Book Reviews

I finished Lilith Saintcrow's Night Shift last night, and I absolutely loved it. It's got pretty much everything I'm looking for in an urban fantasy. I'll definitely be picking up the sequel.

Today, I am laid low with the plague, so I attempted to start Mike Carey's Vicious Circle, a sequel to The Devil You Know, an urban fantasy/mystery I enjoyed very much. Mr. Carey has also written for the graphic novel Lucifer, another work I adored every page of. In between naps and lucidity, I managed to make it up to page 74, very much into the story.

However, I put that aside when I found out that a friend had sent me a package, waiting for me at the post office. Fortunately, the post office is only a short walk from my apartment, so I managed the hike even in my plague-ridden state. Lo and behold, a copy of Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith, the man who gave us Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. This is the same friend who once sent me a copy of the Necronomicon and a box of maple candy for a Valentine's Day present. He's an old friend who knows me well!

I am enjoying this book quite a bit, though I am only up to page 31. I shall certainly post a fuller review when I finish the book and am feeling better.

Monday Link Roundup!

The best the web has to offer, in bite-size form.

Are you looking for a vampire-themed vacation? There are three different vampire cruises, in Alaska, Romania and of course, New Orleans. Wanna book?

Of course, when it comes to conventions in the new information age, one of the online conventions would be focused on giant robots. Over 100 campuses are participating!

An interesting article about learning in your sleep. Didn't Disney do a movie about this forever and a day ago?

I have a long standing fascination with Pharaoh Akhenaton and the Amarna Period.

I also have a long standing interest in Joseph Campbell, and here is a very interesting article on the role of initiation.

And for your weekly humor sign off, Time Traveler caught on film!. The 'M' on his shirt definitely stands for 'Miskatonic'.

Working My Way Through the Stack

I read quite quickly and have had a blessed abundance of spare time recently, which means I've already finished Living Lies by Kate Mathis. The author described her book as 'beach reading,' and I have to agree. The book's self-publishing cred was obvious when I ran across phrases like "a lethal dose of heroine," and the plot got a little shaky at times. Generally, the action revolves around our main character Melanie Ward, a supersecret superspy for the U.S. Government, who also has problems getting a date. Sort of like Tom Clancy + romance. It was good brain candy up until about the last chapter, in which what might have been a brilliant twist rather loses steam after a few applications of Fridge Logic.

That being said, I also thought Storm Front a weak first novel, and Butcher has definitely upped his game since then. So I think I'll pick up Ms. Mathis' sequel, due to be out this summer.

I have moved on to Night Shift, by Lilith Saintcrow. I've seen her books in stores frequently, but have just never picked up a copy. The plot appears to be largely what I'm also attempting - a female protagonist fights things that go bump in the night. And, as one might expect, I have to say I'm quite enjoying this!

I've found one of the challenges with writing urban fantasy is adhering to established folklore and yet still leaving one's own creative mark. I'm on page 76, and Ms. Saintcrow has already come through by giving me little details about her Were. Most authors who take on changing breeds establish that their werecritters mate for life and operate with a pack mentality when it comes to leadership. Which is certainly true in this universe, but her Were also are quite domestic and prefer to discuss important matters over a shared meal. That, and she uses the word 'levinbolt.'

I suspect I shall soon be buying her sequels.

I also got my first fan mail today! Well, okay, it was a gentleman asking how to buy a copy of A Game of Tears (answer: John is working on getting the website set up, until then you can read most of the book itself at Houses of the Blooded Blog, tag 'game of tears.') Still! Someone wants to read my stuff! I'll take that and run with it! So, thanks, Jakub!

Festivus Libris!

Being lucky enough to live in West LA, I was able to attend the UCLA Festival of Books today! It's a two-day annual book fair of epic proportions which sprawls over a large swathe of UCLA campus. I highly recommend attending. Several hundred companies, from book publishers to book sellers to local interest, set up a booth to promote their particular product. Stages are set up for performances, readings and lectures outdoors, as well as smaller tables for authors to sign their books. The festival also presents panels and seminars throughout the day, of interest to readers and writers.

I only partook of the smallest portion of the Festival's offerings, and wandered amongst the various booths for awhile, ducking Jews for Jesus offering evangelical fliers, 9/11 truthers asking for donations and Scientologists promoting their free stress test (I took one once, figured out how the e-meter worked after about two minutes, and spent the next half hour playing with my interviewer).

I spent far too much money, but it was for a good cause (An ex of mine, when we were living together, used to complain about how many books I brought home. Admittedly enough, we were rather short on shelf space in our tiny one-bedroom apartment. I told him to be grateful it wasn't crack, and stacked my books in the closet). You can see the newest additions to my hoard in the picture above. I scored:

* Several urban fantasy paperback novels. Buy three, get one free! Yeah, I know, I'm a sucker like that.

* The Manga Cookbook, which is a gift for a friend who enjoys both manga and cooking. I flipped through it, and now I want sushi.

