Terri Giuliano Long Guest Post: On Reading Habits and Reading as a Writer

I'm honored to have Terri Giuliano Long guest posting today!!  I asked her about her reading habits, what books she enjoys the most, what's on her nightstand and how she relates to reading as a writer.

Thank you so very much for hosting me, Sheryl! It’s an honor to be here today!
 As a child, I spent countless hours in my attic bedroom, reading. My mom once told me she’d worried about me when I was a child, because I spent so much time alone in my room. The truth was, I was always lost in a book. 
 That love of reading has stayed with me through adulthood.  Although my current schedule allows little free time, I read whenever I can. Last Christmas, my children gave me a Kindle. I love the look and feel of books, the weight and the smell. I didn’t think I’d like the Kindle, but it’s been a godsend. Instead of lugging 10 – 12 books in my suitcase whenever we travel, paying airline overweight fees, I carry my eReader.
 An eclectic reader, I’ll try almost any genre – though, I admit, I have yet to read Steampunk - and I’ll give any book a shot, if the blurb catches my eye. I enjoy books that offer insight into our lives and daily struggles. The short story writer Andre Dubus is a favorite. I memorized the end of “A Father’s Story,” his masterful story about a father and daughter, for a graduate class; years later, I still hear the rhythm and cadence of his language. Jessica Treadway, winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction for her latest collection, Please Come Back To Me, also writes gorgeous, evocative stories. 
 Susan Straight’s elegant novel A Million Nightingales, another favorite, tells the moving story of a beautiful young slave girl in nineteenth century Louisiana. Sold upriver, Moinette is repeatedly assaulted and must rely on her intelligence to survive. This powerful story stayed with me long after I’d finished reading. All three authors, I feel, are grossly underappreciated. 
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy is my all-time favorite, the book I’d take to a desert island. This powerful novel transports us to a gray post-apocalyptic world, where humans have been reduced to animal instinct--for inhabitants of this new world, murder and cannibalism are a means of survival. Within this harsh environment, McCarthy gives us a tender, elegantly rendered father and son. This dark story ends with the promise of renewal and hope. 

I also adore Stephen King. I love Chick Lit, 40s Noir, and murder mysteries. My guilty pleasure: the Shopoholic series, which my daughter Elizabeth convinced me to read. And I just devour thrillers and police procedurals. 
 For the last year, my husband and I have divided our time between the East and West Coasts; with all the travelling, my schedule has been hectic. The time crunch limited my reading, so I’ve focused on the amazing work of my indie author friends – Susan Salluce, Rachel Thompson, Amber Scott, Shelli Johnson, Ann Charles, David Brown, Michael Burns, Tess Hardwick, Emlyn Chand, Christine Nolfi, Rob Guthrie, Melissa Foster, Cynthia Harrison, and others. Margot Livesey, another brilliant writer, was one of my grad school professors. Her new novel, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, tops my Kindle list.
 Reading as a Writer
 In grad school, reading Saint Maybe, I fell in love with Anne Tyler. I read Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Breathing Lessons, The Accidental Tourist, Ladder of Years, and then went backward and read most of her earlier books.  
Reading Anne Tyler’s early work inspired me – because I didn’t care for all the books. I never finished If Morning Ever Comes, her first novel. Please don’t get me wrong: Anne Tyler is a brilliant writer. Still, there is a clear progression from her earlier to her later work, when she won the National Book Critic’s Circle Award (The Accidental Tourist) and the Pulitzer Prize (Breathing Lessons). 
 Throughout school, I’d read only “big” books; on my own, I read top literary novelists, such as Anne Tyler. The books intimidated me. Although I worked - and continue to work - hard at developing my craft, I couldn’t imagine coming close to Anne Tyler or John Updike or Margaret Atwood. Reading If Morning Ever Comes, seeing the early efforts of a master, gave me hope. 
 Today as a writing teacher, I remind my students that we start somewhere. My shelves are lined with books on craft. My favorites include: On Writing, Stephen King, What If? Ann Bernays and Pamela Painter, Writing Fiction, Janet Burroway, and The Art and Craft of Novel Writing, Oakley Hall. For inspiration, I reread Barbara Ueland’s wonderful book If You Want to Write. 
 For writers, reading is our most important tool. Reading, we learn to use language and internalize the various aspects of style and voice. Reading also helps us to hone our craft. To solve a problem in my writing, I always turn to a book. I’ll read or reread a passage, analyze the technique the writer used, and incorporate it or, more often, adjust it to suit my story. 
 Reading entertains me, takes me on a journey, and carries me to new worlds. Reading helps me understand life, gives me an escape, and teaches me to write. I owe my passion for writing to my lifelong habit of reading. 

