Katharine Sadler

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May 10, 2015 By Katharine Sadler 1 Comment

My Book Crush

There’s something about final edits on one of my books (The Resonance: The Reapers Series book 4) that makes me more of a procrastinator than I usually am. Maybe it’s that I’ve been spending three to seven hours a day with the book for the past two weeks, or maybe it’s that a part of me isn’t fully on board with letting go and sending the book out into the world. For whatever reason, I’m taking a break from editing to tell you about a book I am majorly crushing on. I can’t stop thinking about it and counting the days until the next book in the series comes out.

I should admit that I read a lot of books. I mean A LOT of books. According to Goodreads, I’ve read 55 books this year already and, although I’ve read many wonderful books, there is only one book I fell in complete and utter love with and that book is . . . drum roll, please . . . Burn for Me by Ilona Andrews. If you’ve never read Ilona Andrews, you should. I love their edge series, as well as their Kate Daniels series, but this new Hidden Legacy series might just be my favorite.

Burn for Me is one of those books that I loved so much that it took me almost a full week, and about six books to recover and stop wishing every book I read was the next book in the Hidden Legacy series. Don’t let the cover of Burn for Me fool you, the romance, while fun, is not the main focus. The book is set in a world where magic users abound and the more magic a person has, the more wealth and prestige they have. One of those powerful magic users is causing destruction and chaos and it’s up to Nevada Baylor, who is a private investigator with low-level magic and no wealth, to stop him. She enlists the help of a hugely powerful magic user, Connor “Mad” Rogan to help her. The fight scenes in this book are a thing of beauty. The dialogue is sharp and spot on. The characters are fun and well-drawn. I don’t want to tell you more and ruin the story, but I will say that many of the characters are unapologetic about their dark side and straddle the line between right and wrong. If you love urban fantasy, this book has got it all, and October 27th (release date for the next book in the series, White Hot) cannot come fast enough.

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Reviews

September 23, 2014 By Katharine Sadler Leave a Comment

Why writers should really care about reviews

Lately, I’ve been hearing and reading authors, both indie and traditional, advising against writers reading reviews of their own work. I assume this advice is given to avoid the reviews that are just blatantly blasting your books, but I’m not sure why we should blindly ignore all reviews. As a writer whose advice should you listen to? A handful of beta readers? A reviewer who writes reviews for a living? A professional editor?

All of those are great sources but readers who are willing to tell the world in great detail what they love and hate about every book they read is a resource that shouldn’t be ignored. It is gold in my opinion. If you’ve got thirty-five out of fifty reviewers saying they couldn’t connect with your protagonist, I think you should be taking a hard look at why. Then use that information to make your next book or novella or short story better.

I’ve known I wanted to be a writer since I was too little to write. Before I started writing stories, I made up songs and wanted to be a songwriter. I was planning to marry the adorable little boy next door and write the songs he’d sing. Neither of those plans worked out, and probably for the best, but I didn’t stop creating with words. I attended a creative writing summer camp and every writing class I could, and every instructor I had told me I was wonderful. That’s the rule, right? Teachers tell kids they are wonderful writers so that the kids keep writing. Then we all go to college. The creative writing course in college was brutal. My classmates all attacked each other mercilessly – at least that’s how I remember it- and I figured out that I could toughen up and work harder or I could quit. Over the years, I’ve had praise and criticism in equal measure and I’ve learned to tell good critiques from bad. After writing so long, when someone points out an area of weakness it’s not painful, it’s like they’ve shone a light on something that was dark. As writers we get so caught up in what we’re creating that we sometimes miss the obvious. Good critiques are priceless and difficult to find, until sites like Goodreads were created. Now, you can get critiques from as many people as you can convince to read and review your book. People who love to read the genre you write and look upon reading your work as a pleasure and not a chore. Why would anyone ignore the gift of a well-written and considered review?

I haven’t received a lot of reviews, yet, so maybe I shouldn’t write on this topic, but I have read a lot of reviews and have found them to be extremely useful to me as a reader. I hope to get more reviews in the future and, when I do, I plan to look at all of the reviews and focus on the flaws the majority of reviewers are pointing out. Criticism should not be feared but embraced.

Filed Under: Publishing Tagged With: Reviews

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About Me

Katharine Sadler is an urban fantasy and romance author. Here you will find updates on new releases, free sample chapters, and the latest news. Read more...

Latest book release

How to Lasso a Billionaire: The 1st book of the Vegas Billionaires Series. A new adult romance series. Released in April 2020 and available now in digital format. Read more...

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