Wisconsin’s Winter Weather Nightmare
Folks, the weather here is brutal. I do not say this lightly.
Currently, it’s -13 F with a wind chill factor of -45 F. These are the worst conditions I’ve seen in thirty-plus years in any part of the Midwest — and considering I used to live in Nebraska, where it often gets colder than Wisconsin during the winter, that’s saying something.
Consider, please, that right now it’s warmer in Idaho than it is in Wisconsin. And that almost never happens.
This weather is not conducive toward much, I’m afraid. I’m trying to work, but am worried the power will go out. If it does, everyone in the outage area will be in deep trouble, as unlike our ancestors, we do not have wood-fired stoves or even pot-bellied stoves . . . we only have electric and gas stoves, which are much more dependent on external infrastructure than I like to contemplate under the circumstances.
Years ago, when I moved to Colorado with my ex-husband due to his military service, I was delighted to find that most Colorado apartments include fireplaces as a matter of course. That meant in a power outage, we’d not be in danger of cold. And even without a power outage, firelight is both calming and comforting, so it was definitely an excellent thing to have.
In Wisconsin, it’s very rare to find fireplaces included in apartments or homes unless you’re talking about someone very, very wealthy (which I’m not). But I’m betting many people — not just me — are wishing they had a fireplace right now, because the temperatures outside are so bad that everyone’s being advised to stay indoors unless absolutely necessary.
Now, what does this mean in practical terms? It means that I’m sitting inside a house that’s struggling to keep the temperature up high enough to sustain human life, along with nearly every other home and apartment in the Midwest. And the resulting power drain has to be straining the electric company’s ability to cope.
This is why the following sentence keeps coming to mind:
WELCOME TO WISCONSIN’S WINTER WEATHER NIGHTMARE . . . ENJOY YOUR STAY!
Sent the baseball story to F&SF
Folks, I’m glad that editor C.C. Finlay said in his post announcing his guest editorship for the July/August issue of the greatly respected Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&SF for short) that he wanted to see some humor, because that’s what I do best. And after first readying the other story for F&SF (all I can tell you is that it’s science fiction, as that one’s off to the Writers of the Future contest, as I said before), I wasn’t sure what I could polish up in time to send, under the circumstances.
Then I remembered the baseball story.
I wrote the baseball story a couple of years ago for a humor anthology. It didn’t work for the editor of that anthology, possibly because it was shorter than I’d envisioned and cut it down to fit the anthology requirements. But once I’d fleshed it out, I sent it to a few of my writer-friends . . . and they laughed.
Mission accomplished, right?
Well, partially. You still have to make sure you send in a clean manuscript, which is why the “dusting and polishing” phase is mandatory, and you have to make sure you conform to whatever the formatting is the editor in question wants.
Here, that was not onerous; the editor wanted more-or-less standard formatting (double-spaced, Times New Roman or another font that’s unobtrusive, identifying marks as appropriate in case the story is printed out and the pages get separated, etc.). But sometimes it can be really interesting to get to that last phase — for example, if an editor wants a single-spaced manuscript with underlines around italics (yes, I’ve seen this, and as it’s actually how I tend to write e-mail because I’ve been writing e-mail since the Internet was first popularized — don’t tell anyone I’m actually that old, will you?), you have to give the editor what he wants or you have zero shot to sell a story to him.
(Or her.)
Anyway, the baseball story is off — and in case you’re wondering, it’s because of working on not one but two stories this past week that I wasn’t able to review anything over at Shiny Book Review. So do look for a book review (or maybe two, if I’m feeling ambitious) late next week . . . just in time for the deep freeze gripping much of the United States (and most definitely my home state of Wisconsin) to ease up a trifle.
So if you live anywhere in the frigid zone, do what I plan to do: Stay home, put up your feet, watch the Green Bay Packers game later today, then read several good books. That’s by far your safest option . . .
