I was really thrilled to have the opportunity to read and review BELTAMAR’S WAR by C. G. Ayling, a writer who I met and communicated with on Twitter and with whose writing I was impressed. I’m always a little nervous when I agree to read and review self-published books – I’ve read a fair few…
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Book Review: “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy
I barely know where to begin with this one. I picked up “The Road” because I’m currently waiting for reader comments on my own post-apocalyptic novel, THE SOWING, and I wanted to take advantage of the downtime to research the classic dystopian and post-apocalyptic stories – the ones that my own work will inevitably draw…
Read MoreA Poem
Seeing as it is Poetry Appreciation Month, I decided to try my hand at writing one of my own – something I haven’t attempted since college. I’m not much of a poet, and I wouldn’t consider myself particularly well-versed in poetry (see my previous post) but now seems to be as good a time as…
Read MoreIt’s Poetry Appreciation Month!
And that means we have to celebrate by pretending to like poetry for a little while, or by sharing our favorite poems, or poets, or at the very least talking about why we don’t like poetry, if that happens to be the case. I’ll be making a distinct effort to actually talk about poetry a few times during the…
Read MoreThe 5 Best Writing Tips I’ve Ever Received
First I want to take a minute to say THANK YOU to everyone who commented on my last post or followed my blog after I wrote the post ‘The 5 Worst Writing Tips I’ve Ever Received.’ It was really thrilling to have so many people engaged in the conversation, and I hope we can keep…
Read MoreWhy IS Dystopian Fiction So Great?
The estimable Jamey Stegmaier emailed me the other day after I posted my last book review and asked me a very interesting question. What is it, he asked, that you like so much about dystopian fiction? The question really got me thinking. After all, I’m working on a book with strong dystopian elements, and I’ve read a whole…
Read MoreBook Review: “Disconnect” by Imran Siddiq
I’ve been going on a bit of a YA reading spree lately, but I’ve been fairly disappointed by the fact that so many of the protagonists in this genre are female. I have nothing against female protagonists, but the imbalance in the genre is overwhelming. Where are the books for boys? Where are the coming-of-age…
Read MoreBook Review: “Days of Blood and Starlight”
In June of this year, I read and reviewed the first book in Laini Taylor’s bestselling series, “Daughter of Smoke and Bone”. I called it–and I was not alone in this–“young adult fiction”, for its fantasy elements, its playful and inspired prose, and its plot-driven, fast-paced machinery. This second book, however, defies that categorization. Maybe…
Read MoreBook Review: “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius”
A critic’s darling, a national bestseller, winner of a plethora of book awards (I’m sure, though my politico fact checkers have yet to comment on this unverified claim), a not-quite heartbreaking work of perhaps some form of genius—and yet at the heart of it all I get the sense that Dave Eggers is mocking both…
Read MoreBook Review: “The Enormous Room”
For some time now I have promised, and not yet delivered, a book review of one of the two following books: THE ENORMOUS ROOM, by E.E. Cummings, or THE GARGOYLE, by Andrew Davidson. Voters weighed in and ultimately the scales tipped in favor of Cummings’ classic, rather than the nouveau contemporary. I’m a little surprised…
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The Z-Axis 