Monthly Archives: May 2013

3 posts

Characters I Love – Jean Valjean

Jean Valjean is the protagonist of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. I first read the book in high school and immediately had to watch the movie – the first version I saw was the 1998 version with Liam Neeson playing Jean Valjean. I haven’t seen the 2012 version with Hugh Jackman yet, but I’ve heard it’s good. Les Miserables is a hard book to get through. If you’ve read Victor Hugo before, you know what you’re getting into. I read the unabridged version, and it is a slog. But much like one of my other favorite books, Charles Dickens’ A Tale […]

Sneak Peek: Urban Fantasy / Supernatural Thriller (formerly titled Invisible)

One of the first scenes was posted here (you may wish to read it first). This is a slightly later scene in the urban fantasy / supernatural thriller I’ve been working on. I skipped a bit because… well, there is excitement that I don’t want to post online yet. I am looking for a few beta readers for this series, so if you’re interested, please let me know. I may not be able to accommodate everyone, but I’ll see. ***** Aria spent the next day inside. She had plenty of books full of sticky notes and highlighting and she stared at her […]

Self-Publishing vs. Vanity Publishing

But wait, you say. Isn’t self-publishing just vanity publishing? Not exactly. Self-Publishing is not Vanity Publishing Self-publishing is when an author pays for the expenses of having their work published – editing, cover art, formatting, etc. That’s a pretty broad category, and it includes a number of classic works. You see, publishing has always been subject to the whims of a number of gatekeepers – agents, editors, publishers, and bookstore owners, to name a few. Sometimes those gatekeepers hit a homerun – they identify and back a truly worthwhile book by a magnificent author. That’s great! But sometimes, for whatever […]