As a writer, I love good stories. There are some books, movies, and TV shows that continue to stick with me over the years, as well as excellent tales I’ve only recently discovered. Some I appreciate for their impact on my writing; others, I love simply because they excite me and move me. Trying to …
Category: Book Reviews
Reading Recap 2023 – Part 1: Mistborn, Princess Bride, Norse Mythology, & More!
Welcome to the first Reading Recap of the year! I’ve decided to split my reading recap posts into three parts this year, as the first few months of 2023 were full of many great books, both fiction and nonfiction. So far, the year has a strong fantasy bent, which will likely continue through the rest …
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Reading Recap 2022 – Part 2
Here we are: another year, another Reading Recap! Welcome to Part 2 of this year’s mini-book reviews of all the new fiction books I read. If you missed Part 1, read it here. Across 2022, including non-fiction and fiction, I read a total of 57 books. I don’t think I’ve reached that reading level since …
Reading Recap 2022 – Part 1
Normally, I wait until end of December to release my annual Reading Recap, a collection of mini reviews the fiction books I read for the first time over the year. However, my list is growing SO large that I decided to split up the lists rather than cutting books from it. It’s exciting that I …
Novellas In Series: Necessary Or No?
Lately, I’ve been reading series that include novellas alongside full-length novels, which has brought up questions about the roles that novellas play in the overall story of a series and whether or not I think it’s a valuable practice. Specifically, back in July, I read the three Skyward Flight novellas connected to the Skyward series …
Lessons from Lemony Snicket: Narrative Voice
As I mentioned in my writing update a few weeks ago, I recently reread Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events as a part of trying to crack the secret of writing a strong, distinct narrative voice for Whitman Court. My aim with Whitman Court was to write the stories with a clever, omniscient Narrator …
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Rereading the Tolkien Canon (The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, & The Lord of the Rings)
It had been a while since I last read The Lord of the Rings—just about four and a half years, to be exact. Same with The Hobbit. And, to be honest, I couldn’t give a timeline on when I last read The Silmarillion; I just know it was sometime in high school. Since I’ve been …
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The End: Writing Farewells & Finales
I’ll admit, I’ve written more beginnings than endings, to the point that I’m tempted to say that writing the first chapter of a book is significantly harder than writing the last. I don’t necessarily disagree with that statement—I myself struggle most with how to best start a book—yet I do certainly think that a misstep …
Reading Recap 2021
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays! 2021 is coming to an end, and that means it’s time to ring in what’s becoming an annual tradition for me: my reading recap of the year! Since I read nearly 40 books this year, I'm only going to go over a few of the highlights. I’ve …
Rereading the Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling
This summer, I reread the Harry Potter books for the first time in a decade. I’ve been a fan of Harry Potter since my elementary school days, though my journey through the whole series was slow, as I was too young for the later books when I first started reading them. I still have vivid …
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By Madelynn Orion 