Daley Downing's Blog, page 45

Top 10 Tuesday: Judging a Book by its Cover

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Hello! Amazingly, here I am, on time for a top 10 Tuesday, and on the actual theme! It has to do with evaluating book covers, so this is exactly what I’m doing. And I am one of those readers that unabashedly judges by covers. (I know, not truly fair, but I am an aesthetic being.)

Today I present you with different types of covers, and whether they entice me to read the work behind it, and whether that worked out for me or not.

1. The Scorpio Races

This cover sucked me in immediately, because I like horses, and I am not that good at riding myself, but I appreciate it. And when I saw that the apparent protagonist was a little slip of a thing, up on that big animal, totally in control and at ease, that made me think, “Cooooolllll.”

Were my first impressions right?: Yes, indeed! The Scorpio Races is one of my favorite stand-alone novels.

2. Rebel of the Sands

Just look at this. The color coordination is stunning, the font is lovely, the background of the desert at night hints at adventure in faraway lands. My brain saw it and went, “Cooollll.”

Here’s my final verdict: By page 50, I was having major issues with this story. The writing style felt incoherent at times, and reading about the incredibly sexist culture depicted (without the author indicating it was truly wrong and needed to be changed) grated on me. I did finish it, but barely, and was rather disappointed.

3. Discworld printings in the UK versus in the USA

          

I love Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. But the discrepancy in the covers between countries bothers me. The illustrations on the UK paperbacks make this series look a bit, well…silly, in my opinion, like it’s based on a cheesy cartoon for kids. Which creates a sad face on this moth, because the absolutely wonderful depth and poignancy and smart humor to this series is what makes it endlessly re-readable for me. Compare to the covers of the U.S. paperbacks, which are snappy and brief and colorful but not too much.

So which do I prefer?: Definitely the USA covers. Which means I have to put up with the printing errors in the text of several of the older editions. Sigh.

4. Neil Gaiman’s books create a quandary

     

Neil Gaiman and I have an ongoing relationship that consists of the following — I find out he’s released a new title, I dash to the library to obtain it, then spend the next hour waffling over if I shall, in fact, read it depending on how scary the cover looks. Case in point: I had never seen any of the TV miniseries of Neverwhere, otherwise I would have been more aware of just how adult this book is. (And, yet, for the most part, I liked it, although it’s not my general type of thing.) On the other hand, I love the movie version of Coraline, but literally put off trying to read the novel for about 2 years because I almost had a heart attack every time I looked at the cover.

My final say: I’d read Neverwhere again, but with regards to Coraline, I’ll be sticking to the film.

5. The Trylle trilogy

This series I picked up truly based on the covers. It’s a modern spin on the ancient myth of changelings, and that’s interesting. But overall, the style focuses more on the emo stuff, and there’s not as much action (particularly in book 2 and 3) as I would’ve preferred. And it’s labeled YA, but there’s a very graphic sex scene thrown in close to the end of book 2.

What did I think in the end?: It was pretty good, even if it did have its teen soap opera moments. Is it actually for teen readers, though? No.

6. When the Moon was Ours versus Outrun the Moon

       

My issue with these two, very separate titles is this — they are so similar (and with similar covers!) that I accidentally ordered the wrong book! My plan was to read When the Moon was Ours, because I’d heard it was a new sort of fairytale re-telling. What I received was Outrun the Moon, which, it turns out, is a historical fiction about growing Asian-American culture. Not that I think this novel is rubbish, as I haven’t even read it — it was purely my own disappointment at it not being what I was expecting.

What’s my plan now?: After re-investigating When the Moon was Ours, it seems that, although the topic interests me, this particular tale may not be for me. I may actually go with Outrun the Moon, after all. I’ve been looking for a title or theme to get me interested in historical fiction again.

7. Warriors, then and now

       

On the left is one of the original paperback covers for Warriors. On the right is one of the new covers designed for the reprints that are in the new box sets. And since I love Warriors beyond all reasoning, I won’t ever say the original covers are now invalid or don’t deserve to be associated with this remarkable series. But…look at the new one. Just look at it! I am in love.

8. A Darker Shade of Magic across the pond versus in my native country

These are the covers for the famous/infamous V.E. Schwab trilogy in America. I don’t like them. They remind me a bit too much of the art deco movement, of which I am not a fan. And every time I hear more about how good this series is, I put off trying it (yet again) because the covers just make me feel so meh about it.

Here are the British covers:

Why can’t I obtain a set of these? It would make my enthusiasm for trying this series ramp right up!

The last word: I’m seriously ready to find a way to order this version, impractical as it may be.