* Los Angeles Noir and Los Angeles Noir 2. Because who doesn't like noir? Especially Los Angeles noir! The publisher offered Noir for nearly every major metropolitan center on the globe. However, only Los Angeles came in two volumes, each of which was thicker than all the rest. Yeah, that's my city!

* The Science of Good and Evil, because I promised myself I'd get at least one book on philosophy.

* Master of the Mysteries, a biography of Manly P. Hall. As well, a copy of The Legend of Aleister Crowley and a slim mimeograph on Ethics which was just mysterious enough to be intriguing (and, only two dollars each!). Interestingly enough, the last two were found at the Atheists United booth, when I went to pick up a Flying Spaghetti Monster car decal for my mom (hi, Mom!)

* Living Lies by Kate Mathis, which I found almost by accident. The author approached me after seeing my already-overflowing free blue tote (thanks, C-SPAN BookTV!), accurately assumed I'm a voracious reader, and handed me a bookmark which had her book synopsis written on one side. I figure there are worse things to spend ten dollars on than helping a new author promote her book. I read the first couple of chapters on the bus home - so far, the main character has had her heart broken in college (who hasn't?) and joined a secretive government spy organization. Spy fiction is not quite what I normally read, but a life lived within only one genre is quite boring!

Did my civic duty by signing a couple petitions. Picked up some promotional literature about the LA Opera Ring Festival and a schedule for the Hollywood Bowl summer season. Enjoyed a cup of coffee, a chocolate chip muffin and my new books on a patch of lawn. I also looked into a couple self-publishing companies. I haven't quite yet decided if I'm going to attempt self-publishing or go the more traditional agent/contract route when I'm ready to see my work in print. I gave a few companies my e-mail address, so I'm sure I'll soon receive all sorts of information about self-publishing!

Around 3 pm, I realized that my wallet was alarmingly slim and I should probably go home before I spent any more money.

500 More Words About Gregory

When Gregory was in high school, U.S. History class was the last of the day. Being one who rose with the early tide, Gregory's reserves of mental energy were always well and truly depleted by 2 p.m. As a result, he snoozed his way through the Civil War and missed William Tecumseh Sherman's quote, "War is hell."

Not that knowing the quote would have helped Gregory any when he came to his own realization: war was indeed hell.

Gregory had grown up in the desert - hot and dry. He was completely unprepared for the oppressive humidity laying over the Vietnamese jungle, like a blanket so thick Gregory thought he might drown just from breathing. Mosquitoes and blood flies buzzed throughout the base, achieving levels of infiltration and irritation the Viet Cong could only dream of.

Gregory hated every moment. Either he was bored to death or scared to death, there was no in-between. The only thing he learned of any value was not to play poker, he always lost.

Halfway done with his tour, the sergeant 'volunteered' Gregory for a night mission through the jungle. Gregory didn't really want to go, but he didn't really want to do anything, anyway. The night mission was just a different kind of misery as far as he was concerned.

Tramping through the jungle, lugging a radio and trying not to trip on tree roots, Gregory could barely see three feet in front of him.

And then, he could see everything. For several awful instants, he could see as clearly as if it were afternoon. Then the screaming started, drowned out a heartbeat later by machine gun fire. Gregory didn't think, he just dove for the ground, for the shelter of the thick jungle brush. Bullets whizzed above him and around him, but none hit. Though he had bitched when assigned the radio, he was now grateful for a shield.

After an eternity, the gunfire stopped. The only sound in the jungle was the heavy pounding of Gregory's heart, the low moans of wounded comrades. After a second eternity of silence, Gregory crawled out of the brush, expecting to die the very next second. There was no way to see except by the weak light of a half moon. Everything was grey and fuzzy in Gregory's sight. He bent over each fallen soldier. Two had died when the point man stepped on a mine. Half the remainder died under the resulting gunfire. The rest were moaning, alive but beyond mortal help. Gregory did what he could, knowing it was not enough.

Near the rear, he saw a second figure bent over the body of a solider. He wasn't dressed like a G.I., and anyone in the jungle not wearing American camo could be safely presumed to be Charlie. Slowly, trying not to make any noise, Gregory slid his gun up and drew the sights. He thought he'd been perfectly silent, but some small noise nevertheless alerted the figure.

His head snapped up, his eyes locked onto Gregory's. His finger halfway to the trigger, Gregory froze. The man wasn't Vietnamese, not with his wide, round eyes and aquiline nose.

"Bonjour" he said to Gregory.

Monday Link Roundup!

An amusing distraction from your Monday, I bring you the weekly Link Roundup!

From Australia, an object lesson on the value of a good proofreader.

The American Library Association has issued their list of the Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2009. This is the first I've heard of ttyl, but now I'm interested to read it. Good to see the old standbys are still on the list!

Not only has Peter Brett successfully published a novel he wrote on his mobile phone while commuting, there's now a movie deal!

And, as a writer of vampire stories, I feel as though I ought to toss in a link or two about vampires. Here's a good one about trees and plants reputed throughout folklore to have vampire-repelling properties.

I said last week I'd give ninjas!

Happy Monday!

Changes!

