Mario Acevedo's Blog, page 20

Christmas stories

Mario here:

Nothing says Merry Freakin' Christmas like an office party at Biting-Edge HQ. Admin assistants spiking the eggnog (started at 80 proof). Medical marijuana brownies. Mail clerks copping feels under the mistletoe. Jeanne pulling the fire alarm (ask her for those details).

Usually this season puts me out of sorts. Kinda hard to reconcile Good Will Toward All Men with the relentless Buy! Buy! Buy! of American consumerism. But this year I've set aside my usual cynicism and embraced a mood of good cheer. I'm even singing along with Christmas carols, especially my fave:



You see, I don't have young ones anymore to play Santa Claus to. I know that drill. It's a challenge to ask your kids to play down their expectations without feeling like the Grinch. Sorry kids, it's not that I don't care, it's that your college-educated father is a loser penny-pincher.
So like many of you, I became expert in finding the gotta-have presents of the day. In my primo dad days, it was He Man action figures, MicroMachines, Super Mario Kart, and Mortal Kombat.

Earlier, in my youth, our Christmas celebrations were Norman Rockwell with a good dose of Cantiflas. My mom would drag us to the annual Cantada de Navidad at the Spanish Baptist Church. Despite all the Hallelujahs and Away in the Manger's, the high point of the evening was the visit from Santa Claus. He'd give away paper bags filled with ribbon candy, pecans, and an orange. Which was much appreciated after all the sitting around listening to the church chorus. And I liked oranges.





My favorite Christmas tradition was the making (and eating) of tamales and fried bunuelos. My mother and aunts would make dozens of two kinds of tamales: red chile pork and sweet with pecan and raisins. Neither lasted long.




I learned not to peg my Christmas happiness on getting the perfect gift. Sometimes it happened like when I got my first bike and BB gun. Later on I really wanted a minibike--didn't get it despite all the goddamn hints--and an airbrush and compressor...didn't get that either. But I got a lot of sweaters, socks, and model airplanes.

My most memorable Christmas had to be when I was 18 and returned home on holiday break from the Army. My best friend Ron was also on military leave. We spent our ten days of freedom looking up old girl friends, crashing parties, and soaking up as much booze as our livers could stand. I got the biggest monster hangover of my life. But underlying the festivities was the ticking of the clock--until then I was never so aware of the weight of passing time--and the realization that try as we might to hang on to what was--the future was sweeping us away. Here's another favorite song, one that brings back the bittersweet memories of Xmas 1973.




What are your Xmas stories?

Happy Holidays, amigos! [image error]

How Many Days Til Xmas?

So, how did you spend your Wednesday?

I spent two hours finishing my holiday shopping, five hours wrapping and putting packages together to mail, another two hours at the post office (where I did my bit to support the flagging postal service and I must say, with postal employees--my experience has been if you smile, they do, too), one hour cleaning up the debris in the living room and now it's almost nine and I don't have a thing ready to post.

I don't know if the link is still up, but you can check Lizzie T. Leaf's blog where I was featured yesterday and talked about the holidays and shared my mom's fudge recipe. It's the best.

Speaking of Lizzie, we'll be at Barnes & Noble in Westminster again this Saturday, (9370 Sheridan Blvd. Westminster CO 303-426-7733) 11 - 3PM.

Last duties of the season..finish up the cards. Wrap the packages I don't have to mail. Do some baking. Once that's done, I'll be ready to get back to what I want to be doing--writing! And maybe seeing new movies:







So, I suppose you're all finished with the shopping and wrapping and cards and are sitting back eating bon-bons and laughing at the rest of us. Will I ever NOT be stressed at this time of year?

What are your holiday plans? Traveling? Relaxing? Seeing movies (and if so, which movies are you looking forward to)? Drop by and leave a comment or two...Santa may just surprise you.[image error]

Adieu, Mr. Postman

Mario here,

We writers have always had a special relationship with the mail. Mine started when I used to accompany my mom to the post office, a big imposing building downtown. The black ballpoint pens were chained to the counter and stamped: Property of U.S. Government. We'd worry about the penalties if the Feds caught you swiping one. The mail clerks (always men in those days) were very official and stern behind their bronze grates.

