Rachel Neumeier's Blog, page 88

Update: Tasmakat

Heaven knows what I’ll be posting under the Update title in a few weeks, but for now, still working on Tasmakat!

Luckily (?) we had chilly, drizzly weather most of this weekend, so I got a fair bit of work done. All the dogs did get out to the park on Friday, which was the only halfway decent day. My knee was feeling it by the end of the second trip to the park, but it’s basically all right now. I even walked downstairs almost normally this morning, which I’m still usually very careful about.

Let me see. Okay, this is funny:

During the last month, I have both written 140 pages (or so) and cut 140 pages (or so). That’s entertainingly symmetrical, even though of course the pages written were, you know, consecutive pages, while the “pages cut” were almost all individual words, sentences, and paragraphs. Nevertheless, it’s funny to look back at my Progress timeline and see that today I’m almost exactly where I was a month ago as far as number of words.

I am, for the first time, making notes of the page number where each chapter starts and stops and of the number of pages per chapter. Therefore, this morning, I combined three chapters. I was really surprised to see that one of those chapters was only eight pages! I must have cut it heavily at one point. Not too recently, since I don’t remember what else used to be in that chapter. I don’t actually mind short chapters, but prefer them near the end, when short chapters often reflect important scene shifts. These chapter breaks weren’t particularly important, so, as I say, I combined three chapters.

I’ve cut another 10,000 words. I do intend to cut another 20,000. Then I have 46 notes to myself — I counted them — which are all about continuity and smoothing things out. Also notes that say things like, “Is [this one character] present in the last three chapters? If not, where is he?” With associated notes about where that character might be if he’s not present.

I don’t mean to make anyone jealous … okay, I totally do intend to make you all jealous … but my brother has now read about half of Tasmakat and should read the rest of it over the next couple of days. It’s so much fun for me to see first reactions! I did give away one or two important events because I forgot what I’d mentioned or discussed with him, but there are plenty of things that should be surprising. Also, I was pleased because Craig didn’t find the journey back to the summer country tedious, which means I must have trimmed it about the right amount. I’m waiting impatiently for him to hit the part where [important spoiler redacted] at the end of chapter 42, not to mention the part where [extremely important spoiler redacted] in the next chapter.

Another week to finish cutting, probably; and another week again to deal with all the notes; and I should be just about ready to send this to other first readers. I’m really pleased because I should be able to do that just about the time Christmas Break starts, which is perfect.

Next semester should be easier, since it’s highly unlikely that I’ll be asked to teach another class. I can hardly believe the bureaucratic problems that led to the emergency request haven’t been solved by this time. So with luck, including no further serious health issues for anyone, that ought to give me a lot more free time. On the other hand, you know what we hit this week? The animal behavior chapter. I’m very much looking forward to that, so I can’t really be sorry I got shanghaied into teaching this semester. One chapter hardly does the topic justice. I’m expanding beyond what’s in the book, but even so, one lecture, maybe two, is just barely going to allow me to introduce the topic. Nevertheless, I’m going to enjoy it! I hope the students do as well.

Preordered Tasmakat yet? No? Here’s the link!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

I know what springs to mind for me, of course: I’m deeply thankful to have finished a complete draft of Tasmakat. That’s so recent and such a big accomplishment that it’s definitely what leaps up waving an autumnal flag and saying:

After that, more important things come to mind.

I’m thankful my mother’s pretty well recovered from the fractured vertebra that was giving her so much trouble a couple months ago. That’s up at the top.

I’m thankful my knee is enough improved that I can take the dogs for a walk.

I’m thankful that Keya, my fourteen-year-old, is doing rather well and has started being able to run fast outdoors again, when for months she really couldn’t. I’m glad that the occasional breakthrough seizures aren’t worse. For a while there, I didn’t think she’d make it to fourteen — her birthday was this month — but so far she’s doing better than I hoped. Here’s a rather seasonal picture of Keya as a slim puppy, showing in the graduate puppy class thirteen years ago.

I hope your family and friends are well and that you all have a beautiful Thanksgiving weekend, whether or not you celebrate the holiday!

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The best fantasy novels of the past decade

From Book Riot: 42 OF THE BEST FANTASY NOVELS FROM THE LAST 10 YEARS

And sure, I’m at least mildly curious. I do think this sort of thing should generally be phrased: 42 Of My Personal Favorite Fantasy Novels Of The Past Ten Years, because even if you start off by trying to list THE BEST, you’re probably going to slide toward your own personal favorites before you get to forty-two.

Also, why forty-two? Besides the obvious reason, I mean. Why not ten, which is the correct number for a Top Ten list, or twenty, which is a sensible number people can realistically consider in a single post? Or, if you’re going for a longer list that is really (in my opinion) too long, why not fifty?

