What A Tease!

Authors like to use what are called teases to draw someone into their book. I am not above that bit of promotional tactic myself. Here is a tease from my romantic/mystery novel, Sarah Of The Moon.

When she turned to face him and their eyes met, his heart melted in his chest. His dream, and the brief sighting of her on the hill, had not prepared him for her delicate beauty.
She wore a dress of pure white. Thin straps held it to her shoulders. The dress continued to her ankles where it billowed out, but not enough to hide her bare feet.
Her long blonde hair, parted evenly across her brow, followed the curve of her shoulders, ending near her elbows. Centered atop her head was a tiara of colorful flowers, all in various stages of bloom.
Around her neck was a gold chain attached to a locket. A jeweled bracelet adorned each wrist, but her fingers were undecorated.
The sunlight filtering into the room from its only window favored her above the others, burnishing her pale skin in its glow.
She was smiling at him, and he could not look away. The girl next to her whispered something in her ear and Sarah’s blue eyes shimmered slightly, just enough to draw him to them. In this brief space of time, when a dream became real and the earth ceased its spin, he knew Chick was correct. This was a world of magic.

In that tease, my hero Alex first meets the mysterious Sarah. If you were drawn into the story, and perhaps now want to read more, then the tease worked. As an author, all you can do is throw out a few sentences or paragraphs here and there and hope that they bring enough interest to read more.
Anyhow, enough teasing, it's back to work to work on my new novel, Swan Loch. Oh, I guess one more tease for that book wouldn't hurt.

She arrived on the wind.

It’s September 15th, 2012, exactly two months after his wife’s murder. Sheriff Chris Hayward has made it his life’s quest to find her killer, but every lead has come to a dead end…until now.

A young girl has wandered into the town of Swan Loch, Maine. She seeks out one person, Emma Carson, a teacher at the local school. She claims the wind brought her there, and she has a message for Sheriff Hayward. Your wife is alive and I know where to find her.

Chris, Emma, and the girl with no name will now journey to a place where all mysteries will be solved, where one believed lost forever may again be found, and where evil has discovered the perfect hiding place. But they must hurry, because in seven days the killer will strike again.

Soliciting Book Reviews

Ask any independent author and they'll tell you they are always on the prowl for reviews for their books. No matter how many readers buy your book and enjoy it, it is always a chore to persuade them to review it on Amazon.

Some will if coaxed or bribed, but they are few and far between. Still that won't stop most authors, myself included, from humbling ourselves for a 4 or 5 star rating.

Unfortunately, the problem with soliciting reviews is you don't know who's going to come out of the woodwork. I just received a 2 star review from a reader on my book, The Boys Of Northwood. The reader's chief complaint was that my book did not include places and events he wanted to read about. That's right, he punished me for not writing the book he wanted to read. Now I have his petty 2 star review floating around and mingling with my legitimate 4 and 5 star reviews. Worst yet, much like plastic products, this review will stick around on my Amazon sales page for the next 100 or so years, terrorizing my great grandchildren as it did me. I say we band together to protest reviews of a non-constructive nature. Short of unionizing, there must be some way to accomplish that.

Now, because of that opinionated reader, I must secure 5 or 6 more excellent reviews to counter-balance that bad one.

A writer's work is never done.