Blogging today on Electric Authors - YA or not YA?

My blog on Authors Electric today discusses how to decide when a book is a YA book... or not...

http://authorselectric.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/ya-or-not-ya-teenage-protaganists-do.html

(I'm busy reading - so more Rosalie Reviews coming soon!)

Blogging today on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure

I'm blogging today on the website "An Awfully Big Blog Adventure" - on what happens when writers play....

http://awfullybigblogadventure.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/when-writers-play-by-rosalie-warren.html

More Rosalie Reviews coming soon!

Best wishes
Ros

Review of 'Brand Loyalty' by Cally Phillips

At last, I hear you cry - another Rosalie Review! Well, I hope that's what you're thinking.You certainly should be excited, where this book is concerned. Without further ado, let me introduce you to Cally Phillips' superb novel, Brand Loyalty.

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I want to see this on TV!

Don’t get me wrong – I'm a lover of books and I loved this one in many ways. But to my mind, it’s a story that cries out for visual enactment and dramatisation. It’s exactly the sort of thing that Channel 4, if I had my way, would be showing on our screens.

Where to begin? This is partly the story of Helen, one of my generation, currently middle-aged but, since this is 2030, she’s now ‘old’, and because she’s one of the unlucky ones she’s living a sad, impoverished existence in a dreary ‘home’. Helen is a VCC – a victim of the credit crunch (interestingly, the first drafts of this story were written in the 1990s, long before the ‘real’ credit crunch). The CC was the end of History and the beginning of Today – and the online dictionaries reflect this boundary by giving two definitions of every word – one ‘In History’ and one ‘Today’. (Yes, there are strong echoes of 1984. Orwell’s I mean, not Thatcher’s, though come to think of it...)

Helen has lost her much-loved husband and children and now lives with only her memories – though the whole notion of memory has a different cast in these times. Memories, even the most personal ones, are always social constructs to some extent, but Phillips has stretched this notion to a frightening but not implausible degree.

‘Brand Loyalty’ is also the story of three ‘Project Kids’: Nike, Omo and Flora (yes, these really are their names), who are being trained to play their part in the brave new world of ULTIMATE(R) . ULTIMATE(R) can be thought of as an amalgamation of the world’s largest companies (naming no names here) – it's the ultimate ‘brand’. 

‘Brand Loyalty’ is set in Edinburgh, but it’s a future version of that city where there is no longer any Scottish Parliament or even a Royal Commonwealth Pool. Presumably, ubiquitous virtual reality has removed the need for the latter, while ULTIMATE(R) has overtaken the functions of government. In 2030, everyone is a consumer – consumption rules. Much of life is lived online, including most sexual encounters. But this isn't really sci-fi. It’s a near-future scenario, much of which, you feel, is already beginning to happen in our day. It’s social engineering built on the back of rampant capitalism, consumerism and IT. And, of course, greed. It denies individuality and progressive thought – any kind of challenge to the system. It’s frightening, I have to say, because it could almost literally be Tomorrow’s World, if not today’s...

So, as the Project Kids watch the world’s last tiger die on their screens – is resistance useless and is freedom doomed?

Things change. Helen talks to the project kids. One of them falls in love and comes to her for advice. It's poignant, hearing Helen talk about love as it was, in the lost world she remembers. Another kid starts posing questions – difficult ones that he’s not really meant to ask. One question leads to another and he soon uses up his quota (which has to be paid for by useful work – doing consumer surveys in the main). But Nike (or Nick, as Helen, his gran, insists on calling him) ploughs on, uncovering all kinds of inconvenient truths, making contact with a rebel group and... let’s just say shaking things up.

As for Helen – is there any escape for her, in any kind of life, from her institutional magnolia-painted walls?

‘Brand Loyalty’ is the most challenging, disturbing and fascinating book I've read for quite some time. It deserves to be widely read – and, if possible, seen. Please, someone – put it on TV.

And here's your chance to read it - free!

  

FREE FOR 3 DAYS: Cally Phillips is offering Brand Loyalty as a free download for the next three days, starting tomorrow, i.e. May 8, 9 and 10. Read about it on her blog.

Or to download Brand Loyalty just go to
           UK:   https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007W0WATK

or US:   https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007W0WATK

Happy Reading!

