Reader Rejectables: Happy Folks in Happy Land

This is actually a term I adapted from James Scott Bell. He explained in one of the classes I got to attend that stories can’t be about happy people in happy land. Folks is more a “Marji” term, but the point remains the same. And it looks a LOT like the picture here. In fact, the only story I’ve ever read that was about a happy little girl who got even happier was one “written” by my then 5-year-old daughter.

Review: Talon by Ronie Kendig

I’ve been evaluating things in books that I don’t like, so allow me to share a book I LOVED! Talon, by award winning novelist, Ronie Kendig is the middle book in her series about Military Working Dogs. But unlike some middle episodes in series (ahem*Star Wars*cough) this story grips the reader at the beginning and holds a powerful ending.

Reader Rejections: More Repetition

I was watching late night TV last night – Diagnosis Murder and Perry Mason – and I got to watch the same commercial over and over. Every time Valerie Bertinelli said, “Don’t turn that channel,” my girls would beg me to fast forward or switch to something else – even the Weather Channel.

Truth is, the day I posted last week’s article about Repetitive Writing, I put down a book that contained two new types of repetition. These warranted more discussion.