A book to bitch about and the reviews I cannot understand but somehow give me hope in an uncomfortable sort of way.

I just finished reading the above pictured book, Princess Dracula by John Patrick Kennedy... 

I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised, I knew going into this that it was 1. a self published novel and 2. probably not going to be the best writing. Still there were some good ratings, anyone that knows me knows I like vampire movies and books, and I've been wanting to read some self published work because there are decent authors self publishing all the time. Oh and I liked the synopsis of the story. 

Well within the first 3 pages of the book I found the first of many typos. I thought, okay, no big deal even the best editor miss a few in the mainstream publishing houses. But it wasn't just typos, the actual writing wasn't very good. Still, I have a policy to stick with a book for at least 50 pages because you never know, it might just be a rocky start and then it will pick up. 

At page 70 I felt like the best of the novel had already happened in the beginning and it was a struggle to keep reading. Amanda had picked it up- because I left it in the bathroom- and skimmed through it and didn't seem all that impressed. So, I just decided to skim through. I wasn't really missing much as it turned out. Honestly, I was glad to be done with it so I could move on to something else. 

I posted a review and gave a 1 star rating on Goodreads (1 star means I didn't like it), and said that an editor or even beta reader could and and would have caught the typos. I did add that I thought the idea was good. What I didn't say was that most of the book sucked or that "dude should have edited his own work before ever thinking about pushing it through createspace to be published through amazon". Look, I know that I don't edit my blog posts very often and that's totally me being lazy or rushed, but they are blog posts. If I were trying to publish a novel, I would edit the fuck out of it, give it to a couple of friends, and then give it to Amanda as a last run through regardless if I was sending it to an agent or editor of a publishing house or self publishing it. 

Anyway, I was curious to see how Mr. Kennedy got his reviews, if the bag were lumped in with the good to help him sell more books. As it turns out he has tons of 5 and 4 star reviews on Goodreads and even more 3 star reviews. So, I went to see what these people were saying and promptly started banging my head on my desk in complete frustration. Someone actually gave him high praise because it was a great story and she should know because she'd read tons of vampire books. Has she? Has she really? Because while I haven't read tons, I've read several that are leaps and bounds better in story and execution. 

In the end, in an uncomfortable sort of way, I suppose this sort of thing gives me hope. If something like Princess Dracula can gain so many good reviews even as riddled with errors, plot holes, and bad writing, maybe I could get good reviews too? Or possibly get published? Who knows? 

Books: The Sleep Killers, the Enemies of Cats

Last night I was up until 6 am reading, finishing this book. Granted I was also doing a written role play with Skoora, but I was reading while waiting for posts. Of course, I'd been reading this book all of last week, mostly in the bathroom and occasionally in bed, but the last couple of days I was happily moving toward the end.

The only thing I don't like about this book, happens toward the end but I'm not going to spoil it. Speaking of spoilers, if anyone checks out this series, DO NOT go to the Author's website else you might accidentally see a spoiler like I did. Unless you like that kind of thing. Well, okay, one more thing, I'm not a fan of 1st person point of view, but with so many damned books out there in 1st person... sigh.

I loved everything else about this book. The characters were believable, the dialogue felt natural, and after reading the book before this one, Halfway to the Grave was like a continuous breeze of fresh air. Really, the writing was really good. I think I purred.

My cat, Yoda, is not happy with me. I was yelled at more than once to get my ass in bed so he could curl up on my pillow and get his night time pets. He finally gave up on me somewhere between five and six am and went to his little space beneath the bathroom sink. Much to his chagrin, I picked up another book! My cat is going to kill me! Galen, the other cat couldn't give a shit.

So far this one is good too. I've only read the first chapter and it's only because I am waiting for my library to get the next in the previous book's series in. Really, I shouldn't be reading either of them. I should be reading my text books... but school doesn't start for a week... Or actually, I should be writing... Damn it!

Aside from all of the book fun, I got a call from my doctor's office today. The pharmaceutical company that makes one of my meds stopped their, oh I don't know what to call it, I suppose we can call it the "free med deal for low income patients" program with my doctor's office. I'm not really complaining, I was able to get one of my medicines for free for several months and that was a blessing. My doctor called in my prescription to another pharmacy, not the one I usually go to, because it does discounted meds. That will help out a lot.

Now, I have to be responsible and go read all the rubrics and what not for my classes. After that, I'll probably stick my nose back in a book and subsequently get chewed out by a fluffy feline.