Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
“Are we still friends?” #SundayBlogShare
A very interesting blog post from writer Barb Taub…it’s an updating of a post she originally wrote in 2013, with some Brexit commentary added. If you love language, go read it…then get a copy of one of her books (co-written with her daughter), as it’s absolutely FREE.
The vote is taken, results are in. On a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment, the UK has decided to leave the EU. As an immigrant, I’m appalled. As a resident of the UK, I’m sad. As an American, I’m worried. As a human, I’m hoping that we can focus on our similarities, and learn to love our differences.
![[image credit? The first I can find is a tweet from Kate Gilson @kategilson]](https://elfyverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/clyea1swaaaereo.jpg)
[image credit? The earliest I can find is a tweet from @KateGilson, with hat tip to @TerryTyler4 for sending it my way.]And on that note, I’d like to update my very first blog post from November, 2013.
“Indeed, in many respects, she was quite English, and was an excellent example of the fact that we have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.”—Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost, 1887
I used to say I was going to open a coffee shop on an island when I retired. It…
View original post 782 more words
“The Dragon Variation” and “Mouse and Dragon” — Two More Excellent Books by Lee and Miller.
This is one of my all-time favorite reviews over at SBR. I just re-read Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s MOUSE AND DRAGON last night, in fact, as I’d needed to be reminded how much love truly matters in this world…and I still believe it to be an outstanding achievement and possibly the very best writing of their career. (As I grab everything they write and often buy multiple copies in various formats, that is high praise indeed.)
Please view this review, and remember that SBR is still open for business despite my long layoff in reviewing (and Jason’s long layoff in reviewing also). I shall be reviewing something later this week…possibly Lee and Miller’s DRAGON IN EXILE, as well as Marina Fontaine’s interesting post-apocalyptic debut novel CHASING FREEDOM.
Springtime in the Elfyverse
Today’s guest blog is up at the Opinionated Man’s busy establishment…take a look!
Blog Exchange, Day 2: Janet L. Walters Talks Writing, Books, and More!
Folks, it’s Day 2 of my blog exchange with author Janet L. Walters. (My guest blog at Janet’s site is available here: https://wwweclecticwriter.blogspot.com/2016/05/saturdays-blurbs-featuring-books-by.html) I hope you’ll enjoy her thoughts on writing her latest book series…here we go!
When I began the series At First Sight, it meant rewriting a number of older stories and fixing the problems and updating the information. These are spicy romances, all contemporaries, and the first four concern the love lives of two sisters and two brothers. Somehow, a pair of their friends and colleagues slipped into the mix and there could be more people coming aboard when I have time to dream up more situations.
The first book involves Allie who edits a magazine for a family-held magazine, Good Cookin’. Her story involves a Chef, Greg who owns and heads a restaurant called Five Cuisines. Allie sets out the gain the interview and her father forbids this. He owns the magazines. Allie isn’t one to sit back. Greg is told by his mother not to let any Blakefield near the restaurant. This is how the fun begins.
In the second book, Meg Blakefield is dragooned to pick up the magazine group’s photographer at the airport. She has had a crush on him since the day he began work but she has also managed to anger him. Steve likes to tease Meg. He loves to see her blush. On his last photo shoot he had an accident resulting in a broken leg and a lot of bruises and scrapes. He would like to have Meg in his bed. When she learns there is no one to stay with him, she volunteers and adds rules to her already Rules of Life. The meeting sets off some fireworks. Her magazine is Good Lookin’ and she has a real love of silk and underwear.
The third book finds Mark Blakefield viewing a picture one of the writers from Good Travelin‘ has taken on a trip to Vermont. He sees a picture of a boy who could have been him at the same age. He also recognizes the child’s mother as the one who got away. They had a hot and heavy college romance but she vanished before the semester ended. He has looked for Christa Parsons. When he lands at the inn, he learns her name is and always has been Christa Sommers. He wants her and he wants his son. Can their love be rekindled?