Also, I have to say, limiting the list to “the past ten years” is all very well, there are good reasons to do that, but you DO REALIZE that you’re cutting Patricia McKillip off your list when you do that, right? Because she did have one book come out in the past decade, but it was by no means her best. I’m sure there are other authors in the same category of THE BEST EVER but not in the past ten years.

But sure, fine, the past then years, lots of great books, of course.

Are any of the fantasy novels I personally think might reasonably be included actually on this list? I’ve read a lot fewer books in the past ten years than I did in the years previous to that because writing takes up a lot of time, so I feel like I’ve probably missed practically everything. Also, I haven’t wanted to read high-tension books for the past couple of years. Besides that, I think some of the self-published books I’ve read in the past few years have been absolutely stellar, and there’s no chance they’ll be on a list like this.

I might pick … hmm … in no order whatsoever:

The Goblin Emperor, which I do think might also be on this list. Of course you know how much I loved this book.

Piranesi, and I feel this is a no brainer and will also probably be on this list, or if it’s not, I don’t know why not. It was a highly visible work since it’s the only other novel Susannah Clarke has written, everyone has heard of it and probably read it, and it’s beautiful. Here’s my review.

The Scholomance trilogy, and I don’t know why I didn’t think of that first. You all know I loved that one.

But I’m also going to add From All False Doctrine, which is so well put together, so beautifully written, and so coherent in theme that I think it could arguably belong on a list of The Best Fantasy of the past ten years. Here’s my review.

And then I’d have to pause and consider. Rather than doing that, let me click through to the Book Riot post and see what’s actually on there …

Oh, yes, there’s The Goblin Emperor! Well, good. I’m a little surprised, and also, has anybody read the second book where Celehar is the pov protagonist? I found the first book frustrating, partly because it just wasn’t the book I wanted for the sequel, but largely because Celehar is such a doormat. Has he begun to overcome that problem in the second book? Because, sheesh.

What else? Let me see … lots of titles I recognize but haven’t read; a few I tried but didn’t finish; at least one I tried and found thoroughly underwhelming. Oh, there’s Uprooted. Well, you know I eventually turned out not to like this book very much even though I loved it the first time I read it.

So many books that are on my radar, some of which I actually own, such as Jade City.

Despite many, many interesting and enticing books on the Book Riot list, and despite Sarah Beth Durst being a bit hit or miss with me, I nevertheless find Race the Sands maybe the one that draws me the most:

This is a splendid cover, and although I didn’t much care for National Velvet as a kid, when I read practically nothing but animal stories, describing this one as a retelling of that classic story does draw me toward this book. Here’s the description:

Life, death, and rebirth—in Becar, who you are in this life will determine your next life. Yet there is hope—you can change your destiny with the choices you make. But for the darkest individuals, there is no redemption: you come back as a kehok, a monster, and are doomed to be a kehok for the rest of time.

Unless you can win the Races.

After a celebrated career as an elite kehok rider, Tamra became a professional trainer. Then a tragic accident shattered her confidence, damaged her reputation, and left her nearly broke. Now, she needs the prize money to prevent the local temple from taking her daughter away from her, and that means she must once again find a winning kehok . . . and a rider willing to trust her. Raia is desperate to get away from her domineering family and cruel fiancé. As a kehok rider, she could earn enough to buy her freedom. But she needs a first-rate trainer. Impressed by the inexperienced young woman’s determination, Tamra hires Raia and pairs her with a strange new kehok with the potential to win—if he can be tamed.

But in this sport, if you forget you’re riding on the back of a monster, you die. Tamra and Raia will work harder than they ever thought possible to win the deadly Becaran Races—and in the process, discover what makes this particular kehok so special.

I’m drawn in by all these characters, I’m curious about the kehok lion, and hey, this is a standalone, which is a plus. I think I might actually have this downstairs in paper! If not, I should at least pick up a sample.

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How far can you throw a spear?

And how many spears should your soldiers carry to throw in volley?

Here’s a great answer from Eric Lowe: How far could an ancient Roman soldier throw his one or two spears and isn’t that a small amount of ammunition?

I can’t recall any primary sources discussing range, but modern experiment suggests around 20 meters.

As for whether or not that’s a small amount of ammunition, I think the other answers have missed an important point. As of this writing, I see answers discussing the fact that the number of pila in the air added up when you consider how many men were throwing them and pointing out that they were to be thrown as a precursor to charging. And that’s all true, and I agree with it, but it still amounts to each maniple being able to throw a pilum as a precursor to charging only two times per battle. The question as I read it is whether that’s too small a number.

The answer is no. It’s actually somewhat conservative. 

And then a discussion about why.

