Book Review: A Local Habitation – Seanan McGuire June 30, 2010
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Hallo dear readers and welcome to another episode of Monsterpiece Theater… Wait, wrong brain. It’s a Wednesday, it’s hump day and time to talk about another book from the shelves of bookishness.
A while back I wrote about Rosemary and Rue which is the first book in the October Daye series. Today we’re talking A Local Habitation which is book two. Like book one this was a book that left me with seriously conflicted emotions.
On one hand I still love the world building going on here and I feel like there are some seriously cool things still to come. There’s a wealth of backstory and history. Each book gives me new character types and mythologies. I love these books.
On the other hand I find that Toby does things that make me want to shake her, especially when she’s supposed to be a PI/mystery heroine and not a horror heroine. There are some of the secondary characters which all kind of blurred together until I wasn’t sure which one was who without going back and reviewing when they were introduced. I find I expect UF to have more character driven umph and that may be part of why it strikes me as odd. I figured out who done it long before Toby had a clue. I don’t love these books.
So see? I’m all conflicted and stuff.
In the long run I know I want to read the next one and I’m really tempted by the zombie apocalypse series she’s written as well. So we’ll keep going and see what happens…
(And I have a need to snuggle Tybalt…just cause he’d squirm.)
A Local Habitation
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Age: 14+
Content: Violence, death, some minor sexuality – mostly kissies.
Overall 3.5/5 paws
Meet the author Monday: Jackie Kessler June 28, 2010
Posted by kmcalear in Author Interview.add a comment
Repost October 2008
Hallo my freaky darlings and welcome to another episode of UF October and Meet the Author.
We’re going to take care of a few housekeeping details first, then right onto the interview with Jackie Kessler author of the Hell on Earth series.
Housekeeping: <<Snipped as Out of Date>>
Now, getting onto today’s author interview we have with us Jackie Kessler, the author of the Hell on Earth series and co-author of the upcoming Black and White series (2009). *cue cheers*
Vital stats on Jackie.
Lives: We have confirmation that she is, indeed, living and not one of the undead!
Webpage: Cat and Muse – Not only does she feature her own books, but she’s got some of the best character and author interviews I’ve read. Visit often.
Books: Hell on Earth Series – Hell’s Belles, The Road to Hell, A Hell of a Time, Hotter than Hell, Hell is Where the Heart Is, When Hell Comes Calling. Black and White.
From the mouth of the author:
Do you have a day of the week that is your most creative day? Or do all the days just gang up and attack you all the time?
Actually, the days and I work quite well together. It’s those damn nights that get all disruptive. “Hey, Kessler’s finally sleeping. Let’s spring the great idea on her now!” Sigh.
What is your favorite supernatural critter and why? No, it doesn’t have to be one you write about.
Dragons. I have a dragon collection at home. It’s gotten pilfered, alas — the collection, not the home — because my Precious Little Tax Deductions decided they like dragons too. I guess they look like Pokemon or something. (The dragons, not the Precious Little Tax Deductions.)
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?
Me? I have incredible focus. When I’m really in the zone, nothing can tear me away from— Oh, look. Bunnies!
With the holidays coming up and October being a good kick off, what is your favorite Halloween activity?
Eating trick or treat candy. (And I’m not ashamed to wrestle it away from those kids who come begging at my door. Man, they’re like castaways from OLIVER TWIST.)
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?
Coffee. Or chocolate. But not chocolate covered java beans; I guess that’s too hardcore for me.
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?
The best villains are the ones who are heroes in their own minds. Because then, they have real motivation to do the evil things they do. Nothing like a psychopath with a mission to really make you go eek. Of course, some of them also moonlight as heroes. And that’s not to say the Chaotic Evil character (to nod to my D&D past) can’t be a fabulous villain. God, look at Heath Ledger’s Joker in THE DARK KNIGHT. Utterly terrifying. And incredibly fascinating. You **can’t** kill a character like that.
