Grab it here!  And here’s the blurb: “They don’t send guys like us out on rescue missions…People don’t come back alive and get returned to their loving families when we go after them.”   Jordan is the best of the best.  At killing.  But even she can be replaced.  When she’s sent on a mission to […]

Guess what!  I’ve decided to release a novelette called “Unplanned Parenthood” this Friday.  It’s a dystopian sci-fi little number I wrote a few years ago and then never did anything with.  Well, due to recent events, I decided to dust it off and put it out there.  If you’d like a free ARC, let me […]

A cute Christmas-time cozy mystery that is so full of vintage British charm it is often in danger of becoming twee. Retired art teacher Miss Seeton stumbles into not one but TWO mysteries, one involving Roman ruins and the other about a gang (no, wait, there are TWO gangs) of bank robbers. There’s also the […]

“Off to See the Wizard” is just as madcap and zany as the blurb promises. Also coarse, vulgar, gruesome, and laugh-out-loud funny. In a brilliant display of polyphony, it’s presented as the post facto justifications of a magical party for the disastrous outcome of their failed quest, with each character possessing a distinct (and hilarious) […]

Reading Western fiction set in Russia, or some version of Russia, is always a little off-putting for me, and at first I didn’t know what to make of “Egg and Spoon.” It’s certainly a Western take on Russia, but it’s a gorgeous, multi-layered confection for all that. It’s set sometime shortly before the Revolution, if […]

“The Woman Who Breathed Two Worlds” is a fascinating story about a culture I knew very little about prior to reading this book, and I really appreciate it bringing Nyonya/Baba culture to my awareness. However, that is not the only reason to like it: it’s also a well-written and heartfelt account of one woman’s struggles […]

As a professional Russianist, I approached this book with both curiosity and trepidation. I’m always excited to see a Western book with a Russian theme, but at the same time, I’m so often disappointed in the execution. “Who Is to Blame?” definitely reads more like a Western take on a Russian theme than like actual […]