Saturday, December 31, 2011
Notable New Book Releases [Dec. 25 - Dec. 31]
I hope everyone has been having a wonderful holiday season. I took myself a bit of a blogging vacation last week, but these are the new releases that managed to catch my eye. What did I miss? Be sure to let me know what books you were excited about this week.
The Innocent by Taylor Stevens
Publication Date: December 27, 2011
[The sequel to The Informationist. I'm looking forward to reading this next.]
With The Innocent, Taylor Stevens, the bestselling author of The Informationist, returns with another blockbuster thriller featuring the fearless Vanessa Michael Munroe.
Eight years ago, a man walked five-year-old Hannah out the front doors of her school and spirited her over the Mexican border, taking her into the world of a cult known as The Chosen. For eight years, followers of The Prophet have hidden the child, moving her from country to country, shielding the man who stole her. Now, those who’ve searched the longest know where to find her. They are childhood survivors of The Chosen, thirty-somethings born and raised inside the cult who’ve managed to make lives for themselves on the outside. They understand the mindset, the culture within that world, and turn to Vanessa Michael Munroe for help, knowing that the only possibility of stealing Hannah back and getting her safely out of Argentina is to trust someone who doesn’t trust them, and get Munroe on the inside.
Tautly written, brilliantly paced, and with the same evocation of the exotic combined with chilling violence that made The Informationist such a success, The Innocent confirms Taylor Stevens’ reputation as a thriller writer of the first rank.
77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz
Publication Date: December 27, 2011
[I'm looking forward to reading some reviews on this. I still haven't made it through The Moonlit Mind...]
I am the One, the all and the only. I live in the Pendleton as surely as I live everywhere. I am the Pendleton's history and its destiny. The building is my place of conception, my monument, my killing ground. . . .
The Pendleton stands on the summit of Shadow Hill at the highest point of an old heartland city, a Gilded Age palace built in the late 1800s as a tycoon’s dream home. Almost from the beginning, its grandeur has been scarred by episodes of madness, suicide, mass murder, and whispers of things far worse. But since its rechristening in the 1970s as a luxury apartment building, the Pendleton has been at peace. For its fortunate residents—among them a successful songwriter and her young son, a disgraced ex-senator, a widowed attorney, and a driven money manager—the Pendleton’s magnificent quarters are a sanctuary, its dark past all but forgotten.
But now inexplicable shadows caper across walls, security cameras relay impossible images, phantom voices mutter in strange tongues, not-quite-human figures lurk in the basement, elevators plunge into unknown depths. With each passing hour, a terrifying certainty grows: Whatever drove the Pendleton’s past occupants to their unspeakable fates is at work again. Soon, all those within its boundaries will be engulfed by a dark tide from which few have escaped.
Dean Koontz transcends all expectations as he takes readers on a gripping journey to a place where nightmare visions become real—and where a group of singular individuals hold the key to humanity’s destiny. Welcome to 77 Shadow Street.
Empire State by Adam Christopher
Publication Date: December 27, 2011
[This sounds like a fun read.]
THE EMPIRE STATE IS THE OTHER NEW YORK. A parallel-universe, Prohibition-era world of mooks and shamuses that is the twisted magic mirror to our bustling Big Apple, a place where sinister characters lurk around every corner while the great superheroes that once kept the streets safe have fallen into dysfunctional rivalries and feuds. Not that its colourful residents know anything about the real New York… until detective Rad Bradley makes a discovery that will change the lives of all its inhabitants. Playing on the classic Gotham conventions of the Batman comics and HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, debut author Adam Christopher has spun this smart and fast-paced superhero-noir adventure, the sort of souped-up thrill ride that will excite genre fans and general readers alike.
The Innocent by Taylor Stevens
Publication Date: December 27, 2011
[The sequel to The Informationist. I'm looking forward to reading this next.]
With The Innocent, Taylor Stevens, the bestselling author of The Informationist, returns with another blockbuster thriller featuring the fearless Vanessa Michael Munroe.
Eight years ago, a man walked five-year-old Hannah out the front doors of her school and spirited her over the Mexican border, taking her into the world of a cult known as The Chosen. For eight years, followers of The Prophet have hidden the child, moving her from country to country, shielding the man who stole her. Now, those who’ve searched the longest know where to find her. They are childhood survivors of The Chosen, thirty-somethings born and raised inside the cult who’ve managed to make lives for themselves on the outside. They understand the mindset, the culture within that world, and turn to Vanessa Michael Munroe for help, knowing that the only possibility of stealing Hannah back and getting her safely out of Argentina is to trust someone who doesn’t trust them, and get Munroe on the inside.
Tautly written, brilliantly paced, and with the same evocation of the exotic combined with chilling violence that made The Informationist such a success, The Innocent confirms Taylor Stevens’ reputation as a thriller writer of the first rank.
77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz
Publication Date: December 27, 2011
[I'm looking forward to reading some reviews on this. I still haven't made it through The Moonlit Mind...]
I am the One, the all and the only. I live in the Pendleton as surely as I live everywhere. I am the Pendleton's history and its destiny. The building is my place of conception, my monument, my killing ground. . . .
The Pendleton stands on the summit of Shadow Hill at the highest point of an old heartland city, a Gilded Age palace built in the late 1800s as a tycoon’s dream home. Almost from the beginning, its grandeur has been scarred by episodes of madness, suicide, mass murder, and whispers of things far worse. But since its rechristening in the 1970s as a luxury apartment building, the Pendleton has been at peace. For its fortunate residents—among them a successful songwriter and her young son, a disgraced ex-senator, a widowed attorney, and a driven money manager—the Pendleton’s magnificent quarters are a sanctuary, its dark past all but forgotten.
But now inexplicable shadows caper across walls, security cameras relay impossible images, phantom voices mutter in strange tongues, not-quite-human figures lurk in the basement, elevators plunge into unknown depths. With each passing hour, a terrifying certainty grows: Whatever drove the Pendleton’s past occupants to their unspeakable fates is at work again. Soon, all those within its boundaries will be engulfed by a dark tide from which few have escaped.
Dean Koontz transcends all expectations as he takes readers on a gripping journey to a place where nightmare visions become real—and where a group of singular individuals hold the key to humanity’s destiny. Welcome to 77 Shadow Street.
Empire State by Adam Christopher
Publication Date: December 27, 2011
[This sounds like a fun read.]
THE EMPIRE STATE IS THE OTHER NEW YORK. A parallel-universe, Prohibition-era world of mooks and shamuses that is the twisted magic mirror to our bustling Big Apple, a place where sinister characters lurk around every corner while the great superheroes that once kept the streets safe have fallen into dysfunctional rivalries and feuds. Not that its colourful residents know anything about the real New York… until detective Rad Bradley makes a discovery that will change the lives of all its inhabitants. Playing on the classic Gotham conventions of the Batman comics and HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, debut author Adam Christopher has spun this smart and fast-paced superhero-noir adventure, the sort of souped-up thrill ride that will excite genre fans and general readers alike.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Book Review: The Becoming by Jessica Meigs
The Becoming is the first book in a zombie series by Jessica Meigs.
Book Description
Zombies!
Some things to note going into this review: it contains minor spoilers for season one of The Walking Dead, and I still haven't seen season two.
I appreciated a lot of the traditional zombie elements of The Becoming, but what I really loved was the fast paced beginning. I was hooked right away and tearing through the pages. I think it is safe to say Meigs is an old school fan of zombies. Even though her zombies are the 28 Days Later flavor, they do have some Romero tossed in and a nice twist on the intelligence of the zombies.
A funny thing happened on the way to the zompocalyse, though. My personal experiences and preconceived notions started to get the better of me. The best way I can relate this is to compare The Becoming to The Walking Dead. If you love watching The Walking Dead, you will probably also love The Becoming.
The Walking Dead and The Becoming have some of the same problems for me. I couldn't get past the fact that they were able to drive in and out of Atlanta (both). Just panning down to the bumper to bumper abandoned cars on the highway below (The Walking Dead) wasn't enough for me. I live in hurricane alley. I know when everyone needs to get up and go, there are no roads and there is no gas. I also have preconceived notions about the CDC. If it didn't bother you that the man's wife in the CDC footage at the end of season one (The Walking Dead) ran the CDC and still managed to get infected, it won't bother you that the Michaluk Virus (The Becoming) originated at the CDC.
I also know when the gov'ment clears a city, there is no going back.
There are two distinct parts of The Becoming with a jump in time between the two. The characters were far more likeable in the first part - which contained most of the creepy zombie build up and page turning action - than they were in the second part where everyone's frustrations, fear, and cabin fever were closing in upon them. By the end of The Becoming, however, the characters had joined back together, gotten closure on some things that were eating at them (no pun intended), and they seemed ready to band together for survival. This shows a lot of promise as to where this series could be heading.
Much in the same way I'm still a fan of The Walking Dead, I will keep my eyes (and my mind) open for the next installment of The Becoming.
5/10: I'm torn down the middle
Review copy provided by the author
Book Description
The Michaluk Virus is loose.
In the heart of Atlanta, Georgia, the Michaluk Virus has escaped the CDC, and its effects are widespread and devastating. Most of the population of the southeastern United States have become homicidal cannibals. As society rapidly crumbles under the hordes of infected, three people—Ethan Bennett, a Memphis police officer; Cade Alton, his best friend and former IDF sharpshooter; and Brandt Evans, a lieutenant in the US Marines—band together against the oncoming crush of death and terror sweeping across the world.
As Cade, Brandt, and Ethan hole up in a safe house in Tupelo, others begin to join them in their bid for survival. When the infected attack and they’re forced to flee, one departs to Memphis in search of answers while the others escape south to Biloxi, where they encounter more danger than they bargained for. And in Memphis, the answers that one man finds are the last answers he wanted, answers that herald a horrific possibility that there may be more to this virus than first suspected.
Zombies!
Some things to note going into this review: it contains minor spoilers for season one of The Walking Dead, and I still haven't seen season two.
I appreciated a lot of the traditional zombie elements of The Becoming, but what I really loved was the fast paced beginning. I was hooked right away and tearing through the pages. I think it is safe to say Meigs is an old school fan of zombies. Even though her zombies are the 28 Days Later flavor, they do have some Romero tossed in and a nice twist on the intelligence of the zombies.
A funny thing happened on the way to the zompocalyse, though. My personal experiences and preconceived notions started to get the better of me. The best way I can relate this is to compare The Becoming to The Walking Dead. If you love watching The Walking Dead, you will probably also love The Becoming.
The Walking Dead and The Becoming have some of the same problems for me. I couldn't get past the fact that they were able to drive in and out of Atlanta (both). Just panning down to the bumper to bumper abandoned cars on the highway below (The Walking Dead) wasn't enough for me. I live in hurricane alley. I know when everyone needs to get up and go, there are no roads and there is no gas. I also have preconceived notions about the CDC. If it didn't bother you that the man's wife in the CDC footage at the end of season one (The Walking Dead) ran the CDC and still managed to get infected, it won't bother you that the Michaluk Virus (The Becoming) originated at the CDC.
I also know when the gov'ment clears a city, there is no going back.
There are two distinct parts of The Becoming with a jump in time between the two. The characters were far more likeable in the first part - which contained most of the creepy zombie build up and page turning action - than they were in the second part where everyone's frustrations, fear, and cabin fever were closing in upon them. By the end of The Becoming, however, the characters had joined back together, gotten closure on some things that were eating at them (no pun intended), and they seemed ready to band together for survival. This shows a lot of promise as to where this series could be heading.
Much in the same way I'm still a fan of The Walking Dead, I will keep my eyes (and my mind) open for the next installment of The Becoming.
5/10: I'm torn down the middle
Review copy provided by the author
Labels:
Book Reviews,
Jessica Meigs,
Permuted Press,
Zombies
Monday, December 19, 2011
Book Review: The Theatre of Curious Acts by Cate Gardner
The Theatre of Curious Acts is a dark fantasy novel from Cate Gardner.
Book Description
I've been struggling with a way to describe Cate Gardner's writing. A few pages into The Theatre of Curious Acts I had to figure out how to highlight in my favorite reader app just so I could mark all of my favorite quotes. It was brain candy on a deeper level for me. The mix of Gardner's intelligent prose and her dark, visual tale had my brain all delighted.
The Theatre of Curious Acts is located at the end of the world, but only the wise few will notice.
The Theatre of Curious Acts is a unique tale of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. I felt like I was watching the apocalypse through a nickelodeon. Gardner had me walking through the mouth of a dragon and hopping aboard a pirate ship to the end of the world. It was a bit of a whirlwind with lots of vivid imagery. I really loved that the four horsemen were vile and memorable women, too.
If you are in the mood for a dark and intelligent tale, you will find it in The Theatre of Curious Acts.
7/10: Recommended Read
Review copy provided by author
Book Description
Returned home from the Great War, his parents and brother in their graves, Daniel walks a ghost world. When players in a theatre show lure Daniel and his friends, fellow soldiers, into a surreal otherworld they find themselves trapped on an apocalyptic path. A pirate ship waits to ferry some of them to the end of the world, helmed by Death. Already broken by war, these men are now the world's only hope in the greatest battle of all.
I've been struggling with a way to describe Cate Gardner's writing. A few pages into The Theatre of Curious Acts I had to figure out how to highlight in my favorite reader app just so I could mark all of my favorite quotes. It was brain candy on a deeper level for me. The mix of Gardner's intelligent prose and her dark, visual tale had my brain all delighted.
