Pretty Fairy Princess Enchanted Castle

I'm Doing Things!

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:31:20 GMT

Just a couple of weeks left until we're a two baby household. I'm, you know, going happily crazy with full on pregnancy brain, but that just makes life more exciting. I've got a lot of writing work I'm trying to get through. Sort of like mental nesting.

Mental nesting. Yeah, that's about what it is. So I did a post on my writing blog outlining the career stuff I've been up to. You can read about that here.

A Letter to the Gaming Industry is getting off the ground, and you can read all about that here.

I've started a little tiny D&D gaming experiment. The general idea is that I'm going to focus on skill challenges for XP awards instead of straight up combat all the time. We're going to be a deeply investigative game, sort of Law and Order meets Dungeons and Dragons. I might even write up about it here if there's interest and I have the time. My players are excited, what could be more important?

All Call to Women in Gaming

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:10:16 GMT

So here's the skinny.

After hosting my first panel on women in gaming I got a head full of great ideas and exciting thoughts and suggestions from women and men who game.

But it was only a start. There's a lot more to do and to talk about. I know a lot of women in the industry, I know a lot of women who game, but I don't want to start spamming you with an email to discuss the idea that's boiling in my brain. That said, drop me a 'hey, I want in' here in comments, at my email, in DMs on twitter, or send me smoke signals if your local and I'll include you in on the discussion as it gets off the ground. Also, spread this around, send it to your women friends and have them drop me a line. Really, my hope is that this is a big beautiful thing, but I'm going to need the voice of as many as possible to get a complete picture.

Thanks, ladies, for your time.

(This is not discouraging you gentleman. You're welcome to be involved as well, but the message is first and foremost to women.)

An Open Letter to Ms. Fisher

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 01:19:02 GMT

Common geeks, we can seriously do better than this.

Here's a blog post by Carrie Fisher in response to a bit of internet vitrol she was victim too. I normally feel like 'never ever respond to that crap.' But in this case, Fisher was right to do so and showed grace and humor while doing it.

So, I wrote her an open letter on my other blog. You can read it here. If your a geek, a human being, and you have some time to kill I think you should write her a letter as well. Oh, and post a picture with it. It's really really empowering.

The Public Option

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:32:56 GMT

It's just this simple. There are terrorists in the US trying to pretend they are the only True Americans. They threaten public debate. They carry guns and wave them about while threatening to harm our elective officials as well as anyone who tries to debate with them. They are full of hate, ignorance, and violence.

And today, they are winning.

At this point, passing the public option is more important then just getting uninsured health insurance and lower prices so everyone can get by. At this point, we are being held hostage by Insurance company funded terrorists.

If we do not pass a public option, the terrorists win. They will know they've won by threatening and threatening violence against reasonable Americans. Next time, they will start with guns, and end with killings an political murder.

We should al be saying this. We should be mailing out elected officials, the media, and everyone we know.

(Almost) All the Awesome the Internet Has to Offer

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:38:41 GMT

So a number of my friends and those that I admire greatly have some great things going on right now, and I have to catch you all up. So, in no particular order, all the awesome the internet has to offer!

Jet Pack is go, finally, and is chock full of fantastic writing by three men whose talents I greatly admire. Every time I read something one of these fellas put out, I become a slightly better writer just for the example of 'what to do.' Chuck Wendig, Will Hindmarch, Wood Ingham.

As you'll see shortly, JR Blackwell is always damn busy. Most recently, she's been published at Hub Magazine with her short story "Ticket." Fiction born out of nonfiction. I know you love that! Download it. Do it.

And for that matter, Chuck Wendig has been a busy monkey too. He and Marty "The Revolution will do your mom until your dad likes it" Henley have a Revolution coming Wednesday. Since I'll be having high frequency echos shot at my belly that day, I'll tell you about it now. The Revolution will be Tweeted. Seriously, check it out. Oh, and there's a contest! TheStoryverse will be a thing to reckon with.

Oh, hey, and Eddy Webb has been putting together his own project. Check it out here. Reading, listening, joy!

Speaking of, JR Blackwell and Mur Lafferty want to tell you "Her Side," through multimedia storytelling. Photos, stories, and people who are cooler on the internet than I'll ever be, what the hell else could you ask for?

When my husband isn't busy starting internet fights, he's being nominated for an Ennie, one of the biggest awards in the RPG industry. He and a lot of other White Wolf writers are on the table this year (Jess Hartley, Rose-Bride's Plight, all things Hunter so on so forth) and their stuff is fantastic. Check it out, you can vote party line or not, but do vote. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, no problem. Just click the link and vote item 14 "Collection of Horrors: Razorkids" and an angel will get his wings. I promise.)

Want more? Fine. How about a free internet novella being created chapter by chapter by a great writer who could use some love? Good. Go check out Tim Pratt's Bone Shop.

That isn't enough free crap for you? Fine. What about some fantastically sexy steampunk world building and free novella? That's what I'd thought you'd say. On a personal note, if Cherie Priest isn't one of the nicest women in fiction today, I can't imagine who would be.

