About a year ago, I realized I wasn't learning much anymore from critiquing other writer's work on this forum and others. I decided to start reading published novels--as many as I could get my hands on--and see what they did well, how they achieved it, and what they did poorly that lost me as a reader.

I decided to start a book blog where I'd post my analysis/reviews, Genre Reviews. Since I didn't want to make enemies of the authors, I separated that blog from my author name (so, shhh! don't tell ) though I tried to say things nicely.

Well, since March, publishers have started sending me free books to review on my blog. This is both great and not so great: who doesn't like free books? But now it's a job taking away from my writing time. Plus it's harder to write a useful review (thus keep people reading my blog thus keep the free books coming) than you'd think.

I also had started a non-fiction blog, Different Time, Different Place Book Reviews where I could post reviews of the books I read as research for my novels--non-fiction books on military, history, and what other cultures and religions are like as seen by people who have lived in them. Now publishers are saying they'll send me review copies of my choice of non-fiction books if I will increase the readership of my non-fiction blog.

So will you please check out my Different Time, Different Place Book Reviews blog and perhaps come by on a regular basis or sign up for the RSS feed or visibly follow my blog if you're a blogger.com user? So you know, I give away some of the books I review (to share the spoils, so to speak). In fact, I've got a contest for a free book going on right now. Just click on this link.

I certainly would appreciate any followers of my Genre Reviews blog as well.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.