December 2023

 December and the last month of 2023. I'm coming of two weeks of a beastly cold that has left me with a bit of a cough. Feeling miserable has taken a bit of my time but i did not lose the whole month 

Some books I've Read:

Christmas At Wheeldale Inn - Gemma Amor - https://gemmaamorauthor.com/

    A story set in old timey england at Christmastime. There is a rotton character, some dead bodies, and ghosts. A fun spooky holiday story.

Thistlefoot - GennaRose Nethercott - https://www.gennarosenethercott.com/

    A story of Baba Yaga's grandchildren in the US traveling around the country in a house on giant chicken feet named Thistlefoot. Puppets, Magic, some spooky baddies and I loved that no one was really surprised by a house walking around on giant chicken legs.

Some books I'm Reading:

Let the Woods Keep our Bodies - E.M. Roy - https://emroywrites.com/publications/ 

    A scary coming of age and spooky woods story written by a Maine author and published by Goulish Books https://ghoulish.rip/product-category/ghoulish-books/. The writings great and I'm curious to see how it ends.

The Witch and the Tsar - Olesya Salnikova Gilmore - https://olesyagilmore.com/ 

    Another BabaYaga story that I've only just started and enjoying it so far

I watched Leave the World Behind after reading this from an interview with the director. 

“I am writing what I think is fiction, for the most part, I’m trying to keep it as true to life as possible, but I’m exaggerating and dramatising. And to hear an ex-president say you’re off by a few details… I thought I was off by a lot! The fact that he said that scared the f*** out of me.”

It was a bit tense, scary for reasons other than a boogyman, and entertaining. Not something I every would want to deal with. I may have to read the book to get some more details about some of the weird parts that seemed unanswered or confusing. I think it would have been better if they had more time telling the story as a limited series. 

From a writing standpoint, I received some new reviews on A Good Meal from the Terrify your Tablet event. I received a 1 star and that's fine. Not everything is for everyone and I'm glad they finished it. 

My favorite part though. If I look at the review through my Goodreads author page, this comes up, and I love it.

Ok, you got a bad review. Deep breath. It happens to every author eventually. Keep in mind that one negative review will not impact your book’s sales. In fact, studies have shown that negative reviews can actually help book sales, as they legitimize the positive reviews on your book’s page.

We really, really (really!) don’t think you should comment on this review, even to thank the reviewer. If you think this review is against our Review Guidelines, please flag it to bring it to our attention. Keep in mind that if this is a review of the book, even one including factual errors, we generally will not remove it.

For more on how to interact with readers, please see our Author Guidelines.

If you still feel you must leave a comment, click “Accept and Continue” below to proceed (but again, we don’t recommend it).

(Spoiler - I did not leave a comment :) 

Another bit for writing, I signed up for a new editing tool. One that is focused n fiction writing. The reports and feedback is great and rather than tell you you have too many adverbs or not enough dialog it shows you how your story compares to other popular writers or genres. It gives a chapter by chapter overview of whats happening in your story tracking characters, identifying contridictions, plot and genre. While it is not a 100% replacement for an editor its a huge help and for a writer not backed with big publisher money a good deal.

Its called AutoCrit and it also connects to Grammarly for grammar edits. 

You can check it out here: https://www.autocrit.com/ 

That's all I have for December - Maybe I'll start something new soon. Happy Holidays!

(Photo of the first real snow - Bates College Pond)




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