Please note, this is not a suggestion that you check out stuff on my list. It's actually an order. Get to it, damnit!

Book Review: The Betrayal

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:07:05 GMT

I wish I had more time to read. Isn't that the writer's lament? We spend all our time writing (or cleaning the kitchen to avoid writing,) and hear over and over again that 'if you write, you have to read.' A good friend of mine had something of an argument against that old trope you can read here.

Still, I actually like reading, and so I still wish I had more time to read. It recharges batteries when its good and when its bad, well, honestly I fling it across the room and vent about it to my husband for a day and a half. After that, I'm rededicated to write something awesome to make up for the bit of crap I've just read. (I imagine this is a grand cycle, all the world over, writers are reading each others work, hating it, and writing out of spite so that their work can be hated and the cycle goes on unbroken.)

So anyway, I make myself time to read from time to time. Especially when I get a book from the wonderful Laura Ann Gillman with a request for review. And so, on to The Betrayal by Pati Nagle.

How Did I Find this Book: Well, as stated earlier, I got this book in the mail. (Yay free books right to my house!) I did a little further recon after I got it, checking out the writer's site and so on. I like to have a background idea of what I'm getting into when I start something new. Ms. Nagle's page for this book is pretty neat. There's a calendar, detailed outline of the clans and other aspects of world building. I gotta say, I was pretty impressed with the amount of 'off scene' detail went into the background of this book. I'm usually luke warm about the idea of heaps of world building going into a fantasy novel since it seems like it gets in the way of just sitting down to write the thing. Since The Betrayal is sitting on my bookshelf now, I can say Ms. Nagle didn't fall into that trap, and her world building worked out nicely.

The Good: So here's where I give a disclaimer. This time is no exception. I don't read fantasy, I rarely like fantasy, and so I don't usually feel like I'm a fair audience for a fantasy novel. There's nothing wrong with the genre, it's simply a matter of personal taste. That said, I read this book with an open mind and I don't regret the time at all. (Hint: I did not throw this across the room.) It's a story with elves and vampire elves and magic and just enough sex to interest me without getting smutty. What really impressed me was that Ms. Nagle managed to create badguys who made sense. The villainous evil vamprie elves seemed reasonable, actually, even their mysterious and bloody leader, a cold blooded monster woman, came across with just the right pathos to be interesting. I cared about her and her story as much as the heroines story, and that's a hell of a thing to do while keeping the bad guys bad. For a fantasy novel, the writing wasn't over the top and purple. If it didn't have some shades of violet in it, it wouldn't have read like fantasy, but it didn't hit a point where I wanted to put on a monocle and drink Earl Gray while reading. The sex was just as it should be. Pretty real, a little hot, and seemed to exist to either forward the plot or deepen the characters which is just what I want out of sex.

The Bad: Flowery language, romance all over the place, monsters and a bit of renaming real world things to make them more... fantasyish... I can't say any part of that was awful, but I'm sure some sticklers might not be able to get past that sort of thing to enjoy the book on what makes it unique. Well, boo for them. I bet they hate Santa too.

Who Will Like this Book: Fantasy fans who like their stuff a bit romantic. Romance fans who think elves are interesting. Writers who want to see villains done sympathetically. People who like vampires, sparkely or not. Me when I get around to reading it a second time.

Who Won't Like this Book: I mean, if you're a non fantasy reader and don't otherwise appreciate the genre, (coughD&Dcough) I don't know how you'd get into this. It fits nicely into its genre without being stale, but I didn't feel like it did a lot to reach out of the genre. It doesn't have too, not every book out there needs to break boundaries. It's okay, I'll read it twice for the sake of both of us.

Up Next: DEL TORO'S THE STRAIN!!! WOOO!!! I'll admit, I started this already on vacation. I couldn't resist. Boys and girls, you are in for a treat if you're headed into this book anytime soon. More later.

Free Range Writers

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:53:31 GMT

So first of all, go here if you want to read my article on parenting and gaming. Fun stuff to write, neat magazine to have written it for and all thanks (like so much else in my life these days) to Matt McFarland. (Thank you, Matt!)

So I’ve had some time to process the Writers’ Convention I went to this weekend. I have a notebook full of notes and thoughts and I realize how few of them will actually apply to anything but my own work, this will be ironic soon. (What, ten years of pretending to be a writer, a year or two with a bit of success at it, and NOW I actually think about plot construction for the first time in my life? Yeah, I win the internet.)

The thing that I couldn’t get past most of the time, is how strange the writer is as an animal, especially when it’s free range and face to face with its own species. Curious, occasionally friendly, and by some staggering percentage, utterly unable to think about things outside of the terms of their own needs. (I'm not saying this is a universal truth, just what I observed this weekend.)

Now granted, I’ll give you that all of those writers there spent a few hundred dollars to learn the few things they needed to make their manuscript the next DaVinci Code. I can’t blame them for having their heads pretty far up their own manuscripts. I know I tend to think and relate new information to things I already know or understand, that’s how my brain works, but when I’m in a large learning space I do try to take that information and make it universal. I learn more and others around me do as well. (Did I mention I couldn’t keep my damn mouth shut through most of the workshops? I had a few people, speakers included, thank me, so I guess I wasn’t too obnoxious.)

