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BOOK REVIEW: SEVERED RELATIONS BY REBECCA FORSTER – A REVIEW BY VERONICA JORGE

November 22, 2018 by Veronica Jorge in category Book Reviews by Veronica Jorge, Write From the Heart by Veronica Jorge tagged as book review, Rebecca Forster, Severed Relations, Veronica Jorge, Write from the heart

Severed Relations (The Finn O’Brien Thriller Series Book 1) by Rebecca Forster

Create Space 2016 ISBN 9781533275516

It’s Thanksgiving. You know what to do: eat, get stuffed like the Turkey, zone out. If you want to get the adrenaline pumping and the juices flowing again, yours not the birds’, our own Rebecca Forster has the tryptophan antidote: Severed Relations, Book 1 of her Finn O’Brien Thriller Series.

Every day is great, until it’s not. And one often boasts of their nice neighbors and safe neighborhood…until something happens.

The Barnetts, a well-to-do family on upscale Fremont Place are living the dream: great house, successful husband, stay-at-home mom, two lovely daughters, and a live-in nanny. One happy family of five.

Enter Detective Finn O’Brien to investigate the triple murder that turns their dream into a nightmare. As one of the characters in the story says, “this falls on the far of side of hell.”

Ostracized by his fellow officers for violating the blue code when he killed one of their own: a bad cop, Finn is forced to track down the killer, or killers, on his own. And he can’t count on back-up if things get rough.

Detective Cori Anderson, with ‘feelings’ of her own toward Finn, agrees to partner with him on the case. Together, they attempt to unravel the hideous mystery. Nothing stolen. No apparent enemies. Unlikely targets. It wasn’t the butler, they don’t even have one.

In Severed Relations, Rebecca Forster leads us on a page-turning, suspense-filled, unnerving journey into the h Write from the Heart | Veronica Jorge | A Slice of Orange eart of darkness that reflects real life. Feelings can sometimes blind and mislead you, and events and people are not always what they seem.

See you next time on December 22^nd.

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Geralyn Corcillo Featured Author

November 21, 2018 by A Slice of Orange in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Featured Author of the Month tagged as Featured author, Geralyn Corcillo, romantic comedy

Geralyn Corcillo Featured Author | A Slice of Orange

Geralyn Corcillo Featured Author

When she was a kid in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Geralyn Vivian Ruane Corcillo dreamed of one day becoming the superhero Dyna Girl. So, she did her best and grew up to constantly pick up litter and rescue animals. At home, she loves watching B&W movies, British mysteries, and the NY Giants. Corcillo lives in a drafty old house in Hollywood with her husband Ron, a guy who’s even cooler than Kip Dynamite.

Geralyn is not only an author of romantic comedy and women’s fiction novels, novellas, and short stories, she is also an avid and eclectic reader. You can read her book reviews here on A Slice of Orange, in her monthly column Things That Make Me Go Mmmrrh . She loves to connect with readers on Facebook and Twitter—drop her a line or leave a comment here.

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Searching For My Writing Juju

November 20, 2018 by Meriam Wilhelm in category A Bit of Magic by Meriam Wilhelm tagged as goals, muse, writing

It was Sunday night before I knew it and I still hadn’t finished rewriting the next chapter of my book, nor my blog for a Slice of Orange. I was stuck, the clock was ticking and I had no one to blame but myself. I’d made too many alternate life choices this month when I should have been writing!
You might have seen my blog last month (Please Don’t Make Me Have To Learn How To Ride A Camel) where I shared with you that I’m turning sixty-five in a few months and I’ve set all these goals for myself. My conscience is killing me as I check back in with you.

Over the past month, not only have I not spent enough time writing, I’ve sadly made no noticeable downward movement on the bathroom scale. I have been walking as you can see from the attached picture. And walking on the beach requires a lot more hard work, although my FitBit refuses to take that into consideration. Traitor!

Tonight I discovered that one of the goals I’d made turned out to be a bit wonky. And although I could use it as a time consuming excuse for not writing… I won’t. I have to admit that I got swept up by the title of a book and made a big assumption. I thought that it sounded like a motivational piece that might help me to focus on personal self-improvement strategies. I said I was going to read Paul Arden’s best seller – It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be. And I did and I liked it. Only it wasn’t what I thought it would be. It was designed for readers who want to improve their status in the workplace. I’m retired.

But wait, having read it once – it’s short – I returned and read it a second time searching for nuggets of guidance that might prove helpful… and I found some.
Keying on Arden’s last truth – “Ambition trumps talent”, I humbly got back to work, ambitiously typing away on the keyboard to write this blog. I even finished editing the next chapter of my book tonight, pleased that I’d re-found a bit of my writing JuJu in a most unexpected place.

