Sotto Voce's Blog

 

Ipromised myself I would write about Koala Quill once I had tried it long enoughto understand how it works. I don’t want to ramble, so I consolidate mythoughts in bullet points to my best recollection. (It still ends up like aramble!) 

KoalaQuill is a website made to motivate authors. The goal is to write every day, tomonitor and consolidate progress, to challenge oneself, and to manage theeffectiveness of one’s writing session with some incentives.

Interface

KQ is one of the cleanest...

 

In Lost Country and Other Divergencesexceeds my expectations. The last two stories are nightmarish and might hauntme for a long time, but I’m glad I read them. They are not for thefaint-hearted. Everything is shown in excruciating detail and beautifully, orshould I say, grossly well-written. 

Each story has its own uniqueness andreaders experience it through the characters, which I think says a lot aboutthe author’s skill in looping them inside the stories. It makes them feelattached an...

 

The world is getting more hostile for the older generation.I’m looking at it from my parents’ perspective, and partially from my own.While I’m still capable of following technology, I am not always a willingparticipant. Why does everything need apps to function? Why do we need to login to do things? Why does everything have to be digital? Why don’t we stickwith printed-out menus instead of QR codes? It’s for convenience, and possiblyother reasons, such as sustainability, etc. I GET IT. It...

I didn’t have high expectations when Ibegan reading this, but it has become one of the best books I've read thisyear.

It hooked me from the start, andalthough I drifted a bit in the middle, the build to the climax was amazing,and it was a very satisfying read at the end.

During a botched body and soulsnatching operation, something went awry as a girl found half of her spiritgone. This is not a Bart Simpson-esque gig of selling his soul for five dollarsto his friend, but it’s the literal...

 

Round the World A Life of Jeanne Baret is a historicalfiction about the character Jeanne, as she embarked on the trip that brings usalong around the globe.

I applaud the amount of research that was dedicated to thisbook. This is the trip that many would never experience, even in modern times,so one could imagine how important it was back then.

While I understand that it was probably done to maintainaccuracy and details, I wish the character were more relatable because insteadof experien...

View my actual newsletter here, where you can find many book suggestions and free short story: https://preview.mailerlite.io/preview...

I’m always impressed with people who have a lot in their lives but still maintain their positivity. As a contrast, I see many whine about every single inconvenient thing that happens to them to get attention.

I have just met a friend who survived cancer, hopefully it’s gone forever. We have been friends for over two decades, but just l...

Collapse Years is a book I would recommend for anyone who islooking for a good quality short stories. It exceeds my expectation, I like allthe tales and how they are presented.

Touching deep and mature subjects, the stories arewell-written, but the strongest factor of all is how every tale is presentedthrough the lens of characters who experience it directly. It gives closeness,attachment, and readers are able to read along as if they are there.

The tales are dark and heavy, but they’re r...

 

 

I didn’t have much expectation when I read the book, and Ionly read the blurb after I finished the book. I’m glad I did it that way.

The book follows a main character, Theo, in his younger daysthrough his perspective, and the older him through the perspective of hisandroid caretaker, set around five decades into the future.

The revelation between the two PoVs is clever, and the waythe story goes back and forth, one moving to the future and the otherreminiscing about the past, works we...

 Treading Water is an intricate tale that focuses onrelationship between Saul, his wife, and his ex-mistress trying to rekindletheir old relationship.

It's a tale as old as time. Most likely, everyone has seen,read, or encountered something like this before. However, what makes the bookgood is the consistency and realism of the characters. They maintain theirrespective traits like manipulative, doubtful, erratic, etc throughout the bookand nothing is over the top, the scenario is very plaus...

 

The Christmas Getaway tells a story through two POVS: Brunoand Laura. They decide to spend Christmas in Bruno's family's holiday house,where Bruno plans to propose.

I think the author did a good job portraying the characters'body language and expressions, showing how they feel and what they thinkinstead of telling them. The writing flows, and these two are the strongestfactors of the book.

I can't decide whether this book is too short or too long,because by the time I have read 50% of t...