As I mentioned last week, I've moved from Blogger to WordPress. The transition hasn't gone as smoothly as I'd hoped it would. You should have received an email from my new site with a link to this review but if you didn't, here is this week's book review.
Salt to the Sea is a wonderfully written multi-POV upper MG/YA/adult novel about a little-known huge event in WWII.
Thank you for your patience and for following me!
It is always an honor for me when an author allows me the privilege of sharing the cover of their book with the world. This time, I'm giving you a first peek at my friend Linda Phillips' new cover for the re-release of her YA novel, CRAZY.
Isn't it stunning?
It's hard to believe that this poignant novel about mental health, family relationships, and art has been out for ten years. Here is the review that I posted in June 2014.
Recently I chatted with Linda on why Eerdmans decided to re-release CRAZY and her hopes for the book.
The Conjurer’s Curse (Monarch: 2022) by Stephanie Cotta is an epic fantasy set in the fictional world of Mestria. We follow seventeen-year-old Rowan as he struggles with his history and searches for answers.
Rowan is an outsider in his village. For the thirteen years since his arrival to Karahvel, his albino skin and unusual marking on his neck have caused him to be viewed as cursed by the superstitious villagers. His “curse,” however, is evidenced by the mysterious deaths of his three previous guardian mothers; beginning with the first woman who took him in after his birth mother abandoned him. Even Rowan begins to worry that the rumors are true, and when his fourth guardian mother suddenly passes, Rowan is banished from his village. He must embark on a long journey to discover who cursed him and defeat them before his curse has the chance to kill anyone else.
I am relatively new to reading fantasy, and this book was a wonderful introduction to the genre. What first struck me about The Conjurer’s Curse was the unique concept. I was immediately interested in seeing how things would play out, and it kept me on the edge of my seat. The worldbuilding and realistic, fictitious geography made Mestria intricate and well thought out. As Rowan struggles to find where he belongs, you are taken on an adventure through multiple landscapes. This includes a trip across the sea, through the jungle, and into the mountains of The Iron Kingdom.
Rowan’s story is an exciting and heartbreaking one yet filled with hope, and within the first chapter, he is on his journey. Many beautiful and important lessons can be learned from reading The Conjurer’s Curse, such as not judging others unfairly and the importance of community and friendship.
I believe everyone can relate in some way to Rowan’s feeling like an outsider. “Outsider. Rowan hated that word. All his life, he heard it whispered as a reminder of how different he was from everyone in Karahvel.”
On top of that, every character has realistic struggles, making them relatable. I flew through this book and was sad when the adventure was over. I immediately wanted more. I can’t wait to read the upcoming books in the IRON KINGDOM series! I would recommend The Conjurer’s Curse to any fantasy fan, or anyone in search of a gripping story with a strong plot and strong characters.
Please welcome Amanda Moyer, my guest blogger for a review of Kara Linaburg's suspenseful novel, A STUDY IN TERMINAL (Monarch Educational Services, June 2022).
A Study in Terminal by Kara Linaburg is a young adult novel telling the story of Sean Brogan, a young man trying to face the demons of his past that have haunted his nightmares since he was a kid. The book broaches intense topics such as self-hatred, depression, and suicide but concludes with hope, healing, and letting go.
We meet Sean first through a page of his journal and a flash-forward to the climax, where we discover that his mother ended her life ten years ago and that he intends to do the same. He has been haunted his entire life by the bad luck of watching people die because he either arrived too late or didn’t have the courage to save them.
His goal is to return to the small town he lived in with his mother before she died and finish writing his novel before following her. His plans change when his motorcycle breaks down just a few miles shy of town, and he gets picked up by the Kenzies, a family he’d known well. Throughout the book Sean reconnects with his childhood friends, Joe and Rina Kenzie, but he never explains that his mother’s death isn’t the only thing bringing him here. He is also being hunted down by his New York gang for betraying them.
Rina delivers a touching theme when she and Sean are talking about Sherlock Holmes. Sean doesn’t think much of the detective because “Sherlock only solved murders—never prevented them,” which echoes his own despair over bad luck. Rina counters: “True, but he had to learn to care for the people first before he could save them.”
When the gang members finally catch up with him, they choose to take their vengeance out on him by kidnapping and threatening Rina. Sean is terrified that she’ll just be one more person he couldn’t save, but his luck finally changes, and they all make it out alive. Despite the victory, the events solidify his determination to end his own life to prevent more people from being in danger because of him.
But this time, Rina saves him.
When she follows him into his abandoned childhood home, he suddenly remembers this wasn’t the first time. She had been there when they were kids, the day his mother died. Since then she has struggled with the same nightmares and the same guilt. She saves him by being present and caring for him. He allows her to meet him in the darkness, a darkness she knows well, and he begins to see hope and freedom he didn’t know was possible. She gives him the power to save himself by showing him that he is worth caring for.
I appreciate that the author set the tone and theme for the book from the very first page which helped me mentally prepare for the rest of the story, but also root for Sean and identify with his darkness. Sean walks out of his childhood home with a different perspective and a second chance at life. He realizes that moving forward and creating a life worth living is the only way for him to let go of the past. The story does mention Christian themes, but never directly says he found faith. In a way, it doesn’t need to. It ends with the beautiful feeling that the story isn’t over, that there is more healing to be done and that Sean will continue moving forward.
