A Realm Makers 2021 Recap Costume banquet with my daughter. Photo by Ralene Burke In keeping with my previous blog posts, the title is based on a song. And yes, I went there. "Friends" is the 1980s church camp staple by Michael W. Smith. All I have to do is hear the song, and I'm… Continue reading Friends
Author: Gretchen E K Engel
Chemical engineer by day, spec fiction writer by night
BookTube Review of Keen by Laura L Zimerman
I fell in love with the Keen book cover and the rest is history. I received an ARC of Keen and devoured it. The characters are so much fun. Aubree, Seamus, and Oliver are Caoine's first real friends and all hold secrets of their own. They help her discover if being a banshee is a gift or… Continue reading BookTube Review of Keen by Laura L Zimerman
Heart of the Curiosity Interview with H.L. Burke
I had the pleasure of receiving an ARC of Heart of the Curiosity. Once I had it in hand, that day was shot. I could not put it down. It's my favorite book of 2019 and it's going to be hard to unseat. Click here for my spoiler-free YouTube BookTube review. I also had… Continue reading Heart of the Curiosity Interview with H.L. Burke
The Cost of Honesty
The answer is not much. Today I accidentally shoplifted or almost did. Thankfully my husband noticed while loading the car. How it went down. We did the usual post-church Walmart run. I picked up two plastic storage drawer units and had the cashier scan it from the cart because they were awkward. I'd picked up… Continue reading The Cost of Honesty
I Have Found Me A (Second) Home
Summer has come. There are so many signs where I live. The temperatures hit in the 70s and 80s. We sleep with our windows open. I change out my boots for Converse All-Stars and flip-flops. And we welcome the influx of "summer visitors". There's a marked increase in traffic. We have festivals and a farmer's market. Our… Continue reading I Have Found Me A (Second) Home
Save the Best for Last
Next to speculative fiction and young adult, historical novels are my favorite genre, especially Gilded Age and WWII. Dawn Crandall writes romantic historical suspense novels. Her Everstone Chronicles center around a wealthy New England family. Her first novel, The Hesitant Heiress, is the story of Amaryllis Brigham and her second, The Bound Heart, is the story… Continue reading Save the Best for Last
Kokomo
I'm going on vacation this week. Knowing that I borrow most of the titles of my blog posts from song titles, you're probably picturing me on a sandy beach in front of blue-green ocean. Nope. My destination isn't the fictional Caribbean Island but the real-life location (at least in the metaphorical sense). I'm spending the week back in my… Continue reading Kokomo
I (Don’t) Want Your Sex
I'm not even close to being an uptight prude, but really I could do without graphic sex scenes in books. And no, I'm not talking about 50 shades of erotica. I'm talking about otherwise good books with too many gory details. I've been married for over fifteen years and have two biological children, so I'm hardly… Continue reading I (Don’t) Want Your Sex
I Want Candy
I love candy, but I'm kind of picky. One of my all time favorite candies are Wild Cherry Nerds. They were discontinued sometime in the 1980s. Before then, you could get a Wild Cherry Nerds Blizzard. That was ice cream heaven and my size 5, teenage body could accommodate such indulgences. Last summer we visited… Continue reading I Want Candy
Stuck in the Middle with You
Clowns and jokers--OH MY! Between measles outbreaks, the Super Bowl, and yoga pants, there's been a lot of fodder to feed the wackos the past few weeks. There are some seriously cray-cray websites out there. One site cast Katy Perry as a figure straight from Revelation. This site has some other predictions that could only have been pulled… Continue reading Stuck in the Middle with You
Gretchen E K Engel 