I also saw a non internet troll. It was fantastic. A grown man in his mid to late fifties. A man who at least pretend to have a real career as a writer, and so you would think he had good things to do with his time and money. Like any internet troll, apparently not. He sat in a class and spent the whole time muttering his side comments to someone beside him. Eventually it got so obvious and irritating that the speaker stopped and asked him what his issue was with what she was saying. Being a troll, he backed off, saying that wasn’t the time and place. Better still, he spent the rest of the day (at least from what I could tell, he was prevalent in the break room) complaining to any and all how he was ‘yelled at’ by one of the speakers. When, after a while, someone who had been in the first class came in to try and still his belly aching a bit, he got up and left saying ‘they just don’t understand the point.’ Classic troll behavior, and best of all, this guy had never even been on the internet! (He’s a letter writer, he explained, dozens of pages of letters a week.) Funny how it never occurred to me that such a thing could exist outside of the net.

There were questions at panels so narrow and specific to a writer’s work that the panelist couldn’t possibly answer it. Loud personal phone calls in public places. More complaining about minutia then you could shake a complaint form at, and of course all of it coming from people who had been to this conference a dozen times before and would go a dozen times again, age permitting.

Don’t get me wrong, I ran into a lot of people who were just fantastic, people who I hope to some day call peers. There’s one young lady who has, no kidding, ACTUALLY done something new with the standard vampire novel, and I am dying to be her pal when she’s rich and famous. I had a blast and learned things at every turn, but then, that’s what I wanted out of that conference. I wonder if I’d gone into it wanting to ‘fix’ my manuscript or land an agent or find something to complain about, that’s just what I would have found.

Long ramble short, really, ladies and gentleman, have fun if you’re going to go. If not, I’m sure you can find things at home to bitch about.

Fearless

Fri, 29 May 2009 22:18:37 GMT

One day I watched my almost-eight month old defy death. Nothing tragic really, she just decided to crawl off of the edge of the bed and plummet head first to the ground.

I was watching, mind you, and got my hands on her fat little trunk before she got all the way over the edge, but it was clear her intent. Yes, she wanted to crawl off the bed. No, she didn't know it would hurt her. She hasn't any concept of 'I could get hurt,' or 'that might be scary."

In fact, she really has no real sense of fear. Now, don't get me wrong, she'll get afraid after the fact. Also the dark. But things that she can see and reach for, things she can touch or taste, or somehow experience, no, she hasn't any fear. She just reaches and pushes and explores with little concern for the consequences.

Sometimes, she'll storm her way across the couch at a full crawling clip towards the desk where my husbands computer sits. The purpose for this? Apparently, her only desire is to grab on to the printer/scanner monstrosity on his desk and hang from it. There's no where else she could go on the desk. She just wants to hang and climb and challenge herself, and gravity be damned! My husband thinks her suicidal need to hang from the printer/scanner has something to do with scanning her butt like those drunk secretaries do at company Christmas parties.

I've even found her attempting to climb my book shelf. Maybe to get at my books, or maybe, more likely, just to climb -something.-

I remember shortly after she was born. She would roll onto her stomach and cry and cry, mostly we figured, in frustration that she couldn't move. She couldn't go. It was so sad to watch her little head bob up and down, and her little feet kick no where to get her somewhere. The moment when she first got to her knees and really honestly crawled for the first time, she literally squealed with joy. Joy at being able to move and be in control. The dangers and perils that come of being in charge of your own movements just don't matter. Moving matters.

Willy Shakespeare says 'Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.'

What does this have to do with creating, with writing? To be honest, I didn't know at first, I just watched my daughter and her fearlessness and kept being nagged by a sense that there was something I ought to learn in it. I realized it was trait in her that I respected, and envied it a little. Which is when it occurred to me, of course, I'm a dummy. I'm afraid. I'm afraid of putting my out there that it's going to be rejected. That after all this time I'm going to find out I was never a 'real writer' after all. Whatever that means. I was afraid to take a risk just because there might be a consequence.

In that silly little moment of realization, I put together what my daughter was trying to teach me, unknowingly perhaps, when she tried to crawl off the edge of the bed.

I've decided to shrug off fear and doubt, and dive head first into the thing I'm the most afraid of. (You know, other than motherhood, 'cause that's one I was gleefully thrown into, rather than dove.) So I'm putting my writing out there, out everywhere. I'm biting back my fear and taking a chance, because, like my daughter, I don't know if I'm absolutely going to fall if I climb up on the scanner, and so what if I do? I've got plenty of people who love me and will catch me.

So anyway, thank you Tina, for being fearless, and reminding me how. /gooey mom time.

Also: Updates on the Anthology I was included in, you can download a sneak preview.

Three of my White Wolf titles are out, buy them at your local Dork Store. Immortals, Ancient Mysteries, Ancient Bloodlines.

And, my article for Pyramid Magazine is now out, here.

It's after 1, how about something nice?

