Gargoyles!

Great Moments from last night's reading
Book: Heart of Stone
Author: C. E. Murphy
Spoiler level: low

You walk by a big old building and look up at a gargoyle and think, what if that thing came alive and flew around at night? What if it only just now froze and pretended to be a statue, but as soon as I look away, it will fly somewhere? That's the situation in Heart of Stone, where author C.E. Murphy has created a wonderful shadow world of 'Old Races,' and gargoyles are one of them. Alban, the gargoyle hero here, gets the prize for the coolest shifted form, as well as for being incredibly nice.

I love the moments where people are first putting things together, where the paranormal bleeds into the normal. My great moment from last night's reading was when our heroine, Margrit, is with this not-yet-believing fellow, and they're looking out the window and they see a gargoyle on a high ledge, and she's like, was there a gargoyle there before? He thinks surely there was. But then later, there isn't one there at all. Ooops.

There are five Old Races - dragons, djinn, vampires, gargoyles and the weird selkies, sort of like sea lion people. Actually, all five of the categories spend much of their time in human form. And in the case of the dragon and the djinn, they spend time in human forms that have a bit of the batman villain in them, and I mean that in the most positive sense possible.

Ah, the infamous clawed door

Great moments from last night's reading
Book: Demon Angel
Author: Meljean Brook
Page: Finished
Spoiler level: HIGH HIGH HIGH

I distinctly recall being midway through this book and thinking to myself, gosh, how are these two EVER going to be together? So it was delicious when they finally were, in the infamous clawed-door sex scene. I am a big fan of power-balance shifting in my fiction, and that scene, which I will not attempt to recount, did it wonderfully. But the moment from last night's reading I want to appreciate here came well after that delightful scene. It was when Lilith and Hugh returned to Lilith's apartment to get her clothes and they discover the door has been removed, taken, most likely, to be analyzed in a forensic lab. I just loved that, and it sort of doubled the pleasure of the initial scene just thinking of somebody in a lab trying to make sense of that evidence. I don't have a list of top 2007 reads, but this one would be somewhere near the top.

Welcome to my planet

Great moments from last night's reading
Book: My Fair Captain
Author: J. L. Langley
Page: 40
Spoiler level: low

I often think it would be so great to live in the olden days, and England's Regency period (early 1800's) is quite attractive. Then I think, But wait! Medieval dental procedures! Lack of women's rights!

In My Fair Captain, J. L. Langley has quite neatly gotten around this problem by creating an outer space society that's based on the Regency model. You have all the fun of Regency clothes and courtship rituals and castles and balls, plus all the high-tech conveniences you'd want. I would totally live there. And if you are a secretly gay and hunky spaceship captain on assignment to the planet Regelence, you are also quite pleased to note that this Regency society is quite different from traditional Regency societies in another key way.

I always love a good "reveal" moment in a book where a character is really surprised by something the reader already knows and this one was fun. Nate's superior, Carl, informs Nate that he'll be the guest of King Steven and his consort, Raleigh while investigating a crime. Carl goes on to say,

"I doubt you will be recognized, but if you are it will not be a big deal. And while we are on the subject, Steven and Raleigh are the only ones who will know the true reason you’re there. Off the record, I know both of these men personally. They are good men and they aren’t involved. You can trust them fully. However, officially you report to me. You’ll be briefed fully when you—”

Nate blinked, totally losing track of what the admiral was saying. Did he say—surely not. “Wait. Did you say he? The king’s consort is a man?” Societies like the one they were discussing, like the one Nate grew up in, did not tolerate same-sex relationships.

The admiral laughed. “Did I forget to mention that Regelence is a very patriarchal society?"

Very patriarchal indeed! The entire ruling class is gay. There are lube faucets in every bedroom. This book also has a delightful "duel scene" opening. The text is written in a highly conversational way, and therefore sort of lax on language, but that's part of the personality of the tale here. I find myself thinking about this story a lot when I'm not reading it. I won this book on a contest at Lisabea's Nose in a Book blog, and it's tons of fun. Thanks! I'm at the part where fair captain Nate is about to attend a ball. Will he be able to retain his professional demeanor around enchanting young swain Adrian? I hope not!

