Chris Anne Wolfe's work

I was contacted by the person who is trying to have Chris Anne Wolfe's stories reissued and I asked her to send me something that I could share with you.  If you like fantasy stories and haven't read Wolfe's work, you should give it a try.  Unfortunately, she passed away a few years ago, but she left some terrific stories behind.

The Lost Works of Chris Anne Wolfe

Two Amazons of Aggar Books and Others Discovered

by Beloved Lesbian/Feminist Author

Port Orchard, Washington

September 2013

After more than ten years of being sealed safely away, the nearly 7,000 pages of “lost writings” by lesbian/feminist author Chris Anne Wolfe (Shadows of Aggar, Roses & Thorns, et al) are being organized, transcribed, and prepared for publication by a small team of passionate volunteers.

“Fans would write or call and ask when the next Aggar book would be released. For the longest time, we had no idea what to tell them,” explains Jennifer DiMarco, one of three staff of Amazons Unite, a not-for-profit formed exclusively to publish Wolfe’s books. “The fans didn’t even know there are actually two more Aggar books plus a dozen other novels.”

Amazons Unite has already made huge progress, publishing new editions of Annabel & I, Roses & Thorns, and even Shadows of Aggar and Fires of Aggar. The first two Aggar books feature full-color interior illustrations by Skye Montague, who came to know Wolfe’s work through Amazons Unite. “There’s an entirely new generation of lesbian readers waiting to discover Chris Anne Wolfe and her Amazons and Shadows,” Skye offers. “Getting all her books into the hands of readers is our ultimate goal.”

Since Wolfe’s books tend to be lengthy (Shadows of Aggar is over 100,000 words), Amazons Unite is keeping costs down by releasing editions exclusively as ebooks for the Kindle and iOS through Amazon.com. Rebecca Fitzgerald, the third volunteer at Amazons Unite, says, “We’re not pricing any of the editions higher than $4.99. We want everyone to be able to enjoy these adventures.”

Fans new and old are encouraged to help crowd-fund the endeavor and learn more about the “lost writings” online and at Facebook.

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Find more information at

http://www.ChrisAnneWolfe.com

Goodreads is being abused

This is a post that Layce Gardner put on Facebook about some idiots on Goodreads.  I know a lot of people look at reviews there, so you might want to know what is going on.  Karin Kallmaker says she's had a similar problem.

Status Update

By Layce Gardner

I've kept pretty quiet about this, but I think people should know what is wrong with Goodreads. I was the victim of a gang of people who targeted me and my books in a game they play. I don't know if you call them trolls or what... This group of people (at least 50 of them that I can tell) pick on an author and their books. This is a contest they have. They shelve the author's books on shelves they have named "I would rather vomit than read this book" or "I would rather cut off my testes" or "I would rather eat shit than read this book." I'm serious. They have shelved all my books onto these shelves. Their object is to incite me so I say something, then they will converge on me and "destroy my career." This is their exact words. I left Goodreads without saying anything. Goodreads has recently been taking away these shelves. This incited the bullies (and yes, I call them 'bullies.' I have seen the posts where they say they want to destroy my career and wouldn't it be funny if I kill myself.) and now they have left one-star reviews on my books. They are not satisfied with the shelves any longer. As of now, I saw over twenty one-star rating on my book "Tats" left by these bullies in the last month or so. I couldn't bear to look at my other books and see if its happening to them too. Also, a person emailed me and said she heard at some Amazon site that these bullies left one-stars for me on Amazon as retaliation for what Goodreads has done. I don't know that there is anything we can do except be aware that these people exist. I hate to say it, but there are days when I think these bullies may have won their game. Of course I'm not going to kill myself. But they may have succeeded in destroying my career. I'm wondering if I'm the only lesfic author who has been targeted...

Rainbow eBooks is closing

This is from an article that Andi Marquette tagged on Facebook.  I thought some of you might find it interesting.  This is the web address for it http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2013/09/16/rainbow-ebooks-shuts/#.UjppnH8tVLc

Rainbow eBooks Shuts Down – Back Up Your eBooks

September 16th, 2013 by Nate Hoffelder · 1 Comment · ebookstore news

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Here’s a reminder that the ebooks you buy aren’t actually yours.
Rainbow eBooks, an indie ebookstore focused on the niche LGBTQ market, is shutting down. They sent out an email today announcing that they will stop selling ebooks at the end of the month, and that the servers will be turned off at the end of the year.
If you bought ebooks from this ebookstore you should probably make sure you have downloaded a copy of your purchases. And just to be safe, you should probably also remove the DRM. This is the same advice I gave when Books on Board abruptly closed its doors in April, and it is just as valid today as it was them.
The only way you can really own the content you buy is if you remove the DRM and other restrictions that are placed on it. You can’t have ownership without control, and you don’t actually control a DRMed ebook.

