Winners: God Wars, The Linen Queen and Welcome to Last Chance

Thank you to all who entered.

CONGRATULATIONS

to the winners!

eBook of

God Wars: Living With Angels

by Rob Tobin

ARC Copy

The Linen Queen: A Novel

by Patricia Flavey



Two Winners
from Hachette

Welcome to Last Chance

by Hope Ramsay

I will email all winners to send their addresses.

Guest Post: by Rob Tobin Author of God Wars: Living With Angels

Please help me welcome to the Bookshelf today ROB TOBIN, author and screenwriter.
 

I want to thank Martha for letting me guest blog today, it's an honor. Let me begin by introducing myself and then getting in the obligatory plug. I'm Rob Tobin, Canadian screenwriter, novelist and non-fiction book author living and writing full-time in southern California -- specifically Huntington Beach, about 50 miles south of L.A. Now the plug -- this guest blog is part of a blog tour I'm doing to promote my latest book, an urban fantasy e-novel called God Wars: Living with Angels from Echelon Press, available the first week of March on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and Omnilit.com for $2.99. God Wars is about a young witch using her powers to battle evil but in the process accidentally opening the gates of Hell and then having to battle a demon she can't defeat, an angel she can't trust and three-foot tall aliens with really bad attitudes to save the world and her own soul. It's a rollicking, action-packed, sexy, funny look at good and evil and the dangers of vengeance, and I hope that when you download the book you'll enjoy the read.

Now, with that out of the way, let me get back to my real purpose here, which is to discuss something of interest to you, the readers. As a writer it's been a fascinating past twenty years or so (which happen to coincide with my coming to Los Angeles from my native Canada), especially from the technological point of view. The changes I've seen over the past twenty years were recently brought home to me when I appeared on a panel at the New Media Film Festival in San Francisco and the topics ranged from gaming (a completely new genre of storytelling that may well be the future of story) to streaming, codecs (compressors/decompresses), mobile filmmaking (shooting and displaying films on cellphones), digital filmmaking of course, Hulu, YouTube and other technological topics.

I remember sitting 20years ago with my then girlfriend (now my wife) Leslie in her Malibu home, explaining the latest cutting edge computer to her (the Mac Classic, a little box, self-contained except for the keyboard) and telling her that that cutting-edge computer's 80 megabyte hard drive (yes, I said Megabyte, not GIGAbyte or TERRAbyte) would be more than she'd ever need in her entire lifetime. I had a dial-up modem (well before DSL) and was using a service provider called Prodigy (oldsters will remember that one). In essence, then, no internet, no downloading, heck even television cable was in its infancy and the three networks still ruled the television world. In terms of publishing, you had hard copies and then you had… hard copies. No eBooks. No eBook readers. No book downloading, no kindles, no nooks, just… paper(!!!).

We all know where we're at now -- Kindles, Nooks, eBooks, Amazon.com now selling more eBooks than "real" hard copy books, major traditional book retailers like Borders teetering on the verge of survival. Carry an entire library of books around with you on your iPad. Download a book for a buck and a few seconds of your time. Even more exciting (and frightening, to some) write your own book and publish it direct to Kindle! That's right, bypass traditional publishers altogether. The desktop revolution that began with the Mac so many years ago has finally been realized.

The good news is that it's made it so much easier for you, the reader. The maybe-good-maybe-bad news is that it's made it harder for writers to make an actual living from their writing. Ten percent of a $25.00 hardcover book allowed writers to put food on the table. 40% of a 99-cent e-book… not so much. 

But, everything changes and we either adapt or go the way of the dinosaur. And there is always the old French saying: plus ca change, plus c'est pareil -- the more things change, the more they stay the same. Television was supposed to be the death knell of the studios. Nope. The studios bought the networks and/or used them to provide one more distribution channel for their product so that everyone flourished. Now the internet is supposed to be the death of television.  I don't think so. I think the studios and networks will find a way to incorporate the internet into their creative and business strategies and we, as writers and readers will have to do the same.

But there are changes, not just to the distribution methods for writing, but in writing styles themselves. I remember one day watching an old Robert Matchup/Deborah Kerr movie ("Heaven Knows mr. Alison") in which Mitchum plays a World War II soldier stranded on a small island in the pacific. In one scene he is standing at the bottom of a hill and Kerr, dressed as a nun, is standing at the top of it. We watch as he climbs the hill. He climbs… he climbs… he climbs… and we watch the whole lengthy, painstaking climb. It was the slowest thing I'd seen since my last trip down the 405 freeway in Los Angeles -- or the last time I tried to get online with AOL. Couldn't get away with that today, everything is cut/cut/cut, flash from this scene to that scene, shorter scenes, faster action, more implied than shown. And of course the change in public morality has made a huge change in what we write about and how we write about it. Changes in politics, economics, fashion, music -- they all make it necessary for writers to adapt, so why should technology be any different? In a way technological change is just another in a long line of changes that we writers either adapt to or die trying to resist. There is no going backward, "Back to the Future" notwithstanding.

So, let's forge ahead with new technologies, new writing styles, new topics, new story structures, but let's also keep in mind -- the writer's "prime directive" remains the same, always: entertain the reader. I hope I've been able to do a bit of that today while musing about the world we live in and the world we used to live in. Thanks for letting me have the soap box for a few minutes, and I hope to visit you again sometime -- maybe during my next blog tour.  Ciao.

