Yes, I said, “giveaway.” In honor of the upcoming launch of my 4th book, Brand the Author (Not the Book), I’m giving away 24 copies of my author branding workbook coupled with the incredible Kris Spisak’s The Novel Editing Workbook.
Enter for a chance to be one of 24 lucky winners by May 12th.
Talk about a wonderful pairing! If you want to write books and publish long-term, these two author workbooks will help you succeed. I promise!
The Novel Editing Workbook, a guidebook for both traditionally or indie-published writers, teaches the art of self-editing to help authors take their work-in-progress to the next level. It is the perfect complement to Brand the Author (Not the Book), which I wrote to guide you step-by-step through the process of structuring your own written author brand plan.
Sounds too good to be true? Not at all! Twenty-four winners will receive one of each book. And ONE of those lucky winners will receive both books PLUS a box of author-related goodies (it will absolutely include chocolate).
Be the Boss of Your Author business with The Novel Editing Workbook and Brand the Author (not the Book). Click here to get all the details about how to enter to win. Note: If you are a current subscriber to my newsletter, you will need to enter your email address again.
Is it ever too early to worry about branding yourself as a writer or author? Elisabeth Carson-Williams, teacher turned young adult historical novelist, joins us to share her thoughts on when author branding should begin and what surprising benefits it has brought in her writing career.
Branding is for ALL Authors
Branding. That’s one of those trendy, millennial concepts, right? TikTok-ers and viral video moguls and influencers use this. I don’t need to brand. I’m a writer. Once I get an agent/publisher/book deal, someone will handle this for me. Wrong!
If you’re an author, you need branding.
At the 2019 Historical Novel Society Conference, my eyes were opened to the necessity of branding. I attended Karen Chase’s Masterclass, Brand the Author. Without an agent, book deal, or finished manuscript, I wasn’t sure I would ever use any of the information or resources she shared. It was way too early for me to start any branding, right? Again, wrong!
Who needs branding?
Creative types—writers—who are reliant on the general public for sales. Income.
How does it help sales?
Branding provides a way for readers to find you by making you identifiable.
Color schemes
Fonts
Messaging
Images
These elements, done consistently, allow readers to easily find you. Finding readers, whether early in your career or multi-published, is essential to sustaining a writing career and generating income.
Why should I brand?
Do you plan to sell your work to more than just family and friends? Harsh reality check: your creation is just a product, one product among thousands. Products need marketing. And you, dear author, are a business owner…so you do the marketing. Regardless of publishing path, YOU will have to figure out how best to reach readers to generate sales. That takes marketing. Branding is a powerful marketing tool.
But I’m an author…
Like the title of the Masterclass: Brand the Author, you will brand your author-self. To quote Karen, “…your livelihood is tied to the feeling you ignite in your reader.”
You may write in multiple genres. You may write in multiple mediums. But you remain the constant. By branding what makes you unique, your readers will follow that persona, your brand.
When should I start the branding process?
It’s best started early—the earlier the better, so you can grow your following. You can grow a following once your novel is released, but it will be a stronger following if you grow it before. If you begin after your book is out, you’re already behind on establishing brand trust and those looking for you.
Who will be looking for me? I’m not published yet!
Future readers
Potential agents
Potential publishers
Branding allows you to present as an industry professional. You present as being serious about pursuing a long-term career, not a one-and-done writer. Remember, you are growing a following.
Unintended benefits of branding
Going through the process provided more benefits than I expected. Just a few of the benefits include:
Tangible goals for my writing career
Streamlined professional life
More control over my career
With a clear focus of where I want my career to go, I can easily assess what is working and what is not. Decisions are much easier to reach with a firm understanding of my brand.
I was reluctant, initially, to trust the branding process. Now, having been through it, I cannot imagine trying to launch a book and a brand simultaneously. Achieving the dream of being a writer requires perseverance and patience in growing a readership. Branding provides the roadmap.
Learn more about the fabulous Lis Carson-Williams and check out her smashing new brand (and her book-in-progress) on her website, ECarsonWilliams.com.
I thank Lis for her insights on the importance of author branding. She’s correct! It’s never too early to create a unique, authentic author brand that works for you and connects with your target readers. Authors need to be the boss of their own business, so I’ve created a do-it-yourself branding workbook that takes authors and writers through a step-by-step process of creating sustainable author branding strategies for themselves. It’s available to pre-order from now until May 15th. Learn more here.
