Katherine Nabity's Blog, page 201
October 18, 2014
Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon, October 2014
Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon
Readathon Celebration Giveaway!
To celebrate a day of reading, I’m giving away a book from Entangled Continua Publishing. Readathon participation not required! The prize is winner’s choice of:
(1) signed trade paperback copy of Lucinda at the Window by Katherine Nabity
(1) signed trade paperback of PHYSIC by Eric Nabity
(1) signed trade paperback of Luck for Hire by Katherine & Eric Nabity
(1) ebook combo pack including the expanded editions of Model Species *and* Divine Fire (available in most major formats)
Book descriptions can be found on the sidebar. US shipping only I’m afraid for the physical books.
**Enter Here**
Readathon Stack & Updates
Also “The Fall of the House of Escher” by Greg Bear, this week’s Deal Me In story.
Wrap-Up Meme
Which hour was most daunting for you? I didn’t make it past hour 20. I was sitting straight up in a well-lit room with 80’s music blaring through the headphones, an issue of Hawkeye open, and was happily asleep.
Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? I think light contemporary mysteries are the way to go. Not a genre I know too much about yet. Maybe I’ll have recommendations in April.
Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Maybe a few less photo-dependent challenges. I guess I’m in the minority, being cell-phone-less, but for me snapping a picture and uploading it is about 10-15 minutes of time.
What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? Everything was nice and smooth, very well run. There was always someone “official” around.
How many books did you read? Finished one in-progress, read two cover-to-cover, and read a few short stories.
What were the names of the books you read? The Surprise Party, The Bullet Catch, Penn & Teller’s Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends
Which book did you enjoy most? Loved The Bullet Catch
Which did you enjoy least? Was unimpressed with The Surprise Party
If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? So, when is the next one? Very likely to read again. I might consider hosting a challenge next time.
Introduction Meme
What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Tempe, AZ. Still dark here.
Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? The Bullet Catch – It’s the second in a series. The protagonist is a working magician as well as an amateur sleuth.
Which snack are you most looking forward to? Pumpkin Spice M&Ms. Sorry, world. I love the pumpkin spice trend.
Tell us a little something about yourself! In the past year, my husband and I have shifted to self-publishing our novels. It’s been a scary, but satisfying endeavor.
If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to? It’s been a few years since I’ve been able to do the whole day. I want to make sure I get up often to move and I want to quickly ditch book that’s not quite working out. I wanted to get a good night’s sleep, but my allergies made that an impossibility. Will probably have to nap later.
Pinned: Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon, October 2014
Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon
Readathon Celebration Giveaway!
To celebrate a day of reading, I’m giving away a book from Entangled Continua Publishing. The prize is winner’s choice of:
(1) signed trade paperback copy of Lucinda at the Window by Katherine Nabity
(1) signed trade paperback of PHYSIC by Eric Nabity
(1) signed trade paperback of Luck for Hire by Katherine & Eric Nabity
(1) ebook combo pack including the expanded editions of Model Species *and* Divine Fire (available in most major formats)
Book descriptions can be found on the sidebar. US shipping only I’m afraid for the physical books.
**Enter Here**
Readathon Stack & Updates
Also “The Fall of the House of Escher” by Greg Bear, this week’s Deal Me In story.
Introduction Meme
What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Tempe, AZ. Still dark here.
Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? The Bullet Catch – It’s the second in a series. The protagonist is a working magician as well as an amateur sleuth.
Which snack are you most looking forward to? Pumpkin Spice M&Ms. Sorry, world. I love the pumpkin spice trend.
Tell us a little something about yourself! In the past year, my husband and I have shifted to self-publishing our novels. It’s been a scary, but satisfying endeavor.
If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to? It’s been a few years since I’ve been able to do the whole day. I want to make sure I get up often to move and I want to quickly ditch book that’s not quite working out. I wanted to get a good night’s sleep, but my allergies made that an impossibility. Will probably have to nap later.
October 13, 2014
Magic Monday ~ More “Seasonal” Magic
I like Mondays. On Monday, I am refreshed from the weekend and exhilarated by the possibilities of the week ahead. I also like magic. I like its history, its intersection with technology, and its crafty use of human nature. I figured I’d combine the two and make a Monday feature that is truly me: a little bit of magic and a look at the week ahead.
Part 1 of a performance from the delightfully creepy Rob Zabrecky:
What Am I Reading?
Looking forward to Dewey’s this Saturday! What will I be reading this week?
Under Stars by KJ Kabza
The Bullet Catch by John Gaspard
Penn & Teller’s Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends
The Surprise Party by R.L. Stine
I’m planning on a giveaway raffle during the readathon too, so check back on Saturday!
What Am I Writing?
