Minding my Mythology, part I

I’ve mentioned once or twice that my superpower is research. It’s also my comfort zone and in these unsettling times, research is where I go to relax. Lately it’s been mythology. As a child, I devoured books about Greek and Egyptian mythology. And yet I never thought to search for my own. In a previous …

Marking Time with Tale Friends

The other day I was trying to conjure up my quarantine fantasy (not that being under quarantine should be anyone’s idea of a fantasy other than the whole stuck on a desert island with your dream lover, but that’s for another post). It included things like spending an entire day in bed with meals delivered …

Writing while…

As a writer in the 21st century, you’re often asked to share more of yourself than you’re comfortable with in order to gain readership of your intended work, be it blog posts or novels. The field is so crowded with talent that something has to help you stand out. When I started my writing journey, …

Less Fairy, More Tale

It's been far too long, dear reader, since I've written. Not that I'm not writing--I've been working on editing the third book in my four-book series. But I have been woefully negligent with my social media. It's an offshoot of my mixed feelings about marketing. Therefore, I'm going to write one of my rare writing …

Random Joy in Weird Times

Whenever I'm given unexpected good news, I think about the Valiant Tailor. It was a small thing, working away at his trade and then pausing for a snack only to be interrupted by pestering flies. He ended their buzzing with one blow and was so tickled by the fact he made himself a sash proclaiming …

Not all those who wander…

When I was about eight, I watched Alice in Wonderland over and over again. I loved the chatty and catty flower garden. I memorized all the Cheshire Cat's lines. I hated the ending. I didn't want Alice to back to her old life. I hoped she would learn to navigate the ins and outs of …

Miss Plot?

For those who don’t know, I love Star Trek. While I’m iffy on the original series, I’ve seen the original cast movies more times than I can count. I watched them after discovering my first love, Star Trek: The Next Generation. My love affair continued through Deep Space Nine, Voyager and even Enterprise (although don’t …

Suspend belief

I spend a lot time on this blog criticizing fairy tales (as only someone who really loves them can), but there is one thing that I truly love about fairy tales--the ability for fairy tale characters to believe in the extraordinary. Cinderella just ran with it when her mother's grave started granting her wishes. The …

Living a Fairy Tale Trope

It’s a familiar trope in fairy tales. Cinderella had her father’s estate. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty both had a cottage in the woods. Rapunzel had her tower with no doors. Belle had the Beast’s castle. In fairy tales, princesses tend to find themselves in isolation. It’s not unusual. These stories were written in a …

A Smuggler’s Path by I.L Cruz

Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub

In Canto, magic is a commodity, outlawed by the elites after losing a devastating war and brokered by smugglers on the hidden market. But some know it’s more–a weapon for change.

Inez Garza moves through two worlds. She’s a member of the noble class who works as a magical arms dealer–a fact either group would gladly use against her. Neither know her true purpose–funding Birthright, an underground group determined to return magic to all at any cost.
But the discovery of a powerful relic from before the Rending threatens her delicate balance.
Inez’s inherent magic, which lies dormant in all the Canti, has been awakened. Now the Duchess’s daughter, radical and smuggler must assume another forbidden title–mage, a capital crime. This will bring her to the attention of factions at home–fanatical rebels bent on revolution, a royal family determined to avoid another magical war, her mercenary colleagues at the hidden…

View original post 308 more words