L.K. Rigel's Blog, page 6
September 19, 2013
Come As You Are by Theresa Weir
I was among the lucky ones to get an advanced reader copy of Theresa Weir’s first New Adult contemporary romance, Come As You Are .
When Molly Young’s father dies of a heart attack, she struggles to resolve her conflicted feelings. Everyone admired Professor Young, a teacher at the University of Minnesota, but only Molly really knew the monster.
Then Ian shows up for the funeral from out of state. He tries to help her through her grief, but trust isn’t big on Molly’s to-do list. Not even if Ian’s the most gorgeous guy she ever met. Especially.
From the beginning, Molly and Ian are strongly attracted to each other, but what’s great about their love story is their relationship grows as they find out they truly like each other. I fell a little in love with Ian myself – a good guy who refuses to be a doormat, but doesn’t run at the first sight of trouble either.
Weir’s characters always step outside the mold, and I wasn’t sure how the relationship was going to play out. A threat of suicide hangs in the air, and though Cobain’s chilling lyric is never quoted, it’s always in the background: No, I don’t have a gun…
But don’t worry. Come As You Are delivers a sweet and lovely ending and left me hoping there will be a sequel for Rose, Molly’s roommate and fellow waitress at the Mean Waitress Cafe.
[NOTE - the book is live at Amazon now and will be available at B&N, Kobo, and iTunes as soon as it gets through processing]
September 1, 2013
The Apocalyptos – In Print
Exciting news – the Apocalyptos are finally available in print!
Blame it on Spiderwork . I started a major re-edit on it toward the end of June and fell into housekeeping work on the series to get things ready for the next book.
Spiderwork’s new edit has expanded scenes and additional chapters. You should be able to update your Kindle copy with “Manage My Kindle.” I’m not sure what the B&N process is for updating a Nook book, but email me lkr@lkrigel.com if you need help.
What’s that you’re saying? Blue Amber , what the heck?!? Firebird was too big and unwieldy, so I split out Blue Amber for the print version. It has an added bonus – the Apocalypto creation story, Asherah and Her Samael . It’s part of the Scrolls of Scylla, the holy transmissions from the goddess to Sky Meadowlark.
AAHS is a long epic-style poem that draws on creation stories from the Hebrew bible, the gnostic Christian texts, the process theology of Teilhard de Chardin, as well as stuff I made up. Wow … you didn’t know all this reproductive/gender politics SF/F was born from my master’s thesis project, huh?
And here is Firebird. I love my new Mallory!
August 28, 2013
Silver Linings Playbook – Redux
Like Pat in The Silver Linings Playbook, this summer I’ve been on a course of self-improvement. He’s trying to be a better person by practicing being kind instead of right. I’m trying to be a better writer. (More on that in a future post.) In my quest to be a better writer, I decided to read the original book after watching the movie.I liked the movie when I saw it in theaters, but when I watched it the second time I noticed how well-put-together it is. It faithfully follows story arc principles, and the supporting characters are well-crafted and interesting.
As I’ve said before, the movie is wonderful. BUT the book … wow. It’s so much better as a study in flawed human beings. I loved it that the two main characters – Pat and Tiffany – were not all that attractive in the book (both physically and in aspects of their characters). They aren’t presented as romantic interests, but more as real, broken, not-so-desirable people who nonetheless deserve to be loved and desired – as do we ALL!
Also, just a note: in the book, Tiffany is supposedly a year older than Pat. In the movie, Jennifer Lawrence (who was wonderful) is in reality about 15 years younger than Bradley Cooper.
The movie and book have loosely the same stories, but different enough that I had no idea how the book was going to end even after having seen the movie. The movie is a more polished, good-looking, thoroughly pleasing story. It’s calculated to entertain and deliver the feel-good happy ending.
The book is messier and not glamorous. Different characters have more and less prominent roles, and the emotional punch in the last line satisfied me far more than the conventionally satisfying ending of the movie. As I wrote in my previous post, this movie is a cut above the standard processed American “product” – infused with meaning and intelligence by its cast and director – but it is conventional in its frame and appearance. The book is its own unique, individual self.
As I strive to be a better writer by respecting the expected conventions of story arc and characterization, I hope I don’t lose my own unique, individual voice.
August 18, 2013
Easy In His Strong and Deft Hands…
(Warning! There be spoilers ahead. Don’t read if you haven’t seen Silver Lining Playbook.)
I loved Flirting With Disaster . (free streaming with Amazon Prime at the moment) I thought it was great because, obviously: , , Ben Stiller on a good day.
T hree King s was phenomenally good! (sadly, no streaming at all at the moment) But how could it not be? I mean, ! ! ! fantastic performances, and an amazing anti-war movie marketed as good, old-fashioned blow-everything-to-hell entertainment.
I’ve just watched Silver Linings Playbook for about the fourth time, and I’m adding it to the -is-fabu pile. Sure, it’s got fabulous actors. Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence are wonderful, and Robert De Niro is … Robert De Niro.
But in the hands of a different director, I wonder if this movie – any of these movies – would be so great. Russell trusts his audience’s intelligence. He doesn’t shove stuff in your face. He lays out all the parts of the story like lace and lets us discover how things are interconnected, spot the frills and the matrices.