Last week was light on words. I cleaned up my character and place bibles for the Luck books, rewrote a couple scenes, and am generally doing a read-through/re-organization of scenes.
October 11, 2014
Deal Me In, Week 41 ~ “Eagle”
Hosted by Jay @ Bibliophilopolis
“Eagle” by David Copperfield
Card picked: Ace of Hearts
From: David Copperfield’s Beyond Imagination
Thoughts: Each of the Copperfield anthologies opens with a story by the man himself. After starting both anthologies in January for Deal Me In, it’s taken me *this* long to end up reading one!
Adam is a loner. While other third-graders are playing kickball and other sports, Adam is content to make up stories and build things. A favorite among the others is the tale of Adam’s invisible eagle. To avoid being overly teased, Adam tells a lie: The invisible eagle is real. Now all Adam has to do is prove it to them.
While Adam isn’t labeled as such, this is sort of a quintessential magician story. Magicians tell the lie and then make it seem true, whether it’s making cards appear and disappear or devising ways to make an invisible eagle seem real.
The other question, of course, is did David Copperfield really write the story? I’m going to say ‘yes.’ It’s short and simply told. In his intro to the story, Copperfield admits that the story is very much like what happened to him as a kid. If it wasn’t written by David Copperfield, the illusion is pretty good.
Is This Your Card?
I figured it was appropriate to linked up Copperfield’s version of the four aces. I believe I’ve included Ricky Jay’s four queens in the past, but I’m not sure about Copperfield’s aces. In any case, this performance includes a bit about Copperfield’s childhood which dovetails nicely with the story.
October 10, 2014
Fright Fest Update ~ The New Girl
I missed the R.L. Stine/teen horror phenomena in the nineties. For me, the nostalgia of these books, or at least The New Girl which I read last week, is in the setting. Published in 1989, it is just *so* 80s. At least in the original printing I have. I’ve heard that new editions have updated references as well as grittier covers. I’m glad my Fear Street editions have the ditto machine still intact! Honestly, I was surprised at how much fun The New Girl was to read. Cory Brooks, our smitten hero, is a bit of a bone head, but still likeable. The plot twist was appropriately sensational and I enjoy the concept of horror novels that are all set in place. I’ll be reading Fear Street #2 next week, probably during Dewey’s Readathon.
Actually, what is up with the new covers? They’re a little racy for book that only has kissing and non-graphic “excitement.”
October 9, 2014
Review ~ The Kiss Murder
Bestsellers in Mehmet Murat Somer’s home country of Turkey and set to take the world by storm, the arrival of the Hop-Çiki-Yaya mysteries is cause for excitement (and lip gloss!) here in the United States. A male computer technician by day and a transvestite hostess of Istanbul’s most notorious nightclub by night, the unnamed heroine of The Kiss Murder is the most charming and hilarious sleuth to debut in recent memory. When Buse, one of the “girls”at her club, fears someone is after private letters from a former lover, she comes to her boss for help. The next day Buse is dead and our girl must find the murderers before they find her. Fortunately, she is well armed with beauty, wit, the wardrobe of Audrey Hepburn, and expert Thai kickboxing skills. With a page-turning plot and an irresistibly charming protagonist, The Kiss Murder is sure to attract mystery lovers and nightlife mavens alike. (via Goodreads)
I was intrigued by the main character of this mystery: a transvestite amateur detective looking into crimes within her community.
First, I have a couple of issues:
Issue #1 – Somer isn’t a transvestite or transgendered. While obviously a writer doesn’t *have* to have first-hand knowledge of what they write about, I’m taking it on faith that he’s giving me an accurate portrayal of the cross-dressing and trans community in Turkey. It’s a tricky thing when writing outside yourself to get it right.
Issue #2 – The translation. In relation to the above, the concepts of cross-dressing and being transgendered are munged together and used semi-interchangeably in the novel. I wonder if this is a problem in the translation. In general, I found the writing choppy. In the case of dialogue, it weirdly felt like a bad dub, a problem I’m never encountered when reading.
On a story level:
Our narrator’s voice felt a little forced sometimes. Maybe I’m just not enough of a girl, but the continual swooning over fashion and hot-bodied men was tiring. The plot was okay, but the end seemed inevitable despite the main character’s actions. This was an okay book, it read quickly, but it wasn’t super-awesome.
Publisher: Penguin Books
Publication date: December 30th 2008 (first published 2003)
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
October 7, 2014
Short Review ~ Film in Five Seconds
This book was provided to me by Quercus Publishing via Edelweiss.
Film in Five Seconds by Matteo Civaschi & Gianmarco Milesi
In today’s jet-fuelled, caffeine-charged, celebrity-a-minute world, who actually has the time to watch a film from start to finish? Let’s face it, life’s too short. Now, Film in Five Seconds lets you fast-forward to the best bits so you can enjoy all your favourite movie moments in – literally – moments.
