Ahhh, the unreliable narrator. Paula Hawkins gives you plenty of point of views to puzzle over in her new book Into the Water. Her multiple narrators almost give you too many characters to keep track of. But then, instead of a who-dun-it, this book is a why-dun-it.

While I felt the book got tedious at times, it wasn't for the usual reasons. I thought her character development tended to be shallow. Lots of good stuff was hinted at, but all too often, interesting developments and/or insights were glossed over. This is especially true of the perp who moved from the periphery to front and center in a lackadaisical manner. Oh, the motivation was there, but I didn't feel like the potential conflict was well developed.

The troubled sort-of primary character returns to her childhood home when her sister commits suicide by jumping off a cliff. Like some villages have Saxon churches as their claim to fame, Beckford has deaths by drowning. The book describes a troubled village's attempts to confront two interrelated drownings, the most recent of many deaths haunting the village. While I appreciate the exercise in viewpoint, I think Hawkins spread her writing too thin.

More confusing, the "death pool" is also a teen hang-out. The book is filled with factoids rather than an insights into human nature. Comments are thrown on the table but I thought were never fleshed out. Did enjoy the book, though. You can check it out on

Amazon     Barnes & Noble     kobo/Rakuten

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My Writing Rut

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Which do you like? 

?????

Email: kkaytheod at yahoo com

Am getting ready to start the new year on a slightly different tack than the old one. I decided
to switch to my Far Isles Half-Elven for my next published book: Dark Stoltice Turning Point. Have my slot reserved with my content editor. Still working on Rendezvous with Demons, mostly adding character complications to the chapters I've drafted.

Soon I will be publishing an updated free short story, Cavern Between Worlds. Haven't decided on a cover yet. Do you have a preference?

There Be Demons was on a 99c special last month. Even sold some though didn't make much money at the discount. The fun promo was the one I did for Recognizing Jamilla, a free Andor story. It reached #1 in its category for a couple days. The story is probably the first, chronologically, in The Demon Wars series. The others are Showdown at Crossings, There Be Demons, and Running from Demons. 

A Very Unambitious Man: A True Anti-Hero

For about the first 20 pages, I always wonder why I buy M. C. Beaton's "Death of ???" mysteries. Death of a Ghost was no different. I find her declarative, staccato style annoying, not only because it's the antithesis of most of the advice I read about writing. Yet, the series continues on the "best selling" charts as it approaches the 40th book.

There is no mystery to the success of Beaton's hapless Highland sleuth, Hamish MacBeth. The books are as funny as all get out. A walk down the high street of Lochdubh, as Hamish ponders some murder or other problem, presents a series of chuckles as he meets the residents of the small town. In Death of a Ghost, the reader gets a funny subplot when a minister's wife tries to hook Hamish up with her neice.

Don't look for any indepth characterization here. The characters of the McBeth books walk their ordained path with a minimum of description and deviation. The chuckles are of prime importance. Even McBeth's constabulary opponents play the part of foils.

Oh, there's a mystery to be solved about who murdered whom and why. It even sports some nice twists and turns. All in all Beaton's books are more complicated than it first seems. Still, Hamish keeps to his set patterns of avoiding credit for the crimes he solves.

Care to take a look at a sample and other reviews? You can find print and epub versions of Death of a Ghost at

