Time for the Wednesday author spotlight update!

This week I’d like to shine the spotlight on The Test, by Tabi Card.

Here is a story that fits right in with current YA hits like The Maze Runner and Divergent, but the writing is handled far more exquisitely than the genre typically offers. Her characters are well-rounded and complex, rather than seeming like simple archetypes drawn out of a genre-approved list. Her world-building is extensive and fascinating.

The test creates a palpable tone of tension and miasmic uncertainty that perfectly intimates the central characters state of mind to the reader. You feel as if you are present in the events, that they are happening to you. Even so, Nik is very much her own character, and as readers we cannot help but feel her struggles.

Definitely give The Test a look. This book is going places, and you’ll want to be a part of that.

Also, of course, please consider pre-ordering Tantalus Depths, if you’ve not already done so. (Had to throw that in there somewhere)

“Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.” Just wanted to quickly give a shout-out to my homie Billy Shakespeare. That’s from his latest novel “Macbeth,” now trending on inkshares.

Please tell me you didn’t fall for that. Only a slice of the above is true; that quote is indeed from Macbeth. It is one of my all-time favorites. If I’m reading it right, it means that saying is not the same as doing. So in the spirit of DOING, I wanted to give an ACTUAL shout-out to two dear friends of mine who ARE DOING IT, whose books truly ARE trending on inkshares right now.

The books of Mr. Zachary Tyler Linville and Mr. Richard Heinz were mentioned on Publisher’s Weekly top anticipated books released in Fall 2016. THIS IS HUGE NEWS! I’ve personally had a few peeks into their stories and I can vouch for this praise. I’d say “these books will be great,” but the truth is, I already know they are. If you haven’t invested in a copy of them, what are you waiting for? (Saying “Publisher’s Weekly’s endorsement!” is an answer that doesn’t hold up any more, bub.)

There have been other, newer, projects that caught my eye on Inkshares also. If you can click a mouse button more than once, I’d highly recommend you do so HERE (“Destiny Imperfect”) and then HERE (“The Glorious Denial”), in no particular order. Read the chapters you find there. They’re good. Good enough to spend money on. I say so from experience.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a scene to write in which an owl fires cobalt-colored lightning bolts at a fox while he clambers up the side of a landmass hovering mid-air because of some distortions in his world’s magnetic field. Some weird, complicated, science-or-sorcery stuff in “The Animal in Man”, folks. In Billy’s spirit of DOING, I #AmWriting. Stay tuned.