What's in a Name? by J.Q. Rose

For more information about BWL books by J.Q. Rose , 

and to purchase, please visit J.Q.'s 

Books We LoveAuthor Page .

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The month of February is known for cupids, hearts, romance and love. It’s the perfect time of year to remember Shakespeare’s famous love story, Romeo and Juliet. This is my favorite passage from the play.

Juliet:
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose

Juliet-"What's in a name?"

By any other name would smell as sweet."

In this famous scene Juliet asks what’s in a name. She answers by telling Romeo Montague that a name is meaningless. She loves the person who is called "Montague," not the Montague name and not the Montague family. 

Alas, Juliet is wrong about a name being meaningless as far as writers and readers are concerned.

As a writer, I've discovered a name helps to convey to the reader a character's personality. If writing a story set in Victorian times, an author would not choose Jayden or Madison, the popular names in 2010. Names also help to establish the setting of the novel. Arapaho Valley conjures up a setting in the West, not in an Eastern city. Do you agree?

A strong, powerfully built hero would probably not be named Herbert. How about that gorgeous sexy blonde character at the bar? A name like Edith just does not evoke the matching image in the reader’s mind. (But it would be a fun twist to name her Edith anyway.)

When penning my romantic suspense novel, Dangerous Sanctuary,I tried several contemporary names for my main character who is a female minister. In a moment of creative energy, the name Christine swirled through my brain. I knew that was exactly the name I had been searching for. Later I discovered the meaning of the name is "follower of Christ." 

Think about the name of your favorite character in a book you've read. I love Mark Twain’s Huck Finn. There just is no other name that would fit that adventurous kid. In Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, what better name than Lula for that wild and crazy lady of the night and Morelli for the sexy rogue policeman?

When it comes to naming characters, what’s in a name? Everything!

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Books We Love and author J.Q. Rose are celebrating this month of love by offering the romantic suspense, Dangerous Sanctuary FREE today, February 20. 

Click here on the J.Q. Rose BWL Author page for a FREE download

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About J.Q.

After writing feature articles in magazines, newspapers, and online magazines for over fifteen years, J.Q. Rose entered the world of fiction. Her published mysteries are Deadly Undertaking  and Dangerous Sanctuary released by 

Author J.Q. Rose

Books We Love Publishing. Blogging, photography, Pegs and Jokers board games, and travel are the things that keep her out of trouble. She spends winters in Florida and summers up north camping and hunting toads, frogs, and salamanders with her four grandsons and granddaughter.

Connect with J.Q. Rose online at

J.Q.Rose blog 

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Books We LoveAuthor Page 

Old-Fashioned Thrills & Chills by Stuart R. West

Click here to find out about Stuart R. Wests books.

As a thriller writer in the 21^st century, several things gum me up. Like a bug caught in a fly-strip, though, I keep struggling, fluttering my wings over the keyboard.

Technology has stomped on good ol’-fashioned thrills and chills. Edge of the seat, run for your life suspense sequences have morphed into guys looking at computer screens. Bah. If I desired that as entertainment, I would’ve never left the corporate sector. (There is one minor plus, though: in books, you don’t smell the “cubicle odor.”)

I liked the old thrillers when finding a phone booth and a quarter qualified as a life-saver. Nowadays, characters stop at Starbucks, get their java on, plug in, and cybernetically—magically!—find whatever they want. Computers and the “geeks” who wizard over them pull off a seemingly endless stream of deus ex machina. There’s always a guy who can “hack” into any database.  Always. In nanoseconds! Like on all of those TV police procedurals where the stereotypical “goth” girl pulls up information on anybody with hi-tech equipment dreamed up in some writer’s head.

Having said that, I, too, have used “that guy” in my suspense series, Killers Incorporated. These days, it’s hard to ignore technology. But I generally strive to take the road less traveled, working hard to earn my thrills the old school route. Lots of chases, brawls, explosions, double-crosses, unsavory characters, etc. And yes, there’s still “that guy” when I get stumped on a plot point.

I try not to use “that guy” too much. As a writer, he makes me lazy. Predictable. Ultimately boring.

Sigh. But nowadays “that guy” is an unfortunate necessary evil.

Click here to purchase!