Author Bio

Terri Giuliano Long is a frequent blog guest. A contributing writer for IndieReader, she’s written for news and feature articles for numerous publications, including IndieReader, the Boston Globe and the Huffington Post. She lives with her family on the East Coast and teaches at Boston College. In Leah's Wake is her debut novel. For more information, please visit her website: www.tglong.com
 
Connect with Terri!  
 
Website: www.tglong.comBlog: http://terriglong.com/blog/Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tglongwritesTwitter: @tglong 

Her first novel is Leah's Wake.

Bared to You - A Crossfire Novel by Sylvia Day

 

 

Review Copy provided by NetgalleyWow. I am not even sure what to say about this book. I am a fan of Sylvia Day and have read quite a few of her books. While they are always pretty steamy, this one punches steamy in the face and then kicks it a few times for good measure. This story had my mouth dropped open in shock from almost the second I opened my book and me looking anxiously around to see if anyone was peering at my e-reader (I read this at the airport and on the plane).

Synopsis of Bared to You

 Our journey began in fire...

Gideon Cross came into my life like lightning in the darkness-beautiful and brilliant, jagged and white-hot. I was drawn to him as I'd never been to anything or anyone in my life. I craved his touch like a drug, even knowing it would weaken me. I was flawed and damaged, and he opened those cracks in me so easily...

Gideon knew. He had demons of his own. And we would become the mirrors that reflected each other's most private wounds... and desires.

The bonds of his love transformed me, even as I prayed that the torment of our pasts didn't tear us apart...

I have never read another book like this, most likely because erotica is not a genre that I enjoy. However, I didn’t quite realize this was part of the erotica genre until I was completely swept up in the book.

Both of these characters are extremely flawed. So flawed that most people probably would be in the loony bin drooling type of flawed. I was at turns appalled and sickened by Eva and Gideon yet Day didn’t lose me because she also made the characters extremely vulnerable.

Both Gideon and Eva had terrible things happen to them in their childhood and it makes them completely screwed up adults. While they were functioning and working, they also struggled internally with serious emotional conflict.

Putting them together was like throwing water into a boiling pan of grease. They are terrible for each other, yet, exactly right. A normal woman would run screaming away from someone like Gideon. He’s controlling, overbearing and tips right over the border of concerned right into stalker territory. Some of the things he did to Eva were crazy. Like crazy does not pass go and heads straight into jail type of crazy.

Eva is irrationally jealous and insecure. Together, they are a volatile combination of emotion and smoking hot sex.

I have to be honest with the readers of this blog. This book will not appeal to everyone. After I finished it, I had an overwhelming need for a shower and a sandpaper scrub. However, you cannot deny the magical writing fingers of Sylvia Day. She has created a completely original cast of characters who are so screwed up that you end up rooting for them in the end. This book is unlike anything I have ever read before. I don’t believe I’ll pick up the second, only because I was so disturbed by the first. I can guarantee, though, that I will never forget the characters of Gideon Cross and Eva.

Overall Rating -

   



One to skip - Strange Neighbors by Ashlyn Chase

 

  He's looking for peace, quiet, and a little romance...

There's never a dull moment when hunky all-star pitcher and shapeshifter Jason Falco invests in an old Boston brownstone apartment building full of supernatural creatures. But when Merry MacKenzie moves into the ground floor apartment, the playboy pitcher decides he might just be done playing the field...A girl just wants to have fun...

Sexy Jason seems like the perfect fling, but newly independent nurse Merry's not sure she's ready to trust him with her heart...especially when the tabloids start trumpeting his playboy lifestyle.Then pandemonium breaks loose and Merry and Jason will never get it together without a little help from the vampire who lives in the basement and the werewolf from upstairs... 

I was lured into this book because I am an unabashed cover whore. How cute is this cover??? Alas, it does not live up to its promise. This is one to skip, folks. While I was at Romantic Times, I kept seeing an easel with the covers of the books in this series and me being an ooohhhhh shiny person, I had to have it immediately. I purchased it at the book fair, got about 79 pages into it and threw it down in disgust.

It's just really...weird. It promises a lighthearted romantic romp but the main characters have the libido of teenagers and the dialogue to match it. The sex scenes are weird and oddly pornographic for a novel like this. As soon as I read the possibility of her "sitting" on his face and him mistaking it for "sh*tting" I was done. Every character in this book is oddly flat and 79 pages into it we still don't know what everyone is only that they may be afflicted with something or they're oddly pale. I recommend skipping this series. Since I didn't finish the books and have no plans to pick up another in this series, I am not rating it. If you want to check it out, head to the library.

