My Blog
Five of the Coolest Fantasy Elements I’ve Ever Read
Like all books, a good fantasy needs a solid plot, three-dimensional characters, and enough emotion to make the reader care. But a great fantasy also needs a clever magic system to distinguish it from its peers. Here are five of the niftiest, most memorable fantasy...
My Year in Books: Young Adult April
Since my wedding is rapidly approaching (May 13th--less than a month away!), my reading habits have rapidly declined over the past few weeks. I had big plans to dive into young adult literature this month, but I only ended up getting three books finished: Freaky Green...
5 Elements of a Great Setting
This month, I reread the upper middle grade novel Tangerine by Edward Bloor. I remembered loving it as a kid, but that was about all I remembered. So, I got to reread the story with completely fresh eyes. Tangerine turned out to be a well-written, thought-provoking...
Ooh! A Shiny New Idea
Since I’m getting married in May (and wayyy behind on the wedding planning), I promised myself I wouldn’t take on any major writing projects until June. Meaning I wouldn’t tackle revisions on my novel-in-progress, Daphne and the Whale, in the first five months of the...
My Year in Books: Mystery March
I love mysteries—at least, I used to. I devoured Sherlock Holmes and Nancy Drew as a kid, and as an adult I fell in love with Monk, Columbo, and the BBC Poirot series. But for a long time, I stopped reading mysteries. It’s like I forgot they existed. I recently wrote...
How to Perfect Those Pesky First Pages
I’ve recently been working on a couple of novel contest entries. Since most contests want only the first couple chapters, this is a great opportunity to further polish my opening pages. They were pretty strong before (if I do say so myself), but I’m amazed how much...