My books are out there, so I thought I would make a list of where they are.
First, there's my personal website, www.rebeccaabbottmiller.com, where you can download them for free.
Build My World
Save Me
The best place (and maybe only place) to buy it in print, www.lulu.com
Build My World ($11.32 print, FREE download)
Save Me ($10.99 print, $0.20 download)
For the Amazon Kindle
Build My World ($1.00)
Save Me ($1.00)
Mobipocket (Ebook)
Build My World ($1.00)
Save Me ($1.00)
Smashwords (many formats, including Kindle, Sony, and pdf)
Build My World ($0.99)
Save Me ($0.99)
FREE *.pdf download at www.obooko.com (you have to have to register an account, but all books are free)
Build My World
Save Me
So I write books. Specifically, I have written two books, and if I can assume that everyone who has downloaded or bought a copy actually read them, then I have a readership of about 1000 people. Not impressive, I know, but not bad considering that I have never advertised. And for the record, I do not consider myself an expert on anything, much less anything literary. So...
Every once in a while, Scott will read a book and recommend it to me. This happened a couple of times this month: he recommend South of Broad by Pat Conroy and The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I think he went so far as to say that South of Broad might become my new favorite book. So that is the one I chose to read first. I mean, if it's going to become my new favorite book, then let's not waste any time, right? For the record, I have two favorite books: The Grapes of Wrath and She's Come Undone. Both are pretty dark and sad and not filled with a great deal of hope, so I'm not real sure what that says about my character. But there is always room for another favorite.
So I read it. Mr. Conroy, if you're reading this, you write a very good book. I did really, really like it. I liked the character of Leo, and I might have fallen in love with him a little bit. Just a little bit. There were things I disliked about the story, like I think you got rid of the villain a little too conveniently, and I feel like it could have been told in chronological order, but you're the famous writer and I'm just ... not.
So while having our book club discussion, I brought up my criticisms to Scott. According to him: by my having any criticism at all I am saying that I didn't like the book and I could have done it better. And I'm jealous. So therefore, I am disbanding the book club and telling him where he can stick his recommendations. Because just because I talk about the things that bothered me more than I talk about the things that I liked does not mean that I think that I'm better not does it mean that I am jealous. And I am greatly offended that he would say that.
But I am currently reading The Help.
Last week some time, I got an email from a guy named Tony who runs a free ebook website called www.obooko.com and he wanted to know if I would be interested in having BMW available there. What the heck, right? It's free, but more exposure is a good thing. This website is fairly new, I think, and I had never heard of it before, so I wasn't expecting much. I'm still not, but BMW has been downloaded 7 times and Save Me has been downloaded 5 times and someone rated them both 4 out of 5 stars. So that's good.
Both of my books are available on Amazon.com for the kindle and overall, I have sold (not given away, sold!) 40 or so copies of my books. Yeah, I know, big whoop. And of the 40 or so people who have invested their $1 in me, no one has written a review or even rated them. Of course, I'm a good one to talk, I never do that either, so it doesn't really bother me, but I do know that a good review might mean better sales. So I took the plunge and sent a free copy to a woman who is a very respected reviewer in the Kindle community. Now I am waiting, because what I fear more than no one ever reading me, is someone reading me and publicly giving me a bad review.
I guess I must have thought that she couldn't find that much bad to say, because almost all of the feedback that I have ever received has been very positive. The only negative feedback I have ever gotten was from an online acquaintance who was also writing a book. She said that my story line was immature because it was about a boyband. Her book was based on her real life story of having an affair with her 50 year old High School English teacher when she was 17. Needless to say, I let her comment roll off my back.
If I get good reviews, great! If not, then I can just assume that the reader was jealous, right?
I just finished 19 Minutes by Jodi Picoult.
I want to preface this by saying that this is the 2nd book by this author that I have read, the first being My Sister's Keeper. Jodi Picoult is a good story teller, and with both books I found them to be riveting and thought-provoking. But a funny thing has happened with both of the novels I have read. Let's see how to explain this: remember in Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (haven't read it? stick with me, I'll explain) whenever Ron was wearing the locket he turned into a big moody arse? That's how it is with me when I reading one of her books. It's like I get too emotionally attached or something and I just turn into a big ol' bitch while reading.
