Book Review: Girlchild

by: Tupelo Hassman

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Synopsis:
Rory Hendrix is the least likely of Girl Scouts. She hasn’t got a troop or even a badge to call her own. But she’s checked the Handbook out from the elementary school library so many times that her name fills all the lines on the card, and she pores over its surreal advice (Disposal of Outgrown Uniforms; The Right Use of Your Body; Finding Your Way When Lost) for tips to get off the Calle: that is, Calle de los Flores, the Reno trailer park where she lives with her mother, Jo, the sweet-faced, hard-luck bartender at the Truck Stop.

Rory’s been told she is “third generation in a line of apparent imbeciles, feeble-minded bastards surely on the road to whoredom.” But she’s determined to prove the County and her own family wrong. Brash, sassy, vulnerable, wise, and terrified, she struggles with her mother’s habit of trusting the wrong men, and the mixed blessing of being too smart for her own good. From diary entries, social worker’s reports, half-recalled memories, story problems, arrest records, family lore, Supreme Court opinions, and her grandmother’s letters, Rory crafts a devastating collage that shows us her world while she searches for the way out of it. Girlchild is a heart-stopping and original debut.

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The cover caught my eye. A trailer that looks like it would feel at home in my trailer park but set in the desserts of Nevada.

I started reading and it knocked me over to read a story that followed my own childhood eerily close. It didn't hide how common child sexual abuse is, but it didn't go into painful detail either. I think it was the perfect balance on such a difficult topic for so many (too many) women.

This story is not an easy read. It deals with those living in poverty for generations as their own counter-culture. I thought it was brilliant because so much of it range true. Especially how anyone from the government (including or and especially police) is not to be trusted.

How very hard people work just to get by. During a time when the stereotype of the welfare abusers is running rampant, we see that is stupid because even with welfare, life is hard and lean.

I thought this was such a sad read, and so well written I literally couldn't put it down. It's not going to be for everyone. The story is written almost like a diary, with the time-frame and memories jumping all over the place without a lot of hints about where you are currently at in Rory Dawn's life. But I absolutely loved it, the story was completely captivating.

Product Review: Writer's Café

Available for purchase from Writer's Café

First things first, I want to clarify my review of Jutoh the other day. I was crabby and it came out in my writing. They do NOT ignore their customers, and in fact I was given loads of support. Julian even walked me through how to split within the document, which takes away that complaint as well. And she said it doesn't import form Writer's Café because it's files are "non-linear" and it would be too difficult. However you can export your writing as a Open Office Document, which is one of the formats accepted.

Now to move on with Writer's Café. I adore this writing software. This is not the first one I have tried and I find it is far superior, especially for the inexperienced writer...which I am. There are journals for daily thoughts, notebook, writing prompts and daily tips. And the cream of the crop...Story Lines. This is a place to let your novel take flight.

On Story Line, you have different scenes which the software numbers but you can name. It is super easy to insert scenes, and starting a new one requires only the click of an icon that looks like a little note-card. Within the scene, you can enter a summary, the content (which has several formatting options), Annotations (where you can add notes), Properties (which has spots for links, tags, characters and Statistics), and the Report (which shows what your finished product looks like).

I've started a bit of a memoir using Story Line, with a different scene daily. I have ideas of starting a longer story as well. I love the writing prompts which are easily inserted into a journal and there is a timer to make sure you do your minimum writing for a day. As I said, perfect for the beginner.

I also see it's benefit if you are a more experienced author. Word is good for letters, but poor for book writing. It's a straight shot through, and as Julian said, this is non-linear. There are places for your notes, characters, stats and everything all in one place. You just have to click around to find everything you've captured for your novel. Once you are finished writing your Great American Novel (I've always wanted to use that!), it is easily exported as a text, html, or open document. file.

Now this I don't 100% understand, but they say you can run the software from a thumb drive, which makes it more portable. So you have the software and your story on there and you can take it with you to the library, work, etc and work on a few hundred words whenever you get a free moment. Plus it would be excellent for back-up if your computer took a dive.
Hey, this will be fun! If you have any questions about either software, post them in the comments section, an I will get you an answer.

Book Review: Breaking Through

by: Gillian Colbert

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Synopsis:
Olivia Buchanan is an erotica author who hasn't had sex in years and is suffering from a severe case of writer's block. Jason Buchanan is an artist with an eye for the sensual looking for his muse. When their paths cross, he knows he's got the key to unlocking Olivia's creative juices, the only question is can he convince her to let him try?

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Review written by Lilith

Olivia is a writer, but she doesn't like to talk about it because once she tells people that she writes erotica they shy away from her or look at her like she's a freak. Lately though, she's beginning to wonder if maybe she is in the wrong field because she has a wicked case of writer's block. She decides to take her happy doggy to the dog park, hoping the fresh air will help break her writer's block. What she find's there does way more than break her writer's block, it also helps her break down the wall she has built around her heart!

