(click here for my actual review of Thicker Than Blood by CJ Darlington)

Remember I talked about my friend who won the Operation First Novel contest way back when? Well, the book was officially released in mid-December, and I ordered an additional copy just so that I could give it away here.

I haven’t started reading it yet- there’s the whole nervous-about-reading-my-friend’s-published-novel thing combined with the fact that I wanted to do my review at a later date, and the fact that I’ve been so tired lately that I just crash in bed instead of reading at all. However, my mother is over 1/3 of the way through and loves it.

Since I seriously suck at describing story lines, and since I have a paranoia of sounding overly biased, I’m just going to copy/paste the description the publisher gives on the back:

Christy Williams finally has her life on track. She’s putting her past behind her and working hard to build a career as an antiquarian book buyer. But things begin to unravel when a stolen Hemingway first edition is found in her possession, framing her for a crime she didn’t commit. With no one to turn to, she yearns for her estranged younger sister, May, whom she abandoned after their parents’ untimely deaths. Soon, Christy’s fleeing from her shattered dreams, her ex-boyfriend, and God. Could May’s Triple Cross Ranch be the safe haven she’s searching for? Will the sisters realize that each possesses what the other desperately needs before it’s too late? A stunning debut from the latest Christian Writers Guild winner.

After I read it, I’ll give my full review here, but in the meantime, I’m giving one copy to the first person to comment (stating that they want it) who promises to at least talk about the book and link to some place that it can be purchased (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBooks.com, Berean, etc). You don’t have to review it, though that would be appreciated, but at least post about the book and link out to some place that sells it. I’ll send it to you once I get it autographed.

For more info on CJ’s Christian fiction Thicker Than Blood, see her website or her blog.

Remember, first come, first served!

Update: We already have a winner. You can buy a copy through the link above, or wait until my review. I might offer another copy at that time.

In one case, my favorite MMO blogger posted his first video ever- and it so happens to be his 7 year old daughter (cute) hand feeding a red fox. Apparently they made the mistake of feeding a wolf once, and ended up with one as a pet for 15 years, and still haven’t learned their lesson. And since my married name ends in “Fox”, I’ve been a little obsessive about them for the past few years. And this one is beautiful- fluffy, gorgeous fur, and barely even skittish! The video is a bit long, but if you like foxes as much as I do, it’s worth watching. And if you don’t like foxes as much as I do, it’s still pretty cool to see a fox eat right out of a little girl’s hand! So, if you’ve ever wondered what do foxes eat, follow the link to watch the video. It looks like a hamburger patty to me.

Secondly, a good friend of mine who lives in Toronto (I just realized that 2 of the 3 people I’m posting about here are Canadians… Hm… maybe I should consider moving up north?) just had a horrific time with a local business (Crystal Bath at 2839 Kingston Road, Toronto) over her order for a bathroom vanity (Toronto). This is downright horrible customer service, and apparently the company did a lousy job on the remodel as well. Follow either link for more information on this story.

And lastly, Allyn Hanes’ beer review blog is live! He talks about beer in an entertaining way, doesn’t get all snooty about it (in fact, the regular joke is about people who sniff beer before drinking it- he’ll often sniff his and then say “smells like beer!”), and really describes the beer in a way that someone who isn’t already a connoisseur can understand. I don’t even drink beer, but I love watching his review videos, because not only is he fun to watch, but his background in landscaping gives him tons of info to pull from when describing a flavor. For example, in his review of Moylander’s India Pale Ale (he reviews several IPA beers), he mentions how people refer to a “piney” flavor. Since he’s a landscaper by trade, he was able to explain that what people were tasting was actually kind of a cedar mulch and arborvitae in the beer.

Since I’m no fan of hops, IPA’s are definitely not down my alley, but I was fascinated to find out that flavors in beer can be as complex as they are in a good wine. And Allyn presents it all as the next door neighbor chatting over the fence and offering you a cold one. (BTW, a good friend of mine modified Allyn’s theme- so if you love it and want to hire him, he comments there as “Forest” or you can ask me for his info).

In book one of the Wingfeather Saga, we find out that the three Igiby children are what is known as The Jewels of Anniera, being the king, the throne warden, and the song maiden. Since the dreaded and evil Fangs of Dang (vicious lizard men who are servants of Gnag the Nameless) have now found out who the Igiby children are, they (the children) along with their mother, grandfather, and an old friend are on the run to the north, where they believe the frigid temperatures will keep them safe from the heat loving Fangs.

