Are You A New Author? I Want To Read Your Story!

Angela34 Comments

*UPDATE* 11-30-2014*

*I want to thank everyone that was willing to allow me a peek at your in-process, about-to-be-published, and published stories for me to review and edit when requested. I am down to a minimum of stories to still get finished, and it will not be a long process from here on out. As of today, I will not be accepting any more stories for editing and reviewing through this blog. This is strictly due to the fact that I want to finish up the stories I have left to do, as well as begin reconstructing my blog, or likely setting up a website, where I can strictly offer these services. With Christmas 4 weeks away, I want to make sure I do not overwhelm myself as I prepare for a very busy 15 more days at my company before our year ends, as well as getting my home-schooler squared away and on task before the new year begins. Thank you again for all of the responses, I have gotten to read some absolutely fabulous stories, and made some friends along the way as well! I hope as I get closer to setting up a website that I can call on those of you whose stories I reviewed for honest feedback on my abilities to proofread/edit!*

I will in the very near future be offering my knowledge and skills for proofreading (usage and formatting), editing (line and copy), sentence and paragraph structure, plots (and those plot holes we all dislike so much), point of view, structure of the story, and other services the author deems necessary to publish the best, most polished book they can.

There are some things you may, or may not know, about editors. They love books. They really, truly love books. They also love authors. They love that you are making this sacrifice and commitment to get the written word out to the masses, and an editor wants to help you with that. An editor really can help you publish the book of your dreams; a book you are going to be proud to market, autograph, and host release parties for.

I have to date reviewed numerous books I have read by choice, and books I have been asked to review. I have met many great new authors who truly deserve to be famous in the world of books. In that aspect, I am not asking or expecting you to give me your book for free in exchange for an honest review. I go to the bookstore all the time and buy books by authors I have never heard of, because I like the summary of the story, and the cover caught my eye. With that being said, I also do not have the means currently to be spending hundreds of dollars on books in order to review them.

In return for my review, I would like an honest review on my proofreading and editing abilities. If you want someone to find any spelling or grammatical errors, I am that person. Are you not sure if you are writing in the proper point of view for the story? I can fix that. Plot holes? I can make them disappear.

So you would probably like to know what exactly makes me a qualified editor for your work that you have invested so much of your time and talents on, correct? Correct.

I love the English language. I love everything about our complicated, hardest-language-to-learn in the world. I love spelling complicated words, and how a sentence can be structured to be an amazing line of thought-provoking letters and punctuation. I am currently working on my MBA, and have portfolios of all papers written for my previous 2 college degrees. I have maintained a GPA of 3.83 to 4.0. That 3.83 was courtesy of Statistics classes. Yikes!

I read to learn, so I have vast fields of knowledge in various areas that may be of benefit to you. I love history and everything about it. From the Civil War to now, if it is out there and I found it, I read or watched it. Mythology and various religions have also been areas of study for various classes and research papers. I love to research information, and document it. Are you citing someone else’s information? I can make sure you are protected from any possible instances of plagiarism. If you need to add information but you are not 100% sure it is correct, I can find and fix it for you.

If you are interested in an honest review of your book, I would love to review it! I do not post a review that I was asked to provide without the author first seeing it. It is not my intention to harm anyone’s future as a famous writer. I will also provide the review to Goodreads, Amazon, Facebook, your blog, website, or publishers website. If you want it posted somewhere specific, you just need to let me know.

I can be contacted in the comment section to this blog, or reached at angi.gibbs@yahoo.com. This is my personal email address, and any instances of spam will be immediately deleted, and you will be blocked from any access to my emails or blog. Thank you for your understanding!

I look forward to great readings and reviews to come!

The Narnian : The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis – Alan Jacobs

Angela1 Comment

I am a huge fan of the Narnia books, and all books by Clive Staples Lewis. The Narnian is a great overview of C.S. Lewis and his life, and how that in turn brought us the wonderful world of Narnia, and the adventures of the Pevensies.