Slightly related: How do you actually hold and use a sword: The Basics

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What I’m Reading Now

Honey and Pepper by AJ Demas

This one didn’t win any kind of vote, but I liked the octopus fritters and I decided I was in the mood for something by Demas. I wasn’t actually necessarily wanting a book that was totally angst-free, though I see why you all might have gotten that impression — just not too dark. I’ve read enough by Demas to know what this book was going to be like, and sure enough, it’s exactly what I expected — lots of charm, good writing, a sweet romance, enough depth not to be cutesy. I’m about halfway through it — I’m pouring time into Tasmakat, so even though I can read Other People’s Novels, it’s a lot slower than if I didn’t have stuff of my own to work on. But it’s great to be able to read fiction again without completely derailing my own projects!

WHAT YOU ALL VOTED FOR:

As you could tell by reading through the comments, Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik got the most votes. Also some people declared that it wasn’t for them.

Reading through the comments to that post is actually a useful snapshot of how variable reactions can be, even in a self-selected group of readers such as commenters here. This isn’t actually surprising, of course — just interesting to see in action. I’m definitely keeping this one at the top of the TBR pile and will almost certainly read it This Very Year, as opposed to letting it get lost way down in the depths of the pile where, I imagine, a good many books are currently being compressed into coal by the pressure of the stack above them.

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher got the second-most votes, and probably the most “meh, I don’t know what all the fuss is about” comments as well. I do like the titles I’ve read by both the Kingfisher and the Vernon names, and I’ve read a fair number of her books by now, though by no means all of them. I may well pick this one up next, partly because, like Demas, I think I know what I can expect. Thanks, Pete, for your comment that the protagonist might be a bit dense. That’s something that irritates me so much that I prefer to brace myself for it.

The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion by Beth Brower are still high on my list, and I think this just about tied with Defensive Baking for second place. If I didn’t know it was (at least) a six-book series, I’d probably start it tomorrow. As it is, maybe not, but I’d really like to!

I’m still interested in Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell, but I will be prepared for the dystopian nightmare elements in the worldbuilding. That may kick me out of the story entirely, not sure. I’m not paying $15 for it any time soon, though, I’m sure about that.

You all gave me a thumbs up for almost every title I mentioned, and of course you then went on and made many suggestions, all of which I’m picking up as samples or full books right this minute, except A Marvelous Light by Freya Marske, because I have that one already. Probably because someone here mentioned it, and thank you, Manda, for mentioning it again now. You make it sound really inviting, and it is hereby moving way up the top with the other titles I most want to get to. Also, thank you for your kind words about Tuyo and the whole series! I appreciate it!

Kriti, it’s been a long time since I’ve read anything by Sanderson, and it wasn’t a Mistborn novel. I’ve never actually tried those, largely because there are seven books, which is kind of a lot, but partly because … I just haven’t, I guess? I really liked his novella The Emperor’s Soul, but I think the next thing I tried by him was Steelheart. While I liked it, how did I put this, oh, right, the extreme-ultra-mega-obviousness of Steelheart’s weaknesses took this books down several notches for me. Talk about the characters being dense, wow. I never did go on to the second book in that series, and this particular plot weakness was probably why. But I know Mistborn is very popular! I’m sure I should at least try the first book!

I didn’t order At the Feet of the Sun ">At the Feet of the Sun from Victoria Goddard’s website, which I sort of regret, but not necessarily, because by the time I get it — Dec 1 — hopefully I will be ready to send Tasmakat off to first readers and that would be a much better time to get into it. By the time this post goes live, perhaps some of you will have read it. I’m dying to know what you think.

I very much appreciate everyone’s suggestions for must-read titles, and shortly I’ll put together another post where I take a look at first paragraphs for everything you all recommended.

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Update: still trimming

Okay, well, you know what happens if you assign a big genetics problem set, give students a lot of time to work on it, encourage them to work together and ask you for advice, and eventually collect it? You have to grade the dratted thing, that’s what happens.

Results of the genetics unit: Some students did not do nearly as well as I would have wished. Even on the test — short, with most of the questions pretty straightforward — a startling number of students looked at the question asking “What kind of gametes can an Aa individual make?” and selected the answer that offered “AA, Aa, or aa.” In other words, they did not know what a gamete was. Even with BIG ARROWS on some of the powerpoint slides saying “GAMETES HERE” and pointing to the top and side of the Punnett Squares, and a huge amount of practice setting up Punnett Squares while saying things like, “GAMETES GO ALONG THE TOP AND SIDE. LOOK, GAMETES ARE HAPLOID. INDIVIDUALS ARE DIPLOID. Even with all that, more than half of the students picked the (same) wrong answer for that question.

So that was disappointing.

