@ShelleyDavidow's #WriteTip on Handling the Business of Rejection #AmWriting #YA

So, you’ve written your novel and printed it out and it’s been through twenty seven drafts, and nothing, not a single word, is out of place. It’s been honed and crafted over the past two years, and your family and friends are asking the unanswerable question: so, when’s it going to be published?

Of course you can’t answer that yet, because you haven’t even sent it out. And even as you peel off the sticky stuff to seal the big padded envelope that will carry your novel to its destination, you can feel, bubbling under the surface of desperate hope and anticipation, a black cauldron of fear beginning to simmer: the fear of rejection. What if the publisher (who may have even requested to see the manuscript after reading an initial few chapters), rejects you?

After twenty-two years in the industry, and 38 books published by both big publishers and small independent presses alike, I can say with some certainty that being a novelist means in fact, to be in the business of rejection. Mostly. And that takes guts, or hide, or tenacity. And a certain amount of skill: we have to be able to discern things like, after ten rejections, is there a problem with the book, or a problem with the publishers, (perhaps I’m sending to big houses that are only accepting unsolicited manuscripts in very specific genres and I’ve mis-sent my book), or out of all the rejections, it’s clear not a single person has actually read my manuscript, or maybe the book really does fall flat and isn’t living up to what it needs to be. Here are a few tips to help minimise the number of rejections, and dealing with them when they come.

To Minimise the Sheer Number of ‘Dear Author, Unfortunately…’ letters: 

1) Choose publishers very carefully. Look at exactly what they publish and make sure it’s as close to a perfect match as possible.

2) Make sure your query letter specifically addresses why this particular publisher may find your book a good fit, and why you want to publish with them.

3) Dream big, but don’t pass up the opportunity of working with a small or mid-sized press. They often offer unparalleled dedication and commitment to making a success out of a book.

4) Submit to several publishers at once if you can find them. (Many publishers don’t want simultaneous submissions, but if you send out a novel to one place at a time, you may be 144 years old before your work is accepted). I’ve had thousands of rejections, and 38 acceptances and I’ve never had two publishers say yes to the same book at the same time!

Dealing with Rejection: 

1) Open a folder (either on your computer or in your paper filing cabinet) under ‘R’ for ‘rejections.’ Start your collection.

2) If there is anything more than ‘Dear Author, thanks but no thanks’ in the rejection letter, get over the disappointment of not being discovered as the next JK Rowling, and then be happy that someone thinks your work is worthy of a response! Read over the reasons for the rejection. Decide whether there are some points that seem helpful and/or true, which you could use to make your work better or more appropriate. Decide whether you have written something that you believe in, or whether this is best regarded as a practise run.

3) Finally, sometimes getting published is a matter of believing in what you’ve written so much, that you’re willing to wait twelve years through one hundred and eighteen rejection slips before you find someone who believes in your work. (Been there, done that!) Sometimes the only way to deal with rejection is to send your work out to another ten places so that it’s always out there.

The difference between someone who gets published and someone who doesn’t, is sometimes simply persistence! Good luck out there.

Lucy Wright, sixteen and a paraplegic after a recent car accident that took her mother’s life, lives in Queensland on a 10,000 acre farm with her father. When Lucy investigates strange lights over the creek at the bottom of the property, she discovers a mystery that links the lights to the science of cymatics and Scotland’s ancient Rosslyn Chapel.

But beyond the chapel is an even larger mystery. One that links the music the chapel contains to Norway’s mysterious Hessdalen lights, and beyond that to Saturn and to the stars. Lucy’s discoveries catapult her into a parallel universe connected to our own by means of resonance and sound, where a newly emerging world trembles on the edge of disaster. As realities divide, her mission in this new world is revealed and she finds herself part of a love story that will span the galaxy.

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Genre - Young Adult SF

Rating - PG

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Mary Frame's 8 Tips for Writers to Avoid Self-Loathing & Despair @marewulf #AmWriting #Romance

Eight tips to help writers avoid falling into a well of self-loathing and despair

Tip One: Read about writing.