As for writing villains…hmm. No, I haven’t had the “Holy shit, what the f–k is WRONG WITH ME for creating a character like this???” moment yet. But so far, all of my villains have had a purpose (other than beating the snot out of the protagonists). If I can at least understand a character’s purpose, that dilutes some of the Eek Factor for me as an author. Although I did write a short story once that was narrated by a sociopath, and I had to stop writing it for about two years before I could finish it. (The story is quite terrible, by the way, and rightfully unpublished.)
Which of your characters gave you the most trouble and was the hardest to write for?
Oh my God — when my characters decide they know which way the story should go and damn the author, that’s when I have a really hard time.
Stop looking at me like that. I’m not crazy.
Okay, so here’s the thing: I like to visualize when I’m writing. I like to see, to hear, to feel the scene before I set my fingers to the keyboard. It helps me get in touch with the characters’ voices. So it’s not so much that it’s hard to write for certain characters — it’s getting them to shut up that’s the trick. (See the above about the 3 am Great Idea.)
That being said, when I switch POV characters, it can take me a while to shed the previous character from my writing. For the upcoming Hellvella (a Hell on Earth novella, natch) in A Red Hot Valentine’s Day (Avon Red, January 2009— plug! plug!), I have two first-person POVs: Jezebel and Daunuan. I had to write the Daun scenes and the Jezzie scenes separately, then weave them together. The characters didn’t mind. Hey, they got lots of nooky out of the deal, so they didn’t complain. (Um, did I forget to mention that this is an erotic novella?)
Stephen King says we should murder our darlings. What is your most favorite murdered darling from any of your books?
In The Road to Hell, I had a chapter that I killed when that particular storyline wound up taking a different turn. In the killed chapter, Jesse and Angel go to a magic shop that offered real magic items along with the schlock. So as they are waiting to talk to the manager, Angel rummages through a collection of DVDs:
She was over by the rack of DVDs, holding up one case. “This mystic claims to teach mortals how to self-levitate, but it’s all trickery.”
“That’s what the bulk of this place peddles,” I told her. “Illusion.”
She looked over at me. “But he claims to be an angel.” She lifted the case to show me.
“Sweetie, that’s just his name. Criss Angel. He’s not saying he’s a for-real angel.”
“He’s not? Oh.” She squinted at the cover. “He’s pretty enough to be one, even with the black hair…”
What is your worst writing habit, the thing which you keep telling yourself you’re going to change and you do it anyway?
Starting something and not fini
If you were going to interview another UF author, whose brain would you want to pick…or consume, we’re not picky.
I’m lucky enough to have interviewed a number of UF authors—or, no, actually, Jezebel has interviewed a number of UF characters, including Rachel Caine’s Joanne Baldwin, Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden, and Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse. I would love, love, LOVE to have Jezebel interview Neil Gaiman’s Death. Or—dude, could you imagine a conversation between Jezebel and Desire? Man. Bets on how long before the talking stopped and the body language started…
From the mouth of your character Jezebel:
Boxers or briefs? You know I had to ask.
Heh. As long as they come off, it really doesn’t matter.
Since no one seems to be able to stay out of gore-covered trouble how do you get the blood stains out?
Hey, blood stains are quite the thing in certain circles.
It seems most UF characters get a wardrobe I’d kill for. So what is your favorite article of clothing?
Heh. As long as it comes off, it really doesn’t matter.
What did your author screw up most about you?
Jackie? Oh sweetie, I could write books about how Jackie’s books about me aren’t even close to the real thing. First of all, she stuck me in a human body that’s barely tall enough to shop outside of the petite section in Bloomingdale’s. And I’ve got an overbite. Come on, When I was a succubus, I could look like anyone. This just isn’t fair. And then, she went and gave me all this angst about loving a human while I’m still lusting after a demon…I mean, please. Who are we kidding? They’re both doable. End of discussion.
Is there true love on your horizon, or is true love only for those sappy romance books?
And that, sweetie, would be telling.
Thank you Jackie! <<Snipped as out of date>>
Friday Flashback: Books in series June 25, 2010
Posted by kmcalear in Friday Flashback.add a comment
Friday Flashback: Repost from April 28, 2008
I am a big fan of Jim Butcher. I’ll just state that and get it out of the way now. In particular I adore his Dresden files series. This has been a matter of great amusement for several folks that know me. In one conversation it came up that I was reading, Small Favor, number ten in Butcher’s series. The friend I was talking to is a Robert Jordan fan and found it odd that I refused to read all 13 volumes of the Wheel of Time series, but yet I’d devoured ten Dresden books and have plans to accquire any others. (The latest news I read on Butcher’s site (www.jim-butcher.com) was that he was signed through book fourteen.) This set me to pondering why I was looking forward to more books in one series and running screaming from more in another.