As many of my readers may know, I’m more than just an author. I’m also a speaker, and for three decades I’ve been a brand designer. I’ve not only worked with corporations and nonprofits for the last eight years, but I have also been helping authors develop brands and marketing materials to reach their unique audiences. (Yes, I’ve been busy. Heavens!)
I realize not every writer can afford one-on-one author branding or marketing services. When I coupled that truth with the sheer number of authors now independent publishing (as of 2018, self-publishing grew greater than 40% of the total book market), it became clear to me that my expertise in branding needed to be distilled into a do-it-yourself author branding workbook. Consequently, I’m happy to announce the launch and pre-order of:
Brand the Author (Not the Book) is a do-it-yourself branding workbook, especially for writers.
The reviews are in!
“Mandatory reading for all new clients—for veteran authors and those who are just starting the journey. Great advice from an expert in the field of marketing and branding. You will find your copy dogeared, underlined, and flagged.”
In future blog posts I promise to dive deep into that question. For now, in a nutshell, an author brand is the unique collection of fonts, colors, words, and imagery consistently applied to tools you use to connect with your readers. A brand is authentic and particular to each author, even within genres or topics. (Think how different Danielle Steel is to Sadequa Johnson—both historical novelists.)
Do authors need a brand?
Do you remember the last book you read a book you really loved? Do you remember the author? Chances are you reached out via Instagram, the Internet, or through a local bookseller to connect with the author or to discover other books by that same writer. Whenever a reader engages with any materials from an author, if what they see is consistent and has a unique image and sparks a unique feeling, the person is more likely to remember everything about that experience. Consequently, as we authors publish more books, readers are more likely to come back to us if we have a consistent and authentic brand.
Why is an author branding workbook necessary now?
Publishing has changed. Is changing. Constantly. There are many paths to publishing a book and more ways for readers to find those books. And, as evidenced by the authors I work with and the massive changes in the publishing industry, publishers expect (and in some ways have abandoned) authors to carry the bulk of the reader connection business. We authors are both creating the reader experience (writing) AND managing the marketing.
How does this workbook help authors?
Taking control of your author marketing, not just for one book, but to support your entire career, can be very empowering. This workbook gives practical advice and guidelines about authorship, and the tasks, audiences, and tools required to reach readers. It also provides education and worksheets so authors can build comprehensive yet simplified brand and materials plans for their author brand and books. Along the way, I provide tidbits of information and education supporting each workbook section. When complete, authors will have what most authors don’t: a written plan for their author brand and a prioritized list of the most effective digital, social, and printed materials to produce to support that plan.
Some sample pages are below, and I encourage you to check out the workbook on my website.
My hope from this workbook is that more authors will be able to stand strong and say:
My website is the only place you can order a coil-bound version. If you’re anything like me, you’ll appreciate that the pages lay flat while you write in the workbook. For those who keep all their author business working documents on their computers, an ebook is also available.
Sign up for my newsletter, and you’ll receive notifications about giveaways and special events surrounding the launch of Brand the Author (Not the Book). Watch this space for more details about author branding, historical research, and writing tips.
In late November, I had the good fortune of touring Bartram’s Gardens in Philadelphia, PA—a 50-acre garden in existence since 1728. The oldest surviving botanic garden in the US, the sloping and tiered lands on the western banks of the Schuylkill River were home to John Bartram—a botanist, collector, and explorer—and his son, William Bartram. Their garden was a source for seeds and plants for many of America’s founders including Washington, Jefferson, and Madison. My tour was for research for my next historical novel, and specifically to learn what those gardens looked like in 1787 when James Madison and others visited the gardens during the Constitutional Convention .
Why tour historic gardens in winter?
Now, before you go believing I’m nuts for touring a garden during winter (rather than July when Madison visited) such off-season tours mean fewer tourists and an occasional late bloom/fall burst of color. In our case, the oldest Ginkgo tree in America and the Tea-Oil Camillia, were giving a brilliant show.
Tea-Oil Camillia
The best reason has to do with wandering with a guide. Because there is less to do in winter, the curator—Joel T. Fry, who has been with the gardens since the late 90s—seemed to have all the time in the world to help me prune away the gardens as they are “now” in order to visualize them as William Bartram did “then.”
Bartram’s Gardens then and now
When the British moved through Philadelphia during the Revolution, troops built a floating bridge across the Schuylkill River east of town. What had been a ferry system from Grey’s Landing just few miles from Independence Hall, became a series of floating planks permitting visitors to land just a tad north of Bartram’s.
