New things to come, book reviews!

Soon you will be seeing a new feature on my blog--book reviews. One of my favorite bloggers has pretty regular book reviews, which initially drew my interest. I love to read but frankly, I'm getting sick of reading the free fluff that I get through Pixel of Ink. It's an awesome resource to have (and you should totally check it out).  My issue is that fundamentally, I'm cheap and slightly paranoid, and the idea of electronic books still makes me feel like I was jipped out of a real book. However, I will totally admit that since I discovered brain candy, as I like the call trashy fiction, I became hooked. It's like heroin in literary form, and I really need to expand my horizons a bit and read more genre's of books. I like funny, light and fluffy because it seems like too much of a commitment to delve into something that is deeper. Hopefully this will soon change.

A brief side note on my take on self published books is this -- power to you for taking the time, effort and energy to write a book. It's a huge accomplishment. As such, don't sell yourself short by not having a decent professional editor for your work.  If you don't, and I find any typos at all in your book, my respect for your writing goes down, and I'll lose interest pretty quickly, and your formatting will probably really annoy me. I will almost never stop reading a book unless the editing is so convoluted that I can't follow the story line.  Also, take the time to deal with the editing issues for the kindle to ensure that your typeface isn't so big that it can read on the moon and we aren't allowed to make it any smaller (this happens all the time!).  I know I make tons of typos here, but I'm not, nor do I have a professional editor. I sure as hell can't proofread my own work. Ask my last boss, she'd be glad to point out that shortcoming.  

So last week one of my dear friends from college, who is this amazing, hardworking, fabulous, awesome lady named Rochelle Callen released her first book. I was excited at how beautiful the cover was, and when I found out that she actually did have professional editing done (go back up and read my rant), I was really excited about helping her promote it. The book was released on Sunday, I was done on Tuesday, and that was me trying to read it slowly so that I could hold out the story as long as possible.  Click on some links here, and check it out because it's only 99 cents this week, and you won't regret it.  Don't worry, it's the first review I'm writing in a week, and when it comes out in paperback, I'll even host a giveaway for you folks that can't get kindle books.

 Through helping promote her work, I was pointed to a group that does book reviews and releases on Facebook and was hooked up with some other awesome sounding books to read, and review. I'm really psyched and now have a bunch of books to read!  I'm really excited about adding another component to my blog, which will help focus and force me to write more often.  Consistency is something I struggle with on a daily basis, and anything that can help train that side of me, is totally appreciated.  

Keep an eye out for: 

*Book reviews* My first will be a review of Ashes and Ice on February 22nd!

*Weight loss pictures!  I've lost almost 40lbs, and the difference in pictures is remarkable. I know most people who read this follow me on Facebook, but I want to get some side by side pictures up.  

*Updates on life and my usual commentary on everything and nothing

*Guitar--I'm playing it, or at least trying!

Come over Amazon and check out the book for yourself!

Ashes and Ice Amazon.com