The Theatre of Curious Acts is located at the end of the world, but only the wise few will notice.
The Theatre of Curious Acts is a unique tale of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. I felt like I was watching the apocalypse through a nickelodeon. Gardner had me walking through the mouth of a dragon and hopping aboard a pirate ship to the end of the world. It was a bit of a whirlwind with lots of vivid imagery. I really loved that the four horsemen were vile and memorable women, too.
If you are in the mood for a dark and intelligent tale, you will find it in The Theatre of Curious Acts.
7/10: Recommended Read
Review copy provided by author
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Notable New Book Releases [Dec. 11 - Dec. 17]
These are the new releases that caught my eye this week. What did I miss? Be sure to tell me what books you were excited about this week!
The Trip by Aaron Niz
Publication Date: December 13, 2011
[This was a random Amazon find. After looking up Aaron Niz, I discovered an interview where he said "My ideal reader would be someone that enjoys thrillers and a fast-paced, creepy read." There you have it.]
It starts out innocently enough.
A group of fraternity brothers embark on their annual trip to the woods of New Hampshire, planning to spend a weekend partying in an isolated cabin.
But soon after the group arrives, they find their car tires slashed. And without cell phone reception or internet, the brothers realize their isolation is all too real. Someone wants to make sure they stay in the cabin --- and when the first dead body appears, it won't be the last.
As the body count rises, paranoia and suspicion mount and the group begins to suspect everyone and everything around them. In the end, nobody can predict just how twisted this weekend of brotherly love will end up...
At approximately 32,000 words, THE TRIP is a pulse-pounding, page-turning descent into madness, written by bestselling suspense author Aaron Niz.
The Theatre of Curious Acts by Cate Gardner
Publication Date: December 15, 2011
[Expect a review next week for this one! It is doing good things to me.]
Returned home from the Great War, his parents and brother in their graves, Daniel walks a ghost world. When players in a theatre show lure Daniel and his friends, fellow soldiers, into a surreal otherworld they find themselves trapped on an apocalyptic path. A pirate ship waits to ferry some of them to the end of the world, helmed by Death. Already broken by war, these men are now the world's only hope in the greatest battle of all.
Baal by Robert McCammon
Publication Date [Ebook Release]: December 15, 2011
[McCammon's first novel - released as an ebook.]
Baal was Robert McCammon’s first novel, a debut that would lead to some of the finest popular fiction of our time. Written at the age of 25 and published as a paperback original in 1978, it has been out of print for years. This deluxe new edition from Subterranean Press will give McCammon’s many readers — both newcomers and longtime fans — the opportunity to trace the development of an extraordinarily talented man.
The story begins with a horrific rape on the streets of New York City. Nine months after that violation, a most unusual child is born. His name is Jeffrey Harper Raines, but he quickly assumes his true name — and true purpose — as Baal, a new incarnation of the ancient prince of demons. The narrative recounts his lethal progress through the 20th century, which begins with the destruction of his earthly “family.” From there, Jeffrey/Baal moves to a doomed Catholic orphanage, where he unleashes carnage on an unprecedented scale, then out into the wider world, where he embraces his destiny as the Prophet of the Damned, generating a legacy of chaos, violence, and despair.
Baal is very much a young man’s book, raw and brimming with emotion. Listen closely and you’ll hear the voice of a gifted storyteller struggling to be born. In 1980, the career that would encompass Swan Song, Boy’s Life, and The Five still lay waiting several years down the road. This is where it began.
The Trip by Aaron Niz
Publication Date: December 13, 2011
[This was a random Amazon find. After looking up Aaron Niz, I discovered an interview where he said "My ideal reader would be someone that enjoys thrillers and a fast-paced, creepy read." There you have it.]
It starts out innocently enough.
A group of fraternity brothers embark on their annual trip to the woods of New Hampshire, planning to spend a weekend partying in an isolated cabin.
But soon after the group arrives, they find their car tires slashed. And without cell phone reception or internet, the brothers realize their isolation is all too real. Someone wants to make sure they stay in the cabin --- and when the first dead body appears, it won't be the last.
As the body count rises, paranoia and suspicion mount and the group begins to suspect everyone and everything around them. In the end, nobody can predict just how twisted this weekend of brotherly love will end up...
At approximately 32,000 words, THE TRIP is a pulse-pounding, page-turning descent into madness, written by bestselling suspense author Aaron Niz.
The Theatre of Curious Acts by Cate Gardner
Publication Date: December 15, 2011
[Expect a review next week for this one! It is doing good things to me.]
Returned home from the Great War, his parents and brother in their graves, Daniel walks a ghost world. When players in a theatre show lure Daniel and his friends, fellow soldiers, into a surreal otherworld they find themselves trapped on an apocalyptic path. A pirate ship waits to ferry some of them to the end of the world, helmed by Death. Already broken by war, these men are now the world's only hope in the greatest battle of all.
Baal by Robert McCammon
Publication Date [Ebook Release]: December 15, 2011
[McCammon's first novel - released as an ebook.]
Baal was Robert McCammon’s first novel, a debut that would lead to some of the finest popular fiction of our time. Written at the age of 25 and published as a paperback original in 1978, it has been out of print for years. This deluxe new edition from Subterranean Press will give McCammon’s many readers — both newcomers and longtime fans — the opportunity to trace the development of an extraordinarily talented man.
The story begins with a horrific rape on the streets of New York City. Nine months after that violation, a most unusual child is born. His name is Jeffrey Harper Raines, but he quickly assumes his true name — and true purpose — as Baal, a new incarnation of the ancient prince of demons. The narrative recounts his lethal progress through the 20th century, which begins with the destruction of his earthly “family.” From there, Jeffrey/Baal moves to a doomed Catholic orphanage, where he unleashes carnage on an unprecedented scale, then out into the wider world, where he embraces his destiny as the Prophet of the Damned, generating a legacy of chaos, violence, and despair.
Baal is very much a young man’s book, raw and brimming with emotion. Listen closely and you’ll hear the voice of a gifted storyteller struggling to be born. In 1980, the career that would encompass Swan Song, Boy’s Life, and The Five still lay waiting several years down the road. This is where it began.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Guest Post: How The Mill Came About by Mark West
I'm very excited to welcome Mark West to Book Den. Mark is joining us today to discuss how his novelette The Mill came about. You can read my review of The Mill here.
My name is Mark West and I write horror stories. I’ve been writing them for a long time (since I was eight, in fact) and when I discovered the world of the small/independent press in 1998, I started to get them published.
In 2005, my son was born and I was whacked by a writers block that took me a long while to climb over. What helped was a friend of mine, Gary McMahon, asking me to contribute a story to a forthcoming anthology he was editing (I later found out that it was all lies - he felt bad for me, asked for a story, then realised he was going to have to put something together). I wrote “The Mill” and it duly appeared in Gary’s “We Fade To Grey”, which featured four other cracking stories and was short-listed for the BFS Best Anthology in 2009 - and my block had started to fall.
Earlier this year, after some prompting from my friend Tim Taylor - who's not only in my writing group, he's also the publisher at Greyhart Press - I decided to give “The Mill” a fresh crack of the whip and it was released as an ebook. What's nice is that it's finding a new audience, it's getting fresh reviews that are very positive and it's doing my confidence a world of good.
So where did “The Mill” come from? I'm a strong believer in the school of 'write-what-you-know', in so much as you can place your characters in the most outlandish situations but they should always react how you - or your friends - would. I first started getting building blocks of ideas for the tale in the early noughties, the concept of a ghost story that wasn't really about ghosts but more about the place though it didn't matter what I did, I couldn't get the story to fly.
It took a while, after Gary’s request, to realise that what I actually wanted to write about was something that I did indeed know, that had been rattling around in my head for a long time. In 2003, after six months of illness, my younger sister passed away (my novel “Conjure” is dedicated to her) and I was still - four years later - trying to process my thoughts and feelings. So why not exorcise it all in a story, get down on the page what I thought and how I felt? And that’s what I did, though for the sake of dramatic licence I changed the bereavement to the lead characters wife.
“The Mill” was a difficult story to write, as you can imagine - although there are moments of brevity in it and some flashbacks to a more pleasant time, it’s about bereaved partners who would do anything to spend more time with their departed loved ones. I ploughed a lot of my thoughts into Michael, the lead character and conversations he and his peers have are ones that I had with friends.
The story was a big departure for me - whereas before, in my short stories and my first published novel “In The Rain With The Dead” (now also an eBook from Greyhart), I used gore as a tool and used it gladly - my sensibilities had changed considerably (this is also noticeable in “Conjure”). I didn’t want to gross people out, I wanted to scare them and make them think and make them cry. In that sense, I think “The Mill” marks a step-change in my writing career - I’m still a horror writer, make no mistake about that at all, but I now want to move the reader without splashing blood and body parts around. I will still spill blood, I will still lop off limbs, but that hopefully won’t be the bit that chills the reader.
As with most of my work, a lot of the places in the story are real. I grew up in a small town called Rothwell, in Northamptonshire and if you take a walk down Shotwell Mill Lane, you’ll see in real life exactly what’s described in the book. There was a mill at the bottom of it, though only the cellar areas now remain and when we were kids, we’d go there in the summer holidays to play war and a variety of other games. The cellars are still there now, but massively overgrown. The hall where the group meets up is based on the one in Kettering, where my first writing group used to meet and the café in town is one that my parents like to frequent (and my son loves it too).
The story is set in Gaffney, which is the location for most of my stories. It’s an amalgamation of my home town, Rothwell and Kettering, where we lived when I started publishing and other places - Northampton and Leicester - pop up as and when required. I started using the town in the early days because I didn’t want to inadvertently kill someone in a particular street and then discover that someone of that name did actually live there. Once I’d started publishing the stories, I realised that I had to create a reality of the town,
so there is a basic layout - in my head - to Gaffney and it doesn’t matter if you read a short, the novel or this, the main streets are the same, the town has the same layout and the cinema is always on Russell Street. Gaffney is also the location for a forthcoming chapbook I have coming out through Spectral Press, though I’ve now added a railway line to the town.
“The Mill” is a novelette (that’s the length Gary was looking for - it was the first time I’d tried to write to 15,000 words or so and a process I quite enjoyed) that is now, thankfully, enjoying a new lease of life. And I’m pleased with that.
Thank you so much sharing your story with us, Mark!
My name is Mark West and I write horror stories. I’ve been writing them for a long time (since I was eight, in fact) and when I discovered the world of the small/independent press in 1998, I started to get them published.
In 2005, my son was born and I was whacked by a writers block that took me a long while to climb over. What helped was a friend of mine, Gary McMahon, asking me to contribute a story to a forthcoming anthology he was editing (I later found out that it was all lies - he felt bad for me, asked for a story, then realised he was going to have to put something together). I wrote “The Mill” and it duly appeared in Gary’s “We Fade To Grey”, which featured four other cracking stories and was short-listed for the BFS Best Anthology in 2009 - and my block had started to fall.
Earlier this year, after some prompting from my friend Tim Taylor - who's not only in my writing group, he's also the publisher at Greyhart Press - I decided to give “The Mill” a fresh crack of the whip and it was released as an ebook. What's nice is that it's finding a new audience, it's getting fresh reviews that are very positive and it's doing my confidence a world of good.
So where did “The Mill” come from? I'm a strong believer in the school of 'write-what-you-know', in so much as you can place your characters in the most outlandish situations but they should always react how you - or your friends - would. I first started getting building blocks of ideas for the tale in the early noughties, the concept of a ghost story that wasn't really about ghosts but more about the place though it didn't matter what I did, I couldn't get the story to fly.
It took a while, after Gary’s request, to realise that what I actually wanted to write about was something that I did indeed know, that had been rattling around in my head for a long time. In 2003, after six months of illness, my younger sister passed away (my novel “Conjure” is dedicated to her) and I was still - four years later - trying to process my thoughts and feelings. So why not exorcise it all in a story, get down on the page what I thought and how I felt? And that’s what I did, though for the sake of dramatic licence I changed the bereavement to the lead characters wife.
“The Mill” was a difficult story to write, as you can imagine - although there are moments of brevity in it and some flashbacks to a more pleasant time, it’s about bereaved partners who would do anything to spend more time with their departed loved ones. I ploughed a lot of my thoughts into Michael, the lead character and conversations he and his peers have are ones that I had with friends.
The story was a big departure for me - whereas before, in my short stories and my first published novel “In The Rain With The Dead” (now also an eBook from Greyhart), I used gore as a tool and used it gladly - my sensibilities had changed considerably (this is also noticeable in “Conjure”). I didn’t want to gross people out, I wanted to scare them and make them think and make them cry. In that sense, I think “The Mill” marks a step-change in my writing career - I’m still a horror writer, make no mistake about that at all, but I now want to move the reader without splashing blood and body parts around. I will still spill blood, I will still lop off limbs, but that hopefully won’t be the bit that chills the reader.
As with most of my work, a lot of the places in the story are real. I grew up in a small town called Rothwell, in Northamptonshire and if you take a walk down Shotwell Mill Lane, you’ll see in real life exactly what’s described in the book. There was a mill at the bottom of it, though only the cellar areas now remain and when we were kids, we’d go there in the summer holidays to play war and a variety of other games. The cellars are still there now, but massively overgrown. The hall where the group meets up is based on the one in Kettering, where my first writing group used to meet and the café in town is one that my parents like to frequent (and my son loves it too).