I wish I could say the view shown in this historic 1838 drawing (Charles P Dare, Fitzgibbon & Van Ness publishers) was equal to the view now. Today, one approaches Bartram’s via a graffiti-strewn bridge, and enters from the less-attractive back lane.
Back in 1787, however, a visitor would have first seen the tiered beds of plants—collected from various states as far south as Florida—rising up to the main house (like the photo above). Greens, tubers, and other edibles would have been planted closest to the house in the kitchen gardens. Built by John Bartram, the house was added onto many times, but the architecturally arresting structure remains.
The numerous trees scattering the property now would likely have been in a specific grove to one side of the house. That Ginkgo tree? In 1787, it was just two years old, so likely shorter than me, and in a different location. It now towers more than two stories tall. You can see an original William Bartram illustration of the garden map, on the Bartram Garden’s website here.
An incomplete archive of plantings
What was planted where and when by William, however, is difficult to ascertain. Although Bartram’s sold seeds and plants, “we don’t really have garden records from that time,” Joel shrugged as we chewed on some of the spinach miraculously still growing and plump despite a few frosts. “We don’t know if the records were thrown out when the family later lost the property, or if perhaps the Bartrams weren’t that good at keeping records in the first place.”
Personally, I find the latter easy to believe. John and William both seemed so enchanted by illustrating, collecting, exploring, and experimenting with plants and seeds, I can see them failing to write it all down at the end of a day’s digging. Their minds were likely their libraries and journals. Although Williams botanical illustrations are in some ways a series of singular plant records, like his study of Franklinia—a tree named for Franklin, and the garden’s signature tree.
A room inside the Bartram’s home. None of the furnishings are original either.
William Bartram’s illustration of the flower of the Franklinia Tree.
Visitors post-Revolution might also have seen a working cider mill along the banks. Again, the Bartrams papers have no record of it, although a reference to it appears in a letter from a visitor named Manasseh Cutler of Massachusetts. “[Bartram’s] cider-press is singular; the channel for the stone wheel to run in for grinding the apples is cut out of a solid rock; the bottom of the press is a solid rock, and has a square channel to carry off the juice, from which it is received into a stone reservoir or vat.”
Joel and my spouse, Ted, permitting me a photo for size perspective.
What Captivated Me Most in Bartram’s Garden
“What we’re doing is what William loved to do with visitors in the garden.” About half way through our tour—many stories in, the wind picking up, and much history shared—Joel smiled as he gazed across Bartram’s garden glittering with fall leaves. “We’re walking the paths and sharing ideas about the plants and other events of the time. It’s a chance to learn together.”
Nothing warmed my heart more on that cold November day. Thanks to Joel, in my next novel I expect you’ll find my protagonist Henry (along with other characters real and fictional) sharing ideas while wandering those same paths with William.
I urge you to visit Bartram’s Garden, and not just at the height of spring or summer, so hopefully you will be captured by this historic place, too. Just a 15-minute drive from Philadelphia, it’s a 50-acre respite for the city-weary soul Chasing Histories.
The view from the back of the house, with a new favorite vine—cup-and-saucer—gracing the left-hand edge of the walkway.
Every author has their own method and reason for picking a fictional character’s name. We are calling up spirits, birthing new people (or magical creatures), and this decision is weighty. The line from the knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is applicable here: “You must choose. But choose wisely, as the true grail will bring you life, and the false grail will take it from you.”
When the name selection moment comes, I essentially have three parameters for choosing character names. The first, no surprise, is related to Shakespeare’s line, “What’s in a name?”…
Spirit Painting, by Frederick Walker.
One: Choose character names based on meaning
Years ago, there was a baby-naming book called Beyond Jennifer and Jason. Rather than providing Gaelic and Old English meanings, which are important to some authors, the names in that book were categorized by how people view those names. Primarily centered on the western world viewpoint (with some foreign categories), the first names were sorted by whether we viewed those people as creative, strong, odd, intelligent, troublesome, etc.
I loved this approach, and incorporated such thinking into my selections to ensure they fit the personalities of the characters I was building. Boys named “Arthur” are very likeable and reliable. I needed him to be that even in the moments when he wasn’t.