Amazon      B&N/Nook       kobo/Rakuten

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Other Interesting Reading

For once, I found a news feed useful...one about the Queen of Great Britain and Megan Markle doing a royal tour together. Not a royalist. [I'm sort of stuck in a Pantagenant mind-set.] But, this article on body language gave me a tick for one of my characters--Pillar.

~~~

Then, an issue book buyers of all sorts should be interested in: anti-trust law. You know that 20th century idea that no one business should control sales of a particular product, aka no monopolies. The US has a particular problem with the idea. Can anyone say Amazon? -- Anyway, seems there has been some stirrings lately, and The Passive Guy wrote a blog about it.

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My Writing Rut

is depressing. Oh, I'm making some progress. Finally got Cahal and Britt together again--in Chapter 12 rather than Chapter 4. Now I have to go back because I forgot to include a bit about Britt's Granny Nan's rings. [I think it's going to be an important part of the last battle at the end of the book so it was necessary.] Ugh.

Am making more little banners for There Be Demons. Won't getting them on Twitter yet. I'm waiting for the publisher to get the book blurb changed. [You can also download the ebook on kobo/Rakuten.]

5***** Review: "a great adventure through a fantasy land that captures your imagination and keeps you turning the pages to find out what happens next. Characters are well developed and the journey we are taken on is fast paced and filled with twists and treachery throughout."

Feisty Britt Kelly's life is a disaster. When her divorces her mother, her family moves into her half-sister's apartment in the projects. Britt must adjust to a new school and a step-mother who hates her and her younger brothers

.

But poverty and coping with a new school aren't Britt's worst problems. In the long standing Demon Wars, the minions of Prince Vetis build a secret base in Trebridge behind the Kingscourt's battle lines. When she is drafted to fight the demons with three new friends, Britt didn't know demons existed. She's not even sure she wants to fight them.

The race is on. As the demon forces grow, the Gargoyle Guardians of the city must teach the four teens to use enough "Grace" as a weapon to survive. Britt's new problem: learning to control her magical powers...in spite of Gillen, the gargoyle leader, pissing her off with his fussy rules.

Getting The Demons Under Control? The Unending To-Read Pile

A tale of this week's reading. My to-do piles got smaller this week...by four. I forced myself to read the first books on top of two piles. After several attempts to get interested, they got dumped on the trade pile. I'm now reading M. C. Beaton's Death of a Ghost but haven't finished.

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Excerpt of 

Running from Demons

Still doing copy edits of Running From Demons. Biggest change so far? I've decided to change the title. Anyway, here's an excerpt from the first chapter where Pillar comes on Grylerrque, a demon hiding from the authorities in human guise. The novel is set some seven/eight years after There Be Demons.

     

Scanning the area, Pillar tested her developing talent for reading auras. The slow dance of different shimmering colors popping through the light bluish-green glow of their life pulse fascinated her, but she concentrated on possible threats. Everyone in the lobby felt like nulls to Pillar. But her eavesdropping on the mage elders talking to her guardian told her they worried about magical attacks from demon-kind. While no adult talked much about them, Pillar assumed demons could camouflage themselves behind shields, too.

           Otherwise, they wouldn’t be so hard to find. She shuddered, not wanting to think of demons possessing people. Doubt if any demons would dare to hunt here, anyway.

           The thought comforted Pillar, and she relaxed. The waitress arrived and picked a plate off her ladened arm to plunk it on the counter with a sigh.

           Pillar smiled as the waitress scooted around the counter to the tables against the wall. “Thanks. It looks delicious.” The waitress bustled away without looking back, and Pillar shrugged.

Not wanting to dribble cheese on the new tee she’d bought in the museum shop, Pillar leaned forward to take a bite of her toasted ham and cheese sandwich. The gooey cheese oozed out the sides, over her fingers. She licked her fingers and lips. The cost of adding extra cheese was worth it, making a perfect ending to her first solo venture into Taddledon. The ride home would be dull in comparison to the carefree day she had enjoyed. At least her stomach wouldn't be growling.          

The PA system belched news of another arriving bus, adding to the racket bouncing off the station walls. The garbled words made no sense. Pillar ignored the announcement as she licked her fingers clean. The tenor of the air shifted. The hair on her nape rose. Pillar glanced back towards the benches in the lobby.

Taking another bite of her gooey sandwich, Pillar licked her lips as she searched for the disturbance in the station’s energy. The power became so intense even Pillar’s weak talent felt the rising pulse. A chill crawled across her shoulders and down her back. Pillar turned around. Her eyes locked on a tangled-haired girl, clutching a backpack in her hands and using the wall by the platform doors to protect her back. The girl's eyes grew wider as she scanned the station.

Pillar's frizzy hair stood at attention. A strange odor, the like of which she'd never smelled in Osseran, wafted from the outside doors. Her stomach churned, and Pillar dropped her no longer appetizing sandwich.

