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Showing posts from 2013

"Vegas and the Mob" - Book Review

Like stories about Las Vegas? Good, because that's all I've been writing about for the past year. I started with 600 pages of FBI documents on the Mob, Las Vegas, and some interesting characters like Franks Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Benny Binion and many others, and found every link possible between them, and what I came away with was that the FBI really snooped into the lives of a lot of people, but they sure didn't do much with their information! The FBI is a huge investigatve body that keeps tabs on millions of people, and fortunately when it comes to crooks, gangsters, and Las Vegas badguys, their snooping makes for some very interesting findings in the lives of those very same casino owners! Vegas and the Mob is the story of forty years of frenzy as Mob families fought with players, registered owners, the Nevada Gaming Control Board, the FBI, and even their own members for control of the multi-million dollar empire of Sin in the Desert. Eventually there were o

Into Another World

Into Another World is a book review and writing blog featuring author interviews and insight to how writers think about themselves, their work, and their careers. The blog is hosted by Susan Leigh Noble, author of a trilogy of fantasy novels about dragons, magic, and a telepathic cat. Her first novel, THE ELEMENTAL: SUMMONED , is the story of Lina, who discovers she carries the long-lost art of fire-starting, using nothing but her thoughts. When a strange urge compels her to travel from her homeland, she finds there is much in the world her family never told her. Her journey takes her to a foreign land filled with gypsies, magic, and mystical creatures she had only dreamed of. As she begins to use her innate Elemental power, she becomes more certain someone is using magic against her. There's more to the world than heaven and earth. As for Into Another World, Noble also includes advice on writing, and for her audience a basic concept is creating believable magic . Her advice,

From the Story Editor

Right now I'm falling behind on my own stuff because I’m working on several projects for other people. I need to see progress, and I like to be busy, but reading over my own work for the third or fourth time makes me want to go sit on the couch and watch the old Dick Van Dyke TV show. I’m easily bored. That’s my little red wagon. The funny thing is that, my best work, what I’m most proud of, I can’t tell anyone about, but ghostwriting is still great work as far as I’m concerned. I’m a story editor, not a line editor, so when reading somebody else’s story, even a poorly written one, I’m excited, because I get to make the changes that turn their work into something substantial. I get to “improve” the story. How could I want more than that? Well, I do want more than. I want authors to have a chance to sell their work. And, I know one thing is certain in the life of an author: they have to get their books into the hands of readers. If only three people down the block from Geor