ebooks – Page 33 – Rosepoint Publishing

#ThrowbackThursday – Moon Signs by Helen Haught Fanick

#throwbackthursday-winter

Renee began the #ThrowbackThursday meme on her blog, “It’s Book Talk“ to share some of her old favorites as well as sharing books published over a year ago. I’ve gathered up some old reads and reviews from Goodreads to share with you–a good book never gets old. Hopefully, you’ll find either a story or author that interests you and you’ll check them out. And, if you’d like to join the fun, you’re welcome to use Renee’s pic from her website. Just provide the link back to her please).

This week I am highlighting Helen Haught Fanick, another terrific, prolific author who wrote Moon Signs (Moon Mystery #1), which I reviewed on Goodreads. This novel was published on October 6, 2011 and now has five in the series with a new one to be added this year. She consistently runs approximately 4-5 stars for any of her books sold on Amazon.

Originally posted July 2, 2015

Book Blurb:

Retirement is a time for knitting, gardening, and an occasional quiet lunch with friends, according to Kathleen Williamson. Her sister Andrea has an altogether different point of view. When the sisters go to the Canaan Valley to search for paintings mentioned in a document found in an old hotel once owned by their grandparents—paintings that might be Monets—Andrea immediately becomes involved in tracking down a murderer. Kathleen would much rather be looking for the paintings, but she goes along with Andrea, since the victim was their hotel-keeper, murdered just down the hall from their room. The question is: Does the murder have something to do with the elusive paintings?

There are many clues and many suspects, including hotel staff, valley residents, and the mysterious foreigners who come from the Eastern Seaboard for skiing. There are also many types of danger—icy roads, sub-zero temperatures, and a killer who doesn’t care how many people die in the attempt to make sure the right ones do.

My Review:

Taking a short break from their retirement, two sisters (a widow and never married school teacher) go on a search for possible Monet paintings acquired by their grandparents who owned and decorated a West Virginia ski resort hotel. Their niece works out of the lodge as a ski instructor and is in love with the male co-owner whose recalcitrant “sister” is found in unfortunate circumstances very early into the plot.

I enjoyed several aspects of the book in that the protagonists were intelligent, mature senior women, Kathleen (the narrator) being the widow with a slightly dependent affinity while her take charge, level-headed former school teacher sibling, Andrea, charges full steam into the mystery leaving the discovery of the Monet paintings one of the sub-themes. She is definitely on the nosy side. Also enjoyed was the interaction of the sisters–found to be pretty plausible. There is a second fatality, but we are spared the gory details as well as the mushy romance between the niece and her struggling lover.

They eventually fit in the painting search, discuss whether or not the moon position had anything to do with the doin’s, and include a moody teenager among the characters. Leveled for a senior sensibility, interesting deviation from the usual testosterone driven, four-letter mentality, it’s a cozy mystery and although well-plotted tends to take it slow and easy. I downloaded the free ebook from BookBub and liked it. Would recommend to those who enjoy a mystery with a different but trending, emerging protagonist focus.

About the Author:

Helen Haught Fanick - author Helen Haught Fanick is a member of a family of writers. Her mother was the author of many children’s stories and articles. A brother is a well-known newspaper editor who has won more than twenty national awards. Another brother writes short stories, and his wife is the author of a memoir. And even closer to home, her son, Ben Rehder, is the author of two popular series–the Blanco County Mysteries and the Roy Ballard Mysteries.

Helen is currently working on the sixth novel in her Moon Mystery Series. These books are set in West Virginia, Helen’s home state, and the novel in progress takes place in the beautiful Canaan Valley. Watch for Blue Moon, Black Heart in 2019. And if you’re not familiar with the Moon Mysteries, check out Moon Signs–it’s free for Kindle.

