Christine Amsden's Blog: Christine Amsden Author Blog, page 32

Wait? Did I see Cassie on Amazon/B&N already?

Why yes! Yes you did!

One of the things I do to promote my work is to enter it into contests. This worked exceptionally well for The Immortality Virus, which won two awards and was a finalist in a third.

Last week, as I was compiling the list of contests I wanted to enter, I realized the Global Ebook Awards ends their year on April 30. That didn’t mean I couldn’t enter Cassie — only that I’d have to wait a whole year to do it. In the meantime, she’d be competing against her own sequels.

The ebook has more or less been ready for weeks, so I asked my publisher if we could release it a few weeks early, just so I could enter this contest. She got back to me quickly and enthusiastically.

The result, as you see, is that Cassie Scot is available right now to purchase through Amazon.com and B&N.com.

I’m not starting my promo efforts until May 15, when the physical book will be available. I’m still calling that the official release date. I think there’s even a good chance the ebook will go on sale then. But if you can’t wait to read it, you can get the ebook now. Right now. This very minute.

Rereading Wheel of Time: Lord of Chaos (Book 6)

And so begins the slowing of the plot…

I say this from the perspective of someone who was fond enough of this story to be willing to reread these long books in order to finally see how it ends, but let’s face it, the number 1 complaint of readers when it comes to The Wheel of Time is that it slows to a crawl. I might argue that the slowing began in book 5, but it’s in full force in book 6.

What happened in this book? A dozen tiny shifts, mostly political. The points of view have begun to explode, particularly in the prologue, which bounced from viewpoint to viewpoint so quickly it was difficult to keep up. Most of those minor viewpoints are from the forsaken — the bad guys — and what I learn from them amounts to “the bad guys are plotting against the good guys and one another” — except with several thousand more words.

On this reread, it occurred to me that for all Rand, Mat, and Perrin are Ta’veran, we spend a lot more time with Elayne, Egwayne, and Nynaeve. The sixth book covers a lot of positioning in terms of the Aes Sedai split. Meanwhile, I have to say that Elayne is coming across as brattier than I remember. I actually think it’s pretty irresponsible of her to avoid returning to her throne at this point. That’s something only she can do — the quest she’s on right now is something others could do. I don’t know if anyone else sees it that way. Certainly none of the other characters seem to see it that way.

Perrin returns to the story near the end. I really like his character because he’s such a nice guy. There aren’t many of those in this story — or in real life, to be fair. It’s nice that there’s one. Too bad he went and married a prickly jealous witch. She doesn’t deserve him.

I don’t know why Faile rubs me the wrong way so badly. I didn’t like her in my first read. This time, I’m trying to be a bit more objective, but I still can’t find anything to like about her. It’s not that she’s a horrible person, but there’s nothing that stands out about her, nothing that makes me want to like her despite her flaws. The jealous drives me particularly crazy, because it’s stupid. She’s got no reason to be jealous at all.

Speaking of women (I may as well speak of women because the endless politicking in this book kind of bored me), Minn is back in Rand’s orbit now. Convenient that so far none of his three women have been around at the same time. But Rand is an idiot. Minn is sitting on his lap and kissing him, but he doesn’t think she’s serious. She’s just playing a game. And do you want to know what the worst part is? It is absolutely, 100% believable. Men! Get a clue! (Not that I’ve had any personal experience…well yeah, I have.)

Actually, I kind of like what’s going on between Minn and Rand. Rand is slowly going crazy in this book. It’s the price he pays for channeling, and it’s pretty well done. Lews Therin is in his head, and he has to fight the voice of the crazy man. One of the things I am eager to find out in future volumes is whether Rand every overcomes this. I can’t see how he can do what he has to do without getting control over his own head.

Anyway…Minn is one of the few things that humanizes him. More than that, his shyness reminds me that he was once a shepherd. While the rest of him changes — hardens and goes mad — he still has a touch of humanity left.

