Review: Serialized

I'm a sucker for movies about authors. I don't think I've ever seen a single one that accurately depicts what an author or an author's life is really like, but I can't resist them.

Serialized, recently added to the Amazon Prime lineup, is, for the most part, an exception to my observation.

Everything the movie has to say about authors and publishers, critics and agents rings as true as the coffee mugs and tee shirts mystery writers love. You know, those emblazoned with phrases like, I'm a mystery writer. I kill those who piss me off.

All that aside, Serialized is a mystery thriller starring Vanessa Ray, whom you may know as Officer Eddie Janko on Blue Bloods, as the author.

Adam Korson, a familiar face in guest roles on many popular series, is the police detective. Tara Spencer-Nairn, a regular on The Listener and DeGrassi: The Next Generation, is the BFF with her own agenda. Tyler Hynes portrays the sleazy ex-husband, and Meghan Heffern is the ex-hubby's new wife.

Directed by Michel Poulette from a script by Doug Barber and James Phillips, Serialized was released in 2016 under the title Best-Selling Murder.

What's It About?


After getting dropped by her publisher, novelist Hannah Ryan blazess through the first chapter of a new work in which she has the protagonist murder her publisher.

Her BFF talks her into publishing it online as a subscription serial with a new chapter each week.

No sooner than subscriptions start rolling in than her publisher in real life is found real dead.

Each chapter that follows has Hannah killing off her enemies in her personal and professional life. To her horror, a serial killer follows suit in real life.

Watch the trailer for Serialized.

My Take

The writers had to have walked in a mid-list author's shoes more than a few miles! Everything they have to say about the vagaries of being an author rings true.

Yes, publishers revenues are down. Yes, erotica and vampire books kept the lights on at many a print publisher. Yes, publishers and other industry professionals only want you if you're raking in the big bucks. And, yes, authors have turned to online sales to try to make a living.

True to an author's publishing life, this is a movie with a well-formed plot with interesting characters--especially a likable heroine and hero.

A believable romance blooms between Hannah and the cop, and the mystery is fleshed out nicely. I must say I was surprised by the identity of the killer. Well-written, well-acted, and entertaining.

Takeaway Truth

Whether you're an author or a devoted mystery reader, Serialized will entertain you and may keep you guessing about the identity of the murderer.

Is Someone Moving Your Cheese?

About 20 years ago, I read a little book called Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson. It was a #1 international bestseller and has over 28 million copies in print.

On the Amazon page for this book, there are 3,493 reviews giving a 4.6 out of 5 stars to the book.

The book is a thin volume, but it's profound in its wisdom. What's it about? Dealing with change in the work place and in your personal life. This book changed my thinking about life.

I talk about dealing with change a lot here on SlingWords because it's a tough challenge we all face.

Through the years when I was feeling overwhelmed by so much change in such a short period of time, I'd pull out the book and read through it again.

In the copy I bought, there was a bookmark entitled The Handwriting on the Wall. This book mark listed the 6 beliefs about change. Eventually, I put this bookmark in a little holder next to my computer. I've always kept it there so I could read it when I saw change coming down the pike.

Lately, with all the stats about the decline in income for authors, all the Amazon algorithm stuff, the ongoing piracy we authors experience, and so much else bad news, I thought I'd share with you the 6 rules or laws about Change from the book.

6 Laws of Change

These are the laws or rules or beliefs. The book goes into detail about this, but this bookmark reminds me of what I learned from the book.

1. Change happens.

2. Anticipate change.

3. Monitor change.

4. Adapt to change quickly.

5. Enjoy change!

6. Be ready to quickly change again and again.

Takeaway Truth

If you've never read Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, I urge you to pick up a copy today. It may change your life too.

Great New Tool For DIY Graphic Design

Authors, are you artistically challenged when it comes to making "teasers" for your books?

Have you tried free website apps, but find them not user-friendly? Or even worse, the end graphic image teaser looks amateurish?