What can I say about this short novella except, OMG! This is an erotic novel (in case anyone hasn't figured out yet, I love reading these types of books) and it does not disappoint in the least! While this story is only 70-ish pages long the author gives plenty of background on the characters and MUCH detail when it comes to the sex scenes. I actually had to stop and catch my breath after reading one of the scenes. My hubby tells me, he can tell when I am reading a good scene because of all the "oh mys" that come out of my mouth.

I don't want to give away too much detail, but I will say this, RUN to get this book. You will not be disappointed. I cannot wait to read more by this author.

Product Review: Jutoh

Available for purchase at jutoh.com

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Jutoh does make it easy to import files, and they do accept a variety of file formats. However, they do not accept Word documents - you have to make it an open office document. They also do not accept the files from their sister software Writer's Cafe, which I think is silly. You own both software, why wouldn't you let them talk to each other???

It's very easy to create a cover. They have a variety of backgrounds that come with the software, but it's also easy to go in and use your own image. Marissa Dobson of Sizzling PR let me play with one of her books to fully test this software. She had a cover already so all I had to do was take out the author and title text boxes and upload her cover. (Thank you, Marissa!)

When you first start up, you enter a lot of information such as author, title, publisher, etc. It's not so bad, and when you are finished it does load it to the title page. What I find a pain is that it won't save that information. It took me about 6 tries to get Marissa's book to where I liked it and each time I had to reenter that information. And I thought, why not let us save this information? Chances are the same authors will have the same publishers and so on, so why not let us save that information by author name. It would save time. Although it does save the last name and date you used, so maybe they are gearing this toward individuals rather than small publishers.

I had the hardest time with the Table of Contents. When you import a file it gives you options on how to split the file up. But once you choose, you can't create nor remove any splits. I went with "chapter" split. And it worked fine until the Epilogue and the author bio. It completely ignored them and I still haven't figured out how to create that split. You can insert a page break but that's the same thing. If you do a page break and then go back to "show on Table of Contents" it thinks you are talking about that whole section...big pain! I had to change Epilogue to Chapter 8 and her author bio to Chapter 9. Then once it imported I was able to go change the names. It's a work around, but it shouldn't be that difficult.

It allows you to format text, change styles, and do a ton of other stuff I don't even understand. You can create an epub, mobipocket, text, open document, html, htb (I don't even know), mp3 (really???) and Smashwords OpenDocument. *update* MP3 says you have to install something else and do some format changes to get it to work. I wonder if that's something you can upload to get your kindle and nook to read to you. It's also easy to edit the document AND the section you are in. There are also lots of high tech options for all you tech savvy people.

The only thing I have to compare it to is Smashwords, and Jutoh kicks their butt. It wasn't bad to create a book, and in general I quite enjoyed it. But there are some places where I think they have ignored their customers.

Book Review: Giving it Up

by: Amber Lin

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Synopsis:
Allie prowls the club for a man who will use her hard and then ditch her. Hey, it's not rape if she wants it. Instead she finds Colin, who looks tough but treats her tenderly, despite her protests.

He tempts her, but kindness and a few mindblowing orgasms aren't enough to put her back together again. Allie has no hope for a real relationship. Two years ago her best friend betrayed her in the worst possible way – she’d be stupid to trust a man again. Besides, she has her daughter to think of, the only good thing to have come from that dark night.

But when her rapist returns, threatening her sanity and custody of her daughter, Allie turns to Colin. Under his protection and patient touch, Allie begins to heal and learns to hope. Colin’s no saint, though, and his criminal past draws danger of its own. Allie must fight to protect her child and the man she loves, hoping her newfound power will be enough to save them all.

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Review written by Lilith

Allison (a.k.a. Allie) is a girl on a mission. She wants to forget the terrible thing that happened to her in the past. The one thing, that while terrible, it also gave her a beautiful daughter. But it also destroyed her faith in men. Enter Colin, could he be the one to change Allie’s mind? Could he be the one to help her finally heal and move on?

This book is what I would call a thriller/erotica wanna-be. As a thriller, it kept me glued to the pages of my Nook. It was slow going at first, but once it took off I couldn’t put it down! I wanted to know what happened in Allie’s past. I wanted to know what the deal was with Colin. I wanted to know why his brother was the way he was. And more than anything, I wanted to know if Allie was ever going to be happy.

As erotica, it left me wanting. The sex scenes in the book were kind of bland. They seemed lacking. I understand why some of them were the way they were, but later in the book there should have been more feeling to them. It’s kind of hard to put into words exactly what was missing, but I just felt like the scenes weren’t all the way there.

This book is still a good read. And I would recommend it to anyone!