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 Wednesday: Revisions, Revisions

On By cherylmahoneyIn Writing2 Comments

Two weeks into 2020, but this is my first writing update of the year!  Be assured, I’ve still been writing away–just blogging more about reading lately.  I’m deep into final (?) revisions for Guardian III, going through beta-reader feedback.  So far it’s mostly been small edits, and no one has spotted a plot hole that derails the entire story–so far, so good!

I’m also working on some of the prep and marketing for Guardian I, which will be out in June.  Expect some revamps to the writing information on my blog, because that’s coming up on my list of to-do’s.

It all goes to show…the work is not anywhere near done when the first draft is finished 🙂  On that note, I also finished up the non-fiction revision tips book I was working on back at the beginning of January…but I expect to go back and revise come February!

For now, here’s a bit from Chapter One of Guardian III which I rather enjoy…

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I used to be in control—not of the world around me, never of that.  But of myself.  Maybe I was only a supporting character, maybe I didn’t get to be the lead of the narrative, of the great events happening at the Opera, but I knew how to live within my role.

A supporting character could be left behind, solitary and disregarded when her obviously more heroine-material best friend eloped in the night.  It had hurt when Christine left with Raoul de Chagny, when she had barely bothered to write me a farewell note, when she hadn’t sent any word in over a year.  But sometimes it felt like only what I should have expected.

And at least supporting characters shouldn’t have their hearts broken, or do anything important enough to cause anyone’s death.

As a supporting character I could become friends with the mysterious man who haunted the Opera, and I should have stopped at that.

I shouldn’t have fallen in love with a man who was clearly a title character if there ever was one.

 

Book Review: The Red Tent

On By cherylmahoneyIn Historical Fiction1 Comment

In high school, The Red Tent by Anita Diamant was on a list of optional summer reading–we had to read something from the list but not everything, and I opted to read something else.  I heard good things about the book from friends though, and it’s been floating at the back of my mind as something I ought to read some time ever since.  I’ve been reading through Genesis in the Bible recently and came to the portion about Jacob and his family–and decided it was time to finally get The Red Tent off my mental to-read list.  And after fifteen or so years…I felt mixed about the book!

I love the concept of this book so much that I’m surprised it took me this long to read it.  (Sort of.  More on that later.)  It’s the story of Dinah, daughter of Jacob and sister to his twelve sons (most famously, Joseph of the many-colored coat).  It retells the Biblical story of this very complicated family from the women’s perspective, focusing on Dinah and the four wives (ish) of Jacob.  Since the Bible tends to be heavily male, I love that concept–and reading through the Genesis account made me want to explore the women’s side.

But then I didn’t really love what was done with it.  The book starts before Dinah’s birth, telling the story of how Jacob met and married Rachel and Leah and (kind of) married their handmaids Bilhah and Zilpah, and how all those brothers came along.  And that sounds complicated and interesting, but somehow the book wound up being very, very focused on sex, childbirth and circumcision.  And I can see how all of those would be important, but it was…very heavily weighted on those three topics.

The story improved for me once Dinah was born and it could focus on her rather than a vague omniscient story of her four mothers.  There was a lot that was interesting about the culture of the time, particularly the women’s culture.  I can’t honestly say how accurate any of it was, but at least as a possible perspective it was engaging.  I liked Dinah’s childhood probably best of any section of the book.

Continue reading “Book Review: The Red Tent” →

Spirit Sunday: Our lives, whether we realize it or not…

On By cherylmahoneyIn Spirit Sunday1 Comment

Friday Face-Off: Star Trek Lives

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations1 Comment

FFO.jpg

It’s time again for the Friday Face-Off meme, created by Books by Proxy, with weekly topics hosted by Lynn’s Book Blog.  The idea is to put up different covers for one book, and select a favorite.

This week’s theme is: Vintage sci fi – “Live long and prosper.”

With a prompt like that, clearly I have to share a Star Trek cover!  To keep it appropriately vintage, I went back to one of the very first Star Trek novels.  I like to think of the earliest ones as from the “Star Trek lives” era of fandom, before there was Next Generation and syndication, and Star Trek fandom seemed to involve a little more hopefulness and scrappiness–or so I suppose from the forwards I’ve read in these books.  It was before my time!

As to the actual book, I thought I’d go for the slightly ironically-named Spock Must Die! by James Blish, which holds pride of place as “Book #1” in the Star Trek novel universe.

This is the original cover, and…I have no idea what’s going on with all those blobs.  It looks like the image was damaged, except that every picture of the cover (and my copy) have the exact same damage, so…yeah, I don’t know how or why it got approved and printed that way!

Continue reading “Friday Face-Off: Star Trek Lives” →

2020 Reading Challenges

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations2 Comments

A week into January, it must be time (past it, in fact!) to talk about my reading goals for the new year.  Firstly, I’ve been reading less the last couple of years than I used to, so my first goal is simply to read more this year.  I’m setting a goal of 125 books (print or audio).  That’s a jump from the last two years, when I read about 100 books each year, but much lower than when I used to clock in around 200.  I’m hoping it will help motivate me to take the time to read more.

Now onto the specific challenges…

The Phantom of the Opera Reading & Viewing Challenge
Host: Tales of the Marvelous
Goal: Lon Chaney Level

First and foremost, I am hosting a challenge this year, focusing on the many versions of the Phantom of the Opera, seeing as my own version is coming out in the second half of the year.  I’m targeting the second level for myself, the Lon Chaney Level.  I’d like to reread Susan Kay, rewatch Webber’s 25th anniversary play, and perhaps rewatch Lon Chaney.  That would put me on track for one version of each type (book, play, movie), though I’d also like to seek out some new book retellings too.  We’ll see how the year goes–and you can of course still sign up for this challenge too!

Diversity  Reading Challenge
Host: Celebrity Readers
Goal: 18 Books

More diverse reading seems to be my perennial goal; this will be my fourth or fifth time with this challenge.  I’m pleased to have found a hosted challenge I like this year, over at Celebrity Readers.  I’m not doing the mini-challenge, with a monthly theme, but I like the overall challenge.

Tackle My TBR Reading Challenge
Host: Kimberly Faye Reads
Goal: 34 books

I’ve been keeping a running “To Be Read” list in my phone for, I don’t know, a few years now?  The thing is, I very rarely actually hunt up a book from the list and read it!  So I decided to set that goal for this year, to start reading at least some of that list.  To make it easier, I transferred the whole thing over to Goodreads, so that when I’m staring at a title I don’t even recognize, I can easily click into a plot summary and possibly figure out why I added the book to begin with (and get excited about reading it!)  I currently have 68 books on the list, so my goal is to read 34 books, half of the total–though probably more will be added to the list as the year goes on!  I’m joining the Tackle My TBR Reading Challenge, and my goal puts me in the First Down Level.

Those are all my goals for this year – more on quantity than specific focus, which is a bit different than usual.  We’ll see how that turns out!

Do you have reading goals for the year?  I’d love to hear about them!