Another change I’ve noticed in thrillers is a heavy reliance on psychology. Back in the day, thriller writers never offered reasons why jerks threw wheelchair-bound old ladies downstairs. They just did it. Gleefully so. No reader really lost sleep over the reason behind it either. The villain just epitomized evil and that was good enough for an earlier, starkly good-or-evil (innocent in a way) era.

These days, readers want “motivation.” Background. Why are the villains evil? 

I dunno, ask my high school bullies. They never offered any reasons for their behavior. But it was always painfully clear who to run from.

Is it pure coincidence that the first four letters of “analysis” are “anal?” I think not. Freud, I’m looking at you. Regardless, nowadays more sophisticated thriller readers demand reasons behind villains’ psychotic behavior. Back stories involving horrible bed-wetting, whatever. Fine, I’ll cop to supplying background motivation to most of my serial killers in the Killers Incorporated trilogy. Except it takes out some of the mystique, the fun of their villainy. That’s why I never delve into “The Man with the Shoebox’s” past. Some things are better off left unstated and he’s one of my favorite characters for it (Just what is in his shoebox anyway?).

Today’s thriller readers like the world of high-tech espionage, populated with rooms full of spies punching buttons and breaking into covert databases. Me? I still prefer heroes who punch faces and physically break into evil corporations’ headquarters. That’s the Killers Incorporated trilogy, an ode to good ol’ fashioned thrills and chills, topped with a dose of sardonic black humor.

One click away from finding out how the action-packed saga concludes!

Better Late than Never by Nancy M Bell

His Brother's Bride is the second release in Books We Love Canadian Historical Brides series to celebrate Canada's 150th Birthday. YOu can click on the image to be taken to my author page at Books We Love to see more.

I apologize for posting late this month. I'm off to beautiful Banff Alberta with Victoria Chatham, author of Brides of Banff Springs, and publisher Jude Pittman to promote the series with a reading at Banff Library. So I apologize again for the lateness and shortness of this post. But I leave you with images of the lovely mountain town I'm about to leave for. It's supposed to snow this afternoon so the roads may be a bit tricky but the scenery is certainly worth it.

Til next month...be well...be happy...buy my new book...opps did I say that out loud? LOL

A Belated Valentine's Day Story

Many years ago, my husband and I had our first date on Valentine's Day. I was on crutches. Made for an interesting day but let's go back to the why. It really began with me turning him down with these words, "I hate doctors. Get lost."




Why would a mild mannered Cancer who was usually nice say those words to a potential mate. The day began with the surgical intern helping a patient out of bed. Though there was a sign on the bottom of the bed that said Bed Rest, he helped the man to stand so he could use a urinal. Guess what! He left and the patient fell on the floor and fractured his hip. The patient had terminal cancer and very fragile bones. After screaming at the intern, who appeared not my future husband and my response.




The evening became worse. This was the US Steel ward. An admission had arrived at change of shift and I had done nothing more than assessed him. I was returning to the nurses' station when my aide came flying out of the room and smashed into the wall. Fortunately he wasn't hurt.




"He's having the DTs," she said.




I went in to assess the situation and approached the patient. "When I went to take his pulse, he swung. I did one of those quick football turns and you could hear the cartilage pop. I went out to call the intern and the patient's doctor. Took three of us to medicate him. The wife arrived for visiting hours. I took her aside to talk about his history.




"Me, Does he drink."




Her. "He never touches alcohol."




Me. "Really."




Her, "He does drink a case of beer a day but that's not alcohol."




Me. "Duh."




Two days later, The orthopedic surgeon went in to repair the cartilage. Fortunately he was the Steeler's orthopedic surgeon and my scar was a mere two inches long. A week after the surgery, I returned to work.




And that's how I had my first date on crutches.

The art of being sorry

The Twisted Climb - a novel for teens, young adults and adults young at heart.

