Thief Eyes: Brooding and Scary, Even When It's Not Horror

Jannie Lee Simner captures the brooding atmosphere that haunts Iceland, even in the summer time, in her YA book Thief Eyes. [Yeah, I've spent serveral tourist days in Iceland.] More important, scary things happen in the book, from rapidly descending fogs, to threatening magic, to disappearing memories. But the scariest thing in the book: Haley's mother has disappeared without a trace. 

Determined to solve the mystery of her mother's disappearance, Haley has insisted her geologist father take her to Iceland the summer where Haley learns her father is responsible. She immediately collides with magic and the rougher mores of the Icelandic Sagas. Was nice to encounter a different mythology than the usual Celtic cosmology.

I also liked the touch where the villain, Hallgerd, is an direct ancestor of Haley. The descriptions of how the magical connenction works is effective and believable, even if you're a skeptic or unable to desengage your mind from the real world.

Character developement is a strong point in the Thief Eyes. The reader quickly learns about about the well-rounded life Haley left behind in the states. More important, that life directly impacts the the storyline of the book to make it richer and adding plot twists. Ari, the next most important character of the book is just as well-rounded as Haley with his own growth decisions. The villain sorceror who causes all the problems comes across as a real person even though lifted from the Sagas. Simner's judicious addition of fiction to legend works well.

In a universe filled with fey, werewolves and vampires, Simner's raven, fox and shape-shifting bear are refreshing. The mystery is quickly solved, but the adventure to save the world [preventing a massive earthquake in Iceland] grabs your attention and seldom lets up. All in all, a well written book with a nice clean style.

If you'd like to read samples and other reviews, click the following:

Amazon           Nook

~~~~~~~~~~~

Other Interesting Reading

First: Have a Good 2018 filled with lots of fun.

New York Times Book Reviews gave me some thoughts to chew on over Christmas in a review of Eric Metaxas"' book Martin Luther The Man who Rediscovered God and Changed the World.  Reviewer Carlos Eire said, among other things, "He [Luther] is a champion of personal freedom and of the rights of the common folk."

I like the idea of Luther being a major rebel in the fight to overthrow autocracy and reintroduce a form of hunter and gatherer democracy, aka concensus decision-making. [How that for an oversimplication???]

Another book on religion caught my interest: a commentary on the Qur'an. The reviewer, also a Qur'an scholar, said: having read the Qur'an cover to cover, there was no mention of 72 virgins waiting for jihadists' in Paradise. Had me thinking about rude awakenings.

~~~~~~~

Just a reminder if you live in the US. The GoodReads Giveaway for There Be Demons in hardcover is still open for entries until 7 January 2018. If you live outside the US, I'll be doing a giveaway through Amazon sometime in February of the ebook.

~~~~~~~~~

My Writing Rut

The rut was abandoned over the holidays. Spent the time with friends and family. Did do some mop-up work, like deleting emails, but mostly I ate too much, just like everyone else. Biggest vice? See's chocolates. That tells you I'm a California gal still, even though I live in Colorado.

Do YA Attention Spans Need Explosions With Their Fantasy?

Finally, got Karina Sumner-Smith's Towers Fall from the family lending library. The fantasy book was slow in arriving, but I expected to savor it as soon as the night news was over. Instead, I found myself skimming the text in sort of a wave pattern. The book would absorb me, then when a narative meme was repeated two or more times in a row, my reading speed picked up again. The twists and turns and "hanging dooms" when Sumner-Smith switched characters kept me reading.

In short, I never quite abandoned the book for another but was left feeling unsatisfied. The book should have had me staying up past my bedtime as I rooted for the "down-and-outers" to best the snobby elite.

There's loads to like in this well-woven tale--two well- woven protagonists who keep on growing and struggling on their own, secondary characters who keep demonstrating new traits, plus non-stop action. Shai and Xhea are on a short timeline to save the Lower City, rushing from one organic crisis to another.

Yet I skimmed, even though I like to savor moments from the character's worlds. More important. I cried. The characters were so well drawn the usually reluctant tears flowed at the dilemma the Xhea and Shai had to face at the end.

I don't need explosions to keep my interest, but I wonder about teens. Towers Fall has been on the market since 2015 with under 20 reviews. This truely inventive book deserves better.

Try a sample of Towers Fall on:

Amazon      Barnes & Noble       kobo

