The New Book Review

Monday, December 17, 2012

What if the Normandy Invasion Had Failed?

On The Edge Of Twilight

By Aaron T Knight

ISBN-13: 978-1468005370
ISBN-10: 1468005375
Genre: WWII novel

NEWS BULLETIN: NORMANDY INVASION FAILS

The author was ten years old when America entered WWII and I remember the Home Front very well. The Nazis could have won the war if the Normandy invasion had failed because it would have provided the time to use the futuristic weapons in existence and ready to be used. Allied armies were ill equipped to defend against “push button” warfare as envisioned by the Nazis which was a prelude to weapons in use today. They were the pioneers of jet aircraft, rockets and it is estimated the atomic bomb was a mere two years away from being a reality.Two stories intertwine in the novel, there are the war events, and the personal challenges to be met by Major Canyon on the SHAEF staff in London. To my knowledge no one has ever explored the staggering implicatioms of a Nazi Germany with their entire array of super weapons at their disposal.

Review: R Van Holst

On the Edge of Twilight, by Aaron T. Knight, is hard to classify. It is part military documentary, part history, part adventure story and part romance novel.

The Allies are about to invade the beaches of Normandy. Major Mike Canyon, who has already seen action, is part of the team at SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force). It is his job to monitor incoming messages and train soldiers. help make sure the invasion goes smoothly. We follow Mike's adventures as he witnesses the invasion of Normandy, and the devastation of London. We also go with him to Greece and Norway, as he tries to frustrate Hitler's attempts to browbeat the Allies into submission.

But that is not all that's on his mind.

Life seemed to be going swimmingly for Mike. He has risen from lowly beginnings to marry a beautiful woman and enjoy a job which promised lots of opportunities for success. But recently he received devastating news of his wife's infidelity. With his marriage now wrecked beyond repair, he is cast adrift once again on the sea of love, and looks for somewhere to cast an anchor. On the one hand there is Rachel, a strong-minded yet sensuous woman who holds out a promise of passion. He also meets Barbara, an intelligent and independent Red Cross girl whom he comes to respect greatly. Which one of them will he choose?

Aaron Knight documents military strategies, tactical moves and political upheaval to portray for the reader with amazing detail the volatile time near the close of World War II. But he also gives us a cast of vividly drawn characters. There are heroes, villains, clowns, statesmen, opportunists, martyrs and ordinary folk. They are trying to wrest a victory from the jaws of defeat, and to find a bit of happiness amid the dangers and uncertainties of war.

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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 :

Sunday, December 16, 2012

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!

Friday, December 14, 2012

World of Ink Reviews Juvenile Fantasy Adventure

The Wishing Well: Another Weaver Tale

By Kai Strand
Publisher: Guardian Angel Publishing
ISBN Number(s):
Hardcover 978-1616333010
Softcover 978-1616333027
Publication Date: July 24, 2012
Genre of Book: Juvenile Fantasy Adventure

Reviewed by The World of Ink Network

The Wishing Well: Another Weaver Tale; Molly Minstrel is treated worse than Cinderella by her mom and sisters. When Molly meets the magical creature, Unwanted, she wishes her problems away. However, you must first understand what you need before knowing what to ask for. Molly will have to look within for the solution to her troubles.

Molly is a character with a lot of grace and dignity even under difficult circumstances. She holds tightly to the beauty in her life until she is able to figure out how to erase the ugly. The Wishing Well is set in the same lyrical village as Kai Strand's first novel, The Weaver, where everyone speaks in story. Poor misunderstood Unwanted is back to create more havoc, but The Wishing Well is a stand-along story and can be enjoyed without having read the first book in the series. Of course, Kai Strand hopes you'll want to read it afterward.

About the Author:

Kai Strand writes fiction for middle grade and young adult readers. Her debut novel, The Weaver, was a finalist in the 2012 EPIC eBook Awards. She is a (very lucky) wife and the mother of four amazing kids. The most common sound in her household is laughter. The second most common is, "Do your dishes!" She and her family hike, geocache, and canoe in beautiful Central Oregon, where they call home.

