Next up on the Summer Reads Blog Tour is…

June 17, 2014June 25, 20141 Comment

Once again, I’ve got some great book recommendations to share with you. To find out more about the Summer Reads Blog Tour, check out Lisa L. Wiedmeier’s blog, original home of the following post.

Now, without further ado, here’s this week’s guest, Carrie Fetzer!

Summer Reads Blog Tour – Week Three

Welcome Carrie Fetzer!

This week it’s our beloved Carrie’s turn to share her favorite reads with you. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to have her come into my life and support me the way she has. Last November, I half jokingly put it out on the page that I needed a page administrator, and our lovely Carrie messaged me! Not only did she volunteer, but she’s run with it wholeheartedly.

She’s done an amazing job with keeping the conversation going, and filled a huge gap for me when I needed it most. This was supposed to just be a temporary position, but Carrie wanted to stay on! The best part of having her admin my page?

A chocolatey challenge

June 10, 201412 Comments

The Chocolate Bar Challenge is a blog tour in which participants choose up to eight of their favorite books and then pick the perfect chocolate to go with each of them. I was tagged by the lovely AFE Smith and since the only thing I like better than books or chocolate is books AND chocolate, this seemed like a fantastic idea.

Now, on to the deliciousness! In no particular order, of course. 🙂

First up, it’s my all-time favorite book, Time Enough for Drums by Ann Rinaldi. It’s set in Trenton during the Revolutionary War and follows Jemima, a staunch Patriot who can’t understand why her parents allow a Tory to tutor her. But things aren’t quite what they seem, and as the war takes an unexpected toll, she learns some hard lessons about freedom and responsibility. It’s a fantastic book, and I’ve read it so many times I can quote it at length.

I think the best chocolate to pair with a great comfort read like this (because it’s one of my favorite comfort reads) is a milk chocolate Dove bar. Smooth and creamy with just the right amount of sweetness…

WIP Blog Hop

June 7, 2014June 4, 201415 Comments

Basically, this blog hop involves answering seven questions about my current work in progress, tagging five new participants, and linking back to the person who nominated me. I was nominated by the lovely Tricia Drammeh, and you can find her post here. 🙂

Vegin
Artwork by Hazel Butler

1. What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or a historic person?
Vegin is the Crown Prince of Lokana and very much a figment of my imagination.

2. When and where is the story set?
The story is set in the kingdom of Lokana in the present day, but present-day Lokana looks very much like the Middle Ages. Eventually there is a small detour to Arkona, a mythical world based on our own that looks very much like present-day eastern Iowa.

3. What should we know about him/her?
Vegin is an idealist. He wants to improve living conditions (among other things) in his kingdom, but feels powerless to change anything. He’s headstrong and naïve, charismatic and caring. He tries to do the best he can with what’s at hand.

4. What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?
In Book One…

Chasing Azrael

June 3, 20146 Comments

Hello! Me again. I’ve finished two books quite close together, so I’m back with another review for you. Today, let’s take a look at Chasing Azrael by Hazel Butler, archaeologist, artist, and fellow member of the Alliance of Worldbuilders. From Amazon:

When Andee Tilbrook’s husband died, her preoccupation with death turned to obsession. Thanks to her unique ability to commune with the dead, her husband remains all too close, yet never close enough. Mired in grief, she clings to James’s spirit, slowly losing touch with the world, her friends, and any desire to continue living.

But when her friend Josh becomes the target of Natalya, a jealous, capricious and violent Russian beauty, Andee somehow finds the strength to free herself from her misery long enough to help him. They soon discover that Natalya is wanted by the police for her involvement in a series of grisly murders, and Andee is dragged into the inquiry by the same man who investigated her own husband’s death.

Torn between new feelings for Josh, and fear that he might be involved in the murders that seem to threaten anyone who comes close, Andee must face the realities of her life, her past, and her very nature-and do it all in time to save her own life.

I could not put this book down. I stayed up past the witching hour…

Review time!

June 2, 201410 Comments

I’ve been reading again the last few weeks, something I really should do more of. I used to always have my nose in a book, but now trying to find time to escape into another world so completely when there are so many other demands on my time is just exhausting. I really do need to make more of an effort, though, because reading more (and widely) is one of the best, easiest, and most entertaining ways to improve my own writing.

With that in mind, behold the glory that is City of the Sun by Juliana Maio. This fantastic book is set in Cairo during WWII, which is one of my favorite periods to study, the Holocaust in particular. I love reading accounts of what it was like living under Nazi rule because it’s so different from what I know, and it terrifies me to think that people can be so horrible to each other.

