Blood Red Ochre by Kevin Major

This is a guest post
by Carol Tulpar

Blood Red Ochre is a gripping story that moves forward with a sense of urgency and mystery. When Nancy appears in David’s small town high school class, he feels attracted to her. They have been asked to write an essay about the vanished Beothuk, a group of aboriginal people who once occupied the island of Newfoundland, including the fictitious town of Marten, near St. John’s, where their school is located.

The Human Technology by Erik Rodgers

Adam is a first generation clone with prescient abilities getting by on a crap job as a zone guard. It's up to him to stop fellow clones from "zone jumping" and trying to contact their identical models in other areas. After a newly-developed clone with the ability to move through time is kidnapped by a radical sect called Gertrude's Gardeners, Adam is recruited by the government to help get her back.

My interview at On Fiction Writing

If you want to meet my editing alter-ego, hop over to On Fiction Writing, an online magazine and resource for indie writers. I recently had a chat with one of their editors about working with a freelance editor and surviving in the current publishing climate. You can find the article here.

Lisa's Way by Robert Collins

When Earth's colony planets start fighting amongst themselves, the portals that connect them are closed. Generations later, Lisa Herbert finds herself wondering why they couldn't be opened again, and trade between the colonies re-introduced. She reactivates the local portal and decides to travel to the colony planets with the intention of sharing the knowledge she's gained from the books in the town library.

Lisa's Way book trailer

I'm currently reading Lisa's Way by Robert Collins, a young adult sci-fi novel.

To get you excited for my review (which I hope to have out by the end of the month) I've dug up the book trailer from You Tube.

Suggested book for January 2012

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

Genre: fantasy

Well, it's 2012. You've got the whole year ahead of you to fill with fabulous and intriguing new books, so why not invest your time in a good series?

It's the first book in the Wheel of Time series, which is an astounding thirteen books long at this point. Robert Jordan died in 2007, sadly, leaving fans of the series in the lurch, afraid that their beloved series would never be completed. However, Jordan arranged for the remaining three books to be written by Brandon Sanderson, based on Jordan's extensive notes. Sanderson has completed two of the three books, and the finale is expected to be released in late 2012 or early 2013.

Rand and his closest friends Mat, Perrin, and Egwene are forced to flee for their lives when Trollocs attack their village. Leaving their families behind, they set out for Tar Valon for answers, in the company of an Aes Sedai and her warder. However, Rand, Mat, and Perrin are dogged by strange and terrible dreams, which singles one of them out for a future too terrible to imagine.

The Wheel of Time series is not for readers who like a straightforward, linear plot. Over the course of the series, Jordan introduces hundreds of characters and plotlines, weaving them together so ingeniously the reader has little trouble keeping track of them all. This series has it all: adventure, romance, humour, action, and loss. It's a nuanced tale whose themes can be read on many different levels simultaneously. If you're in the market for an engrossing saga, I urge you to try The Eye of the World.

View my suggested books by Robert Jordan

The Eye of the World