From “In Other Words…” Column: by Bradley Babendir, Chicago Review of Books.

“Something I think about frequently is the large amount of factors that lead to a book being covered or not. Most exclusion comes down to how much money there is, in one way or another. If a publisher can afford to get more advanced copies into the hands of more critics, it’s more likely that the book will receive coverage. On the other side, publications that have enough money and space to pay more reviewers will cover more books. Time, as they say, is money also, and I think time is an underrated factor.”

Source: 3 New Books in Translation – Chicago Review of Books

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Indie Authors: Do You Need a Test Reader or Book Reviewer?

I’ve beta-read for several authors. I provide comprehensive beta-reader reports on all aspects of the writing.

I’m interested in multi-genre novels (three have included a faith-oriented adventure/thriller; a faith-oriented time-travel romance; a sci-fi romance); and I’ve done a Sherlock Holmes spin-off mystery. I’ll be especially pleased to see historical fiction, Boomer-Lit and other novels centered on mature protagonists, and fiction that features characters with physical or psychological disabilities.

I’ve also done medical topic consulting for the author of a murder mystery/thriller. My Registered Nurse education, experience and extensive textbook library can provide factual, consistency and continuity evaluation for any physical or mental health issue.

In addition, I’m a scholar of the First World War (restricted to the British and German aspects), and of everything Irish: history, culture, geography, wildlife, weather, agriculture, politics, psychology, religion and whatever you’re having yourself. I’ll also double-check miscellaneous facts from any period for historical novels.

For Beta Reading ONLY: I can accommodate digital manuscripts in formats supported by the Balabolka Text-to-Speech reader: AZW, AZW3, CHM, DjVu (DjVu+OCR), DOC, DOCX, EML, EPUB, FB2 (FB2.ZIP, FBZ), HTML, LIT, MOBI, ODS, ODT, PDB, PDF, PRC, RTF, TCR, WPD, XLS, XLSX. Be sure to send your manuscript with plenty of lead time before a response is needed, because when I Beta read, I double-check irregularities I hear during an audible text reading by doing a screen reading of that passage, and I can screen-read only for short time periods, due to a visual disability that makes screen reading difficult and uncomfortable over long periods of time.

I’ll provide reviews of published books, too. My reading taste is generally eclectic, with favorites in literary fiction, historical fiction, and faith-oriented fiction (primarily Roman Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim, Judaic, and Latter-day Saint). I’d like to see more multi-genre/fusion fiction works, and I’m willing to take a chance on a genre I don’t usually read if the blurb and a sample chapter are intriguing.

For Book Reviews: Bound, printed books preferred. This is because the above-mentioned visual disability, and when I’m reading for a book review that will be published worldwide, I need to be able to both relax and concentrate on the story for long periods. I will provide a mailing address for you to order and ship a copy of your book. If I choose not to retain the book in my personal library, I will donate it to my public library.

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Looking Ahead.

As my First World War research winds down for The Passions of Patriots (my major work-in-progress), I’m gearing up for the Irish history research I need to do for the story.

 

I’ve been posting reviews of the First World War history books and videos in my research library at the novel’s eponymous companion site. For the Irish history phase, I’ll be posting reviews here, to this blog. I’ll revisit many of the resources I consulted when I wrote Irish Firebrands, but my first topic of study will be an Irish historical personage to whom I referred obliquely in that novel:

Then a stray memory surfaced … about a nineteenth-century Irishman of sixty years, who married a young woman and then begot eight children, the youngest of whom, born when his father was seventy-five, grew up to be a leader in the new Irish Free State.

 

 

 

 

 

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Mícheál Ó Coileáin (16 Oct 1890 – 22 Aug 1922)

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Text ©2012-2017 Christine Plouvier. All Rights Reserved.
The Passions of Patriots cover art: Front, detail from a vintage Irish postcard. Back, details from portraits of an unknown German soldier and an unknown BEF soldier (public domain images).