RJBlain

Book Review: Supervillain: The Concise Guide by Ras Ashcroft

Books & Book Reviews No Responses »

May 162012

Title: Supervillain: The Concise Guide

Author: Ras Ashcroft

Publisher: Independent

Pages: 90

Lending: Enabled

If you’re interested in Supervillains, this might be a book for you. Written in a non-fiction style, this satire is an interesting methodology on how to go from rags to riches… as a villain.

Ashcroft admits, right at the opening, that this is a parody of self-help guides on Finance. It fits this category, making very obvious jabs at how-to guides and self-help books.

In general, the book was well written, handling the line between fiction, non-fiction, and satire with adept ease. While some reviewers found this book hilarious, I found it to be subtle. Almost too subtle. The first 40 pages or so I found genuinely interesting, particularly in terms of the creativity in which Ashcroft builds a fictional supervillain empire. After that, however, it delves deeper into the expected cliches and rehashes what most people already know about being the ideal evil overlord.

In short, it went to the far-fetched and unbelievable at around the same time the book looks toward space as a viable method of taking over Earth.

The approach for this book I cannot fault. It does a good job of mocking many of the self-help books (on finance) that I’ve browsed out of curiosity. However, I do think that it stayed a little too much on the side of safety, using practical methods to become a villain without delving too dangerously into ‘evil’, such as it were. (The obvious fantasy of domination towards the end of the book excluded.)

To boil this book down a bit, ‘Common Sense Prevails’ is the golden rule. If it breaks the law, avoid it or cover your tracks and work in cash only.

I’d talk about characters and themes, but this book doesn’t really have anything of that sort. It is a down-to-earth guide on a method to become a supervillain. Would it work? Honestly, I don’t think so. I wish this book had more hard humor, cracks at heroes and villains, and otherwise not take itself too seriously. While it is obviously satire, I don’t think it was edgy enough or funny enough. It was just too close of a parody without that edge that I normally love in parodies.

There wasn’t nearly enough of the sharks with lasers, acid pits, spike traps, and maintaining a fortress of doom that I was really, really hoping for. Even if it was a step-by-step guide on why not to do these things as a viable supervillain. Ashcroft covered a little bit of it, but not nearly enough to satisfy my thirst for that sort of thing.

Yes, I was disappointed in the fact that there wasn’t a single guide on building a doomsday device of awesomeness or a torture mechanism just for superheroes. The solutions Ashcroft presented were just too based on reality and too reasonable.

I’m being completely unreasonable about this point, but being an evil overlord or super villain should be fun.

That said, I think it is worth the amusement value at the price of $0.99, especially if you’re into that sort of thing. Just don’t go in expecting to get stitches in your side from laughing. I did laugh a little a few times, but I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t as amused as I was hoping to be based off of the general description of the book, which poses a lot of ‘Would you like…’ questions that left me hopeful there’d be humor in the guide itself.

That said, for the price, it isn’t a bad read. It is pretty close to what I’d consider professionally publishable quality, which puts it above a great many of the independent books I’ve been exposed to. That said, I wouldn’t pay more than $0.99 for this book, as I think it does need more edgy humor to it and a harder edge to fit the them. I certainly wouldn’t purchase it if I was in a book store based off of the cover alone, which didn’t appeal to me at all.

If I had to give this book a star rating out of 5*, I’d give it a solid 3*. There were good points about it, and I didn’t feel like I wasted the 2 hours or so it took me to read through the book.

Traditional vs Self/Indie Publishing - Book Reviews

Books & Book Reviews, Self-Publishing 4 Responses »

May 092012

Is there a perception that book reviewers treat Self-Published books differently than Traditionally published ones?

I’m not sure where this train of thought came from, but it hit me dead-center as I was ~~writing~~ procrastinating on finishing a scene in my latest WIP that has been ~~very fun and amazing~~ challenging to write.

I’ve read more self-published/indie books than I’ve reviewed. The ones I’ve acquired on my own I haven’t reviewed for several reasons, but some of those reasons include not feeling the book was written professionally, feeling that the book was still in a rough-draft state, and generally disliking the book.

After some considerations, I realized I hadn’t reviewed some of these books because I had this mindset where if I couldn’t say nice things, I shouldn’t say anything at all.

Huh.

