Sometimes there are risks to reading the Grand!
The Google Books Partner program recently began accepting new accounts. So I jumped on the chance to signup made a Google Play Books version of my books available for your reading pleasure!
Like all other editions of my books, these are available for free. Please feel free to grab a copy of The Portrait or The Grand and have a read!
You will find The Grand nestled atop a cliff overlooking a cursed valley and surrounded by foreboding mountains. At this ritzy French palatial-style hotel things can to go terribly wrong for some because this hotel does not cater exclusively to the rich and famous. Instead, the staff and rooms are here to accommodate a more selective clientele.
Even things that go bump in the night need a place to unwind.
The Grand is a collection of Gothic horror stories that focus a town prosecutor who accidentally discovers a series of grizzly case files. Individual stories incorporate supernatural themes based in the Roaring Twenties to create a rich historical, linguistic and cultural backdrop.
Centred on the Grand’s victims, each story brings a different perspective to the hotel, their staff and their esteemed guests. At the Grand it is always best to remember that even things that go bump in the night need a place to unwind.
The Portrait is a supernatural story about Victoria Frost, an author who develops an unhealthy obsession with her character. As events unfold, her obsessions begin to turn on her and forces Victoria to question her sanity. Is she simply slipping deeper into madness or are there other factors at play?
A vision from the past becomes a writer’s deadly obsession.
The Portrait features a mixture of contemporary and historical scenes with the latter revolving around her muse. In this novel, Victoria will revisit certain scenes using both prose and art to yield new pieces of the puzzle with every pass.
Well I think I found a trend for my reviews on Amazon.
“I was a bit put off by the use of italics for slang words, but understood that it was to emphasise that the word was slang for the roaring twenties.”
–and–
“I couldn’t get past the first few pages because of all the random words that were unnecessarily italicized. Really drew me out of he story and made it impossible to read.”
I got the hint. Just had all of those italicized words removed from my manuscript and uploaded a new version to Amazon, Smashwords, and Draft2Digital. Fortunately Microsoft Word made that operation fairly painless!
I occasionally check Amazon, Smashwords, and Goodreads for new ratings and statistics, although I do avoid making it a habit. Yesterday, I was looking on Amazon and noticed that my rankings had improved. How? I have no clue, but its never been better!
There was also a positive review waiting for me, which is always nice. Perhaps I am generating some interest? Not bad since I cannot spend much time advertising my work.
This should help offset the bad review I got a month or so back. Perhaps in time the positives will outweigh the negatives!
Got my first review on Amazon today. Normally I’d be excited, but it came in at two stars. By itself that may not be a bad thing, however it speaks exclusively as to not liking how I italicize words that are slang from the period.
It is their opinion and they do say they don’t know of the book is good. Still, would have been nice to see a positive review first! Oh well.
A visual comparison between revisions for the Man and the Sea, a chapter for the Grand. This particular video demonstrates how the Spiral Development method can apply to the review process of a novel; namely how chapters are refined over time.
This is a follow to my Comparing the Grand’s Revisions post, which goes into why and how this particular chapter was selected for comparison. This video also demonstrates how the amount of changes gradually recede to leave behind a coherent manuscript and that is something any author wants to see!
This video is a composite comparison of 12 chapters in all. While there are 14 versions of the chapters, some had no changes to bring forward so there was nothing gained by showing them. For those curious, the above image below denotes the total changes between Revision 2 and Revision 14.