Yecheilyah’s Book Reviews – House of the Hanging Jade by Amy M. Reade

Title: House of The Hanging Jade

Author: Amy M. Reade

Print Length: 246 pages

Publisher: Lyrical Underground (April 26, 2016)

Publication Date: April 26, 2016

Sold by: Penguin Random House Publisher Services

Language: English

ASIN: B0138NHCMO

Not willing to cope with Washington’s brutal winters, Kailani breaks up with restaurant owner Geoffrey and leaves her job to return home, returning to the warm weather and beauty of Hawaii, black sand, and the curling waves of the Pacific Ocean. In preparation to return, Kailani searches for employment and secures a position as personal chef to Lars Jorgensen, owner of Kaimana Surf Company, and his wife, Dr. Barbara Merriweather, on the West Coast of the Big Island in the district of North Kohala.

When she arrives, the Jorgensen’s house is beautiful, and this sous-chef is ill-prepared for what awaits beyond the lush tropical gardens of palm trees, midnight jasmine, red ginger, and pergola laden with hanging Jade. As Kailani settles in, a series of events begin to unfold that question the stability of the Jorgensen household. First, Lars and Barbie don’t seem to like each other much, which could have something to do with Barbie’s roaming eye.

When Barbie asks Kailani to make more nutritious meals to reduce her family’s craving for junk food, the kids dislike Kailani’s healthy cooking. Nevertheless, this is not the full scope of Kailani’s issues. As Geoffrey relocates to Hawaii to be with her, things start to become strange, and a body is discovered on the Jorgensens’ property.

I liked reading about the kinds of meals Kailani would make for the family because she is a chef, especially as she started to get inventive to convince the kids to eat healthily. I got a sense of Hawaiian culture through it.

I also like how the plot focuses on this one family. That gives the story a TV show feel, which I like. Whenever I put my Kindle down, I think about what I will read in tomorrow’s House of the Hanging episode. The Jorgensen’s are off the chain.

What’s really going on in the house with the hanging Jade?

Ratings:
Plot Movement / Strength: 4/5
Entertainment Factor: 4/5
Characterization: 5/5
Authenticity / Believable: 4/5
Thought Provoking: 5/5
Overall Rating: 4 / 5 stars

House of the Hanging Jade is available  now on Amazon!

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Be sure to contact this Best Selling Author at the links below!

Amy can be found online at the following places:

Website: www.amymreade.com

Blog: www.amreade.wordpress.com

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/8189243.Amy_M_Reade

Amazon: www.amazon.com/Amy-M.-Reade/e/B00LX6ASF2/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/AmyMReadesGothicFictionFans/

Twitter: www.twitter.com/readeandwrite

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/amreade

Instagram: www.instagram.com/amymreade

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High Expectations

Well said. I enjoyed reading this. Post quote:

“Building a career as an author is a marathon not a sprint and anyone who expects instant results is likely to wind up disillusioned and disappointed.”

ellieholmesauthor's avatar

When you launch yourself off on a career as an indie author you need to have expectations of what you would like to achieve.

expectations Expectations vs Reality by Kristian Bjornard courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons licensed by CC BY-SA 2.0

https://flic.kr/p/7ys8nH  https://goo.gl/laq7O1

It’s good to have dreams but a dash of reality wouldn’t go amiss.

Writing a book takes a long time. Marketing a book takes a long time. Building a career as an author is a marathon not a sprint and anyone who expects instant results is likely to wind up disillusioned and disappointed.

Houses that are built to last have strong foundations. Create your brand with the future in mind. I was given some sage advice when I started out. I was told to assume it would take three years and/or five books to reach a point where things were ticking over career wise. The smart money…

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Refocusing – Book Production Updates

refocusing

Morning!

You may have noticed I’ve been posting less frequently this past couple of weeks. I’d admit. I’ve been so into research of the industry that I’ve lost focus a bit on how I do things. So concerned about how it’s done that I’ve neglected my way of getting it done. You’ve been off focus Yecheilyah (Yes, I talk to myself, doesn’t everyone?) Now that I’ve disciplined myself, it’s time to refocus.

So, here’s what’s going on guys.

As you all know I’m writing a two-part novel series and I am approaching that six-month pre-release time. My hope is to launch Book One of The Nora White Story between June and July of next year. Though I haven’t decided on a date, I am putting together a plan that will help me to focus on execution. My husband says I suck at multi-tasking which takes someone who knows me well to see considering the load I carry.

The truth is I can only get away with doing so much due to maintaining a level of balance and by balance I mean deadlines and dedication. For instance, I host an online radio show every Thursday evening with a queue sheet that needs to be sent to my panel no later than Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning at the latest. These are deadlines I’ve given myself. That’s because I know myself and how much I need deadlines to keep me focused and as the excitement of another book release begins to creep in, I’ll be shifting my efforts to ensure everything is in its proper place.