I don’t have the mentality about Traditionally published books. Why? I view these authors as professionals. Professionals can handle whatever opinions I might have about their book.

If I buy a traditionally published, large-scale publishing house book, all bets are off. If I don’t like it, you better believe I’ll rip that book apart. The simple truth is, there aren’t a lot of traditionally-published books I strongly dislike. There are some, but most I acquired years ago and never went bestseller. (For a reason, I assure you…)

But, when presented with books that haven’t been professionally handled or produced, I clam up. This usually means self-published. I shouldn’t do this.

Ah, time to make a quick distinction. Self-published books, where the author did all of the work, tend to be the least professionally produced as a general rule. (This isn’t always the case, and I’m stereotyping, but of the ones I got a hold of, this was the case.)

Independent publishers took more care with the general presentation of the book, but I have also seen books produced by them that had formatting problems for the kindle.

Moving back on subject.

Should self-published books get special treatment and blinders if they aren’t well written?

I want to say no, but the reality is, I have been wearing these blinders and walking around them like they’re made of glass. No one likes a piece of glass in the foot.

I think the problem is two fold.

First, I think the community and the fans are partially to blame. There are a few out there who will do anything to defend a book just because it self-published, indie published, or published by a small publishing house. I’ve experienced this first hand. (I will get around to reviewing more, but I have been working on critiquing other writers, working on my novel, and freelance writing. I have a novella and a pair of novels to read and review for my birthday!!)

I don’t like getting my tail-feathers burnt. It tends to be hurtful even though the point of a book review is to be honest about all elements of a book.

Second, I think is the general mentality that self-published and co. books aren’t to the same quality level as traditionally published ones.

It somehow makes me think of punching babies or doing something equivalently evil when treating these books the same as traditionally published ones.

Ouch. I can smell charred Rebecca already.

I want to hear from you what your opinions are. I do not mean to insult the competent, professional, and hard-working self/indie writers who do not fit this stereotype. This isn’t what this post is about.

It is about whether or not book reviews should treat these two types of published works differently.

For me, I think the answer is no, they should not be treated differently. The reality, however, is yes, they are.

What do you think?

What I hate and love about New Projects

Creative Writing 1 Response »

Apr 222012

Finishing a novel is a great feeling. Being able to put it aside and say, “I’m done!” can be exhilarating. Just as it should be.

But, that fanciful flight of accomplishment doesn’t last long — and it shouldn’t. Writers write. That means starting a new project or going back and reworking an old one.

I decided I needed a break from the world I usually write it, and that I was in the mood for pure fantasy. While I haven’t abandoned the urban fantasy I’ve been struggling with, I needed to recapture a bit of the pure joy of creation.

So, a new world, a new story, a new mythology, a new set of cultures, a new set of religions. Everything new and shiny. It is a bit like driving a brand new car out of the parking lot of the dealership. The first moment where the engine purrs as it revs to life is wonderful.

The world building process went by in a flash for me. I had enough structure to start writing after a few hours of brain storming. My creative pump was primed and ready to go.

Then the engine stuttered, let out an ear-piercing shriek, and promptly died.

This is when it is permissible to start kicking the tires of your shiny, brand new car that didn’t quite make it back to your driveway due to some problem or another.

One of the hardest parts of writing a story for me is the beginning. Most stories I rewrite the beginning for between 5-15 times. The project I just finished probably had some twenty false starts before I found something I could live with.

First impressions for the reader are very important. There is no denying that. But, you also need to start writing and forget about how crappy your beginning might be.

This time, I’m going to try to limit my experiments at a new first scene to 5. Hopefully that works out for me this time!

Script Frenzy

Uncategorized No Responses »

Apr 022012

For those of you who are not aware of it, Script Frenzy is the step-sister of Nanowrimo. Instead of writing a book in a month, the goal is to write 100 pages of a script, or, just over 3 pages a day.

I’m participating. I’m also an ML even though it is my first time due to my experiences as an ML with the Nanowrimo program.

I expect that, due to my schedule, I will be starting a week late, which will have some very interesting consequences, seeing that I have never written a script before. I’m doing this as a writing exercise, and just to say I was able to actually write a script.

I really have no idea what I’ll be writing about. I guess I’ll find out when I get a chance to get started… in a week or so from now.