. . . but if you must go out, be sensible and have an emergency kit along for the ride (at bare minimum, the kit should include a blanket, some water, and some food in case of emergencies; if you have a candle, bring that along as well).
Chris Kluwe, Aaron Rodgers, LGBT Advocacy and the NFL
This was an odd week in the National Football League, wasn’t it?
First we had Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers come out and state emphatically for the record, “I really, really like women” in response to some Internet rumors regarding Rodgers’ sexuality. This was completely unprecedented, especially considering the fact his team is preparing for a huge playoff game this Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers — a team that beat the Packers, 34-28, earlier this season in a game that wasn’t nearly as close as the score indicated.
Usually, when teams prepare for big games, the last thing any player wants to do is talk about anything except the upcoming game. Even major stars like Rodgers generally try to sublimate their own concerns during football season, most especially during the playoffs.
So Rodgers doing this was strange, to put it mildly, and created a minor furor.
But that was nothing compared to the furor that occurred once former Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe’s story at Deadspin about how he believes was fired from the Vikings partially because they didn’t like his advocacy for gay rights was published.
Here’s a bit from Kluwe’s first person account if you don’t believe me:
Throughout the months of September, October, and November, Minnesota Vikings special-teams coordinator Mike Priefer would use homophobic language in my presence. He had not done so during minicamps or fall camp that year, nor had he done so during the 2011 season. He would ask me if I had written any letters defending “the gays” recently and denounce as disgusting the idea that two men would kiss, and he would constantly belittle or demean any idea of acceptance or tolerance. I tried to laugh these off while also responding with the notion that perhaps they were human beings who deserved to be treated as human beings. Mike Priefer also said on multiple occasions that I would wind up burning in hell with the gays, and that the only truth was Jesus Christ and the Bible. He said all this in a semi-joking tone, and I responded in kind, as I felt a yelling match with my coach over human rights would greatly diminish my chances of remaining employed. I felt uncomfortable each time Mike Priefer said these things.
Kluwe’s indictment is incendiary, but rings true from my perspective as a long-term fan of the NFL. But it’s a sad commentary on our life and times, isn’t it?
What irks me so much about both these stories is this: It doesn’t have to be this way. Not even in the NFL.
Seriously, Rodgers’ sexual orientation is no one else’s business. If he’s gay, bisexual, straight, Martian — who cares? He’s a football player and is paid to win games.
As for what Kluwe says, and how outspoken he’s been about saying it, again, who cares? He always was careful, as he points out in his article for Deadspin, to speak only for himself — not for the Vikings. And his own former team owner, Zygi Wilf, actually complimented Kluwe on Kluwe’s stance — so if the coaches had a problem with it, especially if Kluwe continued to perform well on the field, why?
Then, contrast the two above stories with this story about the 1993 Houston Oilers, which apparently had two openly gay players on the roster. No one cared, because they played good football. They were excellent teammates. And their sexual orientation was no one else’s business but theirs.
For all the progress we’ve made in the 21st Century regarding LGBT rights, it seems ridiculous that someone like Kluwe would be fired for his advocacy of same when in 1993, no one on the Oilers cared two figs about anyone’s sexual orientation.
If the 1993 Oilers could get it right, why can’t the 2013 Vikings?
And why, oh why, would any player (much less Rodgers) believe it’s more important to talk about his rumored sexual orientation than the job he’s being paid to do, preparing for this week’s football game?
Are these two stories part of a counter-reaction to the progress that’s been made regarding LGBT rights? Significantly, is it a backlash against Jason Collins, who came out as gay last year? Is it a backlash against soccer stars Megan Rapinoe and Robbie Rogers, who’ve also come out as gay?
Is the NFL so afraid that one of its current players may come out as gay or bisexual that it’s imperative for Rodgers to interrupt his training regimen to insist that he “really likes women?”
And why couldn’t Kluwe find a job in the NFL as a punter despite being one of the better punters in the NFL for years? The NFL’s supposed to be a results-driven league, right?
