Blog Tour - When All the World Sleeps

When All the World Sleeps is finally here! AND THERE ARE PRIZES! 

Join J.A. Rock and I on our blog tour, and you could win stuff: a copy of our last release Mark Cooper versus America, and a $20 gift voucher from Riptide. Psst: you should use that gift voucher to buy When All the World Sleeps. I've heard good things... 

So join J.A. and I at the following places, and leave a comment for your chance to win. 

March 24, 2014 - The Jeep Diva
March 24, 2014 - Elisa - My Reviews & Ramblings - Spotlight Stop
March 25, 2014 - The Blog of Sid Love - Spotlight Stop
March 25, 2014 - Words of Wisdom from the Scarf Princess - Spotlight Stop
March 26, 2014 - Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words
March 26, 2014 - All I Want and More Books
March 27, 2014 - Tracy's Place
March 27, 2014 - Cup O' Porn - Spotlight Stop
March 28, 2014 - Book Reviews & More by Kathy
March 28, 2014 - Joyfully Jay
March 28, 2014 - The Blogger Girls - Spotlight Stop
March 29, 2014 - Sinfully Sexy Book Reviews
March 30, 2014 - Prism Book Alliance
March 31, 2014 - Slitsread - Spotlight Stop

Please note that all dates are American. Don't get excited like me and think it's sooner than it is! 

You can buy When All the World Sleeps here from Riptide. 

Meanwhile, When All the World Sleeps is the book of the month over at On Top Downunder Reviews. Check it out! 

March is a big one!

This month I am the featured author over at Riptide! Hooray for me!

If you follow the link you can find out all about my newest releases and what's coming up from me at Riptide. You can also read an interview and find out why my study is full of garden implements, dog food, and outdoor furniture. I'm not lazy at all -- it's a safety issue. *whistles*

Being the March featured author isn't just good news for me -- it's good news for you as well.

You can buy He Is Worthy at half price -- only $1.99 The rest of Riptide's Warriors of Rome series is half price as well!

You can also preorder Bliss, co-written with Heidi Belleau, for the special price of $5.99!

They're always happy.

Rory James has worked hard all his life to become a citizen of the idyllic city-state of Beulah. Like every other kid born in the neighboring country of Tophet, he’s heard the stories: No crime or pollution. A house and food for everyone. It’s perfect, and Rory is finally getting a piece of it.

So is Tate Patterson. He’s from Tophet, too, but he’s not a legal immigrant; he snuck in as a thief. A city without crime seems like an easy score, until he crashes into Rory during a getaway and is arrested for assaulting a citizen. Instead of jail, Tate is enrolled in Beulah’s Rehabilitation through Restitution program. By living with and serving his victim for seven years, Tate will learn the human face of his crimes.

If it seems too good to be true, that’s because it is. Tate is fitted with a behavior-modifying chip that leaves him unable to disobey orders—any orders, no matter how dehumanizing. Worse, the chip prevents him from telling Rory, the one man in all of Beulah who might care about him, the truth: in a country without prisons, Tate is locked inside his own mind.

And to round off the month of March, When All the World Sleeps is out on the 24th. Seriously, I can't wait to share this one with everyone. I love it so much, and I hope you do too!

Read a five star review of When All the World Sleeps on Goodreads. 

"Unprofessional Reviews"...WTF?

Oh my god! How dare you review my literary masterpiece, you’re not even a proper reviewer! You’re just someone unqualified person off the street who read my book!

So, some authors out there seem to think that it’s okay to look down on “unprofessional reviews”. I don’t know WTF an “unprofessional review” is because, frankly, unless you’re working a fulltime job as a reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement or something, everything else probably counts as unprofessional, right?

I can’t remember the last time I bought a book based on a scholarly review. Because, let’s be honest, they’re mostly boring. Not only don’t I care if the journey of the MC can be read as a revisionist reinterpretation of Marxist-feminist postmodern theory, I don’t really understand what that means. (Note: probably nothing. I just strung some words I remembered from university together.)

Scholarly reviews are interesting, well, if you’re a scholar. But what about if you just want to know if you’ll like a book or not?

And that’s where all those “unprofessional reviews” come in. Tell me how much you loved a character. Tell me how you wanted to throw your Kindle across the room. Tell me how smexy it was, or how it gave you chills. Because that’s the stuff I want to know about, before I shell out some money for a book.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep on saying it: A reviewer doesn’t need to justify why they liked or hated a book. Either it worked for them or it didn’t. As an author, you shrug and move on. And you know what? It doesn’t even matter. Because for every person who thinks what you wrote was a steaming pile of crap, there will be another one who loved it and wants to have its babies.

And what’s with all this passive-aggressive bullshit lately about “Oh, you just said you hated it, and didn’t give any constructive criticism, that’s not a real review”. Well, a reviewer doesn’t have to give an author constructive criticism. Hell no. The ship’s already sailed on that one, buckaroo, because that was the job of your beta readers first, and your editor second.

And while it’s nice to get a review that tells you exactly what a reviewer liked (or hated), again, that’s not their job. They bought your book. They can paper the cat’s litter tray with it if they really want. And what do you care? They bought your book.

So, authors, take a deep breath, step away from the computer, put the crazy down, and let me sum this rant up for you:

1.    A reader does not need to have a degree in Literary Criticism in order to have a valid opinion.

2.   A reviewer does not have to be a paid reviewer in order to have a valid opinion.

3.  People review books because, generally, they love reading books and then discussing them with other people who also love reading books. Not because they're part of a secret global plot to discredit you. (You're not that important.)

