YA: Teens First, Adults who are Young (or young at heart), Second

A few days ago, I read The Many Ways YA Books & The Community Isolates Teens by VICKY WHO READS. It was a thought provoking blog post about Young Adult (YA) fiction that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how teens are isolated from the books that are supposed for them. Because adults are the…

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Reflections on My First Two Book Events

This week, I attended my first two book-related events as an author: a book talk / signing at Jabberwocky Books and the Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival. For someone with lots of social anxiety, planning, committing too, and/or attending events is no small feat, but somehow, I managed to set up a launch event and…

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Publishing Paths: Roads go ever ever on (I hope).

I’ve missed a few months, but today, I realized it was  Insecure Writer’s Support Group Blog Hop Day before the day was over. The first Wednesday of every month, the IWSG posts an optional question, encouraging members to read and comment on each other’s blogs. September’s Question is: What publishing path are you considering/did you…

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Book Review: Given To the Earth by Mindy McGinnis

Given To the Earth by Mindy McGinnis My rating: 4 of 5 stars Given to the Earth is a continuation of the events in Given to the Earth. I’ll refrain from describing the plot in this review because I’m not sure I can do so without spoilers or copying too much for the blurb. On…

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Cover Matters Part 2: Making A Book’s Cover Art

In my experiences with small, independent publishers, making a cover is a collaboration between the author and/or editor and artist. With NineStar Press, I experienced the cover making process as an author for one book. With B Cubed Press, I was the cover artist for three books: two multi-author anthologies and one sing-author poetry collection.…

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Book Review: ECHO Campaign

ECHO Campaign by Taylor Brooke My rating: 5 of 5 stars ECHO Campaign is the second installment in the Isolation Series. A twisty plot, beautiful prose, and a ton of tension made this book fly by. In the first book, Omen Operation, the characters were on the run. In Echo Campaign, they’re caught, adapting to…

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Book Review: Ignite the Stars

I received a copy Ignite the Stars from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This one is longer than some of my other reviews, but this book, with its strengths and flaws, is important and needs more words. When I looked at the other reviews on Goodreads, one of the first ones quoted someone…

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Cover Matters: Part 1

I love the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” because so many things are not what they appear. A restaurant with a run down front may have the best food in town. A person’s physical gender may not reflect whom they are inside. A great book might he hiding behind the worst cover…

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Book Review: Ruin of Stars

Ruin of Stars by Linsey Miller My rating: 5 of 5 stars I received a free electronic copy of Ruin of Stars, the sequel to Mask of Shadows, in exchange for an honest review. Mask of Shadows was good, but Ruin of Stars is still ten times better. The plot in Ruin of Stars was…

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Book Review: Our Dark Stars by  Audrey Grey and Krystal Wade

I received a copy of “Our Dark Stars by  Audrey Grey and Krystal Wade on NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. A combination of the cover, the pitch “Firefly meets Sleeping Beauty” caught my attention, so I requested the book. I enjoyed reading it, though I don’t think it lived up to…

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