As with other WordFire Press anthologies I’ve read which were edited by Lisa Mangum, Hold Your Fire is an exceptional collection of stories, written by an all star cast of authors, that kept this reader turning pages in anticipation from one story to the next. Each of these stories were so enjoyable that it is difficult to pick favorites to be included in this review. They are all unique and delightful sparks of the creative imagination.
Hold Your Fire includes unique, thought provoking stories which you will find nowhere else. “Splendid Mirage: The Seeker’s Tale”, by Kevin J. Anderson and Neil Peart tells a tale of a never ending quest and the one who carries it’s great burden. “The Fire Sermon”, by Mary Pletsch had me pondering the fine line between a blessing and a curse, when the characters that inhabit this story show their true inner sparks. In “The White Feather”, by Shannon Fox, it takes a touch from beyond the veil to pull Jae from her grief over the death of her friend and re-spark her creativity. Venture into the fairytale land of Kat Kellermeyer “The Last Waking Princess” or endulge in a tale of mentorship and friendship gone awry, with “Bow Drill”, by Jace Killan. Other contributing authors include: Brian Corley, Kristen Bickerstaff, C.J. Erick, Wayland Smith, Alicia Kay, October K. Santerelli, Tanya Hales, Raphyel M. Jordan, Mike Jack Stoumbos, Kitty Sarkozy, Melissa Koons, and M. Elizabeth Ticknor and Rebecca E. Treasure.
Hold Your Fire has stories in a wide variety of themes and genres, so your sure to find something that will spark your fancy. All are well crafted and quite entertaining. I give it five quills.
Five Quills
Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? Contact Kaye at kayebooth(at)yahoo(dot)com.
This holiday season I hope you’ll all come party with the WordCrafter authors featured in the three WordCrafter Press books which are now available in print. Come and join in the fun and learn more about the great new books offered by WordCrafter Press at the 2020 WordCrafter Holiday Book Party. Meet some of the contributing authors of three WordCrafter anthologies, who will be doing author takeovers, and will be available to engage and answer questions, including: myself, Cynthia Vespia, Janet Garber, Roberta Eaton Cheadle, Margareth Stewart, Jeff Bowles, Jordan Elizabeth and Art Rosch.
The party is on Monday, December 7, 2020 from 3:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. MST on Facebook. There’s exciting things happening at WordCrafter Press that you won’t want to miss, including upcoming releases and additional author services to be offered. I’m sending out invites, so watch for yours. If you want to attend, but didn’t get one, click on the link above or feel free to contact me directly via messenger, or at kayebooth@yahoo.com.
I’m happy to announce that these three WordCrafter anthologies are now available in print editions:
Ask the Authors
Now you can get the author’s reference no writer should be without. Learn from the experts in Ask the Authors. Sixteen seasoned authors share writing tips and advice on topics that include craft, editing and revision, publishing and book marketing and promotion. Dan Alatorre, Amy Cecil, Cynthia Vespia, Tom Johnson, Ashley Fontainne, R.A. Winter, Tim Baker, Lilly Rayman, Chris Barili, Carol Riggs, Arthur Rosch, Mark & Kym Todd, Janet Garber, Jordan Elizabeth, Margareth Stewart, Chris Dibella and Kaye Lynne Booth. A great gift for that special author in your life.
Spirits of the west are often found in unexpected places. They can be found on a in a saloon in Colorado territory, on a wagon train in the plains of South Africa, or on a distant planet in another galaxy. They can be the bringers of revenge or the protectors of the weak. Indulge yourself in eight paranormal stories with western spirit in Spirits of the West. Contributors include Enid Holden, Roberta Eaton Cheadle, Jeff Bowles, Arthur Rosch, Tom Johnson, and Kaye Lynne Booth.
Everyone loves a good ghost story. Whispers of the Past includes seven thought provoking paranormal stories from six talented authors. The past is calling. Listen to hear it’s whispers. Contibutors include Jeff Bowles, Roberta Eaton Cheadle, Stevie Turner, Julie Goodswen, Laurel McHargue, and Kaye Lynne Booth.
Other exciting news:WordCrafter Press recently released two books by Kaye Lynne Booth. Last Call and Other Short Fiction is a collection of short stories of multiple genres, and Hidden Secrets is a paranormal mystery novella. Both are available in digital format now and will soon be available in print editions.
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Sometimes evil dwells in the land itself, and it can burrow deep, laying dormant for a long time. But it always awakens eventually.