The story is set in Gaffney, which is the location for most of my stories. It’s an amalgamation of my home town, Rothwell and Kettering, where we lived when I started publishing and other places - Northampton and Leicester - pop up as and when required. I started using the town in the early days because I didn’t want to inadvertently kill someone in a particular street and then discover that someone of that name did actually live there. Once I’d started publishing the stories, I realised that I had to create a reality of the town,
so there is a basic layout - in my head - to Gaffney and it doesn’t matter if you read a short, the novel or this, the main streets are the same, the town has the same layout and the cinema is always on Russell Street. Gaffney is also the location for a forthcoming chapbook I have coming out through Spectral Press, though I’ve now added a railway line to the town.
“The Mill” is a novelette (that’s the length Gary was looking for - it was the first time I’d tried to write to 15,000 words or so and a process I quite enjoyed) that is now, thankfully, enjoying a new lease of life. And I’m pleased with that.
Thank you so much sharing your story with us, Mark!
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Review: The Mill by Mark West
The Mill is a ghost story novelette from Mark West.
Book Description
I've been fortunate to read a few books this year that have moved me emotionally. A Monster Calls, The Five, Apartment Seven, and now Mark West's The Mill.
West's writing had me turning the pages, but I also had to take breaks for fear my heart would shatter.
If you are a fan of shorter fiction (this would equal about 64 pages) and you love stories you can connect with emotionally, you will certainly enjoy The Mill. It was a powerful read.
7/10: Recommended Read
Review copy provided by publisher
Book Description
Michael struggles to come to terms with the death of his wife. He has visions of her calling to him, inviting him to the beyond.
At the Bereaved Partners’ Group, he learns that he is not the only one left behind who can hear the departed beckon them… to the Mill.
I've been fortunate to read a few books this year that have moved me emotionally. A Monster Calls, The Five, Apartment Seven, and now Mark West's The Mill.
West's writing had me turning the pages, but I also had to take breaks for fear my heart would shatter.
If you are a fan of shorter fiction (this would equal about 64 pages) and you love stories you can connect with emotionally, you will certainly enjoy The Mill. It was a powerful read.
7/10: Recommended Read
Review copy provided by publisher
Labels:
Book Reviews,
Greyhart Publishing,
Horror,
Mark West,
Novellas
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Notable New Book Releases [Dec. 4 - Dec. 10]
What a great week! J.E. Medrick released all of the current volumes of her YA series into one massive volume. I totally dig the cover, too.
Lee Thompson's latest Division novel got the surprise Kindle pre-release treatment much to my excitement.
Another total surprise ebook release was Robert McCammon's The Hunter from the Woods.
In other news, I also want to point out all issues of Shock Totem are now just $.99 and Glen Krisch's collection Commitment and Other Tales of Madness is free at Smashwords. UPDATE: Shock Totem #4 is free today on Amazon. RUN!
Here are the new releases that caught my eye last week. What did I miss? What books were you excited about?
The Safety Expert by Doug Richardson
Publication Date: December 5, 2011
[Written by the screenwriter of Die Hard 2 and Bad Boys.]
Ben Keller lives life by one simple rule. Safety first. Ben is keenly aware of life’s hidden dangers. Ben never smokes. Ben always uses the crosswalk. Ben always drives within the speed limit. He has to because safety is his business. From his home in Simi Valley, California, one of the safest cities in the United States, Ben works hard at living a perfectly normal, perfectly uneventful, perfectly safe life. And life is good until the past reaches into the present. In the dark of the night, a man crosses a lonely intersection and is struck by a car, setting events in motion that will unravel the finely stitched strands of Ben’s cocoon, from a recently retired porn actress who is desperate to be a mother to the butch cop determined to shield her young son from the whisperings of the queen bee moms at his private school to the addict who is clawing to hold onto the sobriety that cages the violence within him. A long dismissed demon has resurfaced, presenting Ben with a most unsafe dilemma: preserve the haven he has carefully built for himself or confront the evildoer who decimated his carefree young life all those years ago. Ben is in danger. Ben’s world is unsafe. Ben’s life will be changed forever. Again.
Emergence (Icarus Helix #1-5) by J.E. Medrick
Publication Date: December 6, 2011
[Read my reviews of the Icarus Helix series here.]
The first five episodes of the "Icarus Helix" series have been collected here, in one volume. Enjoy an almost 40% discount from buying them individually when you pick up this collection!
"Emergence" includes:
"Cheat"
How far would you go for money? For Marcus Tiller, gambling debt was an overwhelming shadow on his life. As a neonatal attendant at St. Mercy Four Cities Hospital in need of cash, he became CGT-Inc's ideal pawn. The contract: secretly inject newborns with an experimental compound - for $1,000 a head. But, three years after he began, he disappeared.
Now, 14 years later, the effects of the compound are starting to show. 17-year old Ian Reynolds, an aspiring varsity football player, suddenly finds he can control things with the power of his thoughts. Footballs miraculously end up in his hands, girls' skirts catch sudden drafts and life is good. But the gift comes with a price, both physical and mental.
As Ian tries to understand his power, the big rivalry against the Waredo Firehawks looms. But when a stranger who may know his secret begins leaving him cryptic notes, will Ian decide his power is best left... undiscovered?
"Liar"
Marcus Tiller gambled away all of his money to the Bad Men. No sweat - they gave him more. But when his new bets went sour, he became desperate. He signed on with Icarus Consulting to inject newborns with an experimental compound.
Fourteen years later, Ellen discovers a startling ability - she can tell if people are lying. Not only that, but when they do, she can hear their true thoughts.
When a smooth-talking stranger hints at her powers, paranoia starts. Ellen finds herself drawn into best friend drama, tip-toeing around boys and fearing a divorce.
With the masks of people around her shattering, will Ellen learn to live with her power... or be struck down by it?
"Coward"
David West is a normal, nerdy boy. His parents are never home, he is small for his age and he can't get up the courage to get a girlfriend.
But when he accidentally absorbs a shower handle, he realizes he might not be so average, after all.
His freshman year heads quickly for disaster as he crosses paths with the football team. Now with stress building and nowhere to turn, David's power may be his last road out of mediocrity. At the moment of truth, will he decide it's easier to be brave... or wicked?
"Thief"
Single parent household. One friend in the world. Father in jail for double homicide. Poor. Mute.
What would YOU do if you suddenly turned invisible?
15-year old Mason is dealing with just these problems. When he uncovers a crippling family secret that he blames on himself, he knows things need to change. He needs them to change. Not just for himself - but for his mother.
The ability to become a ghost just may be his answer...
"Thug"
Anthony Leeman is an over-sized, twice-flunked, nineteen-year-old senior with a history of misunderstood violence. His whole world revolves around his sister, Anna. He would do and give anything to see her succeed.
When he witnesses an unbelievable event, his life is rocked out of its familiar groove. Anthony searches for answers as Anna falls mysteriously ill. With his family, health and very sanity on the line, how can he save them all?
The Dampness of Mourning by Lee Thompson
Pre-Release Date [Kindle Edition]: December 8, 2011
[One of my most anticipated 2012 releases! It's available exclusively for Kindle 90 days early. I could not be more excited.]
A ringleader of phantoms and collector of souls, he played rhythms on bare flesh, hellish melodies on bone. Fifty years ago he disappeared as quickly as he came and the town of Division gladly swept his tortured acts from memory.
But John McDonnell and Michael Johnston have drawn him home—he hears their names in his sleep, tastes their blood on his tongue, and fantasizes about the rapture birthed of their mourning.
The Hunter from the Woods by Robert McCammon
Publication Date: December 8, 2011
[This is the ebook release, but I did notice the hardcover is back in stock.]
The Hunter from the Woods marks the much-anticipated return of Michael Gallatin, the lycanthropic hero of Robert McCammon's 1989 classic, The Wolf's Hour. These all-new, interlinked stories offer a full measure of McCammon's trademark narrative excitement, and comprise a fascinating composite portrait of a unique fictional creation.
The volume opens with a pair of brief glimpses into Michael's early life in Russia and his initial recruitment into the British Secret Service. It ends with a haunting vision of the werewolf at twilight. In between, McCammon gives us three stellar novellas depicting different phases of Michael's long, brutal war against Nazi Germany. 'Sea Chase' is a nautical tale about the hazards of transporting a defecting German scientist to a place of sanctuary in England. 'The Wolf and the Eagle' is the account of an unlikely friendship between rival 'men of action' and a harrowing portrayal of a lethal forced march through the North African desert. 'The Room at the Bottom of the Stairs' tells of an impossible, ultimately tragic love affair set in the embattled city of Berlin during the latter stages of the war.
Erotic, visceral, and filled with moments of desolating horror and unexpected warmth, The Hunter from the Woods is a triumph of imaginative storytelling. Like the best of McCammon's earlier work, it offers intelligent, world-class entertainment. In the process, it shines a welcome new light on one of the most uncommon heroes in contemporary fiction.
Lee Thompson's latest Division novel got the surprise Kindle pre-release treatment much to my excitement.
Another total surprise ebook release was Robert McCammon's The Hunter from the Woods.
In other news, I also want to point out all issues of Shock Totem are now just $.99 and Glen Krisch's collection Commitment and Other Tales of Madness is free at Smashwords. UPDATE: Shock Totem #4 is free today on Amazon. RUN!
Here are the new releases that caught my eye last week. What did I miss? What books were you excited about?
The Safety Expert by Doug Richardson
Publication Date: December 5, 2011
[Written by the screenwriter of Die Hard 2 and Bad Boys.]
Ben Keller lives life by one simple rule. Safety first. Ben is keenly aware of life’s hidden dangers. Ben never smokes. Ben always uses the crosswalk. Ben always drives within the speed limit. He has to because safety is his business. From his home in Simi Valley, California, one of the safest cities in the United States, Ben works hard at living a perfectly normal, perfectly uneventful, perfectly safe life. And life is good until the past reaches into the present. In the dark of the night, a man crosses a lonely intersection and is struck by a car, setting events in motion that will unravel the finely stitched strands of Ben’s cocoon, from a recently retired porn actress who is desperate to be a mother to the butch cop determined to shield her young son from the whisperings of the queen bee moms at his private school to the addict who is clawing to hold onto the sobriety that cages the violence within him. A long dismissed demon has resurfaced, presenting Ben with a most unsafe dilemma: preserve the haven he has carefully built for himself or confront the evildoer who decimated his carefree young life all those years ago. Ben is in danger. Ben’s world is unsafe. Ben’s life will be changed forever. Again.
Emergence (Icarus Helix #1-5) by J.E. Medrick
Publication Date: December 6, 2011
[Read my reviews of the Icarus Helix series here.]
The first five episodes of the "Icarus Helix" series have been collected here, in one volume. Enjoy an almost 40% discount from buying them individually when you pick up this collection!
"Emergence" includes:
"Cheat"
How far would you go for money? For Marcus Tiller, gambling debt was an overwhelming shadow on his life. As a neonatal attendant at St. Mercy Four Cities Hospital in need of cash, he became CGT-Inc's ideal pawn. The contract: secretly inject newborns with an experimental compound - for $1,000 a head. But, three years after he began, he disappeared.
Now, 14 years later, the effects of the compound are starting to show. 17-year old Ian Reynolds, an aspiring varsity football player, suddenly finds he can control things with the power of his thoughts. Footballs miraculously end up in his hands, girls' skirts catch sudden drafts and life is good. But the gift comes with a price, both physical and mental.
As Ian tries to understand his power, the big rivalry against the Waredo Firehawks looms. But when a stranger who may know his secret begins leaving him cryptic notes, will Ian decide his power is best left... undiscovered?
"Liar"
Marcus Tiller gambled away all of his money to the Bad Men. No sweat - they gave him more. But when his new bets went sour, he became desperate. He signed on with Icarus Consulting to inject newborns with an experimental compound.
Fourteen years later, Ellen discovers a startling ability - she can tell if people are lying. Not only that, but when they do, she can hear their true thoughts.
When a smooth-talking stranger hints at her powers, paranoia starts. Ellen finds herself drawn into best friend drama, tip-toeing around boys and fearing a divorce.
With the masks of people around her shattering, will Ellen learn to live with her power... or be struck down by it?
"Coward"
David West is a normal, nerdy boy. His parents are never home, he is small for his age and he can't get up the courage to get a girlfriend.
But when he accidentally absorbs a shower handle, he realizes he might not be so average, after all.
His freshman year heads quickly for disaster as he crosses paths with the football team. Now with stress building and nowhere to turn, David's power may be his last road out of mediocrity. At the moment of truth, will he decide it's easier to be brave... or wicked?
"Thief"
Single parent household. One friend in the world. Father in jail for double homicide. Poor. Mute.
What would YOU do if you suddenly turned invisible?
15-year old Mason is dealing with just these problems. When he uncovers a crippling family secret that he blames on himself, he knows things need to change. He needs them to change. Not just for himself - but for his mother.
The ability to become a ghost just may be his answer...
"Thug"
Anthony Leeman is an over-sized, twice-flunked, nineteen-year-old senior with a history of misunderstood violence. His whole world revolves around his sister, Anna. He would do and give anything to see her succeed.
When he witnesses an unbelievable event, his life is rocked out of its familiar groove. Anthony searches for answers as Anna falls mysteriously ill. With his family, health and very sanity on the line, how can he save them all?
The Dampness of Mourning by Lee Thompson
Pre-Release Date [Kindle Edition]: December 8, 2011
[One of my most anticipated 2012 releases! It's available exclusively for Kindle 90 days early. I could not be more excited.]
A ringleader of phantoms and collector of souls, he played rhythms on bare flesh, hellish melodies on bone. Fifty years ago he disappeared as quickly as he came and the town of Division gladly swept his tortured acts from memory.
But John McDonnell and Michael Johnston have drawn him home—he hears their names in his sleep, tastes their blood on his tongue, and fantasizes about the rapture birthed of their mourning.
The Hunter from the Woods by Robert McCammon
Publication Date: December 8, 2011
[This is the ebook release, but I did notice the hardcover is back in stock.]
The Hunter from the Woods marks the much-anticipated return of Michael Gallatin, the lycanthropic hero of Robert McCammon's 1989 classic, The Wolf's Hour. These all-new, interlinked stories offer a full measure of McCammon's trademark narrative excitement, and comprise a fascinating composite portrait of a unique fictional creation.
The volume opens with a pair of brief glimpses into Michael's early life in Russia and his initial recruitment into the British Secret Service. It ends with a haunting vision of the werewolf at twilight. In between, McCammon gives us three stellar novellas depicting different phases of Michael's long, brutal war against Nazi Germany. 'Sea Chase' is a nautical tale about the hazards of transporting a defecting German scientist to a place of sanctuary in England. 'The Wolf and the Eagle' is the account of an unlikely friendship between rival 'men of action' and a harrowing portrayal of a lethal forced march through the North African desert. 'The Room at the Bottom of the Stairs' tells of an impossible, ultimately tragic love affair set in the embattled city of Berlin during the latter stages of the war.
Erotic, visceral, and filled with moments of desolating horror and unexpected warmth, The Hunter from the Woods is a triumph of imaginative storytelling. Like the best of McCammon's earlier work, it offers intelligent, world-class entertainment. In the process, it shines a welcome new light on one of the most uncommon heroes in contemporary fiction.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Review: Apartment Seven by Greg F. Gifune
Apartment Seven is a new novella from Greg F. Gifune.
Book Description
After enjoying Greg F. Gifune's Dreams the Ragman earlier this year, I was looking forward to his release of Apartment Seven. I have a tendency to avoid book descriptions when I already know I want to read the book so I was pleasantly surprised to find Apartment Seven is a Christmas story. A dark, dark Christmas story.
Clearly inspired by Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Gifune takes us on a journey of regret and redemption.
If you are looking for a great seasonal read, grab yourself a copy of Apartment Seven and wait for a cold, dark night between now and Christmas to cozy up tight and give it a read.
7/10: Recommended Read
Review copy provided by publisher
Book Description
It's Christmastime in the city, but all is not merry. Something is happening in Apartment Seven. Something evil.
Charlie Cerrone thought he had it all—a loving marriage, a good job, a nice home and financial security—until the night his wife betrayed him and his entire world came crashing down.
Angry and confused, Charlie wanders the streets of Boston after dark, dazed and searching for answers, trying to figure out why his wife has apparently taken up with another man and why she's been frequenting a strangely ominous and otherwise abandoned building late at night in one of the worst neighborhoods in the city.
Throughout the cold winter night, Charlie descends deeper and deeper into a nightmarish journey that encompasses his past, present and future, a terrifying and surreal odyssey that leads him through the darkest alleys and most dangerous streets of a haunted city, and that will eventually put him face-to-face with the horrific riddle behind his own troubled existence and the shocking mysteries of Apartment Seven.
After enjoying Greg F. Gifune's Dreams the Ragman earlier this year, I was looking forward to his release of Apartment Seven. I have a tendency to avoid book descriptions when I already know I want to read the book so I was pleasantly surprised to find Apartment Seven is a Christmas story. A dark, dark Christmas story.
Clearly inspired by Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Gifune takes us on a journey of regret and redemption.
If you are looking for a great seasonal read, grab yourself a copy of Apartment Seven and wait for a cold, dark night between now and Christmas to cozy up tight and give it a read.
7/10: Recommended Read
Review copy provided by publisher
Labels:
Book Reviews,
Delirium Books,
Greg F. Gifune,
Horror,
Novellas
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Guest Post: Why Bother Doing Research When You Write Fantasy? by Resa Nelson
Resa Nelson is joining us today to discuss the very important topic of research!
If you write fantasy, one of the great advantages is that you can make up anything you want. So why bother doing research?
Most writers don’t. But my readers tell me it’s obvious to them which writers do their homework and which ones don’t. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with making everything up from scratch – some writers who take this approach write exquisite books. But my experience has been that research shapes and changes my idea of what I think I want to write.
I got the research bug in 1988 when I made my first professional short story sale. It’s a science fiction story about a female soccer star who suddenly becomes a quadriplegic and learns to walk again with the aid of technology. One of my fan letters came from a paraplegic who told me I nailed the emotional side of the story but that the science could have been better if I’d done some research. I thought a lot about his letter and decided he was right. From that point on, whether my short stories were science fiction or fantasy or horror, I got into the habit of doing research. So by the time I began selling novels, doing research had become part of my process. But I had no idea what kind of rollercoaster ride I was about to get on.
My first book takes place in a medieval world. I see the world as being a parallel world to ours, but I wanted to learn about the Middle Ages because history is one of my weak points. I started out doing book research and decided to read as much as I could, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance. I did have one ace up my sleeve: I’ve always loved ancient cultures, including the Vikings. For many years I’d collected books about Vikings and gone to museum exhibits and even traveled to countries and visited ruins where Vikings once lived. I modeled my book on the Viking era, but I wanted to know about what led up to that era, what was going on in the rest of the world, and what happened after the Vikings were converted. While I read, I discovered interesting tidbits here and there that stayed in my head. Those tidbits became details in my book. When I decided to turn my first book into a 4-book series, those interesting little tidbits I found in history books evolved into major influences that shaped the rest of the books in the series. In other words, those tidbits made it easy for me to see the path the series should take, and I’m not sure I could have expanded the first book into a series if I hadn’t read dozens of history books.
But I took an extra step while researching my first book. My main character is a woman who makes swords for dragonslayers. So I thought, how can I write about a woman who’s a blacksmith unless I try it myself? I was at a science fiction convention and went to dinner with a bunch of friends and fellow writers. I started talking about how I was writing a novel and needed to learn blacksmithing. One of my friends piped up and told me where I could find a blacksmithing course! So I signed up and soon became the only woman surrounded by big, burly men who had no trouble standing at an anvil and hammering iron for four hours straight. At first I felt frustrated. I couldn’t keep up with my classmates and I failed to finish my projects. Instead of ending up at the end of each night with a nicely forged fire rake or coat rack or pair of tongs, I had a half-forged, useless lump of iron. I asked my teacher and classmates for advice and took it. By the end of the course, I was keeping up with the men.
During the last class I brought a small notebook with me and wrote down all the details I could see and smell: the different colors of smoke and how the smoke moved as I built a forging fire. The way the color of the iron changed when heated. The touch and feel of the tools I used and the surface of my anvil. All of these details went into my book, along with my experience of figuring out how to keep up with the men. These details fleshed out my main character in all kinds of ways. And because these details changed the character I thought I was going to create, it changed the course of the first book and the entire series. If I’d never done research, I probably would have written just one book and it would have turned out very differently. I think it would have been a much weaker novel.
I’ve also had the opposite experience of “write what you know,” which I think is incredibly good advice. I’ve been a lifelong fan of ancient Egypt and always wanted to write a book about it. I came up with an idea to write a fantasy/mystery/thriller that takes place in our world right now – but somewhere in the world there’s a place where people live like they did in ancient Egypt, and they don’t like foreigners. I already had most of what I needed to write the book – except for one thing. I have a few different translations of the Book of the Dead, which is essentially a book that tells you all the spells you need to say when you go on a dangerous journey through the Underworld after you die. The idea is that the journey is fraught with peril, but as long as you have the right words to say, you can get past any monster you face. I’ve always known that the journey consists of 12 hours and that you face a different monster or obstacle in each hour. I thought I’d like to include someone going through this journey in my novel, but I thought, “Where exactly does each hour take place? What exactly happens in each hour? And what are the monsters like?”
I belong to an online group for Egyptologists (even though I’m not one), and someone recommended a book that answered my questions! Once I read the book, I realized my original idea of watching a character go through every hour of this journey would be boring. I’d have to change my original plan. But that led me to come up with other ideas that sent my plan for the book in an exciting new direction that I never would have thought of if I hadn’t done the research.
At the end of the day, writers are individuals and have to decide what’s right for them. What’s right for me may be wrong for another writer, and vice versa. Doing research isn’t going to work for everyone. But I sure do love it!
Resa Nelson is the author of The Dragonslayer’s Sword (Book 1 in her 4-book Dragonslayer series), which was nominated for the Nebula Award and was a finalist for the EPPIE Award. Book 2 (The Iron Maiden) is scheduled for publication on December 13, 2011, and Book 3 (The Stone of Darkness) is slated for a June release. She is also the author of Our Lady of the Absolute, a novel about a modern-day society based on ancient Egypt. Her books are available in e-book format (from www.mundania.com) and trade paperback (Amazon.com, bn.com, mundania.com). To get a free “mini” e-book of the two short stories that inspired her Dragonslayer series, sign up for her monthly newsletter at http://www.resanelson.com.
Thank you so much, Resa!
If you write fantasy, one of the great advantages is that you can make up anything you want. So why bother doing research?
Most writers don’t. But my readers tell me it’s obvious to them which writers do their homework and which ones don’t. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with making everything up from scratch – some writers who take this approach write exquisite books. But my experience has been that research shapes and changes my idea of what I think I want to write.
I got the research bug in 1988 when I made my first professional short story sale. It’s a science fiction story about a female soccer star who suddenly becomes a quadriplegic and learns to walk again with the aid of technology. One of my fan letters came from a paraplegic who told me I nailed the emotional side of the story but that the science could have been better if I’d done some research. I thought a lot about his letter and decided he was right. From that point on, whether my short stories were science fiction or fantasy or horror, I got into the habit of doing research. So by the time I began selling novels, doing research had become part of my process. But I had no idea what kind of rollercoaster ride I was about to get on.
My first book takes place in a medieval world. I see the world as being a parallel world to ours, but I wanted to learn about the Middle Ages because history is one of my weak points. I started out doing book research and decided to read as much as I could, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance. I did have one ace up my sleeve: I’ve always loved ancient cultures, including the Vikings. For many years I’d collected books about Vikings and gone to museum exhibits and even traveled to countries and visited ruins where Vikings once lived. I modeled my book on the Viking era, but I wanted to know about what led up to that era, what was going on in the rest of the world, and what happened after the Vikings were converted. While I read, I discovered interesting tidbits here and there that stayed in my head. Those tidbits became details in my book. When I decided to turn my first book into a 4-book series, those interesting little tidbits I found in history books evolved into major influences that shaped the rest of the books in the series. In other words, those tidbits made it easy for me to see the path the series should take, and I’m not sure I could have expanded the first book into a series if I hadn’t read dozens of history books.
But I took an extra step while researching my first book. My main character is a woman who makes swords for dragonslayers. So I thought, how can I write about a woman who’s a blacksmith unless I try it myself? I was at a science fiction convention and went to dinner with a bunch of friends and fellow writers. I started talking about how I was writing a novel and needed to learn blacksmithing. One of my friends piped up and told me where I could find a blacksmithing course! So I signed up and soon became the only woman surrounded by big, burly men who had no trouble standing at an anvil and hammering iron for four hours straight. At first I felt frustrated. I couldn’t keep up with my classmates and I failed to finish my projects. Instead of ending up at the end of each night with a nicely forged fire rake or coat rack or pair of tongs, I had a half-forged, useless lump of iron. I asked my teacher and classmates for advice and took it. By the end of the course, I was keeping up with the men.
During the last class I brought a small notebook with me and wrote down all the details I could see and smell: the different colors of smoke and how the smoke moved as I built a forging fire. The way the color of the iron changed when heated. The touch and feel of the tools I used and the surface of my anvil. All of these details went into my book, along with my experience of figuring out how to keep up with the men. These details fleshed out my main character in all kinds of ways. And because these details changed the character I thought I was going to create, it changed the course of the first book and the entire series. If I’d never done research, I probably would have written just one book and it would have turned out very differently. I think it would have been a much weaker novel.
I’ve also had the opposite experience of “write what you know,” which I think is incredibly good advice. I’ve been a lifelong fan of ancient Egypt and always wanted to write a book about it. I came up with an idea to write a fantasy/mystery/thriller that takes place in our world right now – but somewhere in the world there’s a place where people live like they did in ancient Egypt, and they don’t like foreigners. I already had most of what I needed to write the book – except for one thing. I have a few different translations of the Book of the Dead, which is essentially a book that tells you all the spells you need to say when you go on a dangerous journey through the Underworld after you die. The idea is that the journey is fraught with peril, but as long as you have the right words to say, you can get past any monster you face. I’ve always known that the journey consists of 12 hours and that you face a different monster or obstacle in each hour. I thought I’d like to include someone going through this journey in my novel, but I thought, “Where exactly does each hour take place? What exactly happens in each hour? And what are the monsters like?”
I belong to an online group for Egyptologists (even though I’m not one), and someone recommended a book that answered my questions! Once I read the book, I realized my original idea of watching a character go through every hour of this journey would be boring. I’d have to change my original plan. But that led me to come up with other ideas that sent my plan for the book in an exciting new direction that I never would have thought of if I hadn’t done the research.