What's wrong with suddenly? and other forbidden and hated words

I wish I could remember where I read this the other day, but some web writing authority suggested that there is no good use for the word suddenly in fiction. Yes, yes, I can see the point, show and don't tell, but gosh, suddenly is a kind of go-to word for me. I can't imagine a world without suddenlies!

A writing mentor of sorts of mine, who has steered me right in oh so many things, does not like the word seems in non-dialogue descriptions for the same reason. (Example: The man seems angry.) This is another show don't tell issue. Better to tell the reader that the man is frowning, or frothing at the mouth and clawing at somebody's face.

I try to do this, but every once in a while I really want to use a seems construction. It is like my lazy forbidden fruit. Yummy!

The word select as a verb used to irritate the hell out of me. Why not pick or choose? I felt that, as a verb, select sort of puts on airs. Please select a color. But I don't hate that word anymore because sometimes you want a verb to put on airs. However, I do dislike the word dollop. It's just too precise; there's no wiggle room in it. I know that's a bad explanation, and I know it's not fair because there are no other words that mean what dollop means. But there it is.

My husband dislikes the word nosh as a replacement for words like eating or snacking. I am in complete sympathy with him on that. Though in a certain devilish mood I will use it in a conversation with him.

Do other people have words they single out unfairly to dislike? Could any other words possibly be more deserving of it than dollop or nosh?

Characters and taste

Great moments from last night's reading
Book: Demon Angel
Author: Meljean Brook
Page: 160
Spoiler level: medium

Okay, I’m almost halfway through Demon Angel and SO enjoying it - it rises well above most books I’ve read lately, in genre and ordinary literature. I see now why everybody loves it. The big fun is the interplay between characters, especially Lilith and Hugh, and Lilith and Colin. It just sizzles and crackles!

But the enjoyable moment I want to talk about from last night is sort of small. It was getting insight into Hugh’s character and current circumstances through his aesthetic sense, specifically his décor, shown here through Lilith’s eyes: dark wood, thick rug, “everything here was uncluttered, minimalist. She would have thought it sterile if not for the colors...” which are warm and rich and bright. And then, “apparently he abhorred white.” Hugh, with his heavenly heritage and pedigree stretching back to antiquity, goes for a contemporary and warm decoration scheme, which is quite at odds from what he is, or at least has been most of his life. In this way, the décor went beyond making sense for Hugh's personality, it actually went to the plot. It characterizes him, and at the same time, suggests his unease with aspects of himself, something that’s becoming evident elsewhere. And Lilith, of course, notices his preferences because she loves him. Oh, the pathos!

I love hearing about characters' artistic sensibilities. Laurel K. Hamilton was great at this, too. I’ll never forget Jean Claude’s decorating schemes, or the time he sent Anita Blake a bunch of roses after she was hurt, and they were all white except one red one. And then Richard, who’s way more a wildflower guy, sees them and could not be more full of derision. I don’t have this example on hand, but I recall Nalini Singh put a lot of thought into the décor Lucas chose for his werewolfy treehouse-like home.

Christmas gift exchange in Romancelandia

Welcome to the Christmas Advent Tour edition of my blog.

For my contribution, I thought it might be interesting to see what our favorite characters (or at least my favorite characters) are giving each other for the holidays.

Coming soon: New header by Bettie!

I won Bettie Sharpe's Pay it Forward contest where she generously offered to do a design project for each winner. So I asked her to put together a new header for this here blog. I am SO excited to see what she comes up with. NO pressure, Bettie!

I believe she is working on it now, unless I have totally annoyed her with all my little caveats. And I will be running my own pay it forward contest, as soon as I can think of an equally cool prize. So much excitement.

Bettie Sharpe, author of Ember
and the forthcoming Like a Thief in the Night,
is pictured here relaxing at her LA home.

A perfect little scene

Great moments from last night's reading
Book: Demon Angel
Author: Meljean Brook
Page: 79
Spoiler level: low

I love when angelic Guardian Hugh and demonic Lilith are standing on a London rooftop in 1666 as the city burns, and he presents her with a bound quarto of Marlowe's Doctor Faustus.

