Meri Benson's Blog, page 14

Book Review: Null and Void by Susan Copperfield

Author: Susan Copperfield [image error]

Publisher: Pen & Page Publishing

Genre: Paranormal, Urban Fantasy

Rating: 4 Stars

Born without magic, Mackenzie Little has few prospects in her null caste, but when her mother pushes her into participating in a charity auction everything changes. Bought by ex-boss, Dylan Mason – an elite magic wielder, she gets to live the fantasy life for a day. Nine months later, despite all precautions, Mackenzie gives birth to a little miracle of her own. Having someone other than herself to fight for, she strives to give her little miracle the best life offered, even if that means having to change a few rules to do it.

The Royal States of America presents as an interesting world to read and learn about. The world itself has territories ruled by kings and queens, the highest of the caste system that has been set into place by those with magic. Mackenzie falls to the bottom of that caste system, born a Null – someone who doesn’t have any magic of her own. Limited by her caste, she is forced into limited office work or manual labor in New York.

But when opportunities present themselves, she jumps from New York to Texas in order to fight for Null rights and push to help make her caste more equal in the eyes of the laws within the Kingdom of Texas. And she’s not only armed with her tough skin growing up a Null, but also with the ferociousness that comes from being a new mother, one who wants to be able to give her little miracle the world and opportunities she had.

This book had many ups and downs, and I felt incredibly lucky to be able to come along for the ride with Mackenzie. I enjoyed every page, and I can’t wait to continue in this world. The next book does not continue Machenzie’s story, but I can’t say that it discourages me one bit, quite the contrary, it has me more excited because I’ll be able to see more of this world through the eyes of someone new, with a different outlook on life and potentially within a different caste.

May Naps

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Can you believe we’re a week into May!? MAY! May first came, and I don’t know about your area but in my Chicagoland area, we went from 40 degree weather to 80 degree weather. The change was insanely fast, and it’s left me wondering where Spring went because the weather has been so warm and beautiful. I honestly love being able to have my windows open, getting fresh air into the house.

Of course, living in an eighty-year-old house with no central air does mean nights are slept with a fan on to help keep me cool enough to sleep. but I manage. And I’ll take it for the warmer weather.

May is also the month where I’m participating in a Flash Fiction Workshop that’s run by an online writer’s community I’m part of. The goal is to help us write better flash fiction – 500 words or less. For me, 500 words feels like a drop in the bucket. My best friend would say it’s because I’m wordy, and she’s totally not wrong. I love my words, and I will admit to using too many to get a point across. So I felt like participating would help me try to trim down the fat in my WIPs overall. After all, if I can get a story out in 500 words after this month-long workshop, it means that I can hopefully get my descriptions in my full length novel to be more concise without losing that punch of being well said. At least, that’s my hope and goal. We’ll see how this turns out. By the end of May I should have four shorts, good or bad – but hopefully good!

This also on top of editing my drafted novel. Which means May is a super busy month for me. With the warm weather though, I’m feeling a little more motivated all around to get things done.

How is your May going so far? Are you motivated to keep working on everything? Have you hit a snag in your plans? Let me know in the comments below!

April Wrap-Up/May TBR

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It’s growing warmer by the day here, and I truly appreciate the growing warmth. I need it. I always miss it. But come summer, I’ll also be the first person wishing the heat would quit it. Perfect temperature for me tends to range right about 70 degrees. Not too hot, especially with a light breeze, but also not too cold. Just chilly enough you might need a light couch throw or a sweater but can get away with shorts or a skirt without risking frostbite on the skin. It’s not QUITE there yet, but it is slowly getting there. And with that warmer swing of weather, there’s a slightly more productive me sitting behind a computer.

At the beginning of the month, I had to report that March was a no read zone for me. Work and life just didn’t flow well, and I didn’t end up reading much of anything past what had been submitted to my writers’ group.

Thankfully that is not the case with April. I have read! Not as much as I wanted to read, as per my TBR list for the month that had been carried over from March, but I did read. Small steps toward fixing the disaster that was March.

