genre – Anjuelle Floyd

Interview | Book Reviewer, Roxanne Piskel

Leave a Comment / Articles and Essays, Book Reviewer, Guest blog, Interview / Anjuelle Floyd

1. Tell a little about yourself.

My name is Roxanne and I received my B.A. in English from Sierra Nevada College.
I run the blog Unintentionally Brilliant, which is mostly filled with my daily meanderings, but also features book reviews.
In “real life” I work as an administrative assistant for an environmental consulting firm in Reno, NV.

I’m mother to a four-year-old who provides a lot of humorous (and sometimes poignant) entries for the blog.

2. How did you come to reviewing fiction?
I was actually looking for something to post about one day, and I had just finished reading this fantastic book called This is Where We Live.
I decided to review it on my site.
I had so much fun doing so, I decided to make book reviews a semi-regular appearance on the blog.
I started off reviewing books that I picked up from the library, and have recently started querying publishers and authors for review copies.

3. How long have you been reviewing fiction?
I have always been the type of person to recommend books to friends. In this way, I have been a reviewer for a very long time. But in regards to the blog and writing physical reviews, I have only been reviewing fiction since September, so six months.

4. Are you a writer? If so what genre? Have you ever considered writing?

Interview | Book Reviewer, Roxanne Piskel Read More »

Of Setting, Change, Action, and Dilemmas…

What creates setting, both physical and emotional?

And what goes into creating a setting that stimulates a reader to feel?

What is the challenge of creating a formative and transformative setting?

What needs to remain static and constant in a setting?

And what needs to cry out for change?

These questions point out the importance of setting and the challenge of meeting the needs that setting addresses in a story or novel.

John Truby, author of The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Masterful Storyteller, advises that the setting of a novel needs to include 2-3 separate and distinct places.

His belief debunks the idea that a good story needs to have a list of settings in order to sustain interest and hold the reader’s attention.