Upcoming and a Plea for Help

This Wednesday, Nathalie Mallet is going to be joining us for Writer Wednesday for our next topic, which is Voice. When I sent her the email asking if she would join us, she wrote back and told me that she's been following the discussion from the beginning! How very cool! So anyway, I thought her voice with Amir in The Princes of the Golden Cage and The King's Daughters was very distinctive, and since I just read and loved The Kings Daughters, she was a natural choice.

I'm having Twitter problems, and I'm hoping one of you Twitter experts can set me straight. While I was reading Drawn into Darkness, I tweeted on it using the #drawnintodarkness hashtag. However, when you click on it, not all of my tweets to show up. Usually, only my first tweet and the latest tweet appears. This happens even when you click on one of my tweets in between! I'm mystified--can anyone offer advice?

For my next novel, it may be a Genre Break. I just got novels 4 through 9 in the Gaslight Mystery series, and I don't think I can resist!

New Widget - Reading and Tweeting

I have a new widget in the upper left corner of my blog. It's called Reading and Tweeting. In it, via tagged Twitter tweets, I will capture my impression of novels as I read them. Hopefully, it will be fun.

No Discovery Showcase tomorrow. The Discovery Showcases will come back, but at the moment my weekends have been too active. My apologizes to all authors whose excerpts are in the queue.

Debut Showcase: Dunraven Road

Dunraven Road (Amazon USA - UK - Canada)
Caroline Barnard-Smith (Website - Blog)
Immanion Press
Trade Paperback

In the sleepy backwater of Dunraven Road, a group of hedonistic friends are trapped in a deadly prison of their own making. When Zach, their enigmatic leader, brings his long term plans to fruition and paves the way for a sadistic vampire cult, their fragile world begins to break apart. Fuelled by dangerous passions and an insatiable craving for the substance they call red, the group must decide whether to succumb to the sweet lure of the abyss, or stand and fight for their very survival.

Immanion Press is a small British publisher that seems to be doing interesting things, so I thought I'd go ahead and post this. It sounds like a creepy novel--not really my thing--but I don't usually go for dark novels, as most of you know. I wish I could get a better sense of the story from the blurb.

Writer Wednesday - Bonding with your Characters

We all love to read books where we bond with the characters. Where we don't want the story to end, because the characters are so wonderful. I've watched The Princess Bride dozens of time because I loved the character Inigo Montoya. He stole the show from the Dread Pirate Wesley. Fezzik was great as well, and together, they just made the best duo. I didn't want the story to end. So I bought the novel, which was even better--and funnier!--than the movie. I've owned two copies of that novel and have read it multiple times.

Another character that I absolutely loved was Paksenarrion from The Deed of Paksenarrion. Paks had some interesting flaws. She was sometimes slow-witted, and she was completely asexual. But she was also completely likable. Elizabeth Moon put the reader so firmly in the character's head that before the end of the trilogy, you may be shedding tears over her.

But how do we, as writers, establish such lovable characters? I'm not sure I know the answer, but it makes sense to me that first, we must love our characters, ourselves. One thing I do to bond with my characters is write scenes that enable me to get to know my own characters. I consider these scenes disposable. I call them pilot scenes because they work like a pilot chute. A pilot chute is a tiny parachute that draws out the big parachute. A pilot scene draws out the larger story.

Here is a pilot scene for my WIP, which is a time travel historical. In this scene, the character--Mike--is walking around town, getting to know the 1920s. Ashley is his sister. They are from the present day.

Passing gentlemen tipped their hats--whatever they had, be it old derbies, cowboy hats or fedoras. They eyed him as they said good morning, and his hatless head started to feel naked. When he saw an store ahead of him, he decided to go in. The name of the store, F. W. Woolworth Co., looked familiar.

He found himself something that looked like a drug store. He wandered up and down aisles, his eyes leaping with fascination from one object to another. Toward the back of the store, he found inexpensive men's clothing. He picked out a fedora, took it to the counter, and paid for it. It was $3.50.

