Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
Writing and Cross-Promotion
Folks, I thought it might be interesting to write a blog about just what promotion is — and maybe a little bit about what it isn’t — while I also talk about a few of my favorite writers in the process.
Promotion tends to consist of a number of things. It can be as easy as Tweeting something on Twitter (if you do that), or sharing something on Facebook. It can be more complex, as when you write a guest blog for someone else . . . of course, the latter action is far, far more personal, and may grab a reader that much more easily.
Going to a convention, if you have something of your own to sell, is also a promotional experience. And even if you don’t, if you’re out there networking, that’s still considered under the heading of promotion.
Now, what’s not considered promotion? Going to unrelated websites and putting up a bunch of links to your work — spamming them, in short — as that’s completely unprofessional and extremely counterproductive, besides. (You could even think of this as anti-motion rather than promotion.)
Another thing that would not be a good idea from a promotional standpoint is one I’ve only rarely seen — thank goodness, as it’s again highly unprofessional. But here goes: when someone mentions inside a review that his work is better than the work that’s supposed to be under discussion, that’s just really bad form. (More anti-motion at work.)
Promotion is many things, but it’s not supposed to be either unprofessional or “spammy.” What you’re trying to do is get the word out, that’s all — which is why if you’re talking about your favorite authors, you could be said to have promoted them.
So if you have friends whose work you admire — and if they, too, are on Facebook, Twitter, or any number of other social media sites — you can help to promote them, providing you’re not being obnoxious about it.
It’s in that spirit that I wanted to let you know, again, about a few of my favorite authors. In no particular order, here are some of the authors I’ve either enjoyed reading or have enjoyed working with during the past two years (trust me, there’s many more, but I decided to stop with six):
Katharine Eliska Kimbriel, NIGHT CALLS (reviewed at SBR on 9/21/2013). Ms. Kimbriel, a noted author of hard science fiction, wrote a winning historical fantasy in NIGHT CALLS featuring levelheaded farmgirl Alfreda (or “Allie”), who must get a handle on her own magic in order to help her pioneering community, or die trying.
Stephanie Osborn, the Displaced Detective series (books 1 and 2 reviewed at SBR on 7/13/2012; book 3 reviewed at SBR on 7/19/2012). Ms. Osborn’s Displaced Detective series featuring Sherlock Holmes as brought to the present day by hyperspatial physicist Skye Chadwick is a must-read for anyone who loves hard SF, Sherlock Holmes, or just plain good writing.
Dora Machado, THE CURSE GIVER. I edited THE CURSE GIVER, and enjoyed every minute of it. There’s Bren, who’s trying to save his people and has fallen under a curse, and Lusielle, the healer he initially saves, thinks he must kill (but fortunately refrains), and finally ends up falling in love with. There’s a phenomenally complex plotline twisting through all this that needs to be read and enjoyed . . . all I can say is, don’t miss this complex, epic tale of revenge, romance and redemption.
Aaron Paul Lazar, THE SEACREST (reviewed at SBR on 12/14/2013). Lazar is noted for his mysteries, but THE SEACREST is a straight-up romance (albeit with a few mysterious touches) about Finn and his first love, Libby. They first have a teenage romance, are riven from each other due to misinformation, then come together in a way that you need to read if you’re any kind of romance reader at all. In short, if you enjoy Nicholas Sparks, you really owe it to yourself to give Aaron Paul Lazar a try.
Kate Paulk, IMPALER (reviewed at SBR on 4/17/2011). Ms. Paulk has a gift for historical fantasy; while she is also good at writing funny fantasy (KNIGHTS IN TARNISHED ARMOR), IMPALER shows her full range as a novelist — it’s an exceptional read that combines equal measures of historicity and heart, and makes Vlad Tepes into a sympathetic character despite his flaws — or maybe even because of them.
And finally, I edited Florence Byham Weinberg’s ANSELM: A METAMORPHOSIS last year and was intrigued. Here’s a story about a rather faithless, feckless young academic, Eric, transported into the much-older Father Anselm’s body. The original Anselm was and remains an evil man who’s out only for his own pleasures, but Eric grows and changes, becoming far more spiritual and thoughtful in the process.
So there you have it — some SF mysteries, a romance, a couple of historical fantasies, and a literary fantasy. All exceptionally well-crafted books. All must-reads in their various ways.
All authors I keep an eye on, to see what they’re going to come up with next.
In that vein, please also go check out Jason Cordova’s novel of near-future suspense, CORRUPTOR . . . let’s hope he writes a sequel one of these years!
