William L. Stuart

author of The Gemstone Chronicles Series

writer

Tacenda by Christine Vann – My Review!!

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Tacenda by Christine Vann – My Review!!

Tacenda Cover

When I’m looking for books to read, the cover, the blurb, or the title can attract me. Tacenda got me with the cover and the blurb. Read on for my thoughts!

Synopsis (from the author):  

Can a unique partnership discover who is stealing the minds of children? Life isn’t easy when you don’t own yourself, not all humans are aware that other species exist, and your ship is semi-sentient. Kerris and Arucken are an interspecies messenger team, tasked with aiding communication across the galaxy. Haunted by the grief of her sister’s murder and stranded, Kerris must discover who is stealing the minds of children.

What I liked:

The concept of the book amazed me! The idea of the alien/human partnership and the mental connection between Kerris and Arucken was cool! I liked their ship, a hybrid in itself. Add in the sibling rivalry with Arucken’s sister, hinting at familial conflict, the deception about Kerris’ sister’s death, and the elements are there for a great story. I enjoyed Lily, and the interaction with the other species that stole the children’s minds was interesting. All told, Tacenda is an excellent story.

What I didn’t like:

As much as I enjoyed the story, the book has some technical issues. The grammatical errors pulled me out of the story, and I found a few formatting errors, too, that interrupted the flow of the book.

Overall impression:

For me, this could be a 4.5 star read, but the issues mentioned above knock it back. I did enjoy the story, and I connected easily with the characters. Tacenda is a good sci-fi novel that is worth a look!

My rating:

3.5 Stars (rounded to 4 Stars)

Connect with the author:

If you would like to connect with Christine Vann, you can find her on her Amazon Author Page or on her site! Give her books a look and, if you read one or more, please consider leaving a review!

Connect with me:

If you have comments on my review or what to connect with me, I can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and  Goodreads. You can email me at bill@williamlstuart.com. If you don’t want to miss a post (including my reviews), subscribe to the blog!

Iron Mike by Patricia Rose – My Review!!

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Iron Mike by Patricia Rose – My Review!!

Iron Mike

Iron Mike by Patricia Rose is a book I discovered on Facebook, when I saw a couple of reviews for it. I read the reviews and decided to give it a read. See below for my thoughts!

Synopsis (from the author):

NOTICE: This novel recommended for ages 16+ due to language and some sexual content.

When the black ships drop from the clouds, billions die. The weapons are silent, the effects, lethal. Nations fall. Humanity crumbles. Their mission is simple: seed the earth. Feed their creatures. Harvest the crops.

The war is over before it begins. Or is it?

From the ashes of our memory, heroes are forged. In the shell of a surviving outpost, one boy is asked to do the impossible. Rising to the challenge, Mike Sanderlin becomes a man, then a soldier, and finally, a hero. He’s more than a symbol and less than perfect, but to save his younger sister and fight for Earth, he’ll become Iron Mike.

With an alien ally, Iron Mike will hurl himself into the teeth of a war that can only have one winner.

Built to fight. Born to win.
Iron Mike is ready. Are you?

What I liked:

The story grabbed me from the start. The alien extermination of the humans to allow for harvesting the planet was a great start. Mike becoming Iron Mike was a cool, but critical piece of the story, and the change in Kari (who started out as character I didn’t like) was well done. The adventures of Mike and Kari entertained me, but my favorite character of all was Hershey, the dog! I also enjoyed the efforts of the aliens to right the wrong they had perpetrated on humanity.

What I didn’t like:

There were a couple of things that bothered me. It was never clear exactly why some humans survived the attack. Though it wasn’t all that important to the story, it did keep me wondering. The second criticism I had was the stereotypical bad guys who captured Mike and Kari during their mission. I thought that part could have been handled differently.

Overall impression:

Iron Mike by Patricia Rose is a great story with excellent characters, plenty of action, sacrifice for loved ones, and triumph in the face of overwhelming odds. I recommend this one for anyone 16+ who enjoys dystopian science fiction!

My rating:

5 Stars

If you enjoyed Iron Mike, please consider leaving a review! Reviews are important to authors so they will know what readers think.

Connect with the author:

Connect with Patricia Rose on her Amazon Author page or on her website! I know she would love to connect with readers everywhere!

Connect with me:

You can leave me a comment here, too, if my review was helpful. I can also be found on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, or just email me at bill@williamlstuart.com!

2015 – A Year in Reviews!!

