Laura Andersen's Blog, page 6
August 20, 2013
So This Happened . . .
In the midst of this spring/summer of PET scans, MRIs, biopsies, waiting, good news, traveling, and Boleyn Reckoning revisions . . . my fabulous agent, Tamar Rydzinski, was hard at work negotiating my next project. I actually got the news that we had a deal with my current team at Random House while having lunch in Covent Garden with Jake.
Not a bad memory to have :)
THE BOLEYN KING author Laura Andersen's THE SOVEREIGN TRILOGY, an alternate Tudor history in which Elizabeth I marries and has a daughter, but still must lead England into a new golden age, to Kate Miciak at Ballantine, by Tamar Rydzinski at the Laura Dail Literary Agency (World English).
dcronin@randomhouse.com
So once I emerge from the suffocating depths of finishing my first trilogy (Seriously, this may kill me--not to mention that I won't have all my kids back in school until AFTER revisions are due) I will turn my attention to the new generation of my alternate Tudor/Elizabethan world.
What can possibly go wrong?
July 31, 2013
June Books
SPIRIT/Brigid Kemmerer/A-
The third book in the Elemental series featuring the Merrick brothers, each of whom controls a different natural element. This book is a slight departure, for the main character is not one of the brothers but Hunter Garrity, who came to town hunting the Merricks and instead has formed an uneasy alliance with them. Hunter is a lethally-trained, emotionally screwed up teen boy who is grieving his father's death and doesn't know which way is up in his world any longer. When he meets Kate, Hunter thinks maybe something finally makes sense--but Kate has her own agenda. Brigid Kemmerer writes brilliant teen boys and Hunter is no exception. As a mom, I was torn between wanting to hug him and shake him. The story is a dark one and Kemmerer doesn't hold back.
THE SILENCE and THE CHANGELING/Sarah Rayne/A-
My favorite horror/supernatural writer is Sarah Rayne and I think I've finally figured out why: because as dark and twisted as her stories get and as evil as some of her characters can be, it's always being balanced with goodness. In Rayne's world, the good wins (usually with a healthy dose of saracasm and humor along the way.) THE SILENCE is her newest book, the third one to feature antiques dealer Nell West. When she takes her daughter to a house once visited by Nell's late husband, various hauntings ensue. THE CHANGELING is old-school Rayne, with lovely Fael Miller helping a cloaked and masked figure to write an opera before being kidnapped for a bizarre sacrifice along the Irish coast. I will always come back to Sarah Rayne for her humor and generous sense of goodness in the midst of evil (not to mention her numerous charming Irish heroes.)
WALKING ON WATER/Madeleine L'Engle/B-
A meditation on being a Christian writer by the author best known for A WRINKLE IN TIME. L'Engle approaches the topic with care and has some lovely thoughts about the intersection of art and spirit . . . but in the end, I think I learn more about her from her fiction.
THE DEMON'S LEXICON/Sarah Rees Brennan/B+
Nick has spent his life on the run from magicians, protective of his older brother and despised by his mother. When his brother is marked for death by a demon, the only way to save him is to find and kill a magician. The task is complicated by a brother and sister duo who are new to the world of magic and demons but in desperate need of help. Nick doesn't care about anything except protecting his brother, but he's starting to suspect his brother hasn't told him the truth about their past. With the trademark wit of Sarah Rees Brennan, a good start to her earlier series.
ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE/Barbara Kingsolver/B+
How the writer and her family spent a year eating only what they grew or could obtain within a 100 mile radius. I liked it better than I expected to (I'm not fond of discovering yet another reason to feel guilty in my life), but it was both informative and entertaining. Also funny--the final chapter on teaching turkeys how to mate is laugh out loud. There are also recipes :)
KING HEREAFTER/Dorothy Dunnett/A+
Ever wonder about the historical Macbeth? I'll simply say this: if Dunnett's novel is not what actually happened a thousand years ago in the north of Scotland, than it is what should have happened. Thorfinn (Macbeth is his baptismal name) is an heir to the Orkney Isles, but also a grandson to King Malcolm of Alba. Fate means him to forge the beginnings of a true Scotland, but Thorfinn knows that such a fate also means his death. His marriage to Groa is a political move that, like lightning, forges a true marriage of love and partnership. The worst part of reading this book was knowing that it will not end well. Nevertheless, I devoured every word and re-read many sections. I've long loved Dunnett's six-volume Lymond chronicles . . . this stand-alone is every bit as brilliant.
INFERNO/Dan Brown/B-
Robert Langdon awakes in an Italian hospital with no memory of how he got there or why he's even in Italy. And then things really get bad. As expected from Brown, lots of gorgeous descriptions of Italy and museums, lots of puzzles, lots of chases and violence, and in this case a beautiful woman who is not everything she seems. I would have graded it higher but for the resolution, which left me feeling lectured at.
THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX/Mary Pearson/B-
17-year-old Jenna Fox has awakened from a coma with no memory of her previous life. As she tries to adjust to the confined world her protective parents have forced her into, Jenna's memories begin to surface. There are secrets being kept from her, and her grandmother can hardly stand to even look at her. What lines did her geneticist father cross to keep her alive, and what price has to be paid now? A near future story with potential that didn't quite pan out for me.
THE AYTON SWANS/Alison Greaves/B-
Inspector McClennan is tasked with discovering who killed a female student on the grounds of the university, and who amongst her friends may still be at risk. The first in a new series, I wanted to love this and there were strong points--McClennan himself, the various students and their individual lives--but the story was swamped by pages of a sociology professor's work that McClennan reads partly to understand the student and her friends and partly because he's interested in the professor. Could have been edited and streamlined for a stronger story.
DEAD AND BURIED/Kim Harrington/B+
Jade is happy to be in a new home and a new high school. But her dream house is the site of a previous student's tragic death and soon Jade (and, more worryingly, her little brother) are being haunted. The ghost demands that Jade solve the mystery of her death, which means suspecting her new friends as well as the good looking boy who was the dead girl's boyfriend. A strong contemporary YA that my daughter read out of doors in the sun to cut down on the creepy factor :)
THE UNSEEN/Alexandra Sokoloff/A-
Psychology professor Laurel McDonald has just started at Duke and needs a research project. She discovers that previously buried files about Duke's parapsychology lab fifty years before have just become available. The lab was closed in the aftermath of an ESP project that ended badly, with the investigation of a haunted house that left its participants either dead or schizophrenic. Laurel and a fellow professor decide to team up and recreate the experiment, but things go wrong from the beginning. A truly creepy, terrifying story with secrets from the past informing the present.
The third book in the Elemental series featuring the Merrick brothers, each of whom controls a different natural element. This book is a slight departure, for the main character is not one of the brothers but Hunter Garrity, who came to town hunting the Merricks and instead has formed an uneasy alliance with them. Hunter is a lethally-trained, emotionally screwed up teen boy who is grieving his father's death and doesn't know which way is up in his world any longer. When he meets Kate, Hunter thinks maybe something finally makes sense--but Kate has her own agenda. Brigid Kemmerer writes brilliant teen boys and Hunter is no exception. As a mom, I was torn between wanting to hug him and shake him. The story is a dark one and Kemmerer doesn't hold back.