Sat, 23 May 2009 05:27:09 GMT

I could be totally wrong here, but I sort of feel like Henry Rollins exists so it is physically impossible to hate men (or even mankind) all the way. He makes me feel humble everytime. This one brought me to tears. (Pregnancy: Leading cause of weak weepy Mena.)

Somewhere someone is thinking of you. Someone is calling you an angel. This person is using celestial colors to paint your image. Someone is making you into a vision so beautiful that it can only live in the mind. Someone is thinking of the way your breath escapes your lips when you are touched. How your eyes close and your jaw tightens with concentration as you give pleasure a home. These thoughts are saving a life somewhere right now. In some airless apartment on a dark, urine stained, whore lined street, someone is calling out to you silently and you are answering without even being there. So crystalline. So pure. Such life saving power when you smile. You will never know how you have cauterized my wounds. So sad that we will never touch. How it hurts me to know that I will never be able to give you everything I have.
- Henry Rollins (No source found)

Buried Tales? Go ahead, dig it up!

Mon, 04 May 2009 19:45:18 GMT

The first anthology I've been invited to write for is available for preorder now and I couldn't be more excited. 12 to Midnight's Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas.Real fiction and everything!

You can read more about it here, including the bios of some of the other writers involved. David Wellington? Are you kidding me!? I'm having a fangirl moment. Shane Hensley might be one of the nicest guys on the internet. Remind me later to tell you what an idiot I am and how it involves that kind gentleman. Who doesn't love Deadlands? I'm not ashamed to see my name below any of the names included.

So go get your preoder out of the way. I'll be waiting right here.

Book Review: Thirteenth Child

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 07:03:21 GMT

So let me start off by saying, it’s about three hours after my bedtime, but I couldn’t go to sleep without telling you about Patricia Wrede’s Thirteenth Child. I’d actually planned to post this sometime later today, on release day and all, but I can’t wait. I'm writing this in a bit of fit of passion, so you'll forgive me for that. (My class tomorrow might not, but they'll just have to learn around my snoring.)

I’d picked it up again earlier today to reread the second half because I wanted to give it a far shake before reviewing it, and ended up reading the entire thing in more or less one sitting. (Much to my understanding husband’s dismay. I think he remembers what my eye color looks like.) Okay, okay, without further distraction, the review.

How I Found This Book: This was actually an ARC sent to me by the lovely Laura Anne Gilman. She was looking for, as she put it, galley slaves to read galleys and ARC copies, I posted on her LJ I was interested, and I got free books out of the deal. The internet is a beautiful place. I can’t tell you how glad I am that I signed up, because frankly I would have been mad at myself for the rest of my life if I’d never read this book. I cannot wait to see more in the Frontier Magic series, YA or not YA, good writing is good writing.

The Good: So the good, where to start really? Strong but still believable and sympathetic female lead? Check! Beautiful World Building full of neat touches I hadn’t seen before and ideas I’d wished I’d dreamed up? Check! A vast and believable alternate history that unfurled before me without ever feeling like info dump? Double Check! Characters with language all their own? Check and check. Without giving anything away, this is, simply put, the best coming of age western steampunk fantasy adventure I’ve ever read, and I’m a big fan of Weird West. Wrede does an amazing job of giving the reader the feeling that Eff, the first person narrator speaks with a dialect from the times, without it ever getting in the way of the reading. Beyond that, her pacing is just brilliant. As I commented to my husband while reading, “Ten years just flew by for this little girl, more or less, and I don’t feel like it was rushed, that I missed anything, or that it wandered around like I so often do with time spanning fantasy.” He said something like, “yes dear,” and let me get back to my studious reading. As a mother with a daughter myself, I couldn’t be more excited to know I’ll be able to hand this book to my budding frontiers’ woman some day and know that the main character Eff is someone she can look up too without me worrying about it. At a pivotal moment in the book, when Eff decides what she wants to do with her life, making a huge step in her development, I felt this motherly swell of pride as if Eff were my awkward teenage girl, and now, she’d grown up and made a good choice, so I didn’t have to worry about her anymore. What a great feeling to get out of a book. Ms. Wrede, seriously, when do I get more of this story?

The Bad: In the interests of fairness, I’d have to say there was a time or two when Eff’s worrying and fretting got to be a little nerve racking. Sometimes it seemed it was just an endless cycle of her worrying over nothing, being reassured by someone she respected, but then going back to worrying a few pages later. Of course, just as soon as that feeling flared up, I remember back to when I was an awkward teenage girl, how I worried about everything and was just so sure I would ‘just turn out wrong’ and Eff’s worries seemed less silly. I’d say that’s about the only thing that stood out as why this book was YA instead of just fantasy. I still want to give props to Wrede, however, for remembering the sentiments of that age in a way I hadn’t even without been all that far removed from my teen years myself.

Who Will Like This Book: If you know a tween or teen girl who’s nervous but special, only she doesn’t know she’s special, get her a copy of this book immediately. If you know any youngin’ who likes Harry Potter but isn’t all that into the sheer Britishness of the Potter series, get them this book. Get this book for women you know with daughters, I’d be curious to see how many other moms got the same swell of pride I was hit with. And most importantly, if you like the Weird West, you ignore the YA category and go get this book for yourself. No, really. Go ahead. I’ll wait right here.

