Blast From the Past: Part Two

Well, I think it’s time for another little round-up from my archives.  Here are some of the articles I did a couple of years ago that I’m still quite proud of:

1.  3 Pieces of Advice Authors (Should) Ignore  (August 2012)

In this article I round up the 3 most idiotic pieces of advice that authors frequently receive and generally (but not always) ignore.  I then explain the reasons why authors should ignore these pieces of advice, with only a few caveats.

2.  My Interview with Matt Myklush  (August 2012)

My interview with Matt Myklush was one of the very first interviews I did with an author but it’s also one of the ones I’m very proud of because we had a good rapport.  It’s really hard to interview authors who give short, non-committal answers but Myklush was amazingly frank and I learned a lot more about his awesome trilogy from the interview.

3.  Writers: Beware the False Editor  (November 2012)

Early in my blogging career/hobby (?) I was shocked to discover that self-published books were often very poorly edited and often pointed this out to authors.  They usually responded with some vague, meaningless excuse but when one author said he had actually hired a professional editor, this revelation spurred me to write this post as a bit of a warning.

4.  What I Hate About YA  (February 2013)

Spurred on by a spate of bad books, I wrote this rant in which I cataloged all of my grievances with my favourite genre and then had a lively discussion in the comments where other people were able to vent.

5.  A Legend Should Never Be Dimmed (January 2013)

This post is especially relevant given some of the current controversies in the news: how does one reconcile a legend with the person that they really were, especially when that person turned out to be horrible in their personal life?  I don’t have a clear answer by the end of the post but I think it’s important to ask those questions and examine your own views.

Book Tour Poll Results

A few days ago I asked you guys whether or not you did blog tours for books and if you did, how often.  The results were actually pretty surprising.

The most popular answer was “Yes, around 2-5 per month” at 43%.  I expected the second-most popular answer to be the 1-2 per month answer but instead it was a tie between 5-10 per month and only one every few months or so.  That’s a pretty fair spread in answers but it does make sense.  Some people sign up for tour sites and do book tours constantly while others only do tours for books or authors they really, really love and want to read their books early.  That was actually one of the main reasons I joined certain tour sites that I hardly ever tour with anymore.  I only really signed up for Xpresso book tours because they have the occasional big name author that I love.  Masquerade Tours is definitely my go-to place for discovering new indie books, though.

So basically, most of my respondents did around 2-5 tours per month (which can be book blasts, book reviews, interviews, guest posts, etc.) while the rest were pretty spread out in the frequency spectrum.

What do you guys think?  If you’re a book blogger, do you participate in tours fairly often or only rarely?  What are the most common types of tour posts for you?

Guest Post: My Top 10 Favourite Book Covers

Today I’m happy to host a guest post from The Galaxial Word, a YA book review site.  It’s just starting up but there are already some really great in-depth reviews up.  Go on and check them out!  Now, here Galaxial will list his top 10 favourite book covers of all time.

 

OK. So, I know, I know, “you should never judge a book by its cover”, blah, blah. But let’s be honest here. Who doesn’t pick up a book and go:

1) OMG THIS COVER IS SOOOOOOO PRETTY LIKE I HAVE TO BUY THIS IF JUST TO PUT IT ON MY BOOKSHELF AND GAZE AT THIS BEAUTIFUL COVER WHEN I WAKE UP EVERY MORNING OMG LOOK AT THAT ART AND THAT PHOTOSHOP MASTERY I LOOOOOOOOOVE IT SO GONNA BUY IT

*calmly brings book to counter*

OR

2) Ugh. This cover. Like, seriously. I could do better in Microsoft Paint. All they’ve done is cut out a guy and slapped him on a way-too-dark photo of a city that looks like it has been taken with an iPod. Ugh. So so ugly, I don’t care how good the writing is, I’m so not having that go on my bookshelf. Just. Ew.

*calmly places book back on shelf*

So, of course, a beautiful cover is crucial to attracting readers to your book, the same way a disgusting smell is crucial to attracting flies to a rotting carcass ❤️!

I’m not sure that was a good metaphor.

Whatever. Here are my best book covers. And remember, if you ever write a book, get the “write” cover designer (OMG THAT BEAUTIFUL PUN RIGHT THERE AHAHAHAHAHAH IM SO FUNNY HHAH- ok that wasn’t funny).

1) 9780316068680_1681X2544

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce.

What can I say? I really admire true art, and this is definitely my number one book cover. The way the two sisters are joined together, and the way the second sister is joined to the wolf is truly beautiful. I like the palette as well, with the red, the black and the white. The red and the wolf all suggest blood and darker, supernatural things. Mainly, vampire and werewolves. Personally, I would have changed the author name to white to accentuate the white skin, and the title to black, just to keep with the theme. Continue reading →

Guest Post: #WeNeedDiverseRomance…Now

The Crossfire series

The Hardwired series

The Submission series

The Seductive Nights series

Ava and Gideon

Erica and Blake

Monica and Jonathan

Michelle and Jack

Complex and intelligent characters written by talented writers, with interesting storylines, compelling back stories, and of course, loads of panty-melting, fabulous, raunchy, dirty sex.

And not a single one of those books contain diverse main characters.

In fact, despite all of the books I mentioned taking place in large cities like New York and Los Angeles, I believe the only diversity in any of those books is found in the secondary characters, the outliers. The characters that add some spice and perhaps a side storyline or two, but nothing too memorable and certainly nothing noteworthy.

No brown girl falling for a white guy. No black guy falling for a Asian girl. No black girl falling for a brown guy. No white girl falling for a black guy.

In cities teeming with all types of people – paraplegic, Indian, Chinese, Muslim, amputee, Sikh, transgender, Japanese, overweight, Spanish, atheist, Black, lesbian, Buddhist – all of the couples and almost all of the secondary characters are white. Continue reading →

Lazy Sundays: Game of Thrones Withdrawal

Right now I’m between series and there’s nothing to watch on TV because there’s normally nothing to watch on TV but in summer it’s especially bad.  Game of Thrones is done and after talking about it at least once a week for ten weeks the withdrawal feelings are bad.  In addition to that The Walking Dead isn’t back for season six until two days before my birthday (it releases October 11).  And I can’t even content myself with watching re-runs from both series’ season fives because they’re not out on DVD yet.  Normally I’m not overly disappointed with television shows but since I’ve been cooped up in the house for a week I’m getting a little TV-obsessed.  No, it’s not healthy and yes, I need to get out a little more.

In regards to the severe Game of Thrones withdrawal symptoms, I’m also very worried about book 6, The Winds of Winter because I know it isn’t coming out this year.  (I believe Martin’s publisher announced something to that effect.)  I really, really hope that Martin does get to finish the series eventually because although the TV show is great, I definitely prefer the books in a lot of ways.

Well, I’m just going to have to deal with my extremely first world problems until February 2016 when the Season 5 DVD comes out.  In the meantime I’m going to work on trying to get outside now that I’m somewhat healed up and maybe start gently working out again.  Maybe I can start the House of Cards TV series, which comes highly recommended from my equally geeky coworker.

How was your Sunday?