About Deanne

I was born and raised out on the fringes of the rainy Pacific Northwest on fishing boats and cold beaches with only a dog and kittens for company, and so my love of reading and creating stories started very early. My dad would illustrate my early stories and I would listen to him ramble about European history and warfare, eagerly asking questions about Kings, Queens and our own family history. In my adult life I am wife to a brilliant and hilarious web designer and mother to two wonderfully weird children whom I am trying to pass on to my love of learning about the world. I'm an amateur genealogist, amateur photographer and amateur history major haha. I'm good at doing amateur stuff lol. During the last couple years I finally turned my life-long urge to write into a serious endeavor and finished my first novel called (for now) The Stone and the Stars, about a dying dystopian society, and one girl trying to escape it before it collapses. While I finish cleaning up the edges on my novel for the umpteenth time, and before I send it out into the world, I've lately begun a novel about utopia, this time on Earth. I'm finally living up to the nerdy book-worm title my family 'lovingly' pinned on me from the time I was small, and finally doing that one thing I feel like I was born to do. Cliche and silly? Yes!

Elizabeth I: The Novel: by Margaret George

Elizabeth I of England may be one of history’s most written about monarchs, perhaps for the reason that we know so much about her, yet the true woman remains elusive. A great dissembler and brilliant judge of character, Elizabeth was able to portray herself as she wished, hiding the mortal … Continue reading

A Dangerous Inheritance: by Alison Weir

About seven years ago I snatched up my first historical non-fiction book set in Tudor times from a vintage pawn shop on my way home from East Wenatchee, WA. It was about Queen Elizabeth I by Alison Weir, and although extremely rich in detail and a little tricky to remember … Continue reading

On The Trail of Genghis Khan: by Tim Cope

In 2004 Tim Cope, a young Australian adventurer, set out to do what hadn’t been done since ancient times: to travel on horseback across the entire length of the Eurasian steppe, from Karakorum, the ancient capital of Mongolia, through Kazakhstan, Russia, Crimea and the Ukraine to the Danube River in … Continue reading

Midnight’s Children: by Salman Rushdie

I call it quits. ’50 Books You Have to Read!’ (paraphrasing from Buzzfeed) ‘Modern Library 100 Best Novels’: Amazon. Wait, what’s this? “If beating around the bush was a crime; then, Salman Rushdie would be charged with aggravated assault and attempt to murder of that bush.” A reader named Shayantani … Continue reading

Resistance: A Woman’s Journal of Struggle and Defiance in Occupied France: by Agnes Humbert, translated by Barbara Mellor

I haven’t had anything to read in weeks which is torture – the first phrase that came to my mind, commonly used by us for things like being thirsty or wanting a burger. However, what Agnes Humbert went through was real torture, and shed light on the little known perils … Continue reading

To Your Scattered Bodies Go, The Fabulous Riverboat (Riverworld 1&2): by Philip Jose Farmer

FINALLY some decent sci-fi after that last debacle! ‘Riverworld’ was a conglomerate of the first two books in the series, and as such my rating is in the middle. ‘To Your Scattered Bodies Go’ is a fascinating idea, although I will tell you right now (starting book five) you aren’t … Continue reading