Awesome Week!

And next week will be cool, too.

Yes, I know – I passed 300 followers! Damn, didn’t I just hit 200 in July? Need to celebrate! Doubt I can do another book giveaway until October, but for now, drinks on the house. Wow, 300 people find me interesting... that'll give my wife a chuckle!

Don't forget the Top 10 TV Shows blogfest on September 20th! Sign up for it above. There were 60 participants for the Movie Dirty Dozen, and I'd like even more for this one.

The blogging series this past week with Elana Johnson and Jennifer Daiker at Unedited was great. Special thanks to Elana for inviting me to participate. Not sure I had as much to offer as those ladies, but I hope someone benefited from my ramblings. Big welcome to all my followers, too! And the week kicked off with Karen at Coming Down the Mountain’s Labor Day Weekend BBQ. Big hello to all who found me through that blogfest!

Elana, Jen, and I are also doing The Great Blogging Experiment on September 24 – check it out!

Monday I’m hosting Cassandra from Cassandra Jade in the Realm. She did something cool with her blog tour – hosts are visiting her site as well. So, on Monday, Cassandra will be here and I will be at her blog.

Several of you commented that you want to know more about my book. Okay, but only because you asked! Next week I’ll talk a little about my two main characters. For now, you’ll just have to visit the page above marked CassaStar for my book’s synopsis and the trailer.

Lynnette at Chatterbox ChitChat has a big contest and I thought some of my fellow writers might be interested. “Preparations for our next big contest are underway. If you know someone who writes adult romance or an adult genre with romantic elements, ask them if they’d like to join a small critique group, then send them our way. At the moment, Rumored Romantics has three members: Suzanne Johnson, Katrina Crew, and Lynnette Labelle.”

Finally, I caught MACHETE last weekend. A bit over the top, but it’s a classic grindhouse film. Lots of action and fights. Amazing cast, too. And the star, Danny Trejo, is sixty-six! Impressive.

Whew! Did I cover everything?

Beyond the Story...

Prologue, Forward, Appendix...

These are all things that are in addition to the main story of the book. (There's also footnotes, indexes, etc. but I'm not going there right now.)

Lynnette at Chatterbox Chit Chat posted about prologues on Wednesday. (If you don't follow her, read her Post and the ensuing conversation.)

But it got me to thinking about prologues, forwards, and appendixes. Authors will include them, but do they matter and do we read them?

I usually read prologues. I figure they're there for a reason. Once in a while I come across one that appears to have no bearing on the novel itself, but most seem to matter.

Forwards - okay, I never read these... I think they are boring. Maybe that's just me.

Appendixes I tend to refer to at least once during the course of the story. Often these appear in science fiction or fantasy - genres that tend to include a lot of 'odd' names and devices. Sometimes they help with pronunciation, too.

So what does everyone else think? So you read these things or skip?

And for the record, there is a prologue in my upcoming novel. I wrote it at the suggestion of my publisher. Now that it's in place, I can see how it really enhances the story. So hopefully people read it!