Liz Konkel at Reader’s Favorite gave this review of A Painting to Die For. You can Preorder your copy here! A Painting to Die For by Joan C. Curtis is the third book in the Jenna Scali Mystery series. Jenna Scali has always loved a painting of her father’s that was supposed to be hers […]
How Do Bad Books Get Great Reviews?
Okay so what’s the deal? I depend on reviews and word-of-mouth before I shell out money for a book. And, yet, no matter how hard I try, some bad books get great reviews. Either I’m all off-base about what’s good or people don’t realize they’re reading bad stuff. I’m beginning to think that the latter […]
What Are Your Characters Eating?
Do authors need to spend lots of time describing the hamburger their main character is eating? The juicy delight of a succulent tomato sandwich? The cool refreshment of lemonade? How much is too much? In my opinion the food must have a purpose in your story #amwriting Click To Tweet In other words, if it […]
What She Ate #MyBookReview 5 Stars for this Winner
What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women. The Food Tells Their Stories by Laura Sapiro is a biographical account of six woman and what they did or did not eat. The author contends that most biography is more interested in what a woman does in the bedroom versus what she does in the kitchen. Yet, most […]
A Reader’s Resource for Books! Check out these sources
If you’re like me and love to read, you need to have many books stacked up. I will often postpone reading a book, just knowing it’s there makes me happy. But in this day of fewer book stores to browse, it is harder to find all those potential books. Of course, a trip to the […]
Fake News and Fake Nonfiction–a Reader’s Nightmare
With everyone talking about fake news these days, I wonder about the lines we cross when we write nonfiction. I’ve been writing and reading both fiction and nonfiction for most of my life. What concerns me is the fuzzy line that our nonfiction writers seem comfortable with crossing. Perhaps they feel if news outlets can […]
#MyReview of The Patriots: A Novel by Sana Krasikov
This book taught me about the way people lived in Soviet Russia during the 1930’s through the 1950’s #amreading #mybookreview Click To Tweet I learned how it would feel to live in a repressive society where no one trusts anyone. Undoubtedly the author, Sana Krasikov, did a lot of research to bring us this story. […]
When Do You Stop Reading a Book?
When you can’t keep your eyes open as you read, do you keep reading? #amreading Click To Tweet My mother had a formula for deciding whether or not to finish a book. She’d take her age and subtract it by 100. If the book had not capture her by that number, she’d stop reading. As […]
Finding Food in Our Yard!
An acquaintance visited our house last week. He came to talk about preservation of a property that my husband and I are working to protect. As he came down our long, wooded driveway, he said, “You have thousands of chanterelles in your yard!” He then showed us how to pick them and suggested what […]
Tips to Avoid Cliches–That Dreaded Word
When an editor writes: “This is cliche,” I cringe #writingtips Click To Tweet I understand what that means, and I work hard to avoid those ‘trite’ expressions that haunt every writer. But, I do know one thing. People talk in cliches. Have you ever heard anyone say something like, “I’m colder than my mom’s house […]
