What Is "Age Approprate" & Where Should It Be Applied?

When is a book age appropriate? I thought about that question a lot as I read Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce. 

[Yeah, I broke down and bought the hardcover book. Even read it through my hurting thumbs and bedtimes.]

The title promises all sorts of gore, but to my mind, it doesn't deliver. Which is probably ok since lots of readers under twelve will demand to read it, especially familiar with Pierce's earlier books. Which means nine and ten-year-olds will be reading it. Many young good readers  demand syntactically difficult reading matter than their years might suggest.

Oh, there are gladiators maiming and killing each other, murder, and other mayhem, but the telling of the tale foregos the the graphic descriptions. Most of it also occurs off stage, and the book itself is more concerned with mending than slashing. The book even casually includes light sexual references. At the same time, it doesn't feel like Pierce is pulling punches as you read.

My problem is I'm an adult, even, very close to being an old oldie. Yet I recently immersed myself in Crenshaw, a middle grade novel for ten year olds. And, I pushed through a 400+ page book in about three days, in spite of my thumbs, thinking the book was tame. I guess what I'm complaining about is the almighties deciding the book is for 12 to 17 year olds. My kids would have read the books when they were 10 and will still read it when I toss it into the family lending library. Why are there age boundaries on innoucuous material? [Yeah, I know. Guidelines. But the subtext gibbered at me while I read.]

Tempests and Slaughter lacks the tension of Pierce's female warrior novels. This doesn't mean that nothing happens during Araam Draper's first years at the mage university in Carthak. The tension of good storytelling is there in spades, but it's more intellectual than brawny. [I resisted the temptation of saying "brainy".] 

Read a sample and other people's reviews on

Amazon      Barnes & Noble [Nook]       Rakuten/kobo

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My Writing Rut

Am still editing On the Run. Guess I won't be done until April sometime. I still have copy edits to go, too, and the decision on how I'm to publish the novel.

While I'm working, I'm going to take a holiday. I've been hankering to re-read some of Pierce's other books. I've decided I'm going to read the quartets from the Lioness series to the Protector of the Small. Sorry I can't sent you a postcard from Tortall.

Thief Eyes: Brooding and Scary, Even When It's Not Horror

Jannie Lee Simner captures the brooding atmosphere that haunts Iceland, even in the summer time, in her YA book Thief Eyes. [Yeah, I've spent serveral tourist days in Iceland.] More important, scary things happen in the book, from rapidly descending fogs, to threatening magic, to disappearing memories. But the scariest thing in the book: Haley's mother has disappeared without a trace. 

Determined to solve the mystery of her mother's disappearance, Haley has insisted her geologist father take her to Iceland the summer where Haley learns her father is responsible. She immediately collides with magic and the rougher mores of the Icelandic Sagas. Was nice to encounter a different mythology than the usual Celtic cosmology.

I also liked the touch where the villain, Hallgerd, is an direct ancestor of Haley. The descriptions of how the magical connenction works is effective and believable, even if you're a skeptic or unable to desengage your mind from the real world.

Character developement is a strong point in the Thief Eyes. The reader quickly learns about about the well-rounded life Haley left behind in the states. More important, that life directly impacts the the storyline of the book to make it richer and adding plot twists. Ari, the next most important character of the book is just as well-rounded as Haley with his own growth decisions. The villain sorceror who causes all the problems comes across as a real person even though lifted from the Sagas. Simner's judicious addition of fiction to legend works well.

In a universe filled with fey, werewolves and vampires, Simner's raven, fox and shape-shifting bear are refreshing. The mystery is quickly solved, but the adventure to save the world [preventing a massive earthquake in Iceland] grabs your attention and seldom lets up. All in all, a well written book with a nice clean style.

If you'd like to read samples and other reviews, click the following:

Amazon           Nook

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Other Interesting Reading

First: Have a Good 2018 filled with lots of fun.