Plus, of all his three women, Minn makes the most sense. It’s strange, because she wasn’t my favorite the first time through, but now I see things differently. She’s a rock. A foundation. Exactly what a man in his position needs. She has a useful skill and advises him, but she’s also a soft place for him to fall and an anchor for him to cling to. She doesn’t try to control him or manipulate him (past sitting on his lap and kissing him…but that’s largely showing her interest), she’s just there for him. I can’t say the same of Elayne, who wants to bond him as her warder and make him do what she says. (She’s a bit too late — someone else already tried that and it didn’t work out at all well for her.) As for Aviendha…I don’ know. She’s spent too much time trying to fight her attraction to Rand for me to know what kind of person she would be if she did anything else. At this point, she mostly seems like the cultural icon that makes the idea of Rand having three wives okay.

ANYWAY….not too many moves on the chessboard this round. I don’t think another big moves happens until book 9, but it has been over a decade and I’m reading these again because the details are so fuzzy. (I actually tried to pick up book 10 and couldn’t recall who almost any of the characters in the prologue were, so I gave up.)

Rating: 4/5

Title: Lord of Chaos

Author: Robert Jordan

ISBN: 0812513754

Published November 1995

Attn Fellow Chocolate Snobs: An Easter Lesson

Whew! I managed to pull off Easter for the family this year, but it was a near thing. And really, my reasoning was sound. Why stock up on Easter candy weeks in advance, only to have it sitting on a shelf or in a closet, tempting me? Oh, it’s “hidden” from everyone else, but *I* know where it is. And it knows my weakness. Good. Quality. Chocolate.

My husband gets Good Friday off of work — the one day a year he’s off work but the kids aren’t off school. Free baby-sitting! So we decided to do our Easter shopping on Good Friday.

This strategy will work if you either don’t know or don’t care about the difference between good chocolate and the stuff Americans usually call chocolate (but I’m not sure is). Yes, the shelves were picked over, but there were plenty of Hershey’s Bunnies. Even some Russell Stover’s. (Sorry, Mom. I just can’t agree that it’s any good.)

But where was the Lindt? Or…or…okay, I’ll take a Dove. In a pinch, you know?

We had to go to another store. Luckily, Wal-Mart had *precisely* 4 Lindt gold bunnies in stock. Had. Past tense. I took care of that problem for them.

Guess I’m not the only one who’s figured out that it’s only a little bit more expensive to buy much, much better chocolate, (At least in quantities that one should reasonably eat. If you’re buying a 2-ton bag of Halloween candy, I concede the point.)

Next year, it’s back to shopping early. I’d ask for help hiding the candy until Easter, but I trust the rest of you about as much as I trust myself.

Rereading Wheel of Time: Fires of Heaven (Book 5)

Nations fall. The tower breaks. And the seals on the dark one’s prison are crumbling at an alarming rate.

In my rereading of book 5 of the Wheel of Time, I felt a bit impatient with one of the subplots — Elayne and Nynaeve trek across the world after dealing with black aja members in Tanchico. They discover the tower has broken, change course to meet with the refugees from the tower, and meet up with a travelling menagerie. They also spent a lot of time in the world of dreams. Some of it was necessary, but I found it tedious, and thought the important aspects of the subplot could have been handled in half the time.

Unfortunately, this will become my biggest complaint with the series. In part, it needed many volumes because the world is so rich and the epic saga so big. But in part, some of it just drones on. It begins here. The next three books in the series continue this trend, if memory serves. I will report more accurately after my rereading of each volume.

Rand has embraced his role by now, and by the end of this book he has even accepted the need to use his friends. Perhaps they sensed it, and that’s why they were wary of him before. He has also made the first step towards gaining his harem, an odd subplot I’m not sure I completely understand, but which is, at least, consistent from book 1. I hope at some point the fact that he falls in love with three women becomes plot relevant, and not simply an oddity, if for no other reason than I’m not sure what draws him to each woman. It’s not that each is different — I respect that part, actually. It suggests that each provides him with something he needs — it’s that he has honestly not spent much time with Elayne or Min for all the time he spends dreaming about them. I’m not sure I get what attracted him. Of course, I do read romance, and this isn’t, so perhaps my expectations are off. Perrin’s love interest never did anything for me, either. She was just there, and he loves her. Maybe real romance is as simple and unexplainable as that, and I look for too much because of the spun tales of romance I enjoy.

Perrin is absent from this story, which disappointed me the first time through, but which I feel I understand better this time. Honestly, enough was happening without another distant point of view coming into things. Better to focus a bit, and bring him back in when it’s important. It isn’t as if I’ve forgotten him, or that Rand has forgotten him.

