Jacqui Murray's Blog, page 5

#AtoZChallenge: Genres–Mythic

The A to Z Challenge asks bloggers to post 26 articles on a themed topic in the month of April, every day except Sundays. I find that too busy and decided to post mine ‘about’ once a month. Yes, it’ll take me a couple of years. Sigh. My topic, like the last time, is writing genres. Today: … Continue reading →

Willow and Dan’s Book Launch

I forget how I discovered Dan Antion and his Dreamer’s Alliance fiction series (five books so far)–probably through one of the many writer blogs I read–but once I read the first one, I couldn’t stop. When Dan asked me to help launch Poetic Justice, his latest collaboration with Willow Willers based on characters from that … Continue reading →

Teacher-Authors: What’s on my Ed Blog

A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share a popular post from the past month on my teacher education blog, Ask a Tech Teacher.  Here is a long list of online writer tools. You may find some useful: an AI book title generator an AI Pen Name generator An … Continue reading →

More Great #BookReviews from #NetGalley

Recently, NetGalley sent me ARCs for some great books from trad published authors: Lethal Prey–a cold case murder that becomes anything but Strangers in Time–two youngsters struggle to overcome the devastation of WWII Gray Zone–a simple protection job turns into an international, multi-nation possible-world-ending event for Pike and his team The Killing Stones--Perez again must … Continue reading →

Happy Memorial Day update

I’m taking Memorial Day (and closing comments) to honor our all soldiers on America’s Memorial Day by reading about the sacrifices of the many. Here are some of my favorite books about soldiers: Copyright ©2025 worddreams.wordpress.com – All rights reserved. Here’s the sign-up link if the image above doesn’t work: https://jacqui-murray.aweb.page/p/46e... “The content presented in … Continue reading →

Select Non-fic from NetGalley

I don’t read enough non-fiction, but these next few caught my attention on NetGalley with mixed results: Mailman–a newly unemployed white collar manager decides to try out being a mailman; we go along for the learning curve The Origin of Language–it started a long time ago. Born in Stockport, Grew up in the Royal Navy--from … Continue reading →

How I’m Doing on Balance of Nature–1

Balance of Nature is the final book in The Savage Land trilogy, the third trilogy about primeval man in the series, Dawn of Humanity: A prehistoric thriller in the spirit of Jean Auel, Savage Land follows several bands of humans, ruling a world where they thought themselves to be apex predators. What they didn’t count on … Continue reading →

Great Stories of American Mountain Men

Recently I’ve read books themed to a subgenre of the Classic American West that revolves around the early-mid-1800’s Mountain Men, those inveterate pioneers, mostly men– loved the almost impossible challenges of the Rocky Mountains considered Indians their closest neighbors trapped beaver to supply themselves with coffee and flour–coffee first never missed the annual Rendezvous where … Continue reading →

Reflections on Badlands Book Launch

My virtual book tour to introduce my latest prehistoric fiction, Badlands, Book 2 of the trilogy, Savage Land, has finally ended. I am thrilled with the wonderful support from so many readers and authors! It was much more complicated than any prior book launch and not without mistakes on my part (some of you know … Continue reading →

Great Fiction about the American West

I’m not the only one in the blogosphere who loves Western values. Efriend Herb over at Haps with Herb posted an entire article about the Code of the West and included iconic western thinking that imbued the Old West. This picture summed it up: It says all you need to know about the themes of … Continue reading →