April 2013 ~ The Twigasm

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Reader Reviews: The Good, The Bad, and How to Handle It All with author Sydney Logan

Today we have an awesome author with us. Sydney Logan talks about Reader Reviews. Sometimes they are good, sometimes bad and how she handles them. I am very excited about this post. I hope you all enjoy!!! I also want to thank Sydney for being on the blog today. I love featuring authors and any from the Writers Coffee Shop are my favs.

Reader Reviews:

The Good, The Bad, and How to Handle It All

Guest post by Sydney Logan

author of Lessons Learned

When I signed my publishing contract for my debut novel, Lessons Learned, one of the first questions I was asked on my marketing form was about unfavorable reviews and how I would react to them. Of course, I had heard horror stories about one-star reviews that could rip an author’s dreams to shreds. I’d also heard about “bad author behavior” where the author would engage with a reviewer in a negative way. But I had never really considered how I would react to it.

Lessons Learned was definitely my baby. My blood, sweat, and many, many tears went into the book. It is a sweet love story with undertones of religious and social issues. The subject is timely and somewhat controversial, so I expected some reactions. For the most part, I’ve received nothing but wonderfully supportive reviews. Sure, there have been reviews I’ve disagreed with, or wished I could talk to the reviewer and explain something that perhaps wasn’t clear to them, but I never have.

The honest truth is that the very best reaction to a negative review is no reaction at all.

At least not publicly.

Blog Tour: Scent of Triumph Guest Post and Giveaway!!!

9:51 AM 8 comments

So today, we have another great blog tour to share with all of you. There is also a great giveaway at the bottom of this post for you all to join. Enjoy!

Guest Post

Casting Call for Characters

by Jan Moran

www.janmoran.com

Hello, it’s great to be here on Twigasm today! I’m a fan fiction aficionado, too, so it’s wonderful to be among friends at Team Twigasm.

One question writers often hear is “how do you create your characters?” I’ve been a writer since childhood, creating stories to entertain friends and family members. One of my favorite parts of this process is drafting the characters. So, how do I begin?

1. Casting Call - Like a casting agent, I hold auditions for my characters. For example, when I was considering leading ladies for my novel, Scent of Triumph, I imagined a young woman who was smart and sophisticated, warm and loving. She had to have a natural gift of extraordinary talent. As a young mother, she would face hardships in this historical thriller far beyond the comprehension of most of us. She had to be relentlessly determined, driven to protect her family at any cost, unwavering in her beliefs about her children, and obsessed to provide for her family through her unique talents.

2. What’s in a Name? - I like to hear poetry in a name, so for this novel I imagined a young mother in 1920s France. What name might such a stylish, creative mother choose? How about a classic French name combined with an artistic emblem of her family and her creative passion? Thus, Danielle Rose was christened after one of the most revered of flowers—appropriate for a child born into a family of French perfumers. The poet, Sappho, in her 600 B.C. poem, “Ode to the Rose,” referred to this blossom as the “queen of flowers.” Indeed, this little girl would grow to become the leader of her family.