Tag Archives: book lovers

Words are magic, that’s why it’s called spelling

February 28, 2016Reading, Uncategorized, Writing#amreading, book lovers, Books, gumption, Longbourn, magic, meniscus, prestidigitation, Pride and Prejudice, Reading, stories, wordskatyhaye

Wide-range reading

I’ve been reading out of my genre this week – Longbourn caught my eye (and who wouldn’t want a chance to escape back into the Pride and Prejudice universe?) and I’ve absolutely loved it.

As well as the story (it’s Pride and Prejudice seen from the servants’ point of view), I’ve loved the language of the book. I mostly read genre fiction in large part because I’m addicted to pace. You don’t get a cracking, breathless read from literary fiction (feel free to correct me, anyone!). But the other element I love about books is the words, the actual building blocks of our language.

Some words are simply gorgeous

There are some words I particularly love. I wrote the word ‘gumption’ in a letter recently (yes, an actual, paper letter; rarity in itself) and regretted that it doesn’t get out more. My all-time favourite is probably ‘prestidigitation’, which I adore so much I wrote a story around it (named – what else? – The Magic Word). Longbourn revisited another of my favourites, dropping the word ‘meniscus’ into its description with charming confidence – and there aren’t many occasions when that’s going to work.

I write genre fiction and, like the books I enjoy most, my focus is mainly on creating a stonking, fast-paced read, but my love of words shines through with the occasional guest appearance of ‘supercilious’ or ‘insatiable’ glinting brightly amongst all the mundane ‘justs’ and ‘thats’ which creep in despite my best efforts.

Words are a gentle sort of magic

Words build together to create another, more power enchantment: stories. Stories cast spells across cultures and ages and galaxies, drawing us together, letting us experience lives very different from our own. If that isn’t magic, I don’t know what is.

I’ve shown you some of my favourites – what glorious words do you think should get out more often? Tell me in the comments below.

Spread the (book) love

January 31, 2016Reading, Uncategorizedamazon, audience, author love, book love, book lovers, Books, get your reviews read, Kim Curran, reviewing, Sarah Govettkatyhaye

I love books. You might have noticed. I don’t love ALL books, though, that would be impossible (and ambitious, given how many now exist in the world). I have my go-to genres, and even within them there are books I pick up and put down, books I abandon after reading the first couple of pages, those I read and enjoy, and those I LOVE.

We all have them – books you adore and want to foist on complete strangers in the street because they are SO GOOD.

Now, I’m British so I would never dream of foisting anything on a stranger, which may or may not be an opportunity lost to the authors I love. But there is another way of shouting about brilliant books.

It’s reviews, of course – a way to tell the world about a great book and help recruit a new audience for it. I participate in a book blog (as one of the Paisley Piranhas, check us out), and I also post reviews on Goodreads and Amazon. Please, if you enjoy a book, tell people so. I promise, you will make the writer’s day.

Tell the world

This next bit is for hardcore fans, or book reviewers who want to get a bigger audience for their reviews because, I’ll be honest, it is a bit more work. However, it’s not a lot more work for the impact it has.

I’ve just discovered (apologies, I can’t link to the original post because I didn’t save it – I didn’t think it couldn’t possibly work until I actually tried it – my bad!) that it’s possible to share reviews across numerous Amazon platforms with very little effort – and given that you’ve exerted yourself to compose a review, don’t you want the biggest possible audience for it?

If you want to shout about a favourite book or writer and make sure EVERYONE hears, all you need to do is follow the steps below:

1. Open up your local version of Amazon and find the book you want to review. I’m using Kim Curran as my example because her books are fabulous and should have a bigger audience (i.e. everyone), and also because this is the first review I’ve done using this method and I’m wired that it works.

2. On the address line, you’ll have something that looks like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/GLAZE-Kim-Curran-ebook/dp/B00K9UYLR4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1453468983&sr=1-1&keywords=glaze+kim+curran

Yeah – snappy or what?! Remove everything except for http://www.amazon.WHATEVER/dp/B00K1REF321/, so it looks like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00K9UYLR4/

3. Copy this shortened address and paste it into a new line. Change the .WHATEVER to the alternative Amazon location where you want to leave your review (I ended up with a row of address lines with .com; .co.uk; .ca; .com.au to cover the main English-speaking sites.

4. Write your review at one of the addresses.

5. Cut and paste it to the other locations. Save them all.

Ta da – four reviews for the price of one, and a couple more continents full of readers have the benefit of your views on the book you loved so they can decide whether to try it.

I’ve just done my second review, for the equally fantastic The Territory by Sarah Govett and it was even faster than my first. Do give it a try!

Book Lovers Rock

August 16, 2015Reading, Uncategorized, Writingauthor interviews, Book Bites, book bundle, book lovers, Books, giveaway, Holly Bourne, Paisley Piranhas, prizes, Reading, TBR pile, UKYAchatkatyhaye

Okay, so we all know that books are fabulous and the people who read and write them are brilliant, too. This isn’t something new, I’ve just been particularly reminded of it recently.

Firstly, I’d run out of things to read. Yeah, I know, my TBR pile is always huge, but nothing on it leapt out and demanded to be read. I put a plea on Twitter for recommendations and within moments had downloaded the sample and then the whole of Holly Bourne’s Am I Normal Yet? (It’s a wonderful book, do check it out). Then I went on a UKYAchat and got loads of new suggestions. Book lovers love to share the books they’ve enjoyed and it’s wonderful to be on the receiving end of that.

Then there’s the sanity-preserving team of Paisley Piranhas. We’re four writers of YA who got together when we decided to self-publish to provide moral support and pool ideas. My fellow piranhas are worth their weight in gold (or at the very least, in chocolate) as they’ve stopped me tearing my hair out on many occasions along the distinctly bumpy path of self-pubbing.

And the third book-loving incident that’s bouyed my spirits lately is setting up Book Bites with the piranhas, which is a monthly newsletter with YA news, author interviews and giveaways. We had the idea at YALC and have been working on it since, ready to launch in September. As a result, I’ve been approaching YA authors with requests for interviews and books and I’ve been greeted with unqualified enthusiasm and agreement which has made me fall in love with the idea of Book Bites even more than I already had.

I know we know it, but it’s always worth a reminder – books and book lovers are the best!

And if you like the sound of Book Bites, you can join up and have a chance to win our launch giveaway book bundle (YA books, an Amazon giftcard and chocolate) by entering our draw on Rafflecopter. Details are here.