C.V. Hunt's Blog, page 16

Book Review: Audition by Ryu Murakami

4 out of 5Documentary-maker Aoyama hasn't dated anyone in the seven years since the death of his beloved wife, Ryoko. Now even his teenage son Shige has suggested he think about remarrying. So when his best friend Yoshikawa comes up with a plan to hold fake film auditions so that Aoyama can choose a new bride, he decides to go along with the idea. Of the thousands who apply, Aoyama only has eyes for Yamasaki Asami, a young, beautiful, delicate and talented ballerina with a turbulent past. But there is more to her than Aoyama, blinded by his infatuation, can see, and by the time he discovers the terrifying truth it may be too late. Ryu Murakami delivers his most subtle and disturbing novel yet, confirming him as Japan's master of the psycho-thriller.
Review:
This could have had a different ratio and I would have been happier. There's a good build up of anticipation, and it's needed for this story, but then the delivery seemed rushed. I was a good weekend read for someone looking for the horrors of reality.
I plan on watching the movie and comparing it to the novel on my blog.

One week...

I have one week before I'm off to BizarroCon. For some reason I always get extremely paranoid that I'm getting sick the week before I go on vacation. I've been running around, pumping myself full of multivitamins, and obsessively washing my hands.
Enough about me... More about BizarroCon. (http://bizarrocon.wordpress.com/) It's taking place in Portland, Oregon from November 15th - 18th at McMenamin's Edgefield Manor. (http://mcmenamins.com/54-edgefield-home) There will be several authors in attendance, along with some fans. 
Here is an updated list as of 10/31/2012:

Andrew Wayne Adams, Kirsten Alene, Jason Wayne Allen, Michael Antonio, Laura Lee Bahr, David W. Barbee, Sonya Barbee, G. Arthur Brown, Jeff Burk, Michael Carey, Shane Cartledge, Troy Chambers, Alan M. Clark, Edmund Colell, Peter Dale, Guy A Demarco, Robert Devereaux, Kevin L. Donihe, Sam Dresselhaus, Karl Fischer, Constance Ann Fitzgerald, Andrew Goldfarb, Justin Grimbol, Nick Gucker, Nikki Guerlain, Mykle Hansen, Rob Harris, Eric Hendrixson, Heather Hewitt, Matthew Humphrey, C.V.  Hunt, Gabino Igelsias, Jeremy Robert Johnson, MP Johnson, Brian Keene, Jordan Krall, Vince Kramer, Angel Latch, Marc Levinthal, Ross Lockhart, Spike Marlowe, Thomas McAuley, Sam McCanna, Shane McKenzie, Carlton Mellick III, Sveinung Mikkelsen, Christine Morgan, Sarah Krupp, Rose O’Keefe, Simon Ore, Cameron Pierce, Andersen Prunty, Sam Reeve, Christopher Reynaga, Tamara Romero, Raye Roeske, Michael Allen Rose, Bradley Sands, Adam Schemke, Kevin Shamel, Bix Skahill, John Skipp, Liv Rainey-Smith, Michael C.  Smith, Pilar Stinson, Tiffany Pedro-Tirado, and J.W. Wargo
If you are in the area, and interested in attending, check out the BizarroCon website for more details.  

Book Review - Fortune: Lost and Found (anthology)

