WISHFUL THINKING

Hey guys! Just settling into my new school and surroundings, and therefore the dearth in new material. But here's a guest post from Matthew W. Harrill, whose action filled book has just hit Amazon!  Hellbounce by Matthew W. Harrill  Demons don’t always hide in the dark. Synopsis: As a psychologist in a prison hospital, Eva Ross had always dealt with her share of sinners. The corrupt, the insane, their minds were all hers to unlock. But when those around her, those she trusted with her life start to exhibit the same characteristics, she is forced to turn to a stranger, a man whose name she is incapable of even remembering, for sanctuary. Follow Eva as she crosses continents to unlock the answers, and her eventual destiny. Excerpt: Harold Fronhouse was a short man, not far over five feet in height. He sat secured in a straightjacket, and strapped to a wheelchair. He wore no mask. As Eva and Jenny entered the room, he watched, unblinking. As...

Title: Night Film Author: Marisha Pessl Publisher: Random House Rating: 3.5 stars. Goodreads Summary:  On a damp October night, beautiful young Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Though her death is ruled a suicide, veteran investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise. As he probes the strange circumstances surrounding Ashley’s life and death, McGrath comes face-to-face with the legacy of her father: the legendary, reclusive cult-horror-film director Stanislas Cordova—a man who hasn’t been seen in public for more than thirty years. For McGrath, another death connected to this seemingly cursed family dynasty seems more than just a coincidence. Though much has been written about Cordova’s dark and unsettling films, very little is known about the man himself. Driven by revenge, curiosity, and a need for the truth, McGrath, with the aid of two strangers, is drawn deeper and deeper into Cordova’s eerie, hypnotic world....

So I was talking the other day about discovering new authors and new ideas in literature. Here's something very YA friendly, and honestly, if it were released by a major YA publisher, I can see this book doing very very well in the YA demographic. As is, Alabaster by Caitlin R Kiernan has a comic-book adaptation that is equally wonderful, but let me just take a moment to review the book. Warning though: it was difficult to get my hands on this one. TITLE: Alabaster AUTHOR: Caitlin R Kiernan COMIC-BOOK Artist: Steve Lieber, cover designed by Greg Ruth RATING: 5 stars GoodReads Summary: An albino girl wanders the sun-scorched backroads of a south Georgia summer, following the bidding of an angel - or perhaps only voices in her head - searching out and slaying ancient monsters who have hidden themselves away in the lonely places of the world. REVIEW (Please note that this is the review for the book , not the comic) Dancy Flammarion is an albino girl with a big blad...

Remember me? How are you, dear follower? Drop me a line so it doesn't feel like shouting out into empty space. I've missed book-blogging, and hope to get back to it, but I see a few of you have left, there are plenty new faces around, and the YA blogging world is still its fiiiiiine self. I’m incredibly busy these days, trying to fit in projects and final semester and job interviews and such into a schedule made worse by my writing commitments, but I had to talk about what I was reading and my relationship with Young Adult literature in general.  I haven’t been reading very much YA these days, basically because I stumbled across writers in an adult genre who I enjoy reading. Granted, I am still very much enamored by fantasy and speculative fiction, and I have been reading a lot of what is called “slipstream” or “weird fiction”, the likes of which you don’t find a lot in YA. One of my favorite authors at present is Catherynne M Valente. Her writing is incredibly touching ...

Owing to ridiculous amounts of school-work, I couldn't do Trifecta last week or the weekend, but thank you for the first place on Week Eighty Four, the support spurred me on to think about more plots with the character, and maybe there'll be a book. We shall see. Obviously, this one is fantasy too, I shall call it Little Monsters. The word this week is:  FLY (intransitive verb) 1a : to move in or pass through the air with wings b : to move through the air or before the wind or through outer space c : to float, wave, or soar in the air <flags flying at half-mast> 2a : to take flight : flee b : to fade and disappear : vanish 3a : to move, pass, or spread quickly <rumors were flying> b : to be moved with sudden extreme emotion <flew into a rage> c : to seem to pass quickly <the time simply flew> LITTLE MONSTERS I JUST HAD TO, OKAY? *grin* Sometimes we’re baby dragons, nibbling at a piece of string or wilting flowers with puf...

Trifecta again! This week's word is: RUSTY 1: affected by or as if by rust; especially : stiff with or as if with rust 2: inept and slow through lack of practice or old age 3a : of the color rust b : dulled in color or appearance by age and use <rusty old boots> 4: outmoded 5: hoarse, grating Before I go into the story, a small preface: I've been thinking and writing of Lo Maxwell for a long time. He's a boy of indeterminate age- sometimes he's ten and sometimes he's fourteen, and at least in one of my stories he's seven. He's a lone mortal stuck in a different, bloodier, monstrous world, trying to get back to his own but in a very strange sense. Sometimes he's angry, an avenging angel. Sometimes he's sweet. Most of the time he's hungry. This is my fourth Lo Maxwell story, and the shortest. It's not much.  *and I should probably mention that Lo's dog, despite appearances to the contrary, really doesn't like him much*...