I also ordered a copy of Almost Human by Cat Marsters and a book on spontaneous human combustion from Amazon. Now I can worry about having no money because I've spent it all on books instead of worrying about The Other Thing.
- Mood:
neurotic
19701 / 60000 words. 33% done!
I did an epic 3600 words today on Silver Kiss, curled up in my parents' conservatory. It was ... um ... my gift to my dad. For Father's Day. He really appreciated my efforts. My arm is killing me now, but I'm too happy with my progress to really care. Stuff is Going Down in the werewolf world. Crazy Stuff. Werewolf Stuff. And Ayla doesn't like it.
I picked up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies at the train station on Friday, and I have to say I'm disappointed so far. Jane Austen's parts are still marvellous, charming, and funny. Seth Grahame-Smith's parts are just ... I don't know. Wrong. I don't know how you can mix zombies with Jane Austen and have it go wrong, because in theory there's nothing bad about it. But they just fall flat. I feel like it wasn't done with any love for the original or real understanding of what makes Pride and Prejudice so great to begin with, but just as a novelty money-spinner.
Anyway. We're back into workshop season at work from tomorrow - three back-to-back workshops, which are just going to wipe everyone out, so I don't expect to be very productive writing-wise, although I shall try and crack something out where I can. And, oooh! Then it will nearly be time for this year's RNA conference. Woo! I'll be going along as a published author this year! ^_^
- Mood:
content - Music:Paradise by the Dashboard Light - Meatloaf
I think what I liked best about this book was the family aspect. A lot of UF heroines are loners, for whatever reason, but Mel has a tight, if weird, family unit, and her relationship with Harmony, her daughter is great. There is a hint of romance, but it's underplayed in favour of the murder mystery, which works well for me. Romance is great, but too many UF books seem hung up on getting in the complicated love life, and it was nice to read something where the heroine isn't shucking her knickers every five pages. Here, the relationships between Mel and the women in her life - from her daughter to her former best friend Zery - are the most important, not the relationships with the men.
I'll definitely be looking out for the sequel to Amazon Ink, which from the looks of things will focus on Amazon queen, Zery. I hope Devoti does plan to return to Mel if the series continues, because I think there are a lot more stories to tell here.
- Mood: mellow
Holy crap.
I just finished this on my lunch break - it's amazing! I had to go and buy Pretties immediately, despite the fact that I've yet to pay this month's council tax and promised myself only yesterday that I wouldn't buy any more books until I cleared the mammoth leviathan that is my TBR pile. But I HAVE to know what happens next!
- Mood:
bouncy
I'm pretty sure there was also a mummy in the dream, but I don't think that was actually anything to do with you. I don't know if there are any deep or hidden messages here, or if you've developed a technique for advertising directly into people's subconscious? (If so, I salute you!) Anyway, the upshot is that I just went to Amazon to preorder Deader Still (I know, I can't believe it's not out in the UK yet either!). So, you know, your cunning business strategy succeeded. I am in fact buying your book.
Thanks,
Naomi
- Mood:
curious
For reasons best known to ... myself, I suppose, I read a lot of vampire books last month. I've got a bit of a love/hate relationship with vampire books - LKH scarred me deeply, but Richelle Mead and Jocelynn Drake have restored my faith somewhat.
( Click for pretty pictures! )
- Mood: relaxed
Happy April 1st everyone! Please keep your practical jokes to a safe level of humiliating. Just a quick list of books I read last month, mainly because some of them were awesome and I want to spread the goodness.
Second Skin - Caitlin Kittredge - the third, and best so far, book in the Nocturne City series. Luna! Dmitri! Wendigos! Muscle cars!
Happy Hour of the Damned - Mark Henry - zombies and cocktails. This book was written for me.
Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham - having read this book, I'm now even more suspicious of the weird plant on my desk at work. I'm sure it moves.
Acid Row - Minette Walters - this was a really surprising book; considering the subject matter I enjoyed it immensely. Definitely worth a look.
The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance - I'm actually about half way through this at the moment. Some of the stories are fabulous - I've just bought Jenna Maclaine's Wages of Sin on the basis of her short here.
