Sleep then My Princess

I'm at the end stages of tidying up the manuscript for Sleep then My Princess.

It's due for release 30 October 2015.

Synopsis: While mourning the death of her husband, Senior Tissue
Engineer, Stephani Robbins, is plagued by recurring visions of a child being locked up in a chicken coop. Meanwhile, Stephani begins receiving items in her mail, photos (candid photos of herself taken without her knowledge) and notes stuffed in her gym bag. 

As more photos appear, the police suspect that she has hired someone to take these photos or that she had taken them herself.  She before she can convince the police to take her seriously she is kidnapped. While imprisoned she discovers why she has been having these visions and it is more chilling than she ever imagined. Can she make it out alive?

This is the first cover I had made. I wasn't happy with it and changed it.

This cover was getting better.

Almost there but something wasn't right.

Finally, this cover had the right feel.

Big brother is looking and monitoring you

I've copied and pasted this from another blog because I couldn't believe that this could be happening. 

http://imysantiago.com/2015/07/02/amazon-a-virtual-marketplace-or-big-brother/

Amazon… A virtual marketplace, or Big Brother?

JULY 2, 2015 / IMYSANTIAGO

A couple of weeks ago I read the third installment of a series I really loved. I will refrain from sharing the name of the novel and its author.

Like any reader, as soon as I finished reading, I wrote my review. When I tried posting it on Amazon (I did buy the eBook, just like any normal and decent human being would), I received a rather concerning email.

I will not share the screenshot of the email as it does contain the title of the book and name of the author. In its place I have copied the body of the email below.

Dear Amazon Customer,

Thanks for submitting a customer review on Amazon. Your review could not be posted to the website in its current form. While we appreciate your time and comments, reviews must adhere to the following guidelines:
http://www.amazon.com/review-guidelines

Here I was, thinking I had included an expletive, or mentioned a brand name within the review. I went back and cross-referenced it against the review I posted on Amazon’s sister site Goodreads, and didn’t see anything wrong with it. I tried to upload it again. Immediately, I received the below message.

Sorry. You’re not eligible to review this product. For more information, read the Customer Review Guidelines.

I thought for a minute, and figured maybe there was an issue with their website… So I tried to input a review for another book by another author, and received the same system message I shared above.

I wrote an inquiry to Amazon regarding the issue. To my surprise, this is the message I received the following day.

Hello,

We cannot post your Customer Review for (book title deleted) by (author name deleted) to the Amazon website because your account activity indicates that you know the author. 

Customer Reviews are meant to give customers unbiased product feedback from fellow shoppers. Because our goal is to provide Customer Reviews that help customers make informed purchase decisions, any reviews that could be viewed as advertising, promotional, or misleading will not be posted. To learn more about this policy, please review our Customer Review Guidelines (http://amazon.com/help/customer-reviews-guidelines) and FAQs (http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=201077870).  

We encourage family and friends to share their enthusiasm for the book through our Customer Discussions feature or Editorial Reviews feature. To start a Customer Discussion visit the Meet Our Authors forum and enter your discussion title in the Start a new discussion box. You’ll find the forum here: 
http://www.amazon.com/forum/meet%20our%20authors/&cdForum=Fx2UYC1FC06SU8S

To have your Editorial Review posted to the detail page, e-mail it directly to the author so they can add it for you. 

If you believe you’re eligible to write a Customer Review for this book, send additional details to review-appeals@amazon.com. 

We hope to see you again soon.

Best regards,

Harm J,

At this point I am dumbstruck. “I know the author.” That is quite an erroneous and quite presumptous assessment, so I went through the painstaking process of escalating the issue to their Review Appeals Department. At this point, I’m pretty upset.

Greetings,

I am appalled with your recent email message stating a review I wrote could not be posted because my “online activity suggests I know the author.” (Online purchase: X by X eBook.)

This response is ludicrous. I am a writer and published author. I understand the Indie Community is a small one, and among our circles, rubbing elbows with peers is not an uncommon occurrence. I am also a blogger and reviewer who also buys books. When I’m not writing, I am reading and reviewing. My reviews are one hundred percent unbiased, regardless if I have rubbed elbows with peers online. I would like to know who is providing you the information that suggests I may know the author.

