My Blog
Book Review: Happy Girl Lucky
Hope is sweet, optimistic and more than a little naive. She has firm ideas about how the world should work, including (if not especially) how her own future is supposed to pan out. If only her family, and reality, would stop getting in her way... Happy Girl Lucky is,...
What Makes a Strong Opening?
Almost anybody who’s done a lot of reading can give you an example of an opening that hooked them right away, and we all know how important it is to grab a reader’s attention right off the bat. But what is it that makes a strong opening? In my opinion, a great opening...
Book Review: Inside the Death Fences
I received an ARC of this book for free. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. When Caroline Giammanco got a job teaching in a maximum-security prison, she wasn’t sure what to expect. She thought it might be unsafe, unpleasant, intimidating – but she...
From Idea to Outline: My Three Steps to Story Planning
The internet is packed full of methods guaranteed to get you an outline of your exciting new story idea, and I reckon I must have tried almost all of them in trying to get my current story up and running. On the spectrum of plotter to pantser I am firmly on the...
Book Review: The Poppy War
“War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who remains.” ― R.F. Kuang, The Poppy War War orphan Rin has grown up working for the Fangs, overworked and underappreciated. But when they decide to marry her off to an old man to make their opium smuggling easier...
What Makes A Good Character? 5 Things That Make The Difference
The main character of a story can make or break its appeal to a reader. How many books have you read that you couldn’t fully get into because the main character was irritating or poorly developed? When you’re reading a book you experience the world, to at least some...