A quick, charming, and fun installment that will leave you eager for the next full adventure. Perfect for when you need a little taste of werewolves, vampires, sirens, and snarky heroics.
Anji Kills a King by Evan Leikam – Review
A sharp, magic-tinged fantasy with a strong opening, a welcome lack of romance, and a prickly protagonist you can’t help but root for.
Read MoreFirst of Shadows by Deck Matthews – Review
How do you kill a shadow? As a raging storm descends on the Blasted Coast, the crippled young rigger, Caleb Rusk, meets a stranger on the road. Little does he know that the encounter will pull him into a conflict that threatens everything he holds dear—and change the course of his life forever. Meanwhile, in Read more
Read MoreWriter Fuel: Two Things AI Can’t Take Away from You
A lot of people are nervous—and with good reason—that Artificial Intelligence (AI) might take away opportunities from human writers. After all, why should publishers pay humans to produce material when they can get a GPT to spit out something similar for free? What is it that can differentiate human writers from the bots? Two things: Read more
Read MoreThe Tale of Gurion Thricebound by Angela Holder – Review
If you’re interested in a thoughtful exploration of societal structures, privilege, and revolution, seen through the eyes of one family living through the upheaval, then this book is absolutely worth your time.
Heart Blade by Juliana Spink Mills – Review
If you have a teenager in the house looking for a good read, or if you, like me, enjoy a well-written YA book every now and then, I can genuinely recommend this debut novel!
Read MoreWriter Fuel: How I Do Morning Pages (and break all the rules!)
In fall of 2003, I got a copy of The Artist’s Way and decided I was going to work through it step-by-step. I completed the twelve weeks, and the effect on my creative life was nothing short of transformative. Yet, one thing tripped me up along the way and kept me from continuing the program Read more
Read MorePilgrims of the Dead by Steve McHugh – Review
These are vampires who make choices about what kind of people they want to be, not mindless predators, and I love that mix of grit, gore, and moral conviction
Writer Fuel: Three-Act Analysis of Romeo and Juliet
It recently occurred to me that it would be interesting to see if the three-act structure worked with one of Shakespeare’s plays. After all, the structure has held up when looking at novels and movies of various different genres, but I have yet to use it to analyze anything by Shakespeare. To find out if Read more
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The Prisoner of Beauty: Novel vs. Drama – Key Differences You Should Know
The Prisoner of Beauty has captured audiences in both its original novel form and its drama adaptation. But while the two share the same core premise, they differ greatly in tone, characterization, and storytelling. If you’ve read the novel and are now watching the drama (or vice versa), you’ll quickly notice the shifts. Here’s a Read more
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