"Her heart thundered. 'You would give this to me?'" Of course, Hugh knows she has haunted various writers and poets, though she can't tell him why such things are so important to her, then,

They staggered as the roof buckled and caved; a hole opened yards from where they stood. Flames shot up, sparks showered down around them. Yes, it was much like Below. What would Lucifer do should she have such a gift in her possession? She wouldn't be able to hide it, or excuse it. It was not a theft--was not something she could cover with a lie.

She clenched her hands by her sides, tempered her shields, and forced the words through the tightness in her throat. "No. I want nothing so worthless."

His features hardened, and his gaze dropped to the book. He slid his palm reverently over the tooled leather cover.

Then he tossed it into the fiery pit beside them and walked away.

Oh, she so wanted the book! I loved this moment; it was so poignant, and so dramatically illustrative of their whole relationship. Also, I love how these two stand around conversing in the midst of lots of action. With a lot of books, if you think about them too hard, especially when it comes to plot and character motivation, they fall apart. While I'm still early on in the book, I have to say, the more I think about the plot and the people, the richer and more interconnected the text becomes, the more tightly it holds together, even grips, sort of like a Chinese finger trap. Well woven, Ms. Brook!

Dear Black Dagger Brotherhood,

Please, my brothers! April 1st was so long to wait, but now you say you won’t be back until June 3rd? Please reconsider! SEVEN LONG MONTHS is too long to wait. I miss you so much! I miss your crazy sayings and your red smoke and freakass tattoos and music, and even your giant SUVs, even though I am personally against them.

I am interested in what you have to say—I am!!! And I want to get to know your brother Phury, and I want to long for the union of him and his woman as only you can make me long, and I want to be vicariously satisfied when they finally unite as ONLY you and your XXXL craziness can satisfy me. I cannot wait SEVEN LONG MONTHS!

Is it something I said? Yes, I was disappointed about Jane being a you know what, but it’s only because I love you and I didn’t want that for you. I understand now that VU was one of your most creative endeavors. I was such a fool not to recognize it, not to blog about it. It’s okay with me if you make the women you know whats, if only you will let me back into your world. I don’t even care about the women, it’s all about you and your world, and the mannish way you help and comfort each other, and your booth at the club, and the way you go around, a little bit victims and a little bit badass victimizers. Please, HURRRRRY.

6-10 of the 10 coolest things about Keri Arthur's Riley Jenson Guardian series

6. Memorable hero entrance. I loved the entrance of Talon in Book #1, Full Moon Rising, for its over-the-topness. Setting: werewolf nightclub. Talon’s way across the club and up on the stairs, but our heroine, Riley, feels the sexual energy radiating off him, turns to see. “He walked down the steps, stripping off his shirt as he did so and tossing it casually toward an empty table.” I love that he throws off his shirt. Insert the requisite description of leather pants and erection, then, “The force of his aura rolled before him, hitting the women nearest him like a tidal wave. Sighs and stares followed in his wake, but he didn’t stop, his gaze on mine as he strode toward me.” Ah, the classic nightclub entrance. It sort of reminds me of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. But in a good way. “He stopped when there were still several feet between us, his gaze sliding casually down my body before rising to meet mine again. The lust that surged between us caressed my skin until I felt like I was glowing.” And then they have sex like nine times. I believe the term “inferno of lust” is utilized at one point.

7. Quinn, an excellent and complex lead. Though it is understandable that certain astute readers are becoming fed up with the recurring problems between Riley and Quinn (cue the Richard and Anita music - I think about Van Morrison for some reason) but there is one significant difference for me: whereas Richard, in a way, yielded up his treasures early on, and went on to become a somewhat dried up automaton, our secretive and mysterious Quinn has yet to yield up his riches. I believe the solutions to many problems are within him, and within his and Riley’s relationship - their interaction and growth. That’s my big hope, anyway. Plus, I like him. He’s a secretive and mysterious badass.