The first difference that comes to mind is genre. WoT is High Fantasy and Dresden is Urban Fantasy. UF has a tendency to be a bit lighter in tone and a faster read, so I believe that contributes to my enjoyment of the set.
Next is point of view. Many high fantasy series use an omnicient point of view where the story switches around between characters allowing the reader to see the story from many eyes and see many aspects of what’s going on. This is interesting because of the complexity offered, but can again make for a slower read. I find I tend to have favorite characters and I groan when their thread is abandoned for half of a book and I have to wait to pick it up again. A first person or limited third doesn’t offer as many viewpoints and therefore fewer threads and complexity, but it tends to be easier to sink into the character point of view and follow through. If you like the main character this will keep you well and truly hooked, and if you don’t…well, you don’t keep buying more books hoping that the threads for the characters you do like will show up in this one.
Another issue that I have is character growth. I like seeing characters change and grow and remember the mistakes that have shaped them. In some series the character seems to freeze in time and repeat the same mistakes over and over again, never learning or becoming better people. It’s fine for characters to make mistakes, it’s actually part of what makes a character well rounded and relatable with, but to make the same mistake ad nauseum? That strikes me as being stupid, not funny and not a good character arc or series plot.
I also prefer series where each book is a contained episode. They all connect together and things that chronologically happened before will be referred to, or make a difference to what follows, but each book has a starting place a plot arc, climax and closing. The continual quest that just keeps going and going…I have patience for about 5 books and then I’m generally done.
I can think of other things, but these top my list. What about you, gentle reader? What aspects will keep you reading, and what will drive you away?
~J
Book Review: Rakkety Tam June 23, 2010
Posted by kmcalear in Book Review, Book Series, Children Books.add a comment
Rakkety Tam by Brian Jacques
Genre: Fantasy
Age: 13+
Content: Violence
Overall: 5/5 paws
Review: I discovered the Redwall series when I was in Junior High and used to fight my classmates for ‘checkout’ rights. In fact, whoever ran best in cross country used to get the first grab at the new books. I am pleased to say the books still delight me, even 15 years later. Brian Jacques’s storytelling reminds me of sitting down by a campfire or story time at school with a gifted tale teller. You know the ones, they do the voices and accents and even act out the parts as they tell the tale. Brian Jacques conveys that in text. This book made me laugh out loud, made me want to sit down to a feast (I swear! Everything in these books sounds amazing… can I have Hotroot soup and dandelion cordial? Ooo or Strawberry fizz!), and also made me tear up once or twice I will admit. Be fair warned, characters die, they fight, they thieve… but it’s all in the swashbuckling tradition and good does always triumph in Redwall tales. This particular tale delighted me with a new addition to the Redwall landscape, “highland squirrls” that are essentially Scottish Warriors with fur and a bushy tale. That is one of the most delightful aspects of the Redwall storytelling, the UK accents and cultures interwoven with the various woodland animals. The tale is much the same as most Redwall tales, vermin attack and the goodbeasts defend, but each time is as entertaining as the last. We meet all our good friends, Skipper of Otters, the Guosim, the Long Patrol… and a new season at Redwall Abbey. It’s a fun summer read, or if you’re talented with voices this would be an ideal series to read aloud to your kids. (I love the moles, burr aye! or the Hares, wot wot!)
Tap tap tapping at my chamber door… June 22, 2010
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As I was headed off to work, running just a little behind, I heard a very loud thud strike my window. Startled, and thinking the cats had broken something or tried to escape, I rushed out into the living room only to see…
This…
Yes, ladies and gentleman, that is a hawk hanging from my window! My cat, Cleo, nonchalantly glanced at the window and laid back down. Apparently she wasn’t too concerned that a baby hawk had just tried to eat her. I, on the other hand, was concerned. How was I supposed to get this big (and very taloned) bird OUT of my window screen? I considered oven mitts, but realized quickly that wouldn’t work.
