My second book review was published a couple of days ago, and it was satisfying to feel like the first one wasn’t a fluke- that I’m good at this. It helps to have an editor, and I definitely share credit with her. I tend to ramble, and she reins me in. I’m still laughing about the time I talked about a character without introducing her first, and she said, WHO EVEN IS THIS? I was also touched when she said, I’m betting your review is better than the book…. which, to my mind, is also a compliment to herself. If she didn’t mean it that way, she should.
I picked the second book based on the title and the fact that it was in the romance category…. when in reality, it turned out to be a lot like the first one. It was also about a female group of friends who overcome adversity through an activity. So, I chose the third book, and the e-mail to my editor is as follows:
I picked the next book. It’s about four women who overcome adversity through eating cheesecake.
Kidding- it’s about a psychotic murderer.
The book is entitled Pancake Money, and I have a funny story about it. For some inane reason, at first glance I thought the book was called Pancake Monkey. Just reading too fast, I guess…. anyway, Online Book Club has a search feature where you can add books to your bookshelves easily, and unsurprisingly, I had trouble finding it. So, I add the book manually and add my own screenshot for the cover, then hit “post.” Of course after I posted it I noticed my mistake. I wish I could blame it on not enough coffee, but this was yesterday afternoon.
I’ve been a little lax on the blogging train because reading and reviewing is taking a lot out of me. I want to write here every day, but after writing, getting feedback, going back to the drawing board, getting feedback again, and trying to decide whether I need to scrap the whole thing and start over or whether what I’ve already written is salvageable, I’m out of energy, especially for writing something else…. even though here, I can both write what I want without an approval board AND I like you people better than them.
I think. 😛
Today is going to be a good day for reading. It’s 37 F and supposed to snow tonight or tomorrow (no accumulation, just cold AF). I’m also really enjoying the book. Last night I practically inhaled the first three chapters. Reading all of these books is hopefully contributing to my own ability to write, but I have definitely learned that you always need an editor- and I’m not just talking about the one that looks for mistakes/what I could have done better in my reviews. Some of the books I’ve read lately (both from OBC and the freebies they give away with aggregators like Bookbub) have been self-published without a professional giving it a once-over, and the results are astoundingly poor. Stories that are really amazing have driven me up the wall with typos and grammatical errors. Content over grammar, always, but when something is wrong on almost every page, it’s hard to ignore.
I am a stickler for grammar, which is why I get someone to check my writing when it’s not stream-of-consciousness blogging. I make grammatical errors here all the time, and tpyos drive me ntus. Most of the time, I just write like I talk, which leads to an array of tense changes, subject/verb disagreement, and I still don’t know what the fuck a gerund is (kidding).
I’m a little rough around the edges today, as are most of us with the time change. This morning I actually looked at the clock and said, “wow- I slept later than usual.” Really, Leslie? REALLY?
So now it’s time to get some food in me and start reading again. My editor awaits.
Stories That Are All True 