Once I finished my first novel and realized how much it stank, the first thing I did was head to my local library and check out everything I could find about the craft of writing. I highly recommend Writing Fiction for Dummies by Randy Ingermanson and Beginnings, Middles, Ends by Nancy Kress. There’s something to be said about taking control of a problem (i.e. I’m a horrible writer!) and turning it into action (I can get better!).

Tip Two: Go to a writer’s conference.

This might not be possible for everyone, depending on budget, but it’s worth looking into. You might be able to find one more affordable than you think! My local community college hosts writing conferences every year, and it’s less than $100. If you have that amount money to spare, it’s worth it. You get to meet other local writers (unless you’re like me and get all sweaty and nervous when you try to chat up people you’ve never met before), and they bring in all types of people from the industry to present various topics about writing and the publishing industry.

Tip Three: Read early and often and read a variety.

Read in your genre. Read outside your genre. Read books by seasoned authors and read books by new indie authors. Being able to distinguish between what makes a book good or bad, what you enjoy and what you don’t will make your writing stronger.

Tip Four: Connect with other writers.

Look for writing groups in your area. Find your NaNo writing group. If you’re like me and start getting all anxious when you think about meeting other writers in person, find beta readers online. Writing is a solitary pursuit, but having someone to vent and share with is necessary to avoid jabbing your eyes out with a pencil when the going gets tough (and it will!).

Tip Five: Don’t beat yourself up too much.

Writing is tough. It takes time. You’re going to suck sometimes, and that’s okay. Forgive yourself and move on. The only way to write better is to keep writing.

Tip Six: Recognize that nothing you write is a waste of time.

Writing is hard. They say it takes a million words before you start writing well, and that was about accurate for me. Even if you have to toss six books before you write something you’re proud of, those books are the ones that helped you become the writer you are today. No regrets!

Tip Seven: Take care of yourself

A healthy body is a healthy mind. If you find yourself tired and unable to come up with anything to write about, take a walk. Do something physical, get those juices flowing. Drinking copious amounts of vodka may have worked for Edgar Allen Poe, but I find that keeping myself healthy and clean makes my mind sharper and more able to handle those pesky plot holes.

Tip Eight: Last but most importantly, keep writing.

Don’t give up! Ever! If you’re stuck, write through it. If you’re sick of your book, write through it. If you feel like you’re going to vomit all over your laptop/computer/pad of paper/typewriter, write through it. No one ever told me it would take me so long to learn the craft of writing and that it would be so hard. It is, but it’s worth it. Keep going.

Lucy London puts the word genius to shame. Having obtained her PhD in microbiology by the age of twenty, she’s amassed a wealth of knowledge, but one subject still eludes her—people. The pendulum of passions experienced by those around her both confuses and intrigues her, so when she’s offered a grant to study emotion as a pathogen, she jumps on the opportunity.

When her attempts to come up with an actual experiment quickly drop from lackluster to nonexistent, she’s given a choice: figure out how to conduct a groundbreaking study on passion, or lose both the grant and her position at the university. Put on leave until she can crack the perfect proposal, she finds there’s only one way she can study emotions: by experiencing them herself.

Enter Jensen Walker, Lucy’s neighbor and the one person on the planet she finds strangely and maddeningly appealing. Jensen’s life is the stuff of campus legend, messy, emotional, complicated—in short, the perfect starting point for Lucy’s study. When her tenaciousness wears him down and he consents to help her, sparks fly. To her surprise, Lucy finds herself battling with her own emotions, as foreign as they are intense. With the clock ticking on her deadline, Lucy must decide what’s more important: analyzing her passions…or giving in to them?

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Genre - Romantic Comedy

Rating – PG-13

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A LADY IN FRANCE #Excerpt by Jennie Goutet @ALadyInFrance #AmReading #Memoir #France

The new house felt like The Chronicles of Narnia, with its walk-in closets and hiding spaces. I even pretended that by pushing through the coats in the deep closet, I would be able to enter a new land of magic. But my fingers touched the wall every time.

There were three floors, plus a basement full of nooks and crannies. We had a backyard, and then what we called the “way back.” Even the “way back” had a “way back” because the fence was broken down, and we could run for a distance in a wooded area before seeing the backs of neighboring houses. There was the loft above the garage, with a ladder in the shed to climb up. And there were the cubby holes cut out of the flimsy plywood walls in the attic—the cut-out sections matching the wall perfectly, and held in place by a couple of nails. There were closets upon closets (oh, how one misses that living in France), and there were even large drawers in the hallway where we used to keep our dirty clothes to be washed, and sometimes stow away in when playing hide-and-seek.

