Recent Posts
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Dec. 16 – A Truth Universally Acknowledged
Happy 250th birthday, Jane Austen! In 1813, Austen published her most famous novel anonymously, due to contemporary prejudice against female writers. It’s sad that Austen, who died just four years later at the age of 41, was unable to receive credit for the work in her lifetime. Since then, it’s been adapted to stage, screen,…
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Book Review: The God of Endings by Jacqueline Holland
A great modern take on vampires that will leave you breathless and hoping the whole way through.
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Happy Banned Books Week!
Happy Banned Books Week to all who celebrate! (And if you follow this blog, you probably do.) Here is the list of the ten most banned books from 2024 (courtesy of the American Library Association): Check out a summary of the report below:
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Book Review: Slewfoot by Brom
Good for her.
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Book Review: The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly by Sun-mi Hwang
A simple, lovely story about love for the family we make and how they change our view of ourselves and the world.
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Book Review: 11/22/63 by Stephen King
“The past is obdurate.” -Stephen King I might like King better as a sci-fi writer than a horror one. While I can never remember the name of this book (my memory for words is much better than that for numbers), I often recommend it to people who like science fiction, and particularly time travel. The…
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Book Review: I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
“That is another question that will remain unanswered: I feel as though I am made of nothing else.” -Jacqueline Harpman I devoured this little novella in one sitting. I’m a sucker for a good survival story, and lately I’ve been loving works where female gender plays an important role. You can guess the latter from…
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Book Review: One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford
A cool, modern spin on th zombie apocalypse that satisfies the need for intricate detail and doesn’t make you bored of the undead halfway in.
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I’m published!
I just had my first short fiction piece published in Cleaver Magazine! It’s free to read and to subscribe to get more great writing from them.
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Book Review: City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
A love letter to Theater People; I tore through this one.
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Book Review: A Chorus of Dragons series by Jenn Lyons
Is this my favorite fantasy series? It might be my favorite fantasy series.
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Book Review: 40 by Alan Heathcock
I really hope Alan Heathcock isn’t a fortune teller.
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Book Review: The Bombshell by Darrow Farr
“A girl with a man, and a movement behind her, and a gun in her bag”
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Unreal Unearth, Chapter 10: Ascent
The conclusion of our series comparing the lyrics from Hozier’s Unreal Unearth to it’s inspiration, Dante’s Inferno.
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Unreal Unearth, Chapter 9: Treachery
Unknown / Nth represents the deepest circle of Hell–let’s see why.
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Unreal Unearth, Chapter 8: Fraud
This week, we take a look at Anything But and Abstract (Psychopomp) in the context of Dante’s Inferno.
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Unreal Unearth, Chapter 7: Violence
My favorite pair of songs on the album, and the seventh circle of Hell.
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Unreal Unearth, Chapter 6: Heresy
We take a look at Son of Nyx and All Things End in the context of Dante’s sixth circle of Hell.
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Unreal Unearth, Chapter 5: Anger
Take a look at the lyrics of Hozier’s Who We Are and explore Dante’s fifth circle of hell.
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Unreal Unearth, Chapter 4: Greed
A quick jaunt through the fourth circle of Hell, and the song Damage Gets Done.
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Unreal Unearth, Chapter 3: Gluttony
Enter Dante’s third circle of Hell and come with me to explore the lyrics of Hozier’s song Eat Your Young.
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Unreal Unearth, Chapter 2: Lust
In this third post analyzing the lyrics from Unreal Unearth, we dive into Francesca and I, Carrion (Icarian) and compare it to Dante’s journey through the second circle of Hell.
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Unreal Unearth, Chapter 1: Limbo
The second in my Unreal Unearth series. We enter the first circle of Hell and look at the lyrics of First Time.
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Unreal Unearth, Chapter 0: Descent
A new series analysing the lyrics of Hozier’s Unreal Unearth album in the context of its literary inspiration: Dante’s Inferno.
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Book Review: Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
A rich, beautiful, haunting retelling of the myth of Psyche and Eros. A must-read for anyone even passingly interested in the genre.
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Jan. 3 – Ash nazg durbatulûk
Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.
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Joyce’s “The Dead” and Turning 30
Brief reflections on Joyce and turning 30.
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100 Books in 2024
We bought our first house at the end of 2023, and moved in January. During this move, I realized that I owned a lot of books that I hadn’t even read. To reduce the hoard, and meet my goal of appreciating the things I have, I set a goal of reading 100 books in 2024,…
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Where does the term “freelancer” come from?
Shipley’s Dictionary of Word Origins doesn’t have an entry for the specific word freelancer, but it does have this (text in brackets are abbreviations spelled out by me for clarity): free. The man that calls himself heart-free is not talking in terms of origins. Free ([Old English] fréon, to love, cognate with [Sanskrit] priya, dear:…
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Book Review: Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
Another top pick for me for 2024!
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How Long is a Book, Anyway?
What does it mean when your writer friend says they wrote 100,000 words? How long should your novel be?
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Book Review: This World Is Not Yours by Kemi Ashing-Giwa
Toxic relationships and Eldritch horrors and bird analogues, oh my!
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All Writers Should Join Community Theatre
Really, all creatives should join community theatre. And no, I’m not just saying that because I’ve been doing it since 2004 (but really, please someone else join my group so I don’t have to go on any more ladders).
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Book Review: The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera
This was so good!!!
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Book Review: The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
A book that’s soft but also real–I think I actually prefer this one over Practical Magic!
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Book Review: Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
“Instead of co-opting someone else’s experience or consciousness, he must define his own.” But how do you do that when you feel like the script has been written for you?
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Book Review: Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore
Funny, fast-paced, and surprisingly moving. I could read a whole series about Oona!
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Book Review: The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Color Purple is hard to read and worth every word.
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My Experience With a Developmental Editor
“You describe hot boys very well. Lol.” And other delights of working with a developmental editor!
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Book Review: The Bees by Laline Paull
A tale about women, our complex inner lives, and our relationships with each other, both positive and negative. Also, everyone is a bee.
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Happy Disability Pride Month!
Disability Pride Month celebrates the passing of the ADA in 1990–which was by no means the end of the fight.
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Book Review: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
I’m just beyond obsessed with a fantasy series where female is the default, and getting to enjoy this intricately crafted world for 800+ pages? Bliss.
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Revise and Resubmit
Exciting news along the publishing journey!
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Book Review: Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick
Dare I call this an evergreen book about artificial intelligence?
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Book Review: Round Ireland With a Fridge by Tony Hawks
A fun romp of a true story. If you need to believe in the goodness of the average person again, take a ride with Hawks around Ireland.
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Book Review: Magpie by Elizabeth Day
One of my favorite thrillers ever. Plot, stakes, and a twist like you’ve probably never seen before. Plus it holds up to (nay, deserves) a second reading!
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Book Review: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
“We do bones, motherfucker.”
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Book Review: The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Beautiful, funny, and heartbreaking. Murray once against captures ordinary people in such a real and empathetic way that their stories can’t help but feel extraordinary.
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Book Review: The Age of Magical Overthinking by Amanda Montell
Another banger from Amanda Montell, looking at our modern internet age and the psychology that underlies some of our…less productive thought patterns.
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Word Choices: A Video Series from Merriam-Webster
Just watched this cool series on word choices, where Merriam-Webster interviews authors, comedians, cartoonists, and video game writers on how they choose their words. Each video is like 5-10 minutes and really interesting. Highly recommend checking it out! https://www.merriam-webster.com/video/word-choices-season-1
Words Per Mile 