Member Blog

It’s free to join SPR and blog about your writing experiences. Read the latest blog entries from our community

Review: The Imitation of Patsy Burke by John J. Gaynard

Booze, brawls, sex and schizophrenia—such is the artist’s life in Paris, according to this raucous satire.

When Patsy Burke, a world-famous Irish sculptor living in France, wakes up in his hotel with his body torn and bloody and no recollection of how it got that way, he’s not particularly surprised. A raging alcoholic given to beating up pimps in Paris dives, he’s used to blackouts and drunk tanks. Unfortunately, his latest bender has left a dead man in its wake, and Patsy’s attempt to piece together what he’s been doing for the last few days triggers a reckoning with his […]

2019-01-23T12:39:55+02:00November 15th, 2011|Categories: Member Blog|

Review: From the Ground Up by Christopher W. Siders

A callow young hotshot gets taken down more than a few pegs in this caustic, darkly humorous tale of the travails—and unlikely consolations—of traumatic brain injury.

Matt Riggs, a 29-year-old sportswriter in Jacksonville, Fla., has everything he wants: good looks, a beautiful girlfriend named Amanda, a manipulative way with words and a super-sized ego that keeps him focused on the one thing that matters—himself. Then a car crash puts him in a coma. When he awakens, he lacks the coordination to blink and swallow, let alone walk, talk or bathe; it’s anyone’s guess when or if he’ll regain the use […]

2019-01-23T12:40:06+02:00November 14th, 2011|Categories: Member Blog|

Review: The Long Road to Paris by Ed Howle & Janet Howle

Driving a Volkswagen Beetle with an alternative engine-technology, an engineer races from New York to Paris and tries to outwit those bent on stealing the car.

Ed Talbot, engineer and owner of a fledgling alternative automotive testing company, has just been offered an intriguing opportunity. German scientist Dietrich Otto has developed a revolutionary engine-technology that could severely impact the world’s oil dependency. To gauge its effectiveness, Dietrich puts the invention into a 1967 VW Beetle and asks Ed to drive it in a car rally from New York to Paris. Ed agrees, though he’s uneasy about Dietrich’s almost pathological secrecy. […]

2019-01-23T12:39:38+02:00November 9th, 2011|Categories: Member Blog|

Review: Hollywood and Wine By R.M. Pala

A transcontinental Cinderella story set in the Great Depression.

Orphaned as a young child, Linda McLane lives a life of servitude and physical abuse with her guardians, a stereotypically villainous aunt and uncle. Alarmed by Linda’s plight, a kindly reverend notifies her other aunt, prominent Hollywood actress Vera Sinclair, who promptly whisks Linda away from her dreary English village and off to sunny Los Angeles. On the ocean voyage, Linda begins a transformation from gawky village lass to beautiful sophisticate, a transformation so complete that she finds immediate success as her aunt’s secretary, working toward the older woman’s spectacular comeback. […]

2019-01-23T12:40:16+02:00November 8th, 2011|Categories: Member Blog|

Interview – Barbara Rayne – Author of 21 Erased

Barbara Rayne is the author of – 21 Erased future dystopian society novel.

1. How did you come to self-publish? Did you try to get published traditionally?

I am used to doing everything I can from my home, so first I wanted to see if I could publish my book without ever leaving my home, and when I saw I could, I most certainly did. Traditional publishing was out of the question.

2. What self-publishing service did you use? Happy with the service?

Createspace was my service of choice and, so far, I’m very pleased. Those services

[…]
2011-11-08T13:47:01+02:00November 8th, 2011|Categories: Interviews, Member Blog|

Why Good Writing Always Enhances Good SEO

Everyone that has a website knows that they are in a sea of hundreds of millions of other websites.  Even if you are in a unique niche or category, you still have hundreds of thousands of competing sites.  This is not always a bad situation, however, you need to let people, that need your products or services, know that you are on the internet.

There are hundreds of thousands of sites that have products and services to enhance your SEO (search engine optimization), in the attempt to make you more noticeable in your particular area of expertise.  Some of these […]

2011-11-08T13:10:50+02:00November 8th, 2011|Categories: Features, Member Blog|

Review: Carlos the Impossible by J.T.K. Belle

In this short but elegant novella, an aging matador from Mexico meets his greatest adversary in an infamous bull from the American heartland. Inspired by traditional folk tales, the author sets his story in an indeterminate time period, spinning a legend all his own with the compassion and verve of a born storyteller.

The novella begins by introducing the titular monolith of the book, a gargantuan bull from Kansas whose moniker quickly evolves from “Son of Carleton” to the ironic “Carlito,” to “Big Carl” and finally, to the ultimate compliment: “Carlos the Impossible.” By the time he’s been drafted for […]

2020-02-21T05:40:50+02:00November 6th, 2011|Categories: Book Reviews, Member Blog|

Intro Interview: Katherine Gilraine

Info on filling out this interview here.

1. How did you come to self-publish? Did you try to get published traditionally?

At the time that I was editing the first book of my series, I was querying agents for a good year. I’ve gotten good feedback, but not one agent had ever said, “Send me the rest of the manuscript.” And it had gotten to where I had, at the time, two and a half manuscripts, and about two rejections per chapter.

I gave myself a promise that if by my birthday I wouldn’t secure an agent, I would […]

2011-11-04T13:08:09+02:00November 4th, 2011|Categories: Interviews, Member Blog|
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