Since the house was somewhat run-down, we renovated the rooms in a joint family effort, thoroughly gutting and re-doing one room each summer. My father and brother pounded the plaster until it fell off the lath board onto the floor. Then we all scooped it up with snow shovels, put it in boxes and carried it outside to be picked up by the garbage truck. My father redid the wiring behind the walls, and worked alongside my brother as they nailed up fresh sheetrock, applied joint compound, then sanded and painted the room.

My mother stood outside in the sun with the baseboard and window trim balanced on two sawhorses. She burned the paint with a small electric grill, and scraped it off the wood—the old, cracked paint now bubbling and pliable. Then she sanded and painted everything so that the trim was smooth and white. When everything was in place—the trim, the freshly painted walls, the new outlets—the room became a blank canvas, ready to tell the story of our family with all the things we put in it. In this way, we conquered the house, one room at a time, and put our stamp on it.

We went to “the Farm” each week, which was forty-five minutes away. There we borrowed land from a friend so we could grow vegetables and freeze them for the winter. Jeff threw green beans at Mark to tease him while we were picking and weeding until my father yelled, “Knock it off!” and we all suppressed our giggles. When the four of us were released from our duties, we ran through the tall grass, coming out of it with our pants wet from the spit bugs.

“He’s around the bend!” I yelled to Jeff as I dodged Mark’s grasping hands in our game of chase around the house—little kids against the big kids. “Stephanie’s around the corner!” my brother yelled back, laughing. These were the names we made up for specific areas of our house so that we could warn each other of where we might get caught.

Stephanie and I played dolls and pretended our bed was a boat, a safe haven from the waters surrounding it. Jeff and Mark experimented with the tape-recorder, recording funny voices and loud burps and their own laughter. The four of us played together, swinging around the six white columns on the front porch, and building lean-tos in the back with the extra planks of wood lying around. And in the winter, we all went outside after school to the “way back,” which was set on a hill. There we navigated our sleds around the trees, laughing gleefully as we zipped over the snowy moguls before skidding into a halt against the fence at the bottom.

We stayed there until it was dark, sometimes lying quietly on our sleds, looking upwards at the black branches set against the purple sky, feeling the snowflakes settle softly on our faces. Eventually it started to get too quiet, too cold and dark, and we deposited our sleds in the shed next to the garage and traipsed towards the house, my mother’s face framed by the light of the kitchen window as she prepared dinner.

At the symphony, the tuning ‘A’ caught my attention every time as the discordant sounds of all the instruments playing independently fell obediently in tune with the principal violinist. We were at the concert hall often, sometimes as much as once a week, and the space felt like a second home. When Jeff won a local competition at the age of sixteen, to appear as a guest pianist alongside my father’s symphony, I sat, breathless in excitement and anxiety, as he played Rachmaninoff’s “Third Piano Concerto.” He looked so small as he walked across the stage, but he confidently flipped the back of his suit jacket before sitting on the bench, after which he rattled the difficult piece off flawlessly.

I always felt privileged as we wound our way down the box seats after the symphony concert had concluded, taking the back stairwell with everyone else, but turning to the private door that accessed the backstage. There my father joked with the other brass players light-heartedly, showing us a side of him we rarely saw at home. Everyone called each other by their nicknames: Stevie, Brucie, Johnny, Dougie, Petey… Do you think classical musicians are serious? They are not—at least not the brass.

At seventeen, Jennie Goutet has a dream that she will one day marry a French man and sets off to Avignon in search of him. Though her dream eludes her, she lives boldly—teaching in Asia, studying in Paris, working and traveling for an advertising firm in New York.

When God calls her, she answers reluctantly, and must first come to grips with depression, crippling loss, and addiction before being restored. Serendipity takes her by the hand as she marries her French husband, works with him in a humanitarian effort in East Africa, before settling down in France and building a family.