Jim Butcher is one of my favorite authors, and great was my joy this past week when I was able to scrape together enough extra cash to pick up a copy of Changes, his newest book in the Dresden Files.

Though I suspect I may sound the fangirl, I absolutely adored this book. What I appreciate most about reading the Dresden Files is that each book is incrementally better than the previous. I also enjoy how characters change from one book to the next, how things which happened in Blood Rites affect the way Changes falls out. Even the villains have understandable, if abhorrent, motivations. The character of Donald Morgan was, from a stylistic standpoint, one of my favorites - he's got it in for the protagonist, so we're not really supposed to like him. But by the end of Morgan's story, the reader feels terrible for him. That's the sign of a true artist.

I'm certainly going to be picking up a copy of the RPG when it comes out and seeing what kind of a play group I can get together for it.

500 Words About Gregory

Gregory is a minor character in the novel I'm currently working on. But even minor characters have their stories. Here's the first part of Gregory's.

Gregory never wanted to go fight in Vietnam. All he ever wanted to do was surf.

He had grown up in a sun-drenched paradise called San Diego, never more than a ten minute walk from the beach. He had learned how to swim before he'd learnt to read, and considered the former to be a far more valuable skill. He got a paper route when he was thirteen, and saved his nickels until he had enough to buy a secondhand surfboard. From then on, he'd be on the beach every morning except Christmas and Easter.

By the time he was eighteen, he'd gotten good enough so that he could teach youngsters and tourists the rudiments of surfing. He had a couple spare boards he'd rent out and then give lessons for three dollars an hour. His girlfriend made lemonade and fish tacos she'd sell to the same tourists for a quarter apiece. At night, they'd go back to their little lanai, smoke weed and make love. They were never going to be rich, but just maybe, they could have been happy.

And then The Letter came, requesting him to serve his country in a far off place he had never heard of, much less cared about. Many of his friends and peers were getting similar letters. Some responded with a fatalistic patriotism. Others fled to far-off Canada; some made for the much closer Mexico. The surfing was awful in Canada, so Gregory started packing for Mexico and trying to teach himself Spanish by listening to Mexican radio stations.

His sister stopped him. Coming to his little lanai the night before he was supposed to leave, two nights before he was supposed to report for duty, she shamed him into service.

So Gregory, with tears in his eyes, hung up his surfboard and packed for boot camp instead.

For a beach bohemian like Gregory, boot camp was a special level of hell. Thousands of miles from the sea, his girlfriend or anyone who gave two shits about him, he was worked hard and insulted harder in an effort to inculcate him with the ability to kill another human being. Graduation was a dreadful relief. While he would be freed from this level of hell, it only meant it was time for Gregory to descend to a far different part of the Underworld, the part called Da Nang. Finally, Gregory got to see the ocean - but it only made him sadder, for it was wholly unlike the inviting beaches of home. The waves were terrible for surfing and he didn't have a board. Even if he'd managed to come across one, there were far too many mines in the water.

He knew about Charlie and the Viet Cong. He knew to be afraid of Russians.

What Gregory didn't know, though, was that the jungle held more than one kind of predator.

No one ever told him about the vampires.

Monday Link Roundup!

A pleasant distraction from your Monday, I bring you my weekly Link Roundup: a collection of interesting, informative or humorous pieces I've picked up during my trawl through the Internet!

This week, we have:

Can one learn to be lucky? This article from the Guardian suggests that luck is largely a matter of being observant, combined with a positive attitude.

The Seven States of Facebook. Apparently, interconnectedness still happens in sub-network shapes.

Ancient graves are nothing new, but this 2,000 year old grave in Mongolia is made interesting because a man with Western European ancestry. Whoever he was, he certainly must have had an interesting story to tell.

Cultural imperialism can manifest in odd ways, such as is described in this New York Times article on the Americanization of mental illness.

And from the Better Living Through Science Department, a drug discovered in the soil of Easter Island may possibly provide the key to curing Alzheimer's.

Five Things You Didn't Know About Pirates. I'll do ninjas next week, I promise.

Under the heading "Nifty Stuff People Do" comes this article about rice field art in Japan. Quite lovely!

And lastly, for your humor sign off, an article from Cracked.com about Six Spectacularly Bad Ideas From History's Greatest Geniuses". Of course Tesla's on the list!

Entry the First!

Hello, and welcome to my tiny corner of the Interweb!

As might be inferred from the title of this blog, my name is Rachel and I am a writer.

This blog will be a place for me to muse about my muse, so to speak, and chronicle my progress through the wild world of publication.

Things I've already accomplished: A Game of Tears, co-authored with John Wick and published in February of 2010 under Wicked Press. Set in the dramatic world of Shan'ri, A Game of Tears is a dramatic epistolary novel in the tradition of Dangerous Liaisons. You can read the majority of the work for free at the Houses of the Blooded blog, tag "Game of Tears."

Things I'm working on: A project tentatively titled "Oh, No! Vampires!" though I expect it shall not be published with such a title. Not to give too much away, but it's about vampires! Well, vampire hunters. I'm currently 30,000 words into the first draft.