No Entries for Free Amazon Gift Cards?

Angela13 Comments

Is this truly correct? I had several comments on the original post to this give-away, but no one who commented has entered yet. The drawing is now open, I am posting the link below again. Please be sure to click on this link to get your name entered. If you have any issues with Rafflecopter, please email me at angi.gibbs@yahoo.com with Give-away as the subject.

This ends at Midnight on December 9th, in order to ensure I have enough time to get these in the mail prior to Christmas for the lucky winner.

Please be sure to follow this blog if you don’t, post a comment of what you would use the cards for, and the very best of luck!

Enter here: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/0dcc89d93/

The Serpent Bearer – Frank Say

Angela3 Comments

serpent_bearer_final_cover_1_jpg

This was a great story, full of great characters, great scenery, and best of all, a great plot! Taking place in Louisiana, Sydney Monroe has her life turned upside down when her Grandma, or Memaw as she is affectionately called, asked her one more time to use her psychic dreams to help out friends of the family.

While Sydney drags her sister Casey into the mess right along with her, they soon find themselves on a journey of discoveries about themselves, their families, and the difficulties they experienced as children.

Dave, the neighbor, adds a perfect amount of entertainment to the story, like a welcome guest and not an intrusion. There is a varied cast of characters, but none are so complicated that you have a difficult time keeping track of the who-is-who of the story. (That is my first pet peeve about books; too many characters.) Not so here!

This story gives some brief background on various religions in relation with the point of the story, and it provides interesting information without boring the reader. This is not a book chock-full of religion or religious innuendos, but it does discuss psychics abilities, voodoo, and various things of what some would consider ‘black magic’ types of things. It adds to the story in just the right amount.

I really enjoyed reading this story; it flowed very well from one character to the next, and also from one chapter to the next. You do not always see books that use a transition sentence at the end of one chapter to pull you into the next chapter; this one did that effectively!

Frank Say Picture

Be sure to stop by Frank Say’s website to see what else he has for your bookshelf! You can find it here: http://www.franksay.com/

You can find the CNN review here: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1179031

This Is It! My Last Give-Away!

Angela13 Comments

I am again giving away two $25.00 Amazon gift cards. This one is ending sooner, since we are getting close to Christmas. This one ends on 12-9-2014 at Midnight. It’s simple, if you do not follow this blog, follow it. If you follow it, just enter. Leave a comment on this post of what you would use the cards for, and you can enter!

Amazon $25.00 Gift Card

I have said it many times, but I will say it for the last time; I have had a very wonderful, Blessed year. So I want to share. I am giving one winner two $25.00 cards so they can use them both, share one, or gift them both. No one will ever change my mind that it is truly better to give than to receive!

My autographed book giveaway was a dud, so I am holding my other autographed books until I can add something extra with them!

Best of luck; follow, leave a comment, and I will post the results ASAP!

This give-away will be going live at midnight! If you have any issues with Rafflecopter, contact me directly at: angi.gibbs@yahoo.com with the subject Amazon Gift Cards!

Lori Schafer – Author Feature

Angela3 Comments

Lori Schafer ImageExperiencing great success with her story “On Hearing of My Mother’s Death Six years After It Happened“, Lori Schafer is an author you want to get to know. She has also authored “Stories From My Memory Shelf“, which I will be picking up in short order.

On Hearing of my Mother's Death Cover Image

I wrote a review of “On Hearing of My Mother’s death Six Years After It Happened” on November 19th, and you can find it here: https://booksandopinions.com/2014/11/19/on-hearing-of-my-mothers-death-six-years-after-it-happened-lori-schafer/ 

I was fortunate enough to get to read this story before it was released to the public, and I cannot recommend this book enough. It is a wonderful read, and if you have ever had to deal with, live with, or witness the devastating effects that mental illness has not only on an individual, but on their family as well, you need to read this story!

Lori is a writer of serious prose and humorous erotica. You can visit and follow her blog here: http://lorilschafer.blogspot.com/

Did Any Of Your Favorites Win A Goodreads Award?