Mat had the most interesting character development here, finally accepting that he’s tied to Rand whether he likes it or not. Of the three, he’s the most childish, but maybe he’s going to grow up.

Egweyne’s character development strikes me as a bit off. Then again, I am an inherently open person, not prone to keeping secrets for the sake of secrets. (This isn’t the same as betraying a confidence.) The Aes Sedai have been presented this way, full of secrets, and in this book Egweyne embraces that secrecy, often for no particular reason. I was particularly unsure why she kept secrets from Rand, who of all people needs information. If not from his friends, then from who? The girl who left the Two Rivers all but betrothed to him, who told him she loved him only as a sister in book 4, has now taken another step away.

Of course, it remains a complex, intricate story well worth the reading…even rereading. On to Lord of Chaos!

Rating 4/5

Title: Fires of Heaven

Author: Robert Jordan

ISBN: 1857232097

Published November 1994

How to Kill Your Muse in 10 Days

You’ve just achieved inspiration! Lightening has struck! Your muse tapped you politely on the shoulder… No, your muse knocked you upside the head. THIS is a good idea.

Time to kill it. And here’s how:

First, discuss your idea openly with any number of disinterested people. They’ll be sure to hack it to pieces before you’ve even hit the drawing board. And they don’t even have to poke holes in your idea. All they really have to do is not be nearly as excited as you are — and they won’t be! It’s YOUR idea, after all.

Okay, brush it off. You shouldn’t have done that, but your muse is still alive. Maybe you even found another artist to do some real brainstorming with.

Don’t worry. All hope is not lost. You can still kill your muse in 10 short days.

Write a bit of your story. A few paragraphs if it’s a short story, or a chapter or two if it’s a novel. Write until you’re stuck, and then send it off for critique.

It wasn’t ready for critique yet, was it?

Oh heck, did you get some actual, useful advice? That muse of yours is sure hanging in there. Did you send it to anyone openly hostile about your work? Maybe the parent who thinks you’re wasting your life. Or wait…post it to a general internet forum where dozens of strangers (many of whom won’t be in your target audience) can tell you exactly how THEY would have written it. There you go! You are now well on your way.

If your muse isn’t dead yet, write a few more paragraphs/chapters and repeat the process.

#

I wish this scenario was as ridiculous as it sounds, but I have made this mistake twice in recent weeks. I have 8 chapters of a new novel that I sent to a brand-new (unknown quantity) critiquer. She even had some interesting insights, but I should have known it was too soon. That was over a month ago. I still have 8 chapters. I tried to rewrite the first one a couple of times. Fizzle…fizzle…pop.

Anyone know muse CPR?

Now I’m hosting a contest on a writer’s website that is supposed to mimic American Idol (in terms of eliminations). First round: 100 words of a short story. Half of participants are eliminated.

Hmmm…now how is this going to work? I came up with an idea that had me temporarily excited. I wrote 100 words, largely about the character I thought would be interesting. It’s DOA. (At least I hadn’t put a lot of time into that one!)

But it does illustrate the point. You do need a thick skin as an artist, but you also need to be smart. Showing early drafts too soon, and to the wrong audience, kills creativity.

It’s worse if you don’t already have 2 published novels and 4 more on contract. I’ve got some reason to believe I’m good at what I do, and motivation to go on.

What if I’d never published anything? What about that 16-year-old trying her hand at writing for the first time?

You can kill more than a single idea if you’re not careful. You can kill all of them.

There’s a time and place for critiques. You won’t become great, or even good, without them. But be smart about it. Get them on your terms, and only when your muse is ready.

Read an Ebook Week

 

Touch of Fate (ebook) was free for Read an Ebook Week at the beginning of March. And get this…it was downloaded 183,101 times!

 

No, that’s not a typo. My publisher assured me.

New Interview

A new interview went live today…this one with a few questions I haven’t already answered. Check it out at Entropy Central.

Rereading Wheel of Time: The Shadow Rising (Book 4)

My trek back through the world of the Wheel of Time continues with The Shadow Rising, one of my favorites (from memory). We have truly reached the beginning of the middle, with Rand shaking off the shackles of those who want to control him and setting off to shape his own destiny. He’s a leader now. Which doesn’t mean he’s uncertain, but he knows how to hide those uncertainties.