The fourth book finds Matt Blakefield running from Mark’s wedding with the words “You’re next.” He thinks no way and takes off on his motorcycle. A rainstorm has him barely able to see and finding no place to stay. He runs into a pine tree outside a cabin. He discovers Cassie is the girl he insulted and made fun of in high school. Someone he has never forgotten. Cassie is hiding at the cabin trying to come to grips with her fiancé’s desertion and marriage to another woman weeks before their wedding. The notification came via an email. She recognizes Matt and decides a night with him is something she just might enjoy. He leaves the next day without an exchange of numbers. Then he discovers she has something he wants and he needs to find her.
The fifth book belongs to their friend and attorney Tony Carlin. The death of his brother and being named as one of the guardians for his infant nephew brings him in touch with Lauren. Lauren is the child’s aunt and has also been named as guardian. They met four years before at the wedding of his brother and her sister. Lauren was at the end of her runaway period. His first impression of her wasn’t great but still he thought about sex. He is still thinking about this and he also feels she’s not a good guardian for the little boy. He makes assumptions and you all know what that means.
The sixth book finds Jules Grayson trying to convince Grace to sign a contract to have her cupcake bakery featured in Good Cookin’. She’s reluctant and he takes a trip he’d rather not take. After his father’s conviction for a Ponzi scheme and his mother’s suicide, he ended in a group home. The home was next door to where Grace landed after her mother overdosed. Grace is the only girl who ever turned Jules down when he tried for a hookup. Seeing her again brings up the desire to accomplish what he never had. Grace is choosy about the men in her life. She has no desire to be like her mother. Jules falls in love with her cupcakes and desires her in his bed.
Website: http://janetlanewalters.com/home
Blog: http://wwweclecticwriter.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JanetL717
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/janet.l.walters.3
So…there you have it! Janet has an interesting series, and I do hope you will check it out forthwith.
How to Tame Amazon’s Algorithm to Increase your Sales Rank
If you don’t read Nicholas Rossis’s blog regularly, you are missing out. Nicholas has all sorts of great insights…and this post is one of them. (Ever been frustrated by why your Amazon ranking doesn’t seem to make any sense? Nicholas has the reason why…)
Image: dailyfinance.com
When I launched Honest Fibs the other day, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that with just a couple of dozen sales in a few days, it had reached the phenomenal sales rank of some #40,000.
This got me thinking: how is that even possible? I don’t think any of my older works have performed so well, even when they sell bigger numbers – say during a promo.
Then I came across a great resource, courtesy of The Passive Guy: an educated guess as to how Amazon’s ranking algorithm works, by John Doppler of Self-Publishing Advice. I examine his points here and look at how you can use them to increase your own sales.
Amazon’s Sales Rank
As a closely guarded secret, Amazon’s sales rank remains a perpetual source of confusion and myth. Authors find themselves asking questions like this all the time:
- “Why…
View original post 1,398 more words
Are You Exhausted and/or Dealing with #Fatigue? Listen to Your Body #inspiration #health
I think this is an important thing to remember.
Also, be sure to check out Mrs. N’s story “Thirsty for Water” today…it’s free at Amazon. (It’s a very short, but very sweet, YA paranormal. I enjoyed it quite a bit.)
Why I Wrote “Bringer of Chaos: The Origin of Pietas” — a Guest Blog by Kayelle Allen
Folks, do I have a treat for you today!
A few months ago, I edited Kayelle Allen’s BRINGER OF CHAOS: The Origin of Pietas, and couldn’t wait to tell you all about it. Pietas is a strong character, someone who starts out dark, forbidding, and almost impossible to like…but somehow, with Kayelle’s insight, Pietas becomes much more than that. BRINGER OF CHAOS is a science fiction novel of cultural clashes, personal growth, friendship, sacrifice, and much, much more. It’s beautifully written, in some spots deeply moving, and a book I hope everyone will check out right away.
Now, on to Kayelle’s excellent guest blog, already in progress…
When I wrote Bringer of Chaos: the Origin of Pietas, I was creating the background and origin story for the most notorious villain in my scifi universe. In a series of books based in the Tarthian Empire, I had gone to great lengths to instill a sense of awe and fear in readers regarding the immortal king. Honestly, Pietas scared me, and I created him! I knew the depth of his cruelty because I’d created him to be the baddie all the other baddies feared. In the universe of those stories, he was known by many names: Impaler, Hammer of God, Marauder, Soul Ripper, Destroyer of Worlds, Slayer of Innocents, Hound of Hell, and more famously, the Bringer of Chaos. To reveal the reason he became such a terrifying person, I needed to delve into his head and get to know him better. *Gulp.*
I mentioned to my friend, author Houston Havens, that I didn’t know how to write an emotionless sociopath. First she laughed, then she took me to passages in my own books and showed me the emotions Pietas had displayed. Houston was right. Pietas was far from emotionless. Sociopath was as far from his reality as moonlight is from sunlight. One is cool and pale; the other hot and vibrant. I was trying to write him as a moon. Pietas was a sun.