THE SILENCE and THE CHANGELING/Sarah Rayne/A-
My favorite horror/supernatural writer is Sarah Rayne and I think I've finally figured out why: because as dark and twisted as her stories get and as evil as some of her characters can be, it's always being balanced with goodness. In Rayne's world, the good wins (usually with a healthy dose of saracasm and humor along the way.) THE SILENCE is her newest book, the third one to feature antiques dealer Nell West. When she takes her daughter to a house once visited by Nell's late husband, various hauntings ensue. THE CHANGELING is old-school Rayne, with lovely Fael Miller helping a cloaked and masked figure to write an opera before being kidnapped for a bizarre sacrifice along the Irish coast. I will always come back to Sarah Rayne for her humor and generous sense of goodness in the midst of evil (not to mention her numerous charming Irish heroes.)
WALKING ON WATER/Madeleine L'Engle/B-
A meditation on being a Christian writer by the author best known for A WRINKLE IN TIME. L'Engle approaches the topic with care and has some lovely thoughts about the intersection of art and spirit . . . but in the end, I think I learn more about her from her fiction.
THE DEMON'S LEXICON/Sarah Rees Brennan/B+
Nick has spent his life on the run from magicians, protective of his older brother and despised by his mother. When his brother is marked for death by a demon, the only way to save him is to find and kill a magician. The task is complicated by a brother and sister duo who are new to the world of magic and demons but in desperate need of help. Nick doesn't care about anything except protecting his brother, but he's starting to suspect his brother hasn't told him the truth about their past. With the trademark wit of Sarah Rees Brennan, a good start to her earlier series.
ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE/Barbara Kingsolver/B+
How the writer and her family spent a year eating only what they grew or could obtain within a 100 mile radius. I liked it better than I expected to (I'm not fond of discovering yet another reason to feel guilty in my life), but it was both informative and entertaining. Also funny--the final chapter on teaching turkeys how to mate is laugh out loud. There are also recipes :)
KING HEREAFTER/Dorothy Dunnett/A+
Ever wonder about the historical Macbeth? I'll simply say this: if Dunnett's novel is not what actually happened a thousand years ago in the north of Scotland, than it is what should have happened. Thorfinn (Macbeth is his baptismal name) is an heir to the Orkney Isles, but also a grandson to King Malcolm of Alba. Fate means him to forge the beginnings of a true Scotland, but Thorfinn knows that such a fate also means his death. His marriage to Groa is a political move that, like lightning, forges a true marriage of love and partnership. The worst part of reading this book was knowing that it will not end well. Nevertheless, I devoured every word and re-read many sections. I've long loved Dunnett's six-volume Lymond chronicles . . . this stand-alone is every bit as brilliant.
INFERNO/Dan Brown/B-
Robert Langdon awakes in an Italian hospital with no memory of how he got there or why he's even in Italy. And then things really get bad. As expected from Brown, lots of gorgeous descriptions of Italy and museums, lots of puzzles, lots of chases and violence, and in this case a beautiful woman who is not everything she seems. I would have graded it higher but for the resolution, which left me feeling lectured at.
THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX/Mary Pearson/B-
17-year-old Jenna Fox has awakened from a coma with no memory of her previous life. As she tries to adjust to the confined world her protective parents have forced her into, Jenna's memories begin to surface. There are secrets being kept from her, and her grandmother can hardly stand to even look at her. What lines did her geneticist father cross to keep her alive, and what price has to be paid now? A near future story with potential that didn't quite pan out for me.
THE AYTON SWANS/Alison Greaves/B-
Inspector McClennan is tasked with discovering who killed a female student on the grounds of the university, and who amongst her friends may still be at risk. The first in a new series, I wanted to love this and there were strong points--McClennan himself, the various students and their individual lives--but the story was swamped by pages of a sociology professor's work that McClennan reads partly to understand the student and her friends and partly because he's interested in the professor. Could have been edited and streamlined for a stronger story.
DEAD AND BURIED/Kim Harrington/B+
Jade is happy to be in a new home and a new high school. But her dream house is the site of a previous student's tragic death and soon Jade (and, more worryingly, her little brother) are being haunted. The ghost demands that Jade solve the mystery of her death, which means suspecting her new friends as well as the good looking boy who was the dead girl's boyfriend. A strong contemporary YA that my daughter read out of doors in the sun to cut down on the creepy factor :)
THE UNSEEN/Alexandra Sokoloff/A-
Psychology professor Laurel McDonald has just started at Duke and needs a research project. She discovers that previously buried files about Duke's parapsychology lab fifty years before have just become available. The lab was closed in the aftermath of an ESP project that ended badly, with the investigation of a haunted house that left its participants either dead or schizophrenic. Laurel and a fellow professor decide to team up and recreate the experiment, but things go wrong from the beginning. A truly creepy, terrifying story with secrets from the past informing the present.
July 12, 2013
BOLEYN KING Scene
As a thanks for all the kind words and thoughts during the last two months of crisis and waiting, I'm posting a critical scene from The Boleyn King rewritten from a different POV.
SPOILERS AHEAD
One of my favorite scenes in the book is the encounter between Minuette and Dominic on the night of her 18th birthday. It was one of the first scenes I wrote when I conceived the story, and it is one of the few untouched scenes to survive from the original long manuscript I finished in 2005. Hampton Court is one of my favorite places on earth and when I visit it next week with Jake, you can bet I will be wandering the kitchen lanes imagining that Dominic is about to come around a corner. (Note to self: Must. Not. Frighten. Normal. Tourists.)
