Of Unanswered Emails and Twisted Ankles

Yes, I twisted my ankle this afternoon, just sauntering casually across the kitchen. One minute I was fine, the next minute I was grabbing the counter. What the heck? This ankle is getting downright undependable--the same thing happened on the stairs about two weeks ago. I might have to get an X-ray or something.

And yes, I've been terrible about answering emails for the past week or so. I have a bunch of Gmail stars next to a bunch of emails, and because I promised to do some beta reading this weekend, it will be a few days before I get back to you. Sorry!

Tomorrow morning, I have another Debut Graduate for you and then I PROMISE I'll be getting back to debuts. I've been sampling books in my stack, including The Lace Reader, Dreamdark: Blackbringer, The Birthing House, and more. I'm looking for something a bit different, and I think all three qualifies.

I meant to have a Discovery Showcase on Saturday, but the author I had intended to showcase never answered my email asking for "official" permission. So I'm assuming I don't have permission, and I'm off to the next person in the list.

I was thinking of the next subject for Writer Wednesday, and I think "Openings" is something we all can identify with, because they're just so hard. So let's plan on that topic. I'll announce my next Featured Writer as soon as I know I can make it official.

Check back in tomorrow morning for my review of Nathalie Mallet's The King's Daughters!

The Stars Blue Yonder by Sandra McDonald

When I write a review, I'm sometimes a bit in a quandary about how much I should give away. When does a tidbit stop being a tidbit and start being a spoiler? Fortunately, the blurb for The Stars Blue Yonder includes all the elements I want to write about, so I don't think I'll blunder into any spoilers. Here it is, straight from Tor:

Chief Terry Myell died and became a god. Now he’s back to life, careening around space and time at the behest of a voice that told him to save all of mankind. Helping and hindering this quest are his elderly wife, his young wife, grandchildren who haven’t been born yet, romantic rivals he hasn’t even met, a descendant from two thousand years in the future, and an alien nemesis who calls itself the Flying Doctor. Life in the military has never been so complicated.


Commander Jodenny Scott would agree. She’s seven months pregnant and trying to come to peace with her husband’s death. When Myell reappears with tales of time travel, she’s not sure what to believe.


But with an invading army bearing down on Earth’s last fleet of spaceships, there’s not much time for debate. When the dust clears Jodenny is stranded in an Australia she never imagined, and Myell’s more desperate than ever to rescue her—from aliens, from treachery, and from history itself.

Yay! I can write about the time travel! Because ultimately, that's what makes this book so deliciously fun.

I love time travel fiction. When Back to the Future came out, my husband and I must have seen it in the theater at least ten times. And many times after that on various forms of video. Now we have the boxed set.

Where to start? My friend and blog buddy Kimber An is going to think this is the answer to her book prayers. I'm not sure if she'll like the first book, but if she can get through the first and second, she'll flip out over the third. It features a pregnant heroine who is part of a happily married--if often separated--couple. And midway through the book--while she is unexpectedly centuries in the past--she finds herself acting as a midwife! Courtesy of her Digital Doula--yes, you read that right--she's an expert on childbirth. And darn it if those nineteenth century women have all kinds of crazy notions about pregnancy and giving birth.

Do you get the notion that this book is different yet? And, if I might use the same words as many reviewers before me, it is fresh, original and probably like nothing you've read in science fiction before.

Ok, I'd better get serious about this review.

It picks up right where The Stars Down Under left off. If you haven't read that novel before, I'm afraid the blurb above is a bit of a giveaway. But it really would not have been possible to write the blurb without giving away the fact that Terry is back. And he's not a god anymore. As it turns out, that was a Terry from a different timeline.

Kind of.

All those time travel rules you read about in other stories? Forget about them. Ms. McDonald has figured out a neat way around the problems of time travel in a totally plausable way. Well, plausable in a world that includes time travel.

Anyway, Terry is stuck in a time loop and is trying to find his way out. You feel for the guy. It's maddening, kind of like that loop in the movie Groundhog Day, except this look jumps him to different points in time. Always near Jodenny. Who sometimes doesn't even know who he is, or doesn't believe its him, depending on when he goes to.

And just when you reach the point where it is starting to get too maddening, he gets a bit of a break. Ms. McDonald really has great timing in this case.

Before I get carried away by too much gushing (or is it too late?), let me get some critiques out of the way. One of them is that a character keeps urging Terry on, but is unable to help him out with any specific instructions. He basically appears to Terry long enough to complain that he should have figured it all out by now. This is a plot device I've seen before--some sort of Seer who has knowledge that he cannot reveal to the reader because it would make the story end too quickly. Now in this case, I didn't want the story to end too quickly. But it was still a small annoyance.

