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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Websites, Blog Tours, and Giveaways, Oh My!
Wow, guys. Just, wow. I have so much to announce and so little time to do it. Okay, here goes: First: WE HAVE A BOOK RELEASE DATE. The book that I’ve co-authored with my sister and mom, THE SOWING, will be released in weekly installments beginning July 17, 2013. I can’t wait, and I am…
Read MoreBook Review: “In The End” by Alexandra Rowland
Two weeks ago, at the Missouri Writer’s Guild Conference, I met a girl named Alexandra Rowland, whose passion for writing was unquenchable. I was impressed from the get-go at her drive, her exuberance, and the fact that she, a year younger than me, seemed to have her writerly shit together way more than I do. Example:…
Read MoreOn Hearing Loss, Reading, and Writing: A Personal Narrative
From a very early age, I was fascinated with language. I was speaking in full, complete sentences before I even got my first tooth in. My parents described me as being like a tiny elderly person, a sort of Benjamin Button character, gummy and toothless but coherent and eager to communicate. I learned to read…
Read MoreBook 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 MoreWhat Does Your Rating Scale Say About You?
So I finally figured out a way to properly define book ratings so that they make sense to me, and (hopefully) will make sense to my readers. I’ve always struggled with the traditional five-star rating system, because there’s so much room for misinterpretation. For instance, if someone rates something four stars, does that mean it…
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 MoreHow Jack Learned To Read
I have had the good fortune of conversing with a very interesting fellow over on Goodreads. This fellow (who requested anonymity, we’ll call him Jack) was kind enough to talk to me about how he got into reading at a much later age than most do, and how important books have become to him. I…
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The Z-Axis 