Hank QuenseBesprekingen

I have read other writing self help books from Hank and Quense and was interested in reading his newest release, Creating Your First Novel: A Comprehensive Guide Spanning the Entire Long-Term Project: From Planning Through Marketing and Starting Your Author Business. The book is broken down into 5 parts:
Planning – The beginning phase of writing, such as, characters, setting, plot, etc.
Writing - Includes a Fiction Writing Workshop, which has thirteen lessons on how to get started on bringing a novel to life.
Author Business – How to get started with the business of becoming an author, such as, royalties, profits, losses, taxes, etc.
Publishing – shows ten steps on how to get the novel published from becoming self-published or traditionally published.
Marketing – explains different ways of promoting the novel from getting reviews to showing a presence on social media.
I found the book to be easy to read and follow along and I appreciated the tips, advice, and tricks.

Creating Your First Novel: A Comprehensive Guide Spanning the Entire Long-Term Project: From Planning Through Marketing and Starting Your Author Business will be getting five stars from me. I highly recommend it for readers who are interested in writing their first novel and needing guidance on how to get started.

I received a paperback copy of Hank Quense’s Creating Your First Novel: A Comprehensive Guide Spanning the Entire Long-Term Project: From Planning Through Marketing and Starting Your Author Business from the publisher, but was not required to write a positive review. This review is one hundred percent my own honest opinion.

Self Publish A Book In 10 Steps by Hank Quense is a nonfiction guide to publishing and marketing your novel. I found the book easy to understand and laid out in a way that makes it easy to follow a step by step process of all the things necessary to make publishing and marketing your book a success.

Hank Quense includes charts, websites, groups, and other bits of information, where help can be found. He includes cost estimates for each step, and warnings about the pitfalls and perils of self publishing. We all know there are many out there wanting to scam you for your money, so do your due diligence.

I found Self Publish A Book IN 10 Steps by Hank Quense to be chock full of vital information and all the things necessary to market and publish your book, but that doesn’t mean you can take a pass on doing your own research. It is a daunting task, but worth the effort to make your book a success.

See more at http://www.fundinmental.com

As a lifelong reader and half a decade professional reviewer, I have been interested more and more about writing my own book. However, I had no idea how, when or where to begin. I jumped on the opportunity when I had the chance to read Creating Stories. The author, Hank Quense, did a great job in answering some questions I have had on how to get started. He explains the ideas and design that is important for story telling. As well as, the importance of character development and the depth of the main and sub plots. He includes illustrations, graphs, charts, and diagrams to back up his explanations, tips, and advice. They were quite useful for me to understand in depth in what he was explaining to his readers. I found the book made me feel more inspired and confident on jotting down my ideas on creating my own story. I will be holding on to my copy to keep it handy as I navigate into this new journey for me.

I am giving Creating Stories five stars. I highly recommend it for readers who are aspiring authors to help them begin their new venture. I would be interested in reading other book writing advice books from Hank Quense in the future to see what other inspiration he offers for his fellow authors.

I received a digital copy of Hank Quense’s Creating Stories from the publisher, but was not required to write a positive review. This review is one hundred percent my own honest opinion.

Creating Stories by Hank Quense caught my eye because I have been writing for a long time. Not a novel, or anything like that, but journals. My mind pens a story and I jot down ideas. Isn’t it the follow through that is the difficult part? Where do I even begin?

Creating Stories by Hank Qunense is chock full of everything I need to know to write that novel I feel is buried deep, deep, deep inside. LOL The biggest problem was the amount of information.

That means, taking a step by step process. Beginning at the beginning. Hank Quense gives references, graphs, maps, and his process for writing in a 150 page book. It was not a quick read, because I find myself pausing, thinking. He gave examples of his work to clarify. A bit self serving, using his books for examples, but that’s okay. I would do it too.

I read an ebook, but if I ever do decide to write that novel that is buried deep, deep, deep inside me, I will be purchasing a physical copy. I love having things at my fingertips, laid out before me so I can easily move from one thing to another, whether it’s a book, a graph, or a Castlesque workboard. I can see myself laying things out like a murder board in a crime movie or TV show. I can see myself with a swivel chair, numerous boards surrounding me, and my computer at the forefront.

I highly recommend picking up a copy of Creating Stories by Hank Quense if you are writing. A book like Hank’s is hard for me to rate, as a novice. I didn’t understand some of it. I think it was a bit over my head. So, rating this for an author that is experienced and needs to refine their craft, I think this would be a 5 Star read. For someone like me, I would rate it a 4 Star read. I would think I would grow into it if I wanted to become a full time author.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Creating Stories by Hank Quense.