9. I’ll Give You The Sun

Was the publisher trying to mislead readers on purpose? Based on this cover alone, I immediately swanned over to this new release and began perusing its jacket. Is it a sci-fi romance? Some ambitious, smitten, sassy young lad decides he’ll actually obtain the sun to prove his love to the witty, bright, charming heroine? Nope. It’s a contemporary dealing with “heavy stuff,” and something to do with the breakdown of a sibling relationship. As an only child, I have a really hard time relating to sibling tales, and a hard time writing believable siblings. (Hopefully I have in Volume 1.)

My determination: I just don’t care for intensely-emo contemporaries. So I’ll be giving this one a pass.

10. Legend/Prodigy/Champion

Dystopia is not on my list of “will be delving more into this soon.” I discovered that with The Hunger Games and Divergent. But there was something about Legend‘s covers that interested me. Probably the straightforward, symbolic designs, the different colors for each instalment, the idea of a changing theme throughout (hopefully indicating character growth).

The final answer: I enjoyed Day and June’s story. There were parts that I didn’t care for, but I wasn’t totally turned off, and there was enough to keep me going till the end. And I liked the ending, it felt right for the story, and still appreciated the connection the fans had made to the protagonists. Although I may not re-read it, I still recommend this series to others.

 

Volume 1: Masters and Beginners Goodreads Giveaway!

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Okay, sorry, this post is going to be a lot of me, me, me. As most of you know, the first novel in my fantasy series The Order of the Twelve Tribes went live in late April. I am now officially a Goodreads author, there are answered author questions on my page, and people are marking Volume 1 as “to-read”. And I am freaking out, in a good way, but, still.

As of yesterday, the U.S. giveaway for Volume 1 officially began. (Don’t you fret, my non-American readers, there will be an international giveaway as well.) When I logged in to my author page earlier today and saw that a total of *86* people have entered my giveaway so far — well, freaking out again. And kind of stroking my ego. And admitting that I’m kind of not embarrassed about stroking my ego.

But I will also say I feel incredibly blessed by all this attention, and I truly hope everyone who’s looking forward to Volume 1 enjoys it.

Here’s the link to enter the giveaway:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34924654-masters-and-beginners

It’s open through May 17th.

Thank you again, so much, moths.

What I Love/Don’t Love About Books

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Okay, since I missed two Top Tuesday themes that I actually wanted to do, I’ll be catching up today with a two-for-one. So, prepare your eyes for a little longer-than-usual post. Hopefully, though, I delight and thrill you with each extra sentence.

I’ll get the complaining out of the way first…

PART ONE — Things that make me run away from a book and, therefore, not read it.

1. Novels that focus primarily on romance and emotions. My sincere apologies to all of those authors that honestly write really sincere, heartfelt and lovely stories in this genre. Because I know a lot of them are wonderful. (I know because I’ve seen the movie versions and enjoyed them. Just kidding — I’ve actually read a few, too.) But for me — remember, part Vulcan– there’s only so much of the lovey-dovey touchy-feely stuff that I can take (and that’s about 20 pages per book).

2. Historical fiction — especially those featuring romance over a plot. This is a new addition to the “no” list for me. I used to like reading historical fiction. Maybe I overdid it in my youth? Maybe in my “old age” I have no tolerance for reading books with lots of words from ye olden times that I have to go look up? Again, this is not a slam on the genre itself. But lately, I’ll just wait for the movie.

3. YA novels that think there is nothing more important than having a boyfriend and becoming a cheerleader. Hello, I’m autistic! How can I possibly relate to this?

4. Murder mysteries. Ugh. No, just no. I read several of these when I was younger, and rapidly came to the conclusion that they are all the same. It’s just the names of the characters and the settings that change.

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5. Horror or suspense. The genre is simply not my thing. I don’t like the violence, the gore, the (negative type of) anticipation as we draw to revealing the crux of the biscuit in the plot. (And those are often quite nasty cruxes.)

6. Fiction (or non-fiction) that is 95% allegory and not written in formal, sensible sentences. You know, the books that are described on the cover as “beautiful, poetic, inspirational, a journey through the scope of humanity,” and you think it’s about how a woman copes with her divorce, and you open it and the first paragraph reads like this: “The world. The air. Opals of silver in the distance. A red dot against the landscape. My heart.” HUH?!

7. Science fiction. Truly, I have nothing against science fiction as a genre, literary or on screen. But, to me, the science and technology part is all just….wibbly-wobbly stuff. So if a sci-fi novel drags me in, it’s because there are characters/plot/premises beyond the machines and equipment and inventions and physics of the universe that really hook me.

