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Articles by Alien Romances
A Disturbance In The Force....
The FBI carried out an experiment to see if cold case victims cause a disturbance in the force, that is, if it is possible to use Dowsing rods to divine the location of buried bodies. I am aware of dowsing for water, Ley Lines, oil, vortexes, ore, electrical energy, and even lost treasures, but I had not heard of dowsing to find cadavers, which is sometimes called "grave witching". The problem, as I see it, with the FBI experiment is that they used volunteers with no experience of dowsing.
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Astarion (Baldur's Gate III) by T. Kingfisher by Karen S. Wiesner
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Astarion (Baldur's Gate III) by T. Kingfisher My mother taught me that, if I can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all. This philosophy has always been my guideline in reviewing. Only infrequently have I posted a review that wasn't basically positive. For that reason, I wasn't going to review Astarion after I read it.
Astarion
Astarion ASTARION, by T. Kingfisher, is a media tie-in fantasy novel by one of my favorite authors, set in the world of the “Baldur’s Gate†computer game. Although I’ve never played the game, as predicted I had no trouble following the story. Over forty years of playing tabletop Dungeons and Dragons more than adequately prepared me for the setting. In fact, probably any fan of sword-and-sorcery fantasy would understand this novel even without D and D experience.
The Trouble With Transparency
How many LLCs do you have? If you write professionally for hire (as opposed to writing fiction), you probably ought to have at least one for limited liability protection and tax savings (assuming you would otherwise file as an S-Corp. The Authors Guild has a good article on the topic. https://authorsguild.org/resource/do-authors-need-an-llc-or-s-corporation/ However, when you have an LLC, you have to file an Annual Report with your State.
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review The World of the White Rat: Daggerbound, Book 2 of Swordheart by T. Kingfisher by Karen S. Wiesner
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review The World of the White Rat: Daggerbound, Book 2 of Swordheart It's always a treat to return to T. Kingfisher's The World of the White Rat, an umbrella that covers many connected series. Do a search here on the Alien Romances blog to find reviews associated with this universe. Given that there's a lot already written and available, you might be wondering where to get started.
Daggerbound
Daggerbound DAGGERBOUND, by T. Kingfisher, is the sequel to SWORDHEART, which you don’t absolutely have to read before this one, but doing so would enhance the experience. As Karen's review (forthcoming tomorrow) explains, the books take place in the same world as the Clocktaur duology and the Paladin series.
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: "The Bishop of Durham Attempts to Surrender the City" by Susanna Clarke by Karen S. Wiesner
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Susanna Clarke is the author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, published in 2004. It was an enormous, epic fantasy that was the author's debut novel. A worldwide bestseller, that "fairy" tale of alternative history nevertheless felt incomplete because it ended on a cliffhanger with critical threads never achieving resolution in the volume. The author intended a sequel set a few years after the first.
Are Scary Stories Good for Children?
Here's an essay that declares being frightened in a "low-stakes setting" and the "safe place" of fiction can be good for child readers: How Kids Benefit from Scary Stories An author interviewed in the article calls horror stories a "sounding board" that can help Children "identify their Fear so they can deal with it." Since real life often includes sad and/or frightening experiences, it makes little or no sense to exclude such material from fiction.
{Put This One on Your TBR List}: Review of A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock Accompanied by Karen Wiesner's Original Artwork by Karen S. Wiesner
{Put This One on Your TBR List}: Review of A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock Accompanied by Karen Wiesner's Original Artwork I was looking for something to read on my Libby library app, and A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock came up, no doubt because of my newfound love of gardening and horror literature. This 2024 Victorian gothic chiller was the author's first book. The basic story is two Victorian-age, quirky gentlemen live a cloistered existence in an equally eccentric botanical garden.
