Customer Reviews... Good, Bad, and Best!

I always cringe when I see a new review has come up on my books. I'm never sure what they will say. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised, and some make me see blood.

The following reviews are for my first Sabrina Strong book Ascension.

The latest one went thus:

Topic/story was great. However, grammar and spelling drove me crazy. Too many gaps in the story line. Erratic starting and stopping of chapters. Towards the end there was a very large gap in the story. I realize the first book was free. However, I'm not sure if I am captivated to find out more about the story line.
Best of luck in your continued adventures.

This one gave me two stars. I must say I'm not sure what she means by gaps in the story line, or "Erratic starting and stopping of chapters". The start of a chapter is when a new scene beings and the end of it is either the end of a scene, or when the writer wishes to stop in the middle of something, and make you want to read on. Apparently, since this person did read on, that trick did it's job. It's not something I made up. If she ever reads other authors she should note this happens quite a lot. Patricia Cornwell will stop in the middle of things, end the chapter and start right where she stopped. It is a writer's perogative, I would think, how they want to do this, but in many writing suggestions by seasoned writers, what I do is what I've learned from those seasoned writers.

Let's take another one. This was one of my better ones. These are both taken from Amazon.

I LOVED this book. The intrigue really had me wondering what was going to happen next. I can't wait to read the next book in the series. If it is half as good as this one is, I am in for a real treat.
I would recommend this series for anyone loving this genre.

The above was a 5-star review. This woman did read all five books, and gave reviews on all of them. I was hoping to hear from her again. In fact she asked me to let her know when the 6th one came out. Unfortunately I don't know what happened to her. Her facebook entries ended sometime earlier in the year. I have no idea what might have happened to her.

Some of my best reviews come from facebook, in fact. People who are real fans will find me or my books and leave some sort of review.

This one was left for me yesterday, and believe me it takes the bite out of the first one I shared with you.

Absolutley LOVE your books ...can.t wait for #7 of sabrinas!!

I like these because I can thank the person directly on facebook. I find that interacting with fans is the best way to keep them interested. 

Even though my publisher has stated that reviews sell your books, I think word of mouth is better than a hand full of reviews. I can't make someone leave a review, and really paying for a review is just like bribing someone to say something nice. I find that somehow dishonest. I know other authors do this, and lovely that they've got money to burn on such things. (I don't make that much as a writer and even if I did I wouldn't pay for a damned review!) People make a review either because they want to, or have the inclination of leaving reviews of books they have read. If you check the names of those people who leave the review, you'll see what I mean. You can go and read all of their reviews and see if they are stingingly honest with all their reviews, never give more than 3 stars, or if they enjoy books of a certain genre and make nice reviews on most or all.

Here is one that I got at my Author Page on Facebook:

This morning I sent this out to one of the 'reading groups' I belong to;

Hey everyone;
I just last night ( ok- 1am!) finished the Sabrina Strong series by Lorelei Bell. Al 5 of them - started them on the 26th and could not stop! Most unique vampire series I have come across in MANY years- you do need to read them in order though - there must be a 6th and more coming & I just cannot wait!!!

Happy Memorial Day, All !!

As you can see, many of my fans are here and interacting with me there. Which is good. I know that people buy my books because there are sales all the time. A "free" ebook will boost sales on the rest of the books, which is what an author of a series hopes for.

Well, I'll end this rambling for now. Just wanted to share this with everyone. Hoping for more reviews on my books @ Amazon, though. I like to see them. Just don't like those 1- or 2-star ones.

Creepy Clowns to the Left of me...

Have you seen them?

They seem to be popping up everywhere...

In the news people are reporting having either seen, or having been threatened by people who take on the clown persona. Coincidence that it's closing in on Halloween?

A link to just one of those stories (if you get through the stupid mini ad) here. And this is a better one on UTube.

It's gotten to the point that dozens, maybe hundreds of people have gone out "hunting" clowns with golf clubs and hockey sticks. A rebooting of ye-old times tale of hunting the monster, me thinks.

