Sheila's Guests and Reviews

I wonder what the numbers mean. I'm an Amazon Top 1000 Reviewer! It sounds great, but I'm really not sure how I got there or how long I'll stay--or even how to stay. Rumors abound about reviews by authors disappearing.  If my reviews vanish willI stop being in the Top 1000? Or does being a Top 1000 Reviewer help my reviews stay where they are? Of course, being a reviewer of any sort on Amazon involves numbers. I can't just post a review on its own without adding some kind of rating, and I hate rating books. I'd much rather let the reader decide if they'd like the book or not. Should the rating tell if I liked the book (or hated it)? Is it really so personal? Or is it meant to be some global scale where everyone knows exactly what 3, 4 and 5 mean? And is 5 "perfect"? If so then, as a mathematician, I should never rate anything 5. Come to that, is 3 negative or average? I gave one book 3 stars and another reviewer accused me of trying to sabot...

It's a chain, and I really ought to find someone to tag. But, having been tagged by Anne Maro Slalina , I shouldn't forget to post my own crazy seven, so here goes... and if you've not been sevenly tagged before, please consider it done. Anne is the author of The Adventures of Annie Mouse picture books,  www.anniemousebooks.com And I'm the author of Divide by Zero , Five-Minute Bible Stories , Flower Child and more...  Go to page 7 or 77 of your book or manuscript: I'm working on the second draft of Infinite Sum, companion to Divide by Zero (Stonegarden.net Publishing 2012)... Count down 7 lines: takes me to... Then type the next seven lines on your facebook status: and in my blog, 'cause, well, why not? I brought one home to put on the wall of my bedroom. But the teacher phoned and wanted it back for some kind of school competition which I didn’t win, of course, so a huge waste of time and energy. Daddy took the phone call and wanted to know w...

Psalm Stories has two book reviews now, and I'm so thrilled to read both of them: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3SSKIKDI7YXJD/ http://www.amazon.com/review/RH5BSR14QTM21/ Thank you so much, Candace and Eileen. And here's hoping my stories might garner some more reviews as those readers who downloaded them start reading bedtime stories to their kids, or teaching Sunday School. Meanwhile I've been reading and drinking coffee. Yes, I did find time for both during the promotion, but only because my Mum's here keeping me sane, reminding me from time to time "Stop twittering and eat something." But I haven't managed to keep up with my schedule, so today's first reviews all come with apologies... Starting with Into the Dark by Stacy Green . I promised I'd review this book today, and I am doing, just. But the day's halfway finished. The book, on the other hand, is appealingly complete, an enjoyable romantic thriller with intriguing mystery, ...

Jon Clinch's debut novel, Finn, was named a best book of the year by the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune and the Christian Science Monitor. It was named a notable book by the American Library Association and received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and Kirkus. Such things are dreams made of! Then Clinch followed Finn with the critically acclaimed Kings of the Earth, also named a best book of the year by the Washington Post. But now he's self-publishing his latest literary novel, The Thief of Auschwitz (unmediated ink, January 15, 2013), and I'm delighted to post this interview with him to celebrate the occasion. The Thief of Auschwitz is told in two intertwining narratives, taking readers on a dual journey: one into the death camp at Auschwitz with Jacob, Eidel, Max , and Lydia Rosen; the other into the heart of Max himself, now an aged but extremely vital – and outspoken – survivor. Old Max has become a world-renowned painter, and...

The book promotion for Psalm Stories is going strong.   It’s ranked #1 in the US and the UK in free children’s religious ebooks and   it’s #1 in free Christian Old Testament reference ebooks,  it’s got a wonderful 5-star review http://www.amazon.com/review/RH5BSR14QTM21/ , and  it’s had 820 downloads since the promo started.  That’s 820 potential readers, reviewers, raters, and maybe even purchasers of other books in the series, and it’s way more people with my words in their hands than I’d ever thought possible. But… Well, there’s something about 1,000 isn’t there? It’s the last day of the promotion and I would so love to be able to say there’d been 1,000 downloads. Is that just greedy, or is there a reason why 1,000 feels like such a tempting target? Of course, 1,000 is ten cubed, and cubes are nice, and ten’s a very nice number… Symbolically speaking, ten is the number for mankind (Ten Commandments anyone?) and three for God...

I thought I had this all worked out. Reading, writing, marketing, being interviewed… Then the interviewer asked how Psalm Stories differs from other Sunday school stories and I was suddenly stumped. After all, if you’re looking for Sunday school stories you’re probably seeking something safe, predictable, stories you can read to the kids without provoking an onslaught of complaints from the adults, or a rash or weird misunderstandings. I wasn’t sure I wanted my stories to differ from others out there or I might scare my readers away. But then, if they’re exactly the same, why would anyone buy them… Of course, when I think about it, Psalm Stories really is different from other Sunday School storybooks. I can even count the ways: 75 stories in one volume Each story guaranteed to take no more than 5 minutes to read aloud, including introduction and closing prayer. Closing prayers that are tied to the story. (A friend said how much she valued that because it makes it so muc...

I'm delighted to welcome Jan Surasky to my blog today. Her debut novel, Rage Against the Dying Light (Sandalwood Press, 2011) won the Eric Hoffer Award for Commercial Fiction. Extensively researched work, it reimagines history in a way that makes the Celtic lands of the first-century very pleasingly accessible with captivating, detailed, even haunting settings, richly developed characters, and well-told social mores that define a civilization. So... 1.       Welcome to my blog Jan. Can you tell us the story behind the story. How did Rage Against the Dying Light come to be? While I was researching an entirely different topic, I came across the entry on Boudicca to which I was immediately drawn. I was impressed with her courage and the beautiful and tragic life she had lived. I knew I wanted to tell her story. 2.       I h ave a great fondness for Boudicca. What was the most challenging aspect of writing Rage Against the...