Posts

Showing posts from April, 2022

Book review - Eddie Albert And The Amazing Animal Gang: The Amsterdam Adventure by Paul O'Grady

Image
Book -  Eddie Albert And The Amazing Animal Gang: The Amsterdam Adventure Author -  Paul O'Grady Rating - Review: Eddie is that boy at school who seems to always be getting in trouble when he hasn't done anything wrong and is picked on for the fact he doesn't have the latest mobile phone or in fact a mobile phone at all but what nobody knows is that Eddie has a very special gift, he can communicate with animals. When Eddie's dad gets a promotion that will mean Eddie needs to go and stay with his Aunt Budge in her rather large house, he can't believe how great things are in his life.  He meets the young girl next door and finds himself having a new friend in her, he is able to cycle around Amsterdam and enjoy all the sights that he never imagined he would get the chance to but then one night he spots something which turns his entire world upside down.  Can Eddie and his animal friends work together to stop Vera Van Loon?  What really happened to that orangutan they h

Book review - Love Still Bites by Barbara Avon

Image
Book - Love Still Bites Author - Barbara Avon Rating - Review: Barbara Avon is an author who writes across many genres and so deciding on which of her works to try out first was something I had been considering for a while and when I came across this book of bite-sized fiction I decided that I would try this one first to get a feel for her work.  The book offers up a variety of bite sized pieces and is a great way to get a feel for the author and from my experience of this book I found myself impressed with her writing style and found that she was able to utilise each word to the fullest so that the reader is not left feeling like this is an author who has come up with a small idea and then tried to drag anything out of it, this is something I have seen before with bite-sized fiction and find a bit frustrating, thankfully none of that here. This is an author who I am going to be reading more work from and I am intrigued by how her writing style will work in a full length piece as from

Feed My Reads continues to grow

Hello all and thanks for checking out this blog post and for your continued support of the Feed My Reads community. We are continually working to gain visibility to ensure that we are able to give our authors, book bloggers, publishers and readers the very best platform possible and thanks to our blog having been doing so well we have now been invited along for an invite only event regarding a book release by Penguin Random House.  This is very exciting as it means that we are being noticed and will be able to meet up with many new potential great members of the book community. As a result of this I have once again invested for the community and purchased 250 business cards to enable further networking to be done and hopefully help to get more growth for our amazing community.  The costs of running this community do add up and the business cards alone have been another £20 and so ideas are always being worked on to enable us to ensure that we have the funds in place to help keep this c

Indie April is nearly over but why not make May special?

Image
Feed My Reads is a proud member of the book community and we genuinely love the amazing book releases that come out throughout the year but find it somewhat sad that indie authors do seem to be only really given special attention during April and so we thought it would be interesting to put forward May as being the month to 'maybe try something new'. Feed My Reads created badges for those who are willing to try new things and so May would be the perfect month to get at least some of the badges we offer.  Are you up for the challenge? For those who try a new author in the month of May we have this badge to acknowledge it.  One new author and making them an indie author could lead to you finding some amazing new reads and if you were to review their work you would also make their day. Many readers find their genre they enjoy and stick to it, which we completely understand, but why not try a new genre in May and earn this badge?  Trying a new genre could mean you find it isn't

Book review - Grimwood by Nadia Shireen

Image
Book - Grimwood Author - Nadia Shireen Rating -  Review: Having decided to take a chance on some children's books for the purposes of ensuring that Feed My Reads was covering as wider variety of books as possible, it was time to check our one of those selected and so diving in with a concern that the book is aimed at a specific age range but thankfully this book was actually a really well delivered read. When two young foxes who have no parents around are just going about their daily lives, they could never guess at just how much trouble could come from biting down on what appeared to be a hot dog.  Ultimately this book sees the two foxes move from their inner city life and head to the forests of Grimwood with no idea on what exactly to expect as they are simply given a map and told to head there following the hot dog incident.  In Grimwood there are numerous animal friends and foes to be met and it is a great adventure for the foxes themselves but also for the reader too. A well w