The Narnian Cover

You will learn about his youth in Ireland. The games he played with his brother Warnie, and how this was the beginning of what would become Narnia. Clive loved to create worlds with fantastic creatures and settings even from a very young age.

Taking part in World War I, being in the trenches fearing for his life would have even more profound effects on his beliefs, and his writing. C.S. Lewis was also friends with J.R.R. Tolkien, and they were members of a writing group known as “The Inklings.” Could you imagine sitting in a room with C.S. and J.R.R.? Oh my goodness, I do not know if I would be speechless, or unable to shut up with never-ending questions I would love to ask both of these great writers!

courtesy of Google+
courtesy of Google+

This is a thorough, extensive biography of the life of C.S. Lewis, and even if you have extensive knowledge of him already, you are bound to learn some new things in this book as well. A wonderful read for fans of C.S., his stories, or great writers in general. This is a book I will read again!

Ravaging Myths – Frederick Marshall Brown

AngelaLeave a comment

Okay, it has been a while since I have had to do this, but here goes. Do not read this book. I searched as much information as I could about it, and all of the reviews I found were pretty close to how I felt about the story.

If someone tries to hand this book off to you, do not take it!
If someone tries to hand this book off to you, do not take it!

I wish I had something nice to say about this book. I was looking for another great scary read for the Halloween holiday, but this was not it. Unless if spelling errors, bad grammar usage, poor paragraph and sentence structure, and more holes in the plot than you would find on a colander are your thing.

If so, then this is the book for you!

The first couple chapters definitely got my attention, but as each new character was added in, something else decreased in quality. Nothing made sense. Nothing added up. The story would completely change direction and characters in the middle of a paragraph. With no explanation. Meaning, you are reading about Dick and Jane running up the hill, and the very next sentence tells you Sam and Spot went to the park to chase Frisbees. And whatever Dick and Jane were doing just stopped. Trust me; it is much worse than I can even make it sound.

This story takes place in Hawthorne, supposedly a Native territory, but even that does not make sense. It mentions St. Louis, Sioux Nation. Did St. Louis previously belong to the Sioux? Or is the author just making things up? The storyline was everywhere but on track, and it basically ended up being that a funeral home was built on top of a cave that was a bridge to the spirit world. Yes, there is your spoiler alert. Because I hope to goodness you are going to trust me and not read this book. The author mentioned at the end of the story that since he lives in Las Vegas with his wife and son, he was thinking about a ravaging myths story based there. This, my friends, was the scariest thing about this story. That he may possibly write another.

I can’t even say it has a nice cover 😦

Bugger…

How Big Is Yours?

Angela2 Comments

Your stack of books you want/need/have to read? What did you think I meant?!

There is no such thing as too many books!
There is no such thing as too many books!

I have been collecting books throughout the summer, knowing I want to read them, and just waiting to have the time to do so. Missing from this stack was the 1st book in the Freecurrent series (Deanna J. Compton) which I am currently reading, but could not locate. Panic! I found it, which just leads me to the fact I have been trying to ignore. That I have a lot of books. And also that I need to organize said books.

I have 6 more paperbacks that I bought at a used book sale at the beginning of the summer, and have not even had the time to give them a second glance. I am almost into week 4 of my 6 week long class on Leadership for my MBA. This is my last class for the year, so I can relax and enjoy the holiday season that is quickly approaching.

What do you have that you cannot wait to read, and cannot yet find the time to do so?

Cradle and All – James Patterson

AngelaLeave a comment

As the owner of too many James Patterson books to count; Okay, you can never have too many James Patterson books!, I figured I was due to review another one. I read this story quite some time ago, and it was a great read!