Anyway, the crux of all three stories is this:
The 1993 Oilers were right. The 2013 Vikings were wrong. And Rodgers shouldn’t need to say anything about his sexual orientation, ’cause no one should care two flying figs providing he’s doing the job on the field.
Why the NFL doesn’t seem to understand this is beyond me.
Finished a New Story . . .
Happy New Year, everyone!
Now that I’ve gotten the good wishes out of the way, it’s time to talk turkey. I haven’t blogged much over the past ten days because of the holidays. I had to take some time off, because the pace of the last year, post-bronchitis anyway, was almost too hectic to be borne.
But for whatever reason, idle time and me just do not seem to go together. So I had the idea for a new story — well, new to me, anyway, as it’s based on an unfinished story of my late husband Michael — about a week ago. I adapted Michael’s story and used about 3,000 words of it, then wrote 6,000-plus words around it to make it all fit.
Note I’m not giving you too many details of this story. There’s a reason for that — I was attempting to send it to the Writers of the Future (WotF) contest in order to make one, final try.
Those of you who’ve read my blog for a while know full well I’ve been entering that contest for eleven solid years. I haven’t sent in a submission every single quarter, no. But every year, I’ve sent in at least one story.
And every time, my entry sunk like a stone.
This year, my story was ready at 11:50 p.m. on New Year’s Eve PST, which is the time zone of the WotF website. (Note that it was 1:55 a.m. New Year’s Day CST, in my own time zone.) So I went to the WotF website, and attempted to upload my file.
. . . but nothing happened.
Why? Well, the site had inexplicably decided to stop accepting submissions early. Usually, they will accept up until 11:59:59 p.m. PST (that is, eleven fifty-nine and fifty-nine seconds), but not this time.
So after all that work, my lovely 8600-word story (I pruned 1000 words on the advice of my long-suffering friend and first reader) didn’t end up getting sent.
Talk about frustration.
I did, of course, let WotF know that their site did something hinky and I wasn’t able to get my submission in through no fault of mine. But it’s like spitting in the wind. They’re most likely going to say that I can send the story in for the next quarter (once it opens; the site is still not up as of this hour, though normally it would be as the new quarter has started and submissions usually start right away at the stroke of 12:00:00 a.m. PST), so I should just do that.
But as the first half of ELFY should be out in early April (meaning it could be out by the end of March, as publication dates can be flexible on either end), I most likely will be ineligible.
So this was my last try . . . in more ways than one.
For those of you who’ve never submitted anything to WotF, you might be wondering why this is. I’m still a writer who most people don’t know about, I haven’t made many Science Fiction Writers of America-eligible sales (two, now, though the first was shared with Michael so it technically counted as half a sale), and I certainly could use the exposure and help that winning any prize in the WotF contest could bring.
But once you’ve published a novel — whether it’s self-publishing or traditional publishing — you are ineligible.
That’s why my niece, Jennifer Lunde, is ineligible; she self-published her novel PULSE through Lulu back in 2010. That’s one reason my friend Jason Cordova is ineligible, though he’s actually eligible to apply for the SFWA as he has at least six qualifying sales to his credit by my count, as Twilight Times Books — which is as reputable a small press as they come, and is now my professional home as well — published his novel CORRUPTOR in 2010.
But maybe there’s a silver lining in the fact I couldn’t get my story into the WotF contest.
The venerable magazine Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&SF) has announced they’re going to have a guest editor, C.C. Finlay, for it’s July/August 2014 issue (details can be found here). Better still, Finlay will be accepting electronic submissions — a first for F&SF — between January 1 and January 14 of this month.
Mind you, F&SF has never been interested in anything I’ve sent them, just as WotF has never been interested, either. But it’s a New Year, I’m an optimist, and I believe my time is now.
So what are my plans at this point for my poor, beleaguered story? If WotF won’t accept it, I will send it to Mr. Finlay in the next few days.