8. Keri Arthur manhandles the reader on setup. I don’t know that this qualifies as cool, but I’m putting it in because it’s interesting to me as a writer. Like, if there is something she wants you to know, she’ll repeat it all over the place. I suppose sometimes it feels redundant, but it’s way better than when writers just expect you to have an encyclopedic knowledge of their every musing, and they bury important stuff in the middle of a paragraph on page 8, and then on suddenly on page 199 you’re like, WTF? If there is a key thing you have to get, Keri Arthur goddamn makes sure you get it. She’s taking care of the reader in her own manhandley way.

9. The blurbs on the cover. Who is writing these? Keri? The publicist? Some of them are great. Like, “Half vampire, half werewolf, all trouble…” I love that one. Or this: “Desire. Temptation. Seduction. Let the night begin.” That one’s great too. But this one is sort of crazy: “Between desire and bloodlust is the sweetest sin of all.” That’s a whole lot of tundra between bloodlust and desire for a human like me, in fact, I think it would encompass every sin, sweet and not. For a werewolf vampire, however, I’d imagine the spectrum between those concepts is razor thin. And you never quite find out what that sin is! This inquiring mind wanted to know! Okay, and this last blurb earned endless derision from my husband: “In a realm without inhibitions, there’s nothing more seductive than temptation…” The “nothing more seductive than temptation” part is really what got him, but really, when you think about it, the entire blurb is sort of insane. And now that I think about it way too hard, in a realm without inhibitions, temptation probably wouldn’t exist, because it relies on forbiddenness.

10. Strong supporting cast. I especially like Riley’s gay brother, Rhoan, who is a fully drawn badass and all-around fun fellow with his own robust relationship drama that I’m sort of getting into. I also like the boss, Jack. Like Quinn, I believe he has treasures to yield. The next book, The Darkest Kiss (!) comes out in April 2008! Color me definitely reading that one.

1-5 of the 10 coolest things about Keri Arthur’s Riley Jenson Guardian Books

1. They deliver. A friend of ours, when asked why he, a fabulously intelligent person, prefers action adventure movies to art house films, had this two-word reply: “They deliver.” That’s my overall feeling about this series. Steamy sex? Delivered. Violence and thrills? Delivered. Monsters? Delivered. This is my total go-to series in the way the Anita Blake books once were. Oh, the steaminess drops off a bit in book 5 but strong plot thrills deliver plenty of fun.

2. Good creepy bad guys. The bad guys here are bad in creepily creative ways, which I really like. Sometimes the bad guys and their nefarious plans can get a little TOO creepy. Which brings us to #3.

3. The reader doesn’t always get what she wants, and sometimes is put through a bit of hell. I sometimes find the urban fantasy/paranormal romance genre lets the heroines out of awful situations too easily. As a reader in the act of reading, I want things to be easy and tension to be resolved quickly, yet when it is, that drains a bit of drama from my fun experience. When I read urban fantasy, I like to feel like I’ve gone through something. The best book for this is #3, Tempting Evil, with the madman-scientist villain!

4. Strong central quest. I like a heroine who has that. Riley Jenson wants a family and a picket fence. With every book she seems to get further away from that goal, but hey, the night is young. This particular quest is pedestrian, sure, but that doesn’t matter.

5. Wanton sex. Riley Jenson, as a vampire/werewolf combo, is totally into having sex with lots of different partners. (One at a time - not all at once.) Arthur gets away with this because she portrays its being in the werewolf nature so very well. In this world, werewolves go to clubs and dance around naked and have all kinds of sex. In fact, it is dangerous for them not to get a certain amount in during the full moon week, though many eventually settle down with a single partner. I tend to remember reviewer complaints of the implausibility of Riley Jenson having sex with a guy, say, while sadistic bad guys are hot on her heels. Yes, that is a problem in Book #2, Kissing Sin, I think. The most egregious infraction occurs in a scene that involves her riding a horse shifter—they’ve escaped an evil villain’s lair, and they stop by a stream to rest and drink water, I believe, where they have sex. Mind you, they were both in their human forms at the time. See "wolf sex vs human sex" below for an enlightened discussion of that topic. Anyway, yeah, yeah, inappropriate for the action and tension level. But I got over it.

