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Tag: mystery

Part of the Blog tour, a book review of Foreign Identity!

Hello folks.  Today I am bringing you a review of a new book that has just been released.  For those who have been around a while, you may have heard me talk about a little site called the Creative Copy Challenge.  Well, it was through participation in the weekly challenges that this book, Foreign Identity, was spawned.

I was writing away with my own story (that really should be a book too if I wasn’t so lazy about it) when I started reading the other submissions.  One that caught me up in the story was Foreign Identity by Becca Campbell.  I got caught up in the story and became internet friends with Becca and was more than a little bummed when life got in the way and she didn’t finish the story.

Little did I know then, that she was working hard to make this story a novel.  And it is good.  Becca sent me a review copy of Foreign Identity (for free FTC, I know you are listening) and asked me to read it.  I was excited to really find out what happened to the main characters, Jax and Kel.  But more about that in a minute.

I don’t think that anyone knows (becasue I have never told anyone) that I actually cut and copied the entries from the CCC into a Word file so that I could either read it again or just finish what I missed.  At the last count in Word, Foreign Identity was 36,700 words long.  Not too shabby, but not a novel.  Now it is fleshed out and it is fun to see wha thas been added and what finishes the story.

Now for the review.  The book, I loved it.  The marketing and publishing through The Consortium (Oklahoma City based with some other people you have heard me talk about, Aaron Pogue, Courtney Cantrell, (I love to be able to actually name drop)) is just independent genius.  It gives me hope for my novels if I ever get them finished.

Ok, the book.

Continue reading

Another Book Review: Not the Norm

 

Ok so I am not turning this site into a literary review site but my friend Becca Campbell had another story sitting around and she let me read it.  I have to think somewhere in my head that it is her way of trying to get me to finish some of my stuff and get it out there.  I do have Death With A Vengeance on Amazon.

Death With A Vengeance

Anyway I sat down knowing that “Not the Norm” was a short story but I didn’t expect to finish it in one sitting.  That said, I was disappointed that it was that short.  I liked the story, the initial set up was intriguing and then act one ended.  Act two had a really good action scene that ended satisfactorily but then the story was over!

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Now I like short fiction.  I like to write short stories.  I felt that this story was a bit too short.  There is so much more in this world that Becca has imagined that this story seemed like the trailer to the blockbuster coming next summer.  I would like to know more about the backgrounds of the society where this is set, and then what happens afterward; they can’t just go quietly into the night, they just can’t.

So now comes the part where you decide to go to Amazon or Barnes and Noble or Goodreads (Links coming as they go live) and buy this book.  Go and buy it.  It is a good little read that gives you a good taste of Becca’s mind and storytelling ability.  I really like how she handles the interpersonal relationships in her stories and makes the people seem so real.  Most of my stories only have the hero and the dead guys.  Even when I have a person relationship they die rather quickly.  Becca is really good at keeping people alive and together.

Check out my review of her book Foreign Identity(link is below) for more and go to Amazon or Barnes and Noble to buy it!

Foreign Identity

Later, Justin