Don’t forget that Books & Authors is at Leon & Lulu today, starting at 11am! Sadly, I won’t be there as an author…a health scare a month or so ago put a major dent in my plans and has pushed back publication of Sub Rosa…but I hope you’ll come out to support local Michigan authors!
If you can’t, please share with your friends! All proceeds go to the Oakland Literacy Council. And if you’ve never been to Leon & Lulu…oh boy, are you missing out! I don’t call it my favorite store in Metro Detroit for nothing!
Quick side note about Strikes and Charms…THANK YOU for all your notes of support, I’m super-excited to bring you the first review this week! I hope you’ll find it helpful, keep your eyes peeled for the first post!
So excited to bring this news to you! As you probably know from previous posts, I’m also a film critic for FilmObsession.com. It’s a beautiful fit because not only do I love movies, I love writing reviews as well, of any kind! Goodreads reviews, Amazon reviews, Yelp! reviews, product reviews, you name it.
It seemed logical to me that the next step would be to review tools that are specifically (or by happy accident) useful for authors and writing. Over the past few months, I’ve been accumulating and organizing lists of different apps, programs, sites and books that are particularly useful for authors. Some are absolutely amazing and I can’t wait to share them with you, some are duds that I can’t recommend. To best share all the features and to supplement the review itself, each review will have an accompanying YouTube video, walk-throughs, my thoughts, lists of pros and cons, and then a final “score.”
I’ve named this new feature Strikes and Charms…why? Well there are “three strikes and you’re out,” as well as “third time’s a charm,” and I love that symmetry. At the end of a review, a “Struck Out” rating will indicate that I don’t recommend it, a “Charmed” designation will mean that I do.
It goes without saying, but all opinions will be my own. I have already purchased some of the books and applications with my own money, but should a developer/author offer me a free version for review, it will in no way affect my review and final recommendation. In the interest of transparency (and following the law), I will absolutely disclose if the item was provided to me for free, or if I paid for it myself.
I’m already finalizing the first review, but I would absolutely encourage you to let me know if there are any products that you would like for me to take on! They can be apps, desktop programs (disclaimer: although I have an iPhone and iPad, I have a Windows computer and as of yet will not be able to review an Apple-only computer program), books…basically anything that falls under the category of Tools for Writers!
I hope that you’re as excited about this new endeavor as I am! If you have a suggestion for a review (with or without a specific product) or just want to see what I’m up to (including sneak peeks at what I’m reviewing), you can leave a comment here, or shoot me a message:
Instagram: StrikesnCharms Snapchat: StrikesnCharms Twitter: @StrikesnCharms OR @Twintypebooks E-mail: twintypebooks@gmail.com
So let me know what you think, and if you have a specific review you’d like to see (“Scrivener!”) or just a general idea but not sure what’s out there (“Is there anything that helps capture those plot bunnies that hop away if I don’t catch them right away?”). I would also be truly grateful if you happened to spread the news by Retweeting or Sharing via social media. If you are a developer/author/creator and would like to submit your product for review, please e-mail me directly.
I can’t wait to hear your thoughts, have a wonderful day!!!
First and foremost, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! The clean slate of a new year is always intoxicating to me, and although I don’t formally “do” New Year Resolutions, I actually do have some goals that I’ve been thinking about, planning for, and some I’ve actually already started!
Although I know that more goals will come along with the coming days, here are the ones I’m starting off with!
Utilize Bublish on a regular basis, I’ve had an account forever but haven’t done anything with it
Try #3 with Scrivener…I tried it a while back then stopped using it (something I blogged about), I’ve got Sub Rosa in it already so now I’m in the middle of going through the handy online tutorials and YouTube reviews
Complete and share more writing-related product reviews (especially apps!)
Share the deets of our TTB Book Club with YOU! Because we want YOU!
Start sharing another aspect of my writing life with you…I’m a film critic for Film Obsession and it’s definitely a different world from fiction writing!
Give the website a nice fresh facelift!
I think that’s a good start for now! Do you have any writing resolutions that you want to share? Or have you tried any of the things I’ve listed above?
Remember in my last post I mentioned I had a couple of pieces of good news I was waiting to share? Well I’m super-psyched to share the first one with you…thanks to a dear friend, MontiLee Stormer, I’ve been given the chance to spread my writing wings (fingers?) a little wider and be a content provider for Film Obsession. This means I get see new movies…before they’re officially released…and write reviews on them.
