A Book Reviewer’s Confession & How to Properly Review Fiction

© Ingvald Kaldhussater | Dreamstime.com.

Recently I had the opporuntiy to read some ebooks on my PC. It was a fun experience and a challenging one, but I appreciate the opportunity to do so at a cheap or free rate.

For those who don’t know already, I review books for many companies such as Thomas Nelson Publishers, WaterBrook Press, and Bethany House Publishers. On occasion I get a humble, savvy writer who asks me to read their book and I willingly do so.

But this isn’t the problem. Nope. The problem I had began a couple of months agoa when I accepted a book as a referral from someone on a professional social network. I accept Inspirational, Christian, Historical Romance, and speculative works, so this person wrote something along the lines of supernatural and speculative. It was dark, it was real, it was an exciting read-however two things were wrong from the very beginning and perhaps it was my fault:

First of all, one of my rules is that  “I do not want to read ebooks for book reviews, it clearly puts out my eyes”. Secondly I accepted the book gratefully while also mentioning to both author and their “agent” I have more than five books in queue and will get to the the book in due time. It was not even a three hundred page ebook(almost).

PC failed, eyesight became sore, emails came in wondering when I was going to finish up the book and on it went.

Then I did something I never done before or would not ever consider doing again…I read quickly through the last fifty pages once I got the fuzzy file back. I did however read it at a good pace and found it to be an okay book. Suffice to say I sent an email giving my honest review of the overall appeal and feel of the book and added a few tidbits here and there-they were not happy with me.

I can say that afterwards I had the grand opportunity to read one of my FAVORITE author’s book on Calibris and darn it I enjoyed every bit of it! What a smooth experience.

Why am I saying all of this?

I made a mistake but in order not make it again, I have posted an article on Examiner on the  6 Ways to Review Fiction(fairly). One rule of thumb to remember: Never rush a  book review for an author. They need to give YOU time to write a clear review.

Writing and Reviewing- Do it Write on the Write Web!

Weddings and Wasabi by Camy Tang, a Touching Conclusion to a Series

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WinePress Publishing

Camy Tang is the author of the Sushi Series and now Steeple Hill romance novels such as Stalker in the Shadows, releasing January 2012. In the fourth installment of the Sushi Series, Weddings and Wasabi,, Jennifer Lim, a rising chef with a palate for flavorful foods discovers that love and independence can be found not only in Malaysian Basil sauceand the support of friends and family.

Continuing from the last book in the Sushi Series, Single Sashimi, Jenn Lim is the cousin who everyone view as sweet and obedient. Well, she is tired of it and did not finish her Culinary Arts degree just to go working for her very controlling, very unshakeable Aunty Aikiko.  After much agonizing and finding out her mom is sick and will need medical care requiring lots of money, Jennifer finds that one thing is missing in her realizing her dream of becoming a chef and taking care of her mother at the same time: the Lord’s take on things.

In the midst of her quiet storm, Jenn meets Edward (Continue reading on Examiner.com Review of ‘Weddings and Wasabi’: Novella packs a punch with flavorful plot – Norfolk Christian fiction | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/christian-fiction-in-norfolk/review-of-weddings-and-wasabi-novella-packs-a-punch-with-flavorful-plot-review#ixzz1WgMBfd4x)

Invoking My Muse: Is God Taking the Wheel, or Is it Me When I Write?

 I want to settle an internal debate within my mind.

 I just have to get this down on my blog or I will literally burst into a million words landing on the screen in gibberish. I will try and take my time with this…promise.

Am I a believer  who writes fiction?

Or, a writer who happens to believe in God? (I am straying away from the word Christian…too political at this point. Long story.

I ask myself this all the time while I write. Happily, I visited Mike Duran’s blog post titled “More or Less of Me” and he states:

Each one of us is uniquely “God-like,” or if you prefer, “like God.” So when we sing, “More of You and less of me,” aren’t we denying something central to who we are? Of course, you need “more of God.” But, being that you’re fused with His DNA, you also need “more of you” — at least, THE REAL YOU.

I swear I never knew I would land on that particular wording, but God works in mysterious ways as the cliche goes. However, how does this solve the question of who I am as a writer? This is important to me because the works I put out there will be unique and mostly based on my experiences, observations, dreams, thoughts, formlations given by the Muse and whatever else inspires me.

Well, for one thing I have life because of God and He created me in His image meaning that whatever I have inside of me is creative, and He wants me to write, He gave me the ability to tell stories. Ever since I was a little  girl I told stories to my family just off the top of my head. It gave  me a rush to come up with horrific little tales.

