RealityBypass

Okay, so I don’t have a Kindle 2.  I don’t even have a Kindle 1, but I have been very interested in the discussion points surrounding the text to speech feature.  The heart of this discussion is that the Kindle 2 is capable of reading out loud whatever text is displayed.  This is a wonderful feature for those who have reading problems due to loss of sight or other impairment, but it becomes a sticking point when you consider authors generally have separate rights for audiobooks versus printed books or ebooks.

I can see some of the argument from both sides.  Authors, any creative artist for that fact, should be paid for their work.  I want to become an author, I don’t want to see a system by which creative artists make a living get reduced to the point where the only ones who can survive are the ones on the tippy top.  So author rights need to be protected.  Much like the writer’s strike from last year where writers wanted to be paid for use of their materials online, authors should be paid for ebook and audiorights and they’re not the same thing.

But it’s a recession…things should be cheap and we all like free, right?  Yeah, right.  I do like free, but the old saying “You get what you paid for” runs very true as well.  Fanfic is fun, most fanfic is free, 95% of fanfic is BAAAAAD and if good authors can’t be paid for their work how long before the quality of what we’re getting tanks?  My problem here is the pricing which gets passed to the consumer can be an issue.  I like the idea of ebooks.  I don’t like the idea of paying 23.00 for an ebook, the same as a hardback.  Many of the costs of the book don’t exist in the same way once you’ve gone electronic, so why aren’t the savings passed on as well?…though that’s another rant.

So coming back to this one.  Yes, there needs to be a way for people who need the reading help to have it.  No, parents should not be penalized for reading to their kids at night.  But…all in all…

Authors need to be paid for their rights, audio, printed and ebooks.

Is there a common ground?  I hope so.  Anyway I’m interested to see where the discussion goes.

~Jana

This is book two in Anton Strout’s psychic detective series featuring Simon Canderous. I haven’t read it yet, but the first book was an absolute delight. Simon is intriguing and has an ‘edge’ but isn’t uber-powered like many heroes and heroines of Urban Fantasy. I love how he uses his small edge in big ways. I also love how Anton’s humor laces the entire book, it has laugh-out-loud moments and the subtle satire of the Bureaucratic american world is delightful.
Go buy it! Even if you haven’t read book one, buy both! This is one I’m certain any fan of Urban Fantasy will like and would be a great book to give a relative to introduce them to the genre. The first novel is low violence, low sexual content, high in humor and mystery so it’ll appeal to most readers.

We’ll have a more comprehensive review once Jana and I read the book.

Deader Still  on sale at Amazon.com
Review of Deader Still:

FROM THE AUTHOR:

It’s been 737 days since the Department of Extraordinary Affairs’ last vampire incursion, but that streak appears to have ended when a boat full of dead lawyers is found in the Hudson River. Using the power of psychometry—the ability to divine the history of an object by touching it—agent Simon Canderous discovers that the booze cruise was crashed by something that sucked all the blood out of the litigators. Now, his workday may never end—until his life does.

Hiya folks!

As promised, we have an interview with Debut Author Giles Kristian for your perusal. His upcoming novel, Raven, will be available from Amazon.com UK this month and is open for purchase in the US in October. He’s also multi-talented, and was the lead singer for the pop group Upside Down in the nineties. Anyway… without further ado, we have… the interview.

Vital Status:

Lives:  England
Webpage: Giles Kristian
Books: Raven: Blood Eye
Genres: Historical Fiction

From the mouth of the author:

1. What made you choose the Viking Era for your novel? What is it that you think will appeal to modern readers?

I chose the era because, being half Norwegian, I have always been fascinated by my own heritage. I admire these men, these Vikings, who dared to take open, clinker-built vessels across seas that even a modern day yachtsman with all his technology would not take lightly. I think modern readers will appreciate their hardiness and daring, their ambition and their skill. They lived and died on the edge, which is, I think, very exciting.

2. What is the strangest, most bizarre fact you learned about the Vikings in your research?

According to the early saga writers, the first man and woman came from the sweat of a giant’s armpit. Not a very glamorous beginning then, and hardly the Garden of Eden. We should be glad they had not invented antiperspirant back then!

3. What’s the one thing that you think modern readers should adopt from the Viking mode of living or code of Honor?

Perhaps one of the reasons why the Vikings were so dynamic is that they seem to have been fatalistic. My characters believe that the patterns of their lives have already largely been woven and so they live without fear. If you believe what will be will be, you can truly seize the day and live each one to its fullest. Of course, you might also take terrible risks that become your undoing!

4. We all know it’s easy to get distracted when a project is taking its own sweet time to bubble.  What is your Achilles heel when it comes to getting distracted from writing?

When you’re writing historical fiction it can be hard to know when to stop reading (as in research material) and when to get on with the writing. Other than that, I get distracted by anything from the washing and the gym, to Facebook and emails. I like getting distracted. I wander what’s for dinner. Oh look, there’s a bird. Ahem, so…er…where was I?

5. I’ve heard of inspirational eating, so when you’re settled in to get things done is there a particular food that you just have to have on hand? 

We have a family cottage in the Norwegian fjords and being there brings me as close to the world I write about as it’s possible to be. I will buy a leg of cured lamb and cut slices from it to munch on during the day, knowing that the Vikings would have enjoyed the very same taste. Catching a nice fish in the fjord and eating it for dinner also sets the scene. However, I draw the line at sheep’s head and the rotten sharks the Icelandic Vikings used to eat.

6. What does it take to write a really good villain?  Do you ever find yourself in a mental space that scares you or makes you wonder if that really came out of YOUR head?

I think good villains are the ones that have something about them that makes you think they might actually have a sense of honour and morality. You think they might show mercy this time. Then, of course, when it really comes down to it they don’t! Few people are inherently bad, but villains consistently do ‘bad’ things. I think it’s important to show they are multi faceted just like any person. Knowing what I am capable of writing, I have never scared myself, but I have scared my mother. She was the first to read RAVEN and when she had finished she texted me calling me a ‘filthy heathen savage.’ I took it as a compliment of course.
 
7. Which of your characters gave you the most trouble and was the hardest to write for?

Raven himself is the hardest to write. The first person narrative means I can never tell the reader what any other character is feeling or thinking. Everything has to come to the reader via Raven and this can be exhausting to write. Also, I try to get outside of my own skin, as I don’t want Raven to think and feel exactly as I would. Having said this, I’m sure I’m in there somewhere.

8. We all have darling lines or paragraphs in our stories.  Stephen King even says we should kill them.  What is your most favorite murdered darling from any of your books?

There was a scene in the first draft of RAVEN Blood-Eye where Raven finds a cave in a forest and explores it with Asgot the wizard and Sigurd their jarl. In this cave there is a pool into which the three men peer. Strangely however, Raven cannot see his own reflection. It was quite a spiritual scene but my agent thought I should cut it. Highlighting and then deleting that whole scene felt terrible, although I think I still have a version of the manuscript with it in.

9. What is your worst writing habit, the thing which you keep telling yourself you’re going to change and you do it anyway?

 For some reason I almost always finish my day’s writing half way through a sentence. Then the next day I wonder what I was going to write. It really is

10.   If you were going to interview another author, whose brain would you want to pick?

I think Bernard Cornwell is a masterly storyteller. His historical novels seethe with excitement, but never get bogged down in historical detail, despite being superbly researched. Also, I’d like to get inside Stephen King’s mind, though I wouldn’t want to stay for long.

From the mouth of Sigurd:

1.   What is the best piece of advice you’d give to other characters to survive when shanghaid by violent warriors?

Shieldwall! If we suddenly find ourselves under attack I will yell ‘shieldwall!’ and my men will rally, overlapping their shields in front and above to create a ‘hutch’ that is proof against missile weapons. Then, when the time is right, we will raise my wolf’s head banner and advance together with swords, thrusting spears and axes. You will see my enemies quake with fear.
  
2. What is the best way to vanquish your enemies?

The best way is to burn your enemy’s hall with him and all his men asleep inside it. Once you have killed his drunk sentries it is just a question of starting a good fire and guarding the doors with archers and spearmen. In this way you can kill thirty men and lose not one.

3. Describe your feelings on loyalty and brotherhood? What lengths should a man go to for his brothers?

A man should be happy to go to Valhöll, Óðin’s hall of the slain, for his swordbrothers. If you cannot rely on the man beside you in the shieldwall you are all doomed. If you die a good death you will see your friends again in Valhöll. You will drink again with your father and your father’s father. Who does not want this? But a coward will wander the darkness forever.

4. Is there a happily ever after on your horizon, or is true love only for those sappy romance books?
 
When I die I will have woven a tale worthy of remembrance. Men will talk of Sigurd’s Fellowship around their hearth fires for many years to come. Young men jealous of our renown will make their own fellowships and take to their dragonships in search of glory and fame. When I die it will be no straw death. It will be by the blade and with my own sword in my hand. That way Óðin’s death maidens will know that I am Sigurd of the Wolfpack and they will prepare my seat in the great meadhall, Valhöll. This will be my end.
 
5.   Do you believe in any Gods or religion? Magic artifacts? Religious relics of power?
 
There are objects of power. I have seen those followers of the White Christ waving their crosses in the heat of battle. I have seen men display the heads of defeated enemies at their gates. I have known a man with a bear’s head tattoo who believed that this seidr gave him the bear’s strength and spirit. I have seen hundreds slaughtered over a gospel book. If a man believes in something, be it a god or a book or a lump of wood, then that thing is a powerful thing indeed.

This week I’m reading Tanya Huff’s Blood Price.  I know there are those of you out there who will mock me, but it was at the library and is an easy read.  However fifty pages into the book I want to whap the author for the repeated references to how the heroine plays with her glasses.  Yes, the heroine has bad eyesight and needs glasses, I get it.  Yes, glasses are annoying and you tend to play with them.  I wore them for years and only recently went to contacts, so I understand the habit, however, I don’t need to be reminded every third paragraph. 

So it got me thinking as to when a trait is appropriately establishing a character and when it’s overkill.  So, gentle reader, what are some of your favorite examples of character traits and habits taken to the extreme?  Am I the only one who eventually gets annoyed with the hair flipping, glasses adjusting, cigarette lighting up phrases?

~J

This week I got one of those things which all writers dread getting, a rejection letter.  It was a form letter and from an agency which was lower on my list of best fits for my WIP, but still one of those letters I didn’t exactly want to get.  Rejection is never fun, but especially when it’s over your creative baby, well…I ate ice cream. 

After the ice cream I found the best thing I can do is to take rejection for what it’s worth.  It’s not a rejection of me, but something about the piece.  Whether it’s a technical problem or just not a good mesh.  So my job after being rejected is to work harder, polish my craft and move along.  As for the title of rejecting rejection, it’s not meant in a mean way, lashing out against those who rejected the piece, but rejecting the pessimistic feelings which come with it.  The ice cream helps, but mostly it’s good just to get back to work, make it better and move forward.

Revisions ho!  And revisions now.

~Jana

        Hiya folks!

Well I wanted to share a trailer Jana and I were just sent by debut author Giles Kristian. His novel Raven: Blood Eye  is released February 26th in the UK and Oct 27 in the US! We’ll be interviewing him soon, so keep tuned! 


