Selina J. Eckert's Blog, page 6

Urban Fantasy: A Closer Look

Welcome back to Fantasy Month! As a reminder, you can find out all about this event over on Jenelle Schmidt’s blog.

Previously, we’ve discussed some of the subgenres of fantasy, but today I want to delve more into urban fantasy, its own subgenre of fantasy. Why? Because urban fantasy has a lot of subtle nuances that tend to be used interchangeably, and there can be a lot of disagreement about what exactly urban fantasy is.

But first, a note. Even though this is how I define urban fantasy, you...

My Top 3 Underrated Fantasy Creatures

Happy February! If you were here last February, you may remember that I participated in Jenelle Schmidt’s Fantasy Month…and it’s back!

If you’re here, I’m going to guess you love fantasy as much as I do, so be sure to hop over and see the other Fantasy Month blog posts, or hop over to Instagram to see some bookstagram posts on the theme. I’ll be participating as I can (though I missed a couple days already because I’ve been sick), and if you want to participate, check out the Insta prompts...

Change is Scary…but Important

January is a season of changes. We may want to change our lifestyle to be healthier or find tools to be more productive. Perhaps we want to try something new or improve something we used to do. But no matter what goals you may (or may not) be setting this year, one thing holds them together: they all involve change.

And that’s good! Change is important to life. If there is no change, we can’t advance in our career and personal goals. If we stay in our safe little boxes, we’ll never see...

Five Ways my Reading Changed (After I Published)

Ever since I started seriously writing, my reading has transformed. Before, I could sit and read just for enjoyment, but when you start aiming for a career as an author, you begin to also read for your job. And sometimes that means reading things that you wouldn’t just pick up for fun…but it also means you read things you wouldn’t read if you weren’t a writer, such as nonfiction books on craft. It expands your understanding, your knowledge, and your capacity for new stories (at least for me)....

Cover Reveal: Freeze Thaw!

Guess what? It’s time again! The next Seasons of Magic is coming!

You may have seen this one floating around on the home page of this site for YEARS, and I kept promising to release it. It’s a story I wrote as part of Rooglewood Press’s Five Magic Spindles contest (Sleeping Beauty retellings), and it hit the top ten finalist list! Of those ten, five were chosen for the anthology…mine wasn’t picked because it didn’t quite fit with the others.

But that one thing inspired the entire Seasons of...

A New Writing Year: 2020

Wow. 2020. I can’t believe it’s already 20 years after Y2K! XD

In all seriousness, I’m so excited for a new year and new goals. I learned a lot last year, and this year I hope to learn and do even more.

But I’m not going to focus on personal goals this year; I’ll save that for the yearly wrap-up in December. Instead, I’ll focus on all the writing work I hope to accomplish in 2020, as well as update you all on where I’m at creatively.

As always, each of these goals has a number of smaller...

What I Accomplished in 2019

2019 was a big year for me! I had a lot going on both personally and professionally in my writing life and science career. So today, I’d like to look back at what I hoped to accomplish this year as well as what I actually did accomplish.

Personal Stuff in 2019

So this year I did a bunch of pretty awesome things and/or had some awesome things happen:

Had my 1 year anniversary Visited PeruVisited MinnesotaMet Nichelle NicholsEarned a promotion to Senior Scientist at my day jobGained a nephew! ...

My Year in Books: 2019 Edition

It’s that time of year again! The time to discuss all the wonderful books I read and loved this year! If you want to see everything I read this year, hop over to Goodreads and check it out.

First, some stats.

This year my goal was to read 70 books. I blew that goal away! As of the writing of this post, I’m at 89 books and expect to finish at least 1 or 2 more before the end of December.

Of those books, I believe 25 (possibly more) were indie authors.

Three were my own (surprise!), which...

Why Writers NEED to Read

It’s probably pretty safe to say that writers are, first and foremost, lovers of story. And often that naturally means that they are also some of the biggest bibliophiles you’ll ever find!

But there’s more to it than that. Writers actually NEED to read…for a number of reasons.

Let’s take a look at why.

Honing their Craft

Of course, firstly writers need to read to improve their own writing. How else can we learn how to write well (or how to avoid writing poorly) than by reading widely? In...

Some Bookish Gratitude

The holidays are all about gratitude, at least to me. We get a time specifically set aside to reflect on the good that has been given to us in our lives, the people we surround ourselves with, the things we have been blessed with. And with Christmas just around the corner, we also get to feel the warmth of blessing others.

Today, I’d like to take a few moments to show some bookish gratitude. So here are my book- and writing-related blessings from the year.

A supportive husband

Yeah, yeah....