2013 August Reading List

Warbreaker by BrandonSanderson – The color magical system is cool, but I wasn’t too invested in the story. And my favorite character died in the end, boo-hoo! I liked Elantris better. 4/5 stars

Pandora’s Star by Peter F. Hamilton – Too many vaguely related plots mixed together make it hard to care about what happen to each character or any of them in particular. And the big mystery is not really explained. 4/5 stars

Sphere by Michael Crichton – Some great ideas behind it, however, the realization is lacking. 3/5 stars

Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins – Unbelievable world building with all the background information delivered through long speeches, and unlikable heroine. Virgin falls for male-slut. Enough said. 2/5 stars

The Selection by Kiera Cass – Slightly better than the one above, but not by much. Again unbelievable world building, long speeches, plus reality TV show feel, eww, and Prince Charming from Disney’s Cinderella. 3/5 stars

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes – I gave up on it after I reached the 20% mark. I didn’t care for the narrator’s voice nor any of the characters. Shrug. 3/5 stars

The Way of the Shadows by Brent Weeks – This is another fine discovery. It’s a little heavy on description, but the plot and characters rock. 4/5 stars

Smashwords Q & A

Smashwords has a new feature that allows you to create your own Q & A, ten questions for potential readers to know you better. Here are my answers.

A Victory that Counts LibraryThing Giveaway

Everyone, rush to LibraryThing to request one of the copies of A Victory that Counts (The Impaler Legacy #2) that I'm offering in a giveaway. If the demand is big, I'll increased the number of copies. The deadline is September 3rd.

If you simply cannot wait until September and must have it now, A Victory that Counts is available through Amazon and Smashwords. The Impaler's Revenge (The Impaler Legacy #1) is still discounted to $0.99.

New Release: A Victory that Counts (The Impaler Legacy #2)

Yes, it's time, A Victory that Counts, the second novella in The Impaler Legacy series is here! It came out with a five day delay because I was away on vacation and I prefer to do all the work on my own pc, but it was worth the wait. You can download it from Amazon and Smashwords for now, but soon it will be available through other on-line stores too. 

The writing process for A Victory that Counts was closer to how I usually write. For The Impaler’s Revenge, I had had six months to plot it in advance so by the time I started writing it I had the whole plot figured out. I plotted A Victory that Counts while editing the final draft of The Impaler’s Revenge, once I decided there was going to be a sequel. So I had only about a third of it clear inside my head when I started writing it. I thought I’d just write and see where the story takes me. It usually works, and it did this time too. 

Like it happened with The Impaler's Revenge, A Victory that Counts also comes accompanied by a short story, Casualties of War, that is only available on my website, for free. As a reader, I can’t stand cliffhangers at the end of a book. That’s why I knew from the moment I got the idea while plotting A Victory that Counts that this couldn’t be the last part of the novella. It had to be an independent story. You can skip Sweet Surrender, but reading The Impaler Legacy series without Casualties of War would make less sense. I apologize to Jesse’s fans in advance, and I promise things will get much worse in Order Restored, tee-hee!

So now we have two novellas from The Impaler Legacy series out. There's one more left to go. The third draft is done, and I'll be sending it to my editors in September, so it should be ready by December. Until then, keep your fingers crossed for Liana, Jesse, and Max. :)

If you're not familiar with them yet, you might like to know that The Impaler's Revenge is on sale on Amazon to celebrate the release of A Victory that Counts.

Efectul de nautil on Sale

Starting with today and until Sunday, August 25, Millennium Books has ten books on sale and one of them is Efectul de nautil. You can get it with 40% discount as long as you buy at least two titles.

Check out the full list on Galileo Online. There are some interesting titles available.

If you got it and read it, let me know which story you liked best!

The Impaler's Revenge and A Victory that Counts Reviews

It's so nice to return from vacation and find such good reviews of The Impaler's Revenge and
A Victory that Counts waiting for you.

Readers' Favorite gave The Impaler's Revenge 5 stars.

And we have the first review of A Victory that Counts here.

A Victory that Counts will be released later this week, and The Impaler's Revenge is still only $0.99 on Amazon if you want to catch up.

The Impaler's Revenge on sale - only $0.99!

July was the slowest month this year, but now I noticed that sales are picking up again. I'm even getting sales on sites where I haven't before, like Amazon IT, and CA. Who's been spreading the word? :)

You all know A Victory that Counts (The Impaler Legacy #2) is coming out later this month, right? Have you read The Impaler's Revenge, the first novella in The Impaler Legacy series? If you haven't, then you're in luck. I decided to put it on sale for only $0.99 on Amazon so you can catch up and be ready for A Victory that Counts. If you read it, don't miss the free short story on my website. And if you also review it, you will make my day!

Oh, and you might want to check the new layout of my website. It's darker than usual to reflect the darker mood in A Victory that Counts. And there's also a little surprise. ;) Are you excited yet? I know I am. :D

Human Instincts as part of 4 novella set - 40% off

The Romanian edition of Human Instincts plus other three novellas are offered by Millennium Books with a 40% discount. Place in your orders by Sunday, August 11, for an exciting summer read!

ARCs of The Impaler Legacy #2 Available

Advanced reader copies of A Victory that Counts (The Impaler Legacy #2) are now available so feel free to request one.

The ebook will become available in online stores in the middle of August.

Have a great summer, everyone!