I’ll admit something else too. I don’t like to reveal too much of what I’m doing during the writing and publishing process! At least not until I’ve met a certain goal. The reason is because I believe there are forces out there that are against us just as there are forces that are for us. I do not then think it is wise to reveal your plans or at least not everything that you’re doing. As I am refocusing I’ve noticed that my level of discretion is in need of a tune up so I won’t be divulging every detail but I will let you in on a little something-something!

  • Return on Time

The first thing I am focusing on is time management and ROT. We’ve all heard of Return on Investment. A high ROI means you receive a gain that is well worth the investment. Taking the ROI understanding and applying it to time, although I cannot foresee the details of the future I can take advantage of the time I am given in each day to dedicate toward some of the production work for this book. What I want to implement is practical tactics and execution that will produce a valuable gain from having put in the work, such as the completion of my work by the deadlines I set forth.

As of now, I’m thinking about things I can do to increase interest in the book (that I’ll implement later) that won’t be just a waste of time and resources. I truly believe hard work pays off and let’s just say it’s time to grind! Once I settle on a release date and announce that date, I do not intend on changing it, and if I manage my time right, I shouldn’t have to.

Speaking of release dates, I have my first real update for you!

December 2016

  • Book Launch Date
  • Book Cover Release
  • Matching Social Media Banners
  • Blurb

This is all tentative but if everything falls into place I’ll have a book cover and blurb to promote as early as December to accompany the decided launch date for next year. I’ve chosen to do this for several reasons, one of them being it’s different than how I released my other books and that’s what I love about Independent Publishing. With every book are new experiences so I love experimenting with different things. I also really want to have certain things done before I start promoting a release date. It’s important to me to have the Book Cover and blurb to go along with the date. This way the visual representation and a full idea of what the book is about will keep things exciting!

  • Guest Blog Posts and Email List

I enjoy blogging (*Waves to new subscribers, by the way!*) and consider it an important part of my work so of course, I’ll still be here but you should expect the number of posts to decline. (By decline I just mean I’ll be posting once or twice a day or every other day instead of my usual outrageous posting behavior). Instead, I intend to guest post on as many blogs as I can so I won’t be entirely out of the loop. As part of my refocus initiative, I am also dedicating time to building up and adding more value to my email list.

  • Book Reviews

Book reviews will commence. I know I’ve missed a couple weeks but I’ll have another author for you Friday. Those of you who submitted your book for a review I thank you for your patience. I’ll be reading and writing reviews as part of my refocus initiative so I should be churning them out more consistently. I do read a lot but that also includes my scripture studies (can’t neglect the word!) so I have to balance my time. If I haven’t responded to you yet no worries, I got them all and am organizing them to be read in the order in which they were received.

(P.S. I have a surprise, guess what’s coming back Friday? Black History Fun Fact Friday! Friday, I am officially bringing back this segment. Our first story is a group of beautiful women that not a lot of people know about. Their story is, well, something. You don’t want to miss it).

Confidence and Writing Discipline

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The most important factor in a writer’s life, at least in my opinion, is not mere talent. Neither is it some mysterious entity floating in the air called luck. It is not how much you blog or how less you blog. It is not how much money you spend or how little money you spend. It is not even your profound research and marketing skills. These elements surely help, but the greatest difference and perhaps the most unique too, between writing and other careers is a writer’s level of discipline and confidence. To keep writing, I often find that I must maintain a proper balance of each of them. Believing enough in your ability to write and having a consistent writing practice is often the difference between aspiring authors and published authors. Of course, it does not stop here but it is a step in the right direction.

The advice we hear from like-minded bloggers, agents, editors, or just authors, in general, have always, and perhaps will continue to be, our focus on writing. Because engaging in any activity of whatever sort on a daily basis naturally makes one more familiar with it, we will always hear how important it is to write and to keep writing. While this is good advice, I think that for many writers finding the time to write and sketching out a daily routine is not always easy and this is often underestimated  by those who are not writers or those who consider writing to involve less work than other careers.

“Self-discipline, what many call will-power, refers to the ability to persist at difficult or unpleasant tasks until they are completed. People who possess high self-discipline are able to overcome reluctance to begin tasks and stay on track despite distractions. Those with low self-discipline procrastinate and show poor follow-through, often failing to complete tasks even tasks they want very much to complete.” – Wikipedia

When a writer transitions from the workplace to fulfill a writing career, his initial challenge will be to maintain a certain level of self-discipline. For years he has not had to create his own time sheets, develop his own projects, and schedule his own lunch breaks. All of this has been done for him by the corporation in which he has worked for. It is now that, as a full-time writer, he must put in the necessary time to ensure a proper work day, rest, and vacation time.