     

Book Trailer, Synopsis and Excerpt of YA Paranormal Romance - Taste

Coming soon from Crescent Moon Press and the lovely Kate Evangelista, a new YA paranormal romance entitled, Taste

Synopsis of Taste:

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
ISBN: TBD
Length: Novel
Publication Date: May 2012
Cover art by: Liliana Sanches
Published by: Crescent Moon Press


At Barinkoff Academy, there's only one rule: no students on campus after curfew. Phoenix McKay soon finds out why when she is left behind at sunset. A group calling themselves night students threaten to taste her flesh until she is saved by a mysterious, alluring boy. With his pale skin, dark eyes, and mesmerizing voice, Demitri is both irresistible and impenetrable. He warns her to stay away from his dangerous world of flesh eaters. Unfortunately, the gorgeous and playful Luka has other plans.

When Phoenix is caught between her physical and her emotional attraction, she becomes the keeper of a deadly secret that will rock the foundations of an ancient civilization living beneath Barinkoff Academy. Phoenix doesn’t realize until it is too late that the closer she gets to both Demitri and Luka the more she is plunging them all into a centuries old feud





Taste Excerpt

I mentally stomped on the intimidation their perfection brought into my mind and said, “Excuse me.”
The group froze, startled by my words. The girls had their brows raised and the boys stopped mid-speech, mouths agape. They stared at me with eyes the shade of onyx stones.
I smiled and gave them a little wave.
The boy a step ahead of the rest recovered first. His stunning features went from shocked surprise to intense interest. He reminded me of a hawk eyeing its prey. I gulped.
“A Day Student,” he said, his eyes insolent and excited.
Something about the way he said “Day Student” made my stomach flip. “Excuse me?”
They snickered. The boys looked at each other while the girls continued to stare, muffling their laughter by delicate hands. I seemed to be the butt of some joke.
“You broke the rule.” The boy’s grin turned predatory.
The students formed a loose semi-circle in front of me. My gaze darted from face to face. Hunger filled their eyes. The image of lions about to chase down a gazelle came to mind. I mentally shook my head. I was in the mountains not the Serengeti for crying out loud.
I took a small step back and cleared my throat. “Can any of you give me a ride back to the dorms?”
The boy wagged his forefinger like a metronome. “Ah, that’s unfortunate for you.”
One of the girls pinched the bridge of her nose. “Eli, you can’t possibly—”
“It’s forbidden, Eli,” another boy interrupted, pronouncing the word “forbidden” like a curse.
The nervous murmur at the pit of my stomach grew louder. Six against one. Not good odds. Instinct told me to cut my losses and run. Bad enough I faced expulsion, now it seemed like weird, beautiful people who’d suddenly appeared on campus wanted to beat me up. No, scratch that. Judging from the way they studied me, beating me up wouldn’t satisfy them. Something more primal prowled behind their looks.
I definitely wasn’t going down without a fight. Years of self-defense and hand-to-hand combat classes had me prepared. While other children from rich and important families got bodyguards, I got defense training. But I think my father meant for my skills to go up against potential kidnappers, not against other students who may or may not be crazy. Oh God! Maybe I stepped into a parallel universe or something when I reentered Barinkoff.
“None of the students are supposed to be on campus,” I said. Then, realizing my mistake, I added, “Okay, I know I’m not supposed to be here either. If one of you gives me a ride back to the dorms, I won’t say anything about all this. Let’s pretend this never happened. I didn’t see you, you didn’t see me.”
“We’re not ordinary students,” Eli answered. “We’re the Night Students.”
He’d said “Night Students” like the words were capitalized. I didn’t know Barinkoff held classes at night. What was going on here?
Eli smiled with just one side of his mouth and said to the group, “She’s right, no one will have to know. We’re the only ones here. And it’s been so long, don’t you agree?”
The rest of them nodded reluctantly.
“What’s been so long?” I challenged. I fisted my hands, ready to put them up if any of them so much as twitched my way.
“Since the taste of real flesh passed through my lips,” Eli said. He came forward and took a whiff of me then laughed when I cringed.
“Flesh.” Yep, parallel universe.
“Yes,” he said. “And yours smells so fresh.”
Someone grabbed my shoulders from behind and yanked me back before I could wrap my mind around the meaning behind Eli’s words. In a blink, I found myself behind someone tall. Someone really tall. And quite broad. And very male.
I realized he wore the same clothes Eli and the other boys did. Not good. He was one of them. Although… I cocked my head, raking my gaze over him. He seemed born to wear the uniform, like he was the pattern everyone else was cut from. My eyes wandered to long, layered, blue-black hair tied at the nape by a silk ribbon. Even in dim light, his hair possessed a sheen akin to mercury.
I looked down. The boy’s long fingers were wrapped around my wrist like a cuff. His fevered touch felt hotter than human standards, hot enough to make me sweat like I was standing beside a radiator but not hot enough to burn.
“I must be mistaken, Eli,” the boy who held my arm said in a monotone. “Correct me. Did I hear you say you wanted to taste the flesh of this girl?”
A hush descended on us. It had the hairs at the back of my neck rising. How was it possible for the atmosphere to switch from threatening to dangerous? Unable to help myself, I peeked around the new guy’s bulk. Eli and his friends bowed. They all had their right hands on their chests.
“Demitri, I’m sure you misheard me,” Eli said.
So the guy standing between me and the person who said he’d wanted to taste me was named Demitri. I like the sound of his name. Demitri. So strong, yet rolls off the tongue. Definite yum factor.
“So, you imply I made a mistake?” Demitri demanded.
“No!” Eli lifted his gaze. “I did no such thing. I simply wanted to show the girl the consequences of breaking curfew.”
“Hey!” I yelled. “Don’t talk about me like I’m not here!”
Demitri ignored my protest and continued to address Eli. “So, you threatened to taste her flesh.” His fingers tightened their grip around my wrist. “In the interest of investigating this matter further, I invoke the Silence.”
All six students gasped, passing surprised glances at one another.
Before I could ask about what was going on, Demitri yanked me down the hall toward the library. But why there? Oh, maybe we were getting my things. No, wait, he couldn’t have known about that. Everything was too confusing now.
Eli and the others didn’t try to stop us when we passed them. Demitri’s cold command must have carried power. Handsome and powerful, never a bad combination on a guy.
We reached the heavy double doors in seconds. He jerked one open effortlessly. I’d needed all my strength just to squeeze through that same door earlier. To him, the thick wood might as well have been cardboard. I raised an eyebrow and mentally listed the benefits of going to gym class.
“Why are we here?” I asked after my curiosity overpowered my worry. I’d almost forgotten how frightened I’d been right before Demitri showed up. I wasn’t above accepting help from strangers. Especially from gorgeous dark-haired strangers with hot hands and wide shoulders.
Demitri kept going, tugging me along, snaking his way deeper into the library. I had to take two steps for every stride his legs made. I tried to stay directly behind him, praying we didn’t slam into anything.
He stopped suddenly and I collided with him. It felt like slamming into a wall.
“Hey,” I said, momentarily stunned. “A little warning would be nice!”
He faced me, and I gasped. His eyes resembled a starless night, deep and endless. Their intensity drilled through me without pity, seeming to expose all my secrets. I felt naked and flustered beneath his gaze.
“You could have died back there,” he warned.
A lump of panic rebuilt itself in my throat.