Design studio H-57 have taken over 150 iconic films and cut away all the useless details, boiling them down into ingenious pictograms and creating hilarious visual snapshots that are witty, provocative and to the point.
From Batman to Bridget Jones, Grease to The Godfather, King Kong to The King’s Speech, via slapstick, sci-fi and superheroes, you’ll laugh out loud as you identify some of the greatest screen moments of all time. This is the perfect book for film buffs and anyone with a sense of humour or a short attention span. (via Goodreads)
Less a book to read and more a solo party game, Film in Five Seconds presents classic and popular current movies in the form of pictograms. Sometimes the pictogram shows plot, sometimes an iconic movie moment. The fun is obviously in trying to figure out what movie is being represented. After a few “easy” ones, I started to learn some of the pictogram vocabulary, but it might have been nice to have a minor “glossary” of what certain arrows and equal signs meant. On I whole, I think the short-attention-span pitch sells this book short (no pun intended, for once). These puzzles are quite clever, take more than five seconds to solve, and deserve more than five seconds of appreciation. This would be a fun gift for a film buff.
Publisher: Quercus Publishing Plc
Publication date: October 7th 2014
Genre: Er…
Why did I choose to read this book? Fun during a readathon.
October 6, 2014
Magic Monday ~ Automata Fit for Halloween
I like Mondays. On Monday, I am refreshed from the weekend and exhilarated by the possibilities of the week ahead. I also like magic. I like its history, its intersection with technology, and its crafty use of human nature. I figured I’d combine the two and make a Monday feature that is truly me: a little bit of magic and a look at the week ahead.
In one form or another, automata have been around since ancient times, doing work and as spectacles of engineering. It was Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin’s use of them in his stage shows that solidified their connection to illusionists in the history of magic. Today, audiences are aware that there is very little “magical” about a machine, but this doesn’t mean that they aren’t beautiful and a little wonderful in design. In the age of electronically programmable robots, the purely mechanical automaton is work of art. And in the case of Thomas Kuntz, dark works of art.
I especially like the combination of illusions within several of Kuntz’s works.
There are a bunch more videos on the haxanthrobo YouTube channel including more behind the scenes looks.
What Am I Reading?
Last Winter We Parted by Fuminori Nakamura
Under Stars by KJ Kabza
What Am I Writing?
I had a good week of writing last week. I passed the 23K mark on In Need of Luck, adding over 4000 words. This week, the word count probably won’t be as good. I need to do a little bit of an organizational session and nail down some details, maybe even some rewriting.
October 4, 2014
Deal Me In, Week 40 ~ “A Cascade of Lies”
Hosted by Jay @ Bibliophilopolis
“A Cascade of Lies” by Steve Rasnic Tem
Card picked: Queen of Clubs
From: David Copperfield’s Beyond Imagination
Review:
When Alan and his brother Billy were seven and eight the boys began touring with their father. … their mother had claimed the doctor told her they were too frail. It was the only trick she’d ever pull.
But she could not stall Max forever, and the day finally came when the boys were onstage, dressed as girls, midgets, animals, specters, until Max promoted them to victims: target of the bullet-catching trick, a neck for the Sword of Damocles.
This is a dark story. It begins with a son questioning his father’s lies (because aren’t all magic tricks lies). As he gets older, Alan backs out of performing, a decision which leaves him guilt-ridden when his brother dies during an accident. Alan loses touch with his father, marries, and has a daughter. Unfortunately, he hasn’t outrun his father’s grasp. When his daughter starts asking about her famous grandfather, Alan’s life falls apart. The last several pages of this story descend into a phantasmagoria as Alan seeks out Max. This whole story felt like it could be a much longer work instead of 15 pages in a mass market paperback.
About the Author: Though well-published in the realm of speculative fiction, I’m not sure I’d ever heard of Steve Rasnic Tem before.
Is This Your Card?
The description of Max’s show reminded me of magician Richiardi Jr. His act pulled from a Grand Guignol tradition. Introduced here by the great Vincent Price.
October 1, 2014
Reread Review ~ The Haunting of Hill House
Four seekers have come to Hill House, a scary old abandoned mansion: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar who had been looking for an honestly haunted house all his life; Theodora, a lovely and lighthearted girl there mostly on a lark; Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill House; and Eleanor, a strange and lonely woman well acquainted with poltergeists and other psychic phenomena. At first their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable noises and slamming doors. But Hill House is gathering up powers and will soon choose one of them to make its own. (via Goodreads)
My Background with The Haunting of Hill House
The first time I read The Haunting of Hill House was in college, probably around twenty years ago. It was definitely during my freshman or sophomore year because I was living on the 5th floor of Pound Hall in a room across from the door to the stairwell. Since I was on the 5th floor, the number of people who used the stairs was nominal, but I could absolutely hear my fellow students coming and going. The room was also supposedly haunted. I’d hear the noise of a ball bouncing and once, as several of my friends were in my room for movie night, we heard knocking from inside my closet. We all noted it with a “well, that’s weird,” but none of us decided to investigate further.
