Angela VanWell

Author | Reader | Traveler | Tea and Coffee Drinker

Inspiring Authors

Inspiring Author of the Week: Neil Gaiman

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I explored the worlds created by Neil Gaiman without knowing his name. More than a decade ago I worked at an Environmental Centre. A depot for people to drop off items for recycling and reuse. Our most popular reuse items were contained within a garden shed. It was its only mini free bookstore.

Neil Gaiman’s retelling of the Norse myths

This was a time before Little Libraries popped up in neighbourhood parks. Before there was much commerce for ebooks. Instead, there were new bookstores, used bookstores, and the reuse shed.

As an employee of the Environmental Centre one of our duties was to keep the book shed tidy. Nicely place the books in shelves so people felt welcome to explore genres they had never experienced before. One of my early finds was Stardust.

I explored the town of Wall. A town built on granite, and west of an old stone wall from which the town was named. There is one opening in the wall, not far from the town, and through it the townspeople could see a meadow, a stream, trees, and strange things. No one dare go over there. To ensure the residents and travellers stay on the correct side of the wall, the opening has been guarded for hundreds if not thousands of years.

Every nine years on May Day, there was a Faerie Market. Coloured tents were raised, stalls erected, and the villagers and visitors were welcome to cross the wall into the meadow where the market was held. It was a place oddities and wonders.

Tristan Thorn is a young villager who had lost his heart to a local village girl. He vows to bring her back a fallen star that has fallen on the far side of the wall to prove his love. On that journey he learns there is magic, darkness, and a greater adventure than he could imagine.

I loved the book, but I am partial to dark fairytales. How not everything turns out as you hoped and the evil are truly evil. I also loved the movie. They each are distinct from the other, the movie more Happily Ever After as Hollywood prefers. The book was beautifully written and easy to read. It was after I read the book I started to look for more of Neil Gaiman’s books.

I then found Neverwhere and the Graveyard Book. Each distinct and unworldly in a different way. With the birth of my daughter I then was introduced to Caroline. Also dark and fantastical in different ways. My daughter continues to love the movie today and it is always on her Halloween watch list.

My latest purchase was Neil Gaiman’s retelling of Norse Myths. I am a collector of folktales, fairytales, and mythology, so this book fit right in. I own a copy of the Poetic Edda & Prose Edda, Saemund Sigfusson & Snorri Sturluson’s edition, and wanted to see how Neil Gaiman word smithed the myths.

Unlike his other books I have enjoyed, this one is more inline with my other books of folktales. What I enjoy about it is the world building as he introduces us to the lands of the Norse belief system and then places the characters in it. His writing is clear and engaging, a great way for someone to be introduced to Norse Mythology.

You drank enough to take the ocean level down, to make tides. Because of you, Thor, the seawater will rise and ebb forevermore.

Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman

I implore you, if you have not already, read something Neil Gaiman has written. His writing will take you on a journey into myth and magic. Happy reading!

Inspiring Author of the Week: Faith Hunter

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I found Faith Hunter’s books in the also-bought on Amazon after buying the Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson Series. I read the blurb for Skinwalker and decided to give the vampire-filled world a chance. It turned out to be an action adventure filled with dark magic, blood, and deceit.

Jane Yellowrock is a shapeshifting skinwalker, her motto is Have Stakes Will Travel. And that is the best synopsis about her attitude towards life and vampires. She lives on the road, moving to the next job. Maybe it is because she never had a real home. People say she was raised by wolves, but she doesn’t remember the first twelve years of her life before she walked out of the woods.

Now Jane is a professional rogue vampire hunter and has been hired by a brothel madam vampire, Katherine. Fontaneau, to remove the rogue vampires hunting her territory in New Orleans, Louisiana. This is the first time Jane had been hired by vampires she is usually paid to kill, and it stirs up a whole new pile of danger.

The book series follows Jane as she works for and against the vampires of New Orleans, depending on the stakes. Through the the series Jane realizes her history is intwined with that of the vampires. The longer she stays, the more she learns, but she loses pieces of herself through it all. Unlike, Mercy. Thompson, Patrica Briggs coyote shifter, Jane seems to get hurt often by the ones she loves.

I consider this series Dark Fantasy due to Jane’s continued betrayal by those she cares about and works for. She keeps taking beatings and I am not sure if she can walk away. She is so desperate to belong somewhere, even if she hasn’t realized it yet. If you are looking for a series with a happily ever after, I am not sure this will be the one. I am currently reading Book 8, Broken Soul where Jane takes on a riskier contract, one that comes dangers that are not vampire in nature, in fact, it is nothing she can see.

I enjoy the action and the unique take on a skinwalker who can turn into any mammal she had the bones for. It opens up more possibilities for her to find more truths while increasing the risk to her personally if she is unable to change back. It is another binge-worthy series. Happy reading!

Inspiring Author of the Week: JF Penn

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I came to JF Penn, or Jo Frances Penn or Joanna Penn’s dark fantasy through her Arkane, action adventure thriller series. She uses her theological and psychology background to weave together pieces of human history and the darkest fears and acts of humanity.