Best wishes,

Ros

Huge thanks!!!

Sorry for the delay - it's been a crazy few days. Just to say a huge thank you to everyone who downloaded Charity's Child. Hope you are enjoying it - or will do so. I've had some lovely reviews and comments back from new readers - many thanks for these.

I'm now working on getting on another book ready for Kindle - 'Alexa's Song'. More soon.

But, even sooner, another review - of a wonderful book called 'Brand Loyalty' by Cally Phillips. Watch this space!

The Electric Authors e-Book giveway has begun!

For 2 days, over 23-24 April, a group of us called Electric Authors are offering books for Kindle download - FREE!

For a list of the books - which includes a wide range of genres, self-help, fiction, adults, children's, YA, crossover... please see

http://authorselectric.blogspot.co.uk/

The great giveaway, in celebration of World Book Day, is now open... so don't miss your chance to stock up now and read at your leisure.

And remember, if you haven't got a Kindle, you can download Kindle for PC here. 

It's also available for Android, Mac, etc.

My YA/Adult crossover novel of psychological suspense, Charity's Child, is one of the books on free offer. You can find it here

Happy reading
Ros

Freebie Deebie Dee! - Charity's Child will be FREE to download on Mon April 23rd - Tues 24th!

I'm going to be away for a couple of days so I'm announcing a little ahead of time that my e-book Charity's Child - Dark Deed or Virgin Birth will be available to download FREE for Amazon Kindle for the 2-day period April 23rd - 24th 2012.

That's Monday and Tuesday, and it's to help celebrate World Book Night, which I mentioned in my previous post, here. If I've done my sums correctly, the freebie offer will start at 8am on Monday morning. If you're in the UK, you'll be able to download 'Charity' at the Amazon UK site here

And if you use Amazon.com, you can download it from the US site here

If you click on these sites now (Friday), you'll see the book priced at £1.94 or $2.99. Come back on Monday/Tuesday to pick up your copy of 'Charity's Child' for free. And in return, I'd be delighted if you felt like writing a review.

My giveaway is part of an Authors Electric event, where a group of 16 professional authors of e-books are offering books for free download for this 2-day period around World Book Night. You can read about Authors Electric here (details of the giveaway coming soon).

The Joy of Giving Books Away - World Book Night Electric Authors Event

As I type this, my long-suffering other half is leaning over my shoulder, panting, 'Yes, yes, yes! More, more, more!'

No, not passionate sex - just him encouraging me to give away some of my books so that we actually have a bit of space in the house to breath and work and eat and sleep and all that stuff (and for him to put his tools. But that's another story...)

Photo courtesy of long-suffering OH

Anyway, although I'm something of a collector and a hoarder where books are concerned, one of the joys of my life is giving them away - thrusting a book into someone's hands and saying, 'You'll love this!' So World Book Night is right up my street because that's what it's all about - giving books away, especially books you've loved yourself and want other people to share. You can read all about it on the World Book Night website.

World Book Night is celebrated in the UK, the USA, Ireland and Germany on April 23rd. April 23rd is a significant date for other reasons too - William Shakespeare's birthday and Cervantes' death day, as well as St George's Day in the UK and Barcelona too, I'm told.

Now although when I think of giving away a book, it's usually a paperback or hardback copy that comes to mind, there's no reason, of course, why eBooks can't be given away, too. And that's why a group of authors calling themselves Authors Electric have decided to celebrate World Book Night by organising a giveaway event for electronic books. Fifteen of the Electric Authors will be giving away their books for free, over a 2-day period, 23-24 April 2012. The books will be free to download for Amazon Kindle and in some cases other e-readers, too. More details will be on their popular blogsite very soon...

And  please pop back to my blog here on Friday for the latest news...

I should mention that many of the Electric Authors are well-known, prizewinning writers (including a Carnegie medal winner), though some, including yours truly, are relatively new. There'll be lots of free, quality reading to be had (and don't forget, if you haven't got a Kindle, you can download Kindle for PC (it's free) and read the books on your PC).

Just one problem for my long-suffering OH - giving away eBooks doesn't free up much space for his drills, leads, plugs, electronic doodahs and other bits and pieces. Never mind - I'll be off to the charity shop soon with a big pile of paperbacks.

More soon!

Best wishes,
Ros