Winner of Emerald City Giveaway

The winner if Emerald City international eBook Giveaway is: Jess! My hotmail is not working now, so I'll try to send her a conformation email later. If you happen to know her, please tell her that she has two days to confirm the winning.

XOXO
Jez

Review: EMERALD CITY by Alicia K. Leppert

Emerald City is a tale about a young girl going through tough times, but was saved by a stranger.

Olivia Tate is haunted by a past she couldn’t escape. Sad and despaired, she takes one pill too many and is saved by her neighbor, Jude. When she comes home, she decides to pick up her life, with some help from Jude, of course. Jude seems elusive at first but as time grows, they both find themselves opening to each other. Soon, the two falls deeply for each other and Olivia seems be healthier. However, Jude’s sudden disappearance and appearance leaves Oliver wondering about their relationship and who Jude really is.

Leppert’s new fantasy tale takes a spin on mythology and the romance between young people.

I absolutely love the characters! Oliver is so sad and bleak at the beginning of the novel, having dealt with (I suspect) depression. That is a feeling most of us can relate to, one way or another. She grows and matures more than the other female and male lead characters I’d came across. It’s amazing to watch her blossom and come out of her cocoon. In the end, she is the youngster she’s supposed to be, vibrating with life and hopeful, and most important, she’s finally able to take a chance on love. Jude on the other hand, is an enigmatic person, though he is secretive about his past and not very open about his true feelings. He too blossomed into a very fine young man. He is also fiercely protective of Olivia, and I was constantly surprised by the sensitive side of Jude. There wasn’t much extra character except for Hal, a beggar and a provider for Jude. Confusing, I know, but you’ll understand if you read the story. The other characters are relatively minor.

Emerald City is told in Olivia’s view but sometimes in an omnipresent view when Jude is doing stuff not known by Olivia. This is not something new as I read this before in The Pledge(my review here) but not as often in my reading range. Olivia’s voice leapt out of the page and Jude’s view really provides some (minimal) insight.

What’s interesting about Emerald City is its take on the usual mythology. I can’t say much without revealing the surprise, all I can say is you wouldn’t expect it at all. Leppert keep you guessing until the very end. Really! Just when I thought I know what was happening, she threw in another element to throw me off the scent. So it was an intriguing read right from the start.

However, there were some minor complaints. I think Jude is a little preachy sometimes, a few of his explanation too long at times. I would like to see the romance part tone down a little and the actual actions vamped up.

 If you want something fresh, don’t miss Emerald City. I have a feeling that this is going to be the first of a successful series.

Absolutely loved the cover! So simple and dark and atmospheric. Not many cover can rock the green!

Ratings: 4 stars

Here are the links for the author interview and the giveaway.

Alicia's website
Alicia's Facebook
Alicia on Goodreads

Pre-order Emerald City on Amazon

Cedar Fort Blog
Cedar Fort Facebook
Cedar Fort Twitter
Cedar Fort on Goodreads

 

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Giveaway and Book Tour

One city of 600,000 people.

One broken girl.

One mysterious boy.

One fateful night,

Two worlds collide.  

Seattle, Washington. The sprawling, industrious city set in a blanket of pine. I have never known a day that wasn’t spent inside this concrete jungle. It’s my home, and for that I love it. But it’s also the setting for the tragedy called my life, and so I loathe it.

I live alone in a cold, empty studio apartment. The tiny square room closely resembles a cell. That’s my life: solitary confinement.

Here, in this desolate place that perfectly reflects my soul, my story begins.

The Book Tour of Emerald City has started! There will be an author interview on March 9, be sure to come back for it. The giveaway's to be started on March 9, and ends on March 31. Here's the Rafflecopter:


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Alicia's Website 

Alicia's Facebook

Alicia on GoodReads

Pre-Order Emerald City on Amazon

Cedar Fort Blog 

Cedar Fort Facebook 

Cedar Fort's Twitter 

Cedar Fort on GoodReads 

Here's the calender for the book tour. Be sure to visit other blogs!

