Books Worth Reading
The Kata AjJivadi, codified 48 BCE, commands that the planet Jivada’s influence on Earth shall be hidden from view — impractical unless someone destroys evidence at, for instance, the Shrine of the Muses in Egypt, next door to the Alexandrian Library.
It was arson. Nobody denies it. Consequently, in a single stroke, barring the occasional Sasquatch sighting, the Anye Migration and its many aspects were relegated to mythology.
Continue reading “Blurb 2.3”
Are you looking for something worth reading — and if so, did you fall for the headline, the featured image, perform a keyword search, scroll and stop? Whichever, this is a rare moment, even rarer if you’re here on account of having read one of my novels.
Which is unlikely. According to The 10 Awful Truths about Book Publishing, 2021 saw 3 million titles published in the United States. That’s a lot of blurbs to plow through for the sake of a quiet evening with a Kindle in your lap. If you’re reading this (you are), I’m grateful.
And I will not abuse the privilege — the payoff is right here. Click image to follow the link.
Shepherd is not a publisher’s site, nor book blog, nor book review aggregator (per se). Here you will find, among other enticements, essays by authors, sharing what’s on their reading lists, and why.
That’s a clever angle. Authors may be counted upon to have streetwise standards for literature. The potential, especially for a reader looking to change up the bookshelf, cannot be overstated.
I have an essay scheduled for January 13. Look for it.
In the meantime, try the site. Please tell us what you think in the comments.
Back in 1928, off-planet operators were still booking lemur folk into the historic Wild West for steak dinners and trail rides, but the proposition was on shaky ground.
America’s first interstate highway had been routed straight through the Dakotas. The Lazy L Ranch, 20 miles north of Black Rock, was not as discreet a place to land spacecraft as it used to be.
Continue reading “Folksy!”
While pushing through the poetry segment of Literature 302 at University, I acquired a fascination with expressing as many ideas as possible in every sentence. I wouldn’t say I’m an expert at it, but it’s been noticed by readers who occasionally mention that my prose is one of either, (a) wall-to-wall with nuance and meaning or, (b) hard to understand.
Continue reading “Concise, when verbosity would suffice”
Some authors read while they’re writing, a way of drawing inspiration from the mechanics of how another tells a story. I won’t say it’s a bad idea, but it doesn’t work for me – whatever I gain is cancelled out by an extrinsic narrative competing for space in my thoughts.
Recently, however, the poet River Dixon volunteered to read one of my novels. I thought I might reciprocate and, to my surprise, I find I can read poetry without forgetting what I was trying to write. The man knows how to turn a phrase – visit him at The Stories In Between.
John Dyer Writes 
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