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Felicia Fredlund

Writer. Editor. Reader.

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Reader Report: July, 2019

Posted: August 13, 2019

Since this is my first reader report, let me explain what it is. This is a non-exhaustive list of stuff I read, saw, played, and experienced in the past month. A bit like my Great Entertainment posts. But instead of writing up reviews of each item separately, this is a list of highlights from the past month.

Cover image of Storm Cursed by Patricia BriggsRight on, let’s start with books I read.

Top of my mind is Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs, book 11 of the Mercy Thompson series. This book was sooo good, but not a good starting point for the series/world.

Read my post on the Mercy Thompson/Alpha & Omega books to find a good starting point.

I recommend every book and story set in this world. Obviously some are more to my taste than others, but if you fall in love of the world, I have still liked all stories I’ve read.

Japanese fairy tales. If you enjoy fairy tales, I can definitely recommend Japanese ones if you haven’t read those. I do not know if the ones I’ve reading are sanitized (like Disney did with the Grimm fairy tales), but I’m enjoying them nonetheless.

I am reading them in Japanese though, in simplified versions written for Japanese learners, so no reason to link them here. (Any Japanese learners out there can contact me through the contact page if interested in them.)

My suspicion is that my versions are sanitized because all fairy tales I’ve read in original form tends to be more gory, but maybe that is just a European thing and I need to read more fairy tales from more cultures.

If you have any good recommendations of books with fairy tales from other cultures, or even from European ones that aren’t Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen. I’m interested in reading them. (I do know of Arabian nights and Aesop too.)

Lastly I’ve been rereading the In Death series by J.D. Robb (pen name of Nora Roberts). I’m almost back to the latest book. The characters, the mysteries, and the relationships are all soooooo good. I really love this series and it will hit 50 books next year. Just wow!

The characters grow/change, but still remain true to themselves; their changing however does shift the feel of the series a bit. Just like happens in many long series.

Rereading the whole series is a huge reading commitment, so maybe it is obvious just how much I love it. (I also wrote a Great Entertainment post on it, read it here.)

Cover image of Blue Smoke By Nora RobertsAnd while I wrote about the books above, I remembered another new-to-me book I read this month. Blue Smoke by Nora Roberts. Romance, with a bit of detecting in it (aka romantic suspense). Modern day for when it was written. *Goes to look it up* Published in 2005. Which made me realize it did have cellphones towards the end of the book. (It spans quite a bit of time.)

I enjoyed reading this. While I am a bigger fan of Nora Robert’s J.D. Robb books, aka the series I mentioned above, I certainly tend to enjoy the NR books too. And this was no exception.

Now on to other things!

I visited Nijo castle (二条城) in Kyoto. You can walk around the inside of some of it, and that was amazing. Unfortunately you can’t take photos, so I can’t share any. It showed a lot of the old woodwork details, painted ceilings and wall paintings. Some amazingly beautiful rooms.

Then there was the garden around it. It is a huge complex. There is even a very small Japanese garden right by a tea house were you can get tea and sweets, and some food.

I had some matcha with traditional Japanese sweets. So very good.

Promo image of the game Cadence of Hyrule

I played a Switch game that was recently released. Cadence of Hyrule is a rhythm and rogue-lite game. A Zelda themed version of Crypt of the Necrodancer. I never played the original game, but I really enjoyed Cadence of Hyrule. In fact, I finished my first play through after only a couple of weeks of owning the game. (That is unusually fast for me.)

That is it for July. What did you read/consume in July? Something old (but new to you)? Something new? An old favorite?

Filed Under: Reader

Picture of the Month — August 2019

Posted: August 1, 2019

Atlanta Aquarium 1 (Georgia USA)-2016
It was alright to touch/pet these (I’m fairly sure, or there were similar small tanks where you could touch them). I only dared touch a few. Because well… I was afraid it would be icky!

