Rachel Neumeier's Blog, page 381

Advice for young aspiring writers

Here’s a guest post I wrote so long ago, I didn’t remember what I said till I read what I wrote.

The take-home message: in my opinion, you learn to write well by reading top-notch books. As a little boost in that direction, I included a short list of some great authors.

How old were you when you learned to tell the difference between great writing and mediocre writing? Or between mediocre writing and poor writing? I mean, I remember I liked The Sword of Shanarra just fine the first time I read it. I don’t remember how old I was at the time. Young. Later, in grad school, I found a friend of mine reading one of the dreadful Sword sequels. She thought it was fine. No offense intended to Terry Brooks, but that was when I realized that some people just never do learn to distinguish between great writing and, uh, less great writing.

I still don’t see how that’s possible. But certain bestsellers make it plain that the quality of the writing is not what matters to a good many readers. I would reference Fifty Shades here but in fact I haven’t read even a page of it, so I really shouldn’t. (But kind of did, yes.)

Here’s one category I left out in my guest post: for capturing the alien viewpoint — CJ Cherryh. Daniel Kerns (Jacqueline Lichtenberg). Martha Wells’ Raksura trilogy, actually, though that’s more subtle in some ways. I’m missing somebody, but I can’t think who. Who else does a great job with aliens that think like themselves and not like humans?

A BLACK DOG review from someone who really matters –

Which is to say, a blogger I actually know via Twitter and blogging.

I’m glad to say that Maureen loved BLACK DOG. “I loved Natividad and Alejandro and Miguel, and I found their story extremely compelling.” Good! That’s what I like to hear!

“But even more than that, I found the way religion and magic interact to be completely fascinating. I liked that they aren’t shown as necessarily antagonistic–the emphasis is much more on whether you’re a moral person. This is a perspective that isn’t often shown in fantasy, and I liked the understated way it’s portrayed quite a bit.”

That’s the first time someone has commented about that, and I’m happy to see this aspect of the world getting some appreciation, because I think it worked out pretty well.

My favorite line: “Tumultuous backstory without a lot of angst and single perfect tears? Messing up but also trying really hard? So much more interesting than characters who moodily mood about.”

Which made me laugh! Moodily mood about! I am totally going to steal that phrase and use it forever to describe over-the-top angst.

Plus, giveaway! You should click through, especially since the post above her review of BLACK DOG is worth reading. It’s about “books with all the feels.” Who else loves a book that makes you cry?

I’m also going to steal her graphic because it’s perfect:

Which makes me try to think of the fictional character whose death made me cry, but right now all I can think of is books where a character’s death just tore up the protagonist, so I was really crying over the grief of fictional characters. Like THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE, an amazingly intense and wonderful book that is a great read even if you do need a whole box of kleenix to get through it.

Puppy update: Boy 2 might be doing a little better; it’s hard to tell. I wish I could say he had definitely turned around, but no. I can and will tube feed him right up to weaning if I have to, and then we’ll see.

The other two puppies are JUST FABULOUS.

This is big Boy 1 trying to smother his sister in her infancy. He just tipped over a pound. If this was my H litter, I would be calling him Hippo.

Puppies: some are cooperative little pigs

Girl, on her back. Isn’t she just beyond irresistible? Boy 1 is even fatter and just as cute, but he wasn’t on his back, so I didn’t take his picture.

REALLY fat puppies can have trouble getting on their feet. But that is an easy problem to solve! You make them crawl to mom, you make them crawl over stuff like rolled up washcloths, etc. I had to do that with a single puppy once … gosh, that was Giedre herself, amazing, she started as a four-ounce preemie and was too fat to stand by the time she was three weeks old. Seems like a long time ago now.

Anyway, these puppies are climbing over each other nonstop, so I expect they’ll have better muscle tone than their mom did at their age.

Black Dog review: now that’s what I’m talking about

Here’s the best line in this short review that just appeared over at All Things Urban Fantasy:

“Reminiscent of Robin McKinley’s SUNSHINE with a YA sensibility, BLACK DOG proves that in the hands of a master, every mythology has new adventures to offer.”

A Robin McKinley comparison! Go, me!

And a big thank you to all of you who are saying good things about BLACK DOG over on Twitter. That means a lot.

Puppy update: luck would be good

Check this out:

Take a careful look. Do you see that Boy 2, lying on top of Boy 1, is hardly more than half his brother’s size?

