Virginia Crow's Blog: Crowvus Book Blog, page 5

#MGMonday #BookReview "The Golden Book: The Blademaster of Golara" by David H Mines

 I love fantasy books, and I love adventure so, put those two genres together, and I get very excited! I was, therefore, delighted when I was offered the opportunity to review this book. The author sent me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

The book can be purchased here.

Summary

Matthew is an average boy who doesn't realise his father is the Blademaster, a title given to one person capable of wielding the sword of the elements. This sword can metamorphosise, depending on what the Blademaster...

#HistFicThursdays - Inspirational Series: Alexander the Great

I honestly can’t remember what inspired me to write about Alexander the Great. I think it was probably the Horrible Histories song, but I could be wrong about that. I suddenly just wanted to know everything there was to know about him, and to put it into story form. I actually started the story before I knew much about him and his campaigns at all so, still in its first draft condition, the opening chapter of the book has some rather hilarious mistakes and inferences. By the second chapter, I ha...

#MGMonday - Author Life "Setting Realistic Goals"

Anyone who writes is a writer but, in my humble opinion, you need to be published to be an author. This may be a contentious view to some, and I'm sorry if your offended. If it's any consolation, self-publishing counts. If fact, I'm writing this blog with self-publishing in mind.


When you publish your own books, you have to be on top of everything. Not only are you writing the book, you organise the editing, you organise the marketing and publicity. And don't get me started on distribution! It is...

#HistFicThursdays - The Rune Stone by Julia Ibbotson

 This week for #HistFicThursdays, I'm delighted to be teaming up with The Coffee Pot Book Club to once again shine a spotlight on Julia Ibbotson's fabulous writing! Here is her fabulous book, The Rune Stone.

So, let's meet the book...

A haunting time-slip mystery of runes and romance

When Dr Viv DuLac, medievalist and academic, finds a mysterious runic inscription on a Rune Stone in the graveyard of her husband’s village church, she unwittingly sets off a chain of circumstances that disturb their q...

#MGMonday - Settings - Writing About Another Planet

 Happy Monday! This week, we'll be sticking with the Science Fiction theme from last week. If you'd like to read up on my top tips for writing Science Fiction, they can be found here. At school this week, we have the Caithness Science Festival show all sorts of great things for the children. Kids love it! Talented presenters come and share cool facts in fun ways, and the classes can have a go at some really awesome experiments, or meet some funky animals.

I love science, and I get a buzz from see...

#HistFicThursdays - Gothic Horror - Death At Priest's Acre

© Christine Taylor

 I wrote Death At Priest’s Acre for a callout by Quill and Crow, who were looking for stories to fill a “Bleak Midwinter” anthology. It wasn’t the right fit for them and, to be honest, the beginning and end needed a revisit which has been provided for this anthology. Beginnings and ends are very important in Gothic Horror: they are what tell you that whatever terrible happening has been taking place has successfully scarred the characters involved. If the events of the story ar...

#MGMonday - Genres "Science Fiction"

  Happy Monday and welcome back to our Middle Grade Monday series: genres! Today, I'll be sharing a couple of hints and tips for writing science fiction for children. I'm not a sci-fi author, so I'll be addressing this mostly in terms of being a primary teacher.

When teaching about genres to children, it is often a struggle to explain the difference between fantasy and science fiction and, in fact, these two genres often get muddled together in awards and libraries etc.

The explanation I landed on...

#HistFicThursdays - Death of a Princess by R. N. Morris - Guest Post

For this week's #HistFicThursdays blog, I'm thrilled to be welcoming R. N. Morris to the blog with a guest post about his latest book Death of a Princess, as part of his Coffee Pot Book Club tour. In Roger's guest post, he explains why he loves writing historical crime novels and the influences he has drawn from. But first, let's meet the book...

Blurb

Summer 1880.

Lipetsk, a spa town in Russia.

The elderly and cantankerous Princess Belskaya suffers a violent reaction while taking a mud bath at the ...

#MGMonday - Character Blog - The Baddy!

 Characters in Middle Grade: The Baddy

Happy March! We saw our first daffodil out in the garden on St David's Day, 1st March. Very fitting!

Last month, in our middle grade characters series, we looked at the main character, giving some (I hope!) useful tips and pointing out some things to watch out for. Today, we’ll be looking at your main antagonist, otherwise known as ‘The Baddy’!

I’ve read some fantastic middle grade baddies, and some terrible ones, and I’m going to share what I think makes a gr...

#HistFicThursdays - Three Historical Myths which Genealogy Research has Helped to Bust

 First of all, thank you to everyone who got in touch about the Science Fiction in Historical Fiction blog a few weeks ago. It is great to have such feedback and super to hear that these two genres are rubbing along so well!

At the moment, I'm doing very little writing. It's not intentional, it's just other things have been taking me in other directions. I'm truly honoured to have been asked to be a critical reader on a book set in 1490s Florence. I can't even begin to describe how much it means ...