I just got the 'final' proof of Discoveries to check over, so here's another review to distract you.
Bianca is the heroine of Fairy Pox, by Emily Martha Sorensen. Not to worry, the story is much more appealing than the title might imply. Still, I’m not sure most kids would be any happier than Bianca at learning about fairy itch and its cause. But Bianca is willing to try anything to keep her friends.
The Fairy Senses series Ms Sorensen has created, of which Fairy Pox is the fifth installment, deals with, so far, the problems of early to mid-teen girls. Problems with self-image, problems with parents and siblings and critically, problems with friends. While I question the too sympathetic characterization of Bianca and Cassie’s parents (on reflection, maybe not Bianca's parents so much), I thought the attitudes and interactions of Bianca and Alfonse (her older brother) and the crew of girls who are Bianca and Cassie’s current or recently past friends were spot on.
I found the characters entertaining, and Ms Sorensen has a gift for turning a humorous phrase. Needless to say, I enjoyed the story. It’s not a genre I frequently read, but I am tempted to pick up a few more in the series, just to see how the girls and the fairies work things out in the end. And to see if any boys begin to show up around the edges, to throw different monkey wrenches into the mix.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of Fairy Pox in exchange for an honest review, which you are reading here. Slightly different versions appear at Goodreads, and at Amazon.
I read Fairy Pox using the Kindle for Mac app on my MacBook Pro, and thumbed through the epub using iBooks. I found only one typo and the formatting looked nice.
I recommend Fairy Pox and the other Fairy Senses books to anyone looking for a clean fantasy set among real world problems and solutions. Preorders are active now, and it should be live tomorrow, July 15th at Amazon.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Friday, June 24, 2016
It's Hard Being an Interior Story
While you're all waiting for Discoveries to appear in paper, here's a review to whet your appetite, especially if it runs to epic fantasy, or action-packed love stories.
The role of the interior novel in a series is to advance the overall arc without giving too much away, while giving enough away that we readers are intrigued, anxious to keep reading. It’s a narrow path, with tragedy and pathos risked with every word the author writes. In Bloodbonded, Ms Davis has done a splendid job in my opinion. She has carried the promise of Ravenmarked through this next installment with aplomb; what this means, of course, is that I, like the others of Ms Davis’ “threes of fans,” will again anxiously wait for the next chapter.
Bloodbonded is the second volume in the The Taurin Chronicles. Building on the events in Ravenmarked, Ms Davis takes us through Mairead and Connor’s struggles as they come to grips with The Morrag and their disparate destinies. But along with them, Braedan, Igraine, Logan, Hrogarth and Maeve all play important parts, parts which are not always obvious.
I’ve followed Ms Davis since before Ravenmarked; I throughly enjoy her wordsmithing, her ability to convey the images we then use to see in our mind’s eye the scene she sets, the characters moving through those settings.
A disclaimer: I received a copy of this book along with a request that I provide an honest review, which you are reading. This review, in slightly different form, appears on Goodreads and will also appear at Amazon's page once the book is released.
Bloodbonded becomes available on July 1; however, hop over to this Amazon page and pre-order it now. Don't wait! I'd say they'll run out, but we all know better than that!
I read Bloodbonded using the Kindle for Mac app; there were no anomalies that I noticed. A cursory check of the pdf and the epub files (if those suit you better) likewise had no problems. The outstanding cover deserves a color display on whatever reader you select.
I heartily recommend Bloodbonded to any reader of epic fantasy, or even, any reader who enjoys an action-filled love story. Then we can wait together for Unquickened.
The role of the interior novel in a series is to advance the overall arc without giving too much away, while giving enough away that we readers are intrigued, anxious to keep reading. It’s a narrow path, with tragedy and pathos risked with every word the author writes. In Bloodbonded, Ms Davis has done a splendid job in my opinion. She has carried the promise of Ravenmarked through this next installment with aplomb; what this means, of course, is that I, like the others of Ms Davis’ “threes of fans,” will again anxiously wait for the next chapter.