Vampire Retro-Review: Darkness on the Ice
DARKNESS ON THE ICE (1993), by Lois Tilton, takes place in 1944 at a German weather observation station in Greenland. I enjoyed it because of the World War II background and especially the plot device of a vampire's taking full advantage of the months-long Arctic night. While that trope has shown up in subsequent books and movies, as far as I know this horror novel by Tilton was the first to introduce it.
Toddler Tycoons or {Put This One on Your TBR List}: Review of Wildwood Dancing Series by Juliet Marillier by Karen S. Wiesner
The entertainment industry these days seems to be populated with toddler tycoons. The attention spans of those making the choices about what the population will be allowed to read, watch, play, or listen to is on par with that of a toddler. At that age, children tend to have trouble focusing on one thing for long, and they're forever abandoning the "old" in favor of something new that will only temporarily hold their interest.
Reading Sequels and Catching Up
I've recently read the third volumes in two trilogies. Although years have passed -- in one case, many years -- since I read the respective second books, I've had no trouble following the stories, thanks to the authors' skillful writing. Each catches up Readers as much as necessary without resorting to a prefatory "the story so far" synopsis.
Settings as a Starting Point for a Story
Settings as a Starting Point for a Story Please welcome a guest post by mystery and romantic suspense author M. S. Spencer: First off, let me explain that I write murder mysteries in the vein of Agatha Christie. They are not “cozy†mysteries, which usually have heroines who cook, bake, knit, or keep cats and yet find the time to solve sudden deaths occurring in their close-knit Vermont or West Virginia hamlet.
To "Scrape-Warn" or not to "Scrape-Warn"
I've not heard "Scrape-Warn" used as a verb or as a noun, but I have been following the debate among authors concerning whether or not to add a verbot (German word for veto) to the copyright page of a work, along the lines of: "No part of this work may be reproduced, stored, or used to train artificial (or Super) intelligence models." For explicit information, read the Writers' Weekly lawyer's discussion and advice.
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Three Black Lantern Publishing Novels by Caitlin Starling by Karen S. Wiesner
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: In the past, I've reviewed several other offerings from Caitlin Starling on this blog. Do a search of her name to find them, if you're interested. My reviews of this author's work tend to run the gamut in terms of whether I enjoy the material or not. This particular review of three separate books highlights the same situation. Starling's last big release was The Graceview Patient in late 2025, so I went looking for anything new from her.
Vampire Retro-Review: They Thirst
Vampire Retro-Review: They Thirst When I first read THEY Thirst (1981), by Robert McCammon, I thought, “Oh, this is just a pastiche of ‘SALEM’S LOT on a wider scale, transplanted to California.” In each book, an ancient Vampire leaves the Old World to seek new blood in an unsuspecting American community. Where Stephen King’s vampire lord takes over an isolated town in Maine, McCammon’s Prince Conrad Vulkan creates an undead army to overrun Los Angeles.
The Fruit of the Poisonous Tree
Today, I am throwing metaphorical tomatoes at certain "tech titan" men. For arthritis sufferers, tomatoes are a Fruit to be avoided. For some, tomatoes worsen arthritis, as do other deadly-nightshade-family fruits. The "fruit of the poisonous tree" is a legal rule under U.S. law that says that any "evidence" that is discovered as the result of an illegal search or interrogation may not be used in court.
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Review of The Halcyon Fairy Book by T. Kingfisher by Karen S. Wiesner
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Review of The Halcyon Fairy Book by T. Kingfisher ** THIS POST CONTAINS MY 300TH REVIEW FOR THE ALIEN ROMANCES BLOG! **   Beware many, many spoilers! T. Kingfisher (the pen name of Ursula Vernon) is a versatile author, illustrator, and artist. The author did The Halcyon Fairy Book's artwork herself.
Book-to-Film Problems
This post includes a bit of a spoiler about the Season Two premiere of OUTLANDER: BLOOD OF MY BLOOD. "The Book is always better than the movie." Well, not always. While I tend to agree in general, there are exceptions. Two prominent examples are THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER and ROSEMARY'S BABY, both satisfyingly faithful to their sources. SILENCE OF THE LAMBS is almost perfect but departs from the novel in a subtle shift of emphasis.
Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} From Below by Darcy Coates by Karen S. Wiesner
{Put This One on Your TBR List} From Below by Darcy Coates From Below is an Aquatic Horror novel by Australian author Darcy Coates, published in 2022. I'm fond of all fictional tales, regardless of how far-fetched, concerning the Loch Ness monster and kraken and other supernatural deep-ocean creatures, submarines, diving, underwater caves, and spelunking in general. What's not to love? I've ravenously consumed stories similar to this and consistently wanted to find more like it.
The Good and Bad of AI
In Cory Doctorow's current LOCUS column, he distinguishes being "anti-AI" from being anti the bad things some entities do with it, and he considers the "politics" of AI: Technopolitics I don't think I've ever come across a succinct definition of AI. "Artificial intelligence" could include anything from spellcheck and autocorrect up to chatbots that can pass the Turing test and everything in between.
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Silent Tongues and The Church Beneath the Roots by Felix Blackwell by Karen S. Wiesner
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Silent Tongues and The Church Beneath the Roots I'm always on the lookout for interesting audiobooks to listen to when I'm doing other things. I stumbled upon Stolen Tongues by Felix Blackwell in my library app. It was released in 2017.
The Economy of Sesame Street
It has occurred to me that in all the decades I've been watching SESAME STREET, I've never seen anybody pay for anything at Hooper's Store. In fact, nobody on the show seems to use Money at all. (I recall only one exception, to be mentioned below.) When kids and monsters order food, treats, or other items, Chris and Alan, like their predecessors over the years, appear to just give them stuff.
A Most Unusual Premise, Indeed
A Most Unusual Premise, Indeed I found something seemingly flattering in my spam folder a few days ago, but obviously too good to be true. I thought that I should share. One hears about this sort of Email, and any chatbot can be most helpful. The biggest red flag that AI suggests is that editors do not use Yahoo email addresses. I hope you’re having a great week. My name is Claire Schulz, Executive Editor at BenBella Books.
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Faith of Beasts (The Captive's War, Book 2) by James S. A. Corey by Karen S. Wiesner
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Faith of Beasts (The Captive's War, Book 2) The authors James S. A. Corey--made up of writers Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck--of The Expanse (you can read my in-depth review by typing the Series name in the search box) have started a new trilogy called The Captive's War. The first installment was The Mercy of Gods published in August 2024 along with "Livesuit", the first novella for the series, released October 2024.
Vampire Retro-Review: The Ruby Tear
Vampire Retro-Review: The Ruby Tear THE Ruby Tear (1997), by “Rebecca Brand,†was actually written under a pen name by Suzy McKee Charnas, author of THE VAMPIRE TAPESTRY, one of the best vampire novels of the late twentieth century. Readers familiar with it as well as her other works under her own name, most prominently the post-apocalyptic, feminist Motherlines series, will find THE RUBY TEAR surprisingly different.
Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Guignol & Other Sardonic Tales by Orrin Grey by Karen S. Wiesner
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Guignol & Other Sardonic Tales by Orrin Grey Guignol & Other Sardonic Tales by Orrin Grey was published in 2018. This collection of 14 very weird stories is unlike almost anything I've ever read before. By the way, Guignol is a French hand puppet.
Wolf Worm
Nobody will be surprised that I agree with Karen in loving T. Kingfisher's Wolf Worm. As she describes, it's Gothic historical fiction with body horror. A “wolf worm†is the larva of a parasitic insect. Botflies, screwflies –- squeamish readers beware.
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Review of Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher Paired With Karen Wiesner's Botanical Artwork by Karen S. Wiesner
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Review of Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher Paired With Karen Wiesner's Botanical Artwork  Beware: May contain unintended spoilers! T. Kingfisher (the pen name of Ursula Vernon) is a versatile author, illustrator, and artist.