For my Native American characters, I needed a source to help me inject the meaning for a culture clearly not my own. For me, NativeLanguages.org was my source. Although the website a bit antiquated, and it required a donation, the resource allowed me to provide them details about personality, gender, nation, clan, era, and region. When I received each response, I was given name options along with explanations, and even nicknames. Authenticity is important, which for historical novelists, leads me to this suggestion…
Two: Choose an appropriate character name
A name that’s rife with meaning can become a stumbling block for readers if it doesn’t fit the time period or geography. Sources like newspapers, tombstones, and legal documents—if they exist for your time period—help ensure the name feels authentic to the era and your fiction.
For Carrying Independence, I first settled on my protagonist’s location and then I headed to the genealogy section of the library and studied birth and death records for the region and year. In one column I wrote all the first names I loved (for both men and women—for my protagonist has friends), and in the other column I wrote last names.
Then, like a teenager signing her name over and over to get it just right, I compiled first-and-last name combinations. Nathaniel Marten, Arthur Bowman, and Silas Hastings were born. (The latter was also an homage to the character Silas Marner by George Elliot—a book my grandmother loved, with a miserly character like my own.) However, choosing a name out of love must be coupled with asking if I can live with it…
Three: Choose an enduring character name
In early drafts of my Revolutionary era novel, Carrying Independence, I named my protagonist’s horse after King Arthur’s steed, Llamrei. It’s weird to pronounce, and the double “L” became an ongoing problem as I repeatedly spelled it wrong. After draft three, the horse became Bayard. That lesson, along with the realization that writing historical fiction sometimes takes years, helped me create a few parameters. For character names I ask myself, can I:
Repeatedly say it and it will grow on me?
Type it correctly every time?
See the character or creature becoming one with the name?
See the character’s name becoming memorable/repeatable for readers?
Make sure isn’t too close in sound or spelling to the other names?
The latter is important to my father. He finds it frustrating when the main characters have names like Larry and Lemmy. There are 25 other letters of the alphabet to choose from, people. As for my mother, I know she and I are going to talk about these people as if they are people, and if we can’t get it right as I send her drafts, it’s not going to work. (Yes, my parents read my work.)
What parameters do you have for character names, or which character names do you remember most? For me, Indiana Jones will always remain one of my favorite character names, made even more memorable when it’s revealed by his father, “We named the dog Indiana!”
Reader Insights: The name of my main character in my newly published short story, Mary Angela’s Kitchen, came from food. I was telling a friend about story idea—which came to me in a dream—while we ate pizza and tiramisu at an Italian restaurant. The place is called Mary Angela’s. You can order her story, which includes four recipes, as an ebook and also in print.
Every book deserves a book trailer. Why do I think this? Because I love movies. And I love movie previews. (And I, like most authors, would love to see my novel made into a movie. So, why not a preview, too? )
Also, if Zappos can better describe a pair of shoes using video, then authors can do the same with their novels. Visuals can help readers find words.
While I’ll share tips and tricks for making engaging book trailers in later post, today I’ll keep it short and sweet. I’ve long wanted to make a trailer for my first novel, and while stuck at home, at last I had the time. So I give you…
GET THE NOVEL: Order a copy of Carrying Independence today. Retailers and book excerpts can be found at: CarryingIndependence.com. Or buy it direct from me through my online Bookshop.org.
BOOK CLUBS: Turn your Book Club into ZOOM Club! I’ll issue a secure link and join your club online for wine, reader discussions, and a trip to 1776. Contact me at info [at] karenachase [dot] com for details.
As I wrote in Part One, with a list of fiction titles, reading about others coping with their own isolation and restrictions can help us gain perspective. Through books read in my lifetime or with my book club, today I provide four nonfiction options.
The books are not new releases so you might get them used on ABEBooks or as e-book rentals from libraries. Links to purchase the recommendations are also here on my BookShop list, Karen’s Reads & Book Club Picks.
Karen’s Four Nonfiction Reads
Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
I know this seems like an odd title to include when we’re not talking to strangers much these days, but Gladwell is a nonfiction genius and always worth reading. I loved his startling look at how often we encounter new people, label them as good or bad, and we get it totally wrong. Using cases of Cuban CIA operatives, television sitcom faces, Amanda Knox, Sandra Bland, Sylvia Plath, and more, the data in this book will help you rexamine your interactions with strangers as truly strange indeed. …Buy the book.
The Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
I read this years ago, but his story has long stuck with me because it is told in his own words, and Mandela has an unforgettably indomitable and resilient spirit. I am saddened that the long walk for so many people is still uphill, but words from Mandela give me hope for humanity. “I could not imagine that the future I was walking toward could compare in any way to the past that I was leaving behind.” …Buy the book.