He settled it on its head as he walked out the door, as he had seen men do, and he resumed his stroll. He started wandering up and down random streets. It was impossible to get lost for long. Too far north, and you hit the trolley line. Too far south, and you reached a golf course. Too far east and west, you hit water. He wandered for hours, taking it all in, wondering if Ashley would worry, and smiling when the thought hit him that she would have surely called his cell phone by now.

Her company was never onerous, but he had not felt so free since he was a boy.

Not a lot of action, just introspection. I'm not sure if I'll keep it but for now, it's still in my manuscript.

How do you establish a bond with your characters? Please share in the comments. Please keep any excerpts to 300 words or fewer.

Debut Showcase: The Birthing House

The Birthing House (Amazon USA - UK - Canada)
By Christopher Ransom (US Website, UK Website)
UK Publisher: Little, Brown (Sphere) (Jan. 1, 2009)
USA Publisher: St. Martin's Press (Aug. 4, 2009)
Hardcover
Excerpt (pdf)

Sphere's Blurb:
When Conrad Harrison impulse-buys a big old house in Wisconsin, his wife Jo doesn't share his enthusiasm, reluctant at the idea of leaving their LA life - so Conrad is left to set up their new home as she ties up loose ends at work. But Conrad's new purchase is not all that it seems. Soon Conrad is hearing the ghostly wailing of a baby in the night, seeing blood on the floor and being haunted by a woman who looks exactly like Jo. With his wife away, Conrad becomes obsessed by the pregnant girl next door, Nadia, who claims to be a victim of the evil in the house. The crying leads him to a bricked-up body, and the mystery of the Birthing House unravels, pulling in Jo, Nadia and leading Conrad to a nightmarish conclusion...

Sphere sent me this book during the Spring Annual Book Rush, when I get more books than I can possibly read. Since things have slowed down, I am now sampling this novel. I actually like the US publisher's blurb better, so here it is:

It was expecting them.

Conrad and Joanna Harrison, a young couple from Los Angeles, attempt to save their marriage by leaving the pressures of the city to start anew in a quiet, rural setting. They buy a Victorian mansion that once served as a haven for unwed mothers, called a birthing house. One day when Joanna is away, the previous owner visits Conrad to bequeath a vital piece of the house’s historic heritage, a photo album that he claims “belongs to the house.” Thumbing through the old, sepia-colored photographs of midwives and fearful, unhappily pregnant girls in their starched, nineteenth-century dresses, Conrad is suddenly chilled to the bone: staring back at him with a countenance of hatred and rage is the image of his own wife….

Thus begins a story of possession, sexual obsession, and, ultimately, murder, as a centuries-old crime is reenacted in the present, turning Conrad and Joanna’s American dream into a relentless nightmare.

But what really makes it interesting to me is something I found on the author's US website:

Every haunted house tells the story of someone’s death. But what about the house where life has not ended, but only began? If death can be a traumatic event that opens doors to evil, what about that other traumatic event? The one that does not usher life out of this world, but into it?

Ok, this is different enough to intrigue me. Interesting that this didn't find its way in either blurb.

 

Home Improvements and Aching Feet

Fortunately, my twisted ankle of last Monday healed up really quick. Ice and ibuprofen! It's just the thing. I needed it this weekend because we put up 1 bulletin board, 2 white boards, 1 set of window blinds and 1 ceiling fan. If you think this describes an office more than a home, well, you're half right.

I see that I have new subscribers via either Google Reader, Google FriendConnect or Feedburner. Welcome!

I have been a very bad reader lately because we've been so busy. I've very slowly been reading Dreamdark: Blackbringer and The Lace Reader, but I'm a bit more taken by Dreamdark. The author is Laini Taylor, and this book was published in 2007. The publisher sent to to me along with the next book in the series. It is about faery creatures way back in the days of what sounds like either the Roman Empire or the Holy Roman Empire (e.g. the Catholic church). Since it's written from a faery's point of view, the exact year is so far ambiguous. But the way the author superimposed the faery world over a historic timeframe intrigues me.