If you’re interested in trying something new, or you want to improve your dialogue skills, this might be an idea for you. There are a few programs that you can use for scripting, including some free options. I don’t remember the name of the program I had downloaded on my old computer, but if I remember the name of it, I’ll make sure to post it.

Looks like I’ll be winging it on scrivener this year, though.

I will not stop reviewing

Books & Book Reviews 6 Responses »

Mar 312012

It seems that the internet is easily offended by something I, an unknown reviewer with a very small personal blog, has to say on the subject of copyright notices.

I never knew my opinion was worth enough to warrant so many interesting comments, personal insults, and even a company going out of their way to threaten me.

I’m rather amazed at all of this, and I’m rather surprised that my site even gets enough traffic to get this many comments.

I’ve approved all of them, with the exception of one thread, who the writer of couldn’t seem to resist calling me names at every opportunity. This user has stated he is going to go out of his way to ensure that I can’t buy books from his company, which I somehow find pretty hilarious.

I am not someone who likes slinking away because of someone I said. I will quite happily offer an apology to those that this offended, but I’m not going to bow my head because of a possse of people organized via an email thread to come to my site and attack me. (And yes, I see the URL references in the back end of my blog, and quite a few came from email URLs.)

I’m a writer. I review books because I enjoy reviewing books. I love books. Reading them, writing them, and even talking about them.

I got offended because I love books that much. So, maybe I’m not as tolerant as legal threats as others, but that is me.

The ironic part is, out of all of the people who came from the organized comment spree on my site, the *author* was the most reasonable individual of the lot of them. I don’t support that person’s publishing company, but I do hope they end up with a successful career down the road.

I don’t love scare tactics, being targeted by a bunch of people who don’t agree with me and try to make an organized protest because I don’t like the way a notice was written. (I do not like copyright infringement, but I don’t think that this is the way to address the problem.)

To clear the air, my reviews, thoughts, and complaints with a book aren’t ever, ever personally with the author. How can it be? I don’t know these people. All I have to go on is the text that is provided to me when it is loaded onto my kindle. (And, for the record, I get my books legitimately, thank you. It seems that I was accused several times of getting illegal copies because there are those who couldn’t believe that disagreement with the presentation of a notice = theft.)

If these people were out to make me feel miserable, they did a good job. But, that isn’t going to get the notice taken down, and it isn’t going to get me to change the review. The only person I’d consider even remotely rewording the review for would be Arkenberg, and unless s/he says otherwise (and no, I’m not removing my complaint, I’d just be rewording it and moving it to the back of the review.)

I’m not giving up my beliefs just because other people don’t agree with them.

My apologies if I’ve offended you, but it was never personal to you anyway.

Comparing Copyright Notices

Books & Book Reviews 25 Responses »

Mar 242012

I recently had a temper tantrum about Copyright notices and threats when doing a book review (you can read the review here) and I thought I would take this a bit further and demonstrate the exact reason why I would believe as I do.

So, what better way than to do a comparison of copyright notices from books I own?

Here is the notice that made me angry. It covered approximately 4 pages in my 6″ kindle.

All of the notices below respect the copyrights used; this is a demonstration of Fair Use in Copyright, intended for educational purposes and with all due respect to the publishers who have printed and created the words used in demonstration below.

Copyright Notice for: Last of the Lesser Kings by T.L.K. Arkenberg

About The e-Book You Have Purchased:

Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you to only ONE LEGAL copy for your personal reading on your own personal computer or device. You do not have resell or distrubition rights without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner of this book. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee, or as a prize in any contest. Such action is illegal and in violation of the South African Copyright Law. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or other method currently known or not yet invented, is forbidden. If you do not want this book anymore, you must delete it from your computer.

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission. All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental. The Licensed Art Material is being used for illustrative purposes only; any person depicted in the Licensed Art Material, is a model.

PUBLISHER

Note from the Publisher

Dear Reader,

Thank you for your purchase of this title. The authors and staff of $company hope you enjoy this read and that we will have a long and happy association together.

Please remember that the only money authors make from writing comes from the sales of their books. If you like their work, spread the word and tell others about the books, but please refrain from sharing this book in any form. Authors depend on sales and sales only to support their families.

