Author: Lizbeth Page 5 of 6

Twilight, Dead Until Dark, Enthralled

By

On July 1, 2015

In Reviews

Three more reviews. Two negative, one neutral.
 
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (1 out of 5 stars, did not finish)*
 

 

Um… No. Not my kind of thing. I can see the appeal of the invisible girl winning over the hunk-who-doesn’t-date, but the writing style is poor and some of the relationship elements are rather disturbing. I tried to read it and could not finish it, so I passed it on. 

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (0 out of 5 stars, did not finish)*

 

Another no. I didn’t like the writing style at all, and when this happens I can’t get into the book. The narrative was juvenile and the heroes two-dimentional. I gave it a perfunctory read and passed it on to someone else.

Enthralled by Kayci Morgan (2 out of 5 stars)*


Pros: very easy to read. In its own way quite sweet.
Cons: Too short, therefore everything happening too easy and fast. Relies on well known ‘recipes’ of the vampire genre instead of actual development.

Good, clear writing for a free ebook. The writer shows promise. I would like to read something longer by her.

*My star rating and what it means: 
 
Zero stars: Why me?!?  I do come across books that aren’t really books, but brain damage in disguise. For reasons you can all understand, I won’t be publishing reviews on them. I tend to become enraged and say things I later on regret.
One star: Meh… I didn’t like it and won’t be keeping it. It might be the book, or it might be me. I’ll try to clarify in my review.
Two stars: Average/ Okay. Either the kind of light/ undemanding book you read and don’t remember in a month, or suffering from flaws that prevented it from realising its potential.
Three stars: Better than average. Good moments, memorable characters and/ or plot, maybe good sense of humour… Not to die for, but not feeling like you wasted your time and money either.
Four stars: Wow, that was good! Definitely keeping it and checking to see what else I can buy from the same writer.
Five stars: Oh. My. Goodness. The kind of book you buy as a gift to all your friends, praise to random strangers on the bus, and re-read until the pages fall out and the corners are no longer corners, but round.

 

 

Joseph Campbell

By

On June 2, 2015

In Reviews

A hundred times yes. Amazing scholar, amazing book. Read it if you like mythology explained and integrated in everyday, modern life. He knew what he was talking about.

“The modern hero, the modern individual who dares to heed the call and seek the mansion of that presence with whom it is our whole destiny to be atoned, cannot, indeed, must not, wait for his community to cast off its slough of pride, fear, rationalized avarice, and sanctified misunderstanding. ‘Live,’ Nietzsche said, ‘as though the day were here.’ It is not society that is to guide and save the creative hero, but precisely the reverse. And so every one of us shares the supreme ordeal––carries the cross of the redeemer––not in the bright moments of his tribe’s great victories, but in the silences of his personal despair.”
 
The concluding paragraph of Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero With A Thousand Faces”

The Sirens of Titan, Dreams of a Dark Warrior

By

On May 25, 2015

In Reviews

I am always wary of the classics. Most of the time I don’t like them. Here is a classic:

The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut (1 star out of 5)*
 
 
This is a good book that unfortunately lost me after the first 100 pages. Up to that point I had loved it to bits. I didn’t like the direction the plot took after the hero’s departure and didn’t care about any of the following events. The developments and the characters failed to keep my interest; the story didn’t ‘speak’ to me anymore. Also, the treatment of the characters made me feel very depressed.

I read it all the way to the end, hoping it would be salvaged, but it wasn’t. The language is very good and the author makes some excellent observations on human nature and religion. The book is also quite funny at parts. I guess it just didn’t do it for me.
 
 
Just as I am wary of the classics, I am also wary of the Paranormal Romance genre… Again, most of the time I don’t like books of that genre.
 
Kresley Cole: Dreams of a Dark Warrior (2 stars out of 5, did not finish)*
 
 
Interesting and funny at parts, but not really my cup of tea. Too wordy and fluffy for me. However, I am sure that paranormal romance fans will love it.
 
*My star rating and what it means: 
 
Zero stars: Why me?!?  I do come across books that aren’t really books, but brain damage in disguise. For reasons you can all understand, I won’t be publishing reviews on them. I tend to become enraged and say things I later on regret.
One star: Meh… I didn’t like it and won’t be keeping it. It might be the book, or it might be me. I’ll try to clarify in my review.
Two stars: Average/ Okay. Either the kind of light/ undemanding book you read and don’t remember in a month, or suffering from flaws that prevented it from realising its potential.
Three stars: Better than average. Good moments, memorable characters and/ or plot, maybe good sense of humour… Not to die for, but not feeling like you wasted your time and money either.
Four stars: Wow, that was good! Definitely keeping it and checking to see what else I can buy from the same writer.
Five stars: Oh. My. Goodness. The kind of book you buy as a gift to all your friends, praise to random strangers on the bus, and re-read until the pages fall out and the corners are no longer corners, but round.

The Left Hand of God

By

On May 18, 2015

In Reviews

So here is another review. 