And if you're on facebook, don't get it in your head you can get away with scaring people with threats. It has not gone well with those who have done this either. One youngster got caught. Well, it might have been because he used a school issued computer to do his dirty deeds, but yeah. He wasn't too smart.

A friend told me that if you dress up as a clown this Halloween you may be arrested. The police are not going to be laughing at your costume. You might have to spend it in jail.

I told my friend this is just like yelling "fire!" in a theater. People are not going to be laughing. And it's against the law. Period.

Anyway, when I heard about this, I thought I would incorporate it into the next Lainey Quilholt murder mystery book. Whenever I get to write that. I needed some sort of prank for a sort of side story, and add some drama, maybe some suspense to the book. This foot the bill, since Lainey is going to start college in the second book. I thought a scary clown lurking around campus would be just the ticket to keep readers on edge.

I, for one, will stay home and hope no clowns come terrorizing us in the middle of the night, out here in the boonies.

Next time you see someone in clown make-up wandering around in the woods you maybe wondering who, what, why, and can I run faster than him?

When In Doubt...

Hoookay. I've been working on my murder mystery for over a year, now. I'll admit it's really hard to write a genre you've only just admired and enjoyed reading, but haven' a clue (pun intended), as to how to go about it. I think I've been floundering every few steps, and have had to go back and rewrite about every other day. It is that old adage, writing is like driving in the dark with one headlight. Maybe a fog has descended here and there, and you can't even see the road--in my case.

But, I'm making progress. And just to share this with you, when you're reading through a manuscript and come upon something you've written--like dialogue, or a scene you just aren't exactly sure about, you question: "Would he say/do this?", then maybe you should reconsider that scene and pause and look around at other books with such a scene--or go to many places you might have on "How To Write" (I've kept old articles/magazines from Writer's Digest, etc to help me in times like these). I do this, but when I got to a specific thing in my murder mystery, I was stalled because no How-to-write article/blog is going to hit anything specific. Usually they tell you how TO write it. Not what you're doing WRONG. If you don't see that deer in your headlights, how do you know you've gotta stop???

Then, yesterday, I was poking around at a site called Poison Pencil--publisher based out of Scottsdale, AZ. I was actually trying to find out if they were accepting submissions. They weren't, but I happened along a blog by Ellen Larson, editor of Poison Pencil (which has mysteries, and specifically YA mysteries, which is what mine is) and I read portions of this blog. I found out what she finds in manuscripts that cause her to return them to the author, rejected.

Yeah. My history of rejection is, shall we say, not quite as huge as many authors, including JK Rowling, S. King, etc., but it was enough to make me quit submitting to any agent, or publisher long ago. (I have had 2 publishers, and the present has been working out just fine.) Here she tells the reader exactly what she doesn't want to see. And a few things she brought up had me going "Oh, shit. I did that." So, I'm working on rewrites. AGAIN!!!

But there was something else I found at this sight that had me thinking, "This isn't very impressive at all for a publisher's site." You will see if you go to their Young Adult Mystery Books, and click on any book. When you do [I'll wait], you'll find that you can't BUY any of these books from this site. And I thought hummmm... That's really sort of discouraging for anyone who might be interested in one of their books.

Compare Poison Pencil's site, to my publisher Creativia . Their site is so much better, with more places to discover/meet all authors and if you go to the "Meet" section, you can hit on any author, see their books and (as an example, mine), find their books and BUY them! How convenient is that?

So, if there is a lesson to learn here, it might be "the grass isn't any greener elsewhere".

So... I'm working on the rewrites, and especially the Prologue I'd written. Seems I need to push the timing of the Prologue back a bit in where to start it. But this is good. I'm catching stuff that needs to be fixed. There might be another saying applied here: "When in doubt, take it out".

Lorelei Bell@Creativia 

Dracula

Bela Lugosi as "Dracula" in the
film adaptation from Bram Stoker's
book "Dracula"

Dracula
synonymous with "vampires".

Have you ever wondered why?

I did. When I was a teenager, and left to be able to stay up late to watch movies that possibly might be disturbing, I found myself fascinated by the movies about Dracula. No matter when they were made, I had to watch them, as I was fasctinated by the whole idea of vampires and vampirism.

