Cursed cover

I am so proud that my cover is a big hit. Every reviewer so far that has agreed to review the book loves the cover.

My dad - 80 - thinks it's great too. This is the same father that reads the YA recommendations I send his way.
One reviewer was so blown away by the cover that I sent her a copy of the cover for book 3. It kicks butt and is so beautiful that I am impressed every time I look at it. Alas, I must keep it under wraps.
Book two is outlined but I've only written the first two chapters.
My priorities right now are to release Cursed next week, edit Evolution for an August release and write Stolen -- Tysseland Chronicles book 2. I would love to get book two done by the end of the year but I don't want to make any promises.
Oh and recover from my foot surgery, start running again, spend time with my daughter and husband. I have a full life.
Happy reading.

AMC's The Walking Dead third season

I know I'm super late to be summing up a season months after it ended but I'm a little behind -- by years -- on my TV watching.

The Walking Dead has a unique charm. I'm not keen on the gore, as I've mentioned before, but the show has definitely hooked me. Season 3 had fewer DUMBASS moments than in the first two seasons, which made it much more enjoyable. I still don't get the Governor and his mental illness except to sum it up as he's just CRAZY.
Rick went a little nuts too but soon recovered.
I like many others am not sad to see Andrea dead. She bored me. For a smart lady, I found her incredibly unintellectual.

A smart woman would have at least tried to kill the Governor even if it meant her end. Instead, for inexplicable reasons, she sticks with him even after she finds out about the heads in jars and the dead little girl.

Up until Michonne joined the show, the women in The Walking Dead were very uninspiring. You could totally tell it's a male written, male created, male thinking show. I have not read the comics, so my guess is the women are modeled after the comics, which are also probably written by men for men.

Part of me is outraged because it's women and men falling back into gender roles from biblical days. The ladies do all the cooking and cleaning, while the guys get to kill bad guys. It's uninspiring and boring. To boot, like typical women, the ladies have to cook, clean and fight, while the men just fight. The women do it all.

 I would love to see a woman take charge. It's not like Rick is a brilliant mind, especially when he's hallucinating. He's repeatedly made DUMBASS decisions. Cripes, he was only a Sheriff's Deputy. Anyone who has covered the police knows Sheriff's departments are the lowest paid and have the least impressive personnel.

The only admirable female character is Michonne, who I just love. Maggie is pretty cool too, but she only joined the show in season 2.

One thing this show is missing is a little sass, a little flirtation, some sexual tension. It doesn't have to develop into a romance but the dialogue in this show could really use a boost of attitude. It would be nice if they found someone who was intellectual.

My second favorite character is Daryl. He's a redneck with a heart. I love it. I find it a little disturbing they are trying to pair up Daryl and Carol. She's just a super lame character. She needs a boring man like her. Daryl, he deserves a spitfire who made it out of the trailer park.

Why is it they can't find a safer place that isn't the size of a shopping mall? It's not like these monsters are thinking folk. They are rotting corpses that are easily defeated. It doesn't make sense to me how the military got so overrun. I'm hoping there is a huge military presence and community full of people living somewhere, maybe on an island. Otherwise, if you really, really think about it, The Walking Dead is very depressing.

I have settled on a title and cover for my YA fantasy/sci-fi novel that will come out in August.
Thanks to Allison Ingman who helped me come up with a title: Evolution. The second half of the two-part book will be Revolution.
This series was initially going to be a trilogy but I think the ideas I have are best said in two books. The first one is 82,000 words. I see the sequel being longer.
Evolution will be published in August. I need a couple of months to do some editing. This labor of love has been underway for more than five years.
I started it in 2008. I've changed the character names three times because I have not been satisfied with the names I've chosen.
The lead character in Cursed is Sasha and I like the name and have always felt comfortable with it.
In Evolution, some names have never felt right. I have finally settled on the name Dax for the male lead. I know everyone is going to think it's some trendy name but it's not. It's the name of one of the photographer's I work with and I have always loved his name.

A stranger read my book and liked it

I am so flattered. I haven't released Cursed officially yet because I'm still waiting to hear back from Beta readers and make some changes. To do that though I have to leave the book on Amazon so that my beta readers can download it with the gift links I sent them.

