I have had the pleasure of getting an advanced reader copy of Fantastic Hope, the new paranormal anthology that was released on April 7, 2020. This arc was provided via Netgalley, the best place for reviewers and avid readers to get and review new books. This anthology is a great way to be introduced to a wide variety of authors and writing styles. You may just buy it for one author and find a whole new library to read during this uncertain time. With a wide variety of bestselling authors this anthology has a lot of bang for your buck. While I could go crazy with this book review and write pages upon pages and bury you in paper, time is at a premium. This anthology is a great way to get acquainted with a number of authors and their writing styles. You may buy it for the latest in one series and end up with a new series to read, to love, and maybe even obsess about. These authors each have unique backgrounds and those backgrounds inform each story with details that will delight readers, . Rather than going through each story and providing spoilers that might make longtime fans and new readers alike angry, I will cede this space to a part of the Foreword and the words of the editors. “It’s a place where the hero wins, the bad guy is punished, and the monsters are only real while you’re reading the story. You can close the covers and be safe. Unlike the real terrors of the world online and in the news lately…welcome to a collection of stories where you can find hope, happy endings, loyalty, freedom, love, all the positive things that make the best of us. Welcome to thrilling adventures and a modern take on two-fisted adventure stories…Have faith in yourself, in the people who love you, in magic, in religion, in Deity, in science, and in things harder to label with just one word. Believe that there will be smiles after the tears, joy after the pain, and that it will all work out, that good will triumph and evil will not win forever…You’re holding people’s dreams in your hands, dreams made real for you to read and share. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did.” Laurell K Hamilton “Laurell is a big proponent of people doing their therapy and working through their shit. We sat over lunch and talked about the depressing stories that seemed to be everywhere, in the news and in fiction, and lamented that there weren’t more uplifting stories… Laurell and I are both survivors and we know that the world is not all unicorns, rainbows, and glitter. but we also know that there is light at the end of the tunnel and that the darkness can be pushed back, even if it starts with a spark….I hope that in this book you find a story that speaks to you that reminds you that tomorrow is a new day with new opportunities.” William McCaskey Believe again. Dream again. Know that you have the power to do the impossible and conquer your demons. Start a new relationship with favorite authors and new voices. Start here.
I am in a pretty bad state medically, and WAAAAY behind on my reading, which has lots of people who know me extremely concerned as they know what a big deal it is that I am not reading, because I am definitely a book addict. I had one family member recently tell me on the phone that he knew how badly sick I was and that I was downplaying my medical situation because he could not imagine anything making me so sick I wasn’t reading. But I have to admit I gave a fangirl scream when I found out Jacqueline Carey is going back into the world of Terre d’Ange…
The last time I gave that particular squeeling noise was when I found out that the Pini’s were writing The Final Quest which was as much a source of sorrow as celebration. But I have a feeling that once the Pini’s finish this particular run, there will still be irregular publications keeping the universe still relevant and giving us all the portal into the world of two moons…. Ayooooah
See, the universe does supply answers. Sometimes not the one we want but the one we need. Since the blow ups are still occuring in my family of origin (come on, who in my life is surprised at that one… Hmm no takers, wait nope that person just had an itch…) And the “bugaboos” (that is a made up word. If anyone out there uses that word for anything or is offended at it because it sounds like a word they have heard anywhere-that is not the use of this word and I CAN definitively say, as the person who created the word and owns the rights to it… STOP USING A WORD I CREATED if you are using it wrong. Down the rabbit hole we go… A Bugaboo is an issue that scares you or makes you uncomfortable after a situation has happened that in some way damaged you. It is like the ghost of Christmas past but instead of being Christmas it the ghost of… That inner child! Yay, new connection made!) Are now being multiplied left and right kinda like gremlins. Remember those? No too young for that? Ok furbys. Ah yes light dawns in a whole generation of people. When did I become a responsible adult? Ah, yes, that pesky thing called marriage. And when did it really hit home that I was IT as far as adults go? That would be when singing the shma and watching the light go out of my soul mates eyes… But when did it really break through? No one is asking, and this right here is what is so dangerous about the Internet. We forget what we are writing goes far and wide. That someone can twist our words to say whatever they want. And thus there are twitter wars and people who are famous for being famous telling us what to drink eat wear. Etc. But there to is the fun part. Remember the days where if you loved a celebrity you would send a hand written letter written over a period of days, edited over and over and a clean copy (without erasures or white out) would go to the celebrity. Two weeks or so later you would get something in the mail with a form letter and a small thing (a boomark, a headshot, etc). Now, you get to interact with authors and all the fans. Rather then a cold weekend trying to LARP we have people who role play online. Some of those are author approved and even the ones that aren’t allow us to interact with characters that started in someone else’s head. Isn’t that great? And we can connect with the authors who create our favorite universes. Have a question, ask the writer and if you are lucky get an answer. And it’s amazing how many times fans argue about a definitive answer from an author. We take it for granted that we can reach out and connect with someone. It’s amazing when you look at how far we have come. I remember when the Disney Channel started along with Nickelodeon. Now, if we can’t see our show on TV, there are instantaneous uploads. What a magnificent world we live in.
