book, those two types of men are different. But Liam is real to the Irish male character. Perhaps being of Scottish background, maybe it’s just me.
Claire Fullerton grew up in Memphis, TN and now lives in Malibu, CA. She is the author of literary fiction, “Dancing to an Irish Reel,” which is set in Connemara, Ireland, where she once lived. She is also the author of “A Portal in Time”: A paranormal mystery that unfolds in two time periods set on California’s hauntingly beautiful Monterey Peninsula, in a little village called Carmel-by-the-Sea. Both of Claire’s novels are published by Vinspire Publishing. Claire is a three- time award winning essayist, a former newspaper columnist, a contributor to magazines including Celtic Life International and Southern Writers Magazine. She is a five-time contributor to the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book series and can be found on Goodreads as well as the website under her name. Currently, Claire is writing her third novel, which is a Southern family saga based on her award winning essay in the 2013 San Francisco Writer’s Conference.
Ronovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.
For those of you scribblers just joining Twitter for the very first time, there are a couple of tips and tools to know about that will make your tweeting life a little more fun. First the basics. Once you’ve signed up with Twitter and replaced that old egg with your author photo, it’s time to start socialising. You can only see the tweets of people who you follow, and likewise, only people who follow you will see your tweets. The way to get followers when you’re new to Twitter is to start following others. Search for people to follow by name or by putting things like writer, author, photographer, gardener, or any other thing that you are interested in, and follow away. I don’t follow many Twitter sites that don’t follow me back, but that is up to you. As a newbie this is important though, because when you are finally following two thousand people, you can’t follow any more until your follower count matches that, which generally means a lot of time spent trying to unfollow quite a lot of people.
This is where the Crowdfire app comes in useful. Log on to it every few days and see who you are following that is not also following you, and unfollow them easily from there. If you’re a busy Indie working on promoting your books, unless you really are interested in certain accounts regardless like Nigella or J K Rowling, there is no point in clogging up your timeline with tweets from people who aren’t interested in yours. Also sign up for Hootesuite to easily see what’s been happening all on one page. Check out popular hashtags to add to your tweets such as the #amwriting or #amreading ones. Check out the trending hashtags on any given day to see if you have anything to add to the conversations.
You’re not obligated to follow back everyone who follows you. I do follow back mostly unless a new follower is obviously a bot. These are often spottable by their continuous stream of generic tweets with no retweets in between. Also if someone has tens of thousands of followers and is only following a few themselves, it’s a fair bet that they will unfollow you once you’ve followed them. If anyone retweets your tweet it’s good Twitter etiquette to head on over to their profile and see if there’s anything you can retweet for them to return the favour. Retweet others anyway, and soon you’ll have a fine flock of Twitter friends ready to retweet for you when you have book news or any other important thing to share.
Go to Tinyurl to shorten any links that you want to tweet to twenty six characters. One hundred and forty isn’t a lot to work with when you have a lot to say. Another way of getting more than a hundred and forty per tweet is to create them as images using Canva or Picmonkey or any design software that you might have available. You can also shorten your links with Hootesuite if you plan on using that.
Make sure that when anyone tweets any posts from your blog site that your Twitter name gets included when they do, so that you know when anyone is sharing your work, and then you can return that favour too. You can also make certain quotes or sentences within your posts tweetable by using the Click To Tweet app. All of these apps are free so there’s no reason to have to struggle with Twitter.
Finally, to include an actual tweet in your WordPress blog, all you have to do is find the tweet you want to share on your blog. Click on the date, which will take you the tweet itself.
Copy and paste the tweet’s URL on its own line wherever you want it to appear in your post and have a look on Preview to see what it will look like, and then publish.
It’s been one year since I opened the doors of LitWorldInterviews. An idea that was to be for me to share the few and random interviews I did of my Indie Author friends and those I happened upon who needed them has turned into something a bit more.
That was in part due to meeting Jo Robinson who I instantly saw as a person sharing my interest in Indie Authors and their support. Once she agreed to join things snowballed.
60+ Interviews, around 100 Book Reviews (and those are just the ones we published) and 10 Team Members later, here we are.
I am hoping we have helped some authors, created a good reputation as a quality site for tips for Indie Authors about Self-Publishing, and are known for being a place the author can trust to put their work in the best light (if it deserves it). We sometimes run across a book that doesn’t quite work, but those books we don’t publish a review of. We would rather give the author our opinion and let them decide. An opinion is an opinion after all. How many movies have you loved the critics hated?
To all of you have trusted us, I say thank you. To those I have let down due to my health not allowing me to read books, do interviews all because I’ve forgotten (pesky concussion/amnesia thing), my apologies.
I stated recently a desire to add Book Reviewers. I reiterate that at this time. Mature in thinking, passionate in heart, and professional in manner about the written word is what I am looking for.
