No Review Tuesday! #Books #ReviewTuesday #AmReading

I just can’t keep up....

I really like to do one review per week; I normally finish more than one book during that period. However, I’ve been so busy with real-world work I just haven’t had the time to write a review for this week. Indeed, I've hardly had time to breathe.

At the moment, I have a bunch of titles stacked up for reviews. Here’s a quick list – but this week, at least, I can’t give you an actual review.

Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver

Meticulously structured, warmly imagined, politically trenchant novel about two families living in the same house, a hundred years apart. Some things don’t change...

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

Desperate unrequited romance, with a touch of the Gothic. Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights were early favorites of mine, but somehow I had never read anything by the third Bronte sister, until now.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Dark, totally original fantasy. Supposedly this is a young adult novel, but it’s intelligent enough and creepy enough for us grown-ups.

Meanwhile, I am currently reading:

The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer

Harrowing semi-autobiographical tale about growing up Jewish in post-Revolution Iran.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow

Science fiction awash in ideas.

The Flying Troutmans by Mirian Toews 

Quirky, funny and tragic tale of a peculiar family.

... 

I think there might be more, but I’m feeling too scattered to recall.

Maybe I’ll manage a review next week. Do you have a preference?

Happy Anniversary, Goddessfish! #poetry #prizes #authorservices @GoddessFishPromotions

Welcome to the Goddess Fish Promotions Tenth Anniversary Month Long Celebration!

Who is Goddess Fish Promotions? And what do we do? We're glad you asked!

We didn't want your visit here to be dry and boring, so we decided to have a poetry competition and put what we do into verse. Here are the initial entries:

Marianne:

Roses are Red.
Violets are Blue.
I'm awful at poetry.
Coffee.

Judy:

We can edit your book
find things you didn't see
It will be fun to look
at the changes from me.

Yeah, for some reason, Judy won!

Even better, her poem is correct. We DO offer editing as one of our options. Here are a couple of testimonials from clients:

I worked with Marianne on a complete edit and was very happy with the results. Her feedback was clear, easy to follow, and she probed on things I hadn’t thought of. She was also responsive whenever I had questions and helped me work through a few issues. Her feedback and guidance improved the quality of my manuscript, all at a very fair price. I’m working on my next book and plan to use their services again.

-J B Glazer, author, In Search of Mr. Anonymous

Choosing the right editor for a project is incredibly important to an author. Let’s face it, we want the best for our books. When I was considering editors for my first indie-published book, Regenerate, I naturally thought of Goddess Fish Promotions–and I’m so glad I did.

Marianne Arkins and Judy Thomas are incredibly attentive and professional during the entire editing process. Their input was invaluable and the story is much stronger because they cared enough to help unsnarl plot points and find order in the chaos..

I can’t wait to work with them again. Truly, a top-notch editorial team!  

- Sarita Leone, award-winning author of Regenerate

We also offer Virtual Book Tours, Graphic Design, Social Media Promotion and more. You can see more testimonials here.

We hope you enjoyed getting to know us a little (more information is below) and we'd like to do the same. We'd LOVE to see a little poem that tells us a bit about you in the comments. We'll be awarding random book giveaways and $5 Amazon GCs to some of the best poetry we find. It might not be at every stop, but when something really makes us smile, we'll reward it! Come on, be daring...

And now, more about us:

About Goddess Fish Promotions

Goddess Fish Promotions was established October 14, 2008. Why? Well, when Marianne became a published author and got her the first taste of trying to promote a book on a budget, there was only one other virtual book tour company in place at the time, and their fees were simply too high for a small press author. After coordinating and running her own tour, she knew other authors could use the same service for a reasonable price. Thus, Goddess Fish Promotions was born.

Because both Judy and Marianne were authors and editors prior to running Goddess Fish Promotions, they approach the business with a unique point of view, and treat their clients how they would expect to be treated.

The people behind the fish

Judy Thomas

Judy has a college degree in English and she’s worked in retail, education, at her local library as well as an editor for a small press and for the now defunct ShadowKeep Ezine. She’s also a published author so can see things from both sides of the fence. In 2013, she “retired” and now spends her days helping authors make their dream come true—as well as working as much as she can with her local theater group.