New York Times Book Reviews gave me some thoughts to chew on over Christmas in a review of Eric Metaxas"' book Martin Luther The Man who Rediscovered God and Changed the World.  Reviewer Carlos Eire said, among other things, "He [Luther] is a champion of personal freedom and of the rights of the common folk."

I like the idea of Luther being a major rebel in the fight to overthrow autocracy and reintroduce a form of hunter and gatherer democracy, aka concensus decision-making. [How that for an oversimplication???]

Another book on religion caught my interest: a commentary on the Qur'an. The reviewer, also a Qur'an scholar, said: having read the Qur'an cover to cover, there was no mention of 72 virgins waiting for jihadists' in Paradise. Had me thinking about rude awakenings.

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Just a reminder if you live in the US. The GoodReads Giveaway for There Be Demons in hardcover is still open for entries until 7 January 2018. If you live outside the US, I'll be doing a giveaway through Amazon sometime in February of the ebook.

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My Writing Rut

The rut was abandoned over the holidays. Spent the time with friends and family. Did do some mop-up work, like deleting emails, but mostly I ate too much, just like everyone else. Biggest vice? See's chocolates. That tells you I'm a California gal still, even though I live in Colorado.

Magical Murder Most Fluffy--A Cozy Mystery Shines

Murders needing to be solved isn't the only reason to read cozy mysteries. It's all the people surrounding the mystery solver. Yeah, I love the way Bailey Cates builds her characters. Potions and Patries gives several members of Katie Lightfoot's coven and friends moments in the sun with life changing information. Even the mystery solving protagonist gets life changing moment when she figures out what her foretold "sacrifice" is to be.

All satisfying, well, and good. But, how does Cates put her mystery together?

The book starts out with the promise of a "sacrifice" Lightfoot must make, the Traveler fortune teller dies before she can elaborate on her message. With character growth Cates' strong suit, Katie spends the book solving the mystery while wondering what sacrifice she's going to have to make as she and her fiance look look for a larger house than her beloved carriage house. Other characters are face other life changes, which is good for series readers. It reduces the chances they'll get bored.

The book may be feel-good and fluffy, but proving the fortune teller's "suicide" is really murder is the point of the book. All the clues are subtly there as Lightfoot pursues her witchy intuition that murder was committed. Danger follows with several attempts on Lightfoot's life when the perp tries to stop her.  All good clean fun for a mystery reader.

Read a sample and look at other reviews of Potions and Pastries on

Amazon       Nook        kobo    

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Other Interesting Stuff

New York Times Book Review section gave me pause again: a review of Jessica Buder's Nomadland: Surviving in America in the Twenty First Century by Arlee Russell Hochschild. 

Reminded me that real poverty doesn't appear often in the genre fiction I read. There Be Demons touches on it. But my characters don't really suffer physically from poverty, inconvenience abounds but the true pain of living in sub-existential conditions doesn't. With few counties in the US able to offer a one-bedroom apartment affordable by a single, full-time minimum wage earner, you'd think real poverty -- rather than the wanting-mores -- would get more "press" in fiction.

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My Writing Rut

Am trying to get Rondezvous with Demon jump-started. Tried doing NaNoWriMo for the first  time since 2010 when my back gave out. Failed again. My writing style, psychi just doesn't respond to competition. Plodding plodder, that's me. One step at a time gets me where I'm going, provided I have fun along the way. Any one else think fun is important?

Am making progess on all the stickey notes I've accumulated. Think half of them have been attached to chapters as notes. Today, I got a bunch of pages from a small spirel binder transferred. Have 20,000-plus words, and I haven't even started writing.

One of the ways I save ideas is to write tthem down on sticky notes. My computer is stacked with piles of them, in all collors, right and left. Started out with enough sticky notes to cover almost a fourth of my desk over an inch high. I decided gettig my ideas posting an approximate chapter a higher priority than just poundinng out words. Do have over 10,000 words connected to Reondezvous, about half coherent writing and the rest jotttings. Still have a 10x7x2 inches deep pile of pink, yellow, green, and blue bits of paper to place.

