The Walrus Said

Shortlisted

2009-09-11T19:33:00.004-04:00

Well, well, well. I was one of the six winners at the Novel Matters Audience With an Agent contest. The six lovely ladies who write for that blog (and who are all with the Books & Such Literary Agency) sifted through a slush pile of applicants and selected six to be forwarded to agent Wendy Lawton.

OK, you might be saying, why do you need a contest to query an agent? And the answer is: you don't, of course. But I suspect an agent is going to take a closer, harder, longer look at queries (complete with synopses and first chapters) that come with a recommendation from six people whose taste in writing she respects. She is also promising feedback, something you don't normally get with a query. So I am well-pleased, and very grateful to have been selected.

And, as any writer knows, a shot of affirmation now and then is a wonderful thing. Especially when it comes from professionals.

Gift horses

2009-08-28T16:17:00.001-04:00

It might be time to rethink that old proverb "Never look a gift horse in the mouth". Or that seems to be the theme of today's Odd News.

So here, for your entertainment and edification, are three reasons why you might just want to have a look at that horse mouth after all.

#1. Because if you don't, it might bite you. Floridian police use stimulus money as a lure to catch criminals. They say it's a lot safer to draw the criminals to them rather than go after them in their homes.

#2. Because it might be a Trojan horse. Several state governors received unexpected laptops they didn't actually order. After the first shipment, they suspected a mistake. After the second, they called in law enforcement. None of the laptops were ever actually turned on. Turns out they were ordered with bogus accounts. It will be interesting to find out what kind of Greeks were hiding in there.

#3. It might not even be a horse at all. Dutch officials are dismayed to discover their treasured moon rock is just a piece of petrified wood. So did the US ambassador know it was a scam when he gave the "moon rock" to the Dutch prime minister? Looks like somebody is going to have to pull out all their diplomatic skills to explain this one.

Further thoughts on writers' conferences

2009-08-24T17:56:00.000-04:00

Ah, if Janna says jump, we jump. What is it about that girl?

So here are my thoughts on writers' conferences, as far as they go. Please keep in mind that this is based on my very limited experience, so feel entirely free to correct me or expand on what I've said.

If you are well-informed on the publishing industry and how it works, if you read the blogs of editors and agents, frequent online writers' forums that include experienced professionals, read books on writing and participate in some form of critique groups, chances are you won't get a whole lot out of the scheduled workshops, or at least not most of them. Aspiring writers are the bread and butter of these conferences, and much of it caters to them and is therefore at a pretty basic level. But not all of it. I found Jeff Gerke's continuing workshop for novelists to be thought-provoking. I bought his book The Art and Craft of Writing Christian Fiction and will probably buy his interactive DVD The Writer's Foundation. I found the exercises he had us do in the workshop (which were taken from the DVD) quite useful.

Actually meeting an editor was also useful, if only to hear the near-surprise in her voice when she said that I had an interesting premise. She also gave me the distinct impression that it was not right for her publishing house, despite her favourable impression. Oh well. There are other publishing houses.

The main value of most conferences is the opportunity to network, both with fellow writers and with industry professionals. To get the most out of a conference in that regard, you need to choose a conference at which the participating professionals are ones who are most likely to be interested in and knowledgeable about the kind of book you are writing. And you probably need to go for the duration of the conference. The one-day, in-and-out kind of thing that I did is really not the best way to go about this. I did manage to make some connections, but I think it would have worked much better if I'd had more time to develop them.

So there you go. Any wisdom to add?

Quote of the day

2009-08-18T17:50:00.003-04:00

Our speculations about Shakespeare are almost as multifarious and foolish as our speculations about the maker of the universe, and, like those, are frequently concerned to establish that his works were not made by him but by another person of the same name.

- Dorothy L. Sayers

Hat tip to Novel Journey

Looking for a literary agent

2009-08-14T18:35:00.002-04:00

I've been answering a lot of the same questions lately from aspiring writers wanting to know how to find an agent. Finding I'm not much of an expert on, but I can help with the looking part.

