Tia's Bio

Here is my rather long-winded bio, written up pretentiously in third person.

~*~

Tia Nevitt first became interested in fantasy through fairy tales and the sweetest Cinderella production ever made, starring Leslie Ann Warren. The first true fantasy she ever read was T. H. White's The Once and Future King, which she read half a dozen times by 1986. The next fantasy she picked up was Weis & Hickman's Dragonlance, then she undertook the obligatory reading of The Lord of the Rings. From that point on, she preferred fantasy to all other genres.

By the time she had read White's novel about a dozen times, Tia decided to try this writing thing for herself. Three novels later, and she's still at it.

Tia--who loves writing about herself in the third person because it makes her feel almost royal--would have hesitated to mention this whole messy novel-writing thing if it had not been responsible for her fixation on debuts. In short, she started wondering what might have gotten them out of the slush pile. The book that started it all was probably Sheepfarmer's Daughter, the first book in the Deed of Paksenarrion trilogy by Elizabeth Moon. She looked for and read other first novels of authors like J. V. Jones, Elizabeth Haydon and Deborah Chester.

Then, one day in the spring of 2007, Tia got the idea for Fantasy Debut. Before this, Tia was completely absent from the whole book blogging scene. She had never even heard of the venerable Pat, or of a place called Neth Space, and they had certainly never heard of her. She never dreamed that publishers actually took notice of book blogs, or that they sent bloggers Advance Reader Copies. She realizes that she may have committed a faux pas or two, but she hopes that she has not embarrassed herself too much in her ignorance.

Now if she can only find time to write.

~*~

I try to glance at these places at least once, daily.

Facebook
GoodReads
Twitter
Dragon Federation (blogger hangout)
Book Blogger Convention

Upcoming

If this rate of new debuts keeps up, I may have to scale down my debut announcements again. After all, this is a blog, not a magazine. It's a wonderful thing that so many debuts are coming out that one time-pressed blogger can barely keep up. For the time being, I'll handle announcements in chunks as I did below. That way, I can work on them for a few nights before posting.

I finished Sandra McDonald's The Outback Stars and I LOVED it. It was truly an outstanding novel. Rates up there with the best books I've ever read. This is definitely a re-read novel. I'll have a review in a few days.

I have six or seven books in my reading stack, so I'm not going to accept any more reader copies for a few weeks.

I'm going to try to get some interviews written and sent out in the next few days.

I'm still thinking about doing the newsletter thing, but so far I have not progressed beyond the "thinking about" stage. If I do such a thing, I may use Amazon Associate links (or Barnes and Noble, since they have a better shipping policy) because I'll have to shell out Actual Money for the newsletter service unless a) I want to send out text-only messages (drag) or b) I want irrelevant ads in the newsletter (bigger drag) or I want to encode the HTML myself (biggest drag of all). I also could use a subscription to Locus Magazine. Publisher's Marketplace would be nice as well.

Oh, and I'm hoping to cajole my guest reviewer into returning!

Seven Debuts in One Day

All of these novels came out on Tuesday, Feb. 5th, according to Amazon. Sorry kids; no pictures this time!

Waking Brigid (Amazon USA, UK, Canada) by Francis Clark (no valid website found)
Tor Hardcover
Blurb:

Waking Brigid is a darkly evocative novel set in haunting Savannah, Georgia. Though the city was physically spared during the Civil War, its citizens did not come through unscathed.

Into this dark and battered culture comes young Brigid Rourke, a beautiful Irish nun. Driven by the ravages of the famine, Brigid's family chose to give the girl up to the service of the Church to ensure her survival. But in order to do that she had to reject her people's pagan ways. The Church is all she has known and she seeks to do her duty…all the while fighting the lure of her people’s legacy.

Brigid's resolve is tested when a prominent Savannah citizen is cruelly murdered behind a locked and bolted door in an insane asylum. The last words of the man chilled the blood of all who heard him, and the fact that he was murdered while he was alone in the cell defies all logical reason.

What follows is nothing less than an amazing clash between the forces of good and evil—dedicated white magicians versus the entrenched devil worshippers--for the soul of a city.

It seemed like a straight historical until I got to the last few sentences. I live just around the corner (well, a few hours) from Savannah, so this one interests me because I can visit the scene of the book in person!

