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Showing posts from October, 2014

The Trouble with the BLURB

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A blurb is a short summary or promotional piece accompanying a creative work. The word was coined in 1907 by American humorist Gelett Burgess (1866–1951).  -Wikipedia The trouble with the blurb is that it tends to overpromise (and the book to underdeliver). We cannot fault the author or the blurb writer entirely because the nature of the blurb is to persuade us (readers) to purchase the book. It will overpromise at some point. After all, it is a sales pitch hiding under the guise of a cleverly written synopsis. It’s a tricky little thing to write because it wants to reveal things without revealing things (see, it really is tricky!). And that part it doesn’t reveal is the proverbial hook that magically transforms ‘window shoppers’ into actual buyers.   An effective blurb reels you in with the book’s perceived (preliminary) brilliance in 200 words or less. It thrills. It provokes. It intrigues.  But there’s also this tiny bit of unspoken co

Reviews for October: Gods, Mortals, Comets, Jazz and a Rat!

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It's race against time as I attempt to read and review all the books I've purchased this year before 2014 ends! TBR pile is down to a very manageable level so book-purchase moratorium is lifted.  For October, the books are about accidental goddesses, warring gods and the mortals caught in between, comet-themed stories, Jazz in the roaring twenties, and a steampunk rat!  Click on thumbnails to read the full review. Available in Amazon The Necklace of Goddess Athena by Effosyni Moschoudi Jazz Baby by Beem Weeks American Goddesses by Gary Henry Steampunk Rat by Madeleine Holly-Rosing Celestial by Katie Hayoz, Jamie Campbell, Sarah Dalton, Zoe Cannon, Susan Fodor, Sutton Shields, Anya Allyn, Ariele Sieling, Marijon Braden, H.S. Stone

Words Some Authors Will Never Use In Their Book Titles

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If you are easily offended by filthy words, pls. stop reading. You've been warned. I was reading   a discussion on the “worst words” in the English language that quickly turned into a discussion of the nastiest words used in novels. It became very entertaining fast!  This gave me an idea for a blog post, but I wanted a little participation from authors and writers in my social media network. So, I asked 60 authors this intriguing question: Results Warning: Cannot be unseen. Click for bigger view. This could blind you. A word cloud is generated in which the size of the word indicates its frequency (or popularity or importance – or in this case, the level of disgust?). **The word “THE” should be included but the word cloud maker didn’t include articles. My thoughts: -Most of the words are vulgar, filthy, and just plain disgusting. You might need to wash your eyes after reading. And if you sai