5***** review by the Paranormal Romance Guild

A Chance for Charity - S. L. baum

5*****Stars


Book- A Chance for Charity
Author- S.L. Baum
Publisher-Amazon Digital Services
Genre- Paranormal Romance
Rating YA




So, let’s get the hard stuff out of the way. What a great YA book for young teens. The storyline was so intricate and compelling, I almost forgot the rating!!!  In doing reviews, I have read YA pieces and not many books have I loved.  S.L. Baum, step right up and take a bow!  Stephanie Meyers started the YA hysteria into the paranormal genre with Twilight. Ms Baum has written a wonderful first book for her Immortals with no sparkle but with lots of clout. 
Charity, AKA Emily, is an Immortal relocating to a small town with another Immortal couple as her “family”. During the unfold, we learn that Charity, nee Emily, is reliving her high school years, again, to keep a low profile for the ‘family’. They are not vampires, just Immortals who live long, have extra powers, and want to be left alone to live their lives. However, that’s not to be: they are being hunted by Levitcus and Ezekiel, brothers who have spent their lives hunting down immortals. 
We have Charity meeting her new High School classmates, humans/mortals, who she befriends. We meet Lincoln who arrives in town for the ski season to work at the local hardware store.  Charity/Emily is 17, and Link is 22. Their attraction is immediate.  I loved the writing, the storyline, the friendships, and the background of our characters. The story is believable, fun, and light hearted, but doesn’t deter from the underlying seriousness of the final showdown. 
Emily allows Link to know who and what she is, both past and present. There is an overall strength, love of life, and fun to the story that I had no trouble accepting.  Link knew from the moment he saw Charity...his heart was taken. The twist for this novel was, Hello Mortal...and it is a HE for a change. Link has to prove himself to Emily’s immediate and not so immediate family, and that he will be there for her. And when that happens...hold on to your seats!!!
 I read some reviews prior to reading this book and Twilight was alluded to. Is every 17 teen book a twilight story??? NOT!! But not every 17 YA novel is this good. The second Immortal book might be just out or soon to be released...If it is, I would ask the author to send me a copy.  There are some unanswered questions and parts of this story that have whetted my appetite for more. I, for one, would enjoy reading an addition to this journey and I just might be able to give it another 5 star review if it is as well written as this one!!! Thank you, S.L.  Baum, for a good read. 
Review by Gloria Lakritz
Review Chair and Senior Reviewer for The Paranormal Romance Guild

**Thanks so much - to the Paranormal Romance Guild 
for this wonderful review**

Visit the guild at ParanormalRomanceGuild.com

It is a wonderful meeting place for the lovers of
Paranormal Romance!!

I added page tabs!

I knew it was probably a very easy thing to do, but had simply never investigated it. So, today, I finally did a google search and ended up at a sight with tips for blogger (Tweak My Blogger). In a few minutes I was on my way... and now I have page tabs and posts on those pages... amazing :)

Please take a moment to click on them... cuz they work and everything !!

Dream a Little Dream...

I’ve always had the most interesting dreams… reoccurring dreams… typical dreams… sexy dreams… dreams that seem like a movie… dreams that end up being stories that have to be written down and shared.

My first reoccurring dream, the one that I still remember some 35 years later, involved King Kong. I had it so often as a child that I still remember the details…

In the dream I go to a theme park and there is a ride called King Kong. It is as large as the real King Kong and you take an elevator up to the top of his head. The ride is actually a huge slide that is inside his body. You start at the top, slide all the way down, and exit out his feet. Something goes terrible wrong when I get up to the top. You see - there is a switch in the back of the Giant Ape that says REAL/RIDE and when I get up to the top and enter King Kong’s head… someone switches it to REAL!! (Hey I was 5 years old – it made sense back then).

So little me is stuck in his head as he comes to life and breaks away from the supports. He starts rampaging around the town, and through King Kong’s eyes, I can see everything that is going on. But I am stuck inside. How do I get out? I am trapped inside a gigantic ape that is destroying the town!!

I woke up sometime after that point. I think I made it out a few times and was able to switch him back to RIDE. Thank goodness!!

 During High School and College I would wake up some mornings and actually grabbed paper and pen to write down different dreams. They were so vivid and I knew they would fade if I didn’t get the details down. The one that came to me on more than one occasion (and the one that will make it into print someday) involved teens that were driving somewhere and some kind of an explosion caused a rock avalanche. They were trapped on both sides and couldn’t drive out from the lake area they were passing by when the avalanche occurred. A swim in the lake… some alien/supernatural events happen… and some of the teens don’t leave the lake the same way they entered… I’ll save the details for the story. I think I’ll start that one soon. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately.

I have the typical naked dreams… going to school… going to work… I always manage to conveniently cover certain parts of me with a random item… newspaper, a hat, my purse, my hands :D

I also have the loose teeth dream more than I would like. That one oooks me out the most! I hate waking up from it. I have to run my tongue across my teeth when I wake up, and chomp my jaws together, just to make sure that all those teeth are still in place and aren’t falling out. I can actually feel then moving around while I talk, in the dream, and then they slowly start falling out. Ack – I seriously hate that dream!!