At birth, Boy 2 weighed 6 ounces. This morning, he weighs nearly nine. Boy 1 weighed 8 ounces at birth; this morning he tipped the scale at fifteen.

Last night, Boy 1 gained an ounce (just overnight). Boy 2 did not gain overnight. Girl, incidentally, like Boy 1, is no trouble whatsoever. I am actually using her to help me with Boy 2, since I can use her to get milk to let down from one teat, put her on a different teat, and try to get Boy 2 to take the one she started. Boy 1 is so big it is hard to let him nurse at the same time as Boy 2.

I was delaying posting about puppies until this situation with Boy 2 resolved, but it is drawing out and out and I thought I would go ahead and post about it. Share the tension! It is kind of an emotional roller coaster.

If this was some momentary weakness, I would have expected Boy 2 to turn around by now. It’s possible he has some kind of undiagnosable systemic infection. But on the other hand he does not seem nearly as sick as a puppy with an infection ought to seem. A puppy with an infection usually cries constantly. This boy is quiet, thank God, because I could not handle constant crying. There are other symptoms of infection he doesn’t have, either. So I don’t know.

Last night after talking Boy 2 over with another breeder, I got my vet to come in after hours and we started him on a tiny, tiny dose of Clavamox, 0.1 cc, which is one-tenth of one-fifth of a teaspoon, if you can visualize that. This might finally turn him around, it’s too early to say. It does mean that I hope he has an infection, because this might take care of that, and if not, then what?

Of course I am tube-feeding Boy 2 — every three hours around the clock, and yes this is painful, especially since I never actually get three hours of sleep in between feedings. I am guessing at the amount to give, using diluted formula to make it easier for him to handle if he does have an infection. I will say, Boy 2 did nurse this morning finally, at 1:00 AM and then again at 6:00 AM. To me, his vigor when nursing seems possibly improved — that could be the Clavamox. But he did not gain weight with nursing. But he did gain a bit yesterday. So it’s all very puzzling and worrying. All I can say right now is, he hasn’t died yet.

Also, I just put a drop of glucose solution on his tongue and then put him to nurse, and he is. So that’s a good sign. But who knows?

A note on size: This slooow start does not mean anything with regards to Boy 2′s eventual size (presuming he survives). If he makes it to weaning and is not sick or anything, he will catch up. His genetics will determine how big he gets.

BLACK DOG is on the shelves!

So, happy birthday to BLACK DOG.

Here’s an interview and giveaway at Regina’s Badass Book Blog

Regina made me very happy by asking this question:

Regina: Do you speak Spanish? The Spanish phrases you wrote into the novel were so well done. Often when Spanish-speaking characters are used in novels and say something in Spanish, the phrases are English translated into Spanish – rather than being something a Spanish speaker would actually say is done in a culturally correct way. How did you accomplish this?

I expect you can see why I loved this question so much, right?

And a completely different interview with Tammy at Books, Bones, and Buffy – I will say, Tammy had the excellent taste to ask me about my dogs, so the hard part was cutting this interview short!

She also asked for three things about myself that you couldn’t guess from my website. I will say, I chose writerly kinds of things that I might have mentioned in a blog post some time, but I’m pretty sure you couldn’t tell any of them without going through all the old posts.

Anyway — happy book birthday to BLACK DOG!

I really don’t watch many movies –

I’d really rather read a book than watch a movie, most of the time.

But one movie I really like is Groundhog Day. Everybody’s seen it, right? You all really enjoyed it, too, right?

So this review over at tor.com caught my eye. I guess that must mean . . . yep, it was Groundhog Day yesterday, wasn’t it? Well, my easy guess is that we totally get six more weeks of winter. At least. It’s ten degrees out there, people! And treacherously icy, again.

Leah says, “Groundhog Day succeeds as a film because of the way it plays with, subverts, and outright mocks the tropes of each of the genres it flirts with. While some people would call it a time travel movie, or a movie about small town America, or the most spiritual film of all time, or a rom-com, it is by breaking the rules of each of those types of films that it ultimately transcends genre entirely.”

What do you all think?

“The most spiritual film of all time” seems a bit of an overstatement to me. Though if you click through, you’ll see a lot of people have taken it that way.

I sure was not this analytical when I watched this film. Not even the second or third time. But . . . I must say, this is an excellent review, not least because reading it makes me want to go re-watch it so I can appreciate some of the details I previously just accepted.

Review and interview–

Today there’s not just a review but also an interview up over at Mel’s World.

