Title: My Nerdy Valentine Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson Genre: Contemporary romance I admit it, I picked this up because of the title. My first reaction, before even opening the book, was to laugh out loud and wonder if she was serious. Then I thought, why not? Nice guys don’t always have to finish last and […]
Author Archive: Christine
Book Review: City of Bones
Title: City of Bones Author: Cassandra Clare Genre: YA fantasy/contemporary City of Bones tells the story of Clary Fray, a fifteen-year-old girl who is about to awaken to a hidden magical world. One night, while dancing at a club with a friend, she sees something she shouldn’t have seen — couldn’t have seen. Before she […]
Marketing: Twitter
All right, I’ve done it. I’ve given into peer pressure. I am now on twitter. I have tweeted. Not being prone to thinking in 120 characters or less (I write novels…I don’t even write many short stories), I’m curious how this is going to work, but getting on twitter is one of those modern marketing […]
Writing Tips: Know What You Write
I’m sure you’ve heard the tried and true piece of writing advice, “Write what you know.” It only makes sense, in terms of realism and believability, but don’t let the advice hold you back. You aren’t stuck, from now until the end of time, writing about the same things over and over again, regurgitating the […]
Book Reviews: Samaria
Titles: Archangel, Jovah’s Angel, The Alleluia Files Author: Sharon Shinn Sub-genre(s): Science Fiction When it comes to reviewing series, I often have trouble leaving my impressions one at a time, especially after I have finished. So I’ll tackle these together, although each tells its own complete story. What really struck me about the Samaria books […]
Book Reviews: Blue Skies
Title: Blue Skies Author: Catherine Anderson Sub-genres: Contermporary/Cowboy I don’t read much mainstream contemporary romance and I think I’m discovering that the reason comes down to this: most romance novels need a prop, something to distract you from the fact that the love story is only mediocre and the characters are cardboard cutouts. Not so […]
Writing Tips: I Dare You
A couple of weeks ago I received some invaluable feedback on a short story, “There was nothing wrong with it, it just didn’t dare as much as I would have liked.” I knew instantly that in this case and in this particular story, she was absolutely right. I had broken a rule I’ve given other […]
Morning Pages
Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I often feel that way when I embark on a new endeavor or, or as in this case, reembark on an old endeavor I never should have abandoned. I started writing morning pages, an exercise in Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path […]
Book Reviews: Obsidian Prey
Title: Obsidian Prey Author: Jayne Castle Sub-Genre: Science Fiction/Paranormal/Suspense If you’re familiar with Jayne Castle (aka Jayne Ann Krentz aka Amanda Quick), then you don’t need a plot summary. Basically, what’s going to happen is two people are going to fall in love while solving a mystery that puts them in a great deal of […]
Cassie’s Story is Complete
For those of you who don’t know, I’ve spent the last year and nine months (since February of 2009, when inspiration struck), working on a series of books subtitled: A Paranormal Mystery. (Yes, the “para” in paranormal is struck through, at least for the first two books in the series. I admit, this seemed cleverer […]