8. Books that spend too much time on dialogue between action scenes. So, remember when you were reading The Hunger Games, and it’s all very dystopia and interesting and life-and-death and then Katniss comes across Peeta in the cave, and… instead of a short-and-sweet “oh, wow, you’re dying, so let’s figure out how to fix this”, the author proceeds to give us like 80 pages of them lying in the dark, reminiscing about the good ol’ days in District 12? I literally skipped so much of this, just to get to a scene where something was happening, for crying out loud.

9. Most high fantasy. Sorry, folks, but I simply can’t read high fantasy anymore, with very few exceptions. If I can’t pronounce the characters’ names or the places they’re going to, it’s too dratted distracting from continuing on with the story. (And, again, this is just me. If you are a fan of high fantasy, good for you. But, as usual, just leave me with the film version.)

10. Fiction that claims to be accurately representing a disability or illness and does not. Unfortunately, there are far too many of these, especially when you’re talking things like depression, PTSD, and autism. There’s also a very harmful “cure culture” going on in society, where a lot of well-meaning but really, really misled people think that encouraging folks to just “get their autism fixed” (and similar notions) would be best for everybody (and ideas like that are going to contribute to the downfall of civilization).

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PART TWO — The happy stuff, or things that definitely make me run towards a book and most likely check it out of the library.

1. The mention of faeries, unicorns, dragons or mermaids on the cover blurb. The Mermaid’s Sister, pretty much anything I’ve read by Holly Black, several Jane Yolen tales, and Peter S. Beagle works (yes, I’m guilty of not even knowing The Last Unicorn was a book), I have picked up based purely on this criteria.

2. A non-whiny protagonist. This is an issue particularly in YA, especially with female narrators. A major reason I couldn’t stomach Catching Fire or all of the Divergent trilogy was because of how intensely whiny Katniss was in her middle book, and how Tris always came across that way. Give me Legend‘s Day and June, Susan Sto Helit of Discworld, Puck and Sean in The Scorpio Races, Sam and Grace and Isabel in Shiver, Bluestar and Yellowfang and Sandstorm of Warriors.

3. Anything from any part of the Warriors series. A new addition to the “yes” list (simply because I only started reading it about a year ago). But Warriors is officially one of my major weaknesses.

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4. Apparently, anything by Neil Gaiman. A few years ago, I would’ve said, “Thanks so much for your picture books and Good Omens, Neil, but, if it’s all the same to you, I’ll be skipping most of your adult novels and the really scary stuff.” Since then, I’ve gone to explore almost all of his short story collections, Coraline, The Ocean At The End of the Lane, Neverwhere, American Gods, Stardust, The Graveyard Book, and after saying not two weeks ago I’d be skipping Norse Mythology, I requested it from the library yesterday.

5. Anything by Terry Pratchett. His Discworld series is my favorite, but if his name is under the title, I’ll at least give it a go. Only You Can Save Mankind is a fantastic YA novel.

6. Fairytale re-tellings. Recently, I’ve kind of shied away from some of the more popular ones (I don’t need Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast for the 50th time, okay, publishers?), but the genre as a whole still interests me.

7. Novels with a good, clean sense of humor. A little bit of profanity or “grown-up” themed dialogue/references, scattered throughout a story, without being found in mass quantity in every chapter, doesn’t bother me. But since, unfortunately, that style of writing is rather difficult to find in a lot of adult fiction, I get excited when I come across a really fun read that has humor reminding me of Erma Bombeck and Dave Barry.

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8.  Pretty illustrations. How I choose picture books for Muffin focuses a lot on (no, I am not ashamed of this fact) the art. The style, the colors, how realistic it is. Some of the most beautiful I’ve come across include Can I Come Too?, Bernice Gets Carried Away, Little Tree, and How Rocket Learned to Read.

9. Books that are less than 500 pages. The exception to this is Harry Potter. Otherwise I truly like most of my reads to be around 275-310 pages, total. My eyes and hands just can’t take more than that, Captain.

10. Stories set in Britain and/or written by British authors. Why, yes, I am an Anglophile, just in case you couldn’t tell. (Read this blog for any length of time, and you’ll catch on. I just lived in England for 4 years.) The only thing that bothers me is when some of the British words get changed in the U.S. printings (grrr), and then I’m mentally correcting things as I read, which can get a bit tedious.

And there we have it! Will I actually attempt any future Top 10 Tuesdays?! Watch this space to find out!