However, the problem set was a good solid boost for many students. I made a five-page key, spread that out on a big table, and graded the problem sets student-by-student rather than page-by-page, and though it took a while, it wasn’t quite as time consuming as I feared. I listened to Vixy and Tony’s cds while I worked on this, by the way, which also helped.

Not everyone really understood this material, but some did. Of the rest, not everyone took my advice to come see me if they needed help, but some did. Not everyone who felt insecure worked with another student who knew what they were doing, but some did. Overall, the majority picked up a lot of points, which bounced a couple of them to the next grade up, which is nice to see.

We’re now doing evolution and natural selection, and now that it’s come to the point where I have to decide what to do, I’ve chosen to depart from the syllabus I was handed at the beginning of class. That syllabus covered evolution, selection, population ecology, community ecology, and biomes. While I like all this, I’m not keen on covering the biome chapter. Most of the students this semester have not demonstrated any ability to memorize stuff, so if I hand them a test that depends entirely on rote memorization (“What are the basic characteristics of taiga and where is that biome found?”), I’m afraid that wouldn’t go well.

So I’m doing evolution, natural selection, speciation, behavioral ecology, and probably community ecology with a little population ecology added to it. There’s more to understand, but a lot less rote memorization, and all of these are topics I love, especially behavior. But did mean that I spent a good deal of time last week rapidly creating or modifying powerpoint presentations for these chapters.

That also means I had to think of lab activities. We’ve been watching videos from time to time, and if the other Bio teachers can pick out videos for lab activities, so can I, so I found a great video by Steve Brusette that goes with his new book The Rise and Reign of Mammals, which is a book I’ve barely started, but already think looks just outstanding. The video is about an hour long, perfect for this purpose, and we’re going to watch it tomorrow. I watched it last week so that I could create a worksheet of questions to go with it, and yes, that took more time, but thank God we are on topics that are not cellular respiration or whatever, so I can actually enjoy working on course materials. Come to think of it, I had better write a couple tests over all this too.

Meanwhile!

I’ve cut 38,000 words from Tasmakat in the last week.

I mean, back in August, I cut 30,000, so overall, I’ve now cut 68,000 words, which is not really like cutting an entire novel’s worth of words, but you know, it’s getting close. I’m not quite finished cutting either. I need to go through the last five chapters and then I will go back to the beginning and look at some of the slower chapters there, because I would like to cut another 30,000 words or so. (I know!)

How many actual scenes have I cut? Hardly any! Please don’t worry! Almost all this has been at the sentence level. BUT, we now do get from Avaras to the country of sand faster, and then once in the country of sand, I combined two oases. I mean, you know that the country of sand looks a lot like the Sahara, right? Maybe I’ve mentioned that the people there almost all live in oases, mostly very large oases strung like chains of lakes through the desert. These oases are, of course, made and maintained by magic. The Lakasha-erra, the jackal-headed people, don’t make oases. The Ro-Antalet are the ones who make them. Those are the giant lions with the heads of men; in other words, sphinxes. They are very neat. I really like the Ro-Antalet.

Anyway, Aras and Ryo visited one oasis, then a second oasis, then a third oasis where they finally learned various important things. I was still figuring out Lakasha architecture and clothing and society when I started this section, so there was unimportant stuff in the first oasis, stuff that wasn’t helpful in moving the story forward. I combined the first two oases. I don’t think this will make the story feel too rushed through that section. I think it will just smooth the story out.

For a while there, I was in danger of presenting a society that was too nice compared to Lau OR Ugaro society, but as soon as I realized that, I drove a stake into the heart of the niceness, so readers can’t all say, “Oh, ooh, I’d definitely pick being a Lakasha!” Nope; all three societies have definite minuses as well as pluses. One of the things I’ve also been doing, along with cutting, is smoothing out those details, so that elements of Lakasha society appear smoothly rather than out of nowhere.

Someday, when Tiro probably travels through the starlit lands and we get a much, much better look at that country, I’ll have to do something similar there. The Tarashana, what little we’ve seen of them so far, look really nice. They probably are, but I will drop a serpent or two into that garden. While I would like every single society to improve over time, I do not want any of them to start off with too massive a moral advantage over the rest.

But back to Tasmakat. What’s next?

After finishing the basic cutting process, I will still need to go over my notes and fiddle with the manuscript just a bit. THEN I will send the thing to first readers. I’m now expecting to be ready for that in early December.

Rather than taking a break as such, I will immediately pick up a different manuscript and start to knock it into shape. OR, depending on what I feel like doing, I might pick up Tano’s story and write that, aiming for something short. Either way, I’ll have time to finish up at least one project while first readers are wading through the monster that is Tasmakat. I may well have time for TWO projects before I hear back from first readers! No rush! That’s why the release date is eight months away.