Besides all that, I thought the book was just so-so. Just like with My Sister's Keeper, I found myself mad at some of the characters throughout the whole book and I just wanted to throw it and stomp on it shred it into pieces. But since I was reading it on the Kindle, that would have been a bad idea, right? But I couldn't stop reading. I wanted to know how it ended. Of course, it wouldn't be Jodi Picoult if there wasn't a twist, but I'm not going to give spoilers.
When I started reading it, I was deaf, dumb and blind to the story. I knew NOTHING about what it was going to be about. NOTHING. Not even a character name. So when I got into it and discovered it was about a school shooting, I was leery. With good reason. There were several characters and scenes that were total ripoffs of real life Columbine things; like the boy who got shot and drug himself half dead over to the window and tumbled out and had to spend months -year, even- rehabilitation; or the mother of one of the victims who committed suicide in a gun store; or the crosses that were erected for the victims, including the one for the shooter, that kept getting taken down (which made NO SENSE in this story b/c the shooter was very much alive). I felt like these were just too similar to real life, and she should have handled it differently, especially since Columbine was mentioned in the book.
Now I'm debating on whether I want to read another of her books. Maybe not for a since they have the power to turn me into not such a nice person for the 2-3 days it takes me to read one.
Before this book, I read the newest Nora Roberts, Black Hills, which might have been the first NR book I've ever read. It was just okay.
There are some people who write blogs and are really very good at it. Their blogs are well written and funny. Or insightful. I can't do that. I've tried. Really, I have, but I don't have the gift for intriguing personal writing. I keep a personal blog, a diary really, of the things that are going on in my life outside of writing. And that's just "here's the facts as I see it. Whine, whine, bitch, moan, complain, repeat." Okay, really it's not that bad, but it's just my life. I'm not trying to entertain anyone or teach anyone anything. I'm just writing it for a record of what has happened and maybe get some feedback and advice.
So I'm not a good blogger. So if you came here hoping that my blog would be just as good as my books, then I'm sure you're sorely disappointed. Unless you think my books are just as bad, too..then I don't know why you're here at all.
As far as the 6th installment of the HP franchise, I thought the movie was a satisfactory adaption of the book. The book is roughly 650 pages, so fitting all that information into a film is going to be hard. The only detail that I noticed that was decidedly different that the book was a scene near the beginning where Draco has cast a spell over Harry paralyzing him and covering him with the invisibility cloak so that he can't be found. In the book, Harry is found and rescued by Tonks, but in the movie, it is Luna Lovegood who comes to his aide. The only reason I can see for this change is to give poor Luna something to do in the movie. But all in all, the things I expected to happen happened. I'm sure JK Rowling was proud.
So let's talk about My Sister's Keeper. I tweeted about this last night when I was leaving. (you have to read from the bottom up)
Obviously, I knew that the movie was going to be different, and I knew the ending would be different, but damn! Damn, 'damn, damn. I would have to do a lot of soul searching if someone wanted to make a movie about one of my books and wanted to change the ending that much. I don't want to divulge the details, because I think you should read the book if you haven't. Especially read it if you've seen the movie. If you have read the book, especially if you loved it or even liked it a little, then don't bother with the movie, unless like me you want to see how Hollywood can take a perfectly good book and throughly f- it up.
This is what the author Jodi Picoult had to say: "Having the ending changed would certainly not have been my choice. I wrote the ending very intentionally because I wanted to leave the reader with a certain message. And changing that ending changes that message. However, I am excited to see the movie and to judge it on its strengths."
Maybe instead of saying the movie was based on the book by Jodi Picoult, the opening credits should have read: inspired by the book by Jodi Picoult. Because when major characters are omitted, big IMPORTANT plot points are ignored (arson, anyone?) and the ending is changed, then it's hardly based on anything but and idea and the author's permission to use her characters.
Hey! *waves*
So the biggest newest news is that Build My World and Save Me are available at Amazon.com for the Kindle.
