For those of you who have been waiting for The Darkness and the Night III: Twins of Darkness to become available at Amazon's Kindle store, your wait is finally over.  Twins of Darkness, which readers and reviewers alike agree is the best in the trilogy, is slowly earning the respect of erotic horror and romance readers alike.  I have been delighted with the response, so far:

The author’s style makes for effortless reading; Lane’s novel is interesting, variable and complicated without the heaviness often associated with stories of substance, and she balances her many characters and plot lines like a master.
        --Clayton Bye, The Deepening: http://www.claytonbye.com/

Book III is best experienced if you read its prequels. The characters take some time to understand if you do not know their history, but regardless they are very well written and exciting. This is certainly one of the most unique vampire novels I have come across. It is chock full of imagination and feeling; a totally fresh look at the dark side.
       --Loloty, Coffee Tome Romance: http://www.coffeetimeromance.com

Having read the first twenty-nine pages off and on, I continued straight through to the end. As I’ve already said, the plot is superb, and when such a plot comes along, I always marvel at the human imagination and what it can produce.
       --Fanny, Cerebral Reviews: http://cerebralreviews.com
Picture
Make sure to rate and review Twins of Darkness, should you go through Amazon for your copy--which will make it more accessible to other customers who might also enjoy it's unique and provocative flair.

The story does stand alone--and may be better suited that way for those who do not have the patience to read an entire trilogy before reaching that much-desired "Happily-Ever-After" ending.  However, reading the full trilogy does make for a richer, even more provocative experience, as there are a number of plot twists that do intertwine throughout the different individual story lines.

However you approach the trilogy, all three books are now available through Amazon's Kindle store, and Twins of Darkness should join its predecessors' paperback status soon enough.  I will keep you posted.

Happy reading!
Add Comment
 
 
My thanks to Steven Hart and Erotica Revealed, for reviewing Lust in Space.  From the review:

"I found myself reading this book very slowly because it was so much fun at bed time to come back to its lively and imaginative adventures that sometimes remind you of Rocky and Bullwinkle.  It may help that my other reading is the modern history of the Middle East and a biography of J. P. Morgan.  But still, you get to liking these characters a lot.  They are sexy with a naïve sense of right and wrong just like bad boy, Captain Kirk.  The secret is that Ms. Lane has been able to harness all the cliché’s of TV Scifi, and tease them out to an entertaining place between parody and homage.  Lust in Space provides a lot of fun.  It gives good lift off."

Go to http://www.eroticarevealed.com/current_reviews.php?panel_id=1 to read the full review.  For more reviews on Lust in Space, as well as for my erotic horror series The Darkness and the Night and short stories, go to http://www.cerebralwriter.com/reviews.html.
1 Comment
 
 
Picture
There has been much opinion expressed recently on the appropriateness of certain individuals and groups that entertain themselves by tearing apart the works of their fellow writers.  Knock on wood, my stories have (as far as I know) not fallen victim to such attacks, but I do have fellow author friends whose works have.  This puts me in an interesting position, allowing me a perspective that, I believe, lies squarely between most of the opinions thus far expressed.

 I do not have any firsthand experience with the sites in question, as I refuse to buy into the drama, but the implied level of maliciousness regularly expressed by followers of such groups leads me to believe that there are personal matters behind those behaviors.  Everyone is entitled to his/her opinion.  Who hasn’t disliked—or even hated—a book?  However, does one person’s dissatisfaction with a particular work merit such cruelty?  Might there be a more productive way of offering harsh critique?  Moreover, is a novice or self-published writer really the best person to be critically reviewing others’ published works?  Just because a person has an opinion on something, does that make the person an authority on the matter?  For example, I love to cook, and I cook well, but that does not make me a gourmet food critic.  Is anyone who belongs to #romfail or any similar group actually formally educated in literary theory, let alone remotely qualified to do what they are doing?  What degrees do these people hold?  How many books have they published, beyond vanity presses and self-publishing houses?

Or do they just have opinions—uneducated, demeaning, vicious opinions?

Let’s assume that the works in question do contain good examples of bad writing.  No one is perfect, and even the best of writers sometimes have an off day.  Even more, no one but the author and his/her editor knows just how much of a particular problem in a book is the result of poor editing.  Granted, it is an authors’ responsibility to ensure his/her publishing house employs good editors; for the novice author, this problem is not always as simple to remedy as it would seem.  Is it acceptable behavior to treat an author with such disrespect and nastiness, simply for having a book that was poorly edited?  Is it the intent to embarrass the author (and/or his/her publisher) out of the industry?  If so, do the offending individuals actually believe they are doing anything beyond upsetting and alienating their peers?

On a final note, I would love to know what kinds of reviews these “mean girls” are receiving for their books.  I would like to know how these people would feel if it were their books being offered up for sacrifice, and just how much fun it would still be if it were they who suffered the humility and heartache over having one of their beloved books torn apart—with quotes taken out of context—for all the world to see.

Some people need to grow a soul; please don’t feed their emptiness.  These people are mean for the sake of being mean and deserved to be ignored.  Enough said.

Please check out these blogs, which inspired me to write this post:

http://culinarycarnivale.blogspot.com/2009/08/mean-girls-of-romfail.html
http://nlberger13.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-i-spend-most-friday-nights.html
http://mrsgiggles00.livejournal.com/25967.html
7 Comments
 
 
Clayton bye of The Deepening on The Darkness and the Night III: Twins of Darkness:

What’s so different about Twins of Darkness? Well… The author’s style makes for effortless reading; Lane’s novel is interesting, variable and complicated without the heaviness often associated with stories of substance, and she balances her many characters and plot lines like a master. Also, this is not your typical vampire story, and although there was enough sex to make my  temperature rise, the story is not just a vehicle for eroticism.

Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye 2009
Read the full review here.
2 Comments
 
 
Play LOUDLY--low audio level--WORTH IT!
5 Comments
 
 

Whipped Cream Reviews gave Lust in Space 4.5 cherries!  Read all about it here, or go to Whipped Cream for the full review!

Add Comment
 
 

Both of my stories in Men in Shorts got positive attention in the most recent 4-star review of Lori Perkins' erotic anthology Men in Shorts, posted at the Romance Studio.  Read about it here.

1 Comment
 
 

Check it out!

http://cerebralwriter.weebly.com/reviews.html

3 Comments