The thought in the back of my mind was that it would be cool if there were such things.  But I knew the reality. But then again, there were things that I experienced in my pre-teen and teenage life that sort of went beyond what we consider "normal". But I wont go into that here.

In the next several days I would like to examine the myth, legends and reality of who and what Dracula is. I will, from time to time offer up suggested reading for you, if you are so inclined. I will talk about Vlad Tepes--the real "Drakulya" (which means son of Dragon or, in some languages "devil"), and how I had always wanted to write stories with vampires in them. 

I had wanted to write the historical Dracula into one of my books, and Vampire Nocturne was the perfect book in which to fit him in. I'll have excerpts of this as well as these next few days up to Halloween. Keep watching as I will be dropping prices of my three Sabrina Strong books.

See you then!

Updates from llinois - Hate this humidity!

Yeah, it's hot. Well, to be truthful it's HUMID. I've been in Arizona where it's dry as bleached bones and it was something like 95 that afternoon we arrived at Dennis' mom & dad's place in Apache Junction several years ago. I wore jeans and a T-shirt. The only sweat I felt was on my upper lip. That was it. I could have used some shorts, but I was "comfortable" in the shade. Of course, you could not drink the water, and if you turned on the "cold" faucet it was actually pretty warm water. Saves on the water heater.  But I digress...

Here it's like wearing a wet washrag over your entire body, you can't breath, the deer flies attack you like crazy if you step outside from the moment the sun pops up (at least out here in the country--and my husband has the bites to prove it. He says, "you get used to it" And since he has to mow and hold on to the handles of the big zero-turn mower or it won't go) he can't swat at them.

My job puts me into a transit bus where I have air conditioning (thank you!), and believe it or not ONE person actually asked me to turn it down or off yesterday. I said, "I'm not turing this off." I'd have to turn it back on in two minutes (because I'd be suffering), and that's not good for the unit. She didn't press. She had sleeves on. Go sit down and talk to your friend on your damned cell phone and leave me alone!

Oh, yeah. This weather makes me snippety.

Been going through the documents my ex-publisher gave me to find any type-o's and other things I might want to change. Since I get to publish this Independently, I want to polish it up a bit, so that's where I've been when not working for the bus company for the last week or so (and will be tied up for another). So, if you wondered what the heck happened to me this is what's going on.

I'm hopeful I can get these done in another week and begin putting them back out there again.

Lorelei Bell, author of the Sabrina Strong series is working to get the eBooks back on Amazon so that you can buy them
Until then you CAN buy the first book of her other series, the Chronicles of Zofia Trickenbod, Sorceress - see below

Meanwhile, I've not quite put an ending on my 7th WIP. Things sort of got on the back burner while dealing with work on the first three books. However, you would think I'd be too busy, too stressed out with all that's happening around me to even think about the eighth book... but no. #8 is clanking around in my head. It's like I live in another dimention right where Sabrina lives, and I'm seeing it from my spot. Sort of like a fish bowl, I guess.
I'm thinking of mixing things up a bit starting with this one, and get away from the Vampire This or That titles.
What do you think of the title: "Six Shades of Hell"? Let me know if you think it's a good one, bad, or if you're indiffernt, don't worry about it.

Glad to see you all "waves". Hope to be back to normal (yeah, right) soon!


Lorelei Bell's debut novel about a quirky sorceress trying hard to do her job... and not get killed in the process.

Spell of the Black Unicorn can be purchased here.

A Night @ The Ellwood House & Celebration of a Milestone ('Spell of the Black Unicorn' turns 5 years old!)

I've been keeping this under my hat for a while. Mainly because it's an event that not only features me, but 3 other authors, plus a slew of gifted performers and sounds like there will be a fashion show, and who knows what all.

It's in DeKalb at the visitor center (below), at the historical Ellwood House in DeKalb, Ill.


Description:
On Friday April 26th, from 4-7 pm event series "Borders Nith Out" returns for its 3rd show at the Ellwood House visitors center! Written and directed by the former employees and regulars of Borders Books DeKalb, the series was relaunched in Sept of 2012. Managed by Jessica Arriaga.

