Will Share for Entries >.>

I follow a few literary review blogs. Because reading is an addiction like cocaine but not as many nosebleeds, I am just putting this little gem right here. Not only is sharing caring, but sharing =brownie points/entries for more potential goodies. Ann Aguirre writes some seriously badass sci fi romance (<3 Jax) sooo yes I am interested in this trilogy. Win or not, this is going on the 'to read' shelf.  Nomnomnom.

Click Meh!

The Bookcase Challenge

My husband teased me the other day when I started squealing over a new book coming out.

"You have tons of books on you haven't read!"

He's right. It is one of my bad habits. Husbands are good at spotting those.
I have a book addiction. There are worse addictions, like crack, or hookers and blow. My book addiction is a complicated monster. I hoard books like there is no tomorrow, I own a lot of movies too but books take up the primary spot in our tiny household, overflowing from five (and a half) bookcases, two boxes and various flat surfaces in the house. There are piles of books on both our computer desks, a small library usually hiding in our car, piled up near the back door, and a tottering stack on the computer tower.
That's not counting the kids books.

My reading style is...odd. I often read multiple books at once, either because of my editing job or I need a break from an intense plot line. If I am into a book, I fly through it, if I struggle with a book, it takes me forever. I can put a book down for months and usually pick it up later right where I left off. But my book habit has a dark side, i.e. the hoarding. This problem really took off when I started working in used books. I couldn't do the same amount of impulsive buying working at Borders because then it would be like hookers and blow. Both the used bookstores I've manned gave me access to incredibly cheap books, add to that my habit of lurking in thrift stores and flea markets, I would bring home piles of books and forget about them.

I think subconsciously I was stocking up for the apocalypse or something (how appropriate) but I stumbled onto realization/ enlightenment when I finished reading a stack of books a friend let me borrow. I was searching for a palate cleanser and went for some good ole' YA by reading the newest series by Riordan. It was about halfway through rereading The Lost Hero when I remembered I owned the third book for a while now but had not read it. How long have I owned The Mark of Athena you ask? Well I picked it up when it first came out. about a YEAR ago. I've had it so long, book four comes out this week...

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

So here is to the Bookcase Reading Challenge. Excluding the new books by favorite authors, (because that is cruel and unusual punishment) I am going to begin plowing through the unread beauties on my groaning bookcases. It is time!

The Sci Fi Chick: Be it Wars or Trek, I love me some Stars

So this morning I woke up to another lovely review for New Earth 6
It had me squealing with girly glee because I am entering the six month mark for keeping the serial up and running. Though I am behind with some of the things I want to do with it, like finish edits for part 1 or hell, just keeping my universal translator up to date *I am so fail*, I have managed to meet my Friday deadline. Truth, I do spend a lot of my Fridays working all day on a chapter  but that is beside the point. *shhhh don't judge me*

However this review sparked an interesting debate/ internal revelation regarding my influences for New Earth 6. The review remarks how the piece has a Trekky feel. I giggled when I read that, but honestly I would be lying if I denied Star Trek's influence on my work. Most of my science fiction influence comes from watching Star Wars and Star Trek with my father. Confession time, I love both Wars and Trek, both have a hand in influencing my story telling style in different ways.

Star Wars I love for it's grand scale epic story telling. The over arching hero's journey, redemption of evil, corruption of good, rogue heroes, all wrapped up in a setting as medieval as it is technologically advanced. There is a lot on the line in the Star Wars Universe, the big bad is so very big, end of freedom in the galaxy kind of big and the good guys have the odds stacked against them, scrappers and underdogs the lot of them. Star Wars taught me no matter how far out there and wild your setting may be, if your characters are strong, they will pull the audience to the ends of the galaxy and back.

Then we come to Star Trek. *Side Note, I don't understand why trekkies get picked on more than star wars fans, for the love of sci fi, can't we all just get along?* Star Trek has a different medium of story telling than Star Wars. Yes both series have an ass load of books, but visually, Star Trek struts its story telling for Television audiences, and has an epic scale on its own in a very different way. The story telling style of Trek varies from series to series, not really developing a sense of an over arching story line until the beauty that is Deep Space Nine. But what Star Trek did do different was pull us into a multitude of alien cultures, down to a very intimate scale (okay yes, very intimate when it comes to Klingon mating rituals).

