A.M. Shine’s The Watchers (the basis of a film by the same name to be released June 7) is a little different. You don’t know what the Watchers look like. You can’t see them, but they can see you. It’s an intriguing premise, and one that obviously caught the eye of filmmakers, who are about to release a feature film based on the book. But the potential for a suspense-filled, edge-of-your-seat tale is undermined by the story’s erratic pacing and unanswered questions.
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Dragon Crown Books is ringing in the new year with a major announcement: I’m excited to share that I’m co-writing the authorized biography of Tempest co-founder, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Lief Sorbye.
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Imagine being in a class that’s graded on a curve in which everyone else has an “open-book” final exam, while you are instructed to answer questions from memory. They all get higher scores than you do, so you flunk. AI is like that.
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Big news: All the books in my Highways of the West series, as well as my Century Cities books, are now available as ebooks for Kindle! So is Martinsville Memories, which profiles a small town in southern Virginia with a fascinating history in tobacco, textiles, and furniture-making. So when you’re out exploring, you can take my historical travel guides along with you in handy, electronic form for easy reference.
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I haven’t written much fiction lately, but if you’re familiar with my novels and short stories, you know that I love a good twist. … The writers of The Rings of Power seem to share that affection. Unfortunately, their series on Amazon Prime is a textbook example of how NOT to write a twist.
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Grammar experts use an odd standard when deciding what’s acceptable and what isn’t. They often argue that a word or phrase can be used in a certain way based on precedent: if it was used that way a long time ago, it must be OK now. In other words, “If it’s old, it must be right.”
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If you know authors, you know we’re always on the lookout for good ideas, books that inspire us and may even prompt us to say to ourselves: “I could do that, only better!” That might sound a bit arrogant, and we’re not always right. Sometimes we are, though, and even when we’re not, the results can still be pretty damn good. The more good books there are, the better — especially when it comes to history.
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From blue jeans and textiles to the Woolworth’s lunch counter Greensboro Century is filled with stories of milestones in the city’s history during the 20th century. Packed with historical images and contemporary photos I took myself, it’s a year-by-year chronicle of how Greensboro has grown and changed over the years.
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Writing is, as the saying goes, a lonely profession — and many authors like it that way. J.D. Salinger, William Faulkner, Emily Dickinson, Harper Lee, and others have preferred the comforts of home to the discomforts of the cold, cruel world. Some write to escape that world, and others escape the world to write. I do both.
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Is it still OK to like Harry Potter? How about J.K. Rowling?
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New Year’s resolutions are a dime a dozen, and 80 percent of them fail anyway. I never make them. I do something else instead.
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I laugh and cringe in equal measure when I see the lengths to which online sites go in their quest for clicks and ad exposure. It’s become almost comical: way beyond pop-up ads and clickbait. I’m sure you’ve probably run across these seven examples.
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Here’s a quiz-show stumper for you: What did boxing’s first great promoter, Virgil Earp from the O.K. Corral, the richest man in Nevada, and the founder of UPS have in common? They all spent time in Goldfield.
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As you arrive in Charleston, you can't miss the sight of the golden state Capitol dome on the far bank and the Kanawha River. It's every bit as majestic as the Capitol building in D.C., but it's even more spectacular when the sun is shining. Its rays shine on the golden dome and dance the river in the foreground, providing a glorious scene that's sure to widen the eyes of any first-time visitor.
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Huntington is notable for many reasons. It was the site of the easternmost bank robbed by the James-Younger Gang, and it’s home to the state’s largest mall, the Huntington Mall. Marshall University, located near the center of town, has drawn headlines for winning national championships and for a tragic plane crash that took the lives of the football team and everyone else on board in 1970.
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My Century Cities books are now available in hardcover! If you want a keepsake edition of Fresno Century, Cambria Century, Danville Century, Roanoke Century, or San Luis Obispo Century, they’re all available on Amazon.
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In some quarters, it’s best known as the “last capital of the Confederacy,” after the fall of Richmond. The Confederate government met briefly in a mansion there that became a library... before the library eventually became a museum. But the events of the 20th century — the focus of my book — are just as fascinating, if not more so.
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Who cares if Khan Noonien Singh was supposed to be a genetic superman from northern India? We’ll turn him into a thin white dude instead. And we’ll have Spock hook up with Uhura, no pon farr required. Talk about a multiverse of madness. But casual fans won’t notice or won’t care, and there’s money to be made!
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Each of these new volumes includes more than 100 images, both historic from across the years and modern from my own camera lens. As with all my Century Cities books, the events are presented in chronological order so readers can see how the community grew and changed over the years. The timeline includes a mix of major happenings, quirky events, and slice-of-life vignettes.
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What it all boils down to is authors are people who do a job that they believe in. We want to be paid, and we want to be appreciated. That shouldn’t be too hard to understand. In that way, we are all the same — not just authors, but human beings: That’s all most of us really ever want.
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