Who Won’t Like This Book: Some of Eff’s more unreasonable girly traits and worries might turn off a young boy, but I think so much of the story is just so adventurous, it might not matter to them. Other than that, I can’t come up with any good examples. No really, read this book.

Next Up: I’m going to try to finish up Mark Henry’s Roadtrip of the Living Dead, (best sex scene ever, I’m not even kidding,) we’ll see what happens from there.

What Have I Been Doing

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 03:28:18 GMT

So what have I been doing? Celebrating some holiday fun with Thaumatrope Twitter fiction. (Twiction?)

And

Oh, and did you see the Collection of Horrors? You should, I’ve written two bits of it, and you can download one RIGHT NOW. (Or, if you rather, get a subscription and get a whole bunch of Hunter the Vigil goodness, I can’t blame you. There’s some great stuff in there. Even some great stuff by David, the man from whom my babies come.)

Oh, and did I tell you I'm going to be in anthology? A real book and everything. Why yes, you should preorder your copy now.

Later, more book reviews and maybe some links.

Quick! What Do You Call a Hotel Full of Writers?

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 02:29:24 GMT

Among a lot of other things going on this summer, it looks like I'm going to this writer's conference in June. I'm trying to collate some info on dos and don'ts for the first timer at this kind of event. (I want to get the most out of it.) If I get any good stuff, I'll post it here, practice it and tell you how it worked after the conference.

So, I put it you, internets. What do you know about this sort of event? Any personal thoughts, or short of that, good leads so'as I can school mah self?

What Did I Do Today?

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:07:23 GMT

Why, I got published! Pro rates, you know, were it not for the 140 character limit. I'm going to do something with this snippet some day, for some reason the idea gets under my skin.

Outshine is the twitter publication of the Shine Anthology. They focus on positive speculitive fiction. I kind of like that. Check them out sometime.

Originally published at In Other Words.

Book Review: The Rising

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:31:21 GMT

So to be perfectly honest, Ive been going back and forth on whether on not I actually wanted to write this review. It basically came down to not burning bridges in a very small universe, or being honest with my readers. (I know, all three of you.)

When I weighted it out, I decided a bad review treated fairly and note based on gut reaction might be better for the internet as a whole then a blank space. Plus, that way, as new readers show up, (Ill welcome you, reader number four,) they can feel secure that I'm reviewing for honesty and not just for links and incest.

So without further ado, my review of Brian Keenes first novel The Rising. Not his last book by far, God bless him, I never intended to review only new books, however, so bare with me.

How I Found This Book: Do you know, Im not sure? I think its one of those convoluted social networking messes, like a guy who knows a guy invited me to Ning network and I followed him back on Twitter and then he mentioned Keene, and I was like, I want more writers I love, so I went out and picked up this book. (Internet ties always make me think in run-on sentences.)
That said, let me tell you, I really really wanted to love this book. I wanted to pick it up and love every goddam page of it and eat if for breakfast and run out and buy everything Keene ever wrote and be a fangirl and run screaming through the rain to get to the front of the line at book signings.

So, you know, the fact that I actually kind of hate this book A LOT makes the possibility of those other things happening pretty slim.

Lemmie see, a book with a construction worker, a old priest, and a ex junkie ex hooker team up to save the construction workers son from the zombie hoard? Where the hell do I sign up? I usually hate the synopsis on the back of the books. In this case, I actually wish the book fit its back cover. Alas, not so much.

The Good: Erm. Well. You know, um. Okay, thats not fair. To be fair, this book has a lot going for it. Keenes got a real gift with sensory detail, which is important in a zombie novel. There are things in the book that are really truly gross in an enjoyable way, and I think that was the writers intention. At one point he describes the smell of a mans infected leg not unlike a microwaved hotdog. I dont know if this is completely true, but it sure was vivid. Ill also note that this is a first novel, and maybe some of the problems I had with it had more to do with Keene exorcising some demons then any actual defect in his personality. Who knows, right? Also, there are some KILLER ideas in there. Sentient zombies? Check. The host of Hell? Check. The military going crazy and trying to take over? Check. A heartfelt search to save a mans estranged son? Well, most of a check.

The Bad: The problem is, none of those good ideas got followed completely, while Keene instead chose to focus on a strange rape fixation and this weird all people are bad, or if not, theyre dead philosophy that seemed forced. Time and time again, the characters run into people who have gone from normal to people to mustache twirling evil in the few months since the dead started to walk. I understand that without civilization, people are likely to get WAY more selfish and blah blah, but Keenes focus seems to all but ignore the zombies and focus on the evil that men do in such cartoonish fashion that I imagined the demonic zombies sitting on the side lines going hey, were over here yanno. Well rape, pillage and eat you too if youd just give us a little attention.