My first personal interaction with the postal service was in the fifth grade. Quaker Oats had this promotion claiming that their puffed wheat cereal was shot from guns.



If you sent two boxtops you'd get a model cannon. Unfortunately, the bargain with my mom was that I had to eat both boxes of the Quaker cereal, which was not anywhere as good as Super Sugar Crisp. I sent in the boxtops--Allow six weeks for delivery. (Try surviving in today's marketplace with an offer like that.) Those six weeks were the longest of my life. As the delivery day got closer, I'd run home to see if the package arrived. One day, my model of a Napoleon six-pounder was waiting for me on the kitchen counter. The mailman was my hero.

Moving forward to when I participated in the writers' submission ritual. Banging out a query letter on the Underwood, sending the letter and an S.A.S.E. to an agent or editor...and wait. We'd hold vigil around the mailbox and eventually some of those S.A.S.E.'s would find their way back home. It was common knowledge that if an agent or editor was interested in your manuscript, you'd get a special envelope or even better, a phone call, so the returned S.A.S.E. meant no-dice, pal. And when fortune did finally shine, there was your monster of a story packed up in a manuscript box or padded envelope. Revisions and galleys came by mail. As did advance checks. (Yeah!) One day you'd get boxes of your books. All delivered by the man or woman in USPS blue.

For better or worse, the mail carrier was our good friend.

The Internet has claimed many victims. We writers bemoan the loss of many local bookstores. Here in the Denver area we've lost Murder By the Book, High Crimes, Hastings, and of course, Borders, done in by the pitiless onslaught of Amazon. Craigslist has killed off scads of newspapers. And now the World Wide Web has a stranglehold on the Post Office.

Today, it's strictly email queries, which means rejections now come at the speed of light. Deadline time, you submit an electronic copy of the manuscript. Revisions are done in track changes.

According to various press releases, mail volume will drop by half within five years. To prevent bankruptcy, the USPS will close hundreds of outlets and layoff thousands. Postage rates will go up, and worse, mail delivery will slow and become uncertain. The standard delivery for first-class delivery is now next day. Three at most. The Post Office says to expect a week or longer. In other words, why bother mailing anything?

And so the USPS circles the drain.

They should've seen it coming. First UPS ate into their parcel delivery. In their arrogance, the Post Office dismissed the competition, and the man in brown has since replaced the man in blue. Then FedEx came around. People were willing to pay ten times the mail rate for guaranteed overnight delivery. To FedEx became a verb. Email replaced letters. You can pay bills through the Internet. USPS was nicknamed snail mail.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Think of it. For a mere 45 cents, they will deliver your letter anywhere in the U.S. with a certainty of nearly 100%. That's incredible service. Of course they lose money with each letter. What the Post Office needs to do is emphasize their service and raise their rates accordingly. Even at a dollar a letter, that's a deal.

I have another service that may not put the Post Office in the black, but could be a substantial source of revenue.

Promote the mailing of liquor. Right now we're treated to that rote question: Does your package contain anything fragile, liquid, flammable, or potentially hazardous? It's a gotcha so they can screw you in case you do mail something that violates their rules. But in fairness, we have the Unabomber and the Anthrax killer to thank for that question.

Why not allow people the opportunity to mail booze? Not cases of hootch but a bottle of wine, liquor, or a six-pack of beer. As long as you declared it and used the appropriate packaging.

So adieu to all the fond memories of the mail. Email will never replace the romance of the love letter. Remember pen pals? Somehow, putting pen to paper prompted an eloquence that no software can duplicate. On the flip side, porn no longer arrives via a plain brown wrapper. What special memories does the mail bring for you?

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'Tis the Season...

Facebook had some really cute holiday cartoons up this week. These were my favorite:









Now, I finished my shopping--if I can get my cards done, I'll really be ready to party!!! How about you? What are your plans for the holidays and are YOU ready?

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Also, found another gem: Mystic Mayan Power Cloak modeled here by Nigel & Helena:



Order yours here and be ready for the coming apocalypse...In fact, a cloak that allows you:

To survive the Apocalypse in style!

Raise your Spiritual Vibration!

Begin an Exciting New Life!

Master the Power of the Ancients!

Harness Unlimited Love, Money & Power!

Marvel at the Anti-fungal, Anti-bacterial fabric that makes bathing & deodorant use obsolete!

