Just because we passed Release Day for The Storyteller and Her Sisters, that doesn’t mean we’re done with Imaginary Illustrations! Today is a quote from The Wanderers, with reference to one of the more serious moments of the book. In the first chapter, Jasper encounters a magician. When the magician gets angry…bad things happen. And he has an alarming number of statues in his garden.
Release Day for The Storyteller and Her Sisters was yesterday! The book features a Fairy Godmother, and in my series, Good Fairies preach a lot about spreading goodness and light…and travel around in a cloud of sparkles everywhere they go. Inspiring this week’s Imaginary Illustration!
It’s the beginning of October, and that means time for another update on Reading Challenges! I have to admit that I have not been paying a lot of attention to this over the summer…but I’ve managed to make at least some progress anyway. I’ve grayed-out books read in the first half of the year, to make it easier to see recent updates.
My goal here was 7-9 books for the official challenge (which only counts YA and Middle Grade), and 12-15 as a personal challenge, to leave some open slots for grown-up retellings.
Not much going on with this one…something to focus on for the fall, clearly! Anyone with a good recommendation on a retold fairy tale I should explore?
Continue reading “2014 Reading Challenges, Three-Quarters Update”
I have, of course, told you that my next novel will be out soon…but you can buy it now! Well, pre-order, at least. 🙂
Storyteller is now listed on Amazon and you can pre-order a Kindle copy
All ebooks will be delivered and the paperback will go on sale on October 10th.
And if you’re still on the fence about buying, might I suggest checking out the excerpt now available on Goodreads? You can download the first three chapters…but I make no promises that it won’t leave you waiting anxiously for October 10th and Chapter Four!
I enjoyed The Princess Curse by Merrie Haskell, which seemed like a good reason to explore what else she’s written—which brought me to The Castle Behind Thorns. Not as close a fairy tale retelling as I had hoped, but still an engaging fantasy.
The Sundered Castle has stood abandoned and surrounded by a wall of thorns for thirty years, and Sand (Alexandre) has never given it much thought. No one in the village ever has. But one day Sand awakes to find himself inside the castle, inside the thorns, with no way to get out and evidence all around of a bigger mystery than the local story can explain. The earthquake that supposedly damaged the castle can’t account for shredded pillows or anvils wrenched in half. Using his wits and his blacksmith skills, Sand begins repairing items he needs—and some of the repairs work strangely, perhaps magically, well. Most significantly, Sand replaces a fallen corpse on its shelf in the crypt; a few days later, Perrotte emerges, restored to life and anxious to learn what became of her family and her castle. Continue reading “Book Review: The Castle Behind Thorns”
Tales of the Marvelous 