Right, off to work to post that partial! Squee!
- Mood:
awake
I have WINNERS! Drawn from the mystic depths of my top hat, the winner of the Top 5 of 2008 is
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
heroineforhire ! Email me at violet_shadows at hotmail dot com and I'll get the books sent to you asap :)And runner-up winner of The Hunger Games is Tez Miller! Email me, and it'll soon be winging it's way Down Under.
- Mood:
sore
Anyway, if you haven't already, you can still enter my Top 5 of 2008 book giveaway by leaving a comment here. You've got until Monday to enter for the chance to win copies of Generation Dead, World War Z, Tantalize, Maneater, and Night Life, plus a runner-up prize of Hunger Games.
- Mood:
sleepy
In an act of sheer generosity, I'm giving away five books that I read last year and loved (technically World War Z was a 2007 read, but I re-read it in 2008 and loved it even more the second time round, so it counts).
If you want to be in with a chance, just leave a comment before Monday 12 January. Your name will then go into my infamous top hat and the winner will be announced sometime next week.
AND as a special bonus, I'll draw a runner-up and send them a copy of Suzanne Collins' amazing The Hunger Games because OMFG, that book is insanely good and more people need to be reading it.
- Mood:
busy
So, has anyone else read this? I finished it last night and it's amazing! Like Twilight would have been if Bella had a backbone and Edward had admitted he was a stalkerish creep. Tantalize is up there with Generation Dead as one of the best books I've read this year. It's witty, unusual, and elegantly written.
Quincie Morris and her uncle are reopening their family restaurant with a creepy new theme - vampirism. But a month before Sanguini's launches, their head chef is killed in what looks like a werewolf attack. Quincie is left with the job of whipping new chef Brad into shape while her uncle begins to spend more and more time with seriously weird new girlfriend, Ruby. Quincie's best friend, werewolf hybrid Kieran, is one of the main suspects for the murder, so who can Quincie trust?
Thrown into Quincie's quirky narrative are restaurant reviews and sample menus from Sanguini's, which I loved as it just gave the book that extra something. A poignant coming-of-age romance with a twist, Tantalize is just awesome.
- Mood: sick
- Mood:
cranky
Okay, you're back? You got a copy? Good. Moving on. Yesterday I cut almost a chapter and half out of Wild, which was painful. Hopefully what I replaced it with is good and adds to my "spice up the plot" quota. I'm not sure yet. It's like I'm halfway through conducting a major operation and I've had to stop because I can't remember if I'm taking out the heart or the liver. I do think a lot of what I'm cutting out is unnecessary waffle (or bad cholesterol, if you will), but it's quite scary to think I might be replacing it all with even more unnecessary waffle. Let's look at the evidence:
Chapters rewritten: 10. Technically it's twelve, but I cut one chapter altogether and merged two more into one.
Menacing encounters with werewolves: 3
Number of times Lizzie has resolved to quit drugs/break up with Harris and failed to do so: Countless.
Sinister predictions of Doom from strangers: 2
References to teenagers being killed by clowns: 1
- Mood: chipper
| |
8,391 / 85,000 (9.9%) |
Look at the slow creeping forward of my word meter for Wild! Yes, it is shiny, it does excite. I'm making some rather huge changes to the basic plot and it's a frustratingly slow proceedure to chop out massive chunks of writing and fit in new pieces, and then make sure the new pieces mesh with the original. But I'm getting there. Let's look at the evidence:
Chapters revised: Four.
Drugs used (not by me): Heroin, cocain, morphine (for medicinal purposes), cannabis.
Deaths: One.
Werewolf sightings: Two.
Punch-ups: One.
Instances of eerie foreshadowing: Too numerous to count.
(BTW, Rogue by Rachel Vincent? OMG. Somebody else hurry up and read it so I can talk about it with you.)
- Mood: accomplished
Previously Known Issues
Gillian is the Queen of Mary Sues: Beautiful, intelligent, physically superior, respected, loved, admired and adored universally, even by people who want to kill her.
Secondary characters are inconsistent in their behaviour, ie Tanis (Gillian's first lover) begins the book as a crotchety neanderthal, but becomes a domestic, tender-hearted wuvbunny as soon as he's succumbed to Gillian's swamplike nether regions.