From the Press Release of the Novel:

For two years Osric has lived a simple life, apprentice to the mute old carpenter who took him in when others would have him cast out. But when Norsemen from across the sea burn his village they also destroy his new life, and Osric finds himself a prisoner of these warriors. Their chief, Sigurd the Lucky, believes the Norns have woven this strange boy’s fate together with his own, and Osric begins to sense glorious purpose among this Fellowship of warriors.Immersed in the Norsemen’s world and driven by their lust for adventure, Osric proves a natural warrior and forges a blood bond with Sigurd, who renames him Raven. But the Norsemen’s world is a savage one, where loyalty is often repaid in blood and where a young man must become a killer to survive. When the Fellowship faces annihilation from ealdorman Ealdred of Wessex, Raven chooses a bloody and dangerous path, accepting the mission of raiding deep into hostile lands to steal a holy book from Coenwolf, King of Mercia. There he will find much more than the Holy Gospels of St Jerome. He will find Cynethryth, an English girl with a soul to match his own. And he will find betrayal at the hands of cruel men, some of whom he regarded as friends…

Enjoy the following video trailer:

 

Hello there gentle reader.  I have not dropped off the face of the earth, contrary to popular belief.  Things just got really busy there for a few days.  Much thanks to Kristen for not strangling me and keeping on with the blogging in my absence.

This week I get to talk about one of the things which has been distracting me in the last day or two, namely Jim C. Hines The Stepsister Scheme.  This book caught me at just the right time and the right mood.  If you are stressed and wanting a delightful story to take your mind off of…well…everything, The Stepsister Scheme is wonderful brain candy, though it’s candy with richness and bite.  This isn’t dime store taffy candy, but a solid mint truffle with some staying power.  It’s a book I’ll read again, and I’m already clearing budget space for The Mermaid’s Madness in October.

In a nutshell this is the story of what happened after ‘And they lived happily ever after…’  Three princesses, three fairy tales and two step sisters looking for revenge and dabbling in the dark arts to get it.  This story of how Cinderella saved her prince with help from Sleeping Beauty and Snow White was a good balance between relying on the previous stories about all three of these ladies and building new personalities and a new story around them.  I am highly impressed with Hines ability to give each of the women involved solid personalities and abilities which mesh well together without any of them being the super invincible kick-ass chick.  Not that I don’t love my kick-ass heroines, but I loved watching these three work through their problems with not only fists and magic, but also love and wits.  It’s a fast read and there are enough twists to keep it interesting all while hoping for another ‘happily ever after.’

One of my favorite quotes from the book sums it up nicely.  “Do we look like we need to be rescued?”

Rating:
Genre:  Fantasy/Fairytale
Age: Adult/Teen
Content: Mild inuendo
Overall:  Buy this puppy!

You know how all those old fairy tales take you through lots of scary adventures till you finally reach that inevitable line:  “And they lived happily ever after…”  Guess what?  It’s not true.  Life in never-never land isn’t all sweetness and light.  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?

Hiya folks,

Tis Kristen again!

Today Jana and I were discussing on if there’s a “Secret” to success and what is it? What made “Twilight” this rabid craze when other novels and series didn’t pick up as much steam? Particularly when you read Stephen King’s comment on JK Rowling vs Stephanie Meyers, which has unleashed a fury on the internet of “Author bashing”. It leaves me mildly bemused and bewildered. Read up here:  Author Bashing

I personally ascribe the Wild Hits compared with the Mediocre Sales to that elusive “Luck”. You do, of course, need the talent to create a good story and present it well and the hard-work to research the market and sell your book, but for every 100 good books out there, maybe only 1 reaches critical aclaim and amazement. The household names: Stephen King, Dean Koontz, J.K. Rowling, Anne Rice, Nora Roberts, etc. etc. managed to tap into something that sells, but it’s back to the question of why?

I read young adult books, and I have a series that I’ve read until it was tattered. The “Wild Magic” series by Tamora Pierce.  It has the adventure, sorcery, magic and True Love… centered around a young teen girl who has a coming-of-age and grows into her power, all while being supported by the man of her dreams (It just takes her a bit to figure that out….) Tamora Pierce has tons of fans, but she hasn’t reached the ‘craze’ status of Meyers or Rowling.

I’m lead to believe it comes down to… having a book that is marketed properly and manages to get in the hands of the right people, at the right time to launch it onto the national scene. It gets plugged by celebrities, which stirs it onto book club lists, or it causes some mild controversy… which gets people talking. All of that… I feel is a heck of a lot of luck. (Jana doesn’t agree with me, so I bet we’ll get to hear her thoughts on this topic soon too!)