No Corpse Is an Island by Gato Timberlake

Publisher:       Blue Feather Books

Elizabeth Taylor (yes, that’s the name) knows she’s not that good at being a private detective.  As she says at the end of the book, she’d rather be known as the most stylish and best looking PI than the cleverest.  This could explain why the story falls flat.

Taylor is hired to find the research papers of Stan McCormick, her roommate’s dead fiancé.  The circumstances of McCormick’s death are suspicious, which makes the case more interesting for Taylor.  Her investigation takes her to Grafton Island and the college where McCormick did his research.  The island, which sits in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, is caught in a war between the original settlers, mostly fishermen, and the new arrivals who are interested in developing the waterfront property.  The characters there are as peculiar as the ones Taylor meets at the college.  When Taylor falls for one of the island women, she decides she has to prove who the killer is so that it won’t interfere with her love life.

No Corpse Is an Island is a light weight mystery.  The story is alright, but it never develops the suspense or tension that most readers expect for this type of book.  The detective seems more interested in a possible girlfriend than she is in the case.  Timberlake moves along telling the story, but there aren’t any great confrontations or frightening threats.  Taylor does receive some messages, but even those don’t seem to carry much weight.  Most of the book is spent presenting a rather long list of potential killers and why they might be the killers, but they’re very run of the mill.  There is a little twist at the end when the killer is revealed, but the story just doesn’t have any kick to it.

The best part of this book is the description it gives of the bay islands and the lifestyle that exists on them.  The Chesapeake Bay islands have been settled since the earliest days of the American colonies and have developed a very unique existence.  Timberlake certainly captured that well.  The reader can feel the ocean breezes and smell the salt, as well as appreciate the characters who live there.  That alone makes the book enjoyable.

Someone looking for a book to spend some time with will find No Corpse Is an Island acceptable and it’s very informative about life around the bay.  Mystery lovers will probably find a lot lacking however.

Karin Kallmaker on good manners by authors

Karin Kallmaker posted this on her blog today and I think it deals with an important subject.  At any rate, it's coming from a major author who also happens to be the Editorial Director at Bella Books.  I think that makes her worth listening to.
  
Lacking in Graciousness and Generosity, Part 2

Creative people rest in a unique position in society. Until very recently, with the explosion of "independent" artists, we have been expected to create art for the sake of art. We haven't been expected to be business people and I have been, at times, made to feel less "artistic" for being concerned about getting paid for my work. Talk to any musician about how it feels at the end of the gig to have to hunt down the organizer to ask for the check and go through the standard "it's here somewhere, can we mail it?" routine.

Everyone around us is allowed to worry about their bottom line, but not the artist herself. I wrote a lengthy rant on this subject when a bookselling gateway wanted me to basically work for free while he made money off my efforts and then chided me for lacking in generosity when I refused.

This rant is a little closer to home. I may come off like a self-satisfied "I've got mine now you get yours" bee-yotch but bad manners are bad manners. Rachel Spangler wrote a marvelously wise blog about the soft sell that has spurred my thinking, and I want to credit her for that, but my mention of her does not imply that she agrees with anything I'm saying.

I was once a first-time writer. That was twenty-mumble years ago. Back then, had I gone to an event at a bookstore and walked up to the table where the featured writer was sitting, placed my book on that table, announced to the crowd that I was there, then sat down alongside and refused to move, it would have been career suicide. The pond was very small, and my talent was not so exceptional that I could rise above being a known monumental jackass. I'd have never seen the inside of a women's bookstore again and my publisher would have heard about it--my contract would have been in jeopardy. In addition to a 7 a.m. lecture about my jackassery, Barbara Grier would have told me that such behavior did not sell books. 

Of course, I hear you say, no one would do such a thing. It's the height of rudeness. Who crashes someone else's space like that? Yet--and we have reached the point of this blog--all over the Internet authors have set up their own spaces, the Facebook walls, their blogs, their wherevers. These spaces are carefully crafted to represent the books and they took the author's time and money to create.

And I don't know an author who hasn't had another author post BUY MY BOOK links on their space. Cover art, links to buy, promotional copy, the works. This happens to me at least once a week.

