Book Review: Odd Series Losing Steam?

The Read ...

Read Dean Koontz's Odd Hours after a short break from the series.  This time around, I found Odd's simple soul a little annoying ... even though the character isn't unrealistic in his thoughts on the world.  This time Odd's living on the southern California coast and uses his "magnetism" to stop the delivery of nuclear bombs to be detonated in the USA to create a "new world order".  The book wasn't badly constructed ... even had some interesting characters, but the whole feeling felt like watching a deus ex machina at work. 

The highlight of the book, for me, was the ghost of Frank Sinatra acting out as a poltergeist.  Usually, Odd's observations cause me to chuckle out loud often.  This time.  Just lip twitchings.  As such the book was a disappointment.

Web and Other Stuff ...

Am seriously considering how I might promoted my novelette, Taking Vengeance, when it's published.  One of the things on my list: running a contest (prize undetermined as yet) to have people retweet info about the trailer or some such thing.  Then, my thoughts got punctured if not shot down, by Rowena Cherry's blog on 1st Turning Point about "How to Run a Contest".   Yeah, there are differing state laws that apply to contests and sweepstakes.  Have you heard of any of bloggers falling a foul of such laws?  Or, does the insignificant value of the prize change the rules?  Guess it's another area where lawyers stick their noses in our lives.

More on being careful of contests.  Jane Smith gives us a long blog on how important reading the rules of a writing contest are over at "How Publishing Works".  In this case, the operator of the contest seems to gobble up the rights to all the submissions to the contest.  Others have mentioned not to enter the contest.  If you haven't heard of the First One Publishing contest yet, you might take a click over there. --  Writer's Beware also did a blog.  --- And the AW Water Cooler also has a long thread on its forums discussing the contest.  ----  I'm wondering how long the tempest will last.

Roni Loren came up with another super-useful blog -- on defining how "High Concept" works.   Since publishers and agents want high concept material since it supposedly sells lots, you might want to wander over to her blog. 

Progress ...

Actually, I felt like I was stuck up the to axles in mud.  Yeah.  I did get two ten page stories rewritten and submitted.  But.  And it's a big but.  I spent more time on writing less than 100 words for a trailer script for the Half-Elven story: Taking Vengeance.  Visit my Half-Elven blog if you'd like to see what I came up with.  --  At the moment, I'm feeling building a writer's platform is more work than writing/revising the blasted book.

Now, I have more productive things to concentrate on, like maybe Maren?  Then, I really should write a new free Half-Elven story or edit the mess I wrote last month.

Trivia ...

The grey cat has come up with another cutsie habit.  He wants to be twirled in an office chair.  This is in addition in taking rides on the Cardio Glider that lives in the basement.  Never thought I'd get exercise by amusing the cat.

Fast Start, Slow Start.

The Read ...

 Fast or slow, the start of your novel and its speed off the blocks are always a problem.  A breaking point for agent, publisher, and reader.  My latest read has me puzzling this question ... because the start of next year's "novel" is breathing down my neck.   

I bought Cricket McRae's mystery, Lye in Wait, at a local author's reading.  She read such a vivid characterization of an interfering mother getting her way within the context of a brother's mysterious suicide that I thought she was worth buying a trade paperback for ... the first in the series.  Then, I read the first chapter and wondered if I'd lost my mind.

Oh, the book started great.  Opening sentence:  "That Thursday morning had been going so well until I found the local handyman dead on my workroom floor."  

A wonderfully simple opening line that'd warm the cockles of any critics heart.  But, the character turned out to be something of a dip.  In the first chapter, she committed two stupidities the likes of which'd get any teen in a horror movie killed ... or at least, lose a finger when she put it in an unknown substance by a dead body.

Since McRae didn't strike out with a third goof-up ... and then, used the protagonist's bad decisions as a point of humor in the book ... I kept reading and was rewarded with a neat, intricate plot that illustrated that having a family can be dangerous to your health.

Web and Other Stuff ...

Tamela Burhke at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer's asks a question I often ask myself:  basically Why blog?.  One of the first things she mentions is what a time-sink it is.  Many of her comments seem to apply to non-fiction writers more than fiction ones.  Still, you should make note of her comments.  Oh, I've followed the blog too so I can read the next installment in the discussion.

Overwhelmed by all the tweets on Twitter?  Roni Lauren over at *Fiction Groupie* has a simple way to organize your Twitter "follows"?  -- "Authors on Twitter".  You might go over and take a look.

