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).

Book Review: The Sherlockian

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews1 Comment

I recently stumbled into a new audiobook by accident.  I forget what book I was actually searching for in the library’s online catalog, but somehow they offered up The Sherlockian by Graham Moore instead, and it turned out to be a lucky find.

The book tells two related stories: one about Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, and one about a modern-day mystery involving Holmes-fans, Doyle’s missing diary, and murder.  In 1901 London, Doyle receives a letter-bomb which sends him on the hunt for a murderer of young women, and into encounters with East End slums, suffragists and the ineptitude of Scotland Yard.  He also fields repeated questions about when he’s going to bring back Sherlock Holmes, after murdering him at the Reichenbach Falls.  In the present, Doyle’s diary from this same period has been missing for a century.  When a leading Holmes scholar claims to have found it, and then turns up dead at a Baker Street Irregulars’ convention, Harold White tries to follow in the footsteps of Holmes to solve the mystery and find both the killer and the diary.

I enjoyed the split narrative aspect of this book, as we got two intriguing though very different mysteries.  They’re related, and Doyle’s story explains a few things relevant to Harold’s story, but they are essentially two different mysteries.  There’s also an interesting contrast as Harold romanticizes (with some self-awareness) Doyle’s time, and Doyle deals with the seamy underside of that same time.  Sherlock Holmes himself isn’t in either story, seeing as he’s a fictional character, but he looms large in both, as Harold’s model and Doyle’s curse.

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Blog Hop: From Page to Screen, Darkly

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop2 Comments

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’s Book Blogger Hop question is:  What’s your favorite horror book-to-movie adaptation?

I don’t read much in the way of horror books, or watch much in the way of horror movies.  But, just one comes to mind that I’ve both read and seen: Secret Window, based on the novella Secret Window, Secret Garden.  The movie is from a very good era in Johnny Depp movies, and the writer/director David Koepp does some really nice storytelling in it.  There’s some bloody bits, though it’s pretty tame as far as horror movies go, and the creepiest parts aren’t involving blood at all.  It’s probably more of a creeper than a horror movie.

After seeing the movie, I read the Steven King novella, which I think is still the only fiction I’ve read from Steven King (though I also read On Writing).  A lot is very much the same, except that the ending is completely (like, 180 degrees) different.  And here’s the funny thing: I actually think Steven King tried to a do a more interesting thing with his ending, but David Koepp achieved his ending better, which I’d have to say gives him the edge.

Anyone else more of a horror book/movie fan than me?  What’s your favorite adaptation?

Writing Wednesday: Hurtling Towards NaNo

On By cherylmahoneyIn Writing2 Comments

I’m still preparing for NaNoWriMo, starting on November 1st – so just over a week away!  I’m on track at the moment with revising the first half of my Princess Beyond the Thorns novel, so that I can write the second half during NaNoWriMo.

I’ve also realized that, on some days at least, my pre-NaNo goals are more ambitious than my NaNo goals.  I intended to revise one chapter a day, but some of those “revisions” actually mean writing an entirely new chapter from Terrence’s point of view.  And a couple of those chapters have stretched over two days, which felt like I was getting behind…but the two days’ worth of writing was more words than would be a two-day goal for NaNo.  On Monday, for example, I felt like I was just trying to wrap a chapter that was taking too long–but I ended up by writing 2,400 words, well above NaNo’s 1,667 goal.

On the whole, I’m finding that encouraging…

I also think I’m past the most difficult revision sections, so hopefully this final week should be an easier slide towards NaNoWriMo.  For today, here’s something from a new scene I wrote yesterday–Rose fainted and Terrence brought her back to her room, and I realized that in his POV, I had a chance to do a bit of a play on the whole Sleeping Beauty aspect of the story.

************

Terrence got Rose inside her rooms, laid her down on the long couch, and knelt next to her to study her still face.  “Rose?” he tried again, touching her cheek.  What did he do now?  Should he get her water or put a blanket over her?

Silvertips seemed more confident, leaping up onto the couch and settling down across Rose’s stomach.  A moment later Emerald Eyes emerged from the bedroom and scrambled up onto Rose’s skirts.  Fine, that was fine, but she still wasn’t awake…

He had the sudden, slightly absurd idea that maybe he ought to try kissing her.  This was, more or less, what he had expected when he had first plunged into that thorny tunnel.  A sleeping princess, waiting to be woken up.

Before he could decide if the idea was a good one or just strange, the door burst open and Elena rushed in.  “Terrence?  What’s going on?  What’s wrong with Rose?”