* * *

Last Dragon (Amazon USA, UK, Canada) by J.M. McDermott (blog)
Wizards of the Coast Discoveries Trade Paperback
Awesome Jeff Vandermeer Review
Excerpt (zipfile)
Blurb:

My fingers are like spiders drifting over memories in my webbed brain. The husks of the dead gaze up at me, and my teeth sink in and I speak their ghosts.

Zhan has been sent to find her grandfather, a man accused of killing not only Zhan's family, but every man, woman, and child in their village.

What she finds is a shell of a man, a city of angry secrets, a family dissolved by ambition, and a web of deceit that will test the very foundations of a world she thought she understood.

First was the murder and the murder and the murder and this moment: I cried, and Prince Tsui's bloody, fat hand stroked my hair. He whispered in my ear, Shh. . . .

This one is exciting because I practically feel like I know the guy. Back before I started Fantasy Debut, I hung out quite a bit at the Absolute Write Water Cooler, where this author is a regular. I think he's even critiqued my queries!

* * *

The Somnambulist (Amazon USA, UK, Canada) by Jonathan Barnes
William Morrow (Harper Collins) Hardcover
Online Book Browsing Tool
Blurb:

Be warned. This book has no literary merit whatsoever. Needless to say, I doubt you'll believe a word of it.

Once the toast of good society in Victoria's England, the extraordinary conjurer Edward Moon no longer commands the respect or inspires the awe that he did in earlier times. Despite having previously unraveled more than sixty perplexing criminal puzzles (to the delight of a grateful London constabulary), he is considered something of an embarrassment these days. Still, each night without fail, he returns to the stage of his theatre to amaze his devoted, albeit dwindling audience with the same old astonishments—aided by his partner, the silent, hairless, hulking, surprisingly placid giant who, when stabbed, does not bleed . . . and who goes by but one appellation:

The Somnambulist

I think the opening lines of this novel are already famous. This book is all over the place. It probably needs no help from me, but it looks tempting anyway. (Note to self: must narrow down number of books you want to read.)

* * *

Whitechapel Gods (Amazon USA, UK, Canada) by S.M. Peters
Roc (Penguin Putnam) Mass Market Paperback

TWO GODS-ONE CHANCE FOR MANKIND

In Victorian London, the Whitechapel section is a mechanized, steam-driven hell, cut off and ruled by two mysterious, mechanical gods-Mama Engine and Grandfather Clock. Some years have passed since the Great Uprising, when humans rose up to fight against the machines, but a few brave veterans of the Uprising have formed their own Resistance-and are gathering for another attack. For now they have a secret weapon that may finally free them-or kill them all...

Oooh! Steampunk! I wish there was a bit more to the blurb. Sounds downright bizarre. The cover (click on the Amazon link to see it; sorry) looks like a monster out of Doom.

* * *

The Monsters of Templeton (Amazon USA, UK, Canada) by Lauren Groff (Website, Blog)
Hyperion Hardcover

One dark summer dawn, at the exact moment that an enormous monster dies in Lake Glimmerglass, twenty-eight-year-old Willie Upton returns pregnant and miserable to her hometown of Templeton, N.Y. Willie is a descendant of the creator of the town, Marmaduke Temple, and she expects to be able to hide in the place that has been home to her family for centuries. But the monster changes the fabric of the village and Willie's mother, Vivienne, has a surprise for the girl that will send Willie careening through her family's history to dig up clues about her heritage. Spanning two centuries, the story is told through a panoply of voices, from Templeton ghosts to residents, masters to servants, natives to interlopers, and historical figures to literary characters.

Amazon has this novel at a pretty significant discount off the cover price. You may want to check it out if the blurb tempts you. It was chosen as picks at Barnes and Noble, Booksense and Powells, and has a starred Publisher's Weekly review.

* * *

Singularity's Ring (Amazon USA, UK, Canada) by Paul Melko (Website, Blog)
Tor Books, Hardcover

There is an artificial ring around the Earth and it is empty after the Singularity. Either all the millions of inhabitants are dead, or they have been transformed into energy beings beyond human perception. Earth’s population was reduced by ninety percent. Human civilization on Earth is now recovering from this trauma and even has a vigorous space program.

Apollo Papadopulos is in training to become the captain of the starship Consensus. Apollo is a unique individual in that he/she/it is not an individual at all, but five separate teenagers who form a new entity. Strom, Meda, Quant, Manuel, and Moira are a pod, as these kinds of personalities are called, genetically engineered to work as one and to be able to communicate non-verbally. As a rare quintet, much relies on the successful training of Apollo, but as more accidents occur, the pod members struggle just to survive.

