Category: steampunk

Books, indie author, paranormal romance, Romance, scifi, steampunk, Urban Fantasy

Just. One. Book.

Karen

This is a call out to all authors who so kindly read my blog but as a an update the will have a wish list on Amazon by Monday. I personally am a strong supporter of libraries since they were my escape as a child. Thank you to any and all who at least take the time to read the blog!!

Margaret Elysia Garcia's avatarThrowing Chanclas

Just. One. Book.

I live in a town of 1200 people in the Northern Sierra Nevada –where it meets the Cascade Range near Mt. Lassen National Park and about two hours drive northwest of Reno, NV.  Two hundred of that population is students. Over the years as the population dwindled after mines closed, then mills–nothing except tourism and retirement have emerged as ‘industries.’ Many businesses have closed down and with it many things we take for granted—like libraries.

The local junior/senior high school has not been able to purchase new books since the 90s. Some of the “check outs” for old books are in the 1980s. There are no books by people of color in the library. Hardly any books by women are in the few book cases except your standard Austen and Lee. It’s an uninviting place. There hasn’t been a librarian for nearly a decade. And volunteers weren’t allowed. The…

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Books, fantasy, funny, great reads, indie author, Out of the Box Blogs, paranormal romance, Romance, scifi, steampunk, Urban Fantasy

If I Can’t Judge A Book By Its Cover…

Karen

Jaws

 

So we have all heard the famous quote “Don’t judge a book by its cover” but seriously how else are you suppose to pick a new book? Now I know what you’re thinking: the blurb, a recommendation or even how many stars it has on goodreads..but let’s be honest here, what do you see first? What do we all add at the top of the post for that eye catching extra like? THE COVER! But unlike the awesome cover I’ve snatched to catch your attention (yes I know you might be thinking, that’s the movie poster. That’s how great the cover was, they used it as the movie poster as well. Score one for that cover artist) not all covers were created equal. So what is the biggest problems we run into with covers? Here are my cover grips. These are all very subjective so please take them that way:

  1. It doesn’t match. If you’re a book nerd like me then you’ve done it, you know bought that book at 2am that has the most amazing cover, and didn’t read the blurb. But that cover, ugh it’s everything you’ve dreamed about! You don’t even need a summary of the story, it is the summary people. And then you start reading..ummm wait what? Maybe I accidentally bought the wrong book??? It’s like a bait and switch, you have a story on the cover that you never see in the book. Some covers have gone so far for me as the have aliens, robots that are minor characters or even one showed a main character of a really cool Tim Burton fantasy kinda guy on it, the main character was a girl..I never found him in the book!
  2. The oversell. Now this is the cover that does have something to do with the story, it just ends up being way bigger than the book. You know the cover that makes you think, this book is going to be 5 stars, guaranteed..and it’s just not living up to its cover potential. There are some breathtaking covers out there, truly gorgeous, but I fear them the most because I want the books to be just as breathtaking. You never know until you read.
  3. The undersell. This one is the easiest and yet the worst at the same time. It’s the ones where the cover is just plain old bad, and yet the book is amazing. Think of all the books you’ve passed on that are gold, or that later someone has convinced you to read and then you loved it. Now here is the cringe moment, think of all the books you passed on that no one convinced you to read that might have been gold..I know I’m not sleeping tonight either. I’d love to say I never would be so shallow as to just make a decision based solely on looks but I’m going to fess up here, I have an author I have read for 8 years that I passed on the first time because of the cover. They are notorious for their bad covers now but back then they were newbies and it made a difference. Fortunately for me someone talked me into trying them (very fortunately for me, I absolutely love them) but I actually put their book down the first time. A lot of people say that covers don’t make as much of a difference now that most people have gone digital and download their books, but I say to them, how do you pick which books your going to read a blurb on? I still look at covers on Amazon or Goodreads. I just don’t buy that argument.

Okay let’s flip this coin. I hate bad covers, you guys got that point but I’m sure authors don’t like them either. So what makes covers so tricky? Well this is what I’ve learned over the years, but indies if there is something I’m missing, comment! Back to cover art, Why oh why is it so hard to match? Here’s what my forage and gathering skills have gleaned:

  1. If you are a published author you don’t get to decide. That’s right, if you get a publishing house, they ultimately pick the cover they think will make the most, and here is the shocking part…MONEY. I know, I know, sometimes you see those covers and think how is a half naked man going to sell more urban fantasy novels? Or, really another really hot goth looking chick/dude? That’s not what the main character even looks like. Well apparently here is the stitch, they don’t care. They are hoping you buy the book cause you’re a UF freak like me (I mean fan, yeah that was a typo) and they hope someone else buys it cause their is a chick on the cover with a flaming sword. As long as they sell books.
  2. For indie’s sometimes $$$ makes a difference. Okay so you have this vision, and it’s awesome, I mean you want what’s in your brain to become print on your cover. And it’s going to be epic. But let’s be honest here, you have to foot the bill for the book, and you don’t have big brother who, though they would basically be making your cover decisions for you, they would also be helping pay upfront fees. You just can’t afford the Lexus, so you have to buy the Kia, don’t get me wrong it’s great, just not exactly what you were picturing in your head.
  3. You get the picture. Sometimes you can get an amazing cover but the story just doesn’t connect. Hey this is why everything is so subjective, maybe it’s my problem. I recently read an authors blog that said, sometimes a bad review is just the reviewers problem. HEY! As a reviewer I didn’t love that but I’m glad the author posted it, because if I’m the only one complaining than it’s on me. Now if everyone is complaining…

