novels
-
“Jimmy was the type, Mary Helen had been told, who could sell snow to the Eskimos. As a matter of fact, he had started out selling purses. ‘There’s a lot of money in purses,’ Lucy often quipped.” “The Missing Madonna: A Sister Mary Helen Mystery” by Sister Carol Anne O’Marie What’s not to love about…
-
“We are all overdressed in our little flashy frocks, our slasher heels, and we all eat small plates of food bites that are as decorative and unsubstantial as we are.” “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn I went into Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl with the unfortunate bias I have going into anything particularly popular or raved…
-
October means a lot of things to many people. It’s the approach of autumn, it’s the time where I’m pretty sure pumpkin spice is legally mandated to infiltrate everything consumable, and it’s all topped off with the spooky fun spectacle that is Halloween. Of course, there’s something very particular that it means to writers: “OHshit,…
-
“Writing a book is a long, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.” –George Orwell. Though I’ve seen this quote many times before, it’s only just now that it truly strikes a chord with me. I stumbled upon it in a recent post over at Invisible Ink, and I just had to…
-
“And I wonder if anyone is really happy. I hope they are. I really hope they are.” “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky It has been a very, very long time (too long?) since a book has affected me in the way that The Perks of Being a Wallflower has. I’m talking…
-
“…it is, indeed, the art of ellipsis, or of suggestion,–the incredible technique of impressing the inexpressible by non-expression of an impression.” “Renaissance in Japan: A Cultural Survey of the Seventeenth Century, Japan’s Literary Giants: Basho, Saikaku, Chikamatsu” by Kenneth P. Kirkwood Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a bibliophile. I can’t borrow books, because…
-
Quite often, especially lately, especially in the insanity that is being upper management for retail during the hoilday season, I find myself wishing on thing more than others. I wish I could be a faster writer. At the start of this year, when I really started to cling to the idea of self-publishing and really…
-
Last night, I realized that I’ve been reading an awful lot of political fantasy lately. I’ve got Melanie Rawn’s The Ruins of Ambrai for one, Terry Pratchett’s The Truth for another, and, most influential of all, George R. R. Martin’s A Feast for Crows, which is easily the most political of the Song of Ice…
L.S. Engler 