The Mapwalker Series continues with the exploration of human history with the added twist of magic. The first instalment, Map of Shadows, takes place in Bath, England and in another realm: the Borderlands. The Borderlands are the pieces of Earth that we choose to forget or ignore. The darkest parts of our pass and the dark secrets we hide in the shadows.

The story begins in Bath where Sienna Farren inherits her grandfathers map shop upon his death. What she inherits is more than a shop, it is an obligation to protect the Earth from the Borderlands. This is news to Sienna who knew nothing of her families past. She is thrust into a dark adventure and learns that her family is an integral part of Earth’s survival as we know it.

I am a newer reader in the dark fantasy genre. But when I took into account J.F. Penn’s background, it should not have been a surprise the darker parts of history she was able to pull her story through. There were enough true historical details– who knew there was an island off of Newfoundland, Canada called Isle of Demons???–to engage me in the story. The writing is fast, dark, with a tinge of romance added in. I don’t really think it needed any romance, but then it opens more opportunities to spin the story into different directions in future books in the series. Having read only the first book in this series so far, I am guessing at what the second story will include.

Quotes from Map of Shadows

It is the perfect time of year to get lost in such dark adventures where the world is at stake. Samhain, All Hallows’ Eve, and Día de Muerto, all days where many believe the veil between the living and the dead has thinned. In the Mapwalker Series, J.F. Penn has spun a similar veil between us and the forgotten and hidden. While merriment and prayer are the traditional celebration, her stories are filled with blood and sacrifice.

There is a lot of gore, violence against women (off the page), intriguing pieces of history, and an exploration of darker pieces of humanity wound through the urban fantasy thriller. Be prepared as it is not for the feint of heart.

Inspiring Author of the Week: Patricia Briggs

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Patrica Briggs writes one of my favourite characters, Mercy Thompson. Why do I enjoy Mercy so much? She is a wonderful female protagonist. Strong spirited and whole hearted, Mercy Thompson’s series begins with Mercy in her early thirties. Old enough to have earned some wisdom and emotional scars, but young enough to believe in the good in those around her.

Mercy and I were the same age, with different scars, but it was easy to connect with a character who took an interesting degree, hers in History, mine in Anthropology, yet realizing after the fact there wasn’t a lot of jobs available requiring that degree.

While she worked at and eventually owned a garage, I can change my car’s oil and that is about it, her series focus is all about character. Mercy had the equal amounts of fortune/misfortune to be brought up along side the Marrok’s wolf pack. Fortunate, as she had a loving family and intimate knowledge of the non-human elements of society, unfortunate because she never belonged. Wolves didn’t want or need a coyote in their pack.

Fine by her, she set out on her own and made her own pack, filled with friends and family that continues to grow as the series progresses. Moon Called is the first book in the series where a half-starved young werewolf arrives at the garage looking for a job which ends him, Mercy, and the local wolf pack Alpha, Adam in a whole lot of trouble. With lives on the line, Mercy has no choice but to turn to the wolf pack, who rejected her, for help. as is the way with life, everything gets more difficult from there on.

Through the first book, and the remainder of the series I have read to date, Mercy continues to find her way through her chaotic, magic-filled world. She gains allies, love, and enemies, but always holds onto who she is.

Smoke Bitten, Book 12 in the Mercy Thompson Series

The main series is up to Book 12, Smoke Bitten, out in March of 2020. I enjoyed it, as I have everyone book in the series. If you are knew to the series, that means you have 12 wonderful books to binge! I envy you.

My current favourite book in the Mercyverse is the Shifting Shadows Anthology (The main image above). I have spent so many years getting to know Mercy and her crew, it was nice to enjoy stories about her friends and family. Patricia Briggs has built a wonderful cast of characters, unique, wounded, and heart felt. Each of their life experiences make them integral to the stories and are brought together to fight evil in a way that only Mercy can do. She is the glue in it all. When I need a quick read with a uplifting story, this is the anthology I turn to.

The Latest Anthology Patricia Briggs as a story in.

Patricia Briggs has another series in the Mercyverse called Alpha Omega. It focuses on the wolf pack Mercy was raised in. The short story in the Fantastic Hope Anthology is about Asil, an old wolf whose frenemies are playing a game with him and sending him on blind dates. This will be Asil’s third date and it is filled with the wit, vanity, and violence a reader would expect from him. I met Asil in the Mercy Thompson Series as he was sent to help Mercy in Frost Burned.

Enjoy your binge reads and let me know which of Patricia Briggs characters you enjoy the best! Happy reading.

Inspiring Author of the Week: Jenn Stark

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Jenn Stark’s Immortal Vegas Series, follows Tarot Card reader, Sara Wilde as she joins the Vegas Connected community. Her personal goal is to save the children who are the victims of the illegal sell of their magic, but to save them, she needs resources; a whole lot of money. She is hired by the Arcane Council, to find magical items, and more often then not, a whole lot of trouble. The series follows Sara as she searches for magical items and learns about the darkness that is also a part of her world. Where she makes allies and enemies in her search to create a safe place for the innocent and to stop the evil festering wound in her world.