Grammar and sentence structure is sorely lacking, misplaced commas cause havoc!
Newly Discovered Issues (as of last night)
Nothing really happens. Sure, there's plenty of talk about the OMGterrible! turf-war brewing between Dracula and everyone else, but we never actually see any of it. No blood or gore on screen, as it were.
Dracula, much feted terror of the known universe, appears for approximately one paragraph and does nothing but drool over Gillian. Big let down.
Plot threads are introduced, then abandoned, ie, Gillian begins to treat a werewolf for psychosomatic fur allegies in one chapter ... then never speaks to him about it again. Despite this, Gryphon feels the need to recap that character's history every time he's mentioned, ie "Pavel, the Werewolf Gillian was treating for his psychosomatic allergy to fur which he developed after being attacked by rabid pitbulls, stood behind Gillian..." (That's more or less a direct quote, btw).
Bad guys go unpunished even when it's possible to punish them, ie, Gillian is repeatedly sexually assaulted by a ghost via her dreams, but when she finds out what's been happening, decides not to take umbrage with the ghost because she enjoyed the dreams. (So maybe it wasn't really sexual assault, despite her lack of awareness or consent.)
Gillian repeatedly refers to transvestites as "trannies." That really annoyed me. Also all the transvestites are horrible mutlilated, presumably because they threaten your gender orientation with their cunning disguises.
Conclusion
The ending is such an obvious set-up for the sequel I feel almost insulted. Plot threads are left unresolved, or in some cases abandoned completely. WAY too much info-dumping, as if Gryphon didn't really trust us to remember who people were, what they did or what colour their eyes were. Every second page saw Gillian reminding everyone who'd listen that she was a marine, dammit! Funny for all the wrong reasons - such as the "meant to be sensual, actually disturbing" reference to Gillian's "turgid perfume" of the groin.
Key to Conspiracy is out in April 2008. I don't think I can stand it.
- Mood: sick
Last week I was lucky enough to win an ARC of the second book in the Hell On Earth series, and yesterday I finished reading. (I was so tempted to toss aside Rebel Fay to read this, but I managed to resist. But it was hard! And I love Barb & JC Hendee!)
Anyway, I loved Hell’s Belles, the first book, and was somewhat overly excited at finding out what Jesse did next, whilst at the same time worried that Road wouldn’t be quite as good. I needn’t have worried – former succubus-turned mortal exotic dancer Jesse is back in all her acid-tongued glory. And being mortal hasn’t made her life any less complicated. Her boyfriend doesn’t really approve of her dancing career, demons are threatening her wherever she goes and it seems everyone wants her back in Hell. Throw in the wickedly seductive incubus Daun and a cherub trying hard to become a succubus and you’ve got (wait for it) one Hell of a book.
Reasons why Road is just as good, if not better than, Belles;
- Mood: busy
And to top it all off, I arrived at work today to find I'd won an ARC of Jackie Kessler's next book - Road to Hell! I'm so excited. I may even be uberexcited. Hell's Belles has easily been one of my favourite books this year and I thought I'd have to wait til December to see what loveable former succubus Jesse was up to next. And now I won't! Huzzahs all round!
EDIT - I also had an email from Ricia saying she enjoyed the first three chapters of Wild and wants to read more. I've sent her the next three and since I'm planning to be done with the first draft by November, I'm hoping she thinks it's worth sending to publishers.
- Mood: cheerful
... Came the name of the winner of my Ivy Cole giveaway and that winner is...
Go you! Email me here with your address details and I'll get your book sent out to you as soon as humanly possible.
Thus ends my werewolf month. Le sigh. Thanks to everyone here and over at Blogger for joining in. This was so much fun, I may do it again with a different monster in a couple of months. Suggestions welcome!
- Mood: chipper
Doe Springs has a killer in its midst. The quiet mountain town is haunted by a devil that rips its victims to pieces and leaves their remains behind as a warning, a message. Dog-trainer Ivy Cole knows all about the dead humans that are showing up - she's the one killing them. But while she's dishing out her brand of wild justice to wife-beaters, philanderers and child-molesters, another killer is mutilating local animals and attacking children. And Ivy just can't allow that.