April Wrap Up

So because I didn’t read anything, I literally just shoved March’s TBR list over into April. I didn’t even make a post about it on its own because truthfully, besides the potential books I’d bought there had been nothing to report. This month is, thankfully, much different.

The books I finished:

Null and Void by Susan Copperfield
Shadow Queen by Harlow Thomas & Anastasia James
Message of the Crow by Ellen Dugan

The books I didn’t finish:

The Elite by Kiera Cass
Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

I will be shuffling the books I haven’t finished over to my May TBR list, but I’m also going to add new books to replace the ones I have read. I like keeping my list around six books long because when I get the time, I can plow through them. It’s just always that dreaded time restraint.

May TBR

Like I said, I’m keeping the books I didn’t read from March/April. I do want to read them. Stalking jack the Ripper has mysteriously disappeared – it is the only book on my list that is not an ebook right now. What I need the check is if my mom finked it to read herself, which is a high possibility. That or it got put somewhere ‘safe’ on a shelf and I’ve missed walking past it. With the sheer number of books in my house, it’s a complete possibility.

Onto the list though!

The Elite by Kiera Cass
Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
Chosen by Harlow Thomas & Anastasia James
Daughter of Persephone by Helen Scott
Doppelganger by Alyssa Drake

The Shadow Queen does have a sequel, and I am looking to read it before I post my review of the Shadow Queen – because there are only two of them I want to post a review of them together. But I don’t want to promise that I’m going to read it this month. Those, with the way I get with continuing books, I might. Just don’t be surprised if you end up seeing Dark Ember on my read list in May – but there are enough other books I want to read, that I don’t want to promise one more either. And I want to push myself to read more authors as a whole, not just one author’s entire catalog. Granted, I do have another of their books on my list for May.

What are you planning to read this month? Leave it in the comments below!

First Signs of Spring

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It’s actually starting to look like Spring out there! And it’s starting to FEEL like Spring, which is even better. I was able to leave the windows open, let the winter air drift out the window while being replaced by the nice Spring air. Something my cats thoroughly enjoy too because they love to sit in front of the open window, noses pressed to the screen if possible just taking in all those scents they don’t normally have in their environment.

I even felt a little motivated and cleaned some. And you don’t know me well, but cleaning of my own motivation, verse feeling obligated out of duty to do it, is kind of huge! I also came up with this small plan that will work slowly over weekends from the front of the house to the back to clean the whole first floor. The ultimate goal is to get the house in better shape, and to the point where even if we drop things around during the week due to long days at work, that a little bit of time on the weekend will fix it right up.

And the Spring air helped motivate me to finish Chapter Three edits. So that’s been given in full to a my beta editor for review and comments, and it will go to my writer’s group tomorrow for discussion on Thursday. It’s exciting seeing this come together. And with new sets of eyes seeing things I might have missed putting in or things that could be reworked because it didn’t fully come across the way I had meant it to. Every little step tightens and makes it stronger.

It’s also becoming a habit that the beginning of the month I get very little reading done and then at the end of the month I tend to speed through novels. I’m not sure why or what happens to make the beginnings so stressful. But it’s an interesting trend in my reading that I’m noticing.

As we come to a close on this month I realize I’m falling behind on my reviewing goals so I’m hoping to get back into the swing of that better. But I’m also extremely happy to be moving toward the warm weather. It’s perking me up and I’m feeling better, refreshed now that the warm and sun is coming back.

Tired of Winter

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I stood on my porch today, bundled up in my winter coat, staring out into the world around me. I wondered – I truly wondered – where is Spring? The plants have started to grow back, those little snow covered tuffs under those bare branches are green and sprouted, soon to be or once were the start of the hopeful growing daffodils that I look forward to seeing every year. It’s so sad to see them dusted like they are.

Is Hell finally freezing over? Does someone need to page Persephone back from the Underworld, did she give up on coming back up here? Can someone please unthaw Demeter even if her daughter has decided to stay down below?