Secrets of Naked Mole Rats
The September 2026 issue of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC includes an article on research into the slowing or prevention of aging, including possible techniques such as reprogramming the DNA of cells or growing organs for transplant from a patient's cloned tissues. Another approach, not mentioned in that article, involves studying Naked Mole Rats to discover the secret of their unnaturally long lives. They can survive over ten times longer than typical rodents such as mice.
Horrific
In War Of The Worlds (H.G. Wells 1898), the invading Martians are defeated by the common cold. Various iterations of a virus defeat aliens from other worlds, from influenza to computer viruses (as in Independence Day). Fair enough, but what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Silo Series by Hugh Howey by Karen S. Wiesner
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Beware potential spoilers! Wool, Book 1 and Shift, Book 2. A third novel followed, Dust, (published in 2013) which was intended to conclude the series. In Wool, we're introduced to the concept of silos--subterranean cities each with 144 floors that are meant to be self-sustained by those living in them. This populace was never meant to become aware of the existence of other silos.
Vampire Retro-Review: Dracutwig
Vampire Retro-Review: Dracutwig Is anybody here aside from me old enough to remember Twiggy, the ultra-thin supermodel of the late 1960s? Dracutwig (1969), by Mallory T. Knight, shows unmistakable signs of being partly inspired by her fame. This over-the-top parody of the Dracula mythos as incarnate in the Hammer horror films begins with a brief encounter between Count Dracula and the village “slut,†Charmaine.
Hobson's Choice
Q: When is a choice not a "choice"? A: When there are no alternatives, no options, no choices available except for "Do, or do not do." In other words, you have Hobson's choice. Hobson's way... or the highway on foot. The eponymous Hobson was a British businessman who operated out of an inn where St. Catherine's College, Cambridge now stands. He delivered mail between London and Cambridge along the Old North Road and kept livery of about forty horses.
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review The Book of Swords Edited by Gardner Dozois by Karen S. Wiesner
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review The Book of Swords Edited by Gardner Dozois Be aware of unintended spoilers! The Book of Swords was published in October 2017. Edited by Gardner Dozois, this particular collection includes stories that fall into the fantasy subgenre of "sword and sorcery".
Vampire Retro-Review: The Space Vampires
Colin Wilson's THE SPACE VAMPIRES (1976) was filmed as a disappointing movie, LIFEFORCE, but the novel provides an unusual treatment of energy-draining vampires as Alien invaders. An Earth expedition in the near future discovers a vast, derelict spaceship carrying the apparently dead yet undecayed bodies of about thirty beautiful humanoids. The aliens turn out to be only in suspended animation. Escaping, they prey on and possess human victims.
The Overlooked Auxiliaries
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Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Only One Left by Riley Sager by Karen S. Wiesner
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Only One Left by Riley Sager Warning: May contain spoilers! I've read and reviewed all of Riley Sager's previous books. Oddly enough, The Only One Left (his 2023 release, the seventh I've reviewed) turned out to be different, at least in that the unreliable narrator card that's been blatant in all his other stories wasn't, for once, played more than a little in this one. Believe me, it was growing stale. I was expecting it--dreaded it, truth be told.
Reprise: A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking
Since Karen's blog last week discussed several children's books by Ursula Vernon (aka T. Kingfisher), including A WIZARD'S GUIDE TO DEFENSIVE BAKING, I'm reprising my review of that book, which I first posted last year: This YA fantasy novel set in a secondary world is quite different in tone and content from Kingfisher’s contemporary adult horror novels such as THE TWISTED ONES.
Not All There Yet
To start with a disclaimer. No Chinese person has influenced this Author in any way. One of my condominium associations has twice this year sent me demand letters and emails, threats, fines or late fees and service fees for being several thousand dollars in credit (as opposed to being in arrears). The bot without Human Oversight does not understand the meaning of parentheses! Or... with human oversight. "Oversight" is one of those interesting words that means opposite things.