While the books of Star Wars take you more in depth to the universe, Star Trek's television medium allowed for an upfront display, creating worlds, cultures, people, some so detailed we learned their mythology. The cultures of Star Trek also resonate with cultures from our own history, though remain alien, different. Star Trek also has a special place in my heart, in particular Next Gen and DS9, because of the complex web of galactic politics and turmoil they weave, especially DS9. The Big Bads of the Star Trek universe are also diverse, bearing different motivations and resolutions. We are given examples of big bads who become close allies right alongside the terrifying unstoppable, irredeemable entities (oh Borg baby!).  I would say Star Trek taught me a lot about world building, and world building over time at that, the benefits of the slow build.

My influences don't stop there (*cough Firefly cough*). I have been a reader and watcher of sci fi and fantasy since I was a wee little lass. I find I have grown up to be a bit of a genre scrambler, weaving elements of several genres together in my work. New Earth Six is a sci fi setting, but there are hints of mythological fantasy, frontier western, and high adventure thrown in the mix, among others.

As a writer, I think it's important to acknowledge our influences. When someone enjoys your work, you need to give a nod to the shoulders you stand on, to the art which nurtured and fed the budding storyteller within, because someday, if things go your way, you could be the influence of someone else.

Surprising Opportunities

First, not only hit my $$ goal for the Clarion Write-A-Thon, but sailed on past. $330 as of today, WOWZER! I am blown away by the generosity of my friends and family, seriously I'm tearing up at how supportive they are. What does this mean for artistic endeavors? Well one of the prizes in the write-a-thon is:

• Writers who raise $250 or more are entitled to a free story critique by a Clarion alum (our choice).

I have no idea what this entails, but Clarion has a reputation for excellence which gives me hope of receiving some punch drunk feedback.

Awhile ago I posted about reading a friend's book with intent to give her feedback. Little did I know the windfall from helping a fellow writer with her creative pursuits would lead to an opportunity of sheer awesomeness!
She shared my feedback with her publisher, who was apparently impressed with my attention to detail.
S.M. and I have gone back and forth with our financial woes, so when we came up with the idea of seeing if her publisher would possibly be interested in hiring me for freelance editing, well, it turned out better than I expected.
Within a day of broaching the idea, I had an email in my inbox starting up the conversation. The next day, I had a book in my inbox waiting for edits. BAM, that fast I went from rudderless to being handed a key to the factory.
I've been tinkering with the idea of freelancing for months, with no idea how to start, what to charge, who would hire me. Starting up a Freelancing business takes time, you need to get your foot in the door, build a clientele list, etc. Between my own writing, the boys, and the part time job I didn't see myself being able to start up any time soon. So landing a best selling Sci-Fi/ Fantasy author and his protege as my first client, Hachi Machi. I'm excited, they're excited. Everyone's excited!
Between this and the boost of generosity I've received through the Clarion write-a-thon, I feel the gears of fortune slowly shifting in my direction. To land a job in the field I went to college for: dream come true. I'll be reading and writing for a living. Just keep on trucking along.

Nuttin' Left to Write? Bollox I say!

One of the bloggers I follow recently did a post about the stumbling block I think many up coming writer's hit. The terrible sensation there is nothing left to write.

Bollox, bollox I say.

Every generation has its vamps.

Sometimes it seems like everyone is writing about the same thing at once. Trends like to smash readers over the head with so many books on a subject it seems redundant. We see them in every genre, vampires is a good example, vampire fiction has a habit of cropping up every few years. People talk about how they are sick of vampires but it is the beast that never slumbers, in another decade someone will publish another Vampire novel that will upstart the trend all over again.


Supernatural creatures aside, there is always a story to tell. What writer's get caught up on, I think, is the feeling they must come up with something "original".

Ah, Originality, you mythical beast you, rarer than unicorns and natural tits in porn.

The 'original story' is an inflated myth. You get so caught up in the idea of trying to come up with something original you forget what storytelling is about, how it began. Storytelling was an oral tradition, it is how people kept their history, taught their children, and passed on their culture. And most important of all, it was entertainment through the long dark nights. Yes, entertainment is most important because ultimately, listening to stories is how humans used to relax, we took comfort from them, were inspired by them.