Either way, the constant up and down in weather, Friday it was 65 and then Saturday it was 32 and now it’s snowing and 28. The constant up and down tends to leave my head reeling and in pain. Which tanks my motivation for practically everything.

I have major edits still happening on Chapter 3 of my wip. I have major planning still happening with my novella project. Chapter 3 needs to be done by the end of this week, if I’m being truly honest with myself. It needs to go to my writers group by next week Monday.

And I’d like to be nearly done, or all the way done with my plotting for the novella project. I’d like to get writing on it, so that I can write that while I edit the novel. I have loved editing my novel, and finding all the ways I can tighten it up and make it better. But I miss writing new things! It doesn’t help that I have a slight case of ADD when it comes to writing either. I start on idea A, get part way in, and then idea B pops up and I wander to that, and so on and so on. It just leaves this awkward trail of half finished novels in my wake and then I get to a point where I want to pick them up and finish them but I can’t figure out which to focus on first. It’s a struggle sometimes to just get myself to hone in and focus on one story, one set of characters. But that’s what I’ve promised myself to do with my novel. And while it is a little slow going, I have been working on it – and the edited chapters are much tighter than they had been. I’m feeling good about it. And I’m trying not to let myself feel any sort of disappointed because it’s slow going, because any movement forward is an accomplishment and I should feel good about that.

How is your April going? We’re half way through, after all!

So much for Spring

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So I didn’t believe the weather apps and news reporters that kept saying we’d get snow. I thought, they must be wrong. It’s too late in the season for snow. And yet here we are. With snow on the ground.

Traffic was horrible due to it, plus late getting out because I had to clean off my car. And everyone at work today has been late due to the snow and traffic. It’s been a long, interesting morning today.

This weekend has been quick, but I’m not sure if that’s just because I ended up doing a lot of cleaning. And all that work leaves me sitting at 6pm looking around confused on how late it happened to be. It’s feeling good to get the stuff cleaned up though.

Writing wise, I didn’t get too much done. I’ve been added a little to chapter three of Honor as I can. Because I’ve needed to rework the beginning of the chapter, and how everything opens, it’s taken a little longer than just editing the chapter itself. But it’s definitely looking tighter and better, at least in my opinion.

I’ve also got a side novella project that I’m working on with the hopeful plans to reveal and release it in 2019. It’s been a little slower in coming than I’d like it to, but at the same time this year has seemed to be going super fast around me.

I’m not entirely sure how it’s already April. Or how my plate has felt full every minute of the day, especially at work. I feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day, or energy in my life, to get everything done. And it’s a strain on me sometimes for how much I look around and see what’s not yet done.

Here’s hoping the year gets better, but with how it started I’m just not sure about that yet. How is your year going so far? Are you like me, having time fly faster than you can track through the day? What do you do to try and slow it down so you can focus and get work done?

 

April Showers – More like April Snow Storms

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Happy Spring! (Said from the town that’s currently 23 degrees and anticipating snow)

I know that the first day of Spring was a while ago, back in March. I know that Easter isn’t the first day of Spring. But there’s just something about the Holiday that makes it feel more real, that Spring is here. Well, usually that’s the case. I think it’s because my Aunts, Mom and I have a tradition where we always give each other flowers on Easter. My one aunt ALWAYS gives Pansies. My other aunt finds something interesting. And Mom and I always find one flower that seems cool or is new to give to each of my aunts.

The flower featured above is one of the flowers mom and I got this year. It’s so pretty and I love how the center of the flower is hooded and facing the ground. It’s the tiniest little thing too – only stands about two inches tall.

Reading and Writing wise, my brain is kind of like, holy cow, it’s April. When did it become April? Why is it April?

I finished editing chapter two, which I think I mentioned previously. And noticed one minor flaw leading into chapter three. Namely that in chapter two, the main character sees death for the first time, and in chapter three, and the rest of the book, there’s no dealing with what she saw. So chapter three needs to be edited and expanded to have her work through what she saw, what it means, etc.