When I was talking to my husband about this book I had a long, feminist rant about how disgusted I was by much of the stories fascination with taking sexual advantage of the main heroine, but I think Ill spare you. Suffice to say, when Keene decided to describe in detail a gang-bang followed by urination on the woman I assume Im supposed to identify with, I threw the book across the room. And dont even ask me about the Meat Wagon, a brothel on wheels that the National Guardsman build to turn every woman they run across into a sex slave. Im sure a busy man like Brian Keene isnt going to read this, and if he is, Im sure hell dismiss it because its a bad review, but really, Brain, man, lighten up on the women, huh? We want to be your audience too. If you really think this is the way men would behave when society falls, I weep for your outlook on life.

So why did I finish reading it? I guess I kept hoping the last few pages would be some kind of pay off. That Id get some reward for the disgusting cartoon I had read that far, but alas, I was never satisfied. The book brings you right up to the point where you find out if the construction workers son is alive or not, (you know, the reason Im reading the book in the first place? The story?) And thats it. To the door, no further.

The damn thing didnt end.

I dont know if I was expected to make up my own ending, or if I was expected to read the sequel as a result, but I can tell you one thing, I LIKE open endings and cliff hangers. I did not feel like this was either a cliff hanger or open ended. To be perfectly honest, I feel like the ending was a cop-out. Like Keene had lost his real story some where along the sadistic-rape-happy way and couldnt bring himself back to it in time to end the book. But what the fuck do I know, right? This guy has had a dozen novels published, and Im still 0 for 0.

Who Will Like This Book: I want to say something snide like, not anyone I want to be alone in a room with, but thats probably unfair. I know hes got a hell of a following, Ive checked out his fan community, but wasnt terribly surprised to see a lot of military or ex military men in the forums. Im sure they saw things in this and other books by Keene Im just not seeing, or maybe they just didnt see the degradation and humiliation I found so appalling. Thats not really for me to say, so Ill just say this; true to the back cover, this book is not for the squeamish.

Who Wont Like This Book: Other than me? Again, hard to say. I read some unnecessarily scathing comments on Amazon, but that wasnt a big surprise. I know my husband would hate it. I figure if you want a deep psychological look at humanity and their responses to chaos and damnation, this probably isnt the book for you.

Next Up: And in all together more thrilling news, I got my first ARC in the mail yesterday. I am SQUEALING with joy over that. Its Patricia C. Wrede Thirteenth Child. While I dont normally read YA, this was free and Im enjoying it so far. Sort of a young persons introduction to Steampunk or Weird West. Ill have a formal review in April, so keep your eyes peeled.

Originally published at In Other Words.

But What Have I Done for You lately?

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:56:05 GMT

What have I been doing? (Like you even care WHY DON'T YOU CALL?! /endmotherlyrant)

I wrapped up my latest freelancing work for Matt. It was a blast to write, and so I hope it doesn't blow entirely.</p>

Im still in my creative writing class, which is interesting or at least something like it. I'm going to give poetry another chance. (You know, as an reader, I have NO intention on writing it. At least, not outside of the scope of humor.)

I got published, and it would be a pro market if it wasn't limited to a 140 characters.

That's at Thaumatrope, brainchild of local dude-who-does-everything Nathan Lilly. (Who I hope and pray will update Spacewesterns again soon.) Yes, I see the error in it. That was, um, on purpose. Yeah. It was voice. Sure.

I had to remove the comments on my review of Stepsister because I kept getting the weirdest spam comments. I guess the spiders on the webs were searching for commercial links or something.

Im going to a writers conference here in May, which means I have to get Unhero up to snuff again. (Thanks again, JR, for looking it over.) I love deadlines. To paraphrase my favorite thought on the subject, I love the whooshing sound they make when they go flying over my head. I've never been to this sort of conference before and I have NO idea what to expect and I'll admit I'm crazy nervous about the idea.

Annnddd I need to update Tinas blog for the sake of my parents. Ill have something more substantive later.

Originally published at In Other Words.

Coolest Scariest Part of My Day

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 02:59:30 GMT

I'm blogging to day in crappy stick figure drawings to make my emotions perfectly clear.

Notes from today's stick figure blog:

The Philadelphia Inquirer

My Twitter

Now I just have to hope to someday find out when my nerd books will be out so I can seduce the paper into talking to me like I'm a real writer.

Originally published at In Other Words.

Challenge Answered, My Good Lady!

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 03:24:29 GMT

Sometimes I write fanfiction about people who really exist and who are in my life. The are not fictitious people, and while I fabricate the events-- mostly-- I rarely write anything that I don't think COULD have happened.

That said, today, I wrote such a peace in response to a contest about geektatude. You can read it here, and see the photo that inspired the totally-true-if-not-for-the-made-up-parts account that explains why JR Blackwell dances with Stormtroopers. I'll let you decide for yourself which parts are made up. (Hint: Not Much.)

This is not a challenge to Mrs. Blackwell, as I know well and good that the Missus is far geeker than I. Still, it had to be done.

PS. Yes, there are better ways I should have spent those thousand words, but not many.

Originally published at In Other Words.

Book Review: The Stepsister Scheme

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 06:00:23 GMT

(I might end up doing a lot of these, so here's a warm up and a great place to start.)

