Author: cherylmahoney

I'm a book review blogger and writer. I have published four novels, The Wanderers; The Storyteller and Her Sisters; and The People the Fairies Forget; and The Lioness and the Spellspinners. All can be found on Amazon as an ebook and paperback. In my day job, I'm a Marketing Specialist. Find me on Twitter (@MarvelousTales) and GoodReads (MarvelousTales).

Blog Hop: Author Connections

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop9 Comments

book blogger hopThis week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Do you ever get comments from authors when you have posted or tweeted your review?

Despite all those links back to authors’ sites, as far as I know, no author has noticed the link-back. Or at least, they haven’t told me about it! I have sent letters or emails to a few favorite authors, usually mentioning a review, and received lovely letters back.

Gordon Korman seemed happy to get a letter about Semester in the Life of a Garbage Bag, commenting that it’s nice to hear a response to one of his older books. Juliet Marillier complimented my review of Wildwood Dancing (and responded to my comment about the “twist” ending). And Geraldine McCaughrean wrote me the best letter ever when I wrote to her about The White Darkness—and mentioned that she had recently had lunch with Richard Morant, the audiobook voice of Titus, and shared my review with him. I had not intended for the comment about “a voice worth following to Antarctica” to reach the original source…but she told me he was “appropriately tickled.” !!

After those kinds of responses, I keep meaning to write more letters to authors (Catherynne Valente, Marissa Meyer and Jim C. Hines all come to mind as recent favorites) but alas, that falls under the category of, if only there was more time…

Have you ever had an author respond to a review? Are there favorite authors you’d like to write to?

Book Review: Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Young Adult1 Comment

HatchetI haven’t been reading exclusively rereads lately, but I seem to be reviewing all of those…and today continues the trend.  I recently reread Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, one of my favorite survival stories.

Thirteen-year-old Brian was the only passenger on a flight into the Canadian wilderness on a small bush plane, when the pilot suffers a fatal heart attack.  Brian manages to crash-land the plane on a lake and scramble out of the wreckage with no serious injuries.  But he’s far off of the original flight plan, rescue is uncertain, and he has no resources but what he’s wearing–including a hatchet hanging on his belt.  With courage and ingenuity, Brian learns to survive in the wilderness.

I find this book hits a nice balance between focus on character and details of wilderness survival.  Except for the very beginning and (spoiler…) the very end, Brian is the only character.  The book remains always centered on him, and whatever else happens or whatever he does, it all hinges around how it affects Brian, or how it’s an outgrowth of his character. Continue reading “Book Review: Hatchet by Gary Paulsen” →

Book Review: The Witch of Blackbird Pond

On By cherylmahoneyIn Historical Fiction, Juvenile, Reviews3 Comments

I seem to be starting my year of rereading with classic children’s books.  Along with Little House in the Big Woods, I also read another book about simple living in the woods: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare.

Set a couple hundred years before Wilder’s book, in 1687, the book focuses on Kit Tyler, who leaves her comfortable life in Barbados when her grandfather dies and goes to live with her only relatives, in Connecticut.  Used to luxury, fine clothes, and books (!), Kit struggles to find her place in the severe, hard-working Puritan community.  She doesn’t know how to do any work and the neighbors look askance at her high spirits.  Then one day she meets Hannah, who lives apart out in the meadow.  A kind, elderly woman, Hannah is a Quaker and therefore an outcast.  The rumors of her being a witch seem like nonsense–until an illness sweeps through the community and people look for someone to blame. Continue reading “Book Review: The Witch of Blackbird Pond” →

NaNoWriMo 2014 Revisited

On By cherylmahoneyIn NaNoWriMo3 Comments

I wrote throughout November about my experience doing National Novel Writing Month this year, when thousands of crazy writers set the goal to write 50,000 words of a novel in one month.  I told you at the end of November that I hit my personal goal of 60,000 words, but I seem to have neglected to update on how my December writing turned out!

My larger goal was to complete the novel draft by the end of the year, and I estimated it would be about 75,000 words.  So I wrote away at roughly 500 words a day through December.  And it was much harder!  Maybe it was because I’d already been writing so much in November, or because I lost the NaNoWriMo communal motivation, or just because I re-set my word goal and so I met that instead of the higher one.  Or maybe December’s just a busier month…

But, regardless, I did keep moving forward through the story and the word count, and I crossed the 75,000 word mark on December 29th.  (!)  Which left me with just one problem–I still wasn’t at the end of the story! Continue reading “NaNoWriMo 2014 Revisited” →

Book Review: Little House In the Big Woods

On By cherylmahoneyIn Historical Fiction, Juvenile, Reviews5 Comments

I’m starting my year of re-reading well, with a beloved childhood book I haven’t read in…15 years?  18?  I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books, but somehow they have not been ones I revisited as I got older–until now, as I just listened to the audiobook of Little House in the Big Woods.

I’m betting most of you know the basic concept here (and there isn’t much of a place).  Five-year-old Laura lives in a little log cabin in the Big Woods, with Ma and Pa, older sister Mary, and baby Carrie.  The book follows them through a year, talking about daily life and about events like Christmas, harvest and a trip into town.

There’s a lovely charm and sweetness to this book.  Maybe it’s only that I know Wilder was writing about her own childhood, but I very much can feel a warmth and love within the book for the characters and for the time–not so much the historical era, but the era within Wilder’s life.  On this read, I think that warmth was my favorite part, and it’s something I doubt I could have articulated last time I read this book, though I think I felt it then too. Continue reading “Book Review: Little House In the Big Woods” →