And the embellishing tones. In the case of Silver Linings Playbook (spoiler coming), Bradley Cooper’s character Pat is obsessed with getting his wife Nikki back. To him, she’s the perfect woman, and theirs is the perfect love. When he meets Jennifer Lawrence’s Tiffany, she challenges everything he thinks about what’s true. It’s particularly scary that he’s fascinated and delighted by the fact that she has no problem talking about sex.
She tells him about a sexual encounter she had with a woman and how the woman had Tiffany sit on her lap and “do things.” Pat obviously enjoys hearing the story, but then he comments that Nikki would never approve of talk like that.
blah, blah, blah … many scenes about self-denial, obsession, leading to trauma, risk, new choices, self-discovery and happiness.
And at the very end of the movie, Russell plays a little note that I didn’t catch until the fourth viewing. The family is all together, it’s happy days, Mom is making crabby snacks and homemades , the game is about to start, and all is well with the world.
And Tiffany sits on Pat’s lap and with happy, easy smiles they kiss.
No big deal. You can miss it if you’re not thinking about it. But that act is what tells us it’s going to be okay. Russell doesn’t hit us over the hit with it. He doesn’t have the characters say anything about “come sit on my lap” “oh, ha, ha.” It’s just a matter-of-course, lovely bit.
And why I’ll watch anything David O. Russell makes.
August 3, 2013
Nomad Giveaway Post ~ news flash – Nook copies available too! (find password in the newsletter)
Nomad – JL Bryan’s New Book – Flash Giveaway
It’s been a while since we’ve had a flash giveaway, and JL Bryan’s new book, Nomad has inspired me to go for it.
I was a lucky beta reader of this kick-ass pageturner, and I recommend it enthusiastically.
Think Terminator meets Dollhouse meets Continuum and they all go to college together and save the world while being chased by Dick Cheney.
If you don’t know the drill, here ‘s how it works:
The newsletter goes out today at about noon Pacific Time. It will contain the password and the secret phrase, with a link to the POST AFTER THIS ONE (password protected).
Be among the first 5 to use the password to get into the password-protected post and leave the secret phrase in the comments, and a Kindle OR NOOK! copy of Nomad is yours!
Good luck!
July 17, 2013
Stories, stories everywhere and …
My head feels like it’s going to burst with images and plot points and climactic revelations – oh, my!
The story angels have been bombarding me of late. I’m working on War of the Wyrd and Tethers 4, revamping a few covers, and the Apocalyptos will NOT quiet down.
I finally found a fantastic Mallory for the cover of Firebird, the striking Jessica of faestock .
I just hope I live long enough to write all the stories in my head…
July 6, 2013
Giveaway – We Are Made of Stardust
It’s giveaway time! This is a great one – sponsored by Mimi Strong and her new book We Are Made of Stardust . You’ll notice my New Adult romance, Love Scars , (written under my pen name Lark Lane) is involved too!
Have fun!!
June 28, 2013
Wandering Aengus
Like the first two Tethers books, War of the Wyrd involves time travel. The story tells what happened back in 12th century Dumnos that led to the disintegration of the wyrding world. We also find out about a terrible secret Max the goblin has carried since that time.
The battle for the English throne is on between Mahtla, daughter of the dead King Henry, and Stephos, Henry’s nephew. Everyone is pressured to choose sides, not only the Earl of Dumnos, but wyrd and fae, as well as the clerics in the Christian church which is only beginning to solidify political as well as spiritual power.
It’s a dark time, laced with fear and longing for happier days. I’m absolutely in love with one of the characters, Bayd Rosswick, a nobleman caught up in church politics and the desires of his patrons, the eeeevilllll Sarumen family. In forming Bayd Rosswick’s character, I’ve leaned heavily on this poem by William Butler Yeats.
The Song of Wandering Aengus
I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.
When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire aflame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And some one called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.
Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.
William Butler Yeats
Lark Lane Confessional
So … I haven’t made it a real secret, but I haven’t announced it either. This is about a new book I’ve published under a pen name. It’s also a boring post about the writer’s life. More accurately, this writer’s life.
Open secret: I don’t sell a lot of books. It feels shameful to admit this, with all the stuff out there about indie authors selling hundreds of thousands, millions, of books. I’m not that indie author. I sell just enough books to keep me from quitting in despair.
Don’t get me wrong. I love writing. I’ve done it all my life. I’ll never stop writing – until I stop breathing. My stories please me. Like with a lot of human beings, telling a story makes me feel alive. Why else do we tweet or post on Facebook?
Publishing is not writing. Publishing is performance. And performance demands applause. When I was a singer in a band, literal applause sent me home happy and on to the next gig. With books, applause comes in the form of sales and reviews. When they dwindle, it’s like singing into the void.
Long story short: Love Scars is a “new adult” romance. A song audiences want to hear. It’s an angst-filled emotional trip, and it was a blast to write. Lark Lane will be my non-fantastical pen name, for books with no ghosts, faeries, goddesses. Where the adventure is in the exploration of the human heart and life in the world we know.
I put this in Amazon’s Select program, which was a mistake, so it won’t be on Nook or iTunes until September. Slap me if I ever put a book in Select again!
And now back to War of the Wyrd (plus the fourth Tethers book, which I want to announce the title so bad but the time is not ripe ….)