Since I am giving it up, I will divulge what my idea was and where it was going. So my Lifetime movie was "Too Young To Be a Dad" and the fandon I picked was High School Musical. The story was going to be about Troy and his quest to get Gabriella to have sex with him. She won't. But he has high hopes for prom night. Still, she won't, but after he drops her off at home after the prom, he gets a text message from Sharpay inviting him over. Yada, yada, yada...she ends up pregant.
And that's all I had formatted in my mind. Did I mention it was going to be a musical?
Do you know the song "If I Only Had a Brain" fromm the Wizard of Oz? This was going to the first song in my musical: "If I Only Could Get Laid."
Enjoy!
IF I ONLY COULD GET LAID
I’ve been trying to understand
This is not what I had planned
Not the game I like to play
And my body she’d be pleasing
Instead of all this teasin’
If I only could get laid
I'd take it very slowly
So she would trust me wholly
And she wouldn’t be afraid
With the things I’ve been feeling
It’s hard to just be chillin’
If I only could get laid
Oh, I can’t tell you why
She won’t have sex with me
We’d do things we’ve never done before
Then we’d stop, and do it some more.
I would not be a virgin
It would stop all this urgin’
And end this crusade
I would dance and be happy
Might sing a song that’s sappy
If I only could get laid
In addition to Book 3 of the Quintessential Series, I am also working on a piece for a writing community I am a member of. The community is called "Stori_Telling" (a take-off of Tori Spelling's name) and all the works are based on Lifetime Movies. The catch is all of the pieces have to be rooted in some fandom. I am not really big into fanfiction, and I am not a part of any really active fandoms, but I thought I would give it a shot. So my Lifetime movie is "Too Young To Be a Dad" and the fandom I picked was High School Musical.
I have seen all of the HSM movies and I have seen it live on stage, not the concert with the movie stars, the Broadway Series South production. And let me the you, the actor who played Troy -- yeah, I liked him, a lot. A Lot. I even came right home from the performance and emailed him. And he wrote back. *swoon* I say all this just to say that I am familiar with the characters and for the most part the story line.
I have already written 2 songs for my musical, which is to say, I have written lyrics and set them to the tune of 2 songs already fairly well known, because I am not a musician. I'm thinking there will be 4 songs, so I still have a way to go, plus the actual story. But I think my dream last night about Troy and Gabriella was a hint that I need to get busy. It's not going to write itself. It's due August 1.
In the latest lesson in my writing class, we are talking about conflict, action and suspense. Our assignment: Write a single sentence that uses conflict to create suspense. Now add a sentence that starts a clock. Finally, add a sentence that turns the suspense into action. This is what I wrote:
The sight of them lying in a row by the pool, their perfect tan bodies slathered in oil and glistening in the sun, sickened her. Offering to make the drinks, she had come inside more than twenty minutes ago and if she didn’t hurry, one of them was bound to come through those patio doors and offer to help. She picked up the tray of margaritas and headed outside, wrapping one finger around the stem of
the glass with the untainted drink.
The instructor's remarks: "Nice work. Excellent structure for suspense, with conflict, clock and action. Well done."
I'm starting to feel better.
I was awarded by my friend Miss M at The Sweet Escape. Thank you!
As for my 5 biggest addictions:
1. Sweet tea. I am never, ever without a cup of this goodness. I easily drink 1/2 gallon a day. I brew it myself, none of that instant tea or Crystal Light crap. Tea bags, sugar and water - and real sugar, not that artificial sweetener crap. But I don't use as much sugar as a lot of people, and not nearly as much as restaurants. I use about 3/4 cup per gallon.
2. My laptop. I love it. And it's yellow.
3. My cell phone/texting. I put these both together, well, because they go together.
4. Writing. Hmm, I think that should have been #1, but I'm in kinda of a slump. But even though I am not writing right now, I am always thinking about it. Like coming home from Walmart last night, I was thinking about something that I could write. A brand new story. I don't have time for brand-new. I already have WIPs that need my attention. Regardless, I am always writing, reading something I wrote, or thinking about writing.
5. My Kindle. LOVE IT. I have about 50 books on there right now, and I love knowing that a new book is just a couple of clicks away. I will never be without something to read. LOVE IT!
I'll be back with those blog awards.
Thanks, Miss M!
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