Fathers’ Day: It’s a man’s world

Happy Fathers’ Day to every bloke in the universe that deserves the title.

Some don’t. (but we’ll not go there)

I am torn on this subject. As an independent gal, I kinda don’t hold with the whole “Behind every great man…” scenario.

I grew up thinking I was a feminist – I’m not.

Just because I don’t rely on a man to support me, doesn’t mean that I think they are all useless; far from it. I am not going to break a nail putting a shelf up when I have one of them to do it. 😉

Seriously. I mean, read this:

http://blogs.news.sky.com/familyaffairs/Post:d4047fad-68e6-4c9c-b0b2-783c9ae5dfbf

If you have read Sugar & Spice, you’ll know what page we’re on.

My Pa is the proud father of three (great, may I add) girls. He also has 5 grandchildren, 2 of whom are girls.

He told me how awful it was that he couldn’t bathe my three year old niece without feeling guilty.

We recently went on holiday and shared a house. I stumbled across him semi-naked.

He was more embarrassed than I was, and why? I am a grown woman of thirty eight (ahem) and he is my dad. He has washed my bum, seen me in various stages of undress over the years and has blown raspberries on my belly numerous times.

When we were little, we had a game. Me and my two sisters would take it in turns to get in the bath with my dad. He was fit in those days and had a six-pack. He used to rest a pouring beaker (that we used to wash our hair with) on his belly and we would guess which way it would fall. Innocent.

These days, you can’t even sit a child on your knee if you’re Father Christmas without being CRB checked. What has the world come to?

That said, men are evil.

I don’t make that statement lightly.

I spent two hours today researching a list of bad men to post on here. Guess what? Not many of them had kids.

Bin Laden

Josef Fritzl

My original list looked like this:

Hitler

Peter Sutcliffe

Ian Brady

I could continue with a veritable feast of names of bad guys…

How strange that the TOP monsters didn’t have children.

Is that why women are so peaceful? Is that why when you switch on the news and watch the daily horror stories and atrocities, that it is usually men behind it?

Don’t start getting pissed off.

I am not being sexist, nor am I slating blokes.

It is fact.

Wars, religious/terroristic battles, murders, rapes, child abuse… all down to men.

The only thing I can’t pin on them is natural disasters. But hey, if we are to believe that God is a man, then I can’ pretty much hang that one on them too.

I jest.

I love my pa, my brother-in-laws, my nephews and have had some great male friends over the years. Not all blokes are bad.

Not all women are nice.

But I defy anyone to argue with the case I have stated.

Hey, bring it on. You’re not allowed to hit me. 😉

Come on.

Our new book (Snow White – Book One of the Rose Red Crime Series)

has a male antagonist and a female protag. Typical you might think? Nah. Wait until you read it. Queenie is a right bitch and piece of work.

I wanted to make Red the bad guy, but my co-writer wouldn’t let me.

Did I mention that I write with a guy? Yup. Mark is so far gone over to the testosterone side that he has devoted the whole month of June to female writers. Check it out:

http://markwilliamsinternational.com

I hope you have taken this blog post in the spirit that it was intended?

Let me leave you with this:

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.

It’s people that are bad.

Happy Fathers’ day (and if you promised to see your kids today, make sure you do. Never break a promise to a kid.)

We remember. 😉

Saffi

Zucker & Spice?

Well, Lord only knows how, but we managed yet another top 5 spot!

Apparently, we are now #4 in English Police Procedurals on the new Amazon.de (German) site!

Danke schön! Danke! 😉

A right Royal diversion

If, like me, you have OD’d on Easter chocolate and talk of Prince William & Kate Middleton‘s forthcoming nuptuals/Royal Wedding, then here’s a little light relief:

Sugar & Spice is 100 reviews old!

So, forget the Royal family getting all the love, 80% of the people that bought Sugar & Spice (and were kind enough to leave a review) gave it either four or five star lovin’!

Today is also a land-mark for us in a few other areas (no, I didn’t receive a belated invitation to Buckingham Palace for the reception) too.

We now have two books (that’s right, two) in the Amazon UK charts and categories. In fact, we have two books in the top 100 Police Procedurals!

 

To that, you can add number one in the following catagories: Thrillers & Serial Killers

 Oh and we’d also like to just mention, that we made #1 most wanted too (ok, it’s ‘most wished for’ but that doesn’t sound anywhere near as menacing!)

So, you could say, that we’re pretty happy! (Not to mention, still very shell-shocked)

It has been a wild ride since Christmas and we could never dare even dream of the success that we have achieved with Sugar & Spice…who knows what is yet to come?! Meanwhile, we still remain the only indie in the Top 5 on Amazon UK paid store and have now placed the US edition in the top 100 too.

A VERY big thank you to everyone who has supported us and bought the book. Don’t forget, Snow White Book One of the Rose Red Crime series will be out in the summer!

In the meantime, to buy any of the books mentioned above for Kindle or Nook, go here: http://sugarandspicethenovel.com

Oh and I almost forgot, Congratulations William and Kate for tomorrow, my apologies, but I won’t be able to make it… I’m kinda busy being a best-selling writer! 😉

Saffi

Fighting it out with the big boys: Saffina Desforges v Joe Konrath

In the annals of e-publishing history the likes of Amanda Hocking and Joe Konrath have their place assured.

And while Amanda has recently signed up with the dead-tree guys (legacy publishers as they call them over there) to straddle both the old and new worlds, Joe remains his usual self, quietly trying to convince us paper has no future, even while his paperbacks and audio editions continue to sell on Amazon.

Last week his blog Are You Dense? (http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/04/are-you-dense.html)  laid out his position in his usual bashful way.

“What the hell is wrong with you?

I’m talking to you. The writers who are still thoughtlessly defending legacy publishing.

Unless you’re making over a million dollars a year with the Big 6, continuing down the legacy path is a crazy bad idea.”

A few days before that another big-hitter, Bob Mayer (http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/04/guest-post-by-bob-mayer.html) had a guest spot on Joe’s blog and said much the same thing, but not with Joe’s charm, tact and diplomacy.

So just how well is Joe Konrath doing? His latest blog, 276,112 (http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/) says it all.

“Two hundred and seventy-six thousand, one hundred and eleven.

That’s how many self-pubbed books I’ve sold.”

Over a quarter million e-books sold. Impressive! Well done, Joe!

Inspiring stuff, but totally unrealistic for any of us mere mortals, of course.

And as Joes says,

“It’s important to note that the very first month my ebooks were for sale on Kindle, I sold 1095 ebooks, and that was with 8 ebooks available.

It took two years for my sales to reach where they’re at, and now I have 30 ebooks available.

Success doesn’t happen overnight.”

Er, Joe… Yes it does! 



Joes says, So far, in April, I’ve sold over 30,000 books. I’ll easily break 35,000 this month.”

Say that other bit again, Joe. “It took two years for my sales to reach where they’re at, and now I have 30 ebooks available.”

Sugar & Spice has been on Kindle for just five months. We are already selling 20,000 a month, and we have only ONE title… and no paperbacks!



Ding, ding – round one, Ms Desforges 😉

Get Sugar & Spice now:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B004AYDK22

http://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/B004AYDK22

US Edition:

http://www.amazon.com/Sugar-Spice-US-Thriller-ebook/dp/B004W0IJCU

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sugar-Spice-US-Thriller-ebook/dp/B004W0IJCU

Nook:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Sugar-Spice/Saffina-Desforges/e/2940011134326

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