Did you catch the Thursday (12/9) front page article on e-books in the New York Times?  Romance readers seem to be buying the most e-books.  (Link courtesy of the AW Water Cooler.)   Seems like they don't have the courage to show the semi-salacious print covers in public.  ...  Don't quite understand it, but then, I've always thought Favio something of a turn-off.  Maybe shy away for displaying erotica?

One more media networking thing.  David Wisehart is doing a promotion experiment on Twitter -- #Sample Sunday.  Visit his blog, Kindle Author, to get the details.  Published, work-in-progress, short stories -- the categories are open.  This is listed as an experiment on AW Water Cooler.

Progress ...

If cleaning is progress, I'm making it.  So far, it's only manuscripts ... but I have loads of paper piling up again that needs to be sorted and filed and recycled in the printer.  Now ... if only some of the places where I have long standing submissions would start cleaning up their files.

Guess, I just as soon have a rejection after three months as let a submission continue to hang in the nether regions.

Trivia ...

The rest of the house needs sorting and dumping and cleaning too.  Part of it gets done today and tomorrow.  A friend who's allergic to cats is coming to visit.

 

To-Read Pile Discoveries

The Read ...

Found two gems in my to-read piles ... in two separate piles.  First, award winning Connie Willis' Lincoln's Dreams, which turned out to be Robert E. Lee's dreams instead.  The main character is an author's research assistant who keeps tracing down obscure facts about various participants in the American Civil War.  What I found so intriguing was that Willis took all those facts and built a back drop for the love interest's mental/physical collapse.  I think the book classifies as a psychological thriller.

An example of the way Willis uses facts:  "We spent the rest of the day in the library.  Annie took notes on Lincoln.  I read Lee's letters and tried to find out what Annie [Lee's daughter] had died from.  Nobody seemed to know.  I found the chicken, though.  Its name was Little Hen.  She had walked uninvited into Lee's tent one day, and Lee had kept her for over a year.  She laid an egg under Lee's camp cot every day and sat on Traveller's [Lee's horse] back, which delighted the soldiers."

M. C. Beaton's A Highland Christmas, featuring Hamish Macbeth, was the other book I read -- if you can call 130 pages of large print a book ... even if bound like a mass paperback.  From what I can tell, if you are the author of a popular series, you often get rewarded by being asked to write long short stories or novellas for theme anthologies.  If you are close to the top of your game, your novella [or shorter] may get bound as a single.  Or, at least they did ten years ago.

The series, set in the "very far north of Scotland", easily contains over fifteen cozy mysteries where Macbeth's rogue supervisor presents a greater opponent than the criminals.  All the major secondary characters of the novels appeared in this volume.  I love the way Beaton skates across the Highland character cliches without getting bogged down.  The novelette is well paced and yielded many chuckles and some out loud laughs.  What more do you want for entertainment in the dentist's waiting room.

Web and Other Stuff ...

So, you're in the business to make money writing?  Well, Tim Ferriss who wrote the Four Hour Work Week, gives his opinion on his blog about "how writers really make money"[This via the an AW Water Cooler thread started by V-Man.]   The comments are interesting.

Then, there are the financial problems of Barnes & Noble.  While I don't think the behemoth will go to the bone yard any time soon,  their wrinkles are showing.

A couple days ago, after over a month of visiting other places to buy books, we happened into the local store.  Did my usual browse the display areas, the sci-fi/fantasy section, mysteries, and YA.  Can't remember buying a book.  Today, I browsed the grocery store book section while the old man restocked our light bulbs.  Found four new books.  We're talking Patricia Briggs, Christine Feehan, and similar names here.  Didn't see hide nor hair of them while at B&N.

Saggy, baggy bookstores, anyone?

Progress ...

This blog is so late, I had better have made some progress in my writing.  *smirk*,  *smirk*  I did.  I posted the second Renna's Tale -- As Subborn As a Half-Elven.  Still don't have any artwork, but we'll see what Sunday brings.

And, no.  I didn't query any agents.

Trivia ...

Embarrassment, really.  Chanced to look at a couple comments I left earlier on other blogs a couple days ago.  Oh, the typos.  No one would ever want me to be on their team for a spelling bee.  I don't even want to know how many typos can be found in the Renna stories.

Formatting and Being Well-Spooked

The Read ...

Abandoned the book I was reading again ... for the new book I ordered:  Mary Downing Hahn's The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall.  The clone of The Secret Garden mixed up with The Turn of the Screw and a host of other ghostly classics makes a good read even if written for young readers.  The other book only featured Mexican vampires doing vampire things.  I read a Crutchfield review somewhere and ordered it and was immediately hooked by the first paragraph while drinking coffee at the bookstore.

