Cheryl Burman's Blog: Blog posts for readers and writers, page 44

Plotter or Pantser?

Different writers approach their new work-in-progress in (many) different ways. Approaches tend, however, to fall along a spectrum. At one end are the detailed plotters and at the other are those who open their computers, or a blank note book, and set to work with only the vaguest idea of where they’re going. Writers joke about being a plotter or a ‘pantser’, ie someone who flies by the seat of their pants.

My own approach has, so far, tended to be somewhere towards the pantser end, where I ...

My review of Tropical Date by R S Jonesee

My monthly newsletter book reviews can be found on my Reviews of what I’m Reading page. But as I read more than one book a month, I leave other reviews here on my blog. They also get posted to Amazon and Goodreads.

Want to put everything aside and get lost in a fun, teasingly sexy read? Make sure you get this third book in Jonesee’s excellent Postcript Island series.

Marissa Sinclair, daughter of Postcript Island’s resort owners, is pretty happy with life. After all, she’s about to fulfil ...

Red by Lily Lawson

My monthly newsletter book reviews can be found on my Reviews of what I’m Reading page. But as I read more than one book a month, I leave other reviews here on my blog. They also get posted to Amazon and Goodreads.

Pure Lily – even more so!

It’s been too long since we had another poetry collection from Lily Lawson, so I’m thrilled to see this one. In earlier reviews I commented that Lily’s poems are highly relatable and leave you with a feeling of having met the author and knowing you like...

Rottnest by EV Faulkner

My monthly newsletter book reviews can be found on my Reviews of what I’m Reading page. But as I read more than one book a month, I leave other reviews here on my blog. They also get posted to Amazon and Goodreads.

Rottnest by EV Faulkner is a fascinating story of opposites finding themselves through an exploration of the other, whether willing or not.

Peter, a mediocre and middle-aged music journalist, receives a cassette tape in the post. There are no sender details, but there’s an invi...

Tropical Love by RS Jonesee

My monthly newsletter book reviews can be found on my Reviews of what I’m Reading page. But as I read more than one book a month, I leave other reviews here on my blog. They also get posted to Amazon and Goodreads.

Tropical Love by RS Jonesee delivers a fun, fast paced and well-written romantic holiday or weekend read. All the elements are there! The torn apart lovers, the great misunderstanding, the wicked mother, separate successes but – the ache in their hearts (and elsewhere) which they t...

‘Wise men and women’

‘You and I are not ordinary folk, little mistress. We are wise …’

Aaron, my male protagonist in River Witch, says this to Hester at their first meeting when she is only eight years old. He has seen her talking to Sabrina, the river goddess, and recognises, not without qualms, a soulmate, a fellow ‘wise folk’.

The core of the book is the conflict Aaron faces in how far he should nurture Hester’s natural abilities, given his own tragic experience, as opposed to Hester’s deep desire to be a heale...

My review of Queenie of Norwich by L K Wilde

My monthly newsletter book reviews can be found on my Reviews of what I’m Reading page. But as I read more than one book a month, I leave other reviews here on my blog. They also get posted to Amazon and Goodreads.

Queenie of Norwich is a fascinating historical novel which combines an education about the lives of England’s poor working class and, most interestingly, the travelling fair folk of the early 20th century, with an entertaining tale.
By turning her great-grandmother’s life into a nov...

Buttercups in the Basement by Jane Harvey

My monthly newsletter book reviews can be found on my Reviews of what I’m Reading page. But as I read more than one book a month, I leave other reviews here on my blog. They also get posted to Amazon and Goodreads.

Buttercups in the Basement is the second in the Hummingbird House series of novels which centre around the owner, Betty, and her tenants in this wonderful old house.
As with The Landlord of Hummingbird House, book one, Jane Harvey brings us a story of complex, relatable characters a...

My review of Kara Shieldmaiden of Eire by Jay Veloso Batista

My monthly newsletter book reviews can be found on my Reviews of what I’m Reading page. But as I read more than one book a month, I leave other reviews here on my blog. They also get posted to Amazon and Goodreads.

A book for adventure-hungry readers!

Confession: I read Thorfinn and the Witch’s Curse, but Kara Shieldmaiden of Eire, book 4 in the Vardoger series, is the next one I’ve read. This wasn’t a huge problem, given the author has kindly provided the reader with a summary to date...

Battle-axe – My Ambition!

I heard this hilariously relatable ‘battle cry’ at a local poetry festival, written and read (brilliantly) by the indubitable Pam Singer. Pam is an active member of our writing scene who, by her own admission, has probably achieved this ambition already. How a Canadian came to be in the Forest of Dean (as rare as us Australians) is a story to explore another time!

I want to be a battle-axe
Refuse to pay my council tax
Then chain myself to County Hall
And scrawl my slogans on the wall;

Oh yes, to ...