Book Reviews - Finish or Forget

I haven't done book reviews for a while (blame the semester. Planetary science took up more time than I realised).

I've been downloading and reading various books, mostly sourced from BookBub and Fussy Librarian, but also from the occasional recommendation from friends.

I confess, I did not finish reading many of the books I got. At .99c, I can afford to ditch a book that simply does not catch my interest.  I thought I'd go through some of the books I've recently read, including my reasons for finishing or forgetting it.

Note: my tastes may vary from yours, and you might enjoy a book I failed to finish, because what turns me off might be your crack.

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Book: The Woman who Saved the World (and was hated for it)
Author: Ebony McKenna
Finish or Forget:  Finish! And read a second time.
Why:  First of all it was a short read, which actually disappointed me. I wanted more. I read everything from this author I can get.  This book was a delightful time-travel story with many layers of nuance.
Many of her books are currently on sale at the moment for .99c or less.

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Book: Ever Shade (A Dark Faerie Tale #1)
Author: Alexia Purdy
Finish or Forget: Forget. Got to chapter four
Why:  The plot felt one-dimensional. It simply didn't raise any questions to keep me going. I'm a stickler for complex plots. This didn't seem to have one. Sorry.

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Book: Marine Biology
Author: GL Carriger (Okay, it's really Gail Carriger writing modern stuff)
Finish or Forget: Finish!
Why: Her voice and style is bright with a bit of humour. Her characters are likeable. While I'm generally not a fan of contemporary real-world settings, this one worked for me, because of how she painted the layer of magic over the contemporary world and made it relevant. Don't know if I'd hand it to most of the teenagers I know, as it's really for grownup people who can handle mermen and werewolves smooching atop ladders.

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Book: Midnight Marriage
Author: Lucinda Brant
Finish or Forget: Forget. Made it to chapter two.
Why: Style didn't catch me. Also, the secretly arranged, forced marriage between a teenage boy and a twelve-year-old girl (even there was no consummation) felt very squicky to me, partly because of their ages, but also by the men forcing both parties to the marriage. They get married, and then don't see each other again until a decade later. Still, I couldn't feel any chemistry.  Might come back to it. Maybe. If I do, it'll be in hopes of plot complexity.

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Book: Mademoiselle at Arms
Author: Elizabeth Bailey
Finish or Forget: Forget. Got to chapter three.
Why:  Characters felt too inconsistent. I couldn't get a sense of any depth from them. "Mademoiselle" claims to be English through and through, but always speaks with a French accent. Reader is given no clues why. Also, the style isn't as deep as it could be, with filter phrases distancing me. Also, don't really get a sense of the historical setting.

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Book: The Last Necromancer
Author: C.J. Archer
Finish or Forget: Finish! And went on to look for more in the series.
Why: The voice! It drew me in and didn't let go. Even the concept of the last necromancer in the world intrigued me enough to abandon my Kobo and secure this one for my Kindle app on my mobile phone. Normally I can't stand reading for too long on light-emitting screens, but this one tempted me. Style was smooth, details rich and the characters distinctive.
I wish Archer had a box set of this series. She's done box sets for her other series. But I wanted to indulge in this series now!

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Book: The Twenty-Sided Sorceress
Author: Annie Bellet
Finish or Forget: Finish
Why: Voice. I started reading this book because the title sounded so hokey. I honestly was expecting some shallow story about gamers who suddenly discover their AD&D actually casts real spells.
Glad I was wrong! The voice hooked me and made me read contemporary paranormal. The setup and the depth of the main character (who's got really big, nasty secrets) kept me until the end. Might be tempted to read more of the series.

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Book: The House of Closed Doors
Author: Jane Steen
Finish or Forget: Finish.
Why: This was more a historical novel, rather than anything fantasy-like. Maybe I found the genre refreshing enough to stick through to the end. I liked the main character Nell's journey and how she deals with some of the challenges that come her way. One slight downfall was that plot events felt a bit too idealistic. Personally, I enjoy idealistic, because for me, fiction is escapism. But sometimes, the idealism was a bit too convenient at times. Not sure if I'm ready for the next in the series. Maybe when I need a bit of optimism in my life. It's not frothy, but the heroine doesn't really end up in any dire situations that can't turn out all right in the end.

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Book: World Whisperer
Author: Rachel Devenish Ford
Finish or Forget: Forget. I persisted to chapter nine in hopes it would get better, but it didn't.
Why: The plot was so dull. Also, characters felt flat.  I'll forgive one or the other, but not both. While there were some interesting world-building elements, the strangeness of each element functioned in isolation and there was insufficient cause-and-effect to make for some really rich worldbuilding. Alas.

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Book:  Destiny Blues
Author: Sharon Joss
Finish or Forget: Finish.
Why: Because strong characters, interesting plot and voice will trump my meh attitude toward contemporary paranormal. The worldbuilding was well-thought-out in this one, offering the sort of complexity I like to see. I loved how Joss handled the supernatural Djemon et al.  Sucks to be Mattie, but can you blame her? 

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Book: The Smuggler's Gambit

Author: Sara Whitford

Finish or Forget: Forget. Couldn't even finish chapter one.

Why: It wasn't the voice. There was voice, but it didn't sing to me. Wasn't the setting. Plenty of that. Could have been the plot. I didn't get a sense of the direness of the plot. Yeah, Our Hero Adam gets abandoned to die by some smugglers. But otherwise, I couldn't get any sense of the plot. Maybe it was the characters. I simply didn't connect to them. Another big turnoff for me is when the MC gets bullied first thing. Francis Smythe bullies Adam in chapter one. Maybe I wasn't in the mood for this story. Might give this a try again. If plotty goodness picks up in the next chapter or so,  I might give it another chance. Normally I'm into historical stories about pirates and smugglers.

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Book: The Devil's Concubine

Author: Jill Braden

Finish or Forget: Finish, and am looking forward to the next book in the series.

Why: Boy, can Braden deliver! Her fantasy worldbuilding so redolent of Southeast Asia was so refreshing. Her characters were well-imagined and round. The plot satisfied my inner drama mama and the depth of the characters only made it better. I wanted to care about these characters. I loved that they had good sides and bad sides. 

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Book: Naheli's Sacrifice

Author: Rabea Scholz

Finish or Forget: Finish, though this kind of book isn't really my thing.

Why: I tend to find dystopias rather isolating and self-contained. They're often like little bubbles. This one felt like that. It was consistent within, but felt like the island on which it took place was completely isolated from the rest of the world. Might have come from the characters, that had their own sort of dysfunctionality. I did read this to the end, because the main character had her own conflicts, which propelled the story enough for me. Most of the other characters tended to appear rather flat, but Naheli had her own complexities. I like how she wavered between her determination to be the Sacrifice, and to not be the Sacrifice.

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Book: Mr Dracy to the Rescue

Author: Victoria Kincaid

Finish or Forget: Finish, but driven only by hope. Alas, they were a bit dashed.

Why: I'm a P&P sucker, so I'll read any of the public domain derivatives. This one, while having an excellent premise, failed to deliver on character development. Elizabeth Bennet accepts Mr Collins' proposal out of duty to her father and Mr Darcy realises he's obsessed with her after all. Unfortunately, that's about all the character development that happens. Darcy's obsession doesn't develop, wax or wane. Elizabeth puts up with Collins until he decides to break the engagement. I almost wanted her to gird up her loins and start slaying zombies, but nothing so exciting happens.

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Book: Box set: The Dragon Blood Collection, books 1-3 (Blade's Edge, Death maker, Blood Charged)

Author: Lindsay Buroker

Finish or Forget: Finish and went looking for more. 

Why: Excellent blend of steampunk and magic. Aeroplanes! Dirigibles! Pirates! Betrayal! Complex characters, imaginative worldbuilding and an easy-to-read style that carries you along.

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Book: Dragon Seed: The Story of China at War

Author: Pearl S Buck

Finish or Forget: Finished, but disappointed in this well-beloved author

Why: I first read The Good Earth as a child, I loved it. It was an interesting look into the peasant life of Pre-revolutionary China. As her books have appeared on my Kobo list, at really good prices, I've been buying and reading them up. Unfortunately, while this one started out as expected, the plot fizzled out toward's the end. I think she could have ditched the story of the daughter who went away, and just stayed with the main character.

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Book: Twice a Rake

Author: Catherine Gayle

Finish or Forget: Finish

Why:  I'm a sucker for Regency Romance. I enjoy reading them, but I tend to forget about most of them after the final page. This one had an interesting enough plot with a heroine who writes scandalous fiction in her diary. Naturally, the diary gets lost, and wacky hijinks ensue. Worth reading once.

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Book: To Wed the Widow

Author: Megan Bryce 

Finish or Forget: Forget. Got to chapter eleven, and couldn't stand the company of the characters any longer. 

Why: They felt too contemporary, like the popular kids in high school. Not my tribe. Didn't really want to know how their HEA turned out.

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Book: Slave, Warrior, Queen (Of Crowns and Glory, Book 1)

Author: Morgan Rice

Finish or Forget: Forget. Chapter five, and I'm happy to abandon this.

Why:  The plot. It's like everything is hand-placed in front of Our Heroine Ceres so she can succeed. I don't get any sense of anything happening because of her own actions, nor did I get enough sense of the consequences for her choices. It's almost as if she's drunk too much felix felices. The other characters feel flat.

Thursday Interview: Rebecca Laffar-Smith

Y'all welcome Western Australian author Rebecca Laffar-Smith to Romance Spinners. Her official biography reads:

"An author; a publisher; a mother. Rebecca loves bringing the joy of reading to children, exploring magical words of wonder and darkness, and fairy tales of happily ever after romance. As you can imagine, that leaves her torn between her three passions. She writes science fiction and fantasy under the name Rebecca Laffar-Smith, romance under the name Serenity Bly, children's books under the name Bec J. Smith, and publishes books for children with language and literacy difficulties at Aulexic."

Today we're having a bit of a chat about the genres we like and the importance of reading for everyone. If you have a reluctant reader with literacy difficulties, consider having a look at her P.I. Penguin series.

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HWK: You're known for writing SFF but I hear you've got a secret soft spot for Romance. What is it about this genre that you like?
RLS: I've always been a devourer of romance. I'm a big fan of Mills & Boon and in my twenties I imagined joining the ranks to pen some of their Sweet, or Sexy, or Temptation lines. I love to read romance, when I'm experiencing a physical and emotional low due to my Bipolar, because they're written in a way that isn't too demanding for the reader. They're light but powerfully emotional and that sense that love conquers all is uplifting. It brightens the mood and sometimes I need that, especially because my SFF writing is usually pretty dark and emotionally fraught.

Having said that, the first attempts I made into writing Romance in my twenties were absolutely terrible. I probably didn't have enough emotional maturity or experience with love and loss and even heartbreak to be able to write a convincing happily ever after. My characters didn't have much life and body. Thankfully, the writing I've done over the years has helped significantly but I'm still only just exploring the genre again as a writer.

And to be honest, a lot of what I like about it as a writer is the strength of the market and the emotionally rewarding writing experience. When I'm writing SFF I find I get into the grit of what I'm working on. It can be emotionally draining, and I find myself dragged into the darkness with my characters. Writing Romance does the opposite, it pulls me up out of that hole and makes life a lot more fun and shiny. Obviously there are stages of the writing where I'm dealing with conflict, but there's always a sense of destiny in the story where I know things will turn out for the best in the end. When I'm writing SFF I don't have the confidence of that certainty.

And that same confidence and certainty is true for being able to find readers. The romance market is huge and ravenous. As a romance reader myself I know I can power through about four romances in the time it takes me to read one SFF. So I can go to market with a romance and be relatively confident it will find readers where are SFF is often a lot more hit and miss. I have to hope that my kind of SFF appeals within a niche of the SFF market and because it takes longer to write and requires more emotional and physical investment in its production it can feel good to break that up with the occasional romance where I know I'll find readers who love the story. Romance readers are a lot less critical in reviews so long as you satisfy the key emotions.

HWK: I also love Pride & Prejudice. You explore Elizabeth & Darcy's first married Christmas in your novella "Christmas at Rosings". What is it about the Darcy/de Bourgh family dynamics that caught your imagination?
RLS: Lady Catherine is a monster. As an antagonist she was an obvious choice, especially because Darcy's loyalty is something to really play upon. Of course he loves his aunt and he has been raised to respect, even admire her. Elizabeth's standing in that dynamic is shaky at best. She doesn't have the breeding to give her any sort of status in Lady Catherine's eyes and it's easy to let Darcy's past respect for his aunt clash with his still emerging loyalty to his new wife. Their relationship, having had a rocky beginning, is easily shaken by the foibles of their past.

I think that's very true of relationships. The things that tear couples apart or make it hard for them to come together in the beginning, will continue to rock the foundations of that relationship. They'll continue to be tested by them, and it takes work to strengthen the foundation to withstand that kind of ongoing turmoil. I liked the idea of building that stronger foundation with Darcy and Elizabeth because I always felt like they didn't have enough strength to keep their relationship together after the final declarations in Pride and Prejudice. 

HWK: You've got works in several genres. What makes you want to explore different ones instead of focusing on a single genre or age group?
RLS: Well, the children's books surprised me. I honestly never imagined myself a children's book author and it was only the homeschooling I was doing with my son that lead me down that path. Now I can't imagine not working in children's fiction but I'm still always drawn back to SFF which is my first passion. And somehow, even in my SFF there is a degree of Romance. I think love is such a central theme in life that we find it in every genre.

These days, because I'm working so much with my publishing house I don't have as much time to write as I need and I try to keep my focus to just those three genres, Children's, SFF, and Romance. As I said before, the SFF tends to be heavy writing so it's time consuming and emotionally taxing. I tend to think of Romance writing as a palate cleanser. It's a way to declutter those dark thoughts and emotions so that I can come back to the other work with a clearer head.

Of course, having said that, I can tend to have a short attention span and just love to flit from project to project. I let the ideas lead me and sometimes those ideas take me outside of what I've already done. I love to challenge myself to keep growing and developing as a writer so I'll throw myself down the rabbit holes of wild ideas and see where they take me. Thankfully, for now at least, they've gravitated around just three genres, but I'm not ruling out someday exploring crime, and I definitely know I have some non-fiction waiting in the wings, although I'm fairly confident that I won't go near thriller or literary fiction.

HWK: You've been doing a fair bit of work with Aulexic, an imprint that brings interest-appropriate books to readers with literary acquisition difficulties. How did you identify the hook (simple language, advanced ideas) as a successful gateway into reading for this particular literacy group?
RLS: I tend to focus on what has worked in my own experience and in the experiences of those I've talked to directly. It's not particularly scientific, although I have done a lot of research into the science of learning disabilities and language acquisition, I find anecdotal evidence tends to hold greater weight in that we can see it's effect directly on the people that matter. Especially in situations where the science doesn't hold up to what I've seen in the real world.

In this case, our family has first hand experience. I'm dyslexic, my mother is dyslexic, and my son is both dyslexic and autistic. So we're very familiar with language and literacy challenges. Aulexic began as a homeschool project to make books that would entice my son to want to read. He had become disenchanted with books when he was attending school. He had been forced to read boring school readers that had no story or substance but were a jumble of words on the page so he had begun to assume that all reading was pointless. We had to find a way to convince him that reading can be powerful and fun.

I knew that, as a dyslexic myself, the only time I read is when I'm absolutely interested in the material or I'm gaining a particular benefit from the information or communication. And I know a lot of non-dyslexic adults who are like that too. If it's not gripping our attention, we'll put it down and walk away. Today, children have even more choice when it comes to reading or not and we need books and resources that give them a reason to want to read.

Then, of course, we take the ideas of compelling, interesting, and story-rich concepts even further by incorporating aspects of layout and formatting that improve readability for all readers, but have shown particular improvement for dyslexics. And I like to incorporate a degree of reality, logic, and science in our books so that they'll appeal to autistic children as well.

HWK: A friend is visiting you next week and bringing a guest who's a scientist. However, they have warned you that their guest can be a talker. What kind of scientist do you hope they're not?
RLS: Wow, that's actually a hard question because I tend to be fascinated by everything. I could tell you I'd love to talk with people in genetics, space flight & astronomy, and psychology. I don't know that there is any particular science I wouldn't find interesting but I might not be too keen to spend an evening with someone who talked incessantly about bugs. Entomology, while interesting, can send shivers down my spine because I'm not a fan of insects.

In fact, I think I've found one I would like to avoid, a Melittologist! They study bees and I'm deathly allergic to bees. Just thinking about them gives me anxiety attacks so spending a whole evening talking about them would put me off my food and make for a very unpleasant evening. Although, even having said that, the insatiable curiosity of my brain wants to learn more so while it would be physically taxing because of my emotional response to the subject matter I think I'd still find the evening mentally stimulating and interesting.

HWK: Preach it! If you could convince the world of *anything*, what would it be?
RLS: Possibility is infinite.

These three words have such broad reaching implications in every area of our existence. I believe that the potential for every individual is limited only by their dreams. You can achieve anything you decide to set out to achieve. It will take hard work and patience, but if you truly believe in what you set out to do and continue working toward that goal, eventually you'll accomplish it.

That then of course extends to things like space flight, time travel, extraterrestrial life, genetics, metaphysics, longevity of life and health, even love. I believe anything and everything is possible. Scientifically it may require adjusting some of our commonly held beliefs or changing the rules, but we've been proving that even that is possible, especially when you consider the vastness of our universe. We've only just scratched the surface on what we think we know and we're having to adjust that view all the time.

So yes, I'm preaching, "Possibility is infinite."

HWK: Thank yo so much for joining us on Romance Spinners.

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Interested in Rebecca Laffar-Smith's books? Get your copy now:  Romance | Science Fiction/Fantasy | Children's

Interview - Charlotte Copper

Today's Friday Interview is on a Sunday because tomorrow is the release day of Real Love - A Candy Hearts Romance. I'm really excited about this one because it's a Science Fiction Romance with candy hearts. I've got a soft spot for Science Fiction.

We welcome Canadian author Charlotte Copper to Romance Spinners for some fun.

As a young girl, Monda was placed into the tutelage of Mistress Teevac. Trained to use her empathic skills and educated in the ways to please a man, Monda is on her way to her new mate and master when her spaceship crashes. Rescued by a handsome space lieutenant, who literally makes her heart race, Monda’s eyes and heart are opened to new possibilities.

When Lieutenant Patrick Lancaster looks at the exotic Monda, he sees beautiful not alien. With an instinct to protect her and the desire to have her, he’d be honored to call her his own, but the starts have something else in mind. Or do they?

As this is out tomorrow, you can grab a pre-order today:  The Wild Rose Press | Amazon | Kobo

Let's have a chat with Charlotte:

HWK: I'm a sucker for Science Fiction. What made you consider an SF theme in connection with something as contemporary as candy hearts? (I love how Monda considers them 'candy prophecies'.)

CC: I had most of the story written, but I was having trouble pulling it all together and finishing it. When the call came out for the Candy Hearts series, I took another look at my WIP which at the time was called Purple Skies, and all the pieces just fit into place. As you say, I would never have thought to put something like candy hearts into the original story. I’m glad you think it worked, thanks.

HWK: Monda speaks English very well for an alien. Was this part of her general training or something specific? Does it have anything to do with her destined master and mate?

CC: Now, Heidi, you’re putting me on the spot for questions I was able to avoid in my book! In the simplest of views, I just thought of humans as having been scattered across the universe, and while that means they could have taken and/or developed any language, being English speaking myself, it just made it easiest. It was definitely something I took great leniency with. Had the story been longer, I was definitely considering the fact Monda had been trained in the “main” languages of the universe, but I felt my choice of English was rather biased since we have so many other ancient and beautiful languages here on Earth.

HWK: What kind of parallels do you see between Science Fiction's visionary nature and Romance's HEA (Happily Ever After)?

CC: I think it comes down to hope. Hope that we aren’t alone. Hope that there is a future beyond just what we can see. And I’d like to think (hope) that if aliens did come to earth, that they wouldn’t come to overthrow us, but that they’d come to learn and share and work together so that we all live happily ever after.

HWK: What values do stories with Happily Ever After offer to our society?

CC: I going to cheat on this one and say “see above”…hope.

HWK: You wake up one morning to discover that carbohydrates as a food source have disappeared. No more bread, rice, potatoes, corn, etc. How would this affect your diet?

If that means that Coke and chocolate now become food groups, then I’m all for it. Of course, I’d miss my morning Miniwheats.

HWK:  Preach it! If you could convince the world of ANYTHING, what would it be?

I’m assuming you mean besides the fact that Coke and chocolate should be food groups? People need to put aside their hatred, accept the fact that everyone is different, and embrace those differences. They say it takes a village to raise a child, I think it takes a child to raise a village. Our children are born without racial prejudices. If we saw the world through their eyes, we would be color blind to the world’s differences and we would have a future of friendships, everyone-in-the-class-is-invited birthday parties, and rainbows.

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Haven't you scored your pre-order yet? Real Love is out tomorrow!  

The Wild Rose Press | Amazon | Kobo

 

My Our Novels: Star Trek Tie-ins!

Live long and prosper.

During my first "proper" semester at University I met my writing mentor and life-long friend Dr Anne Wingate. We were both B I G fans of Star Trek and got along like the proverbial house on fire.  She loved my idea-generation; I loved she was published.

I can't express in an entire blog of entries how much of an impact Anne made on my life and career as a writer. Know that she has my undying gratitude.

So, this crime writer from Texas nurtures me and teaches me the craft. She questions why I am studying something I like and eschewing something I love--writing. Later, she apologised for questioning my life choices, but why apologise for something that was correct?  Of course I was meant to write novels!

Long story short: we wrote Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes together and pitched them to Paramount during the Writers' Strike of the early 90's. Alas, didn't sell. Ah well. (Factlet: had we sold our episodes, I would have beaten David Gerrold as the youngest Star Trek writer evar.)

Had we sold, my life would have been vastly different than it is now. Now that I'm an older, wiser woman, younger me would not have been able to handle the fame that would have come my way. Most likely, I would have crashed and burned, after making a rather big fool of myself.  Glad that didn't happen.  I wasn't the wisest of College Freshmen.

(Oh yeah. We also wrote some novel tie-ins which did make it in front of an editor to be told thanks-but-no-thanks.  Again, I was okay with that.)

From Anne, I learned much about life as a professional writer--lessons I still remember to this day. They've served me well.

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Her Grace still remembers a female Ferengi by the name of Tasol. Boy, were those the days!

My Second Novel: Legacy of Leporis

They say everyone has a novel in them.  Lots of people write that one novel and they're satisfied for the rest of their lives.  But for the true novelist, the first novel is merely the instigation in a lifelong addiction.

That's me.  I was fourteen when I wrote "Legacy of Leporis", a science fiction novel about the universe's greatest treasure--knowledge.

Four teens had studied The Great War at school, and how it nearly destroyed humanity. Now scattered across the galaxy, Humanity must rediscover all the knowledge it lost during The Great War.

Few people had heard of the myth of a library where the Leporine monks had squirreled away every scrap of human knowledge--as much as they could gather--before The Great War wiped it out.

If such a world existed, how could anyone ever find it?

Pretty much, this was a YA adventure quest where the kids hop about from planet to planet on some lame excuse of a holiday, and happen to run into another teen who just happens to know that the myth of Leporis is real.  Only no one believes her, etc, etc.  Eventually they find the library, to realise that it contained all the lost knowledge. Hurrah, Humanity is saved.  Sorry for the spoilers. I know you were dying to read this really lame tale.  

I completely failed this book in storytelling. I loved the concept of Humanity nearly wiping themselves and all their knowledge out and only a few intrepid lovers of information managed to rescue it all. Back in the mid-80's, this was a very cool idea.

Then someone introduced the Internet for mass consumption.  Today, this makes me realise several things:

1. We've already got monks to squirrel away the whole of Humanity's knowledge. They're the guys who run Google and the Wayback Machine.  Not exactly hallowed sanctums.
2. Teenage kids don't bounce from planet to planet.
3. This novel will never, ever, see the light of day. No big loss.

Every novel teaches an author something.  This novel taught me that I should not let the opinions of others sway what I write.  Also, I can be good enough to run with the big dogs.

I love to talk about writing, mine, yours, someone else's. (Does it show?)  Back in the Day, when I shared my novel idea with someone, they said, "That sounds like [Asimov's] Foundation series.

I cannot tell you how devastated I was!  Someone else--a Master at that--had already written about this idea? If he has, then I'll never be able to get this novel published.  Went home and had a good cry.  I was a little aspiring author with no publishing credits to speak of.  Someone else had beaten me to a pretty good idea.

So I trunked the novel.  

Years later, I realise that novels are bought and sold not on the ideas, but the strength of writing.  I'd trunked the novel for the wrong reason.

Not to say it shouldn't be trunked; I'd written it very poorly. I'd have to completely revamp it should I ever wish to pitch for publication.  

I don't. 

I love the concept, and the Leporine monks, and Gamma Leporis IV, and the thought of preserving lost knowledge.  But I don't love this novel enough to want to bring it out of the darkness.

Kind of ironic, huh?

But I had proven to myself I could write a novel.  That alone has value.

I wish my next project did.

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Her Grace had a penchant for Sci-Fi in her younger days. At this point, she's not sure if she wants to go back.  Only time will tell.

Read Someone New

We always have our favourite authors--comfortable go-to stories we enjoy over and over again.  I love drinking through a Marion Chesney or Julia Quinn.

We might have discovered these authors based on someone's recommendation, or we might have been hooked by the cover and/or back cover blurb.

As I spend an occasional hour or two working at a library, I have access to all the new fiction that comes through the doors.

Because of this, I'll often read someone new.

How often do you seek out new authors, especially ones you've never heard of?

Kind of scary, isn't it?  What if I don't like their book? What if their style doesn't gel with me?  What if I don't get along with their characters?

And I say, how will you know unless you give them a try?

Every author, EVERY. AUTHOR, was once a debut author with no backlist, no reputation, nothing.  Yet they made it because plenty of readers thought, "Ooh, I ought to read that book."

Today, with the advantages of the Internet, we can scout out a potential author's online presence.  Maybe they've got a few short stories you can read.  Amazon and GoodReads might have reviews.  Also speaking of Amazon, there might be a preview of the first chapter of their debut book.  You can have a taste. If it hooks you, give that author a chance.  (If you give them a chance, do them a favour and leave an honest review of their work somewhere.)

Jennifer Jackson gave me a copy of an Ace/Roc Sampler, featuring several debut authors.  Being in Australia, I don't get as much exposure to debut authors from the US.

This is who they are:

M.L. Brennan  Generation V (American Vampire #1)--urban fantasy.  First page caught my interest not because the main character Fortitude Scott (what an American name!) was a vampire, but because he had a degree in film theory.  (My degree is in film studies, essentially the same thing, only my degree featured a whole lotta hands-on film experience.  Extras don't end up on the IMDB, but film crew does. Not much street cred, but street cred nonetheless.)  Also, the voice was fresh, flowed well and was hooky.  Would I read this book based on the first page?  Absolutely.   M.L. Brennan is a win.

Stella Gemmell  The City--epic fantasy.  Turns out this is the wife of the late David Gemmell.  The style is very rich, and didn't quite hook me at first.  would I read this book based on the first page?  Probably not.  But that doesn't mean I wouldn't persist for a few pages to see if it grabbed me.

Django Wrexler The Thousand Names--epic fantasy.  Now, why do I know this name? Wracking my brain to figure out where I've seen him before.  (Possibly the Online Writing Workshop? Or maybe Podcastle? Can't recall.)  Anyhow, his epic fantasy style is not as heavy as Gemmell's, so it hooked me better.  Also immediately, we meet three weary soldiers with very different personalities.  Yeah, I'd read on.  (Man, I wish I could recall where I've heard this name before!  Driving me nuts.)

Luke Scull The Grim Company--quest fantasy.  Ooh, wizards challenging gods. I likes me some of that.  Also a sucker for quest fantasy, as long as there's interesting twists in there.  I was spoiled by the quest fantasies of the 1980's.  This, however, didn't grab me as much as I wanted it to.  Still, I'd persist in hopes that it would grab me. The character Brodar Kayne might appeal to me on further reading. He's a man with baggage.

Alan Averill The Beautiful Land--urban time travel sci-fi.  The plotline sounds wonderfully complex.  Takahiro O'Leary's Day Job is to investigate other timelines for his company.  Then his company wants to exploit some of the info he brings back, thus threatening the existence of the woman he loves--who has PTSD from the Iraq War.  Then a third party comes along and wants to destroy everything so they can get to one of the alternative realities called The Beautiful Land.  Man vs everything that wants to mess up his life. First page caught my interest, but the genre isn't my cup of tea.  Would I keep reading?  Probably not, purely because of my personal taste.

But then I read this.   And this completely changed my mind.  It's a star-crossed love story!  I'm totally up for that.

Also been scrolling through his blog.  I like this guy.  Go check him out.

Anthony Ryan Blood Song--epic fantasy.  Battle monks.  Deprived heritage and family abandonment (with reluctance).  The chance to lose oneself in the saving of the world. Oh, the conundrums!  The premise sounds good, and the first page was even better. I love a good blend of setting, character and plot. This was well-balanced and drew me in.  I'd definitely read more of this.


Overall, these look to be fascinating books, regardless of my taste.  I am sorry that there was only one woman among the five men. I would have liked to see more female debut authors in the mix.

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Her Grace wishes she had more time in the world to read.  There are so many good books out there waiting for love.  Because she can't read them all, she encourages you to help shoulder the burden.  Go find a debut author and read them.  Be kind, leave honest reviews.

Rejectomancy

A few weeks ago I submitted a story to a super impressive magazine.  I knew the guest editor CC Finlay personally, which is how I heard about his call for submissions.  It was only a two week window, but he received over seven hundred submissions. (WOW!)

Modus operandi from the author's side of the fence, we submit a story to an editor, we wait anywhere from 48 hours to 48 weeks before we hear back. Then, one day, when we're least expecting it, we get an email.

Goes something like this:

Thank you for your submission to Super Impressive Magazine. I'm afraid your story is not suitable to our needs at this time, alas.
Regards,
Editor

Doesn't say much, does it?