If you see “free shares” offered or cut-rate sales of this title on pirate sites, you can report the offending entry to $email_address

Thank you for not pirating our titles.

Copyright Notice for: Juxtaposition by Piers Anthony. Printed in 1990.

Publisher: DEL REY

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New Your, and simultaneous in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

This notice covers approximately an eighth of one printed page.

Copyright Notice for: Shadowplay by Tad Williams. Printed in April 2009.

Publisher: DAW Fantasy

All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

The scanning, uploading, and distributing of this book via the internet or any other means without permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

This notice covers approximately an eighth of one printed page.

Copyright Notice for: The Outstretched Shadow by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory. Printed in 2004.

Publisher: TOR

NOTE: If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment fort his “stripped book”.

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in the book are fictitious or are used fictitiously.

Copyright Notice for: Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn. Edited by Robert Lynn Asprin. Printed in 1983.

Copyright Notice for: Myth Conceptions by Robert Asprin. Printed in 1985.

Publisher: ACE Fantasy

NOTE: Only difference in the notice is that one version has his name as Robert Lynn Asprin and the other has it as Robert L. Asprin.

Copyright Notice for: Here is a Human Being: At the Dawn of Personal Genomics by Misha Angrist. Printed in 2011.

HERE IS A HUMAN BEING. Copyright (c) 2010 by Misha Angrist. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission exceit in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address HarperCollins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.

HarperCollins Books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. For information, please write: Special Markets Department, Harper Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.

This notice took approximately half of a page.

Copyright Notice for: Night by Elie Wiesel. Printed in 1982.

All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 1960. by McGibbon & Kee; originally published in French by Les Editions de Minuit (c) 1958. Preface copyright (c) 1986 by Robert McAfee Brown. Cover art copyright (c) 1982 by Bantam Books.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form of by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment fort his “stripped book”.

Copyright Notice for: Path of Fate by Diana Pharaoh Francis. Printed in 2003.

Published by ROC Fantasy

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, store in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, record, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE:

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

All of the above books, with the exception of the first, are from _printed_ copies.

Below are some e-book versions. This wouldn’t be a very good comparison if I didn’t include ebook version. Please note, I may not have publisher data. Not all e-books include the publisher.

Copyright Notice for: Headhunters by Charlie Cole.

No copyright notice included.

Copyright Notice for: Sendrid by Sherwood Smith.

Publisher: Book View Cafe edition Aprill 2011.

Copyright Notice for: The Magic Crystal by Lorna T. Suzuki.

No copyright notice included.

Copyright Notice for: On the Prowl. Anthology, Patricia Briggs, Eileen Wilks (and someone else.)

No copyright notice included.

I will let actions speak louder than words. Patricia Briggs is a big name player, and her publisher doesn’t even see fit to include a copyright notice on the electronic version of On the Prowl.

Interesting, isn’t it?

I fully stand by my reason to be annoyed. I included a mix of books from large publishers, self-published authors, and electronic and paper formats. All books, with the exception of the first, were selected completely at random from my bookshelf or kindle.

I did find this very educational, however. While there were slight changes from the 1980s to 2000s, the differences in the notices weren’t _that_ significant, and only one included the actual punishments, though some did mention it was punishable by law.

What do you think?

Book Review: Last of the Lesser Kings by T.L.K. Arkenberg

Books & Book Reviews 11 Responses »

Mar 212012

This is one of the first books that has made me mad in a long, long time.

I was excited to start reading this. It was epic fantasy matched with same-sex couplings, and it wasn’t in the erotic category. I’m all about expanding my boundaries when I read, and I’m not afraid of getting my feet dirty. (Yes, the book is same-sex couplings, but it isn’t explicit. I wouldn’t have a problem if a 5 year old picked this novel up, it is that tame.)

So, off I went. It was a nice evening, and I had a few minutes before bed. I fire the kindle up, select Last of the Lesser Kings, and start to read. Well, I tried to. Encountered quite a few pages of legal threats telling me how much I would be sued for if I had the sheer audacity of putting this book on more than one device that I owned. Heaven forbid if I lend it out to anyone. The amount of the violation didn’t have two, three, or four zeros. Try five or six. I don’t remember the exact amount, but I remember the complete shock and impossibility of the average person being able to pay that sum. I’m not going to open my kindle to find out again. It made me mad enough even having to type this out.