A split begins in this book, taking the main characters further and further from one another as they each have their own roles to play in the bigger story. Perrin went home to the Two Rivers, where he rallied the people to fight with him against White Cloaks and trollocs.

One of my biggest complaints with this series from my memory is that with all the detail Jordan put in the stories, he missed a moment I had been anticipating for many books — the moment Rand’s kinsmen learn what he has become. In particular, I wanted his father’s reaction. It happens, but off the page, where I can’t see. As of the end of this book, it actually hasn’t happened yet, but it’s an oversight I know is coming, and I feel just as strongly this time as I did before that it should be there. I want that moment. Oh well…

Epic. This story is truly epic in book 4. It was headed that way before, but now it is.

Rating 5/5

TItle: The Shadow Rising

Author: Robert Jordan

ISBN: 0812513738

Published October 15, 1993

Rereading Wheel of Time: The Dragon Reborn (Book 3)

Years ago I heard that Jordan initially planned this 14-volume series as a trilogy. Rereading it, I think that perhaps, at the end of the first book, he might have had a chance at that. It would have involved him taking the easy and simpler road, but it would have been possible. By the end of book 2, I could have even seen a 4 or 5-volume series. By the end of this book, though, I began to see the much greater scope. Dozens of nations, hundreds of plots, hundreds of characters, and at the center of it all The Dragon Reborn — Rand. But he’s fighting a war he can’t win single-handedly. And right now, he still has grave misgivings about who and what he is. Maybe he is The Dragon, maybe he isn’t, but he has heard of a prophecy that may clear it up.

Little of this book was told from Rand’s point of view. In my first reading of this series, I think that disappointed me, but in this reread, I felt differently. The truth is, I got a whole book full of Rand’s doubts in The Great Hunt, and I didn’t need to stay close to him to imagine he still felt much the same way.

We spent a lot of time with Perrin and Mat, two of Rand’s friends from the Two Rivers, and a Ta’veren in their own rights. Perrin can speak to wolves and walk through the land of dreams, two things that have him feeling less and less sure about who he is. He was a blacksmith, but now…there was a wonderful scene in this book in which Perrin goes to a blacksmith’s forge for a time and works alongside him. Showed his inner conflict very well. Mat, meanwhile, the gambler and trickster, thinks he wants nothing more than to serve his own selfish pleasures, yet his actions say otherwise.

Neither of these two are quite sure they can call themselves Rand’s friends any longer. I wanted them to want to be his friends. I wanted it so much the first time I read this that I pretty much let myself remember it that way. The truth is more realistic but hard. Oh, Perrin and Mat are his friends. But their grave doubts underscore what the rest of the world must be feeling.

Meanwhile, plots within plots continue to weave their way through this intricate series. This was among my favorite of the books. I called The Great Hunt the end of the beginning, but maybe this one is, or it’s a transition. It’s not quite the beginning of the middle. I think that’s coming soon.

Rating 5/5

Title: The Dragon Reborn

Author: Robert Jordan

ISBN: 0765305119

Published 1991

Secrets and Lies Edits are In

Edits are in for Secrets and Lies, book 2 of my Cassie Scot series. I know, I know…you’re all still waiting on #1. Well, just know that #2 won’t be far behind.

I got a new editor for this book, and I’m quite pleased about it. She’s found a number of issues, one significant, most minor, that I’m glad I didn’t overlook. I don’t think there are any issues with the first book, but I find myself liking the activist editor approach.

For those of you who don’t know how the editorial process works, I do get the final word on ALL changes. I don’t know if this is true for other publishers, but it is at Twilight Times. Even if my editor finds that I used there in place of their or used a comma in place of a period, I can keep it that way. I wouldn’t… but when I get her suggestions, I go through them one at a time, making each change to my original manuscript if I choose to accept it. Sometimes, I see the need for change, but take a different approach than the one suggested.

This is a careful, painstaking process. The final draft I send my editor will become the advanced copies for reviewers, and it is less likely after this point that mistakes can be corrected. Small changes can be made if I happen to spot them, but in truth this will be my last time to tiptoe through each word to make sure it is the one I want to use.