Hi everyone. Thank you for dropping by.

I'm not here today because I'm over at The Writers Lens. Come over and say hi.

I'm answering questions in the post:

How much fact is in your fiction? 

What's the highest compliment someone could make about your writing?

What movie star would be perfect for (your main character) and why?

Would you share a bit about your next project?

Where to Find Angel Sometimes and Helen

If you have other questions, leave them in the comment section. I'm happy to answer them.

http://www.thewriterslens.com/2014/11/helen-ginger-mermaid-career-link-to.html

Mermaid Helen Ginger

Come over and talk with me today on Jennifer Modette Perry's blog: http://madameperryssalon.blogspot.com/2014/08/mermaid-picnics-computer-gaming-and.html

I'll keep checking her blog all day. If you have questions, I'll do my best to answer.

In case you're asking if I was really a mermaid, the answer is yes. I really did eat and drink underwater as well as do a mermaid ballet. (I'm the tall girl on the left.)

Just head over to Madame Perry's Salon: http://madameperryssalon.blogspot.com/2014/08/mermaid-picnics-computer-gaming-and.html

Best Book Award

Just found out that Angel Sometimes won the 2013 USA Best Book Award for Fiction: New Age. Stunned and very excited.

Here's the cover blurb for Angel Sometimes:
Just before her thirteenth birthday, Angel's aunt took her 800 miles from her home in Oklahoma, gave her $50 and left her on South Padre Island, Texas. Four years later, Angel hitchhiked to Austin and got a job swimming as a mermaid in a bar in the music district. At twenty-two, she has friends and a place to live, but she realizes she will never be whole until she confronts her parents. To do that, she needs three things: a car, her high school diploma, and a gun. And she knows where to get one.

Thanks to all of you who have read Angel Sometimes and to those who have given it great reviews. I love you all.

Writers For Writers

Today is W4WS (Writers For Writers) here on Straight From Hel.

A group of writers have joined together to get the word out about our books via our blogs and Facebook pages. We're hoping you'll support us by joining us in getting the word out to the Twittersphere and Facebook.

I'm making it simple easy for you by providing tweets for you to tweet. They're all quotes from my book, Angel Sometimes.

Tweets:

"Oh, come on, Xavier, this indoor/outdoor grass is about to rip off my nipples. Just sit on my butt and yank." http://amzn.to/KWl2eV

"I'll tell you a secret. When you're a mermaid, no one can tell when you're crying." http://amzn.to/KWl2eV

"In the jungle, the strong eat the weak. It's the same with teenage girls." http://amzn.to/KWl2eV

"Before you point this gun at anyone, you ask yourself if you're ready to kill." http://amzn.to/KWl2eV

Here's a blurb about Angel Sometimes:

Just before her thirteenth birthday, Angel's aunt took her 800 miles from her home in Oklahoma, gave her $50 and left her on South Padre Island, Texas. Four years later, Angel hitchhiked to Austin and got a job swimming as a mermaid in a bar in the music district. At twenty-two, she has friends and a place to live, but she realizes she will never be whole until she confronts her parents. To do that, she needs three things: a car, her high school diploma, and a gun.

Angel Sometimes is available from bookstores. Or over at Amazon you can find it in print or e-book.

Facebook:

If you're not a tweeter, stop by one of my Facebook pages and leave a comment, or share my tweets and/or blurb and links on your own Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/HelenGinger1
https://www.facebook.com/authorhelenginger

Thank you everyone!

To find other writers participating in Writers for Writers, visit the W4WS headquarters.

Publishing News 8/24/13

It's Saturday and time for updates on agents:

Amy Tannenbaum has joined the Jane Rotrosen Agency as a literary agent. She was previously an editor at Atria, and will represent new adult, romance, and commercial women's fiction authors.

Writers House announced that Geri Thoma and Lisa DiMona have joined the agency. We are delighted that Geri and Lisa are joining our growing team of agents. Their expertise in nonfiction will complement our list and enlarge the scope of the agency," said Writers House chairman Amy Berkower in a statement. In addition, Stephen Barr was recently promoted to senior agent, while Brianne Johnson moves up to agent.

