Sheila Deeth's Blog, page 44

Feuds, Sparks, and seventeen-year-old Star

Today I'm delighted to welcome Kyle Prue to my blog. He's the (seventeen-year-old!) author of the The Sparks, book one of the Feud Trilogy, and he's touring the internet with PRBytheBook. I'm delighted to have him here on my blog to answer a few questions. I hope he drinks coffee, but I do have tea and soda as well. So please pull up a chair and join our conversation.



A Q&A with Kyle Prue, author of The Sparks,Book One in the Feud trilogy
So, Kyle, could we start by asking where  you g...

The Third Twin?

Today I'm delighted to spotlight a thriller with a truly fascinating title, the Third Twin, by C. J. Omololu. When you read the premise, below, I'm sure you'll agree this one sounds like a must-read - so make sure you enter to win at the end of this post!

About the book

When they were little, Lexi and her identical twin, Ava, made up a third sister, Alicia. If something broke? Alicia did it. Cookies got eaten? Alicia’s guilty. Alicia was always to blame for everything.

The game is all grown up...

White Swans and the Avarice of Man

Today I'm delighted to welcome Annamaria Bazzi back to my blog with her wonderful White Swans. I still had some questions left over after we last shared a virtual coffee on this blog, so she kindly agreed to return and answer them. I guess what I'm brewing can't be too bad!

To read the first interview, just click on the virtual coffee link above.

And to get you in the mood, here's a blurb for the book, before I introduce the author:

Kendíka’s second chance at life begins as a nightmare.Will the...

Science Fiction or YA Dystopian?

I had several YA dystopian novels on my review list last weekend. Having plenty of time to read, since my husband was out at a chess tournament, I supplemented the list with a few dystopian novels I'd received for Christmas too. The result was 6 novels read, three of them collected in one larger e-library, and a really enjoyable holiday from real life.

This morning my husband asked me about the books. I think he was wondering if any of them might be things he'd enjoy. After all, he's always lo...

Maybe Love: From Byron, via Austen, to Helen of Troy

Maybe love is the theme of my next book reviews, but perhaps I should call it "maybe love," since the first novel, After Byron by Norman Beim, leaves the reader waiting awhile to find out if love is  an illusion or just a twist of fate. Dark gothic mansions loom; dark deeds are hidden in the past; and dark ghosts roam while the pages of journals and letters reveal... well, something more. Simultaneously traditional and modern, and filled with many different shapes and forms of love, it's...

Reading in Pairs

Have you ever noticed how busses arrive in threes but movie plots are only repeated in twos? There are always three things that go wrong, but you wait for the second shoe to drop? Three wishes anyone? But only two fall in love in a romance? What is it with those twos and threes?

Of course, the mathematician in me looks at all the fours and fives we ignore--perhaps the number's a little to high to call coincidence. And then there are all the singles--truly, don't most busses arrive roughly on t...

What About the Cover?

Never judge a book by its cover, they say. But we do it every day, ignoring the boring thumbnail on Amazon, leaving the uninteresting spine on the bookstore shelf. But most of my books are read on kindle and kobo, given by authors or friends or friends of friends, and weighted with promises to review. The cover's the bit I rarely even notice, if at all. In fact, my review list is so long now, I rarely even remember the back-cover blurb by the time I start to read, and every tale is a brand ne...

What was New Zealand really like in colonial times?

Today I'm welcoming award-winning short-story author Rebecca Burns to my blog. Her latest book, The Settling Earth, was published in December by Odyssey Books, a small publisher based in Australia. It contains an interconnected collection of stories set in colonial (historical) New Zealand - a fact which immediately makes this ex-pat want to read them. I'm delighted to have the book on my virtual bookshelf, and I'm eagerly awaiting some real time to read. So... over to you Rebecca. Just what...

The Languages of White Swans

Today I'm delighted to welcome author Annamaria Bazzi back to my blog. Her new book, White Swans, A Regency World , has just come out, and we're sitting here drinking coffee and eating chocolate chip cookies (gluten free of course), so please feel free to join us.

Hi Annamaria, and welcome to my blog. Having learned that you speak English, Italian and Spanish, I'm wondering what other languages you speak, and whether you think being multilingual helps you write.

The only other language I speak i...

Johnny Nothing and A Writer's Life

Today I'm delighted to welcome author Ian Probert to my blog. His first children's book is Johnny Nothing, and he's here to share his experience of a Writer's Life -- what happens next when your heartbreaking work of staggering genius starts breaking your heart. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure this is quite what happened next -- hey, I've looked on Amazon and Ian Probert has lots of great reviews -- also lots of books. But hey, you can judge for yourselves; there's an excerpt from Johnny...