Katherine Nabity's Blog, page 213

Free eBook Offer – Luck for Hire – Ends 3/31/14

Luck for Hire will be the fourth novel from us to make it into the world (not counting the Apothic editions of Model Species and Divine Fire). We started working on this book in late June 2010. It is the most mainstream of our works, falling somewhere on the very edge of urban fantasy.

If science is a product of observation, then magic is the manipulation of what isn’t or can’t be observed. Private investigators are often generously described as “down on their luck.” They are the good guys, helping the helpless, regardless of the cost. Sherlock Holmes rarely accepted payment from clients of little means.

Aleister Luck, despite his magic, has not had celebrities and nobility knock on his door. A native of Las Vegas, he gambles at the casinos for pocket money when he isn’t finding clients in need. On a whim, he investigates the law firm of Devine, Chance & Merit and runs afoul of the greatest danger to his magic: his snoopy ex-girlfriend.

Felix Benes’s gene-based cancer diagnostic will recommend against many profitable but useless or harmful treatments. His funding has been cut and he fears he’s being hunted. While Dana Spelman, his attorney at DCM, evaluates the viability of his case, he disappears. Then, she attracts the attention of the sort of men that might make someone disappear. As Dana evades them, she runs into her gambling-addicted loser ex-boyfriend.

As they uncover the labyrinthine conspiracy behind Benes’s disappearance, Luck’s magic will struggle against Dana’s efforts to survive.

At this time, we plan on only releasing Luck for Hire as part of Amazon’s KDP Select program. This means that we’ll run occasional sales and maybe a freebie day once in a while, but generally it’s going to be around the $2.99-$3.99 mark. But! If you’re a reviewer, blogger, or even just a friend of mine, fill out the form and I’ll hook you up with a PDF or .mobi copy. No strings attached! Review only if you feel like it. I always appreciate feedback and I’m adverse to drama. ;)

Since we’re going Kindle Select with this one, the offer only extends until publication–which is probably tomorrow, April 1st. (No foolin’!)

If your cookies are disabled, here is a link to the form!

Free eBook Offer – Luck for Hire

Luck for Hire will be the fourth novel from us to make it into the world (not counting the Apothic editions of Model Species and Divine Fire). We started working on this book in late June 2010. It is the most mainstream of our works, falling somewhere on the very edge of urban fantasy.

If science is a product of observation, then magic is the manipulation of what isn’t or can’t be observed. Private investigators are often generously described as “down on their luck.” They are the good guys, helping the helpless, regardless of the cost. Sherlock Holmes rarely accepted payment from clients of little means.

Aleister Luck, despite his magic, has not had celebrities and nobility knock on his door. A native of Las Vegas, he gambles at the casinos for pocket money when he isn’t finding clients in need. On a whim, he investigates the law firm of Devine, Chance & Merit and runs afoul of the greatest danger to his magic: his snoopy ex-girlfriend.

Felix Benes’s gene-based cancer diagnostic will recommend against many profitable but useless or harmful treatments. His funding has been cut and he fears he’s being hunted. While Dana Spelman, his attorney at DCM, evaluates the viability of his case, he disappears. Then, she attracts the attention of the sort of men that might make someone disappear. As Dana evades them, she runs into her gambling-addicted loser ex-boyfriend.

As they uncover the labyrinthine conspiracy behind Benes’s disappearance, Luck’s magic will struggle against Dana’s efforts to survive.

At this time, we plan on only releasing Luck for Hire as part of Amazon’s KDP Select program. This means that we’ll run occasional sales and maybe a freebie day once in a while, but generally it’s going to be around the $2.99-$3.99 mark. But! If you’re a reviewer, blogger, or even just a friend of mine, fill out the form and I’ll hook you up with a PDF or .mobi copy. No strings attached! Review only if you feel like it. I always appreciate feedback and I’m adverse to drama. ;)

If your cookies are disabled, here is a link to the form!

