Monthly Archives: May 2011

Indie Book Collective presents The Tour de Troops!

Did you know that over 300 overseas troops who have requested books?

And this blog tour is going to make sure they get them! How are we going to do that? Through the Indie Book Collective's massive social media presence, the  Collective is gathering together as many authors as possible to give  away as many eBooks as possible to the troops!  We hope to get each and  every one of our brave men and women the books they want!

While I'm not a published author as of yet, I still wanted to participate in this worthy event.  Leave a comment, and check out the other blogs here and leave comments there as well.  Every one is worth it and will mean something to our troops, and if there was ever a weekend to show appreciation isn't this the one?

So without further ado I present to you my book review of George H Sirois' novel, Excelsior.

"Matthew, so few humans achieve their destiny before leaving this world. You have that chance." Matthew Peters had spent the last seven years creating the ultimate online comic hero. He never dreamed that he would find the true hero within himself.

A couple of months ago I took part in the Blog Tour-de-Force and one of the free books I received was Excelsior by George H. Sirois.  Excelsior is a piece of young adult science fiction, and normally I do not read young adult fiction of any sorts because I get bored with the simplicity of the writing and the story, not to mention that so often there is a healthy dose of teen angst involved, but the little quote from the the smashwords website intrigued me and I'll freely admit to the fact that as a long time comic book lover the mere word excelsior made me curious.  I read George's blog and I could appreciate how much time he had spent in the creation so I thought I would give it a try. Excelsior is definitely the end result of a labor of love.  The characters and history poured into the 70,000 plus words is plainly evident.  There is no confusing which character is which as the story unfolds and make no mistake, this is a very character driven bit of fiction.  The story only has a couple of different locations, but they are all distinct and well described so that you get the sense of each space and who lives and works there.  George says in the afterword that he spent fifteen years working on the main character and his story and the effort really shines through. The story revolves around Matthew, a junior in highschool who is far more interested in working on his web comic Excelsior than he is in doing his school work or paying attention in class.  When his comic draws the attention of a beautiful scientist working under a deadline and two nightmarish alien villains reawaken after millenia of imprisonment, his hold world gets turned upside down as he learns that the world of his imagination is far more real than he could have dreamed and that he is the key to the survival of his own world as well as the world of Excelsior! Excelsior is definitely aimed toward the young adult reader, but it is well written enough that even adult fans of science fiction will enjoy it.  I'll definitely be saving this one for my boys to read when they get a littler bit older and to re-read on my own. Links: George H. Sirois' Smashwords Profile George H. Sirois' Twitter Profile Related Articles:


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Picking up the Pace

The number of views on my blog is down from last month and way down from the month before.  Last month it really bothered me, but this month I am completely ambivalent.  So what has made the difference in my views and my attitude?

Well the decrease in views has a lot to do with my approach to my blog.  I have stopped trying to bring in viewers.  Don't get me wrong...I still want views and I love when I get a big spike in views, but I am not actively courting them any more.  No contests, no attempts to sound like I know what I'm doing when it comes to writing, and no filler just for the sake of drawing attention.

Why the attitude change?  Well last month I saw my productivity drop significantly.  I had received views but at the cost of making progress on my writing.  I went from an average of 660 words per day in March to less than 350 in April.  I had been sacrificing progress on my WIP in favor of views.

So what did I do?  I stopped trying to get people to come to my blog and refocused myself on the writing.  As a result I have gotten my word count back above my goal of 500 words per day and that is all on my WIP not on blobs or anything else.  I am pleased with the work and it is coming easily which is a refreshing change.

I am happy with where I am right now and if my views stay around 20 per day I can live with that...at least until I'm ready for publishing.

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Alone, Part 36

Aaron looked down at his hands, "I couldn't sleep that night so I got up and went to the kitchen to get some water.  When I looked out the window I saw Philip and Hiram talking to Mother Cable on the patio.  I couldn't hear what they were saying, but when they were done the two men put their axes up on their shoulders and walked straight out of town, in the same direction as Caleb.  I was just a little kid, but even I knew that you didn't go chopping wood at night." Continue reading


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