Ladies… When I got preggers the first time, I read that I would have some dreams that were adult themed. Ummm… yeah… that happened. I have three kids and during each pregnancy I had some AMAZING dreams… If you didn’t get them when you were pregnant… so sorry… you missed out… big time :D

My dreams are remarkable to me. I am so thankful that I am able to recall them after I wake up. I should write more of them down. I guess the ones that I take the time to transcribe are the ones that were meant to stay with me. Charity and Link are here now. I thought of her while awake, but she really came to life in my dreams. The story that I am working on now was first a dream. Most of the time, I just dream a small scene… my imagination has to take it from there… to flesh out the story. Where did these characters come from… where are they going… what drives them? I love exploring those avenues.

My writing is precious to me… and so are my dreams…

The Novella is Live!

Well - I reached my goal - finished the novella - sent it out to Beta Readers - made revisions and edits - and hit the Publish Button... on Amazon Kindle, B&N Nook, and Smashwords!

I am glad to have the next story in The Immortal Ones series out there for readers.

Coming Soon

Look for

Of Fire and Brimstone
(The Immortal Ones
Elizabeth's Novella)

by the end of August.

It's coming soon...

almost here...

I'm so excited!!

Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Smashwords... The Distribution Game

I have been self-publishing my work for a little over a year. In the beginning it was a VERY slow process. The first distribution outlet I uploaded my book - A Chance for Charity (The Immortal Ones) - to was Amazon.

You see I had written a book. It had been sitting on my computer for months... finished... and I hadn't done anything with it. In March of last year my Hubby decided to buy himself a Kindle (his dad had bought the first Kindle model as soon as it was released and told everybody he knew about it). When I saw my Hubby with that second edition Kindle, it just struck me... this eReader thing is simply going to explode. I was poking around the Amazon site in April and saw a note about self-publishing and by May I had made the decision to upload to Kindle. I played with the book file and got it ready... then in the first week of June 2010... I hit the publish button!

June - 7 copies
July - 14 copies
August - 11 copies
Sept - 28 copies

As you can see I was going nowhere... fast! I had published, but how could I get the word out? I had dumped a few hundred dollars into Google Ads, Yahoo Ads, and building my website... and that had done very little. Blogs, Facebook, Message Boards, Twitter, finding a great group of Author & Reader Friends (Al's Place)... that is what helped me. That and more places to upload. When B&N announced their PubIt platform (for self-publishers to upload for Nook), I uploaded there. Soon my books were selling over 100 copies a month. Then I uploaded to Smashwords.

I released the sequel - My Link in Time (The Immortal Ones - Book Two) - at the end of March 2011. During March, April, & May of this year I was selling well over 1000 copies a month.  Then at the very end of June... My books were placed into the Smashwords Premium Distribution catalog, which added Kobo, Sony, & iTunes (I sold a few extra copies in June even though it was almost the end of the month when my books showed up those websites - I'm still waiting on July numbers)... also Diesel and Scrollmotion.

While summer months and Amazon's BIG SALES on Traditionally Published Kindle books have slowed my Kindle sales numbers... my Nook sales numbers are on the rise... and I have high hopes for the Smashwords Premium catalog. So I continue to play the game.

I keep trying to get the name S.L. Baum out there... to make The Immortal Ones a recognized series... and to produce more work. There is a novella coming out soon, that will be an addition to The Immortal Ones series... Of Fire and Brimstone (The Immortal Ones - Novella). Look for it near the end of this month.

And wish me luck... because as we all know the distribution and sales game requires so much luck!!

2 New Reviews that have Warmed my Heart!

There are a lot of readers out there that have shunned the indie author. Many have taken this stance... If authors choose to do it on our their then they must not have the talent it takes to be a "real" writer. So, I just want to take a moment to thank my readers for taking a chance on an indie author! I hope you found something that you enjoy... and realize that relying on the publishing houses to tell you what is good and what is not, is not the only way to go. There are many wonderful and talented indie authors publishing their works on their own today!

The reason for this heartfelt "Thank You" was seeing two new reviews pop up on Amazon.com for my books today. The reader/reviewer said that she is now going to seek out other indies. And I think that is simply wonderful!! Thank You - Sara C - and happy hunting!

			A Chance for Charity (The Immortal Ones) Price: $0.99 Availability: Auto-delivered wirelessly
So happy to have found this!, July 26, 2011 Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: A Chance for Charity (The Immortal Ones) (Kindle Edition) I just wanted to share that this is a very enjoyable entry into the young adult vampire genre. I love reading about a strong female, it was a lot of fun with the perfect amount of "cheese" romance and action. I couldn't wait to read the second one, so I'm thrilled that I didn't find this till both had been released! If this is a genre you are interested in, you will absolutely enjoy this book! I'd also like to say that this author has now sparked a new mission in me to seek out and purchase independently published authors to read on my Kindle. So, thank you for that! My Link in Time (The Immortal Ones Book Two) Price: $2.99 Availability: Auto-delivered wirelessly Very enjoyable!, July 26, 2011 Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: My Link in Time (The Immortal Ones Book Two) (Kindle Edition) I'm sorry, this won't be a thorough review. I'd just like to share that after I read the first book of The Immortal Ones, I immediately downloaded and began this one. And I loved it just as much. I really enjoyed the action, the strength of the main character, and the deviation from other books in this genre. In addition, this author has now shown me how many amazing books there are to explore in the independently-published world and I am having a blast seeking them out. You won't regret reading this. In fact, I'm not sure how you could read the first book and not jump right into this! Thank you, SL Baum!