So this happened...

Can you guess where I was this weekend? Here's a hint:


If you guessed NY Comic Con then you win the prize! What is the prize you ask? Well, it's technically a surprise, but since you were all good enough to stop by I'll let you in on the secret. I think I told you I'm doing an article on the con for Fantasy-Faction. What you don't know is I got some amazing footage at one of the panels!

The Del Rey panel I went to on Friday was a lot of fun. We got to hear about all the cool new books coming out in the near future and heard from some of their authors.


One of the authors, Peter Brett (@PVBrett on Twitter), whom I had the pleasure of meeting the day before, decided last minute that he was going to do a reading from his yet to be completed novel Daylight War. And I got the reading on video! :D

I'll be posting it, along with a ton of pics when my article goes live later this week. I suppose that means I should probably get to work writing it. Right! To work with me!

Keep your eyes open, the article should go up later this week!

Happy Writing and Happy Reading! :)

Back Again

I can't believe it's been almost a whole month since I last posted. Well I have good news. I finally finished the review for Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes (@SamSykesSwears) I was working on! Yeah I know it took forever, but it's not because I wasn't working on it. I just couldn't get it right for some reason. But rather than explain it twice, I'll let you read it for yourselves.

On a ship in the ocean, bound for a faraway place, in search of an ancient magical gateway, a group of adventurers fight off a band of evil pirates and encounter a creature too terrible to exist in our world or theirs. In the ensuing battle with said beasty, an ancient tome is stolen and our heroes go boldly off to reclaim it! Well maybe not boldly, but they do go.

Who are these adventurers you ask? Well our heroic group consists of Lenk a young swordsman and the leader of the group, Kataria the elf-like shict an expert archer and tracker, Asper a priestess of Talanas the Healer, Dreadaeleon the wizard, Denaos a thief, and rounding out the party is Gariath the dragonman.

This might sound to you like a typical sword and sorcery novel or possibly even the plot of a Dungeons and Dragons one-shot campaign; however, nothing could be further from the truth.

If you’ve read any of my past reviews, you’ll notice that this one has a different format then the others. In my normal reviews, I try to write a three to four paragraph summary of the plot, roughly equivalent to what I would expect to see on the back of the book, then move on to how I liked or disliked the story. But this book stumped me. I couldn’t do a straight summary of the plot. All the ones I started looked just like the first couple of paragraphs above and made the story sound dull and flat. For weeks, I would go back and retry, looking at different angles, using different formats, but nothing sounded as good as the story actually was.

I’m happy to say I’ve finally figured out why. The story in Tome of the Undergates is not unique. The setup, the main plot, and even the villains’ motivations, are what you would call standard fantasy fare. Trying to make it sound otherwise just didn’t work. So what is it about this book that sets it apart and makes it something I would fully recommend you read? It’s the voices.

Both the author’s prose and the characters themselves have, without a doubt, some of the most unique voices I’ve ever read. The prose of the story is in one breath comical and humorous and in the next deep and solemn. And where the story may seem to be a rather typical adventure it is really a journey of lost souls, seeking meaning in a world where none of them truly belong. The plot of this book is really just a steady current that carries our heroes through their turbulent lives; forcing them to either go with the flow or stand against it, choosing their own fates instead of letting them be decided by others. There are also a lot of pee jokes. Hey, I said it was unique.

Each character while being a very typical trope was also a real person (or creature), not just a cardboard cutout glued flat to the page. Lenk, the fighter, is a true adventurer following wherever his path takes him and haunted (literally) by a past that set him on that path. Kataria is what the rest of the world would call a savage, yet she follows Lenk, partly to discover what it is about humans that make them so hated by her people and partly for reasons she doesn’t understand. Asper is trying to be true to her faith even while doubts of its validity continually bombard her. Gariath is an enigma and probably the deepest character in the story, but I don’t want to spoil too much and I think you get the idea. By the end of the story, each character is a fully fleshed out person (or humanoid) with just enough of their personal story left untold that you want to keep reading after the book is finished.

So the characters are all troubled souls, clinging to each other for support, right? No actually, they hate each other. They fight constantly, verbally and physically. Most don’t care if the rest live or die, as long as the others’ deaths don’t affect them personally. The dialog between them is one of my favorite parts of the book. Their snarkiness reminds me of the days all my guy friends invade my house and verbally beat on one another while playing games over chips and highly caffeinated soda.

For me this book works on so many different levels, it’s just too hard to explain it without giving too much away. And now I’m sure I’m beginning to sound little fangirlish, so let me step back and tell you what I didn’t like about the book. I could tell even before I finished, that this story would not be for everyone. I do think the beginning was a bit slow, and if you don’t like the fact that the characters are constantly arguing then the first part might be hard to get through. I also didn’t like the fact that the point of view switched back and forth between characters without any warning. That made it a little hard to follow in a couple spots, but once you get the feel of the writing, it does get easier to keep track of whose point of view you’re in.