 

My favorite cover is PB

the sad thing is that this is no longer the cover for this book but I have always loved it. What is your favorite cover? Let me know!

Books, great reads, paranormal romance, Reviews, Romance, scifi, steampunk, Urban Fantasy

The Irin Chronicles by Elizabeth Hunter

debra
  • The Irin Chronicles is a series of three books that are titled (in order):

The Scribe
The Singer
The Secret

I am going to review all three as a set because all three have to be read to get the whole story. Book one is a real cliffhanger!

This story evolves around 2 distinct cultures (or are they distinct?). You learn throughout the story that the cultures involved are the offspring of the Fallen and the Forgiven. Twenty-one angels fell from heaven. Seven died, seven returned (Forgiven) and seven stayed on earth (Fallen). The offspring of the Forgiven are the Irin and the offspring of the Fallen are the Grigori. Both sets of offspring have inherited magic abilities from their angel fathers. The Irin’s stated role on earth is to protect the humans (who are unaware of what is going on) and to hunt/kill the Grigori. The Grigori are vicious hunters and users of the humans (but are all of them this way?). The Irin society’s numbers are decreasing because two centuries ago, the Grigori attacked the Irina (the females) and decimated their numbers. However, all is not what we think it is throughout the story. Actually, what we learn in Books 2 and 3 totally turns the story upside down and nothing is quite what it seems in the early stages of the story. The author does this very well. There were several spots in books 2 and 3 (I was reading these on my Kindle), that I had to stop and put in a note so I would make sure I remembered a few things. Many passages are highlighted. I normally do not do these things—a good indication of how the story evolves over the life of the books.

My thoughts: I loved this trilogy. I found book 1 because it was the monthly selection of an online book club I am in some time ago and I really enjoyed it. I had other reading obligations at the time so I could not get to books 2 and 3 until now. But the story just would not leave my head and others recommended it to me that I knew I had to finish the series. And I am so glad I did. The author has created a rich and complex world and is very good at the world building. Her world is very descriptive in the narrative but not so descriptive that she bogs us down with it. A lot of the world building is also done in the character interaction/dialogue which the author did a great job with. I am very critical when it comes to dialogue. If I don’t feel that the dialogue is believable for the characters to say to each other, the book falls flat for me. Sorry—that’s just the way I roll. It’s a quirk. The main characters in this trilogy are Malachi, a centuries old Irin scribe, and Ava, a current day very special human (or is she?),  and of course, they are going to become fated mates. The secondary characters are wonderful and add so much life to the story. Much of the story takes place in the Istanbul and Vienna areas and these locations also add a lot of life to the story.

We learn in a note to the readers after the story concludes in book 3 that the author is now planning more books in this world for some of the other characters and I for one, am looking forward to reading them also.

 

 

indie author, Out of the Box Blogs, paranormal romance, scifi, steampunk, Urban Fantasy

The Waiting Game

Karen

Recently I’ve noticed that a lot of the authors I’ve been following for years are spacing the time between books in a series more and more. Now sometimes it’s a health or other personal issues which I completely sympathize with and understand, hey as much as I’d like to have that new book real life and family is a priority, but sometime it’s not. Here are some of the reasons I’ve been consistently running into:

  1. The new series. Authors want to start new series, which I get creatively they get bored, so the old series which is the cash cow and the one I love starts to have longer and longer wait times. I have a few that publish like clockwork once a year but now with new series (still only publishing once a year) the series I follow only comes out every 2-3 years. Sometimes I actually have forgotten what’s going on it’s been so long.
  2. The publisher. Apparently the publishers like the publish certain genres certain times of the year. One author missed her deadline by a month and now her book is slated to release a year later. This is a NYT best selling author and this will make it a three year wait on the book. Really? You couldn’t find a spot?
  3. The deadline. As mentioned above deadlines seem to be getting tighter and tighter for writers and when they miss them then books seem to get pushed not weeks buts 6,8,12,18 months out.

The saddest part is that some new series I’ve picked up are really interesting but there has been no follow up..and its been 12-18 months for some of these books. Honestly I’ve lost interest in anything that’s not my core reading, as far as series are concerned, that aren’t indie authors. Do you think it’s over stressed authors, publishing houses that think people will stay loyal no matter what or an over critical me?