


Thanks Lori for having me on your blog today! I thought I would do my post on the effect reading has had on me as an author.
For me, reading and writing go hand in hand; as I’m sure it does for just about every serious author out there. I think it’s our love of losing ourselves within the pages of book that sparks our desire to write stories of our own. Many of the books I’ve read have had a strong impact on me, and some of them have had an influence on the way I think about my writing. I’d like to share a few of them, and I’ll start with a childhood favorite:
The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Sound of Waves – Yukio Mishima
The Sound of Waves is a Japanese novel set on a small fishing island, and tells the love story of a simple fishing boy and a wealthy young girl. There’s no big enemy to contend with, and the setting doesn’t stray far from the island, but the story is impactful. I loved the quiet pace of the story, as well as its simplicity and power it has to convey how these two young people fall in love and the obstacles they faced. I could easily believe this was someone’s true story, like I was getting a glimpse into someone’s life, and it wasn’t someone who was famous, or extraordinary or important, just someone real who may have existed on a small island out there in the world.
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

For me, what these three novels have in common, even though they are all so different, is that they tell powerful stories in minimal settings. You don’t stray from the mansion or the garden in The Secret Garden, you only leave the island to see what Shinji’s life is like on a fishing boat in The Sound of Waves, and you never really leave the moors in Wuthering Heights. These novels showed me that you don’t need a sweeping landscape to tell a powerful story. They also showed me how a good character driven story is written, and how to balance all the emotions necessary to do so successfully. These are all things that are at the back of my mind when I write; I try to make my characters strong but flawed, give them reasons for the things they do or don’t do, as well as reasons to fall in love or reasons to believe in something. Without being a good reader, I don’t think I’d have a chance of being a good writer, which is all I hope to be.


Author: A.J. Locke
Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy
Format: ebook, 341 pages
Published: April 19th 2013 by Etopia Press (first published April 1st 2013)
ISBN13: 9781939194916
Help ghosts, stop a thief, and try not to die…
Necromancer Selene Vanream helps ghosts settle their affairs so they can move on. But when breaking the rules gets her in trouble, she’s bumped down to tracking ghosts trying to avoid the afterlife. Ghosts like Ethan Lance, who claims he was kicked out of his body when someone else jumped in. Which might be plausible—if such a thing were possible. And if Micah, Selene’s partner, didn’t pull her into an investigation of brutal murders that lead directly back to Ethan.
But when the whole mess puts Selene’s life in danger, she suddenly has very personal reasons to get Ethan’s body back. Between her uncomfortable relationship with Micah, and problems with her boss, Selene learns just how much trouble it can be when you don’t follow the rules…




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Celestial ReviewsSapphyria's Book Reviews
The blurb tells me that I will enjoy reading AFFAIRS OF THE DEAD.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a winner for a UF fan like me.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an interesting read. New author for me and I can't wait to read it. Thanks :)
ReplyDeletelorih824 at yahoo dot com
Sounds awesome!!! Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteThanks again for having me, Lori! =)
ReplyDeleteI'm really intrigued :) thanks for the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteI've seen the Secret Garden movie but other than that... I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't read any of these books! o_O
ReplyDeleteSounds really good. Thanks for the giveaway.
ReplyDeleteI think it sounds like a great read!! Thanks for the chance to win
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