Bloodbonded is the second volume in the The Taurin Chronicles. Building on the events in Ravenmarked, Ms Davis takes us through Mairead and Connor’s struggles as they come to grips with The Morrag and their disparate destinies. But along with them, Braedan, Igraine, Logan, Hrogarth and Maeve all play important parts, parts which are not always obvious.
I’ve followed Ms Davis since before Ravenmarked; I throughly enjoy her wordsmithing, her ability to convey the images we then use to see in our mind’s eye the scene she sets, the characters moving through those settings.
A disclaimer: I received a copy of this book along with a request that I provide an honest review, which you are reading. This review, in slightly different form, appears on Goodreads and will also appear at Amazon's page once the book is released.
Bloodbonded becomes available on July 1; however, hop over to this Amazon page and pre-order it now. Don't wait! I'd say they'll run out, but we all know better than that!
I read Bloodbonded using the Kindle for Mac app; there were no anomalies that I noticed. A cursory check of the pdf and the epub files (if those suit you better) likewise had no problems. The outstanding cover deserves a color display on whatever reader you select.
I heartily recommend Bloodbonded to any reader of epic fantasy, or even, any reader who enjoys an action-filled love story. Then we can wait together for Unquickened.
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Discoveries Available Soon
As I said in my last post, I didn't sign up for CampNaNo this year. I still made a small donation (and recommend that you do likewise, if you can afford to). Real life intruded on my writing; I got very few words added to my total. But I did make some progress, getting Discoveries ready for publication, and finishing some other critiquing and formatting efforts.
Today, I published Discoveries on Kindle, so it should be available by tomorrow at the latest. It's in Select, so also available on Kindle Unlimited, like the others in the Mercenaries series.
The CreateSpace paperback is going through the process, which will take a little longer. I have to get a proof copy and review it, then approve it before it’ll be on sale. I'll enroll the ebook in Matchbook then.
The cover:
And the description:
As usual, any comments on the cover or the description, or anything else, really, are welcome.
Today, I published Discoveries on Kindle, so it should be available by tomorrow at the latest. It's in Select, so also available on Kindle Unlimited, like the others in the Mercenaries series.
The CreateSpace paperback is going through the process, which will take a little longer. I have to get a proof copy and review it, then approve it before it’ll be on sale. I'll enroll the ebook in Matchbook then.
The cover:
And the description:
Beginning as Coda? ends, Beckie Jamse has signed a contract providing protection for an archaeological dig in Baluchistan, Pakistan, but even with her experience, it leads her places she never expects. And provides a reward she hadn’t negotiated.
A quiet winter and spring at The Nest allows Beckie to prepare for her baby; monitor the several jobs Ian Jamse, LLC, had already undertaken; provision the new protection contract, and plan an appropriate response to Ian and Kevin’s murders. The calm evaporates like early morning dew when Ralf Jamse arrives, full of sound and fury and other baby specific needs.
Events in Pakistan only seem calm. Unbeknownst to her, the protection contract in Pakistan develops a complication neither she nor the scientists expected: the terrorists of Daesh (Islamic State) are targeting the region.
Even before Beckie’s doctor allows her to leave the hospital, a letter arrives that changes everything.
Discoveries is a thriller with romance, set in an approximation to the real world, intended for readers 15 up. It contains real language. For the most enjoyment, readers should be familiar with Coda?.
As usual, any comments on the cover or the description, or anything else, really, are welcome.
Saturday, April 16, 2016
Camp NaNo 2016
Those who are doing Camp NaNo this April are half way through.
I hope all participants are writing and writing and writing, and getting their 50000 words done and, following DWS, ready for publication (See his articles on Killing Myths and Writing into the Dark).
I chose not to sign up this year, thinking I'd have to plead too much other work. Then, as it always does, life comes along, and since the first, I've gotten a 16000 word side story written, and a couple thousand words of rewriting on Discoveries, and then another 4000 words into Princess. So, nearly 25000 words and I would have no time for it! It's not DWS pace of 4000 words per day, but it's more than I expected.
