Sorchia's Universe

I grew up on a farm about ten miles from town. No phone and limited TV reception. BUT we had shelves and shelves of books. My mom and my sister read to me until I was able to read on my own. Since then, reading is my reward to myself at the end of a busy day or on long summer weekends. As a writer, I know how important the accumulation of reviews is–and how nice it is to see a good review. Many people have been generous and kind by writing reviews for me and it’s time I reciprocate. Below are my reviews for May. I use Amazon and NetGalley’s 5-star scale and probably won’t review a book I can’t give at least 3 stars. To me a 3 means the story has problems, but is interesting enough to read (My teacher-brain kicks in when I write 3s and I give a lot of advice which may or may not be useful); a 4 usually means the story is interesting but something distracting keeps it from being perfect, and a 5 means my head nearly exploded with how good this book is. Something about the story will ling

Tiger’s Last Chance author builds a wonderful world where rabbits shift into terrifying, toothy monsters!! Read all about Christina Lynn Lambert’s shifter world and her latest release: Tiger’s Last Chance . Scary Rabbits and Other Strange Creatures by Christina Lynn Lambert When I was writing my first book a few years ago, my oldest daughter who was about ten at the time, was reading Bunnicula by James and Deborah Howe. She loved the Bunnicula books so much that she asked me to write a scary rabbit into my series. So, for my daughter, I created the rabbit shifters which are viewed by the other shapeshifters with a mix of awe and fear. The rabbit shifters can appear as harmless rabbits but they can also morph into bony fur-covered skeleton looking creatures with teeth like a bear trap and fur full of projectile needles. Though the rabbit shifters look scary, they’re usually pretty decent people. They don’t like to be touched by anyone while in rabbit form and won’t hesitate to get mean

A witch–a PI–and plenty of noir! Read about the genesis of The Raven Tales by J. B. Dane in this week’s Novel Magic.  About Marked Raven–Book 2 of The Raven Tales by J. B. Dane As this is the second book in the series, let me fill in a few blanks. Way back in the late 1980s (you know, the Jurassic Age before home computers were common), a character walked into my muse’s office. It’s situated in my head, naturally. He said he was fictional and that he’d gotten yanked out of a book into the real world. My muse told him to take a seat. As I was deep into spinning romantic comedy and historical romance and still unpublished, he ended up sitting there for decades. Probably read all the magazines more than once from cover to cover. Then the 21 st century struck. I’d now been published for over a decade and had recently suffered through a bout of clinical depression where I couldn’t think my way out of a paper bag. The doctor told me that was because clinical depression shuts down the part o

Novel magic features Rise of a Storm Warrior by M. Garnet. See Murial’s recent post– How to be an Author . Hey, and while you are browsing posts, check out my latest– Dialogue Tags from Hell in which I rant about a minor annoyance to the point of absurdity. Maybe it’s a sign of a return to a semblance of normality when I have time to gripe about editorial stuff instead of–you know–the Apocalypse and the End of Times. Below, you will find a Fantasy Freebie I like to call the WitchFest. A bunch of on sale or totally free witchy books–but snap it up because this offer ends on June 15. Did you want more–OK. Check out N.N. Lights May Giveaway–many, many books to win. This giveaway ends May 30. Rise of the Storm Warrior by M. Garnet One thing is always a fact about the rich world known as the Storm Planet, life is never boring. A new Warrior rises up to help a Royal Lady, stop a war, and save a small child. He is a lazy young man who is forced into greatness. All he wants to do is live off

I’m venting today about obtrusive dialogue tags. But first—a story: Back in the day when I taught the King’s English to the masses, I worked at a small school in deepest, darkest southern Missouri. The native language of the area is a combination of Scotch-Irish Appalachian, a little Elizabethan, and a smattering of modern slang and inventive metaphors and is known as the Ozarkian dialect. I grew up in the area but my folks were from ‘away’, so I speak two languages—English and Ozark. The two are not always interchangeable. If you want to talk to locals and get anything done, you better sound like they do.  If you want to get gainful employment outside of the area…well, there’s no accounting for people’s prejudices, but an Ozarks accent tends to give other people delusions of grandeur. For a Tale within a Tale, go HERE . Anyway, one of my favorite kids—a large, young man of the redneck persuasion—got suspended. I ran into him in the hallway and asked about the incident, hoping to provi

People have been reporting ghostly phenomena for centuries–millennia, even–but are these reports the results of bad digestion or good whisky? OR is there something out there? Author Randy Overbeck provides context for the debate along with info about his Haunted Shores Mystery series. Meet Randy and grab your own copies of his books–if you DARE. Don’t forget to enter the May Giveaway. Do You Believe? by Randy Overbeck “Do you really believe it ghosts?”             During my author talks and book signings for my new ghost story/mystery, BLOOD ON THE CHEASAPEAKE—at least, before the pandemic—this is the most common question I’d receive from participants, sometimes offered with an inflection that conveyed the speakers’ incredulity. It was almost as if the person were saying, “Only children and idiots believe in ghosts.”    The short answer to that question is yes, but I prefer Shakespeare’s eloquence, “There is more to heaven and earth, Horatio, than is dreamt of in your philosoph

We are off to Yorkshire with Helen Johannes, author of Novel Magic Featured book–Bloodstone. Follow Helen and her students as they encounter an unexpected guest in one of England’s most haunted cities. Then read a tempting excerpt from Bloodstone and grab a copy. Be sure to enter N.N. Light’s May Giveaway at the end. A Yorkshire Ghost Walk by Helen Johannes My heritage is Germanic, which I can trace back to the mid-1800s, but I strongly suspect it goes deeper into those Teutonic woods, back to those Druidic and Celtic types who sank their roots into European culture. I have a distinct affinity for broken down castles and ruined churches, especially those with Celtic crosses in the cemeteries, like Rock of Cashel in Ireland. Places like the ruined St. Mary’s Abbey in York, England, pictured at twilight on my blog site.  York, formerly Yorvik, before that Eboracum, is one of the most haunted places in England, a place I’ve visited several times with students in my former life as an Engl