Brenda Guiton interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW When did your love of books begin? As a child. I was blown away by stories like Robinson Crusoe and Treasure Island. When did you start to have the wish to become an author? A little late in life, unfortunately. I always knew I had at least one book inside me, but I was too wrapped up in other things - until I hit the big 5-O and started writing for the sheer pleasure of it. How have you found the process for becoming an author? Much more complex than I'd imagined. I was very green to begin with in all aspects of the publishing world, so it's been a big learning curve for me. What would you say to those wanting to become an author? As with any new venture, learn all that you can about your trade. Read about the techniques, different structures, common pitfalls etc before you put pen to paper. A good place to start would be Stephen King's "On Writing" although I've read many more books on the subject. Even though you develop your own style and

Nina Maylor interview

Image
AUTHOR INTERVIEW A little introduction: I live in Merseyside, UK with my husband and 3 young children. Life is crazy, our house looks as though it has been ransacked and each day brings more chaos. Despite this, books are my true obsession and, when I’m not writing, I always make time for myself to read a book. When did your love of books begin? As young as eight or nine, I would find myself becoming immersed in either a book from school or the local library. My Mother and Grandmother were both always reading and swapping books with each other. I guess I wanted to be part of the club!   When did you start to have the wish to become an author? I had the idea for my first romance novel many years ago but never had the confidence (or the time) to put pen to paper and get the storyline in motion. However, after much deliberation, my husband gave me the encouragement I needed, and I began the writing process last year. I was surprised how quickly the words flowed and before I knew it, I had

Raymond Deravakian interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW A little introduction: Raymond Deravakian. I’m Armenian-American, Christian, Navy Veteran. 41yo. Originally from Los Angeles California. Now in Nashville Tennessee. When did your love of books begin? When I read Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky in high school, I think in sophomore year, 1995ish. When did you start to have the wish to become an author? Around 20 when I kept having visions of the stories I’d write. They were very illuminating years. How have you found the process for becoming an author? 22 years in the making. I started early, but I couldn’t write anything. 10 years later, I gave it another try, and I couldn’t stop. That book I started is now over 700 pages. Being a writer is the hardest, I’d say. I can’t think of any musicians or actors that got famous after they died. But I think it’s worth it. What would you say to those wanting to become an author? You want to get to the point where the story writes itself. Tell us about your book/books: I can giv

C.S. Pearson interview

Image
AUTHOR INTERVIEW When did your love of books begin? It began when I was in 9th grade. I had poor learning issues since I went to a big city school until first grade. When we moved to a smaller town I was entering grade 2. The lack of teaching in my previous school my test showed I was at kindergarten level. I was given two choices go back and restart grade 1 or try to accomplish grade 1 and 2 in the same year. I chose the 2nd option but it was very hard. Late nights doing homework as well as remedial classes for grade 1 and doing my regular grade 2 studies. Long story short I only read if I had to after that year. In high school I had an amazing English teacher. The first book I feel in love with was Of Mice and Men. Since then I've continued to read. When did you start to have the wish to become an author? It started after loving to read in grade 9. I mostly wrote poetry and short stories until last year. This year I selfpublished my second book, and I'm proud of my writing on

Book review - Darkness Rising by A.A. Dhand

Image
Book - Darkness Rising Author - A.A. Dhand Rating - Review: This is my first time reading any work by A.A. Dhand and I had decided to pick up a few of the quick reads titles to be able to sample work by a variety of authors and see if I could find any gems which thankfully I did in this one. The book is based in Bradford and the playing out of the drug gangs with their turf war and the battle within the gangs for the power and money to rise up the ranks but standing in the way of them are the police and in particular  Detective Inspector Harry Virdee.  The book plays out at a good pace and despite being a quick read of less than 150 pages, it is able to deliver plenty of excellent content and showcase an author who it is clear has some real talent. Overall I would recommend this book and for less than £1 you really can't go wrong.

