Authors, Kai Strand & LA Dragoni

It’s Friday! Time for my blog feature, Building Character in which you get to meet characters from a book. Talking to a character outside of their book is fun! Huge. Amounts. Of fun.  This week Strands of Thought plays host to Reece from Faery Marked. Reece, I reviewed your story earlier this week, but for the sake of this interview, let’s pretend I’m a clean slate. Why don’t you start by telling our readers a little about your swoony self. Hi, I’m Reece Michaels and I’m a Guardian. I know what you’re thinking. I’m some kind of bodyguard. And you’d be right. But, you’d also be wrong. See, a Guardian is a role, but it’s also a race of Fae. So, what do I do? Right now, I’m charged with watching Callie Rycroft to see if she is the chosen Champion. That means I hang with her as much as possible watching for a sign that she has magical powers. Definitely not the worst assignment I’ve ever had. You’re right, that doesn’t sound too tough. So, what kind of conflict are you up ...

The Story That Almost Wasn’t Guest Post by Mary Waibel marywaibel.blogspot.com All authors work in a different way. Some write and edit their own drafts. Some send weekly chapters to a critique partner (CP) to get feedback while drafting. Others write a draft, edit it, then send it out to either CP’s or beta readers for feedback. I’ve done a mix of all the above, but the thing that I’ve found most helpful is a group of CP’s who have different skill sets. Kai is one of my CP’s. We trade chapters on a weekly basis (or try to!) or sometimes send a complete draft to each other. When I send my work to Kai, I know she’s going to call me on places where I haven’t been true to my characters, places where she doesn’t understand what I’m saying, or can’t picture what I’m describing. These are all great things I need to know, as I can’t always see them myself. Another of my CP’s will point to areas lacking tension. Places to beef up the story so the reader has to keep turning the pages to get to ...

Oh my gosh! I think I might be as excited for this book release as the author Mary Waibel is. Okay, probably not, but I'm a very close second. Full disclosure: Mary is my critique partner and I've read this book many times while she sweated and toiled over the construction of it. Seriously, it has to say something about the quality of the story that I still LOVE it after having read it several times over. I'm so excited about Faery Marked's release I'm devoting my blog to Mary this week. Today - RELEASE DAY - I'm posting my review. As the week progresses, we will also have a guest post from Mary and a character interview. Please be sure to visit for those as well. And since you'll be buying the book and reading it immediately, update us on your reading progress as the week goes along! Congrats Mary Waibel on the release of FAERY MARKED. About the book: When Callie Rycroft wakes to find purple flames flickering on the ceiling, she believes she’s st...