4 out of 5Capital, cash, gold, lucre -- money makes the world go round. But fortunes easily gained are often painfully lost. Since the very first king pressed his face onto the very first coin no single thing has led so many to ruin. Fortune, it seems, has a dark side and a wickedly evil sense of humor. Curses, plagues and misfortunes rain down on those who dare to tip the scales in their own favor. Fortunes, Lost and Found edited by L.S. Murphy and Kate Jonez is a collection of tales about money and wealth and the potentially horrifying consequences of gaining or losing it. 
Featuring stories from Brent Michael Kelley, Kurt Fawver, Christian A. Larsen, Phil Hickes, Wednesday Lee Friday, Garrett Cook, Lizz-Ayn Shaarawi, Andrew G. Dombalagian, Lydia Ondrusek, John Jasper Owens, Eric J. Guignard, Andrew M Stockton, and Cory J. Herndon
REVIEW:
There's always this difficult task when it comes to reviewing an anthology. Specifically, one that doesn't belong to a single author, but to plethora of authors scattered across different - but relevant - genres. I always find a couple I really enjoy and wish they were full length novels. Some of them I feel didn't have the correct length the author needed to tell the story. Then there are others I might not have read under other circumstances. 
The reading list within Fortune is the following:
A Friend in Paga by Brent Michael KelleyThe Bottom Line by Kurt FawverThe Plagiarist's wireless by Christian L. LarsonDown the Pan by Phil HickesTrabajando Alegre by Wednseday Lee FridayThings They Took From Luke by Garrett CookThe Rules by Lizz-Ayn ShaarawiThe Second Vault by Andrew G. DombalagianThe Best Laid Plans by Linda Ondrusek and John Jasper OwensHungry by Eric J. GuignardTwisted Words by Andrew StocktonStorbeck's Gold by Cory J. Herndon
The best way to rate this collection is with a 4 star review. There were three stories that stood out to me as being my favorites and following through with the theme of greed really well: A Friend in Paga, The Bottom Line, and Trabajando Alegre.
None of the stories struck me a bad. Every story was well written and edited. I wouldn't give any one of them a rating less than 3 stars, but I don't feel that's fair to deconstruct the whole anthology. This is a collection, and it's meant to be read as a collection. 
Some of the stories are filled with the horrors of selling out friends and loved ones to get the prize. Others are thick with suspense and the personal greed of the protagonists. And all of them have varied treasures. Each fortune ranges from a physical item, a woman, sleep, better lives, wishes, or just your standard old green-backs. There's something for everyone within Fortune's pages.
After you're done reading it you might want think about who would sell you out. And what would it be for?

A Halloween reading with Andersen Prunty.

Here is a reading Andersen Prunty performed on Halloween at Wilmington College. The audio isn't the greatest because I was sitting too far away. He read Jackthief, Chainsaw Mouth, and Napper.

NaNoWriMo is almost here.

We're now six days away from NaNoWriMo http://www.nanowrimo.org/ I'm not participating. There's way too much going on in the month of November for me to even think about it. Like my trip to Portland for BizzaroCon http://bizarrocon.wordpress.com/ (Sqwee!) But I'm always interested in watching the progress of the writers who take part in it. I've had one person say they were going to attempt it again.
I'm sure there are a few people scratching their heads right now and thinking, What the heck is NaNowhat'sitcalled?
NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It's the month of November. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel within the 30 days of November. 
I've never signed up for it or attempted it. I don't do well under time restrictions. Also, I think the only way I would be able to finish it is if I wrote an outline first. I never do an outline and it would be something new for me. But since NaNo has been brought up I've been kicking around some ideas for next year. 
Right now I'm writing something and I don't want to abandon it to start something new. And there's the trip out to Portland. This year would be a bad time for me to attempt it.
If you're interested in participating in NaNo or just want to cheer some writers on you can find out more by visiting this site: http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Book Review: Battle Royal by Koushun Takami

Koushun Takami's notorious high-octane thriller is based on an irresistible premise: a class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill one another until only one survivor is left standing. Criticized as violent exploitation when first published in Japan - where it then proceeded to become a runaway bestseller - Battle Royale is a Lord of the Flies for the 21st century, a potent allegory of what it means to be young and (barely) alive in a dog-eat-dog world. Made into a controversial hit movie of the same name, Battle Royale is already a contemporary Japanese pulp classic, now available for the first time in the English language.
My Thoughts:
This was recommended to me after I expressed how much I enjoyed The Hunger Games. I liked this much more. The game is set up for the class with no warning. The children have heard a little about the "Program", but it's not wide spread knowledge to them. All of the action was on a much more physical and brutal level.

Being Selective.

