Review and other chaotic stuff...

I finished reading Bitter Moon II: Triane's Son Reigning, and posted a review on Amazon and Goodreads. Here is the review for those who don't get to those two corners of the webiverse:

Amy Lane did a spectacular bit of work with this book. I thouroughly enjoyed the first of the series and started this one believing I would enjoy it as well. With the first one, I was able to put it away and go on with other things in life. This one was not that type of book. Once I started, I found I couldn't stop reading it. I had to know what would happen next and I had to know it now!

The Moon family, including all the little adopted offshoots of it, became my family more so here than in the first book. This in mind, I found the book to be extremely emotional. Whatever the Moons felt, I felt. This is only done with spectacular writing.

There is also plenty of action in this book. The snow cat (Torrant) returns, and along with Aylan (his 'adopted' brother) and some new friends, they take on the Consort of Clough, both politically and in the Goddess ghetto while trying to protect them from the guards.

I don't particularly like heavy romance scenes. When I find them, if they go on too long or are too detailed, I lose interest in the story. I vaguely remember two such scenes in this story, but they were neither too long or too graphic to distract me. Both of these scenes enhanced the development of the characters involved and were very well portrayed.

If you like action, characters you really get to know, and allow your emotions to escape to the world the author presents to you, you will like this book.

Next on my to-read list is: The Legend of Witch Bane by Kevis Hendrickson. I'll post that review when I'm finished with it.

I'm waiting for one more editor to finish with Legacy. In the meantime, I'm formatting the interior. When that is done, I will attempt to do something with the cover.

More later...

Updates and a Review

The web site is once again ad-free, but has a new address. You can find it here:

My official website

The major editing of Legacy of the Ghost has been completed. The editors and I are making one final read-through to pick up anything that we may have missed. I've also started working on the formatting of the book. This one will be published at Creat Space.

Having finished reading W.I. Investigations, Vol. 1-4, by Samaya Young, I wrote a review for Amazon and Goodreads. I'm posting it here for those that don't see it there:

I thouroughly enjoyed reading W.I. Investigations. Samaya has a gift for capturing the reader and, once captured, holding them until the conclusion of the case. Vol. 1-4 includes four seperate cases with separate teams that are both interesting and unique. I found this heightened my pleasure of the book as it made it quite easy to avoid boredom as each team handled their case in their own fashion. Samaya did a great job of making each team quite different from the others.

Of the four cases, "Hero" is my favorite, followed by "Shape Shifter," though Willow and Vin were my favorite team. All for cases are original and well told.

The only things I found that distracted me were: a. All the characters inevitably have looks that could only be found in fashion magazines, with the exception of one, Wally; b. I would have liked a couple of them to have been longer with more detail; and c. Knowing that the calvary arrived in time to save Ashley and Elyse from the very beginning of the story took some of the pleasure out of reading it. Choosing a different scene for the introductory 'insert', maybe the flight to hide in the canyon, would have increased the suspence and made the story far more enjoyable.

Overall, I believe the positives of captivating tales and interesting and varied characters far outweighs the negatives. I fully recommend this book.

The next book on my list to read is Bitter Moon II - Triane's Son Reigning, by Amy Lane. I really enjoyed the first in the set and look forward to delving into this edition! More later as things develop.

Another good writing day turned great...

After finishing Chapter 3 of Vengeance yesterday, I set my sights on trying to get chapter 2 of knaben (which may be titled 'knaben nine' shortly), finished. During one of my breaks, I checked out Amy's new blog post: *Coda*. It was an extension on her 'fanfic' treatise, which in itself was nicely done. Anyway, I sent her the start of knaben saying that this was the character that would most likely show up in her world (Bitter Moon I) if I were to be so inclined to write that. My other purpose was to get some feedback on the story. To make a short story shorter, she sent me some feedback, I sent her a question, she sent me an example.

The problem with getting examples from people who write well is that the story gets in the way of what they are trying to demonstrate. This is exactly what happened with Amy's example. I had to read the thing four times before I could focus on what she was showing me. The result is I have another series of books to read so I can read the one the example came from when it comes out. Anyway, I did a little rewriting, a little more world building, added a tweek here, a gesture there, and a word or two over there.

The result really got me into the story. (the one I'm writing) I was liking it earlier, now I'm really excited about it and loving it. I'm not sure if I'll publish the final version yet or not. It's really an experiment as I intend to explore different genres with the different tasks knaben nine must complete. If I don't publish it, I will share it with friends.

You can check out Amy's blog at writerslane.blogspot.com or do it the easy way and click on Yarning to Write under the blogs I'm following on the left hand side of this page.

It rained again here today and, no, I did not play the CD to cause it. It also rained in Spain today. Whether it rained on the plain in Spain I cannot say. Tomorrow, rain or not, I move on to the fourth chapter of Vengeance. Simon has an appointment with a yellow spider there and I can't keep the spider waiting. She gets very nasty when her appointments are delayed.