To start building a list of agents, two really great resources are AgentQuery and QueryTracker. Both are searchable databases, enabling you to find out quickly who represents what.

QueryTracker, as you might guess from the name, also allows you to make up a personalized list and keep track of the status of your query. The data from all users are compiled to provide statistics on how quickly agents reply, how often they request material, and so on.

After making a tentative list, you should research each agent individually. Check their agency websites and make sure they represent the kind of book you've written, who their clients are, what they've sold. This information is usually, although not always, more up-to-date than other sources.

Check to see if they're a member of the Association of Authors' Representatives. This isn't essential, but members adhere to a set of ethical guidelines and have a record of sales, so it is generally a good sign.

And scurry over to Preditors and Editors (yes, the misspelling is intentional - think about it) to find out if the agent you covet is known as a scam artist. They're classified alphabetically by first names, in case you're having trouble finding your way around.

If you're looking to get a Christian book published, Michael Hyatt of Thomas Nelson has posted a very useful list of agents they have dealt with.

Last but not least, head over to the Absolute Write forums and check out the Bewares and Background Check section to get additional information on specific agents and agencies. You'll get lots of useful information, including comments from writers who have dealt with them.

You can also find out some pretty incredible information by Googling. Like which agent is a belly dancer, who writes about jazz as a hobby, and who they hang out with on MySpace.

Have fun looking, and feel free to add your favourite resources or ask questions in the comment section.

I'm baaack

2009-08-09T20:48:00.001-04:00

OK, so nobody knew I was gone. Fair enough.

I spent Friday at the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers' Conference, which was a first for me. Saturday, as predicted, I crashed. Not surprising, seeing as I attended two panel discussions, skipped a third in favour of a serendipitous encounter, attended a two-hour "boot camp" with editor Shannon Marchese, two teaching sessions with Jeff Gerke, and of course, two meals and various hobnobbing sessions. A lot for someone with fatigue issues.

I'd never been to a writers' conference before and I'm still absorbing it. And I'm wondering if it was a good use of my time.

The panels were so-so. The questions posed to the editors were very basic, things the participants should have known if they'd done any research. Google is your friend, people.

On the other hand, Jeff Gerke's continuing session on advanced fiction writing was great. Really. He's a good teacher and makes things very clear. I'm working my way through his The Art and Craft of Writing Christian Fiction right now. The boot camp with editor Shannon Marchese was also very interesting, if somewhat less organized. I took a lot of notes, so I'll be able to review that one.

What conferences are about more than anything, of course, is networking. It was nice to meet in the flesh people I'd only known online, even if the meeting was all too brief. I also met new people, several of whom were insanely nice. You know, the kind of people you don't feel you deserve to meet, they're so nice. Three in one day has to be some kind of record.

As for concrete results, that remains to be seen. I don't need them to consider the conference a success though.

Anybody want to share with me what kind of benefits (or not) you've reaped from conferences?

The power of story

2009-07-31T13:39:00.004-04:00

My son's band was auditioning for the right to play the main stage at a local festival. American Idol-style, these second-round auditions were open to the public. My son's band was playing the last set of the evening.

There was just one problem. One of their guitarists had already committed to playing a nursing home (yes, you read that right) earlier that evening. But they figured he'd be able to turn up on time. It would be tight, but he'd make it. When set-up time came, he still wasn't there. They set up as slowly as they possibly could, and the MC was as helpful as he could be, hamming it up and even singing a song of his own to keep the audience engaged. Still no guitarist, and there was just no way to delay any longer. So they picked a song in which his contribution wasn't too central, improvised a bit to fill in the holes, and performed the song.

Still no guitarist. This is only a four-man band, so it matters.

They looked at each other, picked another song, and started in. What else could they do? And then, partway in, the missing guitarist came sprinting up the aisle, bounded onto the stage, plugged in his guitar... just in time for his solo. It could not have been better timed if they had deliberately staged it.

And they won the competition. One of the organizers told them afterwards that they were serious contenders from the outset, but once their performance turned into a story, and one with a happy ending at that, they were a shoo-in. This despite the fact they were not a local band, and the audience vote counted for 50% of the final outcome.