Where the first book was mostly set up and back story, book two is all action. North! Or Be Eaten keeps up a proper pace for an adventure-fantasy, and is fraught with hidden dangers, jealousy, anger, remorse, and deadly secrets (which are not the same as hidden dangers).

The pace keeps the story hopping, and the unusual world keeps you guessing at what’s going to come next.  The focus is less on the twisted humor (“a nameless evil, called Gnag the Nameless”), and more on story, and while I missed having so much of my kind of humor wrapped up in the story, I actually enjoyed this book more than the first. I will say, though, that reading book one is absolutely necessary before starting book two. There is very little info dropping, and while it’s possible to enjoy book two without book one, that would be like eating the bologna without the bread. Fine for a snack, but not much of a meal.

I would have enjoyed North! Or Be Eaten more if I’d been able to wait until the series is finished. I don’t like having questions dangling about in my head, which is one of the reasons I rarely choose to pick up any books in a series until the whole series is available. Right now, I want to know why Gnag the Nameless chooses to use children for all of his labor. For experimenting, that makes sense- children are easier to mold and control. But for labor? That just doesn’t make sense, yet I can tell that it will. And that drives me up a wall.

I personally think this is a great YA fantasy. I’d place Andrew Peterson’s Wingfeather Saga somewhere between Donita K Paul’s Dragon Keeper Chronicles and Jeffrey Overstreet’s The Auralia Thread series. If you like either one, you’ll surely enjoy this. Just be prepared for some gross-out humor. You can tell this was written with young boys in mind.

To purchase this book, you can visit Random House and search, or go straight to the North! Or Be Eaten’s page. Available August 18, 2009.

Well, one of those site building friends told me to build a freelance writer directory. I mentioned this to another site building friend who also said that I should build it “right now”. Er, that was over a month ago. I’m really good at keeping up with demand.  Can you tell?

I was told that I should make it a paid membership site, and I’m sure that would be a good business model. However, I started this whole thing to give some of my freelance writer friends business, and to give my site building friends a list of good freelance writers. And, since I’m lazy and cheap, I didn’t want to pay for automatic membership software and then spend weeks learning it. I’d rather blog about Disney.

So, I found an awesome domain, bought it, and eventually actually put content on it. I have a few of my friends already listed, and you know who you are. So, if you know you’re on the list, please check it out, find your profile, and let me know if you want anything added or changed.

If you’re not on the list, send me an email at WordVixen {at} gmail [dot] com and tell me what you want on your profile. Name and method of contact is absolutely necessary- either an email address or website/blog.  Information on what you write on, specialties, special education, etc is great.

So, for whoever’s interested, you’ll want to go straight to the freelance writer directory to find your name if you’re listed, or email me to get on the list.

BTW- Anyone who’s on the site and has a few articles sitting around that you still have the rights to and can use as samples- I wouldn’t mind putting up a few. Or, if you have some good samples on your own site or hosted elsewhere, feel free to include the URLs and I can add them as links to your profiles.

Also, if you want to help me out, links to the site with the anchors “hire a freelance writer” “freelance writer for hire” or “freelance writer directory” would be great. Or, maybe a little social lovin’?

And this past weekend, it was announced that she won the Operation First Novel Contest hosted by the Christian Writers Guild (you may notice their ads in Writers Digest). The prize? A contract with Tyndale House (if you’re familiar with Christian publishing, you’ll know that this isn’t small potatoes!), and an advance, or possibly prize, of $20,000. Yup. You know all those popular novel contests that offer a prize of a token $5k and a consideration at a major house? Yeah… this isn’t one of those.

You can imagine that with stakes that high that the competition is probably quite fierce. We were all ecstatic when we found out that she was one of the 4 finalists, but when I got that text? Yeah, I screamed out loud.

It’s funny- with the publishing contract and the nice advance, you’d think that would be the tops. But to be honest? I thought the coolest part was that the book cover art was finished and presented when the contest winner was announced. Seriously! I think that is just awesome.

So if you want to go meet the next NY Times Best Selling Author, go check out her blog, take a look at the awesome cover art, and then tell her how pretty she is. And tell her I sent you- I’m angling for a position on her marketing team.

