Game Design Blogs

After a promising debut novel, an almost forgotten second novel, and no shot at publishing his third book, Jacob Finch Bonner finds himself teaching in a pay-to-play MFA program. He’s got a plot idea that’s so good the writing won’t There’s so much tension here, as Jacob knows he’s stolen his best book, and it really is a great book. I mean, I didn’t exactly want Jacob to be rewarded with a bestseller for being such a half-hearted writing teacher and plot-thief, but I also didn’t

Evelyn doesn’t dare mention this in public, both because of the very real social penalties women face for badmouthing an ex, and because she’s pretty sure he took advantage of her research to build his new wife. Martine, the cloned wife, has been made with most of Evelyn’s features, but with changes designed to make her a better wife. The book continues to ask wild, wide, and thrilling specfic questions through the events of the story: Is a clone of murderer, who didn’t commit murder or remember murdering anyone, evil? Again, I wondered how the complicated relationships and the crimes were all going to resolve, whether Martine and Evelyn would get away with it, whether a certain alcoholic ex-assistant would become a liability, and what Evelyn would do about that, what would happen with the clones’ lifespans and Violet, what Evelyn would do next, etc.

Each prompt tosses readers into a dramatic scene, either a conflict or a major turning point in a character’s life, and then asks the reader/writer to finish the conflict or explain how our characters ended up at this point. While the prompts in Spark Jr had middle grades themes like magic, school bullies and new friends, these prompts are fully adult. — these story sparks work mostly by alluding to the dramatic events that led to this moment, and then inviting readers/writers to use their natural reader’s curiosity to start a new writing project. There’s a completely wild range of styles and situations here, perfectly chosen to inspire a stuck writer into a different style or to just try something new as a reset before going back to your current WIP.

At the beginning of the novel, Louise “works as a barista at this coffee shop that turns into a wine bar at night, and also writes for this e-commerce site called GlaZam that sells knockoff handbags, and is also an SAT tutor. I’m fine with murder and hiding the murder in a great suspense story like this one, but actually disposing of the body… eeew. Without giving away the ending or even too much about the crime,  I can at least say that I just loved the suspense as the murderer kept up the victim’s social media accounts, and laid an alibi in inspirational quote, fake travel pictures and check-ins. Social Creatures uses Manhattan ambition and desperation to set up a page-turning thriller with a dark crime and a twisted cover-up.

I already expected to love The Obsession, a suspenseful story about a twisted high school “romance. Instead of playing with the beats of a romance for a story about murder and obsession, this time Sutanto starts with a murder for a story about family and love. The murder definitely propels all the action in this novel (or was it really started by Meddy’s mom, worried about her perpetually-single daughter?), but as the aunties try to hide the body and keep Meddy out of trouble, it becomes more of a family comedy. When Meddy’s aunts aren’t disposing of a body and hiding the evidence of murder, they run a family wedding business where Big Auntie bakes wedding cakes, Second Aunt does bridal makeup

(Penelope Harris Mystery #2), by E. W. Cooper, is a historical murder mystery set in 1920s Manhattan. If you haven’t read the first Penelope Harris book, The Jade Tiger, it’s still easy to pick up Murder at the Met and understand the plot. Penelope feels loyalty to the daughters she met earlier that day, and finds herself pulled into an investigation instead of canoodling with Thom. (Penelope Harris Mystery #2) is by E. W. Cooper and will be released by Ink Dog Press on April 8, 2021.

The Second First, the third book in R. C. Ducantlin’s popular Aalborinn series, comes out on Friday. Bonnie is known across the galaxy as: Aalborinn, Daughter of the Redeemer, First Daughter of the Plentari. Mari, who deliberately sat at the opposite end of the table to avoid her need to grab and hug Josh, decided to speak. Aalborinn’s aura mildly increases in anticipation of the answer from the AI.

Land of Big Numbers, by Te-Ping Chen, is a collection of short stories blending moments of everyday Chinese life with magical elements or extreme elements, constantly reflecting on what we owe to each other, in families or communities, with wild personal joys and heavy personal secrets. When a bite of the new fruit makes her blush, her inner life is revealed, or maybe it’s just the idea that an auntie has an inner life that’s revealed. But Land of Big Numbers is a short story collection that reflects on community obligations and personal joys, so New Fruit also hints at how many quiet neighbors have dark memories from this time. A village dreamer invents strange robotic creations, a train-load of commuters is trapped in a station for weeks on end, siblings take wildly different, unpredictable paths but both discovering twists revealing different sides of current Chinese life.

I read and reviewed Amos Towles’ thoughtful specfic short, You Have Arrived At Your Destination I was interested in reading the short story You Have Arrived At Your Destination after reading Amor Towles’s engrossing novels Rules of Civility and A Gentleman in Moscow. Of course, this speculative fiction short story You Have Arrived At Your Destination is quite different in tone, genre, almost everything, but you can still see Towles’s wonderful eye for detail in creating the story and the world. This short story presents a very near, very realistic future in which prospective parents can choose not just the gender or hair color of their future child, but a lot of their personality attributes, too.

In Firekeeper’s Daughter, by Angeline Boulley, teenage Daunis Fontaine is an unenrolled Ojibwe tribe member, which means learning the ceremonies, attending dances, remembering the prayers, and speaking the Ojibwe language, but not having a vote on tribal matters or receiving the per-cap money from the tribal casino. A chance to work as an undercover informant could help her get justice for her friend and safety for others in the community, but it’ll also mean keeping secrets from those closest to her and maybe revealing community information to outsiders. Firekeeper’s Daughter is a solid mystery, with sleuthing and science combining with respect for the community. Firekeeper’s Daughter was an engrossing coming-of-age and mystery story, in modern Native life.