Not all the pieces of paper are connected to Rendezvous. Some a political tweets, that soothed my growls plus tweets promoting There Be Demons. Yeah, promoting a book takes lots of time. 

Next project is to work the list of review places I've discovered. So far, only have one 2*...because I included too much mundane stuff in the book. Don't know who she is or where she posted but it's not showing up on Amazon or GoodReads. Other readers appreciate my "magical realism".

A Heads Up

There's a giveaway of There Be Demons on Amazon for US readers. To win a chance for a free copy just follow this link.

Groan. Do Cozy Mysteries Really Need a Pun?

Almost gagged when looking at the new arrivals in the mystery section awhile back, but I bought Grave Errors by Carol J. Perry anyway. Kinda liked the main character when I bought the first book in the series of five books and still do. Still, I object to having to read all the bad puns as I searched for authors I wanted to read.

[Don't get me wrong. I love cozy mysteries, especially ones that happen in a small interacting communities like English villages. It's the puns that gag me.]

Lee Barrent is one of those magical types whose magic is iffy at best. Makes for a good mystery protagonist. There's just enough psi ability for the book to be both an urban fantasy and a cozy mystery.

The setting of Grave Errors is a cliche, -- Salem, Massachusetts. But Dia de los Muertos  makes an appearance--something I haven't seen an American book do very often.

The plot centers on a closed suicide case that comes back to life as a murder investigation-- when Barrett's TV production class sets up a public service campaign to extend the town's Halloween festival by adding the Mexican holiday. Garrett's cop boyfriend isn't happy when the closed case comes back to bite him, but he's learned to pay attention to Barrett's sporatic visions. This book gives the reader a nice romp with well rounded characters, lots of red herrings, and an interesting cat. It all adds up to a fun read.

Check the listings for Grave Errors at these stores\

Amazon       Barnes & Noble      kobo/Apple Books

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My Writing Rut

Haven't written anything worth talking about. Just doing promo stuff. I think getting a book published turns your brain to mush. Even my traditionally published friends look at their Amazon stats at least two, three times a day. The good news is that I've sold a few copies of There Be Demons, even breaking through the 100,000 ranking...but not for long.

If you read this far, you deserve a reward. Night for the Gargoyles, the short story that inspired There Be Demons, is free on the links below. [I don't know if the Amazon link is free in foreign countries, but I fairly sure kobo is.]

Treat Yourself for Halloween:

Amazon       Barnes & Noble      kobo        Apple Books/iTunes

The best group of reviews are on Amazon.

Oh, I guess you can find me among the books at GoodReads . You can find reviews there too. I have several demon-focused short stories listed for free.

When Writing About Magic -- What Genre Should You Call It?

    Magical systems are one of Mercedes Lackey's fortes. Every story I've read of hers has played with magic in some way. Her paranormal mystery, Sacred Ground, focuses on Native American shamanism. Lackey shows her fellow writers how they can involve their readers in different way of thinking without over-burdening them with factoids and mechanics. It's all in the description and the images the writer creates.

   I'll say upfront that I'm disgruntled that this book is a stand alone. I think Jennie Talldeer deserves at least a trilogy. I'm assuming that the sales figures didn't encouraged her publisher to print more than the additional novella I was able to find. [I soothed my irritation by buying one of Lackey's newer novels.]

   In Sacred Ground, the "real" world of shopping malls and corrupt contractors impinge on Native American shamanistic practices. And my little pea-brain started wondering about magical realism of the literary types since the book is roughly contemporary. So I looked up the term. Discovered you can call the Sacred Ground magical realism instead of fantasy.  Lackey has her storyline meshing a magical system with the mundane world. You can't get any closer to the mainline definition than that.