Meanwhile…
Our friend the bird has awakened himself and is now looking around, extended wings. I still have no idea what to do. I see one of the maintenance men walking by, who stares at me… staring wide eyed down into my window. He spots “El Halcon” and is equally surprised. The bird now manages to get himself down, shredding my screen in the process.
The maintenance man and I get together and I herd the bird towards him, and he picks up our friend the hawk. The bird is so startled, he first hisses at his new friend but soon relaxes and is cuddled up against him. I was very impressed with the gentleman’s knowledge of birds, he covered the hawk’s eyes with his hat to calm him down, and soon he had a feathered buddy. The hawk was taken by apartment maintenance to meet up, and make the travel across town to Katy to the rehab clinic. I hope he’s doing well.
Meet the author monday: Anton Strout June 21, 2010
Posted by kmcalear in Author Interview.Tags: Anton Strout, Dead to me, Simon Canderous
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I’ve always wanted to say that and Urban Fantasy October seems a good time to do so. <<Snipped: Out of date>>
As promised today on Reality By Pass we’re beginning our UF Author Interviews, coming to you every Monday and Friday for the entire month of October! Many of our authors blog over at The League of Reluctant Adults or Fangs, Fur and Fey and have pages of their very own which we’ll provide links to as we go.
Opening our series is the author of Dead To Me, the much picked on, though he tells me it’s not his fault, Anton Strout! *Cue applause*
Vital Stats on Anton:
Lives: Somewhere on the East coast in one of those big city type places.
Webpage: Undead Approved
Books: Dead to Me, Deader Still (2009), The Dimension Next Door (ss) and Pandora’s Closet (ss).
And now let’s get to the interview, which was a lot of fun for me and I think Anton may have enjoyed himself too…or he’s a big faker!
From the mouth of the author:
Do you have a day of the week that is your most creative day? Or do all the days just gang up and attack you all the time?
Trying to do a book a year around my day job, I can’t afford to lay my writing time into any one particular day. So I try to write most nights around my hectic schedule of DVR watching. I like background noise when I write, so I don’t mind it on, but I find the best time of night for writing for me is the 10pm to about 2am slot. I don’t sleep much, haven’t for years.
What is your favorite supernatural critter and why?
I am fascinated by a lot of critters, HOWEVER, I am a big fan of zombies… the slow kind. Why? At first they seem kind of comical with their herky jerky stumbling around, and easy to get away from. But over time, you will tire and no matter how far you run, they WILL keep coming. Zombies to me are the slow march of inevitability towards death. Fun!
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?
It don’t take much. First distraction? Goddamn interviews!!! I keed, I keed… I’m a big gamer, so I find new games all the time. I’ve weened myself off of MMO’s like Star Wars: Galaxies and EverQuest 2, but I still find time for the Lego series and the Rockband one as well.. although right now I am scaring the crap out of myself playing BioShock
With the holidays coming up and October being a good kick off, what is your favorite Halloween activity?
Well, my day job happens to be at my publisher, Penguin Group USA, and each year we have a 5th floor Halloween throwdown… everyone decorates their departments.. there are prizes, food, and booze. I guess my favorite part of it is seeing how many girls show up as catholic school girls… bonus points if they are undead!
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?
Nothing I must have, although the Diet Coke is always nearby. Now if I was gaming, there’d have to be Mountain Dew and Cheeto-s, possibly Doritos. However, if anyone would like to send me PEZ, I wouldn’t say no to that.
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?
Being Joss Whedon? I’m being somewhat serious there. I think writing a good villain means figuring out the why of them.. why do they want to be evil… why do they want to rule the world and I think Joss exceeds very well in that regard. I also would like to model myself after that because I do like a bit of tongue and cheek in my urban fantasy series, so my villains sometimes fall prey to mocking their own trappings as a villain. The danger in that is when I fail to achieve that with the reader or they take my lampooning of my own genre as serious, which then makes it look like I was going for a stereotypical villain when I’m ripping the back out of them instead.