I did send it off to one reviewer.

Anyway I posted the book cover and a sample on Goodreads to start getting some publicity. And there a 25-year-old woman I don't know read and liked the book and wrote a short review. I am so flattered. It makes me feel awesome.
You can see the review here:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17925344-cursed

Now I am agonizing over how pathetic I am. I really like it that someone read my book and liked it!!!
I am happy today.

AMC's The Killing and Walking Dead

So I finally broke down and watched these two shows. I can't say exactly why I was reluctant. I thought a show called The Killing was going to be too gory. How wrong I was.

I finished the first two seasons of The Killing last night and was very impressed. I think stretching a murder mystery out over two seasons is a bit of a slog but it was very well done.
I think by mid-second season I was getting a little tired. I like how the investigation came full circle.
I kind of knew the car had to be tied to the killing in some way either to frame the politician or well used by someone in his camp. I did think the mayor did it until they showed him on the phone seemingly talking to the Indian chief. That was much too set up and I knew it wasn't him.
In the big picture I'm still perplexed as to why the aunt shoved the car in the lake. I understand that she didn't know it was her niece. But her married lover and the politician guy were arguing and her boyfriend was saying that he was never going to leave his wife. So why would she do it? I didn't think that was resolved very well. I loved how dark and dreary the show was and I loved the two lead characters. They are great actors and had a certain depth you rarely see in police shows.
My only irk is that there was too much torrential rain. It rains in Seattle (or Vancouver where they film the show) a lot, but it's more drizzly, misty.
I am so glad to see that AMC is bringing the show back for a third season and will be setting my DVR.
Now on to the Walking Dead. This is the show that I should have feared as gory. I just couldn't understand a zombie show. These people are dead, what is there to happen?

There are two things that really bother me about the show. I think the hubby and I are having a hard time with the overt gore. Every episode has at least three situations where a zombie's head is dramatically smashed, slashed, dismembered, pommeled or gored. It's this part of the show that I find icky. My husband cringes while I hold up my hand in front of the screen. I  figured this part was meant for the 13-year-olds in the crowd. Everyone reminds me it's a horror show. I disagree. It's a survival show like The Stand mini-series.
While this show isn't overly predictable, it sort of is in the sense that you know there will be a scene in the hour that is what I call the dumbass moment. There is always an event where a character is in jeopardy of being zombie lunch because of a stupid risk. This is when I'm yelling at the TV and sometimes hoping the person will die because they are such a DUMBASS.
 What I do like about the show is it's making some characters unpredictable. I love Darrell. I was afraid of him at first but he has so grown on me. I love his redneck smarts.
The cop's friend, you know the one who was sleeping with his best friend's wife, I can' remember his name, but oh, is he going evil. This is a scary turn, almost as frightening as being a zombie snack.
I just wish they had some stronger female characters. The women have become a bit too predictable in the old fashioned I'll do the laundry and cook the meals kind of way. Seriously? There isn't a guy in the group that would prefer to wash some clothes than go out looking for that lost kid?
I'm only in mid-season two and hope to be caught up by the time the next season starts.

The TV analysis brings me to my summary. I am now watching three AMC shows because I also record Mad Men, which is a little dull this season (6) but they just had the merger so maybe it will pick up.

It's getting to the point where AMC is rival of Showtime and HBO in terms of quality shows because AMC also has Breaking Bad. Since AMC is not pay cable makes you wonder why it is that network television can't produce shows of the same caliber.

An even newer cover for CURSED

After the great feedback I got on the cover I had the designer make some adjustments and we changed the font because it was hard to read.
The designer has also made me two other covers for subsequent books and they are even better.

Cursed is done.... cover revealed!! Looking for beta readers.

My new YA novel Cursed is finished. I am rewriting it and looking for a couple of beta readers. If you are interested in reading an advance copy of the book contact me at monicawolfsonwrites@gmail.com.
I can supply a word doc or ebook file from Amazon. The files should be ready in the next couple of days.
All I ask for is for honest feedback and eventually for you to post a review on Goodreads or Amazon once it's published.

What I can do is post the cover. It was done by Sarah Dalton from the U.K. I found the cover at Book Cover Designer. I hope ya'll like it as much as I do.

Thanks,
Monica