"Take good care of this girl," Miss Beatty told the coachman.  "She's an orphan, you know, and never set foot out of London.  Make sure she gets were she's going safely."

[Many writing gurus say you aren't supposed to start with dialog, but this works ... even if it breaks the "fiction formula".]

The book is early middle grade as you might guess from the reading level above, but it makes it all the easier to see the structure of the novel.  The introductions of the somewhat cliched characters and the bits that individualize them, the hints, and the growing power of the ghost all happen in the midst of the action.   The end result a scary story in the grand tradition that can hold the attention of an adult.

Hahn follows the "fiction formula" for story arc.  Looked down at the page numbers of the chapter where the new girl meets her secretive invalid cousin ... and it was indeed half way through the book.  If your having problems with you story flow, I suggest you buy the book and study it.  

Is Hahn worth studying?  Well, she's the award winning author of some 20 books.  [I may loan the Crutchfield Hall book to the step-grandkid, but I want it back.]

The book I abandoned?  I stayed up last night until after midnight to read it, but I won't be commenting.  Not only did it have a strange chapters long flashback (novella length) ... just when the story started to get rolling, but the characters weren't much more than cardboard stand-ins.  Two boys and girl, helped by an old codger, fighting evil Mayan vampires.

Web Stuff ...

For all the time I spend at the AW Water Cooler, you'd think there was nothing new to discover there but the daily posts.  Wrong.  While seeking tech info on formatting I found an article by one of the members on using Microsoft Word for quick edits covering such items as word frequency counter, and phrase frequency counter.  Carlson also gives instructions to highlight passive words and adverbs.  These come from Robert J. Carlson , and you can check his website for the whole story.

Of course, you smarties already know this ... but I flunked computers. Now I have to get up the courage to download the band-aids and use them.

Progress ...

Nothing spectacular or even much worth mentioning. -- Entered a flash fiction piece in the Jeffrey Archer/St. Martin's  short story contest.  -- Revising/editing of the Voices of Ghosts Creek continues, but I'm starting to worry because I like it too much.  --  Mariah is still pondering how to one-up Martonsfeld in the Half-Elven saga.  --  Still, thinking about sending out agent queries.  [Only have two books to submit.], but can't get interested.  

Yeah ... I really did have a piece of fiction that was more literary/mainstream and not fantasy.  (Thanks to a Northern Colorado Writers class given by fantasy writer Victoria Hanley.)   Got the contest info at AW Water Cooler too.

Oh, and I'm trying to format Dark Solstice, the most worked Half-Elven manuscript, to submit to an e-publisher.  Got the 1.5 spacing done.  Can't figure out how to get the extra space deleted from my periods.  Got some answers at AW Water Cooler and gave rep points.  Unfortunately, after I follow the directions, the form says it "made 0 replacements'.  --  Have I ever said I hate computers ... or is that Microsoft Word?  I never had such problems with WordPerfect.

Trivia...

Fall's happening.  

While the temperatures are dropping, the leaves have started to drop too ... right in my front yard.  Have never figured out why the Lindens (Lime trees in England) are the last to leaf out and the first to drop them. 

The jays have also moved in to harvest the acorns in the backyard.  One got territorial and dropped an acorn on the old man's head when he got too close to the tree.  I prefer the robin song in the spring to the jays' squawks in the morning.

Do Characters a Series Make?

My Book/Series Review ...

While waiting for my trade paperback of Beka, Bloodhound (or whatever the title is) to arrive, I decided to read Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small Series.  The series features Keladry of Mindelan, a young girl who decides to become a Lady Knight of Tortall after another girl [Alanna] opened up the possibilities of a female becoming a knight by masquerading as a boy.  The "powers-that-be" aren't any more accepting for Kel than Alanna, and Kel finds herself fighting the system after being put on probabation.  [Page]  To complicate things, she's a revolutionary -- championing the weak from the "entitled" nobility.

From what I've read, Pierce follows the series pattern of putting different characters into the same fantasy world.  Then, she writes short series about those main characters.  Above I give the bones (structure) of the story.  Pierce like any good writer puts the flesh on the bones.

