The Foreword Festival 2024
Author Life Highlights of 2023
Published on YouTube on 7th January 2024
I think the biggest highlight of 2023 was author events. I got to meet YA Fantasy readers and chat about my books. I got to meet fellow authors and make new friends. I’ve learned so much and surprised myself.
Highlights:
💛 Dial Lane Books, Ipswich where I signed copies of Ocean Heart & the owner displayed a copy in the front window.
💛 Herts Book Festival, Hertfordshire was my first book festival. I had so much fun, I was buzzing! Was like an author getaway, meeting up with two of my long time author friends.
💛 Felixstowe Book Festival, Let’s Talk Fantasy – This was a long time dream of mine coming true & made a new friend that I shared the event with. 🥰
💛 Legends Comic Con, Stonham Barns where I got to befriend the Bury & Beyond Writers thanks to an intro by author Rachel Churcher. I’m looking forward to doing more with this bunch.
💛 MK Lit Fest, Milton Keynes was another excuse to meet up with some author buddies and we got interviewed about our books.
As a shy person, my dreams of being an author involve hiding in a cupboard to write with no peopling. I definitely did not want to make any public appearances! But, the author community is so welcoming and supportive, they gave me the confidence to get out there. Moving into 2024, high on my plans is to do more events. With each one, I get more confident and look forward to the next.
For 2024, I am already booked to do the Foreword Festival on 11 February in Bury St Edmunds’s. And, looking at another Comic Con in the Summer. Please come along and meet the authors. There’s such a good vibe, it’s infectious.
Which Reading App – My 2023 Reading Stats
Which is your favourite app for tracking your reading journey?
I have used Goodreads for years. I started using Story Graph this year, and very recently I started using Fable.
I thought I’d share what each is like and if I have time, I’ll also do a longer YouTube video comparing them. There is another reading app I use too called Litsy. However, at the time of writing, I cannot log into that app so shall not be covering it.
Which of these is your favourite? Is there another one I should check out?
Fable Reading App
I actually finished one more book after making this video and before the year was out – 2023 total was 25 books, that’s an average of a book a fortnight. I’m really pleased with that.
Fable Reading App
I discovered this app via Lemon8 but was reluctant to download another reading app. But, I kept seeing it, so in December I decided to give it a go. This app is VERY new to me. Initial reaction is I wished I downloaded it sooner. It has a really good community. It literally is a social media app just for readers.
I joined my first book club. We are reading IceBreaker by Hannah Grace. I’ve new been in a book club before but it’s fun to try new things.
The round up on this app asks you to pick your top 5 books to make a summary image. Oh my gosh, picking just five was sooooo hard. I’d struggle to pick only 10, but 5! Aghhh!
Blood Moon – Borrowed from the library. Thought it would be about shifters or vampires, but it’s a teen romance with coming of age themes like starting your period.
Scythe – This is a dystopian with a lot of gore. The world building and characters is epic, I loved the whole series.
The Diseased Ones – I’m currently reading this series but this is book one. It’s about a society that has put lawed super powers as a disease that must be irradiated. Think Marvel, seen in the future.
The Guidal – Another futuristic super power series. This one has a more magical feel, and more romance. There’s so much to love, and the series gets better and better.
Trouble – I checked this out as the author was one of YALC’s ambassadors, and the book blew me away. It’s a dual POV romance with coming of age themes like pregnancy and bereavement.
Sometimes my Top 5 also included Making Trouble by Rachel Churcher #dystopia , The Girl Behind the Glass #fantasy by April Grace, and Glass House #paranormalromance by Rachel Caine, Hunger Games #yadystopian by Suzanne Collins.
Fable: Follow what I’m reading on Fable–it’s free! https://fable.co/redfae-239209522672
Story Graph
Published on YouTube on 29th December 2023
What is Storygraph?
Someone on Lemon8 mentioned Storygraph earlier this year and I checked it out. I wasn’t ready to give up on Goodreads so decided to use both apps.
What I love about Storygraph is that it shares stats about your reading. Without this app I’d say I don’t tend to consume audio books, but it turns out I’ve finished more audio books than print books. I’m not surprised to see ebooks is my top medium.
I do read non-fiction but I don’t record it. The fiction genres chart shows I mostly ready YA and Fantasy, which is no surprise. And, I noticed I’ve been very into dystopia this year, however, I was surprised Romance wasn’t higher. I don’t tend to like books with no romance.
In the app, you can click on any of the chart segments to see more. For example, I can find out which books I read that were fast paced, or that I rated five stars. I think it’s fun to see my reading habits in charts. It’s been interesting.
Do you use Storygraph? Here’s my profile for Story Graph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/redfae
Good Reads
I’ve used Goodreads to track my reading for years.
I love how you can set a reading goal, and how at the end of the year it shares your stats. I set my yearly goal at 18 books. I am a slow reader and it can take me a month to finish one book! I didn’t want the challenge so hard that it was unrealistic and demotivating. I ended up reading 23 books and there’s a chance I could finish one more before the year is over.
I like tracking my progress on my current reads and seeing the percentage complete is rewarding for me. I love writing reviews so I can reflect on what I liked about the books. I’m good at choosing books I love which is why my ratings are high. I don’t force myself to read a book that doesn’t appeal to me. Most my reviews are 4 to 5 stars because I love them. 😍
I’m not surprised that Hunger Games is the most shelved book as it’s had so much publicity, whereas a Soul of Glass and Fire is a less well-known indie book. I’m going to continue using Goodreads, and will likely set my 2024 goal at 18 again, because it worked well this year.
My Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4150643
Banned Books at Felixstowe Library
Published on YouTube on 23rd December 2024
Book Review: The Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag
This is an adorable cute graphic novel about coming of age and coming out.
Morgan is going through a lot at home. She has a close-knit group of friends she tends to hang out with.
Then she meets Keltie. Keltie isn’t any ordinary girl, she’s a Selkie. After sharing a kiss with Morgan, she can now walk on land.
Morgan isn’t ready to come out to her friends and family about having a girlfriend. Morgan tries to keep Keltie separate from them.
Keltie becomes Morgan’s secret, but we soon discover she’s not the only one with a secret. Katie needs her help and it involves her best friend.
This story had tons of ups and downs. There’s a great twist at the end I didn’t see coming. The story has a feel good vibe and will leave you feeling happy.
Read it for the beauty of a graphic novel, the sweet story of first love, and Selkie magic.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My Author Life – Sept 2023
Published on YouTube on 22 Oct 2023.
Book Review: Our Crooked Heart by Melissa Albert
This post contains affiliate links. Please check out my affiliate disclosure page for more information.
About the book
My thoughts
This story is told from two POVs. One is Ivy. Most of her story is in the present. The other is Dana. Her story flicks back and forth between the now (where she is mum to Ivy) and the past (when she was a teen discovering magic with her sister Fee, and a friend).
She is a teen that doesn’t get on with her mum. She sees strange things like a weird girl, a dead rabbit left in-front of their house, and her mum burying a box. Ivy uncovers secrets and is angry when she remembers that her mum and aunty used magic on her. Not only that, but a terrible dark secret from their (mum & aunty) past.
I didn’t connect as much to Dana’s story. It might have been the jumping back and forth or that I didn’t like her as much. Dana in the now seems over protective of Ivy, and they clash. Dana and Fee are keeping secrets from Ivy about their past. Teenage Dana was more fun to read. She, Fee, and friend Marion get into magic. Things go wrong and they banish Marion away for safety. Of course she’s trying to get back.
I listened to this as an audio book. There were parts I raced through as I was excited, and other parts where I took long breaks because I got frustrated by all the secrets and how long it was taking. Most of the magic is in flashbacks. As I didn’t like one of the POVs as much it meant I struggled through half the chapters. There was some great descriptions and I wonder if I’d enjoyed this more if I’d physically read it instead of listened.
Read it for the secrets and dark twisted witchcraft.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
You can buy this book from:
Amazon: Our Crooked Hearts https://amzn.eu/d/cGcUaq6
<script
src=”https://uk.bookshop.org/widgets.js”
data-type=”book”
data-affiliate-id=”1425″
data-sku=”9780241592540″></script>
If you enjoyed this, check out this:
[Kofi]
My Author Life – July 2023
Published on YouTube on 29 Sept 2023.
Book Review: The Toll by Neal Shusterman
This post contains affiliate links. Please check out my affiliate disclosure page for more information.
About the book
My thoughts
This was an incredible read. I’d no idea what to expect but it was better than anything I could imagine. It is violent and bloody, but the story explores our morals.
Set in the future, death is no longer a problem. If you were to become deadish, you can be revived. To restore the balance a group called Scythes take on the sacred duty of gleaming (killing) life. They have quotas and rules to follow.
Teenagers Roman and Citra both (on seperate occasions) meet Scythe Faraday on a gleaming job. Their interactions with him stand out and he makes them his apprentice. Never before has a Scythe taken on two apprentices and there’s no rule against it. Still, it causes uproar and an edict is agreed that when one of them passes their apprenticeship, their first task will be to kill the other.
Scythe Faraday blames himself for putting Citra & Rowan in this position. He gleams himself to free them from the apprenticeship, but instead two other Scythes step forward to train them.
Rowan is taken on by Scythe Goddard who has a reputation for his blood lust, enjoying massacres to hit his quotas.
Citra is taken on by the famous Grande Madam of Death, Scythe Curie. She shows compassion to the family members of those gleamed.
Now the pair have very different apprenticeship experiences. Citra doesn’t believe Scythe Faraday’s death was an accident, and her inquisitive mind gets her in trouble.
Meanwhile, Rowan’s training involves parties and mass killings as Scythe Goddard tries to encourage him to find joy in kill craft. Goddard’s cruel methods push Rowan too far and he is no longer the boy he started out as.
The story continues to move toward the final conclave where they’ll both have to pass their last test. Passing the test will means one of them gets ordained and must kill the other. Despite all that has happened since Faraday, they still care deeply about each other. Both are plotting for a loop hole in the edict.
This was a brilliant story. There is a lot of death as they are Scythes, but the twists and surprises in the story is what makes you gasp and need to read another chapter!
Read it for a story full of twists and surprises, and to explore ideas of mortality and morals. Don’t read it if you don’t like blood, gore, or sensitive about death.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
You can buy this book from:
Amazon: The Toll (Arc of a Scythe) https://amzn.eu/d/eMwAIU2
<script
src=”https://uk.bookshop.org/widgets.js”
data-type=”book”
data-affiliate-id=”1425″
data-sku=”9781406385670″></script>
<script
src=”https://uk.bookshop.org/widgets.js”
data-type=”list”
data-list-slug=”dystopia”></script>
If you enjoyed this, check out this:
[Kofi]