I’m not exactly Ms. Manners, but come on, folks, a little common sense goes a long way. I answer the phone with a basic, “Hello?” At that point, I have one simple expectation: Identify yourself, and the person to whom you wish to speak. There are a few ways we can go about this basic […]
Author Archive: Christine
The Immortality Virus Blurbs
This week’s mission, if I choose to accept it: Sell The Immortality Virus in 50 words, 150 words, and 250 words. The 150-word version will probably be the back of the book blurb. So, here goes (these are by no means final): 50 words: When Jordan Lacklin finds a way to stop the human aging […]
Writing Workshops
This month, I have been teaching a workshop on beginnings through an on-line chapter of the RWA. I teach workshops from time to time, usually at www.savvyauthors.com (in fact, I’m teaching Beginnings there in July, and a Scifi/Fantasy World Building workshop early next year), and I find I quite enjoy it. The young writers who […]
Book Review: Middlesex
Wow. I cannot remember the last time I read such a wonderful, moving, challenging, and well-told story. This wasn’t light entertainment, and I didn’t read it quickly — I wouldn’t have wanted to. This it the type of book that needs to be digested. But most of all, it needs to be read. Whoever you […]
Building Tension Through Knowledge
Many beginning writers mistakenly believe they are creating tension when they withhold certain pieces of information, and that the reader’s desire to know more — to fill in those blanks — will keep us going. This is, quite simply, not true. Withheld information is far more likely to create within us feelings of great annoyance […]
Web Site Updates
Just a quick note to let you know I’ll be doing some updates to the site this week, hopefully making it easier to find the information you need. In the meantime, you may come across a few blank pages or broken links.
Series Review: Sookie Stackhouse
A few weeks ago, I shared my impressions of Dead Until Dark, the first volume in the Sookie Stackhouse series, which instantly drew me in with a terrific narrative voice and compelling main character. Since then, I have read through to the latest book in the series, book ten, and while I continue to recommend […]
I’m Back
My blog is up and operational once more, thanks to my husband, who has been working hard on it for days.
Romance, Straight Up
I read for an escape. I love fantasy, and even when I read non-paranormal romance, I am looking for a certain degree of magic. Some sense of being somewhere else or doing extraordinary things.Regency romance, no matter how poorly written, is somewhere else, sometime else. Stories (set past, present, or future) with a bit of […]
Book Review: Deadly Night
Title: Deadly Night Author: Heather Graham Genre: Paranormal Mystery Deadly Night is a paranormal mystery set in post-Katrina New Orleans when Aidan Flynn finds two human bones. The authorities are initially uninterested, because graves have been disturbed in the flooding and finding a bone isn’t as unusual as it once was, but Aidan, a private […]