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It’s been two years since Jackie Collins passed

18/09/2017 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Authors & Books, Life - Death - Health Leave a Comment

Two years ago today, Aussie time, I heard the news that Miss Jackie Collins had passed.

I was gutted, and cried off and on for months. Hell, I even shed a tear every now and then now. She was my mentor, my idol, my inspiration when it came to my books and the way I wrote.

That’s why I pushed for the Porn Star Brothers books. The whole series is dedicated to her, and I already had the idea for the first book and was waiting to write them when she died. And then I felt it was an absolute necessity to get them done and released on the anniversary of her death. Which I did last year, when the first three novellas were released as tribute across her death and birthday anniversaries. Forever, the current novel, is officially released today, as a continued tribute. I will release future books on March 19th and September 19th until they are all released.

It’s hard to describe the feelings one has when they lose a mentor. Someone that means the world to you even though you never met them. Business experts tell us all to get a mentor, whether they know it or not, and to follow the things they do that work, and ignore what doesn’t.

I followed Jackie for years. Wrote to her at her website in 2007 after she had been here for her book tour. And she replied, twice. She also liked two of my pics on my Instagram style page, and her family liked one from the first anniversary of her death when I read her last book as a tribute.

It’s tough to lose someone you look up to. Can they be replaced? Maybe. But in my case no. There will never be another Jackie Collins. There will never be another ballbustingly, bonkbuster writing, rollicking Brit author as Jackie. Her sense of humour, her knowledge, her…everything.

I have a US paperback edition of Hollywood Zoo, which was later named Sinners. On the cover she is likened to Jacqueline Susann (first pic below, book on left). I’ve never read Valley of the Dolls, but somehow came across this Vanity Fair piece on Jacqueline Susann and found out that she herself, died from breast cancer.

What the hell are the odds of that?

Two bonkbuster raunchy authors called Jacqueline dying of breast cancer.

I posted last year about the Jackie Collins collection I had acquired at that point, and you can read it here.

Below are the books I’ve managed to buy this year. I’ve been so busy writing and releasing my own, money has been tight on what else I buy, but I got these early on in the year.

Gotta love the back cover pictures!

Jackie also got herself on the covers (bottom left)

I plan to continue the collection when I have the time and the money. This year has been busy getting books edited and released, and that will continue…but for now, I’ll see how I go.

For Authors, What Does ‘Not Well Written’ Actually Mean?

18/05/2017 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Authors & Books, The English Language, Writing Leave a Comment

I recently had one of my tween stories given a review and that is what it said. It was not well written. But not well written compared to what? A literary masterpiece? It’s a tween story for god’s sake.

The review didn’t mention spelling, grammar, maturity, issues with the story etc, so not well written means what exactly? You could look at 100 books and none of them will be literary masterpieces. They will be written as well as the author can write it, but then that still may not be good enough for some people.

By what standards are they using? Their own? Not well written compared to their books? Their English skills? Clearly some people just expect everything to be a masterpiece. Except people don’t write like that. That’s right, NO ONE writes literary masterpieces without help. The very few books that become literary masterpieces are beaten to a bloody pulp by countless editors telling the authors what to write. So what do us mere mortal authors do? Do we write to the best of our ability and stick to that, or do we ask the reviewers to expand on their comments so we can get some idea of what they thought was wrong with it in case there actually was something wrong with it? Of course, it could just all be in their own head.

It’s a real pity there wasn’t more to the review than just, not well written.

At the end of the day what does not well written actually mean, coz I’m confused?

Author Versus Writer. What do either really equate to?

11/05/2017 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Authors & Books, The English Language, Writing Leave a Comment

There have been a lot of blog posts and columns about this
topic, so I’m going to weigh in myself.

Some people believe that authors are not writers and vice
versa.

Some people believe that writers are not authors and vice
versa.

Some people think you can be both.

I think that each word/title means something a little
different.

To me, a writer is someone who writes different things
across different areas, mainly non-fiction columns, blog posts, web stories,
magazine articles etc. They are writing, so they can use the label writer.

To me, an author is someone who writes books, fiction or
non-fiction. Yes, they are a writer, but since the primary object is books, to
me, the title of author seems more fitting.

To me, a novelist is someone who writes novels. Hence the
title, novelist.

To me, a blogger is someone who blogs. Hence the title
blogger.

To me, a columnist is someone who writes magazine/newspaper columns.
Hence the title, columnist.

Get the picture?

I think it all means
something to everyone and I also think it depends on what you write. If you do
a bit of everything, go ahead and call yourself a writer. But I don’t necessarily
think an author needs to call themselves a writer even though they write.

To me, that would be like calling a reality show contestant
a celebrity…

ah *shudders*

It’s all much of a muchness and what you want to call yourself is up to you, just make sure it has some authenticity to it.

Today would have been Jackie Collins birthday

03/10/2016 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Authors & Books, Life - Death - Health Leave a Comment

I still get teary eyed a year on, she was such an inspiration in so many ways on so many levels and it’s still sad that she has gone.

That’s why I’ve dedicated the three Porn Stars Brothers books to her. She inspired me, and them, so they are for her.