Of course, some of the interview questions have to do with BLACK DOG. But Melissa threw some questions in just for fun. So if you want to know whether I’m a tea or coffee person, or what my favorite word is, click through.

Bonus points if you know what that word means without looking it up!

BLACK DOG review

Another one worth printing out and keeping handy for those moments of insecurity, over at Random Musings of a Bibliophile.

“Black Dog has so many elements I look for in my favorite books: strong characterization, deep and layered relationships, rich setting and world-building, and an intense plot that doesn’t shy away from the darker elements it explores. It is going on my favorites shelf and will be one I revisit again. And I’m really hoping there will be a sequel sooner rather than later. (I’ve heard there is going to be one, though this works perfectly as a stand alone.)”

Yes, as those of you who drop by frequently are aware, there will certainly be a sequel! I’m glad this one feels right as a standalone, though, because I definitely prefer that myself as a reader.

Recent Reading: The Chocolate Temptation

Wow, I sure had to struggle to give Patrick the benefit of the doubt for the first, I don’t know, maybe the first quarter of the book.

The thing about Patrick is, he really is acting like a selfish jerk when we first meet him. It’s hard to admire a guy who’s seducing an intern who is his direct subordinate, no matter how brilliantly he performs in other areas of life.

Since this is Laura Florand, though, Patrick turns into a sympathetic character after all. I bet you could see that coming, right?

Part of that is the way he was presented as a secondary character in The Chocolate Heart, which takes place contemporaneously to this book. Remember how insightful and loyal Patrick is, as he works so hard to get Luc over himself enough to admit he needs Summer? Well, here we see that relationship from the other side, and by the end of The Chocolate Temptation, we have seen just how deep that loyalty goes. For me, Patrick’s never-voiced love and loyalty for his foster brother is crucial to make Patrick work as a character.

We don’t see this through Patrick’s own eyes, or not exactly. We see it through Sarah’s eyes. The other thing that makes Patrick work for me is Sarah. She is not a very easy intern to take advantage of, actually. If she hadn’t wanted to be seduced, it wouldn’t have happened; and she wants Patrick because she sees right through all his (thick) layers of defenses to the man hidden behind them, even from himself. It’s impossible to dislike Patrick when you see him through Sarah’s eyes:

“You like to take care of people. You like to take care of strong people who are going for their dreams and to make sure they know how to reach them.”

Sarah also reinterprets that initial unsympathetic picture of the boss who seduces an intern:

“But I did use my position of power over you to seduce you, didn’t I?”

“How?” she asked, genuinely curious.

He looked at her as if she was being willfully dense. “I made you trust me. I got you used to me being in your space. I made you admire me. God, you think I’m perfect.”

She tilted her head. Put like that, it sounded oddly like a – “Patrick. That’s not abusing power, that’s, that’s –”. . . . “I think that’s how it’s supposed to go,” she said carefully. “When you’re – interested in someone else. You build their trust. You try to get them to think well of you.”

After that, it’s hard to see Patrick’s earlier actions in quite the same light. Especially as it becomes more and more clear that he really is the kind of guy Sarah thinks he is, no matter how screwed up he is about love, about admitting to anyone that he really cares about anything.

Again, it’s his relationship with Luc, not with Sarah, that drove this home for me. That thing with the MOF contest, that was amazing. It was just so perfect for showcasing the real Patrick. The importance of the relationship between Luc and Patrick was unexpected in a romance novel, but that is the relationship that really convinced me about Patrick’s quality. That’s the point where I wound up really rooting for Patrick.

Not quite as much as I was rooting for Sarah, though. She’s something special. She’s the one who figured it out about the MOF contest. Of course she figured it out; she’s always thinking, always figuring stuff out. Especially stuff about Patrick.

Sarah’s mother is from Korea, we get that early on, but the North Korean thing, I didn’t see that coming at all, and wow did it add layers to Sarah’s background, and to the story. Any writer could learn a lot from Laura Florand about handing her protagonists difficult, complicated backgrounds that echo forward to inform all their actions and motivations, and this time she did that in spades for both Patrick and Sarah. I wound up loving both of the protagonists as well as the overall story.

So, yes, this one is another excellent novel. I don’t think it’s possible for Laura Florand to write anything less.

Plus, Cinderella! Again, with a light touch, so don’t go in expecting a real retelling of the fairy tale. But it’s fun to pick up the echoes.