Which of your characters gave you the most trouble and was the hardest to write for?
I think my main character, Simon, is hardest to write for. It’s hard to write someone who is the hero yet vulnerable without coming off as whiny. He has a bit of arrested development so at times he can act like a petulant child or makes back choices, but that’s more from his trouble with his powers of psychometry growing up than anything. I think the hardest thing to write is a character who is likable but is full of faults at the same time.
Stephen King says we should murder our darlings. What is your most favorite murdered darling from any of your books?
Sigh… I’m a mass murderer in that regards.. I kill my darlings all the time. I think a lot of writers want to shout at the world “LOOKITMEE, LOOK HOW CLEVER I IS BEING!” and I find those moments in myself. I am, however, prone to being my own harshest critic, so I spend a lot of time debating being clever vs. serving the story. Is what I’m writing for a purpose that forwards my book of is it being clever for cleverness sake… Nothing I write is cast in stone. I know I can suck on the page, and I try to do my best to beat the suck out of it.
What is your worst writing habit, the thing which you keep telling yourself you’re going to change and you do it anyway?
My worst habit is that I don’t outline enough. As I write, I try to be somewhat chronological in my storytelling to see what develops, therefore, I ‘m hiding the end of the book from myself. As I get closer to the end of writing it, it all materializes, then I go back through and write in all my justifications leading up to that conclusion. I need to outline more to make that process easier on myself ,but I am also wary of outlining too much because then I feel like I’ve written the story in 10 pages of notes and am not compelled to tell it in 300 pages.
If you were going to interview another UF author, whose brain would you want to pick…or consume, we’re not picky.
I’ve talked to Jim Butcher a little bit, and I’d love to pick his brain some more because we seem to be in the same ballpark, although I had never read him before embarking on Dead To Me. I’ve read a few of them now and we seem to have the same bit of humor going on with our paranormal detectives, so I think it would be fun to do brunch… or to kill a man together, either/or.
From the mouth Simon Canderous (Dead to Me):
Boxers or briefs? You know I had to ask.
Well, you’re forward, aren’t you? Um… I go with boxers personally. I need a little flexibility out in the field. I’ve gone through more pants thanks to ectoplasm and claws, and frankly you don’t want to be going commando when some thing that goes bump in the night takes a swipe at you.
Since no one seems to be able to stay out of gore covered trouble how do you get the blood stains out of your clothing?
Don’t tell anyone in the Department of Extraordinary Affairs this, but this girl over in Greater & Lesser Arcana has been learning a few cantrips to help with that… until then, I ended up throwing them out.
Speaking of clothes, It seems most UF characters get a wardrobe I’d kill for. So what is your favorite thing article of clothing?
I go with the black leather knee length coat, but I think that stems from watching a lot of Angel on Buffy. It works kind of like leather armor at times, and it also hides the retractable steel bat I wear on my belt pretty well. Given what I deal with on the job, I buy them bulk. I go through about three a week.
What did your author screwed up most about you?
Well, I certainly wouldn’t mind getting laid a whole lot more.. ahem! *shakes fist at the sky* Thanks for the sexually crippling psychometric powers, asshat!
Is there true love on your horizon, or is true love only for those sappy romance books?
I believe in love, but I seem to end up more on the business end of peril instead, you know? Life expectancy in the Department isn’t that long, so if it’s going to happen, I hope he makes it soon…
Thank you Anton and Simon! Now, get out there and get reading! Simon is waiting for you!
<<Snipped: Out of date>>
~Jana
Friday Flashback: Bad Grammar (a rant) June 18, 2010
Posted by kmcalear in Friday Flashback.2 comments
Repost from April 24, 2008
Why is it that adults cannot use basic grammar? I know that when you get into the nitpicky details of ‘who or whom’ and transitive and intransitive verbs, that’s not the realm of your average adult. But have we completely lost the art of proper writing in this media world? What I don’t understand is the fact that people can speak perfectly well, but when they try to put something on paper it begins to look as if they’ve barely been taught their own language.
