Paper Crowns Book Review

Ginger has lived in seclusion, with only her aunt Malgarel and her blue cat, Halcyon, to keep her company. Her sheltered, idyllic life is turned upside-down when her home is attacked by messengers from the world of fae. Accompanied by Halcyon (who may or may not be more than just a cat), an irascible wysling named Azrael, and a loyal fire elemental named Salazar, Ginger ventures into the world of fae to bring a ruthless Queen to justice. Amazon | GoodReads | Author's Blog   ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  …

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Beautiful People – Rose {May 2016}

Yes, I am quite late to the party for this month’s Beautiful People. As in. . .the linkup closes in less than two days. In my defense, I’ve had quite a few exciting things that went on the blog this month. Annnd I’m always late for BP. But I do like to make excuses every now and again. I’m quite good at it. ANYWHO. I am here now with a BP post and very excited! April did not have BP due to Sky and Cait having lifely stuff going on (don’t worry, girls, I understand!). But it is back this…

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Interview with Jack Lewis Baillot

Fabulous things are happening! Remember back in March when I did a cover reveal for my dear friend Jack’s soon-to-be-published World War II book Brothers-in-Arms? Well, in celebration for her upcoming book, I got to interview her and get some inside scoops into Brother-in-Arms and her writing process. Fun stuff, people. Fun stuff! So, without further ado, I present to you Jack Lewis Baillot! Jack is one of those strange people who calls herself an Author. She spends a lot of her time writing and even less time editing. She likes to write about friendships which is partly how Brothers-in-Arms…

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Book Tour: Paper Crowns by Mirriam Neal

I have utterly thrilling news! I’m talking run around the house squealing and jumping up and down news. One of my absolute favorite writers on this planet HAS A BOOK PUBLISHED. Not just a book, but one of the most delightful books I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. Over the past couple of years, I’ve gotten to know the amazing Mirriam Neal through my dear writing group. I was given the complete honor of reading her novel, Paper Crowns, in its earlier stages, and I can honestly say I’ve never read a book with such whimsy and beauty. Not…

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That Time I Got Over 100 Books in Two Weeks

So things happened in April. Delightful things. And by that I mean BOOKISH things. (What else would be delightful? Books = Life. Duh.) You see, our library had a sale to which I obviously had to attend. . .three times. It took place for the whole second week in April, and each day the price on the books got lower and lower to the point that they were practically giving them away. As my dad said, I was worse than a kid at a candy store. Our library is pretty small, so I honestly wasn’t expecting much. But then I…

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‘Tis a Writer’s Life (Tag)

A while back (and by that I mean. . .in Janury) the amazing Jameson @ Lovely Whatsoevers (doesn’t she have the sweetest blog name?) tagged me for the Writer’s Life Tag. A tag about the writer’s life? Obviously I had to do it! Because, ya know, sometimes I consider myself a writer. *she says as she’s sprawled out alone in her room with her laptop blogging and drinking coffee* Yeah. Only sometimes. . . #thewriterslifeistheonlylife Ahem. Shall we? Questions Write-fuel: What do you eat/drink while writing?Being as how I literally have a cup of coffee in my hand while typing…

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My Favorite Story Elements

Last week I posted about being brave and writing the things we personally love. That got me thinking: “What do I love to write about?” Well, that’s a good question. And since I love lists, I decided to make a list of story elements I love to read and write. It’d be very useful to have a handy list of some of my favorite story things to keep in mind whenever I’m plotting a new book. Then I thought, why not post the list? Because, hello? books and lists are like my favorite things. So! Convoluted PlotsOn occasion, I enjoy…

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On Writing the Brave and the Crazy

Back when I was a little baby writer, I had this weird thing in which I always “played it safe” with my stories. As in, I never wrote anything outrageous. I stuck to what I knew, kept to the clichés, never made anything different or interesting or unique. You can probably guess by now that my old stories came out very bland, and often pathetic copies of Lord of the Rings and Narnia. I can’t really tell you why I never ventured out and tried crazy, original ideas. I guess I was scared. I was scared to tackle tough issues…

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The Circle of Creativity

We’ve all had it happen, that exhaustion of the imagination, the drought, like someone took a straw and sucked up all the creative juices right out of us (okay, that was a weird analogy, but we’re going with it). I have it happen to me all the time, way more than I’d like. I just don’t want to write. Every word is forced, and comes out horrible and flat because of it. Every second staring at the blank page and blinking cursor feels like agony. I’m like butter scraped over too much bread, as Bilbo would say. A lot of…

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What I Learned from The Lunar Chronicles

For the last couple months I’ve been enjoying a book series, The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. And by “enjoying” I mean flailing and screaming and crying and fangirling and all around obsessing. It has kind of been my world. As I writer, my brain automatically soaks in writing lessons while reading. Subconsciously, I’m constantly asking myself questions as I read like, “Why do I love this part so much?” “Why does this feel slow?” “That was such a good scene, what type of wording was used?” It’s a curse of the writer, we can’t help it. So since I…

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