Interview with an Amazon Reviewer (Douglas Meeks)

Blog Tour:

Sherry Fundin - Ghost of Death Review + Missing Chapter Titles

Joanna Guidoccio - Why I Love Heroes with Titles

And Sandra Dailey - How I Name My Characters

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I have a special reader interview for everyone this month...I grilled an Amazon reviewer! Okay, so grilled isn’t the right word. But Douglas Meeks did agree to be interviewed while reading and reviewing quite a few books, so lets all give him a hearty welcome!

1. Hi Douglas, how did you become an Amazon Reviewer?

It kind of happened by accident, I would leave a review every now and then (my first Amazon review was 1997 of the CD Captain Beyond). Then once I started reading Paranormal Romance (PNR) and Urban Fantasy (UF) for some reason people started reading my reviews and voting them as helpful. My rating fluctuates but today I am around Top Reviewer 260 and a Goodreads Top 1% Reviewer.

2. What do you like most about being an Amazon Reviewer? And what do you like least?

I enjoy being able to share my opinions and try to give good solid reasons for my ratings (yes I fail at times) and to be honest it helped identify me to authors and publishers when I was begging for ARCs a few years ago (I get TOO many now LOL). The thing I hate about Amazon (other than the VINE Program) are trolls that seem to be able to run wild and downvote reviews for no reason. I have some of my best reviews buried due to a few trolls (or possibly other reviewers with ghost accounts).

3. That would aggravate me too. Who is your favorite author and why?

Why don’t I just give you my first born male child, at least that would not make any author mad at me. J  Seriously, I read over 200 books a year and to actually say any one of them was my “favorite” would be impossible. I can say that a few of the authors that constantly get 5 Star reviews from me are Ilona Andrews, Grace Draven, Elizabeth Hunter, Faith Hunter and Anne Bishop (and yes there are many more)

4. That's a lot of books! What book can you read over and over again?

The thing with being a reviewer is you really don’t have time to reread books and really the best ones stick with me and don’t require a reread BUT there are three exceptions to that rule:  Written in Red by Anne Bishop (possibly the finest UF novel ever written IMHO) – Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes (have read this over a dozen times and it still chokes me up) – The High Crusade by Poul Anderson (reread too many times to count, many people can’t suspend their belief system enough to really enjoy this madcap tale of adventure). First published in book form in 1960 by Doubleday, it has been published in (at least) 1968, 1983, 1991 (by the SFBC and again by Baen Books), 2003, and most recently in 2010 (it has its own Wiki page).

Image found HERE.

5. I'm going to have to add those three to my TBR list. Do you judge a book by its cover?

I really don’t but a professional cover helps and an obvious amateurish cover does detract.  Note to authors:  It is worth the money to get a professional cover artist.

6. Who is your favorite fictional character?

Again, I can’t name one BUT at the risk of upsetting some of my author friends I can name a few that I am sure I have left somebody important out:

Kate Daniel (you might as well add Curran since they come as a package) and they are just the ultimate couple and Ilona Andrews makes their stories unforgettable.

Jane Yellowrock by Faith Hunter who is the do it all, ultimate kick ass heroine. Be afraid, be very afraid!

Gin Blanco by Jennifer Estep – The most deadly of the bunch in many ways and NEVER try to harm one of her friends, it seems to be fatal in almost every instance.

I love Diana Rowland’s heroines, she took 2 everyday people and then made them  more than they ever thought they might be (even if she had to make one of them a zombie).

Skinwalker by Faith Hunter (Jane Yellowrock series)
Image found HERE.

7. Those are some awesome characters! Which author do you have a love/hate relationship with?

I have many authors I love and only one that I hate/detest (no I won’t tell you here) but only one author seems to be driving me crazy recently and that is Kristen Painter who writes amazing stories and just as I am being sucked into a subplot the book ends and you have to wait on the next one, pure evil!

8. As a writer, I love to do that. ;) Growing up, what was your favorite children’s book?

The Wizard of Oz books by L. Frank Baum, I remember being so excited when I went to the library and saw that there were 14 books and not just one.

9. Currently, what is your favorite book or series?

Too many to name, I am dying for the next book by Grace Draven to follow-up Radiance, I may have to hunt Elizabeth Hunter down to get a copy of The Secret. I mean 2 YEARS I have waited. I am reading the whole Watchers series by Lilith Saintcrow at present. The best romance I have read in years (forever?) was The Kraken King by Meljean Brook, I just finished Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop and WOW .. OK, I better stop now.

10. What would you like to know about the authors you enjoy reading the most?

The one thing they can’t really tell me “How do you come up with these stories from nowhere?”

Hyper Round:

1.    Ebooks or Print books?  ebooks

2.    Movie Adaptations: Yay or Nay? Nay – most suck bigtime

3.    Favorite reading spot? In front of my computer

4.    Favorite reading snack? Goldfish crackers, no concentration required.

Reviewer Bio:

Well after spending a lifetime working in or with the military I finally had made enough to sit back and do as much (or as little) as I wanted to and since I had always been an avid reader the jump to making it one of my major pastimes was easy.  I have traveled all over the world, been to the top of the Eiffel Tower and to the Devil’s Anvil in Saudi Arabia, been on top of the highest mountain in the Middle East and the lowest in the USA. 

No complaints here, I have read many different genres over the years but stumbled into Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy after many years of reading mostly books in the Fantasy genre.  Found out I liked books that did not spend pages and chapters telling the color of grass and the feel of a rock, I wanted a good story about people of action and feeling that did not always end up in some tragedy.  I have been married (somehow) for 30+ years and have 3 daughters and one son (who is presently in the Mideast working for the military, runs in the family).

In my spare time other than reading and doing those myriad tasks that come with living in a house, I spend a bit of time honing my weapon skills.  I always felt that people should be able to defend themselves but people that did not take the time to get skilled in weapons were a danger to people around them.  I go to the range and take my daughters most of the time (and my son if he is in country) so they do not fall into that category of victims who did not know how to defend themselves with a weapon.

Reviewer Links:

Amazon / Goodreads

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, Douglas! Happy Reading and Reviewing! :)

QUESTIONS: Have you ever read The High Crusade or any of the books/authors Douglas mentioned? Do you write reviews on Amazon?