As a Canadian, I reserve the right unapologetically for being sorry. I'm sorry - for whatever it is that has disturbed the air between us, around us, behind us. You see, being sorry is the Canadian custom.
It's like this:
Sorry if I'm in your way when you walk past me on the street. Also sorry that you're in my way when I walk past you.
Sorry for not keeping the mall entrance door open for an extra second or two as you walk out.
Sorry for my shopping buggy blocking your outstretched arm for that specific jar of jam.
Very sorry. Truly.
And meaning every apologetic syllable. Sor-ry. Tru-ly.
We are so darn polite! It's become the Canadian way.
But being courteous and civil is something I've grown up with - maybe my Irish heritage (sorry, but it's true. There's that sorry again.)
And being sorry - or is it really being humble or kind or polite? - is something that I tried to engrain in my three children, too.
I believe I've succeeded when my son opens the door for me. When he says sorry for not calling more frequently. I believe I've succeeded when my other son helps me put on my coat. And says sorry for not calling more frequently. And I believe I've succeeded when my daughter says sorry for calling me so frequently. Aren't these great things to be sorry for?
It's a very nice thing to offer loved ones and strangers alike kindness instead of rudeness. Perhaps it's the Canadian in me? It really is like this. Sorry if you don't agree. So sorry. Truly!

WINNER - The Best Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers' Poll

I am absolutely thrilled (and not sorry about it), that my book took first place in the P&E Readers' Poll. The Twisted Climb was published in June 2016 (ebook) and July for the paperback, so it's so very exciting to win this award.
I am grateful for the support from colleagues and readers alike. Thank you!


J.C. Kavanagh
The Twisted Climb
A novel for teens, young adults and adults young at heart.
www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh
Twitter @JCKavanagh1 (Author J.C. Kavanagh)

Back Pain and Alternative Medicine

In a remarkable new set of guidelines, the prestigious American College of Physicians has recommended that doctors avoid opiods or any kind of medications for lower back pain as a first option, a departure from previous guidelines.

Instead, the guidelines suggest alternatives: yoga, acupuncture, massage therapy and cognitive behavior therapy, among others.

Lower back pain is incredibly common. It is in the top ten reasons why patients visit their doctors. Yet no is quite sure what causes it. Besides structural reasons, it is associated with smoking, obesity depression and anxiety. It can also be more complicated than that. “Our best understanding of low back pain is that it is a biopsychosocial condition—meaning that structural or anatomic causes play some role, but psychological and social factors also play a big role,” says Roger Chou, a professor at Oregon Health and Science University.

The report recommends over-the-counter medications only if the patient requests it. Opiods, now commonly prescribed, are discouraged as they have a high risk for addiction and accidental overdose. Dr. Morton Tavel, a clinical professor of medicine at the Indiana School of Medicine, recommends avoiding opiates entirely, as they don’t speed up recovery anyway.

This is not news to Nancy Servine of Moline, Illinois. She is seventy-six years old and uses her yoga practise to prevent pain. “The stretches like this are like you would get in therapy,” she says. “So my doctor says keep doing what you’re doing.”

Her instructor, Tricia Fuelling says that while it helps prevent pain, it also helps treat it. “You don’t get groggy side effects from yoga, you don’t have nausea or any of those, you can drive after doing yoga, where you can’t necessarily do that after taking medication.”

Mohan Ashtakala is the author of "The Yoga Zapper-A Novel," published by Books We Love Ltd.

www.yogazapper.com

Was Valentine a romantic hero? by Sheila Claydon

For more information about Sheila Claydon's books, or to purchase, visit her 

  Books We Love Author Page

As someone who writes romantic fiction, I thought it beholden upon me to write about St Valentine's Day when I realised it was my turn to blog on 14 February. After all, who doesn't secretly hope to receive a token of love on the one day of the year reserved for lovers. When I realised I didn't actually know much about St Valentine, I decided I had better find out. The result was not quite what I expected.

February has long been celebrated as a month of romance but why? Although the truth is hidden in the mists of time, the modern tradition of St Valentine’s Day is linked to christianity and ancient Rome. So who was Valentine and why was he made a saint? 

There are at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One was a priest who lived in third century Rome at a time when Emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage for young men because he thought single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families.  Valentine defied Claudius and continued to perform secret marriages for young lovers. When Claudius found out he ordered that he be put to death.

There is also the legend that Valentine was killed for helping Christians escape from harsh Roman prisons to rescue them from beatings and torture.

My favourite, however, is that an imprisoned Valentine sent the first valentine greeting himself when he fell in love with a young girl who visited him in jail, and who it is rumoured was his jailer's daughter. Before his death he supposedly wrote her a letter signed From your Valentine, the very same expression modern lovers use today. 