I visited Georgia Aquarium when I went to Georgia, USA, in 2016. A very nice aquarium overall.

I’ve shared three pictures this time. I previously shared another picture in the February PotM earlier this year.

Atlanta Aquarium 2 (Georgia USA)-2016
Spot the fish? It isn’t that hard. Something with this picture makes me really like it.
Atlanta Aquarium 3 (Georgia USA)-2016
Rocks and fish. What more can you want?

Filed Under: Picture of the Month

New Options for Reading My Stories AND a New One

Posted: July 24, 2019

I have a lot to tell you all about today, so I won’t be including all the descriptions because that would make it loooong. But I’ll be linking to the book pages on here so you can get the full info, easy peasy.

Cover image for Angels Demise by Felicia FredlundLet’s start with the new:

Angel’s Demise, a dark urban fantasy short story is now available as ebook that you can buy here.

Tamari Shadow-Wing, guardian angel, watches over and guides Nick Corn. His life took a turn for the worse and he leaned into it.

She tries desperately to convince him to stop his downward spiral, but he isn’t listening.

Can she make him listen or will he become another lost soul?

And from here, I’ll go to Magic and Sacrifice which is finally available as a stand alone short story instead of only in the anthologies Fiction River: Last Stand that I co-edited with Dean Wesley Smith (to find out more about his fiction, go here instead) and Fiction River Presents: Writers Without Borders.

Cover image for Magic and Sacrifice by Felicia FredlundI especially recommend Fiction River: Last Stand—it is full of great short stories—but I’m also glad my short story is out by itself for anyone just interested in that story. On that note, here is the description for it:

Two countries at war. Only a magical barrier between them keeps the fighting to one day a year.

Maora and her husband fights on that one day, fighting for the country that creates the barrier every year.

Bloodied and hurt, they barely keep the tide at bay.

Will they fail and doom their country? Is there a way to end the war?

But there is more! Two new bundles came out this spring and I haven’t had a chance to mention them here on the blog.

Cover image for Cat Tales Issue #3 bundleCat Tales Issue #3 included my short story When She Gained Her Soul. As you can probably guess, all stories in this bundle have cats in them. My story happen to be science fiction, but the other stories cover other genres.

So if you are a huge fan of cats (and haven’t picked up my story yet), you can find more info and a buy link here.

Last but not least is the other bundle called Eclectica. It has stories covering a lot of different genres. My story in it is Dear Brother. A mainstream short story about grief.

The best part of this bundle was all the promotion done around it and you can find me showing up in interviews at several places, plus at a virtual potluck put together by Jackie Keswick.

Barbara G. Tarn interviewed me for her author blog. You might recognize her name since she edited the anthology Nightly Bites which I was in.

Cover for Eclectica bundleThen read the interview Sherry D. Ramsey did with me, she had really good questions.

Lastly, the curator of this bundle A. L. Butcher interviewed me for their site Library of Erana.

Full details about Eclectica along with a buy link can be found here.

Before I bid adieu, I’d like to once again thank everyone who voted in the poll about what you enjoy reading on my blog. It really does help me shape what I do here.

I hope you have a lot of nice weather for the rest of your summer (or winter)!

Filed Under: New Release

What Changes and What Doesn’t: Poll Closed for What Blog Posts You Enjoy Reading

Posted: July 16, 2019

Thanks to everyone who voted in the poll on what blog posts you enjoy reading. The poll is now closed.

It was really helpful to see what you all enjoy reading.

I always try to reassess what to do about my blog about once a year. I want to be sure I posts things you are interested in reading, and I want to have fun with it. So this poll helped me make some adjustments.

Just arrived in Japan on my 1 year visa.

Picture of the Month is the most enjoyed part of this blog so it will definitely keep going! Right now I’m thinking of doing a sort of mini-series inside it.

I’m currently in Japan on a 1-year visa, and I thought I could spend the next year posting one picture from each month I’ve been in Japan on this visa. That means I’d post a picture from April when I run out of already scheduled PotM posts (September would be the first Japan visa post). And then I’d post a picture from May in October and so on.