Blog Hop: Reading While Haunted

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop3 Comments

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’s Book Blogger Hop question is:  You’re spending a night in a haunted house.  What book would you bring with you?

Firstly, I would not spend the night in a haunted house!  I jump and freak out in fake haunted houses, when I know perfectly well it’s all actors and effects, so even a hypothetically-haunted house is completely out the window.  Absolutely nothing supernatural could happen and I’d still be freaked by every sound!  In fact, I recently beta-read Audrey Murphy by Karen Blakely (due to be published this December!), in which the heroine accepts a dare to spend the night in a haunted house.  I swiftly learned that I would fail this dare, as I offered frequent advice that the heroine ought to be more scared…

Now that all of that is out of the way, let’s try to imagine a situation where I do in fact spend the night in a haunted house.  What book would I bring?  If I thought the house was actually haunted by malevolent spirits, I’m going to have to go with a Bible as the most likely to be helpful and protective under the circumstances.

If we’re theorizing that it’s not really haunted, just creepy, then I’m leaning towards something comforting that doesn’t require too intense of concentration.  Probably either L. M. Montgomery’s journals (because I’m weird that way 🙂 ) or maybe Winnie-the-Pooh.

Is there any hypothetical possibility that I might want to bring something atmospheric, like Dracula or something by Steven King?  No.  No, there really isn’t!

Writing Wednesday: NaNo Is Coming

On By cherylmahoneyIn Writing1 Comment

NaNoWriMo is fast approaching!  With only half of October left, I’m getting ready for November’s writing in earnest now.  I’m set up on the NaNoWriMo website (add me as a writing buddy, if you’re writing too!) and am putting the pieces together to be ready to go on my next project, The Princess Beyond the Thorns.

I already have 35,000 words written for this project, but those words are in a somewhat complicated shape.  I essentially wrote two novellas some months ago, which are now Parts One and Two of the planned novel.  I revised Part One before my September writing retreat, but I still need to finish revising Part Two, so that everything is lined up and sorted before I dive in to completing the novel for NaNoWriMo.

I’ve already gone through Part Two and determined where I need to add a chapter or reorient an existing one.  The biggest changes I need to make are to bring Terrence’s perspective in (because the original version was all Rose, and now I want it split more evenly between them!) and to add in details and context that weren’t important when this was a smaller piece.  So I need to rewrite around three chapters to put them from Terrence’s point of view, and add in about six more (mostly Terrence, but there’s some extra Rose stuff I need too).  Plus do any revision on the remaining, less heavily to-be-altered chapters.

As I calculate it, if I take care of one chapter per day, that will get it all done before NaNo starts (with three days to spare).  And if that turns out not to be feasible, there are less significant changes in the final portions, so it won’t be too big a crisis as long as I get most of the way through.

We’ll see how that all goes…  In the meantime, here’s a bit I expanded in a Rose chapter, now that I have a better sense of her character growth over the span of the novel.

***********

Instinctively, automatically, she reached out for Terrence’s hand again.  She had known they’d be separated eventually, but she still wasn’t ready for that, not yet.  Only after their fingers were entwined did it occur to her that the entire room, and the king, had seen that gesture, had seen her reach for Terrence.  What would they read in it?

Without even looking at her, Terrence’s fingers tightened around hers and he said evenly, “I’ll show Princess Rose to her new rooms.”

A longer look from the king this time, and did she hear a faint murmur in the crowd?  But finally the king said, “My youngest son has grown suddenly bold.  How…remarkable.”  He turned away, to return to his throne, everything in the movement speaking of dismissal.  “Very well then.  I expect to meet with you directly after.  We have much to discuss.”

For just a moment, this felt like a solution.  And then some little part of Rose rebelled, maybe the same part that had been so angry when she thought she was going to die.  Because this was a solution, but it was a dismissal too, and she didn’t want to be that girl anymore, the one she had been in the before time.  The girl who was sent off into another room while the men discussed important things.  While they discussed her.  And if she had just showed the king and all his court that she couldn’t stand without Terrence next to her—it felt suddenly as though, if she didn’t make some kind of gesture right now, right at the beginning, she would never be anything more than she had been.

Squeezing Terrence’s hand, wanting him to know she wasn’t exactly rejecting his effort to help, she very carefully, very clearly said, “I appreciate Prince Terrence’s kind offer, but I would like to attend that meeting.  To discuss my return to court.”

This prompted a louder murmur among the crowd, and the king stopped a step away from his throne.  He turned very slowly back around to look at her, eyes narrowing.