What I believe they’re doing is, someone picks a book, reviews it, and sends it out to a fellow blogger. That person reviews it, links to the person who sent it, and then sends it out to another blogger, and on and on it goes (and when the reviews go up, so do the links to the person they sent the book to).

That sounds like fun to me! I don’t actually have a book in mind, but I’m thinking a debut author of some sort. Someone who could use the publicity.

So, is anyone interested? And if so, anyone have suggestions?  I’m thinking of a historical romance novella that I’m reviewing for Christian book reviews site.  It’s a pretty good historical romance, non-offensive without being preachy (wide appeal, perhaps?), and is only around 150 pages- so it won’t take up much time as it makes the rounds.  Only problem is that it’s not a debut author.

I’m friends with a handful of peeps who build niche websites and blogs as well as peeps who build sites for flipping.

At least one of them already has a stable of writers, but he’s complaining that they’re already maxed out and he has more ideas. As a helping hand to both my site building friends and my writing friends, I’m compiling a list of freelance writers for my niche ninjas.

If I haven’t already contacted you personally about this, and you’d like to be on the list, please drop a comment here, tweet me, or email me (wordvixen at gmail {dot} com) with the email address you’d like to be contacted with, the name you’d like to use, any rates or specialties that you’d like listed, etc.

Also, please let me know if you want your information passed on to any site buyers. Remember, the new owners of those site flips will need content to keep the sites moving forward. So, not only is it potential exposure for you, but the list may be a nice incentive for bid wars.

You see, there’s this new company called YouData. They believe that advertising can be done better. After all, these companies are paying webmasters to show their ads, even though the demographic may not be right. And we, the people, are being shown ads that are totally irrelevant to our needs. And what do we get out of the deal? Nothing.

So YouData got to work and figured out a system that works for everybody.

1.) The Consumer: You sign up for YouData/MeFile, input things like your age, marital status, gender, children, etc. YouData has a widget on their site (you can also download it straight to your desktop) that you can load up with ads (assuming there are some available to you). These ads will have a specific amount that companies are willing to pay you to look at their ads. Right now, I’m getting about $0.05 just for seeing the ad on the widget, and about $0.15 for clicking through. I’ve earned over $6 in less than a week (it shows less because of part 2) just by viewing ads.

It’s not much money, but how often do you earn $1 in less than 5 minutes? I do it when I realize that I’m procrastinating. I figure, if I’m just faffing about, I might as well get paid for it! Plus, I discovered a really cool product this way (soap nuts- dried fruit that actually cleans your laundry. Totally weird, but cool, and natural).

2.) The Webmaster: You know how with AdSense you can’t tell people to click your ads? Well, with YouData, you’re SUPPOSED to. See, the ad viewer is only being served ads that suit their demographics. It’s the same ads that they’d get from their own widget on the website or desktop. The difference is, you’re asking them to view the ads on your site… and split the profits.

You know how you go through and click your friends’ ads just because you like them, or because they offered useful information, but you feel a bit guilty because you know someone, somewhere, is paying for that click? Not with YouData. That’s simply how the ads work. And, you can choose to donate all, or none of the cost of viewing the ad (and everywhere in between) to the person who runs the website.

They’re still testing the blog widgets, so if you want one on your own site, you’ll have to email their support- but using the widgets is fine with just your basic YouData account.

3.) The Advertiser: Advertisers of products are just trying to get their products in front of the eyeballs of their demographic. With the MeFile, they can pick and choose who to offer advertising to. Instead of paying $0.25 a click to just anyone, they can pick and choose, getting the most bang for their buck. Marketing to parents of an infant? No longer do they pay to have a 13 year old boy who hasn’t even had his first girlfriend go clicking through their ads. Targeted marketing. What’s not to love?

YouData doesn’t have an affiliate program. In fact, they’re anti-cookie and anti-tracking, so they probably won’t accept affiliate marketing ads either. But because of the option to share profits with a site owner, you can still get something out of telling people about their service. Tres cool, non?

Oh, and did I mention that they pay every Friday by PayPal? Hardly any wait for getting paid- it’s awesome.

I just read an amusing story about what Hal Spacejock author Simon Haynes had to do to face out his novel the first time he saw Hal in a book store.

Most, if not all, of you know about authors and fans turning specific books so that the cover is facing out on the shelves rather than letting the spine sit out. For some reason, I always thought that was silly.