Time will tell if the rest of the month is as productive. I'm waiting for feedback on the "last" version of Discoveries, after those edits it'll be available.
By word count, Princess should be about half done. We'll see when I get closer to the end how accurate that is.
I do not plan to develop a line of adult coloring books (grin).
Best wishes for those doing Camp NaNo! May the experience be the first step to your writing life.
I hope all participants are writing and writing and writing, and getting their 50000 words done and, following DWS, ready for publication (See his articles on Killing Myths and Writing into the Dark).
I chose not to sign up this year, thinking I'd have to plead too much other work. Then, as it always does, life comes along, and since the first, I've gotten a 16000 word side story written, and a couple thousand words of rewriting on Discoveries, and then another 4000 words into Princess. So, nearly 25000 words and I would have no time for it! It's not DWS pace of 4000 words per day, but it's more than I expected.
Time will tell if the rest of the month is as productive. I'm waiting for feedback on the "last" version of Discoveries, after those edits it'll be available.
By word count, Princess should be about half done. We'll see when I get closer to the end how accurate that is.
I do not plan to develop a line of adult coloring books (grin).
Best wishes for those doing Camp NaNo! May the experience be the first step to your writing life.
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Curling: It's harder than it looks on TV
As is true with most things, I suspect. We went to an introductory session to learn curling the other evening, under the auspices of the South Shore Curling Club. Links to photos are in this post.
My review: 5 stars for fun and 2.5 stars for my ability to curl. Let me emphasize that my ancien body—not that well taken care of, unfortunately—is responsible for this rating, not the club, not the venue, and certainly not MaryBeth and Mike, who did their level best to make curlers out of each of the four noobs they drew. (Luck of the draw, I suppose!)
My right leg couldn’t support me in the classic curling launch of the stone, but this is apparently not as unusual a condition as I feared. Some brooms are made with a bracket on the end allowing the curler to stand and walk, or hurry more likely, to the release point. That meant I could at least sling the stone down the ice.
Nothing made sweeping any easier, however. The club has done this before; they provided us with large wide rubber bands to slip over the balls of our feet, allowing some measure of mobility on the ice. Not as good as the slippers club members wore over their actual curling shoes, but believe me, far better than trying to walk on the ice in the sneakers we had been advised to wear. But the stones have to move pretty quickly to travel the 90 feet (in our rink) or 100 feet (Olympic distance), and I found it hard to keep up and sweep at the same time. Of course, you quickly realize that sweeping can’t slow the stone down, only speed it up slightly, or change its direction, so… Maybe not being able to catch a speeding stone isn’t so bad!
Curling is a genteel sport; sincere handshakes and well-wishes open and close each match. As I said above, five from five for fun, even though I’ll never make a good curler. I’m glad we went, and recommend an introductory session like this to any of you that have watched curling on you TV and thought… I can do that. Perhaps you actually can!
Comments are welcome; thanks for visiting!
My review: 5 stars for fun and 2.5 stars for my ability to curl. Let me emphasize that my ancien body—not that well taken care of, unfortunately—is responsible for this rating, not the club, not the venue, and certainly not MaryBeth and Mike, who did their level best to make curlers out of each of the four noobs they drew. (Luck of the draw, I suppose!)
My right leg couldn’t support me in the classic curling launch of the stone, but this is apparently not as unusual a condition as I feared. Some brooms are made with a bracket on the end allowing the curler to stand and walk, or hurry more likely, to the release point. That meant I could at least sling the stone down the ice.
Nothing made sweeping any easier, however. The club has done this before; they provided us with large wide rubber bands to slip over the balls of our feet, allowing some measure of mobility on the ice. Not as good as the slippers club members wore over their actual curling shoes, but believe me, far better than trying to walk on the ice in the sneakers we had been advised to wear. But the stones have to move pretty quickly to travel the 90 feet (in our rink) or 100 feet (Olympic distance), and I found it hard to keep up and sweep at the same time. Of course, you quickly realize that sweeping can’t slow the stone down, only speed it up slightly, or change its direction, so… Maybe not being able to catch a speeding stone isn’t so bad!