Biography: Rob Tobin

Screenwriter and Novelist

Rob is a husband, father, screenwriter, novelist, non-fiction book author, frequent guest speaker at film festivals and writing conferences, and a graduate of USC’s Master of Professional Writing program and of the University of Victoria’s Creative Writing program. He has a $15 million feature film (“Dam 999”) in post production, a $40 million feature (“Camel Wars”) in development with legendary filmmaker John McTiernan (“Die Hard,” “Predator,” “Hunt for Red October”) attached to direct, a novel (“God Wars”) scheduled to be published in early 2011, and two published non-fiction books. Creative Screenwriting Magazine recently produced two of Rob’s instructional screenwriting DVDs.

Rob is a former VP of Writers Boot Camp, the country’s largest private screenwriting school. As a story analyst, he read 5,000+ screenplays for Goldwyn, Spelling, Interscope, TriStar, TriMark, HBO, et al. He also helped establish a feature film department for Stephen J. Cannell (“The A-Team,” “Hunter,” “The Commish”).

www.robtobinwriting.com

http://robtobinscreenwriting.com/

http://twitter.com/RobTobin

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000425881722

Please see my review and giveaway post for a chance to win a copy of the eBook offered by the author.

Book Review and eBook Giveaway: God Wars: Living With Angels by Rob Tobin

This story presents a different view of angels, demons and humans.
God Wars: Living With Angels by Rob Tobin

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 337 KB
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Echelon Press (February 25, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004PLNKZM

     Genre:  Urban Fantasy
     My Rating:  4.0

Product Description
Sixteen-year-old old gymnast, Diana Jalinowski, had it all, including a shot at the Olympics, thanks to her talent, dedication, and a strange “other” power that allowed her to do things others couldn’t. Then a deranged hoodlum drove Diana off the road and into a wheelchair, killing her family in the process.

Years later, as a paraplegic law student, Diana meets Professor Lessage, an odd, brooding man who talks her into doing a paper on the legal ramifications of the Salem Witch trials. Suddenly Diana’s life takes another sharp turn, right into witchcraft, a demon she can’t resist, an angel she can’t trust, 3-foot tall aliens she can’t defeat, and the chance to get even with all the bad people out there… unless of course she destroys the world in the process.

Diana has justice in her hands, and she’s really, really pissed off.

Review:  This story has a wonderful message of forgiveness and love wrapped up in a horror tale of battle between good and evil to save the world.

Diana had a special power even as a young teen. She used that power to strike out in anger and humiliate a bully who wanted to pick on the young challenged children she helped.  Unfortunately the bully struck back with a vengeance. He drove her family off the road, killing her parents and paralyzing Diana from the waist down. Diana manages to become a law student and to seek ways to help victims of abuse but she continues to struggle with her own anger and bitterness.  Sometimes Diana still strikes out in anger and violence and she meets Doctor Sean Dominico as a therapist to help her cope with her anger. Dominico is professional, gorgeous and kind.  Diana fantasizes about him but believes he would never be interested in a cripple like her.

Diana is assigned a research paper on Salem Witch Trials by intense Professor, John Lessage. While researching, Diana finds a resource book written by Doctor Dominico. Diana also memorizes volumes of spells and finds she can use her power while invoking the Latin incantations.  Diana is suddenly attacked by a monster and Doctor Dominico comes to help her.  She doesn’t realize that each time she fights out in anger and violence there is a greater responsive violence that bounces right back at her.  Dominico tries to explain the phenomenon to her but she is slow to understand. Diana wants revenge against her parents' murderer but her actions open the way for greater demons as her bitterness and anger fuel the evil monster who is soon growing gigantic and wiping out cities.

Ultimately Dominico reveals that he is an angel living on earth to try to help humanity by fighting the demon monsters.  As he and Diana join forces a third, alien, presence makes an uneasy alliance with the demon and the already horrific battle intensifies.

The story gets a bit far fetched bringing to mind first Godzilla type attacks and then space ship battles with the only defenses coming from the lightning mind powers of Diana and Dominico, with a few other angels who help once or twice. There is plenty of action and evasive maneuvering to allow the heroic team to recoup and romance a little. This gives Dominico time to explain an interesting history of the earth, angels and demons.  He also tries to convince Diana that she cannot win with hate and violence, which only hurt and diminish her own soul, but she must find a way to give forgiveness and love.

There is some raw (foul) language and gore of battle. The story, even in its weirdness, kept my attention. The author expresses a unique creation theory. I enjoyed the message of forgiveness even though it is presented in a very strange, but engaging, story.  I can recommend this as an unusual read.

xxx

I was provided this book to read by the author through Bewitching Blog Tours to read and review.

THANK YOU TO ROB TOBIN WHO IS OFFERING AN EBOOK AS A GIVEAWAY.
TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY FOR AN EBOOK COPY:

1. Visit the author blog and tell me something of interest you find there.
Please leave your e-mail!

2.  For two extra entries, comment on the author guest post.

3. For an extra entry, become a follower or tell me if you are already a follower.

4. For two extra entries, blog, facebook, tweet (any of those networks!) about this giveaway and tell me where you did.

(Six total entries possible.)
It is not necessary to use separate entries unless you want them in different chronological order.

* This contest is open INTERNATIONALLY.
* This contest will close 10:00 PM (Central) on March 29, 2011. The winner will be randomly selected from all entries.

Bewitching Blog Tours: God Wars: Living With Angels and Rogue Oracle

I am pleased to be a Bewitching Blog Tour Host.

I have two books coming up this month:

My review, Author Guest Post and eBook Giveaway for  
God Wars: Living With Angels by Rob Tobin 
will be posted this week Tuesday, March 15, 2011.

Check here for the full blog tour.

I will post a review and Author Guest Post for
Rogue Oracle (Delphic Oracle, Book 2) by Alayna Williams  

on Tuesday March 22, 2011. 

Full blog tour schedule listed here.