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2015---A-Year-in-ReviewWeb

2015 – A Year in Reviews! 2015 was a busy reading year for me. As an Indie author, I realize the importance of reviews. Reviews provide feedback from readers, give the author a chance to interact with readers, makes new friends, and generally improve his/her writing. In 2015, I decided I would write reviews for all the books I read, post them to as many sites as I could, and try to give constructive feedback to the authors.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I typically buy the books I read so I don’t create any obligation to provide a “good” review. However, since I am trying to help authors, if I cannot give at least a 4 Star review, I try to contact the author directly to offer my comments, rather than post the review. In this post, I wanted to list all my reviews, a link to the Amazon.com review, and the star rating I gave each book. So, without further ado, here is my 2015 review list from newest to oldest!

My 2015 Reading List:

Darkspire Reaches by C N Lesley: 4 Stars

Scroll Back by Jay Stamatis and Steven Stamatis: 4 Stars

We Journey No More by Sahara Foley: 4.5 Stars (rounded to 5 Stars)

Lodestone Book 1: Witch Hunt by Wendy Scott: 5 Stars

Necessary Evil of Nathan Miller by Demelza Carlton: 4.5 Stars (rounded to 5 Stars)

Rys Rising by Tracy Falbe: 5 Stars

Daniel’s Fork: A Mystery Set in the Daniel’s Fork Universe by Zeece Lugo: 4.5 Stars (rounded to 5 Stars)

The Wanderer: Book One of the Godsend Series: Section One by Timothious Smith: 4 Stars

The Battle for Brisingamen by Harmony Kent: 4 Stars

Timelapse by Lorrie Farrelly: 5 Stars

Halfway Dead by Terry Maggert: 5 Stars

A Pink Zombie, With a Mist by Jada Ryker: 4 Stars

Hero For Hire (Eno The Thracian Book 1) by C B Pratt: 5 Stars

Think Murder by Cassidy Salem: 4 Stars

The Dark Masters: Tales of Nevaeh: Volume II by David Wind: 5 Stars

Worlds of the Never (Tales of the Neverwar 2) by C J Rutherford: 5 Stars

Haunted Hearts – #1: A Lana Malloy Paranormal Mystery by Kim Cox: 4 Stars

The Soldier’s Secret by Heather Anne Osborne: 5 Stars

Simple by Dena Nicotra: 4.5 Stars (rounded to 5 Stars)

I Hero: The Beginning by Jason Zandri: 4 Stars

The Dry by Rebecca Nolen: 4.5 Stars (rounded to 5 Stars)

Glitter of Magic: The Knight and the Fairy (Myth Retold, Book 1) by J. R. Biery: 4 Stars

Dragon Fireside Tales: The Dragon Chronicles by Adam Boustead: 4 Stars

The Revelation Room (The Ben Whittle Investigation Series Book 1) by Mark Tilbury: 4.5 Stars (rounded to 5 Stars)

Everwud Book 3: Revolution by Marilyn Dieckmann: 5 Stars

Edge of the World: A Dystopian Story Set in the Daniel’s Fork Universe by Zeece Lugo: 4 Stars

Doom (The Heart of the Staff Book 6) by Carol Marrs Phipps: 5 Stars

Crystal Conquest by Doug J. Cooper: 5 Stars

Birth of an Assassin by Rik Stone: 4 Stars

Born To Magic: Tales of Nevaeh: Volume 1 by David Wind: 5 Stars

Bound to Survive: The Magic Within (The Magic Within Series Book 1) by Sharon Gibbs: 4.5 Stars (rounded to 5 Stars)

Forever Boy (Clockpunk Wizard Book 1) by Lita Burke: 4 Stars

Origins of the Never (A Prequel to The War of the Neverwar Series) by C J Rutherford: 5 Stars

The Unknown Sun by Cheryl Mackey: 5 Stars

The Reaper Witch (Heart of the Staff Book 5) by Carol Marrs Phipps: 4.5 Stars (rounded to 5 Stars)

Kyrathaba Rising (Kyrathaba Chronicles Book 1) by William Bryan Miller: 5 Stars

Elevation of the Marked by March McCarron: 5 Stars

The Secret of Excalibur by Sahara Foley: 4 Stars

Crystal Deception by Doug J Cooper: 4.5 Stars (rounded to 5 Stars)

Alien Nightmares by Sharon Delarose: 4 Stars

A Demon’s Quest: The Beginning of the End by Charles Carfagno: 4 Stars

Riddle of Prague (QuickSlver Legacy Series Book 1) by Laura DeBruce: 5 Stars

Tredan’s Bane by Lita Burke: 4 Stars

Division of the Marked by March McCarron: 5 Stars

Hunter’s Haven by Linda Thackery: 4.5 Stars (rounded to 5 Stars)

Forest Bull (The Fearless Book 1) by Terry Maggert: 4 Stars

Looking forward to 2016:

There you have my 2015 – A Year in Reviews list. Everything from fantasy, science fiction, paranormal romance, mysteries, thrillers, adult to middle grades, and a bit of dystopia thrown in for good measure. I hope maybe you can find a new author to read in 2016 based on this list.