Just Reviewed Dorothy Ours’ “Battleship” at SBR
Folks, this week I had the pleasure of reviewing Dorothy Ours’ new non-fiction epic BATTLESHIP: A Daring Heiress, A Teenage Jockey, and America’s Horse over at Shiny Book Review (SBR for short, as always). The book is about Marion du Pont Scott, a horsewoman and heiress who owned the legendary stallion Battleship — the first American-born and -bred horse to win the British Grand National at Aintree, a particularly difficult and hazardous course. But it’s also about so many other things, including one of Ms. du Pont Scott’s other horses, Trouble Maker, a horse with such a vibrant personality that it quite comes through seventy-plus years after his final race.
As it’s late and I’m still fighting the same, nasty sinus infection I discussed in yesterday’s blog post, all I’ll say right now about BATTLESHIP is this — it’s likely to be on my Top Ten Books of 2013 list, right alongside Katharine Eliska Kimbriel’s novels (new to me in ’13, at least) and Sean B. Carroll’s BRAVE GENIUS.
So yes, I do think if you love horses — Heck, even if you don’t — you should read BATTLESHIP without delay. Then come back and let me know if you cried, too, when the gallant Trouble Maker fell during his last race and never got up again. (Don’t worry. I won’t tell.)
A Guest Blog from Jason Cordova — ‘How to Genre Hop Without Driving Yourself Completely Insane’
Folks, I’m pleased to welcome fellow author Jason Cordova to my blog. Jason and I have known each other for several years now, and have even attempted to collaborate on a novel together (maybe that’ll come to fruition one of these years, as the idea was really, really good). Jason wrote a novel, CORRUPTOR, and has sold a number of short stories, with the most recent sale being to the anthology MENTAL WARD. He’s currently working on a number of projects and is one of the busiest people I know, which is why I’m really pleased he stopped by.
Jason is also the owner-operator of Shiny Book Review, which means that technically, he’s my boss over at SBR. Fortunately, he doesn’t seem to think in hierarchical terms very often, which is why he’s a very good boss.
So here he is . . . the one, the only, Jason Cordova!
*********** Guest Blog Starts Now ***********
Barb mentioned a few weeks ago (or last week, maybe) that she was open to me doing a guest post on her blog. Since her blog has many more visitors than mine (primarily because she actually has interesting stuff going on), I figured, “Sure, sounds like fun!” Then she even gave me a subject matter to discuss, which made it, like, even easier. So take a seat, relax, and have a sip of Earl Grey. I’m about to bore you to tears.
How To Genre Hop
(without driving yourself insane)
*cue dramatic music*
One of the hardest things for any writer to do is to write in a genre they are unfamiliar with. Most of the popular writers get labeled in one genre and stay there. This isn’t always a bad thing, no. I myself have found that when I’m searching in the horror section, I’m looking for Dean Koontz. In fantasy, usually the team of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman catch my eye first. Science fiction? David Weber.
We mentally lump our favorite writers into their genres and keep them there. And for the most part, the authors are content to stay there. But… did you know David Weber wrote a fantasy series? I didn’t, not until someone pointed it out to me (The War God’s Own, for those of you interested). Would you read a science fiction novel by Margaret Weis? Or a romance by Dean Koontz?
Barb asked me once how I genre-hopped. You see, I write in just about every genre, and though I still think of myself as a science fiction author, I’ve published fantasy, horror, thriller, YA and alternate history. Barb’s question made me think about the difficulties of writing in various settings. How do you genre hop without tripping up? How do you keep the settings straight in your head? I then had a revelation. Perhaps that’s the difficulty with genre hopping? Perhaps the problem is that writers are focusing too much on the setting and it’s being difficult?
One of the first things I worry about when writing a story is the main character. Who are they? What are they up to? Why are they doing whatever it is that makes them worth writing about? I want them to be, well, cool. I want them to do things that I can only dream about doing (which includes, but is not limited to, being a super secret ninja warrior assassin in the 1000 BC). I want them to be funny, smart, and interesting enough that when a reader picks up the book, it doesn’t matter to them what the setting is, because they like the main character that much.
(side note/disclaimer: if Jim Butcher stuck Harry Dresden in space, fighting an alien invasion and using ray guns, I would read the sh*t out of that book.)
You see, the setting really isn’t all that important, not at first. Who your main character is, now that is important. It’s easier to build the setting around a fantastic character than it is fitting a character into a setting. Generally speaking, that is. I can already hear the clamors of “Well, that’s not how I do it, and I can hop genres fine!” If that’s the case, awesome. I’d love to review your book sometime.
Ray Bradbury had a solid piece of advice: First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him!
So you’ve got the character set? Not yet? Okay, well, when you do, what do you do them next? For example, when I was writing Nightwalker, I had the image of a really articulate, well-dressed doctor traversing the Wild West to kill evil. I didn’t know much about where he was, but I knew all about him. A former Civil War doctor who had been injured in battle, he was cursed/possessed by an ancient demon in exchange for him life. The demon, however, is bound by oath to destroy all evil. So an internal struggle for the soul of a man. But is it horror? Urban fantasy? Something else?
Who cares? He’s an interesting character. He’ll find a home somewhere.
I think (I may be wrong here) that a lot of problems stem from a fear of writing the wrong setting. But if your character is just that awesome, does it really matter?
I can already hear people shouting about A Song of Fire and Ice (aka Game of Thrones) and how George R. R. Martin focuses on the setting and it works for him. To which I reply “Really? So you’ve never come upon a certain character’s chapter and found yourself glazing over as you read, waiting for one of your favorites to pop up?” I know I do this when I read a Daenerys chapter (what? she’s gotten boring over the past three books!)**, and I’m fairly certain I’m not alone.
So try to remember that setting (by extension, genre) is secondary when it comes to your book and that your main character is what’s going to sell it. If you can make your character interesting (and cool; never forget the cool), then your book will be a little more memorable.
For those of you searching for my titles, I have links on both my website (www.jasoncordova.com) as well as an Amazon author page (www.amazon.com/Jason-Cordova/e/B004CZHHPU/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0).
**********
Thank you, Jason, for that excellent guest blog, Stop by anytime!
And for the rest of you, please do check out his new story in the anthology MENTAL WARD, which is available right now.
BTW, the ** is for my agreement with Jason over Daenerys’ character in the last three books in the Song of Ice and Fire series. She’s a strong woman. I know this, as I’ve reviewed all five of the books over at SBR (here’s a link to all of SBR’s reviews if you don’t believe me). But these last three books, well . . . Daenerys seems sexually obsessed to the point of near-madness, and I don’t buy it that this is all because of her link with her three dragons. And all of that makes her predictable at best, boring at worst — and makes those the chapters I’m the most likely to skip over and never read again if I can help it.
Jason is right. He’s not the only one wondering what’s up with Daenerys, because I am, too. And while I know that sex sells, especially on TV (it’s doing bang-up business for HBO, words chosen precisely), it can be really, really annoying to read the same sorts of scenes over and over and over again.
A Guest Blog by Stephanie Osborn, Author of the ‘Displaced Detective’ Series Featuring Sherlock Holmes
Folks, I feel like that guy on the José Cuervo ads (the most interesting man in the world): I don’t often have guest blogs, but when I do, I feature the most interesting, passionate writers writing today.
Case in point is today’s guest blog for Stephanie Osborn. She’s previously discussed her “Displaced Detective” series here at my blog, but wanted to discuss the origins of her excellent series today, especially as her book THE CASE OF THE DISPLACED DETECTIVE: THE ARRIVAL is on sale right now over at Amazon for ninety-nine cents (yes, only $.99!) in e-book form.
In case you haven’t read her wonderful novels yet, here’s some links to my reviews of THE CASE OF THE DISPLACED DETECTIVE: THE ARRIVAL, THE CASE OF THE DISPLACED DETECTIVE: AT SPEED and THE CASE OF THE COSMOLOGICAL KILLER: THE RENDELSHAM INCIDENT over at Shiny Book Review. (Because I’m now a Twilight Times Books author, I cannot review the fourth book, THE CASE OF THE COSMOLOGICAL KILLER: ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS, via SBR as it would be a conflict of interest and we frown on such things. I do plan to review it soon here at my blog and over at Amazon.)
Stephanie’s written mystery, fantasy, children’s stories, hard science fiction, soft science fiction, speculative fiction — in short, she’s a writer. She’s also been a rocket scientist, which makes her novels about Sherlock Holmes as brought to the modern day by hyperspatial physicist Skye Chadwick all the more realistic.
Stephanie’s novels deserve a wider audience, which is why I’ve again turned my blog over to her.
Now, without further ado . . . here’s Stephanie Osborn!
*************** Drum Roll Sounds Here **************
A note from Stephanie Osborn: It is my great pleasure to make another guest appearance in the Elfyverse. Barb is an amazing writer and editor, and I am so happy to have made her acquaintance through her review of several of my novels; she has become a special friend. We’ve been able to help lift each other up at times when things were down, and that’s so much better than trying to haul oneself up by one’s own bootstraps! I hope you enjoy my little cameo.
The Origins of the Displaced Detective
By Stephanie Osborn,
The Interstellar Woman of Mystery
http://www.stephanie-osborn.com
I suppose the first thing you should know about me is that, well, I really AM one of those rocket scientists you hear about. With degrees in four sciences and subspecialties in a couple more, I worked in the civilian and military space industries, sitting console in the control centers, training astronauts, you name it; and I lost a friend aboard Columbia, when she broke up over Texas. So yeah, I’m the real deal.
The second thing you need to know about me is that I’ve been a Sherlock Holmes fan… aficionado, whatever word you prefer… since I was a kid. Someone gave me a copy of The Hound of the Baskervilles for my birthday one year. I was in, what, third grade? With a hyperactive imagination. Scared me to death when I read it. But I loved Holmes immediately. If I could have done away with the scary story about the Hound, I’d have adored that book even then. It’s one of my favorites now.
By the time I was in high school, I’d discovered that big, single-volume compendium ― you know, the one with the rust-and-mustard dust jacket? If you’re a Holmes aficionado, you know the one I mean. If you don’t, go find it! I read it cover to cover. Wagged it around to every class with me, and every time I had 2 consecutive spare minutes, my nose was in it. Oh, I was devastated when I read The Final Problem. No, really: I went into mourning, like I’d lost family! And I could have turned handsprings for joy when I read The Empty House! Many years later, I acquired that same rust-and-mustard volume and placed it on my own shelves, where it has been read cover to cover many more times. I picked up what are known as “pastiches,” too, efforts by other authors to carry on the adventures, or create entirely new ones, or fill in gaps. (What did Holmes and Watson do when the Martians invaded? What about Jack the Ripper, and why did Watson never chronicle an adventure about him? Didn’t Holmes go after him? What really happened with the Giant Rat of Sumatra?) I watched television and movies ― to this day, I watch the BBC’s Sherlock, and CBS’ Elementary, and even the Guy Ritchie film franchise starring Robert Downey, Jr. And I have the complete set of the Grenada series starring Jeremy Brett, and a bunch of the Basil Rathbone films. Good, bad, or indifferent, they’re all Holmes!
Now, back in Arthur Conan Doyle’s day, they didn’t have all the breakdown of literature into genres that we have today. Today we have science fiction (or SF, with its many subdivisions), fantasy, horror, and such. But all those, in the Victorian era, were lumped together and considered speculative fiction, or “specfic” as it’s known today. As it turns out, many if not most of the Holmes adventures would be considered as specfic ― and I started thinking…
…Other people have “done” Holmes in Victorian-era science fiction…
…But I want to be different. If I write Holmes, I want to do something that’s never been done before…
…Aha. What if, somehow, I could manage to drag Holmes into the modern world to go adventuring?
How to do it…how to do it…
I researched and I studied. And then it hit me.
What if I use the concept of alternate realities, which more and more scientific data indicates are real, and I combine that with something called M theory in order to be able to access them…
…And I was off!
I already had several novels written but unsold by that point, and there was publisher interest in my first one, Burnout: The mystery of Space Shuttle STS-281. (Yes, I like to mix science fiction and mystery. It seems to come naturally to me; I’ve always thought a good SF story has a distinct element of the mysterious. That’s why I got dubbed The Interstellar Woman of Mystery by certain media personalities.) So I knew about writing novels: See, it isn’t about page count, it’s about word count.
Different genres define book length by different word counts. YA is relatively short, say 50,000-80,000 words. The romance genre generally defines a novel at roughly the same word count. But SF and mystery, for instance, consider a novel to run from about 80,000-110,000 words, maybe a smidge more. (Think about the thinness of a typical Harlequin Romance as compared to, say, a Baen military SF novel.) There’s an arcane formula that ties word count to final page count, and another that determines the list price from the page count. So these are important numbers, these word counts.
Now that’s not to say that you can’t go over; you can… provided your last name is something like King, Weber, or Rowling. Because publishers know those names will sell books regardless of length. Everybody else? Don’t be too short OR too long.
So I sat down to write The Case of the Displaced Detective, the first story in what has become my Displaced Detective series, described rather aptly as, “Sherlock Holmes meets the X-Files.”
Two months ― yes, you read that right, months, not years ― later, I’d completed the rough draft… and it stood at 215,000 words. Writing that manuscript was kinda like tryin’ to hold a wide-open fire hose all by yourself. I ate at the computer. I all but slept at the computer. That story just came pouring out. I couldn’t stop until it was all written. By the time I’d polished it, it had ballooned up to around 245,000 words, and I managed to whack it down to about 230,000.
But it was too big for a single book. And nobody could figure out how to cut it down without cutting out essential parts ― not me, not agent, not editor, not publisher. See, it was really two stories in one: it was an “origin story” of sorts, how Holmes came to be in the 21st century, AND it had a mystery. It needed all of those 230,000 words to tell the story properly.
In the end, my publisher and I decided to make two volumes of it. That’s why, when you look at the covers, you don’t just see The Arrival, or At Speed. You see The Case of the Displaced Detective: The Arrival, and The Case of the Displaced Detective: At Speed. There’s not a hard and fast break between the origin story and the mystery; in fact the mystery starts within days of Holmes landing in the 21st century in The Arrival, and he is still trying to come to terms with everything in At Speed.
Then I went on to write the next story, The Case of the Cosmological Killer.
And durned if the same thing didn’t happen! Only this one took a smidge longer, because it was interrupted by an illness. All told I think it took about a year or so. And so books 3 & 4 are The Case of the Cosmological Killer: The Rendlesham Incident, and The Case of the Cosmological Killer: Endings and Beginnings.
I swear they’re not all going to be two volumes! In fact I just turned in A Case of Spontaneous Combustion, and it’s one volume only! I’ve started on book 6, A Little Matter of Earthquakes, and book 7, The Adventure of Shining Mountain Lodge, is mostly finished and awaiting the publication of 5 & 6. And I’m planning for adventures beyond that.
So in a manner of speaking, I suppose I’m still adventuring with my old pal Sherlock Holmes… only now he’s investigating mysteries that are more on MY turf! And I plan to do so until we both retire to the Sussex downs to keep bees!
* * * * * * * * * * * * (Insert hearty round of applause here.) * * * * * * * * *
Once again, thank you, Stephanie. I greatly appreciated your second guest blog, and I hope it will help you find a few more readers for your excellent books.
And if you haven’t read Stephanie’s books yet, take a gander at chapter one of THE CASE OF THE DISPLACED DETECTIVE: THE ARRIVAL, chapter one of THE CASE OF THE COSMOLOGICAL KILLER: THE RENDELSHAM INCIDENT, or if you’re just not in the mood for Sherlock Holmes today, take a look at the first chapter of BURNOUT. (Then, for heaven’s sake, go buy her books.)
Book Buyers, Rejoice: 4 Acclaimed TTB Titles Just 99 Cents for Next Two Days
Folks, I haven’t done a great deal of cross-promotion of other people’s work on my blog. But I actually worked on three of the four e-books that Twilight Times Books is offering in a special promotional deal for just ninety-nine cents over the next two days/forty-eight hours at Amazon, which is one reason I’m very glad to let you know all about them.
The first book on this promotional list is Dora Machado’s THE CURSE GIVER. Machado’s book is a dark, lush, and evocative tale of star-crossed lovers who must join forces no matter how high the odds against them; the best part of THE CURSE GIVER is the lively storytelling, full of characters you’ll love (Lusielle the remedy-mixer — or herb healer, if you’d rather, though I like Machado’s term better; Bren the cursed aristocrat working against time), characters you’ll loathe (Lusielle’s odious husband, a number of the toadies at the various courts), and characters you’ll reluctantly like (Bren’s master of spies, a priestess who may or may not be on Bren’s side despite being the estranged wife of Bren’s spymaster).
I edited this novel, and can tell you without a doubt that once this novel hooks you, you will be up long past your bedtime wondering, “What happened to all those hours? And hey, this is an interesting book . . . I wonder how it ends?”
Then, of course, you’ll just keep turning the pages. (Guaranteed.)
The next book on the list is Natalie Roers’ YA literary fantasy LUCID. This is a book about the power of lucid dreaming as used by a kid named Travis; Travis is disfigured, so he thinks no one will ever love him, and of course as he’s up against adolescence, he’s a bundle of nerves and hormones. Travis’s object of affection is a girl named Corrine, and in the real world, Travis has no confidence to talk with her. But in the otherworld created by Travis’s lucid dreams, anything can happen . . . perhaps even a romance?
I edited this novel, too, and felt it an interesting young adult coming of age tale with a lot of true-to-life realism in it despite (or perhaps because of) the lucid dreaming made real aspect. The romantic interactions between Travis and Corrine are sweet and age-appropriate, and the dialogue between them works well. Tweens and teens should love this one.
The third book I worked on (this time as a proofreader) is Aaron Paul Lazar’s DON”T LET THE WIND CATCH YOU. This is a YA mystery in Lazar’s “Gus Tregarde” series that’s set in 1965. Most of the plot revolves around a strange house in the woods that Gus’s mother doesn’t want Gus going anywhere near, along with Gus’s mother’s strange antipathy toward a lone, cranky hermit. That and an unquiet Indian spirit (note that no one, but no one, said “Native American” back in 1965) helps to complicate Gus’s summer rather nicely.
Lazar does a particularly good job at summoning up the ambiance of a 1965 summer — how much Gus can do, is expected to do, what songs he’s listening to, his first hint of adolescent hormones, and his love for serial mystery fiction all helps to ground the reader in a firm place and time. In addition, Gus is a very likeable guy that you just can’t help but root for . . . all in all, this is an excellent addition for any library, but most particularly for young adults nine and up and for the slightly older reluctant 12-16 year old male reader crowd as well.
Then comes the only book on the list I haven’t had anything to do with whatsoever — Dina von Lowenkraft’s DRAGON FIRE. All I can give you there is the summation as listed on the Twilight Times Books Web site:
Some choices are hard to live with.
But some choices will kill you.When seventeen-year-old Anna first meets Rakan in her hometown north of the Arctic Circle, she is attracted to his pulsing energy. Unaware that he is a shape-shifting dragon, Anna is drawn into a murderous cycle of revenge that pits Rakan and his clan against her best friend June.
Torn between his forbidden relationship with Anna, punishable by death, and restoring his family’s honor by killing June, Rakan must decide what is right. And what is worth living – or dying – for.
DRAGON FIRE sounds quite interesting, and for ninety-nine cents as an e-book, it’s as much a steal as the other three.
Anyway, these promotional prices are also good at Barnes and Noble and at most other e-book sites, but do not apply at the Twilight Times Books site itself (which is why I haven’t linked there in order to keep anyone from getting completely confused). Links have been given to the Amazon (US) listing for ease of reference.
I believe all four of these e-books should be available in the UK and elsewhere via Amazon.uk. And as this special price deal will only last for another 45 hours, Central Daylight Time, what are you waiting for?
Go grab them right now!
UPDATE: Just received confirmation via publisher Lida Quillen that these books are available now via Amazon.uk but aren’t available at the promotional price at Smashwords. (Sorry about my previous assumption; you know what they say about those.)
Here are the direct links to the places that are offering this promotion through the end of tomorrow evening if the above four links do not work for you:
http://amzn.to/eYYy6s
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Twilight-Times-Books
http://www.omnilit.com/storeSearch.html?sortBy=recentlyAdded&searchBy=publisher&qString=Twilight+Times+Books
Enjoy!
Books I’ve Read While I’ve Been Ill
Folks, I’ve spent most of the last three or four weeks sicker than I don’t know what . . . but I have read a number of very good books. Some are new, some aren’t, but all kept me interested and focused.
And as I really didn’t want to have to blog yet again about how terrible I feel, I figured I’d concentrate on the books instead.
The one author who consistently has entertained me during this time — aside from my old standbys — is Regency romance novelist Judith A. Lansdowne. Ms. Lansdowne’s last book, JUST IMPOSSIBLE, was published in 2004, and is about the unlikely pairing of William, the Duke of Berinwick, and Lady Julia Delacroix. Julia has a secret that’s likely to take her life if she’s not careful, and Berinwick decides to mix in mostly because there’s something to the stubborn set of her chin that intrigues him. (Julia also doesn’t like men very much. There’s a reason for that. Which makes this unlikely pairing all the more compelling, as Berinwick is a decidedly strong man in more ways than one.) How these two meet and eventually end up together is very intriguing . . . one enjoyable read from cover to cover.
Anyway, you want to read Ms. Lansdowne’s work primarily because there’s a lot of humor in it. But there’s also pathos, genuine emotion, and some rather complex situations . . . really fine writing. (I hope Ms. Lansdowne will soon put her work up as e-books, providing the rights have reverted to her. Her writing is way too good to be left in obscurity.)
The other three or four books I’ve read that I’ve really enjoyed during this time were mostly new ones. First, I read Victoria Roth’s INSURGENT, the sequel to DIVERGENT, both starring Beatrice “Tris” Prior and her love interest and combat instructor, who goes by “Four” but whose real name is Tobias. These books are about a dystopian society that split into five factions and shut off the city of Chicago, apparently to see what the five factions were likely to do in an enclosed space. It is unknown whether Chicago is the only place these factions exist, but what is known is that you have one chance to change factions — when you turn sixteen and take part in a “choosing ceremony” after taking a whole battery of assessment tests.
Roth’s work is absorbing, and as such I really enjoyed reading INSURGENT even though there’s a great deal of violence and some really awkward situations for the heroine, Tris. (Tris’s brother, in particular, is a rather ambivalent character. I still can’t figure him out.) The romance between Tris and Tobias is quite strong, with some believable tension between them that’s not all sexually related. And the action scenes are first-rate.
I’ve read K.E. Kimbriel’s FIRES OF NUALA, which I hope to review soon over at Shiny Book Review. (I must have more concentration than what is currently available to me in order to do so, as it’s a complex plot that deserves to be explained as well as I can without giving away all the plot-points.) Let’s just say that Ms. Kimbriel’s novel is excellent, and it kept me riveted. And if you like science fiction novels where there’s great, unexpected romance with believable complications along with intrigue and a subplot about how only corrupt people deserve to be taken (“con only other con artists,” in brief), well, you will love FIRES OF NUALA as much as I did.
