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Felicia Fredlund

Writer. Editor. Reader.

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Urban Fantasy

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

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

Great Books: Mercy Thompson, and Alpha and Omega by Patricia Briggs

Posted: June 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

Mercy Thompson, and Alpha and Omega by Patricia Briggs

This post covers a fictional world/universe more than a specific series.

Some time in the early 2000s I picked up Moon Called by Patricia Briggs. It was the start of a few years of reading urban fantasy and paranormal romance, mostly because of Briggs’ book.

The cover you see for the book to the right is the cover of the mass market paperback I bought back then, and the reason I picked the book up up.

It is a gorgeous cover by the artist Dan dos Santos. Yes, it was gorgeous enough that I actually looked up and made sure to remember the artist’s name.

Moon Called is the first book in the Mercy Thompson series. An urban fantasy series set in the Tri-Cities in Washington state, USA. It has all the usual trappings of a urban fantasy series. And it is great.

The main character, Mercy Thompson, is a coyote shifter and not insanely powerful. She is resourceful, have great friends, and a tenacity and protective instinct that brings her into trouble all the time.

She’s a hero.

Sometimes her thoughts in the books matches exactly what I imagine I’d think in those moments.

A couple of books into the Mercy series, Briggs wrote a novella also set in the world called Alpha and Omega, which turned into the start of the second series. That novella is one of my favorite stories of all time.

There are more short stories set in this world, most if not all of them helpfully collected in Shifting Shadows. A great read with many gems. Especially Seeing Eye. And any story with Asil in it. (Asil is always fun to read about.)

I’ve read every book and story set in this world. I’ve enjoyed them all.

Of all the urban fantasy I read for years, this is the series and author I still keep up with. And whose books I buy as soon as they release and read them until I finish them in the middle of the night.

I also reread them regularly.

Filed Under: Reader

Urban Fantasy Added to the Roster

Posted: September 25, 2018

My new release this month is an urban fantasy story. I’ve read urban fantasy for many years and love writing it too. And now I get to share it.

Here is the description:

As a valkyrie, Tyra escorts the souls of Swedish soldiers who died in combat to Valhalla. In this twenty-first century, she barely works because Sweden has not been at war for a long, long time.

When taking a soldier’s soul to Valhalla, Tyra unwillingly talks to Loki when he seeks her out. Right then, she feels the call from another soul.

Her turn for another calling should not have come that quickly, but off she goes despite her bad feeling.

You can buy it here as an ebook.

Next month is October, meaning Halloween. Which means horror movies, horror games, and horror books, right?

Except, I think more about the sun leaving, cozy lamps and candles lit in the evening. A chill to the air that livens up my skin. Trees in beautiful fall colors.

I can’t wait!

Filed Under: New Release

Rerelease of Holly’s Opportunity as Snowstorm Delivery

Posted: August 24, 2015

After a long rainy Swedish summer with August finally bringing some heat, I present the stand alone release of Snowstorm Delivery, the first story in the series Shadow Courier.

SnowstormDelivery-ebook-cover-webHowever, this isn’t the first release of this story. Under the name Holly’s Opportunity this story appeared in the anthology Gifts for Holly.

The idea for this story came about because of one question: What super power would you have?

My answer has always been flying. Nothing else. To soar through the sky under my own power have always been my dream. Despite a certain fear of heights!

For this new release, there is a new description:

Sixteen year old Kora Leon only wants to do her job as a flying courier and work herself up through the hierarchy in the City of Shadows. Living and working in Sector E—the slums of the city—sucks.

So when her boss asks her for a favor of one more delivery in a harsh snowstorm, she says yes.

But more than cold and sharp winds lurk in the dark.

Kora Leon takes the first steps to becoming a Shadow Courier—a courier who balances legal and illegal action to live as free as possible.

Snowstorm Delivery is currently available at several retailers, this link takes you to them all.

Enjoy!

PS. I’ll be back with more release news in the coming months. Many exciting projects is in the pipeline. Maybe you are waiting for the next Sorceress Islands story for example. *wink wink nudge nudge*

PPS. You might have noticed that the series names for the Kora Leon stories have changed to Shadow Courier. My publisher and I thought it would fit better.

Filed Under: New Release

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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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