Poet Reviews Love Poetry "Cherished Pulse"

Title: Cherished Pulse
Subtitle: Unconventional Love Poetry
Series: Multi Award-Winning Celebration Series of Poetry Chapbooks
Coauthors: Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball
Pages: 43 (Suitable for a greeting card)
ISBN: 9781449546052
$6.95 paperback, also available as an e-book
Available on Amazon

Mastery of Poetic Imagery

Reviewed by Samanthi Fernando

 

A sweeping journey across time, taking the reader through exotic places, to revisit and ponder on places and phases of the heart. My favorite among the collection of  poems in Cherished Pulse is Carolyn's silken dream "déjà vu?"  which is reminiscent of my own imaginative creations.  

Tender, revealing, colorful - definite mastery of poetic imagery: Cherished Pulse, half of the poems by Carolyn Howard-Johnson and half by Magdalena Ball,  is both a gift for the self as well as a unique gift to touch someone else.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Samanthi Fernando writes inspirational and spiritual poetry. Visit her at Starsafire Poems  http://starsafire.starrayz.com/wordpress/ and share the creations of her poetic ministry of hope and healing.


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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Quick Little Mother's Day Gift--Electronic or Paper

Deeper Into the Pond
By Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Genre: Poetry chapbook/women/Women'sDay/feminism/Mother's Day
ISBN: 9781461159384
Publisher: The Compulsive Reader
Available on Amazon Kindle and Amazon (as paperback)
$6.95


From Gilda Evans' blog Girl Talk

I  am honored to have as a guest on my blog the very talented Carolyn Howard-Johnson. Her books have earned her multiple awards, including the Best Book Award from USA Book News, the Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts from the city of Glendale and Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment from the California State Legislature.  She imparts her wisdom in many formats – I am pleased to present one of her poems from her collection titled “Deeper in the Pond: A Celebration of Femininity.”

Enjoy the reflections and humor of my esteemed guest, Carolyn!

Breakthrough for a Sexagenarian
In my Tangee years, Seventeen
advised I apply makeup
with an upward motion, toil fingers from chin
to cheekbone. We likely didn’t know the word collagen.

Gravity
we had known since Newton. That it would work
its weighty purpose on me, well, no one bothered
to tell me . . .

I, about 30, surprised that an elder-friend
had not shampooed for a week. Another friend
elbows my ribs, gives me a look.
Later says (hushed at the secret), Didn’t you know
that old peoples’ scalps dry up. No, no one ever bothered to tell me . . .

That was scalps. This is jowls. Now on the origami
packet in my Estée Lauder box of rejuvenating cream,
the same directional arrows Seventeen espoused,
(much too late for the anti part of anti-aging cream)
fingers massaging up, up to keep time
in its place.

I’m told fingers are more sensitive than other body
parts, still doubt magic fingerlifts vanish crows’ feet, wonder, though, if they could—would—work on drying labial petals.
No one ever said that, but I’ve learned if I don’t figure
it out for myself, no one will ever
tell me.

In my acne days, lotions pooled in oily
patches I cottoned away.

In the Pond’s Cold Cream
decade when, to combat drying affects,
I left grease shiny—thick enough to slick
my pillow cases.

There a hint.

That and fallen leaves skittering across my lawn,
so dry they sing a song before they crumble into sand. Very nearly too late to do much with this new-found wisdom—this trifle: If there is something I need to know (but really don’t want to know), no one can tell me
one damn thing.

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

“Deeper in the Pond” is available on Amazon at http://budurl.com/DeeperPond 

Carolyn can be reached at -
The Frugal Book Promoter: http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo
/ Web site: http://www.HowToDoItFrugally.com
/ E-mail: CarolynHowardJ@AOL.com
/ Facebook: http://Facebook.com/carolynhowardjohnson
/ Twitter: http://Twitter.com/FrugalBookPromo
/ Pinterest: http://Pinterest.com/chowardjohnson

 

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Poet J. R. McRae Urges Celebration of Earth Day with Poetry

Sublime Planet: Celebrating Earth Day and the Universe
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball
ISBN 9781482054705
Publisher: Compulsive Reader
Available as paperback or for e-readers on Amazon
"I recommend Sublime Planet particularly to those individuals who reside on this planet." ~ Suzanne Lummis, UCLA poetry instructor

Reviewed by J. R. McRae

SUBLIME PLANET,  includes a section called Sacred Lessons, Poems by Carolyn Howard-Johnson and one called Tipping Point with poems by Magdalena Ball .

Two very different poets, very different styles of writing, have produced a collection united by their passion for environment, for the world that touches their skin and imbues them with its presence with every breath they take.