Told with honesty and strength, A Lady in France is a brave, heart- stopping story of love, grief, faith, depression, sunshine piercing the gray clouds—and hope that stays in your heart long after it’s finished.

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Genre – Memoir

Rating – PG-13

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Website http://aladyinfrance.com

ANNA'S SECRET by @MargaretWestlie #GoodReads #HistFic #Mystery

“Someone’s gone to great pains to leave her comfortable.” Angus stared down at Anna. He was a church elder, and because of his wisdom, the unspoken head of the community. The ten minutes since Neil had arrived with his news had seemed an hour.

“Aye, they have indeed.” Duncan regarded the neatness of Anna’s grey drugget dress arranged modestly around her ankles, her folded hands lying across her abdomen. “It’s more than she deserved.”

“Hush now, Duncan, it’s bad luck to speak ill of the dead.”

“Yes, Duncan, she might come back and haunt you,” said Hector, his pale blue eyes quite serious.

“Och, Hector, you’re always thinking of ghosts.” Angus shook his grey head. “The poor thing probably has more to do than come back and haunt the likes of you.”

“She’s likely dancing in the hot place wishing for a bigger fan,” said Duncan.

A giggle erupted from Neil who had been hovering at the periphery of the small group of men. Angus looked hard at Duncan. “No more of that talk now, in front of children.” He squatted down beside Anna. “Is this the way you found her, Neil?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You didn’t touch her?”

“No, sir, only to shake her arm to see if she had just fallen asleep. She was stiff with the cold.”

Angus regarded Anna for another moment. “Help me turn her over, then.”

The three men knelt and turned her onto her left side. A small swarm of flies rose from their feast of sticky blood left on the pillow of yellow straw that had supported her head.

“It must have been someone who cared about her to take such trouble with her remains,” said Hector.

“Aye, it’s as if she was being put to bed,” agreed Angus.

“One more time,” said Duncan.

“Who’s going to tell Ian?” asked Hector.

“I will,” said Angus. “He’s my own cousin and we’ve known each other since we were schoolboys.”

“But we’re his cousins, too,” said Duncan.

“Nevertheless, I will tell him. You two will follow with Anna’s remains.”

“We need something to carry her on,” said Hector.

“There’s the door to Murdoch’s house that’s fallen in,” said Neil.

“Run, then, and be quick about it. Go with him, Hector, he’ll not be able to carry it by himself.”

Hector and Neil set out across the field where they had worked side by side with Ian only a few days before. The oats had been thick that summer and the straw had been plentiful, its shadowy roots home to field mice and grass snakes and crickets. Murdoch’s house had long stood vacant, its windows broken and its door fallen off its leather hinges. The roof had blown off in a winter gale three years ago and now the whole structure sat at a crazy angle not quite ready to fall into its cellar.

“You’re lighter than I am,” said Hector. “Go in and get the other end of the door, but mind where you step, it’s none of it very stable.”

The floor creaked and moved even under Neil’s slight weight. A few moments of careful manoeuvring freed the door from its bed of fallen rafters. In a few minutes Hector and Neil returned to the others.

Neil watched as Hector, Duncan and Angus loaded Anna’s remains onto the grey planks of the door. A smear of blood darkened the wood as they positioned her head for the journey home.

Hector shuddered. “Old Annie said this door would be smeared with the blood of the just.”

“Will you stop it, Hector,” said Duncan. “When did she say that?”

“The winter before Murdoch left for the Boston States.”

“That’s years ago, and Annie’s senile.”

“Not then she wasn’t. She said it as plain as day. I was there and I heard her.”

“And what did Murdoch think of all that?”

“There’s some say that’s the reason he left the Island.”

Anna Gillis, the midwife and neighbour in Mattie’s Story, has been found killed. The close-knit community is deeply shaken by this eruption of violence, and neighbours come together to help one another and to discover the perpetrator. But the answer lies Anna’s secret, long guarded by Old Annie, the last of the original Selkirk Settlers, and the protagonist of An Irregular Marriage. Join the community! Read Anna’s Secret and other novels by Margaret A. Westlie.