To find out more about Kai’s books, download companion documents, find links to her published short stories and discover all the places to find Kai both virtually and in person, visit her website: www.kaistrand.com. She loves to hear from readers, so feel free to send her an email or visit her facebook page https://www.facebook.com/KaiStrandAuthor

You can find out more about Kai Strand and her World of Ink Author/Book Tour at http://tinyurl.com/9vlepkd

To learn more about the World of Ink Tours visit http://worldofinknetwork.com

Free Last Minute Christmas Book Offer

Blooming Red
Subtitle: Christmas Poetry for the Rational
Coauthors: Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Genre: Poetry
Awards: Honored by Military Writers Society of America and USA Book News
Available on Amazon: http://amzn.to/BloomingRedKindle
Dates of Free Offer: Dec 14-18.
Artwork by Vicki Thomas
Website: http://howtodoitfrugally.com/poetry_books.htm

Multi award-winning poets Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball figure nothing is more meaningful at any holiday than a poem—a real poem, not sing-songy impersonal verse from the shelves of card shops. They also noticed that many folks remember many people they forgot when it may be too late.

Ta Da! We have are offering you our "rational" Christmas chapbook to procrastinators free. Enter the KDP Select free e-book feature. All you do is go to http://amzn.to/BloomingRedKind on Dec. 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 and click.

Anyone can send it free to anyone they'd like to have a thoughtful—and fast—Christmas gift with a click of a mouse (no not the same mouse that's in "The Night Before Christmas" poem!). The booklet Blooming Red: Christmas Poetry for the Rational was honored by the Military Writers Society of America and USA Book News award.

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

Blooming Red includes Maggie’s science-inspired and Carolyn’s nostalgic poetry. It also includes some humorous poems for fair measure.

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 5-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 ( http://budurl.com/CarolynsTracings ), was given the Award of Excellence by the Military Writers Society of America and She Wore Emerald Then won its highest honor of gold. 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 any of the chapbooks in the Celebration series, contact either of the authors, or visit media rooms at http://howtodoitfrugally.com or http://magdalenaball.com. To learn more about artist Vicki Thomas and to see her selections of her work, go to http://www.vickithomasartist.com .

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Please let your friends know about this offer. Support material available electronically or by post on request. Contact MaggieBall@CompulsiveReader.com.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Diane Wolf Brings Her SpunkOnAStick Experience to How-To Book

How to Publish and Promote Your Book Now
Subtitle: Publishing and Promoting Made Simple
By L. Diane Wolfe
ISBN: 9780982713952
Publisher: Dancing lemur Press, LLC
Genre: Nonfiction: How-To/Writing/Marketing/Publishing

How to Publish and Promote Your Book Now by L. Diane Wolfe delivers exactly what the subtitle promises, Publishing and Promoting Made Simple. The language, the interior design, and the choices made by the author all contribute to this basic book aimed at anyone considering publishing a book. She gives an unbiased take on the advantages and disadvantages of traditional publishing and self-publishing and publishing paths that combine the two.

She covers both traditional- and self-publishing, print and e-book setup, formatting, and distribution, finding your target audience, generating reviews and media interest, networking and developing an online presence, promotional materials and appearances. Most chapters are a bare (essential!) two to four pages. There is no clutter. It's the perfect book for those who want an overview to begin the decision-making process. And, it is important to note, Wolfe's advice comes from long experience as the author of Circle of Friends series and SpunkOnAStick entities, a speaker, and an inspirer.

Learn more about Wolfe and what she can do to help writing careers at http://spunkonastick.net.

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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 :

Sunday, December 9, 2012

BookPleasures Reviewer Calls Book for Writers "Must-Have"

Title: The Frugal Book Promoter

Author: Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Publisher: HowToDoItFrugally Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-146374329
USA Book News Best Book and Irwin Award

Reviewed by Conny Crisalli originally for BookPleasures.com

“Knowing the rules of promotion is like knowing the rules for writing. When you have mastered them, you have the confidence to break them when you need to,” Carolyn Howard-Johnson states in the introduction to her book, The Frugal Book Promoter – How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher.

This four hundred and sixteen page paperback book is authored by an award-winning writer of fiction and nonfiction, former publicist and marketing instructor whose valuable years of experience and in-depth knowledge saves the new author time and money when promoting and publicizing his or her work. In addition to free or inexpensive ways to stimulate awareness and support of a book, she gives details of websites, email addresses and contacts related to marketing and promotion along with a twenty-seven page appendix of samples and a fourteen page comprehensive index to aid and assist in the process.

Howard-Johnson walks one through the complicated, sometimes confusing and daunting environment of publicity and promotion by first subduing the fears and fine lines of plagiarism, lawsuits and self-doubt writers feel. She concentrates on three “Ps” of marketing: platform, publicity and public relations, correlating them to a train with platform chugging along as the caboose. She provides eighteen helpful publicity commandments and explains the value of branding and pitching.