Ok, so I feel the need to speak up. I don’t know whether or not what I am seeing on facebook is a collaboration between google Microsoft apple and facebook. I don’t know if I am only seeing the posts of people in my sphere ir not, and none of us ever thought about what would happen in the last 20-30 years. When Disney started a TV channel of was controversial too. I don’t know that we need to be fermenting dissent. And none of us ever thought that the Internet was anything but a geekdom. So, this is what happens. Instead of lamenting our unintended consequences why don’t we look ar how far we have come since the 1940s. I choose to believe in people, in g-d and the fact that no matter what we will be ok. Maybe I am wrong. My world has personally been shattered twice by the pivotal losses of the two men of my life. Dad 32 days before the big wedding we’d been arguing over every tiny detail of for 18 months. And Jerome 10 years ago. I guess I didn’t learn enough from the first loss. But I firmly believe in the soul and G-d and that we will all see each other again. But I believe Jerome and my dad are with my girls because that’s where their heart is. And yes I may be more Anita blake then Belle but oh, the beasts library. Why are their laptops we can carry in our pockets? Because we were tired of carrying our full towers to gaming tournamwbts. None of us thought about how we would get to our future bit just put it… Someday after most everyone dies. But I want to be the heroine of my story. Full stop. And somehow I ended up in a place where I am a stereotype… Why? Because I am a book nerd. I read the originals and all the new copies so I know how bad things can get. But they also have come so far… So, if my friends who are freaking out will breathe for a minute the oxygen will calm you down. That’s the way your brain works and as we go farther and farther with cars that can drive themselves and complete access almost instantly to authors, actors, everything. Read the in death series by Nora Roberts as JD ROBB. We will get there , maybe. Or jt ellison and know true fear. Fear of secrets, fear of natural disasters which can shatter you by taking those you love. Or just of being completely consumed. Why? Because throughout history we have had to revisit our fears. And this is life. Complicated… Messy and oh so amazing. So when your car tells you you aren’t paying attention that’s because reading in cars gives you headaches, so there are audiobooks. That explains it. And we bitch if its not exactly like the voice in our head. And seat belts and airbags… Shoot look at car seats. Why? Because we are worried about our kids- either because of evolution or something else. But does it really matter? Look around and ask yourself if its better now then it was. If not, do your best to fix it. Stand up to those who are evil because all it takes for the villain to win is good people to do nothing. But I read them all. Which led to a whole new category of writing. With people like me as authors. So keep speaking up and celebrate the happy that much harder for all the sorrow along the way… And those are the books that take me away. I love that Seanan McGuire writes books with Shakespeare quotes as titles. And, that is just too cool! And then there are the others and somehow my worlds of tech and science crossed with my geekiness my need to understand and brought me here to this weird intersection of space and time where I just have to say. We are better off, but I agree with all my authors that we have to speak up. It won’t be anyone’s cup of tea, but ok. I want nothing to do with 50 shades of grey… But my fantasy books… Now, you can pry those out of my cold dead hands. But every bad cloud has a sun behind it. It will pass. And you hold onto the good that much harder. Why? because it is tempered by steel. We had to so we did. And now we are doctors and lawyers and lawyers and its progress. Yes we have a way to go, but all of it it progress…
I think you would love her. The writing is excellent, filled with snark and sarcasm. She also write horror under another name but…
Check out this sampler of the Incryptid series…
“Believe me, I want to be here even less than you do. Now, are we going to fight like civilized people, or am I going to stand here and taunt you?”
