Reviewed by Seriously Reviewed

Understanding that the Army and Marines would call each other derogatory names right off without even knowing each other- well I knew there would be people who wouldn't understand the military culture, LOL.

Overall, a solid enough review. The presentation scored 9 out of ten, that includes the editing and the cover. But yeah, the cover alone deserves a 10! The story itself only scored a 7.5 despite the fact that the reviewer was in tears and wanted to see more. She had a real problem with the name calling, with Mark being celibate for close to 40 years (yeah, I admit I knew that would be a problem for people) and that she felt Mark was destructive to the house. (I have no idea where she got that from!) So I scored low there. 16.5 overall out of 20. Not out of the ballpark, but she highly recommends reading it more than once and that she did really enjoy the story.

Seriously Reviewed

A new review and another interview

I got my second review in on Lost and Found. This one was from another author who I asked to review the book. She'd earlier done an interview with me as well.

I got 3 1/2 stars out of 4- not too bad! She gets poor Josh's name wrong in a few places- LOL. She calls him Josh "Tyler" and later, refers to him as John.

Lost and Found as reviewed by Toni V Sweeny.

I also had an interview posted today at Gotta Read Reviews Blogspot. It's formatting oddly for some reason.

So, so far so good for Mark and Josh.

I'm on Amanda Young's blog

Special thanks to Amanda for posting Lost and Found on her blogspot. Amanda is a fellow Lyrical author and I got to meet her this past weekend at ConTxt.

Interviewed at the Fox Hole

I was interviewed for the Fox Hole by Jesse Fox today. She was really gracious enough to work me into her already very booked schedule and I'm just thrilled. :) Come on over and check it out!

I got my first review (that I know of at this point) For Lost and Found from Rainbow Reviews. I'm more than a little thrilled here, I gotta say!

When you score a great editor

I know I've mentioned my editor- Cyn- before. She was such a huge help in not only getting Lost and Found pulled together, but in helping me through the entire process. She's incredibly awesome and is already encouraging me with VN2, when she doesn't have to do much of anything as we are "between" books right now.

She just posted on Lyrical's blogspot about being an editor and I think it's a really excellent article- and timely. I'd been worried about submitting VN2 because I knew she wasn't into the sci-fi. VN2 is a futuristic look at Vietnam- and although I focus entirely on the characters and relationships, bigotry and the fact that the more things change, the more they stay the same- it's still sci-fi. But this post about why editors pick one manuscript over another is, for me, anyway, reassuring. If VN2 gets rejected- it won't be because of my choice of genre.

Cyn's also an author, and a damn fine one too. And she just scored a really super review on her latest book, In The Cards from Happily Ever After Reviews. So congrats to my editor! Woot! You go girl!

New look

I'm trying on a new look here. This is more in line with the colors of my Live Journal and what will be my webpage when I finally revamp it. I'm trying to decide if I want to put my webpage banner here too. I love it, but it's very racey. :)

At least I'm finally getting more comfortable with this system. More or less.

Lost and Found releases in just a few short weeks and I'm becoming a certified basket case. I'm just incredibly nervous about it all- will anyone but my five closest friends buy it? And the reviews- that has me so uptight I can't begin to tell you. I just want the first few out of the way so I can deal with it all and move forward.

I've netted yet another blog interview for July. This one is at Beyond Romance, Lisabet's blogspot. Considering my last two didn't seem to do all that well, I can hope that some of the upcoming ones maybe snag one comment.

I've sent out three ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) to three reviewers that are not on Lyrical's list, including Jessewave Reviews.

Overall, it's been a pretty incredible ride and continues to be. Publishing an eBook is so different than a traditional house. I scored a wonderful editor right out of the gate and that's gone a long way in making all of this managable, especially when I felt overwhelmed. Having Elle to ask questions of has been a huge help as well. And lord knows I'd have never survived this without my sweet friend, Mel, handholding me for much of this. It has been an adventure. There have been a few minor disappoints here and there, nothing is ever going to be exactly the way you wanted or hoped. For instance, my longer blurb that my editor and I worked so hard on to have right, got bumped completely for the much smaller "highlight" one instead on my bookpage. But would I recommend this press and publishing in the ePublishing world to begin with? Oh yes, very much so.

Oh, I'm currently overhauling my webpage. I know, it's a mess and I apologize. I hit a wall with the software I use. But I found another software I like much better and I'm working with that. I'm still learning things about it but I like what I can do with it so far. Hopefully, over the next month I'll have it all fixed and looking more professional. One can only hope.

I'm guest blogging again today at LPI

I'm blogging again today, this time at Lyrical Press, Inc's blogspot. I discussed using the right language when writing about the military and I got a couple of sharp photos in there too of Hueys coming in.

I've also managed to snag two more interviews- one for June 24th and another for July 13th. I need to start writing all of these down on a calendar!