At the end of the day, writers are individuals and have to decide what’s right for them. What’s right for me may be wrong for another writer, and vice versa. Doing research isn’t going to work for everyone. But I sure do love it!
Resa Nelson is the author of The Dragonslayer’s Sword (Book 1 in her 4-book Dragonslayer series), which was nominated for the Nebula Award and was a finalist for the EPPIE Award. Book 2 (The Iron Maiden) is scheduled for publication on December 13, 2011, and Book 3 (The Stone of Darkness) is slated for a June release. She is also the author of Our Lady of the Absolute, a novel about a modern-day society based on ancient Egypt. Her books are available in e-book format (from www.mundania.com) and trade paperback (Amazon.com, bn.com, mundania.com). To get a free “mini” e-book of the two short stories that inspired her Dragonslayer series, sign up for her monthly newsletter at http://www.resanelson.com.
Thank you so much, Resa!
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Book Review: The Five by Robert McCammon
The Five is the latest novel from Robert McCammon.
Book Description
I'm kicking off the first official review in The Great McCammon Read with Robert McCammon's The Five. I've been holding on to The Five since its release in May waiting for the weather to turn cooler, the nights to grow longer, and to get the general "the timing is right" feel. (I clearly have reader issues.)
One thing I love about McCammon is how different each of his works are from one another. It feels like it's always about the story and not about being pidgeonholed into a genre. As usual, I can't pidgeonhole this one. It's contemporary, it's thriller, it's horror. More importantly, it's a really great story.
Despite how unpredictable and intense The Five is, McCammon managed to create this intimate, gradual pacing throughout the entire novel. I was invested in the band, invested in the story, and I felt like I was invested in the fate of the world.
The Five is a story of good versus evil, light versus dark, family, sacrifice, and the power of music.
The end of The Five evoked a lot of emotion in me which was awesome. I don't normally cry in a book (unless a dog dies!), but the end was a wonderful personification of The Five's story and a testament to McCammon's epic storytelling.
I'd recommend McCammon to anyone, but I'm especially recommending The Five to those who have a heart for music.
8/10: Great Read
Book Description
Subterranean Press is proud to present Robert McCammon's first contemporary novel in nearly two decades, a tale of the hunt and unlikely survival, of the life and soul, set against a supernatural backbeat. Robert McCammon, author of the popular Matthew Corbett historical thrillers (Speaks the Nightbird, Mister Slaughter), now gives us something new and completely unexpected: The Five, a contemporary novel as vivid, timely, and compelling as anything he has written to date.
The Five tells the story of an eponymous rock band struggling to survive on the margins of the music business. As they move through the American Southwest on what might be their final tour together, the band members come to the attention of a damaged Iraq war veteran, and their lives are changed forever.
The narrative that follows is a riveting account of violence, terror, and pursuit set against a credible, immensely detailed rock and roll backdrop. It is also a moving meditation on loyalty and friendship, on the nature and importance of families those we are born into and those we create for ourselves and on the redemptive power of the creative spirit. Written with wit, elegance, and passionate conviction, The Five lays claim to new imaginative territory, and reaffirms McCammon's position as one of the finest, most unpredictable storytellers of our time.
I'm kicking off the first official review in The Great McCammon Read with Robert McCammon's The Five. I've been holding on to The Five since its release in May waiting for the weather to turn cooler, the nights to grow longer, and to get the general "the timing is right" feel. (I clearly have reader issues.)
One thing I love about McCammon is how different each of his works are from one another. It feels like it's always about the story and not about being pidgeonholed into a genre. As usual, I can't pidgeonhole this one. It's contemporary, it's thriller, it's horror. More importantly, it's a really great story.
Despite how unpredictable and intense The Five is, McCammon managed to create this intimate, gradual pacing throughout the entire novel. I was invested in the band, invested in the story, and I felt like I was invested in the fate of the world.
The Five is a story of good versus evil, light versus dark, family, sacrifice, and the power of music.
The end of The Five evoked a lot of emotion in me which was awesome. I don't normally cry in a book (unless a dog dies!), but the end was a wonderful personification of The Five's story and a testament to McCammon's epic storytelling.
I'd recommend McCammon to anyone, but I'm especially recommending The Five to those who have a heart for music.
8/10: Great Read
The Great McCammon Read
Plan on reading The Five? Let me know if you post/have posted a McCammon review somewhere so I can point folks to it. You can find all the details of The Great McCammon Read here. Next month I'll be reading and reviewing Mystery Walk if you'd like to join me!
Plan on reading The Five? Let me know if you post/have posted a McCammon review somewhere so I can point folks to it. You can find all the details of The Great McCammon Read here. Next month I'll be reading and reviewing Mystery Walk if you'd like to join me!
Labels:
Book Reviews,
Horror,
Robert McCammon,
Subterranean Press,
The Great McCammon Read,
Thrillers
Monday, November 28, 2011
Cyber Monday (+ Giveaway!): Robert McCammon
If you've been wanting to check out Robert McCammon, I have great news for you! Open Road Media is running a Cyber Monday sale on their ebooks today making them all just $2.99. This includes all nine titles from Robert McCammon. That's a steal.
If you are still unsure, fill out the form at the bottom with the title you'd like to win, and I'll pick a random winner tonight and gift it to one winner (Kindle version only). You don't have to have a Kindle to read it, just a Kindle app on your PC, phone, tablet, etc. (Amazon is the only store that allows "gifting"...)
Be sure to check out all the details on my The Great McCammon Read in case you want to join in with your selection! (And tune in tomorrow for my review of McCammon's The Five!)
The Wolf's Hour
On the eve of D-Day, a British secret agent with unique powers goes behind Nazi lines
Michael Gallatin is a British spy with a peculiar talent: the ability to transform himself into a wolf. Although his work in North Africa helped the Allies win the continent in the early days of World War II, he quit the service when a German spy shot his lover in her bed. Now, three years later, the army asks him to end his retirement and parachute into occupied Paris. A mysterious German plan called the Iron Fist threatens the D-Day invasion, and the Nazi in charge is the spy who betrayed Michael’s lover. The werewolf goes to France for king and country, hoping for a chance at bloody vengeance.
Mine
A mother fights to rescue her newborn from a six-foot-tall madwoman
No one knows Mary Terrell’s real name. She killed a man during the climax of the Summer of Love, and for two decades she has changed her name and location regularly, always keeping watch over her shoulder for the FBI. She has three passions: LSD, firearms, and children. She visits toy stores a few times a week, picking out a baby doll to take home and treat as a child. The new family always starts out happy, but when the baby refuses to eat, Mary gets angry. Murdered dolls fill her closet, and the woman who calls herself Mary Terror is tired of children made of plastic.
Laura Clayborne’s marriage gives her little joy, but she can’t wait for her son to come into the world. But if Mary Terror has her way, it won’t be long before he leaves it again.
Blue World
A novella and twelve stories from a master of supernatural horror
Father John has lived his whole life without knowing a woman’s touch. Hard at first, his self-denial grew easier over time, as he learned to master his urges with a regimen of prayer, cold showers, and jigsaw puzzles. That changed the day that Debra Rocks entered his confessional. A rough-talking adult film actress, she has come to ask him to pray for a murdered costar. Her cinnamon perfume infects Father John, and after she departs he becomes obsessed. Around the corner from his church is a neon-lit alley of sin. He goes there hoping to save her life before he damns himself.
That is “Blue World,” the novella that anchors this collection of chilling stories by Robert R. McCammon. Although monsters, demons, and murderers fill these pages, in McCammon’s world the most terrifying landscape of all is the barren wasteland of a lost man’s soul.
Swan Song
McCammon’s epic bestselling novel about a girl psychic struggling to survive in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust
Something flashes in nine-year-old Swan’s brain, telling her that trouble is coming. Maybe it’s her mother, fed up with her current boyfriend and ready to abandon their dismal trailer park and seek a new home. But something far worse is on the horizon. Death falls from the sky—nuclear bombs which annihilate American civilization. Though Swan survives the blast, this young psychic’s war is just beginning.
As the survivors try to make new lives in the wasteland, an evil army forms, intent on murdering all those tainted with the diseases brought by fallout. When Swan finds a mysterious amulet that could hold the key to humankind’s salvation, she draws the attention of a man more dangerous than any nuclear bomb. To rescue mankind, this little girl will have to grow up fast.
Mystery Walk
Two young psychics do battle with an ancient evil
Billy Creekmore was born to be a psychic. His mother, a Choctaw Indian schooled in her tribe’s ancient mysticism, understood that the barrier between life and death is permeable. She knew how to cross it, and used that knowledge to help the dead rest easier. She passed that power on to her son, and he has spent his whole life learning how to communicate with the dead to prevent them from meddling with the living.
Though his powers are the same, Wayne Falconer’s background could not be more different. The son of a prominent preacher, he would be disowned if his father learned he was using supernatural powers in service of the church. Though they don’t know each other, Billy and Wayne share a recurring dream—and a common enemy. When a nightmarish monster descends on their community in Alabama, mankind’s fate will rest in their hands.
Stinger
A UFO crash sends a small Texas town into uproar
The sun rises on Inferno and Bordertown: patches of civilization carved out of the tough Texas earth, watching each other and waiting to see which dies first. The copper mine is finished, and both towns—one for the whites and one for the Mexicans—are wasting away. Now a pair of mysterious visitors is about to make them shrink faster.
The black ball lands first. A small sphere, snapped off of an alien ship as it plummets through the atmosphere, it explodes onto Jessie Hammond’s truck. When Jessie’s daughter picks it up, the object possesses the young girl’s body and begins trying to communicate. As Jessie tries to rescue her daughter, something far more deadly sets down in the desert. An interstellar war has come to Texas, and Inferno is going to burn.
Gone South
A moment of madness forces a Vietnam veteran to run for his life
Two decades after he finished serving his country in the jungles of Southeast Asia, Dan Lambert still pays the price. As he hustles for construction work in the heat of a brutal Louisiana summer, Dan tries to ignore the pounding in his head—a constant reminder of the Agent Orange–caused leukemia which will soon end his life. And now the bank wants to repossess his truck. His attempt to reason with the loan officer does not get him far. Dan loses himself in rage, and for a moment is back in the jungle again. When he comes out of his bloodlust, he has shot the banker through the chest. There is nothing to do but run.
On his trail are two peculiar bounty hunters: a onetime Siamese twin and a heavyset Elvis impersonator. To save his own life, Dan is going to have to remember why it was worth living in the first place.
Boy's Life
In Zephyr, Alabama, a bizarre murder is only the beginning
Small town boys see weird sights, and Zephyr has provided Cory Jay Mackenson with his fair share of oddities. He knows the bootleggers who lurk in the dark places outside of town. On moonless nights, he’s heard spirits congregate in the churchyard to reminisce about the good old days. He’s seen rain that flooded Main Street and left it crawling with snakes. Cory knows magic, and relishes it as only a young boy can.
One frosty winter morning, he and his father watch a car jump the curb and sail into the fathomless town lake. His father dives into the icy water to rescue the driver, and finds a naked corpse handcuffed to the wheel. This chilling sight is only the start of the strangest period of Cory’s life, when the magic of his town will transform him into a man.
Usher's Passing
A struggling author must confront the dreadful secrets of his famous family’s past
Two men argue in the low light of one of nineteenth-century New York’s vilest bars. One is an aristocrat, clearly slumming, while the other, in appearance no better than the gutter-trash around him, is the finest author of his age. The wealthy man is Hudson Usher, come to berate Edgar Allen Poe for using Usher’s family history as fodder for his most famous story. The house of Usher has not fallen, Hudson boasts. It will endure into the centuries.
One hundred and fifty years later, the Usher line persists. The newest heir is Rix Usher, a hack horror writer whose ailing father has just called him back to the family’s North Carolina estate. To become the new Usher patriarch, Rix must confront a Gothic mystery more twisted than anything even Poe could have imagined.
Update: This contest is now closed. Congratulations Gidge! Your book has been "gifted". I hope you enjoy it!
If you are still unsure, fill out the form at the bottom with the title you'd like to win, and I'll pick a random winner tonight and gift it to one winner (Kindle version only). You don't have to have a Kindle to read it, just a Kindle app on your PC, phone, tablet, etc. (Amazon is the only store that allows "gifting"...)
Be sure to check out all the details on my The Great McCammon Read in case you want to join in with your selection! (And tune in tomorrow for my review of McCammon's The Five!)
The Wolf's Hour
On the eve of D-Day, a British secret agent with unique powers goes behind Nazi lines
Michael Gallatin is a British spy with a peculiar talent: the ability to transform himself into a wolf. Although his work in North Africa helped the Allies win the continent in the early days of World War II, he quit the service when a German spy shot his lover in her bed. Now, three years later, the army asks him to end his retirement and parachute into occupied Paris. A mysterious German plan called the Iron Fist threatens the D-Day invasion, and the Nazi in charge is the spy who betrayed Michael’s lover. The werewolf goes to France for king and country, hoping for a chance at bloody vengeance.
Mine
A mother fights to rescue her newborn from a six-foot-tall madwoman
No one knows Mary Terrell’s real name. She killed a man during the climax of the Summer of Love, and for two decades she has changed her name and location regularly, always keeping watch over her shoulder for the FBI. She has three passions: LSD, firearms, and children. She visits toy stores a few times a week, picking out a baby doll to take home and treat as a child. The new family always starts out happy, but when the baby refuses to eat, Mary gets angry. Murdered dolls fill her closet, and the woman who calls herself Mary Terror is tired of children made of plastic.
Laura Clayborne’s marriage gives her little joy, but she can’t wait for her son to come into the world. But if Mary Terror has her way, it won’t be long before he leaves it again.
Blue World
A novella and twelve stories from a master of supernatural horror
Father John has lived his whole life without knowing a woman’s touch. Hard at first, his self-denial grew easier over time, as he learned to master his urges with a regimen of prayer, cold showers, and jigsaw puzzles. That changed the day that Debra Rocks entered his confessional. A rough-talking adult film actress, she has come to ask him to pray for a murdered costar. Her cinnamon perfume infects Father John, and after she departs he becomes obsessed. Around the corner from his church is a neon-lit alley of sin. He goes there hoping to save her life before he damns himself.
That is “Blue World,” the novella that anchors this collection of chilling stories by Robert R. McCammon. Although monsters, demons, and murderers fill these pages, in McCammon’s world the most terrifying landscape of all is the barren wasteland of a lost man’s soul.
Swan Song
McCammon’s epic bestselling novel about a girl psychic struggling to survive in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust
Something flashes in nine-year-old Swan’s brain, telling her that trouble is coming. Maybe it’s her mother, fed up with her current boyfriend and ready to abandon their dismal trailer park and seek a new home. But something far worse is on the horizon. Death falls from the sky—nuclear bombs which annihilate American civilization. Though Swan survives the blast, this young psychic’s war is just beginning.
As the survivors try to make new lives in the wasteland, an evil army forms, intent on murdering all those tainted with the diseases brought by fallout. When Swan finds a mysterious amulet that could hold the key to humankind’s salvation, she draws the attention of a man more dangerous than any nuclear bomb. To rescue mankind, this little girl will have to grow up fast.
Mystery Walk
Two young psychics do battle with an ancient evil
Billy Creekmore was born to be a psychic. His mother, a Choctaw Indian schooled in her tribe’s ancient mysticism, understood that the barrier between life and death is permeable. She knew how to cross it, and used that knowledge to help the dead rest easier. She passed that power on to her son, and he has spent his whole life learning how to communicate with the dead to prevent them from meddling with the living.
Though his powers are the same, Wayne Falconer’s background could not be more different. The son of a prominent preacher, he would be disowned if his father learned he was using supernatural powers in service of the church. Though they don’t know each other, Billy and Wayne share a recurring dream—and a common enemy. When a nightmarish monster descends on their community in Alabama, mankind’s fate will rest in their hands.
Stinger
A UFO crash sends a small Texas town into uproar
The sun rises on Inferno and Bordertown: patches of civilization carved out of the tough Texas earth, watching each other and waiting to see which dies first. The copper mine is finished, and both towns—one for the whites and one for the Mexicans—are wasting away. Now a pair of mysterious visitors is about to make them shrink faster.
The black ball lands first. A small sphere, snapped off of an alien ship as it plummets through the atmosphere, it explodes onto Jessie Hammond’s truck. When Jessie’s daughter picks it up, the object possesses the young girl’s body and begins trying to communicate. As Jessie tries to rescue her daughter, something far more deadly sets down in the desert. An interstellar war has come to Texas, and Inferno is going to burn.
Gone South
A moment of madness forces a Vietnam veteran to run for his life
Two decades after he finished serving his country in the jungles of Southeast Asia, Dan Lambert still pays the price. As he hustles for construction work in the heat of a brutal Louisiana summer, Dan tries to ignore the pounding in his head—a constant reminder of the Agent Orange–caused leukemia which will soon end his life. And now the bank wants to repossess his truck. His attempt to reason with the loan officer does not get him far. Dan loses himself in rage, and for a moment is back in the jungle again. When he comes out of his bloodlust, he has shot the banker through the chest. There is nothing to do but run.
On his trail are two peculiar bounty hunters: a onetime Siamese twin and a heavyset Elvis impersonator. To save his own life, Dan is going to have to remember why it was worth living in the first place.
Boy's Life
In Zephyr, Alabama, a bizarre murder is only the beginning
Small town boys see weird sights, and Zephyr has provided Cory Jay Mackenson with his fair share of oddities. He knows the bootleggers who lurk in the dark places outside of town. On moonless nights, he’s heard spirits congregate in the churchyard to reminisce about the good old days. He’s seen rain that flooded Main Street and left it crawling with snakes. Cory knows magic, and relishes it as only a young boy can.
One frosty winter morning, he and his father watch a car jump the curb and sail into the fathomless town lake. His father dives into the icy water to rescue the driver, and finds a naked corpse handcuffed to the wheel. This chilling sight is only the start of the strangest period of Cory’s life, when the magic of his town will transform him into a man.
Usher's Passing
A struggling author must confront the dreadful secrets of his famous family’s past
Two men argue in the low light of one of nineteenth-century New York’s vilest bars. One is an aristocrat, clearly slumming, while the other, in appearance no better than the gutter-trash around him, is the finest author of his age. The wealthy man is Hudson Usher, come to berate Edgar Allen Poe for using Usher’s family history as fodder for his most famous story. The house of Usher has not fallen, Hudson boasts. It will endure into the centuries.
One hundred and fifty years later, the Usher line persists. The newest heir is Rix Usher, a hack horror writer whose ailing father has just called him back to the family’s North Carolina estate. To become the new Usher patriarch, Rix must confront a Gothic mystery more twisted than anything even Poe could have imagined.
Update: This contest is now closed. Congratulations Gidge! Your book has been "gifted". I hope you enjoy it!
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Read-along: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: Week Three
This week marks the end of the LOTR read-along and the end of my revisit to Middle Earth. This read-along was hosted by the Little Red Reviewer and Geeky Daddy. Be sure to stop by the Little Red Reviewer's post to watch a parody on the ending of The Lord of the Rings. It's funny stuff.
Thank you read-alongers for allowing me to join in, and thanks Book Den'ers for reminiscing with me!
As always, there may be spoilers ahead for those who have not experienced this journey.
What do you think Gandalf was going to speak with Tom Bombadil about?
It sounded like Gandalf was possibly seeking advice from Tom Bombadil.
What did you think of the two weddings? Do you think Eowyn will eventually find happiness with Faramir?
I'm glad things worked out for Aragorn and Arwen, but I *love* the relationship between Eowyn and Faramir. (I'm also thrilled for Sam and Rosie, too!)
What did you think of their meeting with Saruman on the road home? I was half expecting someone to just kill Saruman.
The company has a lot more pity for people than I probably would!
Holy Cow I was not expecting the scouring of the shire. If this is your first time reading, were you surprised? And if this isn't your first time reading, does the shock get a little easier to swallow on re-read?
The scouring of the shire was heartbreaking. Sam said it was worse than Mordor! :(
What did you think of the very end, of the departure of the Havens?
I thought it was a great ending. I'm glad Gandalf told Merry and Pippin what was happening. I'm glad Sam got to see Galadriel again. :) Frodo is heartbreaking to me. I hope his departure means a part of him can heal.
Characters are supposed to change and develop during a story, right? Who changed more, Sam or Frodo?
Both. Frodo's changes depress me. Sam, on the other hand, will heal and has stepped into a proud existence.
Thank you read-alongers for allowing me to join in, and thanks Book Den'ers for reminiscing with me!
As always, there may be spoilers ahead for those who have not experienced this journey.
What do you think Gandalf was going to speak with Tom Bombadil about?
It sounded like Gandalf was possibly seeking advice from Tom Bombadil.
What did you think of the two weddings? Do you think Eowyn will eventually find happiness with Faramir?
I'm glad things worked out for Aragorn and Arwen, but I *love* the relationship between Eowyn and Faramir. (I'm also thrilled for Sam and Rosie, too!)
What did you think of their meeting with Saruman on the road home? I was half expecting someone to just kill Saruman.
The company has a lot more pity for people than I probably would!
Holy Cow I was not expecting the scouring of the shire. If this is your first time reading, were you surprised? And if this isn't your first time reading, does the shock get a little easier to swallow on re-read?
The scouring of the shire was heartbreaking. Sam said it was worse than Mordor! :(
What did you think of the very end, of the departure of the Havens?
I thought it was a great ending. I'm glad Gandalf told Merry and Pippin what was happening. I'm glad Sam got to see Galadriel again. :) Frodo is heartbreaking to me. I hope his departure means a part of him can heal.
Characters are supposed to change and develop during a story, right? Who changed more, Sam or Frodo?
Both. Frodo's changes depress me. Sam, on the other hand, will heal and has stepped into a proud existence.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Notable New Book Releases [Nov. 20 - Nov. 26]
These are the new releases that caught my eye this week. What did I miss? Be sure to tell me what books you were excited about this week!
Shock Totem 2 - Curious Tales of the Macabre and Twisted edited by K. Allen Wood
Publication Date [Kindle]: November 20, 2011
[Lots of great Shock Totem news. All 4 issues of Shock Totem are now out on Kindle. Issue #1 has been reduced to $.99. Issue #2 has been released at $.99! Issues #3 and #4 are out now, too, at $1.99. I'm in the middle of issue #4, but I can already tell you it's worth grabbing. I hear a rumor that Lee Thompson's awesome Beneath the Weeping Willow has been recommended for a Bram Stoker. Oh! I should also mention the Shock Totem Holiday Edition was released last week for only $.99, too! Lots of awesome reading on the cheap!]
The long-awaited second issue of Shock Totem features new fiction from David Jack Bell, Cate Gardner, Vincent Pendergast, Leslianne Wilder, and others. Also includes nonfiction from Mercedes M. Yardley, a conversation with James Newman, reviews, and more.
20 Years Later by Emma Newman
Publication Date: November 22, 2011
[It's hard for me to pass up a YA post-apocalyptic read.]
LONDON, 2012: It arrives and with that the world is changed into an unending graveyard littered with the bones, wreckage, and memories of a dead past, gone forever.LONDON, 2032: Twenty years later, out of the ashes, a new world begins to rise, a place ruled by both loyalty and fear, and where the quest to be the first to regain lost knowledge is an ongoing battle for power. A place where laws are made and enforced by roving gangs-the Bloomsbury Boys, the Gardners, the Red Lady's Gang-who rule the streets and will do anything to protect their own.THE FOUR: Zane, Titus, Erin, Eve. Living in this new world, they discover that they have abilities never before seen. And little do they know that as they search post-apocalyptic London for Titus' kidnapped sister that they'll uncover the secret of It, and bring about a reckoning with the forces that almost destroyed all of humanity.
Micro: A Novel by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston
Publication Date: November 22, 2011
[The partial manuscript for Micro was discovered after Crichton's death. Micro has since been completed by Richard Preston (writer of The Hot Zone).]
In Jurassic Park, he created a terrifying new world. Now, in Micro, Michael Crichton reveals a universe too small to see and too dangerous to ignore.
In a locked Honolulu office building, three men are found dead with no sign of struggle except for the ultrafine, razor-sharp cuts covering their bodies. The only clue left behind is a tiny bladed robot, nearly invisible to the human eye.
In the lush forests of Oahu, groundbreaking technology has ushered in a revolutionary era of biological prospecting. Trillions of microorganisms, tens of thousands of bacteria species, are being discovered; they are feeding a search for priceless drugs and applications on a scale beyond anything previously imagined.
In Cambridge, Massachusetts, seven graduate students at the forefront of their fields are recruited by a pioneering microbiology start-up. Nanigen MicroTechnologies dispatches the group to a mysterious lab in Hawaii, where they are promised access to tools that will open a whole new scientific frontier.
But once in the Oahu rain forest, the scientists are thrust into a hostile wilderness that reveals profound and surprising dangers at every turn. Armed only with their knowledge of the natural world, they find themselves prey to a technology of radical and unbridled power. To survive, they must harness the inherent forces of nature itself.
An instant classic, Micro pits nature against technology in vintage Crichton fashion. Completed by visionary science writer Richard Preston, this boundary-pushing thriller melds scientific fact with pulse-pounding fiction to create yet another masterpiece of sophisticated, cutting-edge entertainment.
Kill Them All (Dead Man #6) by Harry Shannon
Publication Date: November 22, 2011
[I have got to start reading these instead of just buying them!]
Matt Cahill was an ordinary man leading a simple life until a shocking accident changed everything. Now he can see a nightmarish netherworld that exists within our own. Now he's on a dangerous quest for the answers to who he is and what he has become...and engaged in an epic battle to save us, and his soul, from the clutches of pure evil.
When Matt wanders into a struggling Nevada tourist trap recreation of an "old west" town, he's unaware that he’s being trailed by a Special Ops team of professional mercenaries hired by a University desperate to unlock the secret behind his resurrection...and that he's put everyone around him in dire jeopardy. The mercenaries have no intention of letting Matt escape...or letting any witnesses survive. Matt finds himself in a deadly bind. Somehow he must rally the peaceful citizens into defending themselves against the sadistic, well-armed mercenaries… or sacrifice himself to save them from certain death.
Shock Totem 2 - Curious Tales of the Macabre and Twisted edited by K. Allen Wood
Publication Date [Kindle]: November 20, 2011
[Lots of great Shock Totem news. All 4 issues of Shock Totem are now out on Kindle. Issue #1 has been reduced to $.99. Issue #2 has been released at $.99! Issues #3 and #4 are out now, too, at $1.99. I'm in the middle of issue #4, but I can already tell you it's worth grabbing. I hear a rumor that Lee Thompson's awesome Beneath the Weeping Willow has been recommended for a Bram Stoker. Oh! I should also mention the Shock Totem Holiday Edition was released last week for only $.99, too! Lots of awesome reading on the cheap!]
The long-awaited second issue of Shock Totem features new fiction from David Jack Bell, Cate Gardner, Vincent Pendergast, Leslianne Wilder, and others. Also includes nonfiction from Mercedes M. Yardley, a conversation with James Newman, reviews, and more.
20 Years Later by Emma Newman
Publication Date: November 22, 2011
[It's hard for me to pass up a YA post-apocalyptic read.]
LONDON, 2012: It arrives and with that the world is changed into an unending graveyard littered with the bones, wreckage, and memories of a dead past, gone forever.LONDON, 2032: Twenty years later, out of the ashes, a new world begins to rise, a place ruled by both loyalty and fear, and where the quest to be the first to regain lost knowledge is an ongoing battle for power. A place where laws are made and enforced by roving gangs-the Bloomsbury Boys, the Gardners, the Red Lady's Gang-who rule the streets and will do anything to protect their own.THE FOUR: Zane, Titus, Erin, Eve. Living in this new world, they discover that they have abilities never before seen. And little do they know that as they search post-apocalyptic London for Titus' kidnapped sister that they'll uncover the secret of It, and bring about a reckoning with the forces that almost destroyed all of humanity.
Micro: A Novel by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston
Publication Date: November 22, 2011
[The partial manuscript for Micro was discovered after Crichton's death. Micro has since been completed by Richard Preston (writer of The Hot Zone).]
In Jurassic Park, he created a terrifying new world. Now, in Micro, Michael Crichton reveals a universe too small to see and too dangerous to ignore.
In a locked Honolulu office building, three men are found dead with no sign of struggle except for the ultrafine, razor-sharp cuts covering their bodies. The only clue left behind is a tiny bladed robot, nearly invisible to the human eye.
In the lush forests of Oahu, groundbreaking technology has ushered in a revolutionary era of biological prospecting. Trillions of microorganisms, tens of thousands of bacteria species, are being discovered; they are feeding a search for priceless drugs and applications on a scale beyond anything previously imagined.
In Cambridge, Massachusetts, seven graduate students at the forefront of their fields are recruited by a pioneering microbiology start-up. Nanigen MicroTechnologies dispatches the group to a mysterious lab in Hawaii, where they are promised access to tools that will open a whole new scientific frontier.
But once in the Oahu rain forest, the scientists are thrust into a hostile wilderness that reveals profound and surprising dangers at every turn. Armed only with their knowledge of the natural world, they find themselves prey to a technology of radical and unbridled power. To survive, they must harness the inherent forces of nature itself.
An instant classic, Micro pits nature against technology in vintage Crichton fashion. Completed by visionary science writer Richard Preston, this boundary-pushing thriller melds scientific fact with pulse-pounding fiction to create yet another masterpiece of sophisticated, cutting-edge entertainment.
Kill Them All (Dead Man #6) by Harry Shannon
Publication Date: November 22, 2011
[I have got to start reading these instead of just buying them!]
Matt Cahill was an ordinary man leading a simple life until a shocking accident changed everything. Now he can see a nightmarish netherworld that exists within our own. Now he's on a dangerous quest for the answers to who he is and what he has become...and engaged in an epic battle to save us, and his soul, from the clutches of pure evil.
When Matt wanders into a struggling Nevada tourist trap recreation of an "old west" town, he's unaware that he’s being trailed by a Special Ops team of professional mercenaries hired by a University desperate to unlock the secret behind his resurrection...and that he's put everyone around him in dire jeopardy. The mercenaries have no intention of letting Matt escape...or letting any witnesses survive. Matt finds himself in a deadly bind. Somehow he must rally the peaceful citizens into defending themselves against the sadistic, well-armed mercenaries… or sacrifice himself to save them from certain death.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Book Review: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Frankenstein is a classic horror novel written by Mary Shelley.
Book Description
Frankenstein was a surprising read for me. I've never particularly expected to like Frankenstein, but it has always been on the list of books I've intended read. I decided it would make a great pick for the Dusty Volumes challenge.
As it turns out, I really enjoyed Frankenstein. I see why the image of Frankenstein's monster is so widely used in relation to "mad science". Victor Frankenstein concocted a huge man out of various human (and who knows what else's) body parts. This concoction truly was a monster, but I felt such pity for him. Pity for his hideousness, pity for his being unwanted by his creator, pity for his need of companionship.
In the beginning of Frankenstein, I found lines like "No word, no expression could body forth the kind of relation in which she stood to me - my more than sister, since till death she was to be mine only." to be very creepy and foreboding. I also enjoyed Victor Frankenstein's disturbing obsession, but I didn't fall in love with the story until after Frankenstein created and abandoned his monster.
Frankenstein wound up as a suspenseful and satisfying read. If you enjoy reading classics and you haven't read Frankenstein, now is a great time to change that. If you are a fan of the horror genre, Frankenstein is pretty much a must read. I'm thankful to have finally read it!
7/10: Recommended Read
I downloaded Frankenstein for free from Project Gutenberg.
Book Description
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is one of the masterpieces of nineteenth-century Gothicism. While stay-ing in the Swiss Alps in 1816 with her lover Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and others, Mary, then eighteen, began to concoct the story of Dr. Victor Frankenstein and the monster he brings to life by electricity. Written in a time of great personal tragedy, it is a subversive and morbid story warning against the dehumanization of art and the corrupting influence of science. Packed with allusions and literary references, it is also one of the best thrillers ever written. Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus was an instant bestseller on publication in 1818. The prototype of the science fiction novel, it has spawned countless imitations and adaptations but retains its original power.
Frankenstein was a surprising read for me. I've never particularly expected to like Frankenstein, but it has always been on the list of books I've intended read. I decided it would make a great pick for the Dusty Volumes challenge.
As it turns out, I really enjoyed Frankenstein. I see why the image of Frankenstein's monster is so widely used in relation to "mad science". Victor Frankenstein concocted a huge man out of various human (and who knows what else's) body parts. This concoction truly was a monster, but I felt such pity for him. Pity for his hideousness, pity for his being unwanted by his creator, pity for his need of companionship.
In the beginning of Frankenstein, I found lines like "No word, no expression could body forth the kind of relation in which she stood to me - my more than sister, since till death she was to be mine only." to be very creepy and foreboding. I also enjoyed Victor Frankenstein's disturbing obsession, but I didn't fall in love with the story until after Frankenstein created and abandoned his monster.
Frankenstein wound up as a suspenseful and satisfying read. If you enjoy reading classics and you haven't read Frankenstein, now is a great time to change that. If you are a fan of the horror genre, Frankenstein is pretty much a must read. I'm thankful to have finally read it!
7/10: Recommended Read
I downloaded Frankenstein for free from Project Gutenberg.
Labels:
Book Reviews,
Classics,
Horror,
Mary Shelley
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Guest Post: On Memory And Fiction by M.J. Rose
I am excited to welcome M.J. Rose back to Book Den today!
All writers have rites and rituals that we've developed over the years. Habits and idiosyncrasies. Some I’ve developed for myself – some I learned from other authors.
I start by reading non-fiction about the period I’m writing about. Usually I’ve read a few dozen books and spent hundreds of hours doing research in person or on line.
And then I need to find three things.
The first is a question I don't know the answer to but find interesting enough to spend at least a year finding out.
The second is a quote that captures the spirit of the theme I want to write about — what I think powers the novel.
And the third is to find an object that belongs to my main character — that has some meaning to him or her — even if I don't always know quite what that meaning is when I begin.
The question that inspired this book was: Who owns art? Should the cultural heritage of a piece of artwork determine what museum it finally winds up in? Is restitution always in the best interest of the pubic?
For years I've been reading about Greece's efforts to get the Elgin Marbles back to their homeland. I can see both sides of the arguments. I have sympathy for countries whose riches have been taken from them. But at the same time I've spent a lot of my life visiting museums. I've been moved and inspired by work gathered from around the world and can't imagine what these amazing institutions would be like if they were stripped of their treasures.
The quote that mesmerized me and epitomized what I wanted this book to be about was:
Often, in the cosseted quarters of a museum, we forget that every work of ancient art is a survivor, a representative of untold numbers of similar artworks that perished. This triumphant exhibition makes us remember, while demonstrating that every survivor saves much more than just itself: long strands of culture, identity and history waiting to be woven back together. —Roberta Smith writing in the New York Times about the exhibit Silent Survivors of Afghanistan's 4,000 Tumultuous Years
And the magical object, the talisman that belongs to my main character, is a broken pencil. It was in Lucian Glass's pocket the day he was brutally attacked and killed. He was only 20 at the time, a student at college. Glass has kept the pencil in a drawer that he opens all the time... he's seen it so often that he no longer notices it. Until the day my novel starts... and he's forced into remembering something he never really could forget.
Book Den is a stop on M.J. Rose's blog tour for The Hypnotist. [Read my review of The Hypnotist.] You can find the schedule of tour stops by visiting The Hypnotist Virtual Book Tour Schedule.
All writers have rites and rituals that we've developed over the years. Habits and idiosyncrasies. Some I’ve developed for myself – some I learned from other authors.
I start by reading non-fiction about the period I’m writing about. Usually I’ve read a few dozen books and spent hundreds of hours doing research in person or on line.
And then I need to find three things.
The first is a question I don't know the answer to but find interesting enough to spend at least a year finding out.
The second is a quote that captures the spirit of the theme I want to write about — what I think powers the novel.
And the third is to find an object that belongs to my main character — that has some meaning to him or her — even if I don't always know quite what that meaning is when I begin.
The question that inspired this book was: Who owns art? Should the cultural heritage of a piece of artwork determine what museum it finally winds up in? Is restitution always in the best interest of the pubic?
For years I've been reading about Greece's efforts to get the Elgin Marbles back to their homeland. I can see both sides of the arguments. I have sympathy for countries whose riches have been taken from them. But at the same time I've spent a lot of my life visiting museums. I've been moved and inspired by work gathered from around the world and can't imagine what these amazing institutions would be like if they were stripped of their treasures.
The quote that mesmerized me and epitomized what I wanted this book to be about was:
Often, in the cosseted quarters of a museum, we forget that every work of ancient art is a survivor, a representative of untold numbers of similar artworks that perished. This triumphant exhibition makes us remember, while demonstrating that every survivor saves much more than just itself: long strands of culture, identity and history waiting to be woven back together. —Roberta Smith writing in the New York Times about the exhibit Silent Survivors of Afghanistan's 4,000 Tumultuous Years
And the magical object, the talisman that belongs to my main character, is a broken pencil. It was in Lucian Glass's pocket the day he was brutally attacked and killed. He was only 20 at the time, a student at college. Glass has kept the pencil in a drawer that he opens all the time... he's seen it so often that he no longer notices it. Until the day my novel starts... and he's forced into remembering something he never really could forget.
Book Den is a stop on M.J. Rose's blog tour for The Hypnotist. [Read my review of The Hypnotist.] You can find the schedule of tour stops by visiting The Hypnotist Virtual Book Tour Schedule.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
TBR | Poseidon's Children by Michael West
Michael West is coming out with a new Urban Fantasy series called The Legacy of the Gods. It sounds awesome!
The first book, Poseidon's Children, will be released in March 2012. Check out the description:
Right? I can't wait. I enjoyed Michael West's Cinema of Shadows, and important to note here, I could tell he did a lot of research while writing it. It makes me excited to see where he'll take this new series based on mythology. I have high hopes it could excel where some previous mythology based books have failed for me.
You can find Poseidon's Children here on Goodreads if you want to add it to your wishlist!
Are you a fan of Urban Fantasy or books based on mythology?
The first book, Poseidon's Children, will be released in March 2012. Check out the description:
Man no longer worships the old gods; forgotten and forsaken, they have become nothing more than myth and legend. But all that is about to change.
After the ruins of a vast, ancient civilization are discovered on the ocean floor, Coast Guard officers find a series of derelict ships drifting in the current—high-priced yachts and leaking fishing boats, all ransacked, splattered in blood, their crews missing and presumed dead.
And that’s just the beginning.
Vacationing artist Larry Neuhaus has just witnessed a gruesome shark attack, a young couple torn apart right before his eyes….at least, he thinks it was a shark. And when one of these victims turns out to be the only son of Roger Hays, the most powerful man in the country, things go from bad to worse.
Now, to stop the carnage, Larry and his new-found friends must work together to unravel a mystery as old as time, and face an enemy as dark as the ocean depths.
Right? I can't wait. I enjoyed Michael West's Cinema of Shadows, and important to note here, I could tell he did a lot of research while writing it. It makes me excited to see where he'll take this new series based on mythology. I have high hopes it could excel where some previous mythology based books have failed for me.
You can find Poseidon's Children here on Goodreads if you want to add it to your wishlist!
Are you a fan of Urban Fantasy or books based on mythology?
This post is being shared as part of Breaking the Spine's "Waiting for" Wednesday.
Labels:
Michael West,
Seventh Star Press,
Urban Fantasy,
Wishlist
Monday, November 14, 2011
Book Review: The Hypnotist by M.J. Rose
The Hypnotist is the third book of the Reincarnationist series by M.J. Rose.