Email me at ronovanwrites(at)gmail(dot)com with your interest, your site if you have one (I’m just mentioning one, you don’t have to have one at all, not a big deal), and background. Include your genre preferences.
Do you have a book available for us to review? Click the Book Review Submissions tab below the header photo or click here to go there. Some of our Team have forms on their own blogs to fill out but if you fill the one out here it will reach that Reviewer.
I always like repeat offenders. I mean that as in previously interviewed authors by LWI who come back for more punishment. Today I have the amazing honor of Jeanne Bannon joining me. You may have read my review of her short story Today’s the Day to be released September 15, 2015 but pre-order now. At .99 it’s more than worth it. Bargain time! It may not be my usual fare but she handles the story so well I enjoyed it and you can read about it by clicking here.
Since I’ve interviewed Jeanne before when her book Nowhere to Run was released, I thought I would simply ask a couple of questions to go along with the previous interview and give you a bit of a mix about her.
One thing about Jeanne’s writing the shocks me is you first take a look at her, the author, and then think “She writes this stuff? What is going on inside the wonderful head of hers?” I mean I see a nice, pleasant person who would write beautiful Romances or Mysteries and I get make-me-want-to-pee-my-pants evil stuff. Still trying to figure that one out.
How different is it for you to write a short story, the difficulties or ease as opposed to a full length novel?
In some respects, writing a short story is much more difficult than crafting a novel. It’s more difficult to develop characters and a storyline with a limited number of words/pages. With a short story, details have to be left out, in other words, it’s more of a cut to the chase scenario. I think it’s more difficult to write a satisfying ending to a short story than a novel since there’s not the luxury of time to build the believability factor of your story. However, I do enjoy writing short stories and novellas after completing a novel. It keeps me writing and it’s still satisfying to see a project come to fruition.
The story set to be released on September 15th, Today’s the Day, is an extended version of a story I wrote a few years back titled The Search for Trisha Campbell. It’s about a girl who goes missing on Halloween and the unfortunate police officer who finds her. I’d often thought of that story and wondered about the protagonist, officer John Galloway. What kind of man was he? These thoughts led to my doubling the length of the original and when a call for submissions for short stories was put out by my publisher,Solstice Publishing, I thought Today’s the Day would be a perfect fit. And it’s great timing – scary stuff with Halloween around the corner.
Who would you say, as in the commonly known superstar authors, your writing might be compared to?
Dare I say Stephen King? I’m not worthy of the comparison but he is my greatest influence. Today’s the Day is not for the YA crowd. There’s blood and gore along with a big of mystery. It was fun to write. I love to craft gut wrenching scenes – ala Stephen King, I suppose.
I want to say that the Stephen King comparison may just be about right. She is not overboard with the horror in her story, but gives just enough for you to get freaked out at the right times and keeps you a bit uncomfortable as well. So Stephen King? Yeah, I see it.
Maybe explaining how you came to be a writer might help explain where the ‘pleasant-not-Stephen-King-crazed-looking-woman’ turned the corner to write what you do.
I’ve always written. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t. I remember writing a bunch of poems in grade one and my teacher graciously transforming it into a book by stapling the pages into a folder and letting me decorate the front cover. Then she put it in our classroom library. I believe that was the time when I decided I wanted to keep writing. I’d gotten attention and some accolades. It was pretty nice. I do have a degree in journalism, but I’m not sure that makes me a writer. I’ve also worked in the publishing industry as an editor for over twenty years. Perhaps I’m a writer because I’m a reader first and foremost. My parents were readers and would leave paperbacks sitting around the house. I remember being curious about the books and started to read them. I was hooked after reading Cain and Abel by Jeffery Archer at the ripe old age of eleven. Then I moved on to Sidney Sheldon novels, lol.
I think how your book Nowhere to Run got its name would be interesting to our readers as well as to aspiring authors.
The title Nowhere to Run was not the original title. I’d titled it Love, Lies, and Redemption but the publisher decided the story needed a title that would better reflect the suspenseful elements of the novel and asked me to come up with a list of five alternatives. Nowhere to Run was on that list and that was the one they chose.
You have another venture outside of writing your books. Tell us about it.
I’ve recently begun actively seeking out freelance editing/proofreading work.
And if I understand correctly that’s something you have over 25 years experience doing and now want more clients?
That’s right.
I think you are insane but I checked out your Editorial Services page. Very nice. I may be looking your way sooner than later. Here are a few testimonials about her services.