Review ~ The Revenant of Thraxton Hall

This book was provided to me by St. Martin’s Press & Minotaur Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Revenant of Thraxton Hall: The Paranormal Casebooks of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by Vaughn Entwistle

Arthur Conan Doyle has just killed off Sherlock Holmes in “The Final Problem,” and he immediately becomes one of the most hated men in London. So when he is contacted by a medium “of some renown” and asked to investigate a murder, he jumps at the chance to get out of the city. The only thing is that the murder hasn’t happened yet—the medium, one Hope Thraxton, has foreseen that her death will occur at the third séance of a meeting of the Society for Psychical Research at her manor house in the English countryside.

Along for the ride is Conan Doyle’s good friend Oscar Wilde, and together they work to narrow down the list of suspects, which includes a mysterious foreign Count, a levitating magician, and an irritable old woman with a “familiar.” Meanwhile, Conan Doyle is enchanted by the plight of the capricious Hope Thraxton, who may or may not have a more complicated back-story than it first appears. As Conan Doyle and Wilde participate in séances and consider the possible motives of the assembled group, the clock ticks ever closer to Hope’s murder, in The Revenant of Thraxton Hall by Vaughn Entwistle. (via Goodreads)

One of my favorite movies is Ghostbusters. For me, it’s a nearly perfect ridiculous comedy, one I’ve gained more and more appreciation for as I’ve gotten older. I first watched it when it came out on cable, probably in 1985 when I was 10 years old. In 1986, The Real Ghostbusters cartoon was added to the Saturday morning line-up. While it featured the same characters and the same situation, it’s a softened, more out-right comedic show designed for a younger audience. Egon is blond and Slimer is a good ghost. I appreciated it, then and now, but it’s not *really* the same thing as Ghostbusters. The Revenant of Thraxton Hall presents a version of Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde that feel like caricatures that could be a fun buddy team in a cartoon-style adventure. That’s not a bad thing. Unfortunately, The Revenant of Thraxton Hall isn’t entirely successful pulling that off.

In his Author’s Note, Vaughn Entwistle admits that he doesn’t let facts get in the way of a good story. The historical timeline is flexed. Doyle published “The Final Problem” in 1893. This is when the story is set. Daniel Dunglas Hume (Home in the story) died in 1886. The Society for Psychical Research probably did not have its very first meeting ten years after its formation in 1882. Yet, I’ll agree with Entwistle. The mixture of these elements makes for an interesting set-up. Some of the other liberties taken don’t pan out as well. I’m not usually one to complain about female characters, but Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick was, in reality, a proponent for the education of women and a leading figure in the Society for Psychical Research. To have her be just another woman fawning over Oscar Wilde and dashing Lord Webb left me kind of cold. In general, the Society was pretty toothless, barely bringing in any skepticism. The story could have been told without them. (Granted, if you’ve read any of the real Society’s studies, you’d realize scientific rigor often suffered.) Little historical details really bugged me as well. References like “the culprit is invariably the butler” and “a conjuring trick performed at a child’s birthday party” are not quite right for 1893.

There were a couple of times in the last third of the book when a few of the characters acted in strange ways with no plot reasons. The crux of the plot seemed to be rushed together with some leaps of logic. Unfortunately, the aspect that worked the least for me was Oscar Wilde. The character seemed too frivolous to be going, willingly, on this adventure even if he is Doyle’s friend. Now, if he had truly found himself entangled in it? That would have made more sense.

I really wanted to like this story. There were a lot of interesting elements. Maybe too many. Maybe a few things were still hammered out between ARC and publication, but it just didn’t feel cohesive enough.

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Publication date: March 25th 2014

Genre: Historical fiction, horror.

Why did I choose to read this book? Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde go to a seance.

Hosted by Midnyte Reader


Hosted by Historical Tapestry

It’s Monday! What am I Reading? (3/24/14)

Hosted by Sheila at Book Journey

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between! This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

Happy Monday Everyone!

Reading

One of my favorite blogs, Paleofuture, announced their new book club last week. Their first read will be Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age. I still haven’t finished it, but I’m setting out to do so this week. I need to keep in mind that it’s only 383 pages. The last 130 pages are notes!