Whatever the truth behind the legends, they all describe Valentine as a sympathetic, heroic and romantic figure, and by the Middle Ages he was one of the most popular saints in England and France.

So is Valentine’s Day celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the St Valentine’s death or was the choice of date an attempt by the church to christianize the pagan celebration of Lupercalia, which took place on February 15 every year. Lupercalia was a pagan fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. 

Young women today wouldn't find being slapped with strips of goat's hide that had been dipped into sacrificial blood very romantic, but it worked for young Roman women who believed it would make them fertile for the rest of the year. According to legend, once slapped each girl would place her name in a community urn and wait for one of the city's bachelors to choose her to be his partner for the year. This didn't always end in marriage! 

When Lupercalia was finally outlawed at the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day. It was a long time before it became associated with love, however. In the Middle Ages, France and England believed that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which is definitely not the same.

The oldest known written valentine was penned in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. It is now part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England.

I am already sick of love, My very gentle Valentine,

Since for me you were born too soon,

And I for you was born too late.

God forgives him who has estranged

Me from you for the whole year.

I am already sick of love,

My very gentle Valentine.

Well might I have suspected that such a destiny,

Thus would have happened this day,

How much that Love would have commanded.

I am already sick of love, My very gentle Valentine.

In the UK Valentine’s Day gained popularity during 17th century, and by the  

middle of the 18th century the exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten 

notes was common.  Now, of course, printed cards are the usual way of sending  

Valentine’s Day greetings, but they are no less welcome for that.

Bride of my novel Romancing the Klondike by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

For more about Joan Donaldson-Yarmey's novels and to purchase visit her Books We Love author page

http://bookswelove.net/authors/donaldson-yarmey-joan/

www.joandonaldsonyarmey.com

 To celebrate Canada’s 150^th birthday Books We Love Ltd is publishing twelve historical novels, one for each of the ten provinces, one for the Yukon Territory, and one combining the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. We Canadian authors were asked to pick one of the provinces or territories to write about or to do the research on for a non-Canadian author. I chose the Yukon because I have been there twice and love the beauty and history of the territory. The following is a quick introduction to the bride of Romancing the Klondike.

Bride of Romancing the Klondike

It is 1896 and nineteen-year-old Pearl Owens is a modern young woman. She has given up the long, full skirts that were heavy and cumbersome, the corsets and petticoats that further limited her movement and the high-collared the dresses that forced her to hold her head high or even tilted back. She wears bloomers, styled after Turkish trousers, and ankle-length skirts.

     Pearls idols are Anna Leonowens and Annie “Londonderry” Choen Kopchovsky. In the 1860s, Anna Leonowens taught the wives, concubines, and children of the King of Siam, while during the years 1894-1895, Annie “Londonderry” Choen Kopchovsky became the first woman to travel around the world on a bicycle. She was testing a woman’s ability to look after herself.

     Pearl wants adventure just like her idols so she and her cousin, Emma, are on their way up the Yukon River to Fortymile. Pearl is on a trip to the north where she will be writing articles about the area for her hometown newspaper. The two women meet up with Sam Owens, Emma’s brother, and his two friends, Donald and Gordon, in Fortymile. The men, who have been searching for gold in the north for five years, have just returned from staking a claim on Rabbit Creek.

     Sam and his friends leave their cabin in Fortymile and move to their claims on what is now known as Bonanza Creek. Against Sam’s instructions Pearl and Emma follow them, setting up a tent on a bench at the mouth of the Klondike River overlooking the Yukon River.

     Pearl meets Joseph Ladue, the first man to ever set her heart aflutter, while Emma’s teenage feelings for Donald are rekindled. Pearl spends her time speaking with the men and women of the north and sketching the scenery for her articles. She writes about what it is like to be in the middle of a gold strike. She also describes the early development and growth of a town eventually known as Dawson.

     During the ten months they live in the north Pearl and Emma make friends, celebrate holidays, and suffer through tragedy. One of them finds love, one does not. Of the three men two get rich, one does not.

Charlotte Bronte's Umbrella

For more information about Susan Calder's books, or to purchase please visit Susan's 

Books We Love Author Page.

This is my first appearance on the Books We Love Insider Blog. I thank BWL for the opportunity to write a monthly post. I like blogging, but tend to let it lapse, largely because I feel no one is listening.
However, I’ve had one blogging experience where my post made a connection across the world.