After having read the book, I can state with some confidence that this author’s book is not worth four or five digits to me, let alone six. If I had bought this book, rather than being presented to it as a reviewer’s ARC, (this was a post-publication, so it was exactly the same content a paying reader receives) I’m pretty confident I would have asked for a refund without reading the book, seeing as I wasn’t paying to be threatened.

Needless to say, I will not be supporting this publishing house — or its authors — unless that little abusive section in the front of their novels goes away. At least shove it to the back of the book or something, instead of several in-your-face pages to someone who legitimately had a copy. I can’t even imagine how upset I would be if I had paid money for that.

Rant out of the way, the book is called the Last of the Lesser Kings by T.L.K. Arkenburg. I was sorely tempted to not link to this book after my displeasure at the introduction composed of threats, but I’m above that. (I’m sad it crossed my mind, to be honest. You can purchase the Last of the Lesser Kings here if you’re interested.)

The story is about a man named Neathander. He isn’t a human. However, he really, really loves his humans, especially the male ones. I’m not sorry that I describe it this way. The guy reminds me of a girl from Sex in the City, and yes, yes I do mean one of the female characters. (Something of note, I’ve only seen a few episodes of Sex in the City, and mostly due to being in stores or having my nails done while it was on the tv.)

The story is advertised as epic fantasy, but if I had to sum it up in a sentence, I would write: “Whichever King lands Neathander as his partner will win the war between the kingdoms.”

That is about as ‘epic’ as it gets. If you’re looking for a lot of cultural development, don’t look at this book for it. Everyone is very accepting of everything, including male-and-male relationships. It was a bit of a let down, honestly.

To be fair, T.L.K. Arkenberg does a stellar job of making the characters jump right off of the page. Neathander is so many stereotypes rolled into one that he is both frustrating and fascinating. I managed to get through the book on the sheer power of Neathander’s contradictory nature. In this, Arkenberg did a masterful job. If you want to see flat characters become round, and round characters become flat as needed, this book has some shining examples of it. I do mean this in a good way. The character development was quite interesting, and it was what kept me reading all the way through.

I never thought I would say that a character so hopeless could work quite well. Neathander is a lot of things. He is strong yet weak, cruel yet kind, wise yet bone-headed, stick-in-a-mud stupid at times, fallible and likable. The villains, such as they are, are fallible and likable.

This is a light book, in a way, completely contradictory to how I view most ‘epic’ fantasies. This novel didn’t stand up for me in terms of the epic genre. It was too focused on Neathander, to a point where the fate of the world and the tyranny of the man who wants to rule it just doesn’t matter compared to whether or not Neathander finally gets laid. (It bears repeating, this book is not explicit in any shape or form, not like most fantasy churned out nowadays is.)

The writing style was so-so. Arkenberg got the job done, but there were very few moments where I thought, “wooooah, nicely written!”

There are some, but they are few and far between. In my opinion, Arkenberg’s style is a bland average. It just didn’t stand out and make me love it or hate it. It was there, and that is really all I can say for it.

For fans of same-sex couplings, this book, I think, is probably the ideal romance. I’m heterosexual, but I found the relationships between the men very interesting — and not in the perverted sense. I just wish that T.L.K. Arkenberg had been a little braver in terms of the culture and prejudices against same-sex couplings. That would have taken good to ‘great’. Unfortunately, the ‘cultures’ in this world, such as they are, are pretty accepting of it. I can think of only one significant instance where prejudice really cropped up. I’d go so far as to think that same-sex couplings were the norm rather than the exception.

I think it is a pity, really.

If you haven’t been able to tell, I was torn on this book. I liked Neathander. I liked Aorin. I even liked the primary villain Janir.

I hated the ending. I hated it. T.L.K. Arkenberg spent so much time building up for this dramatic climax between Neathander and Janir to cop out on the real big bang. It was short and not-so-sweet. There was nothing really satisfying about the ending, except for the actual solidification of the author’s chosen coupling. Even then, I saw it coming from about ten miles out in the middle of the night. Bells, whistles, and fireworks. It was about as subtle as a bat to the back of the head.

After so much build up and tension work — which was well done — it was a complete and utter fail in my opinion. The climax was so short I read through it and actually questioned whether or not that was it. Had to read it through two more times.