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I’m FREE!

Free, that is, to read Other Peoples’ Novels! Something I have been avoiding fairly strenuously, if not completely, for the past several months.

The day I finished Tasmakat, which is to say, roughly a week ago, I went right for Ilona Andrews, Sapphire Flames. This was a re-read, but I didn’t remember it well, and I wanted to go on with the other two books that have been released in this series, AND, very important, Ilona Andrews’ works well for me to break a reading slump.

It turns out that not reading fiction because I’m working on a book of my own is a lot like not reading fiction because I can’t quite muster the enthusiasm to actually open something and read past the first page. In other words, a deliberate reading slump is a lot like an involuntary reading slump, at least for me. Therefore, Ilona Andrews. Very engaging books, especially this series.

After that, I’m going back to the second book in the Tally Master series by JM Ney-Grimm, because I stopped near the beginning for absolutely no fault in the story and feel bad about that.

But, after this, the TBR pile is so high and tottery, even just looking at the top ten or so books on it, I’m really having trouble. Therefore:

What Should I Read Next? A Poll

1) Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

The real story isn’t half as pretty as the one you’ve heard. The real story is, the miller’s daughter with her long golden hair wants to catch a lord, a prince, a rich man’s son, so she goes to the money-lender and borrows for a ring and a necklace and decks herself out for the festival. And she’s beautiful enough, so the lord, the prince, the rich man’s son notices her, and dances with her, and tumbles her in a quiet hayloft when the dancing is over, and afterwards he goes home and marries the rich woman his family has picked out for him. The the miller’s despoiled daughter tells everyone that the money-lender’s in league with the devil and the village runs him out or maybe even stones him, so at least she gets to keep the jewels for a dowry, and the blacksmith marries her before that firstborn child comes along a little early.

Because that’s really what the story’s about: getting out of paying your debts.

This cynical, bitter tone is pushing me away. However, so many of you raved about this so much that if you vote for it now, I won’t be surprised.

2) Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion by Beth Brower

I’ve arrived in London without incident.

There are few triumphs in my recent life, but I count this as one. My existence of the last three years has been nothing but incident.

My train billowed its way into St. Pancras Station five minutes early. Auspicious, as I am fairly certain such a thing has never before happened in the history of the British railway system. A less than enthusiastic porter helped me with my two trunks, my case, and my hat box. He took note of thefrayed edges on my morning coat, made a sound of disapproval, and began to silently convey his displeasure at helping me. I did give him a half-penny. Rather generous, considering my financial state. Strangely, it was the hat box that caused the greatest sneer, despite it actually carrying a hat. For over a year it carried something a modicum less pleasant: the monkey’s head Maxwell sent me.

Some of you were talking about this series in comments here recently, and this light-hearted tone is drawing me in.

3) The Maker’s Mask by Ankaret Wells

The first frosts of the year had just broken when Tzenni Boccamera arrived at the Spire of Shainault. There was a shabby trade town outside the gates; it looked as if it had only survived the winter without falling down because the frost stiffened the buildings enough to keep them vertical.

Tzennni’s grel made splattering noises of distaste with both sets of nostrils and tried to scrape its saddle-bags off against the wall of a particularly tumbledown shack. The shack had a porch made of wine-colored curtains, giving the impression that it had rammed into the back of a bedstead and stuck. The burgundy cloth still held its stiff folds and repelled the mud, as only Maker-tech could.

A somewhat confusing beginning. Is this SF or fantasy? I suspect it’s both, one of the books right at the edge between the two. There’s a short prologue, which is quite good. That starts this way: “Some say we fell out of the sky, and some that we were made of mud, and some that we are all part of God. And this is how they’re all true.” Then two more paragraphs, which as I say are quite good, and I think this is a good, effective prologue — better than the first paragraphs of the actual story. Then there’s another very short prologue which doesn’t work as well for me because of the extremely high number of unfamiliar names. Nine or so in two paragraphs. Then the opening above.

Nevertheless, the comments about the characters some of you made for an earlier post — an engineer, yay! And a sarcastic bodyguard, also yay! — plus the good first prologue all make me want to go on with this. But right away? Not sure I’d put this at the top.

4) Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen

The empty wicker birdcage beside her began to rattle impatiently. Zoey gave it a sharp look as if to say they were almost there. It stopped.

She glanced at the cabdriver to see if he had noticed. The old fig-shaped man was watching her in the rearview mirror, his silver eyebrows raised. Several seconds passed, and he continued to stair, which she found disconcerting because she felt his eyes should really be on the long bridge over the water. But he seemed to be waiting for her to respond.

Not as immediately engaging as many of Sarah Addison Allan’s works.

