Reviewer Ron Klug Reviews How-To Book for Writers

Write-a-thon: Write your book in 26 days and live to tell about it

By Rochelle Melander

Author's Web site: www.writenowcoach.com

Genre: Writing Reference

ISBN 978-1-5996-3391-6

Available at www.writersdigestshop.com/product/write-a-thon

 

Reviewed by Ron Klug

 

Drawing on her experiences as a writer and writing coach, Melander offers in Write-a-Thon a valuable toolkit for the new writer or practiced writer in need of renewal . Around the idea of a 26-day writing marathon, she provides realistic advice for both fiction and nonfiction projects, guiding the writer through the idea-gathering, preparation, writing and recovery.

 

I wish I had had this book 40 years ago when I started to write for publication. It would have helped me be more productive with less stress. Now it has led me to a new nonfiction book idea that I plan to write in 26 days.

 

Even if you're not thinking of writing a book in 26 days, you'll find in Melander's book inspiration, guidance on craft, writing exercises , and a comprehensive bibliography.

 

~Reviewer Ronald Klug has been a book editor for Harper San Francisco and Ausgburg Fortress and a free-lance writer and editor for 20 years. Author of 20 books including How to Keep a Spiritual Journal and A 40-Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoefer. Now retired,  he lives in a log cabin where he splits wood, reads, hikes, reads, gardens, reads, canoes, reads. Reach him at ronklug1331@yahoo.com.

----- 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 :

Gail Bradney Reviews Nonfiction Book on Spirtuality

Title: The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide: Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeys

Author: James Fadiman PhD
Genre: Spirituality/Psychology
ISBN: 978-1-59477-402-7

Name of reviewer: Gail Bradney

Review first published at blogcritics.

It's long been known that psychedelic substances expand normal functions and perceptions of the brain. Psychedelic use isn't a recent phenomenon. In fact, virtually every culture on every continent over eons has ingested consciousness-altering plants and used them medicinally and in rituals.

 

But many readers would be surprised to learn that Nobel Laureate Francis Crick received a vision of the double helix DNA when he was under the influence of LSD, or that late Apple founder Steve Jobs counts his psychedelic voyages among the "two or three most important things" he's done in his life.

 

Despite the fact that the federal government shut down psychedelic research some 45 years ago and made its use illegal, 23 million Americans have taken a psychedelic since then, and it's estimated that more than 600 thousand Americans will try psychedelics this year.

 

Today, there's a recent resurgence of scientific and medical research on the healing potential of psychedelics. Important clinical research on psychedelics is being conducted at Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and elsewhere that may offer new hope and help for cancer patients, cluster headache sufferers, heroin addicts, US veterans with PTSD, autistic children, and patients with many other medical conditions. There's also renewed interest in psychedelic use as a vehicle for personal growth and exploration, for problem solving, and as a way to trigger artistic and creative breakthroughs.

Enter Dr. James Fadiman, psychologist, professor, and America's most respected authority on psychedelics. Dr. Fadiman was one of the people involved with totally legal psychedelic research during the 1960s with the Harvard Group, the West Coast Research Group in Menlo Park, and Ken Kesey. Now he's written a fascinating new book, The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide: Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeys (Park Street Press, 2011), in which he clears up current myths and misperceptions about psychedelics, and presents findings from both long-neglected and recent clinical studies, research experiments, and surveys showing a surprising range of benefits from safe, supervised psychedelic use.

This comprehensive resource offers a wealth of practical information for therapists and health-care professionals, researchers and scientists, psychedelic voyagers and their guides, and even policy makers. Dr. Fadiman has not written the book for those who want to use these drugs recreationally, nor does he delve deeply into shamanistic practices.

           

In The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide, readers learn how to prepare for a guided psychedelic experience—and six factors that can help the voyager get the most from it. We discover how higher doses, with the assistance of guides, can often lead to profound spiritual, transformative experiences, and how moderate dosages are being used for emotional healing and single-session psychotherapy. Dr. Fadiman presents interesting findings from studies demonstrating that low-dose guided sessions can lead to scientific and innovation breakthroughs, and extremely low-dose use of psychedelics may enhance cognitive functioning and emotional balance, and even boost problem solving.

 

Dr. Fadiman has managed to compile an enormous body of psychedelic research and useful findings from fields as diverse as psychology, business, medicine, neuroscience, and spirituality into a page-turner that's intriguing, fresh, and endlessly surprising.

