To preface this list: I try hard to stay away from bashing bad books. In the first place, I wouldn’t like it done to my books. That shit hurts. Second, I might meet the actual author some day, and that would be awkward AF. Can you picture it at a convention? Me: “Oh, hi, you’re [author]? You must be the one who wrote [this book, which I totally trashed in a review].” Poor Author: “Yep, that’s me. So you’ve read…
Who was your inspiration for Colton Johnson in “Step Into Love?” My youngest sister was partly the inspiration for Colton. She deals with a lot of similar issues in her daily life, although she’s never been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. This might be because she absolutely loathes going to the doctor’s office and getting her to tell a doctor how she’s actually feeling is like squeezing water out of a rock. His outlook on life is very similar to hers.…
This post was part of the author toolbox blog hop, created and hosted by Raimey Gallant. It has gone on hiatus, but there are still plenty of great posts in Raimey’s archives to help you out! Do you know how to tell, at a glance, that you’re dealing with a new, inexperienced author? Telling. When the writing is chock-a-block full of telling, it’s a gargantuan, neon clue blaring out: This author is still learning. This author is hacking out the…
What were you like as a child? Okay, first, this is an awfully personal question to lead off an interview with and I’m already questioning your motives, interviewer. I’m told as I child I was energetic and active, to the point of being annoying. I would walk up to perfect strangers, to introduce myself as “shy”. I sang Disney songs ad-nauseum. And I liked to create lots of little stories with my friends. I also remember being dreamy and distracted,…
In the grand tradition of December, let’s do some wrapping up. Wrap some presents. Wrap-up your post-holiday shopping. Write lots of wrap-up lists. Wrap-up small, misbehaving children Krampus style to mail to . . . haha . . . ooops. Don’t do that. Got carried away there. Number Of Books I Read: A very respectable 174 I kept my goal of 200, despite knowing that was stupidly unrealistic with me going back to work full time. And indeed, my reading…
Alright, friends. Let’s get to some numbery-maths for the year. I’m still at the point where I genuinely enjoy blogging (LET IT NEVER END) and I have a lot of fun breaking my year down in stats. If you’re interested the 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017 breakdowns are linked. Just as a note: I’ve spent zero pennies on marketing of any kind since I started this blog in November 2016. Instead, I’ve focused on blog-hops and building relationships. That means super slow growth and…
The awesome co-hosts for the December 1 posting of the IWSG are PJ Colando, Diane Burton, Louise – Fundy Blue, Natalie Aguirre (hi Natalie!), and Jacqui Murray! Stop by their pages to wish them a happy IWSG Day and some happier holidays. And the optional question for the December 1st posting is: In your writing, what stresses you the most? What delights you? I have already semi-seriously answered the question of what stresses me out the most in a giflist, with many silly gifs (my favorite)…
Let’s talk books outside your usual genre We all know I’m a romance reader. It’s definitely not a secret that I’m all about lots and lots of smushy fluff. When I need a break from that I generally turn to my *other* source of bodily fluids, which is horror. Yes. I know that seems strange. In the midst of this chaos of conflicting reads, certain genres are neglected. Like nonfiction. I don’t often pick up that genre and it has…
Hello and welcome to my tangent! I’ve previously covered this topic in Top Ten Tuesday, Villain Edition and had a lot of fun with it. So today I’m going rogue again and picking my favorite clever villains. I want the best plotters, the most urbane, cultured, and ridiculously devious little psychopaths for the list today. I want the type who have plans A-D ready to go, are already one move ahead in the chess game of hero vs. villain, and could pick…
Our theme today: Favorite Books from Childhood Full on nostalgia hit this week. I blame my fourth cup of pumpkin spiced coffee. Anyway, allow me to throw this entire list at you and then fight off the urge to go re-read all of these immediately. And also let me know your own childhood favorites! I’ve got two school-age mini bookworms growing up and I’m sure we’d all love to read them, too. The Beatrix Potter stories For some reason we…