He must dig deep into his resourceful mind and find the inspiration to write, in some way, daily. If he is not writing, then he must attempt to focus that energy in the direction of reading, social media marketing, offline marketing, and public speaking events to keep in line with the workflow. As we can see, the full-time writer has a lot to do and it is not always easy finding the discipline to get it done.

Sometimes it is just so hard finding the time. What I have come to invest in, however, is my purpose. As long as I remember my purpose and invest in that it is usually enough to keep me moving. This is because discipline works hand in hand with motivation and drive. It is that ingrained, determined urge to attain a goal or satisfy a need. It is the answer to the question, “Why do you write?” This answer is different for each of us but the result is the same. If every full-time writer kept his primary goal, the answer to the question of why he or she must write, always at the forefront of his mind it can undoubtedly become the catalyst to a more disciplined writing life and as a result more material.

Yet, in all of this, a writer must still believe in his ability to write and speak this into existence.

There’s a lot of criticism out there for writers. It is enough to keep us full for a lifetime. Not only in its relation to the backlash geared at Self-Publishers, but many people also do not see entrepreneurship, specifically writing, as being a “real job”. For this reason, confidence is necessary to be an apart of this movement. It is not to think more highly of yourself than you should think, (*caution: recipe for disaster*) since there is a power greater than you. But confidence is the state of feeling certain about something.

Working for you can feel like a blessing and a curse. There is so much to do, so much to strive for and (wait for it) so much failure. But if you believe in that aged old saying, “hard work pays off”, you will allow self-discipline and experience to train you into the professional you need to become.

One of the greatest ways to maintain just enough confidence to get the work done but  at the same time maintain just enough humility is to be of help to others as best and as often as you can. What you do always comes back. How you treat others will almost certainly reflect how you yourself are treated. It’s not always about you, and yet your personal goals are still important.

So there’s a balance between our level of discipline–which will get the work done–and our level of confidence, which will keep us going when a project has failed to meet the goal. In the words of Kevin Nance, “failure curdles into something else… I go down into that failed place, and I think, ‘I’m going to take a look at that failure and make something of it”.

Quick Tips for Paperback Page Numbering

Most valuable tutorial on numbering your print books.

jorobinson176's avatarLit World Interviews

When numbering the pages of your paperback manuscript, the thing quite a lot of Indies have trouble with is that they use Page Breaks rather than Section Breaks. A Page Break is just that—starting a new page within the same section of a book. With a Section Break you can have totally different numbers and Headers and Footers for each section. The way to ensure that your numbering doesn’t bounce back from the first chapter of your book to the front matter is to get rid of all the Page Breaks in first pages and replace them with Section Breaks.

page-break
Section Break after title page, and again after the table of contents, and every other page you have in your front matter.

section-break
Then double click into your Headers and Footers up to and including the first page of your first chapter, and unlick Link to Previous. This will ensure that…

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These Good People

I will tell you of these good people

A scroll of courtesy on their tongues

Neatly wrapped in rainbows

And angel’s wings

The finest hello

And thank you

And good morning, please

We are telecommunicators

In front of computer screens

With scripts

And sayings

And clichés

That ring sunshine

Like a glass of sweet summer breeze

Trapped in cold winter bottles

Set free

But hurricanes do happen

And thunderstorms will sometimes fall into your lap

You may one day trip over someone’s mistake

Find typos in their smile

Cracks in their armor

Leaks in their wine-skins

And I promise you that these people

Will backspace their lines

Tighten up their scripts

2nd draft their good mornings

Because the sun didn’t shine on you today

One mistake

One mishap

One earthquake

And I promise you

That they will pick out their courtesy from your face

Peel back the savior

Their “how are you?” left in your smile

Pull back the Hero once carved into their chest

That moment they cared more about you

Than they cared about self

But one mistake

And they’ll drop their cape

At the foot of your tragedy

I promise you

That the levees of trust

Will break

And Crack

And leak with suspicion

From the pores of their skins

You’ll smell the stench

Of give up

On their breaths

The sour taste of newborn behind their ears

The fabricated persona

Tattooed on top their tongues

I warn you

Whilst bathing in the wake of your passion

Whilst being kissed by white paper

Do not forget

That these people are not your friends

And will turn their backs

When you need them most

Because in the age of technology

Most people’s thoughts are not theirs

And their courtesies are pre-written

Hearts plagiarized

A routine kindness

From so called good people

Who forgot to mention that angels

Are not always good

So paper wings will just have to do

A standard hello

Like the signature on an email

And they have convinced themselves

That this

Is

Love