This collection, is their tribute to their world, both physical and mental, our world.

It is replete with flashes of insight,

forcing myself to see
all these stories
left to grow
viral in rubbish

[from Toxic by Magdalena]

memorable lines that linger in the soul.

 

Writing in my sleep, metaphors that sit on the bridge
of my nose.

[from My Favorite Things by Carolyn]

The collection is sprinkled liberally with stunning images that catch and hold the eye –

Van Gogh brushed sea

marked with freighters,
lights twinkling.
smudged parentheses afar,
looming presences up close.

[From Malacca Strait by Carolyn]

grain of sand in your speculation oyster

truth taken for granted

[From Walking Into Eternity by Magdalena]

Acerbic or more subtly needling, comments, hit home –

Forgotten history meets trashtree

another landfill specimen
pink, fragrant, invasive
easing pangs

you wear like designer clothes.

[From Trashtree by Magdalena]

 

He unaware
he is endangered,
I unaware he might
be dangerous.

[From The Giraffe by Carolyn]

 

This is a collection to be savoured in quiet moments, in those reflective times with wine or coffee in a comfy couch.

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ABOUT THE REVIEWER

J.R.McRae once worked in a circus, as a Rare-Books Librarian, as a book-reviewer, as assessment package writer and Associate Lecturer, English Expression, for international postgraduates, University of Queensland. Her short stories and award winning poetry are in anthologies and journals, like Basics of Life, 100 Stories for Queensland, Stories for Sendai, The Spirit of Poe, Trust and Treachery, Poe-it, Quadrant, Long and Winding Road, Bound by the Secrets We Hide, Antipodes, Social Alternatives. Her Artwork/photography features in Ripples, ABC Pool, The Mozzie and Vine Leaves. As awarded children’s/education writer, J.R.Poulter, she has thirteen books, eleven digital and more coming 2013/14/15. Websites: http://www.jrmcrae_subversive.weebly.com, 

http://www.jenniferrpoulter.weebly.com/

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Poetry: Order Your Best Valentine Ever Early

Title: Cherished Pulse: Unconventional Love Poetry 

Authors:  Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson. 

Genre: Poetry

ISBN: 9781449546052

Reviewer: Joy V. Smith 

Reviewer's link: http://pagadan.wordpress.com/

Review was originally published on Amazon

Publisher:  A Compulsive Reader Publication

Reviewer's rating: 5 stars

Available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle

 Reviewed by Joy V. Smith

 

Say it with poetry

 

This chapbook of poems is a delicious serving of loving and lovely thoughts, memories, and images of love shared and remembered in a breathtaking way, as in these lines from "Aurora":

 

 

"Red, green and purple curtains

waved above you"

 

"If I could capture that spectrum of

atomic neon sign of lost wonder"

 

As a science fiction writer, I so appreciated the cosmic comparisons in Magadalena Ball's poems. 

 

The first group of poems is by Magdalena Ball; the second group is by Carolyn Howard-Johnson.  All the poems flow and entice you into a world of longing and caresses.  Howard-Johnson's poems reflect the imagery of nature, as in these lines from "Dreaming Lilacs":

 

"hearing bougainvillea's fuchsia

song, taking shortcuts

across the lawn to kick

through jacaranda's silent

petalfall. Like Van Goh's flowers

twist their faces

 to the sun, ... "

 

These gentle, but stirring poems are a sweet gift to yourself, a friend, a loved one, or a young girl to show her what love really means...

 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Joy V. Smith loves science fiction; she reads it and writes it and interviews other science fiction writers when she tracks them down...  Her SF includes Sugar Time (audiobook), two collections of her published short stories, Aliens, Animals, and Adventure andThe Doorway and Other Stories, and three e-books: Hidebound (SF romance/adventure), Pretty Pink Planet, and Hot Yellow Planet (the sequel).  But her latest novel is a western, Detour Trail.

Find The Doorway and Other Stories on Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007SV1FB2

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Last Day for FREE Earth Day E-Book

Sublime Planet
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball
Genre: Activist Poetry
Available on Amazon as Paperback, http://amzn.to/SublimePlanet
Available as an e-book, http://bitly.com/EarthDayKind
ISBN: 9781482054705
Photography by Ann Howley
Proceeds from this book benefit World Wildlife Fund


Reviewed by Walter Brasch

April 22 is the 33rd annual Earth Day. The first Earth Day involved students from almost all of America's colleges, and about 20 million others, believed to be the largest grassroots effort in America's history. But, there were dissenters--far too many believed that Earth Day was nothing but a bunch of tree-hugging liberals who were getting tired of protesting the war in VietNam. The anti-war protests did provide an organizing base, but Earth Day has grown so much greater, and is now celebrated in virtually every country on Earth. Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson, in their new book of poetry, SUBLIME PLANET, have created an excellent way to celebrate our planet. In their poems you can learn about a diversity that makes our environment and its people worth keeping. There's Van Gogh, Cassini, and Greek school girls; there's poppies and giraffes, dragons, sea horses, seagulls, and sand. There's the forests and the rivers. Dig deep into each poem and you'll better understand why we need to protect our planet and its environment. More important, you'll learn that all people, animals and plants have a place, and to destroy any one is to destroy us all. Read it. Understand it. And do something positive to preserve and improve what we are blessed with.