Wish me luck?
Just Reviewed two of Stephanie Osborn’s Stories at SBR
Folks, I’m pleased to report that I reviewed two of Stephanie Osborn’s stories this evening, these being THE MORE THINGS CHANGE and EL VENGADOR to be exact. Please stroll on over to Shiny Book Review (SBR for short, as always) and take a look at tonight’s review.
And due to a brief conversation with Ms. Osborn just a few minutes ago, I learned that THE MORE THINGS CHANGE is currently priced only ninety-nine cents . . . but that price will go up at 12:00 a.m. PST to $1.99, then go up to its regular price ($2.99) at 12:00 p.m. PST. So if you’re in the mood for an interesting, well-researched and fun read about a plausible alien society with a solid, hard scientific background, you might want to go take a gander at THE MORE THINGS CHANGE.
And, of course, if you’re in the mood for some intelligent horror of the paranormal variety, you may well be intrigued by Ms. Osborn’s EL VENGADOR.
Thus ends tonight’s public service announcement.
Vinny Rottino to Play in S. Korea in 2014 (Plus Brewers Search for First Baseman)
Folks, after Racine native Vinny Rottino’s injury-plagued 2013 campaign in Japan, I was concerned. Then when I deduced that he was given his outright release by the Orix Buffaloes of the Japanese Professional Baseball League, I really started to worry about where Rottino was going to play in 2014 — or if he was even going to find a team to play for at all.
Mind, I say “deduced” because most of the Japanese baseball sites have to be translated to be useable. The translations can be dicey — for example, I’ve seen a walk called a “dead ball” in Japanese translation, and some of the other stats can be just as interesting to figure out.
What wasn’t hard to figure out, though, were Rottino’s 2013 stats: 37 games played, 111 plate appearances, a .206 batting average . . . the four homers, the eight RBI, and the single stolen base notwithstanding, this obviously was not the year Rottino was hoping to have in Japan.
Despite Rottino’s talent, he’s now 33 years old; yes, he plays the infield, the outfield, and catches — which is a very rare skill set. He’s good at all of them, too, and had a stellar Triple-A career, being named to the Triple-A All-Star team several times (most recently in 2011 while in the Florida Marlins organization).
But the timing was never right for Rottino; while with the Milwaukee Brewers organization, Rottino never got a chance to play regularly — despite being the Brewers minor league player of the year in 2004.
And Rottino seems to need to play regularly to be successful, as has been shown over and over in his minor league career. (Not that this is any real surprise, of course; most baseball players are like anyone else. You do much better at something if you are able to do it every day rather than once in a great while.)
Watching Rottino continue his baseball career is both inspirational and frustrating — inspirational because he has refused to give up (for which I applaud him), but frustrating because he obviously has the talent to succeed . . . but time is no longer on his side.
At the age of 33, it gets harder and harder for any baseball player to find teams willing to pay him to play. And in Rottino’s case, the major leagues are now out of reach. Japan didn’t work for him, partly due to an ill-timed injury (then again, when are injuries ever convenient?). So I didn’t know what would be next for Rottino — would he end up as a coach, as the Milwaukee Brewers, Florida Marlins, Los Angeles Dodgers, and several other teams have expressed interest in hiring him as such once his playing career is over?
Would he end up in the Mexican League?
Would he end up taking a year off from baseball, as health-wise it might be desirable — remember, I don’t have hard information to work with, as Rottino was just too far away for me to keep a good eye on, but I do know that when you get above age thirty, injuries can be tougher to rehab. (Witness former Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Corey Hart’s struggles last year as a case in point.)
At any rate, I asked a friend if she’d heard anything about Vinny Rottino, as I was concerned. Fortunately, she’d seen a wire story, which is here, about Rottino signing to play with the Nexen Heroes over in South Korea on December 10, 2013.