~~~~~~

Other Reading Adventures

Thoroughly enjoyed re-reading Tamora Pierce's Terrier about Beka Cooper's first case as an apprentice Guard in a "medieval" type port. Didn't get bored once and read way beyond my bedtime. Had forgotten about the insult of "fishpuppy". Beka's shyness makes normal events painful for her, a trait she must overcome if she's to survive as a guard.  -- A great read if you aren't familiar with her books. Terrier is the first book in a trilogy.

~~~~~~~

My Writing Rut

Have been feeling quilty about not writing. There Be Demons has been chewing through my time. Even the social media time I enjoy got bitten. Have managed some nice reviews. But not many sales. But then, the promo is just getting started, and I'm a total unknown. At least, my publisher got the ebook up on Google Play as well as Amazon and kobo.

My conscience is getting soothed by thinking I'm going to to do NaNoWriMo this year--that great sprint in November when writers try to draft a book in one month. Hah. 

Book? A possible third book in The Demon Wars Trilogy...if it gets written. As slow as I write, it may be five years from now before all the pieces are put in place and polished. Did have one new idea. Vetis comes back to woo Grylerrque, his long lost lust, fo the ending fight.

At least, he'll be doing more than checking up on Abraxas. As soon as I had the idea, the possibilities began tumbling through my mind.

Feel a little sad to be leaving Trapper in the middle of his story.

Long Books: Are They Easier to Write than to Read?

Oh, yes, I can read long books, fantasy or otherwise. Case in point, Spirit Walk by Richie Tankersley Cusick. Okay, if you want to nit pick, it's two books in one volume, but I started reading it as I got bored with Great North Road. And--I don't think I finished it because it was 200 pages shorter, either.

Spirit Walk is solid Young Adult fantasy where the protagonist moves to a new town just as she's developing the talent to see and hear ghosts. 

Miranda Barnes gets relocated when a hurricane destroys her old life, and when she's moved to her mother's home town, she learns that her grandfather is the town's lunatic eccentric. Turns out his "strange spells" come when he contacts the spirit world, but he dies before he can teach and guide Miranda to control her developing abilities. Fortunately, she finds a group of friends who are more than willing to help her cope, including the local "bad boy" who provides the love interest.

Sounds like a cliche, but it's a cliche like romance books are a cliche. It's all in the writer's imagination and ability to develop a plot line. In this case, Cusick demonstrates good craft skills plus plausible depictions and explanations for the phenomena she works with. Miranda is a good kid trying to find her feet in a new world and, thanks to Cusick, does it in a logical way with only a few normal freakouts. Her sidekicks are all well differentiated and, while they are familiar types including a southern belle, have kinks that move them away from the norm. 

The ghosts? They're the best of all. They come across as characters with real problems rather than flitting balls of light.

As for being long, there are two major things that can go wrong with a story line. One you go into so much detail that you lose your reader's interest. [Like the Great North Road did for me. Though George R. R. Martin does it for me too.]

Another reason is all the writers, who are still learning their craft as their storyline meanders in and out of plot twists and extraneous scenes, who give up. If the beginning writer's lucky, they keep writing until they learn how to construct a novel. If they are luckier, they'll go back and discover a mouldering draft containing inspiration for a number of different novels.

One example of this is a recent blog by Margo Berendson about a unicorn novel she wrote when she first started writing. ... I was an early critiquer of the unfinished novel, way back, but the plot line always has stuck in the back of my mind. I'm glad she's recycling the material now that she's gained a better mastery of her skills. Check out her experience on rekindling her writing dream.

I'm doing much the same thing with some short stories I wrote way back when. Discovered that some of them could be rewritten to fit into my Andor world [There Be Demons and Noticing Jamilla]. I'm now in the process, while I wait for The Grumpy Dragon to do its thing, of converting the short stories into planks in my platform.

Have you made any other use of your trunk novels, besides making a home for dust bunnies?

Oh, Spirit Walk. I give it a five star rating because it kept me reading past my bedtime.