Saturday, November 24, 2012

Girls Succeed: Stories Behind the Careers of Succcesful Women by J.Q. Rose




Girls Succeed: Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Women is an interactive e-book for girls. The profiles of these remarkable women will inspire and empower girls to make their dream job come true. Visit the Girls Succeed Blog for more information and to meet amazing women and learn about their careers.


This is a wonderful book.  It contains the stories of several women in many walks of life who have pursued their dreams and succeeded in reaching them.  Each story starts with the age at which the woman decided what she wanted to be when she grew up, and then tells how she reached her goal.  In some instances the women went to college and got one or more degrees in order to pursue their dreams.  In other instances they practiced daily at athletics or music.  There was even the story of a woman who became a truck driver.  Yes—a woman who drives a big rig.  I’m pursuing my dream of writing and being published, and even I found it inspiring and empowering.  Thanks, Ms. Rose.

Price:  Free

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Plague by H. W. “Buzz” Bernard




In only a matter of days, 9/11 and the destruction of the Twin Towers will be rivaled by a lone-wolf terrorist attack on America. Atlanta is targeted as Ground Zero for the most horrifying plague in modern times.


Holy cow!  I am getting seriously sleep deprived.  Thank goodness I didn’t have to be anywhere the other morning, because I was up until five-thirty a.m. reading this book.  It was mesmerizing and horrifying, and I couldn’t put it down.  I need to read a bad book.  Something I can put down or fall asleep over.

I was raised Lutheran and converted to Catholic while I was married.  After I read Salem’s Lot by Stephen King, I slept with both a Catholic Missal and a Lutheran Prayer Book for about six weeks.  After reading Plague, I want to go out and buy a gas mask and never leave home without it.  In fact, I’d like to give gas masks to my family for Christmas this year.  What if?…  Mr. Bernard has obviously done his homework in terms of the science of bio-warfare.  But, he’s also a great writer.  His characters are well-drawn and real.  His dialog flows nicely and is not stilted like Robin Cook’s.  (The man tells a good story, but he should read his dialog aloud.)  Mr. Bernard even manages to avoid comma splices for the most part—one of my pet peeves that most other people probably don’t notice.  And he keeps you on the end of your seat, biting your nails, turning the page, and holding your breath.  Oh yeah, you’ll hold your breath long after the book ends.

Length:  250 Pages
Price:  Paperback $14.95
E-Book:  $9.99


Saturday, November 10, 2012

Miami Days and Truscan (K)nights by Gail Roughton





Before I begin this review, I’d like to thank all of my fellow veterans for their service to our country, especially those who, unlike me, served in harm’s way.  And I would especially like to thank those who were injured as a result of their service, both physically and psychologically.  Often it’s the scars that don’t show that run the deepest.  Thank you ladies and gentlemen.


Dedicated career girl Tess Ames is on her way to a working holiday in Jamaica. She thinks. But there’s a door that has other plans. A door to another world. A door that picks and chooses when it opens. And who's allowed to enter. Because those who come through that door are meant to come. Chosen. Selected. For a reason. So instead of eating salt-fish and dancing reggae, she ends up…somewhere else. In a world that runs on magic, portents, omens and the all-important Power Stones. She ain’t in Kansas anymore!

Has Tess been thrown to the wolves? Why was she chosen? Ah! That would be telling…


Unfortunately, Gail Roughton sent two of her books to me at once, so now I’m truly sleep-deprived.  Maybe I can catch up on some sleep before I read another one of her works.  ;-) 

Fortunately, Tess is not the first American to find herself crashing in the Bermuda Triangle and landing in Trusca.  Johnny McKay is with the Truscan patrol that finds her wrecked Cessna.  He translates for Dalph, the patrol leader, as they whisk her away to the walled city of Trussa, where she is required to pledge “her life and her fealty” to Dalph, who’s actually the king of Trusca.  Don’t eat anything when you read that part.  You’ll choke laughing.

Tess eventually settles into Trusca, and accepts their struggles against the war-mongering Prians as her own, as she realizes why the door chose to bring her into Trusca.  Of course, she doesn’t necessarily comply with all of the rules—she makes a few of her own.

Time travel fantasies aren’t normally my cup of tea.  I will camp out when I absolutely have to, but I really hate having to use porta-potties, let alone out-houses and I couldn’t imagine having to use a chamber pot.  Twenty-first century women settling into medieval castles in the name of love just make it difficult for me to suspend disbelief.  If I tried to use the bushes for certain things (as Tess does) I’d make a complete mess, and with my luck, I’d end up with poison ivy, oak or sumac.  Not to mention ticks or chiggers.  Nope—I like my creature comforts.  Of course, most of these heroines manage to fall in love with nobility and have servants to handle the most distasteful tasks.

It takes a great writer with a really kick-derriere plot to distract me from my objections to this genre and engage me enough to suspend disbelief.  It takes a Gail Roughton.  I laughed, cried, sat on the edge of my seat, yelled at the book and at Ms. Roughton, at Tess, Dalph, Johnny…  And again, I stayed up all night reading when I had to be at the VA the next day.  Then I overslept.  It’s okay, though—I still made it.  I highly recommend this book.  Just—if you’re going to read more than one of Ms. Roughton’s books, try to space them out.  They will keep you up all night.

Length:  225
Price:  $5.95

You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Yup, I really was in the Navy. 1971-1973

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Going to the Dogs by Elle Druskin




Sam Kendall is a cop with a mission; find the killer who murdered his partner and track down the diamond thieves behind the killing. Chief suspect Jodie McBride is a brilliant dog trainer but a loser with men. Dog-hating Sam is stuck with a junk food addicted poodle as his new partner and stuck on a cute redheaded dog lover that he desperately wants to be innocent. Mix in an assortment of eccentric pooches, their offbeat owners, baseball fans and two very smart canines who know humans can’t be trusted to know a good thing when they see it. Before Sam and Jodie know what's happened, everybody is going to the dogs.




I’m not normally a fan of pedigreed dogs.  They’re inbred, spoiled and hyper.  Give me a mutt from the pound any day.  But ya gotta love a dog who eats pizza and Fritos, watches baseball (even if it is the Yankees and not the Cubs), and sings along with the radio.  And ya gotta love a cop who looks like George Clooney and bumbles his way through a case involving a dog trainer and her canine clients and their wacky owners.  I try to follow a schedule each day—so much time writing, promoting, reading, etc.  At night I read a chapter or so and drift off to sleep, often with my Kindle in hand and the light on.  At some point my head bobs and I wake up enough to put my Kindle on the bedside table and turn out the light.  Not so last night.  I read straight through until I finished the book somewhere around five a.m.  I highly recommend this book.  Just be sure you don’t have anything else scheduled and you don’t have to be anywhere the next day when you pick it up.  It’s not a bathtub read unless you don’t mind getting cold and pruny.


Length:  132 Pages
Price:  $5.50


You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.