Special guest hosted by fashion modeling superstar: Sabrina DiGiovanni of Beauty Look Magazine.
$5.00 at the door. All ages.

Four themed fashion walks set to the music of Fleewood Mack by the Ladies of Borders Nite Out. Featuring Lola DeLo, Sarah Henneke, Ashley Lucero and many others.

Meet published authors-
Deanna Francis who will be signing her new book 'Taking Chances' She was recently featuring in the A&E section of the Daily Chronicle.
Jo Fredell Higgins with her books 'DeKalb' and 'Aurora' from Arcadia Publishing's Images of America series. This is her 4th Borders Nithg Out appearance.

Anderea Jones with her books Hook & Jill and Other Oceans. Andrea has appeared in several Borders Nith Out events over the years and is always a guiding light in the shows.

Lorelei Bell celebrating the 5th anniversary of her first novel, "Spell of the Black Unicorn" Lorelei was in the very first Borders Nite Out in Dec. of 2008 and her she is in the brand new one!

Handmade jewelry for sale and display by Ashley Ney. Jewelry and ViSalus display by Rachel & Adam Muller (of Borders Nite Out)
Live music by Amanda and Andrew, Mitch Munns with Rachel Cozzola, Mark w/Mia Lynell, Danielle Pivonka, and other musical guests!

Well, you get the picture. Yes, I'm celebrating my very first, self-published work Spell of the Black Unicorn, which I self-published almost 5 years ago. I am now working on putting it up as an ebook. I hope to get it finished by the end of this month, and have it out as an ebook by May.

When Daniel Sherrill told me about how these events had really taken off, I thought, why not go to the next one. Of course this means (gak) I have to go out in public (I'm part turtle, and hide my head a lot). Also (gak) find something that fits me and looks nice--gained too much weight over the winter and I just can't loose it no matter how much I try.

I'm hopeful there will be so much going on--well everyone will be looking at the ladies on the catwalk and listening to the music--I won't have to feel like I'm in the spotlight. Especially when there's going to be 3 other authors. Hmm. I've invited friends and hope they come out for this one.

So, that's what I'll be doing this Friday night. Wish me luck... in finding something that fits me.

Teaser Tuesday ~ Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch by Lara Parker

Hello, my pretties. Well, since I cannot put up a picture of this book cover [or any picture] on my blog, I hope you will forgive me. However. I picked up this wonderful book Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch by Lara Parker. In case you are not familiar with the original Dark Shadows, or you've forgotten, Lara Parker played Angelique, the nasty witch, in that original show. She is now a writer. She has written two wonderful Dark Shadows books, with a third pending. I found this one at my local grocery store, and had to grab it, fearing I'd not find it again.

Laura's writing captures Barnabas, as well as all the characters of Dark Shadows with the precision of a surgeon with a laser. Her prose are to be not only admired, but envied. She's done a splendid job and I've chosen one paragraph on page 78 to share with you today on Teaser Tuesday.

Set-Up: We are with Barnabas, who has become mortal again thanks to Dr. Julia's "cure".

~ It had been many months since his cure, and still the light of day was for him a miracle to behold, the sun a golden orb, buttermilk skies with clouds as soft as clotted cream. The first sight of spring had tormented him with its beauty: flowering trees, new grass, and the silken air fractured into rainbows. He would often sit and stare at nothing else, only the air, and the prisms of light dancing within it. But during the height of summer, the unbearable heat of his cure drove him back into the coolness of his dark bedroom with curtains drawn, beneath the canopy of his bed, as though he were once more within the tomb. Now autumn had arrived with all its splendors, and its heartbreaking hues.~

Her second book: Angelique's Descent is also available, and there will be a third one, unless it too is already out. This first one was published originally in 2006.

Musings, Spring Updates & Books

Five more days until this month is gone--it went too fast. But I'm hopeful that the weather in April will turn warmer. We had 20 degrees for a low this morning! We're 15 degrees colder than we should be. I'll say!

