Toiling away on the novel, I haven’t had much opportunity to submit short fiction, but it’s all looking great on the non-fiction front. The past few months I’ve seen pieces I’m excited about go live – a new installment on my column, a challenging review on an anthology and a piece on inspiration. Read More Innumerable Voices & Assorted Links
Tag:
book review
Another year, another post about my year in reading. Rather than create a singular reading list, I’ve opted to break down my reading into three quarters and present my thoughts in short. I hope to change my habits where reading is considered for 2016 in order to reflect my needs as a reader to cope with my poor memory for plot and character names and those as a writer to better understand what in particular about a certain book works or not.
Until then, behold my master reading list. Read More 2015: A Year in Reading [January-April]
After reading Cthulhurotica, the first editorial work by Carrie Cuinn I had encountered, I knew I had found an editor I’d follow into any and every project she would involve herself in. Why? It’s fairly simple. Cuinn doesn’t edit, but rather throws herself with such abandon in her vision as to how her anthologies ought to look, feel and be, the finished product has its own gravitational pull and it won’t let go until you’ve read the last page.
In my Goodread mini-comment, I describe Fish as effortless, dream-like, diverse and exquisite, which certainly holds true as I consider the anthology to be a revelation, because it’s just fish. No restrictions upon genre, no neatly defined prompt to cater to specific tastes. It’s just you and the stories and the fish. Simple and yet so risky. As you read Fish, you step further into a dark and undisturbed ocean where you see reflected light dance across scales and experience ink-black beauty with sharp teeth.
Read More Book Review: “Fish” edited by Carrie Cuinn and K.V. Taylor
I made Anne Lyle’s acquaintance at EasterCon in 2011 and thought her a fun, brilliant lady with an interesting concept for her debut novel, which at the time neared its publication date. Though I had The Alchemist of Souls on my radar for quite some time, I only had the chance to read my copy this January. Boy, am I sour for the delay, because the book takes you on a risky adventure, where everyone has his own agenda. Here’s the official blurb in case you want to know about the plot, because I, sure as hell, won’t talk about the story.
“When Tudor explorers returned from the New World, they brought back a name out of half-forgotten Viking legend: skraylings. Red-sailed ships followed in the explorers’ wake, bringing Native American goods—and a skrayling ambassador—to London. But what do these seemingly magical beings really want in Elizabeth I’s capital? Mal Catlyn, a down-at-heel swordsman, is seconded to the ambassador’s bodyguard, but assassination attempts are the least of his problems. What he learns about the skraylings and their unholy powers could cost England her new ally—and Mal his soul.” Read More Thoughts: Sexuality and Gender in “The Alchemist of Souls” by Anne Lyle