Book Review: Pearl Maker

I can't remember how I heard about Pearl Maker by C.C. Wharton. But somehow I came to own a copy, which has been on my nightstand for several months.

I spent this past weekend on vacation at my dad's lake place, and took the book with me. I finished it in three days. Here are some of my thoughts.

The premise of Pearl Maker is excellent: a high-school English teacher is kidnapped (along with two of her students) and raped by the low-life assigned to guard them. During an escape attempt, the teacher is forced to make a split-second decision: it's her or her captor. The aftermath of her decision throws her into a quest for moral clarity whilst going through a murder trial.

There is a strong Christian overtone to the book (which I happened to like), and I got to root for the heroine as she struggled with herself. I love that in a book (especially when it ends on a positive note).

Now for the problems. The first is one I see beginning writers make all the time, which is to have too many points of view. At times, the point of view changed paragraph by paragraph. I would have to re-read to find out whose head I was in now.

Closely related to that: to much telling. Don't tell me what the character's feeling: SHOW me with the character's actions.

I felt there were too many "extemporaneous" characters - ones that don't really impact the direction of the story or the character's development (the teacher's Senator uncle comes to mind). They clutter up the pages and make the 'real' story harder to follow. And (again closely related): it makes it harder to really flesh out the main characters. Consequently, I felt the characters were somewhat stilted and a bit too stereotypical. (The teacher's minister friend comes to mind - he seemed to have NO bad habits or weaknesses - too good to be true.)

Would I read another book by this author? Yes. Because I think she'll get better!

What's in a Title?

I recently sent my proposed book title to my writer's group, and asked them to chime in with any thoughts or mental images the title inferred to them.

I purposely did not provide them any visual images (that is, the proposed cover of the book).

Responses were pretty much across the 'romance' related spectrum, from historical to erotic to inspirational. (Of course, they may also have been influenced by the fact that they know me and in some cases, have read my work.)

What was NOT mentioned was any sort of military theme. So what should I glean from that?

Everyone knows a book's cover is VERY important. It may have more of an impact on compelling a reader to buy the book than the title. So my cover art really needs to impart that 'side' of the story - that the main character is a military officer. (And if possible, to communicate the multiple meanings behind the word 'surrender' in the title.)

To that end, I took a fresh look at the proposed cover (done back in January) and am pleased with what I see. It does not have as much color as I tend to prefer, but the more I look at it, the more I like it. It says what I need it to say.

Virtual Assistant?

Whether a publisher picks up True Surrender, or I self-publish, marketing is largely up to me. For almost two years now I've thought I would find more time, but our family business has continued to grow (and in fact, experienced some growing pains, requiring my time and energy).

And so have my kids! :-)

I wasn't able to be consistent in markting Last Chance Rescue, and I'm sure that hurt sales. But perhaps more to the point, the entire book-buying experience is different than it was three years ago. Back then there was no Kindle, no SmashWords, no iPhone Apps ... and Barnes & Noble didn't "consider" self-published books (huh).

And though it's not like I have any sort of budget for this, I'm seriously considering hiring a "virtual assistant" to help me market my books. That is probably the only way I'd ever be able to market AND continue to write...