Book-To-Movie Postponed; Volunteer Beta Readers Needed

Cartoon of a woman sleepwalking using a cane while reading a book that covers her face.

This is the weekend that we usually have our Book-To-Movie review, but I'm postponing it until next weekend. I was spending all day yesterday racking by brain dead while doing my state sales and use tax return, which in California is due at the beginning of each fiscal year. So, I was worn out totally by the evening. I couldn't keep focused or even awake to work on the current story in progress for my upcoming short fiction collection, "Bad Apps". So, I've been working on it this evening to make up for the lost time. However, I didn't want to leave you without a blog post this weekend since last weekend’s already got delayed to the middle of the week (too long of a delay for a weekly blog). So, I wanted to do at least a short post for this week, one that will tell you how you can get a free, pre-release edition of "Bad Apps"! And you can do that by being a volunteer beta reader!

How You Can Volunteer as a Beta Reader for ‘Bad Apps’

Releasing a book as a beta not only has benefits for us authors but for readers as well. For authors there are several benefits but the main and most important one is the feedback we get from select readers who read a pre-release edition of the book. In that way, we can see what improvements the book needs based on feedback from readers at large as opposed to ones in a critique group that we're a member of.

The benefits for beta readers are plenty. However, the most notable ones, at least for my book--"Bad Apps", a collection of short stories about strange and deadly mobile apps--are the following:

You get a free beta version of the book, and as far as “Bad Apps” goes you can keep the beta book forever.
You get to see the contents of the book before most other readers.
You get to help the author edit the book: when you read a beta version and give your feedback, you're basically contributing to the editing of the book because the author is likely to make changes based on that feedback.
You'll get a free image of the final version of the front cover before the book’s official release!
You will get a free copy of the official release version of “Bad Apps”!

To sign up as a volunteer beta reader you can let me know in the comments box below, or email me at sarellanorose@gmaildotcom, or, if I can come up with a form soon enough (I still have to figure out how to put one together and upload it to the blog) you can put your email address on that. I don't have a precise date for the beta release but I will keep you informed here and in email (if you give me your permission to email you). It will likely be towards the end of August.

Nearing the End of Smashwords' Summer Sale!

As of this writing, there are only eight days left until the end of the month and so that means until the end of Smashwords' smashing July Summer Sale! (Known as the Winter Sale in the southern hemisphere.) That means you only have eight days to take advantage of the big discounts I've given my own books which are 75% to 100% off! Yes, some of my books’ prices have been reduced to as much as free! You also only have eight days to take advantage of the super markdowns on thousands of other authors and publishers’ books in sci fi, fantasy, horror and many other fiction and non-fiction genres. However, not all books may remain discounted for the remainder of the month, so check out the Smashwords Summer Sale now!

For More, Sign Up for the Author’s Newsletter!

Want more details on upcoming books such as "Bad Apps" and to be the first to know of other upcoming events such as discounts on books? Then subscribe to my newsletter, "Night Creatures' Call". It's free!

Until next time . . .

Book-To-Movie: ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’

Credit: Wikimedia Commons I apologise for posting outside our regular post-day which is late Saturday night/early Sunday morning. However, I got behind on several things last week and so had to postpone the post to today. I’ve been a reader of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes books ever since I was 11. What I’ve always liked so much about the series is that, like a good horror story, the stories often take place in dark settings and involve bizarre cases. Conan Doyle’s novel, “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, definitely contains these elements. It’s a detective story that crosses over into the gothic horror genre. Several movie adaptations of the novel have been made that go as far back as a 1915 German silent film. In 1959 Hammer Studios released a version starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. As much as I’m a fan of the Hammer horror films, I have not seen that one yet. The only one that I’ve seen so far is the 1939 adaptation starring that other big name in classic Bri

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