Repost - Interview with Sigrid Macdonald, Author of D'amour Road

I posted a transcipt of this interview a few months back, but have now become a bit more "computer literate" - so I thought I'd add the original interview.

Enjoy!

Interview with M.M. Smith - Author of "Boris & Patricia"

I had the pleasure  to interview M.M. Smith, Author of "Boris & Patricia"  on Community VoicesFM yesterday.  I very much enjoyed it, especially as I usually do the German Program and this was a challenge for me. AND I thank Melanie very much to take some time off to take part!

Vanessa Amorosi Tribute Video to QLD Floods

She's not only got a beautiful voice, but she's very generous as well! This is a great video and shows the terrible situation QLD was in during the last few weeks!
PS - AND YES, Victoria was affected as well. I KNOW, because the water was right in front of my door, but new better than to come in -  :-)

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest

The 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest


Amazon.com, along with Penguin Group (USA) and CreateSpace, is pleased to announce the fourth annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest, the international competition seeking the next popular novel. The competition will once again award two grand prizes: one for General Fiction and one for Young Adult Fiction. Each winner will receive a publishing contract with Penguin, which includes a $15,000 advance.

The Breakthrough Novel Award Contest brings together talented writers, reviewers, and publishing experts to find and develop new voices in fiction. If you're an author with an unpublished or previously self-published novel waiting to be discovered, visit CreateSpace to sign up for regular contest updates. Open submissions for manuscripts will begin on January 24, 2011 and run through February 6, 2011.

See the official contest rules for more information on how to enter.

Good luck everyone !




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Astraea Press - Open call for Submissions

from the website:

Astraea was formed in 2010 when two friends saw the need for a non-erotic e-publisher that offers wholesome reads but still maintains the quality of mainstream romance. The first titles for Astraea will be launched in February 2011.

With over six years experience in the publishing industry and avid readers, owners Stephanie and Jane look forward to working with their authors, having fun, and bringing you the best books available.
Astraea is a royalty paying publisher, NOT a vanity press.

OPEN CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS!

We're looking specifically for Valentine's Day romances for our February launch.
Help us spread the word!

Click here for more details!

Sigrid's Writing Tips

Be Your Own Editor

Ah, commas. How can something so small and seemingly benign make a grown man cry? Seriously, commas can be confusing, but there are some rules of thumb that can be useful.


The Chicago Manual of Style recommends using a comma after every coordinating conjunction (words like and, but, or), but not everyone agrees. Standard Deviants’ Grammar Pitfalls suggests using a comma in a sentence that has more than two conjunctions. Here's an example --

Chicago version: I wonder if anyone is reading my writing tips, and I sometimes feel like swearing like a truck driver to test my theory, but I have faith in my readership.

Deviants' version: I wonder if anyone is reading my writing tips and I sometimes feel like swearing like a truck driver to test my theory, but I have faith in my readership.

Unless you're writing for a newspaper, you can choose the comma style that you like best. The only important thing to remember is consistency. Don't insert commas randomly; make sure that you have a system and stick with it.

Sigrid Macdonald is the author of Be Your Own Editor, available on Amazon.com in print and on Kindle (http://tinyurl.com/4v249th).
 
 
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Carly Phillips - Lucky Streak

Publisher: Mass Market Paperback Original

ISBN-13: 9780373773756

My rating: 2/5

Long ago, as revenge on a Corwin who stole her son’s fiancee, a witch proclaimed an eternal curse that every Corwin male who married for love would be destined to lose his love and his fortune …

The good news is that Mike, a police officer, awakens after some hard partying in Vegas $100,000 richer and married to Amber, the gorgeous woman he met the night before. The bad news: His last name is Corwin. The really bad news is that Amber’s a consummate con who took his money and ran. Seems the family curse has finally hit him.
But to Amber, Mike isn’t business as usual. Something about her new husband softens her steely heart, even as she betrays him. And Mike, first hell-bent on divorce, welcomes a second chance to defy the curse… and turn his run of bad fortune into a lucky streak (http://www.carlyphillips.com/)

 
My thougths
 
I finished this book a few days back and I still don't really know what to think. I think I'm going with: Yeah .... NO!

This was one of the books when I should've stopped reading when my "eye rolling" didn't stop. Gist is: Girl (Amber) living in Las Vegas meets Cop (Mike) from Boston who's in town for his friend's wedding, they win big time and get married - AND THEY'RE NOT EVEN DRUNK! Next morning she's gone and so is the money. But Amber follows him to Boston to make this marriage work.

I just couldn't get into the story, which was in itself a good idea, but in my humble opinion lacked depth. There's a lot of repetition - I got annoyed after a while how often I had to read about Amber's thoughts to make this marriage work and how important it was to her life; as well as the constant (and I mean constant!) reminder of the curse, no matter how important it is to the story.

All in all - not my cup of tea! Sorry, Carly.