Angela VanWell

Author | Reader | Traveler | Tea and Coffee Drinker

Urban Fantasy Author

Inspiring Author of the Week: Caedis Knight

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Vampires of Moscow was published in October 2020. In this paranormal romance suspense ebook (18+), Saskia, a reporter for The Blood Web Chronicle, will do whatever it takes to find her story, including getting close to the Russian vampires, Konstantin and Lukka. In a world where the paranormal community remains hidden and wild, the chronicle publishes exposé to help govern the ungoverned, to protect those victimized, and for Saskia to find her missing sister.

The book is steamy, the protagonist, Saskia, is curious and self-reliant, she uses those characteristics to pursue her story, no matter where it leads her.

As an investigative reporter for The Blood Web Chronicle, the biggest news outlet on the paranormal dark Blood Web, Saskia spends her days cracking twisted para cases hoping that someday, some case, will bring her closer to finding her missing sister.

In snowy Moscow drained corpses of illegal workers have begun to turn up, with hundreds more reported missing. When Saskia is sent on assignment to investigate an oligarch Vampire crime ring that might be behind the deaths, she plans to get in out of the city’s frozen grasp quickly…preferably with her neck intact.

But beautiful ballet dancer Konstantin Volkov and his wildcard brother Lukka complicate things. The vampire brothers have their own reasons for solving the string of murders, reasons that conflict with Saskia’s mission. Soon, Saskia finds herself enmeshed in the city’s glittering web of crime, passion, and violence, where truths and lies are one and the same.

Caedis Knight

The authors do not pull any punches with Saskia’s personality, her smutty sarcastic nature starts on page one. There was no doubt what to expect in the book: a lot of steam. Saskia follows the drained corpses to a dance and sex club in Russia, the Black Rabbit.

There is also a light exposure of undocumented workers and the dangerous world they navigate in hopes to make enough money to move back home. They handled it with a light touch, but exposed how much risk undocumented workers have in the normal and paranormal world.

I could feel the manic movement within the criminal underground in Russia. It brought the characters to life and brought understanding to the more deplorable characters in the book.

I travel through books and have had limited experiences in Russia, it was interesting to travel to the top and bottom tiers of fictitious Russia. The pace of the book was fast, the story dark and graphic. While the story did not make me want to travel to Russia, it was interesting to explore in the book.

They opened the doors in this book. The book includes descriptions of torture, child abuse, and death.

If you like books that move quickly, are a bit naughty with added darkness, then this series is for you. There is a prequel novella already available, and Book 2, Witches of Barcelona came out earlier this year. You can find the Caedis Knight website here.

Happy Reading!

Inspiring Author of the Week: D. N. Erikson

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Lightning Blade, the first book in the Ruby Callaway Collection by D.N. Erikson, was a Bookbub find. I adore strong, snarky female protagonists, and a bounty hunter who has spent the last two decades of her life in an internment camp is no exception. Ruby’s temporary release by FBI agent Colton Roark, ends abruptly when she is killed by the Necromancer he is hunting. And that’s just the beginning.

She awakens back within the walls of the internment camp, a hole the human population places criminal supernaturals, doomed to relive the day again. The Necromancer has set the world in a time loop. One Roark has died in many times before. Ruby made it through over two hundred years of life, only dying once before. She would not let her latest issue kill her repeatedly. If only she could get ahold of her temper to end the time loop before it ends the world.

I know zero about this author other than they write Urban Fantasy books. My normal practice when I start a book review is to research the author, so I can share a link to their website and learn what else they have written along with any other interesting facts. D.N. Erikson has a website, a Bookbub Author page, a Facebook page, and an Amazon Author page, and they all share only information about the books. So I don’t know if the books are autobiographical or pure fun to write. I will leave you to speculate. 😉

What I found is that Ruby started as a side character in The Half Demon Rogue Trilogy, Moon Burn. Ruby’s personal journey continued, starring in the novella Bone Realm, where she fought her way into existence through stubbornness and pragmatism. Traits important when you Bounty Hunter. I have not read the original series they introduced in her, only Lightning Blade and a novella. I seem to have purchased the full collection at some point. (I found it deep, deep in my To Be Read pile), but I have only read the first book in the series so far.

