Wednesday Book Sale Shopping--What's On My Nook?

I am a sale shopper. I admit it. I am going to try to post weekly about sales that interest me.

L.K. Rigel has a new book out (Give Me, A Fairy Tale Romance), here is the synopsis (from Goodreads):

An adult fairy tale about magic gone wrong.


A young witch tries to save two lovers in mortal danger, but her spell ends in disaster ...


While touring a ruined castle in the west of England, Lilith Evergreen feels a sudden and overwhelming attraction to guide Cade Bausiney. Cade is instantly drawn to Lilith as well, but can he trust his feelings? Their desire might only be sparked by dark and dangerous magic.


Lilith and Cade must break the spell or be forever possessed by spirits who've waited a millennium to consummate their love.

To celebrate her new release, her Apocalypto series is on sale at Amazon an Barnes and Noble.

 Spacejunk (normally 3.50) and Spiderwork (normally 3.99) are on sale for 1.99 and Bleeder is 2.99 from 4.99. 

The sale will run from September 14-21 (Wednesday to Wednesday).

Here is the synopsis for book one, Spacejunk (from Goodreads):

Space Junque (Apocalypto 1), a novella.

Nominated for Best Romantic Science Fiction/Fantasy in 2010 and Best Debut Book in 2010 by The Romance Reviews.

The DOGs want to destroy the world. The gods want to make a new one. The trick is to survive both.

The world is on the brink of ecological cataclysm set off by the Oil Spill of 2010 and the Great Sea Level Rise of 2070. Hydroponics agronomist Char Meadowlark has become a recluse since her fiance was killed by a terrorist bomb and her twin sister Sky went underground to protect a top secret alternative energy project. Warned about an impending eco-terrorist attack, Char tries to get off planet, but the Defenders of Gaia strike while she's at the airport. Shuttle pilot Jake Ardri might offer her only hope.

When the DOGs' onslaught goes global and the material world threatens to implode, the ancient gods reemerge to take control over humanity. Through the ensuing chaos, Char must juggle two men, a world on fire, and a goddess with an agenda for a new world order.

Will there be any room for love in flagrante apocalypto?

*****

Now if you are looking for something a little...erm...spicier...smuttier? I found this gem, Maid for It (An Erotic Novella), marked down from 2.99 to .99. It is also on sale at Barnes and Noble. I don't know how long this sale will last. Here is the blurb (from Goodreads):

In fear for her life after witnessing a powerful drug lord gun down two rivals, Gabriela Marquez flees Sinaloa for the safety of the United States. No sooner does she arrive, however, than she’s arrested and threatened with immediate deportation unless she agrees to work for Maid for It, a company providing specialty housekeeping services to high-end clients. Gabi soon realizes the “specialty” services she must provide will be of a sexual nature. She should refuse, but she can’t risk deportation. Prostitution is preferable to death.


Her first assignment is in the home of Benjamin Hardcastle, a wealthy and reclusive computer security expert. He’s also Maid for It‘s most exacting client. Determined to please the heretofore unpleasable Mr. Hardcastle, Gabi keeps her past a secret. If he discovers the truth—that she’s been coerced into the role of sexual slave—he’ll send her away.


But what begins as a unwelcome obligation becomes an awakening to the incredible pleasures of domination, bondage, and submission. As Gabi discovers she truly is “made for it,” her secret looms larger, threatening her survival in an entirely unexpected way.

So, that is what is on my ereader.

~Have a sale that you want me to look at? Have a free book or a sale you think I may be interested in? Just  click my profile and drop me an email.

Dear Authors, Forums Are Not Walled Gardens--Readers Can See You

Have you ever finished a purchase in a store, walk out and realize you forgot something, and when you walk back in the clerks are making fun of you or are complaining about you?

I learned at an early age that you never know who may be listening to your conversation. When I was a teenager, I was talking to a group of fellow music students and I was complaining about the gent who taught me how to play the flute when I was 7. One of the assistant music teachers overheard me and asked who I was talking about. I told her. Turns out that the teacher I was complaining about was her brother. Boy was I embarrassed. But the lesson stuck with me.

My point is that you never know who is listening, or reading as the case may be. My point is that public places are not private, even areas you may think of as private like a music practice room, or an author loop or an author forum.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

I have witnessed some very unprofessional behaviour on forums by authors lately. In one case, I saw a forum post by an author who was possibly looking for sympathy because she posted a negative review about another author and an author's friend called her out on it. She posted the negative review with a Goodreads account  that was under a different name (not her author name). She created the account so she could write reviews for her own books and could suggest her books to readers to avoid running afoul of the "Author Guidelines" for the site. After reviewing her own books, she then decided it to review other people's books.

I will let you ruminate on that.

The thread dissolves into a discussion about reviews and whether authors should review at all and if they do, should they only post positive reviews. I figured I would weigh in here. Having talked to a lot of readers the consensus is this:

• If we see you only give positive reviews, we ignore you.
• If we see you (a self pub) review other self published authors and give them positive reviews, we ignore you. We are wise to that cross-promo tactic (I won't even touch the tag sharing BS).

The review pandering/swapping has gotten so bad that I no longer trust a self-published book that has only 4 and 5 star ratings. I tend to check to see who the reviewers are, but I am always suspicious of the reviews being from the author's friends or other self-published authors. I also know that this distrust is spreading amongst the reading community.

This is not to say all is lost. I do trust my wider network of reader friends on Goodreads and on Twitter for recommendations.

