I really enjoyed Why We Read and found the author’s voice very appealing—and of course the subject matter was great. One Night in a Thousand Years was a short audio book and a fascinating coming-of-age tale. I thought Grumpy was funny—but it didn’t quite click for me. And Framed Women was a very solid read.
I also got in five fiction-writing sessions, and have come to the realization that this has to be dystopian of sorts, not fantasy, but I’m going to keep writing and not worry about revising the first bit right now.
This has been a great writing week! I wrote two book reviews: The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West, by Sara Ackerman and The Last Days of Lilah Goodluck, by Kylie Scott. Olivia was a great read. Both timelines engrossed me (and made me want to visit Hawaii). I’ve enjoyed all of Sarah Ackerman’s books I’ve read, and this was no exception. Lilah Goodluck had me laughing out loud several times, and I almost hurt myself snorting. Seriously, if you need a fun weekend read, pick this up.
I also got in five fiction-writing sessions this week. This was a bit of a struggle, because things are in such a state of flux at work, and I had two squeeze in two writing sessions on Thursday to make it work, but I did! The WIP is slowly starting to sort itself out—and I think it’s morphing from a fantasy to a bit of a dystopian. Who knew?
This has been another great writing week: five fiction sessions and one book review, The Tainted Cup, by Robert Jackson Bennett. This was a bit of an odd read. I felt like the world-building was heavy-handed, with needlessly long names being given to objects and no real feel for the world itself, but I enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes/Watson vibes.
This has been another excellent writing week! Five fiction sessions and one book review. Why didn’t I set a specific weekly writing goal months ago? That would have made so much more sense….Oh, well. Live and learn, I guess.
This was a fantastic writing week! I got in five fiction-writing sessions, and I wrote three book reviews, too: A Body at the Seance,The Missing Witness (up on Tuesday), and It Takes a Rake (up on Thursday). I’m very happy with this amount of writing.
When a body turns up at a glamorous séance, Mabel Canning’s sleuthing skills are put to the test. Because it appears the victim died twice…
London, 1921: As a winter wind blows through the streets of London, Mabel Canning is hired by the Useful Women’s Agency to attend a séance at the home of famous medium Madame Pushkana. But when Mabel hears a choking noise and a loud thud, she quickly turns on the lights to find herself at the scene of a murder.
The victim is none other than Stamford Plomley, whose widow arranged the séance after he died in a fire eight months ago. How did he come back from the dead without a scorch mark on him? And could one of their assembled party of gentlewomen have killed him… again?
When Scotland Yard arrive, the police try to stop Mabel from interfering. But having just formed the London Ladies’ Murder Club, Mabel isn’t going anywhere. And with the help of former detective Park Winstone, she begins to piece together what really happened at the ghostly gathering.
But when Mabel receives a threatening letter warning her to stay away from the case, she realises the murderer may have another victim in mind. With time running out, will she hit a dead end? Or can she keep herself from becoming the next one to be sent to an early grave?
This was a fun read! I think I enjoyed this more than the first book in the series. The characters felt a little more real to me, especially Perkins: I absolutely loved him and would like to see more of him. I didn’t have any idea who the murderer was, so that was a big surprise, and all of Mabel’s investigations were a lot of fun to read. This is a great series!
Marty Wingate is a bestselling author. A Body at theSéance is her newest novel.
(Galley courtesy of Bookouture in exchange for an honest review.)
I didn’t write any book reviews this week, but it was another great fiction-writing week: five more sessions! So far, two weeks in, I’m really happy I set specific writing goals, instead of just “writing.” This makes me much more focused.
Frigid temps blew in here last night—it’s 12 degrees right now. In Texas. No, thank you—so I’m huddled inside trying to stay warm. As long as it doesn’t turn into an ice storm and we lose power, I’ll write some fiction tomorrow. too.
This was a fantastic writing week! I wrote one book review, Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherland, by Heather Fawcett (won’t be up until 1/18), and five fiction sessions!
Last February, I started trying to write every day, and I think I missed three days the rest of the year. However, “writing” consisted of fiction or book reviews or writing in my prayer journal. This year, I refined my goal. Yes, I still plan to write every day, but I want five of those writing sessions every week to be fiction (aiming for just 500 words/session). And this week, I hit that, so I’m celebrating.
This was an absolutely crazy week at work! Despite that, I still, somehow, wrote three book reviews: A Body on the Doorstep, by Marty Wingate, Principles of Emotion, by Sara Read, and The Heiress, by Rachel Hawkins, all forthcoming. I didn’t get any fiction written this week, but I actually set a monthly fiction word count goal for January, so I’ll start chipping away at that this week. I’ll also have my December reading post up tomorrow, a 2023 reading post up Tuesday, and the best books I read in December up Wednesday.
This was a solid writing week. I wrote two book reviews, Our Cursed Love, by Julie Abe, and The Paris Housekeeper, by Renee Ryan. I also did some brainstorming on the new story idea, and got in one writing session with it. I’m still trying to figure some things out with the setting and genre, so that’s making it a bit difficult to get much real work on it, but my goal is two writing sessions on it this week.
I hope you had a good writing week. Happy writing!
Tomorrow Is Another Day 