That’s a two-edged sword; knowing of an author online, and personally knowing an author in real life are two different things. By your definition it would mean that bloggers such as myself are being barred from reviewing books they legitimately purchased, which in turn contravenes with the notion that reviews for a verified purchase are highly encouraged.

I am left speechless as I don’t know any authors on a level you are suggesting. I merely follow authors on Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, tsu, and on your partner site Goodreads. I interact with these authors during takeover events. I am an avid reader and I buy my books like anyone else does.

Your claims are unfounded, and as a paying consumer, I demand my review be posted. It is unfair to the authors whose work I love, to be punished for a claim that simply cannot stand. I don’t know any authors on a personal level.

Expecting your prompt response,

Ms. Santiago

(Amazon user: x@x.com)

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

I was hoping for a better outcome. It took them a week to answer back. To my dismay, this below screenshot is the response I received today.

Amazon has crossed the line. 

I pay for my eBooks. I take the time to read and review books I love. The Big Brother mentality Amazon is employing is appalling, and crosses an ethical line of unfathomable proportions. They are not God, and are censoring my passion for the written word. Because of them, I will not be allowed to write and post any further reviews on their site, regardless if I paid, or not. It is a disservice to readers, and a back-handed slap in the face of all authors across the board.

What quantifiable and verifiable ways is Amazon using to determine if I know the author of a book, or not? The fact that they refuse to elaborate as to how I “know the author personally” is highly concerning. 

This is what happens when you are a published writer, and write reviews for the books you paid for.

This is wrong, and it has to stop.

It  is censorship at its finest. I have interacted with a couple hundred authors over the past year; from events to signings, authors and writers rub elbows during networking sessions. This does NOT mean I know you personally. Knowing someone personally is bearing knowledge about them, from say… their favorite color to their social status.

Amazon, you have spat in the face of those authors and writers whose work deserve praise and recognition. I am shocked and appalled. At this time, I will discontinue writing peer reviews. I will complete my list of pending reviews, and will cease from posting them on Amazon.

I’m truly sorry, but my wings have been clipped.

Don’t hate me for it.

Blame Amazon for their questionable business practices.

Feel free to post your comments below. I’m eager to read your thoughts.

-i

Please share this blog post if you think this business practice is unfair.

#ExplainYourselfAmazon #Censorship #QuestionableBusinessPractices #AuthorsDependOnReviews #ClippedWings

Journal Entry from Amanda Blake second installment. (The Deadly Caress)

The Deadly Caress O. N. Stefan.

I found my mother dead today. I still can't believe it. I don't want to believe it. 

Jean, my mother, was lying so still with her eyes staring at nothing. It was awful.

A toothbrush lay beside her. I stared hard at her outstretched fingers, wanting them to curl around the handle, to show some small sign of life.

Finally, I stared at the marble vanity cluttered with the mundane necessities of the living—a half-drunk glass of water, an open bottle of mouthwash, toothpaste, an open bottle of pills, perfume, lipstick and a compact.

I must have fainted because the next thing I remember was Brian, Dorian and Estella standing round me with worried looks on their faces. 

I had hoped to spend time getting to know my mother, but she's been taken from me. And it's tearing me apart. 

www.getBook.at/B00I0DI0MY

Journal Entry from Amanda Blake (The Deadly Caress.)

The Deadly Caress O. N. Stefan.

I met my mother today. I don't know exactly what I expected but one thing for sure was that I didn't think I'd look so much like her.

I want so desperately to like Jean but I'm at sixes and sevens trying to get used to the knowledge that I have a mother. She seems to be trying hard to help me come to terms with all this but I'm resisting and I can't help it. It's tearing me apart as all I was used to was a woman who I thought to be my mother, Elaine, who died when I was twelve. But now I know different. 

Funny how life throws a curve ball at you and you can't duck it no matter what you do.