If so, you might want to rush over to Covers Sell Books, the new kid on the block, and sign up for one of their FREE Limited Plans that allow you to create 3 images per month--yes, for free! This trial is a limited version of their Plus Plan.

They are giving away only 1,000 of these Trial Free Plans. First come; first served. So read on and see why you should do this.

Details

I've reviewed a lot of website apps that offer DIY graphic design. Most of the free apps have drawbacks.

Ease of use and lack of sufficient art and/or fonts are the most annoying issues. The result is that the user finds them difficult or confusing to use, and they're not happy with the end result.

When I was asked to test and review Covers Sell Books I figured it would be pretty much like the others, but that wasn't the case.

With over a million backgrounds to choose from and a no-brainer interface, it's so easy to create the image you need that you'll probably make them your go-to site for graphic image teasers and ads.

Try out their Custom Creator right now. Watch the short Demo Video, and it talks you through every step of creating an image. (Remember, this is based on the Plus Plan, but the free trial does not contain all the features of the paid Plus Plan.)

How It Works

1. Identify what you want to create by selecting a template--you'll see the correctly sized ones for Facebook, Twitter, etc., or manually enter the size dimensions you want.
2. Upload your book cover.

3. Select your background from over a million choices.

I made this image in just a few minutes.

4. Select your book template. Do you want your cover to appear as a 3D ebook or hardcover? Or both?

5. Add any text you want to appear on the teaser.

6. Stamps. This is really cool. You can add the badge icons for Amazon, GooglePlay, Kobo, iBooks, etc. They even have the gold stars you can use to indicate 5 star book!

7. Want a border around your image? Click More Options and select the thickness and the color.

8. Click download, and that's all there is to it.

All images you add to your teaser can be resized.

Easy, Fast, Affordable

With Covers Sell Books you really can create images that look professionally-designed--images that make your book stand out. That's worth a lot. If you don't grab one of the thousand free subscriptions, this website app is still affordable and worth what you pay.

The Starter Plan is $5.00 per month, paid annually, so that's $60.00. For that you are able to create Unlimited Images, and you have access to a limited number of 3D Templates, and dozens of images for background art. This is a basic package for creating your social media images.

The Plus Plan is $8.00 per month, paid annually, so that's $96.00. For that, you are able to create Unlimited Images, a variety of pre-designed social media templates, access to 1 Million Background Images, the ability to upload your own background art, and custom text.

Takeaway Truth

If you've been going crazy trying to create stunning images, then sign up now for the free trial.

When you see how fast and easy it is to create great images, you'll want to sign up for one of the paid plans.

Covers Sell Books takes the guesswork out of graphic design for social media and book ads.

Christmas In July at RomanceBooks4Us

Enter Today!

A lot of author groups are running Christmas in July promotions. One of these is Romance Books 4 Us.

They always have a monthly Giveaway, but this month they're going all out with their Christmas in July promotion. They're giving away a Kindle Fire, a gift card, books, and lots of swag!

Drop by and enter today. While you're on the site, visit the author pages because most of the authors give away something every month.

My author page is Joan Reeves.

Takeaway Truth

Christmas is good any time of the year!

Striving To Be Perfect? No Way!

I've often been accused of being a perfectionist. Maybe I was once upon a time, but life will cure you of that trend if you're lucky enough to become a parent.

I often say parenthood taught me to be patient. It also taught me to surrender the notion that I, or my home, or my life, could be perfect.

That's good thing because life isn't perfect. It's messy and complicated and confusing much of the time. If you wait for life to be perfect before you try something hard, you'll never get out of the starting gate.

A lot of people want to achieve something amazing in their life, but they keep waiting for life to get easy or less complicated or better in some way or other. They want everything to be perfect before they try. If you keep waiting to get all your ducks in a row, you'll grow old and gray before those quackers are lined up.


Perfect is a myth, and it's a major blockade to achievement. Life will never be perfect--not even halfway perfect. There may not ever be a better time so take action today to achieve something amazing.


