EFFORTLESS MARKETING: How I Sold Thousands of eBooks, Landed an Agent and a Book Deal in Just 10 Minutes a Day Using Message Boards by Jeff Rivera My rating: 4 of 5 stars Can a book give any decent help or advice if it only cost a dollar? Answer: Yes. Jeff delivers a system, not the best choice of words to use, but that is what it will become. In fact, what he gives you is a guide of how to conduct your life in general. When I was young, I learned to make friends face to face, you had to be polite, and likeable if you wanted friends. People did not have like buttons that created faceless friends that you would never meet. We had to talk and get to know each other, some of those people are still friends over 30 years later. I doubt that many of my online friends will be there for me when I am old gray. The one thing that you success will depend upon through using this book is relationships. If you do not know how to relate to people, how to value them and not see them as another sale, then walk away now. Do not even consider buying this guide if you want to be rich and famous tomorrow: this is about setting a foundation. A foundation that will only be as strong as you are. You will have to stick to the rules to make it work. You are going to have your character tested, which will be the most important thing that you will develop through all of this. Without good character, you will have nothing to give when it comes to interacting with your future fans. I really enjoyed reading this short book. Jeff has worked on himself, to become who is, that is why he is successful. He deserves it, quite frankly. If you want to hear him speak, read the book: over and over. Hats off to you Jeff and may your success continue to grow. After I've worked my way through the steps, I suspect that I will come back and give it a 5th star. View all my reviews

How to Speak Dragonese

Once again there is trouble in the Viking archipelago and a hero is needed. Enter the rather weedy looking boy with the tinniest of dragons: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third and Toothless the Useless, his pet dragon.

Dragons are being rounded up by the Romans aided by the soon to arch rival of Hiccup, Alvin the Treacherous. The second book of the How to Train Your Dragon series begins with a beginners lesson in How to Board and Enemy Ship, which goes about as wrong as it possibly could.

I will not say any more on the plot as it will just spoil the story for you. This book is every bit as good as the first and builds on the characters brilliantly. Once again Hiccup is forced into heroism along with his weird mate Fishlegs. Toothless, Hiccup’s ever present, disobedient, and a bit hopeless, dragon adds to Hiccup’s problems at every turn. A loveable book that will be over far too soon, and have you rushing out to buy the next one (which I did).

With all that said I can only say that I already hope that this is a never ending saga as they are so much fun to read, with audio books that are brilliantly voiced by David Tennant.

The End of Mor

 

It is incredible that I keep on forgetting I have this blog. I keep my own site updated but forget to come here and update the posts. 

I have finally managed to complete my final edit, sort out the covers, format the text and even get a copy delivered to my Kindle, Though I have yet to get the updated file as Kindle formats text different to Smashwords.

Now that it is all done I just need to get my head around the marketing side of things which is so much harder than all the authoring stuff. I say that because telling the stories comes natural to me. With a bit of effort, I can get to grips with the editing, many thanks to grammarly.co for a fine piece of software and also to my friends Phil Hollis and Anna Walls, who both contributed to the texts. 

This is the first time that I have truly labored over a lengthy piece of work, wanting it to be as best as I could get it before I ever release. I have done that in the past and released things that are less (being generous) than ready. Though, I must say that to date; they have had over 12 000 downloads in the last year and show no signs of slowing. If only I can repeat that success with one. If you want to read my old tat for free, you can here. Thanks for stopping by. I’ll endeavour to keep this site up to date from now on.




Review: The Silver Cage - Mik Wilkens

Imagine if you would two worlds joined together by Springs of Power. The Power in question allows magic to be shaped into spells and werewolves to take on the true form of the wolf. Our world, the Earth, has limited magic due to the lack of Springs. But this does not stop our business consultant, David Conner, from being drawn across into the magical realm of Lucasia.
David has dreams, not the type of wealth and prestige but of unicorns and wolves. In one such dream he is bitten by a wolf and wakes up to find that everything is just fine. That is, until the moon comes up. Rapidly, our totally bemused hero of the piece is drawn into a world so different from that which he knows where he has to learn to trust the very wolf that bit him in his dream.
I thought at first I was going to read another werewolf tale: yes and no. David is also a Pureblood, able to draw on the Power o f the Springs and shape spells. He is also wanted as a sacrifice to open a portal for an ancient wyrm who has all but lost its mind listening to the Stone. Add to this a whole bunch of double-crossing dragons, shape shifters and bandits and you soon get the picture of a world locked in an ever repeating cycle of wars between the demonic Phantans and the human populace.
The land of Lucasia is under the control of a powerful human witch, Alexsa, who is determined at any cost to open the portal to the Phantans and gain control of the Power and plunge the world into darkness and chaos. It was Alexsa that lured David into Lucasia, Alexsa that wants absolute Power, and Alexsa that wishes to control everyone. What she has not understood about David is his desire to regain the woman of his dreams from her clutches and his determination to do what is right.
Bring on the knight in shining armour.
Mik Wilkens tells a real good fairy tale, a land of magical folk that interact in real terms with the world and people around them. At no time does she let the story run away with itself. It is a tightly controlled, well thought out story that will appeal to both fans of the fantasy genre and newcomers alike. I thoroughly enjoyed this book; it is one of those tales that just goes on getting better with every page. I could easily read this again and again and keenly look forward to a sequel.
A solid title with no pretentions or delusions of grandeur. It does not copy from other titles or fall into age old clichés. The Silver Cage is a great book especially when you consider the £4.37 price tag which for an ebook is well priced.
A good 4 ½  out of 5 five stars.