Enjoy Instantaneous Enlightenment!

would make an awesome Christmas present!! And think what you'd save on wrapping paper!

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It occurred to me that I haven't had a Whedon Alert in awhile. So here's the trailer for his Avenger movie, coming in May.





An interview with Joss here where he discusses the movie.

Something fun from how to be a lady nerd - the Buffy singalong -- with James Marsters!





The article here

Now I realize this was an amateur video and shot from a distance, but I couldn't help thinking how much better a job I would have done...especially opposite James Marsters.

What's coming up next for Joss? Here's the press release:



Bellwether Pictures proudly announces the completion of principal photography on MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, a modern version of Shakespeare's classic comedy adapted and directed by Joss Whedon (Marvel's upcoming THE AVENGERS, "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog"). Filmed in just 12 days entirely on location in exotic Santa Monica, the film features a stellar cast of beloved (or soon to be beloved) actors – some of them veterans of Shakespearean theater, some completely new to the form. But all dedicated to the idea that this story bears retelling, that this dialogue is as fresh and intoxicating as any being written, and that the joy of working on a passion project surrounded by dear friends, admired colleagues and an atmosphere of unabashed rapture far outweighs their hilariously miniature paychecks.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING is the first feature from Bellwether, a micro-studio created by Joss Whedon and Kai Cole for the production of small, independent narratives for all media, embracing a DIY ethos and newer technologies for, in this particular case, a somewhat older story.

Shot in glorious black and white by Jay Hunter (PAPER HEART, "Dollhouse"), the film stars Amy Acker (CABIN IN THE WOODS, "Alias") and Alexis Denisof ("How I Met Your Mother", "Angel") as Beatrice and Benedick, the world's least likely lovers headed for their inevitable tumble into love. As Joss Whedon puts it: "The text is to me a deconstruction of the idea of love, which is ironic, since the entire production is a love letter – to the text, to the cast, even to the house it's shot in." The supporting cast includes Nathan Fillion ("Castle", WAITRESS) as Dogberry, Clark Gregg (AVENGERS, IRON MAN) as Leonato, Fran Kranz (CABIN IN THE WOODS, "Dollhouse") as Claudio and Reed Diamond ("Franklin & Bash", MONEYBALL) as Don Pedro.

The film was produced by Whedon, line-produced by Nathan Kelly and M. Elizabeth Hughes, and co-produced by Kai Cole and Danny Kaminsky. The super-impressive cast is listed below. Full tech credits (for the extraordinary crew) will be up shortly.
The Players: Amy Acker - Beatrice Alexis Denisof - Benedick Nathan Fillion - Dogberry Clark Gregg - Leonato Reed Diamond - Don Pedro Fran Kranz - Claudio Sean Maher - Don John

For more, go here

Shot in TWELVE days? I can't wait to see this. I love that Joss uses ensemble casts. I can't help but think that the actors must LOVE doing these spur of the moment movies!!!

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Now, here's one of my favorite contests: Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction Award. This year it goes to David Guterson for his fifth novel, Ed King. Here's a sample:

"these sorts of gyrations and five-sense choreographies, with variations on Ed's main themes, played out episodically between 10 pm and 10 am, when Diane said, 'Let's shower'"; and "she took him by the wrist and moved the base of his hand into her pubic hair until his middle fingertip settled on the no-man's-land between her 'front parlour' and 'back door' (those were the quaint, prudish terms of her girlhood)".

Yikes!

Check here for samples from the other nominees. These weren't as awesomely bad as some have been in the past.

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I will leave you with this bit of frivolity: The twenty-five funniest auto corrects of Damn You Auto Correct's first year. See them in all their glory here

What about you? Got any auto correct bloopers to share?

Oh, and one other thing. Wednesday, I'll be sharing my mom's famous fudge recipe over at the fifteen days of Christmas on pal's Lizzie T Leaf's blog . It was a tossup as to whether I'd post the fudge recipe or my new favorite-- gingerbread pineapple upside down cake. Maybe if there's interest out there, I'll post that here next week!! What do you say?





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Thy shall not suck

Mario here:

Now that we're done with NaNoWriMo for 2011, the next question is: what to do with your literary masterpiece?