I was trying to remember when I found this series, and cannot. All I remember is reading Book 1: Getting Wilde and loving the fresh take on urban fantasy. The idea the Arcane Council and members of the Connect, (magical), community were situated in Las Vegas made total sense to me. Where else could they all perform magic and be themselves without being called out for appearing different? Where else could there be a second level of fantastical housing above the already magical Vegas buildings, that only those who are a part of the Connected community could see?

The Immortal Vegas series is a series I want to read when I am in the mood for a darker adventure. When I yearn to feel disquiet brought on my a magical tale where magical children are hunted so others can abuse and use their magic. Over a decade ago, I was at a fundraiser where a child in our world was used and abused by the adults around her. She shared her story and how the new people in her life, lawyers who were fighting for the rights of the underaged and abused, removed her from the dark and poisonous world she had been brought up in. How it was the few people who made the difference and gave her a chance to have a life where her basic needs, including safety and trust, were met. These books bring me to a lighter version of that memory. It is an imagined story and imagined victims, but after meeting a true victim with real heroes in her life, I connected with it.

There is also a lot of snark, action, and at the time I found the series, the new world of Tarot Card reading. And I loved how well Jenn Stark put it all together. If you want to learn more about Tarot Card reading, learn more on Ms. Starks page here.

I also need to mention, there is a slow burn romance that occurs between Sara and the Magician. Slow burn romances are my favourite. The frustration and challenges of new romances in desperate times. Sara has had enough pain in her past to be extra careful, and to some extent, look for magical support in fighting off the feelings she is having. All smart plans when the one focused on you has immense power. There are also other delectable characters and a spin off series with Demon Enforcers, fallen angels, who are released to this world and are left to find their place, and maybe love, along the way.

I have yet to start Wilde Justice, the newer series staring Sara Wilde. I have the first book, The Red King, but with so many books coming out at that time, I bought it, but did not read it. The good news is, there are now six books available in the series when I have time to binge read them all. And I will! I think it will be the perfect series to enjoy as the autumn air turns crisp outside and I hide under a blanket on my couch.

The Red King, reading on my couch shortly!

Inspiring Author of the Week: Cassandra Claire

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Filled with magic, suffering, love with all its wonder, and a lot of action, Cassandra Clare’s books continue to inspire me. She explores depths of emotion as her characters fight to find who they really are and who and what they cannot live without.

As with many fans, I started with the Immortal Instruments. I love the relationships between the characters and how they grow together. The young shadow hunters are thrust into wars of old, where past grudges and secrets propel Clary and her friends to risk themselves to save the people they love and to find the truth. These books are the reason I enjoy reading Young Adult. I loved the books, especially because the characters acted their ages. And, although Clary and Jace were fun to follow, I prefer Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood’s journey. The old soul in love with the young one who was just finding himself, those two captured my heart.

I was very excited when I found out she was following through with their relationship and the adventures the two of them would go on. That Magnus was alive well before the books and had set in progress other challenges, such as a demon-worshiping cult, that he must now track down and stop. Or finding the stolen Book of the White with an injured Magnus. Whatever trouble they are in, they will get through it together. There is the perfect amount of action, love, secrets, and trust to pull anyone through their adventures.

The Infernal Devices

Cassandra Clare

Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince, and Clockwork Princess make up the Infernal Devices trilogy. This trilogy goes back in time when the Shadowhunters were a connection of old families that believed all Downworlders were beneath them. Where the separation of humans from the Downworlders was rigidly kept by the Shadowhunters. New to London is Tessa, who is kidnapped upon her arrival. She finds out she is a Downworlder and is taught, under duress, to use her rare ability to transform.

Hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of London. The series weaves its way through Great Britain as Tessa helps the Shadowhunters in exchange for helping her find her missing brother. Tessa is caught between her brother and the darkness he has chosen to be a part of and her new friends. Love is on the line either way.

As a fan, I was caught in the struggle that was tearing Tessa apart. She was brought up with the understanding family comes first, but how can she reconcile it with the truth she sees in London? And beyond that, Tessa is drawn to bonded Shadowhunters, Will and James, both who she feels a connection with, but she does not want to tear them apart. This is one of my favourite love triangles. All three are good people with deep wounds who want the best for each other.

The Dark Artifices

Cassandra Clare

Another beloved series is The Dark Artifices. More young struggling Shadowhunters that are trying to save the world even if it is tearing them apart. So much love and pain contained inside these characters. My heart hurt as I made my way through the series.

There is so much amazing character development, storylines, and the realization there is more grey then black and white in the world. A great way to get a feel for the characters is to go on Cassandra Clare’s blog and enjoy the excerpts and extras she has posted there.

Have you found an author whose characters capture you so well? If so, please share! Happy reading.