The winner of last week's giveaway of THE STARS BLUE YONDER was Megan of Eatontown, NJ. Congrats, Megan, and happy reading! I don't have any contests coming up, but Maria is giving away a cozy mystery right now at Bear Mountain Books.

We had a rousing discussion on our last Writer Wednesday, but I've been so busy this weekend with home improvements that I haven't gotten anyone on board as our Featured Writer! Any volunteers? The only requirements are to 1) be a writer and 2) be willing to co-host the discussion with me. You can do an opening essay like Kristy did, or not. If you're interested, please email me at tia dot nevitt at gmail dot com.

Debut Showcase: Dark Time

Dark Time: Mortal Path Book 1 (Amazon USA - UK - Canada)
by Dakota Banks (blog)
HarperCollins/Eos
MM Paperback - $7.99
Chapter One

Publisher's Blurb:

Dark Time is a new, sassy twist on supernatural thrillers—Lara Croft meets Elektra—an edge-of-your-seat, action-packed debut that fans of Vicki Pettersson and James Rollins won’t want to miss. In fact, Rollins himself raves, “THE MORTAL PATH is a novel to be savored for both its edge of suspense and the pure joy of its storytelling.”

Burned at the stake as a witch, Susannah Layton made a deal with a devil in return for revenge and immortality. Nearly 300 years later, she has killed more people for her demonic master than she can count, and only wants to be free.

But infernal contracts don’t have an easy “out” clause, and the only way Susannah—now Maliha—can retire without ending up in the deepest levels of hell is by saving one life for every one that she has taken. Her quest will take the former assassin from the fast-paced urban jungles of New York and Chicago to the wilds of Peru and Mongolia, from corporate espionage to raiding artifacts from secret places at great risk to her life.

This is the author's debut into fantasy, but she wrote six suspense novels under a different name. According to her website, she based this novel on ancient Sumarian myths. I find the premise interesting, and I like the idea of her having to save one life for each life she has taken. However, soul-selling as a plot device is a hard sell for me, for reasons of faith. (As a Christian I see a much easier "out" than this.) However, even if I could set that aside, I still think this might be too dark for me.

Writer Wednesday - The Dreaded Opening

Openings! As readers, we love 'em. They suck us right into the story. As writers, we hate 'em because they're so hard to write! Well, we don't actually hate them, we love them too. Because, after all, we're readers as well.

If only we can get our own openings right!

Joining us as Featured Writer this week is Kristy Baxter, the recently-agented author of a YA/Contemporary Fantasy called Grim Light. Her agent is Marlene Stringer. I'm going to turn it over to Kristy as she gives us her take on openings. I am lucky enough to have Kristy as my critique partner, and I read an early draft of this novel. I only mention this because she refers to me quite a bit.

~*~

Openings
by Kristy Baxter

I love starting a new novel.

I hate starting a new novel.

On the one hand, you have this joyous new creation to begin, and you don't know what it'll look like when you're done...but you know the ride's going to be awesome and terrifying and awesome all over again.

But on the other hand...argh. Openings! That first sentence is so incredibly important that you could spend weeks trying to make it perfect. And then all you're doing is waiting in line as you imagine what fun that roller coaster will be.

For my most recently completed novel, Grim Light, I decided to dive right into the action. My heroine foresaw a sad event coming, and then a moment later she saw a boy who would be very important to her, although she didn't know it yet.

The problem, as Tia pointed out: the reader didn't have enough time to get to know my protagonist, even a little bit, before these things happened. I needed to develop a little bit of sympathy, give the reader at least a little bit more about my protagonist, before I enmeshed her in all this emotional turmoil.

I stared at my opening paragraph. I loved that paragraph! It had been there since the beginning, the one that started it all. Every time I got other ideas or tried to start other novels, I read that opening and was sucked back in. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized Tia was right. Who cares what happens to this girl if they don't know who she is?

And as much as writing a novel, a short story, or anything at all is a roller-coaster ride, it's also a tightrope walk. I wanted to give the reader interesting action, but I also wanted to give her a smidgen of character development. So I pulled on my sequined leotard and grabbed that long stick-thing for balancing, and I hopped on the tightrope.

