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A collection of 115 posts

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Book Review: Best Intentions

Best Intentions had me from the very first word, and the punchy protagonist didn’t let me down from there. Fern is a freelancer for hire, like many urban fantasy heroines, but she breaks the overdone female-private-detective mold in several, refreshing ways. First, she’s funny as hell. Fern is

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Zima: Origins First Draft Complete!

Feels like a marathon over the last several days—though I’ve never run one, nor really been out of my chair much this week… (ahem) At any rate, the first draft of Zima: Origins is finished! Weighing at 43k words / ~118 pages, it’s on the border between a

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Book Review: All That Was Asked

All That Was Asked is one of those books that, even after reading the description, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. “Twitchy little creature”? It sounded a little like a Disney movie. Happily, I was wrong. Very wrong. Author Vanessa MacLaren-Wray sets us up on a hostile alien

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Angels in the Mist Available For Pre-Order, And A New Cover!

Two exciting announcements in one!!! After a brief hiatus while working with my publisher, Angels in the Mist is now available for pre-order from all your favorite sellers, and it has a brand-new cover! Launch date is June 16th, so head over to Amazon or my web site and check

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Book Review: Sweep with Me

It dawned on me recently that the Innkeeper Chronicles is a lot like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, a series I didn’t think I’d like when I learned the premise. After all, how can you compare the adventures of the Enterprise, which travels to new worlds almost every

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Book Review: Sweep of the Blade

Sweep of the Blade, book #4 of the Innkeeper Chronicles, takes a break from Dina’s quirky Gertrude Hunt and follows her sister, Maud, through a brief glimpse of her troubled history of, shall we say… questionable life choices that left her in exile and as a single mother to

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Book Review: Hot Drop

Hot Drop is an adrenaline-spiked hallucinogen injected straight into your neck. From the first paragraph, it grabs you by the nose and doesn’t let go until 25 pages later, where it plops you back on the couch, panting and questioning your own reality. Author J Dark does a marvelous

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What's Up: February 2020 Edition

What an exciting few months! Work has been keeping me busy, along with other fun distractions like family Frozen 2 night (didn’t quite live up to the first, but I enjoyed it). That of course hasn’t stopped the writing train! I recently took Angels in the Mist down

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Book Review: Iron and Magic

Iron and Magic is one of those books I wouldn’t have even looked at if my wife hadn’t insisted it was a necessary read before the last book in the series, Magic Triumphs. Hugh was a jerk in the main series and held little interest to me as

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Book Review: Leviathan Wakes

It’s been a while since I’ve read a good space opera. Or maybe I never have, and Leviathan Wakes has simply opened my eyes to how wonderfully engaging a great book can be. I picked it up because I’d heard how great The Expanse TV series was.

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Book Review: Fire Touched

Fire Touched picks up shortly after Night Broken, and I’m pleased to say it didn’t disappoint. Mercy and the rest of her pack kick things off by facing a bridge troll—and I don’t mean those cute little guys with big, colorful hair. This one eats cars,

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Corporate Catharsis Anthology: One Author's Journey

Confession time: I’m not a short-story reader. Give me an epic series with a lowly protagonist who evolves into the most powerful being in the universe over the course of 10 x 500+ page books, and that’s the last you’ll see of me for a year. To

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Book Review: Night Broken

Mercy is back and, I’m happy to say, in top form. Night Broken picks up the series from Frost Burned’s dip. Mercy faces her most daunting foe to date: Adam’s ex-wife, Christy. Sure, Christy brings with her a primal foe whose threatens the world in biblical proportions,

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Book Review: Frost Burned

Frost Burned is the 7th installment in Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series. I’ve made it this far, which is a testament to Patricia’s world- and character- building skills. That said, Frost Burned wasn’t my favorite of the series. The previous book, River Marked, had flowing action, relationship

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Book Review: Pleasure Unbound

Pleasure Unbound is one of those books I didn’t expect to like as much as I did. As the title and cover imply, there are plenty of steamy scenes with the dominant, ripped, ungodly handsome, and, of course, brooding yet sensitive love interest. Urban fantasy fans will be pleased

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Book Review: River Marked

River Marked is another great novel in the series. Briggs takes us along with Mercy and Adam on their honeymoon to a campsite far from home, where they have the entire, glorious place to themselves. Of course, Mercy can’t go anywhere without trouble following her like a were-puppy. This

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Book Review: Building Baby Brother

Building Baby Brother is what happens when 2001: A Space Odyssey meets a contemporary children’s bedtime story that’s really meant for adults. The protagonist (“Dad”) is a single father sharing custody of his young son with his frigid ex-wife. He’s also a programmer/inventor, so, naturally, when

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Book Review: Silver Borne

Continuing the upward trend, Silver Borne surpasses Bone Crossed as my favorite Mercy book—and no, I’m not done with the series yet. =] “Balanced” is the best word for it. Mercy has a few issues she’s trying to get past, and justifiably so, but she continues to peek

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Book Review: An Unsettled Grave

An Unsettled Grave is the second book in the series. I didn’t read the first one, and, while at times I felt I was missing a key piece of Santero or Rein’s past, it wasn’t enough to detract from the story. Carrie Santero was realistic, relatable, and

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Book Review: The Hunt for Red October

The Hunt for Red October is the first Tom Clancy book I’ve ever read—and probably my last. Don’t get me wrong: His ability to dive into the details and describe every nut and bolt on the ship is astounding. If I ever wanted to pilot a submarine

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Howling Frog Review

"...it's hard to put down. The pace keeps up and the whole thing is a wild ride." I found out recently that a friend of mine from high school is also a book blogger. She graciously agreed to give Angels in the Mist an honest review.

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Crème de la Cover Contest!

Angels in the Mist has been nominated for the Crème de la Cover contest on InD'Tale Magazine! If you like my cover and would like to show your support, please sign up and vote! Big thanks to Amy and Carolina for designing such a wonderful cover. https://www.

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How Software Craftsmanship Made Me a Better Author

When after fifteen years as a software developer I decided to try my hand at writing fiction, I was prepared to start at ground zero. Apart from a few attempts at fiction in high school, the only substantial things I’d written were software architecture and requirements documents. I wasn’

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Book Review: Bone Crossed

This is my first read through the Mercy Thompson series, and Bone Crossed is my favorite so far. It’s the first one to me where Mercy felt… reasonable. Relatable. I’m all for a strong female protagonist, but sometimes I’m just left scratching my head thinking, “Really?” There’

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InD'Tale Video Review Including Angels in the Mist

Woohoo! Angels in the Mist has been included in this month's video montage of Crowned Heart of Excellence reviews, and it's first! Of course, they also seem to appear alphabetically by title... Either way, come check it out in all its (slightly laggy and compression-riddled) YouTube