If you're anything like me, (what are the chances of that, really?) than you weren't satisfied when they told you at the end of a fairy tale and they all lived happily ever after.

No fucking way. There's no way a family like Cinderella's would be satisfied with her running off to the castle to be a princess. What about Sleeping Beauty's family, now a hundred years out of date with the rest of the world? You're telling me a child as pretty as Snow White goes out into the woods unmolested by seven guys who live all alone? No fricken way.

That said, Ive always puzzled over what happened after the tale ended. In case you missed it in my blogs before, Jim C. Hines was nice enough to write the book for me so I didn't have to bother.

How I Found the Book: Like most of the rest of the world, I read Whatever. When he mentioned The Stepsister Scheme, I immediately followed links around until I found Mr. Hines livejournal. Much to my delight, he was a thoughtful friendly dude with a down to earth approach to his career and his writing. The book was due out the next day, and I thought well hell, even if its bad, at least I bought a book and supported a nice guy.

Well shit, not only was it not bad, it was good. No, it was great! I picked it up in a Borders on the release day and started reading it while waiting for the bus to go home. I read it on the bus. I read it on the walk from the bus stop to my house. In fact, I barely put it down in the week it took me to finish it. (I read slow. This was a speed record for me.) I even read it aloud to the toddler and she got mad at me whenever I would stop.

The Good: I love Fairy Tale Princesses. I'm not going to lie to you. I love them in Disney, sure, but I love them in Grimms and even earlier tales. I love the blending of good feminine qualities and cleverness. I love that even when they are out witted, out matched or out gunned, a good fairy tale princess will endure thanks to her timeless grace. Grace, more as a state than a religious idea, really sings to me. I get the feeling that Hines feels similarly through his portrayal of Danielle Whitehall, the main character and his Cinderella. In short, her happily ever after soon isn't when a wicked scheme robs her of her new husband and possibly her life. It is, ultimately her gentle nature, her grace, and the love and faith in her friendships that really get her through.

Sounds like a stupid chick flick, I know.

It really isn't. The action is nearly nonstop, thanks in no small part to Talia, Danielle's companion and Hines answer to Sleeping Beauty. She a magically gifted dancer, and has over the years translated that dance into wicked deadly martial arts. Hines descriptions of Talia's movements in combat are first rate, I could easily picture each movement.

The Bad: If you're squeamish, or expect Bella Sera, The Book you aren't ready for this book. Hines pulls no punches when discussing the more disgusting sides of archaic culture. Riverside towns smell as bad as fish awful, and Hines does fantastic job of communicating that to the reader. At times, it feels like Terry Gilliam's Jabberwocky meets a Disney movie. (Which, its worth mentioning, I love, but I could see where some readers might get put off. Sissies.)

Who Will Like This Book: Anyone who loves kind hearted, deeply romantic heroines who love with a passion and wont hesitate to break their hands on a guys face to make a point will love this book. Oh, and did I mention Hines is a gamer? Yeah, I thought you'd like that.

Who Wont Like This Book: Haters. Men who've never gotten laid or are otherwise not comfortable around women. People with absolutely no feminine side. Possibly my husband.</p>

(For the record, I'm sure that-like my husband- there are rational, good, decent people who wouldn't like this book, but that isn't as funny, is it?)

Next Up: Brian Keene, either The Rising, his first novel, or Castaways, depending on which I finish first. (What is leisure fiction, anyway?)

Originally published at In Other Words.

Progress, the Novel Kind

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:41:38 GMT

I have a nice load on my plate right now, wrapping up some edits on UnHero, my first serious novel. (As serious as my novels get anyway.) I look forward to hooking up with J.R later so she can tell me how much it sucks and I can tell her how right she is.

I had initially gotten this last round of edits together with the intention of submitting it to a contest in early February. (This one, to be exact.) While musing over a chapter rewrite I still need to do, I went over some of the fine print and was made nervous by some of the details. The grand prize winner gets a contract with Penguin, which is awesome. Apparently though, that contract is non negotiable and includes a lot more rights then a writer with an agent might normally give up.

At least, that was my suspicion from my stalking reading various and sundry agents who blog. With that suspicion in mind, I wrote to an agent asking him what he thought about the contest.

To my total shock and surprise, this very busy literary agent wrote me back. He shared my concern about the number of rights they wanted, and he was concerned about what the contract itself would look like. He did say the percentages were all industry standard and that the contest was not a scam.

I gave it some thought, and still am, but I think this contest is for a different kind of manuscript than what I've written this time around. More importantly, I was surprised and delighted that this agent, who wouldnt know me from Adam took a minute or two out of his day to answer my question. (Except that I have breasts, and I dont remember the Bible mentioning that Adam had DDs.) Would that have happened before the internet? I dont know, but I really dont think so.

Anyway, thank you again Algore and your precious creation Teh Internets for the precious knowledge I have discovered within your tubes. Thank you also, Agent, for answering my question, though I doubt youll read this blog to know.

I guess Ill just have to sell this damn book the old fashioned way, by dressing it in a mini skirt and heels and sending out to the street corner.

Coming up: Book Reviews. No, really.

