Early last year (wow, time flies doesn't it?), I wrote what has probably become my most popular blog post of all time, in which I discussed the fact that so much of a writer's work relies on the principle "just do it." I've met a lot of writers who have the same issue: they spend hours and hours (or even days or weeks) just...
Book Review: Rath's Trial by Piers Platt
I was approached about joining the ARC team for this series last fall and ended up really enjoying the first three books. Imagine my surprise when I received the latest newsletter announcing there would be another trilogy!
At the end of Book 3, Rath's Reckoning, our heroes more or less wrapped things up in terms of their ongoing battle with the ruthless Janus Group. But nothing...
Book Review: Abysm by G.S. Jennsen
I kinda felt like I'd just reviewed one of G.S. Jennsen's books, and then I realized I had. YOU GUYS, IT HASN'T EVEN BEEN THREE MONTHS. The woman is a machine.
Honestly, it's amazing that Abysm came about as quickly as it did, because it deals with some very complicated subject matter that would have taken a lesser writer ages to refine. While this book...
Making the Most of What You've Got
Book Review: Drysine Legacy by Joel Shepherd
One of my favorite things about reading a series -- especially a series like this where I've grown to really love the characters -- is revisiting those characters. I was attached to them after just a few pages in Renegade, and even though...
Book Review: Renegade by Joel Shepherd
I want to start out by saying how absolutely terrible I feel about how long it took me to finish this book. According to Goodreads, I started it February 24, which actually wasn't as long ago as I feared. It really WAS excellent, and the last 30% or so really flew by because I was actually able to devote a proper amount of focus to...
Book Review: Dissonance by G.S. Jennsen
It seems like after every Aurora Rhapsody book I read, I wonder what could possibly come next. Then when those next things happen, I always have a "D'oh!" moment because everything seems so obvious. So inevitable. So perfect.
While the Aurora Rising trilogy was centered around war and conspiracies...
Myers Briggs: Get to Know Your Characters
A little over a year ago, I put Ziva through a Myers Briggs test just out of curiosity and was shocked to find that she has the same MBTI type as I do (ISTJ, for the record). I mean, I had always recognized certain parallels in our personalities, but I definitely hadn't expected the results to be the same. Still, even among the "official" 16 personality types, there are numerous variations and...
ICYMI: Author Life Month
If you follow me on social media, you probably kept up with a little Instagram game I played in February. Author Life Month started out by providing a list of all the daily themes -- participants were supposed to post a photo corresponding with each theme on the given day, making sure each post was tagged with...
Mass Effect: Sole Survivor
I'm a firm believer that writers should always keep everything they've written. Who knows - maybe you'll actually find a use for an old piece of writing at some point! But I think the best part of saving your work is being able to go back years later and see how much you've improved over time. As much as I hate some of the early stories I wrote...
