Tour: Alyx Rayer Chronicles by S.J. Pierce: Guest Post


Marked for Vengeance
S.J. Pierce 
Series: Alyx Rayer Chronicles #1
Publication date: October 10th 2012
Genre: Adult Paranormal Romance

Alyx Rayer’s existence in Atlanta, the eternally bustling capital of Georgia, is one of routine and blending in among the worker bees. But her ‘normal’ life is actually a façade for a higher calling; she's a three hundred year old soul, encased in a human vessel and sent from the darkness between heaven and Earth to capture her Marked when summoned by her superiors. During the initial, routine stake-out of her Marked, a dream prophet named Isaac Walsh, Alyx is thrown for an emotional loop when his allure captivates her heart from two rooftops away. The event marks the very instance when her sense of what’s right and what’s wrong is brutally challenged as her contact with him is strictly forbidden. While already trapped between honor and desire, her emotional struggles are further challenged by a man in a black suit who continually pops up when she least expects it, his presence evoking a strange response from the scar she was branded with at birth. The scar tingles like a warning beacon, alerting her that something is amiss. Because her superiors never told her what this would mean, or much of anything except what to do when they summon, she can only conclude to try and keep her sanity, and her life, from completely shattering to pieces. This engaging first book of the series is a Paranormal Romance novel interlaced with twists, turns, and thrilling suspense that is sure to satisfy readers of any genre.


Tethered by FateS.J. Pierce
Series: Alyx Rayer Chronicles #2
Publication date: November 29th 2012
Genre: Adult Paranormal Romance
Where fate would take the both of them now, Isaac wasn’t sure, but either way their paths were irrevocably tethered."
Hurled into the midst of a holy war between the sinister fallen Angel of War and their beloved Creator, gifted humans, Angels, and Spirit Guides unite to create a formidable, ethereal army. With the imminent battle only days away, continue to follow the story that captivated your hearts as a Protector Angel named Alyx struggles with her own inner conflicts between right and wrong, love and honor.
Passionate, engaging, and filled with surprising twists and turns -- see which path fate will lead our beloved Angel down next in this second book of the Alyx Rayer Chronicles.





About the author
Susan James Pierce has a degree in Marketing Management, works for a Fortune 500 company in Atlanta, Georgia, and devotes her precious, spare time to writing Fantasy and Sci-fi novels. 

Even though her full-time career has nothing to do with books at all, she has always enjoyed complex storytelling with fascinating characters, and has had a penchant for the written word since grade school. As a matter of fact, her first publishing credit was a poem she wrote at the age of twelve. Why her love for writing never translated into a career, she can only attribute to 'life happens', but her wish is that she can redirect her career path into something that satisfies her creative inner-self.
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Guest Post

V.M. : We all know writing a book is a time-eating process, a project which also envolves devotion and hardwork. So... when receiving a bad review, how does it feel? So, Susan, how do you cope with receiving a bad review?

S.J.P.:  First, thank you for having me today! Second, what a great topic! During promotional tours, it’s much easier for me to focus on all of the great things others say about my books. But what the heck, as a writer it’s also inevitable that I’ll touch on uncomfortable subjects, and what’s more uncomfortable than talking about the *gasp* negative reviews! I like the challenge. ;) I think I’ll even be so bold as to give a snippet of a negative review on Amazon, which was my very first one:

“An interesting concept, that I mostly enjoyed reading, but for a few faults. First; the formatting of the e-Book was extremely distracting, with sudden spacings separating sentences, causing the eye to stumble while reading, and initially wondering if this was intentional or just an oversight. Then, there were the sudden shifts in point of view, from one character to another, from third person omniscient to third person limited. This is great in experimental fiction, but when you want readers to get to know and care about your characters, it's a bit off-putting. Finally, the dialogue tends in many places to be a bit too wooden, as if the character was reading from a note pad rather than actually speaking, and there are too many unnecessary tags, such as `her hands balled angrily into fists,' that don't really add to the flow of the story in any significant way - rather, they detract from it.” – Avid Reader “Geronimo”

Ouch! Not scathing, but it still stung. And I could write on and on in defense of myself – the ebook he had was a review copy and not what my paying customers experienced if they purchased it (which I informed him of), and while there were shifts in POV, one was never omniscient, etc. But what good would that do? And that’s just one of the points I’m about to get into, so here are my tips:

One: Take the good with the bad. For some reason, we tend to focus on the negative in any situation, and the same applies to reviews… if you let it. How does the saying go? For every negative thing said, it takes “x” amount of positive ones to undo it? I know that’s not the exact quote; I’m paraphrasing, but you get the gist. Before this first bad review that I quoted above, I remember receiving four or five good ones before it, but somehow, when I read this one that’s all I seemed to focus on. I then read a Facebook post by a fellow Indie author who encouraged us to take what we could from negative reviews to better our writing and move on. Not everyone will like your work, nor will they understand it or connect with it, and that’s okay. We’re all different.

Two: To mirror the advice above, learn what you can and move on. It might be hard to swallow, but it’s best in your interest to accept that your writing isn’t perfect! You might actually learn something from some of the more constructive, negative reviews that you can apply to future writings.

Three: Don’t, under any circumstance, retaliate or get into a heated debate with a reviewer! This is a huge no-no for me, and I’ve even had some reviewers be downright mean about my work. As tempted as I was to write them back and give them a piece of my mind or argue my points, I took a deep breath and let it go. Most of the time you’ll just go round and round and eventually agree to disagree because it comes down to a matter of taste and preferences. Your time and energy would be better spent writing your books. This isn’t to say, though, that I don’t contact them after a negative review. If I had initially contacted them to read/ review my book, I always email them to thank them for their time and interest. To me, your reputation is just as important as your writing, and the internet has a lengthy memory. You don’t want something you said in the heat of the moment three years ago to come back and bite you on the rear!

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