The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman (2 out of 5 stars, did not finish)*

 
I loved the beginning of this book. As I read more, my enthusiasm lessened. Near the end, I was flipping through pages instead of actually reading it.

There are many issues that marred my enjoyment. Most of the good guys are just too decent and fatherly towards Cale, the hero, if we bear in mind their political positions and/or past. The women of the book are stereotypical and a bit clueless, or shrewd and heartless. Cale moves from tortured child to fully fledged messiah, and he’s too young to pull this off in a plausible manner. The writer also uses words and phrases that have no place in a medieval-ish kind of setting. As one unlikely event piled upon another, I lost that beautiful sense only fiction can give, the “yes, this could have happened!” state of mind. I could see that the writer loved his hero and wanted him to have everything he had been deprived of, and then some. This unfortunately is a recipe for disaster. You end up giving too much, too easy, too soon, and real life never works that way. This mentality works in the Young Adult genre, but I didn’t get the impression that this is such a book.

On a positive note, I loved the writer’s sense of humour, as well as the playfulness of his prose. There are incidents and phrases that had me laughing out loud. I wish he had devoted more time in making his world more realistic and his heroes more complex. Not a bad book in any case; entertaining, funny, fast-paced, gripping, hopeful for the human race. If not for the flaws in plot and character building I would have given it twice as many stars.
 
*My star rating and what it means: 
 
Zero stars: Why me?!?  I do come across books that aren’t really books, but brain damage in disguise. For reasons you can all understand, I won’t be publishing reviews on them. I tend to become enraged and say things I later on regret.
One star: Meh… I didn’t like it and won’t be keeping it. It might be the book, or it might be me. I’ll try to clarify in my review.
Two stars: Average/ Okay. Either the kind of light/ undemanding book you read and don’t remember in a month, or suffering from flaws that prevented it from realising its potential.
Three stars: Better than average. Good moments, memorable characters and/ or plot, maybe good sense of humour… Not to die for, but not feeling like you wasted your time and money either.
Four stars: Wow, that was good! Definitely keeping it and checking to see what else I can buy from the same writer.
Five stars: Oh. My. Goodness. The kind of book you buy as a gift to all your friends, praise to random strangers on the bus, and re-read until the pages fall out and the corners are no longer corners, but round.

Transmetropolitan

By

On May 11, 2015

In Reviews

I’ve decided to add a few reviews here. They will be short and express solely my point of view. The same reviews will appear or have appeared in my Goodreads account, which is this one:
 
 
The first review will be on Transmetropolitan series by Warren Ellis, which is one of my most favourite comic series ever. 🙂 So, a solid 5 out of 5 stars!*
 
 

I have no words to describe how good this one is. I consider it one of the treasures I have on my book shelves. A life-changer, page-turner of a comic series, filled with profanity, drugs, humour, the protagonist’s unusual sense of justice and the writer’s vision of the not-so-far future. Incredible, jaw-dropping visual art by Darick Robertston in all ten graphic novels that brings the characters and story to life. The series grabs you by the lapels and doesn’t let go until you find yourself at the other end of the universe, dazed and astounded. It never loses its frenetic pace. It’s outrageous, bizarre, amazing, preposterous, glorious, obnoxious, brilliant and brimming with entrails, excrement, explosions and journalistic badassery. I can’t praise it enough.

PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO READ IT if you are easily offended or too keen on politically correct; you just won’t get it. The writer shows no mercy to any form of hypocrisy or human right violation. He literally bulldozes his way through human relationships, political games, religious gurus and their followers, police brutality and victimisation of minorities. He’s not polite. He’s not pleasant. He’s not proper. But he’s spot on, and hilarious and obscene in a way that warms your insides.

If I could turn this series into a religion, I would.

*My star rating and what it means: 
 
Zero stars: Why me?!?  I do come across books that aren’t really books, but brain damage in disguise. For reasons you can all understand, I won’t be publishing reviews on them. I tend to become enraged and say things I later on regret.
One star: Meh… I didn’t like it and won’t be keeping it. It might be the book, or it might be me. I’ll try to clarify in my review.
Two stars: Average/ Okay. Either the kind of light/ undemanding book you read and don’t remember in a month, or suffering from flaws that prevented it from realising its potential.
Three stars: Better than average. Good moments, memorable characters and/ or plot, maybe good sense of humour… Not to die for, but not feeling like you wasted your time and money either.
Four stars: Wow, that was good! Definitely keeping it and checking to see what else I can buy from the same writer.
Five stars: Oh. My. Goodness. The kind of book you buy as a gift to all your friends, praise to random strangers on the bus, and re-read until the pages fall out and the corners are no longer corners, but round.

One of my oldest fans

By

On May 4, 2015

This was posted today on Facebook by a dear friend and old fan of my writing:



“I’ve started reading it. Good luck she said… After finishing it all I can say is thank you, as always my opinion remains the same. You should share your stories with the rest of the world cause good writers are not common anymore. Keep the magic alive.”