I’ve also read Travis Taylor and Stephanie Osborn’s A NEW AMERICAN SPACE PLAN, which is just as it sounds — a rationale for what the United States of America needs to do in order to stay in space and create many new jobs. This is an absorbing piece of non-fiction written in a compelling and likable style — and is yet another book I hope to review, and soon, over at SBR. (Why this illness just refuses to leave is beyond me. But it definitely has cut down on my reviewing.)
I also read Ally Condie’s REACHED, the third book in a dystopian trilogy about yet another failed society and how they try to control everyone. The characters of Cassia and her two love interests, Xander and Ky, are interesting. There’s a vicious Society which kills off everyone at age 80, a rebel group called the Rising, which opposes the Society, and a third group made up of Aberrations (people the Society didn’t really plan on having, so they denigrate them, marginalize them and exploit them whenever possible).
REACHED shows what happens when the Society is overthrown. But it’s not as easy as all that to get rid of old habits overnight, much less the people who were the actual movers and shakers of the Society — which all three teens find out.
Mostly, the story is gripping but incredibly downbeat. There’s a plague to be fought against, which is why the character who does the most and actually grows and changes the most is Xander, a medic (called a “physic” in this universe). Which is rather odd, because this trilogy started out in Cassia’s point of view.
Anyway, it held my interest, but it was definitely one of the most disturbing books I’ve read in quite some time.
Finally, I’ve been reading a book by Carl Sferrazza Anthony about a forgotten First Lady, Florence Kling Harding, called FLORENCE HARDING: THE FIRST LADY, THE JAZZ AGE, AND THE DEATH OF OUR MOST SCANDALOUS PRESIDENT. Mrs. Harding was a trailblazer in many respects; she was honest, forthright and opinionated, and believed that women should have the same rights as men — including the rights to vote, play in any sports and work in any job.
However, Mrs. Harding’s husband was the weak-willed and amoral Warren G. Harding, a man who definitely could not “keep (his) legs closed,” as the saying from the MAURY show goes. (Usually about women.) In fact, Harding slept with so many women that his own father, according to author Anthony, once told Harding that if he’d been born a woman, Harding would’ve been constantly “in the family way.” (I laughed out loud at that one.)
President Harding himself is the main reason why Mrs. Harding gets knocked down on the various First Lady rankings, even though as First Lady (for two-plus years, until her husband died in office), she did many good things.
And that’s just not right.
Mrs. Harding’s only real crime — if you can call it that — was to fall in love with Mr. Harding. She was brilliant, and he definitely wasn’t; in a later age, she would’ve been the politician and probably would’ve divorced Harding many times over due to his rampant infidelity (as she apparently knew about at least three of his affairs, with two of those affairs resulting in illegitimate children that she may or may not have known about). She had no children with Harding, and only one child overall by a previous, common-law marriage.
Anyway, Mrs. Harding was the first divorced woman to become First Lady. She more or less created the modern “photo-op.” She talked with journalists, which before she became First Lady wasn’t a regular occurrence (or even a semi-regular occurrence). She helped her husband understand legislation and deal with various legislators, as she could keep it all straight — and he definitely couldn’t.
But with all of her good qualities — and I believe she had many — she also had some bad ones. She was so loyal that she actually burned many documents after her husband died, mostly because she wanted to shield her husband. (Laudable, but I wish she hadn’t done it.) She trusted the wrong doctor, a family friend she’d known for many years, when a different (specialist) doctor told her flat-out that Harding would die if he didn’t rest and that even if he did rest, he still might . . . yet because of her trust in the family friend, her husband died sooner than he might have on a grueling coast-to-coast trip. (They even went to Alaska.) And she’d been known to use corporal punishment on the newsboys she supervised as the business manager of her husband’s newspaper, though to be fair many people used corporal punishment at that time and very few people batted an eye at it.
Anyway, it’s very easy to see that Mrs. Harding should be classified right up at the top of the list with Mrs. Clinton and Mrs. (Eleanor) Roosevelt, not at the absolute bottom of the list of First Ladies. Mrs. Harding was a very strong, tough and smart woman who helped her husband quite a bit. She was an excellent First Lady up until her lone bad choice — that of the family doctor rather than the specialist — spiraled into her husband’s passing while in office, then compounded the problem by burning a whole lot of records needlessly (possibly to help shield her husband’s fallen reputation). She has been unfairly maligned by history, mostly because her husband was a failed President . . . and I think that unfair treatment deserves to end.
So in that respect, I’d say that the two books that have captivated me the most during this three- to four-week stretch of illness have been JUST IMPOSSIBLE and the book about Mrs. Harding.
And really, when you’re ill, isn’t that the best you can possibly ask for? Some books that take you away from it all?