My “non-technical” reading will be Carl Sandburg’s In Reckless Ecstasy. It’s an Open Library checkout and lacking a cover.

Last week was cleanup week. Managed to finish Dolores Claiborne, The Revenant of Thraxton Hall, and Deadlock.

Arrivals

Western, horror, and horror western. Glorious is my first ARC from Random Penguin’s First to Read program. The other two are novella freebies that I picked up on Amazon.

On the Blog

Tuesday: Review of The Revenant of Thraxton Hall
Thursday: Retro Review? Thoughtful Thursday? We’ll see when we get there.
Saturday: I picked the seven of clubs for Deal Me In, which is a Wild Card. I’ll be reading from Shadow Show, an anthology I *still* haven’t finished.

Work

I’ll be reading/formatting Luck for Hire after Eric finishes his editing pass.

Once Upon a Time VIII

Hosted by Carl @ Stainless Steel Droppings

Friday, March 21st begins the eigth annual Once Upon a Time Challenge. This is a reading and viewing event that encompasses four broad categories: Fairy Tale, Folklore, Fantasy and Mythology, including the seemingly countless sub-genres and blending of genres that fall within this spectrum. The challenge continues through June 21st and allows for very minor (1 book only) participation as well as more immersion depending on your reading/viewing whims.

Sign-Up

Review Site

The following is based on a true story.

Eric, on Friday, knowing of my love of readathons and challenges: Did you see the post at Carl’s blog about the Once Upon a Time reading thing?

Me: Yeah. But I have a bunch of books I should be working on and none of them are fantasy. Also, SF Experience didn’t go so well for me.

Eric: Okay. *goes back to editing*

Me, the next day: Everyone I know is signed up though.

Eric: What?

Me: For the Once Upon a Time challenge. I kinda wanna do it.

Eric: I thought you said you didn’t have any books for it.

Me: I didn’t say *that*. I have books. I have a Peter S. Beagle that I haven’t read yet…

Eric, also knowing that Beagle is one of my favorite writers: You have a Beagle book you haven’t read? How does that happen?

Me: Er…it’s one of his older books?

Eric: *goes back to editing, knowing that I’ll be signing up the next day*

I’m going to play this totally smart and only sign up for The Journey: Just one book. It’s possible I’ll do more, but I’m keeping it simple.

Potential reads that I own:

 

I’ve also carved out a shelf at Open Library; I wouldn’t mind adding stories from a few cultures I’m not totally familiar with. Another idea I’m toying with, on the periphery of this challenge, is how biographies of early magicians set up a sort of folklore for their artistic progeny. The Fantastic Worlds anthology should help me with theory and then I’ll dip into the Memoirs of Robert-Houdin and a few other early biographies to see what’s there.

Deal Me In, Week 12 ~ Maelzel’s Chess Player

Hosted by Jay @ Bibliophilopolis

“Maelzel’s Chess Player” by Edgar Allan Poe

Card picked: Jack of Diamonds

From: Originally published in Southern Literary Messenger in April 1836. I read it online.

Review: Actually not a short story but one of Poe’s essays, published early in his prose career while a staff writer at the Southern Literary Messenger. Better known as the Turk, the mechanical chess player had been an attraction for over 60 years when Johann Maelzel brought it to the US.

Poe begins with an introduction to some other fantastic automatons and computers of the age including the duck of Vaucanson*, and Babbage’s difference engine. The Turk is different from these, he argues, because both are obviously machines and, though Poe doesn’t use these words, obviously programmed to perform specific functions.

He then gives a very short history of the Turk and an account of its current exhibition in Richmond. Proposing “solutions” to the chess player was a bit of a rage at the time.  I think that, in light of the phantasmagoria of Poe’s later works and his rather ignominious end, we forget that he was a fairly smart guy. Based on his research and personal observations, he comes to his own conclusions about the Turk. On some counts, he’s even correct and chides previous explanations for being overly complicated when a simpler answer suffices.

Most of Poe’s conclusions I had already read about in Tom Standage’s excellent book about the Turk. Still there were a couple of things that interested me about his essay.