What's going on? That girl just doesn't feel like a normal, but she shouldn't  make my stomach want to heave.

What Everyone Needs: Someone to Care

Had fun reading Mary Balogh's Someone to Care. No I'm not going to write a review. Actually, I shouldn't even have to say it's good. Her stuff is...mostly because she masterful in setting up her characters to find someone who who will care for them as people not as a means to another goal.

I simply marvel at how Balogh manages to keep her plotlines engaging [not boring], especially since they are romance [one of the most unrealistic forms of fantasy]. I think she and Laurel K. Hamilton [Anita Blake] are the only romance writers I still read from those I was reading religiously five years ago. [Balogh was an outlier since I read mostly paranormal romances.] If anything, Balogh is a leftover from my Georgette Heyer reading of the 1970s.

Writers who want to write romances or include a romantic thread in their books should study how Balogh does it. Readers can just enjoy. Me? I think I'm going to dig into my Georgette Heyers for one of her less well known Regencies instead of the few I still reread regularly.

[Any other Heyer fans out there? What's your favorite book? Frederica immediately comes to my mind, but there are a couple others I can't quite remember the titles of I reread off and on.]

You can check out what other people say about Someone to Care plus read a blurb and reviews. Find both epub and print versions at

Amazon       B&N/Nook       kobo/Rakuten

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Other Interesting Reading

Caught a blog by Janet Reid, agent extraordinaire, on white writers writing black characters when someone pushed the politically correct button. No wonder the alt-right calls fuming liberals "snowflakes". In this case, I think they're either fuming about the right thing in the wrong way or just wanted some media time. Whatever, here's the link to Janet Reid's answer to a pertinent question.  --  Granted I'm influenced by the fact I included black kids in classes in There Be Demons. 

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My Writing Rut

Wasted almost a full week trying to write a battle scene for the first third of Rendezvous with Demons. Have two chapters of character and world development roughed in, have the wall of the nest broached by explosives, have Britt and Gillen secretly shadowing the Crosssings mages, but... the stupid chapter won't get written.  Result, one more week without any real progress on the novel.

Actually it was for a good reason. Britt and Gillen don't go in and save the day ala the calvary. I'm setting her up to be royally put down... I think. This is written on Wednesday. I'll add something more before I post this. I'm wondering myself what answer I'm going to come up with. Didn't get any more written. Good thing the blog got done on Wednessday when I finished the book. -- Yeah, have been distracted by other things.

Think I feel a little envious of corporate authors who get their publicity done by the company. While trying to write, I've been also juggling promotion. Came up with an ad from my artwork of Vetis. Also think I may have found a new artist to create line drawings of my characters. -- Not that I really expect it to increase my sales. You can check out the ebook of There Be Demons on Amazon, B&N Nook, and kobo/Rakuten.

                                     Artwork                                       ad

Conflict Among Allies, When do the Ends Justify the Means

Louise Penny's recent Superintendent Gamache novel, Glass Houses, is a tale ripped from the opiod headlines. More important, Penny gives writers a wonderful example of how to mine the backstory of an enduring series to create depth in her latest book.

Penny has already characterized the small hamlet of Three Pines as an idyllic hideaway from the bustle of the wider world, in this case Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I even think I remembered that bootleggers in the 1920s used Three Pines to smuggle booze into the Prohibition US. Or, maybe I'm just reading info into a previous crime. The deep woods on both sides of the Vermont/Quebec border are the perfect place to hide all sorts of nefarious activities.

In Glass Houses, opiods are the cargo most terrible, and the hidie-hole in the church has been resurected. But illegal drugs aren't the only problem the book contends with. Penny is an adept at spinning several plotlines at once and makes head-hopping among various characters seem the best way to share plot points and feelings. No movie/tv paradigms here. Just a thick juicy mystery novel set inside a courtroom procedural--with a touch of creepiesness.

Penny is a masterful weaver of plot points and emotions. More intriguing for a writer, she works with several communities who touch each other much like a Venn diagram--the Surety, the villagers, and occassional outsiders. Penny creates characters with so many dimensions, readers seem to return to Three Pines to find out what the secondary characters are doing as well as trying to solve the crime before the big reaveal. Am thinking that many readers wonder why more communities aren't as caring as Three Pines.

If you like to read a sample and/or other reviews, you can check

Amazon       B&N/Nook       kobo/Rakuten

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Other Interesting Reading

The Passive Guy published an interesting take on why Barnes & Noble and other brick & mortar book stores are losing out to Amazon, the main reason. 

I slowly duck my head. We go to Barnes and Noble for coffee about once a month. They really have some good desserts even if they serve Starbucks coffee....But, we usually spend between $50 and $100 between the two of us. [Yes, it's nice to be truely middle class.]