   Jenifer Talldeer is a complex character--a regular on the powwow circuit, a private investigator who has a project a professional Waspy veneer, and a powerful shaman in training whose progress is blocked in some mysterious way. Then, Talldeer discovers a shaman ancestor's grave has been desecrated plus an old lover, who she still has feelings for, shows up on her doorstep.

   Yeah. The storyline twists and turns through all the possibilities as she investigates arson at a construction site for an insurance company, a crime which has supernatural implications that could endanger the world. Lackey uses the possibilities to create a vivid set of interacting primary characters, all of which have back stories that make them break the normal thriller cliches. 

Recommended, especially if your are tired of the same old Celtic-based magic systems. Lackey gives you a refreshing magical alternative in Jennifer Talldeer and her teacher, who just happens to be her grandfather with his own interpretations of traditional magic. See an excerpt and more reviews on

Amazon and Barnes & Noble

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Links

   In the last couple months, I've received several emails telling me my books were so good, they should be entered in their award contest or displayed on their website. Did you catch the reason I did the fast-delete? I should enter my self-published "books". Well, I've only published short stories, some longer than others, but short reads none the less.

   If I wanted to enter my stuff for some award, I'd look up the fantasy contests at Writer's Digest or the Absolute Write Water Cooler. More, I'd look up what Writer's Beware would say. In fact, Victoria Strauss has been writing about contests recently. You might take a look. My guys aren't the only ones running dicey contests.

No. I didn't recognize the people she discusses.

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My Writing Rut

    The story line of On the Run bumps along. I'm still revising chapters...adding 500 or more words to existing chapters as I change telling into scenes showing  feelings.

   The end result, I hope, is a series of better developed characters...including my mage dogs which reappear from Showdown at Crossings. Not the same dogs, but similar ones. Unfortunately, I have to kill a character for them to follow Pillar. Oh, well.

   My edits on Taking Vengeance are just about done. Would have finished them last week, but I goofed off. Hey, it's summer and I have to feed the mosquitoes.

Thinking About Where Do Book Series Begin? End?

My obsession with series continues. You can blame it on The Grumpy Dragon and its suggestion that I write a sequel to There Be Demons. The thought's scary like jumping off a cliff without a parachute.

Why? All the novels that have come out of my computer so far have grown organically as my characters careened from one situation to the next. The Demons sequel demands a outline. Why? Because if there's a middle, there logically has to be an end. Seems to me setting up the situation is the easy part. The rest has to build an expand on what happened before.

What are your feelings on this?

Cricket McCrae, aka Bailey Cates, poured gas on my fire, aka questions. She's the author of the Magical Bakery Mysteries among others. I recently read the last two in the series ... trilogy? ... close together -- Bewitched, Bothered, and Biscotti and Charms and Chocolate Chips. Yeah, the titles reek of cozy cutesie, but I read and enjoyed them anyway -- without having to control my gag reflex. McCrae/Bailey has a light touch with murder. I'll take my smiles where I can find them.

The first book,  Brownies and Broomsticks, sets up the series when Katie Lightfoot moves to Savannah, GA. She hopes to start a new career helping her aunt and uncle set up a bakery. Lightfoot's running from a bad job, a relationship gone teminal, and a mother who forgot to tell her she was a witch-in-waiting. The most important "man" in her life is the stray mutt who sets himself up as her familiar though the book sets up two possible suitors.  The storyline follows her trek of discovery -- including a knack for sleuthing when her uncle becomes the prime suspect in a murder. 

Bewitched, Bothered and Biscotti has Lighfoot learning her magical abilities mean more than charming the baked good with herbs and good intentions. She continues finding murdered bodies and solving crimes, in spite of police opposition. She's also in the enviable situation of choosing between two hunks -- one with magic and one normal. Lightfoot also comes to terms with the fact she's a witch and learns about the various permutations the Craft can take. The most important revelation in the second volume is that Lightfoot is more powerful than a common hedge witch ...only she has no one to teach her.