Coming soon: 5 more

Future Quiz

I suppose if I was a better person I'd get some sort of book on scientific trends and the future and do future research, but I hate research, which is one of the many reasons I don't write historicals. I enjoy making stuff up.  And hey, with a novel in set 40-something years in the future, you'd think I could make it all up. But actually, you can still have anachronisms, and that's something I struggle with.  I have the geopolitical, transportation and clothing issues figured out, but sometimes it's the little things that give me most trouble. 

Here are some questions at the top of my mind lately as I revise. Feel free to weigh in!

1. 40-something years in the future, will they still use the terms:

• Freak out as in, "don't freak out about my messy car."
  
• Shit, as in, "oh, shit."
• Angsting, as in, "he's angsting about his job again."
• Will they still say wow, and if not, any suggestions?

2. I'm getting that there won't be phones, but rather a single small device that does everything and hooks to stations, or is carried around in a pocket. (In my book it's called a cometz.)  But when somebody calls a person on their cometz, will people still say it's ringing? I sometimes think about it toning, but I hate tone as a verb.  Currently, I just work around it.   

3. Will people still wear watches?

4. Will there still be paper or hemp-print magazines, or will it all be digital? I have a magazine scene, and I need them to be paper, but I worry about that.  

5. Will all supermarket and store checkouts be digitized, or will humans still be involved?

  

Goodbye, Ebola Similie

For those of you who have been keeping breathless track of my life, I have been cutting in all areas of my novel, but particularly in the first 100 pages - I was advised to cut them in HALF (by an agent who agreed to reread the first 50...eeep!)

Well, I've succeeded in cutting them by slightly more than a third (from 27, 523 words to 18, 312 words, or 97 pages reduced to 65). But wow, does that opening ever move! And I'm still going to cut more. Anyway, I had my husband, who is both handsome AND brilliant, read the first 50 pages last night, and he found some additional cuts, including one of my favorite, albeit silly, similies which today will leave its home on page 10, way too early for such a thing, and go into a file I keep for such cuts, where it will live out its days in quiet darkness. Here it is.

I pull the covers over me. Sometimes when I’m alone in Cubby’s condo I try to feel what it would be like to be him. Cubby has faith in life the way you might have faith in a five star hotel: you assume everything is perfect, and the place is full of caring people and sunny swimming pools and plush towels, and the folks at the front desk are highly capable—just call if there’s a problem and it will be fixed. To me, life is a trip into a jungle full of toothy predators and fire ants. You find shelter in an Ebola cave and set out a vase of flowers on a doily to cheer up the place, and everybody pretends people aren’t disappearing. I want more than anything to live in Cubby’s safe hotel. To just go through one day without fear.

He suggested the cut because I already show what I tell here about the heroine. Alas, he is right.

In other news, I wrote Xmas cards last night, and I used Star Wars stamps, which all looked absolutely beautiful on the deep red envelopes I had, though not that festive. I refrained from using the Darth Vader one, though I wish I had used it for one of my sisters, because she and her husband would think it was pretty funny. It's like twice as large as a normal stamp. Maybe I'll save it for a health insurance bill.

Ghost sex vs human sex

I have had Gabriel's Ghost in my TBR pile forever. I heard it was great, but somehow, I couldn't get past the cover. Not only did it make me think the book was a romance with a ghost, but with a SUPER DORKY-LOOKING ghost. (He's sort of hard to see in the picture, but obviously, the humanoid on the right.)

Like, if you name your book Gabriel’s Ghost, and then you have a ghostly dork-ghost on the cover, and then the blurb says, “A life and death battle where giving up the ghost has a whole new meaning.” And then the lead is actually called “a ghost from her past” on the back,” well, how can you blame a girl for drawing such conclusions?

So I was relieved to find that Gabriel is NOT a ghost. Now, I just started it, so I suppose he COULD become a ghost, but the ghostly image on the cover is a different character. Phew!

