Molly Ringle's Blog, page 13

Forestiere Underground Gardens: a Fresno Underworld?

My mom called me the other day to tell me about this Underworld-ish place she suddenly remembered: the Forestiere Underground Gardens in Fresno, California.

A Sicilian immigrant almost a century ago hand-carved rooms and passageways in the hardpan beneath the thin farmland soil, and used it as a living space, a cool refuge from the hot California summer sun. Down there he also planted several fruit trees that could receive sunlight through skylight-type openings above. Fruit trees underground,...

Book reviews: Daughters of Zeus series

Following up on Kaitlin Bevis' post, here's the guest post I wrote on Adonis for her blog! Come have a read.

And since I just finished reading Aphrodite, her latest, here is a roundup of my reviews of Kaitlin's Daughters of Zeus series:

Book 1: Persephone

Persephone is a fun, imaginative, smart retelling of my favorite myth, fusing modern culture with a rich world of magic. I had such a great time reading this. I ate it up in just a few days. With its irreverent sense of humor and its intelligen...

On Adonis: guest post from Kaitlin Bevis

This weekend I'm pleased to run a guest post from author Kaitlin Bevis! (We writers of Persephone/Hades love-story retellings have to stick together, you know.) She's got a new book out in her Daughters of Zeus series: Aphrodite.



And by the way, wow, do I love that cover art. Gorgeous.

So without further ado, here is Kaitlin, on the delectable topic of Adonis.

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Hi there!
I'm Kaitlin Bevis, author of the Daughters of Zeus series. My most recent book, Aphrodite, featured many characte...

The rule of one million

Okay, I hope you're ready for a West Coast feel-good save-the-planet piece of fluffy philosophy, because I HAVE ONE for you.

I call it the rule of one million, and it basically goes: "Is this action I'm contemplating going to make much difference? Maybe not on its own, but what if one million other people today also made this choice? Then would it make a difference?" And the answer then is usually yes. So I do the good thing.

I often think of this when faced with our garbage v...

Spotlight: happy release month to The Recipient!

New book release from one of my lovely fellow authors at Central Avenue Publishing!

I got to read this novel early, and as always, I'm impressed with Dean's work, and his versatility. In The Hambledown Dream he crafted a beautiful and gritty paranormal romance, in Gifts of the Peramangk he brought to life a family saga about Australian race relations, and with The Recipient he's written a scary and intriguing medical thriller. But what he brings to them all is authentic human emoti...

Not that you'd expect any less from a slash writer, but...

I finally saw The Force Awakens (loved it!), and was reading news stories about the popularity of the Stormpilot pairing (which of course I could totally get behind). I should know better than to read the comments, though. Oy.

I don't want to give these articles extra traffic by linking to them. You can find them easily enough if you want. I'll just say that even on the more liberal news sites, and even in this modern enlightened age, the comments section is still filled with remarks l...

Publishers Weekly has now heard of me!

This is a first (for me). Publishers Weekly ran a write-up of one of my books! It’s the third in the series and the review is spoilerific for the whole trilogy, so don’t click through if you want to avoid that. But here is the fabulous take-away quote that I’ll be posting everywhere: “Ringle provides a thoroughly satisfying thread-tying conclusion.”

Thank you, PW!!



(GIF from http://avatarreactiongifs.tumblr.com/. Because I now know to credit my GIFs.)

Because magic: why I write fantasy

I wrote a guest post! Go see:

Because magic: why I write fantasy and paranormal

Excerpt:

...the rules, restrictions, price, and effects of magic get to be completely zany. That’s the fun of it. Yes, this character can turn into a wolf, but never a bat or anything else; that’s just the rule. Yes, you can reverse this evil spell, but only if you accomplish these three bizarre tasks before sunrise. Sorry, but those are the conditions. Yes, you can enter and leave the supernatural realm safely, as l...

A good review and bad first drafts

First off, if you have a Goodreads account, please go click "like" at the bottom of this fabulous review! Rachel Alexander is the author of new Persephone/Hades novels that are skyrocketing to popularity, and I'm delighted she liked my take on the subject. Check out her books too--I recently read the first one, and it was gorgeous, and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the second.

Second, speaking of writing, this quotation spoke to me...



This is true, and unavoidable...

Little Free Libraries as book promotion idea for authors

Little Free Libraries: You've probably seen these cute quirky wooden structures in your neighborhood. Here in Seattle everyone's kind of crazy about them; they're popping up on every other street, and my husband is now putting the finishing touches on one for our sidewalk too, since I'm so fond of them.

I always enjoy browsing them when I'm on walks, and discovering a new one is a special treat. Lately one thing I've also been doing is to leave copies of my own books in...