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Genre – Fiction, mystery, historical

Rating – G

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Website http://www.margaretwestlie.com

Billi Tiner on Strong Characters are Critical for a Good Story @TinerBooks #AmWriting #WriteTip

I believe that strong characters are the critical foundation for a good story. If the reader doesn’t relate to the characters, then they will not become truly invested in what is happening to them. I spend a lot more time describing how a character is feeling and what is motivating their decisions than I do on providing details about what the scenery looks like. I want people reading the story to feel what the character is feeling, and think about how they would react in a similar situation. In addition, I think the supporting cast is just as important as the main protagonist. The supporting characters can bring humor, drama, and suspense to the story. Everyone enjoys a good buddy story, so I try to provide each protagonist with a good supporting character. Likewise, a good villain can add just the right amount of spice to the story. Each character should have their own distinct personality.

In addition to the two-legged characters in my stories, each of my books contains animals as part of the supporting cast. As a veterinarian, I have come across many wonderful animals during my career, each of them having very distinct personalities. I use my experiences with these animals to help develop believable characters that play important roles in my stories.

From the author of “Dogs Aren’t Men” comes “To Love a Cat”, a contemporary romance novel.

Catherine “Cat” James’ life is simple and orderly, and she likes it that way. She loves her job as an accountant. Working with numbers is safe and routine, no surprises. Her childhood had been very abusive and unstable. She vowed not to live that way as an adult. She also made a promise to herself to become a foster parent. She wished someone had been there for her as a teenager, to let her know she wasn’t alone.

Cat agrees to foster Ethan Summers, a troubled teenage boy whose childhood closely resembles her own. Suddenly, her nice and orderly life is filled with chaos and uncertainty. Things really start to spin out of control when circumstances bring police detective Mitch Holt into the picture. He’s handsome, charming, and definitely not what Cat needs right now, or so she thinks.

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Genre – Contemporary Romance

Rating – PG

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Website www.tinerbooks.blogspot.com

S.A. Snow Shares His Thoughts on Believable Characters @BooksBySnow #WriteTip #SciFi

How to Make Your Characters Believable

There is a reason why people love Jane. There is a reason why she’s so curious, so forthcoming, so hot, so workable and so likeable. She’s a character, and she’s believable. The issue with Jane Butler was not that she wasn’t well-rounded or interesting. It was that often times she was far too interesting, and I was taken with her.

In order to make a character believable, for the reader to fall in love with them (even if they’re not the greatest person around), we have to make them complicated. There is nothing like a complicated person that attracts readers, particularly in genre fiction. They have to have faults, they have to have quirks, they have to have fears and dreams and sometimes those need to shatter in the course of the story.

One aspect of Jane I adore is that she’s ridiculously self-confident when it comes to her sexuality. Which, I might add, is nothing I have ever experienced. To play in the mind of a woman who oozes self-esteem and rarely ever thinks twice about herself in the eyes of another person was uplifting and breathtaking. I’ve been told that’s why many female readers will love her. I’ve also been told that is why many may dislike her.

But what isn’t believable about that? Who is honestly liked by everyone? And who is honestly disliked by everyone? I think it should be a pretty equal balanced of the two, if not more heavily weighted on the liking side, but not all people and not all characters are likable. And that is believable.

You just have to make yourself believe if. You have to write it like you’re talking about your best friend. Get into the characters head and figure out why they do certain things, what makes them tick, what makes then jump when something scary happens, what do they crave with they get the midnight munchies (if they’re even up beyond midnight). As long as you figure out all of these things, then the character will be believable. It’s in the details, in the fine print, in between the lines of stuff the reader hardly ever sees. If the author knows it, if the writer knows it, if the character knows it--it becomes believable.

Jane expected six months undercover to be hard; she expected it to be lonely and bleak. She didn’t expect to find love. 

Jane Butler, a CIA operative, is assigned the task of infiltrating the Xanthians and determining if they’re a threat to humanity. Going undercover as a Xanthian mate, she boards the transport ship and meets Usnavi—her new mate. After spending six days traveling through space, Jane is ecstatic to explore the Xanthian station and soon sets out to complete her mission. The only problem? Usnavi—and the feelings she is quickly developing. 