If you do decide to read one of these books, or if you decide to read one (or more) of The Gemstone Chronicles, please consider leaving a review. And, if you do find something interesting to read, leave me a comment, send me an email, or connect with me on social media and let me know! I would love to read your review of the books!

Connect with me:

On social media, I can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, or just email me at bill@williamlstuart.com! Or, if you don’t want to miss a post, subscribe to the blog!

Happy New Year and best wishes for a fantastic 2016!

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy 2016!!

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Happy Holidays! I was in my living room last night, helping Aidan and Maggie (yep, the same two whose namesakes grace the pages of The Gemstone Chronicles series) decorate their Christmas tree (we have 2 – one that is the front window of our house where we place most of the presents and a second one we call the kid’s tree). We put many of our favorite ornaments on the kid’s tree, and it always spurs moments of recollection of when we got the ornaments, why they are special, and then we have to find just the right spot for the ornament to hang. It made me want to share some of our holidays with you, my readers and friends! Without further ado, then, here are some holiday images to share!

First, here is our house, well-lit for Christmas! This year, our relatively new boxwood shrubs are finally large enough to light.

Happy Holidays 2015-Christmas-Lights-Web

I really like our front door, too. Our snowman with his red hat and scarf are a great addition to the decorations!

Happy Holidays Christmas-2015-Front-Door

As I mentioned above, we have 2 trees. This is the tree at the front of the that house shines with the rest of the lighted decor to lend our house a festive glow!

Happy Holidays Christmas-2015-Tree

The kid’s tree is beautifully decorated, too. Some of my favorite decorations on this tree are the Noah’s Ark ornaments.

Happy Holidays 2015-Kid's-Tree-Web

Here are my favorite Noah’s Ark ornaments!

Happy Holidays 2015-Noah's-Ark-1

Happy Holidays 2015-Noah's-Ark-2

Happy Holidays 2015-Noah's-Ark-3

To go along with the season, I want to thank all of you readers out there for visiting my blog, leaving me comments, and reading and reviewing my books. You have no idea how much your comments, connections, and feedback mean to me. Thank you all!!

Connect with me:

If you want to connect with me, I can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads. You can always just drop me an email at bill@williamlstuart.com, too!

Have yourselves a safe and happy holidays and best wishes for a fantastic 2016!

Merry Christmas!!

Gem Hunting in the Southeast US – Where Will I Go??

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Y’all know about my gem hunting hobby and how the gemstones are such an integral part of my fantasy adventure series The Gemstone Chronicles. You also know about my favorite gemstone hunting spot in the North Georgia Mountains. You might have even read about my trip to the Hogg Mountain Mine near LaGrange, GA or the trip to Hiddenite, NC. I hope the posts inspired you to go out on your own gem hunting excursions (or at least read and review my books)! Living in the Southeast, I decided to find new places fairly close to home and consider them for a visit, or share them with y’all in case you want to make a trip! To be fair, I didn’t look at other Southeast US states likes Florida, and Mississippi and Arkansas are a bit far for me (at least for a day trip).

Today, though, I want to give you an overview of places that I have researched on the Internet and where I might have to go for a visit over the next few months. Let’s start right here in Georgia, where I found this emerald and my brother John found the peridot that I had cut and set for a birthday present for the lovely and adorable Lana!

Southeast Lana's-Emerald-Web

Southeast Lana's-Peridot-Ring-Web

North Georgia Mountains:

The North Georgia Mountains have many places to hunt for gemstones (and gold, if you are so inclined).

  • Graves Mountain (Lincoln County, Georgia): According to GeorgiaEnclcyopedia.org, Graves Mountain is a unique geological area filled with some of the finest specimens of kyanite, pyrite, pyrophyllite, rutile, and lazulite. They occasionally open the site to rockhounds, and I intend to be at the next dig!
  • Consolidated Gold Mine (Dahlonega, Georgia): A great place to visit to get an idea of what it was like to dig for gold underground. You can tour the mine and will end up about 140 feet underground. At the end of the tour, you can pan for gold and screen for gems.
  • Crisson Gold Mine (Dahlonega, Georgia): Another gold mine in Dahlonega, you can pan for gold here, too. If you want to, you can sign up to be a member of the Weekend Gold Miners at Crisson Gold Mine and gain access to the leased lands operated by the Weekend Gold Miners and prospect to your heart’s content!