Takeaway Truth

The World doesn’t reward Perfectionists. It rewards Finishers. Get started now.

Rainy Independence Day? Read! 99cents Sale 4 U

Happy 4th of July!

It's a rainy Independence Day here on the Gulf Coast.

No BBQ, potato salad, or baked beans.

We're saving all that for the next sunny day. I did make homemade ice cream though, and it is simply delicious.

If you're stuck inside also, take advantage of my 99 cents sale.

From today until July 10, both books in the ALL BRIDES ARE BEAUTIFUL Series are on sale for only 99 cents.

APRIL FOOL BRIDE

Oil heiress Madeline Quinn needs a husband by the time she turns twenty-five in order to claim her full inheritance.

Mad Maddie, as the tabloids christened her, has learned the hard way that men only see dollar signs when they look at her.

Maddie decides a marriage of convenience is the only answer.

She turns to the one man in the world she can trust, her housekeeper’s son who always treated her like a little sister when they were growing up—until one disastrous night when she acted impetuously.

Jake Becker hasn’t seen Maddie since the night she tried to seduce him. Why should he help the woman who changed the course of his life? Simple. Revenge.

Or is it something else? Something that sizzles like steam heat between Maddie and Jake that neither can resist?

SECOND CHANCE BRIDE

He was the only man she wanted—and the one man she could never have.

She left town at eighteen, wanting to leave behind all the pain and heartbreak. She reinvented herself as wealthy, successful Constance Quinn. The only problem is there's no room for love or relationships in her rigidly controlled existence. Now older and wiser, determined to find the part of herself that got lost in her transformation.

"A blonde with curves in all the right places." That's what Alex Martinez thinks when he meets Constance. When they touch, something hot and urgent passes between them. Their attraction is mutual. Their desire is palpable.

Although Constance cannot resist a kiss from Alex, she knows she's playing with fire because she risks his discovering her secret.

Takeaway Truth

Rainy or sunny, enjoy this special holiday.

Review: Endgame

Summer colds are the worst, aren't they? Darling Hubby went to our house in the country last week. Our older son had visited the previous weekend and brought a lovely cold virus with him.

My darling caught it so he spent a miserable week in the country. Instead of working on some of the projects he has started there, he ended up binge watching Netflix and Amazon instead.

He came home yesterday, still sick, so we watched a great series called Endgame (typography in the credits shows it as ENDGAMƎ).

Unfortunately, there are only 13 episodes of this Canadian drama television series that premiered March 14, 2011, on Showcase Television network.

That is really a shame because it's a great premise with each episode being a layered story where nothing is as it appears.

The series premise is that World Chess Champion Arkady Balagan, a genius, uses his analytical skills to solve crimes. Balagan is portrayed beautifully by Shawn Doyle who you may remember as the dirty cop in the movie Frequency.

The series opens 4 months after his fiance was killed by a car bomb. As a result of that incident, he developed agoraphobia and has never left the hotel. Unfortunately, if you're a Chess Grand Master, you must compete to maintain your title as well as keep the income flowing.

With the threat of eviction, he begins doing whatever will get him the cash he needs to continue living in his penthouse suite in a luxury hotel. His only skill though is chess--and his highly analytical brain.

New Twist On Old Cliche

This is a refreshing twist on the sleuth genre. Great stories reminiscent of Leverage, intelligent scripts, great acting, excellent cast of secondary characters--people the Grand Master recruits to do the legwork since he can't go outside.

I particularly loved the characterization of Alcina, the hotel maid, played superbly by Carmen Aguirre, a Vancouver-based actress and writer who was born in Santiago, Chile. Alcina is smart, hard-working, likable, and completely believable.

Takeaway Truth

The bigger mystery of Endgame is why this series was not extended. I'd certainly watch it, and I bet you would too. You can stream Endgame via Amazon Prime Video and Hulu.