Audely Bensen Writes

Can you believe that we're already halfway through April? I'm going to blink and it'll be July, I can tell. The last few months in writing-land have marched along. I'm making progress, but am not quite where I want to be.  The writing-related goals that I set in January were to have a beta-ready draft of The Wedding Crown done by the end of March (so I could submit to revpit), to have one zero-draft done by this time, work on focusing my time on craft instead of deadlines, and set up a dedicated writing desk.  I'm on track with my zero-drafts (wrote a 10,600 short in January), and my brain is whirring with an idea for the upcoming drafting week in May. And my writing desk is up and running--someday I'll share pictures of it.  In hindsight, goal#1 and goal #3 are a little bit at odds with each other.  I ended up spending all of the Winter Writing Festival (January 15-February 28) getting to the end of draft 3 of The Wedding Crown (81,440 words). About halfway thr...

My first exposure to Fonda Lee's city of Janloon came on my bus ride home from work. I got an e-book copy of Jade City from the library, and read it during my commute over the course of a couple weeks. It was so engaging that more than once I completely missed my bus stop, and had to stop reading long enough to trek backwards over several long city blocks.  After finishing Jade City, I knew it was something I wanted on my shelf. When Jade War came out, I bought the pair, and I'm glad I did. Jade War was just as fun and engaging as Jade City.  The thing that stands out the most about Lee's Jade series is the characters. Even though the chapters are relatively short, and we jump from character to character, sometimes oceans away, the reader always has a sense of how their stories tie together. Unlike works like Game of Thrones, there's never any question of how the narratives link together.  What was even more clear in Jade War than in Jade City is that Lee is a master ...

I discovered V.E. Schwab late in life. When the Shades of Magic series was coming out, I was newly out of college, and re-reading old favorites on loop. Earlier this year I read the Near Witch and loved it, so when the hype began about Addie LaRue , I asked my brother for the book for my birthday.  And then, like all new releases, I sat on it. Why read something when you can enjoy the anticipation of reading it? Once something has been read, that joy is gone.  I found Addie LaRue to be an enjoyable read. The short chapters kept the momentum going, even as nothing seemed to change for the main character for a while. The slow release of her backstory felt right, and I enjoyed the sense that the author was holding something over my head--I like waiting for the other shoe to drop.  At the same time, this book was another case of "cover copy does not match the interior." I had the same problem that I did with The Rage of Dragons. How far into the book were we when Henry appea...