Want an Underdog Doomed to Surviving in a Hostile Environment?

   Slow writing week, but I managed to read three books -- given added reading time while waiting for the Christmas cookies [gifts] to bake. Skimmed one book with flat character development but got drawn in by two Yasmine Galenorn books. Flight from Death won my reading derby this week because I thought the characters were more original, even though it's an Otherworld spin off. Maybe because Flight is complicated ghost story featuring a dragon and the other book felt like a predictable urban fantasy.

   Galenorn has a talent for creating three dimensional characters. She layers enough quirks and problems on her characters to make them live and breath. More important, their quirks add to the twists, turns, and suspense of the plot--even when the lsupernaturals land well within fantasy norms. Yeah. Galenorn's characters break cliches.

   What's more, even her secondary characters stand out as individuals. One example, the all important lore-resource character has flaws that both make him more likable and ratchet up the danger in the plot line when he makes mistakes in judgement So, much for the all-wise guru.  [Sorry if you think that's a spoiler.]

   Imagine. Shimmer, an orphan blue dragon exiled to the earth plane without most of her magic for a stupid adolescent-type prank/revenge on a bully, must survive in a world where supernaturals are tolerated on the edges. So, she broke the rules in a society that favors clan, lineage, and wealth above all. But being indentured to a vampire private investigator?????? I really liked that twist. The kid's definitely an underdog, errrr under dragon.

   Flight from Death the the first in a new series for Galenorn. Loosely set in the Seattle of her Otherworlds fae/multi-sup series, it looks like she is letting the book gets its legs under it without playing into the previous saving-the-world-from- the-nasties plot. The book takes us to Port Townsend, Washington where ghosts riddle the town, including the house where a former vampire friend of the boss wants to open a bed and breakfast for supes. Only there is something nastier than discontented ghosts haunting the place, and Shimmer proves she more than just another urban fantasy pretty face with attitude.

   Liked that Galenorn managed to recycle her Otherworld world so it felt new rather than a rehash.

   Recommended. Oh, I felt there were a few missteps where Shimmer exhibited fad/fashion knowledge too subtle for the length of time she'd spent on earth, but these were minor glitches. Overall, the read gallops. A great start for a new series with an intelligent protagonist.

Read excerpts and more reviews on Amazon and at B&N Nook.

~~#~~

My Writing Rut

What writing?

   Granted I revised an originally drafted chapter to fit the Pillar, the current main character of On the Run. Since I had two such chapters in the que, it should've been a breeze to pound out both of them last week. Didn't get that done. Can only blame baking cookies. At least, I spend very little time in stores trying to find gifts for family.

   Still, it feels good to finally be using material written last spring when I had an entirely different main character for On the Run.

Good Vampires Save Doomed Boy from Evil Vampires

Please, Don't Run Away

from the Cliche

   Maybe I should have said: former hell-raiser must save her little brother from evil vampires...and not add 'with the help of the good vampires'. Whatever.  Add in a few Gullahs plus a spooky Savannah, a goth underground--and Elle Jaspar delivers a fascinating story in Afterlight.

   Picked up Afterlight in a used book store so the book has been around for a while. In fact it's the start of a series. Still, it's a rousing story with lots of novel twists on the vampire motif that makes its so-so plot interesting. In fact, Jaspar provides enough twists throughout her story line to shatter the cliche of Savannah dripping in Spanish moss and Southern gentility.

   Most of the fun comes from the Jaspar's reformed hell-raiser main character, Riley Poe. Her first person viewpoint limits the depth of the story, but the Goth ink-master [like tattoo parlor operator] makes up for it. Her snappy narrative adds sparkle to the dark story line.

   Want colorful characters with clear motivations? Jaspar delivers.  First, she gives us Riley, a kick-ass female who dumped her dark past to care for her little brother after her mother's death. Ho-Hum? Not quite. Jaspar knows the goth lingo and scene enough to make it breathe [at least enough to fool me].

