RebeccasReads.Com Revived!

Go to: http://www.rebeccasreads.com

 

REBECCASREADS CLOSES

It's with both sadness & relief that David & I must bid you goodbye. Rebeccasreads was always a labor of love inspired eight years ago by a husband who listened to his wife's impassioned reviews of books she was reading. As I wrote in my very first editorial: Sometimes a book will so move me that I'll call out to my Beloved & read him a portion, sharing the gem this author created; sometimes he will guffaw & then quote a ribald scene & sometimes, with profound solemnity, we'll read sections where the writers got it right by our lights. & we'll nod, our eyes focused long-distance as we meditate upon the written word & the images evoked.

Within a year of studying late into the night when our connection to the Internet was the best, he'd learnt enough to post our first, primitive pages. In time, he was to became an award-winning Webmaster.

I intentionally chose to offer reviews that were more personal recommendations than professional criticisms, & the publishing industry has come to think highly of our efforts to promote their authors. You can see on our Comments Page how much authors enjoyed our reviews.

Meanwhile, we were taking care of our beloved Poppa in the last years of his life. After he died, I wrote Standing The Watch: Memories of a Home Death, & with the help of family & friends published it with iUniverse, stimulating me to pound out an editorial or two about the perils of PODing.

All this time, the Cosmos was brewing another pot of tea, & we've been living with the injuries Webmaster sustained during two tours in Vietnam. It's now imperative we quit the stress.

I won't miss the:
  • pressure to read & read & read
  • slowpokeness of our connection to the Internet -- Beloved Webmaster likens it to extruding peanut butter through a pinhole
  • blizzards of viruses, sp@m, & all the “anglers” trolling for suckers
  • avalanches of incoming queries, & recently the dozens of Internet “bots” that have learnt how to mob submission forms
  • recurring, relentless weekly, then fortnightly deadlines
  • gleaning of ISBNs from Amazon, & uploading reviews there
  • hours & hours organizing, coding & proofing
  • watching my Beloved slog far into the night until he's rubbing his eyes & the hand that moves the mouse is shaking with fatigue.

I shall miss
  • my deadlines for Reviews & eInterviews
  • our Associate Reviewers' company -- thank you Dr. Alma Bond in New York, Advocate Narayan Radhakrishnan in India, Rev. Marie Jones in California, Coletta Ollerer in Illinois & Wayne Turmel somewhere in the Midwest, for giving freely of your love of a good read.
  • making friends with authors, publishers & publicists
  • your Feedback & Comments -- even the curt & combative ones!
  • all the parcels of books in my mailbox
  • showing you where I live in Thoughts of a Rural Woman
  • pounding out my Editorials
  • telling "Da Woild" about really good unusual books
  • seeing “my” website glowing on my monitor, knowing there are thousands of Readers, all around this Big Blue Marble, who really, really liked us.

It's been a grand ride, & now it's time for Webmaster & I to turn our attention to our health & to our own writing -- first up is D. H. BROWN's Citizen Warrior Series. If a thrilling tale of abduction & murder, old enemies & new romance, about an aging war Veteran dragged back into the hunt in the wild woods of the Pacific Northwest. If that is your cup of tea, then HONOR DUE is one brew that will satisfy your palate. Not for the faint of heart, & most definitely a 4 teapotter. Do visit D. H. BROWN at www.dhbrownbooks.com.

Next will come the 2nd Edition of Standing the Watch. Visit me at my new site www.rjbrownbooks.com.

Thank you, one & all, for your enjoyment & steadfast support.

Rebecca & David The Webmaster ;-)