Moving to a new home is never easy, especially when you have to deal with a not so nice step-father, and the house is old and spooky. The town is quick to fill her in on the mysterious stories about her house, and when she finds a cemetary in her new back yard and her little brother Mark starts behaving oddly, Tatiana begins to get scared. The increasing cruelness of her step-father, leads her to uncover another kind of secret. Now all she has to do is figure out what to do with what she knows.
The bonus story, “Olney”, which is included with Clay House, is equally well-written with a similar theme, providing extra reader value for your book buck.
With two brave young heroines and two spine chilling ghosts, resulting in two well-crafted stories filled with twists and turns to keep readers guessing, I give Clay House five quills.
Five Quills
Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? Contact Kaye at kayebooth(at)yahoo(dot)com.
It seems that in these trying times, it might be more difficult to find things to be thankful for. Many in this nation and around the world are sick or dying, without the comfort of family and loved ones; families are seperated; people are isolated; and people walk around trying to function normally, yet in fear of contracting the evil Covid 19, but equally in fear of economic repercussions with more and more restrictions are imposed upon us, threatening to leave many small business owners and workers without jobs or income. But in fact, it’s Covid 19 that gives us a new reason to be thankful that we are healthy and alive. No matter how bad things get, there are always reasons to be thankful, if you look for them.
This year, I am thankful for the fact that it looks like my WordCrafter endeavors are beginning to take off, with a total of four books published this past year and the opportunity to publish WordCrafter Press books in print for the first time. And of course, I’m thankful that I am alive and well, and able to make it all happen.
I’m also thankful for all the people who follow and/or support me: my readers and fans; my author friends; and the Writing to be Read team members. I couldn’t do any of this without you guys. That’s why I just wanted to say to you all,
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Many of you authors out there are like me. You know what it feels like to feel an idea wiggling its way to the surface of your brain and popping up its head when you’re right in the middle of cooking dinner or in the middle of a project, or you’re two hundred miles from nowhere on a camping trip. You know what it’s like to feel that need to drop everything and run to put words on the page, or screen, as the case may be. You may know what it’s like to be on a roll, in the middle of a vital scene for your book, and have to stop and set it aside, because you have an important engagement to attend and you can’t show up looking like you haven’t slept for days, even if it is true.
Let’s face it. Writers write because they have a innate need to express themselves. We didn’t ask for it, but it is there. We didn’t choose it, although we have chosen not to ignore it in our younger days, when ignoring it was still an option. Writers need to write as much as they need to eat, sleep or breathe. (Probably more than we need to sleep, since writing often takes the place of sleep on many nights.) This needs stems from our creativity deep within us and is as much a part of our inner mental beings as water is to our physical beings.
When I was getting my M.F.A., I had an instructor who was a binge writer. When she was done with the prewriting and was ready to write her story, she would shut herself in her office and not emerge until it was done, be it days, or even weeks before she had the first draft of the story out. She said that her family members all knew better to disturb her when the door was closed, and she wouldn’t come out, except maybe to tend to urgent bodily functions. That was her writing process, and it was effective, because she was publishing and selling her books. But there was a cost. She was on her second marraige because her first husband hadn’t put up with her crazed writing frenzies, and frankly, I was amazed that her current husband and family did.
That’s one of the prices that we pay for following our innate urges and releasing our creativity. Human relationships often suffer. I know there have been times when I have gotten up in the middle of a family get-together, and pulled out my laptop to start typing away because an idea struck me, or I suddenly realized what really happens in a scene I’ve been working on. My family members may have thought I was being extremely rude, and I guess I was, but they didn’t understand about the idea or thought that was nudging away at me to get it down NOW. Those ideas are fleeting, and if I don’t get them down when I have them, they may abandon me and not be there later.
I never go anywhere without my laptop. It goes on camping trips and vacations, even to the laundry mat or out to dinner. I write while traveling in the car, even though I know it makes me car-sick. At a memoir workshop I took a few years back, we were asked to read aloud something that we had written. Everyone else came with sheets of paper in hand, printed out with what they intended to read. When my turn came, I paused to make sure the correct work was on the screen with an explanation that “My life is in my laptop.” That brought a few laughs from my fellow workshoppers, but you know, there is a lot of truth in those words.
Writing is my world. I am passionate about it. And I’ve missed more than a few outings with friends and family, jeopardized my day job by writing late into the night when I had to work the next day, let my grades suffer to get the words just right, and missed out on countless hours of sleep just to empty what’s in my head out onto the page. Writing is a wonderful outlet for creativity and self-expression, but as all good things usually do, it comes with a price. I’ve paid that price time and again, and never thought that it wasn’t worth the cost. So, how much are you willing to pay to be a writer?
