Parisian Phoenix Publishing

I thought it would be fun to share the books I read in February. I think I read ten books in January, but then I had an editing blitz late in the month where I read a lot of novels back to back. And I started watching television instead of reading.

In chronological order, not order of preference:

1. Untold Truths: A Talia and Dozer Mystery. Stacie Leininger asked me to proofread this for her, and me, being me, offered her a light edit on top of the proofreading services. I apologized to her for taking a heavier hand to her manuscript, but I liked it, and when I like something and I see ways to improve it I can’t keep my mouth shut. I just can’t. In this mystery, Stacie uses quirky characters to explore a murder that no one else believes is a murder. She sets the story in her home region in upstate New York. She loves herself some adjectives, and she capitalizes on the gritty reality of all of our f’ed up lives.
2. Consent. As many of you know, I have been friends with William Prystauk for ages, and I recently edited his horror novel, The Hanging Girl. He sent me his fifth volume of the Kink Noir series, Consent, for some quality time with my metaphorical red pen. In this volume of the series, the relationship between Penny, Denny and Erin goes through some tumultuous periods of growth as Denny investigates some troubling assaults and murders against members of the BDSM/Kink community. This book looks at the question of whether or not people can truly offer consent and how far consent can go.
3. Dust and Decay. This is the second volume of Jonathan Maberry’s zombie YA series. Like the main characters, I just want to know where the damn plane came from. The first book, Rot and Ruin, introduced us to a post-apocalyptic universe where everyone turns into a zombie after death, where zombies roam the countryside like wild animals, and where technology has been eschewed. The first book is a philosophical and often violent grappling with a dystopian universe, and the second book follows a path many sequels do–repeating the same formula and pumping up even more than the first. That said, it was still a good book and I will be continuing with book three.
4. Behind Our Eyes 3: A Literary Sunburst. This is the third anthology of the Behind Our Eyes writers group for people with disabilities. What I love about this anthology is the diversity of voices, and the mix of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and even recipes that make this book something you can flip through by the fireplace or on a rainy day. The authors cross so many historical events, time periods and experiences that you can find insights that consider everything from the space program to being blind in a New York City blackout. Nancy Scott is one of the people who wrote about NASA.

My wisdom of the week, from a conversation with Bill Prystauk about marketing books and our careers as writers: “We all stumbling in the dark with our own little flashlights.”