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All the book reviews

Laura Perry

Dec 26, 2016
3 min

All the book reviews

I'm an avid reader; I guess that comes with the territory, since I'm also a writer. Over the years I've reviewed a lot of books, both fiction and non-fiction, Pagan and otherwise. Those reviews are scattered over several different blog sites so they're not always easy to find. I thought I'd make it easy for you and collect them all up in one place. In addition to the reviews I've posted on my blog (and that I've listed below), I also write for Facing North, an enormous websit

Dragons! A book cover reveal, that is

Laura Perry

Dec 3, 2016
2 min

Dragons! A book cover reveal, that is

Are you tired of the dragon always being the bad guy? My lovely writer friend Maya Starling has written a different kind of dragon story, and has graciously allowed me to share her cover reveal with you. The wording from the book's back cover pretty much says it all: She was the girl who longed for the freedom of the dragon, and he was the dragon who longed to be a man. A heroine reclaiming her fate. A dragon with a secret. A prince on a quest. Olivia flees to the forest seek

The Writer's Life: On Being a Jill of All Trades

Laura Perry

Nov 2, 2016
3 min

The Writer's Life: On Being a Jill of All Trades

Either you do it yourself or you pay someone to do it for you, and sometimes both. That's pretty much the way it works these days. What the heck am I talking about? Being a writer, of course. Way back when I was a naive, innocent little writer wannabe, I had some grandiose notions about sitting in front of my typewriter (yes, I'm that old) and punching out stories, novels, fabulous words strung one after another that people would just be dying to read. And not having to do an

Win a copy of my new novel!

Laura Perry

Sep 7, 2016
1 min

Win a copy of my new novel!

I've just published my second novel, The Bed, and I'm giving away two free copies to celebrate! What's it about? It's a novel about ghosts, magic, demons, angels...and old furniture. The main character's name is Liz. Liz just wants a happy birthday. Is that too much to ask? A beautiful antique bed: Her birthday present to herself. The nice delivery men set it up in her bedroom and then all Hell breaks loose. Literally. Her family is the usual pain in the you-know-where and he

Writing All the Ideas

Laura Perry

Jul 27, 2016
2 min

Writing All the Ideas

I've written a lot of books and I'm still writing. People often ask me where I get the ideas for my fiction and non-fiction; the implication is that ideas are hard to come by. I can tell you, the reality is that ideas spring up like mushrooms after a rainstorm. They're everywhere. A snippet of overheard conversation. A photo on a billboard. A personal life situation. I've even written books on request - that's what happened with Labrys and Horns, which my Minoan spirituality

Don't quit your day job

Laura Perry

Jun 8, 2016
3 min

Don't quit your day job

When people find out I'm a writer, they tend to tell me I'm lucky. "Oh, you get to stay home all day doing what you love!" "Wow, I wish I had it that easy." They have no idea. It would be great if I got to spend every day writing. I'd probably finish three books a year with time left to spare. But that's not how it works, especially not these days. The publishing world has changed dramatically since my first book hit the bookstores in 2001. For one thing, I got advances on my

Book Review: New Order - Night Runner III

Laura Perry

May 4, 2016
3 min

Book Review: New Order - Night Runner III

More vampires! Actually, the same ones I've reviewed before here and here. New Order is the last book in the Night Runner trilogy, a twisting-and-turning tale of some rather unusual vampires. As I've mentioned before, these are teenage vampires, but they don't sparkle and they can all very clearly think for themselves, including the female ones. It's going to be tricky reviewing this book without giving any spoilers, but I don't think it would ruin anything to let you know th

Sealed with a ... seal

Laura Perry

Apr 20, 2016
1 min

Sealed with a ... seal

Most of the people in ancient Crete couldn't write, but they did have a way to sign their name, in a manner of speaking: seals. Find out more about these unique gold and stone objects that are so iconic of Minoan civilization in today's Minoan Path blog post: Sealed with a ... seal To join the discussion about modern Minoan Paganism, hop on over to Ariadne's Tribe. #minoan #history #culture #writing #crete #symbolism

Book Review: Throwing Stones

Laura Perry

Apr 13, 2016
2 min

Book Review: Throwing Stones

I've just had the pleasure of reading a lovely book by Robin Reardon. Throwing Stones is, more than anything, a coming-of-age story about a young man who, like many of us these days, finds it difficult to truly be himself in a society that judges us for everything from our sexual orientation to our belief systems. The main character, Jesse Bryce, must contend against not just a family but a whole town that finds his homosexuality baffling and repellent. I'm sure there are ple

What does a book mean?