Simple answer: Get it published.

Uff! As daunting as writing a book can be, we've all learned that getting published is the next roll of barbed wire to crawl through. There's the ordeal of query letters and rejections, false starts with a bad agent, dashed hopes with a pussy-footing editor and publishing house...and the waiting, the waiting...for months...years maybe for something positive to happen.

Once you've done the run-around with the big New York publishing houses, you might look to a mid-sized press, and then smaller presses. Going for prestige, as it were.

And there's the siren call of self-publishing. At least you have a book in print. If that's all you want, then go for it. But if you want to reach the masses and perhaps make a little money, then self-publication presents huge challenges of its own. One of which is distribution for the mountain of books in your garage. A lot of those trials are spewed in this rant posted to another blog regarding self-publication:

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I work as an event coordinator/marketer for an independent bookstore that has been inundated in recent years with self-published authors looking for shelf space and store events for their books. We get – and I am not exaggerating – between 400 and 500 requests a year from self-published authors asking us to stock and promote their book. On a slow week, we get 5-10 requests; on a busy week we'll get 20.

If you ask most indie bookstore event coordinators about self-published authors, you will probably see some combination of eye-rolling, teeth grinding, or derisive laughter. Self-published authors are the bane of our existence. There are so, SO many would-be self-published authors that would do well to read this piece, and read it thoroughly. And then second-guess their decision to self-publish. But I know they won't.

Why do I loathe (most) self-published authors? Here's why. And I'm saying all this so maybe – MAYBE – there's a self-published author out there who will read this and then understand what they are up against when it comes to marketing their self-published book through their friendly neighborhood indie bookstore.

1. Their books suck. There is no other way to say this. Bad writing, bad grammar, bad spelling, bad plot/character development, bad subject matter, etc. Don't even get me started on do-it-yourself cover art. The book is bad. It's bad. That's why it couldn't get published by a traditional publisher. But you can't tell the self-published author of this monstrosity that their book is substandard and unsellable. Because they would act like you've just told them their brand-new firstborn child is ugly. Hey, I get it. You put a lot of work into this thing, and you ended up with an ugly baby. But that doesn't change the baby's looks, or the book's ability to sell.

2. 90% of self-published authors are rude, pushy, completely self-absorbed, and relentless. This is my BOOK! It's my MASTERPIECE. How dare you say it is not worthy of being stocked in your store, unless I pay for consignment?? How dare you, to not jump up and down and beg me to do an event for this book – even though I am not really from around here, I have no friends, and the book has only a very narrow niche appeal since it's about my past life experience as a 16th century vampire with a skin condition?? Some of them don't even bother to pitch the book themselves, but hire some poor hapless "freelance literary agent" to do it for them. Then relentlessly prod the "agent" to get them an event. THE BOOK SUCKS. IT'S NOT HAPPENING.

3. Self-published authors show a really appalling level of self-non-awareness. EVERY self-published author thinks they are the next Stephenie Meyer/James Patterson/That Guy on Amazon Who Sold a Million E-Books. EVERY self-published author thinks their memoir about going on a hiking trip to Alaska where nothing particularly dramatic happened is "special" and that "people will love it!" EVERY self-published author thinks they have written the new breakout bestseller, YA sensation, Great American Novel. I hear the same words from the same types of people over and over and over, about how their books are "different." The books are never different. 50% of them have badly Photoshopped covers and are printed in Comic Sans.

You wrote a book. Congratulations. Let me make this clear. WRITING THE BOOK AND PAYING SOMEONE TO PRINT IT FOR YOU DOES NOT MAKE YOU SPECIAL. If the book is actually good – and in the several thousand requests I've processed, I've seen three or four that actually were – THAT makes you special. But please, PLEASE stop acting like paying AuthorHouse or Smashwords or any other vanity publisher a few thousand dollars entitles you to anything. It doesn't. Not the adoration of untold legions of fans. Not the respect and admiration of your local indie bookseller. Not sales from your friends (who 80% of the time, from what I can see, end up with free copies rather than purchased ones). Not attention from local or national media. Self-publishing means that instead of the book manuscript being stuck in a drawer, there's a 99% chance you'll end up with boxes of unsold books in your garage. Fewer than 1% of self-published authors sell more than 150 copies of their book.
Please think about all this, self-publishing authors, before you give your credit card number to Smashwords.