“Jeanne is a very careful, precise copy editor who knows Word backwards. She is excellent at formatting and has years of experience. She also excels at evaluating mss., and structural editing of fiction.” –Sheila Dalton, author
“I have known and shared writing experiences with Jeanne Bannon for over seven years. She always impresses me with her dedication and professional work ethics. I prize her skills as an editor and proofreader. I have personally relied upon her talent and good nature in assisting me in preparing short stories from a variety of authors for inclusion in an anthology called Storyhole. I strongly endorse her to anyone seeking copy edit or proofreading help for their publication.”–C. Lee Brown, sci-fi/fantasy author
“I have been a published author since 2010. English and I have never been friends. I’m not a good editor/proofreader and I am always guilty of head hopping and verb usage, just to name a few. Jeanne Bannon is a person who has saved my stories. She has the eye and the knowledge to spot any incorrect usage of the English language.
Jeanne is a true professional and gets my work back to me in a timely manner. Because I am thankful to have found such an experienced editor/proofreader, I would recommend her to anybody!”–P.A. Estelle, author
And with that we end our visit with Jeanne Bannon, Author, Editorial Goddess and more. Click her book covers below and get her books. Varied in genre, just like when you see Jeanne, you’ll be surprised at what you get. Go NOW and BUY!!!
I’ve worked in the publishing industry for over twenty-five years, first as a freelance journalist, then as an in-house editor for LexisNexis. I currently work as a freelance editor and writer and am represented by the Serendipity Literary Agency.
My debut novel, Invisible, a young adult paranormal romance, was published by Solstice Publishing in 2011 and was subsequently optioned for film. Invisible is an Amazon bestseller both domestically and internationally.
In 2014, Nowhere to Run, a romantic thriller was published by Etopia Press. This past winter, I tried my hand at self-publishing with a paranormal romance novella, Beautiful Monster, The Exchange (Book One). I had a lot of fun writing and promoting my novella and am currently finishing up work on the second in the Beautiful Monster series.
Ronovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.
It’s time to welcome our newest member to the LitWorldInterviews Team and Family. Sierra Boone! @SierraJBoone
Unlike the rest of the team, who I met online, Sierra and I actually know each other personally. A former student in the school system I worked in, until I had an in-home accident and suffered a concussion and severe complications, she’s now a friend, in college student for some time now, a genius since birth, and lover of all things literature probably since someone began reading to her or she tasted her first book cover in the crib, as in baby crib, not celebrity homes.
LitWorldInterviews has become something I never expected. People actually request we review their books and we needed help. Me being the one who created the site and recruited everyone else, am the one recruiting now. Sierra is the beginning of that process. I am wanting more.
It dawned on me what better way to serve a great deal of the authors out there than to introduce a young Book Reviewer who loves;
YA
SciFi
Fantasy
Poetry
Oh, and of course she loves the Classics.
Why is Sierra my first to ask to join in this new round of recruitment to expand our services and take us to a new level? I know who she is and what she is. I know she is the young woman I saw immersing herself in those acting roles on the stage. She was the one people knew had it when it came to the classes. She took the hard courses, not the easy outs to keep a good Grade Point Average. She attained that GPA with the hard courses.
Why is she here and the first I asked? Because I respect and admire her. She works for everything she has as a student. (And I saw her update her status on facebook and thought, hey why not Sierra.)
When I asked her and we discussed it a bit she said it was funny how in school when I covered a class she was in, we had conversations and some of those were about books. I guess I was setting her up then before I even knew what WordPress was. She is mature beyond her years with an appreciation for the Classics in all aspects, not just literature, but movies, acting, everything.
To request a Review from Sierra click here to go to her Author page here on the LWI site and fill out the form. For other team members go to their Author pages (In the black box on the left of the site and in white text.) and either follow to their sites for forms or fill out the Book Review Submissions form here.
As I said, I am still looking for Book Reviewers. Why? My health is not the best. I can’t keep up with what I have now, and I hate saying no to people. Rather than damage the reputation of this site the Team has worked so hard to build, I decided to bite the bullet and ask for help. If you know me, you know I can’t stand asking for help. I feel as though it is a burden I am putting on others. But the authors, the Indie Authors, come first, not my pride. If you have read the book reviews here, you know what I am looking for in maturity and professionalism. Email me at ronovanwrites @ gmail.com if you know me and are interested or you have someone you know very well and can vouch for.
Share this post however you are able to, in order to spread the word about this great new Book Reviewer.
Other than reading the journal itself, reading editor interviews is a great way to understand what types of work they like to accept. Read the full interview here:
“Rivet: The Journal of Writing That Risks is based in San Francisco and is moving into its fourth issue. Rivet wants poetry, fiction, and non-fiction that is mindful of craft, but is experimental in spirit. Rivet looks for work that questions genre boundaries, blurs convention, and approaches ordinary subjects in extraordinary ways.”
Author: Jeanne Bannon Title: Today’s the Day File Size: 499 KB Print Length: 20 pages Publisher: Solstice Shadows (September 15, 2015) Publication Date: September 15, 2015 Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc. Language: English ASIN: B014TJUWXC Text-to-Speech: Enabled Amazon:Kindle Pre-order: .99 Genres: Paranormal, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller, Short Story
I was provided a copy of this book for an honest review. The honest review follows.