And that, my friends, illustrates the power of story about as well as anything could.

Contest for science fiction/fantasy writers

2009-07-27T22:48:00.003-04:00

Tor UK, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, is holding a contest, War of the Words, to find the next big thing in SFF. That's science fiction and fantasy, for the uninitiated, but if you didn't know that, this blog post probably isn't for you anyway. ;o)

You need to have a completed manuscript in the 80-150K range, plus a full synopsis (they still haven't defined what they mean by that, but I'm guessing that 1-2 page deal isn't going to cut it). You have until August 20 to submit the synopsis and the first three chapters.

We had a rather lengthy discussion on the contract terms over at A Dribble of Ink and have more or less come to the conclusion that it would be a decent contract. Victoria Strauss of Writers Beware has given it her Imprimatur in a private email too, so go ahead, send in your opus. There's no entry fee, so what have you got to lose?

From first to last

2009-07-26T13:10:00.001-04:00

Noveldoctor has a contest going on. He provides a choice of first lines and a choice of last lines, you provide the words in between, to a maximum of 400. And he's actually got real prizes.

It's all for the fun of it more than anything else, as well as learning how to get from Point A to Point B, but it looks like fun. Entries have to be in by the 31st so sharpen your cyberpencils and start typing.

And subscribe to his blog while you're at it. It's fun and useful. Well, sometimes it's useful.

What librarians REALLY do at conventions

2009-07-25T15:02:00.003-04:00

Everything you didn't want to know about library conventions and refused to ask. But I'm telling you anyway. Or rather, showing you, because I don't expect you to take my word for it.

Hat tip to the Bookninja via Moonrat.

Question: where did they rehearse?

Join my Twibe

2009-07-23T16:30:00.003-04:00

I know, that sounds totally pathetic. But I am not responsible for the way people name these things. Twibe = a twitter tribe. A twibe is a good way to have a focused, on-going Twitter conversation. In this case, a conversation about Christian fantasy.

If you're on Twitter, go to http://www.twibes.com/group/ChristianFantasy and click to join. Then you'll be able to read the Twibe posts. Now this is not just an amalgamation of all posts by all members. It will only include tweets by members that contain the keywords CF or fantasy. If you post directly from the Twibe website, you can choose to have it appear only on Twibes and not in your Twitter feed, if you're concerned about flooding your timeline with too many tweets on the same subject.

So, in short, the Twibes website will monitor the tweets by members and post all those that contain the keywords. Members go to the Twibes website to follow the conversation. Sort of like a mini-forum.

So come join us.

A last look at book trailers

2009-07-13T21:03:00.000-04:00

Well, last until I find something genuinely new to say. As you may recall, I have come to the conclusion that book trailers are more likely to hinder sales than help them, unless the trailer itself is so brilliant that it goes viral. Since then I've seen a couple of decent ones that probably did not hurt sales, but I'm really not sure they will help much either.

But for anyone interested in more informed opinions, check out this post in which various publicists give their various opinions of book trailers.

Writing a sequel

2009-07-04T14:31:00.000-04:00

It's trickier than it looks. Or at the very least, trickier than I expected.

Finding the right place to begin a story is always a bit difficult for me. And I'm discovering that it's even harder when I have a previous story to build on. I have such a sense of who these characters are and what they've been through that I leave out information that new readers are going to need. And I throw too many characters into the mix too soon.

After thoroughly confusing my crit group with my opening chapters, it was clear that a simple tweak wasn't going to fix the problems. I had to start over, to a point where I could introduce the characters and situations in small doses. In my case, that meant actually overlapping with the end of Disenchanted, the first book.

Technically speaking, Suffer a Witch is not really a sequel. It is another story, set in the same world, following on the heels of the events of Disenchanted, but with no single story arc.

Can you think of any sequels where this kind of transition was handled gracefully? Or have you written one? What did you learn?