You can reach Helen through her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Author

More Throwback Thursday Blogs

Renee at Its Book Talk

Jill at Jill’s Book Cafe

Rebecca at The Book Whisperer

Lynne at Fictionophile

Sam at Clues and Reviews

Holly B at Dressedtoread

Deanna at DeesRadReads and Reviews

Amanda at Literary Weaponry

Annie at The Misstery

Mischenko at Read Rant Rock and Roll

Laurie at Cozy Nook Books

Ann Marie at LItWitWineDine

Susan at Susan Loves Books

Cathy at What Cathy Read Next

Cathy at Between the Lines

Amy at Novel Gossip

Diana at A Haven for Booklovers

The Perfect Friend – a #BookReview

Title: The Perfect Friend by Barbara Copperthwaite

Genre: Currently #185 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Kindle eBooks, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Suspense, Psychological

Publisher: Bookouture

Publication Date: July 5, 2018, Happy Release Day!

Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title and Cover: The Perfect Friend – Not a real fan of the (yellow) cover

“…Still, I’m trying to decide how much truth to tell. This started as little white lies…”

Barbara Copperthwaite is a master of the psychological thriller model. The problem is, if you are like most people, you take on face value what you are told, and the narration is so simple, so natural, you don’t suspect anything is awry. But you’ve been set up immediately with a narrator who tells you up front she is a liar. Continue reading “The Perfect Friend – a #BookReview”

Not Your Grandma’s Library Anymore!

Lake Co Public Library-Merrillville — **Sunday Afternoon at the Lake County Public Library – Merrillville**

OMG, have you been to a library lately? What is this nonsense about reading being dead? Libraries are huge, newer, and offer SO many services these days; they are way beyond a normal repository for books. I’ve always enjoyed using libraries, but a quick trip to my local neighborhood depository discovered it’s no simple store of books anymore.

Beyond books of information and education–a storage of knowledge–libraries now have information specialists. Find the answer to any question–but not necessarily in books. Now the world wide web is at your service with internet access provided. Continue reading “Not Your Grandma’s Library Anymore!”

Is It Time To Dump Smashwords For Kindle?

I gave up on Smashwords this week.

Their Wide Variety of Formats

I’ve monitored my stats almost every day since I downloaded the first manuscript for my grandfather back in 2012–and the stats are dismal. At the time, Smashwords seemed like a good addition to my marketing plan when I published with Amazon and their Kindle site. If you aren’t already aware of Smashwords, they publish and make available ebooks bestowing freedom to authors to set their own prices. Smashwords further makes available your digital downloads to Nook (Barnes & Noble), Apple IBooks, Scribd, Oyster, and Kobo, and allows downloads in EPUB, PDF, and MOBI formats.

It’s not as if they aren’t busy trying to help promote their authors and introduce them to new readers. When writing this post, they were currently running (July 1 – July 31) their annual Summer/Winter Sale. In view of the complete lack of activity (probably not their fault) on any of my listings, I declined to join the sale. They keep up dialog in their “Site Updates” as well as “Press Releases” in which they recently noted Smashwords and Publishers Weekly joined to launch an ebook best seller’s list.

Free Downloads

I have to hand it to Mark Coker. It is not as if he hasn’t tried getting some of us off the sidelines. His free downloads, “Smashwords Style Guide” and “The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success” are comprehensive and indispensable for an Indie author as the publishing format on Smashwords is neither as easy nor forgiving as Kindle.

Spoiler Alert: You have to sell at least $10.00 in royalties to warrant payment. After the first blush of sales were over, I was still under that amount and will apparently carry the embarrassing sale record to infinity. This is no small entity. They are dynamic; have published over 416,638 books in all genres with over 65,000 of those books free.

So, what’s a mother to do? Guess it’s time to begin a new campaign!

Editorial Reviews

It all began this week with a review for a new author buddy of mine who introduced me to a couple nifty little Amazon website author page opt-ins I hadn’t previously noticed. Sometimes, you just have to hit me upside the head! Carlyle Clark, author of Children From Dark Houses, immediately included in his “Editorial Reviews” a couple sentences from my recent review of his book. Those Editorial Reviews show up prominently near the top of the book information. It succinctly brings to the surfer’s attention pertinent blurbs from your reviews. I loved it!