–Jane Harrington-Price
I even missed the ones I don’t like very much, like Verity. My family shares my context. They know my education, my experiences, where the bone-deep bruises on my psyche are. We have secrets from each other—God, do we have secrets from each other—but even those secrets are built upon a shared foundation of loss and loneliness and duty. Those things aren’t unique to our weird little community. People have been forging alliances and pledging fealty based on those things since there have been people in the world. But the specific recipe that we follow, the blend, that’s all us. That’s unique. “. Seanan Mcguire “Tricks for Free”
For those of you who don’t start your day by checking there major paranormal authors blogs, Twitter feeds, Facebook series pages, tumblr feeds and/or email lists and whom I have let down during my illness, I apologize.
Laurell K Hamilton’s Serpentine is announced for August 7, and given the long wait and the fact her posts on the blog seem to imply edits have been completed I’m pretty sure it will happen…
Katie MacAllister released the first book in a new series today with Fireborn and given that her books are always full of laughs and sarcasm, I cannot wait to get my hands on it… Oh and a Happy Book Birthday to her— may copies fly off the shelves and travel through the air with great speed to ereaders around the world allowing her to keep writing the books we readers adore…
So, I may be quiet for a bit…I am in Florida and may lose (well that’s a big question) my home, my life, my books, or just my power and internet…Hopefully I will escape this storm with minor damage, although given the insanity going on around me I may need therapy for PTSD, just kidding kind of…
But back to the important part…There is a giveaway for all of the October Daye series and a bunch of wisdom
http://www.unboundworlds.com/2017/09/seanan-mcguire-learned-october-plus-sweeps/
So, given the release of Rituals yesterday, I am rereading the Cainsville series. I am thoroughly enjoying spending time reconnecting with Olivia, Gabriel and Ricky…and to be quite honest I am not sure who I am rooting for in this triangle. I love Olivia and Ricky as a couple, but Gabriel needs her so badly…
He is so broken and yet so fixable…
Sigh…I guess I will have to read through the end of Rituals to find out how it all works out!
But, Oh my–I am quite enthralled in the story which reminds me how much I love Kelley Armstrong!
This series starts as contemporary fiction and yet there is so much more to the story and Kelley Armstrong seems a little bit incapable of writing without some sort of paranormal twist in there…
So, here is the deal with whats going on with me, this blog and the lack of content you are probably noticing…
My transition online went a little like this. I’ve used FaceBook for years to share pictures with people far and wide as my kids aged. And I used email when I tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to keep in touch with the family of my heart (my friends) and the family of my blood. I started a blog back then because I was writing these long emails to keep everyone up to date on all the cute things my kids were doing. Then the online social world took off, right around the time I became a widow. And an online presence was the absolute last thought on my mind-although it is why I finally joined facebook.
I read books on my kindles, which changed through the years and managed my ebooks on my laptops. I joined goodreads when it came about and followed my authors via their webpages and blogs. And about a year ago, I started writing reviews of my books on goodreads and amazon. There was so much negativity out there aimed at the authors and I wanted the authors to know that there were readers who weren’t negative and appreciated all the effort that went into their books.
I started reaching out to the authors (and their media minions) to offer support. And some of them told me the best thing I could do for them is write reviews and write blog posts. SO I started a tumblr blog-mostly to build up one authors body of work. And when I went to upgrade my netgalley account and sign up for amazon ad links, I was told tumblr wasn’t considered a respectable platform. Youtube and twitter are, but not tumblr. So, I needed a real website or a twitter following.
And I have spent the last month or so transitioning to wordpress and driving myself insane rying to make it look right, to get the tags right, to get the categories right. I’m still not there! But I realized if I didn’t start posting again the appearance wouldn’t matter-no one would see it!
So, I’m spending most of my time on the appearance! And I will try to remember that I have to post too! I want this site to be a place where book lovers can come and hear my thoughts on the latest books and share theirs. I will work to make it that- so please leave comments or crosspost me!
And if you notice radio silence for too long, don’t be hesitant to email me and remind me that I’m doing this to build up my favorite authors-large and small!!!!
My next novel will be out June of 2018. I’ve been posting about the process of writing it, and a lot of you are asking what am I working on? Is it an Anita Blake novel, or a Merry Gentry one? Or something new? The answer to your question is in the picture we’ve just posted, or at least clues to the answer are there. The picture will tell you what series, some of the characters featured, and even some of the important plot points. There’s even a clue in this message. All you have to do is decipher the clues and you’ll have your answer. You’ll get your biggest hint next week, which will end some of the speculation, but not all of it. Shall we play a game?