Whew! Edan Lepucki at The Millions adds her two cents about why not to self-publish.

But the game changer is e-publishing and the growing availability of e-readers. No more stacks of books to buy. No more cranky bookstore managers to pester. While a lot of writers have flung their scribblery poo into cyberspace, e-publishing has given many worthwhile authors a second chance. The loudest screamer in this argument is of course, Joe Konrath.



But closer to home, is Lynda Hilburn's experience of buying back her book, The Vampire Shrink, and repackaging the manuscript as an ebook to restart interest in her work (which became an Amazon bestseller!), and garnered her a new publishing contract and this nifty new cover. You could say that both Konrath and Hilburn had the advantage of a known name.





But that's not always the case. For example, Elle Lothlorien, frustrated in trying to find a home for her thriller, gave up on the traditional route. She instead self-published a romantic comedy, The Frog Prince, on Amazon and made their bestseller list, elbowing aside competitors from traditional publishers. But there are others whose Internet sales can be counted in the teens.





With tens of thousands of choices, how do people chose an ebook?
Surprisingly, the decision is not too different from folks buying a traditional paper copy off the shelves.

The Big Five Reasons people buy a book

1) People are familiar with the author.
2) Word-of-mouth recommendations.
3) The cover.
4) The back cover copy (or the description on the website).
5) Reviews and press.

For you as yet unpublished, item 1 you can't do much about. 2 and 5 are iffy. In all three cases, learning the fine art of Blatant Self-Promotion is key. But the cover and back cover copy are yours alone to create, or screw-up.

Remember that adage: Don't judge a book by its cover?

Well, it ain't true. First of all, a good cover catches the eye and that's a huge plus. A cover tells readers what kind of a story to expect. Romantic comedy? Hard-boiled noir? Political thriller? A bad cover, and especially with self-published work, a cover that says Photoshopped will mark your work as amateurish and in need of serious editing. In other words to the reader, pass.

Thoughts or experience with ebooks, both as a writer or reader, are welcome. Until then, keep your head down as you crawl through the barbed wire.

Still Digesting?

One big holiday down, how many more to go? 'Tis the season.

Three things before I share some tidbits from my web perusing this week--

First, Mario's blog entry on Monday got an A+ from me. Good job, pal!

Second, our mutual friend and fellow Leaguer , Stacia Kane , is recovering from a horrific couple of months in a UK hospital. It's good to have you back, Stacia. We missed you.

And third, pal Cherie Priest's Boneshaker is headed for the big screen. Details here from Variety.
Congratulations, Cherie!!
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HBO's first look at Season 2, Game of Thrones


Season 2 - In Production
New episodes return in April.

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A sad note from Shelf Awareness:

Anne McCaffrey, author of nearly 100 books, co-author of more than 30 and best known for the Dragonriders of Pern series, died on Monday ( Nov. 21) at her home in Ireland. She was 85.

McCaffrey was the first woman to win a Hugo Award (in 1968) and the first woman to win a Nebula (in 1969). She was the daughter of an army colonel, was born in Cambridge, Mass., and grew up in Montclair, N.J. She was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2006.

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There was an interesting article in yesterday's WSJ about rethinking the book signing. Readings are out. Evidently, readers want to be entertained with power point presentations and stand up routines. What do you think? I do know I've come to realize after eight books that I must have some remarks prepared before each signing--which can be a challenge since I'm basically a pretty dull girl. The good people who come to see me every time deserve my best effort and new material.

So I put the question to you out there: what do you want to see/hear at a signing?

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And another topic near and dear to a writer's heart-- rejection. Flavorwire offers up some of the harshest rejections sent to the likes of Gertrude Stein, Ursula LeGuin, Kurt Vonnegut, Vladimir Nabokov, and my personal favorite—Hunter S .Thompson's note to his biographer, William McKeen :

McKeen, you shit-eating freak. I warned you not to write that vicious trash about me Now you better get fitted for a black eyepatch in case one of yours gets gouged out by a bushy-haired stranger in a dimly-lit parking lot. How fast can you learn Braille? You are scum. HST

So see, my writer friends,no matter the rejection-- it could be worse!

