Author of Historical & Literary Fiction
Titles are very … personal. One reason I chose to go indie with my novel was I didn’t want anyone dictating to me what the title of my book should be. What can I say? I’m independent-minded that way. Anyway. The title, Five Fathoms Beneath, derives, as many titles do, from Shakespeare, in this case…
Toward the end of my novel, the narrator receives an unexpected present from his father in the form of a hand-carved and hand-painted Necklace Starfish. So what does a real Necklace Starfish look like? Something like this! (Photo taken by Richard Ling, Creative Commons Licensed through Flickr.) The Necklace Starfish, also known as the Peppermint…
Title: Flyaway: How A Wild Bird Rehabber Sought Adventure and Found Her Wings Author: Suzie Gilbert. Buy it on Amazon (Kindle, Hardcopy) A memoir written in an entertaining, witty, and delightful style, Flyaway is a quick and well-paced read. Obviously aimed toward bird lovers (nothing wrong with that!) this book is written in an accessible style which could be enjoyed by…
Do you like the cover for Five Fathoms Beneath? It doesn’t matter what you think? It matters what I think? Well, I *love* my cover. Being a photographer, I’m a *very* visual person, so I was both excited and nervous to work with a cover designer. I ended up choosing Tim Barber of Dissect Designs…
Title: Sea of Memories Author: Fiona Valpy Buy it on Amazon (available in paper and Kindle). I read this novel with my Kindle Unlimited subscription when it came up as a suggested title. It’s not normally the type of book I’d pick up on my own, but once I started reading the…
This young, and rather rumpled, green heron was most definitely *not* amused by me.
Although my novel mostly uses fictionalized versions of real places and entirely fictional places (there is no Stirling University or Mercer Medical Center, and these places are not deliberately intended to invoke any real place), a pivotal scene in my novel plays out on the Hope Memorial Bridge, known locally as the Lorain Carnegie Bridge.…
The best advice I found, which unfortunately I can’t relocate right now to link to, on how to write a blurb for literary fiction: focus on the weirdest aspect of your story. Well, I didn’t choose to do that in my blurb, but just in case that’s what sells literary fiction here it is: My…
Title: Moontide Author: Charlie German Buy it on Amazon. (Available for Kindle.) In a nutshell: Moontide is a well-written, quick-paced, action/paranormal romance set in Alaska with likable hero/heroine and delightfully evil villains. So I must admit this is my first paranormal romance. It’s not a genre I’d even tried before, so I wasn’t quite sure what…