Angela Spencer

Review of The Ruins of Noe by Danika Dinsmore

This was originally written for Yahoo! Voices. You can read it either here or there.

Since reading Danika Dinsmore’s Brigitta of the White Forest a year ago, I’ve been looking forward to the sequel. When offered a chance to read and review an eARC for The Ruins of Noe, I jumped on the opportunity. The book did not disappoint. It continued the delightful tone, characters, and setting of the first book while standing apart with its own strengths and perspective.

As Brigitta continues her training to become an Elder for the village, she is drawn into a larger problem facing the White Forest. As the spirits of the dead do not pass on and children are born without destinies, Brigitta is shown a prophecy that foretold this and included her as the one who had to go out and solve it.

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Review of Nearly Departed in Deadwood, by Ann Charles

(Originally published at Rise Reviews. You can read it here or there.)

In her debut novel, Nearly Departed in Deadwood, Ann Charles weaves a fun romp of humor, romance, mystery and the occult. The pages are brimming with eccentric small town characters that brought the setting to life. Though not quite as paranormal a romance/mystery as I had hoped it would be, I would gladly read more tales in herDeadwood Mystery series.

Violet Parker, the book’s protagonist, is a single mother and struggling real estate agent trying to land her first sale before getting fired. But eccentric customers, haunted houses and workplace harassment all threaten to defeat her at every turn. On top of all this, girls have been disappearing from the town of Deadwood. And the girls all bear a striking resemblance to Violet’s daughter. Afraid that her child could be next, Violet starts to play amateur sleuth to find the abductor.

I’d chosen to review this book for Rise Reviews because the author had billed it on a panel as being a blend of paranormal romance and mystery. And I could see it earning that label. But the paranormal elements seemed slow in coming and were carefully handled to seed doubt regarding whether something supernatural had actually occurred.
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Review of Rigor Amortis, edited by Jaym Gates and Erika Holt

(Originally published at Rise Reviews. You can read it here or there.)

When I first mention to people Rigor Amortis, the anthology of flash zombie erotica edited by Jaym Gates and Erika Holt, it elicits laughter and looks of disbelief. Until they realize I’m serious. As I understand it, the concept was born as a joke but grew as people realized there was material to be mined. And rest assured that this anthology is not one done for laughs.

There are humorous pieces among the 30+ shorts: black humor, slapstick and grossfests can be found in these pages. But more often the tales are more serious, questioning what remains of love and sex once a body dies but the flesh continues to move?

The stories cover a broad range of undead options that could fall under the mantle of “zombie.” George Romero’s mindless flesh-eating risen dead are a common approach but not the only one. Thrown into the mix are animated corpses, bodies that have come back to fulfill a task and even technological creations. Some are more mindless than others. Above all else, the stories are often macabre in their tone. There are few stories that don’t touch upon the grotesque nature of death.

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Linkiness!

I’ve neglected providing actual updates here for a bit. Here’s a bit of an attempt to get back on track.

First, my “issue” of Wily Writers has gone live. You can read or listen to Christine Danse’s “Fear of Darkness” and Cassandra D’Angelo’s “Catch and Release” now!

I’ve slowed down in writing reviews for Rise Reviews, but I’m still plugging along at one a month. Be sure to check out reviews for:

• Roarke by Frances Pauli
• The Chalice of Life by Karen Anne Webb
• Brigitta of the White Forest by Danika Dinsmore
• Nearly Departed in Deadwood by Ann Charles

I also have a page on GoodReads now, where you can also follow my blog. I’ll be crossposting reviews there as well.

On the fiction front, I have sent a revised story back to an editor who’d requested a rewrite. I’m waiting with bated breath for her response.

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Review of Sins and Shadows by Lyn Benedict

(Originally published at Associated Content. You can read it here or there.)

Lyn Benedict’s Sins and Shadows is a tense romp full of unexpected twists and turns. She also approaches the subject matter in ways that I didn’t expect, which can be both good and bad depending on your point of view. Her protagonist, Sylvie Lightner, is not the sort of person who would be universally liked. There is also a lot of background to Sylvie that could warrant multiple prequel books,to the point where I felt at times like I was entering the story in the middle of the series instead of at the beginning. Despite this, or perhaps because of this, Benedict manages to write a gripping tale that manages to take seeming disparate elements and weave them into a magnificent reveal.

Sylvie Lightner, owner of Shadows Inquiries, deals with threats from the magical world. But when one of her employees is murdered in front of her, she decides to hang up her hat and close the shop. A man claiming to be the God of Justice pressgangs her into working for him to find his missing lover. She leaves her native city of Miami to visit Chicago to begin the search. Along the way, she runs afoul of Greek gods, Lilith, her ex-lover (who runs the government agency that handles the occult) and an occult catastrophe that threatens to destroy Chicago.

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Boy Howdy

So many things going on!

I sent in my entry to the PNWA Literary Contest last night for the Romance  category. It’s the novel length version of what I wrote for All Romance eBooks last fall. I’m also working on a rewrite of a short story I’m shopping around. A publisher asked for revisions, so I’m hoping this will be a winner.

Coming up, I will be a guest editor for the Wily Writers Podcast. Wily Writers is an online zine that also provides audio versions of the stories in addition to the text. Submissions are due at the end of this month, I’ll be reading them  in March, and two stories will be chosen for publication in May. AND you get a fat $50. It’s not exactly pro rates, but Ulysses S. Grant has a certain charm.

I commissioned the lovely and talented Wendi Strang-Frost to make a picture of me for me. Why use my real face when I can have an idealized version? Seriously. I’ve got it up on Facebook and Twitter, but haven’t had a chance to get it onto here yet.

In other news, I’ve utterly spaced on linking to reviews I’ve had published on Rise Reviews. Since the first, I’ve posted two reviews:

• Innsmouth Free Press, Issue #5
• Beauty Has Her Way, edited by Jennifer Brozek

I have another review coming out on the 21st and I’m trying to beat my way through another book to review it for March. The madness just doesn’t end. I’ve also started another review for Associated Content, which I will hopefully publish… soon…

Alright, now back to running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

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Rise Reviews goes live!

Bart Leib emailed today to announce the launch of his new site, Rise Reviews, for which I am a contributor. He has a blog post linking to all 13 reviews that have gone live today. Or you can click straight through to my review of Rigor Amortis.

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Emma Bull Delivers a Tightly Crafted Narrative with Deeply Layered Meaning in War for the Oaks

(Originally published at Associated Content. You can read it here or there.)

In War for the Oaks, Emma Bull takes a simple premise to draft a tale that unfolds the deeper you get into it. The protagonist, Eddi McCandry, is a singer and guitar player in a rock band that gets sucked into an ancient war between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. By binding a mortal to the conflict, it makes both sides as mortal as a human. The stakes become much higher and the risks each side will take much steeper.
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Review of Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris

(Originally published at Associated Content. You can read it here or there.)

After loving the first Sookie Stackhouse novel, I had to delve deeper into Charlaine Harris’s marvelous vampire novels. The second installment in the series, Living Dead in Dallas, explores the secret world of the supernatural in greater detail. But while the writing is still engaging and the new revelations are compelling, the plot itself is not as tightly woven as the Dead Until Dark.

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Scarecrow Video: This Local Video Store is an Excellent Resource for Those Looking for the Obscure

(Originally published at Associated Content. You can read it here or there.)

Scarecrow Video is a shining beacon in the gloomy Seattle weather.

One of the largest video stores in the country and a landmark in north Seattle, Scarecrow Video specializes in carrying movies and formats you can’t find other places. Though their primary business is video and machine rental, they also have great selection of new and used movies for sale in the same range of formats.
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