What's new in your world?

Falling off the mountain

Mario here:

I get somewhat embarrassed when I'm on panels at fantasy/sci-fi cons, because as I've mentioned before, unlike most of my fellow urban fantasy writers, I didn't read much fantasy, horror, and science fiction during my formative years. Most of the other panelists recite lists of their favorites and I nod, pretending that I'm in the know.

My fiction reading back then was split between the pulps I bought at the used book store and the pot-boiler thrillers my dad brought home. My father would treat himself to a new book and he'd spend the weekend crashed on the couch devouring the latest by Follet, Forsyth, Clavell, Crichton, etc.,

I look back on all the books I've read and can pick off the few that really touched me. Now I have to acknowledge one novel--largely forgotten--that did key into me when I first read it. The Eiger Sanction by Trevanian.

Art professor and collector Dr. Jonathan Hemlock moonlights as an assassin for CII, a supersecret cell within the CIA. His job is carry out sanctions, killings to avenge the murders of friendly spies. A "retired" mountain climber, Hemlock is blackmailed into scaling the treacherous Eiger mountain and sanctioning one of his fellow climbers...unless he's murdered first.

As a young man in my early twenties, chomping at the bit for manly adventure, this book engaged me with its thrills, sophisticated patter and exotic tone. My best friend Ron and I would grab rope and carabiners to climb and rappel the local hills, all the time arguing which of us would make the better Jonathan Hemlock, outfoxing the bad guys and bedding femme fatales. What gave the book its cultured tone were the offhanded references to things it sometimes took years to discover what the author meant. Such as @font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } @font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } café au lait. That was in the prehistoric days before the Internet and Starbucks. (Back then, coffee was either regular or decaf--or Sanka bleah! ) Even the humongous dictionaries in the libraries were of no help. After weeks of searching, I stumbled upon a reference to @font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } @font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1café au lait and mystery solved.

Laphroaig was another challenge. It was Hemlock's choice of hootch and he asked for it frequently. Even Hemlock's enemies knew he drank Laphroaig. But no one I knew had a clue about Laphroaig. It took me two decades before I learned it was a peaty, single malt scotch. About that time I had moved to Denver from Fresno and my first priority in civilization was to find said beverage. Which I did, and I bought several miniatures to send to Ron for his 40th.

Many years (and bottles of hootch) later, I've come to revisit The Eiger Sanction. Why this book? I didn't even bother to keep a copy and there have been other books that I've continually endorsed.

I was curious to find out if Eiger retained its magic. Right before I was first published, I thumbed through a library copy and thought the style seemed dated. Then recently, I decided to give the book another read to see what had made it a bestselling sensation back in the 70s.

Here at Biting-Edge we do a lot of things, all of them consensual and mostly legal, but what we don't do is review books. We do, however, pass along recommendations for books that we enjoyed. I don't feel comfortable offering public critiques on the works of my fellow writers. Bad karma. You want to read negative press then pop on over to Amazon and get your fill of ignoramuses thinking they're being erudite and clever.

We writers of long fiction get a lot of shall not rules. Thy shall not start a book with the weather. Thy shall not deviate from a single Point-of-View and least of all, ever ever use authorial POV. Thy shall not touch backstory info dumps with a ten foot pole. Thy shall not use big words. And on and on.


Trevanian stomped all over these rules.

The Eiger Sanction, blockbuster commercial megaseller, starts with...the weather. Fitting as to mountain climber Jonathan Hemlock, the capriciousness of the elements could turn a jaunt up the slope from pleasant to miserable to deadly.

Trevanian weaves in and out of third person POVs and even slips into the royal we.

He drops backstory info dumps by the ton, which explain the why behind the story and stoke the drama.

Big words? We're taught that a reader's attention is so fragile that any mental bump will turn into a yawning excuse to toss the book and play with razors. So keep the vocabulary at mid-grade or below. Obtuse or unusual words will kill your story (though that hasn't hurt the career of China Miéville). Trevanian treats us to Laphroaig, scrofulous, abacination, lepidote, morganatic, and more.

Then what works? Everything. Trevanian hews to a clear story question. He is a master at setting. Pacing. Descriptions. Internalisations. All of his characters are motivated and layered. The emotional and physical stakes are sharpened on every page. Every passage of dialog is a tug of war.

