H.S. Stone's Blog, page 11

I'm an anti-rainmaker

This post has nothing to do with books or writing, but I thought it'd be interesting to share some random news about me. I think I have a superpower: I can make it not rain wherever I am. I'm an anti-rainmaker.

Let me explain. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and we've received little rain for the past ten years, leading to drought conditions. All this time, I thought it was because of global warming or other weather patterns. Then, I had to take a business trip to Houston last week. It h...

I can see why B&N is in trouble

It's no secret that Barnes & Noble is in big trouble. Lower sales, a declining stock, employee layoffs, and CEO troubles have plagued the company. It's a shame to see this once vibrant book chain in the state that it is now. There used to be a Barnes & Noble bookstore in my town, but it closed a few years ago. It was my go-to place to browse and to buy books because of their large selection. Even compared with the new Amazon brick-and-mortar bookstores, I prefer shopping at Barnes &am...

Why I love libraries

In the last week and a half, I've seen several articles talking about the value of libraries. It started when the author of a now-retracted Forbes article claimed that we'd be better off if Amazon replaced our local libraries. I'm not going to go into the absurdity of that claim, nor will I reiterate the many good arguments I've read since about why our library tax dollars are worth every penny. (I also won't dive into the many beautiful libraries that can be found around the world, but that...

My favorite series

I recently finished reading Obsidio and Only Human, the final books in the Illuminae Files and Themis Files series, respectively. Both series were great, which got me to thinking about what my all-time favorites are. So I tried to determine that in a somewhat scientific way by going through my Goodreads ratings to determine which series had the highest average ratings across all of the books in the series. There were several (including Illuminae Files and Themis Files) where I rated all of th...

About that series I was planning to write...

In February of 2017, I posted that I was starting on a new YA Fantasy series. Some of you may be wondering how it's going. (And others of you may be wondering how you stumbled upon this blog in the first place and how you can leave, but that's a different story.)

I spent a good part of last spring and summer working on the first book in the series. I finished about 15,000 words but couldn't get any further. I tried writing a different part of the story line, revising my series outline, and tak...

Release announcement: Beneath the Earth

I'm excited to announce the release of my newest novel, Beneath the Earth! If you're a fan of "Tremors" or "Jaws" or stories about teenagers who run into something bad while camping, this book is for you!


Description:

Laura and her classmates have been looking forward to their senior camping trip for weeks. Three days on an island paradise, away from school and their parents. What more could they ask for? 

The camping trip starts out well enough. The island is scenic and just the kind of es...

Cover reveal: Beneath the Earth

I'm getting ready to release a new book! It will be called Beneath the Earth, and I'm excited to show off the cover for it.


Description:

Laura and her classmates have been looking forward to their senior camping trip for weeks. Three days on an island paradise, away from school and their parents. What more could they ask for? 

The camping trip starts out well enough. The island is scenic and just the kind of escape to nature that Laura had hoped for. However, cracks soon begin to appear in...

Writing better female characters

 A few weeks ago, I started writing a thriller because thrillers are my second favorite genre to read (after YA speculative fiction). I was pretty stoked to dive into a new genre. Then I heard about the Stanch Book Prize, which is awarded to the best thriller in which "no woman is beaten, stalked, sexually exploited, raped or murdered." I'm not eyeing a Staunch Book Prize, but I thought that was a great thing to recognize because it does seem like every thriller I've read includes harm t...

National Chinchilla Day Sale

Some holidays don't get enough recognition: National Hat Day, Waffle Day, World UFO Day, and National Chinchilla Day, to name a few. I want to rectify that in a small way by celebrating National Chinchilla Day, which falls on March 23. And what better way to celebrate than by having a book sale! (Book sales make everything better!)


From now through the end of the weekend, YA author M.A. George and I are holding a National Chinchilla Day Sale. You can get all of her books and most of mine for t...

A Spoonful of Stories recap

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26 months ago, I got this crazy idea to write 26 flash fiction stories, each titled after a letter of the alphabet. I would publish one story each month over the course of 26 months until I got from A to Z.

Believe it or not, it actually happened. I'm happy to announce that all 26 stories are available to read for FREE on Wattpad! Check out "A Spoonful of Stories" here.

Table of Contents:
An Armful of ArmadillosA Batch of BugsA Cornucopia of CandyA Deluge of DemonsAn Excess of EmotionsA Flurry o...