See more at http://www.fundinmental.com

Quense is a prolific author, mostly in the fantasy and sci fi genre. His style feels like a nod toward Douglas Adams, which he cites as inspiration (so it fits). The story itself is really just a backdrop for the same kind of adventure (relatively unextraordinary hero thrown into an extraordinary circumstance) with a ton of humor and chuckle-worthy jokes tossed in fray.

This book is a fantasy, and feels almost like an RPG. Quense is great at immersing you right in his world and drawing you close to the characters. I do feel the characters could be beefed up a bit, but overall it wasn’t bad and it was a pretty quick-paced read. I think there’s a lot of elements to this novel that fall out of the fantasy genre, which is part of what makes it great. It’s got some elements that are typically in other genres, and it doesn’t break the world. Quense is a master at world building and redefining the typical fantasy story.

If you love Hitchhiker’s Guide you’ll love this book. It’s a great homage, intentional or otherwise.

New Jersey writer Hank Quense is the author of 50 published short stories along with six novels, and three collections of stories. In the non-fiction area, he has over a dozen articles published on fiction writing and is the author of the Fiction Writing Guides series and the Self-publishing Guides series. Both series consist of a number of eBooks. The Fiction Writing Guides and the Self-Publishing Guides are an outgrowth of his lectures on fiction writing, self-publishing and book marketing.

Quense has a sense of humor well modulated with a keen sense of the classics and the result of this shotgun marriage results in some of the funniest sci-fi fantasy novels before the public today. It takes a fine writer to incorporate well-known figures, from life, literature or from the stage (another form of life!) and create a story that has a presence all its own. Quense satisfies on all levels: he creates places (like Gundarland – ‘an unusual planet. Populated by numerous races such as humans, dwarfs, elves, halflings, trolls and yuks, racial tensions ran high in the more conservative areas’) and makes them into intricately important yet funny tales

This is Book 4 of his Gundarland Stories and the author’s keen wit enables him to create characters that are both clever and imaginative, obvious as the opening to this novel reveals: ‘Jerado, King of Gant, entered his throne room and surveyed the officers assembled there. The five generals with a few staff officers representing each kingdom he had conquered. They sat at a table facing the throne. Jerado was a dwelf, a detested combination of an elf mother and a dwarf father. He inherited all the bad qualities of both races and none of the good ones. He was shorter than most elves but taller than all dwarfs. He was stockier that the elves but thinner than most dwarfs. Jerado had reddish-bland hair and a scraggly beard and brown eyes. He was forty–five and had been forty-five for the lat six years thanks to an anti-aging spell he used monthly.’

A brief overview of the plot is inviting – ‘The evil wizard Jerado traps King Bohan in a cave. A sleep spell enables the King to survive and when he finally gets free, he discovers the wizard is still alive and ruling the country. Determined to get revenge, Bohan starts a long journey to find Jerado. Along the way, Bohan survives obstacles and is appalled at the living conditions of folks as a result of the cruel laws enacted by Jerado and his family.’

Quense owns a large share of the trademark on fantasy novels, and in this series he embraces time travel, revenge, an eye on political/government corruption and more in creating a memorable escape to another time and place. For a terrific escape to ‘elsewhere,’ dive in! Recommended.

This is utterly ridiculous and anachronistic, but endearingly so. Think Terry Pratchett.

Unfortunately it really suffers from amateurish writing and not knowing what it wants to be. The writing feels suited for lower YA audiences, maybe even Middle Grade. But the book includes cursing and references to sex, which I have no problem with in principle but have no place in a Middle Grade book. I suspect that the issue is the author wanted to write and adult book, but only has the skill to craft middle grade complexity in his stories.

Plus, I sense that Quense meant for the book to be gender positive, but it really wasn't. There are several problematic gender norms that go largely un-critiqued. Pedro and his insistence that he can control Kate simply by virtue of being a man. (None of which contributed to the plot in any way.) And the fact that I don't think Moxie makes a single decision in the whole book that she doesn't ask a man about first.

The whole thing was just too clumbsy for me to enjoy. Honestly, I skimmed the last 50 or so pages trying to force myself to finish it. And I wouldn't even have done that if it didn't fulfill the Q for my yearly alphabet soup challenge (where I read an author for each letter of the alphabet).

