• Review: “A Case of Spirits” (A Charm of Magpies short) by K.J. Charles

    This short story was included in my Kindle edition of A Case of Possession (A Charm of Magpies #2). This delightful short story doesn’t add much to the interpersonal relationship between Lord Crane and Stephen Day, but it does show how Crane and his manservant Merrick have become intricately linked with Day’s world of magician justiciars.…

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  • ChessieCon 2017 Schedule

    This weekend, I’ll be attending ChessieCon 2017 at the Radisson North Baltimore Hotel in Baltimore, MD! This is a local convention to me, so I’ll be commuting from home rather than staying at the hotel. I’ll still be around most of the weekend if you want to grab a snack or drink with me! Where…

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  • Review: A Case of Possession (A Charm of Magpies #2) by K.J. Charles

    This was not a long novel, but I think I would have devoured it just as quickly had it been twice the length. I’ve decided that I adore Lord Crane. Like any true romantic hero, he has looks, brains, and money. But his personality, lack of regard for polite society, and familiarity with the world…

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  • Review: The Soldier’s Scoundrel (Turner Series #1) by Cat Sebastian

    I’m starting to see the appeal of romances, especially the ones where a happily ever is guaranteed. I don’t always like the emotional angst characters have to go through to get there, and I’ve discovered that I’m not a huge fan of the “you’re better off without me” trope (it hits a bit close to…

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  • Review: Bookburners (Season 1) created by Max Gladstone

    Also written by Margaret Dunlap, Mur Lafferty, and Brian Francis Slattery I first learned about Bookburners and the modern concept of the serial novel through a blog post at Speculative Chic. I was intrigued by both the format and the story premise, so downloaded the first season on my Kindle. It languished for a while,…

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  • Review: The Magpie Lord (A Charm of Magpies #1) by K.J. Charles

    Now that I’ve discovered a newfound love for queer historical romance, it was really only a matter of time before I made the jump to the urban fantasy variety. This novel was an excellent introductory choice that I devoured in the space of one airport wait + flight to Florida, and I had to resist…

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  • Build Report: Women of NASA

    I recently took a trip to Orlando, Florida, to attend a series of workshops for the day job. This was not exactly a hardship, because the conference was located at one of the Disney World Resorts. This meant that the first night I was in town, I hopped on the shuttle to Disney Springs to…

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  • Review: Night Shift (Midnight, Texas #3) by Charlaine Harris

    I quickly sped through the finale of this trilogy once it arrived in the mail. However, this was mostly to get to the end of the story rather than through any great love for the world or the characters. On the one hand, I am very satisfied with how some story lines concluded, such as…

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  • October Wrap-Up & November Goals

    Happy Halloween! I’m traveling tomorrow, so getting a jump on my monthly round-up post today. Please enjoy this picture of a vampire writer in her natural habitat from a Halloween party I attended this weekend. Apparently Waldo has gone to the dark side. Tonight I’ll be packing for my trip and giving out candy to…

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  • Review: While the Black Stars Burn by Lucy A. Snyder

    In the spirit of Halloween month, I was asked by a fellow blogger to participate in her round-up of monster discussions. In looking for a way to talk about Cthulu, when I have very limited experience in the horror genre in general and H.P. Lovecraft in particular, I remembered a book that’s been sitting on…

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  • Review: Day Shift (Midnight, Texas #2) by Charlaine Harris

    Now that I knew what I was getting into, I tore through the second book that inspired my favorite television show of the summer. If anything, this novel made me want to go back and re-watch episodes of the show to appreciate the characters more. The main plot of this book (or at least one…

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  • Review: Midnight Crossroad (Midnight, Texas #1) by Charlaine Harris

    Like The Magicians, I’m glad that I watched the television series version of this story before picking up the books. However, unlike The Magicians, it wasn’t because the screen version fixed things that I hated about the books. In this case, it was purely because writing for screen is different than writing for the page. 

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  • Build Report: Iconic VIP Set

    I freaked out to my husband the other day that a LEGO set I wanted might disappear soon, according to the ominous wording in the latest catalog. (Yes, I get the LEGO catalog and pour through it religiously.) Because he is the best husband, his response was, “So order it already.” That particular LEGO set…

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  • Review: The Lawrence Browne Affair (Turner Series #2) by Cat Sebastian

    A break from the daily routine in the form of a business trip to Seattle for the day job meant a break in my regular reading habits. Ages ago, my favorite contemporary romance author (okay, Anna Zabo is really the only contemporary romance author I really read) noted that a novel by one of their…

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  • Review: Patterns of Interference (Star Trek Enterprise: Rise of the Federation #5) by Christopher L. Bennett

    Obvious benefits of a media tie-in novel are the lack of production value constraints. This means authors are free to make use of a vast array of characters and create new planets beyond the typical constrictions of special effects. Bennett has capitalized on these abilities to great extent, especially writing a familiar cast of characters…

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  • Review: The Bronze Skies by Catherine Asaro

    After I finished this novel, staying up until past midnight on a work night, I posted a complaint on Facebook. Not about this novel, but about how I had over 100 more books on my “to be read” shelf, but all I really wanted to do is go back and re-read everything else in Catherine…

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  • Author Interview with A.E. Hayes

    For something a little bit different today, I’m interviewing author A.E. Hayes about Shattered: Memories of an Amnesiac! I know, it sounds like science fiction, despite my own medical knowledge about traumatic brain injury gleaned from my years of editing a medical journal on rehabilitation. So I was instantly intrigued about, well, everything about this. ABOUT…

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  • September Wrap-Up & October Goals

    Alas, the streak has been broken and I did not quite meet all my goals this month. I blame the con crud I picked up at Salt Lake Comic Con. (Which did not stop me from having an awesome book signing while I was there.) September Wrap-Up Between a week where I didn’t write a…

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  • Review: Points of Origin (SG-1/SGA Travelers’ Tales #2) edited by Sally Malcolm

    Favorite story: “Precognition” by Jo Graham touches on the after-effects of one of my favorite episodes of Stargate SG-1, when our heroes travel back in time and are aided by a younger George Hammond. It was lovely to see his progression through the years, taking us to the man we know and love who guided…

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  • Con Report: Salt Lake Comic Con 2017

    Getting to Salt Lake Comic Con was a hell of a ride. Some back story: A year ago, you may remember that my husband headed to the wilds of Mississippi for 6 months for work. While Erik was there, he met a very cool guy, comedian and actor Jay Whittaker. A few months ago, Erik and…

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