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Review of Children's Book Selections by T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon or Ode to Sourdough by Karen S. Wiesner
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Review of Children's Book Selections by T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon  Ursula Vernon aka T. Kingfisher Back on December 5, 2025, I posted my first review on the Alien Romances blog featuring four young adult fantasy stories by T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon, who is one and the same--a talented author, illustrator/artist, and gardener (which I really appreciate, as I aspire to someday call myself the same).
If "Hell Is Other People" . . . .
Cory Doctorow quotes Jean-Paul Sartre's aphorism, "Hell is other people," to introduce the hypothesis that technology moguls' fantastized utopian society is one with as few real human beings as possible: Hell Is Other People Doctorow immediately points out that we need other people for a functional society, and we often cherish their company.
Death, Taxes, And Litigation
Death, Taxes, and Litigation. Despite what some might think, one cannot avoid any of them, but one can mitigate some of the perils. I have or manage four LLCs, and I am thinking of forming a fifth. An LLC does not cost very much to set up through an attorney. Once it is set up, one applies for an EIN (Employer Identification Number) from the IRS for use instead of a social security number, and one applies to ones State's Licensing And Regulatory Affairs division for a business Id and Password.
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Review of Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher by Karen S. Wiesner
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Review of Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher   Beware: May contain unintended spoilers! T. Kingfisher (the pen name of Ursula Vernon) is a versatile author, illustrator, and artist. Her novel Hemlock & Silver, published in August 2025, wasn't the first Snow White fairytale retelling she wrote.
Hemlock & Silver, by T. Kingfisher
Hemlock & Silver, by T. Kingfisher A royal request, however affably presented, amounts to a command, so despite her trepidation Anja packs up, snake and rooster in tow, to travel to the palace. How will the king react if she fails to solve the case? Suppose Snow really is being poisoned and Anja becomes a target, if the culprit sees through her guise of being the princess’s new natural history tutor? Whom can she trust?
A Recipe For Disaster (Or Not)
Having spent the past three hours perusing multiple Legal blogs, and finding nothing that is both current and relevant, I will default to writing off the top of my head. However, Joy R.
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Review of Jackalope Wives and Other Stories by T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon by Karen S. Wiesner
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Review of Jackalope Wives and Other Stories by T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon  Beware: May contain unintended spoilers! T. Kingfisher (the pen name of Ursula Vernon) is a versatile author, illustrator, and artist. She has a page on her Red Wombat website labeled "Short Stories" that includes links to her short stories, poems, articles, and essays, some of which are included in a variety of different anthologies.
Fantasy as a Safe Space
Here's a WRITER'S DIGEST article in defense of Fantasy literature: A Safe Space for Readers The author of the essay disagrees with the widespread assumption that fantasy exists "separate from the real world, far removed from the day-to-day experiences that real people encounter." Rather, she maintains "quite a lot of fantasy stories are constructed around real world issues" and use their "core components to build a Safe space for readers to confront and process problems that they have to cope...
Bad Chat
One cannot necessarily trust "the internet". In a previous post, I mentioned a couple of Legal cases where lawyers cited legal precedents in a court filing, and it turned out that those so-called precedents were either fictional or fake. The lawyers were in trouble with the judges. It's tempting to believe the results one gets within seconds when typing into a search bar some question or other.
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Review Toad Words and Other Stories by T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon by Karen S. Wiesner
{Put This One on Your TBR List} Review Toad Words and Other Stories by T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon  Beware: May contain unintended spoilers! T. Kingfisher (the pen name of Ursula Vernon) is a versatile Author, illustrator, and artist. She has a page on her Red Wombat website labeled "Short Stories" that includes links to her short stories, poems, articles, and essays, some of which are included in a variety of different anthologies.
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