Educated by Tara Westover
One of the finest examples of how education can release a person from the prison imposed upon their mind by those who are supposed to love them the most. Through a quest for knowledge, Westover writes a memoir so in-the-moment that we feel trapped in her survivalist family with her. I felt equally nervous and naïve when she stepped into the classroom for the first time at age seventeen. She makes an education seem within reach to all—even those with nothing but a desire for something other than the oppressive life into which they are born …Buy the Book.
Bossypants by Tina Fey
I love this woman and her comedy is indeed whip-smart. Why is her book on this list? First, we need to laugh and, without doubt, my other recommendations do not really include many chuckles. But it’s also because Tina was a woman who rose through a world of comedy that was too-long deemed “male only.” Saturday Night Live had never had a female head writer until Tina Fey. (Hence the hairy man-arms on a book cover that makes her look at ease for breaking into a boys club.) Her way of looking at the world is not too dissimilar to the way many of us see it now. Odd and absurd but still worth navigating. …Buy the book.
Over the last couple of weeks, I conducted two live webinars on the topic of researching female historical figures or ancestors using some of my own organization and exploration methods—those of a historical novelist.
In total, over 535 people registered for the webinars, and a great portion of them are now out there thinking about their endeavors a little differently. They’re not researchers or genealogists. They’re storytellers.
Why researchers need to think like novelists?
Gathering dates about a person’s life ignores (and worse, buries) the impact of that life. Think of your own history. If I only knew family tree facts about you—the dates and locations of birth, death, and marriage for your family, children, and in-laws… Well, how much would I really understand about your life story?
I’d be ignoring your education, career, your neighbors and friends, your book clubs, adventures, influences, hopes, disappointments, and all your small and significant milestones. I’d also be unable to determine your contributions, if any, to our greater American story.
Why details in women’s stories matters.
Gathering only dates about female ancestors—or “Patriots” as they are known in the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR)—perpetuates a major problem in our educational system; the women are not being shown as integral to American history in proportion to their contributions and achievements.
By gathering only genealogical details, researchers like Margot Shetterly would not have unearthed the hidden figures in our history. Margot’s deeper exploration helped us learn about all those women, like mathematician Katherine Johnson, who helped humans go to the moon.
American history is a human story.
It’s easy when there are over 900 biographies of George Washington, to think that American history was primarily made by men. Thankfully, a few of those biographies are written by women (thank you, Alexis Coe), but casting blame as to why women’s contributions are only a small portion of our collective American history, isn’t going to change it. We must change it.
Your mission is to become storytellers.
We must look at American history as human, and to do that more women need to become storytellers who can balance the history by showing us the other gender.
Together, along with 185,000 DAR members doing the same, we can show future generations how women—both famous and ordinary—contributed in extraordinary ways to our American history.
How to conduct and organize research.
Okay, but how do you become a storyteller? Like a novelist, you need to expand your subject’s network, and then you need to better catalog your own researcher’s network.
My video and links below will help you come to understand these two areas. This is the full webinar, free to watch. Included below are links the notes and the networking charts explained in the webinar.
Watch. Share this post.
Together we women can rise and shine the light on women’s history.
GET THE NOVEL: If the webinar content impacts your thinking, I hope you’ll order a copy of Carrying Independence to show your support for such presentations, and to see my research suggestions in action. Print & Ebook retailers, and excerpts can be found at: CarryingIndependence.com.
Today, let’s talk about the number of characters—both fictional and real—that go into the making of historical novels.
Although very few of us are getting together with people right now, bringing people together is exactly what needs to happen in fiction. By that, I don’t mean the story has to bring people physically together. I mean that your protagonist has to interact emotionally, physically, or psychologically with others. A person’s engagement or separation from other humans in their lives is part of the catalyst for growth.
How Many Characters is Enough?
Years ago, I read an article that suggested some of the better works of adult fiction have upwards of twenty characters. (Anne of Green Gables, a young adult novel, has 9 characters. Outlander has at least 15.)
To create even one fictional character results in creating that character’s entire world—family, friends, acquaintances, and maybe even his enemy or enemies.
To put it another way, think of your own world. How many people do you come into contact with, or that influence the story of your life, in a normal day, week, month, or year?
A PDF of a full list of characters from my recent novel, Carrying Independence, is here, along with hotlinks for every real figure.
