I promised to return with more book reviews in March. With my time as crunched as it has been lately, I’ve started creating a monthly review of the posts I ran on The Weird Blog of Weird Sisters Publishing. Yes, it’s an aggregation and not completely original, but I hope you’ll enjoy my “digest” posts in lieu of no posts at all. I Hope You Give Graphic Books a Closer Look I began the month’s posts by highlighting Three Graphic…
The realities of SEO searchability have forced a change in how I’ve handled recent posts on The Weird Blog and here on Artdog Adventures. Unfortunately, Artdog got the shorter, messier end of that stick. This blog, however, has been my “home blog” for a long time. I want to keep it current for the moments when my opinion pieces are a bit too “political” for my partner! 😊 And I’d like to keep you better in the loop, if you’re…
By Jan S. Gephardt I’ve been reading some very enjoyable books recently. They really are due a review. I’m an Indie author myself. Co-publishing out of a micro-press I run with my sister counts as “indie,” trust me. Thus, I know how vitally important reviews are. But frankly, reviews are important to all writers, whether indie or traditionally published. Every single review posted by an individual reader tells the world that this author wrote a book someone felt moved to…
Recently I’ve wandered into stranger-than-usual territory in three urban fantasy books. Actually the third one may fall more into the speculative fiction category, but it mostly takes place in a city, and some elements come across to me much more as fantasy than as fiction that’s based in any science I’m aware of. It’s been a while (June 2018) since I posted any book reviews on this blog, but today I’d like to share glimpses of the stranger-than-usual territory explored in Extreme Medical Services, The SparkleTits Chronicles, and Hollow…
Back in ancient days before the Tweeter-in-Chief became a thing and I became more focused on boosting my productivity, I could beguile hours at a time on Facebook and Twitter. I made some great discoveries during that time period, including the marvelous Debbie Ridpath Ohi (@inkyelbows), who writes and illustrates children’s fiction, creates delightful cartoons about the writing life, and turns doodles, found objects and table detritus into fanciful visions. I also discovered sf authors for older-than-children, especially Jennifer Foehner Wells, who’s become one of my all-time favorites (and…
The Artdog Image(s) of Interest Isaac Asimov does not need my reviews, as so many contemporary authors do. But after having recently completed the classic “Robot” Trilogy, these three reviews were a pleasure to write. If you haven’t yet taken this walk back into an earlier view of the future, you really might want to give them a try. They’re classics for a reason. Dated? Sure. But even so, there’s a lot to enjoy. The Caves of Steel The opening novel of this…
I recently tweeted a photo of my “TBR” pile . . . not “to be READ,” but “to be REVIEWED.” I’d been giving my work area a far-too-long-delayed cleaning, in an attempt to regain (the illusion of) control over my collection of books. On an impulse, I started stacking up books I’d read but to the best of my recollection had not yet reviewed . . . oh, my. What a guilt-inducing exercise! Why guilt-inducing? Because some of those books are Indie-published. Even for traditionally-published writers,…
I just wrapped up a delightful weekend at ConQuesT 49 in Kansas City, MO. Yes, it’s my “home convention,” but it was a particularly good one, this year–and I’m not the only one I heard say that. The presentations by the amazing Elizabeth Leggett were worth the price of admission, all by themselves–Especially the big reveal of my friend Lynette M. Burrows’s cover for her soon-to-be-available new book, My Soul to Keep. It was part of Leggett’s presentation on the making of book covers. This is only a tiny glimpse of…
I’m probably going to get myself in trouble, writing this series. Actually, I first began thinking subversive thoughts about the canon assumptions of sf decades ago. But I wrote the basis-document for this series of posts last summer, while reading Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey (the pen name of co-authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck). It’s the first novel in The Expanse series, which is the basis for the SyFy series of the same name. First of all, let me say I enjoyed the book, and I do recommend it, although if I…
Ancient Mystery and Contemporary Murder Mingle in Avalon Territory A Finer End, by Deborah CrombieI don’t often read something published as a traditional mystery, thriller, and even police procedural that I think my friends who are into paranormal or urban fantasy might like, but this just might be the book to bridge that gap.Set in contemporary Glastonbury (well, almost contemporary: it was published in 2002) at the foot of the fabled Tor, this is Book Seven in Crombie’s “Kincaid and…