**spoiler**

I wasn’t up for another ghost-human romance after my traumatic experience with Lover Unbound. I’ll review it at some point, but yow, I loved that sex scene in the bathroom between Vishous and Jane. It was my favorite Ward sex scene since the first book with Wrath and Beth. However, the instant Jane became a ghost, I was no longer interested in her relationship or her sex life, even though there was nothing technically different about her when she was with V. I was thinking, why is that not good enough? Why am I not interested in a romance with a ghost if the ghost is corporeal enough to have sex, and has almost a normal life, except for being a ghost most of the time? I don’t really have an answer. But after that scene at the dinner table where she was just empty clothes, she ceased to count for me. Maybe part of the excitement of romance is who the person is in the world. Maybe it’s something about balance, or polarization between people. Because if I really liked a guy, and then you told me, ‘Hey Carolyn, when he is not around you, he is a ghost!’ I think I wouldn’t like the guy anymore. It’s funny how many clichés come to mind as I write this— non-entity, doesn’t hold water, no substance. Maybe those cliches have a root in the way humans are hardwired, who knows.

Wolf sex vs human sex

One of the things I loved about Bitten (which I consider to be one of the best - possibly THE best - paranormal romances out there) was how vividly and convincingly author Kelley Armstrong wrote about the pleasures of being in a wolf body—running around in the forest, nuzzling other wolves, playing, hunting, having a coat of fur. Reading it, I always said to myself, Armstrong loves dogs and she’s observed them with incredible attention and imagination.

This was all a few years back and I remember reading the Amazon reviews of Bitten, or possibly Stolen, the sequel, and I came across some guy griping about the fact that werewolf sex always takes place in human form, never wolf form.

This comment sort of surprised me, and to be honest, I never ever craved a wolf-body sex scene. I never even thought of it! Maybe I'm being species-centric here, but animal body sex scenes don't strike me as having very many fun possibilities. I suppose if anybody could pull it off and make it enjoyable to read about, Kelley Armstrong could, but I don’t believe she’s ever tried it. (I could be wrong - it’s been a while, though I’m pretty sure I’d remember it!)

I’ve read quite a few werewolf books since then and I’ve never seen a sex scene in wolf bodies. Alluded to, maybe, but never played as a scene. I’m reading all the Riley Jensen books now (excellent!) and her werewolves consider sex in wolf bodies to be like rape.

Maybe there’s a reason for this lack of sex-in-wolf-body scenes. Zero foreplay goes without saying, but I don’t know, animals never seem to enjoy animal sex in general. Granted, I’ve only seen pigeons having sex, but the female always just wants to get away. Is any werewolf author out there doing sex in wolf bodies? I’m sure this guy on Amazon would be pleased, but would anybody else?

Cunning poets and deadly courtiers gone wild

I think, as a writer, there's a certain perverse excitement in working with an unlikely or outrageously inappropriate heroine - maybe it's a challenge thing. That's my theory on what would've made Jacqueline Carey decide to have her heroine/spy/save-the-day-gal, Phedre, be a masochistic courtesan in Kushiel's Dart. I mean, really, what's the spy/heroine value in the ability to handle and get off on pain, delivered in ever the bawdiest ways? I doubt there's a check-off box for it on the CIA application. Which is a lot of the reason I read this. I just didn't know how it could be pulled off.

But oh, man, does Carey ever pull this off brilliantly. I would say this is one of the top three books I read this year. The language is amazing--just the naming alone is great; Phedre, for example, is an 'anguisette.' Exotic yet familiar. All the made up words here feel real that way, due to their recognizable roots. They read like they've existed forever.

The world building is rich, downright dazzling in scope, sort of an alternate, mixed up medieval Europe where France (Terre d'Ange) is way more learned and courtly than those Iron Age freaks from Skaldia, which looks a lot Germany and Poland, maybe Russia, from the map, which looks like a map of Europe that's been slightly melted.

And then there's the whole pain-pleasure courtesan aspect, which operates in a really interesting way. Thanks to this unusual path of hers, along with extensive scholarship (overseen by mentor Delauney) Phedre becomes a keen observer of human nature, as well as the details of rooms and conversations. I think when you are victimized, even willingly, it heightens your powers of observation. In this way the book a highly psychological one. People get into powerplays with her or they divulge secrets or let her see and hear things she shouldn't, and generally reveal their inner natures in a variety of interesting ways.

