We View Reviews Wednesday

Yes, it's Wednesday again.  They seem to get here with much more frequency than I recall, but then every week is a blur. Not because time passes quickly, but because I have poor eyesight now.  *smile*  Enjoy the snippets and learn more about some talented authors and new sites to visit.

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 Donna Del Oro

"Born To Sing was an exciting read as well as being very romantic and sensual. I enjoyed learning about the mysterious world of grand opera and what it takes for truly gifted singers to become successful in such a world. I'm from Texas, so I especially enjoyed seeing a Tejana and an Anglo Texan hook up and face their challenges. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series."-- Gloria Goldsberry, Cushing, Texas.

 Award winning author of romantic comedy and romantic suspense BORN TO SING (a love story about professional singers) Available NOW at: DevineDestinies.com and at the Kindle store, Amazon.com Follow the series!  Coming soon: BORN TO SING IN LOS ANGELES Also available: OPERATION FAMILIA (romantic-suspense comedy);Amazon.com's #1 "Best Chica Lit Book of All Time";  award winner, "Latino Books into Movies Awards 2010";  HASTA LA VISTA, BABY (a romantic comedy about divorce and discovery!) http://www.devinedestinies.com,

  www.floricantopress.com,  Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com.

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Gianna Bruno

Whenever I look for a book to read, I try and find one that is original. It's too easy, these days, to find an author re-hashing the same old stories, with little change. I was nicely surprised when I read Gianna Bruno's book, The Journey.

The Journey is a paranormal erotic romance about a woman, Milena, who will go to any lengths to find her lover, Thomas, when he disappears. Milena, shunned by the Salem community for being a witch (they don't hang them anymore), travels far and wide, battling Circe and endures the wrath of escaped slaves. Gianna nicely weaves a stance on discrimination in the latter half of The Journey. 

The review is located here:  

http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Gianna-Bruno/product-reviews/1615722491/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

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Ginger Simpson (yep...me)

...Ms. Simpson introduces us to Callie and builds the suspense at a nice pace from the first bump of turbulence to the final confrontation between her eye-candy cowboy and the surly, swarthy gentleman. The aircraft is definitely in trouble and Callie is right in the middle of it.

I highly recommend this story as a great waiting room read—as long as you aren’t waiting for a flight. ;-)

You can read the entire review at:
http://rochellesreviews.blogspot.com/

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That's all for this week, so be sure and send me snippets, jpegs and urls where your reviews can be found so I can pass them along to my readers.  Hmmm, maybe I'm making a mistake here.  I want them to be loyal to me.  *lol*

Little Things That Annoy Me

Aside from all the nitpicks while reading, there are certain things that get under my skin when dealing with other folks.  Oh, I'm sure I have a myriad of habits that annoy the daylights out of some, but I'm going to pretend I'm perfect and just list a few of the habits I find most bothersome in others.

Can you Google?  I'm pretty sure you have a search engine block on your tool bar.  So why do you take the time to send an email to an entire group and ask for the url to something?  Can you spell L-A-Z-Y?  Either Google it yourself or go back through the loop and find the original message that provided the link.

Digest or individual email?  This is a conflicted status for some.  I'm digest on a lot of loops because I have a hard time keeping up with my incoming emails.  Yes, it's annoying when people don't trim their messages, but to me, it's something you have to contend with if you make that choice.  When I'm individual mail on a loop, I honestly NEVER remember to trim my messages, and I don't think it's fair of those on digest to expect everyone else to present your messages in a neat and tidy scroll.  I look at untrimmed messages as the toll for being on digest, and I really get tired of the chastising emails that take people to task when they don't trim.

Forwarding messages?  Here's a tip...we don't want to see every place in the world where the message has been.  Tidy up the post before you send it.  Take out all those email addresses.  It's so annoying to have to scroll through all the addresses that have received the forwarded message before it came to my inbox.  

Mass promoting or sending a special post to someone?  Do us a favor and use the "blind cc:" line to enter all the recipients.  No one likes to know  you're guilty of "drive-by posting" or see from the twenty-five other people you've sent your post to that we aren't as special to you as the email might suggest.

And last but not least...

Do you leave comments on blogs?  Chances are the blog owner will see them.  There is no reason to go back on the loop and leave a useless message like, "I commented."  Those two word messages in response to previous posts account for at least 1/4 of the messages received.  


Now, know I'm not pointing fingers because that points three right back at me, but if something I've griped about hits home, then think about it, then quit doing it.  *smile*

C'mon...what things annoy you?  Get under your skin? Share with me.

 

Blog Hop Thursday

The question(s) provided by Tracy Cooper-Posey our Yahoo chat guest this week (14th April)is:
What software and applications help you write your masterpieces?  What do you wish you could afford?  What do you regret buying?  And what ebook reader do you use?  Why/why not?

Wow, Tracy Cooper-Posey is a little nosy.  *I made a rhyme.*

I'm a word fan because that's what I learned when the University where I worked replaced word-perfect.  I especially like the track changes option when doing edits.  It makes things so much simpler for me.  