Moreover, the book is a harvest of fresh writing.

***
Jonathan simply opened his eyes, and he was awake. Calm and happy. For the first time in years there was no blurred and viscous interphase between sleeping and waking. He stretched luxuriously, arching his back and extending his limbs until every muscle danced with strain. He felt like shouting, like making a living noise. His leg touched a damp place on the sheet, and he smiled. Jemima was not in bed, but her place was still warm and her pillow was scented lightly with her perfume, and with the perfume of her.

***
He looked across the up-tilted meadow to the gloomy north face of the Eiger. The unstable warmth of the weightless mountain sunlight was puffed away time and again by wisps of crisp highland air.
Touched only once a day and briefly by the sun, the dark concave face hovered malignantly above him, looking as though it had been scooped out of the body of the mountain by some olympian shovel, its brittle gray-black crescent rim cutting into the glittering blue of the sky.

***
Even after the crack petered out and progress slowed, Jonathan's feeling of indomitability persisted. Each square meter of face was a gameboard of tactics, a combat against the unrelenting, mindless opposition of gravity in which the rock was a Turkish ally, ready to change sides if the going got rough.

What was refreshing is that the story lacks the strained earnestness of most modern thrillers--must stop and waterboard al Queda, eco-terrorists, rogue liberals, zombie fascists. Adding to the appeal of the book was the mystery behind the author, Trevanian, the pen name of the secretive writer and film scholar Rodney William Whittaker (1931-2005). As the word processor hadn't been invented yet, I can see Trevanian banging out his many manuscripts on a Selectric. As much as I appreciated Eiger, I can't say the same for all his later works. The Loo Sanction seemed a rushed sequel. Shibumi, his most acclaimed book, I couldn't get into. The Main I did enjoy as a superb mystery and I'll have to reread it.

PS Avoid the movie version starring Clint Eastwood. It's a casserole of 70's cheese.

We won't give you the bird

Mario here:

Hope you find plenty of turkey on your dinner table this Thursday. But you'll find no turkey of any kind this week on the Biting-Edge as we do Mondo pimpage!

To help solve your Christmas shopping dilemma, our ever thoughtful Jeanne invites you to check her out! Along with Melissa Mayhue and Lizzie T. Leaf...

Saturday, November 26, 11AM-3PM
Barnes & Noble Westminster
9370 Sheridan Blvd., Westminster, CO





More good news! The anthology, Tied with a Bow, featuring writer pal, Kimberly Frost, made the New York Times Bestseller list.











Back when in my pre-publication days, my sister passed along an ARC of Riding With The Queen by Seattle author Jennie Shortridge, and that book become one of my all-time favorite reads. Now ten years later (!!!) Jennie announces that her fifth book, Love Water Memory, will be published in spring 2013, by Simon & Schuster. That's a long time from now so to hold you over, Jennie offers the prologue.


With a planet of ideas begging for movie adaptation, Hollywood can often be very insular and navel gazing. In this case we have two movie projects on the same story: Snow White. Though I was certain I'd never be interested in any remake of this tale, both of these movies appear dazzling enough to make it to my must-see list. Sadly, in both cases, you must wait until 2012.

First we have a zany colorful retelling, Mirror, Mirror, with Julia Roberts as the evil Queen and Nathan Lane as her buffoonish minion.




Then in June 2012, we have this dark version with Snow White as a Joan of Arc character pitted against the evil Queen (an icy Charlize Theron) in Snow White and the Huntsman. Villainy was never so pretty.



Have a Happy Thanksgiving! Eat well!

Sniff-sniff-hack-hack

Have a terrible cold so my brain is too fuzzy to be very coherent. You can tell I'm sick because I missed not only critique Tuesday night but dinner with pal Cherie Priest who is in town for a signing. I hate colds.

Anyway, here's the official Hunger Games trailer just released:


Photo: Lionsgate




And an article from MTV.com with more teasers from the film.



From Shelf Awareness:

BookBrowse.com recently completed its biennial survey of 3,400 readers, including members (20%), newsletter subscribers (60%) and "organic visitors" (20%). Respondents were predominantly female, most over 35 years old and with above average education (75% have a bachelors degree, 40% have a masters or higher). Some highlights from the survey:


Reading Habits

Respondents split equally between those who read e-books at least sometimes, and those who rarely or never do. Over two-thirds still read print frequently.