   Her vampires jump way beyond the usual hunkie, blood-sucking motif. Like, did you know that vampires have pissing contests when they drink too much beer? Well, her vampires do all sorts of unexpected things...including the hot one that Riley lusts for but refuses to tumble for for most of the book.

   Yeah, there is romantic sizzling with semi-hot sex scenes that fall far short of erotica. The book falls squarely in the paranormal romance thriller genre. But, to tell the truth, I'm somewhat saddened by flamboyant sex scenes with hot hunks. Can't dumpy guys have enough imagination to give creative sex? At least, most authors I've read haven't had the imagination to create that twist.

   Afterlight's fast paced, good vs evil plot will keep its images galloping across your mind. Jaspar has a knack for giving just enough detail to create a comprehensive picture without belaboring its elements. The book is tightly written in the sense that the plot doesn't wander or tread water either. The plot felt a little simplistic to me, but it's speed more than made up for it. This is a thriller, not a who-dun-it.

Afterlight turned out to be the first in a series called The Dark Ink Chronicles, detailing inker extraordinaire Riley Poe's adventures with vampire-kind and other preternaturals. I'll recommend the series for vampire fans. But this book stands alone. I think most paranormal readers of many genres will like the elegance of the world Jaspar created. You can read excerpts and more reviews on

Amazon      and     Barnes & Noble.

~~#~~

My Writing Rut

Hallelujah.

   The beginning of my novel is finally taking shape. Pillar has made On the Run her own with a different, more complete take on my Andor world. Only one problem. It's a novel. While I've some 35,000 words drafted, I've still a long ways to go. About half of the draft needs a strong revisions which include added chapters, from different viewpoints...including the viewpoint of the demons who lusts for Pillar.

   We'll see what happens. I'm going back and rewriting all the beginning chapters to lay the new platform now that I know what I think I need to do. Next on the docket, writing a new chapter from the viewpoint of Thelma, Pillar's kin who drove Pillar's mother away from the Bittermount mages. Gotta get back my Southern twang.

   No. I'm not from the south. I grew up in northern California in a blue collar neighborhood with a lot of transplanted "Arkies".

Twisting the Cliche. Are There Any New Ways to Write About Vampires?

Readers, how many times do you browse the paranormal shelves and get haunted by the undead?

Writers, how many times have you read agent wish lists that say: "No vampires, please"?

Yet, if you look, writers do come up with viable variations on the vampire cliche and write a fresh story.

A couple of my favorite variations. Ilona Andrew's mindless killers driven by by intelligent nasties. [I've never quite pictured the semi-humans in my mind, and I think the Andrews team wants it that way.] Charlaine's Harris' hierarchical kingdoms. Laurell K. Hamilton's pioneering efforts of vampire hunks which have now become a cliche in itself.

Now I've found a new twist on the vampire theme in Phillipa Bornikova's This Case Is Going to Kill Me that I like. Her vampires are affected by ultraviolet rays, not daylight. Think vampires feeding on specially fed hosts during business lunches behind screens  Also for Bornikova there are no female vampires. The reason remains vague even though the main character, Linnet Ellery, was fostered in a vampire family to gain career advantage.

After due law-school diligence, Ellery is given a position in a powerful vampire law office over the objections of one of the senior partners. Bornikova weaves together some nice plot threads to create no only the intrigue of a big-time law office plus a good detective story about searching for a will that totally disinherits a werewolf who think he owns a powerful security firm after he settles one claim to the business. 

You might say Linnet Ellery has her hands full. I don't read many lawyer novels but I thought the plot development fresh, even the romance was handled differently. Oh, almost forgot. Yeah. There's a romance with a Fae, but it doesn't run down a one track cliche either.

I'm going to keep this one since I think I might like to re-read it.

Another Bonus Read:

I don't read many e-type books, but I'm slowly reading Revenir Intern by R. Mac Wheeler. [Available on Amazon] In a world at war, a teen is picked to intern with a vampire queen's forces after drawing the her attention with her junior essay. The short of it, spoiled Caitlan is forced to change her summer plans to hang out with a bunch of soldiers. 