South Carolina:

  • Diamond Hill Mine (Antreville, SC): The website for the Diamond Hill Mine says you can find quartz, amethyst (though rare), and other gemstones. For me, it would be about a 2 hour drive. Hours are 9-5 and no digging after dark. The website has some pictures of finds at the site and they look pretty good. I think I can foresee a road trip!

North Carolina:

I have to say that North Carolina offers many opportunities for gemstone exploration. I will only list a few, but do your own research and find many more!

  • Mason’s Ruby and Sapphire Mine (Franklin, NC): This mine sounds like my kind of place. While they do offer salted buckets, they also offer the opportunity to dig your own dirt and keep what you find. I think this is a place for me! They are open from March 1 – December 1 and a day of digging will cost $30. This is about a 2 hour drive for me, so easily doable for a day trip.
  • Cherokee Ruby Mine (Franklin, NC): Another mine that is now offering dig your own dirt option. This one comes with a little bit of a limitation: for the dig your own option, you can fill 6 buckets for $30 and you can fill 4 additional for $10 more. They do offer a flume to wash off the stones, but the fee seems a bit high for my tastes. The hours are 9 am – 4 pm Monday through Saturday and 10-5 on Sunday. The mine is open May 1 – October 31. The mine is also cash only.

Tennessee:

Other than copper mines around Ducktown and barite mines in other areas, I couldn’t find much about gem mines in Tennessee. Any of you Tennessee readers who want to give us some ideas, it would be greatly appreciated!

Alabama:

Similar to Tennessee, I couldn’t find a lot about gem mines in Alabama, though I did fond some references to gold prospecting. As with the Tennessee folks, any hints you Alabama readers could give us would be appreciated!

For states outside the Southeast, please feel free to give us ideas about gem hunting opportunities near you. I can always try to plan a trip!

Connect with me:

Connect with me on social media at Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, or just email me at bill@williamlstuart.com. You can also subscribe to the blog so you won’t miss a post!

Gleanings from the Atlanta Writers Club!!

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As many of my readers know, I joined the Atlanta Writers Club early this year. I have been attending the monthly meetings regularly and I have learned a ton! Each month we have a couple of guest speakers and a member minute. I try to listen closely and take notes at each session so I can take advantage of the knowledge and experience these authors are sharing.

Ignore the “voices:”

Here are a couple of interesting tidbits from some of the meetings. I realize that many of you may already know these things, but they were new and exciting to me. Patti Callahan Henry was one of the speakers at our last meeting and here was a great takeaway for me. How do you separate from the “voices” in your head that impede your writing progress?

What Patti explained was that each of us as writers have influences in our lives that impact our stories. For instance, what if you’re writing a war scene and soldiers are fighting in hand-to-hand combat and you have to drop the F word as part of the action? And all the time you are thinking that your mother, grandmother, or preacher might read the book. So, you take it out and then put it back in and repeat the cycle. The advice given was to be true to your characters and use the word. As a writer, I understand the dilemma, and as a reader, I would rather have the characters act as they should. In short, I agree with the advice (sorry Mom).

Audiobooks:

Another interesting topic from the meeting was audiobooks. We had a representative from ListenUp Audiobooks in Atlanta give us a presentation on the process of creating an audiobook. Fascinating stuff and so much to learn about how to create my own audiobook for The Gemstone Chronicles! Inspired by the discussion, I consulted some of my author friends to see what experiences they had with their own audiobooks and decided to go for it. I just sent out my request for auditions on ACX and I hope to start hearing narrators reading The Carnelian in the next few days. I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am to hear it!

Atlanta Writers Club The Carnelian Cover

Other perks as a member of the Atlanta Writers Club include the opportunity to interact with agents and editors at twice yearly writer conferences, interact with the other authors who are members of the club, and have many other chances to pick the brains of talented writers from multiple genres. As a relatively new writer, these are golden opportunities to learn and grow as a writer!

This is a small sampling of what I have learned. I know I’ll continue to learn more as I attend upcoming meetings. If you are an author, what writers club(s) do you belong to and what new things have they taught you? If you’re a reader, do you go to writers club meetings to discover new authors and their works? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Connect with me:

If you want to connect with me, I can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and, Goodreads, or just email me at bill@williamlstuart.com. As always, new friends, shares, and comments are welcome!