But this book is a work of fiction; while real people appear in it, and similar events did take place, the author used them for her own purposes. From Goodreads:

Ambitious American journalist Mickey Connolly has come to Cairo to report on the true state of the war. Facing expulsion by the British for not playing by their rules, he accepts a deal from the U.S. embassy that allows him to remain in the country. His covert mission: to infiltrate the city’s thriving Jewish community and locate a refugee nuclear scientist who could be key to America’s new weapons program. But Mickey is not the only one looking for the elusive scientist. A Nazi spy is also desperate to find him–and the race is on. Into this mix an enigmatic young woman appears, a refugee herself. Her fate becomes intertwined with Mickey’s, giving rise to a story of passion, entangled commitments, and half-truths.

Once I started this story, I couldn’t put it down. Well, okay, I could, obviously, or it wouldn’t have taken me so long to finish it, but when I wasn’t reading, I was thinking about it. Mickey and Maya wouldn’t leave me alone; they demanded I finish reading to see what happened. The romance was captivating, and the tension just kept ratcheting up the further I read. I noted some parallels between what happened in the Middle East 70-odd years ago and what is happening there today, which made the story all the more intriguing.

If you like historical fiction, and you like a good love story, and you’re looking for a thrill, then check out City of the Sun. It’s got all of that and more!

Author Interview with Juliana Maio and Giveaway

The Summer Reads Blog Tour!

June 2, 2014September 10, 20147 Comments

For the next thirteen weeks, I’ll be participating in Lisa L. Wiedmeier’s Summer Reads Blog Tour. It’s going to be lots of fun! There will be book recommendations and prizes and author talk…It’s a tour made of win!

As the posts go up, I’ll be reblogging them and adding the links to this post, but be sure to head over to Lisa’s blog, too, because she’s got a Rafflecopter event of epic proportions going on. She’s got books! She’s got swag! She’s got a one-hour Skype session!

But you can’t win if you don’t read these posts. So, without further ado, the links to the posts lie below!

Week One – Lisa L. Wiedmeier
Week Two – Sam Dogra
Week Three – Carrie Fetzer
Week Four – Will Macmillan Jones
Week Five – Andrea Baker
Week Six – Tricia Drammeh
Week Seven – Sammy HK Smith
Week Eight – Kay Kauffman
Week Nine – Michel Prince
Week Ten – AFE Smith
Week Eleven – Sophie E. Tallis
Weeks Twelve and Thirteen – Lisa’s Reflections

I’m a guest!

June 1, 2014June 1, 2014Leave a comment

Today I’m happy to say that I’m guest posting at my new friend Alisa’s blog! We met during the Blogging 201 challenge WordPress ran in April and became blogging buddies. I love making new friends! 🙂

We thought it would be fun to do a couple of posts about inspiration, and mine is up on her blog today. Alisa blogs about all sorts of fun and crafty things, and I’m excited to be there.

To check out my post and learn what’s inspiring me at the moment, just click here. And stay tuned – coming soon, Alisa will be taking over here for a day!

My writing process

May 19, 201414 Comments

Last week, my friend and fellow author Tricia Drammeh tagged me in the My Writing Process blog hop, so that’s what I’ll be talking about today. I’ll try not to bore you all to tears, but no promises.

I kid. I won’t bore you. I hope. 😀

What are you currently working on?

Lipei
Artwork by Hazel Butler

I’m currently in the midst of rewriting The Lokana Chronicles. I think this is Official Rewrite No. 3, but since I’ve been working on this series for the better part of a decade, it’s hard to tell – I’ve decided that keeping track of all the revisions this thing has undergone is impossible, and I gave up trying a long time ago. Once I finish revising the first book, I’ll be heading back to the query trenches with it, and this time, I hope I’ll have better luck. I feel like the story is much stronger now than it was the first time I queried, and I hope to find someone who agrees with me.

I also have a short story in the works called The Colony, which is about…

Inquisitor is out!

May 16, 20143 Comments

That’s right, today is release day for Inquisitor, the latest offering from RJ Blain. Read on to find out more about this exciting new fantasy novel!

About Inquisitor:

When Allison is asked to play Cinderella-turned-Fiancee at a Halloween ball, the last thing she expected was to be accused of murder on the same night. She has to find the killer and quick, or she’ll be put to death for the crimes she didn’t commit. To make matters worse, the victims are all werewolves.

On the short list of potential victims, Allison has to act fast, or the killer will have one more body to add to his little black book of corpses.

There’s only one problem: One of the deaths has struck too close to home, and Allison’s desire for self-preservation may very well transform into a quest for vengeance…