The beauty of this practice is with every generation of storytelling, with every storyteller, the story changes, new words are added, characters are embellished, change, built on over and over until the story is hardly recognizable from its 'original' version.

This is the heart of storytelling, something I think we lose sight of in a world of copyright infringement and publication rights. We want to own our words so badly but the truth is, once we put it out into the world, the story will change. It might not happen immediately, but if you are lucky, it will inspire people. Someone might write fan fiction, or adapt your story in a new form.

 As a writer, my goal is to support my family with my craft. But I know my greatest creative tool as a writer is not my originality, but my voice. My ability to spin the story and create my fictional world. Why do so many vampire novels exist? Not because these writers are lacking in originality, no, each lends their own unique voice, creating something entirely new from the 'original' idea. They create new characters, new rifts, new worlds.

We all pull our inspiration from somewhere, from myth, from life, from history. These are the foundations we build upon, the concrete beneath the dazzling skylines.

Want a better example of this process in motion? Look at Harry Potter. Here we have the incredible voice of J. K. Rowling, her characters have become iconic, her books continue to entertain the upcoming generations. The world of Harry Potter is heavily influenced by Arthurian legend, stories of witches and wizards that have been around for centuries, but Harry and his friends are all 'Original'.

As long as writer's are fueled by their imagination and have the courage and drive to spin their words, we will always see fantastic stories, no matter the form, be they traditional novels, or web fiction, or what have you, stories will always find a way to be told.

There is always a story to tell.

Man of Steel, aka Plotsmash

The attempt to revamp Superman has left me with mixed feelings.

First: I did enjoy this movie, I love superhero flicks for the sheer pleasure of seeing the comics of my childhood up on the big screen. Pure visual candy. Not all superhero movies are created equal. Some come off as corny, some come off flat, Marvel's early years before the success of Spiderman and X-men were pretty appalling. Though I would say Marvel's Avengers Arc has nailed the Superhero franchise over Nolan's Batman trilogy. Don't hate me on this, I loved the new gritty Batman movies, but Marvel has threaded it's universe together a lot better from a comics standpoint.
I went into the theater interested to see what DC would have to offer me. Snyder's films, while not always succeeding on nailing the source material, are fucking beautiful in the graphics department. The man makes the prettiest violence you ever done seen. But Snyder films often suffer from Plotsmash, cramming too many elements into the movie running time and inevitably falling short in one huge element or another. It happens in just about ALL his movies.
It also left me wondering where the writers drew their source material for the extremely Non- superman moment at the films culmination. It's hard to talk about without spoiling it soooo

*Spoiler* Do NOT read the next paragraph if you haven't seen it yet. Or do, I'm not your mother.

Don't read the paragraph, just look at this beautiful man.

Superman kills the villain. If you are not familiar with this god-like DC figure, I can understand why your reaction would be "And your point is?" 
Well Superman is the one overpowered DC character who upholds life above all else. He would never just up and murder someone. He is the hero who goes out of his way to save even the nastiest Villain to the point it becomes a character flaw. Fucking Smallville got this through their crazy mixed up plot lines but maybe Man of Steel's writers missed it. Alan Moore, the fabulous mind behind Watchmen, wrote a Superman what if comic where he does murder a heinous bad-guy when left with no feasible option and it destroys him. 

Okay it's safe again

Movie's failings: After the intense action scenes, Man of Steel delivers no fallout. This is what Avengers Nailed with a capital N and why whatever failings it did have are easy to ignore when it did such a good job representing Aftermath, something way too many superhero movies gloss over. Hell, Marvel took it a step further with Iron Man 3 and brought to light the deep mental trauma a superhero would have to deal with, especially one as vulnerable as Tony Stark, in the aftermath of a violent battle.

Movie's Success: Zod as always is a cold bastard, an nonredeemable but understandable villain. I love those kind of villains. Superman has got great villains because the hero has such high morals, so they make up for it with the dastardly and the insane. The interweaving of Clark's childhood as he tries to find himself is well done, instead of following a series of chronological flashes, they tie in his memories to how he deals with people in the now.