This is the first time much of the important past and current scientific research, case studies, and first-person essays from the most renowned psychedelic pioneers—including LSD discoverer Albert Hoffman, Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary, and Ram Dass, among many others—have been brought together in one source. A checklist for voyagers and their guides as well as an extensive resource section make this a truly invaluable and definitive guide for everyone interested in psychedelics and their potential to make us wiser, smarter, healthier, more connected to the natural world, and more compassionate.

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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 :

Sci Fi Is Pretty in Pink

Title: Pretty Pink Planet

Author: Joy V. Smith
Book link: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/93615
Genre: Science fiction
ISBN: 978-1-4661-6807-7

Originally review by Vincent Miskell for Smashwords and Amazon

If you like your aliens exotic and your humans adventurous, then Pretty Pink Planet is for you. Lori’s mission as an agent of SOESFOL (Search Out and Establish Sentient Forms of Life) almost immediately puts her face to face with an assassin. She is seconds from death—with only the bizarre ocean life of the flamingo-pink planet to help. But can they?

 

Smith has an uncanny talent for portraying quirky aliens, who are both strange and familiar at the same time—or more precisely, the familiar turns suddenly eerie in this story. Lori’s alien companion and translator, Chiing, is both amusing and seriously mysterious. Warning: once you’ve read Pretty Pink Planet, you’ll want to continue the adventures with Lori and her alien companion Chiing in Hot Yellow Planet, which is also available for science fiction readers who are fascinated by intelligent alien life.

~!Submitted by Joy at http://pagadan.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 :

Sci-Fi/Romance Available as Free E-Book on Some Sites

Title: Surviving the Fog
Author: Stan Morris
Author's Web site: https://sites.google.com/site/stansfreeebooks/Home
Genre: Science Fiction, Romance
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Ecowitch
Where this review was published: smashwords.com https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/712
Publisher: Stan Morris
Reviewer's rating: four stars
Available at Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes
Reviewed by Sam Ecowitch, originally for smashwords.com
I was strangely taken by this book, despite it appearing like (and me kind of expecting) a post-apocalyptic/end of the world story when it really isn't. This follows the fortunes of a group of young teens as they try to survive following the appearance of a strange and deadly fog that has covered much of the planet (it can't go above a certain altitude) that has resulted in the 'disappearance' of the adults that run the camp. Ultimately this is a story of survival and of how, given the right leadership and tools, even the youngest can survive the most extreme situations. The writing was descriptive and engaging and created the right mix of tension, fear, hope and optimism to give credence to the work and the possibility that kids really could do this. But some of the more difficult situations and how they're resolved didn't quite sit right given what we know about the kids present. They not at a survival training or outdoor activity camp, it is in fact a sexual abstinence and education camp so the fact that every kid/teen present is able to use spears, bow and arrow, hunt etc to some extent does at times seems a little stretched at times (especially when taking on 'bad men'). However this does not detract from the story too much as Morris' writing makes it somehow okay, acceptable and strangely believable."


----- 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 :

How To Get Your Book Reviewed

How to Get Your Book Reviewed:

Sell More Books with Reviews, Testimonials and Endorsements

By Dana Lynn Smith
Web site: www.GetBookReviews.net
Book Marketing/Publishing/Authorship/Self-Publishing
ISBN: 0-9823804-0-2
5 Stars

Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson originally for Amazon

Note: I rarely review books on this blog myself. But, in this case, this book is so pertinent to the needs of the many, many participants on this blog--everyone from the authors to the publishers to the reviewers themselves--I thought I'd include it.

When I'm working with clients or answering questions for the readers of my HowToDoItFrugally book The Frugal Book Promoter: Second Edition: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher., reviews are always among the biggest concerns. Yes, there is book bigotry out there. Yes, it is a tough row. But it can be done.

Lots of how-to books for writers touch on the subject of getting reviews. But Dana Lynn Smith's new how-to is the most complete guide for getting reviews around. It's must for an author's e-cabinet of book promotion essentials! I hope each and every author finds Dana's book and reads up on the subject before his or her book is published.

It's never too late to get reviews but knowing about reviews early on will benefit books much more if an author has the essential information early on. It will put them in a better position to do it themselves or partner with their publisher.

