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).

Writing Update (October, 2023)

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It’s been a little while since I did a writing update – while projects were moving along, there wasn’t much new to report!  Drafts finally feel like they’re moving to a new stage though.

I made some revisions to Thorns 2, then sent that out for a second-round of beta reader feedback.  I received comments back without huge edits needed, so that’s always encouraging to see!  I made some final-ish revisions, then printed the draft out and have started reading it out loud to my husband, to find any final revisions to make.  The book should be on track to be out late 2023 or early 2024.  Depends on how the rest of life goes!

While Thorns 2 was being reviewed, I did some work on Thorns 3, making  revisions and plans for future revising, especially in the second half of the book.  I’m setting that aside for now, while I read through Thorns 2 and start making plans for NaNoWriMo – which, incredibly, is only a couple weeks away!!  I’ve done some character exercises, and now I’m working on building out more of the outline for my planned project: The Queen of Thorns, the fifth and final book in the series.  I have ideas, but I want to see if I can get more details worked out before I start on the actual writing.

So, lots of books in different stages, but it’s fun to move between the different parts of writing.  Hopefully I can make good progress reading Thorns 2, firm up my outline for Thorns 5, and be ready to launch into NaNoWriMo on November 1st!  I’ll let you know how it goes.

What I’ve Been Reading Lately (September, 2023)

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews1 Comment

Squeaking in at the end of the month with an update on September’s reading!  Let’s jump right in…

Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister was a very good time-twisty mystery.  Jen watches her teenage son commit murder – and then starts living her life backward, each morning waking up on an earlier day.  I really liked seeing her try to put the pieces together to unravel what had happened, and how to prevent the murder.  A couple twists I saw coming, but others surprised me.

My book club selected How to Take Over the World by Ryan North as our non-fiction read of the month.  It’s basically a pop-science book about the current edges of technology, loosely centered around the idea of pursuing a career as a super villain.  It’s a career strong on secret bases and low-to-nonexistent on actual villainy.  The final section on how to preserve a message for the future (on the order of thousands or millions of years) was probably the most intriguing. Continue reading “What I’ve Been Reading Lately (September, 2023)” →

What I’ve Been Reading Lately (August, 2023)

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews2 Comments

Nearly the end of August, and hopefully cooler weather is ahead!  Time for some reading updates.

I finished reading After Anne by Logan Steiner, which I mentioned in my last update.  A novel based on L. M. Montgomery’s life, it was interesting and the people were portrayed very well – but I personally would have made a lot of different choices in what to focus on and how to interpret some of the more ambiguous things in her life.

I enjoyed Indexing Reflections by Seanan McGuire, sequel Indexing.  It was another very good, if dark, urban fantasy based on fairy tales, and I liked how much it delved into the backstories of the characters we met in the previous book.  I’d have enjoyed a touch more romance, but there were still some nice moments. Continue reading “What I’ve Been Reading Lately (August, 2023)” →

Writing Update (July, 2023)

On By cherylmahoneyIn Writing1 Comment

I’ve been deep in revisions this month, making edits to Thorns 2 based on beta reader feedback.  I added more conflict to hopefully make things more exciting in the earlier parts of the book, and made some tweaks and edits throughout.  I brought Chapter One into my writing group, and did a substantial rewrite of that chapter.  I think most writers will agree, Chapter One is the hardest!

I have one more scene I want to significantly rewrite, a fight with a dragon that I also brought into my writing group and received some helpful feedback on.  Once I handle that and a few smaller edits, Thorns 2 should be ready for its next round of beta reader review.  And I’ll see where we end up from there!  For the last several years at least, I always spend much more time revising than I do on the original drafting…

Once I get Thorns 2 sent off to be read again, I expect I’ll turn back to Thorns 3.  For, of course, more revising!  I want to add some scenes earlier on and do some reworking of the ending.  I’m thinking of bringing in a villain from earlier in the series who is currently absent in the third book but might be exciting to include.  So many decisions!

What I’ve Been Reading Lately (July, 2023)

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews1 Comment

Happy July!  Summer has arrived with a vengeance here; after a cooler June, July has had much hotter days.  Good for staying in and reading, I suppose!  I’ve been having a month of mostly fantasy books, which has always been a favorite, of course.  Lots of variety within that category, though!

I mentioned in my last update that I was reading a book about a character people forget – that book was The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab.  It sounds like the same premise as The Sudden Appearance of Hope, but it felt and played out very differently.  Hope felt like (fuzzy) science fiction, while this was straight fantasy.  Addie makes a deal with the devil – or at least, one of the “old gods” – in the early 1700s.  She gains “freedom” – immortality but also no one can remember her.  The book intercuts between stories of Addie’s past through the centuries and a modern story when she finally meets a man who can remember her.  This hits multiple story types I love, and there was a lot to enjoy here.  Her story felt deeply sad, though, in a way Hope didn’t, and I wasn’t entirely satisfied by the ending.  So I guess it was 98% of a very good book.

In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune was one I was hotly anticipating.  Klune wrote the incandescently wonderful House in the Cerulean Sea and the hilariously funny How to Be a Normal Person, so that sets up a ton of expectation!  It’s a bit of Pinocchio with a little Wizard of Oz, about a human who was raised by an android and then goes on a kind of quest with three robot friends. This definitely had a lot of Klune markers to it, a found family story where everyone is a little bit against the norm.  The book also, unfortunately, had a tendency to use deep social awkwardness (mostly robots saying inappropriate remarks because they’re robots and have no filter) as humor, and I found that, well, awkward.  That toned down as the book went on, though, and overall I enjoyed it quite a bit. Continue reading “What I’ve Been Reading Lately (July, 2023)” →