I've always wondered what Dominic was feeling during this emotionally-laden encounter, so I finally wrote it for my own pleasure. I hope it brings pleasure to one or two of you as well :)
(And for the musically inclined, the inspiration song for this scene is AFI's Silver and Cold)
First KissDominic’s Point of View28 June 1554
When Minuette disappeared with Jonathan Percy, Dominic only kept himself from following by dint of pasting himself against a tapestry on one of the great hall’s long walls. Several people tried to speak to him; he rebuffed them all equally without even troubling to distinguish one flatterer from another. He knew the moment she returned, his nerves alerted almost before his eyes caught her coronet of golden hair. She met his gaze and, without hesitation, headed straight for him. Like a homing pigeon. Or a friend who has good news to share. He knew his stare was uninviting but when did such things deter Minuette? She did not immediately speak of Jonathan’s proposal. Rather, with a shy smile, she said, “Come dance with me, Dominic.” Dominic shook his head, knowing that if he opened his mouth he would be lost. And when Minuette laid a hand on his arm, he stepped away abruptly from the contact and, with the briefest of bows, escaped into the crush. Without knowing where he was headed, Dominic simply walked. Perhaps the movement would drive away the desire to seize her by the shoulders and shake her until she came to her senses. Except she wasn’t the one who was being suffocated by possibilities and the echoing taunts of ‘too late’ and the wish to hit someone very, very hard. Instinct led him away from crowds and courtiers, from the false brightness of drunken voices and the dazzle of multi-coloured silks and velvets, until he was deep in the servants’ section of Hampton Court. The stables he knew, but these lanes wound through domestic buildings: enormous kitchens belching with fire and steam and storehouses reeking of everything from fresh game to salted fish. There were plenty of people here, as well, but unlike the court they were unimpressed with Dominic. If they even knew exactly who he was. As thunder rumbled nearby, he drew one deep breath to relax. And then he heard her footsteps. The click of heels and swish of skirts was unmistakably that of a woman in court dress and who else would come after him when he was doing his best to look menacing and unapproachable? Dominic rounded a corner by the pastry house and turned, arms crossed to confront her. She came around the corner ten seconds later looking suspicious and irritated and heart-stoppingly lovely. His only hope was attack. “What do you think you are doing traipsing around these lanes in a dress that cost more than these people will see in their lifetimes?” “I wouldn’t be traipsing around if you hadn’t run away from me as though I had the plague.” “I didn’t ask you to follow.” And please, he thought, please go away before I say or do something I regret. “Dominic, why are you angry?” He opened his mouth to argue and she said impatiently, “Yes, you are angry at me. What has happened?” “You’re imagining things.” He saw the flare of temper in the set of her chin. “You’re a rotten liar, Dominic. However did you manage as a diplomat?” Because he wanted so desperately to drive her away, he said the worst thing he could think of. “I hear you’re betrothed to Eleanor’s brother. I imagine you’ll quite enjoy family gatherings with Giles Howard.” She looked at him as though he’d struck her and he instantly apologized. “That was unforgivable. My temper got the better of me.” “Then you admit you are angry.” With my father and my mother and the world and Jonathan Percy—especially Jonathan Percy—“Only with myself. I wanted something and, in my arrogance, made no effort to secure it. And now it is too late.” Her eyes were enormous and filled with an expression Dominic had never seen from her before. “What did you want?” she whispered. It was beyond his ability to stay still another second. He uncrossed his arms, which were as tight as though he’d been restraining someone else, and moved forward one deliberate step at a time. She stepped back as he came, until the wall was behind her and she couldn’t go further. Dominic did manage to stop moving then, but let his hands come to rest against the rough brick, so close to her shoulders that he could feel the warmth of her skin. Leaning down so that her face had to tilt up to his, Dominic asked, “Do you love him?” “What?” She sounded rattled. “Who?” “The Percy boy. Do you love him?” He hadn’t known he was going to ask that. What the hell was he doing? She must think him mad, looming over her in the rain that had finally begun to fall, demanding an answer to a question he had no right to ask. With a wrench, he stepped back and dropped his hands. She continued to stare at him with a wary intensity that suggested she thought he had lost his mind. “Forgive me,” Dominic said, in a voice that passed for normal. “You need not answer that. He, of course, is in love with you. A desirable quality in a husband.” He saw her swallow and braced himself for her to tell him the news, to ask for his gladness at her betrothal. But before she could speak a servant came around the corner and stopped short, eyes darting between them once and then making a hasty retreat. Dominic knew he had to get away from her, which meant first seeing her safely returned out of the kitchen lanes. “Do you wish to return to the dancing?” “No, I . . . my chamber will do.” Dominic concentrated on two things as he walked: navigating the maze of a mostly unfamiliar part of Hampton Court, and not touching Minuette. The latter was by far the most difficult. There were torches burning at each end of her corridor, just enough light not to trip over anything but not enough to illuminate subtle expressions. He was glad she could not see his face as he bowed goodnight. He let his breath out as he turned away from her, then stopped breathing entirely as she once again laid her hand on his arm. For once in his life, Dominic let himself stop thinking and act as instinct drove him. Slowly—ever so slowly—as though she were a bird that might take to flight with too sudden movement, Dominic curved back to her as though she were his lodestone. He focused on her hand, coaxing it gently off his sleeve until it rested in his own hand. Her fingers were narrow and pale in his battle-roughened palm. With the kind of attention he had previously reserved for field tactics, Dominic cupped his hand over the top of hers and turned it until her own palm lay face up in his. She shivered and there were warnings in the far distance of his mind, but they were buried by the urgings of his heart. He had only ever kissed Minuette’s hand in jest, but he had never been more in earnest as he bent his head and let his mouth linger on that vulnerable spot where her hand narrowed into her wrist. It was the most intimate act of his life. Minuette gasped softly, a completely different sound than her earlier shock and anger. Though his mind was afraid to categorize it, his body knew the meaning of it and responded in kind. And finally—finally—still cradling her hand, Dominic looked at her. He had thought it too dark for the nuances of expression, but he could swear he traced every thought in Minuette’s eyes and knew that in this moment he held her by far more than just her hand. Her hair was damp and her lips parted and Dominic knew that in a moment his last shard of control would be kicked aside and all he could think of was the bed waiting just beyond her door. Minuette shivered again and the reasonable part of him almost begged her not to do that, because surely it was a shiver of passion and if she wanted him in the slightest he would not able to stop . . . The tolling of bells echoed through him like the warning voice of God—or, in this case, king. Dominic dropped her hand as though he’d been caught in a crime and tried to pull together the shattered fragments of himself. “Damn,” he said, not sure whom he was addressing. Then, to Minuette, “I have to go.” There was only way possible he could go—to walk fast and not look back.
SPOILERS AHEAD
One of my favorite scenes in the book is the encounter between Minuette and Dominic on the night of her 18th birthday. It was one of the first scenes I wrote when I conceived the story, and it is one of the few untouched scenes to survive from the original long manuscript I finished in 2005. Hampton Court is one of my favorite places on earth and when I visit it next week with Jake, you can bet I will be wandering the kitchen lanes imagining that Dominic is about to come around a corner. (Note to self: Must. Not. Frighten. Normal. Tourists.)