Reviewers Information

Also, I got to looking at (Amazon) Reviewers information. As I mentioned before, I’ve been receiving many requests for reviews. Therefore, the time came for me to expand my reviewer information and add a link to connect me from Amazon. Learning new stuff is exciting, isn’t it? Ah, but as seniors sometimes tend to do, I digress.

So then, what was the whole point of “unpublishing” my books from Smashwords? Have I succumbed to KDP? It’s just easier. Smashwords didn’t make sense for my little books and having that link also limited some promotional abilities from Amazon. I needed Amazon more.

Just Enjoy Reading or Bibliophile Qualified?

Just Enjoy Reading or Bibliophile Qualified?

There are usually one or more bibliophiles in your life–besides yourself! Whether they are out having fun, reading, or just too busy for interviews is another whole subject.

However, I did get a response from my former Yuma RV lot-mate, retired librarian, Roberta, who wrote, “I do love books, but I’m not a voracious reader. I probably read a few books a month on average. I belong to a book group, so I read what we’ll be discussing each month. Depending on how long that takes me, I’ll read one or two books that I want to read. I listen regularly to NPR & it’s a great source of recommended books for me.”

Roberta enjoys her book group and actively participates at times leading a book discussion. As part of that responsibility, she admits to doing quite a bit of research on the author and topic. Reading for her own enjoyment, she gleans books from all the major sources: public library, Kindle and Barnes and Noble online, although she admits to be more kinesthetic, as she prefers the “real books”, soft or hard cover to digital or eBooks.

Not wedded to any one genre, Roberta enjoys historical fiction, mysteries, family sagas and psychological fiction as well as travel. Extending into non-fiction, topics that hold her interest are history, biography, and the arts, and that incorporates many of her favorite authors, including Ivan Doig. She will follow some contemporary authors on Facebook, but does not join e-mail lists and although aware of Goodreads, doesn’t use it. The librarian in her still makes notes to herself about books that she’s read, although she does not rate or review them publicly.

Roberta is married, has grandkids in another state and enjoys an active life outdoors including traveling, hiking, cycling, Jeeping, cooking, writing in her journal and keeping up with personal letters. While she is not sure she qualifies as a true bibliophile, I’m not sure there is an absolute number that would elevate you to the category. However–three or four books a month?? There are people who haven’t read anything since high school! I’d say she does very well! Virginia Williams

Are Amazon Reviews Bogus?

Interesting and lively discussion back on Goodreads.com regarding all those wonderful stars trailing the best-selling books.

Neil (of “Shut Up and Read”) started it all in December 2013 when he ranted, “Are all Amazon reviews bogus???…Some reviews are so obviously fake, shills, they must think the readers are stupid. …”

Having read the posts and feeling fairly strongly about it myself given the degree to which I’d worked to get any stars at all, noted that I spot-read reviews; usually a couple rated 5, but also rely on the lesser rated for some good insight into the book. I felt that the book descriptions don’t always accurately describe the book and the title can be deceiving.

I appreciate honest and detailed reviews for the manuscripts I’ve published for my grandfather and likewise try to be very honest in my reviews of the books I’ve read–and I’ve read quite a few; some good–some not so. In view of the time it takes to write a decent review on the books I thoroughly enjoy, I might rate but will not generally spend the time to review one I didn’t care for. I suspect many do the same, although in reading the reviews left by others, usually find a consensus of the same two or three stars I would give confirming my judgment of the book.

My problem here is that if I don’t leave a review for the book I didn’t care for (and that seems to be the norm), the author is deprived of the problems I perceived. The same applies to the books I’ve published. I didn’t understand the motives behind a two-star rating which left me wondering how to fix a problem I’m unaware exists. Of course, it’s hard to actually print those harsh words for someone else knowing the blood, sweat, and tears that comprise a manuscript. As Ken from Goodreads wrote…“I’ll read the bad reviews first and see if they have anything valid to say. You can usually tell if it’s real. Sometimes a bad review will complain about something that I consider an attribute and that makes me want to read the book. I don’t really trust 5-star reviews anymore.” Continue reading “Are Amazon Reviews Bogus?”