Jaclyn Paul / Lena George
author. mom. nerd. lover of mountains, rime ice, and cloud inversions.
Blog
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Book review: Orphan Island by Laurel Snyder (middle grade)
When did you read your first serious novels? I remember the latter half of elementary school as a time of discovering dark stories, complex characters, books that grappled with big scary issues. Sometimes this was because I’d raided my parents’ collection of horror and dystopian fiction, but oftentimes not. When my own kiddo reached this…
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Book review: A Hand to Hold in Deep Water by Shawn Nocher
I don’t consider myself a book blogger or bookstagrammer, but people seemed to appreciate when I posted an actual review on Instagram the other day. Maybe I should get back in the habit? If I’m going to get back in the habit, though, I want to cross post my reviews here for posterity. Feel free…
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Self-publishing and print-on-demand platforms: which one we choose matters a lot
In my adult life, I’ve watched self-publishing evolve so much. These days, authors have a wealth of options to get a book out into the world, many of them surprisingly economical thanks to print-on-demand. It’s easier than ever to produce and distribute books in the same league with big traditional publishers. This is kind of…
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This week in pandemic history: Thanksgiving
I’m currently reading the new collection of Alan Rickman’s diaries. My writer-brain often absorbs tone and voice from what I read, and it’s been interesting to observe the melding of my journaling cadence with Rickman’s. It’s also been interesting to dig into the content itself. I suppose I expected something a little more distilled, based…
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Memorials, hometowns, and the stories we grow up in
A couple weeks ago I took a trip to my hometown, which also happens to have inspired the fictional town of Red Hill in She’s Not Home. I didn’t know how I’d feel about this visit. The book is, in many ways, a love letter to a beautiful place, and to the feeling of growing…