Well, I guess it was only one critique. I can't remember the others, if I had any.

I'm already way over wordcount and I haven't even mentioned Sam Osherman. I'd better stop here.

This is a science fantasy novel with a great mythology, a fun plot and likable heroes and heroines. The pages just flew by. The end of the novel brings this storyline to a close, but leaves other questions unanswered, which might be answered in future books.

And when Kimber finds out what Terry and Jodenny names the baby, I do believe she will scream out loud.

Linkfest!

Sandra McDonald's Website and Blog

The novel at Tor  

Heather's Author Supernova on Sandra McDonald at Galaxy Express (still in-process, so the link is to the site)

My reviews of The Outback Stars and The Stars Down Under

Amazon USA - UK - Canada

Giveaway - The Stars Blue Yonder

Tor is giving away a copy of The Stars Blue Yonder by Sandra McDonald! To enter, please fill out this form. Please only enter once time.

Update: Contest closed!

Writer Wednesday - With Featured Writer Jennifer Estep!

Welcome to our first Writer Wednesday, a comment chat that will last as long as we all care to stick around. Joining us today and tomorrow is the fabulous Jennifer Estep, author of Karma Girl (multi-part review), Hot Mama and Jinx. Each title links to my review of each novel, with all the usual links. Be warned, Jennifer is the victim of a cyber-attack, so don't visit her site at the moment.

Anyway, Jennifer's upcoming novel, Spider's Bite, is an urban fantasy featuring Gin, an assassin. Such a character fits right in with our first featured topic:

Unsavory Protagonists and Assorted Bad Guys

We'll let Jennifer begin with a short excerpt from Spider's Bite.

“You’re coming with me,” he said.

With his free hand, Caine reached inside his jacket pocket and drew out a pair of silver-stone handcuffs. He tossed them on the balcony between us. The metal clinked to a stop at my booted feet. “Put those on.”

“Handcuffs. Kinky. But I prefer to have a bit more freedom during sex. Don’t you?”

Caine jerked as though I’d yanked the gun out of his hands and shot him. His eyes flicked down my body, going to my breasts and thighs, before coming back to my face. Yeah, he was thinking about it. All the distraction I needed.

“There’s no need to bother with those because you aren’t taking me in, detective.”

“Where are you going to go?” Caine asked. “You’re trapped.”

I smiled. “Me? Trapped? Never.”

I turned, leapt up onto the balcony wall, and launched myself over the side into the darkness below.

Here are a few ground rules. Please limit any excerpts to 300 words. Yes, I know that isn't a lot, but that's 300 words, plus any introductory material you may write. So the result can be a very long comment. Even Jennifer's excerpt is way below that. We need to keep each excerpt short to keep the comments page from getting miles long (wishful thinking here, I know). Just include enough to give everyone an idea of just why the character is so bad. Tantalize us with your best stuff. Don't overwhelm us. I'll try to lead by example with the first comment.

UPDATE! Also, please offer a bit of commentary on one of the excerpts that is posted before yours. Make your commentary and your own excerpts separate posts. This will help when the comment thread starts getting long.

Keep any critiques constructive. I probably didn't have to say this because this is such a nice crowd, but it can't hurt.

And that's it! Jump right in with your excerpts and commentary. This should be fun!

Jennifer Estep - Featured Writer for Writer Wednesday!

This is cool--Jennifer Estep has agreed to be our featured writer for Writer Wednesday. She wrote an upcoming novel that has the perfect character for our discussion on Unsavory Protagonists and Assorted Bad Guys--an assassin. She is also the author of three Bigtime novels, all which I've reviewed here. I'll give you the full info on Wednesday but if you can't wait, here's her website.

If you're a writer, please help me spread the word, and be sure to stop by on Wednesday!

Author Caleb Fox - How ZADAYI RED Came to be Born

Presenting Caleb Fox, the author of Zadayi Red. Here, he discusses the publication of Zadayi Red, and has an unexpected conversation with one of his characters. Enjoy!

How ZADAYI RED Came to be Born

by caleb fox

Okay, you caught me—I’m not really a fantasy writer. I might have been, but you see, I lost track of the difference between fantasy and reality.

Here’s how it happened. My ancestors were Arkansas rednecks whose ancestors were redskins. Somehow I went to a good university and ended up as the movie critic of a big Los Angeles newspaper.

