“Come on ride that train, and ride it! Woo-woot! Come on ride that train, and ride it! Woo-woot!” An oldie and a… ah, well. The point is, now you’ve got a dancing song in your head and you’re ready to celebrate the launch of The Night of One Hundred Thieves with me by boarding The…
The Sale Is Here. The Pre-order Is Here. The Reading Is Coming. The Festival Is Coming. The Launch is Here! Whew! No wonder I have hives. (Actually, I think that’s seasonal allergies.) The Night of One Hundred Thieves is a fantasy/medieval magic realism novel about thirty-two thieves and one magical ring. They all want it.…
Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte. First published under the pen name Ellis Bell in 1847. Widely considered one of the best novels in the English language, it is Emily’s only novel; she died the following year at age thirty. I read it in conjunction with the other Bronte sisters’ novels. See previous reviews here: Jane…
Another Best Books list, this time for the best history books of all time. This is one my husband and father-in-law would really enjoy. Personally, the titles are about to put me to sleep, so I think I’ll keep this list tucked away for when I need to do some research or am traveling somewhere.…
A Snicker of Magic, by Natalie Lloyd and published by Scholastic Press in 2014. I loved this book. Going in I had absolutely no expectations, but was very, very pleasantly surprised. I liked it from the first and all the way through the end. Between the combination of magic and word-loving, the prose was light…
The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic, by Jennifer Trafton and published in 2011 by Puffin Books. Illustrated by Brett Hellquist. So, this book has great reviews. On Amazon, it maintains five stars. On Goodreads, four. The truth is, I want to give it at least four stars, but I just don’t think I can.…
Well, not really. She just happened to write a sequel (back in the day) to To Kill a Mockingbird which she thought little of. She, and the world, believed the manuscript was lost and Lee decided to quit the writing life, all in the 50s. Sure enough, some sixty years later, her lawyer finds the…
Whew, baby! Just realizing that I have a back-logged guest post from before I went all disappeared from the flu and bronchitis. Many apologies to Sandra Danby, whose post was supposed to coincide with the release of her first novel, last month. I am intrigued that she wrote a book that seems very similar to…
There’s just no way for me to keep up with every book and writing and indie publishing site on the internet. There are too many, to begin with. And stuff on the internet tends to be transient. It’s in its nature. So I don’t have time to follow every blip on the screen. I tend…
I have been struggling with a whole category of writing advice, for the past year-and-a-half. That’s about to come to an end, and I’m going to coin a new term in order to end it. I’m also going to ask that you let me capitalize whatever I darn well want to, just so I can…
Sorry folks, I have been off sick. Pretty sure a fever (how appropriate!) north of 103 gets you off work, even if you work from home. But I don’t need my throat to work, so here I am. Back again. The following review is for Fever 1793, by Laurie Halse Anderson, published by Simon and…
It’s funny how many times in the past week I’ve had this conversation: Me: I’m doing a Kickstarter campaign. Them: [blank look] Me: You know what Kickstarter is? Them: No. [apologetic look] Me: [deep breath, settle in for slightly boring explanation] Do you know what crowdfunding is? Them: Oh yeah! Kickstarter. I know it. Somehow,…
Magnificent Principia (2013), by Colin Pask, as a way to read–without actually reading–Isaac Newton’s The Principia, or more correctly, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica or Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, 1687 (last edition, 1726). Magnificent contains important chunks of Principia, although what percentage I am not at all clear on, and it digests those chunks for…
The Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley, published from 20015-2012 by Amulet Books and illustrated by Peter Ferguson. The entire award-winning, New York Times Best-selling series: The Fairy-Tale Detectives The Unusual Suspects The Problem Child Once Upon a Crime Magic and Other Misdemeanors Tales From the Hood The Everafter War The Inside Story The Council…
A Night to Remember, by Walter Lord, was published in the 1950s but reissued by Holt Paperbacks in 1994. This book is not on my compiled list of best books of the world (which lists more than 1200 titles). However, it is a sort of classic, and my daughter picked it out of a lineup…
I am a Harry Potter fan. (To see my review of the series, see here.) I was as curious as anyone about what Rowling would do after such astounding success and fame, and was happy to hear that there was a book on the way. I was as dubious as anyone when she announced it…
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy, the translation by Joel Carmichael published by Bantam Books in 1981. The original was published in 1877. This is a solid book. It’s one of those real classics that fully deserves to be a classic. And, amazingly, it’s pretty great reading for the modern reader, as well. You do get…
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and published by Simon & Schuster in 1925. Notes and preface by Matthew J. Bruccoli. Let me just say, one of the best things about reading this book was its history in the forward. Not that I would wish this on anyone, but knowing that The Great Gatsby–widely…
We are leaving behind the Superbowl, not to mention Puxatawny Phil and our New Year’s resolutions, and are headed dead-on for Valentines Day (February 14) and the Oscars (March 2). In celebration of the Oscars and of movies in general, I am going to spend the month of February reading great books that made great…
Let’s be smart about this. I am all for intuition, as a writer. But the other day, I had a moment where my subconscious writing process made a leap to my consciousness, and that’s when one can all of a sudden share that process. We’ll call it a teachable moment. Whereas before what I was…
the starving artist 