Wow. This one sounds really different. I wonder how the author handled point of view here, if there are five teenagers in one "pod." I don't get much of a sense of the plot here, other than Apollo going through his/her/its training. The author is widely published in short fiction.

* * *

Seekers of the Chalice (Amazon USA, UK, Canada) by Brian Cullen
Tor Books, Hardcover

In the time when gods and men walked the earth along with demons, the Chalice of Fire, the symbol of peace for Ulster, is stolen from the Red Branch by Bricriu Poisontongue. A small band of Seekers sets out to recover and return the Chalice to the Red Branch to restore peace to the Ulster kingdom.

The Seekers are a group of two elves, Bern and Lorges; Cumac, the son of Cucullen, the greatest Red Branch warrior; Fedelm of the Sidhe; Tarin, the Swordwanderer; and the wizard-druid, Seanchan. Together they must make their way through the world brought as Maliman, the evil wizard, uses his powers to stop them as he seeks the Chalice himself to bend its magic to his will.

The Seekers battle their way through the creatures of darkness that threaten to conquer the world. But they are determined to bring light back from darkness and restore the land that has fallen into ruin and decay with the theft of the Chalice.

Sounds like a good, old-fashioned party quest! It also sounds like the Grail. I was not able to find a website for this author.

Ack!

Thanks to Robert, who must have known something of what I face this month, my debut calendar for February is now complete. And the tally is . . . 19 debuts! Let me say that louder.

19 debuts!

No wonder I'm feeling behind already. Way, way behind. There were seven debuts just yesterday! I'm going to have to come up with some way to manage this. 19 debuts means that there are only (quick math) 10 days where there aren't debuts this month. Therefore, I will break my unofficial rule about only posting one announcement per day.

In case you are curious, this is about nine or ten more than I find in a typical month. I'm wondering if this is because some of these debuts appear to be releasing in the USA and the UK at once.

The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V.S. Redick

The Red Wolf Conspiracy (Amazon USA, UK, Canada)
Robert V.S Redick (novel website, author website)
Gollancz
Hardcover
Excerpt (pdf)

Blurb:
The Chathrand - The Great Ship, The Wind-Palace, His Supremacy's First Fancy - is the last of her kind - built 600 years ago she dwarves all the ships around her. The secrets of her construction are long lost. She was the pride of the Empire. The natural choice for the great diplomatic voyage to seal the peace with the last of the Emperor's last enemies.

700 souls boarded her. Her sadistic Captain Nilus Rose, the Emperor's Ambassador and Thasha, the daughter he plans to marry off to seal the treaty, a spy master and six assassins, one hunderd imperial marines, Pazel the tarboy gifted and cursed by his mother's spell and a small band of Ixchel. The Ixchel sneaked aboard and now hide below decks amongst the rats. Intent on their own mission.

But there is treachery afoot. Behind the plans for peace lies the shadow of war and the fear that a dead king might live again. And now the Chathrand, having survived countless battles and centuries of typhoons has gone missing.

This is her story.

Lots of my fellow reviewers have checked this novel out. Just browse around in my Other Review Coverage section for some of the latest.

Blogrolling and My Diabolic Plan

Well, I was going to announce a debut tonight, but my debut calender will not load. It's a Google calendar and this has NEVER happened before. Wonder what's up? In the meantime, here's some links.

The most interesting link that's popped up recently is Chip Stone, Mighty Hunter. This is a serialized novel by Jim Collette. I've only read the first few chapters, and they are fairly amusing once you can get around a volcano having a conversation with an aspiring hunter. It's a stone age novel where "funny beats logic and certainly trumps historical reality." The author is an archaeologist. Since I know some of you enjoy free web fiction, I thought I'd pass it on.

La Gringa has a new domain. She's been making up for her lengthly absence by linking every skiffy site I ever heard of, and many that are new to me. She went way back to the beginning of January when she linked Fantasy Debut, thus shaming me into finally putting up this post.

Mervi reviews at Curled Up With a Good Book, but points to her posts from her blog. She's Finnish. I'm thrilled to have a reader from Finland. She also has some rather impressive academic credentials. I had not yet added her blog to my Google Reader, but it's there now.

I felt like I was recognized by one of the demi-gods of fantasy reviewers when OF Blog of the Fallen popped up in my Technorati Authority. I see that they have put up a review of Last Dragon, which was one of the debuts I hoped to announce tonight.

