The Social Porcupine

So, it looks like I'm starting off my writing career as a fairy tale author? This last year I've had three stories accepted and published by two different anthologies. And,yes, all three of my stories are fairy tales. The first one was a retelling of Cinderella and you can find out more about that one here . The last two are in this  book, pictured above. It released yesterday! You can buy the print version here . While I love my fairy tales, I'm not sure what I think of being a fairy tale author. Because I really love contemporary, too ;D Overall, I'm purely excited ;D This book has twenty-eight stories in it. I haven't read the rest of them yet, so I can't recommend the book as clean. But I'm hoping! Because some of these stories look AMAZING! My stories are: PRINCE PERFECT: A prince goes on a quest to find the perfect bride, encountering all of the familiar fairytale princesses we know and love. But each one has some small fault he can'...

I have  one  more Snow White retelling review to share with you all!  I have read a lot of Kendra's books. At first I was stunned by her writing style. It's so different. But it's grown on my. To the point that I think I really love it now. Even so . . . some of her books have outright pleasantly surprised me by how much I actually loved it. This is one of those! Right next to Woodcutter Quince , I think.  What I liked: Normally world jumping makes my mind dizzy. But I thought this was well done. Kendra's humor is very unique — her writing is nearly purely sarcasm, even description. It's taken me awhile to appreciate it, but now I love it and sometimes even laugh over her perfect word choices.  Adding to the last point, her writing isn't only sarcastic humor, it's blunt humor. And I like, that, too.  I loved how this story blended genres together — contemporary, fantasy, and cyborg.  What really caught me was how real Gwen's gri...

As I mentioned in my last  post , I really needed to find some good combinations of Bible fairy tales to see if I'm doing this thing right with my Fur Slipper. These stories couldn't have come to me at a better time. Especially this one. Wow. Overpowered is amazing. What more can I say? I'll try to tell you what made it so great. What I liked:  As crazy as this may sound, I've always loved the book of Judges in the Bible. It's full of so many unique stories. It was definitely an interesting time for Israel. I can never bore while reading that book. So, suffice it to say, I loved how this fairy tale felt just like a story out of Judges . I really recognized the stories of Gideon. And a lot of what happens in Judges 9 happened in the background of Overpowered. I loved  that. But even though this story was obviously heavily influenced by ancient Israel, I could tell it was clearly set in another world. And I didn't mind that. It allowed room for the a...

As many of you may know, I've written a fairy tale called Fur Slipper, a retelling of the original Egyptian Cinderella story combined with the Biblical Esther story. After writing this novel of mine and learning some about comp titles I realized I hadn't ever read any other biblical/ fairy tale combinations. And I have plans to write more — I wondered if this genre might be unique to me, or if I could possibly find other stories similar to mine. And so when I heard that the Magic Mirrors blog tour had a few Bible fairy tale retellings I was beyond thrilled to read and review! I got a bit confused with the schedule, sadly ;/ This post should have been done this early morning. But I didn't even realize this until last minute. I hadn't even read the book yet . . . So I've spent much of today reading For Such A Time As This.  Even though I read the novella hurriedly, I enjoyed it immensely. My Thoughts: I love how this story is obviously both Snow White and...

I saw a post on twitter awhile back that said something all the line of, "Maybe bribing myself with the potential ability to buy a ---- will motivate me enough to keep a job." My first reaction was, really??? I'm a workaholic. I love working. I also believe in working hard. I have never had a need for more work. I have never turned down work. I have hardly even searched for work. It just . . . finds me. And I do it. From cleaning houses, to working for small businesses, to office work, to custom sewing, to babysitting. Some of it I've loved. Some of it . . . was me laboring because it was the thing to do, but I was dreaming of being done soon. But I've never had to motivate myself to work. Especially with a bribe. I am also a bit of a saver.  I love working. I hate spending money, unless it's on books, gifts, or something large I'm working toward (travel, land, etc). And any other way seems foreign to me. So, after reading this tweet and thi...

Guys, I have a short story published! And I'm so excited to share it with you all! It's included in an anthology collection of Christian Speculative fiction, most of which is science fiction, with some fantasy. My story is the only fairytale in the book. You can buy the book here:  Mythic Orbits Volume 2 LIVING HISTORY: (Sci-Fi) In which humans are at the bottom of the classes and Sam must find a job to survive. I always have a hard time wrapping my head around sci-fi and alien type stories, but I think many others will love this story. HER MAJESTY'S GUARDIAN: (Fantasy) The queen has turned everything yellow and her guardian is forced to do something about it. I really loved this one! DRAGON MOON: (Fantasy) Darla's little brother has cancer, but she is determined she can keep him alive with his dreams, and so she becomes the dragon he wants. Such a sad, beautiful story! I was surprised I liked it considering I don't like tattoos at all. ...

I have written dozens of short stories. I have around ten novellas.  And I have written three novels, two of which I feel are ready to be published.  Yes, I know I'm probably not ready, but these last few months I finally feel like I'm ready to be published. I've always wanted to be published. But I've always known that I must write a ton, receive piles of rejections, and keep writing for a time first. And then suddenly these last few months things have felt different for some reason. So I looked around for a conference I thought might suit my writing. Through recommendations from Stephanie Morrill  I finally decided upon ACFW .  And then for months I prepare by writing, editing, researching, and WRITING. A huge highlight was meeting Frank Peretti, and hearing him speak. I laughed so much in his class.  My goal? To be published. I didn't have to sign a contract or anything, I just wanted affirmation that this is in my futu...

I was first introduced to Ender's Game through the movie  at my friend, Mary's place. It's hard to not fall in love with the plot. It's combined emotions and facts into this perfect mush of confusion. What would you have done? How would you have felt? What was really right? I loved the movie even as I hated it for so many reasons. Because I understood the " bad guys". They did they right thing. They weren't really bad. They were thinking long term: "Save the world, prevent the Formics from every trying to destroy Earth again." So I understand a lot of people have told me that the movie wasn't nearly as good as the books. So I may not have as full of an understanding of the Formics as I could. But here are my thoughts about the movie and the Ender's Shadow audio books. Though one blogger  did say she preferred the movie for various reasons, one being there was less inappropriate content in the movie. Also, be warned, I'm not...

Selfie at the Norris cemetery... I went to look for inspiration for last names. And... found one for the "bad guys" ;D  When I was in my early teens my mom hired an Amish friend, Rebecca Yoder, to teach us. We would walk, ride our bikes, or drive a pony cart a couple miles to a small mobile home where we had school. Though there were only about seven of us we had a name for our school . . .  Acorn Melody. It was an experience, to be sure. We were used to homeschooling. All at once we had a strict schedule, sat at desks, and had specific lessons and assignments. I loved going to school and I loved our teacher. I loved learning. And I loved reading so many interesting Amish books! I only attended one year as I graduated eighth grade, but it is a year in which I will always look back in with fondness. Though I loved school, I didn't enjoy all of my subjects equally. I've never liked spelling much... probably because I wasn't very good at it. But there was...