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I’ve discussed genres a lot here on Writing to be Read. I’ve done monthly genre themes, with author interviews and reviews of books included in each one. We’ve covered nonfiction, romance, western, fantasy, science fiction, young adult fiction, children’s fiction, horror, crime fiction, mystery, women’s fiction, Christian fiction, comic books and graphic novels, and the list goes on. Some genres were easy to find authors to interview and books to review. Others were a bit harder. Likewise, some attracted more readers than others.
Fantasy
Recently, there hasn’t been so many author interviews. I hit a bump in the road and was unable to fulfill my interview and review commitments. Now, I’m ready to jump back in the saddle and get things rolling again. As I contemplate what 2021 will look like for Writing to be Read, I’m wondering wether to keep the genre themes, or explore different areas in the craft of writing, and I would like your feedback. Chances are, if you’re a reader of this blog, then you are also a writer. Leave a comment and let me know which genre(s) you like to write in. Which genre(s) do you like to read? Which would you like to learn more about? Or should I trash the genre themes and concentrate on some other aspect? Which one? Let me know your thoughts.
Romance
I suppose there was a time when genres were more cut and dried, but in this day and age, genres don’t always fall into clear categories. Just take a look at the plethora of categories Amazon has for you to list your book under. When Delilah was published, I got a shock. I had written a western with a female protagonist, who was tough and gritty and made her way in the man’s world of the old west. Her character’s flaw was a lack of trust, and in order to get what she truly needed from the story, she had to have a love interest, so there was a thread of romance woven into the tale. It wasn’t the main story line, but my publisher had picked up on it and listed it as a “Frontier Romance”. Is that what I wrote?
Horror & Dark Fiction
Actually, it may have been a smart choice, even though it wasn’t my original intention. When we re-published the third edition with the new cover, I asked that they list it as a straight western, but it hasn’t helped with sales. Genre has as much to do with marketing as it does with craft. Readers of frontier romanace are a different group from those who read classic westerns.
Christian Fiction
The first group are mostly female and the second are mostly male, and they are looking for different things out of their stories. The women want romance, the men want rugged adventure, and it seems that maybe they want it to come from a big, burly mountain man or a rowdy cowboy. Men who read westerns don’t have the buy-in for a tough female character, but women who read romance have no problem with a female who is tough and gritty having the adventure, as long as she lets her gentler, feminine side show enough to fall in love.
Western
When I was working toward my M.F.A. in creative writing, I was told it was imperative to know who you are writing for, to form a mental picture of your ideal reader in your mind. But, I take an eclectic approach to most things, and writing is no different. I’ve tried my hand at many genres, some more successfully than others, and it can be seen from the example above that different genres have different readers. For me, I found I need to write what is in my head, and then figure out who to market to.
Children’s & Yound Adult Fiction
With the first WordCrafter Short Fiction Contest, in 2019, I chose to make the theme paranormal, because most people love a good ghost story. It got a good response and the Whispers of the Past anthology was born. Each entry had paranormal elements, and they were all the type of stories that would make readers think.
Whispers of the Past
For 2020, my thinking was that the old west has a lot of ghosts, and western was a genre I write in, so a western paranormal would be a natural combination, so that was the theme. But, just as not so many people read westerns, not so many authors write in the western genre, and I think I scared many possible entrants away. I had to convince author friends that they could write in the western genre just to get enough entries to create the Spirits of the West anthology, but it contains some very unique stories. Robbie Cheadle contributed two South African western paranormals, playing off South African history, but with western flavor, and Art Rosch contributed a science fiction western paranormal, of the likes you’ll not find anywhere else.
Spirits of the West
As with Writing to be Read, I’m looking toward the future for WordCrafter Press, and it’s time to think about the theme for the 2021 contest and anthology, but I’m at a loss. The paranormal theme worked well, and so did the western paranormal after I coerced some entries out of my author friends. But, one purpose for creating the WordCrafter Press contests and anthologies was to open up avenues to get your work published for new and aspiring authors, and another was to motivate established authors to think outside the box, or work outside their usual genres. It shouldn’t be a struggle to get entries, but it should still offer a challenge for the writer. So, I’m going to ask one more question of all of you. Please leave a comment to let me know, what genres of short fiction you would consider entering, were they the theme for a short fiction contest. i.e. “I would enter a short fiction contest if the theme were…”
Writing to be Read wouldn’t be where it is today if it wasn’t for you, my loyal readers. Some of you have stuck with me since the blog began, while others are new sign ons, but I appreciate you all. Please share your own thoughts on genres and help us carry on and move forward together. I’m looking forward to it. 🙂
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Gunslinger, by Edward J. Knight manages to combine two of my favorite genres, western and fantasy, into an adventure I won’t soon forget. Six guns, swords or sorcery, no weapon is off limits in this fantasy western landscape. And of course, there are a wide variety of villains to fight off, and Beth isn’t your typical female in the story world of Gunslinger created by Knight.