Angela1 Comment

I know I am a few days late, but I have been incredibly busy and just now had a chance to go see who the winners were in the Goodreads Best Books of 2014 contest.

There were a total of 3,317,504 votes placed. 6 of the books I chose won. There were a couple categories I did not vote on because I had no interest in them and had not heard of or read any of the books.

How did your favorites fare? Do you know someone who was a winner this year? I know I have read some great stories this year by new authors who I have no doubt will one day have their books being voted on as well.

I do have more book reviews coming, as well as more author features. My 13 year-old homeschooler has fallen off the wagon on staying on task, so I have been getting up at 4am, going to work for 9 hours a day, and then coming straight home and spending 5 to 6 hours every night helping her get back on track. I could of sworn I successfully made it through the 8th grade, about 30 years ago; it sure feels like I am going through it all over again!

What To Do With That Horrible Book Review You Wrote

Angela13 Comments

Oh. Hello there. I hope you were not coming here to find the answer to what you should do with a horrible book review you wrote, because I have no idea. I actually was hoping someone could tell me.

As I have stated many times, it is not my intention to destroy anyone’s writing career, or write horrible things about their writing abilities. But when you pick up a book, and it was very poorly constructed, how do you avoid that huge problem while focusing your review on the underlying story that was actually pretty good?

If I post a review that I loved it, or even liked it, I destroy my reputation immediately. Trust me, if you saw this book and I gave it a top review and rating, you would think I was off my rocker. Now, the fact that this story had a few top ratings on Amazon also tells me that someone had their family members post reviews for their story. There were no ‘bad’ reviews for this particular story, or even reviews with much needed and deserved constructive criticism.

Book reviews are a touchy subject, especially to the writers who have no control over how the reader is going to interpret what they wrote. Did they understand the point you were trying to make? Did they misunderstand the dialect? Did they not realize the story was intentionally written like that? and on and on and on again…

One of my favorite quotes is about the fact that no two people will ever read the same story. I find it amazing that no one else read Harry Potter and got the same, identical things from it that I did. That is the beauty of books!

As a footnote, I do not want any of my recent authors who have sent me books or whose books I have purchased to panic. This post is NOT about you. I have had a couple people contact me within the last couple of days and I do not want them to think I am talking about their story 🙂 This is a story that I found on my own while I was looking for someone else’s book.

So at this point I am going to hold unto this review. This book is not a new release and I do not believe that more people will purchase this story, and that I did not prevent that from happening by holding unto this review. I want to do some more digging to see if I can find more ‘true’ reviews of this story and then go from there.

As I Finish Up Your Stories…

Angela4 Comments

…I would like to ask that if I had indeed contacted you about reading, reviewing, proofreading, and/or editing your story, and you have not heard from me, to please send me a personal email.

Those whom I am about to review are Marilyn Cohen de Villiers, “A Beautiful Family”, Kate O’Hara, “Aphrodite on the Half Shell”, the 2nd book of “The Universe of God 2: the Chronicles of Jesus”, (twestephens please email me, I am lacking contact information). Also Adan Ramie’s, “Darkness Undone”.

Mary Ellen Deleon, please send me the date of your blog post on the 3 chapters you asked me to read, I can have that done as soon as I hear from you.

CB, I left a reply on my post, please contact me via my email so I know if there are certain ones of your short stories you would like me to look at, and I need your contact information as well.

I also am in the process of reviewing 2nd stories for Caryl McAdoo and Tony Smith.

If I have not mentioned you and had contacted you previously, Please send me an email. I likely just overlooked it, as I know there are books I purchased and are on my nook that I did not list here. Some books I found from reading through your blogs, and you did not necessarily ask for a review; I just found the premise of your story interesting, and wanted to read it!

I also received a couple emails from persons unknown to me, and unless if you put “Book Edit or Review” somewhere in the subject line, I would not have opened it. I do still have them in my inbox, but please send me another email so I know you are someone who has seen my blog post and not a random email virus waiting to infect my laptop!

Thanks so much, I look forward to hearing from you, and Happy Reading!

angi.gibbs@yahoo.com