Introductory Post | Books and travelling with Lynn

#SPFBO X Introductory post

Posted On 3 June 2024

Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: #SPFBO X, Books, Critiquing Chemist, Fantasy, Introductory Post, Mark Lawrence, SPFBO

SPFBOX

Today’s post is going to be fairly short and sweet. SPFBO X is now underway, the books have all been allocated and so I wanted to quickly introduce myself and let authors know a little bit more about my process.

For those who don’t know about SPFBO (the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off) – this is a competition created and run by Mark Lawrence. The competition is now in its tenth year and you can find more about all the other entrants and judges over on Mark Lawrence’s blog.

So, each judge/team is allocated 30 books. This year I am again teaming up with the Critiquing Chemist and we have allocated 15 books per blog.

This year I am planning on reading the first 25% (or for those larger books the first 100 pages) of all the books in my allocation. This way I will quickly gain an idea of the books that I want to continue to read. If the book doesn’t grab my attention within those pages then it will be cut (although if in doubt I will obviously read some more). I realise this probably sounds harsh but we can only have one Finalist and so, likable or not, these tough decisions have to be made.

I will review all the books that I read fully. The books that are cut I will also highlight and provide a quick synopsis of my thoughts up to the point I cut off.

Here are the books in my batch (for more information these can all be found on Goodreads):

I have some lovely looking books in this batch and can’t wait to tuck in.

Good luck to all the authors. My only advice, use the competition to make contacts and friends with other self published authors. This is such a great community and although the ideal is to win – there can be only one. So, make the best of the competition to find friends. As with every year, I go into my batch of books with high hopes – let’s see if that winner is among my batch.

If you have any questions leave me a comment.

SPFBO

#SPFBO 7 Introductory Post

Posted On 29 May 2021

Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: #SPFBO, Introductory Post

Comments Dropped 15 responses

SPFBO71024_1

Today I’m taking the opportunity to post a brief outline of my process for this year’s SPFBO Competition. SPFBO 7 will begin on the 1st of June. Stage 1 of the competition lasts for five months and during that period each team/judge will read their 30 selected books before choosing a finalist.

I already took the opportunity a few days ago to announce that this year I will be teaming up with the Critiquing Chemist and her fellow boffin, (our posts can be found here and here). We’ve already split our books equally into two groups, we will be approaching the contest in a similar way and the Critiquing Chemist will also be posting soon to outline their approach.

At the start of each month I will post which books I will be reading during that month (these will be randomly selected using a number generator), at the end of the month I will provide an update of those books chosen and which ones I will be rolling forward. Between myself and the CC we will be aiming to read at least 30% of every book but the likelihood is that we will read much more than that.

As with previous years I will write full reviews for the books that I complete. Any books that I don’t read fully will receive short summaries.

Hopefully, the Book Gods being willing, we will be able to choose 5 or 6 SFs before narrowing our choice down to one.

For more information about the other judges and the books submitted this year check out Mark Lawrence’s post here.

You can also follow the competition on Twitter (#SPFBO) and through Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/122875124938545/

Check out this page for the results of the recent cover competition. So many beautiful, standout covers this year. Congratulations to the winners.

Finally, I would like to wish all the authors the best of luck. As with previous years, the best advice I can offer is to enjoy the competition as much as possible, make friends in the community and take part in as many events as possible. As with previous years I would like to extend an offer to any authors taking part to visit my blog either to post an excerpt, discuss covers or for a general interview.

Below are the list of books allocated to Team LB=TC²:

Deathborn by C.E. Page
The End of the Line by David Nelson
Orphan’s Rite by M Warren Askins
Rising Shadows (The Pillar of Creation #1) by Phillip Blackwater
Carrion by Alyson Tate
Squire George & the Dragon by Adam Digger Stolz
Stranded by Rosalind Tate
As Fierce as Steel by Christopher P Walsh
Iarraindorn by Philip Dickens
Ghost Line by M.A. Poole
By the Pact by Joanna Maciejewska
Face of Glass by Damon L Wakes
Stone Magus by Stephanie C Marks
Blades Falling Softly by Sarah Lin
Little White Hands by Mark Cushen
Subversive (Clandestine Magic #1) by Colleen Cowley
Dragon Birth by Raina Nightingale
The Darkness that Slept by Tristen Kozinski and Keegan Kozinski
Out of the Dust by Joe Coates
The Ballad of the Songbird by Jon Ford
Graves Robbed, Heirlooms Returned by Ashley Capes
Children by Bjørn Larssen
The Throne of Ice and Ash by J.D.L. Rosell
Ten Thousand Stitches by Olivia Atwater
Berserker by Dimitrios Gkirgkiris
Lycoris in Moonlight by Kova Killian
Book of Secrets by Claudia Blood
Hall of Bones by Tim Hardie
One of Us by M. L. Roberts
The Crown of Death by David Schratz

#SPFBO 6 Introductory Post

Posted On 3 June 2020

Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Introductory Post, SPFBO, SPFBO6

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300 books 10 Judges 1 winner

The 1st of June marked the start of the sixth Self Published Fantasy Blog Off. The brainchild of Mark Lawrence this is a competition for self published authors, it’s mission statement :

‘The SPFBO exists to shine a light on self-published fantasy. It exists to find excellent books that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. It exists to help readers select, from the enormous range of options, books that have a better chance of entertaining them than a random choice, thereby increasing reader faith in finding a quality self-published read.’

For further information check out Mark Lawrence’s post here. To check out this year’s entries, judges and allocations check here. (My allocated books are cut and paste below for ease of info).

Now, a quick introduction.

I usually aim to read at least 30% (or 100 pages) of all the books I’ve been allocated, often more than 30% depending on how I’m getting along with the book in question. I will review all the books that I complete, the other books I will provide mini reviews for. I usually aim to choose between 4 or 5 semi finalists over the course of the first five months and then choose my finalist. My batch of books will be randomly split into five groups with six books in each and I aim to read one batch per month (more if I get ahead of schedule – although, this doesn’t usually happen).

In terms of my reading I have a very wide range of ‘likes’ and very few ‘dislikes’ and I will give every book a fair shot. This blog is a hobby as is reading and so I tend to focus on the positives of the books I review rather than the negatives.

I think the best advice I can give to all the authors taking part is to enjoy the competition, make friends, become part of the community, enjoy yourself as much as possible and take part in any events being offered. There can be only one winner but that doesn’t mean that everyone can’t take something good away from the competition.

There is also the cover competition, each blog chooses 3 covers from their selection of books and these are then voted on by both the judges and the public. Go ahead and take a look at all the lovely covers and make sure to vote on your favourites – the link is here.

Finally, as with previous years, I would like to extend an invitation to all the authors taking part to visit my blog. This year I was hoping to include some excerpts from as many of the books in the competition as possible. If you’d like to throw your book into the ring and choose an excerpt for me to post then please don’t be shy, get in touch in the comments and let me know, let’s get some tasty teasers out there. I’m also going to be focusing on some of the covers and also some of the books that really stand out to me. Also, for those authors who have books in audio – even if you’re not in my group, I’d love to hear from you and listen to your book.

That’s it for now. Feel free to reach out and leave a comment.

Thanks

Lynn 😀

The other judges:

Fantasy-Faction; Fantasy Book Critic; Booknest; Kitty G; Weatherwax Report; The Fantasy Hive; Rockstarlit Book Asylum; The Critiquing Chemist; The Fantasy Inn

My three cover contestants: