Krista D. Ball

Krista D. Ball was born and raised in Deer Lake, Newfoundland, where she learned how to use a chainsaw, chop wood, and make raspberry jam. After obtaining a B.A. in British History from Mount Allison University, Krista moved to Edmonton, AB where she currently lives with her partner, two crazy but likable step-boys, seven cats, and a very understanding corgi.

Like any good writer, Krista has had an eclectic array of jobs throughout her life, including strawberry picker, pub bathroom cleaner, oil spill cleaner-upper and soup kitchen coordinator. These days, when Krista isn’t software testing, she writes in her messy office.

Website: http://www.kristadball.com
Twitter: @kristadb1
Facebook: Facebook profile
Blog: http://www.kristadball.com/blog

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• UNDERWORKED & OVERPAID! The Indie Author's Freedom from Nine-to-Five Guide on April 01, 2011
  
  Good for those who are Amazon-focused. Many of the suggestions can be used if you are with a publisher, too.
  
• The Second Coming on April 04, 2011
  
  Well-written, though it wasn't my style. I didn't finish it (I found that I was skipping large parts of the books because the descriptions were getting too cumbersome after a while), but I won't deny that Burton has a good story on his hands here. If you don't like the traditional fantasy-style descriptions, this isn't for you. However, if you do like that style, I think you'll love the book.
  
• Digital Rights on May 12, 2011
  
  I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had the right mix of science fiction (robots, set in space, creepy quasi-'net) with the psychological mind tricks that outstanding harder science fiction should play with your mind. The science easy to follow after about page 4 or 5, once I managed to adjust my imagination to Knowles's particular setting. The only thing I struggled with was trying to picture the "Assistants", but I opted to picture them as quasi human-looking robots. I'm not sure if that's what the author intended, but it worked for me. For those who are afraid to jump into harder science fiction, Digital Rights provides a good introduction. The benefit is its length. A longer story would have become too bogged down, I think. The length works in its favour. There are books that make a reader think, "I could have written that." Then, there are books like these that make a reader sigh and say, "I wish I'd written that." One of my favourites for 2011.
  
• 1,000 Creative Writing Prompts: Ideas for Blogs, Scripts, Stories and More on April 02, 2012
  
  There's a lot of ideas in this, so I suppose a person is bound to find something that works for them. Overall, however, the bulk of the ideas were just rather bland. I think a lot would be good for blog posts or maybe to use as interview questions if having guests on one's blog, but they were rather flat for short story ideas and longer pieces. Definitely disappointed.