Then, still second-guessing myself, I continued to read, thinking maybe it was a mini-climax. I could have dealt with that. Nope. I was sorely disappointed. When the End came around, I wasn’t quite ready to throw my Kindle, but it got perilously close.

Still, if you’re interested in a light read that does dare the same-sex coupling category, without having to worry about your pure minds being assaulted with things of erotic nature you didn’t want to know or read, this book is probably for you.

Just don’t go in with high hopes in terms of it being epic, because I really feel this novel was a traditional fantasy that bit off more than it could chew and donned the cloak of epic fantasy because of it. Yes, the one character did conquest over more than one kingdom, but this book is about the last king, the last kingdom, and the stakes involve the death of a few good men.

Not what I would consider epic fantasy fodder. Especially since it didn’t at all involve saving the rest of the world from Janir’s tyranny.

If I had to give this book a number of stars, it’d be a 2. I managed to read through it without too much pain, but it made me angry at the beginning. The quality of the book just didn’t make up for that, and the lackluster finish left me wondering if I had wasted my time or not.

Dabbling in the Arts

Simply Me No Responses »

Mar 122012

This post is going to go outside of the norm for a little while. By that, I mean, I’m taking a sharp left turn and departing writing for visual media.

I figured this was relevant, as I hope to use this visual media to help support my written work. Maybe some day.

Hasn’t happened yet.

When I’m not writing, I am doing things like painting or photography. Below, I’m going to link a sample of my artistic work. Some of it is even fantastical in nature. I have always loved the visual arts, and have always dabbled in it. I’ve been doing a lot more dabbling lately, however. Why? It is a good outlet for me when I’m not writing.

Prints are available of most of these pieces, and you can contact me at lekaylea @ gmail . com if you’re interested in one of the originals. Etsy has several originals for sale.

I am currently keeping art over at Fine Art America, Etsy, and Deviant Art.

I hope you enjoy looking at the pretty pictures.

A Month of Agent Statistics

Agents No Responses »

Mar 082012

This is a post about agents and statistics.
Meet Laura Bradford. She is @bradfordlit on twitter.

She is a Literary Agent with Bradford Literary Agency. Not only is she an agent, she made the agency.

In January, we had a conversation about agents, writers, and the query submitting process. I asked her for a rough estimate on how many queries she received in a month.

Instead of giving a rough estimate, she went out of her way (with the help of @Natalie_Lakosil) to get an actual count of queries from February. I can’t express just how grateful I am to have access to this information.

I strongly recommend going to Laura’s twitter feed and reading her exact posts. I am going to give a brief description of the statistics.

She received 924 queries. This was average for a month. She states that she receives anywhere between 800 to 1,000 queries in any given month. This is approximately 11,000 queries in a year.

If you have wondered why it is difficult to get an agent, this is part of the reason why. What makes you stand out from the 10,999 other interested parties?

Do you write the genre the agent wants?

Did you follow their submitting guidelines?

Did you bother to read their agency page?

Laura replies to all of her queries. Of the queries she received in February, she had a 1% request rate. She says don’t be discouraged, because of the queries she did receive, a lot fewer than 924 were in the same ballpark.

After reading some of her tweets, I’d be surprised if they were in the same universe as Laura’s guidelines.

There is a lesson to learn here. Queries don’t have to be perfect. They do, however, need to be in the same galaxy the agent is in. They need to be, at the very least, in the same genre the agent represents.

I’ve learned a lot of things following agents on twitter. First and foremost, they are real people. They have likes and dislikes just like you and me.

Queries need to be interesting and catchy. I’m quickly coming to the conclusion there is no such thing as a perfect query because every agent is different. They like different things.

What they do need is to be submitted to guideline, tell what your story is about, and interest the agent.

Unfortunately, you won’t know if you interest an agent until you send the query. But, don’t be cutesy, don’t think you’re special and can get away with it, and follow instructions.

There are 10,999 other folks — at a minimum — out there who are competing with you. And some of them even follow instructions.

Read Laura’s twitter feed. You want to know what to not do? She explains it, rather clearly. Listen, even if she isn’t in your genre. I know she doesn’t represent mine, but I’ve learned a lot from her regardless. While her agency does represent urban fantasy, epic fantasy isn’t on the list of sub-genres/genres represented.