I've finished the book An Embarrassment of Riches last night by Yarbro. This is not your typical blood sucking vampire story. Yarbro sets her vampire, Saint-Germain off from others in her own way, and needs not apologize for it. The scenes are lush with historical detail and language. The novel is set in the 1200's. The historical backdrop and all the clothing, and different words took me a while to get used to. (Yarabro's notes at the beginning are helpful and a must read before you go on to read the book.) This is definitely a book to read should you be interested in the Medieval time period, but I'd have to say it is not one filled with a lot of action. Saint-Germain--in this he is Razkoczy Feranci--who was known, in history, at this time as an alchemist. In this book he is an exile, and treated rather well since he owns land which the king wants. Kings at that time were going to war for power, land, and other such things. I felt Yarbro did a great job in showing how the power of the royalty works, but also how the church ruled over everyone and kept them all in the dark, as well as frightened about things they simply didn't understand--which included their own religion. You must remember at the time common people were illiterate, and very few upper class could read their own language let alone what is called church Latin.

When I closed the book for the last time, I felt somewhat as though it closed on a quiet note, assured that our hero would continue on in his way as a vampire. Saint-Germain's problem with all the women at court, from the queen to her ladies-waiting, he did so without becoming too perturbed, and maybe that's what bothered me a little bit. These various women who were very demanding, and could certainly give him probems--putting at risk his own people who would be slaughtered should he not dance to the tune of politics and meet demands for jewels, and sexual pleasures of Roza of Borsod, who held a high position in the queen's household. Still, I felt that he should have at least faced a little more of a threat than he did toward the end. Although I'm not disappointed in the fact he found a way out of it all, by no design of his own. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it. I did and look forward to reaind another of her books. It must have been a demanding piece of work researching the era, the people and their ways, as well as the clothing, and how they addressed one another. These things I did glean a great deal from the historical aspects.

The intrigue is more with the women who sought Raskoczy for his "sexual" favors. Of course, unless you are not familiar with Yarbro's St. Germain I'm not going to tell you a great deal about his sexuality. For me, what I do remember from the one other book I did read Hotel Transylvania, is that I was rather disappointed that she made him impotent. That was something that had stayed with me, back when I'd read it, before I penned my own vampire book, and I felt that it was a shame that he merely derived his pleasure from the blood he sought from women. Not that the women were disappointed, believe me. There was a very good reason these women came to him.

I would love to find another of her books and read it. Compare it. Each of her books are stand-alones, so you can hop around the centuries, new adventures, and countries.

The other book I read this month was All Hallow's Blood by Raven Corinn Carluk, who I hope to interview and post it here. In contrast to Yarbro, Carluk's book is set in modern-day Portland, and definitely had plenty of action, danger, sex and so forth. The character, Keila, had some special talents, and if you like the kick-ass chick type of vampire fiction, I would recommend this one. Her vampire, Varick Eitenhaur, is the yummy vampire who holds Keila to finding the bad vampires who want to take over his territory. Together they make quite a team, and in the process discover things about themselves they weren't aware of. An interesting tale and with the added psychic advantages that Keila has, it makes for a truly different type of heroine.

Other things that I've been busy at have been, of course, finding blogs which will host me/my book. I've had word back from two. One I've managed to get a definite date of the 10th of April, and I will announce this later on. Another is an interview with an acquaintance, Mike Kleen, who I met at a book signing, and he lives nearby. He has promised to send me interview questions, but theses have not come my way as yet. Possibly Mike may have bought the book in order to read it, before slinging questions my way about it. That would be very cool if he did.

I've appealed to two other places as well. One is a well known (and very popular) one to me, but until I get word back about it, I'll not mention it for now. All things in their good time.

I understand that there is a "post-a-day" thing coming up. If you are involved with that, have fun.

Meanwhile I work on the edits of my own book.

Adieu for now.

Sumiko's Reads ~ A Bibliophile's Foibles

I wanted to talk about the Jane Lindskold trilogy that starts with Thirteen Orphans, continues with Nine Gates and ends with Five Odd Honors. But this brought up another issue: I discovered Thirteen Orphans at the library, and I loved it so much that when I saw it was out in mass market paperback I bought it. Then I went on a bit of a reading hiatus and when I came out of it (like coming out of hibernation - starving for good stories) I found that Nine Gates was available in mass market paperback so I bought that.