~~~~~~~~~~
My Writing Rut

I really admire mystery/suspense writers who manage to write an enthralling book like Glass Houses. I feel envious. I have some short stories that I once hoped would be the start of mystery short story series, sort of like Isaac Asimov's sleuth club where the waiter mostly solved the puzzle: 

      --- Dumdie Swartz [The Ghostcrow and The Ghost in the Closet]

     --- the Highgrim/Allsdipp duo [Doom Comes for a Sold Soul] whose meeting with Britt's [There Be Demons] Granny Nan has grown mold in my computer. 

     --- I could also include Trapper Tremaine who's stuck after getting captured because I couldn't figure out how he could prove his worth and be accepted by the village. Nothing published here yet... or, maybe, ever.

That's not all. I think if I double checked, I'd find starts of Half-Elven stories that lack an executed mystery. Yeah, I think books should not only solve a characters' problems but provide a puzzle too.

Rendezvous continues to progress, though slowly. My outline's first skirmish is turning out to be the turning point battle with Britt feeling terribly alone and isolated, similar feelings but very different. But...I'm sort of a third of the way through [pushing halfway through, depending on how useful my notes are], and the first big battle is coming up, and Cahal hasn't even joined Britt yet...

Shine On, Gibbous Moon Until the Monsters Rise

Took a creepy ride on the paranormal side with Lincoln Child's Full Wolf Moon, If you take one, you'll get a bit of a science fiction explanation for werewolfism.

Never read a Jeremy Logan book that I can remember, though I've read several Pendergasts. Logan, the protagonist in this book, felt flat, not quite unidimensional, but almost. 

Too many other suspense and thriller writers do a much better job of giving their main characters or sleuths more depth for Child to get top marks for this book. Not that Logan is unlikable. But all the descriptions of him feel like rehash. Example: as many times as I have read about Heather Graham's Krewe of Hunter characters, there always some little twist in their backgrounds that is new in most of the books.

What annoyed me the most? Child's secondary characters were often more interesting than Logan. Still am wondering what the heck worries the guy at the core.

At the same time, the book has enough hooks to keep the reader reading even though this book is easy to put down for another task, like going to sleep. There is a true puzzle wrapped in the plot, complete with a couple of red herrings. Problem: I prefer more twists and turns in the plots of the mystery suspense I read.

The descriptions of the Adirondacks' deep woods pleased me most. Never visited them though I've driven through the Catskills. [If they're part of the same mountain system, that last statement needs to be adjusted. I'm not an easterner, so I don't know.] I loved the descriptions of small isolated dwellings surrounded by dark forests. The location adds a scary dimension to the vacation ambiance usually associated with the place. If you enjoy well written atmospheres with adequate craftsmanship, Child's descriptions are worth the price of admission.

In the end, I found this an okay, entertaining read but found it very easy to find a bookmark when it was time to go to bed. If you want to read more reviews and/or a sample the book, you can look on

Amazon      Barnes&Noble/Nook      Rakuten/kobo

~~~~~~~~~

Other Interesting Reading

Everyone can use tips on improving their writing. Came across one one by Mark Nichol about making lists that had me reading the whole thing. You might want to take a look at:
A Guide to In-Line Lists. This should be especially useful for those who write business or school reports.

~~~~~~~~~

My Writing Rut

Have been worrying about what my climatic human vs demon fight would be for Rendezvous. How was I ever going to squeeze out enough words for a full length novel. I think the problem will solve itself. My chapter 4 just became five chapters by the time all the action was mapped out. It may be shorter than the first two, but it only has to be over 100 pages and I'm almost there already. 

I find it interesting at how my chapters grow. What I thought would be the middle of my book is now seeming to be the final confrontation. At first, I thought Rendezvous with Demons was going to by equally from Britt and Pillar's point of view. The first scene I thought of for the book was their meeting in Taddledon. Have a good 10 chapters written and/or mapped out before the first major demon fight--still in Pacifica. 

Guess the book's Britt's again. There Be Demons started out a mainly from Gillen's point of view because his problem training of the teen draftees is what motivated me to write the book i the first place.

The 99c special for There Be Demons went well in spite of glitches. I broke well into the top-100 in all three of my sub-categories. My author rank had never been higher either. Now everything is sinking. One odd result: had lots of downloads of the free Andor short stories. 

Got my Noticing Jamilla, a free Andor short story, cover photoshoped to make the cover image more demonic. It's subtle but I'm hoping it makes a difference. 

