The Book Nerd

This is the home of the book nerd. If you would rather read a book than watch TV, you'll fit right in. Here's the spot by my hearth where I share all good things literary:

- rants and humor about books, readers and writers;

- book reviews with a literary and outsider bent;

- lists of great books for specific topics, tastes and purposes;

- helpful tips for anyone who writes on style, voice, world building and characters;

- war stories from the world of indie publishing;

- And tasty morsels about my books, settings and characters.

Montgomery Mahaffey is an independent fantasy writer chosen as the featured author this week on the Goodreads PFDR discussion board. Mahaffey's writing is described by reviewers as reflecting the style of oral folk tales while clearly being intended for adults. Her first book, published earlier this year, Ella Bandita and the Wanderer brings "to life the old art of storytelling in a fantasy that is both fable and fractured fairy tale."

The reviews on this book on Goodreads are particularly interesting and insightful. Read here.

Goodreads description of Ella Bandita and the Wanderer

They were fated to collide, Ella Bandita and the Wanderer. This complex fable about a predatory seductress and an adventurer frozen in grief explores the darkness of the human heart and the allure of erotic obsession over love. The story begins when an outcast young woman tries to kill herself. Yet a sorcerer intervenes with a last chance to change her destiny. But she must be his lover and give him her heart to transform into the immortal Ella Bandita. All his life, the Wanderer hears stories about Ella Bandita, the ruthless thief of hearts. But he never believes she lives and doesn't recognize her when they meet. Driven by lust, he follows Ella Bandita into a battle of wills that threatens to destroy him. The Wanderer wants nothing more than to avenge himself on a woman he loathes, the vagabond seductress who stole his heart.