Raven Oak's Blog, page 72

Contest Winners!

Congrats to the winners of the Amaskan’s Blood contest! These fabulous people had the chance to win autographed books, autographed posters featuring Amaskan’s Blood cover art, special holiday cards, or the chance to be a character in a story I write!

Again, congratulations and thanks for entering! The contest winners are:

Leetah P.
Jennifer B.
Charlene A.
Nino D.
Cristal B.
Marguerite C.
Janey T.

The post Contest Winners! appeared first on Raven Oak.

Flashback Friday: Pawn of Genre

For this week’s Flashback Friday post, I’m honored to have playwright, author, & editor, Bridget Natale, here for a guest post on how David Eddings‘ works influenced her as a writer.

Book One of The Belgariad

I have been a voracious reader since I was young. Most of the books I read were of the children’s classics variety: Little House on the Prairie, Alice in Wonderland, A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, Matilda, Island of the Blue Dolphins, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, etc.

Eventually I st...

Book Cover Throwback: The Hobbit

In honor of the last Hobbit movie coming out this week (YAY!), this week’s Book Cover Throwback: The Hobbit.

Click image to view it larger.

To see other Book Cover Throwbacks, click here.

The post Book Cover Throwback: The Hobbit appeared first on Raven Oak.

Monday Night Gaming: Evolution

This week’s Monday Night Gaming: Evolution by NorthStar Games.

This is not the sort of game I would have found on my own, but when my husband and I were at PAX Prime, we sat down with one of the developers of Evolution and played a demo game.

And had a LOT of fun.

So much so that we pre-ordered the Kickstarter special edition, which we received last month.

The goal is for players to adapt their chosen species in an ever-changing ecosystem. Food can be scarce at times and other players’ predators...

Book Review: Snow White Red-Handed

While I love the speculative fiction genre, I have my occasional dives into mystery–usually because I’m needing a relaxing read that doesn’t require me to ponder the science behind FTL travel or telepathic dragons.

I started out reading this series backwards as Maia Chance is my critique partner. I read the 2nd book, Cinderella Six-Feet-Under, before I read Snow White Red-Handed. Maia isn’t as well read in the speculative fiction genre, but her mysteries certainly dip their toes into the genre...

Book Review: The Slow Regard of Silent Things

I’m long overdue to review something so here we go–a book review: The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss.

I love Patrick Rothfuss’s previous novels, The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear. When I heard him read snippets of this at a con, I loved the idea of it. When I saw people’s reviews of it, I worried. Heck, even Pat seemed worried.

I was worried enough that I put off reading it for three weeks after it arrived at my doorstep, and once I started reading, I allowed people...

Scrivener Saturday #6

This week’s Scrivener Saturday is on Snapshots, which I feel are the most unrated part of Scrivener.

Think ofSnapshots like versions or histories of a document. Raise your hand if you’ve used Wikipedia before?(Every hand should be up–I’m looking at you writer in the red shirt!)

You’re probably going to have to click on that image to see it larger, but the red circled area says VIEW HISTORY. If you click on that on a Wikipedia page, you can compare the current page to previous pages and see a li...

Flashback Friday: Madeleine L’Engle

For this week’s Flashback Friday post, I’m honored to have the fabulous author, Jill Seidenstein, here to do a guest post on how Madeleine L’Engle‘s works influenced her as a writer.

Raven kindly invited me to participate in her blog series, Flashback Friday. I was really excited when she asked me, and then even more so when I learned that no one had nabbed Madeleine L’Engle.

I grew up in a house of readers (and no TV!), but my parents didn’t read science fiction or fantasy. A friend of theirs...

Book Cover Throwback: Astounding!

This week’s Book Cover Throwback: Astounding Science Fiction Magazine.

I just love this cover. Something about the human-like qualities on the face of the robot makes me wonder if it’s thinking, “I didn’t mean to crush him. Honest, I didn’t!” Especially with the blood on his finger.

To see other Book Cover Throwbacks, click here.

The post Book Cover Throwback: Astounding! appeared first on Raven Oak.

Happy Birthday & Updates!

Today my wonderful husband turns 37. His grandmother asked us today how we got to that age already. Good question… 36 didn’t feel all that different from 20 really.

Image from ThinkGeek’s Blog

So Happy Birthday to him!

We’re having a fairly quiet day with probably lots of episodes of Doctor Who since our Wii-U got delayed by UPS. *sigh*

(That is an awesome set of cakes by the way. Holy cow!)

But It’s also that time of the month where I’ve updated the What I’m Reading, What I’m Writing, What I’m Pl...