Cradle and All cover

Anne Fitzgerald is a former nun, and current private investigator. Still having a friendship with the Cardinal of the Archdiocese of Boston, it was him who brought Anne the strangest case yet to date. She travels to Los Angeles and witnesses the horrible effects of the outbreak of polio. Yes, polio. It has just found its way to Boston, so Boston is not yet as ravaged with the disease as Los Angeles is.

What comes next is as unbelievable to the religious PI as it would likely be for most; a pregnant virgin. Not just one, but two. One in Ireland, one in Boston.  And even more epidemics. Seemingly straight from the Bible. The world begins to wonder if this truly is the “second coming” that many have predicted, prophesied, and been waiting for. Anne realizes the danger that these two girls are in with their virgin pregnancies and upcoming births. These two girls are scared. Anne is scared. The whole world is scared.

With this story, Mr. Patterson builds on both our inborn fears and our inborn hopes at the same time. It seems now more than ever that everything, everywhere, is going from bad to worse to unspeakable. This is a great story to make you think, with lots of twists you won’t expect, and it is not full of religious overtones (really, it is not) in case if that isn’t your thing. You should definitely give this one a try!

The Year of Living Biblically – A. J. Jacobs

AngelaLeave a comment

Another great book by A. J. Jacobs will have you laughing, and cringing at the lengths he went to in order to follow the Bible for a year. His wife deserves an award for putting up with him as well 🙂

Year of Living Biblically cover

He followed the big ones; you know, the Ten Commandments, love thy neighbor, and be fruitful and multiply. Again, his wife deserves an award for putting up with him. He had the most difficulty with the rules in the Bible that some are aware of, and that very few attempt to follow. Such as:

Do not wear garments of mixed fibers. This involved worldwide searches for fabrics that were not mixed, with anything.

Do not shave your beard.

Stone adulterers. This is funny, you do not want to miss it.

Eating unleavened foods, and avoiding other foods or ingredients.

He was not dismissing the Bible as nonsense, but rather educating others on the sometimes complexity of it, and how as times have changed, some of the rules in the Bible are not applicable to this day and age. A.J. explains that he is Jewish, but said he is Jewish in the same way that the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant. He states that he is also an Agnostic, so this was a spiritual as well as educational journey for himself.

This is definitely a story worth reading, and it is a book I would read again. Lucky for me, I own it, so I can do just that!

If you would like to buy this book, or read more about this and A.J. Jacobs, you can visit his website at http://ajjacobs.com/books/the-year-of-living-biblically/

To E-Read or Buy the Real Deal

Angela8 Comments

It seems there is quite the battle between those who have given up their paper books for electronic readers, and those who refuse to use one. I have to admit that last year I got Barnes & Noble’s latest HD electronic reader, and have read some stories on it. I have people that ask me to review their books, and in some instances this is the only way I can access their stories.

I also said I would never own one. Because I could never give up my paper books. This is still the case. I have not even turned it on in at least 3 months. My excuse for getting it was I wanted to use it for my magazine subscriptions since I do not like throwing away magazines after I read them. I do get some subscriptions sent to my reader, but, as I haven’t used it in months, I am proving to myself that I just do not care for it all that much.

With that being said, I have crossword apps on it, and I love doing crossword puzzles. I have used it for that more than anything. But alas, I am too busy with other things to even have time for that.

I do not believe that the electronic reader will ever replace “real” books, and I would be devastated if that ever happened. But with so many authors finding it easier to publish, or self-publish this way, the brick-and-mortar publishing companies are possibly seeing a decline in manuscripts being sent to them.

Another reason I prefer real books? The fact that in most of the cases, that person writing that book had to endure the lengthy process of finding a publisher to accept their book, print it, and market it. Although I have never tried, I think it is safe to say this is no easy task. That doesn’t mean you still cannot come across a real book that does not completely suck, but the chances of you seeing spelling, grammatical, and story line errors are no where near as likely to happen.

I have read some pretty terrible things from self publishers. And I have also read the most amazing stories from self publishers.

How do you feel about the electronic reader?