An offer to our Goodreads winners and runners up!

For our recent paperback giveaway, the winners are ...

Joanne from Michigan

and

Julie from Alaska

These photos were posted on our Instagram account, @noes_expressions, the day we mailed the packages out. Our winners actually received their copies of our paperback book, Captivated by Youth and Beauty: Mr. Bennet's story, about 2 weeks ago. We hope you are both enjoying the story!

As an incentive to your posting a Goodreads review once you have completed reading our captivating novel, Julie and Joanne, we would like to give you both a free copy of our likewise charming e-short story, The Conversation: with Elizabeth Darcy and Emma Knightley!

But wait, there's more ...

If you are one of the persons who put us on your Goodreads to-be-read list but were not one of the winners, we'd love to give you a free copy of our e-short story just for entering the giveaway also! 

How to receive your free digital copy:
Email us (noeandcindy.write @ gmail .com) letting me know your Goodreads name showing our Captivated book on your TBR list — or if by chance, you have already read it, show me what shelf you have it on. Leave your file preference of either Kindle mobi, epub (works on Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and other devices), or pdf version.

One more thing
As you know, authors need ratings and reviews, not only to keep them encouraged to continue writing, but also to let others know about their stories. For that reason, we would love to see your ratings/reviews on Goodreads, Amazon, or any place else you might think your friends would see it.

Thank you!

Learn more about us here:
Amazon author page
Barnes & Noble author page
Goodreads author page

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorsNoeandCindy

Goodreads giveaway: Captivated by Youth and Beauty

It's a giveaway!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Captivated by Youth and Beauty

by Noe

Giveaway ends August 20, 2017.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Our story is captivating! If you've ever wondered how Mr. and Mrs. Bennet could have united as one, this will tell you.

Two paperback copies to be given away, USA only at this time. And we hope you'll connect with us:

Goodreads:goodreads.com/author/show/7043471.Noe
Facebook: facebook.com/AuthorsNoeandCindy
Instagram: @noes_expressions

Follow us here:
Amazon Author page

What the Dickens?

Charles Dickens

I have been reading Nicholas Nickleby for a few weeks now and have some thoughts to share on this author. Movies based on his books are almost certain to be good—Oliver Twist, Bleak House, Little Dorrit, and Great Expectations, to name just a few.

Little Dorrit mini-series 2008

But I want to talk about reading his books and his style of writing. Charles Dickens had a rare distinction among artists, which is he was famous while he was alive. People by the millions loved his work back when he was writing and still do to this day. Of course, not everyone was his fan; according to Wikipedia: "Oscar Wilde, Henry James and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism."

I'm not sure I understand what those three were talking about in their complaints against Dickens, but I have a much more simple protest to lodge. To me, he writes like someone who is in love with the sound of his own voice. There is something annoying about the way he drags a scene out that has nothing to do with the story—page after page of silly nonsense between characters of no significance. Dickens seems to try to make up for this fluff by attempting to be witty or by taking some dig at the society of his day. Hey, maybe I do understand what lacking psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein saccharine sentimentalism is after all.

There can be no debate in that he has a way with words and a knack for creating some distinctive characters. But the way he regularly extends things becomes tediously painful and tiresome, since the places he chooses to get carried away have no bearing on the story. It's like going shopping for groceries, but the store is filled with so much other stuff you have trouble finding the food. I don't know about everyone else, but when I'm reading for entertainment, I don't want to wade through this kind of malarkey to find the story. If I wanted to just read words for the sake of reading, I would reach for the dictionary or the encyclopedia.

I have found it interestingly ironic that in Nicholas Nickleby, Dickens actually wrote this about a particular scene: "To recount all the delight and wonder which the circumstances just detailed awakened at Miss La Creevy's, and all the things that were done, said, thought, expected, hoped, and prophesied in consequence, is beside the present course and purpose of these adventures." Had he used that principle throughout his writing, I would consider him a great writer, not just a good one! Instead, he frequently 'recounts all the delights and wonders and things done, said, thought, expected, hoped, and prophesied!'

Half the brilliance of a great artist is to know when to stop adding paint; the other half, I would say, is the subject. I am struck with the idea when reading his works that, if Dickens would have used his creative imagination to embellish the story in the areas involving the storyline and the main characters, this would have been genius. Instead, reading his books is like watching a Humphrey Bogart movie—one of those movies where Bogey gets into a cab, at which point the cab driver either nods at Bogart and then he, as the main character, tells the driver where he wants to go ... now, sometimes the cabby will have a line to say, such as: "Where to, Mac?" Or maybe the driver gets to say more, like: "That's a bad side of town ... you sure you want to go there?" In any event, however much or little the cabby gets to say, once he drops Bogey off, that's it for the driver. But in a Dickens story, you would learn the cabby's name, body size, how clean—oh, that's right, this is Dickens—how dirty his cab is, how long he's been married, how many kids he has, why driving a cab is the best job he ever had ... well, if there was such a Dickens tale I was reading, all the while I'd be pulling my hair out, crying, "I don't care about the cabby! I just want to know what happens to Bogey when he meets Bacall in the bad side of town!"

Oliver Twist movie 1948

That is my gripe with Charles Dickens—he becomes the storyteller describing how some old geezer (who you, or at least, I don't really care about) arranges his socks, how his housekeeper can't hear because her hair has been turned up too tight, why she only polishes the silver on special occasions, why he takes two lumps in his tea although he would prefer four, and on and on about this guy and just any and almost everybody in the story! To be sure, this is why the movies based on his books are so much better than the books—they have cut out all this extraneous material.