Celia Lisset Alvarez interview

Image
AUTHOR INTERVIEW A little introduction: Celia Lisset Alvarez holds an MFA in creative writing from the university of Miami. She has published two chapbooks of poetry, the award-winning Shapeshifting (Spire Press 2005) and The Stones (Finishing Line Press 2006), and two full-length collections, Multiverses (Finishing Line Press 2021) and Bodies & Words (Assure Press 2022). She lives and teaches in Miami, Florida.  When did your love of books begin? My parents were both bookish and introduced me to the love of books before I could even read. I was a weird little kid, and books were my refuge and my education.  When did you start to have the wish to become an author? I think as early as third grade, when my English teacher asked us to write a short play. She was very impressed by mine, and I thought it had been so easy to write! I started writing poems around ten. I made the serious decision to give it a go when I chose to major in English at college. I figured I could always teach if

Taking the leap into reviewing books

Feed My Reads is all about creating a great community of book lovers and as part of this a lot of time is spent speaking to authors and one of the things that has been mentioned time and again is how important it is getting book reviews and how tough it actually is to do this.  Being someone who for a long time hated the thought of writing a book review and that my reviews would be rubbish I personally found it a challenge to actually write a review and so I felt it would be a great idea to address this with a little blog post. 1 - Book reviews don't need to be War and Peace A book review is simply an honest take on how you felt the book "performed" for you as a reader.  This means that writing a short piece like 'I really enjoyed this book and will be checking more by the author' is a huge thing for the author to see and will make other potential readers see that there are people commenting which could be the difference between them trying the book or not. 2 - Au

JK Kelly interview

Image
AUTHOR INTERVIEW When did your love of books begin? I’m a late bloomer. Way back in school I was given a horrid summer reading list that turned me off completely.  It wasn’t until later in life when I spent a lot of time on long-haul flights that books caught me eye. Been reading every day ever since. When did you start to have the wish to become an author? I actually got my first writing credit in sixth grade in a children’s magazine. In high school I sold some photos from an auto race I attended to a motorsports magazine and in return they began sending me to events. In college I studied journalism and before long the editor said, “You should write the features that go with the photos,” so I did. Years later I got the chance to retire early and that’s when I finally had the time to dive into writing books rather than articles. Now, I can’t stop! How have you found the process for becoming an author? The ideas for my books and developing them came easily for me. Finding the right edit

Feed My Reads at 6 Months Old with C.G. Versil

Feed My Reads recently turned 6 months old and as we are all about those in our community who make the place great we had to reach out to you and make sure our community members know of all those great people they can get to know here and so here are some questions for you. When did you decide to join our Feed My Reads community? I decided to join the community last year, in the month of December. I've heard a lot of good things from the other authors. It was a really engaging one, so I was interested. What made you join our Feed My Reads community? The good feedback and some of the authors I've seen on my timeline were also included in the community. Feed My Reads community is actually very active too, shows a really great vibe for an author to be in. Almost like a family with authors all around the world being nice to each other. What do you enjoy about being a part of the Feed My Reads community? Meeting new authors, readers, and of course, how active and friendly they all w

Leah Moyes interview

Image
AUTHOR INTERVIEW When did your love of books begin? The very beginning haha, Some of my favorites as a child were "Ferdinand the Bull" and "Where the Wild Things Are." When did you start to have the wish to become an author? In 9th grade, I had a teacher who really helped me to recognize my interest and I like to think talent. It took me many years later, however, to take the leap. How have you found the process for becoming an author? It has been a journey. I have really enjoyed learning from other authors and engaging with readers and fans. I have published both traditionally and Indie and have found I like the control I have with self-publishing more. What would you say to those wanting to become an author? Go for it! I wish I had started when I was 20! Listen to those who have tried and errored, don't make the same mistakes we did, pay attention, and your process will go much smoother. Tell us about your book/books: I have a background in archaeology and bec

Feed My Reads blog - a journey

Image
Many of you will now have read at least one post that has been created for our timetofeedmyreads.blogspot.com  blog home but getting our blog to where it is has taken a lot of time and has been a real journey so far and so I decided to give a little overview on just what has gone into this for our community. 1 - A decision is made to have a blog space for the Feed My Reads community: Having decided to develop Feed My Reads as a community that will offer as many spaces as possible it then became a decision on how a Feed My Reads blog would work, look and feel.  I decided to sit and draw up many ideas and worked through them to determine how the content itself would look and how we would be able to have a central location for items to be able to be linked to and so be easier to locate for our readers. 2 - The blog is created: The blog is setup and the design work done prior to launch is all then worked on in the background to create central pages to link our features to.  This is a new v