Nils Ödlund's Blog

I’ve been interested in music for much longer than I’ve been writing, so it’s hardly surprising my stories and my characters are influenced by the songs I listen to. Whenever I start a new book, I pick out a playlist to serve as soundtrack to the writing. Same when I need to get to know a new character.

This week, I started the first pass of revisions on Lost Dogs #3: A Freak Among Freaks.

Naturally, I decided to put together a new playlist. The book has a different main character, and whi...

Yesterday, I uploaded the revised edition of the second book in the Lost Dogs series, Undeserved Second Chance. This one needed a lot more work than the previous book, which surprised me, as there weren’t any major content changes to deal with. I didn’t have to replace an entire chapter with two new ones, like with book one.

What I discovered when preparing for the revision was that the book, especially the first half, had a lot of language issues. Much of the prose just wasn’t particularly g...

Does genre really matter anyway? Isn’t it more important to just tell a good story?

Yes, no, maybe?

For me as a reader, genre is a way to narrow down the search for new books to read. Instead of looking at All Books, I can look at Books In The Genre I Like, and I’ll have an easier time finding something that I’m in the mood for.

As a writer, I know that not everyone will enjoy what I’m doing. Knowing what genre best fits my book will make it easier for me to find readers who might l...

I recently reviewed the first book in this series, Windswept (here), and rather than reviewing each of the other ones, I figured I’d share my thoughts on the series as a whole instead.

Short version: it’s awesome, read it.

Longer version:

I don’t consider myself a fan of Young Adult stories. I don’t have anything against YA, but I often find I have a hard time relating to the kind of is...

I recently reviewed the first book in this series, Windswept (here), and rather than reviewing each of the other ones, I figured I’d share my thoughts on the series as a whole instead.

Short version: it’s awesome, read it.

Longer version:

I don’t consider myself a fan of Young Adult stories. I don’t have anything against YA, but I often find I have a hard time relating to the kind of is...

I’m currently in the process of revising the first book in the Lost Dogs series. For much of the book I’m just cleaning up the prose, fixing mistakes, and making minor content changes. However, the sixth chapter was just too dull and needed to be rewritten from scratch. I knew that when I started this, and now that I’m very nearly done, the sixth chapter has been split into two, and also taken over half of what is now the eighth chapter.

The revisions aren’t necessarily complete, and I still...

For 2020, I set my reading goal at 60 books. I didn’t hit it, but I got to 50, which I’m still happy with. For this year, I once again set my goal to 60, and hopefully I’ll hit it this time.

So what did I read last year?

Mostly, it’s been fantasy of one variety or another, but I also read a bit of science fiction, and then not much else. Some books were good, and some books were not so good.

In this post, I’ll look back on the year and talk about the books I remember the fondest. These ...

The Mapweaver Chronicles Scroll 1

by

Kaitlin Bellamy

Over the last year or so, I’ve gotten into the habit of downloading book samples of anything I come across as recommended that seems even mildly interesting. They sit in big pile on my kindle, and once I finish reading something, I browse the samples to see if something catches my interest, and if it does, I’ll read the sample. If the sample is to my liking, I get the book.

That’s how I came across Windswept.

The Keeper Origins Book 1

by

J.A. Andrews

I started this book months ago, and I loved the introductory chapter, but when the story proper got under way, it just wasn’t what I was in the mood for. I put the book away and tried later, and once more it didn’t work. Then, a few days ago, over the holidays, I figured third time’s the charm, and went for it.

I normally wouldn’t have, but I’d heard enough good stuff about this book and its author’s other works that I...