Patrice Sarath's Blog, page 27
October 16, 2012
More Next Big Thing posts
Just a quick update to let you know of a few more Next Big Thing Posts from various writers.
2. Where did the idea come from for the book?
My love of a certain three-character relationship dynamic that appears in many pirate and swashbuckling movies (and others) but is never played out in a way that pleases me. Also my love of adventure/swashbuckling tales in general.
1. What is the title of your work in progress?
The Iron Tongue of Midnight (from A Midsummer Night’s Dream) is a potential title. For now Inside Out is the working title.
Stina Leicht:
5. What is a one-sentence synopsis of the book?
That’s a tough one. I hate writing the synopsis of any book I’m writing. It’s a pain. But…
What if you lived in a society where your worthiness as a person was determined by your magical power, and what if you didn’t have any magic and were expected to lead?
The post More Next Big Thing posts appeared first on Author Patrice Sarath.
October 8, 2012
The Next Big Thing
Nicky Drayden tagged me in her Next Big Thing entry. So here I am to talk about my WIP.
1. What is the title of your Work in Progress?
Bandit Girls. I fully expect that to change at some point.
2. Where did the idea come from for the book?
The germ of the book came from a short story I wrote nearly 15 years ago. It was the first short story that ever “worked:” I learned more from writing it than any story I had written before. It’s existed in many forms; various drafts of short story as well as a screenplay. The idea has never left me, and I decided to expand it into a novel.
3. What genre does your book fall under?
YA Fantasy.
4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Saorse Ronan for Tesara. Emma Watson for Jalana.
5. What is a one-sentence synopsis of the book?
The black sheep of a merchant family, Tesara Mederos must come to terms with her talent for magic in hopes of restoring her family’s wealth.
6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
By an agency, I hope!
7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
It’s not finished, but I expect to complete it in the next four to six months. I’m also developing an outline for a sequel.
8. What other books would you compare this story to in your genre?
Hmmm. Shades of Milk and Honey, by Mary Robinette Kowal, is probably the closest match. Bandit Girls has a Regency setting in an alternate world, though it is not so finely constrained as a true Regency.
9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I blame everything on Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer.
10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
There’s a Bandit King, a dashing Captain, and mysterious magic.
If you haven’t already become acquainted with the work of Nicky Drayden, you are in for a treat. Visit her at her blog and track down her short story collections — you will be quite pleased if you do.
And now I will tag the following authors; be sure to check out their answers!
The post The Next Big Thing appeared first on Author Patrice Sarath.
October 4, 2012
The Crow God’s Girl on Kindle — Prime members can borrow for free
The Crow God’s Girl can now be borrowed for free by Kindle Prime members. You can get a copy here. Kindle allows me to offer it for free for five days, so check back (or check my facebook page) for those days. Please share the news, and if you have already bought The Crow God’s Girl on Kindle, you can loan it out to your friends. Share the love!
The Crow God’s Girl (A Book of the Gordath)
The post The Crow God’s Girl on Kindle — Prime members can borrow for free appeared first on Author Patrice Sarath.
September 27, 2012
Morgan Keyes on coming-of-age rituals
Note from Patrice: Morgan Keyes, author of Darkbeast, is today’s guest blogger, talking about coming-of-age rituals that inspired her new middle-grade fantasy series. She’s offering a chance to win a copy of Darkbeast, so make sure you leave a comment on this post below. Over to Morgan!
Many thanks to Patrice for allowing me to visit and tell you about my middle grade fantasy novel, Darkbeast. Due to the generosity of my publisher, Simon & Schuster, I will give away a copy of Darkbeast to one commenter chosen at random from all the comments made to this post by midnight on Friday EDT. 
In Darkbeast, twelve-year-old Keara runs away from home rather than sacrifice Caw, the raven darkbeast that she has been magically bound to all her life. Pursued by Inquisitors who would punish her for heresy, Keara joins a performing troupe of Travelers and tries to find a safe haven for herself and her companion.
Keara’s life (especially in her home village) is controlled by a variety of rites and rituals. The “Family Rule” dictates how she greets relatives, how she behaves around them, and how she takes her leave. When the titheman comes to town to collect the annual head tax, Keara understands the precise steps she has to follow, the words she has to say, the tattoo she must receive, all to be a respectable member of her society.
Beyond the secular authorities, there are religious rites as well. Keara’s world is dominated by the Twelve, by a dozen gods and goddesses. Each has a unique godhouse (a temple with specific architecture where complex rites are performed). Each has a sigil, an animal symbol that calls to mind the deity’s specific powers.
