Choices - A Time Travel Novella, By Cate Dean

After the rush of excitement of finally publishing my first book, I decided to sit down and curl up with a story I could get absorbed in. I picked up Choices - a Time Travel Novella, by Cate Dean.

I love the cover art.

I first discovered Cate Dean while reading Tales From The Mist. The Messenger was one of her short stories published within the anthology, and it was a gripping tale that stuck with me. Although I enjoyed Choices, I think I still like The Messenger better.

That being said, Choices was exactly what I wanted to read. I've never much cared for stories with time travel, but this one didn't dwell on the intricacies that generally revolve around the subject, so likewise wasn't bogged down by loop holes that come with it. Instead, we jumped right into the action, following our damaged heroine, Maura, as her journey was forced upon her.

I know some reviewers have said that they wished to have more detail in this story, and wished it was longer, but I think it worked okay as is. It's true, there isn't a lot of detail or back-story when you get started, but by the end, Cate has sprinkled all the answers through-out the book by our insight into Maura's thoughts, and nearly everything we original questioned has been answered.

There is A LOT of action packed into this little book, and sometimes I found myself wincing at Maura's pain and rubbing my own leg. It was a very fast ride, and a worthwhile read if this is the type of book you go for. As I said before, this generally isn't the genre I'm inclined to read, and it will not linger with me as The Messenger did, but I still enjoyed it.

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Now, on to The Phoenix Curse news. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment, but the second I got everything wrapped up with the publication, I was ready to jump right into Part Two. Crazy! I had to force myself to get some other things done!

I've finally found the need to add 'tabs' to my blog. If you'll notice the 'Books' tab has a link to all the places that you can find Part One, and I have declared that Part Two will be available in the fall. Also, I have been working on the cover art for Part Two. This is exactly what I envisioned in my mind, and I'm pretty much blown away that I was able to actually get that out of my brain and into Paint.net. I'm still working on the brightness levels so you can tell what you're looking at in the thumbnail, but I really dig what it looks like when the picture is blown up! I'll probably still work on it a bit more before I'm ready to publish, but here is the preliminary artwork.

Now that I'll soon by diving into the Part Two edits, I ALSO have all of Part One of Dreamland fully
outlined, and am once again pleased with the story progression.

For those of you that have been following along, and read my acknowledgements in Part One, then you all already know how big a part my husband has played in this. Even though he is my beta-reader and editor, he still refuses to let me spoil him! So he's reading the story for the first time as he edits, and he's urging me to get my rewrites done so he knows what happens! This is great incentive for me to keep trudging on.

For all my fans out there, thank you so much for the wonderful, encouraging comments. Those, too, mean so much to me! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!