When reviewers hand you a lemon

2009-07-01T16:06:00.001-04:00

You can choose to get bitter and downright nasty, as Alice Hoffman recently did. She got so incensed about a mildly critical review that she fired off no fewer than 27 nasty tweets, including one that revealed the reviewer's address and phone number so that Hoffman's fans could protest directly. Um yeah. If you believe that no publicity is bad publicity, that was quite the stunt. Publicity it got her. Respect, not so much.

Or you could, like Brad Meltzer, make lemonade. His soon-to-be-released novel, The Book of Lies, got panned by a number of influential critics. And this was his hilarious response.

I don't know about you, but I know which book I am more tempted to read.

How's that Espresso machine working out?

2009-06-30T13:36:00.000-04:00

The book machine of course, not that I think coffee machines are insignificant. And yes, I have been obsessing about this machine, but I really think its impact on publishing could surpass that of digital publishing. And we all know how much press that is getting.

An independent bookstore in Vermont has had the EBM for a while now, and reports in on how that's working out for them. So far, so good.

They were hoping that there would be a wider selection of books available from the machine by now, but have been pleased to discover that in the meanwhile, self-published books have been taking up the slack for them.

While I always realized that self-publishing would be possible with the Espresso Book Machine, it never occurred to me that it would be that significant. It sounds like this will be a viable alternative for self-publishers, short-circuiting a lot of the scam artists out there. Not that it will make marketing a book any easier...

Thanks to Dominique Benoit for bringing this to my attention.

Digital Dragon Magazine

2009-06-29T11:25:00.002-04:00

There's a new kid on the Christian speculative fiction block. Digital Dragon has launched its inaugural issue, so click on over if you'd like a look at some free fiction. If you're thinking of contributing, they are not a paying market.

I've only read one of the stories and it was decent. I do note that the copy-editing could be a little more rigorous, but I'm kind of anal that way. I still think spelling mistakes look amateurish.

But draw your own conclusions as to the quality of the stories. I haven't read enough to have a firm opinion.

Latter-Day Cipher - a review

2009-06-25T15:02:00.000-04:00

I stand shamelessly in line when any of the ladies from Novel Matters starts giving away books. When they stop, I will even resort to buying them myself. In the case of Latter-Day Cipher I managed to snag a signed copy.

This is a murder mystery with a heavily Mormon flavour, not too surprising seeing as Latayne C. Scott is a former hard-core Mormon converted to evangelical Christianity. I don't read a lot of murder mysteries, so I'm going to try to tread lightly in this review. I neither love nor hate the genre, but for a mystery to really appeal to me, it has to be more than a puzzle in words. I want much more of an experience when I read than that. And Latter-Day Cipher delivered.

We find out in the opening chapters that a prominent - and virulently anti-Mormon - member of Utah society has been murdered, and the body arranged in a bizarre and ritualistic fashion. Selonnah Zee, a Tennessee journalist who thought she was going to Utah on vacation to visit her news anchor cousin, gets called on to cover the case. Other murders and weird incidents follow, in each case accompanied by messages written in an obsolete, 18th-century Mormon alphabet. Selonnah finds herself researching the connections between the murders and former Mormon practices, much to the chagrin of her cousin, a convert to Mormonism who becomes the spokesman of the Mormon Church in regards to the murders. At the same time, many of the characters are in a state of spiritual flux, and their questioning is an important part of the story.

Scott, as a former Mormon herself, treats her characters with respect. While Mormon doctrines are questioned, the people are never belittled.

Three reasons you might like this book
1. A deft use of language, especially in descriptions. Scott's prose is often beautiful, and her eye for unusual but apt metaphors is superb. She tries a little too hard once or twice, but the vast majority of the time, the effect is enchanting.

2. You get an insider's glimpse into the Mormon world. It almost reads like a novel set in an exotic locale. Scott's expertise shines through here, and if you like discovering new cultures, you will be well-served.