Fumbling their way through varying sexual expectations, cooking catastrophes, and cultural differences, they soon discover life together is never boring. As Jane and Usnavi careen into a relationship neither of them expected, Jane uncovers dark secrets about the Xanthians and realizes she may no longer be safe. When it becomes clear she’s on her own, Jane is forced to trust and rely on Usnavi. Simultaneously struggling with her mission, her feelings for Usnavi, and homesickness, Jane faces questions she never imagined she would have to answer.

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Genre – Blended Science Fiction, Erotica

Rating – NC17

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I Should Write A Book to Good Writing with Erin Sands @TheDunesBook #AmWriting #NonFiction

FROM IDEA TO AUTHOR

We have all heard someone throw out the, “I should write a book” line. Heck, I’ve even jokingly said it myself whenever a friend asked me about a subject I felt pretty well versed in. I should write a book, five little words that are easy to say, but those of us who have dared to plunge into the deep and surfaced with book in hand have learned that the journey from idea to author is no small feat.

The most important aspect of any book is good writing. Whether you are an indie writer or a best selling author, the litmus test remains the same; is the book well written? The answer will be found on page one of your manuscript, which is why every author must get comfortable with a very simple truth. A first draft is merely that, a “first” draft. Excellence comes from writing, re-writing, re-writing again and then re-writing some more after that. There were many times while writing The Dunes that I would give a draft to my husband and he would shake his head indicating that it was not good enough yet. As infuriating as that was, he was absolutely right. It made me go deeper, search for better words and a clearer vision of how to share my ideas with readers. Writers become better through exposure and feedback from editors and people we trust. It is a part of the process that should never be avoided. http://bit.ly/1pwryZK

The aesthetic design of your book is also essential. The cover of your book is your first “hello” to the reader. It is your 3-second commercial and it needs to give readers insight into your story at a glance. Finding someone who is able to graphically illustrate the heart of your book is key. I worked with my cover designer for months before we finally settled on a cover that I believed masterfully articulated the beauty and the transformative nature of The Dunes. Getting the interior design of my book just right was also an integral aspect in my publishing journey. The choice of font, the font size, the layout and page color are all things that can make your book flow seamlessly in the readers mind or be disruptive and jarring. It is important to take the time to make sure that those choices compliment your book and allow for the experience you want your readers to have. http://bit.ly/1pwryZK

Another important aspect of publishing is one that I am still learning, the necessity of marketing. Finding unique ways to spread the word about your book requires creativity and tenacity. These days, utilizing social media is paramount, but a “following” isn’t born over night. It is important to be consistent and patient. This process is indeed a marathon. Also, never discount the grass roots approach. Networking with other authors and good old-fashioned word-of-mouth are still priceless tools for any author.

http://bit.ly/1kO8xOR

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised in the Bay Area of Northern California, Erin grew up with an innate love for dance, theatre and the written word. A graduate of Loyola Marymount University, Erin began her career in the arts as an actress and choreographer. After booking several notable roles in television and film, Erin began to use her gift of writing in blogs featuring political and social commentary, as well as developing content for theatrical use.

Although The Dunes, is a divine departure from Erin’s previous writings it is by far her most cherished work to date. “I wrote The Dunes initially as self therapy because I needed to release some painful experiences and disappointments from my past. I had this thirst to walk in the complete fullness of life with joy as my constant companion. I had no idea what effect it would have on other people. But when I saw people read it and be released from fears that had held them back for years…when I saw people forgive and be able to walk in the freedom forgiveness brings…when I saw people commit and serve and how those things opened up new opportunities in their life, I was just humbled. Humbled by the awesome power of God and humbled that I had been allowed to go along for the ride”.

When asked why she writes, Erin pauses and reflects on the truth of her heart. “I write because although I am only now beginning to truly love the process, I have always loved the outcome. Like a composer, words become my notes. I string them together in song eliciting the response of my reader, grafting a picture of my soul. Where besides the written word can you effect change so utterly and so succinctly? What besides the written word can pierce the universal collective mind? Everything begins with a thought, but it isn’t until that thought is articulated in written word and those words passed down can life changing movement happen. It must be written, it must be expressed on tablet, and when it is, we all become greater, whether the writing be genius or fatuity, it has evoked thought and debate. Why wouldn’t I want to be apart of that phenomenon? Why wouldn’t I want to share my story, give my testimony…add my paradigm to the mix? Whether it is a novel, a poem, an essay or an article, it is humanity visited. An insight into a new or sometimes shared truth. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God. And with that I live my life”.

If there was a journey that could masterfully change your life in seven revelations...would you take it? 

In life, sometimes the kernels of wisdom and the richness of revelation can be found in the most innocent of stories; and so it is with The Dunes. Join one man and one woman in an exquisitely simple yet remarkably profound journey as you discover with them that the mountain you must climb in order to live the abundant life of your dreams is located squarely within your heart. 

Illuminated in seven revelations; The Dunes carries the reader on a journey to not only examine the obstacles that are holding them back in life but to conquer and over come them as well. With each revelation The Dunes intimately calls on the reader as the journey companion to face a challenge…a dare if you will that requires an uncompromising commitment to change. In the family of faith-based self help books, The Dunes stands alone, simultaneously taking the reader from fiction to life and back again, equipped with a tailor made journal for the readers inner most secrets and reflections. The Dunes is part allegory, part testimony and part journal, but the best part is the healing it offers your heart. When you’re ready to step out of your comfort zone and step into the miracle of your life…The Dunes awaits. 

CAUTION: Readers of this book are subject to significant changes for the better. Side effects may include frequent smiling and enjoying life in every season.

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Genre – Non-fiction

Rating – G

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Connect with Erin Sands on Facebook & Twitter

Website www.thedunesbook.com

Seasons' End by Will North @WillNorthAuthor #ReviewShare #Women #Contemporary

Seasons' End by Will North
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I LOVED the reader’s guide the author provided. I didn’t even consider Colin’s 3D existence and the way he felt about Pete. My group and I got to the reading guide after we finished the book so we took our time reading the story again and discussing the pointers from the reader’s guide.

The concept of “truthtellers” is new to me, and it certainly makes a lot of sense. Main characters as the one in Seasons’ End are caught up with their own turmoil, thus the reader needs a fresh pair of eyes in the form of a secondary character such as Patsy to be more objective about the situation and the characters.

Not a big fan of the swearing that was in the book. Occasionally, I know that bad language or bad behaviour is needed in a character to make sure the reader understands how bad he or she is. But in this case some of the swearing was not necessary. Good book.

Disclosure - As a Quality Reads UK Book Club member, I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I received no monetary compensation for my book review. This book review is based on my thoughts, opinion and understanding of the book. This book review does not reflect the opinion of other book club members.

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Order of Earth by Jennifer Cornet @J_Cornet #ReviewShare #YA #UrbanFantasy

Order of Earth by Jennifer Cornet
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The best urban fantasy book I have read in a long time and I am definitely looking forward to the next book in the series. Order of the Earth is also a coming of age story. I like that it was filled with supernatural, fantasy. The plot was well developed and interesting.

The description of the book is but a taste of what is to come. Nothing prepares you for Onyx’s story. This book maybe for a young adult audience but an adult reader will also enjoy it. It is a well written story with enough detail to keep you interested without too many boring or unnecessary descriptions. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a good fantasy read with a strong female lead.

Disclosure - As a Quality Reads UK Book Club member, I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I received no monetary compensation for my book review. This book review is based on my thoughts, opinion and understanding of the book. This book review does not reflect the opinion of other book club members.


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Shelf Life by Christina George @PublicistGal #ReviewShare #Romance #Contemporary

Shelf Life by Christina George
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first thing that captured my attention about this book by Christina George was the plot. It happens everyday, all around the world. What could this author say to make it any different or more interesting? The author maintains a fast pace consistently throughout the story and introduces plot twists and subplots without pulling your attention away from the main plot.

For anyone who has worked in marketing, public relations or communications this book is pretty spot on and it had me thinking about how exciting my life would be if I were in Kate’s shoes. Kate is not a perfect main character but I was pleasantly surprised as to how much she grew on me by the time I reached the end of the book.

I highly recommend this book. It has humour, romance, life changing decisions and those aha moments we all need in our lives.

Disclosure - As a Quality Reads UK Book Club member, I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I received no monetary compensation for my book review. This book review is based on my thoughts, opinion and understanding of the book. This book review does not reflect the opinion of other book club members.

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