Biggest Success for Me!
Whether you agreed with the casting of Amy Adams or not, Man of Steel finally gave me a Lois Lane I can get behind. Lois is supposed to be a SMART, intrepid reporter. This is something just about every incarnation has failed on. In Man of Steel, Lois is still the irrepressible snoop, immediately falling into danger as she tries to uncover secret government shenanigans and is saved by a dressed down Supe. When she can't convince her editor to print her close encounters story, she hands it over to the internet and proceeds to *I shit you not* track down Clark's cross country trail all the way to his fucking front door.
Finally a proactive Lois Lane who actually acts like a fucking reporter with a soul, because not only does she find the big guy, she actively chooses to conceal his identity, even when she is threatened by her editor and then abducted by the U.S. government. FINALLY, finally, a Lois with giant balls.

This is where I tie all this into writing and character development.

As I've stated above, Man of Steel does suffer from plotsmash, especially with it's ending. Endings are tricky, I struggle with endings all the time, whether the story is a stand alone or part of a series. It is too easy to fall into the danger zone of glossing over the trauma you have just put your characters through to reach an ending that won't leave your reader as traumatized. You want them to come back for book two, not cringe at the prospect of what hellish journey your will put them through. Unless you are a George R. Martin fan, that man is just brutal and he gets away with it because he's really up front about how much he is going to fuck with his characters. You know when you pick up a Martin book, not everybody gonna make it. 

For Superhero movies, this is an especially hard task, and not every movie in the Marvel franchise came through with aftermath. Avengers shows how the battle of New York devastates the population and heroes give them hope but in Thor  they destroy an entire town and nobody bats an eyelash. 

If you ever tackle larger than life events in your story, beware this mighty pitfall. With the influx of post apocalypse literature, showing the full spectrum of human reaction to trauma is vital to the success of these stories. This is where you make 'end of the world' real for the reader, not in the over the top action and destruction, but within the minds of the characters. Literature provides an added layer to characters which movies don't by way of  their thoughts, we can usually see exactly what our protagonist is experiencing as the world falls to pieces around him.
Want a piece of literature which nails the human perspective of super heroes?

http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/1423101960
It's amazing I promise.

I highly recommend Hero by Perry Moore for it's characters, it's characters are absolutely amazing. The plot is your typical 'hero must save the world' with a few excellent twists but where Hero really hits home is the complexity of it's main character Thom Creed, and the aspiring heroes in his squad.

On the subject of Superman: Big Blue is secretly one of my favorite characters but perhaps not for the best reasons.
Superman is my favorite because he is probably the most difficult character to write well and not come off as completely vanilla.
Superman is a God living among men, he is invulnerable, maybe immortal, and his sneeze could kill you. He also has the morals of a saint, as I said, Superman goes out of his way not to kill people, to the point where villains use this as a character flaw against him.
This is surprisingly hard to make interesting for the 60 plus years the character has been around, often falling on the knack of making him powerless in some way to see how he deals with it. Problem is most of the time writers fail me. When Superman loses his powers, he just stops being Super and tries to be normal. BAH ! The writer's who succeed with the Superman character, like Alan Moore, get into his psyche because that is where this man is interesting.
How does a person deal with being a God when raised as a human? How do you deal when you have all these powers but still can't save everyone? When it's so easy to just up and kill the villain rather that maintain a high regard for life? Is Superman immortal? Does he have perfect control over his abilities or is it truthfully a constant struggle not to crush the ever living fuck out of people with every hug and handshake?
Superman, in my mind, is the ultimate crash test in character development. Here, I'm going to give you a God, make him interesting, make him human, make him sympathetic. Not as easy as one would think.

Source: http://www.shootbus.com/movie/superman-fail-1

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends....

I'm wicked excited because as I pull up the heinous time devouring Facebook after dinner I see another writer friend, the fabulous S.M. Welles, has updated her status with: "Novel finished, I need test readers!"

