I Know, I Know

I get that this is pretty much the opposite of shutting up about NaNoWriMo, but being as the site officially re-launched yesterday and I finally got to update my author info and post my synopsis today (without cover art, sadly), I thought I would share with you the completed* synopsis.  I'm pretty happy with the cover, though there are one or two minor adjustments I'll make before publishing (I know I'm putting the cart seven or eight months ahead of the horse here).  Now all that's really left is to write the damn book.

Someone wants Minty dead. She can't remember why. Actually, she can't remember anything. The mysterious event that caused her amnesia has left her horribly disfigured and she finds herself lost and alone during a tumultuous time.

The dreamworld is in chaos. Social media has started people dreaming about places they've never been and with nearly seven billion people sleeping through the night, there's barely enough space to contain their misconceptions. Nod is at full capacity.

Unrest and instability have left the way open for Raiders, power-hungry maniacs bent on taking control of everything and everyone in their paths. And now underground rings of big game hunters are inducing comas to get into Nod – and turn its inhabitants into their prey.

Behind everything is the Dust, the life-force of the soul, a source of great power and the most potent drug in existence. Everyone has some but many want more - and will stop of nothing to get it.

Of course, nothing's set in stone, so if you notice anything that could use a bit of tweaking, I won't be offended if you mention it.

*current, likely temporary

A Book Review, of Sorts

As I am occasionally wont to do (generally for the laughs), I browse the paperback section at whatever passes for a grocery store/drug store and pick out something that catches my fancy. In this case, I grabbed Crave, by J.R. Ward, an author I'd never heard of, so I picked it on the basis of the cover alone.

I also, in all truth, have completely exhausted my supply of books at home (which numbers about five, currently).

Halfway in, I've decided that I actually kinda like it. It's the second book of its series, which I didn't know when I got it, but since I wasn't going for brilliance in writing, I don't much care. It's certainly not the best piece of fiction out there, but it's decent. The universe sticks to its own rules, and there's hot men who have wings and fighting and general manliness.

On the other hand, the author used 'symbology' as a word. I just about died. Plus, there's a demon called 'Devina', which just makes me think of that bit in Rabb Nesbit when David Tennant guest starred as a soon-to-be woman. And Devina goes to a mortal therapist for actual therapy, which seems a bit odd, for a demon who's trying to take over heaven and earth. She also won't kill kids, but isn't above sacrificing virgins. Seems a bit inconsistent, but then, there's no reason why a demon wouldn't have foibles like being squeemish about killing kids, but not adult virgins.

In terms of writing style itself, it's an easy enough read, though there are waaaay too any sentences with strung-together-phrases-like-this-one, which I would have pounced on had I been editing. And most of the men are actually just the same man in different clothes and with slightly different backstories, except for a couple of the side characters, one of whom is actually interesting, which is a little annoying, but then again - I wasn't reading it in the hopes of finding loveable characters so much as hot men who could fly.

Still - over all, it's performing its function admirably, and entertaining me enough that I don't mind falling asleep while reading, or go stir-crazy with nothing to do when crocheting socks doesn't hold any interest for me. The universe is intreiguing enough to hold my interest (but not my ability to spell, it seems), despite the character flaws, the smut didn't devolve into the 'throbbing member' nonsense that most romance novels go for, and if it wasn't for a...brusqueness and a bit too much modern-world-name-dropping that always ends up dating a book (like tossing in a reference to eHarmony), it'd move out of the 'decently tolerable' category and into the lesser levels of indifference.

That said, 'symbology' was almost a deal breaker - all I could hear is Willem Defoe saying "Ssssssymbolism."

I kinda want to watch Boondock Saints, now...

EDIT: Fixed sentences, cleared up thoughts, and generally mopped up the mess I made when I wrote this while half asleep yesternight. Jan 10, 2011

Look What I Found

I've been working on building a world for my latest story (one that, hopefully, I will soon shelve in favour of finishing some of my others) and having a bit of trouble focusing my thoughts. I decided to go in search of some help online and found this. It's a list of fantasy worldbuilding questions from Patricia C. Wrede and it includes thought-provoking questions to make you consider every corner of your imaginary world, including physical and historical features; magic and magicians; peoples and customs; social organization; commerce, trade and public life and daily life. You should ABSOLUTELY check it out, whether you write sci-fi, fantasy, speculative fiction, historical fiction or anything that takes place anywhere other than exactly right here, right now.

I've also added a link to the link list, with a helpful name like "Worldbuilding Questions" or something like that.

Happy creating, people.

A Review of Sorts: To Find A Wishing Well

A few years back, I spent the best $0.25 ever at the library's discarded book sale, and bought Hylda Lee's To Find A Wishing Well.

I'm really glad I did. I've never seen another copy of it, and everyone that I or Bean have ever mentioned it to gives us a funny look. It's obscure, which is too bad, because I think it's one of the best children's novels ever.

It's about Lila, the 11th child of a King and Queen who have nothing but sons, and how a well intentioned fairy gives her the gift of always wanting something...which of course, backfires. When she's sixteen, she sets out on a quest to solve this by finding a Wishing Well on her brown and yellow striped horse Zeb. Along the way, she meets Ethelbert the Owl, Mitch the Otter, an enchanter, Caesar the dog and Prince Sorin, a host of other talking animals, gets a magic bag that is always filled with milk and cheese and apples and honeycomb, and gets her happily ever after.

I know there are some who would criticize the fact that everyone gets their wishes granted (Zeb wants a horn like a unicorn, Mitch wants to be able to fly etc), and that everything's happy and there's next to no hardship, but the book is still full of good morals: Like, 'help your friends when they're in trouble', and, 'get the whole story from the dragon because maybe he didn't actually mean to torch your kingdom'. Lila gets most of her wishes answered, but finds out that having everything you want, when you want it, isn't as much fun as wanting it. It's fluff, but it's the right sort of fluff, and I wish it was more well known.

As it is, I can't even find an example of the cover to add to this. I'm actually going to have to scan it. Google came up with nothing, if you can imagine it. The book is really that obscure. But if ever you do come across it, you should read it. It's adorable.

A Fairy Tale. Ish.

The princess is ten, her pretty-much-betrothed is fifteen and has been kidnapped for the sake of Politics - and doesn't like her anyway because she's loud. The Evil Villian wears a trench coat and is insanely pretty. And there're dragons the size of Clydesdales, evil plots to take over the kingdom, adventure, possibly unicorns, and cheese might figure predominately.

Oh, and the prince might actually be gay. I'm not sure. And neither is he.

Y/Y?

I need names.

Evil Trenchcoat Villian is named Phoric III.

That's as far as it's gotten, but considering that Jon and I came up with this yesterday, it's not surprising.

Also, checked out babynames.com. 'Humvee' is actually on the list. I nearly died.