 I thank you. 🙂

Picture/ comment taken from here:

Procrastinating instead of writing

By

On May 2, 2015

Ahem… Because I have been busy and lazy, I got no editing done. But! According to my natal chart, here is my compatibility with…


Benedict Cumberbatch: 39.50%

*Prods it with a stick. Viciously. When she’s completely certain it’s dead, bursts into tears.* 

Ian Somerhalder: 50.51%

Um. Maybe it was a good idea he got married. 

Chris Hemsworth: 55.06%

Meh. Could be better. 

Carl Jung: 61.94%

Better. Not ideal, but certainly better. If he wasn’t dead, I would have given it a try. 

Alan Rickman: 70.71%

I love this man. I do. He’s one of my vices. And I have many, for my head is like a sieve. Multifaceted and air-conditioned. 

Bill Kaulitz: 88.45%

No, you didn’t see this. It was a mistake. I meant someone else from six years ago. I really did.

Marcus Aurelius: 89.82% 

My darling. We’re only some centuries apart, but love will conquer all.

Robert Downey Jr: 91.64%

It’s not hot in here. It’s definitely me. *fans herself*

Neil Gaiman: 99.40%   

No comment. Absolutely. No. Comment.

Keanu Reeves: 112.48%

What?! He was my teenage crush! I deserve to know!!!

 

Now that we covered the matter of my future boyfriend, someone is going back to editing, or she’ll have her butt kicked. Enough excitement for one night.

 

Here is the site these results come from, to have some fun yourselves.

Scroll down and go to Free Astrology (left bar as you scroll down), Astrology and Compatibility, Astrological Affinities: Celestar. Have fun! 🙂

Book giveaway happening NOW!

By

On April 19, 2015

Three signed copies of my physical book available! Are you going to be one of the lucky winners? All you have to do is be a member of Goodreads and enter this giveaway:

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/135418-the-theater-of-dusk

The giveaway runs until the 27th!  Good luck! 🙂

Credo

By

On April 18, 2015

In Uncategorized

“The truth is that life is hard and dangerous; that those who seek their own happiness do not find it; that those who are weak must suffer; that those who demand love will be disappointed; that those who are greedy will not be fed; that those who seek peace will find strife; that truth is only for the brave; that joy is only for those who do not fear to be alone; that life is only for the one who is not afraid to die.”

Joyce Cary


Picture source: http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=30350&picture=flower-on-the-book

Maniacal laughter and book formatting issues on Amazon

By

On March 29, 2015

Okay, here is some advice to all writers who publish or want to publish through Amazon.com, and can’t afford to pay a graphic designer for the book interior.

So, let’s say you are about to publish your book through Amazon’s kindle program. First of all, congratulations! It wasn’t an easy ride and believe me, I know it. Here is some advice I discovered through bitter experience, in the hope that you won’t have to go through the same. 

When you upload the book file to the Kindle Converter, download the converted file to your kindle and check it page by page BEFORE publishing it. Why? Because the online reviewer does not spot all issues. I did a very thorough checking of my book interior using the online converter and it seemed decent, so I published it. Yesterday that was the free promotion day I downloaded a copy out of curiosity. As soon as I started flipping through the pages I was horrified. All those pages the online reviewer had shown to be fine, weren’t so fine-looking on my kindle. The name was on one page, the title on another. The word ‘Dedication’ was changing place between the bottom of one page and the beginning of another one. The tabs in some of the stories had moved further inside the text. Those problems had been there all along and yet the online converter showed the text to be okay. Only after reviewing the text on my kindle page by page and re-uploading the corrected draft several times did I manage to get it right. There is nothing I can do about those copies with the wonky interior that have been downloaded already, and to be 100% honest, I am content with the fact there are no grammar mistakes or typos there (or at least I pray there aren’t). I hope readers can live with the fact there are some minor formatting issues, especially since we’re talking about something they downloaded for free. For those who are too picky with such matters, please cut me some slack and buy the paperback. They are no such problems there. 😉 (Nope, this isn’t shameless self-promotion, it’s an attempt to say something funny because I know some people WILL complain about it, so there.)

If you are a writer, here is what to do in order to download the converted interior of your book. After you have uploaded the book interior and it has been converted to kindle format, go to ‘Preview your Book’ section. Go to ‘Downloadable Previewer’ and choose ‘Download Book Preview File’. Then transfer it via USB to your device and read the file there just like you would do with any other ebook. If you spot any formatting mistakes, you need to make corrections to your original book interior file and re-upload it. Then download it and check it again. I’ve lost count of how many times I have done this. Good luck and patience. You’re going to need both.

If you are interested in self-publishing, here are some articles that can help you. They had helped me a lot when I started out. If you want my opinion, don’t feel sorry for money spent on an editor and a decent book cover. It makes a huge difference.

 


  
Mrs. KJ Charles also offers some VERY good and funny advice on writing:


I hope this helps! My (corrected) book is here: 

http://www.amazon.com/Lizbeth-Gabriel/e/B00HVCOFMY

Now that WAS shameless self-promotion. 😀 See the difference?

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