Not too late to read my little itty bitty short story. BUY NOW!
Here it is the eve of the eve of the eve of Christmas. Did I count that correctly? At any rate, I thought I would give you all an update on the WTF? Begging for Reviews Contest. These numbers are as of right now. So, before I go any further, you might want to tell a few friends about this one. You’ll see why in a moment.
Books Sent: 50 (notified that 3 people cannot meet the 12/24 midnight deadline, so technically only 47.
Book Reviews Posted: 12 (Okay, we need 50 posted if I am to give away that Kindle Touch. I know, grumble grumble…rules is rules.)
Books Selected: As of this morning all 10 books have been selected for review. THANK YOU!
Happily, I have only take a small bit of rubbish for my methods with this contest, but it served a very important purpose–actually several.
1. It helped a few people realize that they were qualified to review books and that they could in fact write solid reviews.
2. It opened up the eyes of many authors who thought (seriously) that the reviewers would come looking for them. I wish it were true. Would save me a lot of hours in many days, but as publishers and authors we MUST seek out the reviewers.
3. In at least a couple instances, it helped readers realize that its okay to step a little bit out of their comfort zone because they might just find an author, or a genre, they didn’t know they would enjoy.
4. And most importantly for Echelon and our authors, it got us out there into some new forums. For more than a decade I have sought reviews with almost no success, and without really knowing why, we have sat aside feeling neglected.
So far the reviews posted have been solid and I feel the readers have been pretty honest. I have learned a lot and will make every effort to enhance the quality of our books from this point on.
So, get out there and tell ALL your reader buddies that YOU want to win a Kindle Touch so they need to read a book or two by Midnight 12/24. If they really love you, they will. (okay, I know that never really works, but I couldn’t think of anything any more clever to close with.)
But since I just added that other stuff, I am now closing this post, in a non-comedic way. That means not funny, cause hubby says, I think I’m a lot funnier than I really am. He has other good qualities. LOL He irons his own clothes. I know, right. How cool is that?
And to lizziecracked (not broken) who write the Running Naked With Scissors Blog (which you really should follow) I give you this link. The History of Christmas. You asked about Christmas and when it actually started or something like that, and then somewhere you asked for links, I wasn’t sure exactly what links you wanted, but I assumed it was in reference to the whole Christmas thing, so I went out this morning (cause I had so much time to waste, and I found this link that I think gives a rather good description of the history of Christmas and while I was raised a Christian, I always had a problem with that whole Jesus born in December thing, but that’s a whole ‘nother blog post.
Journey of the Heart 
I missed this!! How did I miss this? Acckk what a nice thing and I missed it – but I soooo appreciate it and I am checking it out. It is still technically the holidays right? I appreciate the shout out and the time … I am going to get caught up on my reading and all that this week – start this week anyways. This week in Happy Talk (on the 31st ) I have an idea….hmmm. Thanks Karen. You Rock!
🙂 Peace
This review is from: Betrayed (The Austin Files) (Kindle Edition)
Austin take you into a friends family. Which is Mexican and what the two boys and his cousin,gets into trying to right some wrongs done to them. It made me feel as if I was there with then and so very glad that Christians of the world still try to help each other. I can relate to the line from Texas and Arizona into Mexico is a big space with lots of rules to cross for all Americans well being. A must read about the courage of a young christian.
GB
.barnesandnoble.com/communityportal/review.aspx?ean=9781590806517&pc=BK
http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews?ie=UTF8&action=preview
Shadow Marsh. Review
The book takes you back in time to the Plantations and slavery days. A man sets free his slaves upon his death. The families love and caring for the workers. The slaves that were set free saves the families plantation for when they returns after the war. Life changes when two people finds true love. I liked being able to turn back the hands of time and see in landscape in the characters eyes. I very worth while book even if it is a little long.
GB
barnesandnoble.com/communityportal/WriteReview.aspx?ean=2940013444935
Chanukkah began last night and lasts for eight days. The holiday commerates the victory of the Macabees over the Syrians who had defied The Temple in Jerusalem. The Macabees, who camped in the Judian hills, were probably the world’s first gorilla tactic fighters. After the Macabees chased the Syrians out of Judiah they cleansed The Temple and relit the “everlasting light” over the ark, but thought that they only had enough oil to last one day. But the oil lasted eight days. It is this eight days that we commerate. What many non Jews may not know is that Purim was the original holiday in which the Jews exchanged gifts. But in the early 1900’s, the Jewish community in America decided to change it and have Chanukkah as the time to exchange gifts. Now we give gifts for eight days on Chanukkah and give Purim gelt (chocolate candy created to look like ancient coins) on Purim. For more about these holidays and other stories about Jewish life, see Elaine Abramson’s short stories in “Thursday’s Child”.