H.S. Stone's Blog, page 37

Book review: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

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Description:
Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be...

Zombies

I've read four zombie books so far this year, and they are all among my favorite reads of 2012. I'm no longer in denial about liking zombies.

I'm not sure why I like zombies so much. Is it just because the books I happened to read were really well written? They all have high ratings on Amazon (averaging 4.3 to 4.6 stars out of 5), so that's a possibility. Or maybe zombies are the kinds of monsters I like. I don't care for vampires or werewolves, but I blame that on the popularity of Twilight,...

Edits and more edits

I finished my third round of edits on the 4th of July. (Yes, that's how authors who have full time jobs spend their holidays.) It felt like I revised about ten percent of the book. Most of it was minor, especially compared to the big changes I made the first and second times I went through the manuscript. I just started editing it for the fourth time. I'm pretty sure that after this round, I'll send it to some proofreaders to review because I'll need another pair of eyes to see the mistakes t...

Book review: Blood Red Road by Moira Young

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Description:
Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba's world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back.

S...

How I choose what to read

Last time, I talked about how I read both print books and e-books. The process by which I choose what books to read differs depending on the format.

The print books that I read are all traditionally published. A majority of them come from recommendations by friends or via GoodReads. I joined GoodReads about a year ago, and as I add more books to my list, I've been getting more and better recommendations. Of my favorite books read this year, about half came from GoodReads recommendations. I als...

E-books vs. print books (or, how I read)

There's no question that e-books are here to stay. Last year, Amazon reported that they sold more e-books than print books. This has led to a religious war about which is better for readers, e-books or print books. E-book supporters point to the convenience of carrying many e-books on one device and their (sometimes) lower cost. Those who prefer print books cite that print books feel better and they're easier to share.

Where do I stand on the e-books vs. print books debate? Honestly, I like bo...

Book review: Origin by J.A. Konrath

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Description:
When linguist Andrew Dennison is yanked from his bed by the Secret Service and taken to a top secret facility in the desert, he has no idea he's been brought there to translate the words of an ancient demon.

He joins pretty but cold veterinarian Sun Jones, eccentric molecular biologist Dr. Frank Belgium, and a hodge-podge of religious, military, and science personnel to try and figure out if the creature is, indeed, Satan.

But things quickly go bad, a...

Done with first round of revisions

Thanks in large part to my productive Memorial Day weekend, I'm done with the first round of revisions on my second novel! I estimate that I changed about 30% of the text during the editing process. A whole new chapter was written from scratch, and large parts of three other chapters were re-written. I also resolved a plot problem that nagged me when I wrote the first draft. In the end, I believe that this second draft is significantly better than the first.

Now comes the hard part. The easy f...

Five things a writer should and shouldn't do

I came across a blog post on author Tonya Kappes's blog titled "FIVE Things a Writer Should and Shouldn't Do NOW!" that I wanted to share. You should go read the blog post, but to summarize, here are the 5 things.

Things a writer shouldn't do:
Stop quittingStop treating your body badStop writing what you hear is going to sellStop dreaming and start doingStop worrying
Things a writer should do:
Recognize that you are a writerRead moreGive back to othersWork hardJust do it
I think it's a good list,...

A productive Memorial Day weekend

What a difference a weekend makes. Last week, I found myself having a hard time getting back into writing mode after taking two weeks off. This weekend, I forced myself to work on my novel, and now I'm more than 70% done with my first round of edits! It's been a very productive three days, and the best part is, I'm excited about the writing process again.

I expect that after I'm done with my edits, I will need to go through the novel a couple more times before I feel it's good enough to show a...