That said, such scenes really are a minor part of the book. It's way more sword fights and court politics and obscure learnings and romantic intrigue and barbarian hordes, and then every once in a while you have Phedre at the mercy of some nobleman or woman--everybody here has wildly colorful sexual proclivities, and they don't keep them secret--and, oh, Phedre is gasping in pain and pleasure, and things swim before her eyes and she outsmarts all these people. Is it an HEA romance? Yes, it is that too. Looking back, I find this book astonishing on so many levels.

I'm one of those lucky people who fall asleep instantly. This book was one of the few in history that I had to stop reading in bed because it was so exciting and I couldn't sleep after reading it.

Please, people, welcome me to the 90’s

I picked up Janet Evanovich’s “Two for the Dough” at Steeple People, this used store in my neighborhood that’s practically like a garage sale. It was 50 cents, and I thought, now I can see what fuss is about and if I hate it, who cares?

Wow, that was two quarters very well spent, and Ms. Stephanie Plum has been upgraded to the status of series to follow, even books to buy at a bookstore, or to get in an exciting box from Amazon.

First of all, I totally expected the whole big hair Joisey girl shtick to be overdone, but it wasn’t. It was wonderfully subtle, charming. The dialogue felt authentic.

At one point the mother says:

“You should get a real job. Something steady with normal hours. Your cousin Marjorie got a nice secretarial job with J and J. I hear she makes big money.”

This dialogue is so simple, but when I read it, I hear an accent. Maybe it’s the clipped sentences. It’s as if the rhythm of the speech, the music itself, creates the accent, so Evanovich doesn’t rely on phonetic spelling. Like I did with Joisey. Or this:

“Kenny Mancuso is a bum,” my mother said. “All those Morelli and Mancuso men are trash. You can’t trust a one of them.”

Lisa Dale over at Book Anatomy 101 makes an interesting comment on an older post about Evanovich’s Trenton setting being “branded” and I really thought that was smart. A brand is something familiar and friendly you feel good about. That's how I feel about this setting. I feel like that about the Sookie Stackhouse world, too. (Actually, on that post, Dale has a whole interesting analysis of what makes the Plum series such a success.)

The hero, Morelli, hit just the right, very subtle note with me, too. A decent and witty guy with, from what I can tell in #2, a roguish past, but deserves another chance. Is he in all the Plum books? I understand we’re up to thirteen. Should I read these in order? Should I go back to #1?

I love when I find a new author and series, a whole mess of books arrayed before me, hours of fun.

How I moderately SUFFER for my ART

Okay, being the freelance writer that I am, sometimes I get too busy and I can't get to my novel writing. Dismally unpaid as it is, it tends to take the back burner. So last year around this time, there was this complainy, work-intensive client I really wanted to dump to free up some time, and I got this idea that I would never buy any new clothes ever again and that would be my trade-off.

After all, would I rather have the day free or a pretty new outfit? I'll choose the day free every time. Almost. Anyway, the boots above are the last thing I bought before I dumped the client. I thought they were sort of cool as snowboots, and sort of rock and roll at the same time...in a certain dangerous mood, I might wear them inside, with jeans. It was last year, and I'm still pleased with them. Maybe I don't sound all that deprived, but if you saw my coat, you wouldn't say that.

Below you see a mysterious post that contains nothing but a photo of a skirt. (Someday I will get better at blogger and be able to do things like create 2-photo posts. FYI, I will also be replacing the lighthouse design.) But I digress.

The skirt you see below evilly called to me this past Monday when I was on a visit to Target to get space heaters to heat the apartment you see in the background of my rockin' boots. "You need a holiday skirt!" It said. "You will never find another skirt like me! I am only $14.99!" With trembling hands I fingered its fabric. I could not resist its call.

The skirt (see above)

Pitches that deliver

After many years of writing queries, and probably many years to come, I was SO pleased to come across Agent Kristin Nelson's 'Blog Pitch Workshop' (go to her homepage and scroll down; it's a series of 12 links on the right side). It's a super thoughtful and helpful analysis of how to showcase a novel's hook, and there are lots of handy examples.