If you are looking for the unusual, look no further. The usual backstabbing action among friends and enemies is offset by a level of incompetence that lends humor to many situations. There are familiar name, some period settings, and bad relationships. While it might lean toward a parody, it is not a There is not a retelling of Shakespeare’s tales.

I read it to my grandson. He loves it. I had to give him the book it's not really my type I read but I love reading to my grandson and this is the best one I have read yet

This a delightful book based on the days of King Arthur with a modern twist. We have a unique, strong woman as the heroine with a daughter who wants nothing of the life of nobility. It is a spoof on gender issues and how compromise can change the course of a country under seige. It's not hilariously funny, but it will make you smile in a lot of situations. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I got it free from a member giveaway in exchange for a review.

A delightfully silly book! I love Moxie, and all her trials and tribulations. I much prefer this Camelot to the nal one!origi

I definitely enjoyed these fun stories. They were well written and the humor is spot-on. This book is great for a quick read while traveling or if you want something funny to read!

I read this writing manual with a lot of enthousiasm. First of all because it was really practical, and not too complicated as to the language. Secondly, and what I don't find in a lot of other books on writing, the author really defines what he means. I've read quite a few books about writing - in lots of different languages - but the author of this books really speaks to me. He gives me the idea he really knows what he's talking about, and that is making a story that others will want to read (and keep reading). Each section of the book deals with one or more of the challenges that writers - especially those who are not so experienced such as I - face during the writing process. The book is dived into four parts: Setting and Characters, Plotting, Story-telling and More Stuff. Each part presents the matter in easily consumed bites.
The part that I liked most was the final section that deals with the subject of humour in stories and how to create it, and also the part where all kinds of practical issues are dealt with.
So, I would really recommend this book. It's complete, I like the friendly style and ease of delivery, and there is also a list of books that a beginning (of more experienced) writer could read. Because writing, after, all, start with reading (books as well as what happens in the world and in our mind).

I received this book through Librarything-giveaway from the author. I did my best to write this review as honest as possible.

This was a relief to read. I'm a planner and worried that over-planning would stifle creativity but this book debunks that notion. The book provides, in perfect level of detail, a guide to planning and writing fiction. The elements were a revelation to me as a reader - I have read novels with the right and wrong amounts of motivation, foreshadowing, tell vs show, emotional arc, events, etc. without knowing these terms but knowing the novels worked or not for me, for these very reasons.
This is really a 5 stars book but there were some typos to drop the rating slightly. I received this as a LibraryThing Member GiveAway. Thank you.½

I give this book 3.5/5 soccer balls.

This is book two of Princess Moxie. If you can remember, Princess Moxie is a fat, simple-looking and mean princess until she met the three apprentices of Knights of the Round Table.

In Moxie's Decision, Princess Moxie set out to join the Heroes Guild to train and make something of herself. If she wants to take over as Queen of their land once her father, King Smedley, passed away, she has to learn a skill and know the ins and outs of managing a kingdom. So, again it fell to the three knights to escort Moxie to the Heroes Guild and help her get in.

By now, my feelings have softened a little towards Moxie. I don't hate her anymore and I actually approve of her trying to learn something and improve herself so she would be fit to run their kingdom when the time comes. And to her credit, she tried her hardest. And like in most cases, when you try your darnedest, you get rewarded. Moxie proved to everyone in this book that she can be anything she sets her heart on. She can be good at something. I admire her strong willpower and boldness for seeing through her every plan. And in the end, she got what she sought.

This is not as hilarious as the first book but I still enjoyed it. I was rooting for Moxie to succeed in her endeavors. I wanted her to find her place amongst an all-men dominated era. And she did!

I give this book 3.5/5 soccer balls. This book has been an adventure you wouldn't want to miss. All the soccer games played in honor of keeping the peace and defending the land against the Saxons; Gwen's naughty cheerleading team; Merlin's own adventures and three ever-reliable knights who have become Moxie's three dedicated friends. Princess Moxie's adventures and misadventures ended well and she can now brag about her experiences. She has ventured out into the real world of knights and brigands and survived. She became thin and strong, kinder and wiser.

Thank you again, Hank Quense, for the copy.½

Princess Moxie is a two-book set. I didn't realize that there were two books until I started reading. I thought that the book was too long, even for a full novel. Then, when I reached the end of the story, I realized there was another one. You know what it's like when you are sent e-books to be reviewed without the covers, right? I don't think the first few pages told me that this was a two-volume set. I just found out that the table of contents was the only indication. Who reads the table of contents? Anyway, I will only be reviewing the first volume -Moxie's Problem.