Houston suggested that we “interview” him. She and I talk almost every day on Skype, so that was easy. I would “be” Pietas and answer on Skype as him. It would be an exercise in free association, and we would record it so I would have reference. Once we got started, it was surprisingly easy to get into his head. She asked him questions that were simple at first. Then she asked about his father, which made me delve into my own past as a child and parent. Mine was innocent and filled with love. My villainous hero, however, had a different bent.
When I was a child, the parent-child bond set my life on a certain path, and I believe no matter how old I get, I will always be the way I was molded to be from childhood. Pietas is immortal, and apparently, so is his love/hate-mostly-hate relationship with his father. Delving into that in detail will take more than one book. In fact, I’ve gone from wondering how I could possibly write a whole book about Pietas to planning another four.
Pietas now fascinates me. Getting to know this character helped me break past an episode of writer’s block that had lasted seven years. I had written, but was producing only non-fiction (Tarthian Empire Companion) and books about the characters (An Immortal’s Guide to Tarth). With Bringer of Chaos out of the way, I’m back where I belong — in the world of the Tarthian Empire. The galaxy of stories beyond that is, as Pietas would say, “ripe for the plucking.”
About Kayelle Allen
Kayelle Allen is a best selling American author. Her unstoppable heroes and heroines include contemporary every day folk, role-playing immortal gamers, futuristic covert agents, and warriors who purr.
Homeworld/Blog https://kayelleallen.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/kayelleallen
Facebook https://facebook.com/kayelleallen.author
About the Book
Bringer of Chaos: the Origin of Pietas
Author: Kayelle Allen
Publisher: Romance Lives Forever Books
Editor: Barb Caffrey
Heat level: PG13
Genre: YA (older young adult), action adventure, science fiction, space opera, military science fiction, space marine, genetic engineering
Wordcount: 52,492
Pages: 186
Two enemy warriors: one human, one immortal. Different in belief, alike in spirit, marooned together on an alien world.
Imprisoned and in isolation over a year without food or water, the immortal Pietas survives. Though broken in body, his intellect and will are intact, thanks to Six, the special ops warrior who captured him, but kept him sane. The warrior had no hand in his deprivation and, like Pietas, was betrayed by his own kind. When Pietas is abandoned on an alien world with nothing but his honor–and Six–he must find and rejoin other immortal exiles. After centuries of war, Pietas detests humans and kills them on sight, but he is too damaged to continue on his own. Though he despises needing help, he allows Six to nurture and restore him to full strength, and then accompany him. As they cross the planet together on foot, the immortal begins to wonder if he has found his first human friend, or if Six is loyal only because Pietas could keep the others from tearing him to shreds. This human will either be his closest living friend, or the one whose betrayal will trigger all-out vengeance by the most powerful immortal ever born.
Immortal. Warrior. Outcasts. Traitors took everything. Except their honor.
Read the first chapter https://kayelleallen.com/chaos-origin/
Amazon http://amzn.to/1R8DAbb
Amazon print http://amzn.to/1SSmueB
CreateSpace http://bit.ly/boc-origin-csp
—————
So, now that you’ve read all this, what are you waiting for? Go get Kayelle’s excellent novel right now. You will not regret it.
An Update to the Frustrating Situation, Already in Progress…
Folks, bless you all for caring. I need to say that before anything else.
I am extremely fortunate in my friends, especially in the writing community. I am astonished by the outpouring of love and support in my direction. I appreciate that so much.
Now I need to get into some “weeds,” I’m afraid.
Next Tuesday, the house I live in will be sold. I can do nothing about this. I have tried everything I know to avoid this fate. And it has not worked.
Because much of this story is not mine to tell, I can’t say much more than this.