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
			March	1	2	3
				Getting Your Read On/ Literary Time Out/	Love of Books 409/	Krazy Book Lady/
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Daisy Chain’s Chocolate-Covered Books/	Twisting The Lens/ LDS Women’s Book Review/	It’s All About Me/	Curiosity Killed the Book/	A Daydreamer’s Thoughts/ Lovey Dovey Books/	A Casual Reader’s Blog/ Jez’s Bookcase/	Book Spark/
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
Blackbird in my Window/	Jessy’s Bookends/	Totally Booked Solid/	Small Southern Girl Writing in A Big Big World/	Bookworm Lisa/ The Write Web/ Roro Is Reading/	Book Briefs/ Jera’s Jamboree/ Blooming with Books/	So Simple Sara/
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
Author Cindy C. Bennett/	Dandee Designs/	Family Reads/ Fiction Fascination/	Diana’s Amazing Book Adventures/	Bonnie Gets a Say/ Bloggin’ ’bout Books/	Book Lover’s Paradise/	Let Them Read Books/ Becky’s Barmy Book Blog/
25	26	27	28	29	30
	Fire and Ice Photos/	Sweet Southern Home/	Mundie Moms/

Recap: Giveaways, Book Tours and Others

Okay, here is the brief note of what's happening on my blog.

Giveaway:
Fractured Light
The New Death and Others

Book Tour
Emerald City Virtual Book Tour

Interviews
James Hutchings

Guest Post
James Hutchings on Creative Commons

Review
Another Jekyll, Another Hyde
New Girl
Fractured Light

Fractured Light eBook Giveaway!

 Llona Reese is used to living on the run. After the Vykens killed her parents, she knew they would eventually come for her too. But she never felt ready to face them until now. Defying the Auran Council and everything she s been taught, Llona must learn to use her power over light as a weapon if she wants to survive.

Here is another giveaway: FRACTURED LIGHT by Rachell McClellan. It will start on 5 February. Be sure to check back to enter this giveaway. This a an international giveaway. My review of Fractured Light is here.

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At the same time, I'm having THE NEW DEATH AND OTHERS by James Hutchings giveaway. This giveaway has started and be sure to enter. It's open for international.  Read the interview here and the guest post here.

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Guest Post + The New Death and Others Giveaway

Author James Hutchings has been kind enough to offer a giveaway, guest post and author interview(read the interview here) for me. (Rafflecopter signup for giveaway is at the bottom of this post)

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Guest Post

Many writers, whether published or just starting out, are very nervous that someone else will steal their work, whether that be another writer using their ideas in their own stories, or someone making pirated copies of their books. When I put out a collection of my writing, I specifically gave permission for anyone at all to copy my ideas, or even to cut and paste whole stories. I also contacted the Pirate Party, a worldwide network that wants to lessen copyright, and told them that I was giving anyone permission to put my ebook on file-sharing sites. In this post I hope to show why I went against common wisdom.

Creative Commons

I used a free service called Creative Commons. Creative Commons is useful for people who want to give the general public permission to use their work, but with restrictions. In my case I didn't mind people using my work for non-profit purposes, such as posting on a blog, but I didn't want to allow anyone to make money off it. Similarly I wanted anyone who used it to give me credit. I could have just listed these things myself. However I'm not a lawyer, and perhaps I would have worded it wrong so that someone could twist what I said to do more than I meant. Also I could have been unclear about what I was allowing and what I wasn't allowing. Sure, someone could email me and ask, but the whole purpose of having a written statement is so that people don't have to ask.

Creative Commons has a series of different licenses, which give permission to do different things. They're all legally 'tight', and they're all summarized in plain language. So all you have to do is go to their site and answer a series of questions, to get to the license that does what you want. In my case I used the Attribution Non-Commercial License.

Why?

That's what I did. But why? Common sense would suggest that I'm giving something away for free that I could be selling. However I believe that, in the long run, I'll be better off. The main reason is that I've seen how many people are, like me, trying to get their writing out there. Go to Smashwords and have a look at the latest ebooks. Then refresh the page ten minutes later, and you'll probably see a whole new lot. The problem that new writers face isn't that people want to steal your work; it's getting anyone to show an interest in your work at all. If someone passes on a pirated copy of my work, it might get to someone who's prepared to buy it - and that someone would probably have never heard of me otherwise. Even if they don't want to pay for what they read, I might come out with something else in the future, and perhaps paying 99c for it will be easier than hunting it down on a file-sharing site.

Science fiction writer Andrew Burt tells the story of someone who disliked his book, and to get back at him decided to put a copy on a file-sharing site. The effect was that he got a small 'spike' in sales immediately afterwards.

