V-Squad by Pamela Marcantel is a vampire book centered around World War II. A group of vampires are going across the Atlantic to battle a sinister group of vampires who are assisting  Hitler. Think Inglorious Basterds, vampire style.

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I'll admit a bit sheepishly that I've never read a romance novel before.  Okay, so I'm not sure this one would actually qualify as a typical romance, there were no sweaty hot bods or tingling make out scenes; it was from a series called "Love Inspired" from a Christian publisher.  It's been out a few years now and how I came across it was that my grandmother read it, liked it, and gave it to me to read.  It's been sitting on my shelf forgotten for awhile until I came across it packing up some things for an upcoming move.  Since I'd just finished reading a Sue Grafton, I decided to set in on it.  It's entitled "Rainbow's End" by Irene Hannon.

I've noticed that the older I get, the less selective I am about what I read.  Nowadays, I'm reading anything and everything.  I'll give it all a shot, knowing that if it doesn't hold my interest, I can always move to something else.  I've discovered that I like a lot more of a variety of subjects than I used to because of this.  And I was surprised that a clean romance like this actually held my interest (not that a dirty one would be grounds to hold my interest; okay, that all just came out wrong.  You know what I mean, right?).  Despite some minor structure and grammar errors throughout the book, the story was well crafted and the characters were fantastic.  There were parts that even provoked an emotional response out of me (the formal term for "I cried.") and that's hard to do with a book.  The last time I cried reading a book was when I read the end of "Odd Thomas" by Dean Koontz when I realized Odd's girlfriend has been killed.  That was years ago. 

Look it up.  You never know.  You might like this clean romance, too.

A week or so ago, I was asked to review David Good's book (book cover to the left).  If you watch "The Bachelorette" or watched the premier season of "The Bachelor Pad" last year, then you might remember David Good as one of the bad boys on Jillian Harris's season and that he, with partner Natalie Getz, won "The Bachelor Pad".

Here's a link to the review I did.


'The Man Code: A Woman's Guide to Cracking the Tough Guy' by 'Bachelor Pad' Winner David Good: Review

A "discussion" on Writer's Beware last week prompted this blog post.  The topic was on self publishing which of course, almost always turns into a frantic 'bout of "I'm better than you." 

One thing I like about such sites as the Absolute Write Water Cooler forum  is that they have a respect for all writers, be it freelancers, content, self published, bestsellers, or otherwise.  But there are writers out there with their bias and to that I say, good luck earning respect.  You may be successful but you won't have respect from those who were or could be your audience.  You have to show respect to earn it.

From self published writers, the complaint is that those who go the traditional publishing route are sell outs.  They call them "cookie cutter" writers, who will shape and twist and mold their story out of the element of the original idea in order to fit an editor's demands.

From traditionally published writers, the complaint is that those who go the self published route are no good.  They haven't put in the time or learning and they want to get published without doing the work required.  In addition, their self published work is all poor quality and doesn't deserve recognition at all.

I mentioned Writer's Beware because even the person doing their Facebook page fed into the frenzy of it, claiming that she heard more self published writers criticizing traditionally published writers than vise versa.  While I respect Writer's Beware, this statement disappointed me.  As a representative of such a professional site, a bias of either should have been restricted to the person's personal Facebook page.  Now in all fairness, she didn't say anything about whether she thought that self published writers were full of it, but the bias was slightly implied, thus leaving a margin of question there.

In any case, the debate, to me, is useless.  There are good and bad writers everywhere whether self or traditionally published.  Having a high and mighty attitude either way will do you no favors, that's for sure.  And how will poking your nose in and trying to make someone else feel bad about their career decisions help your own career?  It doesn't.  Worry more about your own writing instead.

But bad writers make us all look bad!

Um, no they don't.  Bad writers make themselves look bad, regardless of which platform they've published on.

The lesson here is that if you can't be happy for or support another writer, then go about your own business instead of criticizing their choices.  If you'd like to put in your two cents, then review their work instead of criticizing them as a person.  After all, how do you know what kind of writer they are unless you read them?