Secondly, before believing in Him I was writing anyway. At the age of 8 I wrote the “Snow Princess”. Designed the cover, used the binding material and everything. It was a lovely ten page story but it was pretty, romantic, sweet, and had a hint of the speculative(which are the books I read today). So this leads where?

All of the above leads to this one thing: Once I came into the knowledge of God, I didn’t stop writing what I want to write. My purpose has always been to entertain and purge myself of  thoughts and imaginations equally. The stories are based on fictional people and circumstances, however I believe every story has a keen message.

In the book of Esther, God’s name isn’t mentioned at all. I think this is for good reason. This book wanted to show the mercy and justice of God through the eyes of Esther and her risking her own life for her people. This book has the face of God without even mentioning His name. Besides isn’t His love and actions more than enough?

This is not to say that Christian books with overt themes of salvation, redemption, sin, and chastity are wrong. On the contrary, these works are still beautiful and are desperately needed in today’s broken world. I am still a HUGE fan of Amish stories and will contunue to get those Beverly Lewis and Cindy Woodsmall paperbacks. Yet, we can learn much from any story, right?

If you have the same or opposing views, please comment here. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Tracking an Author: My Writing Journey Thus Far and After the Character Profile

This has been a whirlwind of a year for me. Maybe its because of the move to another aartment, the birth of my nephew Aubry, my little niece is now six years old(which means I am older right along with her), the mountain of research for courses, the pressure from myself to write better…

Who knows? The good parts of my life involve my niece, nephew and adoring husband. The writing parts just cramp me up. Case in point: Remember the post about creating your characters first to develop your stories? Well what do you do with them after?

Anything.

After creating my character profiles I came across one huge mountain…they change! Characters(that are people) do morph and shift and grow as we humans tend to do, so what I had done with my fictional folk was take their profiles and “inked” them up. That’s right. I done some scratch outs and some additions to their career profiles and personalities. As the story progresses however, this may change but it does not mean there will be more ink overs. Just going with the flow is fine.

After creating a generic profile of your main characters(it’s okay to work some out for your minor characters too), it is safe to either a) begin the story fresh “from the seat of your pants” without an outline, b)outline the story itself, c) begin more profiles for setting, other characters, etc.

So what phase am I on? I am just writing from the seat of my pants, seeing where the characters take me.

For more resources on creating characters, try these!

• Story Engineering, by Larry Brooks
• You and Your Characters(for the sci-fi hearts), by James Patrick Kelly
• Writing and Illustrating Children’s book(an encyclopedia for would be children’s authors), by Desdemona McCannon

Check these out and other resources that you may find. But here’s a tip: Don’t just seek out sources from those who are really popular writers(e.g. Stephenie Meyer, Stephen King, James Patterson…), you want an unbiased look at writing.

Good Luck!

June 2011 Blog Book Giveaway: I’m Cleaning Out My Closet

Thanks to everyone who actually reads this blog and to those who have entered my previous blog book giveaways. In June I have some brand new books, and semi-new books that I will be giving away. Everything from gentle Amish romances to suspense filled stories from Christian and Secular writers.

Oh, this WILL be good.

I will post pictures of these books right here on my blog for you to see once I compile the ones I am giving away. I have not decided if there will be two or three giveaways, a set of books, or individual- not sure. But for now, tell your family, friends, and coworkers that  The Write Web will be giving away an awesome stack of books this June to hit your Summer off right!

Ciao,

E.J. Smith

‘Breath of Angel’ was good, but could not handle the many twists

Breath of Angel-Karyn Henley

 

Breath of angel, blood of man…

So begins the story of  Melaia, a young priestess who witnesses the gruesome murder of a stranger inside the temple courtyard. She then discovers that the stranger had wings. After this discovery, Melaia is then thrown into a feud between two immortal brothers who destroyed the stairway to heaven.*

Karyn Henley penned a potential winner with this one. The cover of the book is gorgeous, the description of the temple, angels, and the priestesses who live there was very detailed, and furthermore this painted a clear picture in your mind and read as if it could be a movie, similar to Lord of Rings orNarnia.

Perhaps this bookworm is getting old or the book just had too much going on, I am unsure. Yet I had to race through the last few chapters this week just so I can post a review and get on with my school work. That seems unfair because I typically like fiction/fantasy categories, yet this one only gets  a mediocre review from me. The love interest Melaia has is the only reason why this book did not receive a low score of 3 stars. A more thorough review is located on my examiner page.

Book Details:

Title: Breath of Angel by Karyn Henley

On Sale June 21, 2011, WaterBrook Press

Price: $9.99/ $10.99 Canada

ISBN: 978-0-307-73012-1

eISBN: 978-0-307-73013-8

Goodies:

Download a free chapter of this book!

*The Advanced Reading Copy was given to me for my unbiased review by WaterBrook Press