“It’s only at the end of things that you come to any appreciation for what you’ve let slide by.” I have only read one other book this year with an ending so enthralling. Its name is Republic of Thieves. About a month back, a genre review website launched the exclusive cover reveal for this book,…
Technically it’s Thursday, but I don’t live by the rules. This is a new thing I’m about to start for my writing part of the blog, to help the edits go by quicker and the creativity keep on pumping. I’ll post little things on Hump Day pertaining to my WIP. Sometimes it’ll be pictures; (most…
“…without the teller, there can be no tale.” I find that whenever hype starts to surround a book, I find that my inner editor becomes more critical, especially when the words tacked on are “Most Underrated Novel of 2013.” I must disagree with that title. Black Feathers begins strong enough; it’s just the end you…
I was fourteen when a scene came to me, a man riding sluggishly through the midnight snowstorm. For weeks, it tormented my mind, so I wrote it down. I will admit that during that winter I experienced what I later found out to be depression. But while all that tumult in my head drug by,…
Yes. I have a new theme. Maybe I won’t change it in the next six months. Maybe. Until then, enjoy a picture of a chinchilla.
So the past weeks has been riddled with this problem that authors shouldn’t jump into reviews. I personally find this ridiculous. Yes, there’s the whole respect idea, but as a writer who’s had my work critiqued anonymously, I understand that some reviewers can be complete idiots and miss the point. If they need to be…
“The word was out – choose a side or choose a headstone.” It’s no surprise that I love the Prohibition Era. So when I saw that this book was hailed as one of the best noir novels of the past decade, I jumped aboard. What I found was a very interesting story underneath the trappings…
“The death of a broken-down old man is, unquestionably, the least poetical topic in the world.” First up, a disclaimer. I suspect this is the strangest book I have ever read. I have no morsel of proof, nothing to waive around in a court for all to gawk at. All I remember is the words…
“A miracle these hands, yes, but many were the people who had said that to look upon the blessings of the gods was to know their flaws and their pettiness.” Many times, expectations are the worst deceivers. With this book, we have an author who’s been nominated for many prestigious awards, published by an amazing…
“Every goddamned thing about this Test grated. And let’s be honest here: ‘grated’ is just the wrong word to use. Maybe ‘vexed’ is better? I always liked the sound of ‘vexed.’ It was comfortingly old-school, like something that someone in a Jane Austen adaptation would utter, in a steely British accent, after he mopped his…
Acerbic Writing 