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Warriors Update: The Prequel, The New Series, and Upcoming Extras

Wow, it’s been, what, approximately 364 years since I did a Warriors update? (Please, no one double check the archives for an actual date. I just know it was a while back.) Anyway, I was doing really well at posting pretty regular updates with my progress on this epic. Then I hit the snag of: I joined NaNoWriMo, I was trying to get Volume 1 published, and I wanted to read other things (not just juvenile fiction) for a little bit.

And (moment of personal weakness being admitted here) I got really, really nervous about how I’d feel about the prequel series, Dawn of the Clans. So, I’ve been avoiding it. Yes, I know, bookdragon sin committed. But the further we go into the advancing of the new series (more on that in a minute), the more I’m realizing that the authors are definitely hinting at: we are about to come full circle. The whole series will probably soon draw to a close.

(Of course, everybody also thought that after The Last Hope — book 6 of Omen of the Stars, which we all figured was going to be the conclusion. Then last year the publisher started releasing A Vision of Shadows.)

So, anyway, what I’m indicating is this — I am an intense bookdragon when it comes to Warriors, and the idea of it all actually, officially coming to an end… Sorry, that distorted sound you hear in the background is aching, broken, Vulcan tears.

Yes, I am totally aware I could just start re-reading from the very beginning — and catch up on all those novellas, super-editions, field guides, and manga I am behind on. (Never let it be said that this publisher leaves their fans wanting more.)

But my point at the moment is: An unfortunate part of being an autistic bookdragon is struggling more than the average bookworm when a favorite series finishes. (And don’t we all know that this earth-shattering event is difficult enough to deal with?!) So, I’m honestly hoping (probably a bit too strongly) that the authors develop a spinoff somewhere in the near future (like, by 2018).

Also, Warriors is the only series that has totally sucked in my heart and soul. After I completed The Prophecies Begin (the first 6-book set in what became the much greater series), I sat in a daze for about three hours, and had these thoughts: How in the world am I ever going to read anything else, ever again? Nothing can possibly compare now. And, how can I write something even a tenth as good?”

These authors found a way to make you care, deeply, passionately, obsessively, about what happens to this group of fictional feral cats. Most adults would see that it’s told from the animals’ point of view, and that it’s labeled as juvenile fiction, and go, “Okay, a fun thing for the kids,” and never think of picking it up themselves. But trust me, Warriors has more than enough drama, heartfelt moments, and subtle discussions on serious issues to satisfy “grown-up” readers, too.

I’ve waxed poetic about this series in several other posts. My obsession — er, my devotion still stands. Recently, we received #3 of A Vision of Shadows (the newest set of will-be-6 consecutive novels) on the actual release day (because I was smart and pre-ordered for a change). White Fang got it first (because I’m nice like that); but I will be getting #4 first. Trying to get him not to give me spoilers was a NIGHTMARE.

Here’s White Fang reading it in his room: “WHAT?!?! NOOOO…. OH MY GOSH!!! Twigpaw!!! Onestar!!!”

Here’s me in my kitchen (with my hands over my ears): “LALALALALALA…”

Yes, really, I’m almost 38 years old.

And here’s White Fang about once a month: “You know, Mom, you haven’t finished Dawn of the Clans yet.”

And I bought him the box set as a late birthday present, so now I don’t have the excuse of having to wait for the library to have them all in.

Blast it.

On top of all this, I have successfully whittled down my Goodreads TBR to almost nothing. I actually completed my GR challenge, before May, people! So now I’m down to only a few more re-reads I wanted to do in 2017, and then I…I will actually have nothing new to read.

We all know this is the absolute worst scenario for a bookdragon.

Except, with the entire set of Dawn of the Clans sitting there on White Fang’s shelves…

Hey, on the plus side, when I do finish it, I can write a post about it (and how much it destroyed me).

Then I’ll be able to wipe away the guilt from my conscience because I don’t get the references in the fan art for the prequel.

But then, what will I write next about Warriors? Because I know the next instalment isn’t for sale until November (sob!!!).

Uh, super-editions, novellas, field guides, manga, that I just mentioned a few paragraphs above?

Okay, I get it; I’ll stop being such a baby.

Look for a review of Dawn of the Clans to hit this space in the near future.

Mind the Gap

Note: As usual with my more serious discussion posts, I have attempted to soften the blow with some very lovely pictures.

Do we all know what “mind the gap” means? When you step onto a train, and there’s a space between the edge of the platform and where the actual floor of the train car begins? And they have signs and warnings, “Mind the gap,” because they don’t want anyone to accidentally get hurt?

The reason I chose that title for this post came from thinking about things where there are major gaps between one issue and another, gaps that really need to be bridged if we’re going to get anywhere.