One of Poe’s presumptions was that a pure machine would always win at chess:

A little consideration will convince any one that the difficulty of making a machine beat all games, is not in the least degree greater, as regards the principle of the operations necessary, than that of making it beat a single game.

As is often the case with AI, the intelligence isn’t necessarily smarter than its programmers. It wasn’t until over 100 years later that man created a machine that could outplay the best chess players.

I was also intrigued by Poe’s notion of false machinery — that many aspects of The Turk were meant to be more machine-like than they needed to be to prove that it was a machine. Considering that Poe often played with the notions of false life and false death, this sort of rounds out the paradigm.

* Duck of Vaucanson may be one of my favorite things of all time. Mostly, because I have a theory that ducks at inherently funny. The concept of an 18th century robotic duck is utterly ridiculous in that “of course, this is what humans do when they can” kind of way. There is also some mention of the magician Joseffy creating an improved faux duck that presumably could function on it own without a base.

Is This Your Card?

I had a card trick for the Jack of Diamonds, but then I figured that a video about the Turk would be better. This Turk was rebuilt by magic engineer John Gaughan.

Write On Review-a-thon 2

The Write On review-a-thon is a monthly event created and hosted by Brianna at The Book Vixen. It’s 2 days dedicated to getting reviews done, whether you have one review to write or 30+. This edition of the review-a-thon takes place all day Friday, March 21 and Saturday, March 22. Let’s get those reviews done!

I have a meager 2-3 reviews to do, but it wouldn’t be a bad thing to get them out of the way.

The Revenant of Thraxton Hall: The Paranormal Casebooks of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by Vaughn Entwistle
Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King
Deadlock by Tim Curran (if I finish it today/tomorrow)

Thoughtful Thursday: How Do You Read a Series?

Hosted by Pamela @ Reading is Fun Again

This Thursday’s question:

How do you read a book series? (Do you read each book as it comes out? Do you wait for a few books to come out in a series before starting it? Do you wait until the entire series is out and marathon it? Do you reread all of the books that are currently out before you read the next one?)

Bookish confession: I am terrible at reading series and tend to avoid them.

Part of the problem is that I don’t binge read. I am someone who might put down any given book (even a good, enjoyable one) in favor of any other given book. The gaps between volumes in a series, even ones entirely finished and published, are just excellent opportunities for me to read something else for a while. Since I’m also a slow reader, it’s then tough for me to reread a series to get back into the world.

Series I Recall Finishing:

Timothy Zahn’s The Thrawn Trilogy: Three books. Read them as they came out in the early 90s because there was NO STAR WARS at the time.
Raymond Feist’s The Riftwar Saga: Four books. Read them after they were all published, short enough that I read them over a few years. Yes, four books, a few years…
Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings: Three books. Obviously read them after they came out, a part of a structured read-through.

Series I Have Not Finished…Yet:

George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire: 3/5+ books. I’m reading #4 right now as part of a structured read-through.
Frank Herbert’s Dune Chronicles: 3/6 books. By all accounts, God Emperor of Dune is where most people give up. I’ve been advised to the read the Cliff Notes and move on.
Warhammer 40K’s The Horus Heresy (various authors): 3/28+ books. Okay, at 28 books and counting, I’ll probably never finish this series, but I have every intention of reading more. Just don’t ask me how long I’ve owned book #4.
Tad Williams’ Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn: 1.5/3 books. A series by a very fine writer, but I put down Stone of Farewell and never came back to it. I would have to start over.

Series I Will Never Finish:

Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time: 10/14 books. Enjoyable for 9 books, #10 didn’t do it for me.
Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles & Lives of the Mayfair Witches: 4/11, 2/3 books. Stopped before much of the crossover.
Rachael Cain’s Weather Warden: 3/9 books. One of the few more “modern” series I’ve dipped into.
Other very popular YA vampire/dystopias that I read the first books of but did not catch on with me.

Conclusions:

My habits may have been different when I was younger because I did binge read Sherlock Holmes in the 80s and had no problem reading the Thrawn books. But again, I loved Star Wars and, when Timothy Zhan’s triology came out, there was very little Star Wars to be had.