3. Well-rounded characters who do not conform to facile stereotypes. This delighted me, personally. Selonnah is a good reporter, but you wouldn't think of calling her hard-bitten or driven. Her cousin, Roger, while fitting the stereotypical image of a news anchor (but don't they all?) has a lot of complex undercurrents going on, particularly in the relationship with his wife. The only woman described as beautiful is nonetheless big-boned and convinced of her own lack of charm. The delightfully named and supremely annoying Lugosi has more in common with Dwight from The Office than Count Dracula, and the man with the over-charged sex appeal is no womanizer. None of them can be summed up in one cute sentence.

Three reasons you might not like this book
1. The reveal of the killer's identity is done in a rather unorthodox, almost anti-climactic manner. Now, I don't read many mysteries, so maybe it wasn't that unusual, but I found it a bit odd. Seeing as I had just come to my own conclusions, it didn't irritate me, but the shift at that point from mystery to thriller didn't quite work for me.
2. You might not like so much space being devoted to Mormon beliefs, although their impact on the story is direct. Spirituality, both corporate and personal, is an important part of this story, and some readers might say it's excessive.
3. No romance or love interest for the main character. Sorry. On the other hand, the marriage relationships of several characters are immensely important, but Selonnah is in town to visit her cousin and cover a story, and that's what she does. Personally, I rather preferred it that way, but your mileage might vary.

Three sentences from page 33

Lugosi wheezed a welcome explanation for why she'd been summoned. "You always wanted to use your criminology background with your reporting, Miss Society Page." His breathing sounded like leaking fireplace bellows pumped painfully through a bunch of hollow cocktail stirrers.

Other reviews
Gorelets (third of three, scroll down)
Christian Bookworm
Conniebrz.com

Too funny

2009-06-16T18:55:00.002-04:00

When was the last time a TV commercial made you howl with laughter? This one did it for me. Which might say disturbing things about me.

This story reeks

2009-06-12T21:37:00.002-04:00

How often do you look for themes when you're reading stories? Or watching movies? Not very often, I'll bet, unless advanced studies in literature permanently warped your ability to enjoy a story. I was already an avid reader before I got a degree in languages and literature (which I enjoyed immensely, I might add) so I never lost the ability to just roll around in a story for the sheer joy of it.

But one thing they were right about in those classes, every story around is just reeking with themes.

"What is a theme?" you might ask. (One thing I love about readers of this blog is that they always ask the right questions at the right time.)

The theme is the other answer to "what is the story about?"

Last night we sat and watched Back to the Future yet again and I suddenly was struck by it.

"This isn't a movie about time travel," I said to my long-suffering husband, "this is a movie about learning to have self-confidence." All I had to do was say it. It was like waving a magic wand. Self-confidence issues suddenly sprang up all over the movie like dandelions in spring. Both Marty and George had fears of being rejected, fears they expressed in identical language, in case you were tempted to miss it. Doc Brown gains the confidence necessary to push his research to a successful conclusion by the revelations of a visitor from the future. When George McFly reaches deep within himself to find a courage he didn't know he had, his whole future changes. The bad-guy vice-principal is a bad guy because he specializes in destroying self-confidence.

See what I mean about stories reeking with theme? Did the writers of the script sit down and say "Let's do a movie about finding self-confidence"? I sincerely doubt it. But it was obviously something that mattered to them a great deal, because it was everywhere in the story.

The Incredibles is, on the face of it, a story about super-heroes. But it's also a movie about finding your place in the world. The list of characters struggling with this issue comprises most of the main characters: everyone in the Incredible family (excepting the baby), the villain, the father's best friend... (Sorry, I forget the names. I'm bad for that.) If you've watched the special features, you know that even in the scenes that never made the movie this is an issue, as the mother becomes infuriated by the snooty neighbours who despise her decision to stay home with her family. When the main characters resolve their issues and assume their proper roles, the story is over.

Or take Harry Potter. A recurring theme in all seven books is the value of marginalized people, from Harry's band of misfit followers to Severus Snape to Harry himself. The despised ones become the means of salvation. You can hardly turn a page without finding echoes of this theme. (Ironically, this is a theme you'll find all over the Bible too.)