So, when I was a young mother, and had a primary-grades child diagnosed with autism, I heard a lot about how autism was “bad.” It would create major obstacles for him in school, in future life, in trying to get a job, get married, have a career, function on his own in society.

And, feeling an immense amount of society-induced guilt, I tried my hardest to get my child to change his natural behavior. Encouraged him not to stim (even though it cut back on anxiety), forced him to try to conform, insisted he not spend too much time alone.

After a couple of years, I saw that none of this was working. And more than that, it was beginning to dawn on me that I was reliving a dangerous pattern.

When I was young, I behaved differently than my peers, and I was told not to. Teachers felt my desire to play alone, to engage in solitary pursuits, was harmful. I was instructed to read less and take up more interactive hobbies, try a sport, join a club.

So I tried. And I was miserable. I couldn’t understand some of the social cues, and that made me sad and mad, and that led to worse inner experiences, because I couldn’t understand or deal with all the emotions I felt.

So I gave up trying. By the time I was a young adult, I just wanted to be left alone to behave how I wanted to.

Then White Fang’s father — and a bunch of other stuff — happened. Not only did it change my life forever (because White Fang was born), but it also started me on a path of self-discovery.

Having a child that shares the same spectrum I inhabit, but doesn’t rest on the same space I do, and only occasionally visits, has made part of this path more complicated. One of my first questions was — if it was so easy to diagnose him, why not me? What’s the big difference?

It turns out there are many, many women who are now adults that either were suspected of being ASD as children and weren’t diagnosed, or were considered “in an introvert or geek phase,” and therefore passed over for diagnosis. 20 years ago, most psychologists in North America were looking for autism based only on a very specific set of criteria; so if a female child wasn’t showing significant language delays, or regularly made eye contact or was able to tolerate social interaction, they were deemed “probably not autistic.”

This idea was totally wrong.

Mind the gap…

Though we’ve entered a new age of research regarding autism, I truly don’t think we’re yet at a new age of how we approach and understand ASD. Quite honestly, it concerns me. I want my kids to grow up in a world where differences from the norm are accepted, where ways they perceive and react to life is just viewed as part of the whole grand human experience.

I don’t want my son to be told he can’t go to this or that church because he’s an abomination that “needs to be cured”. I don’t want him and his future wife to be told that, since they “run the risk” of having a child on the spectrum, they should engage in pre-natal genetic testing that may “help” them decide whether or not to bring this life into the world.

Mind the gap…

I don’t want Muffin coming of age in a culture where he has to constantly shout into the void that his brother is not a freak. I don’t want to live out my remaining days surrounded by neighbors and acquaintances that keep giving me funny looks, or determine my value as a person by how many public events I attend. I want to know that the struggles and achievements of Temple Grandin, Cynthia Kim, myself, mean something good for the future.

Most of all, I want to know that for whatever purpose God put me on this Earth, with autism, it has been served.

“Sometimes even shooting stars find wishes that missed their marks… But when the night gets too dark, and the road home seems too far… We’ll see the sun come up again… We will climb higher than we’ve been… We’ve got a fire that burns within” — Dragonhearted (by Try Hard Ninja and Captain Sparklez)

My Red Blanket Part 2

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Top 10 Tuesday: Actual Book Dragon Problems

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Back again for the weekly meme! (Hey, I’ve hit a new record — 4 weeks or something?!)

We’ve all seen the hashtag making the rounds on Twitter: #bookdragonproblems, or #bookwormproblems. But what, you may be asking yourself, are the real problems we readers face?

Wonder no more! Today I present you with the official list…

1. Not liking the new releases everybody else is enthralled with. Okay, I may seem to be contradicting myself, since in recent posts, I’ve insisted it’s okay not to like a really popular author/series. But it is honestly really sad when all of your blogging/social media friends are flailing in extreme happiness over a book that for you is just, “…meh.” Trust me, it results in an identity crisis and the sudden disorder of needing to stay up all night reading this exact book under the covers with a flashlight to assuage your guilt. And then you still don’t like it, anyway. Ugh, the torture…

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2. Loving a series until Point X. Translation — you finish the first instalment of a new series and are IN COMPLETE AND UTTER LOVE. You tell everyone you know (even people you don’t like) to read this trilogy/quad/set of totally amazing novels. You buy the merch, you pin a Tweet advertising it, you yell about it in all caps every time you make a new blog post. And then…the 3rd or 4th or 5th book is released, and it RUINS the whole series for you. Either there’s a ridiculous plot twist you don’t agree with one iota, or your favorite character dies suddenly and without justification, or you find out the author in fact supports redecorating the entire Earth with plastic flamingos. And it just makes you throw things and hide behind the curtains and wonder how you can ever show your face in the blogisphere again.

