Tag Archives: Real Lies

I HIT TEN THOUSAND VIEWS!!! GIVEAWAY!!!!!!

Posted on by Robert Zimmermann

Thanks to being “Freshly Pressed” by WordPress, my blog basically BLEW UP all day yesterday. By this I mean my old record for daily page views (274, the first day of Indie Week) was surpassed before I even woke up fully. In fact before noon the total was around 1000. By the end of the day I happily had a total of 1824 page views for the day. 1,117 of these were for the post that was Freshly Pressed, my latest Aged Pages post. Along with the views came many people “liking” the post and many new followers. What I’m very happy with is the amount of comments I got. That is the best part of writing my posts. I like the interaction I have with my readers. It lets me know what they like, what they don’t, and lets me know they actually read the post 😉 So in the end with this popularity boost (which I really do hope sticks around a little bit because this ONE day somewhat overshadows my entire Indie Week event…not in how much I enjoyed it but in blog response) my blog went from a total of somewhere in the 8,000s for blog views all the way to 10,000!!!! That’s a huge milestone and I’d like to give back finally. I would like to hold a giveaway for everyone. I don’t have much money to spend on books at the moment, but I do have a Gift Card on Amazon that I plan to stretch out over the next few months in order to get some great upcoming releases. I will be sacrificing some of that gift card to the winner of this fun giveaway.

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So the giveaway, that’s what you came here for. It’ll be for any TWO Kindle books from the list below. These are some of the books I’ve read and reviews here on the site. They are some of my favorites, as well. I think that’s the best gift I can give you. I loved them, maybe you will as well. I think there’s enough variety where the winner will be able to find two that they haven’t bought already…and if there aren’t two on the list I might be able to work with him/her to find something great and in the same price range.

Would you like to know the books now? Yes, I’ m sure you do 🙂

Prizes to Choose From

As an added bonus I’d like to make you all aware of a few books that I’ve reviewed/have still to review that are FREE (as of the time of this post). This way even if you don’t win, you all still get the chance to grab a book or two 😀

OK, so that took a bit to set up….wait, you’re reading this after it’s posted. I guess you don’t need to know how long it took to put all those links in haha. Well click the titles of the books to see my reviews if you’d like. It could help you decide what books you’d like to win if any. Grab those freebies too. I’m sure there are more I can list, but well I’m getting lazy now.

NOW….how to enter. It’s simple. I don’t care if you follow me, or tweet this, or Facebook post it, or write it in the sky even (though I may pick anyone who does that as a winner no matter what 😉 ).

  • All I ask is that you come here to the post and leave a comment.
    • Tell me what you like about the blog or what you don’t like. What you’d like to see more of or less. Do you want to be a guest doing a guest post or be a guest on either Aged Pages or Authors We Love? Please tell me in a comment, I’m always open for more guests!
  • Please to enter just leave a comment pertaining to something along those lines and you’re in the running.
  • The giveaway is open from the time this posts until Saturday August 25th at 11:59 PM.
    • Then after that I’ll wake up in the morning and choose a RANDOM winner from the comments.
  • Please remember the prizes will be gifted through AMAZON only. If you can’t read Kindle books, I’m sorry. Funds just don’t allow me to go through B&N or somewhere else at this time.
  • If you’re commenting and don’t want/can’t enter, please mention that. I still want to hear from you all 🙂
  • OH, and be sure to leave your email so I can contact the winner.
    • I think when you comment there is a place for it, so you might not need to leave it IN the comment itself….but I know some people comment by using their Twitter or other social media accounts. If that’s the case, please leave an email to contact you with in the comment itself, or it won’t count.
  • To restate once again. The winner will choose TWO of the KINDLE books listed above (not the free ones obviously) as his/her prize.
  • This giveaway is open for international winners as I’ve been told I can give Kindle books to people in other countries. I’ve never done that before, but we’ll see what happens 🙂

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WINNER RANDOMLY CHOSEN……..and that winner is……S.M. BOYCE!!!!!!! (I finally get to give HER a prize instead of winning so much from her.)

