Author: byjehunter

I'm the author of the Black Depths and Artifacts of Avalum series. I'm also a reader and I love posting young adult book reviews and blogging about everything related to books. In the morning, I can be found drinking coffee and wishing it was still dark outside. In the afternoon, I'm stuck at my day job, and in the evening, I'm probably working on my latest creation.
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Self-Publishing Update

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Wow. I’ve been really quiet on here lately. Sorry about that. I’ve been busy working on Dark Shores, Book Three of my young adult fantasy series called, Black Depths. This follow-up to Tales of a Redheaded Sea-Witch and Broken Tide is going to be simply amazing. I’ve come up with a temporary cover for the release. Which is below. I like it, but I’m worried about how it will print. I’m hoping to order myself a proof copy for review this week, so I’ll see when it arrives if this is the design I’ll be going with for the first edition.

However, I have found a wonderful artist to do some cover art for me. Her name’s Leah Keeler and she’s been wonderful. Below you will find the new and much more amazing cover art for Tales of a Redheaded Sea-Witch. I’ve decided to shorted this to Sea-Witch in all of my future postings. It’s a beautiful cover. What do you think?

I’ve also been very busy with reading, and will be swamping you all with some young adult book reviews in the next couple of days.

Last but not least, it is my birth month (yes, I do celebrate a birth month because I cannot contain all the joy that is me), so I’ve been pretty busy with that!

All in all, the self-publishing experience has been fun. The most difficult part, which I’m still struggling with, is getting the word out to all the young people in the world! So if you’ve read my book and enjoyed it, please do not be shy in saying so. I’ll appreciate you always!

JEH

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What I’m Reading: Apple and Rain

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A YA Book Review

Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan

This is on I borrowed from my ebook Library. I liked the simple cover and the refreshing title but didn’t really know what it was about. I was guessing love story, but that was more or less wrong (though there was a little bit of love). Mostly it’s about Apple finding her place in the world when her Mom returns after abandoning her as a child.

I really liked this book. I thought the character of Apple was well done, and that of the Mother and Rain. I did think that the Grandmother could have been given a bit more motivation. But overall, a caring and heartwarming coming of age story. Beautifully written and very entertaining. The main character is only 14, so it falls into a bit of a lower age category, but I think any teen would really enjoy living through this characters struggle with self.

4/5 Stars (I really need to come up with some cool pictures for my rating system).

Have you read this book? What did you think?

Other Book Reviews:



J. E. Hunter is the author of the Black Depths Series. Tales of a Redheaded Sea-Witch, and Black Depths, the first two books of the series can be found on Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. The third book, Dark Shores, will be released March 28th, 2016. The fourth and last book of the Black Depths series will be released by the end of 2016.

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Upcycled Notebooks – Design Your Own

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So last week I did a post about making your own bookmarks. Following up on that, and using the same skill and cheap materials, I though I would do a post about covering your own notebooks.
It’s no secret that I love fancy journals. I own more than I’m currently using. There are stacks of blank journals on the shelves of my office and a list in my notebook of the ones I want to buy when I have money. But what I used to do, back when I was poor high school student, was design my own. And since this is the year of being frugal, I decided to go back to this. Not only does it save me some much needed cash, which I will need if I ever want to quit my job and write full time, it’s fun and a great outlet for my creativity.
To get started, you need some cheap notebooks. You can pick them up at the dollar store or Walmart or your corner store. They are ugly – don’t worry about that part cause we’re going to rectify it.  You also need the same materials we used last week: gluestick, scissors, packing tape, and old magazines or newspapers.

The first step is to find an image you like. Cut the size and shape to add that of your notebook. Secure it by using a glue stick, and then put stripes across the front to protect the image and make your notebook cover somewhat water/coffee proof (this is also a bonus).

You can also take a plain piece of paper and write some inspirational words or poems and attach that to your notebook, as I did on the back side of the notebook. in the picture below, you can see come of my older designs. Including one I did a couple years of ago to make a travellers notebook for my trip to Iceland. I loved having this themed notebook with me on my travels. The one on the left was my first reading log—the notebook I used to keep track of all the books I read before GoodReads became a big thing. I still keep track of all the books I read in a notebook, even though I also use GoodReads. It’s a bit of double entry, but what can I say, I love writing. Happy notebook making!

J. E. Hunter is the author of the Black Depths Series. Tales of a Redheaded Sea-Witch, and Black Depths, the first two books of the series can be found on Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. The third book, Dark Shores, will be release March 28th, 2016. The fourth and last book of the Black Depths series will be release by the end of 2016.

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What I’m Reading: Undertow by Michael Buckley

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YA Book Review: Undertow by Michael Buckley

My latest read was Undertow by Michael Buckley. This young-adult distopian adventure reminded me of my own book, Tales of a Redheaded Sea-Witch, in the sense that it revolves around sea-creatures.

Undertow follows the story of Lyric Walker, who lives on a Coney Island in a future where a bunch of sea-creature refugees have moved onto the beach. This book was very well written, and very action-adventurey, as I’m pretty sure everyone has come to expect from a teen distopian novel. Now, what I loved about this book was the writing, the pacing, and the friendship between Lyric and Bex, I thought that was marvellously done. What I didn’t like, was the all the despair.

This is a distopian world where everyone seems to hate the refugees. There seems to be very little sympathy, understanding, or even curiosity about the new arrivals. Everyone just wants them gone. This got me a little down, because I don’t want to think that humans are like this. I would like to think that if a bunch of sea-creatures suddenly walked out of the ocean that people would try to make friends with them. I’m that kind of person.

The other thing I really wanted this book to have that it didn’t was pictures. The creatures in this book were just out there, in terms of description, and at times I was confused about what creature looks like what, as the majority of them don’t look particularly human. Plus, I just love books with pictures. (Miss. Peregrine’s anyone?)

Still, even with the despair and hatred and violence, which there was a lot of in this book, it was a good, solid read. I’m not obsessed with it, but I really liked it, and I will read the next book.

4/5 Stars.

Other Book Reviews:

J. E. Hunter is the author of the Black Depths Series. Tales of a Redheaded Sea-Witch, and Black Depths, the first two books of the series can be found on Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. The third book, Dark Shores, will be release March 28th, 2016. The fourth and last book of the Black Depths series will be release by the end of 2016.