Ann Christy's Blog, page 9

Read and Loved: Exponential Apocalypse by Eirik Gumeny

For my Read and Loved post this week, I’m again reaching back to 2009 to a book that really tickled my funny bone. Exponential Apocalypse is, bottom line, a quirky and fun book. It’s hilarious, yet intriguing and utterly original. And bonus, since it’s a $0.99 title, it’s a low risk investment in a fun read.

My review:

In Exponential Apocalypse, Eirik Gumeny takes a light and twisted look at the post-apocalyptic genre that is too much fun to be ignored.

In his afterword, he readily admits that the story may have been the result of too much caffeine, possible drugs (no word on whether or not they were illicit) and other assorted bad habits, but in truth, it is pure genius.

The story unfolds as the 23rd apocalypse is shaping up for an appearance. The 22 previous ones were quite bad, but didn’t so much end things as change them. Change as in making the sun no longer very reliable (after all, Mars falling into it is bound to have some effect) or making New Jersey the last really safe place in the former United States. Even better, there are clones of former leaders who can seriously kick buttocks (Taft with a rocket launcher anyone?). Throw in an enhanced, telepathic squirrel with cajones made of pure brass, murderous robots and the slightly more dangerous murder drones, fallen gods with alcohol problems and toilet issues, and a few humans with no discernible differences from other humans and you have this book. Oh, yes, and don’t forget the army of  liberal arts majors who wrest control of many states from the former United States and create the Hobo Nation.

Warning: There will be puns. But they aren’t bad ones and you’ll likely laugh out loud and embarrass yourself in public just a wee bit.

This was a quick read not because it is so short, but because it flows so well and absorbs nicely. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it. Like others have noted and like the author himself admits, it is clear that the writer is much influenced by Douglas Adams and other slightly off writers. But this isn’t a trite rip-off of that style, but rather the first offering of an entirely new style that has some common elements with those other writers. I certainly hope I’ll see more from this author.

NOTE: As always, books I put in the Read and Loved posts are all written by authors I don’t know. I’m reviewing strictly as a reader.

Read and Loved: Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff

This is an oldie but a goodie! In this day and age, we’re no longer constrained by the limited book runs at book stores. Ebooks have made everything current, so I thought I bring up a book I found to be a rollicking good read and have read several times since I bought it. That book is Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff.

First off, I still have the original book with it’s ultra cool cover. It was curved, plastic covered and very fun…you can see it on Goodreads here, but that one is faded. The original was quite vibrant.

Okay, enough about the cover…what about what’s inside, Ann?!

Right, well, Jane Charlotte is our main character and she is currently being questioned in a psych hospital after being arrested for murder.

Hmmm, so what? Sounds like every other book out there. Ah, but there’s the rub. Jane proceeds to explain to her questioner that she works for the Department for the Final Disposition of Irredeemable Persons (Bad Monkeys). Oh yes, all sorts of crazy town there. But it gets better.

Within that same organization are other departments. Those include Panopticon (Ubiquitous Intermittent Surveillance), Malfeasance (Internal Affairs), Cost Benefits (Personnel) and even more cleverly named departments, and they all play a role in her tale. And those are all topped off with The Scary Clowns department. Jane works for them getting rid of evil-doers, hence the murder.

It just gets better from there.

I loved this book! If you look at the reviews, you’ll see that people are very torn by it. Love and hate for the ending vie with each other in the reviews. I’m firmly in the love camp. This is such an inventive book, told in such a readable style with just the right amount of tension, irreverence and wish fulfillment.

Give this one a read. It’s worth it. And let me know what you thought of the ending. You may find yourself looking askance at the faces on your dollar bills after you read it. That’s okay. It will make you smile when you do.

Caveat: As always, I only put books by authors I don’t know in the Read and Loved section.

Goodreads Giveaway of Signed The In-Betweener is live

Just in case you can’t see the little widget in the box, the link to the Goodreads Giveaway is here. I’ll also be giving one out to someone randomly selected from those who’ve signed up to receive my newsletter and announce that inside the next newsletter. So if you’re getting the newsletter, you’ll get more than one chance to get a signed book.

Goodreads Book Giveaway


The In-Betweener
by Ann Christy

Giveaway ends February 22, 2015.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win

 

Question Answered: Why All the Swag?

Since I’ve been posting on Facebook and here regarding my attempts at crafting swag, I’ve gotten a few emails, Contact Me messages, and FB PMs asking me why I’m doing this all the sudden. And, more importantly, how can they get some? Well, here’s the answer!

