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Saturday, June 9, 2012

LANCELOT Review!


I finally managed to get another wonderful, detailed REVIEW of my erotic/paranormal novel LANCELOT under my pen-name, Lee Whitney. My reviewer perceived everything I had hoped a reader would take away from the novel, including the humor and melancholy. The story behind my writing LANCELOT as an erotic/paranormal is kind of an interesting one. I wrote the novel originally as a straight up paranormal urban fantasy, bringing the Arthurian legend into modern times with a completely different turn of events. I installed Arthur as a smart ass eight year old to zing the other characters. One of the lines I gave him which has always been a favorite of mine that I repeated on the blog once or twice is Arthur’s reply to a rebuke he receives: “"I have a genius IQ, and now I'm teamed up with an Alzheimer's patient, a troll, and a beat-up hooker: all of whom screwed me a thousand years ago. Cut me some slack!"

When I finished the novel, I could not garner any interest from anyone. I sent out over fifty queries, highlighting the humor along with the legend – nothing… nada. At the same time, my friend Stacia Kane was doing a blog series entitled ‘Be A Sex Writing Strumpet’ which she eventually turned into a very well done offering on Amazon HERE. I decided to give LANCELOT an erotic turn using the tips I picked up from Stacia’s blog posts. It worked. Double Dragon’s erotic line Carnal Desires Publishing offered me a contract on my first query. My editor on it, a very helpful lady who introduced me to editing rounds, asked me to write in two more erotic scenes. At the time, I’d read many of my writing friends’ erotic romances and none of them incorporated that many scenes, but I added them, finished the editing rounds, and LANCELOT was published.

Then I sent it to all the erotic/romance reviewers my editor recommended and a few others I found in links from the other reviewers’ sites – nothing… nada. A reader on Amazon finally gave me a five star review, and my friend Charles Gramlich did a great review for me on it, but LANCELOT just never got off the ground. As I’ve explained to my marketing partner, RJ Parker, I haven’t a clue as to why anything sells or doesn’t sell. Anyway, if you would like to take a look at the detailed blog REVIEW at this lady’s very well done site, now you know how LANCELOT became a published erotic/paranormal.  :)

7 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

Great review. Glad to see it. If I comment on that blog, do you want me to mention the Bernard DeLeo books?

BernardL said...

That would be great, Charles. Thank you! I'm reading your COLD IN THE LIGHT right now. You were right. I like it a lot.

Jordan Summers said...

Oh man, I've been waiting for this book. I had no idea you'd put it out. Woo Hoo!!!

BernardL said...

It's been out for a long time, Jordan. It's just that my marketing skills are non-existent. :) I managed to hook up with this lady through Book Trailer's Showcase that was doing the blog tour for my YA novel STORM. She mentioned that she reviewed erotic/paranormals, so I sent her a reviewer's copy of LANCELOT along with STORM. Happily, she liked LANCELOT too. :)

Jordan Summers said...

Oh geez! I didn't even realize the book had been released. For some reason, when you first mentioned this story, I thought it was called something else. I had no idea it was the same story. Wasn't it a YA? Jordan, who is very confused

BernardL said...

LOL! When I finished it originally, it was a paranormal/fantasy with a smart-alec kid. To actually get a publisher for it, I had to make it into an erotic/paranormal under a pen-name. I can understand the confusion. :)

Jordan Summers said...

Ah, that explains it. I was expecting the smart-alec kid story. *ggg