Just a quick little announcement at the request of a friend.
Years ago, Steve Diamond decided to pitch a special edition product to his friend (and now podcast co-host and coauthor), Larry Correia. Larry has a particularly awesome series, which currently consists of a trilogy and some short stories, known as The Grimnoir Chronicles. The elevator pitch for that one is X-Men set in an alternate history 1930s. It’s historical fantasy where the magic operates like superpowers, with everyone who has magic having an innate ability for one particular kind of magic (though you find out that limitation isn’t all it appears to be). It’s an absolutely fantastic story in a high-action noir setting with an unforgettable cast of characters.
Well, Steve wanted to publish a special-edition, limited run version of the trilogy. He sourced extremely high-quality paper, got some awesome covers from the European editions not released in the US, and even got fancy cases to protect each novel. I even had a minor hand in helping to confirm the Japanese lettering was accurate, because I was working a few blocks from the Japanese consulate in DC at the time (which means that if there’s a problem with it after all, it’s my fault, not Steve’s).
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In my review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, I decided to focus on my primary interest as a writer: characters. Instead of being a movie review per se, it’s more of an exploration of the arcs and plotlines surrounding the various characters or groups of characters in the film, with looks back at The Force Awakens and the original trilogy. For me, character creation and development are the best part of story writing, and excellence in these departments is critical to any good story. Let’s see how The Last Jedi scored. 
against review requests: namely, I never do them anymore. I can’t tell you how many requests I get for reviews from authors. The problem is that some authors proved we can’t have nice things; so, to avoid any appearance that accepting review copies means I am guaranteeing a favorable review, I just don’t accept them anymore.
The first season of Agent Carter met with a lot of mixed press, mainly focused on whether it was misandrist messagefic. In the end, those issues were resolved, 
I’ve been busy, as evidenced by how little I’ve been posting. I’ve even been neglecting 
Novel Ninja 
How to Review
One of the many things I’m behind on, especially in regard to this site, is my pile of review to-dos. That doesn’t mean manuscripts; it means books I’ve read (or listened to, in the case of audiobooks) and think are worth talking about.
But a review is actually a delicate sort of art, and — as readers here well know! — I tend to be more on the verbose side. That actually isn’t the way I should be doing it, and as I get back into the swing of things I need to watch that. Part of it is that because this site exists to focus on writing advice, I like pulling out lessons; but that isn’t always the best use of a review even for here, even if the only people reading the reviews are authors looking for tips and tricks.
So what does go into a good review? And what’s the difference between a review and a critique? Continue reading →
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