Structured read-throughs are the way to go for me. Basically, I read a couple chapters every week. No more, no less. Two chapters, put the door-stop books down, read something else for the rest of the week. It got me through Tolkien; it’ll get me through Martin.

Obviously, I feel no duty to finish a series. I don’t understand readers who’ll say, in the review of volume three, “I didn’t much care for books one and two, but I read number three anyway.” Sunk-cost fallacy, it never pays off.

Spoilers don’t bother me that much. Okay, I’d rather not know who bites it in A Feast for Crows, but I’m okay if someone lets that knowledge slip (*cough*Eric*cough*).

Review ~ Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck–impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence “Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?”

Perhaps you want to know what Mindy thinks makes a great best friend (someone who will fill your prescription in the middle of the night), or what makes a great guy (one who is aware of all elderly people in any room at any time and acts accordingly), or what is the perfect amount of fame (so famous you can never get convicted of murder in a court of law), or how to maintain a trim figure (you will not find that information in these pages). If so, you’ve come to the right book, mostly!

In Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood, with several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls. Mindy Kaling really is just a Girl Next Door—not so much literally anywhere in the continental United States, but definitely if you live in India or Sri Lanka. (via Goodreads)

I don’t watch The Office, so I was unaware that Mindy Kaling has been famous for quite some time. I first noticed her on The Mindy Project, a show I enjoy. Being on the not-thin side of things, I get a little happy when an actress with a few curves gets to anchor a show. While I don’t read many (any?) celebrity books, I saw a few blogger friends review this one and figured it sounded like fun.

This is going to be an unusual review for me. I’m going to share a few quotes and then I’m going to give you my impression.

“Sometimes teenage girls ask me for advice about what they should be doing if they want a career like mine one day. There are basically two ways to get where I am: (1) learn a provocative dance and put it on YouTube; (2) convince your parents to move to Orlando and homeschool you until you get cast on a kids’ show, or do what I did, which is (3) stay in school and be a respectful and hardworking wallflower, and go to an accredited non-online university.”

“My parents get along because they are pals. … What do I mean by pals? It mostly means they want to talk about the same stuff all the time.”

And, lastly,

“Being called fat is not like being called stupid or unfunny, which is the worst thing you could ever say to me.”

While unapologetically irrational about some things, I was really surprised at how commonsensical Mindy Kaling is. She credits/blames being the child of immigrants and those values of hard work and respect match the Heartland culture I grew up in. Despite her love of fashion and being wrong about ultimate frisbee, I love that she’s saying these things. It’s not glamorous. In fact, it’s downright square. Do I hope that there’s some teenage girl out there who reads this book and realizes it’s okay to be studious, not have the perfect body, and wish for a pal for life? It’s cheesy, but yes.

Publisher: Crown Archetype

Publication date: November 1st 2011

Genre: Non-fiction, memoir

Why did I choose to read this book? Good word of mouth, rather enjoy The Mindy Project.

It’s Monday! What am I Reading? (3/17/14)

Hosted by Sheila at Book Journey

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between! This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

Happy Monday Everyone!

Reading

About five minutes after I posted last Monday, I got in the mood for some Stephen King. Luckily, I had a pretty beat up copy of Dolores Claiborne from a library sale.

Arrivals

 

I won the Wicked Valentine RAT Jigsaw Cover Love give-away! My choice was The Map of Time. It’s a weirdly heavy book. (Thanks, Tabitha!) I was also approved for Tim Curran’s Deadlock. I’ve been wanting to read some more DarkFuse books.

On the Blog

Tuesday: Review of Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me

Thursday: Retro Review? I haven’t done one of those in a while.

Saturday: For Deal Me In, I’ll be reading “Maelzel’s Chess Player” by Edgar Allan Poe.

Work

We’re going to release the premium edition of Divine Fire this week. Need to finish polishing the short story, put together the expanded glossary, format everything, and add ToCs for Smashwords and Amazon.