Let me explain how my own character list came to be so robust (read on for the numbers —even Ben Franklin in that image above is rolling his eyes at me, I think.)
How to Determine Character Roles
I am a movie nut, and often my fiction is structured (in my head at least) like a movie script—scene-by-scene. So I look at my characters like my cast, and assign them into Oscar-like categories:
Who were my leads? Who was in a supporting role? Which figures would have bit parts or non-speaking roles? Additionally, I noted who was real, and who needed to be invented by me.
For my one main protagonist, Nathaniel, and the four main voices prevailing throughout Carrying Independence, my fictional character list was a whopping 44 (if you include the two ships and a horse).
Including Historical Figures in Fiction
There are authors, like Jeff Shaara, who construct fiction almost entirely out of historical figures and real events. For my own novel, the story focuses on one full year of the American Revolution, so I had to first determine the historical events my fictional characters would take part in. Then I began the daunting (yet fun) task of listing and researching every real person they’d encounter.
Keep in mind, not every historical figure speaks or is “on camera.” There are figures my characters talk about who would never actually appear. They still must be researched to ensure the context or mentioning them is appropriate.
The total of historical figures appearing or referenced in the novel… brace yourself… 51. Woah. That means there are a total of 95 people with major or minor roles, or talked about in one historical novel. Holy cow.
Story & Theme Before Characters
Despite those very high numbers of characters, historical novelists (or any novelist for that matter) must keep this in mind:
The two major factors in considering characters: One, if the character—real or otherwise—doesn’t advance the story, they can’t stay. Two, if a character complicates but doesn’t deepen the understanding of the main character or the author’s theme, they gotta go.
You never want to cause the reader to wonder why a character exists, or they’ll wander out of the story world you’ve created.
So, authors and readers out there, how many characters are in your favorite story?
So many of us are reading books during this time of isolation and concern, many of which allow us to escape. Sometimes, however, reading about others coping with their own imposed isolation can help us gain perspective. This is especially true when either the character’s situation might be more perilous, or their outlook in spite of that situation is insightful. This affords us a chance to more deeply develop our own character.
Here are few options based on books read in my home or through my book club. If you’re living with someone, reading aloud will take longer and allow you to discuss the book as you go. The books are not new releases so you might get them used on ABEBooks or as e-book rentals from libraries. Links to purchase all of the recommendations are also here on my BookShop list, Karen’s Reads & Book Club Picks.
Karen’s Four Fiction Reads
A Gentlemen in Moscowby Amor Towles
In this historical novel, Count Rostov has been sentenced to live his life in the Metropol Hotel in Russia, post-Bolshevik Revolution. The writing is beyond lovely, and the ingenuity and grace with which the main character chooses to live is superb. These days, I find myself asking, “What would Count Rostov do?” The author’s gorgeous website is worth getting lost in. …Buy the book.
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
You’ll face the realities of a dystopian future (or what might feel like your present) head on in this science fiction work that’s become a cult classic. Living inside a virtual world, Wade has to learn to rely on himself, but ultimately discovers what is best about the world. People coming together. Great for kids, but Gen X-ers like me who lived the 80s will love it. (There’s a movie, too.) …Buy the book.
The Chef’s Apprentice by Elle Newmark
“In a world of violence and intrigue, who guards the truth?” What if your isolation was because of what you knew, and that knowledge was what everyone wanted? Here, that knowledge is the alchemy for long life. I loved this book not just for the writing and the young protagonist, who is assistant to the chef for the Doge of Venice, but for the delightful food. You’ll never cut an onion without awe again, and you’ll make cheesecake as if for the first time. …Buy the Book.
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
Never mind being stuck at home, imagine being trapped in one parallel universe after another. It’ll take so much brain power to wrap your head around how dark matter works or doesn’t (plus you’ll watch a Schrödinger’s Cat video about quantum mechanics), that the hours will fly. My dreams were WILD while Jason navigated a world that was not his own while traversing other parallel worlds literally of his own making. Mind blowing. …Buy the book.
Reader Insights: I enjoy giving my characters books to read, too. My protagonist, Nathaniel, is gifted a copy of Gulliver’s Travels, which was published 50 years before he receives it in 1776. Nathaniel reads the book aloud with Captain Blythe in the scene right before this excerpt on my website. Nathaniel alone carries the sole copy of the Declaration of Independence in Carrying Independence, available as an ebook and in print.