Escaping the Bad Guys With a Spiritual Twist

Read Dorothy Gilman's Incident at Badamya this week, a very nice teen, coming of age suspense novel. Still, I got a big laugh out of it for a serious novel set in Asia just before the Korean War. The Communist Chinese are inciting revolt in Burma just as Gen Ferris' missionary father kills himself and tells her to find her way to America via Rangoon. The laugh came when I pulled the book from my to-read pile, a brand new novel with a price of $4.95 on the cover. I'm not even going to guess how long it was gathering dust on my shelf.

Of course, Dorothy Gillman isn't known for her YA books. I've only seen her marketed as adult fiction...with ladies of a "certain" age as her main characters. The adventures of Mrs. Pollifax is her most famous series. I prefer Madam Karitska, the Clarvoyent Countess mysteries. Incident at Badamya is one of her several stand alone novels. Of course, they are all mostly out of print and not in e-format. I think they're worth a little time in digging up a couple if you're looking for well-crafted mystery/suspense/adventure/light romance novel. Not many other books measure up to Gilman's writing.

After her father kills himself, Gen Ferris must find her way through insurgent lines to return to her aunt in America, but she is captured on her way to the river ferry that'd take her to Rangoon. The river ferry doesn't land in her village as usual, but when she tries to catch it coming back down the river, she's captured by the Red Chinese. She is trapped behind enemy lines with some other European captives. Suspense builds as she and her bickering fellow prisoners figured out how to escape. Of course, nothing goes as planned.

The book gives the reader a sense of traditional Burmese country life, before the place became Myanmar. The Buddist mysticisim, though different from her usual European turn, gives a thought provoking and educational aura to the book. You'll also get a feel for the rhythms of Burmese life from her multi-sense descriptions.

Unfortunately, Gilman can't be found in e-format. You can read more about the book on Amazon. Used paperbacks are still available.

~~~~~~~~~~~

My Writing Rut

Rendezvous surprised me again. Couldn't wait for Britt Kelly and Gillen, the gargoyle, to meet again. Dreamed of this big emotional scene of gore oozing every where. Got it written. Three pages of matter of fact back story, explanation of why Gillen is wounded, and some emotion, but not much. What a let down. But then, Britt's rather stern of purpose, when she isn't mad. 

Today shot down my chance of a big demon fight, but I'm going back to the chapter tomorrow. To see if, the Markham's from Docket's Diggings can fit into the flow. [Noticing Jamilla. Cassy Mae is long gone from the town, and I assume her grandmother is too. Nothing like having life-force sucking demons controlling your town.]

Got another Five Star Review for There Be Demons:

starsThere are no Elf kind here!

ByDavid A Foucheyon May 1, 2018

Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase

Whats not to like about a rollicking good story involving Teens teaming with Gargoyles to fight invading Demons? It was fun to see her use Gargoyles as the supernatural helpers of mortals in protecting the Mortal Lands from Demon-kind instead of the usual Elves, Fairies and Dwarves. Was a nice change of pace.

The review kind of made me sad. I'm still thinking of revising one of my Far Isles Half-Elven manuscripts--Dark Solstice. Mariah is still my second-favorite character, and she's been sitting in my computer since I published Vengeance.

It's All Blowing on the Wind, for Good or Ill

Happened to grab Nevada Barr's Ill Wind, an

older Anne Pigeon mystery, off my to-read pile. Who knows how long it'd been buried there?. But it's about another Colorado localle, Mesa Verde National Park.The book really coveyed the wind-swept atmosphere of the Southwest plateaus I remember from my visits there. I most remember Mesa Verde for its isolation, in spite of all the other tourists running around the place.

[No. I am not on an intentional Colorado reading kick.]

In this third book in the series, Pigeon has just been transferred to Mesa Verde, so recent an addition to the staff that she must live in a "dorm situation" with uncomfotable roommates until permanent, private housing is available. As she gets to know the people around her, Barr uses the time to plant a number of red herrings among the clues. The result is an intricate mystery with several interesting subplots. Perhaps the most interesting--a fellow rangers dwarf step-daughter who provides one of the up-beat notes in the book.

Was surprised to find myself labeling Ill Wind a cozy even though it doesn't have cutzie stuff connected to it. It's all in the development of the characters. Barr takes her time to describe them and their inter-relationships before she gets down to the serious stuff--solving the murders. The reader gets a real feel for living in an isolated spot, over an hour from towns, and how people can grate on others perople's nerves. Barr makes these characters so real that readers root for them.

Then, there are the settings. You can almost feel the cool night winds as you read. If you're looking for loads of background about the Anazazi, the old ones who built the abandoned southwestern US towns, you'll have to go elsewhere.

Read a sample and more reviews on

Amazon        Barnes & Nobel/Nook        kobo/Rakuten

~~~~~~~~

Interesting Reading

This blog, When a Pantser Revises, by Chris Marra made me pause. As a writer, I'm a panster trying to reform into an outliner. Marrs's an unapoligic panster, a writer who writes without an outline. Writers can find the blog useful for its revising tips. Readers can get an idea about how the "sausage" is made.

