All I needed was a place for my magical family in This Crumbling Pageant to live. I knew it was a manor house of some sort, that they were wealthy, that they didn’t live in London. I’d never heard of Baddesley Clinton. The Fury family is known for its extraordinary music, its powerful magic, and its historic role as kingmakers. But the Furys have their secrets as well, none so dangerous as Persephone—the daughter whose Shadow magic spills...

It’s that time, again. I am listening to a book–Smoke, by Dan Vyleta– that is filled with kickassery goodness. Well, not as in Chuck Norris kickassery, but as in just total alternate history, conspiracy, dark DARK dark icky gooky Smoke disease/madness/sin mixed in with a boys’ school in the 1800s and lots of nefarious characters. This was a very polluted and smokey period in England due to manufacturing and the...

What? You don’t know about those rascally [and made up] gods, Debris & Detritus? I wish I could describe Debris & Detritus for you, but it depends on which story they’re in. They are sisters. They are twin brothers. They are British. They are ancient Greeks. They are lumps of stone, as in… well, the actual definition of debris and detritus. They are funny. They are sweet and romantic. They are terrifying. They are...

One of my writer friends/beta readers [Chrysoula Tzavelas] sent me a link to a song that made her think of something she recently read in The Dead Shall Live. Yes, that means what you think it means.  The book is inching forward and you and I will have copies in our hands sooner rather than later, and it’s about time! So the mood is way too dancey and happy, but the words? Oh wow, do the words fit. After you read The Dead Shall Live you...

How many ways can I express the sentiment of, “Simply delightful!”?   I didn’t recognize Furthermore as being middle grade. The main characters, Alice and Oliver, are 12 and 13 years old so maybe it should have been obvious. It’s a whimsical tale, and Bronson Pinchot does an admirable job as narrator. And yet it was clever and fun in a way that made me never consider that it might not be written for, well, me....