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fiction

Tall Poppy Review: “The Tiger in the House” and Kidnap

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The Tiger in the House

The Tiger in the House (Kensington Publishing) by Jacqueline Sheehan introduces Delia Lamont, who is wrapping up the last month of work at Portland, Maine’s child services agency. She’s ready to open a seaside bakery with her younger sister and start a quieter life. But first, she has one last case to deal with – a five-year-old girl was found wandering along the side of the road, partially dressed and covered in blood. Every clue leading to her family takes Delia deeper into a shadowy web of danger that includes murder, heroin trafficking, and kidnapping. Jacqueline Sheehan has crafted a story that mixes family drama with a healthy dose of suspense and takes the reader on an emotional journey they won’t…

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From Shore to Fiction: “Beneath the Lighthouse”

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Julieanne Lynch is the author of Beneath the Lighthouse, an eerie story on ghosts and family tragedy. Today we have the pleasure of learning about her creative process and the inspiration behind her chilling story. But first, here is a taste of her story: Sixteen-year-old Jamie McGuiness’s sister is dead. Sinking into a deep depression, he frequents the lighthouse where her body was discovered, unaware of the sinister forces surrounding him. When an angry spirit latches onto Jamie, he’s led down a dark and twisted path, one that uncovers old family secrets, destroying everything Jamie ever believed in. Caught between the world of the living and the vengeful dead, Jamie fights the pull of the other side. It’s up to Jamie to…

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Tall Poppy Review: Perfect Drama For Moriarty Fans

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Not That I Could Tell (St. Martin’s Press) by Jessica Strawser examines life under the suburbia microscope. When a group of friends gather around a fire pit in one of their backyards, wine in hand, the conversation turns both dramatic and personal. A few days later, one of the women is missing and the friends are left to pick up the pieces of what they thought was her perfect life. Each of the friends has their own secrets and hidden truths, which makes for some juicy, page-turning drama! The character sketches in the book reminded me of Celeste Ng or Liane Moriarty. Each character has a distinct personality and complexity, which I loved. I think the idea that we never truly…

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“His Favorites” Exposes Guilt and Vulnerability

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With sparse, lyrical language, author of His Favorites (Scribner), Kate Walbert, shines a light on women’s rights as she tells us about Jo’s tragic and unsettling experiences.  After being in a deadly accident at 15 years old with her best friends, Jo, a wild and now emotionally broken high school student is sent off to boarding school. Her life at home crumbled and her friendships broken, the new beginning for her life away at school held the strong potential of not going in the right direction.  Memories and stories weave together our understanding of who Jo is…and how an irresponsible female teenager, faced with tragedy and then coerced by a sweet talking man, may not possess the support needed to fight back…

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Sorting Through Fiction and Non-Fiction Narratives

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At Delphinium, we often ponder the difference between fiction and non-fiction narrative, and it seems more and more that these two literary distinctions are being blurred. Even though the memoir genre is still thriving, it’s now generally understood that memoirs are embellished, truth laced with invention; and yet it’s also true that many memoirs could not be successfully published as novels. With a memoir, it’s the very idea—or in some cases, the illusion—of confession that makes a book saleable. The premise is that a memoir will attract a reader who can believe they have gone through an experience similar to the one they read about. For this reason, memoirists—and their publishers—may be reluctant to divulge whatever is actually invented. Could…

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A Novel in 10 Years: One Author’s Journey To Get It Done

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Novel in Ten Years

I had just attended my 30th high school reunion and come to the realization that my life was slipping away. Here I was, almost 50, and I still hadn’t accomplished my life’s dream. “I will write a novel before the next reunion,” I told myself. I just needed an idea. I’d spent decades as a newspaper reporter and doing PR professional writing about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. I should have been brimming with ideas, but nothing had grabbed me. I stole a weekend to be alone with my laptop at the family beach house on Guemes Island. I got to the ferry dock in Anacortes but missed the boat. The muse works in mysterious ways. I passed a lovingly…

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2017 Goodreads Choice Award Winners Are Here! How Did Our Picks Match Up?

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Yesterday, Goodreads announced their 2017 Choice Award Winners. If you recall, BookTrib’s Senior Editor, Aisha K. Staggers, and Contributor, Rachel Carter, shared their picks from their list of nominees. Here are the winners of the Goodreads Choice Awards for 2017, see how our picks match up! 2017 Winner in Fiction Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng Aisha: We featured a lot of the books nominated here on BookTrib, so it was a difficult choice. I chose Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. I have a teenage daughter and so I could relate to the main character being a single mom and raising a daughter at that stage in her development. What really was interesting to me was how boldly the author addressed the transracial adoption;…

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2017 Goodreads Choice Awards: BookTrib’s Top Picks in Every Category

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The Goodreads Choice Awards are here once again, and we’re already knee-deep in the semifinal rounds. The books have been narrowed down to 20 choices in each category, and the competition is tougher than ever. Semifinals last until November 12th, with the final round of voting open from the 14th to the 27th. Winners will be announced December 5th. In the spirit of friendly competition, two of us are comparing our choices and arguing for our faves— Siskel & Ebert style! Here, BookTrib’s Senior Editor, Aisha K. Staggers, and Contributor, Rachel Carter, share a spirited debate over which books should win in each category: Fiction   Rachel: This one is easy! I’m voting for Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesym Ward.…

