Harmony Kent's Blog, page 37

Celebrating Release Day! #ASMSG #WritingCommunity #authorsupport #newrelease #childrensbook #mustread #indieauthors – Author D.L. Finn

Hi everyone. Denise’s latest book, Tree Fairies and thier Short Stories is out today! I just had to help her share the good news >>>

 

Today is release day for “Tree Fairies and Their Short Stories!” I’m celebrating it over on Miriam Hurdle’s The Showers of Blessing Blog. She throws a great party! St…

Source: Celebrating Release Day! #ASMSG #WritingCommunity #authorsupport #newrelease #childrensbook #mustread #indieauthors – Author D.L. Finn

The post Celebrating Release Day! #ASMSG #WritingCommunity #authorsupport #newrelease #childrensbook #mustread #indieauthors – Author D.L. Finn first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.

Can The Writing Gene Be Passed Down Through DNA?

Hi everyone. Jan has her FIRST SE post over at Story Empire today, and it gives lots of things to think about regarding talent and skill and inheritance >>>

Hello, SE’ers! This is Jan Sikes, and I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to post my first blog on this site. It is truly an honor to join such a diverse and talented group of writers. Today …

Source: Can The Writing Gene Be Passed Down Through DNA?

The post Can The Writing Gene Be Passed Down Through DNA? first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.

Plot-Driven vs. Character-Driven Fiction

Hi everyone. Mae has an interesting post over at Story Empire today about character-driven fiction versus plot-driven fiction >>>

Hi, SEers! You’re with Mae, and I’m glad you’ve chosen to spend time with me. Today, I’d like to discuss plot-driven fiction vs. character-driven fiction. As writers (and readers) we have pre…

Source: Plot-Driven vs. Character-Driven Fiction

The post Plot-Driven vs. Character-Driven Fiction first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.

Summer Reading | Story Empire

A great post on reading habits and when to release a new book by Joan over at Story Empire today >>>

Hey, SE Readers. Joan with you today. I’ve heard several authors say that summer isn’t a good time to release a book. I can’t speak to that personally since I’ve never released one at that time. At…

Source: Summer Reading | Story Empire

The post Summer Reading | Story Empire first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.

Smorgasbord Cafe and Bookstore – Weekly News -#Dystopian Terry Tyler, #Historical Andrew Joyce, #Suspense #Mystery Harmony Kent

Hi everyone. I got up this morning to find an amazing review for The Vanished Boy shared by Sally on her awesome blog. I’m so thrilled >>>

Welcome to the Cafe and Bookstore weekly news with recent reviews for authors on the shelves. The first author with a recent review is Terry Tyler for Wasteland (Operation Galton Book 2) About the …

Source: Smorgasbord Cafe and Bookstore – Weekly News -#Dystopian Terry Tyler, #Historical Andrew Joyce, #Suspense #Mystery Harmony Kent

The post Smorgasbord Cafe and Bookstore – Weekly News -#Dystopian Terry Tyler, #Historical Andrew Joyce, #Suspense #Mystery Harmony Kent first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.

Let’s Talk a Little About the Hierarchy of Needs ‹ Story Empire ‹ Reader — WordPress.com

Hi everyone. John has a great post over at Story Empire today. If you’ve ever gotten stuck with your writing on any one day, then this is a must-read post. Head on over to check it out >>>

Source: Let’s Talk a Little About the Hierarchy of Needs ‹ Story Empire ‹ Reader — WordPress.com

The post Let’s Talk a Little About the Hierarchy of Needs ‹ Story Empire ‹ Reader — WordPress.com first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.

Lunar Boogie (The Hat Series) by C S Boyack @Virgilante #NewBook

Hi everyone. Today, it gives me great pleasure to host fellow author and friend and Story Empire writer, Craig Boyack, with his latest book in the wonderful The Hat Series, Lunar Boogie. I read and loved The Hat and really need to catch up on the later books in the series. Here’s a link to my 5 star review for The Hat back in January 2018 … https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2255844603.

 As well as action and adventure, a wonderful thread of humour runs through Craig’s writing, and never more so than in The Hat. I’ll let Craig tell you all about his latest book, Lunar Boogie >>>

I appreciate you loaning me your space, Harmony. Means a lot to me to gain access to your fans. I’m here to talk about my latest called, “Lunar Boogie.” This is the fourth book in The Hat Series, but don’t let that scare you away. I worked to keep each of them capable of standing alone. Meaning, this one makes a great jumping on point.

I’ll let the cover and blurb tell you about this story. Today I want to talk about some of the things I’ve learned by writing an ongoing series. The thing about those is that each story has to be a closed loop. If we have too much of a cliff hanger, it becomes more of a serial and that’s not the goal here.

 If you’re familiar with James Bond, Miss Marples, or Conan the Barbarian, you have experience with ongoing series. The trick is to avoid a massive character arc where personal demons must be overcome to reach a successful ending. You can really only do that once and have it stay credible.

This means, I have to add my emotional bits a different way. Supporting characters are great for that. When my MC, Lizzie, interacts with them I can still get some emotional tug. Lizzie and her drummer, Tanith, have a couple such moments in the current story. They’ve become great friends. There are some new characters, Joe and Meg, who provide some of that, but they get their own post along the tour.

 I can also have my supporting characters get an arc, and there are enough of them that it won’t get repetitive. The point is, the main characters have to remain available for the next book. It’s hard to take the street urchin out of the palace, then plunk him back on the street. Leaving him on the street makes him more available for future adventures.

 Lizzie has a bit of a breakdown at the end of this story. That’s an emotional tug, but doesn’t require her to rewrite her personal creed to bring resolution. People dealing with issues is pretty true to life.

“Happily ever after,” also can’t happen in these stories. I always avoided that anyway, because it’s not realistic. I adopted the “happy for now,” rule years ago. This really plays out in an ongoing series. A successful conclusion should bring some happiness, or pride, or whatever. Life goes on and there will be more challenges. (As the author, I hope they have a lot more challenges.)

 Supporting characters can carry across from story to story. It worked for Sherlock Homes with Gregson and Lestrade. Bond had Q and M. It will work here, too. I try to give them decent introductions in their first appearances. After that, they get an intro, but not maybe to the extent as the first time. If someone picks up a subsequent book, they won’t miss much by not having read the first one. They’ll get enough data to not feel lost.

 If you’ve ever become a fan of an ongoing series, like Bones or even Perry Mason, I’d appreciate you checking out The Hat series. Even if you haven’t, you might find you like a shorter novel that has enough going for it to extend into more stories.

 

***

 

About the Book:

Lizzie and the hat are back in action, only this time they’re up against the most tragic monster of all, a werewolf.

 This adventure is more like hunting an animal, and the werewolf is unlikely to come to any of their musical performances. This puts Lizzie out in the dark corners and wooded areas of the city. It may be more beneficial to get the monster to hunt Lizzie than to stalk him on his own turf. All she has to do is be quicker on the trigger than the wolf is on his feet.

 At the same time, the police think they’re after a serial killer. Lizzie tries to keep them alive while also keeping them out of her way. As the body count rises, so do the pressures. It doesn’t help that people are blaming Lizzie and the hat for the killings. This involves an urban myth about them that the locals call Hellpox.

 Pull on your boogie shoes and join the hunt. Designed as an afternoon read, this one is tons of supernatural fun.

 

Purchase Link:

http://mybook.to/LunarBoogie

 

About the Author:

[image error]I’m on the verge of being an empty nester, and I like to write fiction. This blog is to share ideas with readers and writers. I have a decent body of work on Amazon, and I hope you’ll check some of them out. They are all speculative fiction, but seem to stay closest to science fiction, paranormal, and fantasy.

I have other interests that may sneak in from time to time. I like the great outdoors and all it has to offer. Morels and huckleberrys are particularly fun. I once caught and released a 7 foot white sturgeon from the Snake River.

Blog | My Novels | Twitter | Goodreads | Facebook | Pinterest | BookBub

The post Lunar Boogie (The Hat Series) by C S Boyack @Virgilante #NewBook first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.

How to Write a Sidekick

Hi everyone. Staci has a great post on Story Empire all about writing ‘side kicks’. Well worth a look. Also, I didn’t get to reblog Craig’s post from Friday (https://storyempirecom.wordpress.com/2021/05/14/vella-anyone/) on using Vella. Enjoy >>>

 

Ciao, SEers! Today I thought we’d talk about a character who isn’t used often enough and is discussed even less. I’m referring to the sidekick. Sure, we all write in friends and f…

Source: How to Write a Sidekick

The post How to Write a Sidekick first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.

#BookReview: False Witness by Karin Slaughter

Today, I have a book review for an author I’ve read and enjoyed previously, Karin Slaughter. When I saw False Witness on NetGalley, I jumped at the chance of a free ARC  >>>

About the Book:[image error]

He saw what you did … He knows who you are. The stunning new standalone from the no.1 international bestselling author

AN ORDINARY LIFE …

Leigh Coulton has worked hard to build what looks like a normal life. She has a good job as a defence attorney, a daughter doing well in school, and even her divorce is relatively civilised – her life is just as unremarkable as she’d always hoped it would be.

HIDES A DEVASTATING PAST …

But Leigh’s ordinary life masks a childhood which was far from average … a childhood tarnished by secrets, broken by betrayal, and finally torn apart by a devastating act of violence.

BUT NOW THE PAST IS CATCHING UP …

Then a case lands on her desk – defending a wealthy man accused of rape. It’s the highest profile case she’s ever been given – a case which could transform her career, if she wins. But when she meets the accused, she realises that it’s no coincidence that he’s chosen her as his attorney. She knows him. And he knows her. More to the point, he knows what happened twenty years ago, and why Leigh has spent two decades running.

AND TIME IS RUNNING OUT.

If she can’t get him acquitted, she’ll lose much more than the case. The only person who can help her is her younger, estranged sister Calli, the last person Leigh would ever want to ask for help. But suddenly she has no choice …

 

My Review:

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for a free eARC of this book.

Having read and enjoyed other books by this author, I felt somewhat disappointed with this one. It wasn’t a bad read, but neither did it blow me away as her others have done. And, on a personal note, it just did not work for me reading all about COVID-19 over and over and over and over and over again. You get the point. Not to mention that the MC kept taking off the mask when she really ought not to have done and leaving it on when she didn’t need to … so, seriously, what was the point? I like my fiction to take me away from the pandemic, not throw me into it’s nonense. Also, it got so much attention that it detracted from the plot and took up word count that may have been better employed to develop the MC and her sister a little more.

Technically, this book is plagued with spelling mistakes, lines missing words, and lines containing extra words as if from a partial edit. I know this is an advanced review copy, but seriously, it needs a lot of revision before going to final press. As an ARC reader, I have to take it on trust that this will be taken care of by then. Additionally, the writing reads as passive in the extreme and is not as polished as I have come to expect from this author.

In spite the above, some lines did stand out for me as particularly well done. Here are a couple …

‘He had nearly two feet and at least 150 pounds on her. The heft of an entire second human being existed inside of his hulking body. Scratch him? Bite him? Pull out his hair? Die with his blood in her mouth?’

and

‘She groaned worse than Dr Jerry when she stood up. Bad knee. Bad back. Bad neck. Bad girl.’

I felt that Callie would have made for the more compelling main character than her elder sister Leigh. Callie has sass and grit and cunning. Leigh comes across as too reserved and held back to connect with and just didn’t respond to situations. Instead, she withdrew even further, and–quite frankly–I found her more annoying than engaging. Callie, on the other hand–bad girl though she is–I could get to grips with and enjoy.

Because of the amount of repetition in this book, even repeating already twice repeated information from earlier in the narrative, and the amount of wasted space listing things and describing surroundings, as well as all the COVID-19 references, the plot and pacing suffered enormously. I laboured through this book over 12 days instead of devouring the read as I normally would. Add to that a lack of connection with the characters, it made for a slog of a read for the most part.

All the descriptions of the violent assaults, rapes, and murders were incredibly graphic, which may upset many readers. I’m fine with it, but do feel more emphasis could have gone into character and plot development. I came across no surprises in this story and no twists or turns. It played out as I expected it would.

As I said at the start of this review, False Witness isn’t a bad read, but neither did it blow me away as other books of Karin Slaughter’s have done. I give it 3 stars, which means: Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it. Worth a read.

***

NOTE ON RATINGS: I consider a 3-star rating a positive review. Picky about which books I give 5 stars to, I reserve this highest rating for the stories I find stunning and which moved me.

5 STARS: IT WAS AMAZING! I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! — Highly Recommended.
4 STARS: I WOULD PULL AN ALL-NIGHTER — Go read this book.
3 STARS: IT WAS GOOD! — An okay read. Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it.
2 STARS: I MAY HAVE LIKED A FEW THINGS —Lacking in some areas: writing, characterisation, and/or problematic plot lines.
1 STAR: NOT MY CUP OF TEA —Lots of issues with this book.

I’d love to hear what you think of this review. Thanks for stopping by

 

For anyone interested, here are the Amazon links … (the eBook releases on or around June 24th at the moment in the UK)

UK … https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08R8XRTB2/

US … https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08R8XRTB2/

 

The post #BookReview: False Witness by Karin Slaughter first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.

WRITING AND EMOTIONS

Hi everyone. Denise has an excellent post over at Story Empire all about using emotion in your writing. Well worth a look with some spot-on examples >>>

 

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Heart Shaped Colored Pencils created in Canva, Pixabay Hi SEers! Denise here to talk about emotions and writing. Last month was National Poetry Month, and I celebrated it by reading poems. Most of …

Source: WRITING AND EMOTIONS

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