Since I've started participating in several Reddit subforms, many people have asked me questions about blogging and reviewing. Such as: How to start a blog? How do you get free books and movies to review? While my anxiety does kick in a bit every time someone asks me a question like this, part of me enjoys it for some odd reason. Maybe, I just like the idea of helping out a future blogger. All of us bloggers need to stick together!

Since I've been in a giving mood, I came up with of idea of this post, which is called "Keeping Track Of Your Blogs Stats."

When I first started out blogging, I had no idea what I was doing. I began this blog on Wordpress briefly, but I had problems with the formatting and I didn't like idea that I couldn't use specific widgets, which I'm referring to one from the now defunct Shelfari website. After a few months, I migrated my blog over to Blogger and I have never regretted it.

Now many new newbie bloggers probably don't care about your blog stats, but keeping track of who reads your posts is very important.

Almost every blogging platform has some has a "stats" section where you can keep track of your blog's demographics.

Why is this important?

Well, it's because you need to know what kinds of posts, reviews, and/or giveaways to publish on your blog. By tracking your readers'/viewers' sex and age, you can determine what's the best future content for your blog. The same things goes to tracking your readers' location. For example, if your biggest audience is from the UK, then you probably publish posts that will appeal to them.

While I'm located in the United States, I get most more visitors/readers from France and the UK. I don't know exactly why, but it probably has to do with the fact that I post many reviews on foreign moves and television series, such as Doctor Who.

Do you read hardcovers with the dust jacket on or off? Why or why not?

2. Enter the link to your post in the linky list below (enter your Blog Name and the direct link to your post answering this week’s question. Failure to do so will result in removal of your link).


3. Visit other blogs in the list and comment on their posts. Try to spend some time on the blogs reading other posts and possible become a new follower.  The purpose of the hop is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog.
  

My Answer:

Normally, I take the dust jacket off while I'm reading, as I don't want to damage the jacket.

Now available on Kindle from Harmful Monkey Press is The Nightmare Room, book one in The Messy Man Series, by Chris Sorensen.

A boy in a basement, a man in a booth and a darkness that threatens to swallow them both...

New York audiobook narrator Peter Larson and his wife Hannah head to his hometown of Maple City to help Peter's ailing father and to put a recent tragedy behind them. Though the small, Midwestern town seems the idyllic place to start afresh, Peter and Hannah will soon learn that evil currents flow beneath its surface.

They move into an old farmhouse on the outskirts of town—a house purchased by Peter's father at auction and kept secret until now—and start to settle into their new life.

But as Peter sets up his recording studio in a small basement room, disturbing things begin to occur—mysterious voices haunt audio tracks, malevolent shadows creep about the house. And when an insidious presence emerges from the woodwork, Peter must face old demons in order to save his family and himself.

The author has taken a few minutes out of his busy schedule to talk about his new novel The Nightmare Room.



When did you become interested in storytelling?

I’ve always loved telling stories. My mother says that when I was little, I’d walk around with a stack of paper and a pen, plop down on the carpet and start scribbling picture books. I spent a book deal of my childhood in libraries (both our local library and the library on the college campus where my father taught) and in the movie theater. I studied acting in college and went on to pursue acting as a career in NYC. That came to a crashing halt when I was in a bus accident. During the year I took learning how to walk again, I turned back to writing. I’ve been writing ever since.

What was your first book/story published?

My first book was a middle grade story called The Mad Scientists of New Jersey. It’s about young Eddie Edison, the last of the Mad Scientists—a secret society that invented time travel, teleportation and a variety of other amazing things.

What inspired you to write The Nightmare Room?

I always knew I wanted to write a story about being an audiobook narrator (that’s my day job). I also wanted to see if I could touch upon my father’s death. He passed away seven years ago—I couldn’t bring myself to write about that kind of loss until now.

What character in The Nightmare Room is the most/least like you, and in what ways?

Peter Lawson, my main character, is a close version of me. He’s trying to hold things together while dealing with a death in the family (and not always doing it so gracefully). Peter also has a lot of fears, unlike his wife Hannah. They’re a couple that seems a bit like oil and water, but it works—they prop each other up.

What is your favorite part in The Nightmare Room?

My favorite part of the story is something I can’t tell you about because it would give away the ending! I will say that mapping out a story’s structure is one of my favorite parts of the writing process. I spent a few years as a screenplay analyst and came to appreciate stories that were well-structured.

What was the hardest part to write?

Again, anything having to do with the death of a loved one is a difficult write. This is the closest I’ve come to examining that part of my life, so…yeah, that was the hardest.