Agent Laurie McLean has left Larsen Pomada after 8 years and formed Foreword Literary, in partnership with former Larsen Pomada colleague Pam van Hylckama Vlieg and Gordon Warnock, who was an agent at Andrea Hurst & Associates. They are joined by assistant agents Danielle Smith and Jen Karsbaek. Foreword Literary will be a "virtual agency," with professionals in the San Francisco Bay area, Sacramento, Chicago and the central coast of California to start.

Paul Bresnick reports that he has finalized terms for assuming control of the Wendy Weil Agency. He will now conduct all business under a new banner, the Bresnick Weil Literary Agency.

MacKenzie Fraser-Bub is joining Trident Media Group as a women's fiction agent.

(Excerpted from Publishers Lunch)

Business Cards or Bookmarks?

Lately, I've been letting y'all know about things I'm doing. Hopefully, it'll be insight into the process. I hope it helps.

Today, the topic is bookmark or business card?

I've chosen business card. I know a lot of authors create (or their publisher creates) bookmarks to give out to readers and buyers of their books. At this point, I've decided to go with business cards.

Since my first fiction book is now available in print, I took the digital file for the front cover to my local office supply store to get business cards created.

One side will be the book cover for AngelSometimes. The other side will have info about me: my name, book name, email address, blog site, etc. You can choose to put whatever you want on the back side.

When I autograph books, I'll put a business card inside.

When my next book comes out, I'll create another business card with that book's cover and my info on the back.

Once I have two fiction books to promote, I'll put the Angel Sometimes card in the Dismembering the Past book when someone buys it. And will do the reverse when someone buys Angel Sometimes.

Although...I may change things up when the second (or third) fiction book comes out. I may at that point create a bookmark with the cover for each book on one bookmark, along with contact information. That way, I'll have one bookmark with multiple books on it.

The main idea is to give something to the reader so that if they like the book they bought, they will be reminded that you have other books they can look for.

Publicists

This past Sunday I had a two hour lunch meeting with my publicist. The ideas she comes up with are fascinating to me. Things that never would have crossed my mind.

Some of them are quite doable. Others are, in my mind, a bit far fetched. (I asked myself, sheesh, could I do that?)

The answer to that inner question is, well, I'll never know until I give it a try. The most important thing is that she has ideas and she knows how to set things up.

Have any of you used a publicist before? If so, what did she or he do for you? Were the results worth the cost? Could s/he make things happen that you could not? Or you would not have had time to do?

I think these are things to consider before you partner with a publicist. Is s/he experienced? Is s/he experienced in promoting an author? Does s/he have the time to devote to you and your book? Does s/he believe in you and your book?

And, of course, what will this cost you? What if, in the end, hiring a publicist costs more than you make off the book? Is it still a good idea because you got a lot more exposure than you could have arranged on your own? Will that make a difference when the next book comes out?

So many questions. And you probably won't have answers until after the campaign.

As I begin to do things to promote Angel Sometimes and Dismembering the Past, I'll try to keep you up on what my results are. At this point, my first speaking event is October 25. When the date gets closer, I'll remind you of the date, if any of you would like to come. And when it's over, I'll let you know how it went.

Also, I'm looking for someone who is not a member of the Heart of Texas chapter of Sisters in Crime who would like to read Angel Sometimes and write a review. HoTSinC has a monthly newsletter which goes out to members and is posted online. They will accept a review of a book by a HoTSinC member (me), but it needs to be done by someone outside of the group. Email me if you're interested.

Talking to Characters

I'm over at Sylvia Dickey Smith's blog, Writing Strong Women. I hope you'll link over and leave comments about the strong characters you write.

I'm not only talking about the strength in Angel Sometimes, but about how I wrote her tale as a twelve year old that was book length, then set it aside and started over with her at 22.

Would love to hear your stories!

Book Review: A Suitable Husband

 A Suitable Husband was written by S.B.Lerner. Not sure what category this would fall in. Definitely historical since it's set in the 1930s. It's a coming of age book since Bianca grows into herself and becomes a woman surviving difficult and horrific times. It's also a bit of a romance since she learns what love really is.

I guess the category I would put it in is: Good.

It's set in Poland during a time dangerous for the Jewish.  Everything's falling apart - the government, Poland's economy, society, and Bianca's life. Bianca's been sheltered most of her life. Opening her eyes to the situation, her family's plight, and her own circumstances is a shock for her. She doesn't want to give up the way her life had been, but there's no turning back. She must decide what path her life will take and what she will do to survive.

