CJ Simone@CJSimone333

Oct 23

Beth Carter

@bethcarter007

Oct 22

Readers, which do you prefer as far as your reading preferences?

CJ Simone@CJSimone333

Oct 23

Ettie Star@write_and_sigh

Oct 23

In case anyone is interested in my 'janitors can be heroes too' novel, a free deal is running through this weekend. 😊

CJ Simone@CJSimone333

Oct 23

Laurel A Rockefeller@laurelworlds

Oct 22

@EveKoguce I spend time, not money, on advertising. Paid ads get ignored. what works is engagement on social media and in person. be prepared to talk about your work.

i also have a wordpress blog that costs me nothing and gets traffic.

CJ Simone@CJSimone333

Oct 23

Ellie Jay - Sarcastic Author@EllieJayWrites

Oct 22

I would sincerely like to offer other authors marketing advice, but I have no clue what I'm doing right.

The last couple months, I have had some spikes.

But as advice goes, 'be patient for six years and it might happen' is pretty lame advice.

CJ Simone@CJSimone333

Oct 21

Jade Black@JadeBlack21

Oct 21

#OctoberThrills

Can I not gain useful information from such encounters?

- Amber Shackles 👀

CJ Simone@CJSimone333

Oct 21

𝕁𝕠𝕟𝕒𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕟 𝔻. ℂ𝕝𝕒𝕣𝕜 📚✍️@jdclarknovelist

Oct 21

A few questions for the #WritingCommunity (are hashtags still useful on this site?):
Why do you write? What motivates you?
What would you say drives you to write the novels or short stories you choose to pursue?
What genre do you find yourself drawn to as a writer/author?

CJ Simone@CJSimone333

Oct 21

Katy Metzger@MetzgerKaty

Oct 21

@BWheelerBooks Are form rejections categorized at all? I would love to take "it's not what I'm looking for" at face value, but I'm pretty sure it's a catch-all.

CJ Simone@CJSimone333

Oct 20

Serendipity_street

@Advocacy_tech

Oct 20

Pip and Estella - The Beige review (posted to Amazon and Goodreads with a 5 star review)

I bought this book out of spite, after watching its author get piled on online. That's a terrible reason to buy a book, and a very Dickensian one. The hardcover was worth it.

For more than stella has been described, analyzed, pined over and blamed by the man telling the story. She never got to answer. In Pip and Estella, C.J. Simone hands her the microphone, and she uses every word of it.

The book retells Great Expectations in two alternating voices: Pip's, which stays close to Dickens, and Estella's, which is new. You get the same scenes from two chairs, and the two accounts don't match. He's sure she despises him. She's quietly filing reports on him like a Victorian talent scout. He thinks Satis House is a tomb. She thinks it's the most exciting afternoon she's had in years. Both of them are lying, mostly to themselves. That gap is where the book lives, and it's often wickedly funny.

WHAT WORKS

The dual voice isn't a gimmick. It's a right of reply, and it changes how familiar scenes land, from the card table to the snow in the garden to the cruelty Estella has been trained into and what it costs her.

Estella herself. Simone takes her to Paris, into a finishing-school world with its own mean girls, and gives her a memory she didn't know she kept. If you've spent any time near adoption, certain pages will hit you in the chest. Her central question, whether people are born or made, is handled with real care.

Respect for the source. Joe is still the heart of the book. Herbert Pocket is still the most gracious loser in English literature. The humour Dickens is loved for survives, and Simone adds her own.

Commitment. Dickens wrote two endings and hedged. Simone picks one and commits.

WHAT DOESN'T, QUITE

The Pip chapters stay so close to the original that Dickens fans will catch themselves mouthing along. The Estella chapters are shorter than his, and I wanted more of them every time. We get into Estella's heart earlier than some readers will want, because mystery was her armour and Simone loosens a buckle early. The ending is tidier than Dickens would have dared. Purists will grumble. I didn't.

ON RETELLINGS

Some people say a retelling is the easy option. It isn't. A standalone author plays on her own field, and nobody has film on her. A retelling plays against an opponent with 160 years of tape, in front of a crowd that already knows the playbook and is waiting for the fumble. You have to hit every mark the master hit, then find the gap he missed and run through it in a voice he never gave her. Shakespeare borrowed almost every plot he staged, and nobody sent him back to write something original. Dickens himself rewrote his own ending when a friend called it too bleak.

As Joe would say: "Lies is lies."

A NOTE FROM THE CAKE TABLE

Dickens already wrote about the people who circle a woman's work waiting for their slice. Miss Havisham points her cane at the rotting wedding cake and tells her relatives, "Now you all know where to take your stations when you come to feast upon me." They send anonymous letters dressed up as concern. When the will is read, they get a few pounds each.

Simone keeps Herbert's father's line, and I'll leave it here for anyone who needs it: "No varnish can hide the grain of the wood; and the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself."

And Jaggers has the last word for readers deciding whether to pick this up: "Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence."

The evidence is the book. Read it.

Miss Havisham stopped every clock at twenty to nine. Simone started them again.

CJ Simone@CJSimone333

Oct 20

Noah Ray@NoahRayWrites

Oct 20

While I understand the instinct some people come from, I don't believe in basic genres being immoral.

Certainly some sub genres and niches can be, but basic ones such as Horror, Romance, Mystery, Fantasy, and Science Fiction all have potential for great good and bad.

CJ Simone@CJSimone333

Oct 19

Stephen Black

@stephenRB4

Oct 19

Writers:

Do your characters go to the toilet?

CJ Simone@CJSimone333

Oct 19

Justine Castellon

@justcastellon

Oct 19

Today’s the day!
And I’m doing this launch solo. Send help!

Our books are out today on Amazon, in both Kindle and paperback. Unfortunately, my partner (in crime) is indisposed today and can’t help announce it. So can you do us a favor? Put our books in your cart so we can make day 🙏

#TheRunawayPrince tr.ee/eFhp0h

#FadingAwayDarkBay tr.ee/VjLjU6

(Note: They say book marketing is different from consumer brands. So here I am, trying @AuthorTRobare and @AuthorGFAllen’s styles. Can you review them too? Some people said we shouldn’t review our own books on the Nook, the platform we co-founded. So, help!)

#readerscommunity #NewRelease

CJ Simone@CJSimone333

Oct 19

S.E. Reed@writingwithreed

Oct 19

The joy when you open up a new doc to kick off a new project. 🖤 Yes, I have an outline, but still… there is so much possibility in a blank page.

CJ Simone@CJSimone333

Oct 19

Jan Miklaszewicz@Hart_Horrors

Oct 19

Writers, which do you enjoy more?