Category: book review
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Science Fiction & Fantasy I’ve Read Lately
Somewhere between my third alien invasion and second time-traveling romance, it hit me: I’d been devouring science fiction all year without stopping to process the journey. So, I decided to excavate my reading pile and see what patterns emerged from the wreckage. Here are my thoughts on some recent speculative fiction reading I’ve done: A…
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My Favorite SF&F Shows, Part 8
I didn’t want to subscribe to AppleTV+. Just one more stupid streaming service to take my money every month. However, I kept seeing all these great science fiction shows on this channel, and some of them were based on books I had read. My friends kept saying, “Subscribe and cancel when you’re done.” So, I…
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Friday’s Findings: Creating a scene palette
When creating a scene for the first time, I have a list. And I try to hit as many points on that list as possible: But before writing the rough draft of a scene, I have practiced a step I got from a thin, little book called Every Writer Has a Thousand Faces by poet…
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Fridays Findings: My Top Five Reads This Year
Wow. I’ve read so many great books this year. It was hard willowing my top five list down, but here they are. I’ve reprinted my original reviews here. In no particular order, I present my top five favorite reads for 2024: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin literary fiction, friendship fiction Most of us…
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James Scott Bell on Writing: The Best Writing Advice I Know
I’ve been going back and looking at my blog entries from years ago, and I kept coming across advice from author James Scott Bell. I quote him a lot. Two books on writing craft I highly recommend are: He has more writing craft books on Amazon, and I just realized, “I need to read these.”…
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Writing Advice from Chuck Palahniuk
Seasons greetings. Over the years I’ve quoted Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk on several occasions, so I decided to collect all his advice I’ve regurgitated on this blog into one entry. Below are some quote from his writing craft book Consider This that has spoken to me over the years: This is a link to…
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Some books on writing craft
The following are two completely different books for the writer. One is about a structured process and the other is about organically discovering your creativity. We can benefit from both. Save the Cat Writes a Young Adult Novel by Jessica Brody I just finished Jessica Brody’s Save the Cat Writes a Young Adult Novel and…
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Science Fiction & Fantasy I’ve Read Lately
I’ve been traveling in time with my speculative fiction reading lately. While the first two reviews below are recently released science fiction novels, the third review goes back a few years. Then I got brave. I read a fantasy from a few decades ago. Here’s what I thought: Cascade Failure by L. M. Sagas Science…
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Scare Me Up: Horror Books for This Halloween Season
Last night I did this goofy thing in the spirit of Halloween. I turned off all the lights and listened to an audio version of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. It’s less than an hour long and super creepy. I recommend you do the same thing with a short and…
Andrew M. Friday 