The plot is the mechanics of a story, its bones. The theme is its beating heart. As a writer, you don't have to go looking for themes to "insert" into your story. It will be there, beating under the surface, whether you notice it or not. You'd be hard-pressed to keep it out.

Any other themes you've noticed in other well-known stories? Have you ever been put off by a theme?

Ever been surprised by the themes in your own work? Have you ever consciously tried to write a theme story?

Hm, I just noticed that ever single one of the stories I've cited fall under the banner of speculative fiction. I don't think this qualifies as a theme, but it's certainly a recurring motif. Make of that what you will.

Which fantasy writer are you?

2009-06-10T07:13:00.000-04:00

I don't usually do online quizzes, but sometimes one comes along that I just can't resist. I mean, I just HAD to find out which fantasy writer I was like, right?

Ursula K Le Guin (b. 1929)

31 High-Brow, -9 Violent, -19 Experimental and 4 Cynical!

Congratulations! You are High-Brow, Peaceful, Traditional and Cynical! These concepts are defined below.

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is definitely one of the most celebrated science fiction and fantasy writers of all times. Her most famous fantasy work to date is the Earthsea suite of novels and short stories, in which Le Guin created not only one of the most believable societies in fantasy fiction, but also managed to describe a school for wizards almost three decades before Harry Potter. Although often categorized as written for young adults, these books have entertained and challenged readers of all ages since their publication.

Le Guin is no stranger to literary experiments (see for example Always Coming Home(1985)), but much of her story-telling is quite traditional. In fact, she makes a point of returning to older forms of story-telling, which, at her best, enables her to create something akin to myth. One shouldn't confuse myth with faerytale, though. Nothing is ever simplified in Le Guin's world, as she relentlessly explores ethical problems and the moral choices that her characters must make, as must we all. While being one of those writers who will allow you to escape to imaginary worlds, she is also one who will prompt you to return to your actual life, perhaps a little wiser than you used to be.

I was positively popping my suspenders with pride. Then they added:

You are also a lot like Susan Cooper.

If you want some action, try Michael Moorcock.

If you'd like a challenge, try your exact opposite, C S Lewis.

Hold on just a minute! What are they talking about, Lewis is my opposite? I LOVE Lewis.

I am hurt, deeply hurt.

But you know, you really know, you want to try it, don't you?

Thanks to Grasping for the Wind for pointing me in the direction of the quiz.

Terminating textbooks

2009-06-09T15:55:00.003-04:00

It looks like I'm not the only one who believes that digital books will find their first mass market penetration in the classroom. Arnold Schwarzenegger intends to give a legislative push to market evolution and obligate California schools to buy eBooks for texts, in an attempt to save the state money.

"It's nonsensical and expensive to look to traditional hard-bound books when information today is so readily available in electronic form," Schwarzenegger wrote. "Especially now, when our school districts are strapped for cash and our state budget deficit is forcing further cuts to classrooms, we must do everything we can to untie educators' hands and free up dollars so that schools can do more with fewer resources."

The devil is in the details, they say, and I'm sure many jurisdictions will be watching to see if the Governator actually saves the state money. If he does, you can be sure that there will be many imitators. It goes to show that hard times tend to stimulate innovation, as the status quo becomes too uncomfortable to maintain.

I am cautiously favourable. I've thought for some time that the textbook industry was abusive of students, both in terms of expense and of weight, and if there's a practical way to change that - and if publishers are farsighted enough to embrace change willingly - this could turn into a win-win situation. If I were a smaller publisher of textbooks, I would be rushing to see if I could jump in ahead of the big boys and gobble up a significant part of the market ahead of them.

What do you think? Is Schwarzenegger visionary or deluded? Will the peripheral costs erase the financial benefits?

The Company - a book review

2009-06-04T12:38:00.001-04:00

Well. That was different.

It's really hard to say much at all about my impressions of The Company by K.J. Parker without giving away far more of the story than I generally like to in a book review. So if you want to read this book and like to go in with few preconceived notions, I suggest you read only the next paragraph and then quit.

