Top Ten Tuesday: Books that Took Me Out of My Comfort Zone (And Helped Me Find New Ones)

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now being hosted by The Artsy Reader. This week's topic is Books I Enjoyed That Are Outside of My Comfort Zone, but I've modified it slightly to "books that took me out of my comfort zone but I didn't necessarily enjoy." Comfort …

What in the Worldbuilding: Sports in Sci-Fi and Fantasy (Where are they?)

I'm so, so excited to unveil What in the Worldbuilding, a new blog post series where I'm going to be discussing all things worldbuilding in stories. Because I love stories and I love worldbuilding and I love rambling about them even more. For the first couple of posts, I'll be talking about some elements of …

Monday Chatter: Why Plagiarizing Reviews is Bad (Because Apparently it Needs to Be Said)

Happy Monday, everyone! Originally I wasn't going to write an entire post about this because I don't like voluntarily courting drama (unless it involves someone coming after a person I care about. Then I start sharpening knives), but the more I thought about it, the more irritated I got. So I'm just gonna get it …

Monday Chatter: Pride Parade and Death By TBR

(Pride Parade and Death By TBR performing at your nearest city. Get your tickets now!) A bit of a late post today because we had our Pride Parade here in Vancouver yesterday and I stayed out really late walking, eating, melting, and dancing--not necessarily in that order. There were some controversies surrounding the parade this …

July Wrap-Up: Family News, Red & Blue is the New Black

I feel like a lot of my personal posts lately have just been me going, "I'm a sad little bundle of sadness!" And, well....the same applies today (I promise a LOT more flowers and rainbows for the next one). But I'll try to keep it brief this time. To put it shortly, my grandmother passed …

Broken, Awkward, Incompetent, Mismatched Heroes: Why We Need Them in Stories

I'm not sure what the umbrella term for these types of characters should be. Atypical heroes? Messy heroes? Well, whatever the term, I adore them. And my love grows stronger every time I come across a protagonist who's graduated from the academy of perfect heroes. You know--the shiny put-together ones. The ones whose mistakes are …

Interview with Sam J. Miller – Destroy all Monsters

A crucial, genre-bending tale, equal parts Ned Vizzini and Patrick Ness, about the life-saving power of friendship. Solomon and Ash both experienced a traumatic event when they were twelve. Ash lost all memory of that event when she fell from Solomon’s treehouse. Since then, Solomon has retreated further and further into a world he seems …

Best Reads of 2018 (“Let’s Time Travel Back 6 Months, Shall We?” Edition) – Awards Feat. Art, Balloons, and Some Very Special Guests

[Note: This is a LONG intro, so feel free to scroll down to the actual list portion! But if you've snuck a peek and are wondering why there are photos of janky art underneath the gorgeous book covers, then read on] Yup, I see you squinting at the title! And I'm here to tell you …

Fantasy Books & Games for Mental Health Awareness Month (Why I Need More Mental Health Rep in Adult Fantasy)

  May is Wyrd & Wonder and mental health awareness month, so it only makes sense to celebrate the 31st by smooshing them together into one post. I meant to write this on Wednesday for Top 5 Wednesday, but I've been zonked out on allergy meds all week (one day the pharmaceuticals will develop a …

Monday Chatter: Urban Gods and the Hard (and Creepy) Life of an A.I.

Happy Monday, all! We're back to summer weather here, which has been great for hiking and kayaking but doesn't bode well for the actual summer months. And to the joy of all you tennis enthusiasts (*crickets chirping*), Roland Garros has started! Now, half the fun of watching grand slams is making fun of the outfits …