5) Magic and the Shinigami Detective by Honor Raconteur

Emulating a breathing statue, I kept my eyes at half-mast, my body still. I’d learned over the time in this dank, bat-infested cave that stillness was best. She didn’t question stillness. She sometimes forgot her victims were even there.

Well, victim, now. That other poor man had died this morning, leaving me as the lone survivor. She’d captured six of us in the beginning, all from different worlds, as we’d barely been able to communicate with each other, even with the potions and language spells she heaped upon us. We’d lost the first man within a week, his body too different, his spirit too easily crushed.

Back when Amazon had “also bought” as a thing, a lot of books by Honor Raconteur — one assumes that’s a pseudonym — used to turn up in that slot under all my books. Obviously once I noticed that, I picked up a couple. This was one. I’ve actually read the full prologue, of which this is a part. While I’m not crazy about either the situation or the writing style, the situation improves immensely in a few pages as the protagonist escapes. This is a prologue, and in chapter one some time has passed and the protagonist has made a place for herself in this world.

6) A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher

There was a dead girl in my aunt’s bakery.

I let out an undignified yelp and backed up a step, then another, until I ran into the bakery door. We keep the door open most of the time because the big ovens get swelteringly hot otherwise, but it was four in the morning and nothing was warmed up yet.

Baking, Ursula Vernon, I mean, I’ve kind of wanted to read this for a while. Despite the dead girl in the first sentence, this story is apparently going to feature a light, breezy style. It would probably be fast to read and, of course, it’s probably pretty good because it’s Ursula Vernon.

7) Honey and Pepper by AJ Demas

Nikias had a fresh batch of octopus fritters ready when the three bells rang out from the harbour. He turned them out of the pan onto a dish, drizzled them with sauce, and slid the dish onto the front counter of the snack stand, pleased with his timing.

It wasn’t good business sense, making a fresh batch of their most expensive item at three bells, which was long before quitting time for the dock hands who would come pouring up the Shipyard Road on their way home from the harbour and make up most of the snack stand’s customers. Widow Pyke, the owner of the snack stand and Nikias’s boss, wouldn’t have approved of it if she had known, but he was minding the stand by himself that afternoon, during the slow period. And three bells was the hour when, often, the law clerk emerged from the door of the house beside Pyke’s Snacks and, if he wasn’t in a hurry, stopped at the counter and ordered something. Usually octopus fritters.

Demas writes these charming, rather light, alternate-Classical-Greek-ish stories. This looks inviting. I like it.

8) Ravenwood by Nathan Lowell

Somewhere up in the canopy, a jaybird greeted the dawn loudly and with the vigor usually reserved for mating or feeding. Tanyth sighed and turned over in her bedroll. The cushion of last year’s pine needles provided a comfortable enough mattress and she didn’t really want to crawl out, but her brain betrayed her body by insisting that time dripped through her fingers while nothing useful happened.

A slow, calm opening. Actually, thinking of Nathan Lowell makes me want to go back and re-read The Wizard’s Butler. I might do that instead of, or before, reading something else new to me.

9) Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell

Tennalhin Halkana arrived at the party fashionably late, which might have meant something if he’d been invited in the first place. Tennal often set out to make trouble, it was true, but this evening he was genuinely here for a drink and a good time.

That was a lie. He also wanted an architect, and this party would be full of architects.

Working against this book: I don’t already own it and it’s $15 or so for the Kindle ebook. That’s a major strike against this title since I have a zillion other things to read sitting right here. On the other hand, I really liked Maxwell’s first book in this duology, and that third sentence is just delightful. Have any of you already read this? What did you think?

10) Your suggestion here.

You know how it is when you’ve just read something great and you’re dying to force it into other people’s hands and make them read it too? This is a great time to try that. If you’ve got something like that in mind, drop it in the comments! I may wind up just flipping coins for all the above, including any other title any of you happen to rave about.

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Italics

Here’s a post at Writer Unboxed: Italics

[A]fter last month’s Onconference talk on dialogue, I could see there was still a lot of confusion about how and when to use italics.  I think I need to step up.

First – and I can’t stress how important this is – there are no rules, not even with purely mechanical matters.  When you try to handle italics by rote without paying attention to what’s happening in your story, you’re putting the rules ahead of the story.  But if you treat italics as tools that, used properly. can help you tell your story more effectively, then your story is at the center of your thinking, where it belongs.  So what can italics do for you?

First, your goal is to keep your mechanics transparent.  As soon as readers notice how you’re telling your story, they’re no longer paying attention to your story.  Which is bad.  So however you use italics, you don’t want them to jump out at your readers.