I hope I live up to the same standard.

Today is the first anniversary of Jackie Collins death.

18/09/2016 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Authors & Books, Life - Death - Health Leave a Comment

I’m posting this because it is the first anniversary of her death today, and would have been her birthday on the 4th Oct, but there’s a post for that, so let’s talk about her books.

I’ve always been addicted, I’ve read them, followed her on social
media, and took her advice when it came to writing. Hell, I want to be her when
it comes to my writing, and her rollicking ballsy attitude was a breath of
fresh air. I even wished I owned her house, it was awesome! But all of a sudden
this year, back in May, I had the urge to start collecting her books. Some
weird deep down, desperate need of Jackie because I still miss
her. And that quickly turned into an addiction.

It started mainly on May 25th, the day mum went in for her
endoscope for her ulcers and I hit the op shops and second hand book stores. I
scored 25 books that would have cost me a fortune to buy online. However that’s
what I’ve spent, a small fortune, that ended up with doubles from online
sellers not selling or sending the correct versions. I got my money back on
most, but I’m out a few bucks.

Ebay, Book Depository and Abe Books, somewhere I’ve only recently
started buying from, helped me get older versions that you can’t find any more.
And the more current versions were easy. Of course I googled
the covers and had to decide on which versions to get, as there are
so many reprints. I’ve ended with with 3-10 editions of each book,
depending on how many have been released.

Pan Macmillan in the UK are notorious for constantly releasing different covers and I have many. But my
main goal was the hard covers in both the UK and US editions. A hard find
for many. And I’m still collecting, not sure if it will ever be complete, but
just like with my Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Dana Girls and Trixie Belden
collections, it will (hopefully, fingers crossed), be completed one day.

Below are each batch of books and where I got them from. It’s
definitely growing. I even had to boot Nancy off two shelves
to accommodate JC.

OP SHOP LOT1 – 25 BOOKS

EBAY LOT1 – 5 BOOKS

EBAY LOT2 – 7 BOOKS

AWESOME BOOKS LOT1 – 12 BOOKS

AWESOME BOOKS LOT2 – 18 BOOKS
(some weren’t the correct
covers and one was a freebie. They refunded but it got sent anyway! I’ve also
had to update Lovers and Players because I don’t like the name being worn off.)

BOOK DEPOSITORY LOT1 – 4 BOOKS

EBAY LOT3 – 20 BOOKS

EBAY LOT4 – 17 BOOKS
(two are replacements as I wanted
the larger ones to make them all even when standing on the shelf. I hate having
a series of books all different sizes. I like them even, which is why two more
will need replacing. How’s the old Sunday Simmons and pink Lady Boss covers?)

JC BOOKS EBAY LOT5 – 16 BOOKS

(There’s a couple of old ones in this lot, UK Chances hardcover and Lovehead pb)

ABE BOOKS LOT1 – 17 BOOKS

(some weren’t the covers I bought and that’s kinda pissing me off lately. Sellers sending the wrong books. Or, sending worse versions that what they state on the sale page, like the hardcover of Chances, the dust jacket is falling apart even though it was stated as very good.)

ABE BOOKS LOT2 10 BOOKS

(three books so far and one was the wrong cover. I’m waiting on 7 more. They’re quite slow in coming)

EBAY BOOK LOT6 8 BOOKS

(Original UK Hollywood Wives hardcover with it’s silver foil print. Hard cover Power Trip to replace the soft cover, wrong cover of pb Wives so it’s a freebie, and Pan Mac’s The Bitch in the Diamond print. I love these covers for the diamond above the i in Jackie, and they’re awesome pictures too)

Loving the pictures on the backs of the 70s/80s hardcovers.

Because my old bookcase is bowing in the middle I had to move my hard covers to the bedroom and leave the paperbacks in the office, on the top two shelves. This is the back layer of books. UK on the left shelf, US on the right.

Here’s the shelf with its front layer on, as well as the picture montage I did of Jackie in an animal print frame I found.

Here’s a closer look at the montage I made using Picmonkey, then I just printed it out and framed it. I used inspirational quotes and leopard/tiger print.

Here’s the top two shelves of my bookcase. I had to boot Nancy Drew from the top shelves for Jackie. My two collections sharing space.

My desk in my bedroom, Jackie hardcovers, UK left, US right, sharing space with my style and jewellery books. I’ve added a couple since but couldn’t be bothered taking another photo.

So far it’s about 165 books or so, some free from refunds, and around $1600 give or take since May, so about $10 a book. Not bad considering some were more expensive than others and some were just a few cents depending on where I bought them from, like the op shop.

Some books are hard to get, so the first 10 or so hardcovers are very rare, in fact, I haven’t even seen most of them in my searches, just the paperback versions of which there are many. The search will continue but it will probably only be a couple a month now as I finish up paperback collections. I’ll also be getting her self-published versions this month as they’re easy to get, and will continue to update you all on my purchases.

Have you ever had a sudden addiction and need to collect
things that have been available for years, all because of a death or incident?