Marianne Arkins

Grammar freak and coffee lover, Marianne wrote her first novel at ten years old, built her first commercial website in 2000, and published for the first time in 2006. She worked as a professional editor for just over a year, and knows what it’s like to write, edit and promote a book on a budget.

http://www.goddessfish.com

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/GoddessFishPromotions
 
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/GoddessFish

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/goddessfish/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariannejudy/

Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Goddessfish

It's our anniversary, but you get the prizes!

For Everyone: One $50 Amazon/BN GC, two $25 Amazon/BN GCs, Two $10 Amazon/BN GCs

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For Authors: 2 $10 GC for any Goddess Fish Promotions service, Winner’s choice of either a free blurb blitz (2 wk) or book blast (5 day), 50% off any tour (excludes Review tour or Full Service Tour), 4 free 25 page complete book edit, 2 Winner’s choice of teaser or social media cover graphic design

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Ten Things I Love About Being an Author

I've been publishing erotica and erotic romance for sixteen years now, and I've seen a lot of changes. With the tsunami of self-published work flooding the electronic shelves these days, it has become harder than ever to find readers and make sales. Sometimes I get a bit discouraged. (I think we all do.) But then I remember that I'm really not in it for money or fame. There are other rewards, more enduring and ultimately more satisfying.

Ten Things I Love About Being an Author

1. I can create worlds. There's something magical about starting with a premise, a set of characters and a setting and building a fully-fleshed world, entirely out of words – a world that can make people laugh, cry, hope, and believe.


2. I can let my dirty mind run free. For years I kept my most outrageous fantasies to myself, but now I can share them with like-minded readers without feeling (too much) like a pervert.
 
3. I get to use all my years of education. From the time I entered school, I spent nineteen years in educational institutions. (Some might say I was trying to escape the real world. Yeah, we authors do that sometimes...) During those years I wrote a lot of non-fiction and honed my ability to express ideas clearly in written form. Writing fiction demands some of those same skills – at very least competence in grammar and spelling!

4. I can relax from my day job. Writing fiction provides a welcome contrast to my real world occupation. I enjoy my technical, detail-oriented day job, but writing lets me practice a very different kind of thinking.

5. All the books I buy are tax-deductible. I've sometimes thought I should try to deduct the costs of travel as well, since so many of my books have foreign settings. Rajasthani Moon, for instance, is set in India. The Ingredients of Bliss is mostly set in France. My first novel, Raw Silk, takes place in Thailand. However, I've decided not to push it...! Books though, are legitimate business expenses, since I need them to evaluate potential new publishers, suss out the competition, or do research.

6. Royalty checks. I don't make my living from my writing, nor do I write primarily for the money. However, I'd be lying if I pretended I don't get a thrill whenever there's a new deposit into my PayPal account.


7. Reviews. Yes, of course, reviews are a double-edged sword. A negative review can definitely ruin my day. However, for me, the joy that comes from a positive review more than balances the funk I get into when someone pans my book. I know that I can't please everyone. That just makes every person who does like my work even more precious.
 
8. Book covers. I've been fortunate to have had some great cover artists over the years. When I look over the collection of my covers, I feel warm all over. It's almost like looking through an album of family photos, reliving the creation of each book. I don't have children, so in some sense my books are my babies. Lately I’ve been making some of my own covers. That’s a whole other sort of joy. Though I’m often frustrated by my lack of skill in graphics, I love having control over the content.

9. Other authors. I've come to know many amazing writers through my various online communities. I count some of them among my closest friends, even though it may be that we've never met in the flesh. I value their support and advice – and I try to offer the same to them, and to new authors just getting into the business. When I first started publishing in 1999, writing was a lonely occupation, but the Internet has changed that completely.
 
10. Readers. The absolute best thing about being an author is getting a note from a reader, telling you that he or she loved your book. There's a deep sense of validation that comes from knowing you've managed to communicate your vision to another human being, though the fragile medium of the written word. More than anything else, that's what keeps me going - even as Amazon mucks around with search algorithms, as trolls post negative reviews, as poorly written and cliched titles hit the best seller lists, and everybody in the world seems to shouting about his or her masterpiece. As long as there are readers who want more of what I've got, I'll probably keep writing.

If you'd like to check out some of my covers, take a look at the cover gallery on my website (http://www.lisabetsarai.com/covergallery.html). Just click on a cover for more information and an opportunity to buy.