John Galloway is a man. A man deep in a world so dark that you’re not quite sure what is real and what is not.
In Today’s the Day by International Bestselling Author Jeanne Bannon, the coping life of a policeman who has nothing to live for any longer is explored in a single day. Bannon gives you everything about John Galloway’s life in the constraints of a short story while you don’t even realize it.
Thriller, suspense, and paranormal or psychological? The truth is, I don’t know exactly what you might call it, perhaps all of them. Bannon takes you inside the mind and thoughts of officer Galloway as he tries to find a missing girl on Halloween. He’s the last man on the force who should go looking for little Trisha. But he’s also the best one available to do the job.
I don’t use the word riveting often, but I might throw it out here. I have to admit this isn’t my subject matter. But Jeanne Bannon handles the theme well, a theme that actually turns out a bit differently than I thought, and gives an ending you aren’t expecting, but makes sense.
Bannon touches on the emotions of a father who has lost—badly—and does so without going over the line to go for the cheap emotional tricks. Well done.
The book is well proofed and edited making for a full immersion into the story without being jerked out by the surprise typo or snafu of wording.
Recommendation:
I would recommend this for audiences who are into the paranormal, somewhat horror genres. It’s a short story available for pre-order now, out on September 15, 2015.
Character Believability: 4 Flow and Pace: 4 Reader Engagement: 4 Reader Enrichment: 4 Reader Enjoyment: 4 Overall Rate: 4
Now go and pre-order by clicking hereor the book cover images.
Jeanne Bannon: I’ve worked in the publishing industry for over twenty years, first as a freelance journalist, then as an in-house editor for LexisNexis Canada. I currently work as a freelance editor and writer and am represented by the Serendipity Literary Agency.
My debut novel, Invisible, is a young adult paranormal romance, published by Solstice Publishing and has been optioned for film. Invisible is an Amazon bestseller both domestically and internationally and continues to receive wonderful reviews.
Currently, I’m finishing up work on a paranormal thriller titled, Dark Angel.
Click herefor her website. And here for her Amazon Author Page and her other books such as Nowhere to Run. @JeanneBannon
About the Reviwer: Ronovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.
Yesterday there was a Book Review put out by this LWI Team Member. I failed to do something and today I will correct that error.
I failed to mention the art work for the three book series by Olga Núñez Miret, Angelic Business. I had every intention of it but in the excitement of writing the review it completely slipped my mind. I was wanting so badly to get the review out for Olga’s usual Monday spot.
The artist/illustrator is Lourdes Vidal. Click each image to go to its individual Amazon page. The first is FREE and the other two are .99 each. Also available in Spanish.
Price: FREE (Click the Book Cover for your Kindle Copy at Amazon! And HERE for the UK!)
Genres:Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance, Drama
Languages:English and SpanishAvailable.
Pink is a smart, mature teenager. Is Pink her real name? Well that’s something in the book, now isn’t it? I didn’t read this book to do a review at first. I just read it because Olga, yes, Olga the LWI team member wrote it. She didn’t know I had read it until I had finished it and told her how much I liked it. She didn’t ask for a review. But if you like a book, review it, right?
I mean the price was right. FREE. I love a free book. And it’s still FREE. Angelic Business 1. Pink Matters is about high school senior Pink and her extremely odd relationship with a couple of angels. Okay, one angel might, just might be a fallen angel. Pink deals with everything else a normal high school girl has to deal with. Let me count the ways. Idiot best guy friend. Girl friends who are in their own worlds and of course have their own ideas about what Pink should do about boys.
Pink is smarter than they realize. She has her head on straight and her eyes on the prize. Then in walks the angels, or floats, or pops.
I’m being somewhat cavalier with this review because I enjoyed it so much I don’t want to go overboard with praise for the story itself. But there are areas that drew my attention away from being able to stay lost in the world of the story. The scene is west coast USA, but there is often very much British phrasing. This goes as far as to some basics of USA culture not coming off quite right. (I try avoid saying American culture because there are so many American countries that I see it as almost rude to commandeer the word.) But once you take those instances into stride then you can drift away.
As a book reviewer, even when reading this as a reader, I could not help but notice those moments and they did give me pause each time. I think as someone from the USA they gave me pause, not just the book reviewer part.
Did it ruin it for me? I bought the other two books in the trilogy. Yes, I BOUGHT books. I don’t have money, but I could afford the slight bit they did cost. I NEEDED to know what happened next. Of course now, alas, I am broke again. Once you see the prices at Amazon when you visit her author page you will be amazed at my poor standing.