I liked A Suitable Husband because it took me to places I've never been. It set me amidst lives and people I came to like and respect. S.B. Lerner puts you in the middle of a haunting time period with characters you care for and worry about.

Amazon  

Barnes and Noble  

I give A Suitable Husband a rating of Hel-of-a-Time
****************
FTC Disclaimer: If I remember right, the author sent this book to me. That did not influence my review. I was influenced by the setting, the time period and the subject matter. I don't believe Lerner ever used the word "persecution," yet Bianca's story and the story of her family plops you right down in the middle of the persecution. You can feel the fear, understand the hopes, and taste the pain. That did influence my review.

June Williams on Writing With Friends

Our guest today is June Williams. one of three authors of "Honor and Integrity: A Collection of Pride and Prejudice-Inspired Short Stories". She, Enid Wilson, and Aimée Avery met online in a Jane Austen community. After reading each other's fanfiction stories for years, they decided to publish a collection together, with each person writing one-third of the content – and collaborating on a tag-along story.

Please welcome June Williams.

Similarities and Differences

Thank you, Helen, for hosting me today. The three of us writers all love happy endings and Jane Austen's characters. I can proudly say that we are nice ladies who dislike conflict and fuss, we're all responsible, and we admire good writing. You would like having us as your neighbours. We're not super-heroes, but we might bake you cookies.

Our differences are numerous. Enid is in Sydney, Australia, while Aimée and I live 250 miles apart in California. Aimée usually writes modern stories, Enid writes in every genre but is a science fiction fan who especially loves creating stories in the future, and I prefer historical settings. We differ in the amount of heat level we write and how sassy our heroines are – but our ladies are never submissive doormats.

Enid has self-published nine books, Aimée has two, and I am the newbie.

Working Together

I have to say that I am the luckiest newbie ever. As the veteran, Enid did all the formatting and set up the book on Createspace, Smashwords, and Lulu. Aimée is a professional graphics artist, so she did all the artwork; her cover design is gorgeous. I learned from them; if you are new to self-publishing, find yourself a veteran who can teach you the ropes.

Fortunately, we all write well, so we have managed to communicate everything by email – no Skype, no Instant Message chats across a 17-hour time difference. Actually, that would have been easy, as Aimée and I are both insomniacs. There is a blackmail photo of Aimée, asleep on the floor and curled around a laptop, her fingers still on the keyboard.

Writing Together

Enid suggested a tag-along story, which Aimée started, Enid continued, and I concluded. The only hard-and-fast rule: no changing what the previous person wrote. My fingers were twitching, but I controlled myself!

I nearly fainted when they sent me the first two parts. I sent a flood of emails – "what does this phrase mean," "is the Quantum Chamber inside the Crystal Palace," and "can we say it's like the TARDIS from Doctor Who." (No, we could not say anything about Doctor Who or the TARDIS due to copyright issues. Aimée checked the law.)

Enid and Aimée assured me that I could write whatever I wanted – I didn't have to continue in the same vein. Yes, Enid was visualizing a steampunk fantasy and London's Great Exhibition of 1851, but I could change that.

I used to write technical and policy manuals that were often signed off by corporate lawyers, so I wasn't used to all this freedom. Write whatever I wanted? Inconceivable! I still did my best to write an ending that was faithful to what Enid and Aimée started, and I think it's a fun story. You'll have to read it and tell me if we succeeded. It has a Victorian Darcy, modern Lizzy and Jane Bennet, the Bingleys, blue aliens, dinosaurs, a kidnapping, and horqvathkas – in less than 9000 words.

We each sent each other our short stories for review. Enid slashed a huge subplot from my Regency story, and while it hurt, it was the right decision. When you choose someone to write with, find someone who will be honest – not just an encourager who says, "Oh, this is very good! Yay, you!" I have a tendency to be too detailed (again, a by-product from technical writing), so I needed that honest voice. Ouch.

I also needed  Enid to remind me that we were writing short stories – not novellas. You know how the best characters run away with the storylines? I told my characters to stay on the horse, but they were ready to ride the horse hundreds of miles and commit epic mayhem on three continents. Whoa!

Conclusion

Our friendship has survived and grown in this collaborative process, we have learned much from each other, and we will publish a second volume later this year. The biggest reason we succeeded: we chose the right co-authors. Our project would have failed if even one of us had thrown a temper tantrum or demanded that the other two accede to her wishes.

