Jade Varden Official Blog

 "I loved the development of the story line right from chapter one."  "I would recommend this book to any young adult because it's the perfect amount of high school drama for any adolescent." Justice (Deck of Lies, #1) has been reviewed at The Rise of a Novelist. Go and read the whole thing , and get an inside look at how I get my reviews!

"This is a suspenseful, mystery book that has you gripping every lie as they multiply in the palm of your hands." "This book felt real and I will recommend it to everyone I come across." Addicted to Novels has reviewed Justice (Deck of Lies, #1). Read the whole thing to find out where to get your copy of the book!

It's hard to believe The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was published just 62 years ago, in 1950. It feels like it's been a part of children's literature for ever. It's certainly been part of TV movies, miniseries and  films for a long while, but then things move pretty quick in the movies. It's the first book in the Chronicles of Narnia series, and one of Times All-TIME 100 Novels. C. S. Lewis nearly didn't get it published, and now it's one of the most beloved children's books ever written. The Book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is set in war-torn 1940s Europe...and in a mythical land called Narnia. It opens with the four Pevensie children, of whom there are two boys (Peter and Edmund) and two girls (Susan and Lucy). They've been forced from London due to WWII and into the country home of Professor Digory Kirke.  While exploring his large home, Lucy goes into an old wardrobe...and all the way through it into a magical, s...

"It seems like on every page you are learning something new, more truths revealed." "Another breathtaking, fast-paced, eye-opening and jaw-dropping novel from an Awesome author!" The Tower (Deck of Lies, #2) has been reviewed at Keepin' up with the Joneses. Read the whole thing to find out how to enter a book giveaway and get some new reading material (after you buy The Tower, of course!)

If you follow the blog, you already know how to comb through book blogs to get reviews . You know how to approach reviewers in order to get them to read your work. You know how to deal with review exchanges, and how to handle the inevitable criticism. But if you're not also following up, you're doing yourself a disservice. The follow up is one of the best tools you can use for getting reviews.  Are you using it? Remember Me?  If you're committed to being an indie, you're probably going to self-publish more than one book (or maybe you already have). Whether you're writing a series or several stand-alone books, you can't neglect all your follow ups. So if you're asking, what's that, you already have been. It's okay, you can still catch up.  Keep track of your reviews. If you're going to properly follow up on the reviews you get, you've got to keep track of your reviews. I'm a big advocate of organization , so my first sugges...

"An exhilarating ride, and once I started the book, I just couldn’t stop." Justice (Deck of lies, #1) has been reviewed at Keepin' up with the Joneses. There are some spoilers, so feel free to read the whole review if you've already read Justice, and see if you agree with the reviewer!

Words that sound alike, homonyms, are problematic for every writer at one time or another. Some homonym pairs are especially evil, because the two words in question have similar meanings. Passed and past are perhaps the most evil of all homonym pairs. Maybe that's why they're used incorrectly so often. Past The word past is confusing, because the word itself is not past tense. It's a perfectly normal adjective, a descriptive word, used when describing something that has already happened.  "Didn't you and Jim break up?"  "Yeah, but that's in the past."  Past is a word that references time. It's even part of a word trio, a group of buddies known as past , present and future . The three are often mentioned together, and it's worth remembering because it'll help you use past correctly. There are different ways to use the word, different places to put it in a sentence, but the meaning of past won't ever ...

There are dozens of different book genres, but when you get right down to it there are only two types of books: comedies and tragedies. Do you know which type of book you're writing, and what makes the difference between the two? Comedy and Tragedy Dustin Hoffman explains the nature of book writing beautifully in Stranger Than Fiction , one of my favorite movies. In the flick, he tells Will Ferrell the difference between a comedy and a tragedy: "Tragedy you die, comedy you get hitched." It's a pretty simple explanation, some might say trite, but it's also true. Every fiction book falls somewhere inside the comedy-tragedy spectrum. Sometimes, it's easy to tell which kind of book you're reading. Really clever writers keep you guessing until the very end. But when you're writing, you have to know which direction you're pursuing...because if you don't, no one else will be able to figure it out, either.  Comedy   Comedies ar...