The story happened in the time of King Arthur and Camelot. Princess Moxie is a fat, simple-looking, self-centered and a spoiled princess. She grew up being attended to and ordering people around. Until she was told by her father, King Smedley, to travel to meet his future husband -Count Gamel. She is to be accompanied by three of the Knights of the Round Table but what she got were three knight apprentices who just graduated from the Heroes Guild -Sir Gareth, Bors and Percivale.

This is a hilarious and refreshing take on the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. How Princess Moxie smoothly stole, muscled and bullied her way into the story is even more amusing. This is a story of knights were not a lot of swords were used but a lot of playing football. Where the fate of a town or kingdom is battled through a game of football. Where the secret to defeating the Saxons was by upping your football plays and game plans. I also adored how the other legends like the Lady of the Lake, the Lochness monster, etc. were shown in a different light. Absolutely creative!

I also love that the story's main character, Princess Moxie, is a truly unique character, irritating at most. Far from the usual and typical princesses we encounter. I absolutely hate her. Much to my delight, Moxie's character underwent metamorphosis and I agreed with the changes that she planned to undertake. I felt sorry for the three young knights who had the misfortune of meeting her. She made their lives miserable. Fortunately, Moxie saw the error of her ways and the lack of her upbringing. This is indeed a very amusing and gratifying tale.

I gave the book 4/5 chests. This is a story which broke all stereotypes -for princesses and knights. Very refreshing! Princess Moxie is a character you will hate, feel sorry for and hope to succeed. I think this should have been more appropriately entitled as Moxie is the Problem instead of Moxie's Problem. She's causing headaches and sleepless nights to the three young knights.

Now, I am curious as to what fate awaits Moxie after all the misfortunes that she has to go through, which in a way serves her right. But like Moxie, I had a change of heart. I found that I was actually rooting for her to make the drastic changes she wants in her life. And I want her to succeed too. From the bully to the underdog, the unforgiving tale of Princess Moxie, who has no friends and even his own father wanted to get rid of her and just marry her off to the first person who expressed his intent.

I am still finishing volume two of Princess Moxie's story - Moxie's Decision. I am curious as what will be the next misadventures that she will go through with our three very unfortunate knights. Every time I think of Moxie's character, I can't help but shake my head. She is a piece of work which has turned into a work-in-progress. We'll see if she can finally be able to make someone of herself.

Half the fun of adventure is not knowing where you're going.Then, it's a surprise when you get there.
- Hank Quense, Moxie's Problem -

Thank you again, Librarything.com and Hank Quense for the giveaway copy.

The four-in-one Complete Self-publishing guide could be a horror non-fiction but Hank Quense has managed to deal with the weight of tiresome work and the dangers of scammers in a way that opens the possibility of being successful! Thank you for the LibraryThing Member GiveAway and invaluable advice and strategies.

The Complete Self-publishing Guides, By Hank Quense.
Hank’s box set of e-books is a very useful and practical guide for a first time author who wants to self-publish. Hank speaks from experience and can save you money and disappointment. He has made many of the mistakes he talks about in these four short guides. That is called experience. You can learn a lot from Hank’s experiences in self-publishing.
The books are organized to maximize learning and put it to use developing a budget for your e-book project.
1: Self-publishing a Book: Here is where Hank has tried many of the ways to self-publish. His advice will save you money and time.
2: Marketing Plans for Self-Published Books: Actionable items laid out in a way to make the tasks doable. There is a lot to do. Hank gives you a road map to follow. Well thought out.
3: Manage Your Self-publishing Project: Follow Hank’ s flow charts and mind maps. Essentially guides One and Two as flow charts and mind maps. You should have read Guides One and Two first to get the most of these diagrams.
4: Business Basics for Authors: Will not make you a business expert but will get you started to ask the correct questions. Hank wants you to think like a CEO running a business: selling the book you published. You may not do all the planning Hank does but following his basic strategies will get you going in the right direction.
Especially liked the use of real life examples and realistic numbers to plan both publishing and marketing. Every new author who is serious about writing as a business should follow Hank’s advice as much as they can. I find it interesting that the things that Hank has done I did with my daughter’s book 36 Week Jam Session by Aimee McCarthy published by Benefit Communications Ltd. Our pricing was different than Hank as this is only Aimee’s second time published.

The author plans long novels based on characters, plots, structure, mind mapping, and conclusions. If you are new to writing there are nuggets of information that will open new methods to explore. Quense describes computer programs that he uses to track ideas, plots, characters, research, and other bits and pieces writers tend to accumulate. The book format needs to be improved to allow better flow of the materials. Some margins, indentations, and lack of white space make it appear cluttered and disorganized.