It would have also failed if one of us was a weaker writer than the others, but we've read each other's stories for years, so that wasn't an issue. Lastly, the best editors are fellow writers who are friends.

And one final thing: while I am ordinarily very dignified, I must let out a huge SQUEEEEEE!!! It is a huge thrill to see my name on a book, formatted perfectly and with a beautiful professional cover. I never thought it would happen, but thanks to indie publishing, it's real.

***
For more information about the authors and book, the book's Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/Honor.Integrity.book. We are giving out an ebook to one lucky reader here. Just leave a comment here about how you get on with your neighbor. Entry is open to worldwide readers and closes on 9 July 2012 at 10 p.m. Happy reading and writing!

Laura Eno and Other News

 Laura Eno is one of my favorite authors. Recently, when I went to a conference, her anthology, Demon in the Basement and Other Stories To Keep You Awake At Night, was the book I took with me to read. (On the plane, not before going to bed!)


Now, she has a space opera novella called Wraith. It's part of the Carriena Oracles series.  And today is the launch date! Link over to her Amazon author page or her blog to find out more. Here's an intro for Wraith:

Someone wants them dead. Another wants them captured. No one can be trusted. Secrets, lies, and revelations await Raven and Mikael as their search for Mikael's missing friend leads them to Wraith, a mysterious moon owned by Jeffrey Hamilton, cybernetics genius and Ben's creator. How much of the Oracle's technology does Hamilton possess and where did it come from?
Raven's nightmares from the past threaten her sanity, while Mikael's guilt slowly consumes him. Ben's in more danger than anyone as they race to find the answers to uncertain questions—questions which could lead to death for them all.

And while you're out and about, if you haven't already downloaded and read the anthology, The Corner Café: A Tasty Collection of Short Stories, link over and check out this anthology. (Disclaimer: Two of my stories are included in The Corner Café.) To find out more about the authors and the anthology, visit Maryann Miller's blog today.

And, finally, my latest book is Angel Sometimes, the story of a girl who was abandoned to the streets at the age of 12, started swimming at a bar/restaurant as a mermaid at the age of 17, and at 22 goes home to confront the parents who gave her $50 and dropped her 800 miles from home. Her journey from the streets to home makes her strong. The people who stand by her make her family.

You can go to Angel Sometimes' Amazon page to read the book description, as well as read the beginning of the book. To read the sample, just click the arrow above the book cover.

But before you do that, head over to Laura Eno's Author Page. You can see the list of all her books, as well as her latest book, Wraith. It's debuting today! Isn't that a fabulous cover? I love it.

Angel Sometimes Stats

 Angel Sometimes has been on Amazon for about three weeks now. Last weekend, it was available for free downloading. Between this blog and my newsletter, Doing It Write, I have a lot of authors or soon-to-be-published authors who follow. So I thought I'd share a couple of the statistics on sales of Angel Sometimes.

That first free weekend didn't result in thousands of downloads, but it did get hundreds. I have to admit, I'm not anal about checking sales and stats. I tend to forget for days, but I did look Sunday morning, after it'd been free all day Saturday and Saturday night, if there were any night owls roaming Amazon.

As of Sunday morning, 515 people had downloaded the free Angel Sometimes. (If you were one of those readers, thank you very much.)

At 8:30 in the morning, Angel Sometimes was ranked #65,411 Paid in Kindle Store.

Then at 7:30 in the evening, Angel Sometimes was ranked #56,711 Paid in Kindle Store.
(Those were the only two times I checked it.)

At 2 p.m., Saturday, Angel Sometimes was #1,590 Free in Kindle Store and #43 in Kindle Store > …> Suspense. (Pardon the snapshots. I can't tell whether they'll be readable or not!)

By Sunday morning, Angel Sometimes was doing better:
#644 Free in Kindle Store and #26 in Kindle Store > … > Suspense.

Overall, I'm quite happy with how Angel Sometimes is doing. I'm still planning on doing a blog tour for it, but will wait until the tour for The Corner Café is over.

For those of you who are on Amazon with your books, do you constantly check stats or do you forget, like me?

Morgan Mandel

Today, I'm over on Morgan Mandel's blog. I'll be talking about the two stories I contributed to The Corner Café anthology: Gila Monster and One Last Run. I'm also going to touch on the question, How long is a short story?