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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 :

Goodreads/Amazon Reviewer Likes Adventure Book

It's Always Darkestby Steve Spencer
www.PaulDMallory.com
Action-adventure/thriller (self-published)
Available for both Kindle and Nook
http://amzn.to/qRX28j
http://bit.ly/o7iCl9

Reviewed by Julia Hughes (http://amzn.to/nQpfbn), originally for Amazon
This ebook appealed to me enormously. The author writes with authority and
deftness. I identified very easily with the main character Paul Mallory,
an easy going journalist content with his lot who enjoys old films and
collects trivia just to perplex a geeky work colleague. Paul is jogging
along in life doing well enough - when the mysterious and vaguely sinister
Bentley Cramer approaches him with an offer he can't refuse.

Quote: "He was large enough and round enough to join the solar system with
no questions asked. The cigar that protruded from the right side of his
mouth would have been a full day's work for the best torcedor in Havana,
and if he was worried about the stadium being a smoke-free location, he
gave no sign of it. Gave no sign, in fact, of ever being worried about
much of anything." Throughout the book, characters are sketched so
convincingly they step from the page and go home at night to their loved
ones.

Before Paul can say wtf? he finds himself working for the irrepressible
Bentley and in Russia reporting on a handball competition. But he soon
learns there's something very funny going on. Or at least it would be
funny, if people weren't getting murdered. Before long Paul is on the
trail of a psychopathic killer who would give Fredrick Forsyth's 'Jackal'
a run for his money.

Paul Mallory's point of view is written in the first person, which creates
an immediate bond. When the action moves elsewhere it is described in 3rd
person pov which I appreciated, as some scenes are as you would expect in
a hard hitting thriller such as this, violent.

This book worked for me on all levels. I liked the characters, enjoyed the
action scenes and locations and appreciated the author's knowledge of his
craft. Parts of the book made me smile at the sly humour the author allows
his main character to display from time to time. I felt as though I'd made
a new friend in Paul Mallory and I'm certain I won't be the only one by a
long shot to become a fan.

In case you're wondering, I have a little system in place when reviewing
indie authors. I know how hard it is to get the formatting, grammar etc
correct when you're editing your own work. So any indie ebook
automatically gains points when these are correct, in this book they are
impeccable. I then add points for storyline, originality and enjoyment.
This book scores all five points. If I'm reviewing a book which is
published by a 'house,' I automatically expect some of the money I've paid
to have been spent on an editor.

~Find more reviews by Julia Hughes on Goodreads.
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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 :

Award-Winning Author Reviews Killing the Cancer Beast

Killing the Cancer Beast
By Maria D.Georga
Genre: Nonfiction/Holistic Health
Available at www.lulu.com and Amazon

Mini Synopsis: The real story of a woman who was left with no hope after she was diagnosed with Cancer. An actual fight of her and her family with the only weapons which were left to them: love, strong will and a belief that God should have thought of an antidote before humans would.

Reviewed by Shirley Cheng, Award-Winning Author

Imagine that, during surgery, doctors unexpectedly discovered a
malignant tumor in the person closest to your heart. Would you give way
to bitter resentment, or would you look the cancer straight in the eye
and challenge a fight? Maria D. Georga chose the latter route and took
matters into her own hands when her mother Angela was diagnosed with
not only a very aggressive type of cancer but also at the worst stage.
"Killing the Cancer Beast" is the true story of Maria's journey of
helping win her mother's battle alongside her. Written in a
no-nonsense, easy-to-read style, this short book demonstrates that
nature's medicines not only cure the patient but the caregivers as
well. What are those natural ingredients? They come in both tangible
and intangible elements: God-gifted strength, determination, a positive
attitude, but more so a strong love for her mother, were the intangible
components that helped Maria cope during their difficult time. The
tangible medicines lie in the plants God abundantly supplies us, yet
many are ignorant of their values. For example, did you know that
Vitamin B17, apricot seeds, and intravenously injected Vitamin C can
have the same effects of chemotherapy without the adversity? And did
you know that millet contains all the essential amino acids required to
sustain our life?

"Killing the Cancer Beast" is not simply a
heartwarming story of a stranger, but it is more so a gentle guide that
can lead you and your loved ones to a better life. No, it does not
guarantee treatments nor is it a replacement to professional medical
advice, but it will open doors you may not otherwise open without
reading it. Life is a giant school with countless opportunities to
learn, but we can not learn everything from only one class--we need to
attend as many classes as we can in order to learn as much as possible,
and this book is just one of those many classes. Why not sign up for
this class to learn something new today that may help someone tomorrow?

Reviewer Shirley Cheng is a blind and physically disable multi award-winning author and motivational speaker. Learn more about her at www.ShirleyCheng.com. She is nine-time winner of the Parent to Paren Adding Wisdom award and advocate board member of World Positive Thinkers Club.

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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 :