Thanks for Taking the ‘Leap’! Some Reader Reviews…

I cannot thank you enough for the star-ratings and reviews you’ve been leaving for me this past year on various websites.

I now have a good collection of reader reviews of ‘Leap’ on Lulu.com, on the U.S. iBooks, Canadian iBooks, and Amazon.com. I suppose I should be collecting these reviews all in one place, so, here goes!

Oct. 3, 2011

*****

arkofthetwilight
on Lulu.com

'Leap' featured in iBooks under 'Great Canadian Poetry' August 2011

“What to say about Leap? Heather Grace Stewart pitches her poetry somewhere between the world we see and regret not having the strength to change as adults, and the world as it can only be experienced through the eyes and words of a child. At times her work betrays an honesty and sadness that breaks the heart both through shocking honesty and the capacity to make people understand her unique but identifiable feminine standpoint. I will never regret my purchase of this collection. Heather Grace Stewart is a rare and brilliant talent, no matter which poetic medium she turns her hand to.

October 3, 2011
“Buy and read Leap by @hgracestewart, it’s a fantastic collection and easily worth ten times its $2.99 price tag.”
Poet Adam White, on Twitter

For Adam’s full 5/5 stars review, please visit: http://poetrybyadamwhite.blogspot.com/2011/10/review-of-leap-by-heather-grace-stewart.html

September 2011

*****

Wonderful

Five stars doesn’t do it justice. A wonderful, heart-lifting read.

Ashleigh, iBook buyer

Ontario

June 2011
“Her poems are clear, honest and rich in detail. Sorrow, confusion, love, satisfaction and humor are to be found in her words.” Poet Mark Stratton
Read more: http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-leap-by-heather-grace/#ixzz1ZjrMjtKI

June 2011

*****

The best of both worlds

A wondrous synthesis of technological and organic beauty.

Painfully raw in parts, utterly hilarious in others – always sincere.

A great read altogether.

Shawn Halayka

June 2011

*****

This book is fabulous!

by Larry Leitner

Leap is the second compilation of poetry by this talented Canadian. As with her first book “Where the Butterflies Go”, She is able to take you on a journey of the emotions of life. She is able to see life more clearly that almost anyone I have read. There are times she is able to see it through the eyes of her young daughter who happens to be on the book’s cover. There are poems about Loss, Love and Life in general. There will be tears, there will be laughter and everything in between. Beautifully illustrated by Ms. Grace Stewart’s own Photography.

“These accomplished but unforced pieces, engage, entertain and enliven.” Tom Phillips, UK poet and reviewer, Various Artists

“..so direct, political and feminine by turns that it can take your breath away. A must for new and already hooked fans.” -Sally Evans, poet and Editor, Poetry Scotland.

April 2010

By Kimberly Jurado

Wow! From the cover photo to “page from my notebook” in the back, I thoroughly enjoyed this work of art! Refreshingly modern poetry with timeless sentiment woven throughout. Autumn Will, Valley, and Five Thousand Friends (FUN social networking poem) are three of my favorites from this collection of real life poems and photographs. I discovered the author through an Internet search for “facebook, friends, poem” and her work has intrigued me ever since! A big thank you to Heather Grace Stewart for being in tune with the world and for believing in the power of poetry to connect people — whether they are friends, strangers or even a world apart.

Mar. 28, 2010 By Elisa Lorello

Heather Grace Stewart has outdone herself with this collection. These are modern poems for a modern world, full of humor, sincerity, moxie, and sensual beauty. The accompanying photographs add a sense of wonder and depth, and make you want to jump into every scene. Heather Grace Stewart has taken the Leap into greatness, and we cannot help but follow in her footsteps. A must-own for every woman (and man, too!).

Mar. 25, 2010 By Adam Taylor

Buy this.. now! Don’t walk, don’t run…. LEAP! As always Heather captures tiny pieces of life and magnifies them into their most radiant and decadent. A pleasure.

*****

Apr. 28, 2010 By Robert Gervais

The poem ‘Forever August keeps calling me back to my copy of Leap. By way of contrast, I love the black and white instantaneity/foreverness of ‘Coping.’ Heather Grace Stewart has a fine hand that knows how to dip into the emotional well and then paint outside the lines, outside the box, outside of herself, where everyone else is. She has a gift of looking inside a minute, seeing what makes it tick and then explaining it to us. Bravo.

*****

Mar. 8, 2010 By movemout Absolutely love this book! Heather is such a gifted poet. She captured me from the first words, I could not put this book down until I had read it all. Now to read it again and again and savour it. Thanks Heather, what a wonderful gift to the world!

Leaping to the Top of the iBookstore Charts

Dear Readers,

Number FIVE! I thought my dream of hitting the top 10 in poetry in the iBookstore by Spring 2012 was a pipe dream. But I did set it as a goal a couple weeks ago, when I realized how well both my poetry ebooks were selling on Lulu.com  I thought, okay, now to top the charts of the iBookstore!

Today, Leap is #5 in Top Poetry Paid Books in the Canadian iBookstore! It is also being featured in the What’s Hot section of the Canadian and US iBookstores.  Where the Butterflies Go is trailing behind at #141 (I published this an a ebook a little later than ‘Leap’) but I’m thrilled it’s on the list at all.

Ebooks don’t make a lot of money. Hell, poetry doesn’t make a lot of money! So I have always felt the thing to do with proceeds from these two collections is to donate half to making a small difference in the world. Since 2008, we’ve been able to help four children go to school for a year, and provided part of the teachers’ salaries too. We’ve contributed a little to the grand expense of building desks for a small school in India, and this past Christmas, we donated pencils to an entire school.