The picture below is an antique camera from my little collection. I'm a professional photographer and love what I do. I get to go all over the world taking pictures of wildlife and go to places where few people have been.

www.getBook.at/B00I0DI0MY

Death and cremation

The Australian Writer's Festival is on and I went to an author talk today. Caitlin Doughty spoke about her career as a Mortician.

She's an entertaining speaker and I learned much about cremation, how the body is burned and that the family can attend the burning if they wish but no one ever tells them this. Wow!



I didn't know that the hardest part to burn is the chest area which needs to be face up. The the body is turned to burn more evenly. Old people burn quickly say from 45 minutes to an hour and overweight people can take up to two hours.

Also, the bones don't all burn and they are put into a grinding machine to ground to a powder that the family will receive in a box.

One question I didn't get to ask is what happens to the box. The funeral industry pushes the family to buy the most expensive box. Does it get recycled back to the funeral company when it is actually owned by the family that paid for it?

Caitlin is opening her own funeral home in July. I wish her all the best as she's come across as a caring person and I can't think of anyone who would look after your dearly departed better.

Her book, a New York Times bestseller, is about her career and her experiences in the industry of death.
I purchased 'Smoke Gets In Your Eyes & other lessons from the Crematory' and hope to read it shortly. I can't wait after hearing snippets of her experiences.

http://www.amazon.com/Smoke-Gets-Your-Eyes-Crematory/dp/0393240231

I have to say that I'm a little uncomfortable with looking at a dead body but at least now I can shake of that conditioning of speaking about death.

Prescription for murder

In the current thriller (Sleep then my Princess) which I'm editing, I had to find a way to murder someone without doctor's and pathologists becoming suspicious. My background is pharmacy and I love to research. I looked in to a combination of medications for a way that would work for this scenario. I came up with something that I knew could happen in real life. Please don't do it to your relatives.

Sleep then my Princess will be out in mid 2015.

Subscribe to my blog or my website www.onstefan.weebly.com to find out how my villain did this.

I'll be posting exerts here when Sleep then my Princess is almost ready to be published.

Have an interesting and eventful day.

O.

Fruit chain cholla cactus from the Arizona Desert.

Some of these hook spikes anchor themselves in the villains boot after he covers the body of the child he's just murdered with branches. He goes crazy trying to dislodge them.

Sleep then my Princess. Release date will be July 2015

It's been along journey. I didn't expect that this book would take so much time. I'd written it a few years ago. So it should have been easy to bring it up to speed. Wrong.

I'd had this story assessed and the assessor suggested I take out a secondary plot as it was overshadowing the main plot. So I listened to her and removed a third of the story. Now I had gaping holes and I edited the first third pretty well but the rest of the manuscript was very raw. I had left it like that as I'd lost interest in fixing it up by then. This story gathered "dust" until I pulled it up on my screen mid last year.

Fast forward to today. I'm now ready to send the manuscript off to an editor. I have a cover in mind, finally, and will use the cover designer I previously used on the Deadly Caress to make the cover as eye catching as it can be and to convey what the reader can expect from the story inside.

What's next. I'm planning to change pace and go back to the fantasy trilogy, of which I've written two books and need to at the very least outline the third before I can go back and start polishing the first in the series.

Trailer for the Deadly Caress O. N. Stefan

Sleep then my Princess - due for release mid 2015

Hi All
I'm happy to say that The Deadly Caress is selling reasonably well. I'm pleased so many people are finding my book entertaining. Thank you to those that have left great reviews.

My next thriller 'Sleep then my Princess' is due for release in about two months. I'm nearly finished the last round of edits. My writing buddy Victoria Chie was kind enough to go through the story with a red pen and outlined many flaws which I have now corrected. Hopefully, it's a coherent story now. If not, then it's all my fault.

I'll shortly send the manuscript off to an editor. Then it's back to me for another round of edits till I feel happy with it. I'm waiting for my cover designer to get back from holidays so he can create a great cover. This book has taken a lot longer to complete than I anticipated. Nevertheless, I've enjoyed the process. I ask myself what else would I be doing with my time? Shopping, enjoying the garden and more. Let's not go there.

All the best.
O.

Trailer for the Deadly Caress.