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5 Historical Fiction Books to Read This Year
In this 5×5 series, I’m exploring five books in five different genres over five posts. Head back to the posts on fantasy and literature, if you missed them. Books transport you to new worlds, and historical fiction gives you a taste of life in the past. I’ve always enjoyed the genre—when I was in late elementary…
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5 Classic Books to Read in 2017
In this 5×5 series, I’m exploring 5 books in 5 different genres, over 5 posts. If you missed the first post on fantasy books, you can check it out here. The first literary classic I read was Heidi in second grade. I found it in my school library, and while my friends were reading The…
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5 Fantasy Books You Should Read
Welcome to the 5×5 post series—five posts that explore five books in five different genres. Over half of the 80 books I’ve read this year have been fantasy, so we’ll start there. I’m going to skip over some of my favorite series such as Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings because most people already know about…
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Writing News
My apologies for the long silence. Am I still writing? Yep. Just not blog posts—for the moment. Here’s why: Just about a month ago, I finished writing the first draft of my fantasy novel! It clocked in at 122,000 words, which is a little longer than Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, to give you a…
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Crime and Punishment: What’s the Crime, and What’s the Punishment?
Crime and Punishment: What’s the crime, and what’s the punishment?
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My Cat, the Vampire Slayer
It’s been a while since I’ve posted any of my creative writing (unless you count Hermione Granger’s History of Magic essay), so here’s a short story for you. This is in honor of the new kitten my husband and I are getting in a few weeks—and hopefully not a foreshadow. My Cat, the Vampire Slayer…
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How to Decipher Russian Names
I’m currently on a Russian literature kick—I finished Crime and Punishment this weekend and just started War and Peace via audiobook. There’s so much about classic Russian literature I love, but the names drive me crazy. Each character seems to have five different names, and the narrator changes which name he uses depending on the situation. Multiply…
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Hermione’s Homework: The Basilisk
Hermione Granger’s History of Magic essay on recordings of the Basilisk in ancient history.
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Spreading the Platform: Medium.com
I’m starting to blog on a new platform: Medium.com! This came about because I recently sat down with the new marketing director at my magazine company, and he gave me some pointers for my own personal brand. One of them was to split my blog time between my own website (here) and Medium, which provides…
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World Building: How to Bring a Reader Down the Rabbit Hole
I both read and write fantasy fiction, and one of the aspects I love the most about the genre is the world-building. The author gets to create his or her own world—come up with everything from biology and astronomy to scientific laws and the government system. There are a few different ways to introduce a…
Victoria Van Vlear 