3. Direct sequels not being printed in the same size as the original. This is, quite frankly, an odd decision on the part of publishers. But it happens on a pretty regular basis. And I’m not even talking about hardcover vs. paperback. When you have a bunch of paperbacks from the same series that measure differently, it can wreak havoc on keeping your bookshelves organized. And if that isn’t a tragedy, then I don’t know what is.

4. Cover changes by country. Why do covers have to change depending whether you live in the USA, England, Australia, Germany, France, Japan, or on Neptune? And what if, for example, you like the British cover and you live in the USA, where it isn’t available? ARGH…

5. New editions of your old favorites. See the new Warriors covers below as Exhibit A. White Fang and I LOVE this series, and we’re eager to (read: obsessed with) acquire any new releases. We actually like the new covers for the releases of the boxed sets. BUT it creates quite the conundrum when it comes to making sure there’s enough room on the shelves, and not making the original books feel unloved. (Can you hear that? Does it sound like a tiny fictional cat crying? DON’T PANIC, sweet original illustration, I LOVE YOU MORE THAN ANYTHING. Ahem…)

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6. Typos in printings that were supposedly edited and proofread. Especially when they’ve come from a big-name publisher that has tons of money to throw at these tasks. It is honestly one of my pet peeves, to be happily reading along, and then there’s an obvious mistake that someone (who was being paid to do this) should’ve caught.

7. Simply the cost of books. Since I’m not an e-reader (I prefer having the copy in hand, and being able to better adjust the lighting falling on the text, etc. — plus I don’t even own a Kindle or something right now), I have to try to acquire physical copies of reading material. And have you seen the price of a new hardcover?! Seriously, why is it so high? Are they funding new palaces on Pluto or something?

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8. When the library simply doesn’t have the selections you want. So here I am, trying to be a responsible parent and spend money on diapers and cat food and not on books. My first plan is to contact the library and place as many hold requests as I am allowed between now and 2018. However, the library system is trying to catalogue books in all the different genres, not just my favorites, and they have to spread the budget out a little more. So, it’s just a statistical fact, if there are 10 books on my TBR, the local library will only be able to obtain 5 of them.

9. Wanting to read every new author, title, style in your genre. This makes the conundrums even worse. There’s an awesome-sounding new release that you just can’t afford. Or a sequel that is about to disappoint you in new and shocking ways. Or you never read historical fiction, but one of your preferred authors just published an epic mid-19th-century re-imagining of Puss in Boots as a pirate off the coast of China. And you must read them all now.

10. When a favorite author is no longer writing. When Terry Pratchett died, I literally cried for 3 days. Me, the half-Vulcan. But he was one of the few NT humans I’ve run across who just understood so much. How he wrote, how he presented his characters, his plots, his points of view made me feel…well, not completely alone in the universe. So, his passing was a bit of a blow, even though I didn’t know him personally.

And although I fully supported JK Rowling’s decision to end Harry Potter and only write for adults now, as I finished the last 50 pages of Deathly Hallows, there was a definite sense of sadness not just because of all the fictional dying, but because of the very real end that was coming in terms of publishing the series. Sometimes it’s a real challenge to pick yourself up and go find a new series or author that will fill that hole in your heart.

And there we have it! Any you’d care to add, fellow readers?

Time for the Autistic Reader Disclaimer

For those of you who are new around here, you may have noticed that I write a lot about autism and how those of us on the spectrum view the world. Mostly my goal is to bridge the gap between awareness of medical symptoms, and awareness of real life experience, in the general population.

My whole life, I knew I was different from my peers, but could never figure out why; it turned out this was because how I experienced the world and how they did was vastly different, neurologically and physically. (It’s called “sensory perception disorder”.) But I honestly didn’t realize until I’d spent several years learning specifically about the Autism Spectrum — after my oldest child was diagnosed on it — that most of my struggles (social anxiety, extreme sensitivity to loud noise or sudden occurrences) also fell under the “umbrella” term.

Anyway, I’ve posted in the recent past about how certain things just really make my skin crawl, or just don’t click with my mind or emotions, and how this affects what I read. It means that I won’t read particular genres or styles to help avoid triggers, and I’ve tried to make it clear that while this does limit my possible choices of reading material, it’s purely a personal preference, and it doesn’t mean I think anything I decide not to read is rubbish.