Hope you'll link over and leave a comment. Feel free to leave a comment here, too. Did any of you download your free copy of Angel Sometimes this past weekend?

Angel Sometimes is Free

I've scheduled my book, Angel Sometimes, to be free this weekend on Amazon. I hope every single one of you will go download it to your Kindle or Kindle app. (Don't have an eReader? You can get a Kindle app for your pc!) Amazon has a page with all the different gadgets you can use to read Kindle books on.

I would describe Angel Sometimes as women's fiction, but you guys can read it, too. Especially if you want to know more about swimming as a mermaid, which should be quite a few of you since I keep getting calls for more Mermaid Tales. This is a rather long mermaid tale since Angel swims at a bar/restaurant. Even my husband is reading it and he's a diehard Thriller/Suspense reader.

Here's a teaser for Angel Sometimes:

Angel Sometimes has a plan. Go home to ask her mother why she loved her one day, then threw her out like garbage the next.

Just before her thirteenth birthday, Angel was taken 800 miles from her home in Oklahoma, given $50 and left on South Padre Island, Texas. Four years later, Angel started the trek into her past. She hitchhiked to Austin and got a job swimming as a mermaid in a bar in the music district. At twenty-two, she has friends, a place to live, and a future. When a homeless girl is beaten and a waitress killed, Angel realizes she will never be whole until she confronts her parents.

It's time to quit planning and go home. To do that, she needs three things: her high school diploma, a car and a gun. She has a car. She’s finished her final test for her GED. The only thing she needs is the gun and she knows where to get one.

Tell all your friends to take advantage of this weekend's Angel Sometimes giveaway. If you read Angel Sometimes and like it, I would very much appreciate it if you wrote a review and posted it on Amazon.

LinkedIn

How many of you are on LinkedIn? If you're not, you might want to check it out. If you are, keep reading -- they have a new add-on. LinkedIn used to be known as the place to go to put up your resume and to connect with other professionals in your industry.

It still is that place, but bit by bit, it is moving to encompass more ways to interact. For example, I noticed this week that you can now list your publications. They have a form you fill out for each one. You fill in the title, publisher, date of publication, author(s), and a brief description of the publication.

I updated my page on LinkedIn to include my latest book, Angel Sometimes; the short story anthology I contributed to, The Corner Café; and my three nonfiction books in TSTC Publishing's TechCareers series: Automotive Technology, Avionics and Computer Gaming.

I like this change to LinkedIn. I'd like it even more if I could figure out how to move Publications to the top of the page. If you figure that out, let me know.

The blog tour for the short story anthology, The Corner Café, continues. You'll find today's post on Kathy Wheeler's blog.

P.S. Come back tomorrow. I'll have an announcement about my fiction book, Angel Sometimes.

Angel Sometimes

 My first fiction book is out! Woo-woo.

 I was, of course, excited when each of my non-fiction books came out, but having AngelSometimes available on Amazon is even more exciting. Probably because the three non-fiction books were based on tons of research and interviewing experts. With Angel Sometimes, Angel came out of my head and onto the page. 

She seemed to come to life and tell me her story, but, of course, she was a character in my imagination. The story is hers. But part of it is mine.

Here on Straight From Hel, I sometimes tell Mermaid Tales - snippets from my time as a mermaid at Aquarena Springs. I get requests for more of those Mermaid Tales.  Angel Sometimes works as a mermaid, although not at a resort show. She's a mermaid at a bar/restaurant called The Aquarium. So, if any of you are wanting to know more about being a mermaid, you'll find it in this book.

Of course, it's different since she's swimming in a more confined area than I did. She's also in more danger than I was since there is only one way in or out of the tank. I, on the other hand, could swim back to the staging hole or just surface. But she does a lot of the things I did as a mermaid, from eating and drinking underwater to spinning dervishes.

The story isn't totally about her swimming as a mermaid, though. It's about her past and how she will ultimately confront that past. You can read more about Angel Sometimes on Amazon, including the beginning pages.

Here's what I call the back cover blurb:

Angel Sometimes has a plan. She's going home to ask her mother why she loved her one day, then threw her out like garbage the next.

Just before her thirteenth birthday, Angel was taken 800 miles from her home in Oklahoma, given $50 and left on South Padre Island, Texas. Four years later, Angel started the trek into her past. She hitchhiked to Austin and got a job swimming as a mermaid in a bar in the music district. At twenty-two, she has friends, a place to live, and a future. When a homeless girl is beaten and a waitress killed, Angel realizes she will never be whole until she confronts her parents.

