Book Review: Scale of a Dragon

I admit it. I picked this week's ebook.

We haven't had a good dragon story for quite a while. So, when Panzer and I came across Scale of a Dragon by  J. Michael Radcliffe, I grabbed it.

It's a little on the dark side. The main character, Callen, has a depressing life. Her mother died and she spends all of her time taking care of her wizard father, Papa. From the beginning Panzer and I  developed a total dislike for him. He is a despicable person and an awful father.

As a juxtaposition to the father daughter family of Callen and her Papa, the father daughter dragon family of Seba'an and Dahk'ra is loving and protective.

There is a war going on between the dragons and the wizards. So, of course, Callen's father wants her to go to the council and turn over the location of the dragons.

Panzer and I both agree, the end was a total surprise. We love a story where we don't see the end coming until it hits us right between the eyes!

Panzer gives Scale of a Dragon four paws up. You know it must be good, because we all know how hard he is to please especially when it comes to dragon stories!

This is a YA story with a G rating.

It's available at Amazon for the Kindle.

Your Viral Ebook

Okay. Panzer and I admit it. We're just like you.






We've been looking for marketing ideas to make his ebook go viral.

You know ... be the next Smashwords success story ...  hit the Million Club at Amazon/Kindle.

So, we were out in the catosphere looking for ideas. And we found Larry Brooks' Storyfix blog.

Larry has a post explaining his take on what makes an ebook go viral. He uses E.L. James' 50 Shades of Grey as an example. He breaks the book's success down into two things: 1) hero empathy and 2) a vicarious adventure. Panzer and I admit it. We agree with him totally.

So ... tootle on over to Storyfix and read all about it.

Ebook Bubble? What Ebook Bubble?

Panzer and I were passing the time today discussing whether or not the ebook revolution has run its course. I mean how many ebooks can the ereaders handle? How many ebooks can the Kindle store sell in a year? There's only so much time in the day to read, right?

We decided to take a trip around the catosphere and see if we could find anybody else who was wondering like we were. 

We happened upon author Nathan Bransford's blog. What do you think we found there? The answers to our questions.

Tootle on over to Nathan Bransford's blog  and see if you agree with him.

Building Your Brand

Panzer and I were speeding around the catosphere when we happened upon Judy Dunn's blog Cat's Eye Writer.

No cats here but some interesting information about using your blog to help establish your brand.

Judy's blog post is an instruction manual about how to set up your blog so it helps your readers determine your brand. Your author brand is much more important than you think. It helps establish your genre. It establishes where  your readers can look for your books. And it establishes your personality in your readers mind.

Panzer loves the name of the blog. He also found this post very informative and he suggests you hurry on over to the Cat's Eye Writer.

Amazon Dead Tree Cat Books

Panzer and I were over at the Amazon store looking for a cat book for our next book review.

Were we ever surprised at what came up in our search.

I know. I know. I never talk about Dead Tree Books here; but, these two I can't resist. And ... I swear ... I am not making this up! These are real.

We found Knit Your Own Cat by Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne and Crafting with Cat Hair by Kaori Tsutaya.

You read that right.

If you aren't brave enough to be owned by a cat, Knit Your Own Cat has 16 knitting patterns for different breeds of cats.  

If you are already owned by one of our furry masters, Crafting with Cat Hair has instructions for making handicrafts like finger puppets, cat toys, picture frames, and more from cat hair.

Both books are available from the Amazon store, but not for the Kindle. Neither Panzer nor I have read either, so we're not making any recommendations. Just the observation that it's one strange world we live in today.

Free Contest at Cozy Chicks

The Cozy Chicks' blog is having a purrfect contest for all of us cozy mystery cat lovers. Grand prize winner gets some great cat swag.

You do have to know your cozy mystery cats to win. You have been warned.

Panzer would love to have one of our cat mystery fanciers win!

Tootle over to Cozy Chicks: Cozy Mystery Pets of the Month - Special Contest! to enter.

Panzer says, "Be sure to let us know if you win!"

Free Podcast Author Interviews

Okay ... we admit it. Panzer and I were out in the catosphere looking for some free stuff.

We found a whole treasure trove of free podcasts. There are author interviews with Scott Nicholson, Zoe Winters, Mark Coker and over a hundred more. The interviews cover publishing, books as iPhone apps, writing, editing, indie publishing, marketing, audiobooks ... everything a writer could possibly be interested in.

Tootle on over to The Creative Penn  blog. Panzer is still over there. If you see him, tell that bad boy to get home or he's going to be grounded again!

The anatomy of writing

Today's trip around the catosphere took Panzer and I over to Guido Henkel's blog.

Guido, one of my favorite fantasy ebook authors, is blogging about how he writes. Panzer and I love to read about how other authors write.

Guido uses an excerpt from one of his ebooks, Fu Man Chu's Vampire, to demonstrate how he writes and rewrites (and rewrites and rewrites).

So, if you're interested in how Guido writes his ebooks, tootle on over to  The anatomy of writing and see the value of writing, editing and rewriting. Oh, yeah. Also, if you're interested, he has links to buy Fu Man Chu's Vampire at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Nook for only $2.99. Such a deal!