Just Reviewed Two Christmas Romances at SBR
Folks, it’s not every day that I get to review a Christmas-themed romance, much less two of them. Yet that’s exactly what I just did over at Shiny Book Review (SBR), so go take a gander here.
To give you a bit more information about the two books, the first is ‘TWAS THE NIGHT AFTER CHRISTMAS by Sabrina Jeffries. This is a romance set in Regency-era England between two flawed but engaging humans, Pierce, an Earl, and Mrs. Camilla Stuart, a respectable widow with a young son. The set-up is interesting, the romance convinced, yet some of the ending (which I can’t really talk about much or I’ll spoil your reading pleasure) didn’t quite scan to me.
Even so, it was a diverting read and I’ll gladly read more of Ms. Jeffries in the future.
The second book is WHAT HAPPENS AT CHRISTMAS by Victoria Alexander. This is a romance set in Victorian-era England between Camille, Lady Lydingham, and the “man who got away,” Grayson Elliot. Both are now older, wiser, and available, yet there’s a great many hoops to jump over, not the least of which is Camille’s impending engagement between herself and Prince Nikolai of the Principality of Greater Avalonia.
Ms. Alexander’s book is one that’s difficult for any reviewer to do justice because it’s a flat-out farce. Yet I did my best because I really enjoyed this book, mostly because it’s extremely funny.
At any rate, please go read my review, then go take a gander at the books.
Happy holidays to all!
Women Writers Get the Shaft (Again); Vida Study Points Out Gender Bias in Literary Mags
As a woman writer, things like the 2011 Vida study of how literary magazines still have far more male writers working for them than female writers make you go “Hmm.”
Oh, you haven’t heard about that yet? Take a gander:
Here’s the deal: more men write for literary magazines than women, by a wide margin. At many magazines, male writers outnumber female ones three to one, while the ones that “beat the curve” do so by having “only” sixty-five percent of their articles written by men rather than seventy-five percent.
And it gets worse; most of the books being reviewed by these publications are also written by men, so there’s a double-jeopardy sort of thing going on that I truly do not understand. (As a prolific book reviewer, I defy anyone to tell me that I’m not the equal of a male book reviewer. Yet most of these books, written by men, have male book reviewers. For shame!)
This is unacceptable and inexcusable. Don’t these magazines (Harper’s, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker among them) realize it’s 2011? And that women writers are surely the equal of men? How can something like this continue, especially considering that women read just as much, if not more, than men?
Only Granta, which had a few more female authors than male, and Good magazine, which is evenly split among male and female authors through its first three issues of 2012, have made inroads on this problem — because make no mistake, it is a problem.
And these literary mags can’t even say they were unaware of it, because Vida also published a study in 2010, yet nothing was done. There has to be a reason for it, and Vida believes they’ve found it: gender bias. As Erin Belieu, co-founder of Vida, pointed out in the Yahoo blog post:
“Gender bias is pretty ingrained–this is a expression in the literary world, but it happens everywhere.”
Amen, sister!
I have news for these literary publications, folks: writers write. It’s what we do. And last I checked, having writing talent has nothing to do with your gender — why should it?
There is an obvious answer here that most of these literary mags are missing: hire more female writers. Because believe you me, we can write, and we’re not afraid to say so.
My guess is that around this time next year, I’ll again have to talk about the literary mags that would rather hire male writers than female ones to write articles, book reviews, and more, because change is glacial in publishing. (As we have already seen!) But I would love to be proven wrong — someone? Anyone? (Bueller?)
Just Reviewed Candace Camp’s “An Affair Without End” at SBR
Tonight’s SBR review was for Candace Camp’s AN AFFAIR WITHOUT END. This was one of the most fun Regency romances I’ve read in quite some time, a romance that reminded me in some ways of Rosemary Edghill’s excellent TWO OF A KIND (now lamentably out of print), possibly because the dialogue was outstanding, the detailing was very fine, and the art and craftsmanship of Ms. Camp was fully on display.
So without further ado, here’s the link:
http://shinybookreview.wordpress.com/2011/09/10/candace-camps-affair-is-one-fun-regency/
Enjoy!
——-
** P.S. I am hoping that Ms. Edghill will be able to put all four of her fine Regencies back out there soon, though I’ve heard nothing about it. I will keep you posted if I hear anything, however; those novels are so much fun, and are so well done, that they deserve to be widely read as often as possible. (Aside from this book by Ms. Camp, I’ve read nothing by any contemporary author that comes close to Ms. Edghill’s art, craftsmanship, dialogue, and knowledge of the Regency time period.) Ms. Edghill also has two collaborations with the late SF grandmaster André Norton, that are best described as “alternate Regency/fantasy.” The first of these was THE SHADOW OF ALBION with the second being CAROLUS REX; these two, too, are well worth seeking out.
Barb Caffrey's Blog 