I also feel that means that a book doesn’t have to be Famous or have Rabid Fans to be considered good. So if your book isn’t causing internet-fights, hey… don’t be discouraged Getting published is part of the battle!

What’s your take on it?

Okay… so yeah.

This weekend (and week) was a pain in the royal butt. Beyond the really fun visit from a friend, who normally lives in California, everything else just was a Friday the 13th for me.

I started my week with food poisoning Sunday night that lasted til Monday morning. I don’t know what of my meals messed me up, but I was miserable. This meant no work on Monday, because… I didn’t get to sleep til nearly 5am. The middle of the week went deceptively well, enought to get me off my guard for when Friday the 13th rolled around. Normally I’m not bothered by 13, my apartment number is 813… and I actually kinda like it. Means other folks are too spooky to rent this one, and so I got a good deal. My sister’s lucky number, and my grandmother’s, is 13.

But yes… so Thursday night rolls around, and I have classes late at night. This means walking through Houston’s 3rd Ward (big crime neighborhood) to get to my car. It’s still on campus, but the third ward is just about 2 blocks North. I get an escort, a nice guy in my class, don’t worry! Anyway… so I say goodbye to my escort, get in the car and… back out. Strangely the car doesn’t back out easily, it’s just… sluggish. What the heck? I step out of my car and discover… 1 flat tire on the driver’s side. But the car wasn’t listing sideways, so… I go to look on the passenger’s side and indeed there is Flat Tire Number 2.

So now I’m thinking my tires are slashed. You see… it’s pitch dark, because the lights on the building next door aren’t working today and I have no functioning flash light (I had plans to pick up batteries on Saturday). Also, the fuse blew on my cigarette lighter so my portable air pump is also non-functional. (Also had plans to pick that up on Friday) So… I call the campus police, which take 40 minutes to get to me, call my grandfather to come sit with me while I wait for the tow truck, and call the tow truck (which means like… 45 minutes on hold). And so… then I wait for my friend Doreen who also agrees to come sit with me, until someone who can help me gets there. Annnyway so… it turns out that the air was just let out of the tires, which prompts the police to ask me if I have enemies. Um… not that I know of? I drive home.

Next morning, one of the tires is flat /again/. I decide to now take it over to the mechanic’s, but they tell me there’s nothing wrong with the tires, someone is just letting the air out of them. They found a small gold cap on the tire that was flat, which was probably rigged somehow to let the air out of the tire… but they couldn’t find the mechanism for doing it.

Oh and my cat had a flare-up of her Irritable Bowel Syndrome too…. I don’t think I need to go into details.

So… yes.

At least I bought myself DDRmax2 and Gauntlet Legends as a consolation.

(~Kristen)

Hiya folks,

It’s Kristen again. Jana got busy so you get to hear my musings yet another time. I was thinking about the elusive concept of “Chemistry” and how that works in your average romantic sub plot. I’ve read novels where I simply didn’t understand why the protagonists got together, beyond the fact that it was just “how the book was supposed to go”.

I think Chemistry between characters comes from first, a believable attraction. Your protagonist has to notice her or his potential love interest in some flattering way. She has to have a reason to be drawn to him or her. This reason can be internal (she really likes curly haired skinny goths…) or external (they’re just so charming no red-blooded-american girl/boy could resist them). But most of all, they have to be noticeable and intriguing. Then you have to put the characters in situations where they’re forced to either learn more about one another or rely on one another. They have to have logical and believable reasons to interact. That way, even if they know that Person X is “the wrong person to be around” they have plenty of convenient ways to convince themselves that meeting up makes sense.

Finally… the characters have to be like-able and give something to one another. Completely one sided relationships always fall flat. Your heroine has to gain something emotionally, financially, situationally or all of the above from being involved with this second character. In return the love interest has to gain something as well. There has to be mutually beneficial growth for two characters to truly have the chemistry that makes the book work. They have to have reason to either like eachother, or… to compliment eachother in ways that make the reader smile.

(~Kristen)