As D.N. Erikson states at the beginning of the Ruby Callaway Collection, “time plays a big role: the passage of it the manipulation of it, the past, how fighting to survive for two hundred years has shaped her approach to living.” This shows through in Lightning Blade, book 1 of the collection. Ruby is stuck in a time loop and intends to find a way out.

Ruby is an unknown to the FBI, but somehow, Colton Roark has found the answers to her name and that she is a Realm farer, having the gift of intuition

I have only watched the time loop trope used in movies and in TV series previously – who doesn’t love Ground Hog Day? But never in a book. Ruby understands immediately what has happened and makes many mistakes and chased vendettas, and she pays for it in pain and blood. For a former bounty hunter, over two hundred years old, she focused on revenge rather than redemption.

Yet, her revenge was immediate, based on who wronged her within the loops. I would have thought she would use the loops to kill the remaining members on her list, repeatedly. Why not follow through with members of the list she now could reach? Or work her way to finding the path to them?

It is a magical future dystopian world, where corporations’ exterior motivation is to defend the human population from the supernaturals who could harm them. Yet, those same corporations are experimenting on the supernaturals for their own research and power. Ruby, while chasing the serial killer Necromancer, questions who the real evil is, and what she and Roark are in the center of.

The book showed Ruby has little trust in others and a lot of built-up rage. Colton Roark’s backstory is still mostly hidden, but his brother is dead and his father is less interested in his sons than the power of the corporation he works for. He follows breath crumbs and puts together information, and has his own set of secret informers. The two trust each other, Ruby through their experiences, Colton because of her knowing information he would only share with someone he trusts. It is a nice beginning. There are a lot of directions the series can go.

There is a free novella if you sign up for D. N. Erikson’s newsletter if you want to check the characters out. You can find that link here.

Happy Reading!

Inspiring Author of the Week: Eoin Colfer

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I worked at a recycling centre with a Take It or Leave It, Book Shed. I wish I had a picture to share, but it was a long time ago. It was a small aluminum building commonly used to hold lawnmowers and garden gnomes. There were three solid walls, and the fourth consisted mostly of the doorway. The shed was popular and frequented by many of the citizens who recycled. We would take turns tidying and organizing the shed, so it was easier for people to search for treasures to read. There were many copies of Artemis Fowl there, and I ended up reading the entire series from the shed. I didn’t have to worry about finding the next book in the series, as the children’s section had a high turnover rate. The city of full of voracious readers.

From the inside of the book jacket:

Artemis Fowl is a child prodigy from Ireland who had dedicated his brilliant mind to criminal activities. When Artemis discovers that there is a fairy civilization below ground, he sees it as a golden opportunity. Now there is a whole new species to exploit with his ingenious schemes. But Artemis doesn’t know as much as he thinks about the fairy People. And what he doesn’t know could hurt him…

Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl

Criminal child mastermind? From Ireland! The front jacket already told me I would get to travel to Ireland and experience the magic from Artemis’s point of view. I loved the idea of a child criminal looking to take advantage of the fairy people and looked forward to experiencing the chaos Artemis was about to unleash.

Unlike the ebook, the paperback books contain the gnomish code at the bottom of the pages. A fun puzzle for those inclined to translate it.

You might notice the water stains at the bottom of the page, I picked this copy up at a used bookstore. Someone previously loved it either in the tub or maybe lakeside, as there was a bit of mould present as well. Don’t worry, I disinfected it:)

Artemis follows in his father’s footsteps as a criminal mastermind. The family fortune gone, Artemis has come up with the most clever of the scheme, to steal the fairy gold. Lacking parental supervision, his father has vanished and his mother mentally ill, Artemis, with support from Butler, his um, butler, searches for the means to refill the family coffers. He discovers fairies are real, finds a sprite who, in exchange for the return of her magic, lets him make a copy of The Book. The Book holds all rules for the fairy world, and with it, he hatches a plan to separate the fairy world from some of its gold.

This book has a fun antihero the reader must remember is twelve years old and therefore makes decisions a pre-teen would make. Solely focused on his own goals, he sets a trap to kidnap and ransom a fairy. Unfortunately for him, Captain Holly Short, a member of the LEPrecon Unit, will not sit quietly while he steals the gold. Holly is my favourite character, followed closely by Foaly, her centaur friend. Will Artemis be able to outsmart the fairy world and take their gold? Will Holly outsmart the boy genius?