The Company is purportedly fantasy, but the only "fantastic" element is the fact that it takes place in an undefined country in an undefined time, although the culture and technology are clearly that of late medieval Europe, minus any mention of religion. That might be its greatest claim to being a fantasy as opposed to an alternate history. The book is more a psychological drama, centered on General Teuche Kunessin and four men who are the survivors of the A Company, an elite group of pikers, legendary for their skills in a military role close to that of a suicide squad. The war has been over for seventeen years and Kunessin returns to his home village to reassemble his former mates and found an idyllic colony on an island he has managed to procure. Once on the island, things do not go as planned. The long-forged bonds between fighting men who faced death together countless times are powerful, but they are tested to the limit.

Parker's writing is powerful, especially in the beginning, when he (I'm assuming it's a he, because the writing feels masculine to me. Parker is a pseudonym.) evokes the bonds between men in a marvellously indirect way. He creates an enormous amount of sympathy for the men and Kunessin in particular and made me very curious as to what would come of them and their project to form a colony. He then takes the rather unusual tack of whittling away that sympathy, by gradually turning over one rock at a time and exposing the nasty creatures underneath, until about two-thirds of the way through, I had pretty much lost the motivation to read on. I stalled, quite frankly, and if had been a library book instead of a purchased one, I don't know that I would have picked it up again. Your mileage may vary. I eventually did get to the end, wondering how the author would recreate sympathy for the characters. Suffice it to say he didn't.

Three reasons you might like this book
1. You like a dark, gritty, complex read. Having said that, if you're looking for explicit sex (or any sex for that matter beyond a couple of oblique references) or gory violence, you're not going to get much. The grit here is all located in the human soul. Don't look for facile stereotypes; you won't find them. Even the women, who are secondary or tertiary characters and therefore painted with few strokes, cannot be reduced to single characteristics.

2. You admire a writer who is in command of his craft. Parker evokes emotions, he doesn't name them or wallow in them, thereby making them all the more powerful. I found his descriptions well-done too, never glaze-inducing. A sentence or two of carefully chosen words create the picture of a character or a setting in our minds, without ever over-loading the tolerance of description-averse readers like myself. If anything, it could have used more, and that's not something you'll hear me say very often!

3. You appreciate accuracy in technical and military detail. Parker has done his homework, and it shows. He doesn't go into the interminable detail that Tom Clancy does, but I suspect that you'd be hard-put to find errors in his engineering, science, or military technology. Not that I checked, but it had the ring of truth.

Three reasons you might not like this book
1. You like a happy ending. You won't get it.

2. You want to really engage emotionally with a character. This might be the book's greatest weakness. Parker systematically demolishes the connections you might feel with the A Company till you hardly even want them to succeed. The women had huge potential here, but he failed to exploit it. His tendency to understate emotion did him a disservice, as he shied away from emotional issues that could have provided powerful fuel for the plot. Judging from the obvious skill that Parker writes with, I can't help but think that this was a conscious choice. I think it was ill-advised.

3. One or two of the plot points felt rather contrived to me, in particular the events that centered around a mentally imbalanced wife. I can't say more without giving away too much, but it felt pretty gratuitous to me, no matter how much it had been foreshadowed.

Three paragraphs from page 33

"You do that," Kunessin said. "Tell him it'll be cash, no bills or letters, just silver money. That ought to make a difference, I'm sure."

The old man studied him for a while. "I thought you said you were in the army," he said. "Where'd you get that kind of money?"

Kunessin smiled. "From dead people," he said. "A great many of them. I'm at the Glory; leave a message for me there as soon as you've talked to this man, all right?"

Other reviews
Fantasy Book News and Reviews
SFF World
Blogging for a Good Book
Grasping for the Wind

Crafty author

2009-05-28T07:34:00.001-04:00

I was twitting Patricia Wood over on her blog a while back, informing her that she was not allowed to die because she had not yet signed my copy of Lottery. No, I cannot remember the context for that particular piece of idiocy and I can't find it either. And yes, you should go buy her book, not just because she's a webfriend of mine, but because it's a fine piece of writing. Don't take my word for it; it was short-listed for the Orange Prize.