Being indie isn't easy. I won't go into a rant about the pros and cons of having - or not having - a contract with a publishing house. But there's something that's been bugging me lately. It's the KDP select option. For the readers out there who don't know what this is, let me give you a brief description. 
When you publish your work on Amazon you have the option to enroll in a program called KDP select. The program states your work can only be published with Amazon. No Apple, no B&N, no Kobo, and no Sony. You're making a promise to Amazon you will not sell your book with any other retailer.
What do you get in exchange for this promise?
You enroll for 90 day blocks. Within those 90 days you are able to make your book free for 5 days. Also, people who are enrolled in Amazon Prime are able to borrow your book for 30 days, and you still receive royalties even though reader got the book for free. Amazon pays the difference. 
That's it.
I have used KDP once with Endlessly because, at the time, it was the only option I saw to get it free. I wanted it to be free forever but Amazon doesn't allow you to make it free when you upload it and get to the pricing page. In order for your book to become a free download you have to make it free everywhere else (Apple, B&N, Kobo, and Sony), and then constantly bombard them with a price match. 
Kind of hard to do when you're only allowed to sell the book with them.
I know authors who have went exclusively through Amazon in the hopes of their sales boosting to make up for the loss of other retailers. I have not. And I don't believe I ever will. During my 90 day period I did not see an increase in sales and no one ever borrowed my book. The only thing I accomplished was denying readers with other devices the opportunity to read my book. 
Here is a link for a statement from the founder of Smashwords on this topic. http://selfpublishingadvice.org/blog/amazon-plays-indie-authors-like-pawns/

Surprise!

I was at my other home this weekend. When I got back I found some monsters in the mail.

Book Review: No Alternative by William Dickerson

NO ALTERNATIVE is a coming-of-age drama that drills a hole into the world of suburban American teenagers in the early 90's.
Thomas Harrison is determined to start his own alternative band, an obsession that blinds him to what's either the mental collapse, or the eruption of musical genius, of his little sister, Bridget. Bridget boldly rejects her brother's music, and the music of an entire generation of slackers, by taking on the persona of an X-rated gangsta' rapper named "Bri Da B."
NO ALTERNATIVEprobes the lives of rebellious kids who transition into adulthood via the distortion pedals of their lives in an era when the "Sex, Drugs & Rock’n’Roll" ethos was amended to include "Suicide" in its phrase. 
REVIEW:
I was approached by the author to review No Alternative after he read my review of Kurt Cobain’s Journals. Anyone who knows me well, or has read some of my books, knows I’m a big nirvana fan. After I read the description I thought I’d be an idiot to not take a crack at reading it. After all, this book had a history I’d lived through, and an insightful approach to my generation.
The story starts in October of 1994, shortly after the death of Kurt Cobain, when “grunge” music was booming. A seventeen year-old, Thomas, with the help of his love for music, and dusty set of drums, decides to start his own band. His sister, Bridget, (fifteen years-old) hates Thomas’s music and is struggling to find her own identity. The teens are raised in a privileged household, on the East Coast, with a father who’s a judge and their mother is a homemaker.
I had trouble sympathizing with the teens since I lived through this era, experiencing the same timeline, but was not raised in a well-to-do household. “Grunge” is a different experience when you’re from a small town in the Midwest, and you can’t afford a pair of Allstar Chucks.
But this book is the perfect example why I refuse to leave a star rating for a book unless I complete it. While the story is engaging, the narration becomes sidetracked for several pages at a time to give the reader a history lesson on the economy and music from the 1960’s and 1980’s. This may be something a younger person would enjoy if they didn’t know about how the events in those eras effected 1994, but since I lived it, it just felt excessive to the story at hand. There was also a lot of commentary throughout the book that seemed unnecessary, but is redeemed and explained in the last 15% of the book. (I’m not sure of the exact page numbers. I read this on my Kindle.)
Overall I liked this book, but I wished the history lessons had been eliminated. It’s well written, but sometimes I just want a story about people living their lives and let me take it in and interrupted it in my own mind how I would like. Not everything has to be explained away.

Halloween

On Halloween I will be attending a reading at Wilimington College in Dayton, Ohio. The reading will take place in the Mason Room of the Kettering Science Building. I believe the hours are from 7:30 pm until 10:00 pm. It's FREE and open to the public.
Am I reading? No. It's FREE and open to the public. 
But here are links for two authors who are reading:
Tim WaggonerAndersen Prunty
I will record videos and post them as long as it's author and facility permitting.