From the beginning, I was on Holly’s side. Though Eoin Colfer did a good job of making me sympathize with Artemis and understand his drive to regain the family fortune. An ill mom and a missing dad will do that to you. To take control of his life without his parents, to remind him to consider if he should. Butler and his sister Juliet, both Butlers, were wonderful characters, but in the end, serve the family and therefore cannot be Artemis’s ethical compasses. It is only through his interactions with Holly, Artemis understands there is more to life than wealth and power.

I thought it would be fun to share a translation of the symbols at the bottom of the book. My daughter translated some of it, but this translation is from the Artemis Fandom site. It drove me crazy when I read the book that an important clue was sitting there waiting for me to unravel it.

Goblins shall rise and Haven shall fall.

A villainous elf is behind it all.

To find the one who so disappoints,

Look ye to where the finger points.

Instead of one face, this elf has two.

Both speak false and none speak true.

While publicly he lends a helping hand,

His true aim is to seize command.

Eoin Colfer, translated by Artemis Fowl Fandom

When I heard the movie was coming out, I was overjoyed. I made my daughter watch the teaser often enough that she would roll her eyes when I brought it up. I then forgot about it as the pandemic combined with international living became more challenging. My daughter stayed with her cousins for a few weeks and watched it at their house. I asked, with bated breath, what it everything I hoped it would be? Did they bring the magic to life? Her answer, “It was okay.”

I decided we would watch it again together. After all, I still hadn’t seen it, and seeing it with a different crowd changes how we perceive movies, books, and TV shows. After we watched it together, I knew the truth, she was being kind.

It was not the story I loved. They reduced Butler to a soft butler who didn’t even want to be called Butler, the opposite of the books. It made me want to cry. No-fault lies with the acting. Whoever wrote the screenplay reduced his importance to the detriment of the story. Changing Butler’s sister Juliet to a niece was another loss. She lost her skill set; I missed the old character.

I didn’t even reread the book before the movie; I have made that mistake before. The movie story changes were so obvious, and not for the betterment of the story. I won’t watch any more movies in the series. It seemed they wanted the sole focus on Artemis and forgot the importance of team dynamics. I think ultimately, it will reduce the redemption arc Artemis had in the books, where he learned ethical behaviour and the importance of other people and fairies in his life. If you watched the movie first, prepare for different character development in the books.

Still, I will reread the book series and get the movie out of my head. I enjoyed it the previous times I reread Artemis’s adventures. I am sure I will enjoy them again.

If you are interested in a light adventure with a young male protagonist, I would suggest this series. Although I was not a fan of Artemis, I understood his reasoning and hoped he wouldn’t win the gold, but maybe a family in the end. His growth through the series was fun to watch and Eoin Colfer gave the supporting characters true depth in the book series.

Happy Reading!

Inspiring Author of the Week: Patricia Briggs, River Marked

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Patricia Briggs has been one of my favourite authors of a long time. Her Mercy Thompson Series brought a kindred spirit in a strong female protagonist who is passionately independent yet dependable for her allies. Another piece of Brigg’s writing I enjoy is how she enfolds Native American Folklore into her stories. Mercy’s father’s history is shrouded in mystery, other than he was a cowboy. Beyond that, she only knew he was from Browning, Montana, which made Mercy believe he was of Blackfeet descent. Her introduction of Coyote in River Marked, opened my eyes to the importance of tricksters as a flaunter of the rule and laws of humanity and nature.

My first post of the Mercy Thompson series, found here, focused on Mercy as a character, and I shared my favourite stories in the series. This time I was to share why I love River Marked, her usage of Native American folklore, and the realization I grew up surrounded by their history and took it for granted.

Locations for rock carvings were almost always places of power or mystery—places where the forces of nature were believed to be especially strong.

Wolf carving

Petroglyph Park, BC Parks, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada

As an adult, and an anthropologist, I have learned the value of storytelling and its importance in culture. There is a mix of carvings representing animals; both real and supernatural, wolves and sea wolves, mythical creatures who were part wolf and part killer-whale. Much like the River Devil, “the creature’s face looked a little like a fox—a mutant fox with very big teeth and tentacles. Its body was snakelike. It was like a cross between a Chinese dragon and a fox with the teeth of a wolf eel.” – Patricia Briggs, River Marked

Sea Wolves, at Petroglyph Park, BC Parks, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada

The Great Spirit sent coyote to help the first people who lived near the river. The people were lost and the great river monster was there and wanted to eat him. Coyote, being a trickster, hatched a plan to free the first people from the monster while making it promise to eat no one. In the book, the river monster is back, woken by the fae, and is extremely hungry.