What italics do best is mark some passage of dialogue or interior monologue as separate.  …

And I paused there, because I don’t agree. I think that (a) it’s pretty easy to go wrong when using italics to mark out interior monologue, and (b) that obviously what italics do best is add emphasis.

If you use italics correctly, then italicized words DO jump out at the reader — a bit. Just enough to add the emphasis that you want. There’s a line from The Hands of the Emperor that demonstrate this perfectly and also made me laugh the first time I read the book and still makes me laugh during re-reads. This example leaped to mind at once in this context. I mean, I thought: Let me see, great example of italics to add emphasis, something that works perfectly, and boom, I immediately thought of this line:

Cliopher gestured discreetly at his Radiancy, who was smiling more sardonically than benevolently and thus did not look exactly like the state portrait hanging directly behind him.

That right there is how to use italics.

I read something somewhere — sorry, I don’t remember where — but an author was saying, “I used to use italics a lot to show the reader where I thought the emphasis should go, but these days, I just don’t. I let the reader decide where the emphasis should go.”

At the time I thought, Hmm, maybe that’s a good idea? But it’s not. The more I pay attention to how I and other writers use italics, the more firmly I conclude that this is a terrible idea. Look again at the bolded line and imagine it without the italics. The whole sentence becomes far less effective. No, lots of the time, you definitely do NOT want to leave the reader to decide where and when a word should be emphasized. That is YOUR decision as the author, and your decisions about that make a BIG difference.

How about interior monologue?

I think italics to mark out interior monologue works ONLY when you’re writing in pretty distant third person. I mean, maybe you’ll immediately think of examples where italics works great in close third or first, but if you’re IN the viewpoint of the protagonist, then practically everything is IN that person’s viewpoint and none of that can get marked out. Imagine trying to put “I thought, Thus and so and this and that” all through a first-person novel. No. I mean, really, no. That would make the novel practically unreadable, both by forcing too much of the text into italics, which would annoy the reader, AND by forcing the author to write the first-person narrative with an odd distance, moving away from the protagonist for everything that isn’t italicized and close again for interior monologue.

But more than that, even in third, even in distant third, if you start to italicize too much, you’ll definitely annoy the reader. Lots of people find italics unpleasant to read if it goes on and on. I think that only the most direct thought and only very brief direct thoughts should ever be italicized.

Let me see what the author of this post says about using italics for interior monologue …

The most common use – and the most misunderstood – is with interior monologue.  Some clients have taken it as a given that all interior monologue should be in italics.  The problem is that, when you mark off the interior monologue, then you’re saying that your narrative voice – the one you use for descriptions – is different from the viewpoint character’s voice – which is where interior monologue comes from.  You’re putting distance between your narrator and your character.

I was thinking of this more as putting distance between the author and the character, or maybe between the reader and the character, but I think this is exactly the same idea.

Oh, but look at this piece of advice:

 Just keep the interior monologue in normal type and in the same tense and person as your descriptions – what’s true of italics for interior monologue is also true of a shift from past to present tense or from third to first person.

I really wish this person — who is this? Dave King. He’s an editor, I see, and he writes books about writing and about editing your own writing. Well, I wish he’d provided an example of what he’s talking about, because I think maybe I agree? Or maybe I vehemently disagree; it depends on what he has in mind. I think I agree, because I think he’s saying not to do anything at all to set off direct thoughts.

Something I absolutely detest is a passage where we’re going along in third person past tense and then we have a direct thought, often in italics, and the verb tense STAYS IN PAST TENSE. This is incredibly jarring. I am using words like “absolutely” and “incredibly” here for a reason. I just do not know how to add enough emphasis to how tremendously jarring and off-putting this is. It works like this:

Atlanta is always steamy in August, so Esmeralda had expected to be uncomfortable, especially in a Regency-style ballgown with three petticoats and all the trimmings right down to elbow-length gloves. If she had to wear an outfit like this, at least Geoffrey might have provided a gilded coach with four matching black horses to draw it, not leave guests to walk the entire length of the park.

Then a coach just like that raced up the path behind her, all shiny black paint and gilding, spun to a halt, and the coachman — in livery, no less — sprang down to open the door for her. Geoffrey himself smiled down. Wow, thought Esmeralda. Geoffrey was definitely the handsomest vampire in Atlanta. Returning his smile, she let him take her hand and assist her into the coach.

Now, if you didn’t use italics there and also left out “thought Esmeralda,” then this would be fine. But because you did use italics, you’re telling the reader that this is Esmeralda’s direct thought. And if she’s thinking about Geoffrey right at this exact moment, why in heaven’s name is this in the past tense?

If that doesn’t seem horrifically jarring, then try it again in this passage:

“Oh, good morning, Geoffrey,” Esmeralda said. “Join us, by all means.” She added to her friend Elizabeth, “Geoffrey here was definitely the handsomest vampire in Atlanta, don’t you think?”