Really, this whole agent blogging phenemenon so very helpful. When I think back to the kinds of query blunders I was making before all this...sheeees!

The quirky thing I loved about Games of Command.

Warning: is this a spoiler? Some people might think so. I’d say it’s somewhat a spoiler. It won’t ruin the romance part, but it mildly ruins the adventure part.

Okay, first, let me say this book, written by Linnea Sinclair, was VERY entertaining on the level of romance and sci fi. The main characters are badass Sass, sort of a female Han Solo gone straight, and uptight Admiral Brandon Kel-Paten, who is secretly not at ALL uptight. He just has to act uptight, because he’s a biocybe, and if anybody found out about his lurid and hot fantasies about Sass, who he has been borderline stalking through the galaxies, he wouldn’t be toast…he’d be a toaster. Actually, I don’t think they have toasters in this future. Maybe a replicator. Or a fork!

ANYWAY, that’s not what I’m writing about here. Because I want to talk about the furzels, which are like futuristic cats. I frankly couldn’t believe—gleefully so—that the entire plantery system in this book was saved by two overweight cats. They have these secret abilities that their owners (Sass and galpal Eden) don’t know about. And they can teleport, too, unbeknownst again, to their owners. Sometimes Sass is like, Hey Tank (her furzel), How’d you get in here? Oh, you must’ve crawled through a vent or something. Weird!

If you go to Linnea Sinclair’s website (see left) you can see photos of her cats, which are the basis of the furzels. That’s the thing with writing fantasy romance—you can make the men however you want, and you can have your cats save the universe. I just thought it was so hilarious. In a good way. Did I make this book sound silly now? I didn’t mean to—this book is tons of fun and I always recommend it to people, and if you hate cats, hey, this is not a major part of the plot, so you’ll still like the book.

Merry Christmas Succubus!

An early Christmas present I will be buying for myself: Succubus On Top by Richelle Mead (release date-December 18th). Mead wrote one of my top five favorite reads of 2007: Succubus Blues. The 'blues' in the title refers to the central torment of the main character, Georgina: because she's a succubus, she'll suck out the life energy of any guy she's with. So she can't be with guys she likes. Well, not without destroying them, and who wants to do that?

One thing Mead does really well is to draw a complex character with an interesting moral makeup. That is to say, Georgina is sort of an ethical bad girl, which I loved. I mean, she'll have sex with her sleezy boss because she doesn't care about sucking his life energy, but she steers clear of the men she desperately desires, and in general, tries to be a not-too-evil succubus. Not easy!! And there is her backstory, full of self sacrifice. But she never feels all sorry for herself. The title is really wrong in this sense.

I also loved that Georgina works at a bookstore and is an avid reader and a fangirl of author Seth Morgenstern (I went with Jim Butcher there) and loves him for his mind, sort of (oh! what will become of their budding romance?) but the thing is, it made her feel like somebody I'd know and like. It made her feel like the kind of people I already know and like. In fact, of all the characters in all the books I've read recently, she's the one I'd most want to be friends with.

I think Mead made a very tricky juggling act look deceptively easy here, especially vis a vis what the men around her make of her mysterious ways. The dialogue rocks, too. I could go on. But I think I'm going to go preorder Succubus on Top.

I shan't be gentle, lassie!

It seems fitting, for the first entry of my blog, that I look back to the first fantasy/romance/adventure all-around girls' thrill read that expanded my universe beyond dead classic authors, wonderful as they can be. And that would be Diana Gabaldon's Outlander, which literally kept me up at night, even when I wasn't reading it, because it was so damn exciting. Like my mind would churn on it, and I'd have dreams about it where I'd fill stuff in and continue scenes, being SO tormented as to the welfare of the Jamie and Claire. I actually had to stop reading it at times, because I literally couldn't sleep after reading it. I know it's controversial, what with the gay rape, the wife beating that seems suspiciously written to be titillating and so much more, but Och, I was in such heated suspense all the way through, the thing took over my mind. My big gateway drug. It was sweet! Be in my first batch of commenters--I will be so excited! What was your gateway drug?

giraffe