Now pay attention: At a party in posh Beverly Hills I was trading stories about mountain men and Indians with my buddy, who was a super-famous screenwriter (and here we are in true fantasyland). A publisher overheard us and said to me, “Are there enough of these stories for a book?”

“Sure.”

Since he handed me that contract, I’ve done nothing but write—stories, movies, TV, everything. I’m married to the best woman in the world, Sarita, and live in the other-worldly Canyonlands, populated entirely by Navajos and Mormons. From landscape to inhabitants, this is all the way into fantasy. Reality is a good place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.

Last week I was out walking and celebrating publication day of Zadayi Red, which the publisher Tor calls a fantasy. A buzzard landed on my shoulder (there’s a stomach churner). When he spoke my name, I knew he was no ordinary vulture.

“Why did you treat me that way?”

No question what he meant—why did I turn him into a spirit animal in the novel? One day he was soaring happily around the Land Beyond the Sky Arch and the next he was bound to an Indian woman of centuries ago.

“She needed a guide.”

“Cut the baloney. Why me?”

“Why not?”

He pecked my ear—ouch! Then he said, “You know what I mean. I’m an Immortal. I hate death. And you…”

So now we were down to it. I’d re-created him on Earth as a buzzard, and buzzards eat carrion. Talk about having death shoved down your throat.

I debated telling the truth. Though I lie for a living, I decided to risk it. “I though it would interesting—“

He made a threatening a-a-awk.

“—to see what would happen if an Immortal really, truly had an experience of mortality. Actually lived with mortals and went through their struggles along with them. Started rooting for them. Maybe even—“

I dared not say it.

His tone was indescribable. “Started liking a mortal? Sure, why not? Loving a mortal? Well, maybe a very special mortal, just a little bit.” He shrugged those glossy brown-black shoulders and cocked his red head. The interrogation wasn’t over.

I decided to go for it. “I meant, to find something beautiful in mortality. To fall in love with the whole process that governs it all, life on Earth.”

“Disgusting,” he said, and flew off.

This time he was the liar.

Characters like Buzzard are the fun. I’m writing book three of the series. Yes, fantasy. I don’t know where reality is anyway.

Book Blogger Appreciation Week

I signed up for Book Blogger Appreciation Week and nominated many of my fellow bloggers for various awards. If you run a book blog, this is a must-join!

Winners of ZADAYI RED

Congratulations to the following winners of Zadayi Red:

Jacqueline L. of Toronto
Brittany B. of Kentucky
David R. of California

Congratulations and happy reading!

More on Writer Wednesday

I'm trying to refine my "Writer Wednesday" comment chat idea. (Or should it be "Writer's Wednesday"?) I came up with something called a Featured Writer, and I just invited someone to be that writer for our first week. My only problem . . . what should a Featured Writer do? At first, I thought it should be someone agented or published, but I'm not sure if I want to go that far because then I'd have to define "published" and what a pain that could be. So I'm just thinking about letting the concept evolve however it wants. For now, I'll just invite people who 1) I think will participate and 2) who I think have something to offer.

A. Gray thought of a good first subject--a story where the main character is not necessarily of sterling moral fiber. She also expanded it to include bad guys in general. I love my bad guys so I think that's a great topic.

Any other thoughts?

Several Things . . .

A lot of writers turned up during the On Rape in Fantasy discussion. Therefore, we therefore decided to have a new weekly feature here at Fantasy Debut, and this one will be interactive. I'm going to call it Writer Wednesday. We'll have an open blog topic and we'll just hang out and discuss it in the comments for a day or so. So be sure to come back next Wednesday if you are a writer! I may even try to line up author guests.

~*~

The winners of The King's Daughters by Nathalie Mallet are:

Rabia of Bradford, Vt
Grace of Airy, Md
Deborah of Tewksbury, MA

Congratulations!

Tomorrow, I'll close out the Zadayi Red giveaway, so be sure to get your entries in.

~*~

I've kept the most exciting news for last. One of my friends has an agent!!! Her name is Kristin and you can read all the details at her blog. Kristin is my critique partner, so I've read the work in question, and its so exciting to have seen it grown and then finally attract an agent. A few months ago, she packed it up and sent it to me, and I went over it with my little red pen. I've read two of her novels, and she's read two of mine. Anyway, Grim Light is a wonderfully imaginative Young Adult novel that is entirely vampire-free. So yes, all you writers, agents are still taking on writers even in the midst of this recession. Take heart and keep submitting! And I'll be sure to follow my own advice!