I see this mostly on match.com. I’ve read the profiles of educated people: engineers, doctors, salesmen, lawyers… and the level of grammatical incompetency astounds me. I can forgive the occasional their vs they’re or it’s vs its, but the disregard for typos, capitalization, basic spelling rules and sentence order is amazing. Once upon a time, an educated man or woman was expected to be able to write cohesive, intelligent letters. Is it the speed of e-mail communication that makes us hurry to finish?
Some examples, so you can weep with me (punctuation errors were intentionally maintained):
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She was gentle, but she let you know when she was’t happy with.
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Could I please request you to say a pray for the food crisis it is really bad.
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A friend of mine on the other side if Houstons wife has a horse
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No worrys about late replys.
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I would like to find a girl that is like me in interests but different in other ways so that we complement each others, no real specific just somone who like to live life to fullest.
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well someone who is hopefully a goth. a female of course.
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im just a simple man who trys to live life to the fullest
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just the same as me and likes to take care of them selves and clean and neat person, who likes kids and likes to explore life and all that is around us.
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I’M A PRETTY COOL GUY TO HANG OUT WITH. (Yes, the entire profile was all in capitals!)
Book Review: Changes – by Jim Butcher June 16, 2010
Posted by kmcalear in Book Review.add a comment
Today’s review is Changes by Jim Butcher
Genre: Urban fantasy
Age: Teen, adult
Content: Violence
Overall: 5/5 paws (Kris)
Kris Review:
Changes is a cliffhanger. We’ll start there. I usually hate cliffhangers but this one was superbly done, because it resolved the plotlines well and the cliffhanger actually opens a new plot. In the most recent Dresden novels I found myself annoyed by Harry’s seeming ‘Rubber Bones’. He was tossed around, smacked, broken, bashed and was up and fighting within an hour, or less. It bothered me. Changes fixes that. Harry takes some hard hits and takes consequences for it, without destroying the character or rending him useless. Wahoo! We get to see great scenes from all the supporting characters, including the ever love-able, ever dark and possibly evil, Lea. Mouse… makes his opinions known as well, colorfully. He has possibly one of the best scenes in the book. Murphy finally reaches a cross roads as well that we all knew was coming. Bob even gets into the thick of battle in his own way, which was a delight. I really don’t have complaints about this book, plot, characterization and growth all worked. The plot flowed and had enough twists and turns to keep me guessing, but with enough foreshadowing to make sense. The characters managed to grow and change but without losing their essence, or destroying relationships. My primary (minor) complaint: Where was Elaine, Michael and Charity? Oh and… the Blue Beetle’s fate, just wrong. Sniff.
Jana Review: I agree that this was a fun and fast ride. In accordance with the title everything in this book changes…and yet…it doesn’t. The most important things Harry has in his life are still there and will continue to be important as he goes through his own metamorphosis and steps into the next stage of things. Some of the events were things I’d been waiting for like finding out about Miss Guard’s employer and what Murphy was going to do about her job. It was really about time. It was also time to deal with the Susan issues in a way that allows Harry to move on without the constant back of the mind ‘what ifs’. So all in all…loved it. The biggest problem is that we have to wait so long for the next one!
Suffragettes in Texas June 15, 2010
Posted by kmcalear in Historical, Musings.add a comment
I’ve been working lately in the Special Collections and archives at my University which has been a unique treat. Reading letters and articles from 50 or 100 years ago, or more is an interesting insight both into history and a fertile source of new ideas for writing. For instance I always dithered on what my character Benjamin’s job would be during his non-vampire days, and reading and learning about the jobs of the wealthy but still working, crowd of exiles in the United States let me give him an authentic job: poetry and running a personal newspaper. It seemed to be a popular passtime for educated men with money in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
I’ve also been working with the documents of suffragettes in Texas and one thing that particularly stood out to me was naming. All of the women were named Mrs. John Doe, or Mrs. Harry Smith, other than a few. I found it intriguing how these women were working for equal rights and were pioneers of feminism but many of them we don’t even really know their names, they became simply the “Mrs” to their husbands. It also lead me to wonder if I’d have been a suffragette in that time and to examine my feelings towards voting. It was a 60 year fight for women to earn the right to vote, something we take for granted now. In fact in the documents some of the states permitted non citizens to vote, while women could not.
