Naka Jackson

About Naka Jackson

I'm a Literature Postgrad student in NYC, teaching and studying, working towards a broader understanding of English written word.

Six Tips To Win A Book Contest

Martin Lastrapes - Dolph The Unicorn Killer

How do authors win book competitions, and what is it that judges are looking for? Here, Naka Jackson, a creative writing teacher from NYC and one of the judges for SPR for the last five contests, gives authors six tips to win.

Presentation

No contest wants a book with a poor quality cover as the winning book for their competition, because usually they will also promote their own brand with the contest. We play fair at the SPR Awards by grading each book out of twenty-five on many areas, including cover design and formatting, and we don’t see each other’s […]

2019-04-29T04:24:33+02:00April 29th, 2019|Categories: Features|Tags: |

The Fat Girls Club: Paris Bound by Lila Johnson

The Fat Girls Club: Paris BoundThe Fat Girls Club: Paris Bound is the sequel to Lila Johnson’s Fat Girls Club, a fun and emotional novel about a group of friends who gather together to lose weight. As the title suggests, Paris Bound finds the group traveling to Europe, and all of the temptations it provides, as well as a scenic backdrop for the women to bond more deeply.

The three ladies from Kansas City hop over the pond for their first stop in London, where Lila Johnson has taken extra care to guide the reader along with William, Sissy’s brother, while he gives an […]

2018-03-08T10:36:50+02:00March 8th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: , , |

Review: Terror Trip by Delaney Landon

★★★½ Terror Trip by Delaney Landon

If you have a thing for British suspense novels, Terror Trip by Delaney Landon is for you, especially at a time when the UK is facing its biggest challenges with domestic terrorism since the IRA attacks of the last decades.

Gabriel, a young black man, and his female companions board a train in London, going to Brighton, a seaside town on the South coast, in good spirits. As the journey progresses, they reveal that there are tensions and feelings between them no so obviously apparent. But when they are faced with a terror attack from a group of extremist […]

2017-08-14T11:05:30+02:00June 22nd, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: Deadly Trespass by Sandra Neily

Deadly Trespass Cover

When Cassandra Patton Conover, a lone nature writer and conservationist, takes to the Maine wilds with her dog Pock into private grounds for good fishing, she discovers the body of her friend crushed under a tree. Confused by the circumstances of her friend’s death, she must now risk everything she cares about to uncover the mystery behind her untimely death in Deadly Trespass by Sandra Neily.

Cassandra’s task isn’t so easy – she kind of dislikes people, and the politically motivated swarm descending on the issues of deforestation, resources, and the matter of extinct wolves finding their way back to […]

2022-12-23T13:33:46+02:00June 12th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: |

Review: Intrinsic by Jerry Collins

★★★★ Intrinsic

Jatara is a powerful and of course, beautiful and magical Kali-like goddess who can destroy men and cities in a moment. Her war of terror spans Ancient Greece, Egypt and the slaves of the Pyramids where her humble beginnings are revealed, to modern-day New York, with her dark magician son Kragon taking on the power of the nastiest demons to conquer all men, despite having a mortal, pregnant girlfriend.

Intrinsic, Book One of a series, follows various uber-evil superbeings through a vast amount of time, mostly following Kragon, a flawed antihero with magic skills who thrives on gore […]

2017-06-14T06:04:41+02:00June 8th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: , |

Size Zero by AC Moyer

Size Zero by AC MoyerMost people realize that the beauty industry may not be all beautiful under the surface. In Size Zero, a thriller by AC Moyer, the veneer is pulled back and then some revealing a world that is not just unsavory, but criminal. A cold case rears its ugly head when a girl who’s been dead ten years shows up on the runway as a grim fashion accessory. Cecil LeClaire, her boyfriend who was a suspect in the case, aims to clear his name, and teams up with the irreverent Ava Germaine, who has scores to settle of her […]

2017-05-19T06:18:06+02:00May 19th, 2017|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

The Way Gargoyles Play by Andrea Britt Cadelli

The Way Gargoyles Play by Andrea Britt CadelliThe Way Gargoyles Play by Andrea Britt Cadelli is a moving and comprehensive work of self-help about overcoming personal suffering and achieving happiness. After her younger brother died, Cadelli found herself in a spiral of suffering, and here she tells tale of how she lifted herself out of the cycle. The book also includes Cadelli’s evocative poetry covering many of these same themes.

Cadelli talks passionately and eloquently about finding happiness in an oftentimes depressing world. One doesn’t have to be a depressive to find modern life daunting, and when you add real personal trauma to the mix, as Cadelli […]

2017-05-12T07:21:34+02:00May 12th, 2017|Categories: New Releases|Tags: , , |

The Anatomy of Cheating by Nesly Clerge

The Anatomy of CheatingThe Anatomy of Cheating by Nesly Clerge is a riveting novel about infidelity and its consequences. Chelsea Hall has an idyllic life with her physician husband, Garett – that is, except for the fact that he can’t remain faithful. Chelsea is determined to make the marriage work, but she’s understandably miserable, until she meets an author named Luke, who’s also having marital problems, and Chelsea starts an affair of her own. From there, a thrilling book unfolds with a number of shocking surprises and Chelsea’s affair taking on a new level of revenge.

This is a taut psychological thriller that […]

2017-04-27T07:25:32+02:00April 27th, 2017|Categories: New Releases|Tags: , |
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