Let me repeat that…they want me to watch lots of movies…and write about them.
I don’t think I need to spell out my reaction or how loud I screamed or how fast I typed YES PLEASE THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! Movies and writing, two of my favorite things in the entire world!
Please head over and check out the site…I was actually already a fan well before this happened because it’s chock-full of honest reviews, news, giveaways(!!!), and all-around awesome good stuff. And *deep breath* my first official review is live too, you can see what I thought about Nerve.
I won’t be cross-posting all my future movie reviews here, but if you follow TTB’s Twitter or my own personal Twitter, I’ll be Tweeting when one is posted. When (I refuse to say if) a movie is made based on a book by one of us hard-working indie writers, that review will absolutely be posted here because DUH!
I’m thinking the second piece of good news will be posted here this weekend. Talk to you soon!!!
-Kate
P.S. – I’m having some fun with Snapchat too, feel free to add me as a friend, my username is strikesncharms!
Don’t you hate it when bloggers start off by apologizing for not writing and end up writing more about that than about the real reason they finally cracked open ye olde blogging software again? Me too! I actually have two pieces of good news that I can’t wait to share with you, but I have to finish one, and there’s a reason I’m waiting a couple of days before I share the other one (hints: no, Sub Rosa the book isn’t complete and no I’m not pregnant or gave birth, so there).
I have been reading like a fiend, though…I’ve always been an incredibly fast reader and due to some health issues I’ve found myself on bedrest more often than I’d like recently. Rather than write a review for each one, I’m going to take the lazy route and screenshot my most recent reads below, along with the star rating, then I’ll tell you what I’m currently reading.
So first, what I’ve recently finished:
Of these, I’d recommend Harry’s Rules for the most entertaining (although Down the Rabbit Holewas a close second, disqualified because I couldn’t determine if it was really an autobiography or some kind of freaky hallucinogenic dim rambling), and then Light of the Fireflies as my favorite overall, although it’s the kind of mindfreak that makes my husband ask “Why do you read this stuff??”
Currently I’m reading Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid and although I’m only 31% through, I’m really enjoying it so far. Plus it’s currently FREE for Kindle, so dash over there and download that bad boy!
If you’d like to shoot me a friend request on Goodreads, please do! I normally write a lot more reviews than I have been lately…plus a lot more writing in general is in my future. That’s the biggest hint you’re going to get from me right now, but keep your eyes peeled over the next couple of days!
Ooooooeee it’s dusty in here!!! I promise we didn’t intend to neglect the blog for so long, but my only excuse is this…I think of the last week or two of November as the beginning clickity-clack uphill climb of a roller coaster. Thanksgiving is like the pause at the top of the hill, and then WHOOSH it’s all a crazy fast exhilarating rush to Christmas! Parties, shopping, wrapping gifts, decorating…it eats up all your time in a glorious wonderful holiday glow!
Yes, I love Christmas, it’s my favorite holiday! Can you tell??
As our holiday gift to you (although it’s more of an any-day gift), Britt and I are tickled pink to announce that we’ve busily co-signed and stocked up on BOOKPLATES! Do you have a hard copy of Pistils that you’d love to have signed by both of us? Just drop us an e-mail at twintypebooks@gmail.com with BOOKPLATE as the subject and pretty please include the following:
1) Mailing address (within the U.S. only for right now)
2) Who you’d like the bookplate personalized for (yourself or a giftee)
3) How you’d like it personalized, e.g. “To Mary from her book-obsessed niece, Jane”…or we can surprise you with something fun!
And where do you pay? Well there’s the best part…YOU DON’T!!!! As a genuine heartfelt THANK YOU from us to you, we’re truly pleased to offer these personalized and signed bookplates FOR FREE to carefully place inside your Pistils paperback. See the bottom of the post for more details.* Additionally, HELLO and WELCOME to all our new followers (and a big squeeze to all our loyal ones, of course)! Feel free to let us know in the comments how you came upon our humble online home!
And finally, are you buying a book-related holiday gift this season? I am…a set of Little House on the Prairie books for one of my nieces who I’m convinced will fall in love with them just as much as I did years ago! If you’re gifting someone with a book or books, let us know, we love to hear what others will be unwrapping in the coming weeks!
Talk to you soon!