4.   Stop whinging and go and write something.  

Best. Review. Ever.

I don't usually do this, but I had to share this review I got on Goodreads for Dark Space. It might even be my favourite review ever. 

Because it is awesome.

And it is also true. 

Have a great week everyone! 

Islands

So, I was rereading The Island last night, and I remembered these photos I took last time I was in Vanuatu. Okay, so The Island is set in Fiji, but I haven't been there since I was a kid. I remember being there for the coup (I don't recall which one) and waving to the army guy with the machine gun as we went to the airport. He waved back. 

But any inspiration I picked up on the beaches in Vanuatu applies to Fiji anyway. Beautiful islands, beautiful beaches, and the endless glittering blue of the Pacific. 

On his Fijian island, Lee collects sand dollars. So did I, in Vanuatu, but for much nicer reasons. My niece Meg was learning to count, so during the day we collected sand dollars and lined them up in the shower at night for her to count. 

Remember how Lee finds a green sand dollar? Here's one, next to an orange star fish: 

And these things were literally metres from our door. Get up in the morning, walk outside, and head straight into the lagoon. 

And the water around Vanuatu -- so blue. 

Here is the bungalow we stayed in for part of the trip. If you think the sand doesn't look as white and clean as it should on a tropical island, that's because this was on Tanna, and the sand here is black thanks to the volcano, Mount Yasur. At night you can drift off to sleep to the sound of the waves breaking on the shore and, in the distance, the rumbling volcano. You can visit the volcano as well, if it's safe, and walk to the top and watch the eruptions. Just magical. 

So our bungalow wasn't five star accommodation like Shaw's...

...but who needs that when you have this view from the hammock? 

You guys, if you ever get the chance to go to Vanuatu, take it! It is one of the most beautiful places on the planet.  

***

Bragging time: I got an awesome review on Joyfully Jay for Dark Space. You can read it here.  Awesome reviews make me do a happy dance! You can see that h... no, no linking to that. I've still got my pride. Also, this particular happy dance was done in my oldest, shabbiest pyjamas. 

Bad Author Behaviour

Is it just me, or is there a lot of Bad Author Behaviour on Goodreads lately? 

I won't link to the latest incident or call anyone out, because whether it's the author, a sock puppet, or some random helpful fan who thinks they're doing the author a favour, I don't know. But it's unattractive behaviour, and nothing will land you on a "Don't buy" list quicker than slagging off the people who bought your book in good faith. 

Here's how I see it. 

Goodreads is for readers, not authors. The second someone pays for your book, they can like it, hate it, or they can desperately want to KILL IT WITH FIRE. It's their right. And it's also their right to tell all their friends what they think. That is the whole point of the site. 

Okay, sure, not all reviewers are fair and balanced. Too bad. But it is not your job, and it's sure as hell not your BFF's job, to call them on it. Because Goodreads is for readers. You're playing in their sandpit, and you take the bad with the good or you get the hell out. 

The moment you publish a book and it's in the public sphere, your don't own it anymore. Okay, you own the copyright and whatever, but it's not your ickle precious baby who has to be protected from the big bad world. Hell no. You wave it off, you wish it well, and you let it make its own way. 

The simple fact is, some people will love what you write and some people will hate it. And if you're not ready to deal with that, then maybe you're not ready to call yourself an author. 

On that note, I don't comment on reviews of my own books. I might "like" a few now and again to get the cover out in everyone's feeds, but that's it. I'm more than happy to talk about my books if you invite me to, but I'm not going to butt in on the conversation you're having with your friends because I don't have any right to do that. Readers shouldn't have to worry that authors are going to start a shit storm because of something they say. 

When you get your royalty cheques from your publisher, where do you think that money came from? So to all the Authors Behaving Badly out there, grow up, chill out, and stop biting the hand that feeds you. 

Tribute has been nominated!

In exciting news, Tribute has been nominated by TRR reviewers for Best GLBT – BDSM (2011) at The Romance Reviews. How cool is that? 

If you want to vote for Tribute, you can click on the button on the right, or just follow this link at The Romance Reviews. 

Vote here!

While you're there, check out the other nominations. Tribute is in good company, that's for sure!

And on the subject of good news, check out these awesome reviews for The Island: 


BookAddict's review at The Romance Reviews. 
Jenre's Review at Reviews By JesseWave.
And this is from Alex JouJou at Manic Readers: 


Seldom do you read a book that so mesmerizes you that all external stimuli go away; the phone, the kids, all the other myriad of things you have to do all disappear. I could not put The Island down and I read well into the night to finish. 


I made you ignore the kids? LOL! My work here is done! 

Reader Reviews for The Island

The reader reviews on Goodreads for The Island have been overwhelmingly positive, and I can’t be happier! Was I worried? No, not me!

Well, maybe a little…

I knew when I was writing it that The Island was darker than anything I’d written before – not in content, because I kept the specifics of the rape and torture off the page, but certainly psychologically. I put Lee in a very dark place from the beginning, and put the readers right there in his head with him.

I would definitely like to revisit Shaw and Lee some day, but for now some other stories are calling me. I’m thinking London, gas lamps, frock coats, those canes with swords in them, and maybe even some magic, but we’ll see. 

The Romance Reviews

I'm delighted to share that Tribute has received a five-star review at The Romance Reviews. It's always wonderful to receive a good review. The reviewer said that Tribute kept her "happily humming", a phrase that made me laugh! And that's exactly what I wanted this book to do -- to keep all of my readers happily humming along!  

You can read the review of Tribute here at The Romance Reviews.