I hope you find this information useful! I did.

Dirty Thoughts about Writing

Simply Me No Responses »

Mar 072012

I don’t mean that kind of dirty.

Warning: This is a long post. There is some whining, some sighing, a lot to do about writing and a lot of misgivings, doubts, and a general sense of perseverance as I am sitting down and pushing on through regardless.

If you want to know a little bit of what at least one writer feels like, read on, brave soul. Read on.

This post may not be eloquent or pretty. There will also be a few choice curses for those sensitive about language.

My stream had several days of where I did little writing. I made sure I opened the file and at least did a few sentences of editing, but my heart wasn’t in it.One of those days, I spent an hour or two on a little section of editing.

That is why I applied myself creatively in another aspect of my life: Painting.

It let me focus my attention elsewhere, blow away the dust, the cobwebs, and push aside the most negative elements of my own psyche. I usually don’t do this, but I needed to come to some significant decisions outside of the normal daily grind. If my issue had been laze, I would have just sat down and forced myself to work.

It was more of a crossroads for me.

I have received a few insights on my book in terms of character development and writing style that I had to consider. Character development is a hard thing for me. I struggle with it. My characters are people, I treat them as such, so I often go by the wayside and forget that people want to see characters change and evolve, rather than behaving according to the situations they have to deal with.

Today, I spent a lengthy amount of time making adjustments to my main male lead. I’m not so much certain if I would call it development, but I made some aspects of his personality stronger. I made other elements o his personality go by the wayside. That was a difficult decision, because it triggered a lot of editing work.

In addition, there are chapters that just need rewritten or reworked significantly. This is very frustrating, seeing just how much editing I have been doing since I decided to whip this into shape.

The important thing about this facet of the story is that writing is hard. It isn’t this shining walk-in-the-park people often think it is. I question my sanity again as I establish that yes, yes this is the thing I want to do with my life.

It also pointed out something very important to me. I want to tell a story people enjoy reading.

I sacrificed my perchance for fluffy language and scrapped spans / moons for years / months. This decision triggered a little bit of my soul crumbling away to dust. I am going to have to participate in some therapeutic Robot Unicorn Attack sometime this evening to help rectify that.

If I’m going to be insane, I may as well be insane with Erasure in my head, and sparkly unicorns jumping to devour fairies and destroying stars.

My emotional state in terms of dealing with the character development issue? I think this one word covers it nicely:

Fuck.

Next on the plate is an issue I never thought I would have in one book.

Apparently, it was pointed out to me that I improved my writing quality partway through the novel. This means that I have sections of older text that don’t match the newer text because I improved.

Fuck yea. Out of all of the problems I have, this is a problem I like having. It does mean that I have to do some extensive repairs to two of the character arcs. That part gets a much sadder whimper as a response.

So, this week has been a bit of a roller coaster.

All through this, I have to add in freelancing so I can go to the convention in November. So far, I have managed to cover the train tickets and the event pass. I haven’t actually heard anything from the convention organizers in regards to my membership application yet though. That is triggering a little worry. That said, looking forward to this lets me moderate my stress levels quite a bit. I have somethingwonderful to look forward to. It makes the time between now and then much more tolerable.

Back to writing.

Next on the list of concerns and whining is the fact that I just do not believe that I am good enough. More and more people I know are getting the cherished book deals.

Me? I’m getting feedback with all of the problems my book has. Some of them are very, very legitimate problems, including character development.

Some are style problems. Those I’m over the fence over. I have no idea how many of the style commentaries are because that isn’t how they would write it versus actual problems.

In my lonely head, that is killing me.

I also suck a lot at openings and endings, and this novel has 3 main character arcs, so I had to do that three times.

Most of all, I want people to feel like they didn’t waste their money or their time reading my book(s). I want to get to that level where someone actually loves what I write and can’t put it down.

This is the most brutal part of general honesty; honesty with myself, and with others. I’m just not confident I’m there yet.

Fuck.

I refuse to give up, but this journey hasn’t been paved in gold, hasn’t been blessed with sunshine or cookies, and is fairly lonely all-in-all.

There are other things, but my dinner is calling me and I need a Robot Unicorn Attack therapy session, stat.

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