I haven't finished it yet because I need to get away from screens after spending all day sitting at one. Still the book keeps me stuck in my chair before the confuser longer than I must. Even though I sometimes have to turn off my internal editor. You might go to the Amazon page to see if the sample of Revenir Intern interests you. It's hooked me on its plot line and sense of humor. 

Author Update

What have I been doing? W...e...l...l  ... just about nothing. 

Wish I could say I finished something I was working on. Am still waiting for the next set of edits for There Be Demons. Should be writing new stuff for Forbidden Fruit, but am revising from my critique comments. Revising from the edits of The Pig Wars which is now Black Tail's War. 

Here's a second look of the cover since my website got first looks. You can read the first chapter at the website. Did you guess the book's the sequel to Troublesome Neighbors.

c

Finding New Authors to Read and Writing Craft Ideas

Fantasy Book Review:

Need a new author to read? Novella collections make a great way to discover new writers.  Hexed, which includes stories by Yasmine Galenorn, Ilona Andrews, and Allyson James about magic and mayhem, was no exception.  Granted it included two of my favorite authors and reminded me of another whose name I had forgotten [James].  Jeanne C. Stein was new to me.

While I usually don't care much for vampire stories, Stein hooked me with her Anna Strong in Blood Debt.  I've a soft spot for people who stand up to arbitrary authority, especially when they use their brains.  James even came up with an interesting "other" antagonist which hasn't been overused -- at least not in the books I've read.  So, I gave her four stars for creativity.  I think she lost a star from me for the vampire protagonist -- even if Anna Strong fights to keep her humanity and can walk in daylight. -- Hey, the vampire meme needs all the innovation it can attract.

Another reason I like novella collections is they can fill in the back story of important secondary characters in a series. Galenorn first hinted at a tragic past when she first introduced Iris Kuusi, a Finnish house sprite, in her D'Artigo sister's Otherworld series.  Her story Ice Shards fills in the details.  Magic Dreams by Ilona Andrews does much the same for a more minor secondary character in her alternative world of magical Atlanta. Allyson James reminds the reader that a relatively minor character can wreck greater havoc in a story than writers normally assign to them in Double Hexed ... if a writer pushes beyond the obvious.

I was sorry when the book ended.  Fortunately, I had rebuilt my to-read pile so I've a couple juicy reads to look forward to.  And no, I'm not going to comment on the quality of the writing in this collection.  These be master's here. -- Maybe I write half as well.

Grumping about My Lessons:
[Are we learning yet?]

Are you search engine friendly?  Like do you want to make it easy to find what you write whether blog or novel?  Chuck Sambuchino at the Guide to Literary Agents recently had a guest blog by Hollis Gillespie on How to be  Click Magnet. If your a writer, its a skill you must learn to improve your sales and/or the readership of your blog.  I know I printed a copy of the blog to study it.

Lesson:  Out of the ten tips, I picked up on writing titles.  I did notice my longer, more descriptive titles got more visits from search engines, but didn't think much about it.  Now I have a list of handy-dandy ideas to improve my blog readership.

Good thing I printed the article.  My eyes glazed over the first tips on getting most out of your titles.  Did you know Google only lists 65 characters in their search engine titles?  I didn't.  Now I know why so many search engine listings dangle in mid-idea. 

And, while you are writing that title, make it specific. I have to quote Hollis' example.  Newspaper speak:  "Senile Feline Enthusiast Dies".  Web speak: "Dead Crazy Cat Lady of Dayton an Undercover CIA Spy".  -- Rather nice that the old lady had an interesting life ... but, maybe, the red tape drove her crazy.

Did you read the article? Which tip seemed most appealedl to you?

Opening hooks have also been on my mind.  Since I've been curtailing my time on the web, blog opening lines have to hook me.  Then, I find K. M. Weiland's Word Play blog on hooking readers:  Is Your Opening Line Lying to Your Readers?