I've always wondered what Dominic was feeling during this emotionally-laden encounter, so I finally wrote it for my own pleasure. I hope it brings pleasure to one or two of you as well :)
(And for the musically inclined, the inspiration song for this scene is AFI's Silver and Cold)
First KissDominic’s Point of View28 June 1554
When Minuette disappeared with Jonathan Percy, Dominic only kept himself from following by dint of pasting himself against a tapestry on one of the great hall’s long walls. Several people tried to speak to him; he rebuffed them all equally without even troubling to distinguish one flatterer from another. He knew the moment she returned, his nerves alerted almost before his eyes caught her coronet of golden hair. She met his gaze and, without hesitation, headed straight for him. Like a homing pigeon. Or a friend who has good news to share. He knew his stare was uninviting but when did such things deter Minuette? She did not immediately speak of Jonathan’s proposal. Rather, with a shy smile, she said, “Come dance with me, Dominic.” Dominic shook his head, knowing that if he opened his mouth he would be lost. And when Minuette laid a hand on his arm, he stepped away abruptly from the contact and, with the briefest of bows, escaped into the crush. Without knowing where he was headed, Dominic simply walked. Perhaps the movement would drive away the desire to seize her by the shoulders and shake her until she came to her senses. Except she wasn’t the one who was being suffocated by possibilities and the echoing taunts of ‘too late’ and the wish to hit someone very, very hard. Instinct led him away from crowds and courtiers, from the false brightness of drunken voices and the dazzle of multi-coloured silks and velvets, until he was deep in the servants’ section of Hampton Court. The stables he knew, but these lanes wound through domestic buildings: enormous kitchens belching with fire and steam and storehouses reeking of everything from fresh game to salted fish. There were plenty of people here, as well, but unlike the court they were unimpressed with Dominic. If they even knew exactly who he was. As thunder rumbled nearby, he drew one deep breath to relax. And then he heard her footsteps. The click of heels and swish of skirts was unmistakably that of a woman in court dress and who else would come after him when he was doing his best to look menacing and unapproachable? Dominic rounded a corner by the pastry house and turned, arms crossed to confront her. She came around the corner ten seconds later looking suspicious and irritated and heart-stoppingly lovely. His only hope was attack. “What do you think you are doing traipsing around these lanes in a dress that cost more than these people will see in their lifetimes?” “I wouldn’t be traipsing around if you hadn’t run away from me as though I had the plague.” “I didn’t ask you to follow.” And please, he thought, please go away before I say or do something I regret. “Dominic, why are you angry?” He opened his mouth to argue and she said impatiently, “Yes, you are angry at me. What has happened?” “You’re imagining things.” He saw the flare of temper in the set of her chin. “You’re a rotten liar, Dominic. However did you manage as a diplomat?” Because he wanted so desperately to drive her away, he said the worst thing he could think of. “I hear you’re betrothed to Eleanor’s brother. I imagine you’ll quite enjoy family gatherings with Giles Howard.” She looked at him as though he’d struck her and he instantly apologized. “That was unforgivable. My temper got the better of me.” “Then you admit you are angry.” With my father and my mother and the world and Jonathan Percy—especially Jonathan Percy—“Only with myself. I wanted something and, in my arrogance, made no effort to secure it. And now it is too late.” Her eyes were enormous and filled with an expression Dominic had never seen from her before. “What did you want?” she whispered. It was beyond his ability to stay still another second. He uncrossed his arms, which were as tight as though he’d been restraining someone else, and moved forward one deliberate step at a time. She stepped back as he came, until the wall was behind her and she couldn’t go further. Dominic did manage to stop moving then, but let his hands come to rest against the rough brick, so close to her shoulders that he could feel the warmth of her skin. Leaning down so that her face had to tilt up to his, Dominic asked, “Do you love him?” “What?” She sounded rattled. “Who?” “The Percy boy. Do you love him?” He hadn’t known he was going to ask that. What the hell was he doing? She must think him mad, looming over her in the rain that had finally begun to fall, demanding an answer to a question he had no right to ask. With a wrench, he stepped back and dropped his hands. She continued to stare at him with a wary intensity that suggested she thought he had lost his mind. “Forgive me,” Dominic said, in a voice that passed for normal. “You need not answer that. He, of course, is in love with you. A desirable quality in a husband.” He saw her swallow and braced himself for her to tell him the news, to ask for his gladness at her betrothal. But before she could speak a servant came around the corner and stopped short, eyes darting between them once and then making a hasty retreat. Dominic knew he had to get away from her, which meant first seeing her safely returned out of the kitchen lanes. “Do you wish to return to the dancing?” “No, I . . . my chamber will do.” Dominic concentrated on two things as he walked: navigating the maze of a mostly unfamiliar part of Hampton Court, and not touching Minuette. The latter was by far the most difficult. There were torches burning at each end of her corridor, just enough light not to trip over anything but not enough to illuminate subtle expressions. He was glad she could not see his face as he bowed goodnight. He let his breath out as he turned away from her, then stopped breathing entirely as she once again laid her hand on his arm. For once in his life, Dominic let himself stop thinking and act as instinct drove him. Slowly—ever so slowly—as though she were a bird that might take to flight with too sudden movement, Dominic curved back to her as though she were his lodestone. He focused on her hand, coaxing it gently off his sleeve until it rested in his own hand. Her fingers were narrow and pale in his battle-roughened palm. With the kind of attention he had previously reserved for field tactics, Dominic cupped his hand over the top of hers and turned it until her own palm lay face up in his. She shivered and there were warnings in the far distance of his mind, but they were buried by the urgings of his heart. He had only ever kissed Minuette’s hand in jest, but he had never been more in earnest as he bent his head and let his mouth linger on that vulnerable spot where her hand narrowed into her wrist. It was the most intimate act of his life. Minuette gasped softly, a completely different sound than her earlier shock and anger. Though his mind was afraid to categorize it, his body knew the meaning of it and responded in kind. And finally—finally—still cradling her hand, Dominic looked at her. He had thought it too dark for the nuances of expression, but he could swear he traced every thought in Minuette’s eyes and knew that in this moment he held her by far more than just her hand. Her hair was damp and her lips parted and Dominic knew that in a moment his last shard of control would be kicked aside and all he could think of was the bed waiting just beyond her door. Minuette shivered again and the reasonable part of him almost begged her not to do that, because surely it was a shiver of passion and if she wanted him in the slightest he would not able to stop . . . The tolling of bells echoed through him like the warning voice of God—or, in this case, king. Dominic dropped her hand as though he’d been caught in a crime and tried to pull together the shattered fragments of himself. “Damn,” he said, not sure whom he was addressing. Then, to Minuette, “I have to go.” There was only way possible he could go—to walk fast and not look back.
July 10, 2013
Jake News and May Books
First the happy-making news: Jake's biopsy results were negative. No cancer of any sort, either a rhabdo relapse or lymphoma. I was in the mall food court at the time and when the surgeon identified himself on the phone I thought, "This had better be good news or my favorite teriyaki place will be ruined forever." Now it just makes a good detail to a happy story. The lab will continue to run tests for the next few weeks to see if they can identify an infectious cause for the lymph nodes' growth, but Jake is out of the woods and life can go on as planned: namely a trip to London, book three revisions, and family trip to Utah. And, yes, blog book reviews :)
GHOST TRAIN TO THE EASTERN STAR/Paul Theroux/B+
Thirty years after his train trip from London to Tokyo and back (chronicled in The Great Railway Bazaar), Theroux retraces his steps through the newly-independent states of the former Soviet Union, through India and Vietnam and Singapore and Cambodia and on into Tokyo, returning by train across the length of Russia. He's an astute observer and an evocative writer, but every book of his I read I wish I was immersed in Bill Bryson's more generous viewpoint and willingness to find humor in every situation. Nonetheless, Theroux is a talented travel writer.
WISE MAN'S FEAR/Patrick Rothfuss/A-
The second in the Kingkiller Chronicles, this book covers the second day of Kvothe's recounting of his former brilliant life to a writer. That sounds like it would be a short book, but Kvothe's past is filled with epic journeys and strange cultures and his enduring love for a girl who can't be pinned down. Kvothe grows up a lot in this recounting, from student to destroyer of bandits and there's a long interlude involving a beautiful Fae from which Kvothe emerges with rather specialized sexual skills. And the story isn't entirely in the past, for evil is intruding in Kvothe's carefully disguised hideaway as an unassuming innkeeper. I have a hard time seeing how Rothfuss will finish this story in just one more volume, but I for one wouldn't mind it going on for several more books :)
MR. CHURCHILL'S SECRETARY/Susan Elia MacNeal/A-
A wonderful debut to a new mystery series featuring Maggie Hope, an American in London who gets a job in the Cabinet War Rooms as one of the prime minister's secretaries. With the education and skills to be a codebreaker, Maggie is swept into the secrets of her parents' mysterious deaths and a plot to kill Churchill that comes much too close to home. Maggie is endearingly individual and the background of wartime London is beautifully realized. Already bought the second book and the third won't be far behind.
