Stitch’s Stuff: December 5th and 6th – Books 

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I’m smushing the 5th and 6th together so I don’t mess up my blogging goals for December too badly.


 

2017 was a really good year for me book wise.

As in I bought a lot of books.

I’m really good at sales.  I mean, if there’s a book I want on sale, chances are that I’ll find it. Couple that with our on-campus Barnes and Noble and the fact that I’ve made bargain bin diving a hobby and well… I’ve bought a bunch of books.

2017 was also the year that I started seriously preordering books in order to support my favorite writers.  I have minor memory issues so if you don’t remind me repeatedly to do something, I straight up won’t do it. I’ll think about it every once in a while, very fondly even, but my brain needs active reminders or… in the case of book pre-orders, it needs choice taken out of my hands.Read More »

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“Period Typical Racism” – One kind of historical accuracy in fiction that I wish would go away

Want to throw me out of a story in no time flat?

Include “Period Typical Racism” in a book written after 1989.

(Seriously, I read one Miss Fisher book because it was recommended as a “feminist James Bond” and honestly, I’d’ve preferred to read Fleming’s James Bond books because at least I can go into them knowing that the guy was a racist misogynist.)

The thing about looking at and reinventing older genres like Noir and Gothic fiction, is that you have a duty to reinvent, not rely, on harmful tropes. It’s your job as a writer writing in the twenty-first century to take our century into context. It’s your job to look at what was written years ago and go “no, I won’t do that”.

It’s your job to be better than the writers who were working in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Read More »

When Amazon gift cards attack

book splurgeA few weeks ago I won a $25 gift card through a program I’m running on my computer. It’s a little thing and not a big deal. I completely forgot about it though until yesterday afternoon when I got mail and there was my gift card.

$25 can buy a lot of books so it’s no wonder that I have spent the past 24 hours trying to figure out what books I was going to buy. Finally, I settled on four books that came up to $27 (including like tax and stuff). I’m a little over my gift card’s limit but essentially I’m getting four awesome books on someone else’s dime (and supporting authors I LOVE in the process!)

Here’s what I got with my hard earned gift card because these are all amazing books that everyone should read:


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