The overly-humble JT runs JT's Booklist. You want to meet a humble lawyer? Check JT out. Unfortunately, JT has not posted in over a month; maybe seeing the link here will inspire him. Hopefully all is well.

Thunderweasel has not actually linked here, but this blog attracted my attention enough for me to bookmark it for this post. She seems to review all sorts of fantasy. We have a lot of blogroll buddies in common.

The Bookling seems to be astonishingly prolific. I wish I could read that fast! And I love the bug! Fantasy Debut is one of just a handful of links, which makes me feel all kinds of special.

Speaking of feeling special, Maria Zannini did a very nice mention of both this blog and my other blog a few weeks ago. Her novel, Touch of Fire, comes out through Samhain Publishing this summer.

Not everything pops up on Technorati or Google Analytics, so if you've blogrolled this site and I missed you, please let me know!

* * *

And now, my plan. My plan isn't really diabolic, but it got you reading didn't it? I know . . . cheap trick. But my plan is this: I'm thinking about starting a newsletter. My husband might very well think of this as a diabolic plan, but I'm going to try not to make it very time-intensive. It would come out roughly the first week of the month and would include:

• links to all debut announcements,
• links to all interviews and author guest posts,
• links to all "final" review posts,
• exclusive behind-the-blog anecdotes, which won't make it in the blog.

I'm trying to think of a name for this newsletter. I'm also trying to find a decent newsletter host. I'm leaning toward Google Groups. With Google Groups I'd be stuck with plain text, but Zinester will put ads in it. I'm looking around at other places as well.

The only title I thought of so far -- other than Fantasy Debut Newsletter, is Fantasy Debutzine. However, I think that title really sucks, if you'll pardon my French. Let me know if you can think of anything better.

The Outback Stars - Unexcusably Late First Post

This weekend, I was frightfully neglectful of my blog. I didn't answer my comments and I didn't look at other blogger's posts. I'm behind on two debuts, but I made no effort to get caught up. I have been meaning to do a "blogrolling" post to thank those who have linked this blog lately, but I didn't do that either. I have an interview to write, but I neglected that as well.

Why? Because I cannot put Sandra McDonald's novel down. I read THE OUTBACK STARS all day yesterday, with interruptions every now and then to help my daughter make Tinker Toys musical instruments and various wildlife. (We made a flute, a saxaphone, a violin, an alligator (which had a moving jaw for that all-important chomp) two fish, an aquarium and about 11 rocks for the aquarium.)

The truly sad thing is that the excellence of this novel sabotaged the coverage I usually give to debut novels. I usually put up at least three posts per book, now I won't be able to do more than two, since I'm over halfway through it. I'll have to make up for it somehow.

The cover blurb makes it sound like a science fiction romance, but I would describe it more as a suspense novel than a romance. It's an engrossing story about a young navy Lieutenant named Jodenny Scott who takes over a supply division on a huge military spaceship. One never knew that a supply officer's life was so interesting. (We referred to them as "supply weasels" in the Air Force.) The book is rife with intrigue. Jodenny's daily life -- which seems to be meeting after meeting after meeting -- is fascinating because of all the intrigue going on during all the said meetings.

One of Miz Scott's subordinates is Sergeant Terry Myell. Myell's been accused of a crime and has become a pariah on the ship. Myell also has enemies, including a big Chief named Chiba who calls himself Myell's "worst problem." To top off their respective problems -- which are legion -- Jodenny and Myell (which I keep wanting to spell "Myrell", so forgive me if any spelling errors get through) are falling for each other. The romantic suspense is terrific. They have hardly touched each other unless the situation forced it.

Both Jodenny and Myell (referred to mostly by his last name) display weaknesses. Jodenny has a display of outright cowardice early in the story (which is belied by her heroic actions on her previous assignment) and Myell is filled with distrust of both friend and foe. Neither are what one would describe as "kick-ass." They are both trying to do a good job, and they are stymied by the forces around them.

Add to this some intriguing alien artifacts. I'm a sucker for alien artifacts. One of my favorite all-time computer games was called Starflight, and it centered around alien artifacts. My husband and I played it together for hours. I also loved Arthur C. Clark's 200X and Rama series, which of course has even more artifacts. I don't read enough science fiction to know if it's overdone, but even if it is, McDonald's handling of it is terrific. She doles out just enough to make us wild with curiosity.

The best thing about this debut is the next book is out in just a few days! So I'll be able to close the one and open the other right away.

Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow

SHARP TEETH (Amazon USA, UK, Canada)
by Toby Barlow (website)
Hardcover
Harper

Blurb:

An ancient race of lycanthropes has survived to the present day, and its numbers are growing as the initiated convince L.A.'s down and out to join their pack. Paying no heed to moons, full or otherwise, they change from human to canine at will—and they're bent on domination at any cost.

Caught in the middle are Anthony, a kind-hearted, besotted dogcatcher, and the girl he loves, a female werewolf who has abandoned her pack. Anthony has no idea that she's more than she seems, and she wants to keep it that way. But her efforts to protect her secret lead to murderous results.

Blending dark humor and epic themes with card-playing dogs, crystal meth labs, surfing, and carne asada tacos, Sharp Teeth captures the pace and feel of a graphic novel while remaining "as ambitious as any literary novel, because underneath all that fur, it's about identity, community, love, death, and all the things we want our books to be about" [Nick Hornby, The Believer].

Sharp Teeth is a verse novel. Robert loved it. The website is professionally designed and chock full of videos, so make sure your sound is on. The website shown above is the site for the novel. The website under the author's name is parked, so I'm interested to see what the author eventually does with that.

Locus's Recommended Reading for 2007

Locus has posted their recommended reading list for 2007, and it includes a section on debuts. Here it is.

Why I Love to Read and Opinion Sought

I'm reading three books right now. I'm in the opening chapters of all of them, and I'm not sure which one I'll finish first. I'm furthest along in Sandra McDonald's The Outback Stars, and while I've been reading it, I'm reminded of why I love to read.

Sandra and I -- we've met, so I'll go so far as to claim a bit of familiarity here -- have a shared background; we've both served time in the military. She was an officer, I was enlisted. She was in the Navy, I was in the Air Force. I know, I know; many people think that the Air Force doesn't qualify as "military." Well, if it didn't, then why would so many things that she brings up in her novel bring back such familiar memories? I can almost smell the aircraft lubricant as I read.

When I was in the AF, I was an "aircraft maintenance technician." That means I was a mechanic. Righty-tighty, lefty loosey. Marking up an aircraft component as "AFU" or "FUBAR" in the aircraft records. Signing off a replaced component as "R&R'd," R "squared," or "C/W". Safety wire. Wing-walking. Break-riding. FOD walks. Lost Tool Reports. Refueling. Defueling. LOX servicing. Wingroot inspections. Preflights. Thruflights. Postflights. Signing your name so many times you feel like a movie star. Sending off the pilot with one last thumb's up and a waving salute. And if your jet happens to go down (they were trainers and it happened a few times during my term), Standing Tall Before the Man.

Sandra's rendering of her "really big spaceships" brings all this back, even though I served on a flightline, not a flightdeck. She describes the smell of oil in the air. Oh, yes. Every aircraft hanger has it -- even the open-air ones-- along with the smell of hydraulic fluid and jet fuel. I'm not even fifty pages into it, and I already know why it's a Nebula nominee. But more important to me as a reader, I can intimately identify it because of my background. An author never knows when she will strike a chord.

I'm also reading Lisa Shearin's Magic Lost, Trouble Found. I'm re-reading this one, in preparation for reading the ARC she sent me (thanks Lisa and Ace!) of Armed and Magical. I love re-reading because I always pick up things that I missed the first time around. For example, I just read a part where the main character, Raine, is suddenly overcome by a strange feeling. She brushes it off and continues on. However, because I've read it before, I KNOW what that feeling was and who caused it. It made me break out in a huge grin. Things like this are not possible to pick up the first time around.

And I'm reading Rosemary Jones's The Crypt of the Moaning Diamond. It is hilarious. There's this ate-up military commander who's so straight that his trouser creases can draw blood. However, a bevy of dogs that follow around the main character, the delightfully scruffy Ivy, has him hard-pressed to keep his proud military bearing. I'm only a few pages into this one, but what a hoot it is so far.

I love books that remind me of how much I love reading. And I love that I've found three of them to read at once.

* * *

Over to the left, I've put up a little poll. During Raven's review, someone expressed an opinion that I should just post final reviews, not as-I-read-its. I post as-I-read-its mostly because when I read a book, I just have to share it. I also like to take advantage of blogging technology to give each Featured Debut as much coverage as possible. I have not done as-I-read-it posts of every book I've reviewed, but I have done it for most of them. Now's your chance to anonymously tell me which you prefer, as-I-read-it posts or straight-up reviews. Thanks!