Bestius, the god of darkbeasts, has his own strict requirements. First and foremost is the demand that twelve-year-olds sacrifice their animal companions, executing the creatures on an onyx altar.
The scene where Keara enters Bestius’s godhouse was one of the first that I wrote. I was captivated by the traditions my heroine needed to follow. I wanted to draw on other rites, other rituals – real ones from our world.
One of the first traditions I thought of came from my own culture – the bat mitzvah of a twelve-year-old girl (or a bar mitzvah, for a thirteen-year-old boy) becoming an adult in Jewish society. In that ceremony, the young person reads part of Torah (the first five books of the Bible) and part of the Haftorah (the Bible’s books of the Prophets.) The bar or bat mitzvah also usually leads a discussion about the Bible portions, explaining the words to the congregation.
Keara’s age is a direct reflection of my Jewish traditions. Even though our current society lets children stay children for much longer, I loved the idea of a twelve-year-old assuming full social responsibility. Children that age are still growing, still becoming true to themselves, but they have the tools to educate, to lead others.
There are other real-world rituals that shape Keara’s experience, ones outside my own traditions. For example, quinceanera is a tradition from many Latin American communities where a girl celebrates her fifteenth birthday with a ceremony to mark her transition from a child to an adult. Specific ceremonies vary from country to country, but the girl often wears elaborate makeup and a fancy dress that resembles a brightly colored wedding gown. She is usually accompanied by dressed-up female friends (“damas”) and male friends (“chambelanes”).
Keara is clothed in a finely-embroidered gown (a gift from her sisters), and her face is painted with valuable cosmetics. She is led through the streets of Silver Hollow by her entire family, who cheer her on outside the godhouse. While she completes the darkbeast ceremony, all the boys and girls circle the godhouse, chanting appropriate words.
Keara’s rites even draw from Indonesian tradition. In the metatah ceremony, young Hindu adults have six of their teeth filed down. The ritual symbolizes the change from animal nature (represented by sharp canine teeth) to human nature. Filing protects teenagers from the “sad ripu”, six enemies of human nature: desire, greed, anger, intoxication, confusion (leaving tasks unfinished), and jealousy.
Just as the metatah celebrants set aside their animal nature, their most negative deeds and thoughts, so Keara must sacrifice her darkbeast. Through the years, she has told Caw about her own “sad ripu”; she has no choice but to slay the raven when she wishes to become an adult.
Except, of course, Keara does have a choice. She can forsake the rites and rituals of her people. She can build new traditions for herself, for others. All it takes it bravery – and the help of people Keara meets along the Great Road.
Does your culture have specific rites and rituals associated with becoming an adult? What about family traditions?
September 23, 2012
The Warlock’s Curse by M.K. Hobson
The Warlock’s Curse by M.K. Hobson is one of the best books I’ve read all year, and possibly one of the hardest to review. If I write about what happens in the book, it becomes spoilery; if I write about the emotional sleigh ride* the book takes the reader on, that becomes spoilery too. This is partly because I didn’t know what to expect at all; if I give any clues as to the trajectory of the emotional course, anyone reading this review will be anticipating the changes, and that ruins the fun.
I can safely say the book starts dark. That’s inherent in the title. Hobson also does something very interesting in that we are primed to see the initial point of view character as the villain, and then turns our expectations on their head.
It then becomes an adventure story, a coming of age story, a story of young, burgeoning romance, with a Heinleinesque hero and heroine. I was rooting for Will and Jenny. They were smart, likeable, energetic, brash, and admirable. Will is a talented young engineer, Jenny an enthusiastic financier who uses her access to wealth (she’s an heiress) to make more money. The bulk of the story takes place at the turn of the last century in a secondary world Chicago. Will goes to work for Nikolai Tesla at the prestigious Tesla Industries, and the book is chock-full of a new kind of science and technology that is both Earth-based and not (well, if string theory is true, then I suppose the Otherwhere could exist).
Did I mention Heinleinesque? The book has such a sense of Golden Age exuberance, that at one point, a character actually says, “As you know, Will…” in explaining a scientific theory. Instead of rolling my eyes, I chuckled. I don’t know if Hobson did it on purpose but it worked.
However, I did have reservations. Some were about the science; but then again, I think string theory is like physics for English majors (I’m skeptical). It’s a little hand-wavy and it seems more like magic than science in that it’s awfully convenient, the way we can access unlimited energy via the Otherwhere with virtually no downside. I also was annoyed that in order for the book to work, basic information has to be withheld from Will regarding the warlock’s curse — except that it’s actually in keeping with the other characters’ true natures, as we come to find out.