I am currently having a big, intense feeling of guilt over this issue. The fact is, I’m starting to feel bad over opting not to read novels recommended to me, or written by people in my community — or maybe I do read it, and I appreciate the skill, the amount of work the author clearly put in, but it may not move me emotionally. And when there are other people in the community — people I respect and like — flailing over these novels… Well, that creates this odd, twisty sensation inside me.

Often when I explain things about having autism to people who do not have it (also known as Neuro-Typicals), I find it necessary to defend myself (and my fellow ASD-ers), because we have so frequently been persecuted and struggled against the prejudices society has developed regarding our natural state of being. But today I feel the need to apologize for something that I can’t change.

And what my preferences/triggers are will probably be different from another (or 10 other people) on the spectrum. That’s just what a “spectrum” means — a range of things that have certain core issues that are the same, but otherwise can vary greatly in how they’re experienced. For example, some autists may not get bothered at all by horror novels, knowing it’s just fiction and that any of the violence or gore involved isn’t actually happening. Then there’s me, who faints when I get a hangnail that starts bleeding.

Most of what bugs me when I read is stuff that bothers me in real life. If I’m around people who swear profusely, the harsh sound of constant profanity (or in “music” or as part of movies) gives my ears fits. Too much blood and gore makes me squirm. Too many emotions — yes, emotions — do my Vulcan soul in. Do I understand the basics of love, empathy, compassion? Yes, of course (I’m part Spock, not part Khan). But some of the more intricate details, and their relevance, are lost on me.

There are women who simply adore a fictional man who proposes to the heroine by renting a whole restaurant, strews rose petals on the floor, lights a million candles, and then gets down on one knee with an elaborate speech about how amazing she is to him, and a diamond ring the size of Gibraltar. If I read or watch a scene like that, here’s what I’m thinking: “Good grief, how much did all of this cost? What if she slips on those flower petals and twists her knee? They could burn the place down with all those candles, for heavens’ sake!”

Here’s something displaying a lot of emotion that I will totally get and appreciate: A heartfelt monologue about the beloved’s traits and why the hero needs her in his life, about why having her by his side makes him a better person. And then they proceed to attack the spaceship about to destroy a whole planet of innocent civilians.

(Sorry, guys, I am married.)

And now I’m getting slightly off track…

But my biggest point here is this — I really, really don’t want anyone in the blogisphere to think that I thought their work or recommendation was rotten raspberries just because I failed to connect to it on a deeper level. I have a very specific set of standards for what I give 5 stars, purely due to how my neurotransmitters fire. And maybe it’s the result of this “unusual” programming, but I can also separate the quality of work from what I prefer, and establish that something is quality, although I am not getting all mushy over it.

(I just don’t do mush. Not very much. Small animals and truly exceptional people break that rule. By truly exceptional, I mean someone like Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, or Firestar and Yellowfang, or the Death of Discworld. So please don’t feel bad if you don’t see yourself among the mush-making list, either. There are tons of people whom I honestly love and feel deeply for, even if you don’t see the gushing — just remember that one time Spock actually smiled at Kirk in the original Star Trek series.)

So, I have probably confused you, but I hope that I at least gave you a little something to laugh over. With any luck, my apology makes the smallest amount of sense. Have a great day, moths.

Publishing Updates: An E-Book, Giveaways, and Other Topics

Hello again, moths! After officially launching the first novel in my YA contemporary fantasy series last week (pause for the good kind of screaming and flailing), there were some other issues getting a website established for accepting credit card payments, international orders, and there have been a few questions about e-books or a digital format. (Cue the not-nice-sort of screaming.)

Anyway, thankfully, these issues have been resolved. For those of you who are interested in either purchasing a paperback via online banking or credit cards, or after a digital version of the text (with free extras!), this is how to do so:

https://www.gofundme.com/the-invisible-moth-book-sales

Here’s the pricing with the addition of the e-book:

Paperback by itself is $15. If you would like a subscription box (remember, these are a limited quantity), that’s $25. Digital format (a PDF that can be downloaded to your laptop or tablet) is $5. Obviously I’ll need a physical address to ship the paperback and/or the box to. For the e-book, just an email address that you check often and have the space to receive a large file.

In other news…

From April 30th to May 17th, 2017, U.S. residents can enter a Goodreads giveaway for a chance to win a free paperback of Masters and Beginners. Later this spring, I’ll be hosting a giveaway just for people in the UK, Europe, and “Down Under.” So anybody hoping to get their hands on a giveaway copy, keep an eye on Masters and Beginners on Goodreads!

Still on the subject of Goodreads…

I am officially a GR author, so you can contact me there, ask me questions about writing, or about Volume 1, or the series in general. There are also links to some of my more recent blog posts on my author page there. (I mentioned before how valuable a resource this site is, and I’m sticking by that.)