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31+ Flavors of Story

November 19, 2018 by Jenny Jensen in category On writing . . . by Jenny Jensen tagged as categories, flavors, genre

31 Flavors | Jenny Jensen | A Slice of Orange Genre. Ugh. The subject gets more coverage than alien abduction, and it probably always will. The Internet is full of advice urging writers to pick a genre and then write to it; this before the opening sentence gets any thought. Writing to a genre gives the author a clear marketing path. There are warnings against cross genre work because it is hard to market, and then there are the arguments about what exactly, qualifies a story as belonging to a particular genre. Makes the head spin so I surprise myself, but I want to advocate a new genre.

I appreciate that genre categories help readers find a book – readers know what kind of story they like. I use those categories when I’m looking for a fresh read. It’s the best tool for digital browsing. Problem is, the categories are often restrictive. Amazon has denied several of my clients publishing their work in the genre category they’ve chosen. And they don’t explain what factors the decision was based on. Does that mean if your Regency era tale of love involves Aunt Middie, the humble poor relation whose secretive potions are powerful and move the plot along, you have a Romance – or a fantasy? You could publish in both categories but it would still be unseen by readers who didn’t check both those boxes.

Can a gripping good story feature a sexy vampire who steals the crown jewels, thwarts a terrorist plot, redeems the fallen countess as he exposes government corruption and solves the murder, all while meeting and winning his one true love? Of course it can. To me, the best books always have possibilities beyond what the author may have intended. I love genre-blending books, the mixed bag plots that weave in a load of improbable possibles and make it all work because the world building and plotting are strong enough for the necessary suspension of belief.

It’s a given that genre categories are necessary. I accept it and am glad that the categories themselves have expanded to include more contemporary fictional worlds such as Dystopia and Magical Realism. Still, that doesn’t cover those books that defy categorization by mixing literary elements. A.F. Scudiere, whose Nightshade series involves werewolves, the FBI, forensics, action and adventure and a developing love story is Amazon-ranked in thriller, suspense, fantasy, occult and mystery. That’s a pretty wide reach and each category fits in some way but I have to wonder how many readers browse all of them.

Ashley C. Gillis’s Detach & Target is a military thriller and a romance and neither element trips the other up. She is on Amazon under romance, war & military, and war. I wonder how many readers missed this exciting and well written book because the genre categories don’t exactly fit. I think a lot of readers may be missing a really gritty and realistic story of a special Marine unit’s action and interaction. If we had a genre category that spread a wider net, including any mix of literary devises in a cohesive, well written whole, it would be a great place to browse when a reader is hungry to taste something outside the conventional.

I propose calling this genre Salmagundi. It’s not just a salad anymore, it’s a new literary flavor.

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I AM UNAVAILABLE (maybe you are too)

November 15, 2018 by Rebecca Forster in category The Write Life by Rebecca Forster tagged as Amazon, business or writing, communication, Craft

This morning the wonderful author, Mindy Neff, forwarded a blog post by David Gaugrhran. I had to read it twice to understand that Amazon had a problem and it affected me. Somehow many of our books are now unavailable for sale in the European market. Most of these markets are very small and those readers access Amazon through the U.S. portal. Granted I don’t sell many books in Malta, but I would like to have a presence there. But these weren’t the only markets in play. Australia – a huge market for me – is compromised. The UK, another market where my sales were solid is now nonexistent. Canada also is showing unavailability.

I had noticed the sad state of affairs on my dashboard in the last few weeks, but I put it down to a change in fashion. Perhaps people were tired of thrillers; perhaps another sub-genre had edged out my procedurals. Now it seems that – best guess – the new software Amazon put in place to comply with the EU’s demands to protect their population from information gathering and sharing might be at fault. I applaud the effort Amazon made for compliance, but I am disappointed in the lack of communication regarding the problem.

There is also good news to be gleaned from this. First, the community of authors is generous. Thank you Mindy for passing along this information. Thank you David Gaugrahn for explaining the situation as you know it. Both have allowed me to be proactive in contacting Amazon. I haven’t heard back yet, but through the grapevine I understand Amazon is working hard on the problem. Next, this was a wake-up call for me. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the amount of information coming my way. Like a reader skipping to get to the end of a book, I can miss things that are crucial to my business. I am recommitting to staying on top of things. Finally, such an ‘event’ reminds me why I went wide. While I have an aversion to selling my work to one outlet based solely on principal, this reminds me that there are also real reasons not to so so. With Amazon dark in so many markets I am still available through Smashwords itself and the platforms to which they deliver.

Maybe now is the time for you to take a minute to reassess your publication strategy. Selling only through Amazon might be a perfect match for you. As for me? I want to do everything I can to remain available.

Rebecca Forster started writing on a crazy dare, now she is the USA Today and Amazon best selling author of over 35 books. Her thrillers have been called “Perfect. . .Impossible to put down” by the CBS legal correspondent, Laurie Levenson. Rebecca is married to a superior court judge and is the mother of two grown sons.

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