Tanya Lisle

Creative on a health break

Category: General

  • Strange Practice Review

    So this one was pitched to me as a romance-less story about a doctor who deals with vampires, mummies, and the supernatural. I was intrigued and I needed to know more based on the premise. Also, I was promised murder and it delivered!

    The story follows Greta and her three adoptive demon dads (a vampire, a vampyre ((Difference minor)), and a literal hell demon) As they try to figure out what is trying to murder various people in the supernatural community. Greta words as a doctor for this community and gets caught up in the murders largely because her new vampyre dad, Varney, is attacked and they soon come after her.

    And I really enjoyed it! The pacing was great and I really appreciated Greta as a character. She is not an action oriented character, much more of a doctor ((As she should be)) in the way she approaches issues, and the compassion she shows throughout the book really helps to add to the humanization of a lot of these elements. It’s also a lot of fun to see these characters see one another and helps to make them a lot more rounded when you can see how other people see characters and how they see themselves.

    And, of course, Samael is just a lot of fun. When you get there.

    My one criticism, and it’s a small one, is that I had no idea what year it was. Not like if it was specifically 2010. Like I thought it was in Fantastic Beasts times. There are cars, but “Volvo” for some reason doesn’t register to me as a newer car. The names of the modern characters are Greta and August. They do not text. Somehow all of this together made it very jarring when they started referring to things that happened in 2005.

    Overall, though, it was a lot of fun. The universe is well thought out, the supernatural beings are well explored and thought about, and the way the different elements of mythology play with one another are really interestings. I’d definitely say check it out!

    Get Strange Practice on Amazon!

  • A couple White Noise quotes

    I’ve been having far too much fun making some quote graphics. They get posted to the social media accounts, but for anyone who is only following the blog, here’s the ones from White Noise!

  • Laurence & Chico Cafe

    Keeping on brand, I went to a high tea place that is very inspired by Alice in Wonderland with just that bit of Lovecraft. This place is actually right by the day job and I’ve been staring at it for ages, but I finally managed to get a bunch of other people to come with me to go check it out.

    This is an experience. I feel like that’s something to know going in. You’re going in so that you can have something cool to take photos and post to various social media afterwards. There’s an aesthetic to the place and the food that means you’re in part paying for the ability to take photos of cool looking stuff.

    But the food isn’t bad! At least, I didn’t find it that bad. It’s a strange mix of flavours and a lot of them are a lot stronger than I was expecting. I remember mostly the egg cracker, which was a black rice cracker, quail egg, caviar, and roe, mostly because roe has an aftertaste that I’m not a fan of. The other strange one of note was the chocolate tart with a smokey cream on top that tastes almost like bacon, which was very strange and a little unsettling for the vegetarian in the group.

    They can, on that note, change things to be vegetarian if you give them a little warning in advance! We did not, but they did try to accomodate us anyway as best they could.

    Overall, I really did enjoy the experience. ((I also ate everyone else’s food.)) It was fun to go to and there was a lot of really cool things to check out. Even the bathrooms are decorated in the aesthetic and it was a lot of fun.

  • VCon Reading of City Without Heroes

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHiJPogpRi4

    Back in October, I did a reading of a chapter of City Without Heroes while I was at VCon. And now I’ve finally gotten around to cleaning up the audio and uploading it with all the stammering glory that comes from a first reading!

  • Newsletter Ninja Review

    In my quest to do some personal and professional development this year, I’ve started looking into things like how to do more to treat writing and publishing like a business, and one of those things I need to work on is getting my newsletter ((Which you should definitely subscribe to! You’ll get a free book out of it right now!)) in order. Enter Newsletter Ninja by Tammi Labrecque.

    So I struggle a lot with my newsletter, as do a lot of other author folks I know. I don’t always know how to handle it, how I should think about it, and what exactly you do with it in general. This book was great to answer some of those questions that I’ve had.

    The book focuses a lot more on the philosophy of the mailing list. How to think of your list and your subscribers, and then taking that mindset and using it as a means of communication. It also gives a lot of interesting ideas for how to implement the ideas as well.

    Interestingly, it also uses some of the concepts in UX design ((I work as a programmer and UX dev, by the way)) like creating a specific user that you can then talk to, which I found particularly helpful to understand and, while it still hasn’t told me what I should be putting in the newsletter directly, it does help to guide what sort of content will go in there in the future.

    And, you know. Other super secret things. That you should subscribe to see.

    If you want to pick it up, Newsletter Ninja is on Amazon!

  • Dead Air is out!

    Dead Air is out now! Be sure to get your copy at your preferred ebook retailer or Amazon if you want paperback !

    Somehow, Harrison wasn’t dead. He wasn’t so sure about Max.

    Despite surviving his encounter with the newly reborn Luke, Harrison doesn’t have time to even process the loss of his boyfriend. The Harrish and Barrister Corporation, now under the control of the mysterious Doctor Gethen, has decided they must be brought back for further testing — permanently.  

    At least locked inside the walls of H&B, Harrison is safe from a resurrected Luke now hijacking Max’s body. Since coming back, Luke’s developed a desire to see Harrison dead, but there’s something  holding Luke back from finishing the job. It might be in his head, but Harrison swears he can still see just a glimmer of Max behind those eyes.

  • White Noise Infographic

    So apparently infographics are a thing! I’m currently working out how I can use them, and one of the first things I made was an infographic for White Noise. Enjoy!

  • More White Noise Trading Cards – Keepers Editions

    Since folks seemed to like the past bunch, here’s a few more trading cards I made! These are for the Keepers, all the ones who were from the first round of testing and have now been brought back to work for H&B.

  • White Noise Trading cards!

    I recently got it in my head to do some trading cards for various characters in White Noise, mostly because I thought it would be fun. And so I spent more time than I should have designing a card, looking for stock photos, and creating one for every character that is in the series. Well, the ones who do plot things, anyway.

    Here’s the main five! Let me know what you think. I’m thinking about what sort of things I can do with them.

  • If you’re looking for some swag

    I opened an Etsy shop!

    I started making some interesting items that are inspired by the books. I’ve only just begun, really, but do check out what’s there right now and see if you can find anything you like. And if you have seen any book quotes that you need on an item or a cover that needs to be made into a notebook, do let me know! After November, I’m planning to make even more.

    Even though that will absolutely miss Christmas. I am very good at this.