Rottino is in good company, as former big leaguers Luke Scott and Felix Pie, among others, have recently signed to play over in Korea. And Korean baseball has been growing in prestige lately, partly because of Shin-Soo Choo’s success in MLB.
I’m very pleased to see that Rottino will continue his baseball career in 2014. I hope he has a great season in Korea and enjoys himself immensely.
Now, as for my plea to the Milwaukee Brewers regarding their first base situation — there is one and only one obvious solution to this mess: Sign Manny Ramirez already.
Ramirez is a free agent. Yes, he’s been tainted twice with performance-enhancing drug allegations. But he can still play ball, is a power hitter, and I’m betting he can play first base with the best of them.
The Brewers must think outside the box, because every player they’d normally think about has been taken. The players I’ve heard as current possibilities for the Brewers include Tyler Colvin, who hit .241 during his 2013 campaign; Ike Davis, who’s bounced back and forth between Triple-A and the majors and had a low batting average of .205; and Carlos Pena, who hit all of .207 during 2013.
None of these players will make any difference to the Milwaukee Brewers — not one.
Whereas Ramirez is a career .312 hitter with 555 HRs, 1831 RBIs and a .411 on-base percentage. Yes, he’s now 41. Yes, he only hit .259 last year with Texas’ Triple-A team in limited playing time. But the man can still hit — witness how he tore up the Taiwanese league last year, prompting his signing to first Oakland’s Triple-A team, then Texas’s. He truly seems remorseful for his past actions. And I’m certain he could do a better job than Colvin, Davis, Pena, or maybe all three of them put together.
Yes, the Brewers should be cautious and go over his medical records. They should make sure Ramirez is clean, healthy, sober, whatever else they need to do — but they should make a serious push toward seeing if Ramirez has anything left.
Because it’s either sign Ramirez, or coax Geoff Jenkins out of retirement at this point — and while I loved Jenkins as a player, he retired five full years ago.
Let’s Talk: Three New Titles from TTB
Folks, it’s not every day I can come up with an alliterative title like the one above . . . nor would I wish to, excepting the fact that three new young adult titles by Heather McLaren, Dina von Lowencraft and Scott Eder have been released by Twilight Times Books (TTB for short).
The first, MYTHOS, is a debut urban fantasy by Illinois writer Heather McLaren (pictured at right). David Conley goes to the Bahamas and falls in love with Faren Sands, all the while thinking she’s a normal, nonmagical woman. However, she’s a mermaid from secretive Atlantis, which still exists. When she tells him who and what she is — and he gets over the shock — many, many consequences befall them.
MYTHOS features a great cover (as you see) and an interesting way to bring the myth of Atlantis to modern-day readers. Further, it has the age-old conflict that two lovers must face once they truly know each other: Will they stay together despite it all, or will they end up apart?
I’ve had several e-mail discussions with Ms. McLaren, which has led me to discover that she — like me — believes in the power of persistence. When I asked her what caused the plotline of MYTHOS to come to mind, she said this: “(I started) writing the outline for Mythos and Beyond Legend (due to) boredom in creative writing class during my tenth grade year.” Further questioning elicited the response that MYTHOS has been in development in one fashion or another for twenty years. (More power to her!)
I also asked what kept her going during this whole process. She said, “It was a way to escape from stress. The more I wrote, the more I wanted to finish it.”
Isn’t that a sensible motivation? (I think so, anyway.)
I look forward to reading more of Ms. McLaren’s work because I’m a sucker for updated tales of Atlantis, especially if they’re done well and sensitively. And while so far all I’ve read is a sample chapter (available here), her book looks quite promising!
The next novel up is Belgian writer Dina von Lowenkraft’s debut novel, DRAGON FIRE. (Ms. von Lowenkraft is pictured at left.) This is a cross-cultural tale set in Norway about a dragon shapeshifter, Rakan, and the woman who loves him, Anna. Both have been told various things about other cultures and other races that may or may not be true . . . will they be able to get past this long enough to express their feelings for one another? And even if they do, will they be able to stay together with everything that stands against them?