Charms and Chocolate Chips continues Lightfoot's journey -- and leaves me hanging. Is the book the last of a trilogy or the third in an ongoing series? 

Lightfoot is becoming part of the community now and is volunteering for a local conservation group when the director is murdered, supposedly because she opposed the sale of a swamp to a consortium who wants to build a golf course. She settles on the normal guy for romance, but she doesn't know if she can make it work, especially when she puts him in harm's way. 

Her mother coming to Savannah to reconcile with Lightfoot makes me wonder if there will be more Lightfoot mysteries. Many of the protagonist's problems are wrapped up in an acceptable way in this book, including a reconciliation with her mother. I can see where the series could go on as Lightfoot solves more murders in Savannah. But took a look at the author websites, but didn't find any clues as to the writer's intentions.

So what about the writing craft aspects of these novels? I especially admire how McCrae/Bailey draws her characters. Even the tertiary ones are well-rounded. The plots twist enough to be interesting. Her villains are well motivated. McCrae/Bailey puts together a nice paranormal mystery, based on nice people you wouldn't mind knowing. Maybe even make you wish you did know people like them.

McCrae/Bailey stirs up a nice, cross-genre confection. I'm stuffing all three volumes in my overloaded book shelves. Five stars to the series as well as the individual books.

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Writers write, right? Sometime during the day, I know I'm supposed to write. I try. Really I do. I even have a schedule. Toy with Forbidden Fruit in the evenings. [I still want to publish more novellas about the my Half-Elven world.] 

In the morning, I was working on edits for Black Tail's War. Now, I'm launching a new project. Why?

1. Taking Vengeance is finally up on Amazon, Nook, and Smashwords. I need to promote it.
2. I've submitted The Noticing One, a short story, to Amazon singles.
3. Since it worked the first time with Night for the Gargoyles, I'm writing a short story set in the world of the sequel to There Be Demons. Even have a tentative book title, Crossing the River.

Think that's enough on my plate.

Oh, I've been offering Taking Vengeance free on Smashwords to people who follow me on the various social media that consume too much of my time. The code is EG75E, and it's good until 30 November 2013. Link to buy

If you like it, I'd appreciate a review. Just a short paragraph. No Master's Thesis.

Magic Systems and Urban Fantasy

Do you need an introduction to the world of urban fantasy?  Stumbled across a list of ten top writers/protagonists at Book Chick City.  Take a look at "Laura's Top 10 Fantasy Series". 

'Twas nice to see someone agree with me. I've read and enjoyed most of the series though I ofter despair. I don't think imitate their achievement. [Good thing I'm not ambitious.] Still, the important piece here -- if you like to play with the supernatural -- the list gives you some of the genre's template characters. Actually, I read much more urban fantasy than I review. A lot of it seems highly repetitive.

Who stars in your favorite urban fantasy series? 

Kalayna Price's Grave Dance isn't repetitive, even though it's second in the Grave Witch series, featuring Alex Craft. She takes some conventional forms of magic and the world of Fae, puts them in the mixer, and comes up with some unique twists on the templates. Price's twists on magic flows in logical patterns that're internally consistent. Quite an achievement that.

The plot twists and turns too. Price has Craft caring about four to six secondary characters, each and everyone of them fleshed out enough to make Craft take actions that no one in their right mind would do. If friends don't motivate her, then the monsters do. Price even gives an interesting take on monsters. Example: I've read many stories that use kelpies as a danger. Price manipulates the trope, and the kelpie, while still threatening, helps Craft achieve a goal.

Price has a way of shading menace into even relatively safe situations. The ability promises a long career ahead of her. Grave Dance is a keeper.

Writing Urban Fantasy -- Or Anything Else

You should check out E. J. Wesley's blog about getting lost in your writing. It's not only your characters who get befuddled as you write. If they aren't getting befuddled, you should double check. You might not be writing something intriguing or exciting.