While fictional mysteries like Ill Wind tend to be neat and tidy, the real stuff is often the opposite. The New York Times has been running longer pieces on different topics for some time now. On 15 April 2018, it published an article by N. R. Kleinfield on "Never Solved, a  College Dorm Fire Becomes One Man's Obssession". I think the article demonstrates an interesting, reality-based counterpoint to the standard mystery novel is constructed.

~~~~~~~~

My Writing Rut

It's happened. I finally turned On the Run over to my copy editor to play with. I went through the manuscript one more time and didn't find many corrections. But I know that she's going to find all sorts of places there should be commas and other places where my commas should be deleted. We won't talk about all the other stuff.

Anyone want to guess how marked up my manuscript is going to be when she returns it?

Here's a short excerpt from Pillar's first day visiting at a school for mages run by unknown relatives:

Gracie [Pillar's mother's great-aunt] smiled broadly at her. “I see someone taught you how to keep your eyes to yerself. But, you really must learn how to stop leaking power.”
"Don't have any power to leak. Didn't you hear Principal Tankin."
"Oh, it's there if you know how to look."

Thinking Gracie felt as comfortable as the bus lady [a host containing a demon pursuing Pillar] should've been, Pillar relaxed, wishing she knew how to ask the questions buzzing around her head. She didn't want another academy person spitting nails at her. Knowing Delia [Pillar's foster mother] would want her to keep a low profile made her more hesitant.

"So, tell me about yerself."

"I'm Maisie's daughter. I come from the Osseran Commune, and I just graduated from high school."

"I know all that. But, who are you?"

Pillar gave her a sharp look but didn’t know how to phrase the thoughts buzzing in her mind. The question blurted out on its own. "Why didn’t you guys come looking for me when Ma died?”

“I thought it best you were where you was.” Gracie shrugged, her gaze flicking to the hall door. “Going to be fun to have a true Beccon living here again.”

“I thought my father’s last name was Beccon?”

“Goodness gracious no, child. Your parents weren’t married. In fact, Maisie never did name your father.”

I’m nameless? The fact hit Pillar like a fist in the gut. No wonder no one came looking for Ma. Her brain throbbed as she tried to absorb the information. Why didn’t Delia say something before?

Character Growth Keeps the Books Running

You gotta admire writers who keep a series going, but one that's 47 books long and still popular? J. D. Robb [aka Nora Roberts] does just that with her Eve Dallas novels. I'm late to the game, but I've just read Secrets in Death. Granted murder mysteries get a kick in the action from the unending ways and reasons to killing someone. The personal development of the sleuth doesn't have to carry the novel, just give it some momentum. A personal crisis can take a couple of books to resolve, but the crime is always solved in one...unless the villain escapes. I doubt many villains get away from Dallas.

Secrets in Death is the first Eve Dallas book I've read. I've read other Nora Roberts novels from time to time, mostly her paranormal ones. Don't know why I bought this one so late in the series, but I did along with another super popular writer of many, many books and series. Started both books at the same time, a couple chapters each. Dallas is the one I kept reading, to the point I stayed up late to "read one more chapter"...and the chapters are on the long side. Sometimes, I read two more chapters.

The mystery was intriguing. An obnoxious gossip columnist is killed in a bar under unusal circumstances. [Yeah, a cliche, but Robb/Roberts adds some interesting twists.] Who the murder victim was was as convoluted as who the killer turned out to be. Watching Dallas march through the procedural caught my interest and kept it. The mystery part provided enough entertainment to make the book worth while.

What makes the book, though, are the characters. As each clue is discovered, Dallas interacts with the suspects and the investigators. Each one is rounded out, some with more detail than others, but none of them are cardboard cut-outs. I'm almost tempted to go back to see how the major characters were developed, but I won't. I'm too lazy.

I've seen many mentions of "Robert's futuristic detective" series. On that note, I think Robb/Roberts falls flat. Serious science fiction readers wouldn't give her world building much of a pass. Everything is too generic, too vague to make the world feel different from our own time. "Airboots" and other "mod" terms just don't cut it.

Many of the reviews of the book complain that Secrets in Death isn't Robb/Robert's best book in the series. But it was more than good enough to amuse me at the end of the day. You can read a sample and other opinions at

Amazon       Barnes & Nobel       kobo/Rakuten