Curling is a genteel sport; sincere handshakes and well-wishes open and close each match. As I said above, five from five for fun, even though I’ll never make a good curler. I’m glad we went, and recommend an introductory session like this to any of you that have watched curling on you TV and thought… I can do that. Perhaps you actually can!
Comments are welcome; thanks for visiting!
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Moving On; Word Joiner Update
The Goodreads Giveaway ended on the 29th, and I sent the books to the people that Goodreads selected. I hope they read them, and that they post a review, although my experience hasn’t been all that stellar.
I sent the current version of Discoveries to my reader. Maybe it’s been long enough it won’t seem like it’s all familiar. After her changes, I’ll publish the ebook and fork the paper version. But now, it’s time to go on to Princess, and finish it up.
Word Joiners
A comment on the topic of the word joiner being used to keep em dashes from being split from the word they follow: I haven’t found a good way to search for an em dash without a word joiner. Searching for the absence of something has never been a strong point in the software I’m familiar with. Open Office shows the word joiner character as a shaded vertical line between the letter and the em dash, but while those make it obvious where I have included it, it doesn’t do much for searching. In Scrivener, the word joiner can be detected by moving the cursor (with the arrow keys) through the em dash; the cursor will not move for that one character when the word joiner is detected (since it's invisible, after all).
In addition, I’m not an expert on regular expressions (used by both Scrivener and Open Office) by any means, and I’m sure a search string can be constructed to find em dashes not preceded by a word joiner, but I took the (in this case) shorter path, and searched for every letter followed by an em dash, in sequence.
As always, comments welcome!
I sent the current version of Discoveries to my reader. Maybe it’s been long enough it won’t seem like it’s all familiar. After her changes, I’ll publish the ebook and fork the paper version. But now, it’s time to go on to Princess, and finish it up.
Word Joiners
A comment on the topic of the word joiner being used to keep em dashes from being split from the word they follow: I haven’t found a good way to search for an em dash without a word joiner. Searching for the absence of something has never been a strong point in the software I’m familiar with. Open Office shows the word joiner character as a shaded vertical line between the letter and the em dash, but while those make it obvious where I have included it, it doesn’t do much for searching. In Scrivener, the word joiner can be detected by moving the cursor (with the arrow keys) through the em dash; the cursor will not move for that one character when the word joiner is detected (since it's invisible, after all).
In addition, I’m not an expert on regular expressions (used by both Scrivener and Open Office) by any means, and I’m sure a search string can be constructed to find em dashes not preceded by a word joiner, but I took the (in this case) shorter path, and searched for every letter followed by an em dash, in sequence.
As always, comments welcome!
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Super Tuesday Update
I voted. If you have the opportunity to vote today, please take advantage of it. We don’t want the election dominated (or worse, won) by non-voters.
The giveaway for Coda? over at Goodreads is finished. I have the names and addresses of those selected, and will have their books in the mail in the next week.
A final read-through of Discoveries, and that version will be off to my reader for her comments. I’m hopeful that I’ve cured some of the issues we found during earlier reviews. Also hopeful that it’ll be out before the end of the month.
The next book is about forty percent—37000 words to date. Progress is slower than I wanted, but once Discoveries is done, it should speed up.
That’s it for today. Go and vote!
The giveaway for Coda? over at Goodreads is finished. I have the names and addresses of those selected, and will have their books in the mail in the next week.
A final read-through of Discoveries, and that version will be off to my reader for her comments. I’m hopeful that I’ve cured some of the issues we found during earlier reviews. Also hopeful that it’ll be out before the end of the month.
The next book is about forty percent—37000 words to date. Progress is slower than I wanted, but once Discoveries is done, it should speed up.
That’s it for today. Go and vote!
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