I also have some less selfish motives. Many people would assume that the purpose of copyright is to protect authors and creators. Leaving aside the fact that someone else often ends up with the rights (how many Disney shareholders created any of the Disney characters? How many shareholders in Microsoft have ever written a line of code?), that doesn't seem to have been the intention in the past. The US Constitution says that Congress has the power "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." Note that protecting 'intellectual property' isn't mentioned. The authors of the Constitution seemed to see the point as getting ideas out there where people can use them: almost the exact opposite of keeping them 'safe' and 'protected'.

The original idea of copyright seems to have been a sort of deal: you have an idea, and we want you to get it out into the world where it will do some good. To encourage you to do that, we'll give you a monopoly on its use for a limited time. After that, anybody can use it (it will enter the 'public domain').

A lot of people don't know that copyright used to give a lot less protection than it does now, especially in the United States. In the US, it used to be that works were copyrighted for a maximum of 56 years. Today copyright in the US can last for over 100 years. In fact Congress keeps extending the time. In practice, they're acting as if they never want ideas to go into the public domain.

This is great for the owners of 'intellectual property'. But it's hard to see how this "promotes the Progress of Science and useful Arts," or how forever is a "limited time." In a sense it's a theft from the public. Anyone who publishes work has accepted the deal that the law offers, of a limited monopoly in return for making their idea known. Congress has been giving them more and more extensions on that monopoly, but doesn't require them to do anything to earn it.

It probably doesn't matter that much that Disney still owns Mickey Mouse, or that Lord of the Rings is still under copyright. But remember that these laws don't just apply to the arts. Similar laws apply to science as well. So a life-saving invention could be going unused, because its owner wants too much money for it, or because it's tied up in court while two companies fight about who owns it.

Conclusion

I'm far from an expert on either the law or the publishing industry. However I hope that I've given you, especially those of you who might be thinking about publishing some writing, a different take on the whole issue of whether authors should worry about their ideas being stolen. At least I hope I've shown you that there's a different way of thinking about it, and that that way doesn't require you to just give up on making money; in fact that it might be more profitable as well as better for society.

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bio: James Hutchings lives in Melbourne, Australia. He fights crime as Poetic Justice, but his day job is acting. You might know him by his stage-name 'Brad Pitt.' He specializes in short fantasy fiction. His work has appeared in Daily Science Fiction, fiction365 and Enchanted Conversation among other markets. His ebook collection The New Death and others is now available from Amazon, Smashwords and Barnes & Noble. He blogs daily at Teleleli.

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This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License.

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Death gets a roommate...

An electronic Pope faces a difficult theological question...

A wicked vizier makes a terrible bargain...

44 stories. 19 poems. No sparkly vampires. There's a thin line between genius and insanity, and James Hutchings has just crossed it - but from which direction?



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 Here's the giveaway!

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Winner of Dragon's Oath Audiobook Giveaway!

Congratulations to:

SAMANTHA!

I'd sent  you an email, please confirm that you would like to accept the prize with me within 48 hours. Thanks!

And for those who didn't win, don't worry, there will be giveaways next time!

Jez
XOXO

Last Day to Enter giveaway of Dragon's Oath Audiobook

Today is the last day for my giveaway of Dragon's Oath Audiobook! Up until now there's 88 entries.Be sure to enter for this novella of the well known series.  Enjoy your day!


Don't forget to enter my giveaway of Dragon's Oath Audiobook!
The original post is here


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Dragon's Oath (Audiobook) Sample & Giveaway!

Happy new year, everybody! And with the beginning of 2012, I have great news to share.Just now I'd listened to a five minute sample of Dragon's Oath. The woman reading the novel was great, the voice soothing and successfully rousing emotions. It's a lot like the voice in my head when I'm reading the printed words. So, this is a treat for you: Dragon's Oath Audiobook  on Soundcloud.

Now the other great news: I'm having a giveaway! Yes, a giveaway! On January 13,12 a.m. EST, the entries of the Dragon's Oath (Audiobook) Giveaway will be opened. The giveaway will end on January 22, 12a.m. EST. The winner will be anoounced in a few days. Be sure to check back on the blog fn a couple of days for news of the winner. So now spread the joy and news around so everyone could participate!

Enjoy!

P.S A million thanks to Ms Ester Bochner, Senior Publicist of Macmillan Audio for offering me this wonderful opportunity.

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My review of Dragon's Oath here