#Review #PolarNight #mystery #supernatural #suspense #ebook

Julie Flanders is superb, a definite flare for writing suspenseful mystery. She pulls her readers to the edge of their seats, and thoroughly involves you with Danny Fitzpatrick, a police detective you automatically fall for. After the tragic, homicidal death of his wife, Danny fleas to the snow-ridden terrain of Alaska to drown his sorrows. 

The novel, Polar Night is set in Alaska and Julie's research on the Alaskan territory is phenomenal. You can almost feel the frigidness surrounding the story. As the reader, your throat clogs along with the main character as he breathes in ice fog. That's when Alaskan temps reach a mere 40 below and it's full of icy particles. Years prior it was called appropriately, 'white death.' 

Polar Night has a supernatural premise which I wasn't expecting. In fact-- there are spoilers ahead... but they won't deter you from reading...
What makes Julie such an excellent writer is her believable plot-line. Danny Fitzpatrick's investigation into the premise of scavenging Vampires located in Russia back in the 1800's and beyond is astute, I still have shivers. Do I believe in vampires? Now I do! And has me jangling in my boots, and I tend to sleep with the covers rucked under my chin, just in case.

I recommend Polar Night as an excellent read. For murder mystery, supernatural, detective, suspense and thriller fans alike. 

Hi, have you met my friend burnout?

It's been a while since I posted on Untethered Realms last. In fact, I think it might have been well over a year. Eek. Sorry guys. 

I would have liked to say my absence was due to my sold-out international book tour, or that signing the books during that tour sprained my typing hand... But no. 

Unfortunately, the reasons for my absence is an old, familiar friend to writers everywhere... burnout. 

It's probably funny to see burnout referred to as a friend, but I did conclude that, while burnout is a thorny fellow, he actually is kinda good to have around. Why? He has a way of making us step back and reassess. 

On my side, I'm pretty much consistently go go go, even in the worst of circumstances (of which last year was basically one crap situation extended over about 200 days), but being this way comes at a high cost to my physical and mental health. 

By the end of those 200 or so days, my buddy burnout came over, seemingly to stay. I pushed on regardless because I had to, straight through Christmas. And by the third week of January, I was physically ill. 

At which point burnout grabbed me by the neck, made me look it square in the eyes, and told me, "You can't go on like this, Misha. Seriously come on." 

So to a large extent, being sickly plus burned out was the impetus I needed to take a harsh look at myself and... well... get a grip on some really bad habits I have. 

At the same time, I'm also having to look at every aspect of my life and how I'm spending my time, because I simply can't keep going on the way I did and expect for my exhaustion to go away. So at least for now, I've cut way back on everything I possibly can, in the hopes that I can open up my days and start fitting things in, somehow in a way that makes better sense. 

And none of these things would have happened if I hadn't burned out, even if it was seriously damaging to my health. 

So yeah. Not necessarily a bad guy, burnout. 

Do you burn out sometimes? Have you burned out recently? Did burning out make you reconsider your habits and lifestyle?