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An author blog from a Texas girl who’s seen the world…
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BOOK REVIEW: First Course by Jenn Bouchard

Janie Whitman, the protagonist in First Course, undergoes a life-changing twenty-four hours. First, she loses her job in Chicago and the boyfriend/boss there breaks up with her. Then, hard on those happenings, her parents die in a plane crash, and her sister, Alyssa,...

Enter My Holiday Giveaway!

One lucky participant will win: A hand-made cozy scarf A signed copy of A DIFFERENT KIND OF FIRE Bookish print swag Click here to enter, or use the widget below. No purchase necessary. The more ways you enter, the more your chances of winning. Good luck and have fun!...

A Halloween story: Morrigan

  Morrigan © Suanne Schafer A whistled song disturbs my sleep. Just outside the churchyard, I lie, warm and drowsy, buried within the earth, roofed by a grove of dark pines whose fallen needles and verdant mosses quilt my bed. Loath to leave a lovely pleasure, I...

New Book Trailer! Hunting the Devil

In case you missed it in my newsletter and here on the front and book pages of my website, here's the new goosebump-inducing book trailer for Hunting the Devil. I hope you love it as much as I do! 😈📚🎬

Enter My Summer-Into-Fall Book Lovers Giveaway!

One grand prize winner will receive a signed paperback copy of A Different Kind of Fire, a handmade beaded velvet bookmark, and a Hunting the Devil book bag. Ends at Midnight/CT on September 5th Good luck and have fun! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Enter My First Springtime Giveaway

More daylight = more time to read, so it felt like the perfect occasion for a new bookish giveaway! 🌞📚One lucky winner will receive an eBook copy of A Different Kind of Fire, and a $10 Amazon gift card. This one ends a week from today, so get in while you can. Click...
-Blog Updates-
Book Review: Friends and Other Liars by Kaela Coble

Book Review: Friends and Other Liars by Kaela Coble

Friends & Other Liars is Kaela Coble’s debut novel, and it’s an ambitious one, told in multiple points of view and past/present timelines. In it, five friends (Ruby, Ally, Danny, Murphy and Emmett) have known each other since grade school in Chatwick, a small...

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Interview: Fred Ruark, author of The Saints Lost Their Way

Interview: Fred Ruark, author of The Saints Lost Their Way

Joining me today in a Covid-safe interview, is author Fred Ruark. He has lived in Maryland all his life and worked for utilities for over forty years, doing everything from splicing cable for the phone company, to training managers in a nuclear power plant. He married...

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Book Review: Love, Art, and Other Obstacles by Sadira Stone

Book Review: Love, Art, and Other Obstacles by Sadira Stone

Love, Art, and Other Obstacles, released May 18, 2020 by Wild Rose Press, is the third in the Book Nirvana romance series. I have read the second, Runaway Love Story and enjoyed it as well, so I'll definitely have to backtrack and read the first. The series is...

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Book Review: Little Voices by Vanessa Lillie

Book Review: Little Voices by Vanessa Lillie

Little Voices is Vanessa Lillie’s debut novel. It’s a murder mystery, political thriller, and psychological suspense wrapped into one. Then throw in a blazingly intense family drama of a new mother suffering from postpartum psychosis. Devon, the protagonist, is a...

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Interview: Ann Simas

Interview: Ann Simas

Today's interviewee is author Ann Simas. She writes mystery-thriller-suspense novels with a love story and paranormal or supernatural elements. She lives in Oregon but, having grown up in the Rocky Mountains, is a Colorado girl at heart. An avid reader since...

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Book Review: You Beneath Your Skin by Damyanti Biswas

Book Review: You Beneath Your Skin by Damyanti Biswas

You Beneath Your Skin is Damyanti Biswas’s debut novel, and it’s a prime example of a murder mystery with plenty of twists and turns in a complex plot. Set in a smoggy New Delhi winter, the book brought to mind my travels through that part of the world—cities teeming...

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Book Review: Were We Awake by L. M. Brown

Book Review: Were We Awake by L. M. Brown

Were We Awake was released November 20, 2019 by Fomite Press. I'd enjoyed L. M. Brown's first collection of short stories (Treading the Uneven Ground) so much I was compelled to read her second collection of stories. The cover of Were We Awake brings to mind the...

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Interview: Jae Hodges, author of The Rose and the Whip

Interview: Jae Hodges, author of The Rose and the Whip

Everyone has a history and a story. Today, I'm distance-talking with Jae Hodges about her new book, The Rose and the Whip. She uses the most alluring stories from the chronicles of her own ancestry to create timeless tales of everyday people making history. On her...

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Book Review: How Fires End by Marco Rafalà

Book Review: How Fires End by Marco Rafalà

How Fires End is Marco Rafalà’s debut novel, and a stunning one it is, all about families and secrets and trauma. Told in reverse chronological order, How Fires End begins with the story of David, the son of a Sicilian immigrant in Middletown, CT. David’s mother died...

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Book Review: Derailed by Mary Keliikoa

Book Review: Derailed by Mary Keliikoa

Derailed is author Mary Keliikoa’s debut novel. Kelly Pruitt, a woman in her early thirties, has taken over her late father’s private detective agency. She's never lost the "baby fat" she gained when pregnant with her daughter eight years ago and is physically...

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Interview: Lisa Braxton, author of The Talking Drum

Interview: Lisa Braxton, author of The Talking Drum

Today I'm chatting with Lisa Braxton in a socially-distanced web interview. Lisa is an essayist, short story writer, and author of the debut novel, The Talking Drum. She is also a “debutante,” one of five debut novelists chosen for the Debutante Ball, a group blog for...

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Book Review: Don’t Speak by J. L. Brown.

Book Review: Don’t Speak by J. L. Brown.

Written in 2015 and independently published in 2016, Don’t Speak (Jade Harrington series, book # 1) reflects the political scene in America at that time. This thriller has a female, Whitney Fairchild, running for president against a conservative male incumbent whose...

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Interview: Rosey Lee, author of Beautiful, Complicated Family

Interview: Rosey Lee, author of Beautiful, Complicated Family

Author Rosey Lee joins me today in a virtual, Covid-19 safe interview. She writes uplifting fiction stories about family and friendship. A native of the Westbank of New Orleans, Louisiana, Rosey is a fan of good foods and good times. As a child, she dreamed of a...

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Book Review: Pride of Eden

Book Review: Pride of Eden

Pride of Eden, released March 17, 2020 by St. Martin's Press, is a gritty book inhabited by even-grittier characters. Author Taylor Brown pulls together a diverse cast of mostly-unlikable characters. Anse Caulfield is a Vietnam vet and retired racehorse jockey. He is...

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Book Review: What’s Left Untold

Book Review: What’s Left Untold

Two girls with totally opposite personalities, Anna and Lia, find an unlikely friendship in high school, one that survives even their interest in the same boys. They have a falling out in college—and Lia walks out of Anna’s life without further word. That event...

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Interview: Stephen Cox, author of Our Child of the Stars

Interview: Stephen Cox, author of Our Child of the Stars

Stephen Cox and I are meeting in a virtual, therefore social-distance-safe interview. He was born in America of British parents, spent nearly his entire childhood in Bristol in the West of England, and now lives in London with his partner. His son has left home and...

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