The story in the next two books are very good, and the final is excellent for certain, with one weird twist thrown in there. There are some proofreading issues in those two books, especially the final one, as of my readings, but I have mentioned these to Olga. The first book in regards to typos was very nice. A very clean read.
Honestly the only thing I can find at fault with the first book is the British phrasing. I still enjoyed all three books.
Why?
There were some interesting views about Heaven and Hell and God’s role in things. What demons are and what choices they make. Being a person of faith I of course wanted to know where Olga would go with this and the twists and turns were . . . as I said, interesting. And above all made a great deal of sense in their own way and moved the story along and gave the story a purpose.
Recommendation:
I would recommend this book to just about any age. Olga handles several issues very well, with a thoughtful approach in considering her readers. There were many things I think young women/girls, as well as boys, could learn from this book about self-identity.
The scoring below is for the first book.
Character Believability: 4 Flow and Pace: 3.5 Reader Engagement: 3.5 Reader Enrichment: 4 Reader Enjoyment: 4 Overall Rate: 3.8
With the British phrasing and USA cultural aspects taken care of three of the five categories would have been higher. Click the Book Cover to go to Amazon for your Free Kindle copy at Amazon. And HERE for the UK!
Share this review through Twitter and Facebook and everywhere else to help this Indie Author keep her dreams going.
From the Author
After reading several exciting YA books I had an idea for a series. I wrote the first book and started publishing some of my other books. Over the last 3 years I wrote the other two books in the series and became more and more fascinated by the subject of angels, realising that there are sculptures, works of art, books, movies… everywhere. So I’m finally adding my own. I hope you enjoy them. And don’t forget to check the other two books in the series!
About the Author
Writer, translator, psychiatrist, fitness enthusiast, recently converted to mindfulness, avid reader and reviewer, lover of movies, plays and owls, I’m originally from Spain but have lived in the UK for over twenty years. I write in all kinds of genres and also read in a variety of them.
Always happy to connect with readers and other writers.
Ronovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.
Since sites like Amazon gave the general public the opportunity to review any book they have read, what many still fail to understand, or indeed appreciate, is the difference between writing a review and what amounts to a critique.
***
Here is a typical example of a professional newspaper review:
The Secret History of the Blitz by Joshua Levine, review: ‘tunnels behind clichés’.
Next is an example of a critique by an individual who quite simply failed to appreciate the book they read:
A second weakness in Frankl’s writing is in the assumptions he sometimes makes to prove his point. He makes overarching generalizations several times in his book, making statements that, although may have been true for himself and those around him, might not have been true for every prisoner in every concentration camp during the Holocaust. For example, in one instance, he says, “The prisoner of Auschwitz …
Not long ago I met an author, one of the best I’ve come across in a one on one way ever, through another great author Dan McNeil. I’ve read and reviewed her book, and you can read the review on LWI by clicking here. What did I say? Read it, but I warn you, if you know my normal reviews and ratings…you will be shocked. Her name is Jasmine Aziz. Her book is:
First of all, I think people would like to know how in the world you got into the world of selling vibrators. I think that is somewhat important regarding your book. And in addition, how did you get out of doing that?
Well it isn’t exactly something your Guidance Counsellor in school tells you that you were born to do so no one was more surprised than me when I ended up doing door-to-door dildo sales. I went to a party (my first) with my girlfriend and the consultant that was presenting the products was stiffer than the toys on the table. She made everyone uncomfortable. Naturally, coming from a long line of sales people, I did what I know how to do best: make light of the situation to put everyone at ease. The consultant told me to keep quiet but at the end of the presentation, five women I had never met before came up to me to ask me if I could help them choose what to buy. I can’t be sure what made them come to me for guidance but I sensed I was on to something. That, or it was the “Sex Crazed Loon” shirt I was wearing.
There is an amount of honesty in your book that takes courage. How many times did you stop writing or have doubts and who helped push you to complete the project?
It took me six years to complete the book because I wasn’t sure I could face the potential wrath I was expecting from my extended family. But I had spoken to too many women and men that I felt needed the story so I forged forward. It was actually a fateful trip to Las Vegas that propelled me in the right direction. It was there that I was told I wasn’t “sexy” enough to get free tickets to a club. That made me stop and think, well, what is the definition of “sexy” anyway? It was that concept that helped me string the book together. Now if I ever go back to Las Vegas I’m just going to wear a copy of my novel and we’ll see who gets the last laugh.
How many strange men have proposed to you since the book came out?
Are you proposing? 🙂 If so, then only one 😉 Just kidding!
One thing I believe that makes the book so easy to read and perhaps become comfortable with is the humor. Where did the stories told about the sexual explorations and the disasters resulting come from? (I still laugh at the burning man scene.)