Pierce limits this series to four middle-grade books about Kel's fight to be considered an equal.  Through the four books, the girl collects a group of friends -- human and animal -- who eventually help her defend Tortall against a necromancer who launches new semi-mechanical weapons [krakans] using the souls of peasant children.  Of course, Kel wins, but the books are a nice read.  I found the first two books a little slow (simplistic?) when Kel was a youngster ... but the "teenaged" books present real moral problems that Kel must solve.

[For those who wonder about the content differences between middle grade and young adult, the "teen" books feature a fair amount of kissing -- with a doomed romance when the realities of the adult world intrude.  The swearing is "Tortall-specific" and not much of it.]

So, what kept me reading?  A well-defined, sympathetic main character, even if she's a little too "goodie-two-shoes", who faces each challenge stoically.  Stubbornness is a two-edged fault at worst.  ...  Okay, I sat here for a couple minutes by the clock and can't think of another meaningful fault.  I should also note that Pierce surrounds with villains suitable for the age Kel is when she faces them ... and a host (if you count the sparrows) of secondary helpers.

So, my question on your "fan" books:  Do your remember the author more than the characters?  An example:  I'm always saying Harry Dresden instead of Jim Butcher.  [Something Butcher probably hates.]  On the other hand, I say Hamilton's vampires instead of Anita Blake.  [Yeah, I remember she has weres, fairies, and zombies as well as humans.]  I don't particularly care for their other series.  Then, there's Charlaine Harris, most of whose characters I enjoy reading about.

Web Notes ...

Rushed through my site-cleaning:  the email, comics, and other web stuff I check every morning.  It's the AM and almost time to do the lunch thing and bill-paying ... and I found myself rushing through the AW Water Cooler.  I'm reminded that this is probably a big mistake.  As an example of the extra-value on this writer's forum site,  AW is is featuring a Q&A with Kathleen Ortiz of  Lowenstein Associates.  The forum/feature lets members ask real agents question -- and get a real answer I hope.

I asked about agents for different types of manuscripts.  Ortiz said it was simplest when you query agencies with agents who handle all the genres you write in.

Writing Progress ...

I read four books over the week-end ... and added a couple agents/agencies to my agent list.

Trivia ...

Went to the bank Friday and discovered my driver's license had expired.  I guess I'm trying to ignore my age.

Uber Series of Many Books

The Read ...

Still on  Witch World by Andre Norton, the beginning of the many-booked Witch World series.  May seem presumptuous of me, but I sometimes wonder if any of my book manuscripts would a series make.  My middle grade stuff is written as stand-a-lones.  I really can't see them as fitting into a series though they are vaguely in the same world.  [My never-never California, as I think of it.]

Basically, Witch World lives!  Don't know how many books I've read in the Witch World series of the more than 30.   I know there's a stack of them on my bookshelves, but I do know there's an active fan base out there on the web --  Andre Norton sites -- complete with maps.

Outside of the fantasy genre, I don't know whether Norton is considered young adult or adult.  Given the short shrift the romance of Koris/Loyse  and Simon/Jaelithe got in Witch World, I'd say young adult, even though Simon and Jaelithe wake up in bed with each other in the next book in the series [Web of the Witch World].  --  Frankly, I don't think it matters.  People of all ages read the same fantasy books -- as long the world feels real.

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Care to search for a science fiction/fantasy series or explore series that are similar to ones you have enjoyed in the past?  You might try SciFan  This compiled site has loads of info, even places where you might buy titles.  Their stated goal:
"For each writer, you'll find book listings in their reading order and books that belong to a common universe.  When available you'll also find links to dedicated sites, both official and made by fans.
We carefully keep track of new series releases. We also listed the biggest and most popular series"

[I found the site on one of the AW Water Cooler forums.  Can remember where or who mentioned it.  When I searched the forum I got a thread from 2005.]

Progress ...

Finally finished the editing/revising of There Be Demons ... the second time this month ... and I've the feeling I'll be revising it yet again.  Guess I'm loopy about given my characters a chance at their place in the sun ... rather than shoving them in a "trunk".

Dare I think I'll get some new material into Voices next week?  Or, will I try to outline subsequent books featuring Britt and Cahal?  Makes me wonder what other writers think/do about their characters?

 Trivia ... 

Killed time at the Farmer's Market where I met a writer friend standing in line for real ice cream.  Old man ate most of the scoop [pistachio nut] since I was saving room for lunch -- hot sour soup and Chinese egg rolls.  Yummm, one of my favorites which I can't make because we'd eat it for a month.

Sorry, didn't get this posted yesterday.  I was finishing my Demons revision and running around.  Like the fridge was empty of "good" stuff.