Snakes and Steam: Rewriting Chekhov’s “In the Ravine” (plus this week’s selection of giveaways)

It’s another not-so-beautiful early spring day here. The daffodils are blooming, but the occasional flake of snow falls from the sky. So it seems like a great opportunity to write some more about my story of spring, The Breathing Sea. As I wrote last time, The Breathing Sea starts in early spring and continues until midsummer, and is […]

Spring is Coming! Fear, Faith, and Free Signed Paperbacks.

Well, it’s the first week of March, which means spring isn’t quite officially here yet, but the daffodils and crocuses and pears are already blooming in my neck of the woods. I hope they don’t get nipped in next week’s predicted hard frost/winter storm. Things have been pretty exciting for me recently, and only sort […]

Sneak Peek of Brand-New Work in Progress! Plus this week’s selection of book giveaways

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine’s Day! Maybe you had a wonderful Friend Day, as they say in Finland, by eschewing all the marketing around yet another over-commercialized holiday, but that’s okay too. That’s what I did. And if you went out and had a super-romantic experience, well, the rest of us will try not to […]

Sometimes Dragons are Real. Plus Giveaways and Excerpts

Goodness, is it February already? It is! How the time does fly. I hope everyone who is in the path of the latest polar vortex is slowly defrosting. We didn’t get too hard hit here in North Carolina, but we did have several days below freezing, which is pretty dang cold for us. Things have […]

The Midnight Land is Free this Week! Plus excerpts and more giveaways

So much news! But first things first. The Midnight Land I is free on Kindle January 20-24, and for those of you in the Amazon.com market, Part II is just 99c! Of course, they’re always free on KU. Hmm, and while I’m on the subject of free books, the Portal to Fantasy Winter Reading Giveaway is still going […]

Yin, Yang, and New Year’s Resolutions That Won’t be Kept (plus more free books!)

Happy 2019, everyone! How is it 2019 already? My 2019 is starting off well-ish, in part because I’m on medical leave. That’s not normally a positive, and I’d much rather *not* have to be on medical leave, but since I do, I might as well look on the bright side. And one of the bright […]

Reading Recommendations, Giveaways, and…Sssshhhh, It’s a Secret!

With the coming New Year, as we say in Russian! I hope 2019 brings whatever it needs to bring for all of us. I’ve been doing a reasonable amount of reading over the past few weeks, so I thought I’d share some recommendations of books and authors that are not super well-known, and therefore may […]

Winter is Here! Viking Rock, Free Books, and Other Fun Things

Happy Winter Solstice, everyone! Friday marked the onset of winter and the turning of the year. And although this is the darkest, deadest time of year, it is also the beginning of the new year. Not entirely coincidentally, I have recently become obsessed with a genre that I’ll call “Viking Rock,” for want of a […]

Giving More Than You Take: Fantasy and Philosophy (And Free New Books!)

Lads, lads, lads! By which I mean mainly ladies. It’s here! It’s finally here! The official launch of The Dreaming Land III: The Sacrifice is upon us, and in celebration of that, it’s free on Kindle December 15-19. Grab a free copy of TDLIII for Kindle here. And as always, a huge thanks to reviewers past, present, […]

“The Monastery” (Обитель) by Zakhar Prilepin

The Monastery Zakhar Prilepin “Humanity is dark and terrifying, but the world is human and warm.” So ends Zakhar Prilepin’s massive historical novel “The Monastery” (Обитель), about the Solovki monastery-turned-prison-camp, the seed of the GULAG system. Following the fortunes of Artyom Goryainov, a prisoner in the camp, the novel charts all the aspects of prison […]