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 (June, 2023)

On By cherylmahoneyIn Writing1 Comment

My writing has been bouncing around between different books of my Thorns series recently.  I spent some time going through Thorns 3, my NaNoWriMo project of 2022.  I did some edits and made some notes, and concluded that the biggest changes need to be near the ending, to increase the conflict a bit more.  I then moved onto Thorns 4 for a little while, went through much the same process and came to pretty much the same conclusion – there’s some character things I want to weave in earlier, but mostly I want to make some revisions to the ending.  Thorns 4 is the most separated from the main plot of any book in the series, and I want to make some revisions to make more connections and make the ending more dramatic.

Earlier this month I moved my focus back to Thorns 2, after receiving beta reader feedback.  I’ve gone through those notes now, and am working on making some edits.  The ending is actually already exciting in this one, but I need to ramp up some tension in the earlier parts of the book.

It’s one of the rules in my writing group, that you can almost always add more tension to your story…

So on the whole, things are moving along pretty well!  A lot of things in process, but all of them going forward, and that feels good to see happen.

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

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My recent reading seems to have been mostly fantasy and biographies – only one of which is typical!

My television watching has influenced my reading a bit lately.  I watched The Crown, which made me want to read a biography of Churchill, so I picked up Gretchen Rubin’s book, 40 Ways to Look at Winston Churchill.  I love her Happiness Project, but I’m sorry to report this concept didn’t work for me.  It’s more or less 40 brief essays on different aspects of Churchill, and since the whole idea is to present conflicting views, she doesn’t contextualize or give relative weight to different ideas enough.  There ended up being a lot of seemingly contradictory things and I didn’t know how to interpret them.  It is vaguely satisfying to have read this, though, after first seeing her mention it in The Happiness Project ten years or so ago.

I also read a biography of Mister Rogers, The Good Neighbor by Maxwell King.  My toddler is very into Mister Rogers at the moment, and I’ve been enjoying watching the show with him.  There were no huge revelations in here (Mister Rogers really was as he seems) but some interesting backstory, especially in how he developed the concept of his TV show and the principles behind it.

Over in the fantasy realm, I read a good duology, Spellbreaker and Spellmaker by Charlie N. Holmberg.  A late Victorian fantasy, it has the very distinctive feel of historical fiction set in that time, with a cool magic system and a good romance. Continue reading “What I’ve Been Reading Lately (June, 2023)” →

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

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Happy May!  This seems to have been my month for continuing and/or completing series, with a lot of books falling into that category.  I’ve been trying to stay on top of series and read them without too long a gap between books (because I forget too much, or lose track of the series entirely!) so I’ve been focusing some reading there lately.

I finished the last book in Martha Wells’ Raksura series, The Harbors of the Sun.  I’ve loved this series, so it’s kind of a shame to get to the end!  Books Two and Three were probably the best but I enjoyed this installment very much as well, and we got to see some new angles and aspects to the world.

I also finished the Janie series by Caroline B. Cooney with Janie Face to Face.  It was…odd.  The entire series was about the aftermath of a long ago kidnapping, and this book finally brings in the point of view of the kidnapper – in fact, alternating chapters are from her point of view.  Which was fascinating, but she seemed very different from how she was portrayed (by report) in the other books.  Meanwhile most of Janie’s story in this book focuses on her romance with on-and-off boyfriend Reeve, and introduced SO MANY new issues in their relationship that were…never resolved at all.  The book also seemed to be hurtling us towards a more dramatic, more thrilleresque ending finally, but ultimately never really went there.  So, I don’t know – it was all kind of odd! Continue reading “What I’ve Been Reading Lately (May, 2023)” →

Writing Update (April, 2023)

On By cherylmahoneyIn Writing1 Comment

Just a brief update this month! My biggest recent writing news, of course, was the launch of my newest novel, The Princess Behind Thorns, on April 4th.  Still very exciting to have that out in the world!

The second book in the series is currently with beta-readers, so I’ve been turning to Book 3, which I drafted in November, 2022, for NaNoWriMo.  It’s nice to work on a book that was drafted relatively recently, compared to the first two in the series.  It’s also a departure from the previous two in shifting perspective to two supporting characters, Elena and Henry.  I’ve done an initial read-through and plan to go back now for some more extensive changes.  The novel is essentially a heist story, and I need to introduce a few more co-conspirators and work out a few more details of the heist!

That will likely be my focus for at least the next month or so, and then I’ll either get back to Thorns 2 – or maybe look ahead to Thorns 4 briefly?  We’ll see!  Lots of books in play right now!

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

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Happy Spring!  The weather is finally turning warm near me, but even though I do love reading under a warm blanket, my reading is still continuing along.  Mostly fiction in the last few weeks – and not quite as much Martha Wells as last month!

I did read two more installments in Wells’ Raksura series though – Book 4, The Edge of Worlds, and an anthology of short stories set in the same world, Stories of the Raksura, Volume One (of Two).  I should have read the short stories before Book 4, I think – no real harm in spoilers, but the chronology would have fit better.  I enjoyed both books – the short stories had some interesting alternate perspectives and filled in a few pieces of world building, and Book 4 started a new adventure that continues into the final book.  Still highly recommend this series! Continue reading “What I’ve Been Reading Lately (April, 2023)” →