The guy is standing right there at this very second. Why are you speaking about him in the past tense? Because he used to be handsome, but something happened? Because he used to be a vampire, but now he’s not? Strange as it is to make a personal comment about someone who’s standing right there, it’s definitely much stranger to speak about him in the past tense. If your protagonist is directly thinking about someone, then she is thinking in story-present and the thought MUST be in PRESENT tense, even if the novel is written in past tense.

This is exactly like dialogue. When your protagonist is speaking to someone about events that are occurring right at that moment, she MUST speak in present tense, even if the story is written in past tense. Your protagonist can’t walk into the room, glance out the window, and remark to another character, “Oh, it was raining!” meaning that it’s raining this very second.

Because that would be ridiculous. OBVIOUSLY it would be ridiculous. If the character is speaking in story-present, then she has to speak in the present tense, and if she’s thinking in story-present, she has to think in the present tense.

Yet I’ve seen this exact kind of mistake lots of times. Once a copy editor tried to change a direct thought that I had italicized, exactly in the way we’re talking about here, into past tense. I wrote STET and then, trying not to be rude, a comment clarifying that it is impossible for a character to think in the present instant but in the past tense, just as it’s impossible for her to speak to someone in the present instant but in the past tense.

And that, perhaps, is one more reason to avoid italicizing direct thoughts. Because if you do, then you’d better think carefully about verb tenses.

Then a coach just like that raced up the path behind her, all shiny black paint and gilding, spun to a halt, and the coachman — in livery, no less — sprang down to open the door for her. Geoffrey himself smiled down. Wow. Geoffrey was definitely the handsomest vampire in Atlanta. Returning his smile, Esmeralda let him take her hand and assist her into the coach.

There you go, that works fine. So if this is what Dave King means when he says  Just keep the interior monologue in normal type and in the same tense and person as your descriptions – what’s true of italics for interior monologue is also true of a shift from past to present tense or from third to first person, then I agree. But if you do switch from a more distant narrative style to a direct thought, then you need to switch verb tense as well as add italics.

I’d suggest that this is one reason it’s important to be aware of whether you’re using tags such as “he thought” or “she mused,” and how often, and for what purpose. Using a lot of tags like that means you’re writing in a more distant third person, and leaving them out means you’re probably writing in close third, and either way, the rest of the paragraph and the general style of the narrative need to agree with that.

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Back Cover Copy: somewhat Final Version

Okay, obviously I may still tweak this a little, especially if any of you point to any possible weaknesses. But, very similar to the version that got a lot of thumbs ups from you all:

It’s a long way from the northern mountains back to the summer lands — and all the challenges Aras left behind are waiting. Worse, no matter how Aras handles those problems, the summer king’s judgment of his actions is certain to be harsh.

Released from every vow he ever swore to Aras, Ryo could remain among his own people. But he can’t abandon Aras to confront his king alone — especially as the struggle they endured in the land of the shades still haunts them both.

Then, as they journey south, Ryo realizes that Aras may be losing control of his sorcery. Even if Ryo can persuade the summer king to moderate his judgment, that may be only the beginning of the challenges they face. If Aras’ strength of will fails, even Ugaro stubbornness may not be enough to prevent disaster …

There.

I’m not crazy about the phrase “moderate his judgment.” Any suggestions there?

I usually try to avoid possessives with names ending in -s, so I may fiddle around just a little with that last sentence in an attempt to avoid that.

But overall, based on your feedback, I think this is good enough that I’ll start mentioning on social media that Tasmakat is available for preorder.

You can all be pleased about the price, by the way. I intended to set the price a bit higher than this, but it turns out that if you go for 70% royalties, then $9.99 is the top price you can set on the book. I had no idea. I would be tempted to split Tasmakat into two books after all, but I REALLY wanted to set it up for a preorder long in advance.

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Back Cover Copy: another Try

Okay, thank you all for your comments.

This version is a lot more spoilery. Too much so? You be the judge!

It’s a long way from the northern mountains back to the summer lands — and all the problems Aras left behind are waiting. Worse, no matter how Aras handles those problems, the summer king’s judgment of his actions is certain be harsh.

Released from every vow he ever swore to Aras, Ryo could stay with his own people. But he can’t let Aras face the coming confrontation alone — especially as the struggle they faced in the land of the shades still haunts them both.

But as they journey south, Ryo realizes that  Aras may be losing control of his sorcery. Even if Ryo can persuade the summer king to moderate his judgment, that may be only the beginning of the challenges they face. If Aras’ strength of will fails, even Ugaro stubbornness may not be enough to prevent disaster …

Comments, please!

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