Month: June 2012

My God, It’s Full Of Stars!

This week, I’m going to be a little more serious than usual. No idea why. I just am. And I want to talk about star ratings. No, I don’t want to discuss the relative merits of Justin Bieber or Katy Perry, fascinating as that might be; I’m talking about the graded star method many websites use to rate various products, but specifically as it pertains to indie authors, that aspect of the review system used by the mighty Amazon.

Sometimes feeling like I’ve accidentally wandered into a cosmologist convention, I keep hearing my fellow writers discussing star systems, conversations that range from the alleged importance of 5-Star ratings to dire warnings of the career damage caused by 1-Star ratings. There are even dark tales of jealous authors deliberately dropping a single star on the book pages of their competitors… a frankly bizarre behaviour, if true, since my admittedly collectivist-hippie-skewed moral compass informs me we’re less competitors than we are colleagues. My favourite star-related content is our own M. Edward McNally’s regular inclusion of 1-Star customer ratings for classic novels. The ratings, along with their concomitant cluelessness, are hilarious. Continue reading “My God, It’s Full Of Stars!”

Featured Author: C.A. Shives

C.A. Shives is the author of PHOBIA, a suspense novel based in a small Pennsylvania town.

When not reading, writing, editing, or publishing, C.A. enjoys watching a good action movie. The author also spends time target shooting on the range and raising backyard chickens.

A second book in the Artemis Herne series is scheduled for a Thanksgiving 2012 release. C.A.’s upcoming novel weaves a dark tale of horrific vigilante justice tainted by the bitter taste of revenge.

PHOBIA is available from Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Panic invades a quiet town at the discovery of a woman’s dead body, bound and covered with poisonous snakes. The grisly homicide ignites the instincts of police consultant Artemis Herne, who must confront his own haunted past to uncover the frightening pattern of the killer. Every victim suffers from a phobia. And every murder transforms the victim’s worst fear into reality.

As Herne plunges into darkness and hunts for the truth behind the gruesome killings, he soon realizes that everyone has a fear to face.

“The author of this book is an excellent descriptive writer. She describes every character and place in this book, so that you can actually picture them. The book kept me guessing to the very end. Definitely would recommend this book to my friends to read!”  5-star Amazon reader review.

“This book blew me away! I couldn’t believe this is a debut novel. It takes place in the small town of Hurricane, Pa. I don’t want to give anything away but the opening of the story will suck you in. It starts off strong and only gets better. Great read!” 5-star Amazon reader review.

Week 23 Flash Fiction Challenge Winner: Ed Drury

Today we’re pleased to announce the winner of the 23rd weekly Flash Fiction competition at Indies Unlimited.

The winning entry is rewarded with a special feature here today and a place in our collection of winners which will be published as an e-book at year end.

A total of 44 votes were cast in the contest this week. The winner (with 30% of those votes) is Ed Drury.

Congratulations to Ed, and thanks to everyone who participated – excellent entries! Now, without further ado, here’s the winning entry: Continue reading “Week 23 Flash Fiction Challenge Winner: Ed Drury”

Ed’s Casual Friday: Do NOT self-edit. (but when you do…)

This post isn’t exactly covering new ground, it is more along the lines of gathering a number of tips, tricks, and advisories from other posts hither, thither, and everywhither, into one place. Our own KS Brooks trumpeted betas to the heavens only yesterday, and as has previously been stated, it is ALWAYS a good idea to have an editor, a proofreader, or beta readers who are not you looking at your writing. Otherwise, your brain is going to see what it wants/expects to see when it is reading stuff you wrote. Continue reading “Ed’s Casual Friday: Do NOT self-edit. (but when you do…)”