News on 29th May 2023

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29th May 2023

Maine author pens children’s book about ‘The Lobster Lady’

Children’s book author and illustrator visits North Platte to teach about his craft

Welsh books need Michael Sheen-style champion - author

Call to cancel Of Mice and Men over n-word

Canberra author tackles the children's book game – and scores

‘Vasippu Iyakkam’ to release new books

CNN promotes anti-Israel propaganda for children

Listen to illustrator Adam Rex read children's books on June 3

Leixlip author to launch children’s book on Celtic

‘The Locket’ is young adult fantasy | Book Talk

Author Isabel Allende on "The Wind Knows My Name"

From tragedy, the love of a mom: ‘Socks for Lil Eddie’ tribute to son

News on 23rd May 2023

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23rd May 2023

Caffè Nero launches major book awards

Contrary to the norm...

...I've reduced rather than increased the costs of my KDP book.

Amazon's prices are going up, so the majority of KDP book prices will increase too.  I've decided to go against the tide and decrease rather than increase the cover price of my book.

If you wanna have a read of the book, you can click on the most appropriate image below, but it might take a few days to reflect the new price so keep checking back!

Kindle (£5 when it updates):

Paperback (£10 when it updates):

Ooooh!

I've just devoured the recording of last nights UV24 and part of my submission was read out and I had some very valuable feedback.  I've got the age range right but the title needs to work sooooo much harder and I'm gonna use the voice thing in Word to read it out to me so that I can pick up things that I might've missed.  I knew what I wanted to get across and where I wanted the emphasis to be etc, but I've moved up to the next level in UV submissions now so will UV26 mean that I'll be in the anthology then UV28 be the year I finally bag myself an agent and publisher?!

It's been a loooong time...

...but I'm trying desperately to get into my new normal.

There won't be any posts tomorrow morning, and prolly not in the afternoon either, but hopefully there will be on Saturday, assuming I can find anything to post about of course lol

I don't suppose anyone has any book recommendations for quick, uplifting reads, ideally on Kindle Unlimited or NetGalley, that I can bury my nose in do they?  It's been too long since I read a children's book and reading and reviewing them as well as hopefully re-starting the news is gonna be my gentle re-introduction to the world of children's literature.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, ideas and recommendations!

I'm learning sooo much!

I'm a new-ish Egg and I've been doing the 5 day kick-starter since Monday.  I've just learnt sooo much about what is needed for the tension point in my newest OMG novel (that was supposed to be my JanNo novel but wasn't, for an absolutely heart-breaking personal reason) that I'd never even thought of before.  I thought I'd planned out the next guaranteed best-seller but today's task has shown me that I've got a lot of research and thinking and planning to do before I even start the document, let alone write it!

Book Review: "What are Mondays good for anyway" by Nicole Frankel

Kindle:
Hardback:
Paperback:

⭐⭐ out of 5

If you've read any of my other recent book reviews you'll know that I start them all off the same way, by saying that every book starts off with the full 5 stars and I'm always hopeful that they will all still be solidly stuck in place by the time I close the back cover.  You'll also know that I'm not shy about removing stars but that i always give my reasons within the review.  I've also  replaced a star thanks to the author of that book putting a magic sentence at the back of the book and I'm totally willing to do that again if necessary.

Let's get on with the review.

I'm already confused about the age range for this book as 3 year olds can't read and 8 year olds are rapidly gaining confidence in their reading independently ability, so I'll hopefully be able to see who this book as I read it.  Based on there only being 35 pages, I'm thinking it's a picture book so I can't see a 6-8 year old wanting to read it.

The main character is at school and having a spelling test, so that's kinda 7-8 year olds and a 3 year old would be doing disgusting things with their fingers by now, so it seems like the author really doesn't know much about their audience, so the first star is coming off.

Brand names are being used, potentially without permission, so we're down to 3 stars.

Now the author is using words that are unsuitable for the UK market ("trash can") and even the most bookwormish of bookworms would have given up by now, so the third star comes off and we're down to 2 stars.

I hate to say it, but I'm sooo glad this book was only 35 pages long 'cos the author just made so many mistakes throughout it.