Why Indies Rock Blog Tour!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Say what a blog tour to pimp my favorite Indies? I am so in. Be warned this is going to be a very loooonng list. 

Let's start with numero una! La jefa. Mi amiga bonita. Ms. Tamara Rose Blodgett. I have mad love for Tamara. DEATH WHISPERS was the first book I downloaded onto my kindle. I don't even think Tamara knows that. Well now she does. Everything she does is great. I literally can't wait until her next book comes out...(and by out I mean I get my beta copy) and then it's over in a day and I am in TRB withdrawls for months while she types out the next thing. Love it. Her writing is a rat-a-tat jazz talk. Rapid fire snark galore. She gets the way people talk. Her voice is unique and her stories are EPICSAUCE. She writes fast so that makes it perfect!!! She has been a HUGE supporter of this little blog from the beginning. HUGE. I cannot wait to see where she takes us now that she's moving into the adult realm.
Check out her Amazon page and download some freebies and buy some sequels. Oh, and like her author page and her books on amazon. Every little like, review and tag you give an indie makes them more visable.

Tiffany King broke my heart with WISHING FOR SOMEDAY SOON. She put it back together by being all around amazing, awesome, sweet, funny, caring and just a super amazing peep. I have read almost all of her contemps. and WILL be reading her Angel series very very soon (Dec. Read-a-thon. What What?)
She supports our blog and we support her. Huh? Indie authors and bloggers getting along.
Check her out on Amazon get a free book and buy some "heart in your throat" amazingness!!! She writes with power and emotion. Sometimes every word stabs your heart and sometimes they heal it. Epic.

Someday I am moving to Las Vegas. Actually, Alexia is going to adopt me (and my daughter). It will be awesome. I'll cheer her on writing and she'll make me write reviews when all I want to do is lay in bed and read. Have you all read REIGN OF BLOOD? How about EVER SHADE and EVER FIRE? Umm cause they are AMAZING. Alexia is another super supporter of the blog and of my blogging efforts. If I have a dumb kindle question she's the first person I go to. Did you know that you can convert PDF's onto your kindle simply by writing "convert" in the subject line when emailing them to your kindle? I didn't either until Alexia told me. Her writing is a slow burn that haunts you until you can get back to her books. She has strong female leads and hunky dudes (without being over kill). I love her book and cannot wait to get my hands on RoB 2 or EVER WINTER. 

TAKING ON THE DEAD is one of my favorite reads, EVER. It's a thrill ride of emotion and action. Annie has a new spin on zombies and I really like it. Annie and I established a relationship well before it was even in my hands. Why? Because I read the goodreads blurb...stalked her on facebook and harassed her until she agreed to let me beta. Yep. I'm creeptastic like that. But Annie is ok with it? I cannot wait to get my greedy little fingers on CONTROLLING THE DEAD. I need to know what happens to Kan, Glinda, Rudy and Mac. Like NOW. LOL. Kidding Annie. I want you to look around the blog. See that awesome header, our button. Everything was designed by Annie. She rocks!
Go to Amazon and check her out!

Emily Goodwin once wrote a whole blog post dedicated to me and a conversation we had about ferrets. She loves them. I am not so sure about them. They used to give me the creeps. To say she is an animal lover is an understatement. Both her Guardian Legacy and Contagium Trilogy feature dogs that are heroes. I love both of these series and will read her mermaid book. She is an amazing writer. I beta for her and even the stuff that is  "filler" is amazing. I wish I had a tenth of her talent. She's fun, cares about her fans and works hard to keep us happy with her stories.
Go check her out on Amazon! 

Ok so I am cheating and putting a hybrid author in here. Rhiannon Frater writes both indie and traditionally published books through TOR. Her indie stuff is just as amazing as her TOR stuff. My all time favorite Rhiannon book would be her indie work TALE OF THE VAMPIRE BRIDE. It's beautiful. Dark. Gothic. A masterpiece. I loved it. LAST BASTION OF THE LIVING was epic and I loved it. Indie too. Her writing continues to evolve and surprise me. Be warned newbies Rhiannon likes to create chaos and tortures her readers by KILLING CHARACTERS. :D That's why I love her. She's a hardcore horror author and rocks at it!!!

Check her out on Amazon.

What I dislike about the blogging/reviewing community and it's stance on Indie authors:
TROLLS, BAD BEHAVIOR by a small portion of authors, and all around drama have caused INDIES to have a bad name to SOME bloggers. It's not only Indies that act badly but for some reason they always get the blame. Sucks. My authors listed above work hard and it's a shame that the actions of a few can undo all of that hard work.
I think the hardest thing about being an Indie supporter is the idea that Indies have meltdowns and make the book world dramatic. While that maybe the case with some authors, I have never experienced this myself. I think a lot of the problem is the sudden explosion of Indie authors with the popularity of e readers. We all have opinions and, well, sometimes they aren't polite or positive.
These incidents are always made worse by "trolling". Here's the thing. We book bloggers sometimes write negative reviews and sometimes they are harsh. Sometimes they can seem cruel. Sometimes they seem personal. I don't make my reviews personal. I do write negative reviews. And I have gotten backlash from doing so. Trolling a review makes the AUTHOR look bad. At the very least, they are going to piss off the book blogger and the blogger will probably never review another book by that author. Loyal readers of the blog might be turned off too. At the very worst they will alienate potential fans. Who is going to take a chance on an author if they are going to get attacked if they don't like the book. If  a troll does attack a reviewer who HATES on their favorite indie book be prepared for people to assume that they are a sock puppet (aka the author themselves). Be prepared for that to blasted all over facebook, twitter, and everywhere else. It will turn ugly. Insta-drama. I guess this is my least favorite thing about being an indie supporter...the potential for trolls. I know where the time and place is to express my thoughts on a book is...It's on my own review. Not everyone respects that. It's just part of the game now. People take their indies passionately. I get this. I do. But I respect those authors too much to go and attack other peoples reviews.
This is the dark side of the book blogging world. What makes me mad is that it is always the indies that get blamed for this shiz. Always.  I have been on blogs that don't take indies, or that have huge review policies for indies to follow just to even get the blogger to look at their request. It hurts all of us when this happens. When I see someone attacking one of my favorite books I either close the browser. or if it's really bad I find a friend and vent to.

That being said. Clearly, I have made some amazing relationships in the indie community. All of the ladies listed above are awesome and several of them have become very good friends. That's the best part of the indie experience. The awesome reader/blogger and author relationship. We pimp each other and it's an amazing thing. My blog would be no where without the support of these amazing indie authors and all of my readers who heart indies as much as I do. They write fantastic stories, that are accessible and affordable. What more can we ask for?

I love my indies. I respect them and we all work too damn hard to go out and damage their reputation by acting like a child on another persons review. It doesn't help anyone.

SUPPORT INDIE AUTHORS, BUY, REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW and REVIEW!!! 

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