Her First Novel

Without hesitation I signed on board for a first draft reading. Because the most important thing you need when you are trying to break into the writing world is support, especially from people as crazy about the craft as you are. The writing world these days isn't all about getting accepted into the big six, sometimes it comes down to the people you know. I don't necessary mean that in a 'know the publisher's daughter' kinda way, I mean this in the people you surround yourself with in the creation of your baby, the one's who cheer you on during your slumps, who not only act eager to read your new piece but will actually stay up until three in the morning because they couldn't put it down. Friends who will give you honest feed back, both positive and negative. They will tell you what works in your story and what doesn't, these people are vital.
I know whenever I critique someone's work I make a list of the good as well as the bad, you can't have all and not the other, gloss over mistakes for praise, or bad mouth a piece without reprieve. There is give and take.

I am excited to read this piece, not only because I've watched her progress over the past couple months writing it, but because I believe in the importance of the writing community. To quoteth those legendary Brits:" I get by with a little help from my friends." I know when I finish the second draft of the Novel I will be sending my own feelers out.

Off I go to immerse myself in a good read.

Reading with Gremlins

I don't think I have to expound on the importance of reading to your children. I mean there are hundreds of books, documented proof reading to your kids is beneficial in tons of ways. Hell, I grew up reading, my father built a bookcase just for my room out of scrap wood, which I still have by the way. I love that fuckin' rough cut bookcase.
So when I eventually produced children of my own, I had big plans to make them readers. My children have taught me a great deal about the reality of reading with kids.

Lesson #1: Don't feel guilty if you don't read to your children every night. I think I went through an identity crisis when I couldn't perform this simple task consistently. I was all gung ho about making this part of the evening routine, to spend a good chunk of time every night reading a few books from the HUGE selection of children's books I have collected. ( I think I have as many children's books as I do adult books) I tried, I really did, but sometimes I was exhausted, sometimes I had ninety things to do before my own head hit the pillow, sometimes, my son was just too wound up to sit for a book and needed lights out.

Lesson #2: You will find the opportunities to read. They will present themselves, just make sure you shut up and take notice. The biggest hint will be when you stumble on them looking through their books. Derp derp, go read with them! Sometimes they will come find me with a book. I am fortunate to be in a situation I can stop whatever I am doing and read their precious selection. You will also make opportunities. In the long road to potty training, I purchased a old school wooden picnic basket from goodwill and filled it with books. It provides some protection from my splash happy kids and they now consider our bathroom story time central.

Lesson #3: Your gremlins do not consider books as precious as you do. I am guilty of going through a period where I hid most of the picture books in our bedroom. I have two boys, and no matter how much I stress "don't stand on the book!" "you're bending the spine!" "ah, ah, ah you're tearing it!", well shit happens. I shed a little tear for the books I had to throw away but if you aren't willing to sacrifice a few to the Toddler Gods, they don't learn how to treat books period. I was so proud the day my son learned how to turn the pages of his regular picture books properly, something his younger brother picked up from watching him.
There are still accidents, but I have calmed down quite a lot, now I leave out a good selection of picture books...and hide the rest in the bedroom for down the road.

Lesson #4: As much as you want to introduce them to as many new books as possible, they will latch onto a select group of favorites and demand to hear them over and over. Okay, so reading "The Very Lazy Ladybug" for the 100th time makes me want to grind my teeth, but I know this is how my son is learning to read. It is his go to book. It did take me forever to realize, hey instead of just reading this by myself, I can get him to read with me. Some books we have read together so many times, he has them half memorized and one actually reads to me. That would be Mo Willems's "Time to Pee".

Lesson #5: Books are fucking magic. It never ceases to amaze me which ones they attach themselves to. My older son has a rotation of about five or six he wants to hear all the time. Most of these selections have sound effects, like "Roar" which he loves to do with me. But curiously, his absolute favorite is a long story, one that leaves me flabbergasted. My son cannot sit through most Dr. Seuss stories, he has attention and learning disorders, but he will sit for "A Bad Case of Stripes" by David Shannon. He will also find it, no matter where I hide it in the house...