It's time to quit planning and go home. To do that, she needs three things: her high school diploma, a car and a gun. She has a car. She’s finished her final test for her GED. The only thing she needs is the gun and she knows where to get one.

Another book debuting is The Corner Café, an anthology of short stories. All the authors involved are doing a month long book tour. Drop by and read what Red Tash and her guest have to say about the anthology and their own story. One thing about this book that I think is fabulous is that all royalties go to charity.

I'm hoping to set up a blog tour for Angel Sometimes. Let me know if you'd like to host me. Also, if you decide to spend the $3.99 to buy the book for your Kindle or Kindle app, I hope you like it. If you do, I hope you'll post a review on Amazon or Goodreads or your own blog. If you post a review, let me know and I'll announce it in my newsletter, Doing It Write, which is in its thirteenth year of publication. (Remember to send the direct link to the review or post so I can include that, as well.)

Book Review: The Dividing Season

The Dividing Season by Karen Casey Fitzjerrell is historical fiction. Under her hand, though, the place, people, and time come alive. The main character, Nell Miggins, lives in tough times, but the times have not made her tough. They have, however, made her strong. Her way of thinking and living were different from mine, but her desires and worries are ones I could identify with.

She runs a Texas cattle ranch handed down to her by her father. She is not totally alone because she has men working for her who help to herd the cattle and take care of the ranch. She has reached a time in her life when she wants more. She wants to travel, to step out of her normal life, even though she is past the time when she might have married and had children. She also accepts that she’s past the time when she might have found love.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Dividing Season. It moves quickly. The characters emerge as real and unique people. Nell Miggins charts her own path and accepts the consequences of her decisions. The story felt real and true to the time period and place. Each character is well-defined and brought to life.

There’s a lot of action and adventure in the story, but the true glory of the story are the characters.

Kindle
Nook
Website

I give The Dividing Season a rating of Hel-O! I believe this is Karen Casey Fitzjerrell’s first book. I am tapping fingers as I wait for the next.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FTC Disclaimer: Karen Casey Fitzjerrell is a friend of mine. That did not influence my review. Also, I paid for my copy of The Dividing Season. I liked it so much, I bought a copy for my sister and my aunt. I’m hoping neither of them read my blog…otherwise, Happy Birthday! The Texas setting might have influenced me to buy The Dividing Season because I’ve lived in Texas since I was ten. It was so interesting to see how things were back in 1910. (Pay attention, y’all. I said I’ve lived in Texas since I was ten, not that I was born in 1910.) The closest I’ve come to a ranch is my uncle’s ranch, The Rocking TP. I loved the sign they used to have at the ranch gates: a teepee sitting in a rocking chair drinking a mug of beer. Have I mentioned that my aunt and uncle have an actual bar in their house? With swinging bar doors? And a stuffed bobcat and rattlesnake and pictures on the wall that made the bar off limits to the young’uns. Thankfully, I’m not a young’un anymore. I do like the swiveling stools and the choice of tap pulls.

Calling It Chick Lit

Found a quite interesting article in The Guardian this week. The title caught my eye: Novelist ditches publisher at book launch for 'condescending' treatment. But the words from the author kept me reading. Basically, she’s dropped her publisher, HarperCollins, because of the covers they gave her books.

Polly Courtney says her writing “is commercial fiction, it is not literary, but the real issue I have is that it has been completely defined as women's fiction … Yes it is page turning, no it's not War and Peace. But it shouldn't be portrayed as chick lit."

One thing that bothers me about that statement is that she seems to give the same definition to “women’s fiction” and “chick lit.” To me, they’re different. But that’s neither here nor there. What she’s saying is that HarperCollins wanted her to write chick lit and even though she didn’t and they knew that before they took her on, they went ahead and pegged it as such.

She feels the cover misrepresents her book – it displays “the chick-lit staple of a pair of slender legs.”

Another author, Michele Gorman, who doesn’t mind her own chick-lit label, said: "But at the end of the day, we do judge books by their covers, and if it doesn't do what it says on the tin it will have disappointed readers. Publishing houses do tend to take a single broad brush approach to books by women, for women, and we as writers don't have creative control over our covers or our titles."