Which brings me to my final reservation — there’s a whole lot of explanation about motives at the end that probably could have been more organic in the telling. It was disappointing, probably because everything up to that point was so much fun. I might have tsked.
Aside from that, I haven’t felt this emotionally connected to a book in a long time. Please do read it, and the other books in the series. I had no trouble starting with this one, and I’m looking forward to going back and reading the others.
*As in Nantucket sleigh ride
September 13, 2012
Mammoth Book of Futuristic Romance
This is one of the prettiest, most romantic covers I have ever seen. And my story, Memories of Gravity, will be appearing in this anthology in January (reserve your copy today!). Here’s a taste:
Wet spray hit me in the face with salty seawater and I sputtered and gagged, my eyes stinging from the faceful of ocean. The wave had almost knocked me flat. I still had jelly legs even after exercising to rebuild muscles gone slack from zero gee. I windmilled my arms and caught myself on the old fat posts lining the edge of the slippery wharf, waiting for the ferry to take me to Tern Island.
The sun was low in the sky on a wintry afternoon and I shivered in my coat and scarf. I could see the ghostly lines of the massive near-Earth space station that was our closest satellite slowly rotating overhead, and I felt comforted. Space was not so far away after all, despite the weight of gravity that held me down.
“Well look who’s here. Beatriz Sabatini, return of the prodigal daughter,” someone called, laughter in his voice.
I turned cautiously, clutching my duffle bag and holding my hood down over my cap, recognition making my heart speed up with an unaccustomed happiness.
“Ethan Cardenas,” I called back. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m your ride, darling,” he said, and despite my misgivings, I had to laugh. Ethan Cardenas, a ferryboat captain. I really was back on Earth.
Ethan waited for me in front of the rickety old office that perched on the rocks at the very edge of the wharf. He carried a thermos and was bundled in a yellow slicker, big black boots, and a wool watch cap. He was bulky, broad-shouldered, with creases around his eyes as if he spent his time peering into far distances. What I could see of his face was dark skinned and clean-shaven.
I minced over to him cautiously. The soles of my boots clicked uselessly on the stone. They could be magnetized at need, but little good that did me here. He was laughing at me.
“Still got space legs,” he said. He looked like he was enjoying my awkwardness and I seethed. He was always teasing me when were kids. He was handsome now and looked like he knew it, but he was just as infuriating now. “When did you make landfall?”
“Three months ago,” I said. Quarantine and mandatory re-immersion had taken that long. Once Earthside, I had to meet with my grandfather’s attorneys and go over the will.
He snorted. “Took you long enough.”
I didn’t bother to reply. He had clearly never been off world and didn’t understand about launch windows and transfer points.
I hope this whets your appetite. This looks to be a killer anthology — just check out the names on the cover. Definitely one for the bookshelves, facing out, because that cover is so lovely.
September 1, 2012
The Eagle
I just watched The Eagle, which reminded me of how much I love Rosemary Sutcliffe. I need to do a deep dive back into her books, much the way I’ve been doing with Georgette Heyer. Let the book collecting begin! (Rubs hands gleefully.)
The Eagle was definitely respectable, and seriously, Channing Tatum, y’all. And Jamie Bell. All of you people who are all, Ryan Gosling this, and Ryan Gosling that — not for me, thanks.
One thing that really hits home when watching movies or reading books about the Roman Empire — the US is Rome. This is an empire, and our sympathies lie with the Romans, not the Celtic tribes. (Unless we’re talking about Asterix.) I could tell myself — and the movie tells us over and over — that the Romans were invaders, and total bastards, and evil occupiers, and all that’s true, but … indoor plumbing and good roads go a long way to making me forget all that.
I recently read David Wishart’s The Horse Coin, which takes place during roughly the same era and had the same reaction of sympathizing with the Romans but experiencing that disconnect of uncomfortable loyalties. My review is here if you are interested. It’s a good book — give it a try.
In other news, about 3,700 words on the new project. I’ve started the Labor Day weekend off right.
August 29, 2012
All Roads Lead to Austen – a review
One of the most unexpected Austenesque books I read this year was All Roads Lead to Austen by Amy Elizabeth Smith. Smith took a year to visit in six Latin American countries where she set up reading groups to read the most popular Jane Austen novels. How would women (and more than a few men) respond to that most English of authors? Would Austen’s highly mannered, highly restricted, narrow style appeal across cultures not just once but several times?