I first heard about The Haunting of Hill House through Stephen King’s Danse Macabre. Happily, UNL’s library had a copy. I checked it out and settled in to read in spare moments. Which is how I ended up reading it one quiet night. And I was at the part where Eleanor and Theo are being terrorized in their room. Bang, Bang, BANG! And a group of my floormates emptied from the stairwell in a cacophony of feet on stairs and doors slamming. I nearly jumped out of my skin.
Notes
I’ve probably read The Haunting of Hill House three or four times since then. I’ve owned two copies. The last time I read it was with an eye on how Jackson creates tension with repetition and rhythm. This time I read it just to see what I could see.
Dr. Montague mentions three “real” hauntings: Ballechin House, Borley Rectory, and Glamis Castle. These tales are reflected in what Dr. Montague expects and what his wife “finds” during her automatic writing. Obviously, Jackson knew some of these tales.
Dr. Montague reads Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded:
It tells the story of a beautiful 15-year old maidservant named Pamela Andrews, whose country landowner master, Mr. B, makes unwanted advances towards her after the death of his mother, whose maid Pamela had been since age 12. Mr. B is infatuated with her, first by her looks and then her innocence and intelligence, but his high rank hinders him from proposing marriage. He abducts her, locks her up in one of his estates, and attempts to seduce and rape her. She rejects him continually, but starts to realize that she is falling in love with him. (via Wikipedia)
Which kind of parallels Eleanor’s journey. Pamela is super boring.
Eleanor has a persecution complex, as do other characters in Jackson’s works. (Indeed, Shirley Jackson herself was fairly neurotic and reclusive.)
Eleanor is literally damned before she leaves town.
I forget how much of this novel takes place outside of the actual house. We have Eleanor leaving home and imagining three separate futures for herself before ever reaching Hill House. Many of the daytime incidents occur outside. It isn’t just the house that’s haunted.
I meant to take more notes, but by the last 50-75 pages of the book, I was totally sucked in.
Discussion
Do you see Hill House’s horrors as being different for its male and female inhabitants? Any gender issues at play here? Considering Eleanor’s experience and Theo sort of being caught on the periphery of that, Dr. Montague and Luke get off relatively scot-free. The men sort of have to live with the responsibility of what happened at Hill House, Montague as the planner and Luke as the property owner.
What’s up with the ghostly disturbances in this book? Eleanor’s blooming telekinetic abilities, real-deal ghosties, a big mess of unreliable characters? What say you? Personally, my debate has always been between Eleanor and the house. Aside from some distant narration at the beginning and the end, the novel is told through Eleanor’s eyes. Eleanor is pretty unbalanced, but I don’t think the house is innocent. Even if it’s not haunted, it’s unsettling and that could put a person on edge.
The Haunting of Hill House was first published in 1959. What aspects of 1950s culture or society do you see the novel critiquing, criticizing, or commenting on? It’s really hard for me to decide on what 50s culture is. Any idea I have is based on popular culture which isn’t entirely real. On one hand, Eleanor seems to be the prototypical good girl. She’s innocent and has dutifully taken care of her mother for years. On the other hand, during those years, she’s missed the milestones that her sister has hit: husband, child, house. This would seem to open up the spinster spot for Eleanor, but she still wants better for herself. Unfortunately, that ambition isn’t rewarded. Far from it.
Most Gothic novels are written in an ornate style, but Jackson chooses a simplistic style with a conversational word choice. What does it add to this harrowing tale? Do you find that it detracts in some places? I’m not sure I’ve considered The Haunting of Hill House to be a Gothic novel. There’s sort of a lack of Romanticism which is usually a hallmark of Gothic fiction. Although, it’s almost as though Eleanor *wants* to be in a Gothic novel. As for the language used, I have no problem with it at all.
The Big One: what is it about Hill House that allows it to consume Eleanor’s sanity so efficiently? Or, what is it about Eleanor that allows Hill House to consume her sanity? Again, for me, it’s always been a combination of Eleanor and Hill House. She has a vague ambition, a fantasy of some other life she could live. She’s unloved and unappreciated and pretty much alone. She’d be the perfect target for a cult. Instead there’s Hill House with its own kind of twisted charisma ready to step in.