On the reading front, I think I got like three chapters of a book read. So my March TBR list will be migrating over to my April list. I want to read all the books that are on it, and I want to sit down and follow through with my reading. I hate that I haven’t really been reading. Too much work, in the grand scheme of things I think. I’m not sure if the TBR list deserves it’s own post because I’m just shuffling everything over, but I might do one anyway. Reestablish what’s on my list for myself and everyone reading this.

What have you been reading? Anything you’d suggest? Leave a comment below!

All Pain, No Fun

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I normally love St. Patty’s Day. Not so much the green beer, and drinking until you fall on your face. I love the corn beef and cabbage, Irish soda bread, the music, and the fact that I’m a little Irish doesn’t hurt either.

This year though, there was no corn beef, no Irish soda bread, and no alcohol of any kind. Just me, keeping my foot elevated because I had some serious pain.

What happened? I honestly wish I knew.

If you’ve been over on my Twitter, you probably saw this issue. I woke up Friday night at 11pm (after having gone to bed around 9pm) to searing pain in the toe next to my big toe on my left foot. I don’t remember anything from 9-11pm that night. I do remember at 11pm getting up and having to move something that was in my doorway so I could get out of my room – my cats are constantly knocking things onto the floor and in my way. But if I had hit it previously that night? I couldn’t tell you. I have no memory.

The pain – even after pain killers were taken – kept me up until 3am. I wasn’t sure if I had broken it, just a really bad stubbed it job, or what.

When I finally did wake up, the pain wasn’t far behind. An ever constant sharp throb, like someone was stabbing needles into my toe. The strange thing is, for all the pain – there was no bruising or discoloration in the toe or anywhere on my foot. The toe looked fine. Normal color, normal lean toward my pinky toe like my big toe had shamed it. When taking care because it hurt to even touch or poke, the bones felt solid and fine.

I spent two solid days in pain with my foot elevated and my pained toe taped to its neighbor for support and stability. Living in a two story house, I was practically confined to my bedroom because stairs were the worst of all with this.

You’re probably wondering, why didn’t you go to a doctor or urgent care?

Because honestly, with the bones being whole, there’s nothing they can do for my foot that I wasn’t already doing. Pain management, immobilizing the toe by taping it to something solid, keeping off it and keeping it elevated. I will admit I went back and forth a couple times on if I should. But in the end, even if it was broken, they don’t put a cast on a toe. They line it up, tape it up, and tell me to do everything I was already doing. So was it worth it to spend the money for an emergency visit and X-ray? Not to mention the amount of time I would spend waiting to be seen by someone, waiting for the test, then the results, and then the solution.

Monday I went back to work on it, but even at work I’ve been making sure to keep off it as much as possible.

It’s Wednesday now, I’m a couple days late with this post, I know. But it’s been busy at work and I crash almost as soon as I get home. So it’s been a long week already. And the toe is starting to heal. I left it untaped last night and it seemed to do okay. Though, I’ve taped it again for work today. If I have to be up and moving I want it secure.

This has been a real life update more than a writing update. But honestly with the amount of pain I was in I didn’t get any writing or editing done this weekend like I had hoped. I was barely able to concentrate on watching tv or sleep. Next week should be a better update. I hope at least.

I hope that your St. Patty’s Day was far more fun than mine. Did you do anything fun? Go out anywhere interesting?

OwlCrate – Feb. Hidden Worlds Unboxing

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So, one of the fun things I ordered for myself that now arrives every month are these amazing OwlCrate boxes. If you’re interested in the subscription, you can check out their website here.

And, because I do feel like I need to say it just in case – though everyone should have it because it’s March, there will be spoilers for what is in the crate below.

February’s Theme was Hidden Worlds

The first thing that I saw when I opened the box is the beautiful card. The back of it has all the spoilers on it, listing what is in the box, and who it’s made by.

The two items hidden in the paper crinkles are the monthly button that has part of the image from the spoiler card on it. There’s also a little magazine in the box, which is the only thing not pictured in this post.