A review of R.L. Stine’s Red Rain

26/05/2016 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Authors & Books 2 Comments

I’ve just finished reading R.L. Stine’s Red Rain because I wanted to get the feel of a R.L. book again for my future children’s stories. I’m going
to reveal the plot so if you haven’t read it, although it’s 2-3 years old by now, there are spoilers ahead.

It starts off all fine. Lea Sutter is a travel blogger,
arriving on the small island of Cape Le Chat Noir off the banks of South
Carolina. She’s there to blog about the island and all of its haunted history.
Sunken Spanish ships, dark-magic rituals and stories of the dead walking
amongst the living.

Whilst there, Lea watches a ritual, amidst Hurricane
Ernesto, called Revenir which is French for “to come back”, which is part of a
practice called Mains Magiques, or magic hands. Lea is staying with Macaw (yes,
a character is called Macaw) and Pierre Henders who own the little Starfish
House hotel. While Ernesto is tearing the island apart, she boarders with
Martha and James Swann, who she’d been communicating with about visiting, and
met up with Martha on the island.

They survive the hurricane but Lea goes off wondering and
ends up seeing too many dreadful things. Dead bodies, dying people, Starfish
House is in ruins and Macaw is dead with a nail through her eye, blech. I won’t
go into it in any more detail. She ends up on the beach with millions of dead starfish
all washed up on shore, and then, in the distance, sees two little blue eyed
blonde boys walking along. She becomes addicted to them and ends up taking them
back home to Sag Harbour where she lives with her husband and two children Ira
and Elena, and Mark’s sister Roz and her two year old Axl.

At first you’d think all is well, but then the two little
angelic boys start their murder spree and hypnotise the town’s children,
including Ira and Elena. Mark is arrested for those murders, since one happened
in his driveway, another was a school mate of the kids, and the third was
Autumn, Mark’s assistant who he had a quick fuck over his desk with.

As it turns out, by chapter 26 I wanted to punch the fucking
shit out of Lea. During the book we realise the boys had hypnotised her but
seriously, she never said no to them, made excuses for them, argued with
everyone over them and was the biggest bimbo of the book. I hated her guts and
wanted her to die by chapter 26.

Well, it turns out the psycho twins kill a few more people
and burn a few houses down, but because of an email and skype chat Lea had with
Martha, she found out the kids had actually died in 1935 in the last hurricane,
and because the Revenir had been performed on them, although too late, had
returned with evil inside of them.

Well, and here’s the spoilers, Mark managed to save his own
kids plus all of the others in the school where the twins had them holed up
(they killed the chief of police and tried to kill another officer who got into
the school), but Mark smashed the twins heads together to make them stop, thus
ending the hold over the other kids, but Lea had to save Mark from the
dastardly blond duo who tried to kill him.

While Mark, Lea and the psycho twins are standing on the wharf, the
dumb as shit Lea just stood there while the twins tried burning Mark alive.
They blew up cars, burned down stores, and killed other people before dumb as
shit Lea finally did something. She grabbed the twins in a choke hold and
turned Samuel’s eyes to hers. Samuel had the heat, basically Superman’s burning
vision. Daniel had the anger and the ability to get inside other people’s minds
and hypnotise them to do whatever he wanted them to. In the end, Samuel burnt
her and by her hanging onto them and not letting go, all three went up in
flames.

Turns out, not only were the twins actually dead, but so was Lea, who died in Hurricane Ernesto as Martha and James had run and gotten the priest to perform the ritual. Martha had taken photos and eventually sent them to her.

At the very end of the book, Mark and Roz are out back in
the garden with baby Axl when Axl shows signs of the heat that Samuel had
taught him. Not sure what they’re going to do with a killer of a two year old
now.

My thoughts on this book.

R.L. says he watched Village of the Damned, Children of the
Damned and Island of the Damned as inspiration, as well as doing research into
the phenomenon known as Red Rain. He pondered over it after someone suggested
it and eventually, once the idea formed, wrote it.

It’s supposed to be for adults, for me I’d say it’s teen/young
adult like his Fear Street books as it’s written in the same style. There is
sex, but there’s also 12 year olds saying fuck a few times so take your pick on
the age group. It was very easy to read, albeit 369 pages long in a 6×9 inch
size book. It took me a few hours but I did skim across many pages due to
characters annoying me (Lea) and just a big bunch of bullshit going on. And I
wasn’t even half way through when I wanted to jump to the end just so it was
over. But, you miss stuff when you do that so I skimmed quickly and came to the
end then thanked God it was over.

Not the best book I’ve read. While I haven’t read Stine’s
books for a good couple of decades it’s very much like his others, although I
do remember the Fear Street books being more adult. The concept has been used
before, evil kids, not sure the red rain concept has so putting them together
is interesting but that’s where it stops. The kids are annoying, Lea is
annoying, Mark is a cheating cock, Roz says nothing when the twins call Axl a
chimpanzee, ugh, so many things I wanted to smack characters in the head for.

If you love R.L. give this a go whether you’re a young or
old adult or love strange concepts. For me, it wasn’t fantastic and the reviews on Amazon are telling that it’s not his best, but I am
going to steal the title for a short story!