Tag: reviews

Discouragement

It’s been a while since I’ve written.

We got a new tire for my car. Or rather, we got 5 new tires for my car and one of them turned out to work. The first time Mr Katje went to the scrap yard he got a deal on 4 tires for 200 bucks off a 2000 Dodge Caravan — ie, my exact car.

They didn’t fit.

I don’t fucking know WHY, they just didn’t fit. They should have. SAME CAR. That night included Mr Katje lying on the ground looking at this tire he couldn’t get onto my car and saying “Happy birthday, Dear, I got you the wrong tires.”

(Yes, tires were my bday gift. I turned 31 and I got a working car. #blessed)

So he went back and was able to return them (a VERY WELCOME SURPRISE) and got a different one which definitely DID fit. So my car got all fixed up in time for me to drive up to Sechelt.

So mom and I went to the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, or FOTWA, or #SecheltWritersFest, or SCFWA, from August 17-20. We were in the tent selling books with other local indie authors.

We had a great time; I sold 2 books. Pretty good considering the overlap between SFF readers and people who go to festivals like that one is pretty slim.

Then we got back to our respective homes and Mr Katje and I went and watched the eclipse the next day, which was fucking underwhelming. I thought 86% totality was going to be pretty good but it was just disappointing. Didn’t help we couldn’t get any eclipse glasses so we had to look through pinhole boxes we’d made that morning.

When we’re 80 we’ll just look right at it because either medical technology will have progressed to the point where it doesn’t matter and we can just get new eyes, or we’ll be so close to the grave we won’t give a fuck.

Continue reading “Discouragement”

Reviews for Bellica!

So I’m pretty excited about this — I have two really great reviews for Bellica from friends Robin A. Sams and Mary Malinski.

Quotes from each review:

Katje’s character development is fantastic. She feeds details about the characters (and there are a lot of them, but don’t let that intimidate you!) in just large enough doses to keep you on your toes. Just when you think you know one of the characters…some new piece of information is released that changes what you thought you knew.

Bellica — Book Review | Circle of the Sacred Muse

Bellica is filled with vivid characters, and I greatly enjoyed reading their different viewpoints.  I was also angry when certain characters died, even if it was necessary to the story.  This novel overflows with intrigue, passion, and magek. 

Bellica book review | Robin A. Sams

It makes me really happy to know that my book is worthy of such praise. Reading reviews like these really brightens my day.

I hope I can keep the magek going in The Jade Star of Athering and Dead Transgressions!

Image from Wikipedia

In other news: it is the summer solstice today. What are you doing reading my blog? Go out and enjoy the sun god(s’)/desses’ blessings, whether you follow Brighid, Helios, Amaterasu, or Ra! (“Hail to the Sun God! He’s a really fun god! RA RA RA!”)

30 in 30: Day 03 (in which I review PORN — I mean, part of the Kushiel series)

The best book you’ve read in the last 12 months

This one is harder to answer because I’ve read fewer books in the past year than I usually have. (Yes, you read that right.) Most of the books I’ve read have been non-fiction, which usually means that I haven’t actually finished them yet. And I have trouble picking a non-fiction book as the “best” that I’ve read, because that’s not how I measure their worth — I measure their worth in how USEFUL they are to me (also what KIND of useful — Silver RavenWolf’s books are good as doorstops or toilet paper, so are a lesser kind of useful than ones I’d actually get good knowledge out of…also SRW’s books could probably be classified as fiction, so I guess it’s sort of a moot point).

So. I haven’t read that many fiction books in the past year. That I can remember. I actually don’t really remember much from week to week.

Which means I’m choosing a book I just finished, because it’s fresh in my mind and it’s by one of my favorite authors. Kushiel’s Justice, by Jacqueline Carey.

Continue reading “30 in 30: Day 03 (in which I review PORN — I mean, part of the Kushiel series)”

30 Books in 30 Days: Day 01 (in which I vehemently bash Acorna’s bloated corpse)

In the interest of whipping myself to blog more, I have stolen this meme from my friend Boudicca. I’ll try and do this within a month; of course I’ve chosen the worst month possible. But whatever; it should be fun.

Oh, and these posts are going to count for my GYWO, as they are not normal blog posts but an ongoing journaling project. (I’m not cheating; I’m being creative with the rules.)

Day 01 – A book series you wish had gone on longer OR a book series you wish would just freaking end already (or both!)

This is easy. The Acorna series by Anne McCaffrey. The unicorn girl needs to die.

Acorna the Unicorn Girl was great. It was fun, and well written, with lovable characters. She’s a fucking unicorn girl! Awesome! She’s got a horn and shit! Super-awesome!

The first book made me want to read the second, and the third, which were also good. After we found Acorna’s peeps and it becomes apparent that she’s not just a freakish mutant, I think, “Yeah, okay, we’re good now.”

BUT WAIT. THERE’S MORE.

Continue reading “30 Books in 30 Days: Day 01 (in which I vehemently bash Acorna’s bloated corpse)”