I’m donating to Unicef again today (enough to give pencils to an entire school) as a way of thanking all of you for reading, buying and sharing my poetry links; for helping more people discover my work, and for helping me achieve my charity donation goals.

Thank you. I couldn’t have done any of this without you loyal readers.

Life is short. Keep on laughing. Keep on loving. Never stop leaping.

All my best,
Heather
PS Watch for ‘The Groovy Granny’ as an ebook on Lulu.com and in the iBookstore soon, and my new collection of poetry and photographs by Spring 2012.

#5! Top Paid Poetry Books - iBookstore August 24, 2011

Heather Grace Stewart with the epub 'Leap' for the iPad

Me with ‘Leap’ for the iBookstore on my iPad – July… on Twitpic

Me with ‘Leap’ for the iBookstore on my iPad – July… on Twitpic

I just want to thank everyone for buying, sharing, and creating buzz around my two poetry ebooks, Leap and Where the Butterflies Go –today they rank #1 and #4 on Lulu.com in the Top 100 Bestselling Poetry Ebooks this week! They’re also doing well on Lulu.com’s all-time best-selling ebooks list, and selling very well in the iBookstore.

I’m enjoying summer, and am busy working on my next poetry collection (a full colour photographed poetry collection for the iBooktore!), ‘Carry On Dancing,’ and creating an ebook version of ‘The Groovy Granny.’
Thanks so much for reading and sharing news about my work.

Cheers,

Heather

Leap Into The World of Epub Ebooks!

My poet pal Kellie Elmore had a question about my ebook ‘Leap’ which I thought I should answer for you all:
“Congratulations Heather! Is it available for Kobo? I’d love to read Leap!”

***
Thanks Kellie!

The answer is YES!

There are so many readers out there, I decided to go with the epub file for my ebooks, which is more universal than the mobi file (Kindle files). Kobo reads both epub files and PDF files, and if you go to Lulu.com in the ebooks section, you can download both these versions of Leap.

Epub doesn’t read on the Kindle  but look at all the others it works on:

http://connect.lulu.com/t5/Digital-Media-eBook-Downloading/What-devices-can-I-view-my-eBook-on/ta-p/31639

If you go to Lulu.com ebooks (here’s my ebook Leap:   http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/leap/16247447?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/1 ) it has free software right on the page where you can buy my book and you download the free software Adobe Digital Designs. This lets you read Leap as an ebook on your Mac or PC in an ereader format and on many many mobile ereaders -bascially, whichever ones can read epubs or PDF files.

If you eventually get an ipad, which has Kobo and Kindle for ipad as well as the ibookstore, you can find it and read it on the ipad in Books, in itunes. I love my ipad because it has all three readers on it and I just switch back and forth to different readers on the ipad depending on the book I want to read.

Leap for the ipad or iphone http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/leap/id442076340?mt=11

I haven’t given up on getting both Where the Butterflies Go and Leap on the Kindle, but I just wanted to make them available almost everywhere else first. I went with the ipad and iphone first for ‘Leap’ because it’s a colour device and I wanted my photos to be presented as nicely as they are in the print edition. I also loved the innovative side of it all. Lulu has told me they are looking into making my books available for the Kindle…in time. Slow and steady wins the race.

Edit: Shortly after I wrote this blog post today, ‘Where the Butterflies Go’ became available on the ibookstore, priced at just $4.99 too! It’s going to be available as  an epub on Lulu too -hang tight if you want this version for Mac or PC and other ereaders -it will be available shortly.  If you do buy ‘Where the Butterflies Go’ for the ipad please do write me a review and give me a star rating – every bit helps. Thanks!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/where-the-butterflies-go/id450091774?mt=11

Cheers
HGS

I bet the Statue of Liberty has Leap on an ipad by now! Do you? Photo by T. Jurado (with thanks).

iLike myPoetry in iTunes!

If you’d told me a decade ago if I’d have my own publishing company, I’d have never believed it.

If you’d told me I’d have my poetry collection in a bookstore in an online music store run by the guy who started Apple computers, I’d have wondered what you were drinking. Then, I’d ask you to pour me some, too.

I’ve only had iced tea today, so I know I’m really seeing what I’m seeing: my book ‘Leap,’ has been launched in the ibookstore of itunes–so you can read it on your ipad, ipod, iphone, and more! Take a look:

Leap in the ibookstore at itunes

I used to balk at the thought of reading poetry on any digital device, but you readers have told me time and time again how my words have affected you in big and small ways (thanks so much for telling me, by the way, and for sharing my poems with others, on both special and sombre occasions.) So, I’ve come to the conclusion that if the poetry comes to you in a hardcover, paperback, on an ipad, an ipod, an iphone, your Mac, PC, Blackberry, Sony reader, or the very latest ‘it’ tablet (which according to my engineering hubby is the Asus Eee Pad transformer) as long as the message gets to you, it doesn’t matter how you’re receiving it.

So, go ahead. Take the ‘Leap’ into reading poetry as an epub, and when you do, please LIKE it on FB, and give me a star rating and a short review – those really help spread the word.

If you’re not sure about jumping into this sea of ebooks yet, perhaps trying mine first would be a good way to dip your toes in the water. You can download a free Adobe Digital Editions ereader for your Mac or PC right here Leap the epub for Mac, PC, and ereaders on Lulu.com When you download the epbub -a very easy process – you can read it on that, as well as on a variety of devices like the Blackberry, Sony reader, and other cool tablets.

Poetry isn’t going away – not by a long shot. It’s changing with the times, boldly accommodating itself to new technologies—and coming out cooler than ever. What’s not to LIKE! about that?

Leaping into the itunes ibookstore, June 9, 2011