There’s also a candle nestled in those papers. The candle was created by Books on Candle, the scent is called ‘Through the Wardrobe’ and smells of pine, vanilla, and mint. A wonderful little nod to Chronicles of Narnia.

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The next item I discovered as I opened my box was a zippered pouch. Not sure about you, but I’m always needing more of these. I have too many writing supplies – as a writer and artist – but you could also use it to store make-up or anything else you might want to keep hidden. The pouch is inspired by Daughter of Smoke and Bone and illustrated by artist Risa Rodil.

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You can kind of see the next item under the pouch. It’s fairly big. It’s a beautiful wall tapestry. I’m still trying to find where to put it in my house, but soon – Soon – I’ll find somewhere to put it. It was designed by the very talented Evie Bookish.

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Under both of those was a a very cute velvet pouch, and inside was a button key necklace. Never again be apart from your way to your Other Mother with this Coraline inspired key pendant designed by the OwlCrate team. (You may have already seen this item, as I used it a couple weeks ago in one of my posts.)

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There was also this adorable Alice in Wonderland sticker, featuring Alice and the White Rabbit. The artist that designed it is Naomi Lord. It’s super cute, and I’m trying to find the perfect spot to stick it in.

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And we have the book itself for the box. This month’s book is The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert! The cover of the book follows OwlCrate’s normal practice of altering the cover so it’s a little more special for the OwlCrate subscribers. It comes with a letter from the author – not pictured here – and a set of stickers inspired by the book. As well, the book is signed by the author – which makes it even a little more special.

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The brief synopsis, provided by OwlCrate, is:

Alice and her mother have always been on the run; trying to escape the never-ending bad luck that seems to follow them at every turn. When Alice’s grandmother, the author of a beloved collection of sinister fairy tales, passes away on her estate, the Hazel Wood, life goes from bad to worse. Alice’s mother is kidnapped by one of the characters from her grandmother’s stories! Alice will have to team up with Ellery Finch (who happens to be a huge fan of her grandmother’s book and may have ulterior motives for helping her), and journey to the Hazel Wood in hopes of saving her mother.

This is definitely a book that I will be adding to my TBR for next month. =) And I have to say, this is my third box – I started my subscription back in December – and I love every item that’s in the box.

March’s Crate Theme is Across the Galaxy and I’m super excited to get it. It should be shipping soon – as I write this up. I’m hoping to get March’s Crate unboxing up before April! And once again, f you’re interested in getting your own subscription, you can check out their website here.

New Snuggles

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Hello Lovely readers. I love Build-A-Bear and may have a mild addiction to them. I can’t help it. They’re so soft, snuggly, and just bring me cheer on a bad day or week.

Please note, totally not a paid shout out for the company. I just have a deep love for them. I got an email Friday that they came out with a new Girl Scout bear. Which prompted a trip to go get her – I have all the Girl Scout bears because I grew up a Girl Scout. (If you’re wondering, this is the fifth bear in the Girl Scout set for BaB). I also have the main six My Little Pony BaBs.

For some reason, last week ended up being really stressful and I ended up super sensitive and not feeling the world/people/job much. So this little doll coming out really brightened my day. And I can’t have naked bears, so I had to get her some super cute clothes as well. Naturally. I think the only naked BaBs I have are the My Little Ponies.

She came in especially well Sunday because I got sick and nauseous and ended up sleeping 90% of my Sunday away. What little I was awake for it, I read. I’m really working on reading Message of the Crow by Ellen Dugan because it’s been on my TBR for the last three months and I really want to finish this book. I’m on chapter three now! Getting there. My motivation is low, so my reading speed has slowed down a bit.

I’m still working on it, and getting things done as I can. I’m trying to not let life stop me, inch along if it slows me down but not stop completely. Still working on edits, but at 20+ chapters, the edits will take a bit. But I’ll get it! I refuse to not!

How is your March going so far? Getting things done? Is the month feeling a little draggy for you too?

Of course, some of my drag today could probably be associated with both not feeling well yesterday and the fact that Daylight Savings was yesterday so I lost an hour.