Hi! I’m Bob.
I’m a book and cooking geek. This website and all of my social media focus on those topics.
My book reviews are also recommendations. I just don’t do negative reviews. There are any number of books I don’t care for or even finish. The DNF go in a pile and may get a second look at another time. I may not care for a book but someone else may love it.
With that in mind, I choose to share and promote the things I love.
Regarding any “free” Advance Reader Copies (ARC) that I receive, if I choose to do a review of an ARC read I also buy the book. There are two reasons, I maintain independence and I support the author.
Speaking of authors, there is a vibrant and talented community of independent self published authors in the book universe. The majority of my reads in the last year have been by indies. I still have many favorites among traditional press authors. But the indies have the hearts of lions and deliver top tier reading. I highly encourage anyone looking for their next read to look into indies.
I’ve also done some beta reading. This is where I’m not nice. That’s not to say I’m mean about it. The job of a beta reader is to offer an honest critique of the work to help the author. If your genre is science fiction or fantasy feel free to check with me to see if we are a match and if I have time to participate. Just don’t expect editing or line edits. Plot, plot holes & readability are in my lane.
This is all a hobby. I have no profit motive.
Why BlueSmoke?
When cooking with a wood fired smoker it is gospel of sorts that the best smoke rolling from the smoker will have a blue hue to it as light passes through it. It’s a sign of quality and perhaps that the chef knows how to manage their fire. I like it as a handle and something to build a brand around.
Why the chicken?
Occasionally my wife and I will paint rocks and leave them for someone to find. Add a Face Book group for these rocks on the back and sometimes you see that your rock was found and if the finder was a keeper or hid it again for someone else. I painted that chicken on one of those rocks. Never saw anything about that rock again. Anyway, it was kind of a random avatar choice for Twitter and fairly recognizable so I’ve just stuck with it.