What were her choices? None other than The 13th Doorway by D.J. Shaw and Wishing For Someday Soon by Tiffany King. Both are great books and I hope Boyce enjoys them. I hope you all had fun with the giveaway and maybe you found a book you’d like to check out. Thank you all for being part of this 🙂

Review: Some Short Ones For Shorter Works

Posted on by Robert Zimmermann

Over the last week or so, I’ve been going through some of the shorter pieces of fiction on my kindle. Because these aren’t full on review books and since they are short stories I don’t have very much to say about them. But despite that, as I also try to do, I write some sort of a review. Here are a few of the things I’ve been reading lately. Enjoy 🙂

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Title: In the Land of the Blind – A Zombie Story
Author: Robert Swartwood
Rating: 3/5 Stars

This was a zombie story, like the subtitle suggests. But it was an interesting take on the genre. The twist to the genre was a little confusing at first. This made me a little iffy on whether or not the story worked for me as a whole. Other elements of it worked well for me though, once I got past the reversal of the zombie label.

This short story was intriguing enough to make me want to know more about the world it was written in. What lead the world to be the way it is, etc.

I’d recommend this books to some people. Just remember to keep an open mind when beginning it. I was caught off-guard.

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Title: Real Lies
Author: Liana Brooks
Rating: 4/5 Stars

Quick short story. Enjoyable. A little strange occurrence set into a “routine” day on the job. I’d read more adventures involving this MC.

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Title: Tuned In To Love
Author: Karen Jarabek
Rating: 4/5 Stars

This short story grew on me. I wasn’t too sure if I was in to it at first because it seemed to go off on a tangent for a small section. It would have been a welcomed tangent if this were a novel, though. I feel that it would allow for a little more character development…but it wasn’t a necessary addition to this as a shorter piece. The later half of the story drew me back in, and boosted my rating a bit for it.

It’s a good read, overall. Light, not taxing at all. Great for an afternoon of relaxing.

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Title: Gilded Cage
Author: Alexandra Richland
Rating: 3/5 Stars

This was a good story. An enjoyable short read. I honestly wasn’t expecting some aspects of it and felt it was out of place for the beautifully written way it started out. I won’t tell what it was as to not spoil the story, but I feel it took away from it overall.

I wouldn’t not recommend this for someone to read. I just felt like it could have been handled a little differently. I’d pick up another story from Richland in the future.

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Title: Olalla
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Rating: 4/5 Stars

I’ve never heard of this story before and randomly found the audiobook (great way to get reading done while walking the dog). I’m glad I found it. Another story from R.L.S. and this time with a little vampire action.

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Title: The Polysyllabic Spree
Author: Nick Hornby
Rating: 5/5 Stars

Another great collection from Hornby. I need to get the second one of these three to read now 🙂

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Title: Taya Bayliss – Treasure Hunter
Author: E.J. Gore
Rating: 2/5 Stars

I knew this was a short story. It’s only 50 pages. But in those 50 pages almost nothing happens. The build-up is almost novel paced; it’s just that drawn out. Then the last two chapters is when something happens but it’s almost brushed over like nothing.

I think with some editing. I marked off enough errors that could have been caught with at least another read through. But also I think an editor could have suggested lengthening the story so that there was something worth reading and/or beefing up certain aspects so the characters actually became interesting (in the very least).

So, I was disappointed by this story. It’s the first in a series, not sure how this could lead to more stories. It seemed self contained enough to me.

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Title: Shrek!
Author: William Steig
Rating: 3/5 Stars

I see that the movie took many liberties with this story. I enjoyed the movie(s) a lot. This book, not as much. There were good parts. I like that Shrek just went around doing what he wanted, but I think it could have done with a little more something. Even for a children’s story, I think it was lacking. Still, it’s somewhat worth checking out, if only to see where the idea for the movie came from.


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Title: Beauty Dominates The Beast
Author: Hannah Hale
Rating: 2/5 Stars

It was starting out ok (still new to this whole erotica stuff), but then it just ends. I know the ending is implied but couldn’t there have been a few more pages to end it properly? A little disappointed in that.