Authors dream that editors would give a bit more info as to why the story was rejected.  Was it simply not thematically suitable to the je ne sais quois vibe of that issue, or did the story completely suck?

Thus, is born the fine art of Rejectomancy.

When you've collected a few hundreds or thousands of rejections, sometimes you imagine patterns in their replies that might hint at why the story was rejected.

Then CC Finlay posted Nectar for Rejectomancers.   It's like handing us a personal grimoire.

I love how he shared his experiences as an editor.  We don't get to hear about what happens on the other side of the fence too often, especially not in this much detail.

It was good for me.  I've been getting a little frustrated lately with all the rejections I've been getting  on stories of mine, stories I and various editors think are publishable.  (How do I know this?  Basic Rejectomancy.)

Editors rarely send back personal notes on stories.  They simply don't have the time (especially if they're getting over seven hundred stories in a two-week period).   So when they do, it's a big deal.

Also, when they say, "We loved this story," that's kind of hard to mis-interpret.  I especially like when they couple it with "Please send more."  They wouldn't ask if they didn't think I could write publishable stuff.

It was good to hear what CC Finlay thought about all his submissions. He even included what his rejections emails mean.  Much appreciated.

Sometimes the odds do get you down.  One often forgets just how long the odds are.  CC Finlay listed the stats in his post.  He had so many good stories, he had to be Very Selective.  Extremely Selective. He even had one story that it broke his heart to turn down.  (I want to read that story, whose rejection broke two hearts.)

So, from seven hundred-odd stories, he probably selected, maybe ten-ish?    So, 0.01% got sold.

Ouch.

I offer my most sincere congratulations to those dozen-odd authors who were lucky enough to hit this editor at the right time, in the right way, with their i's dotted proper and their eyes crossed right and the stars in auspcious alignment, and the absolutely bestest written story evahr!  I wish I was in your ranks.

Ah well.  There's still dozens of other magazines out there.  Maybe some day I'll get my chance.

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Her Grace is wondering how to improve the odds in her favour.

My Research Fun (or how to get infected)

I recently finished a short story featuring Gene Therapy applications. Your eyes might glaze over, but I found it fascinating!

For the purpose of my story, essentially, transgenes are inserted into cells via viruses for a beneficial purpose.

I love research.  I learn so many interesting things.  Enthralling. Engrossing. Mesmerising. Sometimes I get carried away, and find out I've spent hours and hours on all sorts of things.  It's a habit I wonder if I should curb or encourage.  Not sure.

Anyhow, back to introducing new DNA/RNA into cells via viruses.  If you were brave enough to click through to the Wikipedia article, you'd have discovered that all sorts of little issues prevent gene therapy from being a Really Useful Technology.  That's a shame. It's a fascinating concept.

It's a good thing I was writing a science fiction story. (Yeah, I write sci-fi too.)

Sci-fi is fun in that you can take some plausible science idea and "tweak" it a bit.  In real life, gene therapy isn't a wide-spread technology, but in my story it is.  Suspend your disbelief and play along at home.  This is why we call it science fiction and not science fact.  You want fact?  Go read Scientific American.  It's cool and is a hotbed for skiffy ideas.

In science fiction the science doesn't have to be exact, but it does have to be plausible. If, to 90% of the readers the science appears to work, they’ll suspend their disbelief and go with the flow.

Stories are about conflict.  Sci-fi takes an idea or a situation and posits, "What if?"

I had some conflict in that a certain number of cells required certain genes to make up for a default.  The best way to introduce those gene was by transduction with a virus. (Transfection, which is a cooler word, is the introduction of genes by a non-viral method. How disappointing. Not as sexy.)

Now, where'd the virus come from, and how do we prevent the body from wiping it out, as bodies are very good at doing?  Thus, an interesting quandary for the story.

The actual conflict comes between two biohacker sisters who are competing to get the best delivery method to save their dying mother.  Could I have written any old story about two competing sisters with a dying mother?  Sure.  But the fact that the potential to save her lies within their grasp adds just that extra bit more of emotional angst.

I also had a few other skiffy elements in the story, namely insurance company-mandated Humour Therapy and a Blues Club (complete with jazz) available by Rx only.

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Her Grace is fond of science, especially Biology and most especially Astronomy. How could she not write sci-fi?  Wanna engage her interest? Talk to her about stars and other heavenly bodies. She'll accept the demotion of Pluto, only because it means the re-promotion of Ceres.  If only Rosalind Franklin was given the same love.