About half of those who read electronically own a Kindle. Tablets are the next most popular, followed by the Nook.

Buying Habits

90% buy at least one book each month, with 54% buying 3-plus, 27% buying 6-plus.

Frequency of visits to bookstores online, and libraries both online and in person, remains unchanged versus 2009; but the percentage saying they visit a store in person less than once a month has risen 5% to 24% since 2007.

Talking About Books
67% recommend three or more books each month.

More than 30% write reviews or blog, most for fun, some for a living.

8% are librarians or booksellers (and a further 8% volunteer in the library).

Book Clubs

Online book clubs are growing in popularity but in-person book clubs dominate.

Two-thirds of book clubs plan their reading 2-3 months in advance or less.

Overall, book clubs skew towards newer fiction but most read a wide range.

Two-thirds wait for a less expensive format to become available.

85% say they read books by local authors at least occasionally.

Very few book clubs feel they must have a reading guide, but most appreciate them.

Technology

65% regularly use social networking sites, ranging from 95% penetration among 18-34 year olds, to 37% for those aged over 75.

Facebook dominates, followed by GoodReads. LibraryThing and Shelfari trail.

Even though two-thirds use social networking, only 25% use it to keep up with websites. E-mail remains the preferred vehicle to stay in touch.

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So as writers, what should we take from this? It's a very small sampling but it looks like people are still reading paper books though at least half read e-books at least occasionally. The percentage of those who visit a bookstore in person less than once a month rose to 24%. That does not bode well for brick and mortar stores. People talk about the books they read, recommending them to others or participating in book clubs which often wait to read a book until a less expensive format is made available. 95% of 18-34 year olds regularly use social networking sites. Facebook dominates.

As an aside, Shelf Awareness as well as Publishers Marketplace are two reference tools that are available to every writer. Shelf Awareness does not charge for a daily newsletter and can be joined by going here. Publishers Marketplace has both free and fee-based reports available. Check it out here .


Everybody ready for Thanksgiving? We'll be out gorging ourselves like everyone else next week so no Biting Edge on Thursday. May you and yours have a wonderful holiday. And may you steer clear of the damned cold germ...[image error]

Pimping the ladies.

Mario here,

They say news comes in threes. And this week, we're happy to share three bits of @font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1good great news.

Eins. Riding on the coat tails of last week's blog about Steampunk, I have to mention this forthcoming appearance by the queen of Steampunk, Cherie Priest at the Broadway Book Mall, Wednesday, Nov 16, 7PM.




A Nebula and Hugo Award nominee and dedicated fashionista, Cherie will be signing her newest novel, Ganymede.

Zwei. Superbrain and fellow oenophile, Bonnie Ramthun, just signed a new contract for a...well, let's have her do the honors:

I'm very happy to announce that I have a four-book deal with Grosset & Dunlap publishing for my LEGENDS OF CENTERVILLE middle-grade series. My agent, Becca Stumpf of Prospect Agency, did an amazing job in landing the deal. The first novel in the series is scheduled for release in March 2013.

Ever classy and effervescent, Bonnie won't dwell on her tortuous and frustrating sojourn in the writing game. She's weathered enough setbacks to demoralize the faint-hearted and less committed. Let's jump through the hoops. A contract. Years with no contract. Her concept for a TV series Gamers gathered teasers from Tinseltown that ended in bupkis. Then a second big contract for the YA mystery The White Gates. Awards. Then no contract. Now's she back at it. In the ring. Hooking and gouging like the literary champ she is.




Drei. To survive in this writing biz you gotta be, if nothing else, nimble and clever. Long-time mystery writing pal CJ Lyons proves she's all of that and more. For her efforts, she got a major shout-out from USA Today for a three-book deal with Minotaur Books to repackage her bestselling self-published book Blind Faith.


CJ can tell you plenty about the trials and stumbles on her way to, and in the midst of, getting published. After her last contract ended, she decided to cultivate her literary efforts by self-publishing her manuscripts as ebooks. The books did well enough to catch the eye of Minotaur, and seeking to bet on a winning horse, they signed her on. Go CJ!