An updated take on dragons that just so happens to have a clash of cultures inherent along with a romance? And one that takes a few jabs at the whole Twilight phenomenon as well?
No wonder Publishers Weekly was intrigued.
More to the point, there’s a reason DRAGON FIRE is next on my reading list for pleasure reading (as alas, I cannot review it at SBR due to our conflict-of-interest policy). I’m always intrigued by cross-cultural tales, especially when they deal with two young lovers who’ve been systematically lied to during most of their short lives. (Sound familiar? It should, considering that’s a big part of ELFY‘s premise. Not that I’m the first person in the history of the world to have come up with that one, as it’s been around since time immemorial.)
BTW, A sample chapter of DRAGON FIRE is available here.
Finally, Florida writer Scott Eder’s debut novel KNIGHT OF FLAME is also available (he’s pictured at right). I haven’t had a great deal of interaction with Mr. Eder (though I have had some on Facebook), which makes it a little more difficult to discuss what’s going on with his book — but I shall give it my best anyway!
KNIGHT OF FLAME stars Develor Quinteele, a normal-seeming guy from Tampa, Florida. Unknown to most, he’s also known as the sixth Knight of Flame, and has an important task: he must keep the world safe from the Gray Lord, a horrible person who revels in the evil he does . . . and unfortunately has many descendants to help him carry out his horrific plans.
Develor’s control over his powers has never been the world’s best, and he’s turned to the easiest expedient possible — channeling his rage — in order to wield them. But this backfires spectacularly after Develor is falsely accused after a tragedy.
Stripped of his powers, will Develor regain control of himself well enough to get the other Knights to restore his power before it’s too late?
A few sample chapters of KNIGHT OF FLAME are available here. I read them, and was intrigued; there’s a swift writing style here and some excellent worldbuilding. The evil characters are hissable, and the good ones conflicted . . . I can see why Library Journal enjoyed this novel (even if I can’t seem to come up with a link to back it up, Eder’s blog points out the positive review).
At any rate, here are the three newest authors in the Twilight Times Books stable . . . please check them out, and see if their work interests you.
But in case you still need more motivation to check out TTB, take a gander at Maria de Vivo‘s THE COAL ELF. I edited this novel, and can tell you that Ms. de Vivo’s take on Santa Claus, Elves, and their comportment and demeanor is excellent. Witty and sarcastic by turns, heroine Ember leaves the safety of home and hearth to become, of all things, a coal Elf — those who are entrusted with digging out the coal that ends up in the stockings of bad children everywhere. And as you might expect, her job isn’t exactly coveted . . . especially when you consider that there’s never before been a female coal Elf of any sort.
Ember’s journey from rebellious teen Elf to a responsible, albeit still delightfully sarcastic, Elf fully in charge of herself is well worth the reading.
But don’t just take my word for it. Read this sample chapter . . . then come back and tell me if you don’t think Ember’s story is just the antidote to all the sappy Christmas songs you’ve been hearing on the radio lately.
Now, let’s get to reading and enjoying some books, shall we?
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!
Two New Book Reviews are up at SBR
Folks, I’ve been busy this week. Between getting up that guest blog over at Murder X 4, editing a friend’s book (he’s trying to get his book out by the end of the year, and there have been a number of revisions to date — but I’ll keep helping him all I can, as you’d expect), editing another friend’s book, and doing a bit of Tweeting and Facebooking to promote fellow authors (most particularly the Twilight Times Books “stable” as I’m a part of that, and I like their work so why not?), I haven’t had a whole lot of time.
That’s why, again, I got two reviews up over at Shiny Book Review (SBR for short, as always), but could not get over here to write anything about them.
So it’s time to remedy that.
