The Winter of the Witch

By Katherine Arden:

Following their adventures in The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower, Vasya and Morozko return in this stunning conclusion to the powerful bestselling Winternight Trilogy, battling enemies mortal and magical to save both Russias, the seen and the unseen. Moscow has been struck by disaster. Its people are searching for answers—and someone to blame. Ellen says “One of the things I think sets this trilogy apart from other fantasy series, is that each book has its own identity. I didn’t feel like I was reading the same book three times. The three books definitely go together, but enough changes in the plot, characters, and tone from book to book keep them interesting and distinct. Recommend highly for fans of Laini Taylor, Naomi Novik, Rachel Hartman, and maybe even Game of Thrones.” Don’t miss Katherine Arden at BookPeople

An Interview with Judy Rumsey Bullard, Book Cover Designer!

I am interviewing today a very talented Book Cover Designer, Judy Rumsey Bullard, customebookcovers@cox.net. She has designed all of my book covers and I love each and everyone of them. Don’t miss 6 of her great designs at the end of this interview! It is my pleasure to introduce to you, Judy Rumsey Bullard, a book cover designer extraordinaire!

Judy, please tell us where you are from originally and a little about yourself.

I was born in Oregon but only lived there for my first two years.  My parents then moved to California where I’ve lived for most of my life.  My husband and I were married while he was in the Navy on the aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise.  I was a stay at home Mom while raising our two sons who are now married.  For most of our…

I mentioned a little over a week ago that I was beginning a new series on libraries and bookstores of the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, and I am finally making the first entry in that series. My beginning piece will feature the beautiful Linderman Library of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA.

Linderman Library is the humanities library, and it is my favorite place on campus. I earned my M.A. and Ph.D. in English Literature at Lehigh University, and this extraordinary abode of books is a comforting and inspiring place to work. I have spent many hours doing research and writing in this safe haven for book people.

Linderman Library has many places to work, including a long reading room, which feels like something out of Hogwarts from the Harry Potter books, many nooks with desks, and one of the best features of the library–the rotunda. Several levels of books fill…

An excerpt from: Paul Goat Allen | March 12, 2018, Writer’s Digest. Paul Goat Allen has worked as a genre fiction book critic and written thousands of reviews for companies like BarnesandNoble.com, Publishers Weekly, the Chicago Tribune and Kirkus Reviews.

Novelists live and die by reviews yet uncovering what garners a gushing ovation or blistering takedown is often a mystery. A professional critic lays out what it takes to earn five-star book reviews. For two decades I’d been working as a freelance genre fiction book critic for outlets such as BarnesandNoble.com, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews and the Chicago Tribune. After sharing my credentials with the group, some of the writers began telling stories about mediocre or bad reviews they’d received at different points in their careers from one or more of the companies I’d listed.

As a reviewer, not much has changed since then. I enjoy all genres and have…

Over the past few years, there have been some disturbing trends in the functioning of our government. The Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case opened up campaign financing to unlimited large sums of “dark money” via anonymous contributors to political action committees that are supposedly not aligned with any individual candidate’s campaign. Corporations are deemed to have the rights of people and money deemed speech protected by the First Amendment. Rather than “one person, one vote” politics have become more a case of “one dollar, one vote”, as corporations and the wealthy are now much more able to make their voices heard during the campaign season. All previous attempts at reigning in campaign spending have been rendered meaningless and now often the amount of money a person can spend or raise becomes more significant than the ideas and policy positions individual candidates seek to bring forth.

More and…