Monday, July 30, 2018

Around the World - a reading challenge


This summer is flying fast! Tutoring is finished until the fall, I just turned in an editing job, and I’m finally getting a quick breath of fresh—but humid—air. So what will I be doing for the next few weeks, before the next wave of my two jobs arrives at my door?

Traveling the world…


… in a literary sense.

That’s right, friends. August’s reading challenge will take us Around the World.

Here’s what this means:

Monday, July 23, 2018

Skyscraping - a short story

I'm busy this month on an editing job, but I took out a bit of time to express my creativity. The result of that is this second short story inspired by YOU. (See this article for further details.) Let me know in the comments what you think about this one.

*Copyright 2018 by Andrea Renee Cox



Skyscraping
inspired by Gabriellyn Gidman


A large cage with a squawking bird in it was shoved into Adrienne Stanton’s arms, causing her to fumble the huge stack of stuffed file folders she’d been carrying. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

Jacqueline Bronson swept her long, straightened brown hair off her shoulder with a manicured hand. Her perfectly-tweezed eyebrows arched in a menacing way. “I don’t care. My ex gave it to me—as if that was a good two-month anniversary gift—but we broke up last night, and I don’t want it anymore. Get rid of it.” She spun on her super-high heel and stalked back to her desk. The gray material of her power suit didn’t dare wrinkle when she perched on her high-end arm chair. No cheap rolling chairs for Ms. Bronson!

She glanced up with narrowed eyes. “What are you waiting for?” She gave her fingers a flick. “Shoo. Go!”

Monday, July 16, 2018

News Flash: Editing Update

I have exciting news to share with you. I'll be keeping this short, as I've got a persistent headache today, which is making concentrating especially difficult.

Do you recall when I shared the news about the sale of Ashberry Lane to the owners of WhiteFire Publishing? (The article may be read here.)

Well, I've been in talks with one of those owners, author and publisher Roseanna White. Earlier this month, she asked me to edit my first book with WhiteFire.

While I thought my editing career might have hit a major roadblock with the closing -- then the sale -- of Ashberry Lane, God had great plans in store for me. He has opened a new avenue to continue my editing career with both Ashberry Lane and WhiteFire.

Monday, July 9, 2018

Called to Protect by Lynette Eason


It's been many years since I first discovered Lynette Eason's suspense novels. I really enjoyed the Women of Justice series, which was the first one of hers I read, and I've been following her career with the publisher Revell since then. When the second Blue Justice book showed up on NetGalley, it took me half a second to request it, because I'd quite liked the first book and was eager to read the next one. I read Called to Protect last week, and here are my thoughts about it, as posted on Goodreads and NetGalley.


FTC DISCLOSURE: I received an electronic copy of this book from NetGalley. A positive review was not required. These are my honest thoughts and opinions.

My favorite two things about this book were how much the talents of K-9 officer Hank were featured and that the human trafficking angle was handled so expertly as to highlight the dangers of it while not delving into the nastiest parts. The author handled both of these things like an old pro, with lots of grace, spot-on details, and creativity.

A couple of key things were highly predictable to me, but that did not stop this book from easily sliding into my top-five list of new releases in 2018. There were enough surprises along the way that I was kept intrigued and flipping pages faster and faster the deeper I got into the story. The human trafficking aspect was perhaps the most inspiring angle of all, as there was so much hope for redemption and escape fused into each chapter. This isn’t an easy book by any means, as the aforementioned topic hints, but it is a must-read for all suspense fans.

Monday, July 2, 2018

Diving In

Things are so busy around here.

I read 82 books in the first half of the year, which quite shocked me, honestly. Only two or three of those were ones I didn't end up finishing, yet they are still off of my to-be-read pile now. Of course I'm not stopping there. I would love to duplicate the awesomeness during the second half of the year.

The first month of my two-month summer session of tutoring is completed, which reminds me that summer certainly does fly. I'll get a full break from tutoring in August, and I plan on enjoying it. In the meantime, I will appreciate the moments I get to work with "my kids." They grow so fast and learn so much over the course of even a short summer session.


July is another Camp NaNoWriMo. It's hard to believe it's arrived already. I'll be diving in on several projects for it.