The intense themes and vivid storytelling do warrant a caution for those who, like myself, have personally struggled with mental health, but the ending could not have held as much hope if the story had not held so much darkness. In Rina’s words: “Sunsets remind me that the darkness won’t last forever, that the light will come if I only wait for it.”
If you are interested in receiving an E-book, please leave me a comment with your email address by December 4. Remember, I need to approve your comment before it goes live.
As you can tell from Amanda's review, this book is full of sensitive issues. Click here for the reader's guide that will help parents, teachers, or counselors use A STUDY IN TERMINAL with teen readers struggling with depression and/or suicidal thoughts.
A few weeks ago I attended a Monarch Publishing event and was fortunate to meet two fantasy authors, Stephanie Cotta and Angela Hughes. They recently started a podcast, The Ink Mages, and agreed to answer questions about the process. Take it away, Stephanie and Angela!
Carol: What does your name mean?
Stephanie and Angela: We are The Ink Mages! We wanted to come up with a catchy name that had a magical fantasy ring to it (since we’re fantasy nerds) but also had a writing-esque vibe to it as well. So, after bouncing around some terms and names, we landed on the word ‘Mage’ and then we slapped ‘ink’ in front of it, and our name was born. As Ink Mages, we feel the name embodies how we create magic on the page when we write.
Carol: Why did you decide to create a podcast?
Stephanie and Angela: We wanted to grow our audience and platform, and doing a podcast was something we both had been discussing for months. So, naturally doing one together seemed the perfect fit. Second, since we have so much fun discussing our own books, myths, legends, and fantasy books, we wanted to create a space where we could invite readers and writers into our imaginative world and “nerd out” with us.
Carol: What are your goals for The Ink Mages podcasts?
Stephanie and Angela: Our goal is to interview other authors, grow our audience, share about our books, help encourage aspiring writers, and build a community of nerds who love to talk about fantasy books. Our current goal is to do four episodes a month, shooting for one a week. We’re hoping to do our first interviews next month in September 2023. So be on the lookout!
Carol: What were your fears or concerns in creating a podcast? Did you have any bumps in the road when you got started?
Stephanie and Angela: Our biggest concern was, how do we start? Where do we go to record? Do we need equipment? And how involved will this be? But, after we spoke with Dr. Jen Lowry of Monarch Press, she helped us navigate which platforms to use and where to start. From there, we just hopped on Streamyard a month ago and said, “We’re doing this, let’s record!” And that’s how our first episode happened. We had a blast just nerding out together and knew this was going to be a special endeavor.
Carol: I know your podcast is pretty new, so who do you hope your audience will become? What do you hope to offer that other podcasts don’t?
Stephanie and Angela: We really hope to grow a community of writers, readers, and lovers of fantasy. There are plenty of nerds out there who love talking “all things books,” and we want to stick to what we do best: writing fantasy and being passionate about our favorite sci-fi/fantasy stories. We want to focus on those two elements so our audience knows with every episode what our niche is. We love broadcasting that we are “Super Nerds” when it comes to fantasy and sci-fi—hopefully, that will set us apart as well.
Carol: How do you plan to grow your audience?
Stephanie and Angela: Through social media. We have created an account for The Ink Mages on all the major social platforms, and we try to make several posts a week to engage with our audience. We run polls ask questions and encourage people to leave comments on our videos so we can have a fun dialogue. Check out our LinkTree to connect with us!
Carol: What type of equipment do you need? Hardware or software?
Stephanie and Angela: We started very basic with our equipment. We record on Streamyard using their free service. Angela uses a microphone, but Stephanie does not. There are plenty of free resources out there, including uploading on YouTube and Spotify, so starting a podcast is not an expensive venture. As we grow, we may expand and upgrade the services we use, but for now, the most important thing for us is just to get out there and start.
Carol: How did you decide on Spotify for your platform?
Stephanie and Angela: Spotify Podcasters seemed a natural choice, and it was recommended to us—plus it’s easy to use. You can add interactive questions and polls on this platform, so it gives us feedback on what episodes we should do next. And it has all the links to other podcast platforms, making it easy to upload to all of them with one click.
Carol: What advice would you give to others who want to start a podcast?
Stephanie and Angela: Just start. Figure out what you want to focus on, find your niche, and just start recording. Don’t overthink it. If you’re introverted like us, find a partner to host it with you—that’s what sealed it for us. On our own, it seemed daunting, but having a friend on the show made the conversation more fun and engaging.
Carol: How much time does it take to create a podcast?
Stephanie and Angela: Getting started took a little legwork of creating our Ink Mages account on all the social platforms. But before we even did that, we had to design a logo—that was the fun part. Having our name figured out really helped the design take form. We chose a feather quill pen to highlight the writing aspect of our podcast, followed by an image of a stack of books, to show our love of reading!
Once we had that, it put a fire in us to really dive into our podcast and make it happen. Next, we created a shared email, so we have access to all the accounts. We used Canva for designing all our YouTube video thumbnails, and initially that took thirty minutes to design. From there, we can reuse the template, just changing out the information for our new episodes. It’s very easy and not time-consuming at all.
When recording, our episodes run a little under an hour, and then we splice them for easier consumption. We do minimal editing, so after a recording, we spend an hour or two getting it ready for uploading.
By now you should have received an email from my new website about my review of THE NIGHT WAR by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. (It'll com...