Being a huge fan of all things werewolf-ish, I thoroughly enjoyed Farago's take on the werewolf myth. Ivy Cole has made a virtue out of her lycanthropy, killing those she considers deserving of the punishment, protecting those too weak to protect themselves. She's an intelligent, collected heroine with a heart of gold beneath her cool exterior. The cast surrounding her are well-rounded and utterly believable, from her straight-laced love interest Deputy Sanders to her once-abused, now-blossoming best friend, Patricia. The villain of the piece is both scary and plausible and Ivy's eventual showdown with him is page-turning stuff. Every chapter left me desperately wanting to read the next.
As Ivy and the local police close in on the second werewolf stalking Doe Springs, Farago peppers her story with werewolf and wolf legends and history, offering a deeper insight into the inspiration behind the story. It was fascinating to read these tidbits of information and I never felt that I was being lectured by their inclusion, or that they distracted from the main plot.
From the adrenaline-fueled opening to the bittersweet ending, Ivy Cole and the Moon is an absolute delight, and a must read for fans of werewolves, horror and urban fantasy. You should totally go and buy a copy.
Or better yet, get me to give you a copy. It just so happens that I have a brand new copy of Ivy Cole and the Moon sitting right here by my fish tank. If you fancy getting your hands on it, just leave a comment on this post. The winner will be randomly drawn from an actual hat (a top hat, to be precise) and announced on August 1st.
- Mood: chipper
Personally I feel that werewolves are getting the raw end of the deal in urban fantasy. They’re either whining, angsting pains-in-the-ass or they’re surprisingly tame, de-fanged romance heroes who probably never killed a sheep in their life because they’re too busy wooing the laydeez. Rubbish, I say. What’s worse is that they’re usually playing second fiddle to vampires. Vampires! Come on! Look, whatever problems werewolves have, at least they’re alive, whereas vampires are basically just noisy corpses.
Luckily it’s not all bad. There are some cool werewolves out there. And, it must be noted, they’re all girls. Take for example, if you will, Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty series, starting with Kitty and the Midnight Hour. In the first book of the series, Kitty Norville’s on the bottom rung of her pack, struggling to keep out of trouble and lead a quiet life. Unfortunately, she’s outed as a werewolf on national radio and is soon fighting tooth and claw to escape her pack. I heart Kitty a lot. She’s compassionate, she’s smart, she’s got a wicked sense of humour and when she changes shape, she’s all wolf. She’s not afraid to kill a rabbit or two.
Then there’s Vivian Gandillon of Annette Curtis Klause’s Blood and Chocolate. Young, beautiful and fierce, Vivian relishes the change from girl to wolf. But her loyalties are tested when she falls in love with human artist, Aidan. Her pack is in danger of exposure and Vivian’s suddenly unsure which world she really belongs in. It’s a great coming-of-age story and it was recently made into a film (which I haven’t seen yet.)
Of course, there's Kelley Armstrong's Elena Michaels from the Women of the Otherworld series. Star of Bitten, Stolen and Broken, Elena is one of my favourite werewolves. She's kickass, she's tough and she's the only female werewolf in the world. Throw in half-demons, vampires, necromancers and witches and well ... It's hard out here for a female werewolf.
Last but not least is Lola Galley of Kit Whitfield’s Bareback. Okay, Lola’s not a werewolf. But roughly 98% of the human population is. On the night of the full moon, regular citizens lock themselves in a safe place and shape shift in peace. For people like Lola, unable to change shape, life is very different. Conscripted at eighteen into DORLA (Department for the Ongoing Regulation of Lycanthropic Activity), Lola’s world is fraught with prejudice and danger. Scorned and hated by lycos, life for a bareback isn’t one you’d wish on anyone. I’ve pimped this novel before on my blog, because I honestly, truly love it. It has so much going for it, it’s hard to sum it up in a few sentences and the best advice I can give you is go buy a copy.
And finally there’s my favourite werewolf heroine, Ivy Cole … But I’m saving her for later…
- Mood: sleepy
