Review: Spinning Heads Volume One by Forrest Young

 From Smashwords: A collection of erotic short stories. This volume includes the story of an ordinary housewife who, quite by chance, discovers she still has the power to seduce and entice, and a couple seeking another woman for a threesome who end up getting much more than they bargained for.

Spinning Heads is a collection of two short stories. The first centers on Anna and is broken up into several short chapters. Anna is a bored housewife who finds that she has a desire to sleep with as many men as possible, preferably all at once. The second is called Kirsty and is more of a bonus than a second short, though it’s still a complete story.

Anna has a lot of sex in a variety of scenarios with a lot of men. Passionate new experiences, gang bangs, all sorts of naughty fun. The scenes are hot, but often a bit short and lacking in detail. One of my pet peeves in all erotic fiction is when women have multiple orgasms at the drop of a hat, and Anna does this a lot. I love a good build up to a screaming orgasm, it’s more realistic in a fun way. Still, there is a lot of fun to be had and the story covers a lot of different kinks, which means there is wide audience appeal.

Kirsty is more focused on a new threesome and there is a lot of lesbian, hetero, cuckold, and three-way sex. It wasn’t quite as hot as Anna, but it makes for a nice bonus.

Overall, both stories were an enjoyable read. There were some grammar issues and a few punctuation errors, but mostly they didn’t detract from the story. It was fun, but not my most recommended read. You do get a lot more erotica than most for the $2.99 price point, which is a huge bonus.

My Rating: *** 1/2 / *****

Where to Find Spinning Heads

Smashwords

Barnes & Nobel

Diesel Ebooks

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Faster Than Expected!

This morning I finished my second edit of Awake My Soul. I edited it once already, sent it to an editor, and now I've edited what they looked at. I hope going through it once or twice more will be the last I need before it's time to publish. Probably twice, just to be sure!

I've looked into KDP Select and honestly, I don't think it's for me. The more I hear about Smashwords and the accessibility, the more I like it. So of course it will also go on Amazon, but not on the 'select' feature. 

I'm hoping to reach out to a Romance Novel blog about a cover reveal soon. It would be a nice way to generate some publicity and get the ball rolling. Of course, the cover needs to get made soon too!

In the end, I'm beyond excited about how things are going. I absolutely cannot wait for people to be able to read my book!

Goals. So many goals

I started seriously writing last year. I'd written for fun until then, but this time last year I realized that writing is what I want to do, despite any Debby downers who told me it wasn't a worthy career anymore. "You can't write money writing!" many people said and I kind of gave up for a while. Then last year I realized that while I may never make a dime on it, I should at least try.

Now that I finished my first draft for my first full length novel, I really need to set some goals for myself!

• Finish first edit Awake My Soul by May 10th, 2013
• Have Awake My Soul edited by an actual editor by the end of June 2013 (this relies on another person, but hopefully she can keep focused!)
• Have cover finished by end of June 2013. I'm having the cover made by a professional designer who is also a friend. So again this relies on another person, but I think this is ample time
• Finish my own final edit by July 15th
• Publish Awake My Soul on July 29th 2013

Why July 29th? I work full time and I'm off Sundays and Mondays. It will give me enough time between finishing my edit to getting the files uploaded to make sure the files are in order and they look crisp and clean.

Of course, these are loose dates and if the other people I'm relying on are quicker than I expect, then I can get the book out sooner. But right now my personal tentative release date is July 29th 2013.

And after that I have some other goals

• Finish first draft of Lay Me Bare, a contemporary romance I'm working on, by August 30th, 2013. I'm about half done now, but my focus now is on polishing Awake My Soul.
• Finish first edit of Lay Me Bare by September 15th 2013
• Cover and professional edit done by October 15th 2013
• Final edit complete by October 31st 2013
• Release by November 15th, 2013 in time for Christmas gifts and gift cards!

I have two other books on the back burner, a paranormal romance called The Demon's Song I've been picking at as the mood strikes me and another contemporary called Home Town Hero that I've just started putting together. I hope to finish those up if all goes well by early and mid-2014.

Of course, a lot of this also depends on work. I do work full time and sometimes struggle to find time to write. My hope is that after releasing Awake My Soul I can make enough money to reduce my hours at work so I can dedicate more time to writing. If I can do that, the other pieces will be easier to put into place!

Why I've Decided to E-Publish

When I started writing my first book, still not officially titled mind you, I debated with myself if I would try to do it the old fashioned way and find an agent, or try my hand at self-publishing online. For months in my spare time I did a lot of research and while I started with the conventional thinking of 'I'll find an agent and then get a publisher and then get an advance', my views have swung completely to the opposite side. When my book is ready to publish, hopefully early this summer, I'll be doing it myself online. I decided today I'm going to talk about why I changed my mind.

To say it's not about money would be a bold faced lie, so we'll get that out of the way first. I'm well aware that there is a huge risk you wont make any money. At least with a small advance if your book doesn't do well you've gotten some money for all your hard work. The thing is, you need to risk it to get the biscuit and the chances of reward are much, much higher with self-publishing. This post over at E-Book Formatting Fairies was a real eyeopener at just how well one can really do with e-publishing, and it shows a balanced look at the sales, rather than only publishing success stories. Highly recommended reading and very motivational!

Another important reason was marketing. My initial belief was that when you go to an agent and a publisher they do the marketing work for you. This may have been the case years ago, and is still the case with established sellers and hit books, but for someone just starting out today, especially in my genre of romance? Forget it. You do all the work yourself I discovered. You need to get out there and do blog tours, get on social networking (follow my twitter), be active in the community, and use your own leg work to sell your book and that's with a publisher! You might as well e-publish independently and still do the work yourself because at least then the reward is all yours!

Lastly, control. I get to control what my cover looks like. I get to control what goes in to my book and how it's presented. No one has a real say other than me. I get to be my own boss and if I succeed it's all on me. Of course, if I fail it's all my fault too, but that's a risk worth taking.

I hope to have my book available from all the major online book shops early this summer. Still needs a title though...