James R. Paddock's Blog: Dusty Books, page 5

Below Zero by CJ Box

Below Zero by CJ Box

Below Zero is One Great Read

I knowBelow Zero is not CJ Box’s latest novel, but it is the latest one I’ve read and I am just as riveted as I was with all the rest. Joe Pickett and his family, Marybeth, Sheridan and Lucy, continue to burrow into the hearts of CJ’s readers. Joe, a Wyoming game warden who often finds himself on the disgruntled side of either the director of the Wyoming Game and Fish, the Wyoming governor, one or more county sheriffs, or his wife, finds he must...

Before Anne After – The First in the Time-Travel Series

Before Anne After – The First in the Time-Travel Series

Before Anne After – July 17, 1987/1943

Through a series of small errors and oversights – a missed phone message, an unlocked high-security door, a lax in protocol, a falling purse – eight-month pregnant Annabelle (Anne) Waring unknowingly stumbles into her husband’s time-travel experiment. Readers of Before Anne After will find Anne awakening in a 1943 Charleston Navy Shipyard barracks with no memory of how she got there. Her existence and...

Cool Characters Can Be Found In My Birth City

Cool Characters Can Be Found In My Birth City

While southbound for home at the end of our vacation this last August, we passed through Butte, Montana, the city in which I was born and from where have come some strange and cool characters. Has anyone heard of Evel Knievel or Martha Raye? As I stood at the historic marker and snapped the photographs that created the image above, I thought about the scenes from my novel, Elkhorn Mountain Menace (Angels in the Mist), which took place along several...

Reviews by Jane – A Wholesome Source of Great Book Reviews

Reviews by Jane – A Wholesome Source of Great Book Reviews

I can’t go another day without once again mentioning Reviews by Jane. As you may or may not know, my previous blogs have gone the way of the dinosaurs thanks to my blundering administrative efforts. Part of my rebuilding efforts is to get Reviews by Jane back in my blogging inventory. I’m not directing you to this on-line book review site because I want you to rush out and read my reviews. I’m afraid you won’t find my titles mentioned...

10 Online Resources for Writers

10 Online Resources for Writers

Is it a dark and stormy night or what?




There are a number of links to online resources for writers that I keep on my desktop while I’m writing. They include several different kinds of dictionaries, of course, as well as Sun & Moon data, the Almanac, a name generator, and more. I’d love to learn what resources other writers use. Comment and let me know.
Dictionary Resources

dictionary.com & thesaurus.com – These are two great online resources. Go here to look up a w...

The Entire Smilodon Trilogy (the Sabre-toothed Cats) is NOW OUT

The Entire Smilodon Trilogy (the Sabre-toothed Cats) is NOW OUT

Just released – the 3rd book in the Smilodon Trilogy.

For those who haven’t read the first two, here is a run down of all three Smilodon novels.

The original Smilodon was published in 2002. Notice that the cover has changed. Along with that came a thorough edit and re-edit of the entire book for typos and story consistency. Thus is the NEW and IMPROVED Smilodon.

Imagine recreating the saber-toothed cat for fun? The possibility sounds...

Who Remembers The Montauk Monster?

Who Remembers The Montauk Monster?

The Montauk Monster – Photo: Courtesy of Alanna Nevitski

One question I am sure to get anytime I do a reading or happen into a conversation with a non-writer about writing is, “Where are your sources of story ideas?” I ask you this: “What was that Montauk Monster that washed up on the Long Island beach back in 2008?” If you’re a writer of fiction or someone who often sits around and contemplates the “What if?”—much like what I did in junior high school which t...

Sources of Story Ideas

Sources of Story Ideas

The Montauk Monster – Photo: Courtesy of Alanna Nevitski

One question I am sure to get anytime I do a reading or happen into a conversation with a non-writer about writing is, “Where are your sources of story ideas?” I ask you this: “What was that Montauk Monster that washed up on the Long Island beach back in 2008?” If you’re a writer of fiction or someone who often sits around and contemplates the “What if?”—much like what I did in junior high school which the teachers...

I’ve stopped writing and now I’m getting itchy fingers

I’ve stopped writing and now I’m getting itchy fingers

In the words of fellow writer, Julie Anne Lindsey, in her blog, Musings From The Slush Pile, finishing a full manuscript is a monumental event. It is so monumental that after self-publishing my first three in 2002 I went on to finish another four full manuscripts (novels) over the following nine years. You might notice that publishing was not mentioned with those last four. The fact that I finished them was, at the time, monumental enough....

Characters and Timelines

Characters and Timelines

What methods do you employ in your novels to keep to keep your characters and timelines, as well as scenes and events, straight? How do you make sure when you give a character green eyes in chapter 3 that you didn’t give her blue eyes in chapter 30, or that you don’t have your villain driving a ’98 Ford Explorer in one scene and a ‘98 Ford Expedition in another? My personal faux pas was when I used my daughter’s middle name for a character. Sometimes I spelled it, “Ail...