Bonus Question: Is it weird that my Creative Writing professor didnt know what the word ichor meant?

Originally published at In Other Words.

Wait, Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me About This

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:52:48 GMT

Okay, so I have a cape, pleanty on unnecessary leather clothing, and the ability to say things like, "Stop, for Justice!" with a straight face, why didn't anyone tell me about This?

I mean seriously, I am literally surrounded by real life super heroes. Why aren't most of you people registered? (Or are you and I'm just that out of the loop?)

Originally published at In Other Words, Reply Here or There.

Jesus, This Crap Again?

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 02:00:56 GMT

Somehow, my husband has convinced me that going back and finishing my two year degree is cheaper for us right now than paying back some outstanding student loans. He's probably right, and I guess I 'need' the education since I only seem to be getting so far with in my personal growth.

So, I start school again tomorrow and I am feeling very very mixed about it. Most of it's just online classes to satisfy some random person's idea of what a degree should look like. I am taking a creative writing class on campus in person with, I'm sure, a bunch of 18 year olds hoping for an easy A.

It might be awesome, and I probably shouldn't let my general hatred for the education system get in the way of my good time, but the feeling remains and I'm having a hell of a time shaking it.

In other news, I have a few things out to a couple of compainies, and I'm trying not to dismiss them just because it's taking longer to hear back than I want. I have no outstanding work and that's making me buggy. I can find my own work, of course, and I will, but contract work is just so much nicer.

I have a head full of romantic stories. I don't usually, and so it's strange to me. Maybe I'm in heat.

On that note,

TTYL

Originally published at In Other Words.

Biographical Fiction

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 01:04:35 GMT

Between Tina and the ocean were sand dunes of staggering size. Everything was staggering size when you were just under two years old. She had not known salt water since the womb. Still, the ocean called. The trip through the dunes was winding and lined with tall alien beach grass and birds whos call were entirely unfamiliar too her. What was more, the trip promised a new adventure.

She looked up to her mother with bright eyes and asked without language for permission to adventure. The sun that warmed her face grew temporarily eclipsed by her mother's towering shadow. Mother studied daughter, and with eyes sqinting in the summer sun, she nodded. "Go ahead, baby. Run."

Tina let go of her mother's hand, toes digging into the sand, and ran to follow the curve of a dune as fast as her legs would let her.

Quick Notes Before I Go Off to Edit

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:31:48 GMT

* If you are ever taking the 103 bus through suburban Philadelphia toward the 69th street transit hub, don't do it while holding a giant cup of scalding hot coffee. My delicate hands are still smarting, thanks bumpy road!!

* The Stepsister Scheme is turning out to be more awesome then I had hoped. Oh dear. There are going to be five of these!! (Mr. Hines, I can't decide if I love your or hate you!)

* If you're a Requiem player and reading this, please go immediately and order your copy of Ancient Mysteries. I can honestly tell you at this point this is going to be the most beautifully produced thing White Wolf has yet put out. I was blown out if my seat by it, really. If you aren't a Requiem player, you should be.

*The word 'seemed' needs to be stricken from my language forever. Really. Done with it.

TTFN

Originally published at In Other Words.

Princesses of Power? Holy Crap

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:45:31 GMT

One of the reasons I write is so someone has written the stuff I want to read. (Gee, I'd love to read a book that's one part Phillip Marlowe, one part Lovecraft and one part Forever Knight... Damn, I guess I'll just have to write it myself!)

Sometimes, I get really lucky and someone out in the world has taken the time to write something I want to read so that I don't have too. It looks like Jim C. Hines has done just that by writing a novel to satisfy my strangest childhood fantasy exposed to date. (I said fantasy, not fetish, thank you.)

In writing a book called The Stepsister Scheme, and if it's anything near as awesome as it's premise, I have reached girl-geek Nirvana. From Hines' website:

Cinderella--whose real name is Danielle Whiteshore (nee Danielle de Glas)--does marry Prince Armand. And if you can ignore the pigeon incident, their wedding is a dream come true.

But not long after the "happily ever after," Danielle is attacked by her stepsister Charlotte, who suddenly has all sorts of magic to call upon. And though Talia--otherwise known as Sleeping Beauty--comes to the rescue (she's a martial arts master, and all those fairy blessings make her almost unbeatable), Charlotte gets away.

That's when Danielle discovers a number of disturbing facts: Armand has been kidnapped and taken to the realm of the Fairies; Danielle is pregnant with his child; and the Queen has her own very secret service that consists of Talia and Snow (White, of course). Snow is an expert at mirror magic and heavy duty flirting.

Can the three princesses track down Armand and extract both the prince and themselves from the clutches of some of fantasyland's most nefarious villains?

Couldn't you just scream with excitement? Well, okay, probably not, but I can, and am! Of course, this isn't an endorsement, not yet anyway, I have to read it first, but it is a HOLY CRAP NEAT LOOKING BOOK ALERT!

I'll keep you posted on this once I've read it. (And Jim, if you're reading this, be careful poking around in my head for novel ideas I want to read, there are some scary places.)

Originally published at In Other Words.