Found another gold mine, I think, on Twitter. Galley Cat did a blog on Find Reviews on the Book Blogs Search Engine.  This one's not a list of things to do.  It's a link to Fyrefly Books which has compiled a search engine about people who blog about books.  They also feature reviews you can search by genres.   

Trivia:

Remember.  No one ever said writing is easy.  I've notice it's also time consuming.

Surviving Undead Vampires and Goons

Calling All Vampires:
The Folklore Society (London, GB) is holding a two-day conference
on Death in Legend and Tradition.
Anyone, including vampires, who is interested in death is invited to attend.
[I should mention: Vampires might beware of undertakers (bearing wooden stakes?)
who were also invited to attend.]

Vampires may be taking over the world.  The New York Times (2 June 2010)  tells of a college professor being stalked by film makers.  Justin Cronin, a literary author, wrote a vampire novel called The Passage and has both publishers and film makers drooling.

What the Julie Bosman in New York Times said:  "Justin Cronin is the author of an epic, multimillion-dollar, 766-page novel that stars blood thirsty creatures that run in packs and savagely kill people at night.  And, he's planning to turn it into a trilogy."  --  If you're looking for subtle clues to the book-selling market, I think you might say the paranormal sub-genre is alive and well.  Series too.

The Book Review ...

Got sidetracked reading Sean Broderick's  The Ultimate Suburban Survivalist Guide: The Smartest Money Moves to Prepare for Any Crisis, a rather sensible book on being prepared collapses in our eco-system, economy, and society.

Now, I must admit I'm a "survivalist".  No, I won't defend my case of canned spaghetti with my uzi.  [Or, should that be a M-16?]  Maybe I'm a survivalist-lite.  I'm not up to my ears in debt.  I don't buy things if I don't need (not want) them -- unless maybe something like butter pecan ice cream if I have money in my pocket.  I do stock a couple weeks supply of staples, including water and medicine.  We still grow a garden and preserve food.  --  It was the way me and the old man were raised.

Other than chasing coupons for manufactured foods and thinking about evacuation, us urban peasants have been living the survivalist life-style since we were kids.  --  Yeah, I know it's hard saying no when raising kids, but our kids grew up thinking we were poor.

As a writer, the book might give you some ideas on writing about apocalyptic themes.

Web Stuff ...

Even though I'm trying to limit the time I spend on the web, I keep finding need stuff to print out and put in my research binders.  Today, I recommend Chris Brogan's blog on using social media to promote your book.  Thanks to a tip from Writer Beware, where you can find out all sorts of interesting publishing information -- especially about people who try to rip you off.  Back to using Brogan's info:

If you are Published:  double check to see if you've covered all the bases.

Unpublished?  double check to see if have set a platform to jump from when someone accepts your  manuscript.

Web Stuff

isn't only business.  It can be fun too.  Clarissa Draper gave me a "Sugar Doll" award which threatened my identity, but my fellow recipients have some interesting things to say.  You might go an visit.  If you do, you'll be awarded with a paranormal Jane Austin pastiche.  --  The perspective lady must be chuckling in her grave.

Progress ...

Dipped a toe in Voices, basically revisions.  I had some notes from a critique group on the first chapter ... which left me shaking my hand.  I didn't do an info-dump and they guessed the time period was after World War II ... but they weren't sure.  So, I have to stare at chapter 1 again.  --

Otherwise, revised the last chapter I finished and drafted an ending on the road-block chapter (12).  Only five more chapters to go. [???????]  Maybe I might have a draft finished before we leave for California.

Trivia ...

It's finally feeling like summer in the back yard ... so yesterday I did my annual release of the ladybugs.  Unfortunately, about a half were dead in the package.  Grumble.  Grumble.

Oh, the tree peonies are in full bloom, over a 100 feet of multicolored blossoms.  After we rescued my dad's tree peonies when they left the house, my old man decided he liked them ... and went out to buy every color they came in.

Goodbye for now, and don't let the vampires bite.