BEFORE I FALL/Lauren Oliver/B+
High school senior Samantha Kingston has the perfect life, until it comes to an end on an icy February road. But life isn't quite done with her yet: Sam lives the last day of her life over and over, trying to decipher the secrets of her death and the purpose in reliving her last day. As she makes different choices, Sam sees how one person can affect many. I liked this contemporary YA much more than I expected to. Though Sam and her friends are not my kindred spirit kind of teen girls, I appreciated being inside Sam's head as she works her way through life and death questions.
DARK TRIUMPH/Robin LaFevers/A
The second in His Fair Assassin series, this book focuses on Sybella, though Ismae and other characters from Grave Mercy play an important role. Sybella is much wilder and more damaged than Ismae, but she has learned from early childhood to control her behavior. The convent that serves the God of Death has sent Sybella on her most dangerous assignment--into the heart of her family's twisted court. Sybella must protect herself from her father and brothers while trying to decipher just what it is Death expects of her. This is my favorite new YA series of 2013, with its mix of folklore and historical setting in late 15th-century Brittany.
SOUND OF BROKEN GLASS/Deborah Crombie/A-
The latest Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James mystery sees Gemma running the murder case of a London barrister found in a seedy hotel. While Duncan is on parental leave with their new foster child, Gemma encounters a byzantine case with a second murder, ritual elements to the crime, and a musician whose past as a bullied and near-abandoned child weaves him into the case as a possible suspect. Definitely read the series in order if you enjoy excellent British police procedurals.
SHOOTING VICTORIA/Paul Thomas Murphy/B
Murphy uses the eight assassination attempts on Queen Victoria's life to illuminate the changing role of the monarchy during her sixty-four year reign. He also illuminates social history and the treatment of the mad as he details the crimes and the men who committed them for every reason from true mental illness to a desire for a secure future in an institution to the angry and shortsighted. Interesting if not exactly a page turner :)
GHOST TRAIN TO THE EASTERN STAR/Paul Theroux/B+
Thirty years after his train trip from London to Tokyo and back (chronicled in The Great Railway Bazaar), Theroux retraces his steps through the newly-independent states of the former Soviet Union, through India and Vietnam and Singapore and Cambodia and on into Tokyo, returning by train across the length of Russia. He's an astute observer and an evocative writer, but every book of his I read I wish I was immersed in Bill Bryson's more generous viewpoint and willingness to find humor in every situation. Nonetheless, Theroux is a talented travel writer.
WISE MAN'S FEAR/Patrick Rothfuss/A-
The second in the Kingkiller Chronicles, this book covers the second day of Kvothe's recounting of his former brilliant life to a writer. That sounds like it would be a short book, but Kvothe's past is filled with epic journeys and strange cultures and his enduring love for a girl who can't be pinned down. Kvothe grows up a lot in this recounting, from student to destroyer of bandits and there's a long interlude involving a beautiful Fae from which Kvothe emerges with rather specialized sexual skills. And the story isn't entirely in the past, for evil is intruding in Kvothe's carefully disguised hideaway as an unassuming innkeeper. I have a hard time seeing how Rothfuss will finish this story in just one more volume, but I for one wouldn't mind it going on for several more books :)
MR. CHURCHILL'S SECRETARY/Susan Elia MacNeal/A-
A wonderful debut to a new mystery series featuring Maggie Hope, an American in London who gets a job in the Cabinet War Rooms as one of the prime minister's secretaries. With the education and skills to be a codebreaker, Maggie is swept into the secrets of her parents' mysterious deaths and a plot to kill Churchill that comes much too close to home. Maggie is endearingly individual and the background of wartime London is beautifully realized. Already bought the second book and the third won't be far behind.
BEFORE I FALL/Lauren Oliver/B+
High school senior Samantha Kingston has the perfect life, until it comes to an end on an icy February road. But life isn't quite done with her yet: Sam lives the last day of her life over and over, trying to decipher the secrets of her death and the purpose in reliving her last day. As she makes different choices, Sam sees how one person can affect many. I liked this contemporary YA much more than I expected to. Though Sam and her friends are not my kindred spirit kind of teen girls, I appreciated being inside Sam's head as she works her way through life and death questions.
DARK TRIUMPH/Robin LaFevers/A
The second in His Fair Assassin series, this book focuses on Sybella, though Ismae and other characters from Grave Mercy play an important role. Sybella is much wilder and more damaged than Ismae, but she has learned from early childhood to control her behavior. The convent that serves the God of Death has sent Sybella on her most dangerous assignment--into the heart of her family's twisted court. Sybella must protect herself from her father and brothers while trying to decipher just what it is Death expects of her. This is my favorite new YA series of 2013, with its mix of folklore and historical setting in late 15th-century Brittany.
SOUND OF BROKEN GLASS/Deborah Crombie/A-
The latest Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James mystery sees Gemma running the murder case of a London barrister found in a seedy hotel. While Duncan is on parental leave with their new foster child, Gemma encounters a byzantine case with a second murder, ritual elements to the crime, and a musician whose past as a bullied and near-abandoned child weaves him into the case as a possible suspect. Definitely read the series in order if you enjoy excellent British police procedurals.
SHOOTING VICTORIA/Paul Thomas Murphy/B
Murphy uses the eight assassination attempts on Queen Victoria's life to illuminate the changing role of the monarchy during her sixty-four year reign. He also illuminates social history and the treatment of the mad as he details the crimes and the men who committed them for every reason from true mental illness to a desire for a secure future in an institution to the angry and shortsighted. Interesting if not exactly a page turner :)
June 26, 2013
When Nothing Becomes a Thing
Remember how Jake had a PET scan on June 4? And how the original tumor site was clear? And I started breathing for the first time in a month? And all we had to get through before our clear shot to summer and London and fun was an ultrasound of slightly enlarged lymph nodes under his left arm? And how that was surely nothing?
Turns out it's a thing.
After being only marginally enlarged and stable for over a year, the lymph nodes doubled in size in the last three weeks between the PET scan and the ultrasound. And he also has them under the right arm now.
What does this mean? Besides my breathing being once more affected?
Next Wednesday, July 3, Jake will have a same day surgery biopsy. And then we will wait for results.
It's still unlikely to be cancer. Really, really unlikely to be a rhabdo relapse. But "unlikely" and "biopsy" coexist uneasily.
Other than that, all is well. Matt is home from college for two weeks to celebrate his 20th birthday. I'm deep in first pass pages for The Boleyn Deceit, followed by revisions for book three in the trilogy. And I'm working on proposals for my next project. We learned a long time ago how to be happy in the midst of all else, and it's a skill standing us in good stead.
As long as it's daylight.
When the night falls . . . well, let's say I would not be averse to having the thoughts and prayers of others rising through the dark with mine.
Turns out it's a thing.
After being only marginally enlarged and stable for over a year, the lymph nodes doubled in size in the last three weeks between the PET scan and the ultrasound. And he also has them under the right arm now.
What does this mean? Besides my breathing being once more affected?
Next Wednesday, July 3, Jake will have a same day surgery biopsy. And then we will wait for results.
It's still unlikely to be cancer. Really, really unlikely to be a rhabdo relapse. But "unlikely" and "biopsy" coexist uneasily.