Reviewed by Walter M. Brasch, Ph.D., is an award-winning syndicated columnist , radio commentator, and the author of 17 books. His latest is Fracking Pennsylvania, an in-depth investigation into the effects of fracking upon the environment, health, and worker safety. He also looks into the economics and political corruption within this controversial practice.

 

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

The Best Kind of Valentine Gift--Early and Free

Title: Cherished Pulse
Subtitle: Unconventional Love Poetry
Genre: Poetry/holiday/Valentine's
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball
Available FREE for Kindle or PC/Mac download
Available paperback
Poetry Chapbook o Valentine Greeting Card
ISBN: 9781449546052
Authors' Web sites: http://magdalenaball.com http://howtodoitfrugally.com/poetry_books.htm

 

Valentine’s Day may be the holiday best made for poetry. A rose, a poem and thou.  Trouble is, many that we find on the inside covers of commercial greeting cards may be just a little too-too for many of us. Multi award-winning poets Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball to the rescue with Cherished Pulse, a chapbook of poetry just right for tucking into an envelope or sending off as an e-mail attachment to loved ones.

And right now, Cherished Pulse is available free with the KDP Select free e-book feature. All you do is go to http://bit.ly/Vs07hV

 on January 11, 12, 13, 14 and 14^th and click. And you don’t need to have a Kindle reader to benefit! It may be downloaded as a pdf to send to loved ones, or let Amazon do the work for you by sending directly from their site.

It takes only the click of a mouse!

 

And there is plenty of time for you to schedule delivery before February 14^th.

It's a mini gift and greeting card in one!

Cherished Pulse includes many of the science-inspired poems Magdalena is famous for as well as Carolyn’s nostalgic poetry. Chapbooks in the Celebration Series have won many awards including MWSA’s highest honor of gold and several from USA Book News.

 

It’s you who had me dreaming

lilacs, breathing April’s sweetest

tears…

 

Magdalena Ball runs the highly respected CompulsiveReader.com review site.  She is the author of the poetry book Repulsion Thrust, which was published to unanimous five-star reviews.  Her novel Sleep Before Evening was a Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist and she just released a new novel set in Australia. It is Black Cow.  

Carolyn Howard-Johnson's poetry appears frequently in review journals. She is listed in Poets & Writers and her chapbook of poetry, Tracings (   ), was given the Award of Excellence by the Military Writers Society of America. One of her poems recently won the Franklin Christoph Poetry Prize. She is also an award-winning novelist and short story writer and instructor for UCLA Extension Writers' Program.

For more information on the Celebration Series chapbooks, contact either author, or visit media rooms at http://howtodoitfrugally.com  or  http://magdalenaball.com.

Vicki Thomas contributed the watercolors used on the cover and interior. To see her selections of her work, go to http://www.vickithomasartist.com .

                              ###

Support material available electronically or by post on request.

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

KDP Select Freebie for (Gasp!) Christmas Freebie?

Hi everyone, my poetry partner Magdalena Ball asks if KDP Select is good marketing or a gimmick. It is now up here:
http://www.writersonthemove.com/2012/12/kdp-select-good-marketing-or-gimmick.html

She's written about something she suspects will interest all writers and most reviewers and readers and finshed the post with a link to two books available free in KDP Select this month. I hope you'll all drop by and retweet (or tweet using one of my handy links below), and download the books even if you already have them. It would also be fun if reviewers who follow this blog would go back and leave a quick review!

 I'd love to hear your experiences - positive or negative and what you think of KDP. Jury is still out for me, but I'm giving it a whirl and will happily share my experiences with you.

Easy Tweet:

Great e-card idea! "Rational" Christmas chapbook available free. Go to http://amzn.to/BloomingRedKind on Dec. 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18. 

 

We encourage you to buy and then pass the pdf or e-copy around AS an e-greeting this season. There are many secular seasonal poems in it, too, for those who don't celebrate Christmas.

 

 

Happy holidays!