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Grady Hendrix on ‘Paperbacks from Hell’ and Why Horror Is a Women’s Genre

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BookTrib is partnering with Bookish to bring you more great content. Grady Hendrix, author of Horrorstör and My Best Friend’s Exorcism, is a die-hard horror fan. He writes, reads, and researches the genre and is an expert on its history. His new book, Paperbacks from Hell—about the paperback horror boom in the ’70s and ’80s—is a blood-splattered love letter to horror. It’s a tome to be found on the coffee table in any horror fan’s home, brimming with hundreds of full-color cover illustrations from books that influenced both the publishing and film industries. Just in time for Halloween, we talked to Hendrix about the state of horror today, Stephen King brainwashing, and why horror is a women’s genre. Bookish: You clearly have a place in…

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‘The Eves of MY Destruction’ Alerts Many to Devastating Cyber Crimes

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My new book, The Eves of My Destruction is entirely a work of fiction but it has many kernels of truth. The technology explained in the story is real and while I took care not to reveal too many insider secrets, be aware if you read my book that similar events are taking place in the real world that should give you pause. In my novel, the protagonist in the story is accused of using his deep knowledge of the banking system to pull off a massive cyber-crime, stealing billions of dollars from multiple banks. I did extensive research as I wrote my book and Mark Twain’s old adage “Truth is stranger than fiction,” often came to mind. As an…

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Poetry and Climbing the Highest Mountains in These New Podcasts

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BookTrib.com recently added Writer’s Bone to our weekly features. Daniel Ford and Sean Tuohy have been bringing us podcasts of discussions they have with writers about the craft of writing and what motivates them to tell a good story. We hope you enjoy this series as much as we do. In the first episode we have to share with you, Poet Marcus Wicker speaks with Daniel Ford about his new poetry collection, Silencer. Wicker discusses the personals of his life, such as why he pursued an MFA and how hip-hop influences his poetry. He personally shares one of his poems on the air and explains the differences between writing, reading, and speaking poetry. You may know Marcus Wicker from his other book of poetry, Maybe the…

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Redemption and Second Chances in Thomas’ ‘The Future She Left Behind’

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A story of new beginnings in old places – with baggage. Unwanted baggage. Katelyn ran from her small-town roots as soon as she could. Don was everything she wanted: ambitious, caring, safe. After nineteen years, the kids have left for college, and she’s just beginning to realize her life has been on autopilot when her husband serves her divorce papers. She decides to go home to Little Springs Texas to visit her mother and regroup. Through a series of mishaps and misinformation, she ends up having to take her mother-in-law with her. She’s a doozy: uppity, opinionated and memory-challenged. And she doesn’t think much of her son’s wife, either. Everything in Little Springs is the same, so maybe its Katelyn…

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Family Secrets and Fireworks in Kelly Simmons’ ‘The Fifth of July’

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One of my favorite aspects of a good book is the way it transports me to another time or place, far from the daily grind. I want to fall into a world with a setting so vivid, I can taste the salt on my lips and hear the cry of a foghorn. Kelly Simmons captures Nantucket life to a “T” in The Fifth of July; the sea-worn clapboard and constant turmoil of the ocean, the grit of sand and crumbling rock. The distinct look of old New England money, and the push and pull between locals and visitors. I saw, smelled, and felt it all. But that’s not all. Simmons weaves a multi-layered plot carried by a cast of quirky characters,…

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Jillian Cantor’s ‘The Lost Letter’ is ‘Historical Fiction at its Best’

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Author Jillian Cantor truly knows how to draw a reader in, as she did with The Lost Letter…I could not put down this beautifully written book! At the end of every chapter my heart was pounding in anticipation. The Lost Letter is two compelling stories artfully woven together and destined to intertwine at the end. The first takes place in the late 1930s Austria, and is about the Fabers, a Jewish family. The father is an engraver and he has a young, non Jewish apprentice, Kristoff, living with them to learn the trade. Kristoff becomes smitten with the older daughter, Elena, a bit of a rebel, who is secretly learning to engrave stamps in the night. When the war reaches…

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Is Shattered Glass The New Profile of A Woman For Trendy Book Covers?

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They say to never judge a book by its cover, but most of us are guilty of picking up a shiny novel just because of the awesome book cover image. It’s hard not to be enticed by a particularly cool graphic or just the right picture to whet your appetite. Book covers are works of art in and of themselves, pulling in the audience and setting the stage for the reading experience to come.  But if you’ve browsed enough bookstores, you start to notice that some of the covers look alike. Maybe it’s a bold print, or a similar type of photo, but soon you’re recognizing the same images in book after book. It makes sense: just like with fashion,…

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Kim Alexander Tackles Hair Details in Her Series on World Building

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kim alexander hair world building

In my continuing series on world building, I’ve mostly been talking about big-picture components: time, religion, the written word. In this edition, let’s narrow the focus. Picture a woman. Now get closer. Let’s look at her head. What’s she got going on? Is her hair flawless; waist length and perfectly highlighted? So we can assume she can afford to get a regular blow-out, or her work demands that she always looks just-so, or someone pays her salon bills. Maybe she’s young and carefree, or she’s trying to cling to her free-flowing youth. Maybe she’s got it yanked into a post-gym ponytail, or cut short because she just had a baby and wants to keep little hands from yanking it. Is…

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