If this sounds like an awful idea, please comment. I don’t feel strongly one way or the other. What I have been doing is to go through my digital photos and post the ones that are interesting or pretty from across all photos I’ve ever taken.

Second on the poll is updates about my life, including writing, blog, website and other news. I really don’t do those posts very often, but it does lead me into the change I’m planing for my Great Entertainment posts.

A first taste of what my pictures from Japan will show.

I’m basically going to smash together those two. Each month I’ll write about books I’ve read, games I’ve played, movies I’ve seen, places I’ve visited, which I’ve really enjoyed.

That way I’m both telling about what is happening in my life through what I consume (plus this won’t be strict reviews so life stuff will get in there) and I get to share great entertainment that I find.

I’ll also keep doing the release news, but might do like I’ve done the past month (and will do later this month), which is to collect release news together. So the blog might not learn about a release as soon as it happens. For that, sign up to my (monthly) newsletter where I will tell of things the same month they happen.

Also more timely news such as special bundles and sales will only be announced there.

So that is what it looks like for the next year or so, unless any of the changes doesn’t feel great.

Filed Under: Updates

Great Movie: Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Posted: July 13, 2019

This series of posts are about entertainment that I recommend when people ask me for recommendations. It also includes place-specific “entertainment”, such as beautiful gardens; it might be stretching the definition of entertainment, but I enjoy myself in the places I recommend.

They are not universal recommendations. I wouldn’t recommend a dark thriller to someone looking for something nice and happy; I’d recommend a romance.

They aren’t perfect or without mistakes.

Art is never finished, only abandoned. ~ Leonard da Vinci

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, great action, and a fun (if implausible) story: What more can you ask of a great movie?

This is something of a theme with me. I love a lot of the big Hollywood action movies.

When I heard the plot for Mr. & Mrs. Smith, I knew it would be a blast. Two assassins unwittingly married to each other going through marriage counseling.

Plus I enjoy watching those two actors and several of their movies are my favorites.

I also enjoyed how the story was told. When they switched between different times in the couple’s life and when it went to the counseling.

Admittedly, I really don’t know much about how to make a great movie. Like camera angles, when to cut, how to cut, what to leave out, how to… everything.

All I know is I really loved how they did it in this movie. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Take it or leave, but if you tend to like Hollywood action movies and haven’t seen this one? Go see it. Then come talk to me so we can gush about it (I can hope!).

Filed Under: Reader

Which of My Posts Do You Enjoy Reading?

Posted: July 5, 2019

I have a favor to ask you today. I mostly write this blog in advance, as much in advance as I can manage in fact because on a day to day, weekly and monthly basis I’m very bad at remember to write and post stuff on this blog. I’ve now come to a time where I need to write and schedule new posts and I started wondering which posts you, my readers, actually enjoy reading.

I have therefore added a poll below (which closes on July 15th, so please vote before then). If you are reading this in an email, you’ll need to click through to my site to actually participate.

Basically, I’m looking for a feel of what is being read and what is enjoyed. I’ll probably add more of those and maybe completely drop something if no one is that interested. It might also make me change things up.

So please answer honestly about what you actually enjoy reading most of the time. I think I added all types of posts and at least one I divided into two options.

Please comment on this post if you have any additions to your vote whether praise, critique, or an option I missed that you wanted. Also if you have any suggestions for things I could write about on my blog, feel free to add that too.

I can’t promise I will take any specific actions. I thought however that I should ask for your input before I potentially changed things up.

Thank you for your time! <3

Here is the poll:

Obs! The poll closes on July 15, so please vote before then!

Filed Under: Updates

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Felicia Fredlund writes in multiple genres and for both adults and young adults. Her quest is to entertain, offering her readers exciting adventures and emotional … Read More about About Felicia Fredlund

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