Our review of Scott’s Tulsa by S.L. Chalmers, a disciplined 1948 noir mystery following PI Wyatt Scott through murder and blackmail in postwar Tulsa.
Author Archives: Gaius Konstantine
Hiding in Plain Sight: Inside #FadingAwayDarkBay by Gaius Konstantine
How pace, place and a handful of characters turned a crime novel into a study of a man who could disappear inside his own life.
The Simple Stuff: Publishing Insight by Gaius Konstantine
You finally finished your first manuscript. Before you query an agent or hit publish, make sure it looks the part, because agents and readers are judging the formatting first.
From the Cell to the Pulpit: Rev. Joaquin R. Larriba’s Remember the Prisoners
Before he was a minister, Rev. Joaquin R. Larriba was, by his own account, a man with a talent for bad decisions. Remember the Prisoners is his account of how he found his way out, and a message of hope for anyone who believes they can’t.
Manuscript Too Short? Why Word Count Can Cost You a Deal: Publishing Insight by Gaius Konstantine (Part 2)
Sent 70,000 words when they asked for 80,000? That shortfall can get you rejected before anyone reads a page. Part 2 of Words That Get You Into Trouble looks at the hidden cost of writing short.
Publishing Insight by Gaius Konstantine
How long should your novel be? Gaius Konstantine explains why word count matters for debut authors, whether you’re querying agents or publishing indie.
Book Review: Bloodbound: Covenant by Noah Raines
Bloodbound Covenant (Book One of the Bloodbound Saga) by Noah Raines leans into that discomfort. Two teenagers meet, seemingly by chance, and are pulled into an old war against ancient enemies. Caleb grows up on a Montana farm with a cold, distant father still marked by Vietnam. A thousand miles away, sixteen-year-old Sofia mourns her father, an ex-cop who died nine years earlier under murky circumstances.
Book Review: The Light of Arunzi by Katelyn Peterson
A darker, more adult cousin of Harry Potter, The Light of Arunzi blends high-magic fantasy with contemporary urban fiction and a multilayered plot with thematic depth and excellent character work.
Book Review: What the Hands Remember
Tiny stories with outsized impact define What the Hands Remember (A Vignette Collection for the Times), an anthology by J.R. Larriba. Ranging from western themes and childhood antics to the folly of trench warfare in World War I (and a brief stop in outer space), these tales are more than an author’s musings; they share common bonds even when they stand apart.
A Cautionary Tale: Reviewing Dalton Wyers’ Arvo
Freedom of choice, reality, and even the question of what it means to be human collide in Arvo, a novel by Dalton Wyers. The setting is the very near future, and for seventeen-year-old Ethan Cole, life is normal—sort of. Like much of the country, Ethan is wired: neuro-integrated with an implant meant to help him live better. The device is not passive. It is a voice in his head, and it may have an agenda that has little to do with his well-being. When an upgrade becomes available, Ethan opts in, only to learn that the decision was never truly his.