As a home-schooled teen, I never had The Handmaid’s Tale as required reading. I was aware of the plot, thanks to my older sister trying to explain it to me once, but had little interest in seeking it out on my own. At the time, it wasn’t clear why that was, since I loved reading…
Artificial wombs and the immense impact they would have on society have been a fascination of mine since childhood. This fascination led to a lot of reading and understanding why it would be an incredibly complicated process to support an embryo outside of a uterine environment. I did research to try to understand the hurdles…
It’s been a hard year. True friendship is important–as important as family or a marriage–and it isn’t something I share lightly. Losing my best friend this year left its mark on me and I imagine Maggie’s loss is something I’ll reflect on for the rest of my life, like I do with my father’s death or my house…
Title: Hope for Nolan O’Donoghue (an Outlaw’s Mail-Order Bride) Genre: Historical Romance Length: 144 pages Release Date: October 1, 2016 Salt of the Earth Seven virtues and seven outlaws… When Hope Masterson is torn from her comfortable life in St. Louis, she has one way out. Falsely accused of a crime and grieving her murdered father,…
Before I pushed play I wondered if Melissa McCarthy would burst through a wall and torch my copy of the original Ghostbusters while I cried. The power of nostalgia is great and it sucks when something you loved years ago turns out to be terrible when viewed with fresh eyes (see: the Ruining My Childhood recaps on this blog), but can a…
In case you’re just finding these recaps, A Pirate’s Love is a historical romance novel by Johanna Lindsey written in the late ’70s. I’m a huge fan of Lindsey’s, but this book suffers from the awfulness of its era. Recaps start here. CONTENT NOTE: No rape in this chapter, but the mind games and casual references…
I make no promises about how often I’ll update this series, but I’ll be writing historical inaccuracy posts for the blog, as I have a lot of pet peeves. There are a bunch of things that get repeated so often in historical fiction set in Europe–or in European history inspired fantasy–that everyone has now just…
In case you’re just finding these recaps, A Pirate’s Love is a historical romance novel by Johanna Lindsey written in the late ’70s. I’m a huge fan of Lindsey’s, but this book suffers from the awfulness of its era. Recaps start here. CONTENT NOTE: Shockingly, there’s no rape in this one, but the mind games and…
Today I woke up full of hatred. I’ve had a migraine for days now. My stomach, too, has been upset for days. All food sounds disgusting, yet being a responsible adult I still have to cook meals. The year 2015–when I started these recaps–was a bunch of bullshit and this year has been even worse,…
In 1958, two very important things happened as far as my self-centered view of the world is concerned. My mother was born, thus setting the stage for my future existence, and so was Prince Rogers Nelson. I was born in the ’80s and hit my teens in the ’90s. During those years in America, it…
If you’re familiar with English idiom, you’ve probably heard the phrase “drawing someone out of their shell” before. If you do a search on it, you’ll find numerous examples of people asking how to accomplish this act with someone they consider shy or introverted or awkward. What’s interesting if you look at those results is…
Content Note: Discussion of sexual assault, rape apologetics. Dear Abby, You recently responded to a young woman who described being sexually assaulted. Your response? “It appears you and that boy had a severe breakdown in communication, which led to your being sexually assaulted.” Now, I’ve never been an advice columnist, but I am a writer…