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

A Gift for Mother and Other Women In Your Life

She Wore Emerald Then
Subtitle: Reflections on Motherhood
By Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Photography by May Lattanzio
Number one in the Celebration Series of chapbooks
Author's Web site: www.howtodoitfrugally.com/poetry_books.htm
Amazon Link: www.budurl.com/motherchapbook
ISBN: 978-1438263793
Also available for Kindle


Reviewed originally for Amazon by Zoe Potok, Czech Republic

REVIEW

She Wore Emerald Then

I read this collection of thirty poems slowly, allowing myself only a few at a time usually before I went to bed. The poems deserve such an approach, they need to settle in the mind and soul, to be savoured like a good wine.

The description (on the Amazon.com site only) says "Moods of Motherhood" but it is more than that. At its heart it is about a grown-up child reflecting on the elderly and dying mother and on earlier days when the mother was the strong adult and other. Maybe it is because I am at that stage of life (with a grown-up son and a frail mother) that the poems meant so much to me. The description also suggests that it would make the ideal Mother's Day gift, I'm not so sure about that, I certainly wouldn't give it to my mother, too close to home.

The two poets come at the subject from different points: Magdalena Ball talks about the cosmos before focusing in on the personal with her late poems, Carolyn Howard-Johnson starts with and continues with the personal. And it is the personal that catches the reader in the throat:

We all forget names, I say as numb

moves from hand to heart

because it is my name she has forgotten.

~More on the reviewer: Zoe Brooks (Potok) is a poet and writer. She is the author of Fool’s Paradise a long poem for voices http://www.amazon.com/Fools-Paradise-ebook/dp/B0087EB5KA/

She blogs at http://zoebrooks.blogspot.com/

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

Mother's Day Poetry Just Add a Rose

"She Wore Emerald Then"
Reflections on Mothers and Motherhood
by Magdelena Ball and
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Photography by May Lattanzio
ISBN 9781438263793
Copyright 2008
Available as an e-book. .
Learn more on the author's Web site.
Award of Excelence from Military Writers Society of America

Review by LB Sedlacek
This poetry book is split into two
sections: "The Genetic Code" (Ball)
and "Dandelions in Autumn" (Howard-
Johnson) with each section title
page perfectly accompanied by one
of Lattanzio's pictures.

In "Coil of Life," Ball punctuates
her "The Genetic Code" section with
a jolting look at creation. "Take a
single cell/tinier than the tip of a
pencil/in its nucleus the DNA blueprint/
six billion pairs of nucleotides." The
poem continues further on with "Binary
fission/mitosis and cytokinesis/the
cervix thins and dilates/the dreaming
and waking cerebral cortex/already
perfect signals uterine contractions/
the Big Bang." Each poem weaves vivid
layers (somewhat of a verbal voltage)
of life and existence. From "The
Fading": "eyelids closed tightly
against life/you create your own
shadow/the steel bars/of your deviant
past/shatter the illusion of freedom."
Ball writes with a punch -- you won't
fast forget her words.

The "Dandelions in Autumn" section
(Howard-Johnson) is more focused
on the later years of motherhood
and/or mothers themselves. In
"Mother and Daughter, The Thing I
Learned from Depends and Other Events,"
Howard-Johnson's poem deals with a
daughter taking care of an elderly
mother "... she cannot find/her words,
or the beans/on her plate. Now merely
a leafhusk,/I cannot find the strength/
to place her head upon a pillow.//I
pre-order stew with chunks/chopped to
the size of peas." Each poem seems to
pull from days gone by capturing a
daughter's journey from child to
caretaker of one's mother. The
visuals - "offers us her favorite
dish, whipped/cream, crusted Heath
bars, melted/Marshmallows (without
the rum Mother/would have added)"
from "Across the Hall from Mother" -
are stunning and leverage accordingly
within each line.

Lattanzio's pictures add a blast of
scenic flavor to the book. They
are chosen and placed at just the
right spots.

"She Wore Emerald Then" is a
tribute to mothers everywhere.

_____________________________________________

L.B. Sedlacek's poems have most recently
appeared in "Ginosko," "Pure Francis," and
"Testing the Waters" poetry anthology.
L.B.'s latest chapbook is "I Am My
Neighborhood Watch."
http://wordpress.lbsedlacek.com
www.lbsedlacek.com
Twitter: @lbsedlacek

This review first appeared in The Poetry Market Ezine: Each monthly issue features poetry markets and poetry contests plus news and a review of a poetry book or chapbook. Free to subscribe. To subscribe, send any email to poetrymarket-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
 or log onto http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Poetrymarket/join For general information visit our website at www.thepoetrymarket.com
 or email tpme@thepoetrymarket

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :