Raven Oak's Blog, page 67
February 19, 2015
Book Cover Throwback: Elven Star
This week’s Book Cover Throwback: Elven Star (The Death Gate Cycle) by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman.
What I Love about this Cover: Everything from the hue to the detail is awesome. It draws me in (unlike most stock photo covers).
What I Don’t Love about this Cover: Geographically speaking, it’s weird to see rainforest biome beside palm trees and that next to craggy mountains….
Click here to view other Book Cover Throwbacks.
The post Book Cover Throwback: Elven Star appeared first on Raven Oak.
February 18, 2015
Review of Amaskan’s Blood
Noor Jahangir, author of The Adventures of Some Kid, recently reviewed Amaskan’s Blood and said, “If George R R Martin wrote Tangled, it might be a bit like this.“
Head on over to The Troll King’s site to read the full review!
Troll King’s Review of Amaskan’s BloodThe post Review of Amaskan’s Blood appeared first on Raven Oak.
Unsuitable Job for a Woman (Review)
As I stated in my review of And Then There Were None, I’ve been on a bit of a mystery kick of late.
I recently read P. D. James’ An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, which was written in the 70’s. The main character works for a PI, who kills himself in the first chapter. He leaves her with the PI business, and Cordelia heads into her first case.
Along the way, people tell and/or imply that women can’t be private investigators. Despite this, she continues to put herself in dangerous scenarios to prove...
And Then There Were None (Review)
I will admit to one fact–
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie is the first Christie book I’ve read. I’m firmly a SF/F reader, but I do enjoy a good mystery–typically thriller or forensic mysteries like those by Sue Grafton or Patricia Cornwell.
And Then There Were None was not my cup of tea. I’ve been told that I should try a different work by her, such as Murder on the Orient Express, but the rampant sexism and prejudice drove me bonkers. (I realize it was acceptable at the time, but i...
February 16, 2015
Monday Night Gaming: The Stars are Right!
This week’s Monday Night Gaming: The Stars are Right. (My apologies for any typos. I broke my wrist last week and dictated this via speech-to-text software.)
Image copyright Steve Jackson Games
# of Expansions: 0
# of Players: 2-4 Players
Best with: 2 Players
Publisher: Steve Jackson Games
Avg. Play Time: 1 hour
Parts: 80 cards & 25 double-sided tiles
Overall Rating: 6/10.
One of the reasons that I likeThe Stars are Right is because it’s based off of the Lovecraft mythos. Twenty-five double-sided tiles...
February 13, 2015
Flashback Friday: Wheel of Time
For this week’s Flashback Friday post, I’m happy to have SF/F author, David Kristoph, here for a guest post on how the The Wheel of Time series impacted him as a writer.
My parents gave me a love for books at a young age; I grew up with the Hardy Boys and Goosebumps, and anything else I could get my hands on. It was more important to me than television. I realized early-on that I was an introvert, and although television provided an escape from reality, it didn’t allow the same retracted solit...
February 12, 2015
Book Cover Throwback: Daughter of Destiny
This week’s Book Cover Throwback: Daughter of Destiny by R.A.V. Salsitz.
What I Love about this Cover: It has a unicorn. For child-me, these were second only to dragons.
What I Don’t Love about this Cover: I hate that Rhondi had to use initials to disguise that she was female writing in a male dominated genre.
(Sorry for the small pic. This book is way out of print and hard to get a good image of. My copy is hiding from me so I couldn’t scan it.)
Click here to view other Book Cover Throwbacks.
The...
February 9, 2015
Monday Night Gaming: Lords of Waterdeep
This week’s Monday Night Gaming: Lords of Waterdeep.
# of Expansions: 1
# of Players: 2-5 Players
Best with: 3-4 Players
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Avg. Play Time: 1-2 hours
Parts: 430 pieces + board.
Overall Rating: 9/10.
This is probably one of my favorite strategy board games that I’ve played. A coworker of my husband’s introduced us to this game about a year ago, and I’ve been addicted ever since.
While it’s D&D based, role-playing isn’t required to play the game or have a good time. The Lord...
February 8, 2015
Book Club Takes on Amaskan’s Blood
The Sparkle Motion Book Club recently read Amaskan’s Blood as part of a special selection over the holidays. They met on January 13th to discuss my novel and invited me to join them virtually via Google Hangouts. We had quite the discussion!
You can read a transcript here:
Sparkle Motion Book ClubAmaskan’s Blood gets the Sparkle Motion stamp of approval!
The post Book Club Takes on Amaskan’s Blood appeared first on Raven Oak.
February 7, 2015
Scrivener Saturday – Importing Websites
This week’s Scrivener Saturday – Importing Websites.
This is another one of those undervalued offerings from Scrivener, and one I find especially helpful when I’m up against a deadline and don’t want to get sucked in by the realm of the Internet and social media.
Most writers have stacks of research for their current WIP (Work in Progress), and these days, most of mine consist of websites. But if I’m in the middle of writing, I don’t want to have to launch my browser, find my bookmark, and the...
