Josephine Strand Author

Category: BOOK TALK

  • Angels on the Ceiling

    Angels on the Ceiling

    A Christmas Bonus Excerpt from my novel Misty Dreams, Chapter 4. šŸŽ„āœØ Manhattan, Christmas Eve Richard Kelly had never been a believer. At least, not since he was five years old and still believed Santa Claus was a kindhearted old man from the North Pole who traveled the world bringing gifts to children. Angels, to…

  • Writing Life: An Excerpt From the Current Draft of ā€œFinding Homeā€ ā€“ The Prequel to ‘Misty Dreams’

    This excerpt is an unedited draft and may contain errors, inconsistencies, or changes from the final version. It is shared for early insight and enjoyment only. Thank you for reading! ā€œAre you okay?ā€ Max asked the boy hunched on the park bench. The kid couldnā€™t be more than twelve or thirteen. One sleeve of his…

  • Judging a Book by its Cover: Trends in Romance Book Cover Designs

    Iā€™m the first to admit it. Iā€™m that person who breaks the ā€˜donā€™t judge a book by its coverā€™ rule when it comes to choosing a romance novel to read. Even when it comes to my own books, cover design plays an important part in the decision process. As I edge closer to the completion…

  • BOOK REVIEW

    TWO NICKELS by Michael F. DeConzo GENRE: Urban Fiction I donā€™t often post book reviews on my blog, but occasionally a book comes along that leaves a lasting impression on me, such that I feel I should share it with other readers. Two Nickels by Michael F. DeConzo was an unexpected gem. Although I haven’t…

  • Book Review: Of School and Women, by D.S. Marquis

    Of School and Women by D.S. Marquis is a riveting, nostalgic dive into the past. Itā€™s brilliantly written and humorous, cleverly mingling cultural nostalgia with great life lessons. I wasnā€™t living in the United States during the 80s, but in all democratic countries the same fundamental changes in standards of living were taking place, and…

  • BOOK TALK: How I got hooked on reading

    When I was a young girl, the local library was one of my favorite places in which to spend the afternoon hours. It was before the internet, even before computers made it into our homes. It was where my friends and I would meet to do research for a school project, do our homework, or…

  • Misty Dreams

    Misty Dreams

    Reposting a wonderful 5-star review of Misty Dreams from the amazing Hepzibah Becca Jael @jaels_just_reading https://jaelsjustreading.wordpress.com

  • An Unexpected Visitor

    Taking a page from an article I read on The Writer blog: Resurrect your darlings: How to recycle deleted material from your manuscript, I decided to ā€˜resurrectā€™ some of my deleted material from the original MISTY DREAMS draft and post it here. This is the second in the series. For those who have read the…

  • Book Review

    The Midnight Library, By Matt Haig (Spoiler alert!) As a fiction reader, I want to read books that are all-absorbing and make me forget the negativity of real life, stories that even if they arenā€™t all smooth sailing, pull me in and uplift my spirits. It has never crossed my mind to read a book…

  • A Home For Misty

    This monthā€™s post is a piece I deleted from the first draft of my book Misty Dreams. For those of you who have read my book and have heard my story of how the first draft turned out to be a massive 360,000 words, this is one of the many scenes I regretfully had to…