Last night for SBR’s Romance Saturday, I reviewed Aaron Paul Lazar’s THE SEACREST. This is a heartwarming sensual romance between a deeply honorable man, Finn McGraw, and a complex and rather tormented woman, Libby Vanderhorn. There’s a great deal to the plot that I didn’t even get into at my SBR review due to lack of space — things like domestic violence, post-traumatic stress disorder, lesbian friends (one of whom just happened to have been married to Finn’s estranged brother once upon a time) and more — but my most favorite thing in THE SEACREST, other than what I’ve already remarked upon during my SBR review, was the character of Fritzi the cook.
Yes, really.
Fritzi was a woman who could’ve been a stereotype, but somehow she broke free of that (mostly, anyway — because aren’t we all stereotypes from time to time?). This is a motherly woman who loves to cook, is German by descent and talks with a substantial accent, yet despite all that possible baggage, Fritzi emerged as a real person with a mind and heart of her own.
And Fritzi plays an important part in THE SEACREST, too, being one of Finn’s quiet supporters in his struggle for Libby to first realize his love for her, then to give it a chance despite all the obstacles in their way.
So if you love romances — especially of the sensual contemporary variety with just enough spice to be realistic but without too much to make it gross-out awful — give Aaron Paul Lazar’s THE SEACREST a try . . . or at least go read my review and see if that whets your interest any.
Completely changing the subject, but staying with book reviews written this week, I also reviewed Leo Champion’s LEGION, which is a particularly impressive piece of military science fiction set in 2215 that has only one drawback: very, very few female soldiers at any level.
I mean, everything works in this novel. The combat scenes are excellent. The “bromance” stuff between the military guys (all men) is very good. The dialogue for the most part rings true (I didn’t ding Champion, who’s originally from Australia, with a bunch of Australianisms I found in his MS from people who are supposed to be Americans — things like “in hospital” instead of “in the hospital,” mostly because this was a debut novel and they mostly didn’t impede the action any), the characterization was crisp and sharp and the writing was quite, quite good.
But if you’re going to write a story about freedom fighters on a colonial world — whether it’s mostly from the men who are tasked to fight them (the United States Foreign Legion, or USFL for short) or from the freedom fighters themselves — it is nearly inexplicable that there wouldn’t be one single woman soldier of note down on that planet on one side or the other.
The women in LEGION, aside from one Naval Commander on a spaceship high above the action and one notable politician, tend to be one of three things: cooks, waitresses, or prostitutes. And while there’s some justification for this — I was a military wife once upon a time, and I remember the zone outside of Fort Carson, CO, quite nicely, thanks — it still didn’t work for me.
My view is simple: there should be at least one woman among the freedom fighters. On the one hand, it doesn’t take a great amount of physical strength to fire most weapons. And on the other, the guys in the U.S.F.L. obviously would never expect it, young and relatively ignorant about male-female relationships as they are.
Furthermore, it seems extremely unlikely that male convicts would be allowed to go into the U.S.F.L. to “make something of themselves,” but female convicts would not be given the same opportunity — providing, of course, that the female convict had any hope of getting through boot camp in the first place.
Being a female reviewer (yes, sometimes I must point out the obvious, folks; sorry), it was really perplexing for me to read such an interesting book that captivated me for thirty pages or more at a stretch . . . then I’d come up for air and think, Now where are all the women soldiers? Surely they must be there somewhere.
And I just didn’t see it.
Mind you, this is a military SF buddy-buddy piece that is obviously geared toward men. It’s not likely to hurt Champion’s audience in the short run whatsoever. And I am aware of this.
But it also won’t build his audience with women who don’t already know him or know of him (by this, I mean people who’ve either met him personally or who’ve read his short stories in the past or who’ve talked with him online about something or other). And that does not seem like a winning strategy, long-term.
So that was it for the week — I reviewed first a milSF novel, then a romance. And I enjoyed them both, albeit for different reasons . . . maybe you’ll enjoy one of the two books, or perhaps even both of ’em, as well.
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