Mercy, with her new husband, Adam, was enjoying alone time on their honeymoon when they came upon the problem. Sent by the fae, warned by Coyote, Mercy will do whatever it takes to beat the River Devil. The story mixes American Indian folklore with European Folklore in a beautiful action story where Mercy and Adam’s life together might end before the honeymoon.

Fully of sarcasm, humour, pain, and trust, the story is character-driven as Mercy deals with the changes in her life while marked by a mythic monster who wants to consume us all. While learning more about who her father really is.

I loved this book as Mercy and Adam do not have the support of the vampires, the fae, or the werewolves at their side. Instead, they learn more about Mercy’s history and the strength of the Great Spirit and Coyote. Mercy handles herself well, and Adam is always there to support her as she comes face to face to the mystery behind her father and his death. It was a beautiful book with vivid descriptions of petroglyphs, pictograms, and history-rich in the blood of the North American Indian Nations.

I have added the area to my bucket list of places to visit and explore in Washington State. Here is a little peek of the Stonehenge setting in the book. Have you visited the area? Have you visited the museum, Stonehenge or Petroglyphs? If so, I would love to hear your stories.

Read the whole series, it is worth it. I can’t wait for the next installation.

Happy Reading!

Camp NANO 2021: Let the Outlining Begin!

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I was writing a twisted retelling of a fairytale shared by W. B. Yeats when I realized today is Friday, March 19th. The date itself is not significant to me personally, but the fact there is only a week smack between two weekends left before Camp nano is. There are two nano camps, one is in April and the next in July. It is a personal writing adventure where each writer chooses their own project, the length of it, and share the experience with friends. So if you are feeling the need to get some words down on paper, electronically, or on papyrus, by all means, join us! You can find the website here.

I haven’t finished rereading the three manuscripts in the series that come before this outline. And, last year being 2020, I spent most of the year between houses since the house we rented was in one country, our household goods somewhere on the ocean, and my family in a third country. It was a challenging year. My paper drafts were somewhere over the ocean, my electronic copies with me, and my ability to concentrate stuck somewhere between them all. We moved out of the Netherlands in December 2019 and to Texas, in the United States of America. My family, including our two cats, arrived within weeks of leaving the Netherlands, while everything else took a leisurely cruise across the ocean.

I was editing the first manuscript. It is amazing how much I forgot and my notes were not with me. I spelt one name four different ways and I really couldn’t remember which way was my original plan. With no home (we were in a temporary apartment in Houston) and no office, I was relying on my memory. And it was not helpful at all. So writing and editing at the beginning of the year was slow. We went to Canada for spring break when the border closed. Once again, I was separated from my books. I only had a few sets of clothes, but it was my books I missed.

In June, I had been without my library for 6 months. It was painful. I have many ebooks, but all of my nonfiction and personal journals are all handwritten. I’d reach for a book, usually found on the shelf beside me, and there was nothing there. It was like losing my best friends. I couldn’t replace my personal journals but some of my resource books I would buy second hand guilt free. With the pandemic shut down occurring, I only had one trip to a Half Price Books and one trip to Barnes & Noble.

I must write my outlines down on paper. I have tried writing them electronically, and I was less creative. I can’t wait to bring that creativity back this week.

Finding books filled with folklore from different countries was much harder than I expected. Local ghost stories, no problem. Modern fairytales, you bet, original folklore and fairytales, sadly missing. I rebuilt parts of my collection with new editions and local flavour. I editing my first manuscript and had a friend read through the draft and offer feedback. It sat again. Mostly because I flew back to my new host country to finish unpacking the house and my wonderful journals and books. I then scooped them into my husband’s car and drove them up to Canada. Now I, my old journals and books, and new books were reunited. I had no more excuses and continued to edit. All was well until my daughter’s computer died and I gave her mine during the day for school. It was great for reading, terrible for editing.

