Guest Post - Suzanne de Montigny

A loud, hissing sound filled the air. The unicorns looked up, their eyes filled with horror.

Azaria, a unicorn colt, is intrigued when the young clairvoyant dinosaur, Darius, foresees a terrifying change in the world. When a giant fireball smashes into the earth, the unicorns struggle to survive the hurricanes and starvation that follow. Danger of a more sinister nature threatens when the creatures-that-walk-on-two-legs settle in the valley and their leader, Ishmael, discovers the healing power of the unicorns’ horns. Azaria, now a young stallion, must use his wits to save the herd from complete extinction.

A Reader or a writer, which would you rather be?
by Suzanne de Montigny
A reader or a writer? Both. I feel that by reading other writers’ works, I learn a lot about writing. There are some writers that blow me away with the beauty of their words, and then there are others who teach me what not to do. Things like:

Don’t overwrite. Sometimes writers get carried away and have a need to explain something important to them in several different ways. For example: “It changed my life forever. It would surely make me think first from now on. It would make a difference in the world.” Snore. “It changed my life forever was more than enough.”

Don’t tell. Some writers tell us everything their character feels instead of showing us. For example: “She was shocked.” No, no! Make her muscles tighten, or jaw drop, or something.

Don’t use too many words For example, take the line: She now understood why Mom told her to keep away from Mr. Joans. (Right after Mr. Jones gave her heck for walking on his lawn.) Inexperienced authors will add on, “Mr. Jones was a mean man who yelled at everyone. So why should she try to talk to him? It didn’t make sense since he was as mean as a junkyard dog.” See what I’m getting at? We, the readers, can figure it out by ourselves. We don’t need the author to elaborate so much.

But as far as writing goes, I oftentimes tell people, writing is like reading a really good book except that you’re writing it. I write off the top of my head and my characters take on a life of their own and start doing things I never planned on. And I just follow along and see where they’ll lead me. It’s quite fascinating.

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Genre – Middle Grade Fantasy

Rating – G

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Website http://www.suzannedemontigny.com/

Review - A Trace of Moonlight by Allison Pang

A Trace of Moonlight by Allison Pang
Released: October 30, 2012
Publisher: Pocket Books
Age Group: Adult
Pages: 400 pages
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5

Abby’s pact with a daemon—whether or not she remembers making it—is binding, so she’d better count herself lucky that (in the words of a daemon who knows better) there’s nearly always a loophole. But her friends’ reckless attempts to free her, well intentioned though they may be, set off a disastrous chain of events. In no time at all, Abby turns her incubus lover mortal, then gets herself killed, cursed, and married to an elven prince whose mother wants her dead. On top of everything else, she’s lost the Key to the CrossRoads to her mortal enemy, who promptly uses his restored power to wreak havoc on the OtherWorld and put its very existence in jeopardy. Only one person can make things right again, but to find her, Abby must place her trust in allies of mixed loyalties, and conquer her nightmares once and for all.

I really LOVE this series so much! Phineas is my hero! A Trace of Moonlight opens with Abby having no memories in Faerie but moves quickly and regains her memory and the action takes off from there. Without going into alot of detail an all out war breaks out when the Eildon Tree on the Crossroads is set on fire because it sort of kept peace amongst all the different creatures with it's hidden magic. Now sworn enemies must join forces to find the one person who they think may can save the tree and the future of the Crossroads but will they be in time? I'll never tell! LOL

The love triangle between Abby, Ion, and Talivar is a bit disturbing but I guess it's necassary to the story. I just dislike Abby having sex with both men and acting like it's supposed to be okay with everybody. Maybe she does really love both men even if in different ways and they obviously both love her even if they do have their own separate agendas but I still think she needs to choose one or the other and not keep stringing them both along. Heck I say dump um both! Who needs them when she has Phin for crying out loud? LOL