2019 has been a busy year for me - mostly work-wise, and I've been taking care of myself. Luckily, I've also been given the opportunity to read and review some amazing books this year. It's been my pleasure to review some really great books this year, such as The Fall, A Memory Called Empire, Infinite … Continue reading Summer 2019 To Be Read Pile
SFF
Review: Seven Blades in Black
I have a confession to make. I'm not a huge fan of first person point of view (POV) novels. Why? I don't really know, but third person perspective gets more of my attention. It could be programming from TV or the movies, but third person POV seems more cinematic and more honest. Inherently, first person … Continue reading Review: Seven Blades in Black
Review: A Memory Called Empire
Someone once said that all fiction is either a person coming to or leaving town. Arkady Martine uses this setup in her debut novel, A Memory Called Empire from Tor. Only this person is an ambassador, and the town’s a capital city that is, at once, an entire planet and the heart of the empire … Continue reading Review: A Memory Called Empire
Review: Amberlough by Lara Elena Donelly
Amberlough kicks off a spy series set in a Jazz Age equivalent world. The setting and language make this series opener fresh and exciting while the characters pull the reader into the story. Highly recommended!
Reviews to Start the Year Off
Hello! It’s been a busy past few weeks. I’m dealing with identity theft and applying for a new position at work. But I always have time for reviews. 2019 is starting off with an excellent to be read pile, and I thought I’d share with you what’s on the schedule. I’m halfway through Amberlough right … Continue reading Reviews to Start the Year Off
Review: The Fall
When reading The Nine by Tracy Townsend, I found myself ruminating on religion in fantasy. Her take – a religion dedicated to god as an experimental scientist taking notes on his creation – piqued this engineer's interest. It ended well with ominous overtones for the future of the god's experiment. In The Fall, the ominous … Continue reading Review: The Fall
Story Prompt: January 2019
I played around with photos from Pixabay, and I created this scene on an alien shore. This guy looks out over a body of water, and I immediately started to wonder about his story. What’s he thinking? This made me think it’s a good story prompt. If you write something, let me know in the … Continue reading Story Prompt: January 2019
What I Learned from Week One
November is National Writing Month. This month is a personal challenge to write 50,000 words between the first and thirtieth of November. That’s an average of 1,666.66 words per day. According to the NaNoWriMo blog, 402,000 people participated in 2017. Well, this year, I decided to participate. This is a daunting challenge. Since I’m a … Continue reading What I Learned from Week One
Publication Day
Putting the Science in Fiction It’s publication day! Putting the Science in Fiction is available now. Scroll down for ordering links. Science and technology have starring roles in a wide range of genres–science fiction, fantasy, thriller, mystery, and more. Unfortunately, many depictions of technical subjects in literature, film, and television are pure fiction. A basic … Continue reading Publication Day
Failure as a Profession
National Novel Writing Month, also known as November, is approaching fast. To celebrate the upcoming publication of Putting the Science in Fiction (On Sale October 16, 2018 from Writer’s Digest), ten of the contributors are providing story prompts based on their field of expertise. (Find other essays here.) For the book, I wrote two essays … Continue reading Failure as a Profession