As far as blogging goes, I anticipate things slowing down around here a fair bit, at least for a little while. I actually finished Camp NaNo (early!) with my first draft of Volume 2 (and, wow, is it a mess). So time must be devoted to correcting all of that kerfuffle.

And certain small creatures (read: Muffin and White Fang) have evaluations and meetings and projects to complete prior to the end of the school year…

If you have any questions/requests/orders/muses regarding Volume 1, I can be reached at daley.downing@gmail.com.

Have a great week, moths!

The Life of a Self-Published Author

So, I am quickly discovering that writing a novel and getting it ready to print through the company of your choice may be the easy part of being an indie author. (And it’s probably the most enjoyable — most of the time.) After the printing part comes the part where you need to sell several (at least) copies, to help pay for the costs of everything, so that you can justify writing more because, see, your first book sold!

This means marketing and advertising. Are there ways to go about this for free? Thankfully, yes. There are blogs (your own or somebody else’s), social media, and my new personal favorite, becoming a Goodreads author and developing a profile/page there.

Goodreads is an amazing tool. The site is pretty user-friendly (take it from me, who only understands the very basics of how to do things like customize a webpage), and you can do stuff like have discussions with the community, host giveaways (with the minimum amount of work on your part), and connect with other self-published authors. All of this helps build your reader base (if I use the word “fan” here, I’ll start freaking out too much), and spreads the word about your publication(s), and it can be free if you wish.

The instructional section aside… I am beginning to flail a little — both good and bad — with regards to how much effort must go into the marketing part of this whole deal.

First (to get it over with, and give you something to look forward to) the bad: There are moments when doing this all by myself feels rather daunting, and it makes my blood pressure go up, and it’s a bit hard to catch my breath. Sometimes when I look at the list of readers who have added my book to their TBR, I am still shocked, and amazed, and utterly terrified — because what if they don’t like it?! 

That’s a chance any author takes, though — whether they scraped and saved every spare penny for 4 months to get their novel to print, or whether they have a six-figure salary coming from a big-name publisher and plans for book tours established. And, remember, you can’t please all of the people all of the time — so, it’s just a fact that, based on personality or preference for style/genre/how many dragons are in a single book, some readers just won’t care for your work.

And when you don’t have a signed contract through a big-name publisher, resources will be limited. You may need to be in the employ of something other than “writing” to help keep the literal lights on, which means that time to write/plan/market may be a valuable commodity. Book tours just won’t happen if you can’t even afford a bus ticket to the nearest big city. And if you’re a family man/woman — like I am — there are other things to take care of — school, cooking, cleaning, homework, doctors’ appointments, needing to be home at certain times of the day to let the physical/speech/occupational therapists in.

Before all of this makes you hyperventilate, remember the immortal and so important words of Douglas Adams: DON’T PANIC.

There is always a silver lining. Always another way, it just requires slowing down and breathing and repeating the above phrase a few times.

So, here’s the good of this situation — When you’re a self-published author, you have complete control over the entire venture. Nothing gets edited out of your work that you really, really wanted to keep. Don’t feel like going on tour to St. Louis or Minneapolis or Baltimore right now? Don’t have to. You only interact with the Goodreads folks as much as you choose to. Hosting a giveaway is not essential.

I didn’t even start off with an e-book. (I’m working on it right now, but when I first started the proofreading/typesetting process, I knew tackling two formats at once would be the metaphorical death of me. So I decided to focus on hardcopy to begin with, and just wait for the digital stuff.)

The important thing is to recognize your limits, and not take on too much.

Otherwise, it is an extremely satisfying thing to bring up at dinner parties — “Yes, actually, I wrote a book. I’m a self-published author.” Self-published — meaning your literal sweat and tears (and maybe blood?) went into creating this actual physical thing (in traditional or e-book form) that people can read and share. It’s like having climbed all of the mountains in the Adirondacks, or graduated from a Masters degree, or raised multiple children — it’s quite an achievement. Be proud of it. You earned it.

(By the way, I’m giving myself a lot of this same advice.)

So, as I go back to working on Volume 2, nervously awaiting the feedback on Volume 1, getting the digital copy together, and reciting DON’T PANIC like a mantra, I’ll also do my best to remember that this is just the start of something I’ve been waiting a very long time for.

Sure, there were bumps in the road. But I survived. Honestly, I still can’t quite believe it. But now that cool things are happening in spite of the negatives…well, believing it may become easier.

There’s still a lot to do; but also so much that I have now completed.

And that is certainly worth celebrating.