It began when I was visiting my Aunt Edith in rural New Brunswick. During our chat, I told her I was planning a trip to Britain in the fall. She reminded me that she had lived in England until age four, when she immigrated with her parents to St. Andrews, NB.

“My family’s from Oxenhope,” she added.

“Where’s that?”

“Near Haworth, West Yorkshire, where the Brontes lived,” she said. “You must know of them.”

Of course, I did. Charlotte Bronte, author of the classic novel Jane Eyre; Emily, author of Wuthering Heights and their literary siblings, Anne and Branwell. Dark stories of passion, set on the moors.

“I have an umbrella that was owned by Charlotte,” Aunt Edith said.

“Charlotte Bronte?” I sat up straight. “You do?”

Aunt Edith explained that the Bronte housekeeper came into possession of the umbrella, or more accurately a parasol. She passed it down to someone who gave it to Edith’s Auntie Eleanor, in Oxenhope. In the mid-twentieth century, Eleanor gave it to Edith’s sister, who lived in Rhode Island, USA. After her sister died in 2004, Edith inherited it. The umbrella was currently at Edith’s grandson’s house. He had been working to get it into the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth, UK.

“The umbrella belongs in Haworth,” Aunt Edith said. “I want it to go home.”

"How do they know it was really Charlotte’s?” I asked of the parasol that had passed through so many hands.

“The museum has the knob missing from the top,” Aunt Edith said. “It matches.”

Over the years, Aunt Edith had been in contact with Bronte Parsonage Museum. When a friend of hers was travelling to London, UK, he offered to bring the umbrella there. The museum curator was so eager to get it he planned a special trip to London to pick it up. Unfortunately, someone mentioned this to British customs, which refused to let the umbrella into the country because its handle was made from material that is now banned—ivory.

Intrigued by this story of the illustrious umbrella’s journey to a Canadian fishing village, I wrote a blog post about my visit with my aunt and her troubles with returning the artifact to its home. A few days later, I received an email from a Bronte Parsonage Museum staff person. My post had appeared in their Google Alert for anything remotely connected to the Brontes. She said they had read my account with fascination and remembered the case clearly. The person who was dealing with it at their end left shortly afterwards and their correspondence with Aunt Edith lapsed. They were now keen to revive it. Could I put them in contact with my aunt?

I emailed Aunt Edith, who told me that our conversation had prompted her to have the umbrella re-examined by a local expert. He determined the handle material was bone, not ivory. This kind of bone is not a banned or restricted animal substance, which means that the parasol could enter the UK without a CITES* license. (*Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).

I gave the Bronte museum Aunt Edith’s email address. The staff person thanked me for my helpful post, adding that, without it, the parasol would have been forgotten. They arranged for Aunt Edith to have the umbrella shipped to the Bronte Parsonage Museum. I still subscribe to the museum’s newsletter. One of these days I hope to visit the parasol owned by Charlotte and my aunt.

I expect that Charlotte Bronte’s umbrella would have made the journey home to Haworth eventually, but I was glad to be part of its story.

                                            Aunt Edith, who celebrated her 100th birthday last August 

You can also meet Susan on her website and Amazon.com Author Page

      

In Defense of 19th Century Women by Karla Stover

     Three years ago, a woman named Kat Callahan posted an article which said, "Your Childhood Pal, Anne of Green Gables, Was Probably Queer." My research could be wrong, but this may be the same "Kat" who is or was a Canadian radio personality. Two years later, a woman named Heather Hogan wrote that Anne "was obviously bisexual."

     At first, when I read the articles, I was disgusted. Then I dismissed them thinking, oh brother, because Lucy Maud Montgomery came from a different time, and statements such as these require a careful look at female relationships in the late Victorian era.

     According to Carroll Smith Rosenberg, who was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship for Humanities, "The female friendship of the 19th century, the long-lived, intimate loving friendship between two women, is an excellent example of the type of historical phenomena which most historians know something about, which few have thought much about, and which virtually no one has written about."

     Historian Lilian Faderman who did look at same-sex relationships, wrote, " Men saw themselves as needing the assistance of other men to realize their great material passions, and they fostered “muscle values” and “rational values,” to the exclusion of women. Women, left to themselves outside of their household duties, found kindred spirits primarily in each other. They banded together and fostered “heart values.”