Here’s how a rep for HarperCollins responded: "Avon is right behind Polly Courtney's timely and important book. Our experience tells us it has a great look and feel and we think Polly will be delighted when she sees it flying off the shelves."

Hmm. I think they missed the point.

Book Review: Dancing in the Shadows of Love

 Dancing in the Shadows of Love by Judy Croome is my first e-book. I finally bit the carrot and downloaded Kindle to my computer, then downloaded her book.

On her blog, Judy describes Dancing in the Shadows of Love as “a novel of hope and mystery.” I would describe it as haunting. The women and their stories will stick with you long after you’ve put down the book. The world Lulu, Jamila and Zahra live in is foreign to me, but their emotions and fears and quest for love are not.

For me, it was like entering a strange world where things are a bit upside down and new to me, but each day I was compelled to go back and continue reading, to find out what would happen to them. Of the three women, Lulu is the one who threads their lives together. Lulu, an albino, has always been a victim of prejudice. She was even imprisoned for ten years for a murder she did not commit. Because of that betrayal, she learns to hate and distrust. It’s only after she is released and experiences love at the Court of St. Jerome that she begins to trust again. But is her trust deserved? In a synopsis of the book, Judy Croome wrote:

Nothing, however, is as it seems and Lulu discovers that love does not always wear the face of the one you yearn to call beloved.

For me, the pull of this book was the characters, the setting, the strange, new-to-me world and the unexpected turns the story takes. I suspect I’ll read it again, just to visit Lulu, Jamila and Zahra.

Dancing in the Shadows of Love
Kindle

For anyone wanting to know more about Judy Croome and Dancing in the Shadows of Love, check out Judy’s blog.

To promote her book, Judy is giving away some great prizes, including a critique of your manuscript, with 3 months post-critique mentorship, an Amazon voucher and books and all kinds of stuff. You have until the end of this month to enter.
You can also check out the book trailer.

I give Dancing in the Shadows of Love a rating of Hel-of-a-Writer. I’m definitely amazed by Judy Croome’s writing.

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FTC Disclaimer: Judy Croome gave me a copy of the book, but this did not influence my review. She did not even request a review. But isn’t it something that a woman in Johannesburg, South Africa, can write a book and in a couple of clicks I, in Texas, can be reading that book within minutes (seconds if I’d known what I was doing). If I’d had an iPad like my husband, I would have finished it a whole lot sooner. Maybe next year. Christmas is only about a half year away!

Book Review: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough

 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough by Ruth Pennebaker takes a unique perspective on a family of three generations living together. Joanie, the woman in the middle generation and the bread-winner, is dealing with her ex-husband who’s having a baby with his girlfriend, her mother who’s moved in with her for financial reasons, her daughter who’s experiencing her horrible teen years, and a co-worker who’s putting the moves on her.

The tale is often funny, sometimes rather heart-breaking, and will make most of us glad we’re not Joanie. But don’t think Ivy, the grandmother, or Caroline, the daughter, are out to get Joanie. They’re just living their lives, trying to survive like everyone else. Caroline is trying to be something other than the invisible girl at school. Ivy wants to be seen, too, as a whole person, not an old person having to live with her daughter. Pennebaker has even drawn the ex-husband’s girlfriend as a three-dimensional character with her own problems and fears.

Each character is well-drawn and believable. I think it doesn’t matter whether you’re young, older, or the generation in-between, you would like the book and identify with the characters. (Although if you buy it for your daughter, I recommend you read it first since it does have some language and scenes you’d want to check out.) But no matter which generation you identify with, you’ll find yourself wondering if they can ever come together. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough is character driven and the three main characters are up to the drive through the hills and valleys of life and family.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough
Amazon -- paperback or Kindle
Barnes & Noble - paperback and Nook

I give Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough a rating of Hel-of-a-Story. It’s a book I wish I’d written.

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FTC Disclaimer: I bought Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough with my own money. This did not influence my review, only my pocketbook. I was early to a meeting, so I stopped at a bookstore and wandered the aisles. The author’s name on the book caught my eye since I know her from way-back but haven’t talked to her in quite a while. Another thing that caught my eye was the Discussion Questions at the back of the book. By adding just twelve questions, Pennebaker has made this an easy choice for book groups. I think that’s something to think about when you’re writing your own book.