Who in the world am I? Ah, that’s the great puzzle!

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Life happens. There is never the right time for anything. Expect now. Now I must reread all the manuscripts, as once again I am in a different country than my outlines. So this time, I will read through, try only to take notes to create a new outline, not edit. I will carry my new outlines no matter where I go. I will be like Sheldon on the Big Band Theory carrying around his emergency kit, except mine will be filled with my prized pens and notebooks. Never shall we be separated again. I will see how it goes!

This means I must choose wisely my inspiring author of the week next week as I will spend most of my time reading my own books. It will interest to see who I choose.

Can you read new books when you are working on a project? Or do you reread books you know will get you in the right mood and frame of mind?

I found this quote when I was reading W.B. Yeats last week and it has stuck with me. Happy Reading!

It is only the spirits who are too bad for heaven, and too good for hell, who are thus plagued. They are compelled to obey some one they have wronged.

Lady Wilde, Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry

Inspiring Author of the Week: Ilona Andrews

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Yes, you who have been with me for a while are correct, I already shared Ilona Andrews as an Inspiring Author. Why have I brought the duo back so soon? Women’s Independence Day! I love the Innkeeper Chronicles and the independent females who take on what scares them most to reach their ultimate goals, find and create a family.

They use Earth as the crossroads of the Galaxy. As the crossroads between wormholes and dimensional gateways, Earth has a lot of unique visitors and needed a place for them to stay during their travels. Enter the Innkeepers. The Inn and the Innkeeper have the extraordinary power to cater to all of their guests’ needs, be it a Vampire castle or a specialized chicken coop, while maintaining their secrets from humanity.

Dina Demille grew up in an Inn and became an Innkeeper herself. As she focuses on bringing the long-abandoned Inn back to life, Dina is desperate for magical guests. Although she had a long-term tenant, who incidentally has a bounty on her head, Dina must keep her tenant safe while dealing with space vampires, werewolf soldiers, and bounty hunters.

Dina spent the last few years searching the Galaxy for her parents and their missing inn. At last, she realized another way she might find them was through the guests at her own inn, Gertrude Hall. Something unworldly is attacking the dogs in her neighbourhood and Dina gets involved.

This was a territorial kill, left for everyone to find — look how bad and clever I am.

Ilona Andrews, Clean Sweep

I am a huge fan of both sci-fi and fantasy stories. Books that can include the best elements of both are my favourite. The new and enticing use of magic in my world, the visitation of aliens, even if they are space vampires. They see Earth as not a particularly interesting place, except for its location. I think Clean Sweep and the rest of the Innkeeper Chronicles fit my criteria well. Dina is a magic-filled human. She has the same challenges as many new business owners; she needs to find her clientele to maintain her business. Who can’t relate to that? The quirky fun is that her inn, Gertrude Hall, is somewhat sentient, and her guests are unique and more violent. She is also a good neighbour and doesn’t like that some alien entity with claws is killing the neighbourhood dogs. I wouldn’t either.

International Women’s Day

is a great day for me to celebrate examples of independent female characters in fiction. Why does it make me think of Dina? She is young, alone, and made hard choices in her life. At first, she thought she wanted to be an average human to fit in. Then, when she lost her parents and no one could explain how or why, Dina and her brother searched the Galaxy for answers. When she still did not find them, she focused on an Inn to draw the answers to her instead of searching for them. Not once did she give up. She focused completely on her desire to find her parents and made her choices independently.

No matter if there was a sexy vampire or a stubborn werewolf interested in her, she moved forward with what she knew was best for her and meeting her goals. She also learned her own blind spots through the series and learned to compromise where it made sense and to hold to her standards the rest of the time.

Maud, her sister and the protagonist in the second trilogy of the Innkeeper Series, is no slouch either. A skilled warrior, poet, and survivor of the most savage vampire-held planet, she trusts no one outside of her family. After she, and her daughter, are rescued by her sister, she learns there are others she can trust, if she can open her heart.

Vampire worldview, condensed into three sentences: If it’s not food or a pet, kill it, it might be poisonous.

Ilona Andrews, Sweep of the Blade

I love both sisters and their survival instincts. I cannot wait for the next book in Maud’s journey. If you are interested in learning more about the Demille sisters, you can find their information here.

Happy Reading!