Ruth Emmie Lang's Blog, page 2

Author Field Notes: Cover Reveal and Website!

I imagine that for most authors,seeing your finished cover for the first time has to got to be the most anticipated part of the publishing process (other than the actual pub date, of course). As much as we readers like to claim we don’t judge books by their covers, WE DO, or at least, I do. Personally, I think synopses should tell you what the book isabout, and covers tell you how it should make youfeel.So, how does my cover make me feel?Fantastic! It's exactly what I wished it would be: simp...

Author Field Notes: First Pass Pages (and Coyotes!)

I learned what first pass pages werelast month when a giant stack of paper secured with rubber bands arrived at my apartment. The sheer heft of them made my book seem really impressive, like if I were to drop them from a three story window, everyone better get out of the way! Maybe instead of judging books by their covers, we should be judging them by how deadly they are from certain heights. If that were the case, then Donna Tartt'sThe Goldfinchwould have to come with the disclaimer:Warning:...

Campfire Reads Review: Where'd You Go Bernadette?

“I got a huge knot in my stomach because if Antarctica could talk, it     would be saying only one thing: you don't belong here.”Author:Maria SempleGoodreads Description:(abridged) Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom. Then Bernadette disappears. To find her...

Campfire Reads Review: The Bear and the Nightingale

“Beware the turning seasons, she thought the wind sighed. Beware…”Author:Katherine ArdenGoodreads Description:(abridged) At the edge of the Russian wilderness, Vasilisa spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely de...

Campfire Reads Review: The Hidden Life of Trees

“I have learned… just how powerful a community of trees can be.”Author:Peter WohllebenGoodreads Description:InThe Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben shares his deep love of woods and forests and explains the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in the woodland and the amazing scientific processes behind the wonders of which we are blissfully unaware.I picked up this bookbecause I am, admittedly, a little tree obsessed. If I had to choose between spending the w...

Campfire Reads Review: History of Wolves

“I try to remember how the woods looked to me when I was younger. I know better than to be wistful. It was never magical to me .”Author:Emily FridlundGoodreads Description:[Linda] is an outsider in all things. Her understanding of the world comes from watching the seemingly ordinary life of a family she babysits for…As Linda insinuates her way into the family's orbit, she realizes they are hiding something. If she tells the truth, she will lose the normal family life she is beginning to enjoy...

Author Field Notes: Copyediting

Three years and eleven months ago,I started writing a novel.Well, I didn’t know I was writing a novel at the time. I thought it was a short story or maybe, a group of short stories. The truth is, I had no idea what I was doing but it felt good to create something, even if that something turned out to be nothing.Now, almost four years later, I can say thatBeasts of Extraordinary Circumstanceis definitely a something. I just finished the copyediting phase (aka. my last chance to change anything...

Campfire Reads Review: Bell Weather

“A universe of trees in a universe of night, a million dark spires, an infinity of leaves...”Author:Dennis MahoneyGoodreads Description:A captivating adventure set in a fantastical world where a young woman must uncover the secrets of her past while confronting the present dangers of a magical wilderness.I went into this bookexpecting a very different story than what I ended up with. That is in no way the author’s fault. I assume all guilt for my preconceptions. When I picked upBell Weather,...

Campfire Reads Review: Into the Forest

“Back then, it seemed the forest had everything we needed. Every mushroom or flower or fern or stone was a gift.”Author:Jean HeglandGoodreads Description:Set in the near-future,Into the Forestis a powerfully imagined novel that focuses on the relationship between two teenage sisters living alone in their Northern California forest home.Okay,so the titleof this book is maybe a little on-the-nose for my first Campfire Read Review (and possibly for the novel itself). It’s set in –you guessed it–...

Welcome!

Hi everyone! My name is Ruth and I'm an author from Columbus, Ohio. I love literature, nature, and literature about nature ("liternature?"). Lately, I've been reading a lot of the latter. I'll read anything if it's set in a forest, especially if there's a little magic sprinkled in (a la Eowyn Ivey or Karen Russell). A big part of that comes from my continuous need to be outside. Even if I'm inside enjoying a book set in the wilderness, part of me wishes I were reading that same book by a camp...