Plethora of Art XX

Slot 19 has a winner, and new covers are posted for viewing and voting. See the artwork for Slot 20...

Elisa Rolle's My Reviews and Ramblings - Rainbow Awards Cover Contest

Plethora of Art XIX

Slot 18 has a winner. New covers are posted for Slot 19. Time to view and vote.

Elisa Rolle's My Reviews and Ramblings

Plethora of Art XI

Round 10 is a dead horse. New covers for round 11 are up and kicking. Go view. Go vote.

Elisa Rolle's My Reviews and Ramblings

Plethora of Art X

Round 9's winner is announced... a new set of covers are posted. View and vote... time for Round 10.

Elisa Rolle's My Reviews and Ramblings

Plethora of Art V

We have a winner from slot 4, and we have a new batch of covers over which to ogle and vote... here:

Elisa Rolle's My Reviews and Ramblings

Plethora of Art

You absolutely MUST stop by Elisa Rolle's LiveJournal and see the book covers on display. It's round one of her poll featuring some of the top artwork and photography from published books and ebooks collected on one page. Best part is, after feasting upon the visual stimulants, you can vote for your favorites and see poll results to date.

Do it all at this link:

Elisa Rolle - My Reviews and Ramblings


My favorite so far is Sheri's work for Accidents Never Happen. I'm a sucker for boxers, and the red landscape behind him reminds me of Munch.

GRIT Your Teeth

We have our first (known) review of the William Maltese / Jardonn Smith man-on-man novel, GRIT, and it comes from Elisa Rolle at her site,

My Reviews and Ramblings.

Our story is set in the 1933 Dust Bowl of Kansas, where railroaders and freight-train hitchers do battle with bootleggers and other assorted hoodlums while trying to find time for love-making.

As is always the case, Ms. Rolle tells readers exactly what they're in for without giving away plot, plus, as always, she finds traits in our characters even we didn't recognize.

So, with a nod to Elisa and much gratitude, William and I invite you to read her review (Reviews and Ramblings link above) and consider our book. See GRIT at the MLR PRESS web site HERE.

There's an excerpt to read at MLR, plus text and audio excerpt links at my web site HERE.

Thank you, Elisa.

Jardonn

Elisa Rolle's Reviews for Readers

An Opinion Piece

by

Jardonn Smith

These days it seems anybody can hang a sign on their web address door and proclaim themselves to be reviewers of books.

Many are book lovers who shell out the bucks and are inclined to express their likes/dislikes, regardless of their abilities to coherently analyze reasons for their likes/dislikes.

Others have signed up at review sites so they can get free books to read, their purchase price being their agreeing to review the books, again regardless of their abilities to coherently... (see above).

Still more have a hidden agenda, either to purposely promote authors in their little clique, or purposely denigrate authors not in their little clique. Some of these reviews are written by authors themselves with an agenda impossible to hide: trashing books written by their competition.

What are the poor readers to do? How do they determine which review sites are truly giving them honest opinions, so they can decide where to shell out their hard-earned money for books they will enjoy? It's a crap shoot, no doubt, but I can honestly vouch for one specializing in male on male erotic romance.

Elisa Rolle's My Reviews and Ramblings

Not only is this classy lady from Padua, Italy a reader of manlove romance titles, her appetite for them is voracious. Ms. Rolle devours an incredible number of books weekly, and not only does she gain keen insight from what she's read, she shares her thoughts via her self-written book reviews. Elisa favors no particular publishers or authors. She has no rating systems for books she reads. Her reviews are detailed, well-organized, and invaluable to not only her fellow-readers, but the authors as well. I've lost count of the comments I've seen on her site from authors who tell her she found personality traits in their characters even they didn't recognize existed. I am no exception. Ms. Rolle's review of my Danube Divide taught me much about the men in my own story.

So, any manlove fiction lovers out there looking for ideas on what next to read, Elisa Rolle's site is a must-visit-daily for you, and as if reviews weren't already enough, lately Elisa started what she calls The Inside Reader where authors and readers list their all-time favorite LGBT books.

That's where one of our own comes in. Just check out the names on this list which includes William Maltese.

The Inside Reader: Geoffrey Knight

Yes, we claim him. William is ours. One of our Frothing Authors, and we intend to never let him go.

First-Timers

Can you name the first-ever Academy Award winner for best picture? Of course, you can. Everybody can. It's Wings, and because it was the first it is still much-discussed even though eighty-two years have passed since its release.

Authors, here is your chance to benefit from being the first award winner. It's a brand new prize for writing in the LGBT genres, with all the normal categories any good book competition should have.

It is the brainchild of our good friend and book-reviewer extraordinaire, Elisa Rolle, and is still in the organizational stages. She is now accepting nominations for all categories, and posted every detail on her LiveJournal Blog.

Read all about it HERE,

and get your books plus those you've read and love entered for that coveted, "First-Ever" Rainbow Award.

Posted by Jardonn Smith

Excerpts-a-Plenty

Speaking of... Elisa Rolle posts a good number of them on her LiveJournal blog every weekend, one set on Saturday and another on Sunday, the majority of them from new releases or soon-to-be.

On the main page: My Reviews and Ramblings

Each will have picture of book cover, cover blurb, author-chosen excerpt and links to further investigate or purchase the book.

Rome and Medieval Dungeons

Perceptive reviewer Elisa Rolle has reviewed my book, Let's Get Medieval, Jardonn's Erotic Tales, Two Books in One -- The Bishop of Grunewald, The Tortured Secutor.

Here's a link to the review:
Let's Get Medieval by Jardonn Smith


Those who know I frequently write stories of erotic punishments and interrogations should find the review and comments of interest to them, but for many of Elisa's regular readers, I'm sure this is a different cup of tea.

Fortunately, because of Elisa's careful choice of words, she conveys her likes and dislikes so readers will know exactly what they're getting into if they buy the book, so they can decide for themselves whether or not they're up to the challenge.

Reviews such as this are invaluable to an author, and a great service to book buyers.

In other words, Elisa Rolle is one smart cookie, and the interwebs are far better with people like Elisa posting her Reviews and Ramblings. While you're there, don't miss out on the man candy posts to spice up your day.

Here's my book at Amazon: Let's Get Medieval

Thank you, Elisa!

Elisa Rolle on ratings

Prolific book reader and insightful book reviewer Elisa Rolle has explained on her blog why she does not give ratings to the books she reviews. It is in response to a question posted in comments regarding a book she sort of liked, but not with great enthusiasm. Link here:

Elisa Rolle - My Reviews and Ramblings

She also tells why when she is forced to give a rating, such as at Amazon, she gives the top by default.

Elisa's blog is worth a visit. Her reviews are entertaining and the eye candy she posts nearly melts the ice caps. Do partake.