In order to compromise, I made the first sentence foreshadow what was to come. Then I made my heroine happy, because if we see her happy then we know how hard that fall will be. And I made sure that fall came within the first page or so, in an effort not to bore the reader.

I won't deny that it was tough. I'd never imagined Grim Light opening any other way. But when I saw the end result, I was very satisfied. I felt like I knew my protagonist better, even after spending months in her head already.

How about you? How do you manage to walk the tightrope? Have your openings all been picture perfect? Did you start too soon, as many do, or start too late, as I did? And how does your opening shape your view of your protagonist or narrator?

~*~

It's Tia again. I'm blushing. Thanks, Kristy.

Personally, I start too soon, but I'm always prepared to delete with impunity. I'm also prepared to offer up one of my own openings for your critiquing pleasure. This is from a lighthearted spy fantasy, which I call a mashup of Jane Austen and James Bond.

I hurried up to the embassy as if I belonged there. A bakery coach had pulled up near the side entrance where the kitchen chimneys were, so I headed that way. I searched around for someone who looked like a butler. He soon emerged to direct the unloading. I went up to him and curtsied. I was careful to make it a quick bob, rather than the genteel swoop I had learned during my youth. It was difficult to unlearn what had once been drilled into me.

Kristy's take:
I like the pacing of your opening a lot. Most of your sentences are short and choppy, which conveys the urgency of the situation while staying true to how Tory [the protagonist] would think in that situation. The first sentence grabs you right off, because you wonder, "Why doesn't she belong there?" and that tension pulls you along. It also gives you a great idea of Tory's more analytical thought process.

The only thing I would change: sentences three through five are all roughly the same length, and while choppiness is great for that opening, you want to avoid establishing a lulling sort of rhythm. I would insert a longer sentence in there, or possibly combine parts of two sentences, just to avoid that. Read it aloud and you'll probably catch my meaning.

I guess I'll do that. What did you think? Feel brave enough to post your own opening for general feedback? Got any questions? Comment away!

Sampling Novels

Here's just a few novels I've sampled lately:

Slaves of the Shinar. After an email conversation with the author, Justin Allen, he sent me a copy of his novel. I didn't get a chance to read it back when it came out in the summer of 2007. I have not read much so far--just the prologue. After I read it, I turned to my husband and said, "This guy breaks all the rules of novel openings, but I'm finding it riveting." A promising start!

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry. The author's British publisher sent me this novel, and of all the novels I've started, I'm furthest along in this one. It's more a creepy ghost story than a fantasy, although I haven't seen any actual ghosts yet, but plenty what could be either magic or delirium. The website is rather fun; you get to hunt for links in the lace.

Drawn into Darkness by Annette McCleave. Oh my stars and garters, I'm reading a paranormal romance! It's been a while. The future cover--I have an ARC--features a man with abs. (Personally, I'm not an ab girl. I like arms.) The story inside SO does not reflect the cover; I was very surprised when I saw the cover. It's all about angels and demons and something called a Soul Gatherer, and I am pleased to see that it treated Christian elements with respect. So far.

And tempting me from my debut stack is books 4 through 10 of Victoria Thompson's Gaslight Mysteries! Must be good . . . must be good.

Which one do you think I ought to read next?

Debut Graduate - The King's Daughters by Nathalie Mallet

Sometimes, when I read a book, it exceeds all my expectations. Nathalie Mallet achieved this with The King's Daughters. I enjoyed the ending so much that most of my nitpicky complaints that I had about it before that point have faded from my consciousness.

Which is just the way it's supposed to be.

I must admit that I didn't expect much from this book. This isn't to say that I did not enjoy reading The Princes of the Golden Cage. I did--immensely. And here's my review to prove it. But all too often, second novels in open-ended series like this become annoying. This novel had a couple of strikes against it. One is that the romance--which I didn't feel all that fired up about to begin with--seemed resolved. When a romance is resolved, the next book in the series often feels tacked on and unnecessary. That's why you end up with The Ever-Romance, a plot device that plagues the Mystery genre.

