Letter Game

I just finished reading 'Sorcery and Cecilia ; or the Enchanted Chocolate
Pot' by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. It is a really cute and fun book anout two cousins corresponding through letters, in Victorian England. One is in London coming out to society while the other is at home. It has comedie, mystery and romance. Everything a young (or old) lady would love in a fun and easy read. My favorite part about this book, however is that it was written by the authors using the letter game.

Read the description here

I am now itching to get a game going myself. I thought about asking my husband but asking is for old people. So, I guess he will be getting a letter from someone mysterious one of these days. Just the thought makes me all giddy and giggly. Heeeheeeheeeheee

My first challenge will be to decide "who am I?" second will be "will there be dragons?"

I think I might go all out on this. Include pictures, drawings, aged paper. Ok ok...'nough talking. More doing.

*giggle giggle snort*

This is so exciting.

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Location:Kitchen

Cheating authors

I was 'followed' on twitter yesterday by an author. My excitement could barely be contained.
"OMGOMGOMG some writer digs my deplorable tweets, YAY!"
Then today a private message arrives in my inbox from this author, to download his lates book for free on amazon. Duuuude! How cool was that. I was so awesomely happy I whooped.
Then I clicked the link to the free book.
"Hey lookathat, he has 4 out of 5 stars out of several reviews for this title." I said to myself. Not bad, but I have learned to be dubious about amazon reviews. Usually I read the one to three star reviews firsts to get an idea of what the main complaint about a product is. This title had lots of five star and only a few one or three stars. When a product or a book has lots of five stars and then just a few one stars it...interests me. Statistics class ruined me in many ways, but mostly in that it tought me to look at weird spreads like these a little closer. Surprise, surprise, the few one star reviews I read were scathing. One reviewer mentioned that their previous review (of one star) had been deleted unexplicably.
The one star reviews for this book all had the same complaints: bad writing and bad character development.
After studying the bad/meh reviews, I looked at the five star reviews to make sure I wasn't being too biased. Most were several paragraphs in length, which to me is a good indicator of something dubious going on. Who bothers to write a five paragraph review for anything...I mean REALLY! It does happen, but paid for reviews tend to be very wordy and often sound more like an advertisement (or a summary of a plot) then a plain old "I HATE THIS THING", " OMG I LOVE THIS THING" or a "meh" review.
The best way to see what is going on with the five stars is to look at the reviewers history. The "see all my reviews" link next to a reviewers name, is a the best thing since popcorn. Click on it and you will see what that person has reviewed and what rating he/she tends to give. I had been hopefull that I was wrong about this author and he was an all around great guy with no ego issues whatsoever. Going through each of the five stars however bashed my hopes to pieces. The reviewers were either prolific five star givers or this was the only item they had ever reviewed. Not saying that a review cannot be legit when it is the only one made so far. Maybe the item was SO good that the reviewer felt compelled to write about how awesome it is. But when you see post after post where the reviewers have only reviewed this one specific item, it becomes suspect. My conclusion after doing this minor research is, that this author bought five star reviews for his book. Does that mean that his book is a piece of trash and shouldn't be bought? No, but it might make you think twice about wether or not you want to spend your money on it.

Authors paying for reviews make me exceptionally sad.
Every author throughout human history has had to rewrite and fail several times before getting any recognition. If you are unable to accept criticism and rejection, then maybe you should rethink writing as a career. We want people to read; trash books with fake reviews turn people away, and eventually you will run out of an audience willing to give you the time of day. Be brave and matue enough to take honest feedback. Use it as a lesson and learn from it, then go forth and write something epic.

(Edited 1/30/13)

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Location:Kitchen with tea

TADA

Trying to pick this blog up again. Just have to keep trying, hoping that this time it will stick. I MUST BLOG or so I have heard. To be relevant, to be hip and with it, to make sure people know who I am dammit! I must blog. But then again, that's just what I've heard.

Working in the library world, now a days you ain't nobody till yer blogging, tweeting, pinteresting, in short over-socializing. So, in the spirit of a true overachiever (not that I am one, but then I did say "in the spirit of") I will do all of the above....except maybe Pinterest...Pinterest is dumb. But you didn't hear that from me. Don't be surprised if I do succumb to peer pressure and end up pinteresting. I am not usually a follower...or a leader really...more like roaming around looking at butterflies and shiny...but in the interst of making myself look sparkly and cool on a resume, I must do what must be done.
So, Pinterest, be ready. I may be coming. Maybe.

Erhm, so yeah. Back yet again to share my knowledge and corny humor with whoever drops by. Lets hope it sticks this time.

UPDATE: It totally didn't.

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Location:My living room