I’m going to UtopYA 2015 in June (Nashville, TN) so I need to be sure I have enough handy for readers and people I meet there. Even more than that, I’m going to start giving it away in my newsletter. I’m not entirely sure how it will go yet, but I’m thinking that I’ll randomly draw a name or three from the newsletter list with each mailing and give some out that way. I’m for sure giving it away in BOD (Band of Dystopian Authors and Fans), launch parties and so on.

So, yes, everyone is going to have a chance for swag.

Crafty Author – Book Cover Bottle Cap Magnets

Author swag is a fun way to give something back to your most loyal readers. I’m a big believer in it (mostly because I loved to get it as a reader!) but it can be very confusing to get started on it. This is also something fun to do if you’re not an author and have no swag requirements. I’m thinking of doing stuff like this for Halloween instead of candy (will that get my house egged?)

There are loads of options, and I’ll have a post listing them from the easiest to create, order and give to the more complex ones at some point. But since I’m in the process of making book cover bottle cap magnets, I thought I would share those first. Without further ado, this is a quick snap of the finished versions (sorry, I use my camera phone because I’m completely lazy).

Notes and Disclaimers: I do most of my shopping on Amazon since I would have to get dressed if I had to leave the house, and that just won’t do. So, at the bottom of this post is a handy shopping list for Amazon. If you have blocking software or can’t see it, then you can click the links on the products themselves. There are 164,933 results for bottle caps on the Zon, so a list should make it easier. Learn from my fail! If I found it out in town cheaper, I’ll say so and tell you where.

 

First: Supplies

- Bottle Caps
- Adhesive Dots - Price varies on Zon. At Michael’s I got it for about 4 bucks.
- Magnets - Don’t cheap out on these, but pricier isn’t always better. I have some that cost less and others that cost more that are completely useless. This brand works.
- Heavy Glossy Photo Paper - This is my favorite, but I have an epson printer. You’ll need to get it for your printer type.
- DuraClear Gloss Finish - Price varies a lot of Amazon. At Michael’s, I got it for 8 bucks and their online store might have it even cheaper
- Magnet Adhesive
- One-inch Circle Punch – I like this one because it works well for heavy papers, though not for plain thin paper.

That sounds like a huge list, but it’s not and I’ve carefully (and through many fails) figured out the products that can be used for the most number of purposes. DuraClear can be used for many types of swag, as can the magnet adhesive and the photo paper.

Instructions for creating your magnets! Please pardon the detail, but I bugged my favorite swag maker incessantly while trying to figure this out. I wish someone would have posted detailed instructions, so I’m doing it now.

Step 1: Create your images

- Be creative and generous with yourself. Try unusual mash-ups rather than straight copies of your covers. Remember, this is one inch of space, so too much detail is bad. You don’t have to have PhotoShop for this. I do have it, but I made these using the old version of PaintShopPro that came on my laptop to prove the concept.
- Leave extra edge. I extend my circle out just a little using the color most prominent in my book cover image so that I don’t get a white ring if the punch is slightly off when I take out my circles. You really do need that bit of extra space since most punches don’t allow you to see outside the cutting ring. I don’t leave much, may 1/8th of an inch.

Step 2: Layout frugally, test, & print

- For best results, you’ll want to use the highest quality photo paper for your final buttons. That means creating the most frugal layout you can that still leaves room for you to punch them out.
- Print out a test sheet on regular paper. Make sure you like it, but keep in mind that regular paper will make it look not as clear as the photo paper will. You may need to lighten dark images somewhat.
- Finally, print on your photo paper on the highest quality setting possible.
- Below is what I did before I learned about frugal layouts. I now get something like 60 per sheet, depending on how much overlap edge I leave.

 

 

Step 3: Punch, Paste, Shine

- Punch out all your circles and use a Zots Dot to stick each one inside a Bottle Cap. Using a paper towel over your finger, press down on the image to be sure the Zots Dot spreads out and the image is super flat on the cap.
- Dribble some DuraClear into the cap, I use a spot about the size of a nickel, and then take a small paint brush to spread the gloss all around so that it is all the way to the edge. There should be no brush marks and your gloss will look like you’ve got a thin coat of skim milk over your image. Don’t worry. Just be sure not to use too much, because then it will dry unevenly and look like it has weird bumps on it.
- TIP: Use your oldest cookie sheets and cover them with wax paper. Here is what it looks like with mine.

Step 4: Crazy Unruly Magnet Time

- At this moment, I have a box with a giant, frightening blob of bottle cap magnets that have formed into some sort of bizarre abstract sculpture. To prevent this, I no longer put the magnets on until I’m absolutely sure that the finish is well hardened and I’ll be giving them away soon. If you wait a few days to be sure your finish is cured, you can put the magnets on and them stack them in tall towers, which is space efficient.
- I use E6000 adhesive. The picture has white in it because I was under the mistaken notion that it would dry clear. It does not. Get the clear. Use a very small amount of adhesive per cap or you’ll have a crazy mess. Let them dry upside down on a cookie sheet. They’ll feel dry and strong relatively quickly, but I let them cure overnight.

 Step 5: Congratulate Yourself on Your Awesome Swag!

 

 

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Amazon.com Widgets

 

 

Read and Loved: Touchstone Series by Andrea K Host

Here’s a series that’s loads of fun! I basically devoured these books after seeing an ad somewhere for the first in series. And I read the entire series again a year later, and enjoyed it just as much the second time. That’s a real test for me as a reader.

So what’s the series? Here is book one, and bonus, this one is free on Amazon. So you can try it before you invest. I love it when that happens.

 

In Stray, we begin the adventure by meeting Cass Devlin, who is just another Aussie girl with no inkling of the major changes that are about to happen. While walking home from school, she steps through the looking glass (so to speak) and winds up in a whole new world. That can be somewhat unsettling for a girl who just needed to get home and do her homework, but what happens as she is found and ushered into a new life is a whole different ballgame. And yes…there are psychic space ninjas…but in the best way possible.

What do I think? Well, in the normal course of events, any book that has psychic space ninjas is going to make me look askance, but in this case, it was awesome. I really liked Cass and the other characters and found their progress in this book to be engaging and entertaining.

It is YA/Teen, but I think it’s really more for adults with a sense of fun. There is teen angst, a great deal of puking and some romance, but not the icky kind and it doesn’t take away from the story.

If you like it, (or maybe you already picked it up because it was free and forgot about it), try the rest of the series, because it’s worth it. I even loved the Gratuitous Epilogue, which is actually quite long and very satisfying. Here they are:

 

Caveat: As with all books I review on Read and Loved, I don’t know this author at all. I’m writing purely as a reader. Happy Reading!

The In-Betweener Wristbands – Squee!

So, I’m scheduled to attend UtopYA in Nashville this year. It’s in June, so if you’re planning on going to see some of your favorite authors…you can pause that activity for a few and come say Howdy.

But, like all excitable authors, I want to make sure that the table where my stuff is has swag on it. Swag is fun. I love getting book swag from my favorite authors and I’m certainly not the only one. Some of this stuff we trade like I used to trade my Star Trek trading cards (my signed Spock for your signed Kelley!). Seriously, I love the stuff.

Well, I want good swag.

And one of my new favorites are silicon wristbands. When I go to events, I can easily wind up looking like a display model, I collect so many of them for every book I loved reading. And I want others to be able to do the same. So, here they are….

 

 

Sweet, yeah? They just came in and it’s a big bag of fun. So grab one at UtopYA or via one of the various giveaways.

 

Bargain Book Lists: Which Ones I Like

I’m like a lot of writers…I read way more than I write and always have. It might be said that I’m a book devourer, I’m such a reader. The downside of that is cost, of course.

For a long time, I had no idea there were sale prices on ebooks now and then. Instead, I refused to pay more for an ebook than a paperback and would go borrow any book that was overpriced at the library, which made my poor kindle feel very lonely and unloved.

Then I discovered Indie Fiction and I was absolutely hooked. Inventive, outside the bounds of the “what sells formula” and so, so fun. That led me to discover that there were email lists out there that actually tell readers when a book goes on sale.

Do you hear that noise? That’s the echo of me whooping when I found those lists.

Like a lot of people, I basically signed up to the biggest one or two (no names) and enjoyed it for a good while. But then some of them began to shift to only showing us the “already famous” and the same books and the same authors kept showing up.

Half the fun (okay, maybe three quarters of the fun) of these big email lists is that I can get introduced to a new author that’s languishing undiscovered, and do it at a bargain price that makes the risk minimal. When a newsletter starts to be limited to the already well known, I get less reading joy.

So, I started searching and finding more of these newsletter lists. Most of them are fairly small because the top ones sort of have the markets cornered, but some of them are growing really well because they do what people like me want: feature books I might not have seen ten-thousand times at bargain (or free) pricing.

Again, that noise is the echo of my past whooping.

But…and this is a huge but…there are a lot of them. It can quickly get overwhelming. To avoid that, I’ll share some that are so cute, visually appealing, genre specific or otherwise super-noteworthy. Just in case you’re also looking for books.