What would your ideal career be, if you couldn't be an author?

When I was a kid, I wanted to be either a scarecrow or a magician. Not a lot of call for either in 2018. I’d say either illustrator or furniture maker. I’m pretty good with a pen, but I don’t know anything about making furniture. Would be fun, though.

Do you read reviews of your books? If so, do you pay any attention to them, or let them influence your writing?

Broadway Books; 313 pages; $15

I'm always a sucker for a good mystery, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to review the book Last Stop In Brooklyn: A Mary Handley Mystery by Lawrence H. Levy. It's a sequel to Second Street Station and Brooklyn On Fire.

Set in 1894, Last Stop In Brooklyn centers on Mary Handley, a private detective who finds herself traveling to Coney Island on an "adultery" case. Out of the blue, Mary is approached by a man requesting her to help her brother who was convicted of killing a prostitute in a New York hotel room.

Of course, Mary agrees to take on the case, which leads her to Thomas Byrnes, the New York City detective that swears he put the right killer behind bars. As she digs deeper in the case, the more she believes that Jack the Ripper could possible be the real killer.

Mary will have to team up with reporter Harper Lloyd and a few others, as she tries to unravel the murder mystery.

Yes, it's late at night, but I'm full awake, mostly thanks to the cup Nescafe Taster's Choice instant coffee that I'm currently sipping on. Today has been sorta a lazy Sunday for me. Due to my lack of sleep last week (and it has nothing to do with my caffeine intake), I ended up crashing the afternoon for a few hours. I awoke fully charged, made a taco salad, and watched three episodes of Victoria Season Two on Blu-ray.

Afterward, I had planned on writing a review for Last Stop In Brooklyn, but instead I went over to YouTube and watched several unboxing videos. (I'm addicted to unboxing videos. Don't ask why!) Before I do write that review, I decided to jump-start my creativity by writing this rambling.

Anyway, I suffer from a bit of insomnia from time to time, which is probably one of the reasons why I had several sleepless nights last week. And what happens when I can't sleep? Well, my mind drifts from everywhere to everything. Most of the time, I either ended up watching a silly a movie (Little Shop of Horrors, etc.) or unboxing videos on YouTube. Then there were nights where I browsed a some profiles on a few free dating sites.

And no, I've never actually joined a dating website yet; though the idea does crosses my mind once in awhile, especially on those nights where I can't sleep.

Have you ever found yourself acting like a favorite character in a novel? If so, which one?

2. Enter the link to your post in the linky list below (enter your Blog Name and the direct link to your post answering this week’s question. Failure to do so will result in removal of your link).


3. Visit other blogs in the list and comment on their posts. Try to spend some time on the blogs reading other posts and possible become a new follower.  The purpose of the hop is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog.
  

My Answer:

No, I don't ever recall acting like a book character.

Mill Creek Ent., PG; 98 mins; $14.98

There have been many body switching comedies over the years, with the most famous being Freaky Friday, which was based on the 1972 children's book of the same name by Mary Rodgers. Believe it or not, that isn't the first switcheroo novel. Back in 1882, author F. Anstey published a novel called Vice Versa: A Lessons For Fathers, which tells the story of a business man switching bodies with his son. The tale was adapted into three feature films in the UK in 1916, 1937 and 1948, and was turned into a UK television series in 1981.

The last adaptation was 1988's Vice Versa. Directed by Brian Gilbert, the film starred Judge Reinhold, Fred Savage, Corinne Bohrer ("Prank" from the Flash) and Swoosie Kurtz. The film was released to Blu-ray last year by Mill Creek Entertainment. There are no special features or bonus extras on the disc.

Vice Versa centers on Marshall Seymour (played by Judge Reinhold), a vice president of a unnamed department store company who's on vacation in Thailand with his girlfriend Sam (played by Corinne Bohrer). Well, he's not really on vacation, as he purchases a bunch of exotic vases for work, and brings one sample vase back to Chicago with him. Unknowingly to him, an art thief does a switcheroo and replaces the vase with a skull statue. Let's just say the whole situation almost gets him fired, but luckily for him, he's contacted by the owner of the skull who wants to make an exchange. (Spoiler: the woman is in cahoots with the art thief.)

Anyhow, Marshall ends up taking the skull home with him on the same night that he gets stuck taking care of his eleven-year-old son Charlie (played by Fred Savage). To make a long story short, Marshall and Charlie touch the skull at the same time and "Alakazam," they end up switching bodies. 

Due to school tests and business meetings, Marshall and Charlie have to take over the other's life for a few days, outsmart the two art thieves, and find a way to switch back to their own bodies.