Mr. Quense nails it again. In this new book he comes with 8 stories, one more creative then the other. Hysterical. My favorite is the last one, Tactical Surprise. The end of the story is delicious. I loved it!
I have been following this author for a while and having read most of his books I can say that he is a master of satiric humor. You have to read his stories slowly and savor every subtle humor. It will light up your day.
His characters are taken from Shakespeare and fairy tale stories and they are placed in a new world called Gundarland. With very fruitful imagination, the author creates situations that will make us remember the real story, but with twists very particular to his style.
I recommend this book to the permanent library of any reader who is up to a good laugh. Very well written book, it will keep you entertained for hours.

This is a wonderful and hilarious book. My 16-year older daughter would say that it is hysterically hilarious.The author puts together some characters that we can associate with characters that exist in Shakespeare's Hamlet and Othello. You really do not need to have read those plays to fully enjoy this book. You do not even have to like Shakespeare at all, and you still will enjoy very much this book. The situations created by the author are excellent, with a strong analogy with our current everyday life' situations. The Godmother with all her corruption scheme it is like the Al Capone of Shakespeare's time. The employment of family members in public places, the incompetency, the intrigues, everything is well exploited by the author. And the elements he brings from Shakespeare's plays are appropriate to make the association with the original story, like the ghost of Hamlet's father, asking him to kill his murderer and so on. And finally, our main character, Falstaff, appears as an overweighted human trying to take advantage of every situation. As a con man, he is very good on that!


I recommend this book to the permanent library of any reader who loves a well written novel with a very high sense of humor. It took me around eight hours to read the whole book.


This book was written by Hank Quense and it was published by Strange Worlds Publishing in August of 2012. I received a complimentary electronic version of this book for reviewing and I was not request to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.

This author always amazes me with his inspiration to adapt other stories using a lot of humor and producing a very entertaining book. This is not just another quest for immortality, or for the knowledge of mortal love... gods, Valkyries, aliens, electronic artifacts, mortals, warriors, every element of a very strange and funny story is present. The Old Gods Retirement's Village is where all the old forgotten gods live and as described, is one of the most hilarious ideas of the book, that is full of brilliant sarcasms. Although I had no previously knowledge on the Brunhilde myth, I was able to follow the story without any problems.

I recommend this book for all readers who likes a good written fantasy story and wants to be entertained on a Saturday afternoon. It took me a little less than four hours to read the whole book.

I received this book from the author for review and I was not requested to provide a positive review. Opinion expressed here is my own.

Full disclosure: I received this book as part of LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

This book seemed to have "too many balls in the air", so to speak. With every chapter, it was from a different point of view at least twice. While I usually like things like that (one of my favorite books, Zel, by Donna Jo Napoli, does that as well), I found this work to be a little jarring and hard to keep up with who was doing what in which narrative.

The author introduces several characters, which had apparently appeared in the previous novels in this series (I haven't read them, as I didn't know about the series until I won the advanced reader's copy). He does a good job of covering the highlights of what happened previously, though. I liked Moxie, although she seemed to be a little too headstrong for her own good, which kind of clashes with her ending outcome. The three knights that helped Moxie with her journey didn't seem to like her very much at all, which also seemed to conflict with what they do later in the book. It just didn't seem like they would care at all whether she lived or died, they were only helping her because they didn't have anything better to do. Yet she calls them her friends? It didn't make any sense, and I didn't connect with them at all, which made reading their parts of the narrative really hard to get through. I didn't care whether they got what they wanted, they seemed like two-faced a-holes.

I also didn't really understand why King Artie was even a character with his own narrative. All he was ever concerned with was an impending war, which could have been established with one of the many other character's narratives.

All in all, I found this book to be just okay. The flurry of different points of view within the same chapter that don't discuss anywhere near similar issues, as well as really only caring about one character, really dragged it down for me. Maybe it would work better if I'd read the others in the series beforehand, but Moxie's own comparisons to her former self as a whiny, entitled princess make me not want to waste my time.

This book goes step by step how to build a book from the ground up. There are tips on how to develop the plot, characters, and emotional buildup. There are many diagrams to better picture the ideas being expressed in the book. I am someone that like structure when doing anything and this book sets that structure.

I enjoyed this book, full of humor and also suspense. This is a book I can see as a movie in the same genre as " Knights Tale". Refreshing book to enjoy for young and old with no x rated scenes.