You Should Be Reading Marko Kloos

Yesterday, the second book of Marko Kloos’s Palladium Wars series was released, and in December we’ll get the seventh book of his Frontlines series. Kloos first came to my attention when he was recommended by a friend who generally dislikes military fiction, so I had to check him out. After reading all of his currently …

3 Things that Make Characters Unrelatable

There’s a lot that sets a good book from a bad book, especially since what makes a book good or bad is incredibly subjective. However, one thing that can destroy the experience for a lot of readers are characters that don’t resonate. A character has to be someone that the reader can relate to; otherwise …

3 Ways to Discover New Books

Being a reader can be hard. That might seem like a silly thing to say. Reading is one of the most relaxing things you can do. There’s nothing quite like laying back on your couch on a snowy day, a book in one hand, a cup of coffee on the table with wisps of steam …

3 Reasons Your Cover Matters

“Don’t judge a book by the cover” is a cliche that everyone has heard by now. In its normal application - how you shouldn’t make assumptions about someone based on their physical appearance - it’s a good reminder to not be shallow and judgmental. However, as an author, it’s very easy to take that advice …

3 Things to do if You’re Behind in the Last Week of NaNo

We’re in the final stretch of NaNoWriMo, and I’ve been seeing a lot of people who are looking at where they are and are...less than happy with their progress. They’re finding motivation in this last week to push forward and catch the rest of the way up to still win. And that’s awesome! If you’re …

3 Ways to Stay Motivated during NaNo

Hey everyone! We are, as of today, ten days into National Novel Writing Month. If you’re on track, you’re 16,667 or so words into your project. If you’re an overachiever, you’re much higher than that. (My friend is on 28,578, which doesn’t make me feel like a snail at all.) If you’re not on track, …

Worth a Read: Water for Elephants

In last week’s post about preparing for NaNo, I mentioned Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, since it was born out of a NaNoWriMo project and because it’s just a really good novel. I tend to stay in my comfort zone of genre fiction and rarely step outside of it, but this is one of …

Cool Stuff

In my humble opinion, the best things in life are recommended. I wouldn’t discover a fraction of the things I enjoy if awesome people didn’t tell me about awesome things they’ve discovered. So in the spirit of paying it forward, here are some things I’ve been doing and enjoying over the past few weeks in …