It's rude. Just as rude as crashing a reading would be. I don't care if you're new and I don't care if you can't get anyone to notice your book and I don't care if someone said you should do it and I don't care if you see other people doing it who claim it works, they're lying to excuse the fact that they're being rude.
It pisses people off. It pisses readers off. It does not sell books. It makes you look desperate. It also makes you look like a liar, to wit, "I need to hijack Karin Kallmaker's name because my books are best sellers!" Right.
Unfortunately, in today's world there are few reprisals for being rude. I wish I could send you a 7 a.m. phone call from Barbara Grier. Alas. All I can do is delete your post, take time away from my maxed out schedule to diplomatically ask you to stop, deal with your emotional angst when you respond that you never meant to bother me, or I eventually block you and risk, of course, being thought lacking in graciousness and generosity for not wanting you to plaster your poster over mine when I bought the space, big meanie that I am. This is what the other authors I know do as well. But we don't forget your name and you may never know that's why you're not asked to play reindeer games down the road. The pond is not as small as it used to be but word still spreads.
Kindness and courtesy still matter. They will always matter. If you can't practice them for their own sake consider this: Readers notice. 


http://blog.kallmaker.com

Above Reproach by Lynn Ames

Publisher:                   Phoenix Rising Press

Above Reproach is book two in the Mission Classified series by Lynn Ames.  It’s another action/suspense story that reintroduces the reader to Vaughn Elliott, one of the major characters in the first book Beyond Instinct.

Sedona Ramos works for a government agency and sees satellite images from Iraq that she wasn’t meant to see.  A nuclear facility that she helped to deactivate years before is showing activity again.  Sedona immediately becomes the target of a group that goes high in the US government and that wants to stop her from revealing what she’s seen, but she’s able to reach the president first.  That leads to Sedona making contact with retired agent Vaughn Elliott and a hand-picked team of super agents.  They are tasked by the president to go to Iraq to find out what is going on and are hunted by killers the whole way.  Sedona has a secret power though that will guide and protect them along the way.

For people who have read many of Lynn Ames’ books, this one is difficult to evaluate.  It’s certainly far better than her first books, but it doesn’t show the promise or ability of her recent work, especially Beyond Instinct.  The dialogue isn’t very good between the characters and there’s never really a feeling of suspense in the story.  The “bad guys” are supposed to be super-secret plotters who have tremendous resources available to them, but they are extremely inept at stopping the agents from achieving their goal.  Vaughn and her group have little real trouble confusing and evading their opponents and getting into Iraq.  The way they deal with the facility is probably meant to show their level of training, but it doesn’t create the suspense that a reader would expect.  The rate that a relationship develops between Sedona and Vaughn doesn’t match with the feelings they each express about past relationships, so their situation doesn’t feel “real.”  The story might have been stronger if the relationship had been left out.  Finally, there is a supernatural aspect to the story that, for those who don’t believe in that type of thing, can be very trying and contributes to the disjointed feeling of the book.

Above Reproach is not a poorly written book.  For someone who is looking for a quick read that is fairly entertaining, it will do fine.  For anyone who has read Ames’ recent books, it doesn’t quite come up to the ability she has shown recently; therefore, the book may be somewhat disappointing.  For fans of suspense novels, this one is tepid and there are others that demonstrate the genre better.    Those who are Ames fans and follow her work will read and enjoy this.  Those who are genre fans may want to find something else.

Everything Pales in Comparison by Rebecca Swartz

Publisher:                   Bella Books

Everything Pales in Comparison is Rebecca Swartz’s debut novel and a strong entry for a new author.  It’s a traditional romance with some mystery added in.

Constable Emma Kirby is working on the security detail at a concert by Daina Buchanan when an explosion rips apart the stage, trapping the popular singer beneath the debris.  After she rescues Daina, Emma becomes part of the investigation into who would want to kill the entertainer.  The case takes an unexpected twist when the person who is trying to kill Daina also threatens Emma.  The women go into witness protection while the police try to find the stalker and have to live in the same house.  Emma likes a quiet life, which makes living with the head-strong Daina difficult, especially when Daina won’t accept how much danger exists for them.  The attraction that begins to grow between them bothers Emma because she’s afraid the distraction may cost one or both of them their lives.

The story itself isn’t unique and follows a regular pattern for romances.  The characters are well drawn though and the pacing is appropriate for the book.  The story also isn’t cluttered with unnecessary scenes, so it moves quickly.  Everything Pales in Comparison is excellent escapist reading and shows that Swartz has potential for the future.