Stina Branson

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Alvaro ...
1,160 books | 185 friends

Hara
1,503 books | 85 friends

Magdale...
7,902 books | 3,798 friends

Xanthi
2,144 books | 159 friends

Kathy B...
2,500 books | 165 friends

Cheryl
7,621 books | 46 friends

Samanth...
3,017 books | 56 friends

Susan
582 books | 28 friends

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Stina Branson

Goodreads Author


Born
in The United States
Website

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Influences
Donald J. Sobol, Agatha Christie, Edward D. Hoch, Sue Grafton, Daphne ...more

Member Since
September 2010

URL


Stina's first literary crush was Encyclopedia Brown. She met author Donald J. Sobol when she was seven years old, and she blames him for her writing habit. Stina's poetry and crime fiction have appeared in a variety of periodicals and collections, and she also writes speculative fiction as Chris L. Pontius. Stina is a past president of Sleuths' Ink in Springfield, Missouri, and is currently a member of Sisters in Crime and Rocky Mountain Mystery Writers of America. Originally from the Midwest, she lives in Colorado. ...more

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Stina Branson Well, I certainly like to think I have a distinctive imagination. Even when I'm inspired by classic authors and directors, as with my current work in …moreWell, I certainly like to think I have a distinctive imagination. Even when I'm inspired by classic authors and directors, as with my current work in progress, I wouldn't consider a project worth working on if I didn't feel I had something special to bring to the story. Even with short fiction and poetry, I try -- like I think most writers do -- to give the work something that makes it uniquely mine. People often ask writers where they get their ideas, but I don't believe the basic idea is the important thing. Ideas are everywhere. It's what we do with ideas in our forges of imagination that really matters.(less)
Average rating: 4.61 · 23 ratings · 9 reviews · 5 distinct works
Villains & Vengeance: A Sir...

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it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 2021 — 2 editions
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2017 Fifth Annual Battle of...

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4.40 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2017
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2014 Battle of the Bards Po...

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4.25 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2014
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2016 Fourth Annual Battle o...

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2016
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Calliope issue #60

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More books by Stina Branson…

The 2026 Alphabet Soup Challenge

It's time to sign up for 2026 reading challenges at the Escape with Dollycas blog. Like last year, I'm doing the main Alphabet Soup challenge.


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January - Read more of this blog post »
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Published on December 03, 2025 20:12
The Four Loves
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bookshelves: currently-reading
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Murder Wears Mittens
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by Sally Goldenbaum (Goodreads Author)
bookshelves: currently-reading
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An American in Sc...
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Stina’s Recent Updates

Stina is 16% done with A Sorceress Comes to Call
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
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Stina is 80% done with The Four Loves
The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
The Four Loves
by C.S. Lewis
progress: 
 
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Stina marked as setting-aside-for-now
A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand
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Stina marked as setting-aside-for-now
The Fatal Scroll by Eric Siblin
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Stina wants to read
The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective by Jo Nichols
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Medici Money by Tim Parks
"Unhinged. That's all that can be said about this book.

I picked this up because Daniel Abraham said it was one of the books he read when researching banking for the Dagger and Coin series. And yes, this book is ostensibly about both banking and the M" Read more of this review »
The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter
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The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
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Stina rated a book really liked it
The Hound of Death by Agatha Christie
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Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen
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More of Stina's books…
Benjamin Franklin
“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”
Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack

Charles Darwin
“If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.”
Charles Darwin, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809–82

Peter S. Beagle
“Real magic can never be made by offering someone else's liver. You must tear out your own, and not expect to get it back.”
Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

Louis L'Amour
“In the United States we have concentrated tremendous sums of money on the educational plant, seemingly with the idea that the right number of buildings will turn out the right number of graduates. Yet the teachers who actually instruct the future citizens of our country are more often than not miserably paid. If in the future we find ourselves with a lot of fourth-rate citizens, we have only ourselves to blame.”
Louis L'Amour, Education of a Wandering Man: A Memoir

Neal Stephenson
“Ninety-nine percent of everything that goes on in most Christian churches has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual religion. Intelligent people all notice this sooner or later, and they conclude that the entire one hundred percent is bullshit, which is why atheism is connected with being intelligent in people's minds.”
Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

25x33 Challenges from Exploding Steamboats — 35 members — last activity Feb 27, 2025 02:58PM
This group is for readers interested in any of the reading challenges run by Chris L. Pontius (AKA Stina Branson) over at the Exploding Steamboats blo ...more
152458 Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge — 42732 members — last activity 2 hours, 18 min ago
This group is for people participating in the Popsugar reading challenge for 2025 or 2026 (or any other year). The Popsugar website posted a reading c ...more
25x33 GenreLand — 32 members — last activity Dec 15, 2025 07:03AM
This public group is an extension of a small, private group that met throughout 2017 to participate in their local library's GenreLand reading game. T ...more
152441 Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge — 26808 members — last activity 3 hours, 28 min ago
An annual reading challenge to to help you stretch your reading limits and explore new voices, worlds, and genres! The challenge begins in January, bu ...more
1065386 Literally Dead Book Club — 16509 members — last activity Oct 28, 2025 02:19PM
A mostly monthly book club (February-November) focused on thriller/mystery/horror hosted by BooksandLala and a rotating set of wonderful co-hosts! li ...more
1044066 The 52 Book Club: 2025 / 2026 Challenge — 24975 members — last activity 13 minutes ago
This group is for those participating in The 52 Book Club's annual challenges! With 52 unique prompts released each year, the goal is to diversify our ...more
207509 Better World Books Reading Challenge — 204 members — last activity Jan 30, 2019 02:53PM
Welcome to the Better World Books Reading Challenge Group. This group is place for anyone taking on the read challenge to share their progress, make r ...more
10814 75 Books...More or Less! — 200 members — last activity 13 hours, 30 min ago
Welcome to a friendly corner of Goodreads! We began the challenge of reading 75 books a year several years ago . . . since then, many of us have gotte ...more
25x33 Trail Head Book Club — 10 members — last activity Jun 03, 2021 09:39PM
The book club of the Trail Head Community in Fort Collins, Colorado.
817475 #Ampersand2019 reading challenge — 63 members — last activity Sep 14, 2019 05:48AM
A place for people to discuss their plans and progress for the #Ampersand2019 reading challenge created by Sarah from Commas and Ampersands. The cha ...more
More of Stina’s groups…
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message 6: by Stina

Stina Cathy (cathepsut) wrote: "Hi Stina, thanks for the friend request. Are you still on bookcrossing?"

Yes, though less active and rarely on the forums. I need to get back over there more often now that the site is a little more mobile-friendly.


Cathy Hi Stina, thanks for the friend request. Are you still on bookcrossing?


message 4: by Stina

Stina Glenn wrote: "Isn't it odd how we've stayed "friends" from one NaNoWriMo writing session?"

It helps that you have really good taste in cars and post lots of photos on Facebook. :-)


message 3: by Glenn

Glenn B Miller Isn't it odd how we've stayed "friends" from one NaNoWriMo writing session?


message 2: by Beth

Beth Hi Stina,
Thanks for befriending me here on Goodreads!


message 1: by Kris

Kris Neri Hey, Stina. Good to connect with you here.


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