The Crocodile-Factor, Stories-Enigmas, Around an African Tree

These are short African stories-enigmas all around an African tree or a river or a pyramid..!

D. Jahman Deidotree is a very skilled craftsman when writing stories he calls stories- enigmas (even if he is still learning the English language....)

Stories which are mysterious, interrogative? Stories with different meanings and interpretations possible!!! Exposing some unknown African imaginative worlds to discover... Stories as riddles if you will!!! So feel free...use or confront your imagination and follow the shaman Kako on his journeys!

See if you can follow some characters as chiefs or shamans to solve what...what? Any question about the shape or the wrong size of your...what?... Head? Or one of your shoes...??? So please leave a comment if you do or just let the writer know how you feel about this saga!!

One love~

Book Review on Vallar by Cindy Borgne

Sensational, exciting and an emotionally whirlwind!

Ian Connors is a sixteen year-old psychic in this military sci-fi story of love, betrayal and deception. He's works for a militaristic company called Marscorp, and is saddled with the responsibility to use his abilities to gather intelligence on other companies fighting for control of Mars. He cannot control his visions, which wander towards and center on a young girl he's never met. The visions of this young girl captivate him. The more he chases these visions of this girl, the more he changes his fate and the fate of those around him. Eventually, what Ian sees in his visions, cause him to question his place with Marscorp.

Cindy Borgne has a bona fide hit on her hands with Vallar. She expertly weaves a teenager's journey into adulthood, with the pain of combat and the angst of a first love. Ian is a complicated character, which Cindy masterfully captures. He makes mistakes and he is tormented by his mistakes. The reader is drawn into an emotional rollercoaster, cheering Ian as he pushes through hardship, scolding him when he acts immature and crying for him when he suffers.

Additionally, speaking from military experience, Cindy does a superb job of creating combat intense scenes. She writes like a season military veteran. I have to give her a platinum round of applause for keeping this old retired Air Force officer intrigued during the battle scenes.

Vallar is what I call a cross-cutting science fiction novel. It has romance, combat, technical wizardry, suspense and adventure. A definite must read now type of book!

Malcolm Petteway,
Author, Osguards: Guardians of the Universe
Owner, Rage Books LLC
www.ragebooks.net      

“Bad Reviews: What do you do when it happens to you?”

For a long time I was riding high receiving excellent reviews of my books, especially my first novel, Homecoming. It is the first of a four book military science fiction series called Osguards: Guardians of the Universe. The 2011 Hollywood Book Festival just notified me that Homecoming was recognized with an Honorable Mention Award. In the same week, I was truly delighted to receive a five-star rating from The Midwest Book Review. I was starting to feel very good about my work. However, when I went to Amazon.com to see The Midwest Book Review, I read my first negative review right under it. This review was written by a customer and was a five-paragraph, full-page scathing assessment of my ability as an author. As I read it, I was mortified. My mouth just dropped. My heart stopped beating and the world became silent around me.

I quickly started to respond to the review, but thought better. I walked away from the review and sulked for about an hour and then came back and read it again. This time, I read it without emotion and dissected the words. As I dissected the words, I realized the review was not professional, but a personal attack on me and my wife, who is one of the four editors of my book. I also recognized the reviewer was talking about an earlier version of the book that I self-published in 2001. Since then, I hired an editor and revised the book several times to its present form, which the Hollywood Book Festival and the Midwest Book Review favorably recognized.

I talked to my family and friends about the review. Then, something clicked. The more I talked openly about receiving a negative review the better I felt. Then a couple of days later, I received another national review that was not as positive as the Midwest Book Review. However, it was professional and didn't read like a personal attack. I was more receptive to this review, understanding what in particular this reviewer found needed improvement in my work. I was able to grasp more readily the salient points and store them in my toolkit for future projects. That is what a credible, well thought-out review will do for an author...become a tool to teach, train, hone and push the author to be better. In summary, all reviews are subjective, and depending on the reviewer, they can be mean-spirited or constructive. It is the author’s choice to be discouraged or use it as a learning tool. Remember, one reviewer’s five-star novel may be another reviewer’s one-star reject. So my advice to authors is to judge the veracity of the review. If it’s professional, revise your work if able or use it as a teaching tool. But most of all get as many reviews as possible

In conclusion, after reading these two reviews, rejecting one and learning from the other, I made travel arrangements to California to accept my Honorable Award Recognition from the Hollywood Book Festival for my first novel, Homecoming.

 Malcolm Petteway,

Homecoming - Osguards: Guardians of the Universe Virtual Book Tour

Homecoming – Osguards: Guardians of the Universe Virtual Book Publicity Tour August 2011

Authors on Tour, Featured — By Dorothy Thompson on July 29, 2011 at 5:43 pm

Join Malcolm Petteway, author of science fiction novel, Homecoming – Osguards: Guardians of the Universe – Book 1 (Rage Books LLC), as he virtually tours the blogosphere August 1 – 26 2011 on his first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!