I’m often asked how much of it is based on my own adventures but the truth is, they were inspired by my protagonist Leena herself. I’ve always believed that one of the best ways to tackle difficult topics is through humour. When you are relaxed and laughing, you are more likely to be receptive to information. You don’t even realize that you’re learning something. I personally think laugh lines are extremely sexy too!
Why did you write this book? Your storytelling is great. You could easily have written a romantic comedy of the more traditional type but you chose this one. Why?
Well, thank you! In fact, I am trying my hand at a romantic comedy as we speak! The main reason I wrote “Sex & Samosas” was because I needed a way to purge my own feelings after a very bad breakup so I started writing them down. As I continued with my adult toy parties, I started to realize that other people had the same issues and insecurities that I did and that this was a story that so many others would find relatable. Page after page my personal bitterness and angst gave way to the fiction that unfolded. It’s not necessarily cheaper than therapy, but writing the book helped me work through some very difficult issues.
What has been the public reaction to the book?
I’m really blessed with the reaction. I frequently get emails and notes from people telling me that they not only loved the book and have loaned it to everyone they know, but that they have learned something from it or changed their lives as a result. No author could ask for more than that, I think.
What have men said to you about the book?
When they’re not proposing to me…more men have told me that they love the book because it has helped them to understand how a woman’s mind works. There is a voyeuristic quality to being in Leena’s head all the time that helps them to empathize in ways they couldn’t before. Some have even told me that it has helped them improve on their relationships and pick up women in the book store. It’s all good. Just name the baby Jasmine, is all I say!
I enjoyed the cultural aspects you discussed in the book. I think those parts might be the most surprising to people and maybe in some cases the most informative. Was there an intention of putting that in the book or did it just happen?
That was the starting point of the book actually. Leena and I both struggled with finding balance between two opposing cultures and asserting yourself comfortably in both. She has to find her footing and learn to love herself for the hybrid of cultures that she is as I had to when I was writing it.
What do you have to say or would say to people who say you wrote a sex book and you’ve gone against what a “proper” person should do?
If you’re going to be a suck, then at least read my book so you know you’re doing it right.
What did you want to convey to readers with this book?
My message is simple: if you can’t love yourself, don’t expect anyone else to. And that masturbation is healthy and natural. Sure, I can’t see my hand in front of my face and I have the hairiest palms on the planet, but I know better than anyone else how to please myself and that’s all that matters.
Give me your best sales pitch to get me to buy this book.
Buy my book: there’s sex in it.
Kidding again! I realize my novel isn’t for everyone so when people ask me what it’s about I tell them it’s a funny journey of self-discovery that just happens to have a bunch of vibrators in it.
When can we expect the next book to come out?
There’s the trickiest question of them all. I’ve been really busy and not able to finish my follow up memoir about the four years I sold adult toys, though the frame of the story is complete. It’s only now that I’m beginning to wonder if it should be a television series (Netflix, I’m talking to you!) instead. So I’m going to pursue that first before I head back to finish it as a novel.
Where can you connect with Jasmine? Well, she’s made it easy. Drop a hat and you’ll likely find her, and that’s as it should be with a future star of the publishing world. First go and buy the book!
Click here to find your preferred method. Jasmine has them all listed for you. @JasmineAziz www.facebook.com www.goodreads.com Jasmine on LinkedIn.
Want to discover more about Jasmine? Visit her website, JasmineAziz.com.
Ronovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.
Sacha Black is a UK friend who seems to have more time in a day than I have in a week. In other words, the woman needs to relax. But if she did we might not have this article to share with you today. Check it out.
What is it about women that just isn’t scary? Perhaps it is that women represent motherhood and mothers are loving and caring. Or maybe it is because we are (generally) smaller framed and not as physically strong as (most) men and therefore don’t epitomize the brutality of villainy.
After reading a persuasive blog post about the value of Pinterest, he inquired of the writer, “Is it possible for authors to use Pinterest to get attention to their writing.
I only have one word for this reader and anyone else wondering.
Absolutely!
Pinterest has great value for writers and anyone looking to grow their readership due to the vast amount of people using Pinterest.
More than 60% of all consumers get information visually, by looking at pictures. Pinterest is comprised of these graphics, or pins, displayed on virtual bulletin boards.
The answer for writers looking to use Pinterest to grow their audiences is simple—use Pinterest bulletin boards to get interest in snippets of your writing.
How to Use Pinterest Boards to Create Interest in Your Writing
The diagram below shows a basic plot structure. If you make a Pinterest board for each element of your…
Genres: Women’s Fiction, Romance, Romantic Comedy (Some might say Erotica but the way Ms. Aziz handles the subject, you just don’t get that from it.)
How did I happen to end up reading this book?
