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Review of Emilia: The Darkest Days in History of Nazi Germany Through a Woman’s Eyes by Ellie Midwood
Warning: contains spoilers. Every so often, a novel feels so real that the characters seem to be breathing right off the page. Emilia is one of those stories. The title clearly states what this book is about, but it doesn’t give away the horrors that the protagonist, Emilia Brettenheimer, endures during World War II. Emilia…
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Review of First of September by Kathleen Joyce
You know that cozy feeling of holding a warm beverage, wrapped in a blanket, and curling up with a good book by the fire? That’s Kathleen Joyce’s cozy mystery…with a murder or two in the mix. I admit that I haven’t read many cozy mysteries, but the appeal is inviting from page one of First…
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Saying Goodbye to Toxic Friendships
We all do it. We eat the chocolate cake because it just tastes so damn good. And then some of us hate ourselves in the morning for the indulgence, and we wonder why (WHY?) we ate it in the first place, knowing it’s choke full of bad stuff–fat, sugar, calories. Like that chocolate cake, we…
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“As long as we can love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had, we can die without ever really going away. All the love you created is still there. All the memories are still there. You live on – in the hearts of everyone you have touched and nurtured while you were…
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Why Reading Matters: From a Little Girl Who Hated Reading
The second hand seemed to take an eternity to make one lousy rotation. Tick. The minute hand moved the slightest fraction. A minute is forever to a seven-year-old sitting on the living room couch next to her mother, the simple supposed easy-reader book between them. “Go ahead. Sound it out.” The mom’s words could have…
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The Benefits of Joining a Writers Group
There it was for probably the hundredth time on the sign outside my local library: writers group, meeting 8/18 2-4:00 PM. Okay, maybe not the hundredth time, but how many times did I drive past the library, which is about two point five miles from my house, and see that group advertised and not do…
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Where Do I Get My Writing Ideas From?
This is one of the questions writers often get asked. For some writers, they have a dream that inspires a novel. For others, it’s music. They hear a song that gets their mind churning, and bam, a story evolves. Yet for others still, the book comes from personal experience, from real life events that are…
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Keeping the Perspective
It’s hard sometimes when in the midst of a problem to see past it. Everything looks blurry. The road ahead is unclear. It’s easy to let emotions take control during these trying times, and next thing you know, you’re blowing up a balloon meant for a birthday party into a hot air balloon — yes,…
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Character Friday – Meet Tristan Blake
My name is Tristan Blake, and I can’t believe I’m writing this down. I may be a writer, but if you really want to know the intimate details of my sad life, I’m afraid you’ll have to look elsewhere. Why? That’s a long story. First, I’ll just say that I’m 35 years old, quite tall,…
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Character Friday – Meet Arianna Banks
Every Friday, I will feature a character from one of my books, both published and unpublished. The character will be presented as if he/she is writing about themselves in a journal entry. My name is Arianna Banks. I was born July 23, 1992 in Cleveland, Ohio. Most of my life, I haven’t stuck with anything…