At this point, I don't need anything more.  I just purchased a new Dell computer that's faster than a speeding bullet, and I love my 24 inch monitor.  Was I supposed to be able to afford it?  Oops.  :)

Now that I have my Kindle, I guess I would have to say I regret spending money on a netbook.  I'm sure I'll find a use for it when I go camping or travel somewhere and need to take a computer along, but although I liked the ease of reading on it, it's much heavier than my Kindle, and if I get started you'll swear I'm being paid by Amazon to promote their e-reader.  I have always been a die-hard print fan, but the Kindle has changed that for me.  I carry it with me everywhere and read whenever I get a chance.  Love it, love it, love it.   


Don't think you're going to escape hearing about one of my books.  You asked which masterpieces I created with my software, so here's one of them:

The wagon carrying Odessa Clay and her father overturns, killing him.  Alone and scared in the middle of the desert, she faces finding her way to Phoenix and Aunt Susan. Food and water run out, and Odessa is near death when Zach Johnson finds her.  Squinting up into his tanned and handsome face, Dessie believes she’s died and gone to heaven.

Would-be-outlaw, Zach Johnson finds an unconscious woman alone in the middle of nowhere.  Where did she come from?  First glance: she appears young, but the curves beneath the dusty gingham say otherwise.  He didn’t plan to become someone’s hero, but how can he leave her stranded?

Will the promise of Odessa’s sweet lips lure Zach from the secret mission that has his gut twisted into a knot?  His father’s ranch isn’t the only thing at stake—now it’s his heart.

For more blog-hoppers, hop on over to 
http://tjbook-list.blogspot.com/2011/04/author-blog-hop-14april-what-software.html

We View Reviews Wednesday

Well, this idea was a bomb.  I received no reviews to share this week except one of my own.  So, I'm posting it here...a girl's gotta pimp her work wherever she can. *smile*

            Ms. Simpson shows the result of someone being teased for something that they have no control over. As someone that had been teased all her formative years, I too know how it feels and give kudos to Ms. Simpson for writing about this sensitive subject.

This review was done by Carol Langstroth from Mindfog Reviews, associated with
http://www.authormeetingplace.com

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This book took me on a wildly emotional ride as I rapidly turned the pages until I had consumed the entire book down to the final satisfying sentence. The story is told in a straight-forward, matter-of-fact way that, for me, makes Carrie’s internal angst all the more powerful and believable. I feel like I was there with her, surrounded by dingy gray walls and cold steel bars. The various character interactions are portrayed realistically. All have well-defined motivations, and it was quite easy for me to picture the on-going action like a movie in my head. Speaking of which, this story would make an awesome movie! Highly Recommended!   


Thanks to Laurie at:
http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookReviews/firstdegreeinnocentbygingersimpson.html

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Odessa is like walking straight into a nineteenth century western town and trying to survive. The descriptive words used to explain everything from the smells, to the heat, to the surrounding decorations, and so much more are vividly told through Ms. Simpson’s voice. This is a romance that has a sweet and slow cadence and leaves you watching as Zach and Odessa fight for each other and search for a way to survive life in general. I did find it slightly odd that Odessa came across as strong before she met Zach and then later in the story after Zach leaves for his job, Odessa seems to kind of just wilt as far as her bravery goes. Overall, this is a great western novel full of believability and enough action to keep you reading.

Thanks to Danielle from:
http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookReviews/odessabygingersimpson.html

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Ms. Simpson introduces us to Callie and builds the suspense at a nice pace from the first bump of turbulence to the final confrontation between her eye-candy cowboy and the surly, swarthy gentleman. The aircraft is definitely in trouble and Callie is right in the middle of it. I highly recommend this story as a great waiting room read—as long as you aren’t waiting for a flight. ;-)

Entire review found at:  http://rochellesreviews.blogspot.com/

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That's it for today.  Remember if you have a new review and want to share it with my readers, then send it to me with "We View Reviews Wednesday" in the subject. 

     

Loving Two Men

Can you really love two men at once?  Of course you can.  Love comes in different varieties and strengths.  I never understood when people who got divorced prefaced their leaving with, "I love you, but I'm not IN love with you."  I finally "got i"t  when I made a decision to leave a husband of thirty-two years.

He fathered two sons, supported us financially, and was faithful until Jack Daniels became a mistress with whom I couldn't compete.  That didn't erase my love for him, I simply moved on.  We remained friends over the past fifteen years, and a whole month never passed that he didn't call and remind me how beautiful I was and that I would always be the love of his life.  Well, I'll never hear those words again, because he died yesterday.

I cried until I had no more tears, then saved up some and cried some more.  I spent the day, sifting through forty years of memories, recalling the good times instead of the bad.  I'm very fortunate that my current husband met and liked Dale, and held me when I cried.  I'd lost a big chunk of me because since H.S. I haven't been without Dale in my life in some way or another.  We've worked together to help our kids, and there have been times when he helped me.  He always felt he owed me something, but he didn't.  He was a wonderful man, and since there is going to be no funeral or memorial, I honor his memory with today's blog: Dale Wayne Jones, born March 7, 1945 and passed from this world on April 9th, 2011.  I'd like also to dedicate the following song to him, remembering how looking at him made my heart hurt, I loved him so.