Taught by Wild Bill Hickock, she shoots like Calamity Jane, and sees her ghost. When an Arapohoe Indian spirit leads Beth and her friends on a quest to stop a dragon from wiping out the army outposts, will her gun be enough to stop the beast? Add dwarves being guided by an angry ghost who is out for revenge, hostile Indians and and a ghost guide with a personal agenda and you have a western fantasy adventure of the highest caliber.
Gunslinger is full of surprises and quite entertaining. I give it four quills.
Four Quill Rating
Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? Contact Kaye at kayebooth(at)yahoo(dot)com.
2020 saw the birth of the book I’m currently working on, and it was all inspired by music. In fact, the female lead character, Amaryllis is based on the music of Taylor Momsen and The Pretty Reckless. So, I had this great idea to set the tone and offer a glimpse into the thoughts of the pov character for each chapter with a snippet of lyrics; lyrics from The Pretty Reckless for Amaryllis, and lyrics from various artists for the male lead, LeRoy. It’s a time-travel story, titled The Outlaw & the Rock Star. The only catch is, an author has to be careful not to infringe on the copyright when using lyrics in her fiction.
Copyright, whether in the literary arena or the music industry, is serious business. Artists and writers protect that which they have created, as they should. As a writer, I can’t imagine the outrage I would feel, were I to learn someone else had infringed on my copyright. My words are my creation. They came from me. No one else on the planet can write them in just the way I wrote them, unless they steal them. And, let’s face it folks, theft is what copyright infringement is. So, I get why writers and artist want to protect their creations. I want my work to be protected, too.
According to Matt Knight on in “Using Lyrics in Fiction” (5 January 2019) on Sidebar Saturdays, obtaining copyright permission for song lyrics involves a ton of research into who actually holds the copyright, and then contacting them to request permission to use specific lyrics in your fiction, and pay the requested fee to obtain copyright permission. It can be both expensive and time consuming.
Knight offers a few ways around obtaining copyright permission, including only using the song title, since titles cannot be copyrighted, or using a small enough portion of the lyrics so that you can claim fair use, or choosing different lyrics from the Public Domain realm. Since this one of my characters is based on the music from one specific band, using Public Domain lyrics doesn’t seem to be an option. Since the lyrics are going to be used to set the tone of the story, using only titles wouldn’t really work. I really feel the story would loose a lot if I don’t include the lyrics, although I might be able to trim some of them a little.
So, I’m left looking at researching each individual song and contacting each copyright holder to gain permission to use their lyrics in my work, which seems like a lot of work. In the case of The Pretty Reckless, I will need copyright permission for multiple songs, so it may be an up hill battle, and it could get very expensive.
I can do the research and strive to obtain all the copyright permissions that are needed. I can’t say I’m looking forward to that part, or that I think it will be easy, but nothing good ever is. I’ve only written about six chapters, but my heart is already invested in these characters and their story. This is going to be more of a project than I realized when I concieved of the idea for this book. Here’s hoping this venture doesn’t cost more than I can afford.
Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. We get to dress up and be anyone or anything that we want to be. As adults too big to trick or treat, we find one Halloween party or another to attend, so that we have a legitimate excuse for donning a costume and pretending to be someone or something else for a while. Or we turn our yards into graveyards to scare the kids who come to trick-or-treat, or maybe we channel or Halloween fantasies into the costumes we make for our children. But no matter how well we hide away our inner children, the longing to once again play make believe never really goes away.
But this year, things may be a bit different. The Covid 19 pandemic has turned the world upside-down, and trick-or-treating poses new threats to both us and our children. Social distancing is the new buzz word and large social gatherings are falling out of fashion. Although masks are in style, they aren’t the kind that will go well with our costumes. In fact, in many places trick-or-treating has been cancelled and other types of holiday celebrations are emerging in its place.
It’s sad, really. We may be seeing the destruction of many time-honored traditions which are no longer deemed ‘safe’ activities. Thanksgiving celebrations are being limited to maximum numbers, as well. Apparently, no holiday is safe.