And loved it. . .and the third book Five Odd Honors is out - but in hardback. Now, I love having related books all in the same format.(This is the reading adjacent bit.) You can shelf them or stack them together. Chances are the artwork will also be related so they look like they belong together too. Sensible people are now saying: get it out of the library - buy the paperback later! But my reading hibernation incident means that I owe my library big bucks and two books. And I keep not going there. Sigh. And I want that book.

Now, I have broken my matched series thing lately with both the Dresden Files books and the Sookie Stackhouse books. . . but they are long, long, multi-book series and not so much a set as a neat little trilogy is. What shall I do? Am I just trying to talk my self into breaking the set? And does anyone else out there have similar book
foibles?

Welcome Sumiko to My Blog!

I want everyone to welcome Sumiko to my blog. She loves to read. She told me she can read a book in a week. I told her that I just don't have the time to read that much, but would love to be able to post more often about books, and asked her if she would like to do this. She accepted. I swear I didn't bribe her.

So, without further adue . . .

Hi everyone!

I am Sumiko - a friend of Lorelei's. My qualifications for this are mainly that I am her friend and that since I was first taught to read, I have been reading almost constantly. I read many things - fantasy, mystery, romance, literary fiction and non-fiction. Of course, what I most want to talk about are the fantasy novels that I am ingesting like potato chips!

Currently, I am reading Kate Elliott's novel Cold Magic. This was a recommendation from an online friend. She had just finished the book and was enthusing. I checked it out and when I saw it was by Kate Elliott I HAD to have it. Elliott is an author I've read for a number of years. The first books of hers I read were the Jaran books. I read those so long ago that the most I can say about them was that they were intriguingly set in a world that was based in Russian culture rather than the more usual Germanic-Celtic culture.

Then I fell into her Crown of Stars books - loved them. Did the whole - read the book, wait for years for the next one, re-read incessantly, etc. with that series. It was intended to be a trilogy and wound up as a series of 7 books. I can't say that they all stayed at the same high level as the first couple but they were good.

She has a gift for creating characters that you love and then doing horrible things to them. I am in the middle of Cold Magic and there has just been one of those exciting turns of events that makes me wish that I didn't have to put the book down!

According to her website, this is the first book in a trilogy. Oh dear, I fear I am in for another round of read, wait, re-read, wait, etc.

Kate Elliott's website is http://www.kateelliott.com and she is also on facebook and twitter.

It's In the Mail . . .

Seems like the mail (regular and e-mail) can bring us some good stuff now and then. I think my week has given me some excitement in that field.

On Thursday my husband and I got home to find a package on our porch, and it was the books I had won from over at VampChix. I had learned that she was sending me 4 books.

I was wrong. It was 5. Michele Hauf had included her own, just released paperback novel--autographed copy, no less--of Her Vampire Husband . That made the mailing extra special. I'll need to thank her, and as I began thinking of writing a nice personal note (see, I've got her mailing address, he,he), I then did the bonk-my-head-with-my-hand thing. Duh. Why not send her my book? She might even enjoy it, if nothing else. So, this is what I'll do.

Today, while in the throes of hating my Internet server, I got an e-mail from Crescent Moon Publishers. The editor said she'd thought I was going to send her the first chapter. Well, I guess I just read it all wrong from the site. The third paragraph on submissions says:

"If we're interested, we will send you an e-mail asking for the first chapter . . ."

Well, I guess I got the e-mail asking me, so I'll work on sending that out. since said editor told me when would be gone until May 4th, I guess I'll take my time getting the chapter as clean and presentable as I can, and check all margins, etc.

Meanwhile I'm reading two books now. One is Michele Hauf's book, of course (and I will give a review of it when I'm done), and the other one is Charlaine Harris' "Dead and Gone" and when I get done with hers I will give my summary of that book.

I'll probably post something later on in the weekend. That is if the weather isn't bumping us off the earth or something. Gonna get bad here at some point. This is a terrible storm and I wish for everyone to stay alert, and make sure to take shelter when weather conditions threaten.