I read to my children everyday. Somehow, somewhere, we find a chance to sit a read together. Usually in the bathroom. Book love spreads, like a happy virus. As my youngest watched how much his older brother enjoyed these potty story times, he soaked up the book love. He now sits in my lap, pointing to the pictures, and picks his own book to join in. His current favorite:

Yup, I'm a Genre Whore

*For the record, I will never shit on your choice of reading. Whether you read the Times Best Seller list or supermarket Harlequins, I fully support your reading choices. *

I'm a big reader. I will pick up and try just about anything once. And I have a wide, WIDE, reading range. Yes, I have a collection of specific children's books I use my children as an excuse for. *cough* Yes, I own a hefty collection of books for a two bedroom apartment. (Five overflowing bookcases, a few boxes, board book bins, and random stacks but who is counting) Between the Writer (moi) and the Husband (book a day man) we still frequent the library, used book stores, and regular bookstores to supply our habit. I have worked in bookstores for nearly a decade now, so the 'pantry' is always stocked. There are books on the kitchen table, books by the bed, even a wooden picnic basket chalk full of picture books in the bathroom to read to the boys for potty training. We are obsessed with books in this house and proud of it.
Between the Harry Potters and Jim Butchers is a healthy stack of Kresley Cole and Larissa Ione, James and the Giant Peach is comfortable nestled between Memoirs of a Geisha and The Autobiography of Mae West. To put it mildly, our reading tastes are eclectic. Though the hubby will swear in as a Sci -fi man, he will read just about anything with enough convincing/whining on my part.

Wearing my coveted Shaun of the Dead pin!

I don't need any convincing. But people get caught up on genre. I have hocked books at several different bookstores now, but working in used book stores, in that intimate setting they provide, has revealed the inner workings of the reader. People get caught up on genre all the time. I'm not sure when the change happened. I mean when I step back and see the same people who revere the work of Ray Bradbury and Orson Welles turn around and sneer at modern sci-fi, really? You know these two gentlemen wrote fantastic sci-fi and fantasy right? It's the label issue of the matter. We must fit everything into a box, though the box doesn't always fit. If I tried to put 1984 in the same box as Storm from the Shadows by David Weber, people get up in arms. No, 1984 is a classic piece of fiction!

Well, what about putting Dracula in the same box as World War Z. Both are horror right? Surprisingly not as many people get upset about that one, though Dracula is older and more classic than 1984.

Labels, they boggle the mind. Then you have the 'genre breaking' phenomenons, I'll use Hunger Games because Twilight makes me rant for whole other reasons.

What some people may or may not realize, Hunger Games was not Collins's first rodeo. She has this whole other series , a children's fantasy series, moderately successful itself. But in the balls and glory of the Games, which everyone and their mother read, people seemed to forget Suzanne Collins as a YA/Children's Fantasy author. It was a box, a nice, lovely box more and more people are poking their nose into. Why the felt the need to pry her out of the box is troubling. On my personal copy of the Hunger Games there is not a label for YA fiction anywhere on the cover or the copyright page. Your only indicator is Scholastic publishing, which is primarily a children's publisher.  It's still marketed in the Young Adult section, but why rid it of labels? Why not celebrate the labels? It's not a Genre breaking YA novel, it is a YA novel.

In truth, YA as a genre has lots of amazing offerings. I, myself, hope to join the ranks when I publish my book, because I am okay with this label. I'm also okay with labels like Fantasy and Science Fiction. My serial blog is Science Fiction, but the themes I'm exploring are just as heavy as any "fiction" piece.
It is thanks to writer's like Rowling, Collins, and even Meyers, I do not have the great fear of being nothing but a niche writer.

Now as a reader, I love genres, I love exploring different genres, sampling all the pies. I will proudly tell all I read smut, it's fun, relaxing, and it makes me giggle. I read fantasy, YA, sci-fi, mysteries, steam punk, biographies, horror, thrillers, graphic novels, comics, etc, so on and so forth. If it interests me, I'll read it. I believe everyone needs a healthy dose of fantastical fiction in their lives, even if it has to be sneaky. I believe it's a slap worthy offense to openly sneer at another person's reading choice. Who made you the literary police? I believe a well read man is sexy. I will stop whatever it is I'm doing if my child crawls into my lap with a book. Because books have power. I will remember the characters and plot of a book long after I've read it, I will go back and read many I love again. They inspire, they fuel imagination, and they survive, no matter what form they take, be it paper or digital. For me, genre is not a weighted word. I long ago decided books fell into two categories, Fiction and Non-Fiction. Genre is not a box I judge a book's quality by, I let the book speak for itself.

Genre is just an adjective.