     The concept of separate spheres for men and women goes back to the ancient Greeks, however, it was emphasized during the Industrial Revolution. Piety, purity, domesticity and above all, submission were the woman's lot in life. "The world corrupts, Home should refine," wrote Mrs. William Parkes in 1829.

      Then there was the fact that in 1870, 1 in 200 women died in childbirth, the belief that "the pain of childbirth would make women love their children more."

     "During the 1800s, it was taboo to write negatively about pregnancy and childbirth because it was largely lauded as the most noble and valuable contribution of women to their husbands and to society" wrote blogger Maggie Maclean. The avoidance of pain during childbirth was seen as thwarting the will of God.

     In the post-Freudian perspectives of the 21st century, it is impossible to "decipher the complexities" of female friendships, particularly when these friendships were part of the romantic rhetoric of the time.

     Sarah Wister and Jeanne Musgrove met in 1849, when they were both teenagers, and though each married, they remained close throughout their lives. "Dear darling Sarah," Jeanne once wrote, "you are the joy of my life." "Dearest darling-- how incessantly I have thought of you," Sarah wrote on another occasion.

      In the 1890s, a Scottish physician sent out 500 surveys . Of the 190 women who responded 152 admitted that they did have sexual desires and 134 reported having had orgasms.

     And this brings us back to Anne Shirley, her bosom friend, Diana Barry, and a quote from Carroll Smith Rosenberg to wit, perhaps "there is (and was) room between homosexual and heterosexual relationship[s] for platonic friendships between women.

Book Cover Endorsementss, by Karla Stover

]

Visit Karla Stover's Books We Love page for more on her books and to purchase.
 
I just finished reading Stephen King's book, Joyland. Brian Truitt provided a recommendation on it for USA Today. He called it "tight and engrossing. The Washington Post's Bill Sheehan called it,
". . .appealing coming-of-age tale that encompasses restless ghosts, serial murder, psychic phenomena and sexual initiation." Mr. Truitt has a book about the movie, Twilight available on Amazon. Sheehan has one about Peter Straub, a horror-fiction author. I guess that is supposed to make them experts but I will never take their reviews seriously, again. Joyland was a dull--308 pages with the above-mentioned "restless ghost" etc, making weak appearances on page 271.
     So I ask myself, does anyone read a book based on these blurbs? And who is responsible for providing them, the publisher or the author?
     The first thing I did (naturally) was Google. Here are some quotes from the website, Askmeafiller.com (CNN.com says websites should be italicized).

     "Most often its someone in the marketing department at the publishing house."

     "They are usually arranged side-by-side with pull quotes (blahs) by authors. These are usually people working in the same genre and often in the same publishing company."

     "packaging/marketing firms."

     And the saddest one:  
    
     "I once had a job, among other things, writing back cover copy for books. My official title was "marketing assistant," and I was completely unqualified to do such a thing. I was right out of college, I was writing blurbs for academic books in disciplines which I had never studied, and I often had no more than the introduction to go by. I'm sure my blurbs were often highly misleading. I apologize."

     Yikes!

     From this website, I went to Writersrelief.com. Here's what one author had to say:

     "I wrote critiques for them (well-known authors) and asked if they could kindly say this. They agreed. Saves them time/effort."

     More than one person on that website said they wrote their own endorsements.
     Back when I was a newspaper reporter, I interviewed an east coast news journalist whose name I've since forgotten but who had written a book and who was doing a signing tour. I asked her about book cover endorsements and she said they were very important to east coast publishers. I wonder if that still holds true, or if more people look to Amazon. My bet is Amazon.
     For my first nonfiction book on Tacoma history I asked a couple of local, well-known historians provided endorsements. For the second I didn't bother. My opinion is that an attractive cover is more important to potential reader/buyers that a quote from the Seattle Times. Jo Linsdell on Writersandauthors.info seems to agree.

     "With millions of books for readers to choose from," she wrote, "the first 'sales pitch' is the cover."
    
     Sometimes it seems as if the three-legged stool of writing--plot, place and people--are the least important things about a book, but not to readers and certainly not to me. Sometimes getting rich means finding those little gems in plain green covers that everyone else has over looked.