The other strike against it was that there were only two familiar characters from the first book--Amir and Eva. Now I understand that this was an asset to the book, not a flaw. By starting with a bunch of new characters, Ms. Mallet made it unnecessary to have read the first book to enjoy the second. Plus, she introduces some wonderful new characters.

But first, I suppose I ought to present you with the blurb.

Far to the north of the hot desert land of Telfar lies the frozen kingdom of Sorvinka . Prince Amir has traveled there, leaving his sultanate in the hands of his half-brother Erik as he seeks to ask the king, the father of the beautiful Princess Eva, for her hand in marriage.

But Sorvinka has grown dangerous during Princess Eva's absence, as she and Amir discover to their terror, when their force of guards and eunuchs is cut down by ruthless brigands. And upon their arrival, their welcome to Eva's family stronghold is as bitterly cold as the land itself.

Accustomed to the golden cage of his upbringing, Prince Amir must navigate his way through the strange and cold-blooded customs of the Sorvinkans, and somehow find the truth behind the kidnapping of the king's youngest daughter, the Princess Aurora, by the Sorvinkan’s traditional enemies, the neighboring Farrellians. But what can a stranger in a foreign land do?

With many apologies to Night Shade Books, I think the question at the end of this blurb weakens the blurb.

Oh, and I may as well get the one nitpick that I recall out of the way, and that is punctuation. This was also a problem in Princes. Ms. Mallet is Canadian and for the most part, the fact that English is her second language only enhances the novel. It is written in an exotic voice that works perfectly, filled with word choices that a native speaker might not make. But improperly punctuated questions continue to be a problem. We all make grammar mistakes, and usually that is the job of a copyeditor to catch them. I know that sometimes authors refuse to accept the input of a copyeditor. However, I have a hard time believe that such a new author would be so arrogant. In any case, I hope the next novel--which I'm greatly looking foward to--undergoes a more rigorous copyediting phase.

Back to the story. Amir and Eva's welcome at the Sorvinkan court is indeed, quite cold. Amir makes a terrible first imprssion, and seems to have absolutely no help from Eva, who is his fiance, and who lets him make some cringeworthy breeches of protocol. Eva, who had seemed so capable in Princes, because very princess-ly in this novel, which is OK because we didn't get to know enough about her in Princes for this to seem like a character inconsistency.

Eva became very annoying in this book. She did inexplicable things and left Amir hanging out to dry. I was going to count this as a flaw in the book . . . but it turns out that Ms. Mallet knew exactly what she was doing. And how she resolved it is one of the reasons I found the ending so satisfying.

One of the eunichs, Milo, becomes Amir's personal servant--indeed, Amir must make him his personal servant in order to keep him alive. Because the "cold welcome" to the court was actually achieved at the point of a sword. Milo has all the makings of a great sidekick. Another character, Diego, makes a great counterpart to Amir and Milo. Diego is a court dandy. One phrase from the novel sums up Diego perfectly: "He cringed so forcefully that one could've believe he had just sucked on a lemon."

As Ms. Mallet did with her first novel, she brings all the various plot threads together brilliantly. I can't think of anything left unexplained, except some new tidbits that she came up with toward the end for subsequent books. I recall in Princes that she did this almost to a fault. Here, it was just about perfect. She also brings in some Russian mythology and folklore into the story--some really strange stuff--weaves it brilliantly into the story.

She aimed the series squarely at an Eastern setting for the third book, and perhaps a Spanish for the fourth. I must admit that I can hardly wait.

In my opinion, you're not going to find such good entertainment for $7.99 anywhere else. If you like blends of mystery and fantasy, non-white protagonists, clashes of culture and open ended series, then this novel should be great fun. And the next book, Death in the Traveling City, intrigues by its very name!

~*~

Links!

Nathalie Mallet's Website and Blog

Amazon USA - UK (appears to be sold out) - Canada 

Night Shade's Book Page and Interview with Nathalie 

Additional Reviews at Grasping for the Wind and Graeme's Fantasy Review