Thursday, August 9, 2012

Random Ramblings



I lost internet connection for almost a whole day earlier this week, and I hated it. The sad part is, I should've been thankful for the break from forums and other venues of procrastination, and I could still check my email on my phone. Instead I got irritable, and went grocery shopping in a huff. Well, at least I have food in the house now.

It's hard to believe there was once a time without internet, yet I'm old enough to remember it. Hell, I can remember typewriters clearly.


 I rarely comment on reviews, but I have to say I'm very pleased with how Last Stop has been received. Not everyone liked it of course, but the books got good ratings from Joyful Jay, Tam, Smexy Books, Pants Off Reviews, Joyfully Reviewed, and Well Read. Reviews are for readers, not authors, but I picked up a few useful morsels for future reference from critical comments. 

The biggest surprise was a smacking 5 heart rating from Sizzling Hot Book Reviews.  It's not a site I knew, and I realized why when I checked out the review policy page—they don't accept m/m. Yet, somehow one of their reviewers not only read Last Stop, but really liked it. That put a smile on my face.

I have a suspicion a lot of women who haven’t read m/m but find the idea of it odd would really like it if they just gave it a try. It worked for me.


 In related news: I've written a free short story in the vein of Last Stop. Its title is Seduction, and it's available on Smashwords, All Romance eBooks, and on Goodreads. I plan to make it available on Amazon too, but not till it's approved by Smashword and sent to the various retailers, including Barnes & Noble.

Making a book free on Amazon is not a simple process. You have to make your book free elsewhere first. When you upload to Amazon you're forced to price it at least at $0.99. So next you need to ask all your friends to click on the "tell us about lower price" link. Then you wait for Amazon to match it, and set the price to zero. Sometimes it never happens. There's no knowing why, but I suspect it might have to do with which other retailers carry the book.

So that's the news form Lake Wobegon LA-LA Land.

4 comments:

  1. LOL about Lake Wobegon!

    It's crazy how dependent we are on the internet. I remember things like getting our first color tv and my dad bringing home a pocket calculator (much earlier than most people saw them, since my dad was an engineer at IBM).

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    1. Pocket calculators were just getting commonplace when I was in high school. There was a big debate if it was okay to use them during math tests or not.

      Oh, hell, I remember Pong! Just thinking about it makes me feel ancient.

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  2. I suspect I might be older than you. :D

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