~~~~~~~~~

Other Interesting Reading

Writer? Reader? Both? Found an interesting blog at The Swivet about writers shouldn't write in alone: Writing in a Vacuum: Why Community is Essential to Writers. Basically, it says writers should build networks. It got me thinking that readers should too. Only they're called book groups, meeting once a month to discuss a book over coffee. The blog is old, but the ideas are still good.

Interested in good writing? This list of the best writing blogs is making the rounds. I've seen several links to it, so I thought I'd share it. I really enjoy the Absolute Write blog, and if your're serious about writing, you should check their forums.

~~~~~~~~~~

 My Writing Rut

Editing. Editing. And, Editing Some More.

[On the Run]

Maybe Someday I'll Get Around to Writing Something New.

In the meantime, I'm working on the blurb for On the Run:

Orphaned teen travels across the country to discover her mother's secrets, unaware she's pursued by a demon seeking to destroy her.

Pillar Beccon can't remember ever belonging anywhere, especially not in the Freemage commune where she grew up. She's a null, a person without magic, the lowest of the low in Andor. When she gets the chance to learn more about her mother's family, she jumps at the chance.

The teen draws the attention of Grylerrque, a commander from The Demon Wars secretly surviving in Andor, who recognizes what Pillar is and seeks to feed her life force to her clutch. She sends her minions to capture her. Pillar escapes when Thelma Tankin, her mother's cousin rescues her, but the teen soon learns she was pulled out of the frying pan into the fire.

On the Run tells the story of Pillar's journey to find a place to call her own. The book continues the chronicles of Andor where a the mundane world clashes with one of magic and demons from another plane of existence. If you love paranormal stories of discovery and mayhem, this is the story for you.

Nightmare Assassins Threaten Danger in a Dreamy Landscape

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman gives the reader a familiar storyline--assassins chasing a fair maiden through a dangerous world, helped by a good-hearted man. In this Gaiman's writing stars a creative, alternative London [London below]. The quests of the two characters--one to find out who killed her family and the other on how to return to the real world--keeps the two main characters apart for a good share of the story. Gaiman creates a dreamy world where nothing works quite as expected, but just right enough to keep the reader anchored.

Actually, no one tilts and teeters as much as Richard Mayhew, the well-meaning, spineless hero. The poor man is first caught up in our time-driven, wealth-chasing modern world.  A chance meeting with a bleeding girl on the streets of London throws him into an alternative world of London below where he tries to save her from nightmarish assassins. Fate has given him a alternative to a mapped out social rut stifling his soul. But Mayhew wants nothing more than to return to the real world.

The black-suited, kitten-maiming assassins are the run-from highlight of the book. Believe it or not, they even provide the comic relief. Unfortunately, it's the background that stars in this book rather than the progtagonist who remains rather blah in spite off his battle to return to London above. None of the human characters are as sharply drawn as the minor ones named for physical location in London above. Still, a wonderful, creative read.

Take a look at the sample and other reviews--all 2,000+ of them, mostly 5-star--ones

Amazon          Barnes & Noble         Rakuten-kobo

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Other Interesting Reading

Ever wonder what writers think of their writing. I happened to click this blog on Twitter. You might be interested since it gave me a chuckle. Like, "Oh, so true." Read about Nighttime Blabbing.

The Bookmuse always writes interesting, useful blogs for writers. Anyway, I find they always jerk my chain when I read them. It seems I always forget more than I know. Becca Puglisi recently wrote on on Character As Mirrors. Lots of her comments put life's little tragedies in perspective.

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My Writing Rut

Got my editorial comments back for On the Run, complete with cuts, additions, and new chapter suggestions. Every time I think I'm done and ready for copyediting, someone throws ice cubes over my head. Grumble. Grumble. Yeah, like most writers, I think editing and revising are never done.

Also got a new cover for the book. What do you think?

First Cover

Second Cover

It's been an arty week akround here. I've also been getting new ad banners for There Be Demons made. Here's an example.

You can read a sample and the reviews on Amazon and Rakuten-kobo.