I don’t know what will happen next Wednesday at all. I’ve never been through this process before. I’ve heard, from a friend who’s been through it, that they usually give you at least thirty days to get out — but as I’ve not been through it, I’m very, very worried about what will happen next. And about what will happen to Trouble, too.
I do have some tentative good news, though. My father has said he will help. I can stay with him temporarily. He may even help me find an apartment, for me to live independently…if he does, that would be wonderful.
And my mother believes she will be able to find a way to keep both Trouble and her dog, Brat, together. If so, that would be a good outcome.
My sister, who is a huge dog lover, has also said she’ll make sure that Trouble and Brat will be fostered in an emergency situation, so they will not go to the pound. (She already has a dog, and is in a subdivision where they do not allow multiple animals.)
I believe my family has the best of intentions. But I remain very worried and extremely upset.
This is not a place I’d ever expected to be. That’s why I decided finally to talk about it, and to tell you I’m in trouble…as much as my family dislikes me saying it, what I’m telling you is my truth.
Because I have caring, deeply concerned friends, they are trying to help in all sorts of ways. I appreciate this, more than I can ever tell you.
One of them, knowing how hard I’ve tried over the years, got so frustrated over this situation that he said my family had “abandoned” me. That isn’t true. They are difficult in their ways, as I am difficult in my ways, and sometimes we don’t mesh well. I love them, they love me, we have some serious disagreements, but they usually will help me when push comes to shove.
Do they have a lot of means to do that with, though? No, they don’t. Which is why I decided to do a Patreon appeal. And it’s why I reopened my GoFundMe account as well.
I don’t want my father to be wholly responsible for what happens to me. He’s in his “golden years.” He should not have to do this.
I don’t want my sister, or my mother, or anyone else in my family to have to give all that they have, just to keep me going.
My family deeply dislikes it that I have “put my troubles on the Internet.” My mother in particular is very angry that my concerned and caring friend said that my family has “abandoned” me, and views the fact that I have these two appeals as somehow deceitful, or at least distasteful.
But I’m telling you the flat truth. I do not know what will happen next Wednesday (the day after the house is sold at auction). And that terrifies me.
If you want to help, you have three ways to do it right now.
First, I have a number of books and stories out there — go to my Amazon page, and also to my late husband Michael’s Amazon page, and pick a story. Everything is $2.99 or less; most are only ninety-nine cents. They are all good reads, and I hope might make you feel better. (That’s why Michael and I wrote these stories. Life is too short for doom and gloom.)
Second, I still have the Patreon appeal going. This is a new way to do something very old-fashioned — support an artist, writer, or other creative type. That’s why I was drawn to it, especially because I can give back a little to those who help (by offering stories, etc.)
Third, I still have the GoFundMe appeal going. This is to give me options, in case I can find a job out-of-state. (No matter what, I will have moving expenses.)
I appreciate anything you can do. Thank you.
————–
Oh, one more thing:
As I am trying my best to make a better life for myself, I am looking into Americorps VISTA jobs. They don’t care what your age is. They only care about your ability. And I like the idea of public service, along with what I’m already doing with my writing, editing, and occasional music-making.
If I can find one of these jobs, I could be much better off in a few months than I am right now. (Here’s hoping.)
ReLaunched GoFundMe to Help with Moving…
Folks, as you know, I’m going to have to make an emergency move next week. I’ve set up a Patreon account (I’ll have to figure out how to add a button for that here, I suppose), and now I’ve updated my old GoFundMe Account as well and changed the URL so it’s easier to find:
https://www.gofundme.com/barbcaffrey
It is dispiriting to have to do this. But it is also gratifying that so many other writers and friends have stepped up to help me get the word out.
My hope is that I’ll be able to move and then get back to what I do best: Writing. Editing. Playing music. And living life.
Thank you for reading, and for supporting me during this trying time.
To Survive the Maelstrom by Michael B. Caffrey + @BarbCaffrey #bookreview #99cents #ASMSG
Very happy with this new review for my and my late husband Michael’s story “To Survive the Maelstrom.” Mrs. N.N. Light read it, reviewed it, loved it…what’s to say, except I’d better keep working on more of Peter’s story? (Michael wrote enough that I can finish it. Which I will do, after CHANGING FACES is done and in the can.)
Barb Caffrey's Blog 