Author Kate Evangelista

www.kateevangelista.com

     

Let Them Eat Stake by Sarah Zettel Review

Thanks for being so patient everyone! I had a surgery a few weeks back that completely kicked my butt! I'm a little behind on posting blogs but the good news is, once I get back from the Romantic Times Convention, I will be posting at least 3-4 times a week! I had just started a new job around the time this blog was just a couple of months old so my posting suffered a bit while I got the hang of the new gig. Now...on to the review!

 

This is the second book in the Vampire Chef Mysteries. I picked the first book up in this series just because I liked the cover. I admit it…I can be a complete cover ho. I thought it was initially a little bit kitschy, a little silly and I didn’t really believe that the books would be terribly entertaining. I thought the premise was a little weird (a chef who’s not a vampire, catering to humans and vampire clients) but creative so I was sold.

Man. I have to say, I absolutely loved the first and second book in this series! This author’s writing is high caliber and strong. I found myself swept up in this story and with the characters in this book. I was actually very surprised with how good these books were. The synopsis follows:

It’s a dream for a “Vampire Chef”-cater the high-profile wedding of a 200-year-old vampire and a wealthy witch. So why did celebrity chef Oscar Simmons walk away from this gig? Charlotte agrees to take his place, even though she knows this event, thrown by power-hungry vampires and witches, could make (or break) her career, her restaurant, and her life. But when Simmons turns up dead, the groom’s family starts vanishing, and the police start asking pointed questions, Charlotte fears she may have picked the wrong wedding to stake her reputation on.

The books follow Charlotte Caine, a human chef who cooks for humans and vampires. However, she’s also an amateur sleuth, although she’d probably be mortified to be called that. She gets mixed up with witches, warlocks and vampires and finds herself in several dangerous situations.

I highly recommend this series! The dialogue in this book is snappy and witty. Her characters are amazing. She can make you love them or hate them in a heartbeat. Charlotte, the protagonist, is not always likeable but she’s human so you find yourself commiserating with her much of the time. Plus…she’s a chef. They’re always a little more neurotic than the average Joe.

If you like cozy mysteries and food, I highly recommend this series. It’s an enjoyable and sometimes laugh out loud read. Start with the first book so you can see Charlotte’s history with the handsome warlock, Brendan, and enigmatic vampire, Anatole.

Purchase here

Overall Rating -