Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Annual Short Story Collection Round-up

New York Fantastic: Fantasy Stories from the City that Never Sleeps by Paula Guran & Others

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Because I’d never ask my students to do something I wouldn’t do, and also because NK Jemisin highly suggests reading short stories to get better at writing long stories, I try to read a short story collection every year. For whatever reason, no matter how good the writing is, short story collections take me EONS to finish, and New York Fantastic was no exception. With twenty stories by different speculative authors, New York Fantastic offers a wide variety of story types and a nice selection of award […]

Cynical realists need not read further

Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle

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This book made me feel old.  Plot: Maybell has been tossed around all her life. From a precarious childhood to an adulthood where she disappears into the shadows, she’s never really been able to find a home. Then her great-aunt, a woman she hasn’t seen or spoken to in 20 years, passes away, leaving her a mansion that she once spent a summer at. One hiccup, she’s actually left her half the estate – the other half going to her landscaper and personal assistant Wesley. Both […]

We need a science fiction equivalent to high/low fantasy

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

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I’ve long thought that a story following the normal life of someone during a really pivotal time in history would be quite interesting. I’ve absolutely adored Derry Girls’ approach of regular people living a regular life while mayhem is sort of sprinkled into their lives. Never Let Me Go is an altogether different take on the idea, the softest touch of science fiction. Plot: Ruth, Tommy and Kathy are students at a British prep school. What are they being prepped for? Not anything we expect […]

“You don’t have to put red in your ledger every time someone comes to your aid.”

A Duke in Disguise by Cat Sebastian

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Cat Sebastian is a pillar in historical romance and for good reason. Sebastian writes deeply sympathetic characters and makes even fantastical plot points feel grounded and real. Plot: Ash was an orphan sold to an engraver as an apprentice as a young teen and Verity’s father ran a newspaper. Upon meeting, they (and Verity’s brother Nate) became close as siblings and have lived in each other’s pockets for the better part of a decade. This is complicated by the fact that Ash has been in […]

You Get What You Pay For

Deepening Fiction – A Practical Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Writers by Sarah Stone and Ron Nyren

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I’ve probably read a dozen DIY books on writing this year and some of them have been truly exceptional, but Deeping Fiction isn’t one of them. It’s a textbook, a stogy, thick, and difficult to read textbook. I’m sure the class it’s intended for found it very informative, but the layout doesn’t work so well for self-paced reading. Each chapter deals with a familiar subject in writing. For example, the chapter on Style and Dialogue contains subchapters on The Writer’s Style, Word Choice, Tone and […]

More superheroine action and romance!

Heroine Worship by Sarah Kuhn

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CBR 13 Bingo: Rec’d – I’m reading this series because of teresaelectro’s recommendation! Heroine Worship is the second book in Sarah Kuhn’s “Heroine Complex” series.  In the first volume, Heroine Complex  Evie Tanaka is a restrained, quiet assistant and best friend of super heroine, Aveda Jupiter, with a secret, she’s been hiding her own fire superpower.  This time around, Aveda is the narrator and the story picks up about three months after the events in the first novel.  It is discovered that a minor demon is […]



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