Bleak House mini-series 2005

I think what may account for what I consider a pretty big flaw in his writing is that he wrote in installments, putting the stories in a journal and releasing them weekly or monthly. Perhaps if he had just sat down to write an entire book and not simply articles, he may not have gotten lost in what he was supposed to be writing about. I'm surprised he didn't have an editor with the good sense to rein him in, or maybe that's just what the editor wanted—someone who would write lots of words to fill his magazine for a year or so.

At any rate, there Charles Dickens sits atop the literary world, and here I get this little chance to rant about him. And in today's world, that means he wins, though I will never understand what the Dickens all the fuss is about.

Thank you for reading what noeandcindy.write !
https://www.amazon.com/author/noeandcindy.write

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Goodreads review: Mycroft Holmes

Noe's review


Mycroft Holmes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
My rating: 1 of 5 stars 

If this book was a movie, it would be a bad B movie. The plot, dialogue, and scenes lack imagination and bear all the marks of what is trite. Other than the name Holmes, it has no resemblance to a Holmesian tale.

The story is about Sherlock’s older brother Mycroft, and therein lies another problem. The authors make Mycroft out to be like Sherlock: a man of action, a man that rides into the fray, a man who boxes - he even gives Sherlock a boxing lesson. I don’t like it when someone writes a fanfiction story and changes the character that the original author created; although, if the book is good, this is not so annoying to me. According to Arthur Conan Doyle, Mycroft is nothing like his younger brother from the point of view of physical activity, though he is Sherlock’s equal in intelligence and powers of observation and deduction. But Mycroft is indolent. For goodness sake, he is so averse to activity he founded the Diogenes Club, a club where the exertion of simply talking was not allowed. The sole purpose of the club was to have a place to go and read and be left alone.

What a cool story it could have been to have the real Mycroft, who is so averse to exertion, to be made to pursue a case because his great mind has deduced the necessity and all along the way he is trying to determine how to handle matters with the least amount of effort. That is more what I expected to find, but instead, we have a corny story with lame dialogue ineffectively trying to be a Sherlock Holmes story.
~~~~~

Note: Goodreads rating is as follows:
 did not like it
 it was okay
 liked it
 really liked it
 it was amazing
~~~~~
Amazon Customer Reviews Guidelines 
Frequently Asked Questions from Authors
2. Are authors allowed to review other authors’ books?
Yes. Authors are welcome to submit Customer Reviews, unless the reviewing author has a personal relationship with the author of the book being reviewed, or was involved in the book’s creation process (i.e. as a co-author, editor, illustrator, etc.). If so, that author isn't eligible to write a Customer Review for that book. Please review our Customer Review Guidelines for more information. 

And this About Customer Reviews policy:
Authors and artists can add a unique perspective and we very much welcome their customer reviews. [Underlining ours] While we encourage reviewers to share their enthusiasm and experience, there can be a fine line between that and the use of customer reviews as product promotion. We don't allow anyone to write customer reviews as a form of promotion and if we find evidence that a customer was paid for a review, we'll remove it. If you have a direct or indirect financial interest in a product, or perceived to have a close personal relationship with its author or artist, we'll likely remove your review. We don't allow authors to submit customer reviews on their own books even when they disclose their identity. [Underlining and italics ours]

Goodreads giveaway winners!

Winners were chosen by Goodreads

We had a giveaway going through June for two copies of our book: 

The Sun Also Shines for me.

(winners receive book only)

Congratulations to the two winners!

Connie from Iowa

Susan from Texas

Winners are not required by Goodreads to give a review, but we sure do hope to hear from our two winners ... let us know if you like it or not!

We mailed out the packages today, 

you should receive them in a day or two.

And thank you so much to all those who signed up for the giveaway! 
We hope the sun is shining on all of you ~

Noe and Cindy

Thank you for reading what noeandcindy.write !

Goodreads review: The Sun Also Rises

Noe's review:


The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
My rating: 1 of 5 stars 

Well, I tried—I really did. This was the fourth time I attempted to read Ernest Hemingway's “The Sun Also Rises.” Twice I tried audio versions, and twice I tried reading it. I told myself on this last effort, I’m going to push through and read this all the way, because Hemingway is supposed to be a great writer and I must be missing something, both as a reader and as an author.

But it was like trying to eat cardboard. The writing is insipid, uninspired, colorless, uninteresting, boring, tedious—in other words, it offered nothing stimulating enough to give any reason for reading the next page. I did manage to get to chapter five, then I flipped several chapters to see if it would get any better; it never did.

How did he become such a big deal, I have to ask? Surely there were hundreds, if not thousands, of lackluster authors in his day, and somehow it was his nothingness that became something to clamor about. Was he randomly chosen in some sort of author’s lottery, and as the winner, his publishers would promote his works as being outstanding? Is this book “The Emperor’s New Clothes” in paper and ink? Or do people have to have more mojitos (said to be one of his favorite drinks) than someone should have before reading it?

I also read “The Old Man and the Sea” in its entirety with the same impression. I chose to try “The Sun Also Rises” because, in the opinion of some, this was his best work. Maybe it is, but I will not waste another second trying to read it.

View all my reviews

Note: Goodreads rating is as follows:
 did not like it
 it was okay
 liked it
 really liked it
 it was amazing

"The Sun Also Shines for me" giveaway!

Available till end of June

Two copies of our book are up for grabs on Goodreads.
We appreciate everyone signing up and hope that the two winners will post their reviews on Goodreads and perhaps on their own blog sites if they have one.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Sun Also Shines for me

by Noe

Giveaway ends June 30, 2015.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to Win

At this time, our book has a 4.4  rating on Amazon
and a 4.71  rating on Goodreads.

We're pretty sure you'll love it!