2020 WordCrafter Halloween Book Bash
I hope all of you will join us for the 2020 WordCrafter Halloween Book Bash tomorrow evening. For the past two years, WordCrafter has hosted or participated in Halloween book events on Facebook, and this year is no exception. Many of the activities and events being used to replace traditional forms of celebration are of a virtual nature, so our celebration this year is probably trending. It is a short one this year, only three hours, from 6 p.m. MDT to 9 p.m. MDT, but we’ve got some great contests and games, and some fantastic book promotions and new releases. My co-hosts are authors Mark McQuillen, Ellie Raine, Jordan Elizabeth, and Amy Cecil. It’s my way of keeping Halloween traditions alive during tradition crushing times.
Spirits of the West
I think the thing that I’m most excited about though, is that WordCrafter will be promoting their newly released western paranormal anthology, Spirits of the West. This anthology contains eight unique stories with hints of paranormal and western flare. Contributing authors include myself, Roberta Eaton Cheadle, Jeff Bowles, Art Rosch, Tom Johnson, and the author of the winning story, “High Desert Rose”, Enid Holden. It’s an antholgy like no other and I am so pleased with how well it turned out.
However you choose to celebrate this Halloween, be safe and have fun.
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I reviewed the first in this series, The Gamma Sequence, when it came out, so when a chance to review the third book, Terminal Sequence, I jumped at the chance. With this series, Dan Alatorre has created a horrifying conspiracy where, Hauser, one maniacle mind, holding genetic power over human life in his hand, tries to play God. Of course, he created a team of protagonists to combat this evil genius.
In Terminal Sequence, our heroes develop a computer virus with the ability to launch a terminal sequence into Hauser’s network and bring his operations to a halt. But injecting the sequence into the network is a challenge, and with Hauser’s operatives knocking off the good guys right and left, we also have to ask if there will be anyone left to do it. And if any of the team members do survive, can they accomplish the task before Hauser has a chance to complete his evil plan? They may succeed with some help from surprising allies, but you’ll have to read the book to find out.
Thrilling action from start to finish, Terminal Sequence, is one that you won’t want to put down. I give it five quills.
Writing to be Read
Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? Contact Kaye at kayebooth(at)yahoo(dot)com.
For the Love of Halloween
Posted: October 30, 2020 | Author: kayelynnebooth | Filed under: Book Event, Books, Commentary, Editorial, Fiction, Paranormal, Stories, Western, WordCrafter, WordCrafter Press | Tags: Book Event, Halloween, Spirits of the West, WordCrafter, WordCrafter Press, Writing to be Read | 4 CommentsHalloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. We get to dress up and be anyone or anything that we want to be. As adults too big to trick or treat, we find one Halloween party or another to attend, so that we have a legitimate excuse for donning a costume and pretending to be someone or something else for a while. Or we turn our yards into graveyards to scare the kids who come to trick-or-treat, or maybe we channel or Halloween fantasies into the costumes we make for our children. But no matter how well we hide away our inner children, the longing to once again play make believe never really goes away.
But this year, things may be a bit different. The Covid 19 pandemic has turned the world upside-down, and trick-or-treating poses new threats to both us and our children. Social distancing is the new buzz word and large social gatherings are falling out of fashion. Although masks are in style, they aren’t the kind that will go well with our costumes. In fact, in many places trick-or-treating has been cancelled and other types of holiday celebrations are emerging in its place.
It’s sad, really. We may be seeing the destruction of many time-honored traditions which are no longer deemed ‘safe’ activities. Thanksgiving celebrations are being limited to maximum numbers, as well. Apparently, no holiday is safe.
I hope all of you will join us for the 2020 WordCrafter Halloween Book Bash tomorrow evening. For the past two years, WordCrafter has hosted or participated in Halloween book events on Facebook, and this year is no exception. Many of the activities and events being used to replace traditional forms of celebration are of a virtual nature, so our celebration this year is probably trending. It is a short one this year, only three hours, from 6 p.m. MDT to 9 p.m. MDT, but we’ve got some great contests and games, and some fantastic book promotions and new releases. My co-hosts are authors Mark McQuillen, Ellie Raine, Jordan Elizabeth, and Amy Cecil. It’s my way of keeping Halloween traditions alive during tradition crushing times.
I think the thing that I’m most excited about though, is that WordCrafter will be promoting their newly released western paranormal anthology, Spirits of the West. This anthology contains eight unique stories with hints of paranormal and western flare. Contributing authors include myself, Roberta Eaton Cheadle, Jeff Bowles, Art Rosch, Tom Johnson, and the author of the winning story, “High Desert Rose”, Enid Holden. It’s an antholgy like no other and I am so pleased with how well it turned out.
However you choose to celebrate this Halloween, be safe and have fun.
Happy Halloween!
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