Dear Reader, it would. The book is a wonderful look at how Austen’s take on men, women, and manners transcended very different societies in Guatamala, Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Argentina. Smith is a professor but this book is not a textbook or a dry paper. The tone is light and breezy, even when it could have turned fairly somber (Good God! She survives dengue! And riots! But dengue!)
Look, we already know that Austen is going to be popular across cultures. Even though she gives us a glimpse into an era that is long gone, her real appeal is that she succinctly and expertly provides us a glimpse into human nature. Modernize the language and we know all of these characters. We recognize her dialog. We went to middle school with her mean girls and we have had friends like Marianne. Maybe some of us are Marianne. All right, Captain Wentworth (oh, that letter!) is too good to be true, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t want him to be true.
But what a way to prove it. All Roads is light-hearted and engaging, and when Smith meets her own Mr. Darcy, who she pursues (yes, Amy, you did) in a most un-Janelike fashion (Mrs. Bennet would have approved) it all ends up happily ever now.
Even with dengue.
Want to read it? As always, tell me in the comments and I’ll choose a winner. US and Canada only, please.
August 21, 2012
Goodreads giveaway
Hope you enjoy!
Patrice Sarath
Pregnancy in The Crow God’s Girl
Apropos of the Akin scandal (and I find it annoying that his name is so close to my Mr. Aikens), I’ve been thinking about one of the plot points of The Crow God’s Girl. Kate Mossland, a modern girl from New York, is in Aeritan. She has her whole life planned out — she will marry the young lord Colar Terrick. She’ll bring modern medicine to a medieval world. She’ll be wealthy, protected, and respected. There’s only one tiny little problem.
She doesn’t want to get pregnant.
And therein lies the tale, because often in fantasy novels, there is plenty of sex without consequences. However, in reality in the olden days, whether in fantasy or reality sex resulted in pregnancy. And pregnancy could result in maternal childbirth death about as often as it resulted in a happy baby.
Kate Mossland begins to see how much she has lost by coming to Aeritan. She is extremely vulnerable to death, just by virtue of the fact that she can’t control when she has children or how many she has.
“Mama, will Kett and Colar have lots of babies when they’re married?” Eri asked.
“With the blessing of the grass god’s daughter, they will,” Lady Beatra said, but her voice was carefully neutral. “Don’t you think so, Kett?”
“I think so, ma’am,” Kate said, her voice equally careful. Now was not the time to declare her desire to be childless, or at least have as few as possible. Like one, maybe.
“You are an only child, are you not?” said Samar in her dry voice. “Did your mother lose many babes before quickening?”
“Um,” Kate said, her voice a little rough. “My mother had only me. She and my father married late by–by Aeritan standards. They were both thirty-five. And my mother waited a few more years before getting pregnant.”
And after she did, she got pre-eclampsia, and had to be rushed to the hospital six weeks early, her blood pressure so high, the story went, that as the doctor began the emergency c-section, her mother’s blood shot straight up and spattered the lights in the operating room.
And Kate would deliver her babies by the will of the grass god’s daughter and a drunken midwife.
“Wait,” said Thani, maliciously. “Your mother and father did not lie together for years after they were wed?” Her eyes were bright, as if she were imagining the gossip she would bring to the servants quarters.
Kate felt anger rise in her and when she spoke her voice was deliberate. “My mother and father used birth control, Thani. Where I come from, women don’t have to have baby after baby. We can choose when we want to have children.”
The room plunged into utter silence. Kate looked from one to the other. Some of the women were shocked, but she noted the considering looks on the face of Lady Beatra and a few of the villagers.
“Is this another story?” asked one, hope in her voice.
I didn’t set out to write a political book, except with regard to Aeritan politics. But as old-fashioned as it is to say it, the personal is the political. Men like Akin, who spread ridiculous myths about women’s bodies, need to be smacked down and hard. Birth control saves lives. It allows mothers and fathers to ensure that they have only the babies they want and can care for. It is used by everyone, even conservative women, even Catholic women. So Akin and his ilk, like Paul Ryan, are grandstanding on the backs of women they don’t care about, because the women in their families have access to birth control. Upper middle-class women always do.
It’s funny. I write fantasy. But even I don’t write something as unbelievable as that somehow the female body can prevent rape-sperm from fertilizing an egg. Now that’s a fantasy.
And Akin should be ashamed of himself for believing it.
