Review for Sleep then My Princess.

My first review. I'm over the moon.  Thank you my readers for supporting my efforts.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Walden DiCaprio Carrington Review of Sleep Then My Princess by O. N. Stefan

By Walden DiCaprio Carrington on November 1, 2015

Format: Kindle Edition

The element of suspense is present from the very beginning. This is an unusually creepy scenario and you convey Stephani's fear very well. It would cause anyone alarm to have a stranger send them photographs they took without consent. I can see you draw the reader of this type of fiction into the narrative very well as I could hear the characters speaking in my imagination and sense their alarm. It certainly is a page-turner as the reader is unaware of what danger is in store for Stephani and there is good reason for her to fear this unknown photographer.

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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

The Deadly Caress is now published on kindle

The Deadly Caress is now published on kindle. Yipee.

It was quite a journey. One of the editors had a family emergency and was delayed with getting the manuscript back to me.

I'm pleased with the result after days of staying up half the night to get the formatting for kindle done. I didn't get the story uploaded until 23rd January.

Someone asked me why I wrote this story. I think it's what captured my attention at one time from a newspaper article and I started to get the what if's going. What if a person was to discover that the woman she though was her mother wasn't. How would she feel? What if this mother was murdered? What would this person do?

Then there's a scary scene with Amanda driving down a mountainside and that comes from my memory banks. I grew up across the road from a very bad corner and every weekend there would be at least one horrific accident. Some of these were youths speeding and chasing each other. Drunks and careless or not drivers who had miscalculated the sharp corner and careered into an oncoming car or the nearby light post. My dad would run over to see if an ambulance needed to be called as we were the only family in the street to have a phone. He'd take blankets over if the person/people was badly injured and I would help him. My sister and my mother would be too upset to be of help and didn't go.

Once a car overtook another and miscalculated. He caught the side of the vehicle and the mud guard was peeled away like a giant orange peel.

I still remember the time when at dusk a drunk stumbled onto the street and a car, unable to stop in time, slammed into him. He flew up onto the bonnet like a rag doll and fell. He lay unmoving and we though him dead. The driver was understandably distressed. The ambulance men came and began to remove something from his mouth. I though it might be teeth but it was only chips that he'd been eating when hit and the blood was because he'd bitten his lips. Then he mumbled something and saw that the police had now arrived and got up to go home. Amazingly, he only had minor injuries.

Here's the link to my book:


http://a-fwd.com/s=TheDeadlyCaress&asin-com=B00I0DI0MY

Happy reading. O

Substantive Edit

Hi
My manuscript is off to get a substantive edit today. I'm excited that finally I'm almost at the end of the journey. My plan is to self publish on Kindle some time in December.

These are the things my editor will be looking for:

www.allograph.ca/Allograph/editing/Substantive%20edit%20checklist.rtf‎

SUBSTANTIVE  & STYLISTIC EDITING CHECKLIST

                                                                                                                                                                      

TEXT	DONE
Structure is appropriate for the intended audience and medium.
Material is organized into an appropriate structure and sequence.
Chapter and sub-section divisions are appropriately organized and meaningful.
Language is appropriate for the intended audience and medium.
Consistent style, reading level, point of view, and level of decorum is used.
Appropriate stylistic and dramatic devices are enhanced or minimized as necessary.
Ambiguous vocabulary and syntax are recognized and clarified.
Statements that should be checked for accuracy are noted for copy editor or fact checker.
Redundancies and verbosity are eliminated.
Jargon that is inappropriate for the intended audience is eliminated.
Possible legal trouble spots (e.g., libel, plagiarism, missing permissions) or departures from social acceptability (e.g., gender, ethnicity, or age bias; failure to give sources) are identified for author and publisher.
Revise or cut manuscript to meet length requirements, as necessary.

Adapted from the Editors’ Association of Canada’s Professional Editorial Standards book, revised edition.

O.

beta readers needed please.

Hi
I'm at the stage were I need to find some beta readers for my thriller/suspense 'The Deadly Caress' before I self-publish. I'm happy to return the favour.

I need you to read my story and give me some feedback. I'm happy to pay you if that's what it takes.

Please email me at olga990@yahoo.com.au. Put in the subject line: beta reader 'Deadly Caress'.

Thanks.

Book picture by Pavel Guzenko

Amanda Blake sets out to find her mother’s murderer. She gets more than she bargained for and becomes a target herself.

Amanda BLAKE, a freelance photographer, discovers she has been adopted and seeks out her natural mother Jean CAMPBELL in California. When it becomes evident that her mother has been murdered, Amanda sets out to discover her mother’s killer. Her quest takes her back to Sydney to see the man who she thinks holds the answer to the killer’s identity. While visiting this man, she has to run for her life as a hail of gunshots pockmark the walls and shatter the windows. Someone will stop at nothing till she is dead. If she thought things were bad enough, they are about to get much worse...

The Deadly Caress is complete at 80,000 words

Editing again

I finished another edit of this story. The best thing is that I haven't looked at this story for years so I am not attached to it anymore. I was ruthless with cutting out things that didn't work and sentences that I had loved before. I also looked at my writing blog to ensure that I was mindful of the points I had raised.

I have sent it off to someone who's offered to do a critique for me. I hope   the don't find it too bad.

Quandary with a chapter

Hi

I've finished another edit of this story incorporating all the points Victoria brought up. I didn't quite do the 100 pages per week last week but by days end on Monday it was done.

Now I'm concentrating on scene settings and descriptions.

I had a quandary with one chapter as Victoria said that she was worried it wouldn't be allowed. So I put it to my facebook group and authonomy and got some replies. Facebook prosecuting attorney said it's unusual but he can't see why it can't be done as long as the accused is Marandized. So it should be okay.
The guy on authonomy said it can't be done. I've let a message for the second guy asking if he's in law enforcement in the US. I'll see what happens from this.
The question was: Can a kidnapping victim interview the accused in jail in California?
I emailed a detective in Montery and he said it could...with a proviso that it would have be a 'pretext call'. The accused and the victim can't be in the same room. The interview would be done via a phone link.
Yipee. I was so relieved that I could have this scene.

Next draft will be dialogue and then I'll send it off to Victoria again and Symn who bravely offered to cast his studied eyes over it too.

half way through an edit on my mystery

Hi

I'm half way through doing an edit on my mystery story. I can't believe how bad some of it was. Still, with Victoria's comments on my punctuation and plot holes I can fix it. My aim is 100 pages per week and I'm on target so far.

Got mail

Hi

I went out to get the mail and guess what I found on my step. My manuscript from my friend Victoria.
She's suggested a heap of changes. When I finish first draft of my fantasy story The Girl In The Mirror, I will get some bum glue, to keep me in my chair, and start editing The Deadly Caress. I hope to have posted some chapters by the end of January.

Olga