Anyway, back to the point. She immediately rectified that terrible oversight by offering to send me a bookplate. (For the uninitiated, a bookplate is basically an autographed sticker you can put in your book to instantly turn it into an autographed copy.) Through a series of confusions on my end, it took me a while to get it, but I finally got my hands on it yesterday. Except it was a them. She sent me one personalized bookplate and several others with generic greetings.

What is a girl supposed to do with extra bookplates? As it happened, I was in a bookstore that afternoon, and what should I spy but a stack of her books on a table of bestsellers near the door? (See, I told you it was good.) My natural brilliance asserted itself, and I said to myself, "There's a good place for those extra bookplates." The manager was equally struck by my brilliance. Okay, I'm assuming. He said that the bookplates would be welcome, or words to that effect.

Very pleased with myself, I emailed Pat to tell her of my brilliance. She was very impressed. Okay, so she told me that's why she sent them along. So she was brilliant before me. I am still brilliant, right? (Somehow this story isn't going quite the way I meant it to.)

Anyway, I am impressed with her brilliance too. She didn't ask me to do anything, but let me think of it on my own. Now those books will sell more quickly because most people are very pleased to get a signed copy of a book. And I have stowed away another gentle marketing technique for the future. And I have an autographed copy of Lottery. Thanks, Pat.

By the way, there is still no Wikipedia entry for Patricia. Any Wikipedians around who can do something about that?

And now for something totally cool

2009-05-12T07:03:00.000-04:00

I don't know if I can quite rise to the idealism of the Playing for Change people, but this is still a very cool project and some very, very cool music. I present "One Love", Song Around the World.

More thoughts on the Espresso Book Machine

2009-05-11T16:04:00.001-04:00

The more I think about this machine, the more I feel it will ultimately be good news for the publishing industry and especially for authors.

With print-on-demand arriving in retail outlets, we could soon see a seismic shift in the publishing industry. The whole notion of print runs could become obsolete, and the publisher's role become one of gatekeeper, designer, and promoter, with production and distribution concerns falling away altogether. I actually think that this could mean that the publishing house name could become more important, not less. It would become a guarantee of excellence, or of catering to a specific niche, much like Tor Books now.

A bookstore could be a simple home for the machines, or a larger retail outlet, with local favourites already pre-printed for the convenience of customers, looking much like present bookstores. The choices would certainly be fewer, but that wouldn't matter, because they would be backed up by the almost infinite choice of the book machine. I am assuming here that there would be a unique digital distribution channel, with all retailers having equal access. That is a huge assumption. Publishing houses could try to restrict distribution to their own retailers, which would create a very different dynamic.

In either event, I think it is good news for authors. There would be less need to sell immediately, with the current paleolithic returns system no longer distorting sales pressures. An author's reputation could be built slowly, gradually picking up speed, without a publisher feeling obliged to abandon debut authors who don't burst out of the gate quickly enough.

With this greater freedom to take a long-term view, publishers' promotion efforts could be both more focused and more spread out. More focused, because it would be easier to track where and when a book is selling (with up-to-the-minute statistics) and adjust promotion accordingly. More spread out, because we would no longer be dealing with a narrow window of opportunity and a publisher could continue marketing efforts for years, tailoring promotions to specific groups. We get a glimpse of what this could look like in the newsletters put out by AbeBooks, the online "clearing house" for thousands of used book sellers. AbeBooks will respond to current news and interests, featuring books - many decades old - that speak to the same issues. Because they are not restricted to recent releases, they can do thematic promotions much better than retail outlets.

For more information on the Espresso Book Machine, check out OnDemandBooks. I notice that the 2.0 version is already much prettier than the machine seen in the video, although I think they should have chosen coffee colours, myself. The word Espresso and the colour blue just don't go together.

How do you think book machine would change your reading and buying habits if it becames the industry norm, or at least a common utility? And if you are involved in the publishing industry, what changes do you think it will bring to what you are doing? Do the possibilites excite you or frighten you?