Laura Perry

Mar 11, 2016
2 min

What does a book mean?

Back in high school, my English teacher liked to give us a form to fill out for each book we read. It listed the obvious bits – author, title, genre – but one of the blanks to fill in was labeled ‘Theme.’ That one always drove me nuts, trying to figure out what the author meant by writing the book. Now that I’m looking at it from the other side, as an author, I can see there’s way more to this subject than just filling in a blank. Ray Bradbury famously stormed out of book rea

Book Review: End of Days

Laura Perry

Mar 9, 2016
2 min

Book Review: End of Days

More vampires! Or rather, more of the twisted tale about these vampires, in the second volume of the Night Runner trilogy. First of all, let me point out that this is Young Adult fiction and yes, I read YA fiction regularly. There's a lot of good lit out there under the YA label, and this one definitely counts as good lit. It's not dumbed-down or naive, and the story shines without resorting to steamy sex scenes or gratuitous violence. Quite refreshing, really. So yes, vampir

How Writers Write: The Perils of Working from Home

Laura Perry

Feb 24, 2016
3 min

How Writers Write: The Perils of Working from Home

I wrote my first novel during slow times at a deathly boring office job. It was awful - the novel, that is. I never published it or even showed it to anyone. Actually, the job was pretty awful, too, but that's beside the point. Here's the thing: It was easy to write that novel because I was already in Work Mode, stuck at a desk, with no Internet connection and nothing else to do. When I shifted to working from home, writing wasn't so easy any more. Now, some of the difficulti

Night Runner: a way with vampires

Laura Perry

Jan 13, 2016
2 min

Night Runner: a way with vampires

I have to admit to feeling ambivalent about vampires. The various iterations of Bram Stoker's Dracula (the book and the movies) entranced me as a teenager and a young adult. But then it seemed like the world was flooded with vampires: sexy vampires, sparkly vampires, psycho vampires, vampires bent on world domination. According to Wikipedia, by the year 2005, Dracula had been the subject of more movies than any other single fictional character. So you might say I was getting

The Tao of Travel

Laura Perry

Dec 2, 2015
1 min

The Tao of Travel

The lovely folks at Outer Travels - Inner Journeys interviewed me about how traveling inspires my writing and art. Check out the article to find out which trip triggered me to write my first novel and where I'd like to go next: The Tao of Travel - The Way of the Spiritual Traveller with Laura Perry Where have you traveled that inspired you in some way? #spirituality #culture #maya #writing

Why I Don't Give Bad Reviews

Laura Perry

Nov 4, 2015
3 min

Why I Don't Give Bad Reviews

I’m sort of a public figure so people send me books to review or to write endorsements for. I also trade books with other authors and I receive books directly from the publishers to review on Facing North. I’m always happy to help other authors extend their publicity reach. In this noisy world, every little bit helps. But I rarely – very rarely – give bad reviews, and that confuses some people. That’s not to say that I lie when I review items. I never lie. The simple fact is,

Authors and the people who put up with them

Laura Perry

Oct 14, 2015
3 min

Authors and the people who put up with them

Anyone who has tried their hand at writing the 'next great bestseller' can tell you that crafting a novel isn't easy. But for those of us who feel compelled to write, the challenge is unavoidable: It's something we have to do. And doing it affects everyone around us, for better or for worse. If you read much, you will have noticed that the acknowledgement section of most books ends with heartfelt thanks to the author's immediate family for putting up with the writing process.

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