Posts Tagged The Advocate

The Advocate’s Killer, the 11th Book in the Series, Launches Today

THE ADVOCATE’S KILLER is released today. It is book number eleven in The Advocate Series. This book was written in the shortest length of time so far. However, it had less to do with an increase in my writing speed, than it had to do with the Covid-19 pandemic. Stuck at home in isolation gave me a lot of writing time.

I have to tell you though, I’m starting to get cabin fever. I miss my walks at the bay and the beach. I miss seeing my family. I miss going to the movies. Heck, I even miss going to the store, and I hate to shop.

I sit here feeling sorry for my self, and then I think about how lucky I really am. My heart goes out to all those families who have lost loved ones. They will forever feel the loss. For the rest of us, this won’t last forever, and if we are all kind and thoughtful of others, we can get through this together.

Stay safe and Covid-19 Free.

Teresa

FREE JP Torn Short Story

JP has been a favorite character of The Advocate Series. The women love him, the men want to be him. He is the character I get the most remarks about in all my books. A lot of my readers have asked for more JP, so here it is. I have written a short story about JP when he was young. It’s called DEADLY SECRETS. Deadly Secrets med

The book is a FREE download and can be read on any digital reader, tablet, or computer. All you have to do to get the book is to sign up for my mailing list on my website at www.teresaburrell.com. A passcode will pop up and you can download the book right then and there. If you are already on my mailing list and for some reason missed the email that I sent out with the code, please send me an email at teresa@teresaburrell.com and I will explain what to do. The book is getting great reviews so don’t miss out and happy reading!

Teresa

Another JPism

Thank you all for the wonderful submissions of your favorite JPism. Here’s the one from William Burroughs:
Bad chicken

Please keep them coming. Just tell us your favorite line by JP and we’ll create the image. Respond here, private message on Facebook, or email me at teresa@teresaburrell.com.

Teresa

Author of The Advocate Series

Has Someone Sit on Your Cake?

“A bad review is like baking a cake with all the best ingredients and having someone sit on it.”–Danielle Steel

Baby Sitting on Wedding Cake

I was never one to write reviews for books until it became easy. (I love technology!) There was a time when there were very few places to write a review or I probably would have. I know that because I was very good about writing reviews on waiters in restaurants or in hotels when there was a form to fill out. Now we live in an age where you can write reviews for anything and everything and it only takes a few minutes. So, do you take he time to do that?

Let’s talk specifically about books because after all that’s what I do, write books. Now, I write reviews, or at least give them a rating, for almost every book I finish reading. I say that, because I tend to only write reviews if I can say something positive and if I really don’t like a book I’m reading, I won’t finish it. That’s a more recent behavior because I used to finish everything I started. I just had to see it to the end no matter how much I hated it. Now that I’m in my autumn (or at least late summer) years of my life, I’ve learned I don’t have to do that. I choose to spend my time doing things I enjoy. But back to the review part…I’m much better about writing them than I used to be. Some of that I’m sure is because I appreciate whenever someone takes the time to write a review for my books.

I know how important the reviews are to authors, but how much are those reviews worth to readers? As a reader, do you buy books based on the reviews? Do you even read them? And when you write one, why do you do it?

Some authors read their reviews, others choose not to. I read all of mine. I try to learn from the negative ones, and I’m motivated by the positive ones. I have well over 1400 combined reviews for my books and they all average around 4.5, but sometimes I wonder if the readers are reading the same book. I understand people have different tastes and I’m good with that. But I had a review that said she was upset because the book had less than 150 pages. Another reader said he was overwhelmed because the book had over 600 pages. This was for the same book! The book actually has around 300 paperback pages. Now I realize you can change the font if you’re reading on a digital device, but that’s a bit of an extreme range.

And then there are those that just make me laugh. Like this one, for example:

It was a 3 star review.

I purchased this kindle book because it sounded like something I enjoy reading and it was Free on Book Bub. I have purchased many books and I haven’t had time to read them all yet and this is one that I have not read yet (hence just an okay rating). When I get around to reading it, I will try to remember to come back and update my post.

Can anyone tell me why someone would post such a review? I just don’t get it. Another reader apparently couldn’t leave it alone. He or she responded:

What a ridiculous waste of time for you to post this “review.” How could you give the book a rating when you haven’t even read it?

Then there is this 1 star review for The Advocate:

 There was far too much detailed sex. Had I known it was “R” rated due to sex, I never would have read it. As it is, I skipped over many pages due to the sexual material. I won’t read any more of her books. However, if you like that type of material, you’d probably like the book. Story line was good.

FYI: This book had NO sex in it, not even a kiss. There was no relationship, no romance, nothing, zip, nada, zilch! I can only guess that the review was placed on the wrong book…or someone stole my cover and put it on a “smut” book. Hmmm…

And then there’s the spoiler:

I love this book….this book was very thrilling until the bitter end I would have never thought it was ______ that did the killing. 

I removed the name above and replaced it with the blank. She gave me 5 stars. You gotta love her! Of course, no one else has to read the book now because they know “whodunit.”

And one of my favorites:

I felt relief at the end, knowing I wasn’t going to have to pick up this book again.

What does that even mean? It was a 3-star review. I would expect a 1-star with that statement or perhaps a 5-star if you want to put a really positive spin on that statement…Like I wore her out with all my suspense and twists and turns. But a 3-star? Go figure.

Readers, authors really appreciate reviews. Write them when you read a book you like because it will encourage the author to write more books. I want to thank all of you who have written a review for me. I understand not everyone has the time or the interest in writing a review. That’s okay. Thank you for reading my books.

For two reasons, I don’t agree with Danielle Steele when she says: “A bad review is like baking a cake with all the best ingredients and having someone sit on it.”  One, because I get good reviews and I get bad reviews. Fortunately, I get more good than bad, and as I said earlier, I use the bad ones to grow. And second, if I were to bake a cake, one would likely be better off sitting on it, than eating it.

Teresa Burrell

Author of The Advocate Series

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month

Prevention_Badge

In 1983 April was proclaimed Child Abuse Prevention Month by the president. I don’t know how April was chosen but it doesn’t matter. The important thing is that we have a month where there is an extra effort made to stop this awful behavior that is so rampant in our society. 

According to Children’s Bureau (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) there were 686,000 children abused or neglected in the fifty U.S. states, DC, and Puerto Rico. Of those, 1640 died. Many of those could have been prevented with good community programs in place such as early childhood development programs, parental support, and maternal mental health.

The Child Welfare Information Gateway provides some good information on how to help your community prevent child abuse.

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This is a cause that is very near and dear to my heart. I have spent a great deal of my life fighting this battle. I worked as a child advocate for many years and I continue to do what I can to prevent child abuse. This is a cause you can join as well. There are many organizations joining in this fight this month. I noticed when I stopped at In N Out Burger (my favorite burger joint) they have a program this month where they are collecting donations and matching 3 to 1 whatever they collect up to $250,000. Many other businesses are doing similar things. This is one way to help, but for those of you who can, getting personally involved is the best way.

 

Teresa Burrell, Author, Attorney, Advocate

Author of The Advocate Series