On to the first example I used of clerks complaining about a paying customer, it is relevant, I swear.  I was poking through the forum because I had this blog post in mind and I discovered a recent thread about reviewers altering reality. I clicked on it. It took me a moment to realize that I was the reader the author was complaining about--I had quite innocently posted a question/query on my Goodreads comment field that the author took umbrage with. The amusing part is I had not really said anything negative.

I bring this up for a few reasons: 1) any trust I had of the author to respect me as a reader and consumer has been broken and I will not promote this book or the author so I will not give the book access to my own social connections and 2) authors seem to be totally unaware that readers may read their quite public complaints/whining/bitching on public forums.

Authors, we do read them. We share them. A good rule of thumb is to be professional at all times. This is how you lose customers.

Mini Review - Zombie Fairy Tales – Jill Myles

Doesn’t it seem like every Joe Schmoe is adding zombies to classic literature and selling it? The idea was worthy of a chuckle with Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (personally, I only made it through 1/3 of the book) but since then it has just become ridiculous. Still, every so often someone gets it right.

Enter Jill Myles’s Zombie Fairy Tales.

Having never read her stuff before, I was expecting Girl Power vs the Undead from Myles. I wasn’t expecting actual zombie fairy tales, but that’s what Myles simply promised and that’s what she simply delivered – and it was fantastic!

Take several of your better known fairy tales: Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and so on. Now, turn all of the damsels in these stories into brain-hungry zombies.

Yes. Oh, yes. You see where this is going.

I have a tie for my favourite stories with this one – "The Princess and the Zomb- Pea" for the absurdity of poor Prince Gerald being foisted upon a brain-nomming princess because of royal protocol; and "Rapunzombel" for the laugh-out-loud imagery that this little nibble offers.

This anthology is listed at $0.99 at most ebook sellers and self-published by Myles. A great little collection for less than the price of a coffee.

--

Annemarie Hartnett's latest rom-com, Out of the Blue, is available from Loose Id via your favourite e-book seller.

Annemarie reviews Married with Zombies and Flip This Zombie by Jesse Petersen

We have Annemarie visiting us today with a review for Jesse Petersen's Married with Zombies (Living with the Dead, Book 1) and Flip this Zombie (Living with the Dead, Book 2). Enjoy!

*****

I like zombies. I’m one of those writers of people and the weird shit
people do in every day life who secretly wants to write an awesome
zombie book. It’ll never happen, and I’m fine with that as long as
other folks keep bringing out some good zombie fiction. Where film has
been flailing with this genre as of late (REC was the last good one,
in my opinion), literature has been vomiting great zombies all over
the place. I’ve recently enjoyed John Joseph Adam’s The Living Dead
anthologies – voodoo zombies, zombie societies, Hurricane Katrina
zombies, and even gross zombie sex make for two fabulous anthologies.
However, zombie fiction itself is becoming more irritating with
everyone and their undead Mom trying their hand at it, recycling the
same crap over and over again.

Also, I’m series phobic. I admit that. In the last few years it’s been
harder to find a series I like. The paranormal/urban fantasy genre is
overflowing with hot chicks hunting sexy demons, and I’m not so much
into steampunk to commit to more than a short story at a time. If
series were a box of chocolates, I’d nibble a little of each and chuck
what I don’t like, then slowly savour the truffles.

Jesse Petersen’s zombie series is a truffle.

Petersen won me over by adding a splash of romantic comedy to her
brain matter. Fear not, zombie fanboys, these are not romances. They
just happen to be about a couple who has to rediscover their trust and
love for one another via saving the world from zombies.


“But I never would have guessed that unlike therapy, unlike the
self-help books that littered out apartment at the time, killing
zombies would save my relationship.”


Told from the perspective of Sarah and beginning with an unpleasant
trip to the marriage doctor, the series hits the ground and runs as
Sarah and her husband, David, walk in on their counsellor nomming on
one of her clients. Here is where Sarah and David learn that, even
though their marriage is a little broken, they still make one hell of
a team as they fight the growing undead horde.

Every chapter begins with a relationship/zombie survival tip. Take
notes. You might need them one day.

"Chapter 12 – Build mutual friendships. Just be ready to end them when
your friends start trying to eat you."


The first book is all about the outbreak, and the second book delves
into the who & how of the zombie outbreak. Both are common tropes in
the zombie genre, but Petersen handles them with a voice that’s
engaging – Sarah, who could be any one of us forced to rise to the
challenge and get over personal bullshit for survival. They act like
real people trying to hold it together, and most of the time they hold
one another up.

Finally, I blurted out, “We had to kill her.”
For a long time, David’s flinch was the only answer. When he spoke,
his voice was strained. “Well, we didn’t kill her in committee or
something. I killed her.”
“David –“ I started, kind of scared by how hollow his voice was. He
sounded really fucked up. The same way he had the day he told me he
was dropping out of school and we had fought for three hours.

The series everything you would expect from a good zombie story with
the added bonus of some killer banter between Sarah and David. The
series has its laugh out loud moments, is suspenseful, angsty, and
bloody gross in spots. With one more book left (so far!) I’m hopeful
that Peterson will write more.

--
You can read Annemarie’s non-zombie (but very sexy!) books on your
favourite e-book device. To learn more, visit her website at
www.amhartnett.com – you can also follow her on twitter.

Also, give some love to Jesse Petersen, so she’ll write more books!