I’m not certain what I was expecting when I began reading Sex and Samosas by Jasmine Aziz. I didn’t read any other reviews or even a book description beforehand nor have I since. I had no preconceived ideas about what it was about, except it had the word sex in it and I was cautious. Having read an article about the author, I only knew I felt I could trust Jasmine Aziz to provide a good story. Me and a book with the title Sex in it would not normally be a match, but trust was given and thus here we are.
I learned of Ms. Aziz after having read about her through Dan McNeil, another great author I have interviewed and thought there was a great opportunity for a review and interview. (The interview is just waiting for me to format it. Look for it any day now.)
In the beginning.
“You never forget your first orgasm…”
Those are the first words you are going to read once past the opening credits. Yes, you will read this as if watching a movie, because it feels like a movie and will make a great movie with the right director, if only Nora Ephron were still with us.
Learning.
Not letting the books opening words give you too much pause, if you are of the more timid kind, (Waves hand. Okay, maybe not timid but a closet fiend.) you will read about the how and why of the orgasm in women. In truth men will learn just as much as women. Trust me men, and women, there is nothing wrong with learning things from books. They save a lot of time and unsuccessful moments.
This book takes the awkwardness out of unsatisfying sex and wanting to remedy that problem. Men, don’t be arrogant and think you know, because if you finally do really know how to make her happy, you will be the happiest you’ve ever been. Call it a mindgasm if you will; my word as far as I know. Aziz explains how things work, north and south of the pleasure equator.
Sex isn’t the only thing this book is about. You will find Sex is only perhaps a metaphor for what really happens in the book. The sexual awareness that occurs is a parallel path of something else.
The Who
We meet Leena, a South Asian woman married to Manny, also South Asian, who lives in North America but has a very traditional mother from the old country, India. They have been married for five years or so and have already settled down into the marriage routine. That revealing part from Leena had me laughing and for a while and I still laugh when I think about it.
But we also meet Mahjong, Mae Wong really but the mispronunciation from younger days stuck and it fits in more ways than one. Mahjong takes Leena to a Sex Party, a party that is not exactly what the name implies but does teach a lot. (Men, when you read this, take notes.)
You will learn a lot about some of the customs and even culture confusion of being South Asian and being in North America around a traditional South Asian community culture. You will also find Leena’s mother’s thoughts on religion interesting. I did.
What you get.
Family and community play an interesting role in the book and in ways I would not have expected. Yes, you will get surprises. The subject is handled well, with taste and humor. Some may be pleased the amount of profanity was at a minimum, which keeps the mind more on the story than taking away from it and leading one down that path of a pure sex book. And when any words are used they tend to fit the situation and the person speaking. They aren’t just thrown in there for shock value.
Again, this is not a sex book, but it is a book that includes the topic of sex, and in very descriptive ways.
Ms. Aziz handles the writing of the subject so well that you don’t feel uncomfortable reading certain subjects and think of it more like a classroom or documentary of sorts with a lot of humor along the way. And she makes it human. You will swear she is reading your mind at times.
Nothing is perfect. Sex isn’t perfect like a scripted movie. Things happen, and man, I am still dying over the what I call ‘on fire’ part of the book.
The book is almost just about as much about men as it is about women; at least you discover things about men that you may not realize. And Aziz nails it. (Pun intended after the fact.) Her honesty in sharing these thoughts and parts of her reality, you’ll know what I mean once you read about Ms. Aziz, took more courage, I believe, than the actual being involved in anything that occurs in the book itself. And for that, I thank Jasmine Aziz. I honestly think writing about sex in this manner is one of the most brave things you can do in this day and age. The final frontier if you will.
Recommendation:
I say anyone that might ever have sex should read this book once at the appropriate age. For a child of mine that might be 40. Okay, maybe 18 or as a senior in High School.
There are descriptions of sexual acts, tastefully so, and humorously at times, but be aware of that when purchasing the book for yourself or as a gift. You eventually don’t even notice it.
As readers here on LWI know, my reviewing is a bit tougher than some might be out in book review land. I like for my reviews to count for something. When I say I give an honest review, I mean it. If I am asked for a review and it doesn’t appear here then that usually means I couldn’t even finish the book and thus don’t want to do harm to a book’s sales because of an OPINION, which is all a book review is, even by a professor at Harvard or Yale.
Thus, follows my rating.
Character Believability: 5 Flow and Pace: 5 Reader Engagement: 5 Reader Enrichment: 5 Reader Enjoyment: 4 Overall Rate: 4.8
Just so everyone knows, I don’t normally give Ratings this High.
About Jasmine Aziz:
I’m a retired vibrator seller.
I’ve been writing poetry and short stories for years. Following a bad breakup and shortly after doing a “Bollywood Bachelorette” party during my days selling adult novelty toys, I was inspired to write my first full length novel. I’m currently working on my second book “Bring Your Own Batteries” – my memoirs chronicling the four years when I sold sex toys. I’ve seen a lot, I’ve lived through a lot, I’ve got much still left to say.
I reside in the town where I was born: Ottawa, Canada.
To watch a trailer for the book or even readings by Jasmine Aziz of sections of Sex & Samosas on her site, click the link below.
I received this book for an honest review from the author. A very nice man who I have exchanged several emails. How nice? He wasn’t upset that a recent illness that messed with my short term memory problems, which I suffer from due to a concussion, had made me lose track of his review. Fortunately he emailed me and it clicked. I found my notes.
Being a historian and lover of myth and legend, when this book was made notice to me as available for review I jumped at it. I don’t often do that. Less and less these days.
The story is about a man with an obsession. At first Willem Wolf wants to know if the paranormal is real. He and his partner Jacob spend their time exposing false spiritualists as the frauds they are, that is until they meet Wera Keller. Keller makes a believer, of sorts, out of Wolf.
With his meeting with Keller coming to an unexpected end, Wolf finds himself on a hunt for answers that turns into more and then even more than he ever thought he was getting in to. Included in that is a group involved in the occult and of course a major villain.
The Nibelung Gold is a well researched, detailed book that engrosses the reader but you do need to give it your attention. There is a lot of information to glean from the reading and you at times might think you are reading a man’s research, which in a way you might say you are. I think that is part of the charm of the book. It’s not simply a story but it IS research as Wolf is trying to make discoveries. This is a mystery.
Take your time with the book and don’t expect a quick read, unless you are just that sort of reader. This is one you want to take in slowly so you can absorb it all. It’s nice having books like that sometimes. Or it is for me.
The author, Koos Verkaik gives us a view of late 19th century spiritualism in Amsterdam, which is something unusual to read about.
You will discover if Wolf finds out if the paranormal is real and there is of course the Nibelung Treasure itself.
Recommend:
I would recommend this to anyone interested in historical pieces with myths and paranormal elements, and history period. It’s a brain piece, as I call them, but an enjoyable one that is not over the top for an average reader, you get the sense of a great imagination behind the book along with a great deal of research. all of which I believe comes from the vast writing experience of the author.
Rating
I give it a 4 out of 5.
Why not 5?
There are some slow moments that take away and you might get lost along the way with some changes in direction, but you will still enjoy it. This is a book translated to English but that doesn’t take away all that much, and then perhaps not at all once you are engrossed in the story itself.
I would read more by this author.
About the Author: (Click image for author site.)
Koos Verkaik started to write at the age of 7, published his firt work (comics, 3 pages each week in a magazine) at the age of 16, his first novel was published at the age of 18. Over 50 different titles are published now, both in The Netherlands, Canada and the USA. Koos is a master of magic, adventure and mystery, writes many urban fantasy books en children’s books. His new series for children, ALEX AND THE WOLPERTINGER, is published internationally and there will be at least 30 different titles.
Koos also has other books just released and for different ages.
Click images for Amazon book page for more details.
That’s a question I have seen a few times around the author blogs. Having recently, okay, not too recently signed up for BookBub.com I have been getting a lot of Free Ebooks. But then again I’ve passed on a lot as well—a whole lot. I subscribe to a broad range of genres, from kids to adults, from romance to even horror.
Why do I pass on getting a Free book?
First thing is the cover just doesn’t work for me. Yep, the visual hits me first.
But, I can move past that if the title works. But then the Title doesn’t work.
Then the blurb doesn’t work.
Then there is the pen name of the author. The name chosen doesn’t work because it’s an obvious cheese attempt to grab attention. It grabs attention but for the wrong reasons.
I think we all want to believe we can do it all ourselves and for free. Perhaps you are a great book cover artist, creative book blurb writer, and you already have a great name for an author. But for the rest of us I think we need to come to terms that if we want to stand out from the crowd and catch an eye we need to be willing to either put in the effort to really learn how to do everything professionally, which does mean some money and a lot of time, thus meaning a longer time to get that book out there, or we pay professionals to do things for us.
Really, it all depends on what our idea of success is.
Do we want to be a million-seller?
Do we want to sell enough to do okay living?
Do we want to simply have people read and enjoy our work?
Do we want the sense of accomplishment that we wrote a book?
If you want to test out what you’ve done, you could put a selection of book covers on your site, without author names and titles, and see which ones work. Use books already out there and mix yours in. That doesn’t mean to actually use their book cover as your own if people like it better. Then do book titles. Then go for book blurbs. Test out what people like. Look at Amazon and see what those top selling people, that aren’t perhaps big names, doing. Big names can almost put out a blank cover with their name on it and people will buy it knowing what to expect inside. Test, test, test.
Ronovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com, a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources. For those serious about book reviewing and interested in reviewing for the LWI site, email me at ronovanwrites (at) gmail (dot) com to begin a dialogue. It may not work out but then again it might.
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