There are step-by step instructions how to put together a successful media kit, down to what font and point to use and proper formatting it on a page. The meat of the book is its many resources to publicize printed materials that include standard channels such as speaking engagements, contests, conferences, trade shows/booths, book signings, radio/television, websites, blogging and social networking along with the more unused avenues of reading groups, catalogs and corporate sales.

The author tries to touch each facet of not only publicizing but gives details assembling folders for the media kit, how to use an ARC (advance reading copy) advantageously, what to take to a trade show and warns of some of the pitfalls of online promotion. With the plentiful references of emails and websites for further study, this book contains a multitude of useful information for the first time writer as well as the seasoned one who wants to expand their public presence further.

With no promotion stone unturned, this is a must-have book for the shelf of any writer, experienced or not. Like the author states, once you know the rules to promotion real well, you can break a few while climbing the marketing ladder even further.

~Conny Crisalli loves to read and review the books she reads. Find her reviews on her blog http://connywithay.wordpress.com, BookPleasures.com, and Amazon.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 :

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Victoria Shockley Reviews Solomon’s Sky by Peter Aleff

Solomon’s Sky

By Peter Aleff
Author's Website: http://phaistosgame.com/ISBN 0-9724646-3-8 for e-book
ISBN 0-9724646-4-6 for paperback
GENRE: History
Review originally published on the homepage for the novel, http://phaistosgame.com/Phaistos00titlepage.htm and was given 5 stars
Publisher: Recovered Science Press

Review by Victoria Shockley (www.linkedin.com/in/victoriashockley)

A fascinating solution to the mystery surrounding an ancient artifact

An engaging solution to the mystery surrounding an ancient artifact, Solomon's Sky presents the key to the riddle of the famous Phaistos Disk, an artifact that has baffled archaeologists and many others for over a century. The Disk, which dates back to the Bronze Age, was found on the southern coast of the Mediterranean island of Crete, and its markings have been interpreted in a number of different, sometimes comical ways. Most of its would-be decipherers believed that the symbols are a form of writing, typically in some rare form of Greek but also a long list of other languages such as Basque or Slavic. This led them to “read” the Disk variously as a calendar, a sacred hymn and kitchen recipe, a sex manual, or an astronomical document, and much more.

However, among all of the proposals for the meaning and purpose of this ancient object, historian and author Peter Aleff's idea makes the most sense: that its symbols are actually markings for an ancient game board. His interpretation is well-researched, as every source is cited with a link or page numbers to back up his claims, and there are numerous endnotes. The many photographs, maps, and other images provide visual aids that complement the information he's describing, which I found particularly helpful in understanding some of the more complex aspects of the story.

Although I enjoy mysteries and riddles, I wouldn't consider myself a history buff. However, the way Mr. Aleff explains the background behind the ancient Disk and the various translation efforts over the years immediately grabbed my attention and made me want to keep reading. His style is easy to follow, and his writing is clean and precise. I was able to easily recognize many of the historical references to places and ancient civilizations, and the ones I was unfamiliar with were readily accessible through Google searches. For this reason, I think Solomon's Sky can appeal not only to people enthusiastic about history and/or archaeology, but also to those like me who have only lightly delved into those fields. Mr. Aleff's slightly sarcastic humor is a pleasant surprise, given that the historical basis of the story may make one expect something much dryer.

Solomon's Sky is definitely an enjoyable book, and also very informative. Before reading it, I had been completely unaware of the existence of the Phaistos Disk or the mystery that has surrounded it ever since its discovery. I had never heard of the ancient game of Senet or the Snake Game, or even its modern descendant the Game of the Goose, (and of course, I had no idea of their parallels with the Disk). Learning about these ancient connections and mysteries in Solomon's Sky has opened a window to the past for me and reminded me how fascinating history can be.

About the author: Peter Aleff is an engineer, a researcher, a designer, a historian, and an author. He was born and raised in Germany and studied economics at the University of Basel in Switzerland. History had always been one of his hobbies, and he began to research the history and role of board games in antiquity. Several scholars had drawn attention to the rosette with eight leaves which appears on many ancient gameboards, and on boards of the same type usually in the same fields. He noticed the same rosette on the Phaistos Disk, and it occurred to him that this Disk might also be a gameboard. From this new perspective, he noticed parallels between the Disk and other board games and soon found the key to this interpretation, which is the story of Solomon’s Sky.

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