Tis the season for holiday sales, so the Kindle version of Enoch’s Device is on sale for the next four days. If you’ve read the novel and enjoyed it, now is a perfect time to tell a friend! Here’s what the book is about: Nearly a thousand years after the birth of Christ, when all Europe fears that the…
Today, Fresh-scraped Vellum is one of the final stops on the blog tour for Written in the Ashes, a wonderful historical fantasy by author K. Hollan Van Zandt. It’s published by Harper Collins and available here. I was also lucky enough to interview Ms. Van Zandt, and that interview follows my review of the novel….
I recently finished Dead Man’s Reach by D.B. Jackson, the fourth book in his Thieftaker series. The book turned out to be another excellent installment in Jackson’s historical fantasy tale set in Colonial Boston. Here’s my review. Dead Man’s Reach presents another mystery for Ethan Kaille, a thieftaker whose job involves hunting down thieves and…
Isn’t this Throwback Thursday? In honor of this fairly recent tradition, I’m re-posting my 2012 review of one of the greatest works of epic fiction I’ve read in a long, long time . . . For several years now, I’ve been interested in medieval Spain, and about a quarter of my first novel takes place in…
At the same time HBO was giving us the best season of Game of Thrones, Starz was airing the second season of Outlander, based on Diana Gabaldon’s best-selling time travel novels set in 18th century Scotland. Both are fantastic shows, and it’s too bad they have to air around the same time, leaving us in a…
These days, it’s quite rare when I agree to do a book review. The problem is time. There’s just not much of it given my job and my writing. But David’s pitch for his novel The Conjurers caught my eye, and I’m glad I read it. The subtitle of The Conjurers is “A Gritty Fantasy of…
It’s been eight weeks since the surgery on my ruptured patellar tendon, and between trying to get on my feet again and trying to get back to work full time, I’ve unfortunately had very little time to focus on the blog (or much else when it comes to writing). But I did want to say…
This week, I’m a little late to the blog, largely because I’m recovering from knee surgery. But this unfortunate development has offered some time to catch up on my reading. Recently, I finished A Plunder of Souls by D.B. Jackson, and here’s my review. A Plunder of Souls is a welcome and worthwhile edition to…
Saint Patrick’s Day is one of my all-time favorite holidays, so today I’m re-posting an article about Stephen R. Lawhead’s Patrick: Son of Ireland. I had little appreciation for the story of Saint Patrick until I began my research for Enoch’s Device. That novel begins in Derry and tells the story of two Irish monks who try to prevent…
“God didn’t love that man enough to make him Irish, lad.” – Brother Donall mac Taidg in Enoch’s Device. Irish monks drinking to Enoch’s Device! As in prior year’s the Kindle version of Enoch’s Device is going on sale for seven days starting today, all in honor of Saint Patrick’s Day! Here’s a short summary of…
I loved the season premiere of Vikings on History last week. But after the episode, I began thinking: Has Vikings started to mirror Norse Mythology? How close is Ragnar to his own Ragnarok? For anyone who’s seen the show, Vikings often makes reference to Norse Mythology, which was a primary religion for Scandinavians before their…