Book Barbarian: This one is super selective and I don’t think an author can actually buy a spot here. They feature about four books a day, specifically two in SciFi and two in Fantasy and generally, at least one will be free. I’ve discovered some amazing new-to-me authors on this list. Very, very worth the sign up.

The Midlist: This is another list that doesn’t inundate you with books every day. They are small, selective and I think something like only 5% of book submissions make the cut there. Midlist isn’t limited to SciFi/Fantasy, which is my preferred genre, but because of that I’ve found books I would have never found any other way.

SciFiFantasyFreak: This is a genre specific list that is very cool. The newsletter is extremely visually appealing, well organized and doesn’t feel like you’re being tested. And I like the books. Worth a look!

The Fussy Librarian: I crunch on the FL newsletter. Seriously. They screen their books very, very well, so you can rest assured you’re getting something that passes the smell test. They feature all genres and again, I’ve found stuff waaaay outside my favored genres through this list. You can choose which genres you’d like to see.

BookScream:  This is another newer list that has awesome visual appeal and limited numbers of books. And, they show an audiobook that’s on sale, which is new and very nice. Many genres represented, but you can choose which genres you want to see, keeping your very colorful and cool daily email from them small enough to enjoy.

Question for you: Do you have a favorite book newsletter list? Tell me! Even better, list it in the comments so other readers can find it, too.

 

*Note: I don’t mean to offend any list-owner. I’m just going by what I’ve received lately and I may love your list, but it didn’t get included here due to faulty memory or something else. Also, I’m doing newer lists, so if you’re already huge, I didn’t include you. I’m sure I’ll do more of these posts! Please don’t shoot.

I Made Book Charms!

Look what I did!

Those are me trying to test out my ability to make book charms. Those are about one inch long.

I’ll be the first to admit that they aren’t perfect yet, but I’m going to keep working on it until I get it down to an art. And look at the second picture…little pages.

My entire kitchen island is covered in craft stuff right now. Good thing I have zero intentions of cooking!

Read and Loved: Park Service Trilogy

So, yeah, I read a lot more than I write. And once in a while I share what I’m reading if it’s super good and kept me engaged. This trilogy is for sure a goodie if you like that whole dystopian/post-apocalyptic genre (which I do). The Park Service Trilogy by Ryan Winfield definitely hits all the right buttons for me.

It is classified as Teen and Young Adult reading, but so is a lot of what I write, so that should be no deterrent. It manages to avoid the pitfalls of YA, (which is talking down to the reader), yet keep that sense of discovery that engages the reader entirely. That’s good writing. But yes, the main characters are primarily teens, which is one of the main tenants of the Teen/YA genre.

What’s it about?

Essentially, we meet Aubrey as he’s about to be classified for his future. In his world, deep under the ground of the former United States, they are born and die with the firm belief that the world above is a wasteland absolutely devoid of life. They survive under ground and then progress to Eden, which is a virtual world of unlimited bounty at the end of their terms.

But things don’t exactly go as planned when Aubrey moves to his new level and profession and he discovers the world is not at all what he’s been told. And over it all is the looming presence of the Park Service, who keep the world pristine and whose ultimate goal is a terrifying one.

      

What do I think of it?

Where to begin! First off, the world building is fantastic. And I mean great! There is a sense of wideness and immediacy that keeps you turning pages well past bedtime.

A lot of readers that write to me say that they love my world building, that it feels like they are there and can see, feel and hear the world around them as I’ve written it. I appreciate those comments, but it also means I know how hard it is to build a world that engages all five senses. I notice when that isn’t happening in books that I read. If the world is too far in the background, I lose touch with the story. So, this series is a treat in that the world is a character as well, and one with many facets and faces and moods.

Second, the characters are amazing! A few of them seem a little black/white in their behavior, but that is also a part of the story and the way that people (whether Park Service or above ground or from underground) have been raised to think and behave. The main characters, particularly Jimmy and Aubrey, are fully fleshed and so very engaging. I adore those two.

It’s also a scary-good story in that it’s a future that seems so tantalizingly possible. Perhaps not in the specifics, but in the way things progressed. And it makes the reader wonder which side of the fence they would wind up on in such a future.

I could wax on about this series for forever, from the philosophical to the physical, but that would just start letting spoilers out and I’d hate to do that and ruin the fun.

If you’re looking for some good reading, this is a great one. Since they are in Amazon Prime, that means they are eligible for Kindle Unlimited. That means you can read it for free if you’ve got Kindle Unlimited.

Caveat: As always, I only feature books on the Read and Loved posts written by authors I don’t know, so none of these are by friends or co-writers in anthologies or anything like that. These are purely from a reader perspective.