Kate
*Free bookplate details: YES, THEY’RE FREE! We promise, no cost or shipping fees! We just ask that you please agree to the following…kindly limit the number of bookplates you request to the number that will actually be matched into books. Orders of five or more may get a side-eye. Well, except for Amanda (she knows who she is). To keep costs realistic and bookplates FREE for all fans, they will be shipped in a standard business envelope via First Class Mail, and we can’t guarantee delivery dates (e.g. Christmas). We’ll mail them out as they’re requested.
To protect your privacy, the mailing address you e-mail us will NOT be used for any other purposes, and your e-mail will be permanently deleted after your bookplate is mailed out.
If you have a special request (e.g. upgraded shipping or even the book hard-copy personalized by both Britt and Kate, gift-wrapped and mailed to the recipient), shoot us an e-mail with your request, and we’ll honestly reply with a price estimate.
FINALLY it’s time to spill the beans about the BIG NEWS we’ve hinted at over the last couple of posts!
Live in Metro Detroit? Have friends or family there, or could maybe drive yourself to Metro Detroit? Listen up!
Leon and Lulu (aka “the best place to find THE PERFECT GIFT for that person who is impossible to buy for”) is having their Books & Authors event Sunday the 26th, and Twintype Books is going to be there!!!!
You can find out more info here, Kate will be there in person with hard copies of Pistils, and Britt will be there in spirit…AND MORE! Want to find out how Britt and Kate can sign books together despite the miles separating them? Well, we’re clever that way, come check it out and see!
Can’t come in person? Here’s your FURTHER incentive to help regardless…the event benefits the Oakland Literacy Council! So pretty pretty please share this news via Twitter, Facebook, etc…local authors + great cause + great store = automatic win!!!
At this annual October event, 30 local authors share and sell their books to promote a Michigan literacy non-profit organization. In 2014, the event will benefit the Oakland Literacy Council which has provided over 527,000 hours of tutoring to over 12,000 adult learners in Oakland County since it began in 1984. Ten percent of proceeds from the day’s event will benefit the OLC, as well as 100% of tips.
Come out to say hi and support an awesome local cause! 11am-5pm, Leon and Lulu is (basically) at the northwest corner of Main/Livernois and 14 Mile in Clawson, MI, there’s plenty of parking and lots of fun local shops and restaurants!!!SUSHI!!!! nearby. Hope to see you there!!!!
Sooooo…I thought that would be a clever blog post title, considering the content and also since I love oldies…until I put the song on in the background and remembered how depressing a cheerful song can be. Well…at least I didn’t bust out with any Gary Puckett! *shudderbarf*
Bits & Pieces #2: Dixie Minor, we got your Social Media Tag, and will be pouncing on it ASAP…quite possibly with snippets/hints from the next book!
Bits & Pieces #3: METRO DETROIT PEEPS! Big big news coming in the next couple of days…yes, the same news I hinted about previously. Including FREE STUFF FOR EVERYONE EVERYWHERE! Because who doesn’t like FREE STUFF?
Bits & Pieces #4: If you know Kate and/or Britt in real life, we’ll FINALLY have in our possession a pile of paperbacks in case you’ve been patiently waiting to buy one from us instead of Amazon.
Bits & Pieces #5: And getting back to FREE STUFF…reading Pistils through the Kindle Lending Library will be ending this month. Don’t forget to go borrow if you’d like a chance to read it as part of your Amazon Prime/Unlimited membership!
So the other day as I was on one of my “Oh my God life is good I CAN’T STOP WRITING” binges, I had an epiphany. Apparently I was the last to have it, because Vivian (yes, the fictional character) was standing behind me and gave me a good head-smack for being so slow to pick up on it.
Vivian isn’t going to be a novella. It’s going to be a novel.
In my excitement I tweeted about it (props to Drea for giving me a RIGHT ON GURL!), then I started wrapping my brain around it.
Originally, Vivian was truly just meant to be a novella, a sort of “Hmm, Vivian’s backstory is interesting and mysterious, how about a little more detail?” Yet the more I wrote, the richer it became. I’m a very organic-style writer…I do start with a purpose and goal in mind, but I let the story and the characters take me for the ride. I’ve gone off on tangents that I’ve never considered before. I’ve had to fact-check my original source material (Pistils, duh) to make sure I didn’t stray too far from the path. And I finally came to the realization that I’d have to hack out material that genuinely needed to stay to make this an official “novella.”
So what does this mean? I’m still writing like a house on fire, Britt is cheering me on every single day, multiple times a day, and we’re already sharing the brain about specific scenes from the “official” Pistils sequel. Did I mention we already have a name for it, and we’re practically having to glue our mouths shut to keep from sharing too much, because we love it that much? One book at a time, my friends, one book at a time.