Book Description
While The Hypnotist is the third book in the Reincarnationist series, this is the first book in the series I have read. The Hypnotist was stand alone enough for me to not miss out by not having read the previous two.
The Hypnotist was an intriguing thriller. I enjoyed the museum setting, and I found the past life exploration to be a unique premise.
If you enjoy thrillers and especially works by M.J. Rose, The Hypnotist is a good read for you to check out. I plan to continue reading the series with the next Reincarnationist installment.
6/10: Good Read
If you'd like to check out more reviews of The Hypnotist, be sure to visit some of the stops on M.J. Rose's blog tour this month. You can find the schedule of tour stops by visiting The Hypnotist Virtual Book Tour Schedule.
Review copy provided by the author
Book Description
Haunted by his inability to stop the murder of a beautiful young painter twenty years ago, Lucian Glass keeps his demons at bay through his fascinating work with the FBI's Art Crime Team. Investigating a crazed collector who's begun destroying prized masterworks, Glass is thrust into a bizarre hostage negotiation that takes him undercover at the Phoenix Foundation—dedicated to the science of past-life study. There, to maintain his cover, he submits to the treatment of a hypnotist.
Under hypnosis, Glass travels from ancient Greece to nineteenth-century Persia, while the case takes him from New York to Paris and the movie while the case takes him from New York to Paris and the movie capital of the world. These journeys will change his very understanding of reality, lead him to question his own sanity and land him at the center of perhaps the most audacious art heist in history: a fifteen-hundred-year-old sculpture the nation of Iran will do anything to recover.
While The Hypnotist is the third book in the Reincarnationist series, this is the first book in the series I have read. The Hypnotist was stand alone enough for me to not miss out by not having read the previous two.
The Hypnotist was an intriguing thriller. I enjoyed the museum setting, and I found the past life exploration to be a unique premise.
If you enjoy thrillers and especially works by M.J. Rose, The Hypnotist is a good read for you to check out. I plan to continue reading the series with the next Reincarnationist installment.
6/10: Good Read
If you'd like to check out more reviews of The Hypnotist, be sure to visit some of the stops on M.J. Rose's blog tour this month. You can find the schedule of tour stops by visiting The Hypnotist Virtual Book Tour Schedule.
Review copy provided by the author
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Read-along: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: Week One
This past week began the read-along of the last book in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. This read-along is hosted by the Little Red Reviewer and Geeky Daddy.
I was running a bit behind (still had to finish The Two Towers!), but I'm all caught up. If you've read the books or seen the movies, feel free to jump in the discussions! Please be aware that there are spoilers for those who have not yet experienced LOTR.
Here are some other discussions to check out:
The Little Red Reviewer
Blue Fairy’s Bookshelf
Geeky Daddy
Lynn’s Book Blog
Polishing Mud Balls
This week's questions come from Clint at Geeky Daddy.
1.With the company that went with Aragorn through the Paths of Death. Would you have volunteered knowing it may be curse and ghosts haunting the paths?
I think if I made it that far on the journey, there would be no turning back.
'I will go with you even on the Paths of the Dead, and to whatever end they may lead,' said Gimli.
2.What were your thoughts of Merry and Pippin in the preparation to the Battle of Gondor. It seemed that each ruler just thought that each hobbit could not be a contribution to the battle.
Merry and Pippin - being small and unworldly - were more humored than taken seriously. I've had instances in my past - being young and female - where I had to prove my worth in a way those around me did not. I can appreciate Merry and Pippin holding their ground and coming out as important contributors.
3.Did you think that the preparations to the Battle sparked your interest and all or did you find that the flow was bogged down a bit?
I rushed through this in order to catch up, so I may have escaped some of the "bog down". :)
4. I thought that it was great that both Eowyn and Merry made it to the Battlefield. Yet against orders of the King and made a huge contributions. What did you think both of them doing this and would you have done this if it was you?
I immediately want to say "yes" I would have done it, but that's probably because I keep putting myself into the journey and into the roles of these characters. I'm loving Eowyn defying her role and heading out to battle alongside Merry.
5. What do you think of Denethor's rash decision to send Faramir to hold Western Osgiliath against the hosts of the Enemy that outnumbered their own greatly?
I do not enjoy Denethor. He does give me more insight into Boromir, though. Not only did Boromir want the ring to protect his people, he may have needed it to not be a shame to his father. Poor Faramir! Gah. He seems to already be a shame, and he still does as his father pleases.
I was running a bit behind (still had to finish The Two Towers!), but I'm all caught up. If you've read the books or seen the movies, feel free to jump in the discussions! Please be aware that there are spoilers for those who have not yet experienced LOTR.
Here are some other discussions to check out:
The Little Red Reviewer
Blue Fairy’s Bookshelf
Geeky Daddy
Lynn’s Book Blog
Polishing Mud Balls
This week's questions come from Clint at Geeky Daddy.
1.With the company that went with Aragorn through the Paths of Death. Would you have volunteered knowing it may be curse and ghosts haunting the paths?
I think if I made it that far on the journey, there would be no turning back.
'I will go with you even on the Paths of the Dead, and to whatever end they may lead,' said Gimli.
2.What were your thoughts of Merry and Pippin in the preparation to the Battle of Gondor. It seemed that each ruler just thought that each hobbit could not be a contribution to the battle.
Merry and Pippin - being small and unworldly - were more humored than taken seriously. I've had instances in my past - being young and female - where I had to prove my worth in a way those around me did not. I can appreciate Merry and Pippin holding their ground and coming out as important contributors.
3.Did you think that the preparations to the Battle sparked your interest and all or did you find that the flow was bogged down a bit?
I rushed through this in order to catch up, so I may have escaped some of the "bog down". :)
4. I thought that it was great that both Eowyn and Merry made it to the Battlefield. Yet against orders of the King and made a huge contributions. What did you think both of them doing this and would you have done this if it was you?
I immediately want to say "yes" I would have done it, but that's probably because I keep putting myself into the journey and into the roles of these characters. I'm loving Eowyn defying her role and heading out to battle alongside Merry.
5. What do you think of Denethor's rash decision to send Faramir to hold Western Osgiliath against the hosts of the Enemy that outnumbered their own greatly?
I do not enjoy Denethor. He does give me more insight into Boromir, though. Not only did Boromir want the ring to protect his people, he may have needed it to not be a shame to his father. Poor Faramir! Gah. He seems to already be a shame, and he still does as his father pleases.
Labels:
Fantasy,
Read-along,
The Lord of the Rings Series
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Guest Post: Recommendations from Derek Clendening
I am excited to welcome Derek Clendening to Book Den. Derek is an author with a penchant for the dark and paranormal. Today he is sharing with us a list of recommended reads as well as a list of authors every horror fan should check out.
Be sure to leave Derek a comment to be entered for a chance to win a Kindle Fire!
I’m a very eclectic reader. As such, my recommendations are all over the place. For the most part, my taste falls in line with the horror genre, but even that is multi-faceted. I do have one recommendation outside of the genre, and I always steer people towards that one if they can’t travel on a dark journey with me.
1. Clara Callan by Richard B. Wright.
This is a literary novel about a school teacher in rural Ontario in the 1930s. It’s a good rainy day read. I know because I read it on a rainy day. Gobbled most of it up during that sitting, in fact.
2. House of Windows by John Langan.
To me, this novel is much more about a haunted person than a haunted house. It might not be bloody, but I couldn’t put it down, and I gladly recommend it anytime.
3. Everdead by Rio Youers.
Yes, it’s a vampire novel, with a traditional vamp to boot, but you won’t find a word play quite like it. Highly recommended.
4. Billy by Whitley Strieber.
This might be the scariest book I’ve ever read. I wouldn’t make that statement loosely. There’s nothing supernatural about it, but if you have a kid, a stepchild, a niece or nephew, or a pet you’ll want to protect them much more after reading this.
5. Ghost Story by Peter Straub.
This was Straub’s breakout novel and has been cited by Stephen King as his favourite horror novel. It’s well-written, multi-layered and compelling. Best of all, it’s still in print. It’s also available as an e-book.
Okay, I’m done with individual books. Now for some authors which horror aficionados should read. Bentley Little and Richard Laymon are a start. Horror fiends will know plenty about them, but if you enjoy horror and you’re just coming off of Stephen King’s backlist, you should give them a shot.
Other authors I’ve enjoyed include Douglas Clegg, Brian Keene, Scott Nicholson, Sephera Giron and Gord Rollo. These are slightly lesser known authors than Little or Laymon, but they’re all worth checking out. You’ll be glad you did.
You can find Derek Clendening's adult and YA novels and short stories on Amazon.com as well as on Derek's website: Derek Clendening Horror Author.
The Breeding
It began in New York. Then it spread. Zombies outnumber humans ten-to-one and they must retool the Earth to suit their needs. Capitalism has survived the Apocalypse and a billionaire zombie plans to cash in by opening a human breeding farm near Buffalo, New York. He will provide sustenance to his fellow zombies . . . at a price . . . . Remaining humans have been imprisoned, paired, made to breed and have been treated like the lower form of life that they have become. A deadly ultimatum forces their darkest family secrets and worst fears to surface. The strong will survive. The weak will perish.
The Between Years
Randy and Carol Fuller face the worst horror parents can possibly face when they lose their six month old son, Kenny, to Sudden infant Death Syndrome during a freak snowstorm. In the following months, Randy wants a second chance at parenthood, but Carol isn’t ready. Their marriage disintegrates. However, Randy discovers his second chance, anyway, when he begins to see Kenny at age four. Then at age eight, twelve and eighteen. Soon it becomes apparent that Kenny is alive and growing up within the walls of Randy’s ancestral home. Randy has the opportunity to be a father to Kenny again, although in ways he never expected. And he must face obstacles he never imagined. The Between Years is a novel of ghosts and memory, obsession and darkness, and the undying love only a parent can understand.
More from Derek regarding his exciting Kindle Fire giveaway:
To enter to win a Kindle Fire, leave your name and e-mail address in the comment form below. You can enter once per blog stop. Visit each blog stop to increase your odds of winning. If I crack the Kindle Top 100, I will give away another Kindle Fire. E-mail me for the tour newsletter including a full listing of tour stops at derek (dot) r (dot) clendening (at) gmail (dot) com.
Be sure to leave Derek a comment to be entered for a chance to win a Kindle Fire!
I’m a very eclectic reader. As such, my recommendations are all over the place. For the most part, my taste falls in line with the horror genre, but even that is multi-faceted. I do have one recommendation outside of the genre, and I always steer people towards that one if they can’t travel on a dark journey with me.
1. Clara Callan by Richard B. Wright.
This is a literary novel about a school teacher in rural Ontario in the 1930s. It’s a good rainy day read. I know because I read it on a rainy day. Gobbled most of it up during that sitting, in fact.
To me, this novel is much more about a haunted person than a haunted house. It might not be bloody, but I couldn’t put it down, and I gladly recommend it anytime.
Yes, it’s a vampire novel, with a traditional vamp to boot, but you won’t find a word play quite like it. Highly recommended.
This might be the scariest book I’ve ever read. I wouldn’t make that statement loosely. There’s nothing supernatural about it, but if you have a kid, a stepchild, a niece or nephew, or a pet you’ll want to protect them much more after reading this.
This was Straub’s breakout novel and has been cited by Stephen King as his favourite horror novel. It’s well-written, multi-layered and compelling. Best of all, it’s still in print. It’s also available as an e-book.
Other authors I’ve enjoyed include Douglas Clegg, Brian Keene, Scott Nicholson, Sephera Giron and Gord Rollo. These are slightly lesser known authors than Little or Laymon, but they’re all worth checking out. You’ll be glad you did.
You can find Derek Clendening's adult and YA novels and short stories on Amazon.com as well as on Derek's website: Derek Clendening Horror Author.
The Breeding
It began in New York. Then it spread. Zombies outnumber humans ten-to-one and they must retool the Earth to suit their needs. Capitalism has survived the Apocalypse and a billionaire zombie plans to cash in by opening a human breeding farm near Buffalo, New York. He will provide sustenance to his fellow zombies . . . at a price . . . . Remaining humans have been imprisoned, paired, made to breed and have been treated like the lower form of life that they have become. A deadly ultimatum forces their darkest family secrets and worst fears to surface. The strong will survive. The weak will perish.
The Between Years
Randy and Carol Fuller face the worst horror parents can possibly face when they lose their six month old son, Kenny, to Sudden infant Death Syndrome during a freak snowstorm. In the following months, Randy wants a second chance at parenthood, but Carol isn’t ready. Their marriage disintegrates. However, Randy discovers his second chance, anyway, when he begins to see Kenny at age four. Then at age eight, twelve and eighteen. Soon it becomes apparent that Kenny is alive and growing up within the walls of Randy’s ancestral home. Randy has the opportunity to be a father to Kenny again, although in ways he never expected. And he must face obstacles he never imagined. The Between Years is a novel of ghosts and memory, obsession and darkness, and the undying love only a parent can understand.
More from Derek regarding his exciting Kindle Fire giveaway:
To enter to win a Kindle Fire, leave your name and e-mail address in the comment form below. You can enter once per blog stop. Visit each blog stop to increase your odds of winning. If I crack the Kindle Top 100, I will give away another Kindle Fire. E-mail me for the tour newsletter including a full listing of tour stops at derek (dot) r (dot) clendening (at) gmail (dot) com.
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