Buy The Silver Cage at Amazon

Potter!

I just started reading the Harry Potter series over the last couple of weeks and have not reached the Goblet of Fire. So far I have enjoyed it and only found a couple of tiny instances where things didn’t quite stack up for me. One instance was the opening of the Chamber of secrets where it states that there was a pipe large enough for man fit in. Later they are carried up the same pipe by a bird, phoenix, the size of swam, whose wingspan in considerably wider that the girth of a man. There is another in the Shrieking Shack where one moment Ron has stumbled over onto the bed then a few moments later he is on the floor then on the bed again. But these do not spoil the story, and neither should we let them.
So now I’m onto book four and looking forward to, my only regret is that I have seen the movies already, except for the Deathly Hallows. So far only the first movie rates alongside the book the others are poor shadows of the text. Hats off to Jo Rawling for a truly enjoyable series so far.

Yesterday - a short story

Was it only yesterday when I first saw you from the corner of my watering eye. How the chilly winter sun played with the gold in your hair. The sparkle on the still sea was nothing when I compare them to the light of your eyes. I watched you walk along the edge of the tide prancing out of reach of the effervescent fingers of the ocean.

You walked toward me twirling like a ballerina in the eye of the spotlight highlighting the every line of your body, your perfect poise, your flowing dress. And as you passed me I felt the warmth of your body? Could you not feel the cold upon your skin? Right then I was smitten, I caught the scent of your perfume as you danced by me and with it you took my breath away.

You laughed as I reached for the ribbon that fluttered from your hair. Smiling, you turned toward the sea and disappeared in the haze of the sun upon the water. I waited for you emerge from the effulgent splendour and radiate your own brightness upon the day once more, but you were gone. I remember feeling the cold caress of the sea upon my feet like the touch of death as I ran toward the place where you had stood. But all I could find were your fading footprints in the sand that ran to the water’s edge where they were erased by the rhythm of the sea.I remained until the tide turned, mocking me with its retreating hiss. I closed my eyes and tried to picture your face, recall your scent, retrace your fleeting steps to the ocean’s edge, there was nothing. It was as though you had never been. I turned my face from the ocean and as I walked away I raised my hand to wipe my eyes I found your ribbon wrapped around my hand fluttering in the wind. I closed my eyes once more taking a deep breath of your perfume. When I opened them the ribbon was gone. That’s when I heard your laughter like a bubbling stream. I spun around and there you were once more at the ocean’s edge. I called out as you stepped into the cold embrace of the sea and there in the watchfulness of the mellow November sun I lost you.

What you see is what you get - Alan Sugar

A very enjoyable book tracing the life of Alan Sugar from his humble origins to the man he is today. Having been a young man when most of the shenanigans in this book were actually happening I found myself getting more and more interested in the stories. I remember only too well seeing the Amstrad name appearing on the shelves of Laskys next to my Cambridge Audio gear. Those cheap looking speakers taking up the same shelves as my Wharfdale Diamonds was incredulous. Bt at the end of the day this man understood what the average Joe in the street wanted from the money in his pocket and beat them all.
There's plenty of his business dealings here to fascinate a great many but was not until the later pages when the business of business began to fade away as giant corporations snuck in while he had his eye on the ball at Spurs do we something of the man himself start to shine through. It is when we begin to see the successes wane and the empire crack and crumble that we see the man behind the mask show us his face.
There are times when it is obvious that Alan Sugar does not do emotions. This comes through in hidden apologies which, as you get used to his way of speaking and dealing with people become as plain as day.
When he walked away from Spurs and faced the rigours of high court for something that was just not true we see the tough guy melt. From then on with the pressure gone we see a more open man who is more willing to expose his true self to a wider audience. As the book progresses through the sale of his first baby, Amstrad, and the concern for his personnel, his consideration for their future that in selling the company they are not exposed to the asset stripping that happens so often in business.
Alan, then takes through the creation of The Apprentice, and all that goes on behind the scenes and we get to see another facet of this somewhat extraordinary man who, when focused, can get the most of out of anything. It was then good to see that when he took up his seat in The House of Lords he was not not going to put up with false accusations from the Peers and toffs, which from my standpoint is quite remarkable.
In the end I can thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the growth of the technology industry or is just plain nosey and like to see how the other half live.