Kristin McTiernan

I have a particular interest in feminine aggression and how women's ways of destruction differ from the masculine baseline of beatings, gunfights, and demolition of infrastructure. The Netflix Marvel shows have been universally strong in depicting women as realistic, complicated, and aggressive in uniquely feminine ways.

Of course, the heroines like super-powered Jessica Jones and driven Karen Page exemplify these qualities, but so too do the female villains--the ones who know they are villains... and those who think they're on the side of the angels.

Daredevil Season 3 and The Punisher Season 2 have an important connection that struck me (other than being Marvel shows on Netflix): They both feature a female psychologist whose overabundance of care for her psychopathic patient results in great harm being wrought on the populace. I don't think it's a coincidence that there is a fair bit of overlap in the writers for these two shows (all 12 writers for Punisher also were …

This month I'm reviewing Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire, Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman.

I also discuss my minor crisis of what to write next and my decision.

I've had several men compliment me on how I write the male characters in my books. Not just the way they speak, but the way they think.

I never gave it much thought, as I don't spend my time on Twitter and thus miss a lot of the "cultural debate" going on right now about men and how they are portrayed in fiction. But then I read The Good Daughter by Karen Slaughter and I saw exactly what people are talking about when they say men are being misrepresented in modern fiction.

I wrote a brief review of the book on Goodreads, but in a nutshell,  every single cis-gendered male in the book was violent, insecure, cruel, and unfaithful to their long-suffering wives/girlfriends. The only exception to this rule was the protagonists' father. He was obsessed with his job of defending the guilty from the predations of the far-worse criminal justice system and played a subordinate role to his brilliant, yet cold wife.  All of these characters were met with squeals of approval …

I originally planned to release Book 2 of the Black Magic series in January. But, as it often does, life got in the way a bit. However, I am reasonably sure I will have it available in late February or Early March. This one will be a bit longer than the first, but still a quick read in Tess's signature voice. My artist has once again outdone himself and I'm so thrilled with how it came out!

A world once modern and learned condemned to repeat the dark ages after demons rise from the earth's core every night to feast on humans.

Peter V. Brett starts off the Demon Cycle series in a single small town and grows to world-size proportions. Frankly, it's a master class in high fantasy world-building. It's never explicitly said in the books, but I think the Demon Cycle series takes place in our own distant future—after all our technology failed us in the face of demons. It's that subtlety of world building and the intricacy of plot that makes the Demon Cycle books so outstanding... at least the first three.

Because I love this world and these characters so much, I became truly angry with the direction the series took and my perception of why the author made these choices. As with all my reviews, there will be spoilers, but nothing that should prevent you from reading these books. Your life will be better for it, even with its flaws.

The Warded Man: The Warded Man …