Free Ebook Monday

Panzer and I were out traveling around the catosphere when we stopped in at Joseph Robert Lewis' blog to see what's going on with his ebooks.

And ... Guess what ... ?

He's got an ebook he's giving away!  

The Burning Sky, the first in his Halcyon series, is free. You can even pick the format you want. Panzer recommends Joe's ebooks.

Go to Joseph Robert Lewis' blog, click the Freebies button at the top of the page,  and pick up you free ebook.

 If you're interested in the other free ebook sites Panzer has highlighted, you'll find them at our Wednesday's Free Ebooks  link.

Disclaimer: Remember, whenever visiting unknown sites, read the instructions, have your virus scanner on and your firewall up.

Smashwords: PayPal Revises Policies to Allow Legal Fiction

 Have you heard the news?

Paypal decided to do an about face on their censorship policy that we told you about earlier this month.

Read all about it at  Smashwords: PayPal Revises Policies to Allow Legal Fiction: In a victory for free speech, PayPal today announced plans to revise their content policies to allow Smashwords writers full freedom to pub...

Panzer was out in the catosphere by himself again today. He says it's worth being grounded for the day to find this story!

J.A. Konrath, Barry Eisler and Scott Turow. Oh my!

Over at J.A. Konrath's blog he and Barry Eidler have joined the goings on about Scott Turow's recent blog posting. You've probably heard or read about the DoJ's threat to sue traditional publishers over their agency pricing model. Scott Turow's post pushed Joe and Barry's hot buttons. To read their opinions on the post go to A Newbie's Guide to Publishing then make up your own mind. This is a very long post, so you've been warned.

You know what Panzer says:  more purring and less hissing, guys!

Freedom of Choice

Panzer and I were traveling around the catosphere today and we stopped in at Vincent Zandri's blog.

He's blogging about the freedom of choice available to authors now that we have indie publishing and traditional publishing to choose between. He uses Barry Eisler (and himself) as an example.

Panzer says tootle on over to Freedom of Choice and read Zandri's take on indie publishing.

Kristine Rusch on Paypal Censorship and Agent Disrespect

Panzer went tootling around the catosphere today. He knows he's not allowed out all by himself. So ... he's grounded for a week.

However, he did find something interesting when he stopped by Kristine Rusch's blog.

Kristine blogs about the Paypal censorship issue and an offensive tweet by a certain agent at A Couple Mid-Week Updates: A Business Post

Well, okay. Maybe he's only grounded for today.

Book Review: Felinar Chronicles

Panzer is doing the happy cat dance. He found a great ebook about werecats! Well, they're not called werecats in the ebook. They're called Felinar, but a werecat by any other name is still a werecat as far as Panzer is concerned.

"Felinar Chronicles" by Michelle O'Leary follows three generations of werecats. It begins with the first Felinar and how it was conceived. The story then follows the family tree of this first Felinar. There's murder, intrigue and romance. Wow! It ends with the twin great-grandchildren of the first Felinar getting revenge and finding their own place in the world.

Panzer would have liked the story better, if it delved more into each of the individual Felinar's lives, but that wasn't enough to stop him from finishing the ebook.

Panzer liked the story and the plot, but it just wasn't long enough for him. So, ... he only gives it three paws up. There's just no pleasing that cat!

We give it a G rating.

The ebook is available in the Amazon Kindle store.

Smashwords: Smashwords to Distribute to Blio and Public Librar...

Smashwords has signed a new distribution agreement that will put their ebooks in libraries.

Yay!

Panzer and I have been waiting for this. Libraries. We love libraries. We can find more readers and fans through libraries than any where else. And ... we don't care that those new readers get those books for free. Because, if they get the first one for free from the library and like it, then they'll buy our next ebook! It's a win-win situation: they win; we win.

Read about it here Smashwords: Smashwords to Distribute to Blio and Public Librar...: Smashwords today announced a distribution agreement with Baker & Taylor, one of the world's largest distributors of physical and digital boo...

Book Review: Angie

Okay, Panzer and I haven't done a book review for a while. We've been having a hard time finding a good cat mystery.

But ... Tada! We found one. We have another Harry Neal and Cat Mystery, Angie, by Bentley Dadmun. And ... unlike his previous appearance in  Emma , Cat plays a more visible role in this one. Which made Panzer a lot happier with the story. Now, don't get us wrong. Cat has nothing to do with solving the mystery. That might be due to the fact, Cat is recovering from the injuries in the first ebook. But ... we do have a cat!

Just like in the previous Harry Neal ebook, the story starts with determining who the victim is. This time from a small piece of bone found in the murder weapon. It did seem a little farfetched; but Panzer was willing to suspend his disbelief for Cat's sake.

Harry does solve the identity of the victim and catch the murderer; but in the process he loses his home and one of his few friends. This doesn't cause a major impact on his life, however. He seems to have an innate sense of right and wrong that says, "Damn the consequences as long as justice for the victim is served.

Panzer gives it four paws up.

We give it a G rating.

The ebook is available from Amazon for the Kindle.