For most of my life, I didn’t buy new authors. Friends loaned books, libraries, used book stores, and steep piles of previously published works by authors I already loved kept my reading hours full. That’s not to say that I didn’t read new authors, I just didn’t buy them (except used). Looking back, that may be because it was quite the drive from where I lived to the nearest book store. And for most of my life, I didn’t even have a driver’s license.

Now, I live 5 minutes from B&N, 10 from Borders, and Amazon, BN.com, and Powells are only a click away (amongst many, many others). I still rarely go to brick and mortar stores since I hate traffic, and, in a general sort of way, people. Plus, I usually do research online for the books I want and come prepared with a list.

However, on my last trip to B&N, I caught myself doing something I rarely did before. Scanning the shelves for something to catch my interest, rather than a list of books that I already wanted.

And would you believe? I really did look at the face out books more carefully. I’ve probably done it before, and simply never realized it because I didn’t actually buy any of them.

Something else I’ve considered as a result of this. That could be why hardcovers tend to do so well. If you think about it, the designers have more room on a hardcover spine to create an eye catching design. On a paper back, you’re lucky to get an inch or so of design space, and much of that is covered with the author’s name, title, and some sort of publishing house marker. In theory, that could also be why I spend more time looking at fantasy than at other genres I enjoy- the spines are usually bigger in fantasy.

Until they start stocking my favorite new authors, I’ll have to practice facing out on my favorite old authors. And dream of the day that I too will have the chance to buy a $22 book, just to give me room to face out my own book.

A website called AuthorTree which promises free websites and blogs for authors and is sponsored by… ta-dah! 4 pod self-pub/vanity presses (AuthorHouse, AuthorHouse UK, WordClay [formerly Vesta], and iUniverse). I’d suspected as much, but since some of these click ads check to see how long you’re on their site, and where you go on it, I sniffed around a bit more. Hopefully they have a good click pay rate.

So, anyway. I’m exploring the site, alternating between laughing at them, and feeling terror at the prospect of innocent authors being sucked in by their blatant promotion of the POD people, and I click on their “services” button. In fact, I’m going to link to it as SCAM since I don’t know how to no-follow it.

The first few items they offer seemed rather over priced to me, but since I didn’t have the numbers on hand to compare, I just kind of rolled my eyes and thought “whatever”. But then I saw their “Domain Name” offer. Only $99! Wow! Um… At first I thought it was just an over priced service like “We’ll register the domain name for you, and set up your hosting account and free template”. But no. It’s just for the domain name. (Anyone who doesn’t understand why this is not a bargain, please go to GoDaddy.com where you can register a domain name for under $10. And that’s not the best deal that you can find online.)

All of them are quite nearly hilarious to anyone with a sprinkling of ‘net or promotional knowlege, but I think Kathy would like this one.

The Personal Media Valet- $4000. No, I didn’t type too many zeros. Here’s what they do:

How do Personal Media Valet services help promote my
book?
A copywriter will produce a press kit for your book, including a press
release and a full color Fact Sheet and Author Biography Sheet
Your
publicity coordinator will distribute press releases and personally follow-up
with media outlets within your selected target markets
A custom Marketing
Kit will provide business cards, bookmarks and postcards designed to promote
your book.

How Does the Process Work?
Review and approve a
professionally written press release for distribution to targeted media outlets
An publicity coordinator will follow-up with media outlets, and send review
copies of your book upon request
Utilize word-of-mouth marketing by
distributing business cards, bookmarks and postcards to potential readers

Um. Yeah. Yanno. If I were going to pay $4000 for a press release and someone to distribute it? I think I’d be calling up Kathy because at least I’ve seen her work and know it would be good. And does anyone else suspect that they’re one of the clients who keep trying to hire freelancers at $20 a pop? And then mass mailing these press releases to every address they can find? And then dumping the business cards, bookmarks and post cards at their local book store? Because, yanno, that’s where potential readers are at.

Hopefully that charge includes the cost of the business cards, bookmarks, and postcards because they’re charging $250 per 1000 business cards.

Seriously- if you’re willing to shell out this kind of money to promote your book, you’d better A) have gotten a good advance, and B) hire a PROFESSIONAL PUBLICIST. Good Lord, these people want you to toss away half a year’s pay on promotional services without even showing you what you get! And, they’re pumping it to the self-published crowd who aren’t getting advances at all.

Ye gods. It’s times like this that I wish I didn’t have ethics.