In more upcoming news: a giveaway (and being that it’s US, you know we’re going to make it fun, not just something run-of-the-mill that involves selling your friends’ souls e-mail addresses) and maybe something I’m too scared I might jinx (heh, get it? Jinx? Readers of the book, get it? Jinx? Bueller?) if I say anything about it. But we’ll keep you posted!
In the meantime, THANK YOU to everyone who continues to support us and cheer us on! We’ve been picked up by at least one book club (that we know of, let us know!!!) and we’ve gotten great positive feedback from the “Oooh baby check us out” campaign. We said this back in fanficlandia and we’ll keep screaming it here…we are blessed with some of the greatest readers any authors can ask for. You rock our world!
-Kate
Mmmmmm…Michael Madsen…I am not ashamed of that celeb-crush!
Some quick news…Twintype Books has a Facebook fan page now! Won’t you pretty please come on over and Like us? As with our Twitter, we promise not to spam…instead you’ll get a notification when there’s a new blog post, and we’ll be putting up pictures and other fun random stuff there too. It’s a great way to interact with us (we especially love book recommendations, comments, and pictures from YOU!) if you don’t use Twitter.
Next up…so the last two books I finished reading ended with a *dun dun dun* dreaded cliffhanger. Obviously cliffhangers are nothing new in books…my personal favorite is the “Nancy Drew cliffhanger.” You know what I’m talking about (the original series was especially notorious for these)…the chapter ends with something along the lines of “Nancy was just reaching for the attic door handle when suddenly an icy hand gripped her shoulder and the room plunged into darkness!”
Of course the very first sentence of the next chapter reassured you with a “Nancy whirled around, only to see Ned Nickerson standing there with a concerned look on his face.” Every. Single. Chapter. Some manufactured drama to end with a “thrilling” note, only to immediately resolve it and move on with the sleuthing. At times I thought that Carolyn Keane just didn’t know how to end a chapter. As I grew older, I discovered that Michael Crichton was bad about this too.
Now I know that there’s nothing new under the sun, but I’m sure most of you will agree with me that ending a book on a manufactured cliffhanger has gotten out of control recently. You know what I’m referring to. The book ends in a way that is a blatant ploy to get you to buy the next one.
I’m not referring to books that can and do stand alone, yet end in a way that leaves you satisfied and eagerly anticipating the next one. I read Marcus Sakey’s A Better World specifically because of how Brilliance ended. That is doing a cliffhanger right. The story was told in its entirety…but the next book provided another story in the same world, with the same characters. Each book can stand on its own.
Doing a book cliffhanger wrong is, at its heart, a blatant money-grab. There are some books that literally end mid-scene, sometimes even mid-dialogue (and in romance/erotica, often just as the manly lover smirks and approaches the heroine with wicked intent). They are designed to make you thank the Amazon Gods for One Click Purchase, but unfortunately for the authors who employ this dubious tactic, it seems to be backfiring. If I finish a book convinced that either a) my Kindle didn’t download the entire thing or b) the “series” is actually just one book arbitrarily chopped into parts to maximize earning potential, they will not get another purchase from me. They will get an “Oh look, a cliffhanger” tag on Goodreads and definitely a warning to potential readers in the review. Judging by what I’m seeing in other reviews, I’m not the only one who feels this way.
Lest I sound like a complete and utter bitch about books whose titles INCLUDE something like “The McHotty Billionaire Bad Boy Series, Book #1,” I think it’s tragic that some extremely talented authors (and some who aren’t) are shooting themselves in the foot by alienating readers in such a way. I’m to the point now that when I’m on the fence about purchasing a book, if any of the reviews mention “Yes, it ends on a cliffhanger,” I will almost always skip it. If the cliffhanger is SO cliffhanger-y that it merits mention in the reviews, I’m going to choose not to be manipulated by the author into spending more money to read a complete story arc.
And that, to me, is The Thing. You should want to read another book by the same author that includes or expands on the same world and the same characters. They should have done such a good job telling a solid complete story that you pounce on the opportunity to see them do it again. You should not be gritting your teeth and buying the sequel because you’ve already invested time, money, and your heart in the first part, and you’re going to see it through to the end dammit!
What are your thoughts? Do you think this trend is out of control? What are some of your favorite examples of a cliffhanger done right?
So excited to bring this news to you! As you probably know from previous posts, I’m also a film critic for 