Okay, so what do I think overall? Well, overall, I think the book was excellent. It really had everything I look for in a fantasy novel: a good (if simple) story, excellent characters, funny dialog, great prose, and a lot more heart than you’d expect from a book with this many fart jokes. And I as soon as I can get my hands on the sequel I am definitely picking it up.

Sam Sykes’s Tome of the Undergates and its sequel Black Halo are available now. The third installment of The Aeons’ Gate series, The Skybound Sea, is still in the works. (There was a progress chart on his blog, but it was too complex for me to decipher.) ;)

For disclosure purposes, I won a copy of Tome of the Undergates from the author in a Twitter contest, but chose to review it on my own. Winning the book did not influence my opinion in this review.

I also finished editing my story, again. This time I really like how it came out. I fixed the part at the beginning that was bugging me and did a couple other tweaks that made a big difference. I still haven't started my synopsis, but it's been a bit crazed here lately. Mostly due to my husband still being out of work and the fact that NY Comic Con is rapidly approaching.

Did I tell you I was going to Comic Con yet? Well, I'm going to Comic Con, as press! I can't wait! This will be my first geek con. I went to a couple gift shows when I managed a candle/gift shop at the mall and went to a food show while I was going to school to be a chef. Never got to go as press before though, so it should be a blast! I'll do another post about this next week, when I have all the details set up.

Also lots of writerly things happening on Fantasy-Faction. We have a spooky forest short story contest going among other things. Check out my article about it here!


Right I think that's it for the moment. I'll try not to disappear for so long this time.

Happy Writing! And Happy Reading!

It's a Monday

Not that you didn't know that already. And actually as Mondays go, today wasn't too bad. I just didn't have a lot of motivation, which would be why this post is going out so late in the day. Still I did get some things done around the house and I did remember I was supposed to do some blogging today, so not a complete waste of a day.

I've started getting responses back from the agents I've queried; all politely worded nos so far. The first one stung, but after that it got easier. I was rather surprised I got responses back this fast. Most of the agents I queried had two weeks as a minimum response time, but I got a few back the day I sent them. And even though they were nos, it was a pleasant surprise to hear back so quickly. I still have a bunch of queries out there and a bunch more to send when I finish my synopsis, so I'm not worried, yet.

As for my synopsis, I did start it, but it's slow going. I'm hoping to get it done by the end of the week. And the review I've been working on? Haven't gone back to it yet, but I want to write it up either tomorrow or Wednesday.

That's it for now. Happy Writing! :)

Fine Art Photograph by NomadicNotebook

Wonders Never Cease

Isn't this amazing? I'm posting twice in one week! Actually, the reason I'm updating is because I feel guilty. The last time I posted, which was Tuesday, I told you that I had two things to do and I was going to get them done. Bets on whether that happened or not? Come on give it a guess.

Well, for those of you who that guessed I shirked my duties, you are correct. I got lots of other things done around my house like cleaning, dishes, laundry, feeding the children, but every time I sat down to do anything that required a creative touch, my brain would just wander off. To be fair I was up at 6am every day this week because my children are evil, but since I set a goal and missed it I felt obligated to "fess up" as it were.

I did start working on the review, but it was coming out terrible and I don't want to write a half-assed review of a book I really liked. I didn't even start thinking about the synopsis. Okay that's not true. I did start thinking about it, but it kept glowering back at me like a giant pair of eyes inside a dark closet, so I would get scared and quickly move onto something else.

Then last night I decided that avoiding this stuff was just silly and I sat down to work. However, instead of working on the synopsis, I decided to ease into things a bit and send out another batch of queries and organize my list of agents so I wouldn't double send or accidently query two agents from the same agency. I also tweaked my query and did some other housekeeping stuff on my new computer (Windows Updates take forever!).

Now I feel much more accomplished and with that small boost of confidence, I think I can finally make an attempt at kicking the synopsis monster's butt. Any tips or advice? I asked my writing buddies on Fantasy-Faction who were kind enough to offer their advice, but more advice is always welcome. :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Monster Painting by daisypaint

I Hate Change...Most of the Time

Last week my computer died. It would crash randomly and then every time I had to restart or turn it off it would blue screen. So, Friday for the first time in seven years I got a new computer in the mail!

It's so shiny! It also came with Office 2007 and Windows 7. I'm not entirely pleased with this. While I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually, right now it's driving me crazy! Nothing works the way I think it should and I have to relearn everything again. I am, however, tickled pink by how fast it is! My last computer was made of three 5+ year old computers and had barely enough ram to load Facebook. This one makes the net fly!

In writing news, I know in one of the last posts I said I was going to start working on my synopsis, but do to computer explosions, hurricanes, and being sick all this weekend, I still haven't started yet. But today is the day!

My plan for today includes writing up my review for Sam Sykes's Tome of the Undergates (which was a lot of fun to read) and writing my synopsis. Two things, that's it. I think I can handle that.

Happy Writing!

Pillows by diffractionfiber