Other than that, all is well. Matt is home from college for two weeks to celebrate his 20th birthday. I'm deep in first pass pages for The Boleyn Deceit, followed by revisions for book three in the trilogy. And I'm working on proposals for my next project. We learned a long time ago how to be happy in the midst of all else, and it's a skill standing us in good stead.
As long as it's daylight.
When the night falls . . . well, let's say I would not be averse to having the thoughts and prayers of others rising through the dark with mine.
June 17, 2013
Recent Publicity Links
Knowing how much my parents love to read nice things from and about me, I'm posting a round-up of recent interviews and reviews. (Seriously, I'm doing this for you, mom and dad. If you are not my mom or dad, likely you'll find me much less interesting than they do and may feel free to walk away. Otherwise, click on the interview/review title for a link.)
Historical Novel Society Interview
Book Page Interview
January Magazine Review
Shelf Awareness ReviewIn the wake of The Tudors and Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, Laura Anderson delivers in her debut novel a glamorous royal drama--but The Boleyn King offers a refreshingly offbeat, counterfactual take on the familiar story.
What if Queen Anne had not miscarried in 1536 and thus not been executed? Anderson invents a male heir--the charismatic, 17-year-old William--who experiences his first taste of unbridled power as the novel begins. Threatened by both the continental nobility and his Catholic half-sister, Mary, William is determined to prove himself as a ruler. Rather than lean on advisers twice his age, the young king relies on a close group of friends that have grown up with him.
While The Boleyn King pivots on Europe's political tensions, it is just as much about friendship as it is about ruling a kingdom. Anderson's characters are innocent and prideful, their lives fraught with all the surging affections and restless energy of adolescence. The difference, of course, is that they must navigate these feelings while governing a country. Tudor England was an era in which the young and inexperienced were still granted dizzying power, and Anderson captures this atmosphere insightfully. The Boleyn King is the first book in a trilogy that promises to be inventive and entertaining. --Annie Atherton, intern at Shelf Awareness
Historical Novel Society Interview
Book Page Interview
January Magazine Review
Shelf Awareness ReviewIn the wake of The Tudors and Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, Laura Anderson delivers in her debut novel a glamorous royal drama--but The Boleyn King offers a refreshingly offbeat, counterfactual take on the familiar story.
What if Queen Anne had not miscarried in 1536 and thus not been executed? Anderson invents a male heir--the charismatic, 17-year-old William--who experiences his first taste of unbridled power as the novel begins. Threatened by both the continental nobility and his Catholic half-sister, Mary, William is determined to prove himself as a ruler. Rather than lean on advisers twice his age, the young king relies on a close group of friends that have grown up with him.
While The Boleyn King pivots on Europe's political tensions, it is just as much about friendship as it is about ruling a kingdom. Anderson's characters are innocent and prideful, their lives fraught with all the surging affections and restless energy of adolescence. The difference, of course, is that they must navigate these feelings while governing a country. Tudor England was an era in which the young and inexperienced were still granted dizzying power, and Anderson captures this atmosphere insightfully. The Boleyn King is the first book in a trilogy that promises to be inventive and entertaining. --Annie Atherton, intern at Shelf Awareness
June 4, 2013
Why May was Weird
Also why this blog has no transitions. Because the inside of my head–not a placid spot on good days–spun into manic overdrive these last five weeks and now I can only grab the thoughts that throw themselves off the merry-go-round as they come and pin them here before they fly away.
Want to know what it's like in my head? This clip from BBC's Sherlock is a pretty good measure (in frantic speed, if not the quality of thought!)
As I said, that's on a good day. But beginning April 30, I wasn't sure when I would have an unqualified good day again. On that day, Jake had his normal scans at Boston Children's Hospital and Dana Farber as part of his four-years-and-counting post-cancer care. He's had thirteen of these scan appointments since November 2008 when he came off treatment for rhabdomyosarcoma and every time I'm anxious. But every time the answer is the same: Looks great. Go home and we'll see you in three or four or six months (increasing periods as time passed.)
On April 30, the answer was: Don't worry. But there are aspects of the MRI of the original tumor site that we're not sure about. But don't worry. Also there are a couple of raised lymph nodes under the arm. Nothing to worry about. We'll take the scans to our weekly Tumor Board meeting where a bunch of our specialists can weigh in. We'll call you. Don't worry.
Right.
So we came home and didn't worry openly. Part of that "not-openly" meant we told almost no one. Pretty much Jake, me and Chris, and grandparents. Not even his siblings, because there was nothing to tell yet so we didn't tell anything. Tumor board is held every Tuesday, which meant the first chance for his scans to be looked at was May 7. If they had emergent cases, then his consult would get pushed to May 14–which also happened to be release day for The Boleyn King. Irony, much? Fortunately for my sanity, Tumor Board got to his case on May 7 so I didn't have to spend the 14th pretending I wasn't waiting for a call from Boston Children's while touring Utah bookstores with my friends playing Spot Laura's Book.
On May 7, the word was, once again: Don't worry. I'm not worried (said the doctor). But the consensus is we want more information. So Jake will have a PET scan on June 4.
Want more irony? June 4 (today) was my original release date for The Boleyn King.
A PET scan uses a radioactive isotope to track, in this case, glucose uptake in the body. Since cancer cells use glucose differently, areas of activity (which is not always cancer, but certainly what we were looking for in the original tumor site) light up on the scan. It would tell us if the "unusual characteristics" of Jake's original tumor site were due to a relapse. And in case you're lucky enough not to know, relapses are never good. Treatments get harsher. Odds go down.
Remember that Sherlock video above? On my good days, this is an example of the constant dialogue in my head: Did I buy milk? Where's the bear in our woods hiding now? I loved that scene in King Hereafter, how did Dorothy Dunnett do that and why can't I figure out how to end the Boleyn King trilogy and what if Kate hates it and this is the book that kills my career except that could be the first one because they've invested so much money and time on me and what if they're disappointed and I've got to do laundry tomorrow and I've lived here two years now and still haven't planted flowers and why, oh why, do my medications insist on making me gain weight and I haven't called my parents in weeks and weeks and it's almost my friend's birthday and I haven't done anything for her yet and is my son in Seattle eating enough?
This is how May went in my head: Holy crap, my book is being read by STRANGERS and now I have to talk about it and I sound like such an idiot on phone interviews and someone wants to film me and I need to buy theater tickets for when Jake and I go to London in July except what if we don't go to London because he's relapsed and I've done this before and chemo and doctors and baldness and he's about to be a senior in high school and applying to college and THIS ISN'T FAIR and no, I won't be gracious this time around, I will be awful and angry and book three has to finished before June 4 or I may never have the chance to write again, not that I care because who cares about writing--except I DO CARE! I care desperately about people reading my books and I've waited so long for this and now it's all mixed up with my child and nothing else will matter ever again if he's sick and I have got to go to sleep or I'll never be able to do anything tomorrow and did my other children do their homework and when was the last time I fed them something other than take-out but who cares because on June 4 MAYBE NOTHING WILL EVER MATTER AGAIN!
I've been pretty tired.
Here's what matters: today's PET scan showed absolutely NO activity in the original tumor site. I started breathing for the first time in five weeks when the doctor told us that. The lymph nodes did light up, but almost certainly it's due to some kind of infection, probably low-level. We did blood work today and Jake will have an ultrasound of the nodes in three weeks. One end point is a possible biopsy, assuming they don't resolve and there are no indications of infection. But this time, when the doctor said to me Don't Worry, I believed her.
Which means tonight my chattering mind will–if not fall quiet–at least return to more mundane matters like weight and career and the lack of flowers in my yard.
And tomorrow I will buy those theater tickets. Because for ten days in July, Jake and I will take London by storm and I plan to enjoy Every. Single. Second.
May 22, 2013
April Books
A LESSON IN SECRETS/Jacqueline Winspear/B+
In the summer of 1932, Maisie accepts an undercover assignment from the British Secret Service at a college founded by those seeking peace. When the founder is murdered in his office, Maisie is not content to sit back and wait for results. Was he killed for his political positions, considering the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, or are there more personal motives at stake? Maisie is always a gentle, peaceful read even when the world is in chaos.
THE PRICE/Alexandra Sokoloff/A-
I loved Sokoloff's first novel, the ghost story The Harrowing, some years ago. But I was not ready to tackle her second novel until now. There aren't a lot of subject matters that I turn away from, but the story of a child dying from cancer and her parents' desperate (supernatural) attempts to save her life were too much for a mom who had just walked through a year of cancer treatment with my own son. Finally the time was right, and ironically we've since moved to Boston where the book is set. This is more a good/evil story than a ghost story, but Sokoloff nails the atmosphere inside hospitals, where one feels that the veil between worlds is sometimes perilously thin. Creepy.
BRAIN ON FIRE/Susannah Cahalan/A
A memoir of a lost month of madness. Cahalan was a journalist when she began to experience severe mood swings, hallucinations, and seizures that defied medical explanation. Her descent was startlingly swift and eventually landed her in a catatonic state in a NYC hospital. She pieces together her family's and her doctors' attempts to find a diagnosis and continues with the long months of rehabilitation both physically and socially. Frightening and beautiful at the same time, reinforcing the fact that what we know about our bodies and minds is so much smaller than what we don't know.
THE CONSTANT LOVERS/Chris Nickson/B
Richard of Nottingham is Constable of Leeds in 1732, and one summer morning he is summoned to the body of a young, beautiful woman who is at first unclaimed. Richard is thoughtful character, committed to his family and his city, and he dislikes the investigation that takes him into upper class society and their strained personal relationships. An easy, satisfying historical mystery.
THE HUMAN DIVISION/John Scalzi/A-
Oh, how I adore John Scalzi's Old Man's War universe. The Human Division has just been published in hardback, but originally appeared this year as weekly digital stories, each one complete in its own right but all combining to paint the picture of a universe on the brink of war and so many groups working secretly that no one knows who is doing what or whom to trust. If you're a sci-fi fan, start with Old Man's War, read the sequels, and then dive into The Human Division.
A STUDY IN SHERLOCK/ed. Laurie R. King and Les Klinger/B+
A collection of stories by mystery writers influenced by the immortal Sherlock Holmes. From contemporary pastiches to historical reimaginings, it's a fun read. I've seen some pure Holmesian fans disappointed that it's not more specific to the Holmes canon, but I liked the cleverness of the different approaches.
GRAVE MERCY/Robin LaFevers/A
A wonderful historical YA novel with elements of fantasy. Ismae Rienne is rescued from a dismal home and brought to an unusual abbey on the coast of Brittany in the late 15th century. The sisters of this convent serve one of the old gods, Mortain, the God of Death, and each sister is trained as an assassin in Mortain's service. Ismae despises men, but she is forced to work closely with Gavriel Duval to protect Brittany's young duchess rom the French who would overrun her domain to the men who wish to marry her and make the duchy their own. Absolutely brilliant.
UNSPOKEN/Sarah Rees Brennan/A
I've followed Rees Brennan on Twitter for a long time and she's made me laugh in so many ways that I knew I would love Unspoken, the first in the Lynburn Legacy series. I saved it, though, until I felt I really needed it and that was the weekend of the Boston bombings and manhunt. I tore through it in one day, and did indeed laugh as well as cry. Kami Glass is 17 and determined to uncover the secrets of the Lynburn family who have just returned to the English town that was once their fiefdom. She also has a voice in her head, a boy named Jared who has been her friend all her life. What happens when Jared becomes flesh and bone, and someone wants to kill her?
THE SECRET KEEPER/Kate Morton/B+
Morton writes family epics, in which someone in the present usually is attempting to uncover secrets in the past, and The Secret Keeper is no different. At the age of 16, Laurel Nicholson witnessed a crime that she's never talked about to anyone. Now fifty years later, her mother is dying and Laurel finds that the past must be understood for everyone to be at peace in the present. The real strength of the novel is in the WWII storyline and the young women and men who are trying to hold on to each other and their futures through war and personal trauma.
DELIA'S SHADOW/Jamie Lee Moyer/A-
This is where I say "Neener, neener, neener"--because this book won't be released until September. I read an ARC thanks to my agent who also represents Moyer (actually, I snatched it out of the hands of my daughter when Tamar attempted to give it to her first.) Delia's Shadow is a ghost story and mystery and a historical, wrapped up with a gift for atmosphere and setting that I'm jealous of. Delia returns to San Francisco a decade after the Great Quake, pursued by a ghost who clearly wants something from her. Delia has always been able to see the dead, but this ghost is particularly powerful. When Delia meets a police detective hunting a killer who appears to have returned to the city after more than twenty years, Delia realizes her ghost may be the only thing that will keep them all alive. Put this on your list for the fall--I'll be sure to remind you!
In the summer of 1932, Maisie accepts an undercover assignment from the British Secret Service at a college founded by those seeking peace. When the founder is murdered in his office, Maisie is not content to sit back and wait for results. Was he killed for his political positions, considering the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, or are there more personal motives at stake? Maisie is always a gentle, peaceful read even when the world is in chaos.
THE PRICE/Alexandra Sokoloff/A-
I loved Sokoloff's first novel, the ghost story The Harrowing, some years ago. But I was not ready to tackle her second novel until now. There aren't a lot of subject matters that I turn away from, but the story of a child dying from cancer and her parents' desperate (supernatural) attempts to save her life were too much for a mom who had just walked through a year of cancer treatment with my own son. Finally the time was right, and ironically we've since moved to Boston where the book is set. This is more a good/evil story than a ghost story, but Sokoloff nails the atmosphere inside hospitals, where one feels that the veil between worlds is sometimes perilously thin. Creepy.
BRAIN ON FIRE/Susannah Cahalan/A
A memoir of a lost month of madness. Cahalan was a journalist when she began to experience severe mood swings, hallucinations, and seizures that defied medical explanation. Her descent was startlingly swift and eventually landed her in a catatonic state in a NYC hospital. She pieces together her family's and her doctors' attempts to find a diagnosis and continues with the long months of rehabilitation both physically and socially. Frightening and beautiful at the same time, reinforcing the fact that what we know about our bodies and minds is so much smaller than what we don't know.
THE CONSTANT LOVERS/Chris Nickson/B
Richard of Nottingham is Constable of Leeds in 1732, and one summer morning he is summoned to the body of a young, beautiful woman who is at first unclaimed. Richard is thoughtful character, committed to his family and his city, and he dislikes the investigation that takes him into upper class society and their strained personal relationships. An easy, satisfying historical mystery.
THE HUMAN DIVISION/John Scalzi/A-
Oh, how I adore John Scalzi's Old Man's War universe. The Human Division has just been published in hardback, but originally appeared this year as weekly digital stories, each one complete in its own right but all combining to paint the picture of a universe on the brink of war and so many groups working secretly that no one knows who is doing what or whom to trust. If you're a sci-fi fan, start with Old Man's War, read the sequels, and then dive into The Human Division.
A STUDY IN SHERLOCK/ed. Laurie R. King and Les Klinger/B+
A collection of stories by mystery writers influenced by the immortal Sherlock Holmes. From contemporary pastiches to historical reimaginings, it's a fun read. I've seen some pure Holmesian fans disappointed that it's not more specific to the Holmes canon, but I liked the cleverness of the different approaches.
GRAVE MERCY/Robin LaFevers/A
A wonderful historical YA novel with elements of fantasy. Ismae Rienne is rescued from a dismal home and brought to an unusual abbey on the coast of Brittany in the late 15th century. The sisters of this convent serve one of the old gods, Mortain, the God of Death, and each sister is trained as an assassin in Mortain's service. Ismae despises men, but she is forced to work closely with Gavriel Duval to protect Brittany's young duchess rom the French who would overrun her domain to the men who wish to marry her and make the duchy their own. Absolutely brilliant.
UNSPOKEN/Sarah Rees Brennan/A
I've followed Rees Brennan on Twitter for a long time and she's made me laugh in so many ways that I knew I would love Unspoken, the first in the Lynburn Legacy series. I saved it, though, until I felt I really needed it and that was the weekend of the Boston bombings and manhunt. I tore through it in one day, and did indeed laugh as well as cry. Kami Glass is 17 and determined to uncover the secrets of the Lynburn family who have just returned to the English town that was once their fiefdom. She also has a voice in her head, a boy named Jared who has been her friend all her life. What happens when Jared becomes flesh and bone, and someone wants to kill her?
THE SECRET KEEPER/Kate Morton/B+
Morton writes family epics, in which someone in the present usually is attempting to uncover secrets in the past, and The Secret Keeper is no different. At the age of 16, Laurel Nicholson witnessed a crime that she's never talked about to anyone. Now fifty years later, her mother is dying and Laurel finds that the past must be understood for everyone to be at peace in the present. The real strength of the novel is in the WWII storyline and the young women and men who are trying to hold on to each other and their futures through war and personal trauma.
DELIA'S SHADOW/Jamie Lee Moyer/A-
This is where I say "Neener, neener, neener"--because this book won't be released until September. I read an ARC thanks to my agent who also represents Moyer (actually, I snatched it out of the hands of my daughter when Tamar attempted to give it to her first.) Delia's Shadow is a ghost story and mystery and a historical, wrapped up with a gift for atmosphere and setting that I'm jealous of. Delia returns to San Francisco a decade after the Great Quake, pursued by a ghost who clearly wants something from her. Delia has always been able to see the dead, but this ghost is particularly powerful. When Delia meets a police detective hunting a killer who appears to have returned to the city after more than twenty years, Delia realizes her ghost may be the only thing that will keep them all alive. Put this on your list for the fall--I'll be sure to remind you!
May 14, 2013
For Laura -
My apologies to Laura for hacking her blog and Facebook accounts…
Today, May 14, 2013, is the debut of Laura Andersen’s first book, The Boleyn King. This book is the first in a trilogy published by Random House. In the last few months, The Boleyn King was selected to be in the Random House Reader’s Circle, received outstanding reviews from authors and professional publications, returned to press for a second printing, had rights sold in a foreign country, and was prepared for distribution by well-known national retailers. It has been an amazing journey, and I am intrigued to see where it goes from here.
For Laura’s close friend’s this journey started 10 years ago with a challenge in a Park City, Utah restaurant. For me, this journey started over 26 years ago in high school with a date to a basketball game. Since that time, I have watched Laura experience a rollercoaster of emotions on the path to becoming an author. Among the most telling experience for me was 20 years ago when we lived in Seattle, WA. I returned home from a long business trip to find Laura’s thoughts and emotions humming with excitement for characters that had quite literally come to life for her. It is fascinating to know that these characters are not in The Boleyn King, but continue to live and evolve in Laura’s imagination waiting for their time to be shared.
I find selfish pride in the belief (correct or not) that I was present when Laura’s first inspirations for The Boleyn King were stirred at sites such as Hampton Court Palace and The Tower of London. However, all credit goes to Laura and her unrelenting determination to be good and be successful. I lack the ability to describe for Laura’s friends and readers the extent of rejection she agonizingly endured and the many, many hours late at night she spent drafting and re-drafting, editing and re-editing.
My lasting pride – and happiness – comes from being Laura Andersen’s husband. Congratulations to Laura on this remarkable achievement! May there be many more days like this one.
Also, my sincere thanks to Laura’s friends, family, agent, editors, publicist, artistic team, reviewers and soon-to-be fans!
Chris Andersen
May 12, 2013
Babies and Mothers
Once upon a time I was not a mother. And then one day I was. It's been not quite half my lifetime, thank goodness, though that day seems to close in faster every year: I was 24 the day I became a mother; that child will be 20 this summer.
Isn't he adorable? We were celebrating his feet that day, since Matt spent nearly all of his first year of life in double casts and had surgery at 9 months to correct club feet.
And then one day, nearly 3 years later, there were two.
A second boy, just like I knew it would be. Jake was no less adorable than Matt, though rather plumper and with less hair for a longer time.
Then came the girl. In such a rush to get here that I never got an epidural. It's a good thing Emma is a laid-back teenager, because I've already endured all the pain I care to have from her.
First daughter, first granddaughter, spoiled-sweet. Less likely these days to chew on plastic parrots.
But three was not the right number for us. Someone critical was missing. A boy who wouldn't mind (too much) having a big sister who bossed him around and two big brothers to worship.
And how's that for a great ending to a Mother's Day post--my mom and Spencer more than eleven years ago :)
This is an odd Mother's Day for me, because I'm away from my kids preparing for the launch event of my debut novel. The book-as-child metaphor is not uncommon, and considering that I sold this novel at auction on the same day my oldest son graduated from high school, it's a metaphor I've pondered.
And decided it's not for me.
My books are my books. I love them. I work hard on them. I'm nervous about them going into the world and what sort of reception they will have. What if people are mean to my books? What if they make my characters cry or feel self-conscious? What if they sink without a trace?
But they are only books.
If I could have been only one or the other for the entirety of my life--writer or mom--I'd choose mom without a blink, without a heartbeat, without hesitation.
And that makes my books all the sweeter, because my children are proud of me.
Isn't he adorable? We were celebrating his feet that day, since Matt spent nearly all of his first year of life in double casts and had surgery at 9 months to correct club feet.
And then one day, nearly 3 years later, there were two.
A second boy, just like I knew it would be. Jake was no less adorable than Matt, though rather plumper and with less hair for a longer time.
Then came the girl. In such a rush to get here that I never got an epidural. It's a good thing Emma is a laid-back teenager, because I've already endured all the pain I care to have from her.
First daughter, first granddaughter, spoiled-sweet. Less likely these days to chew on plastic parrots.
But three was not the right number for us. Someone critical was missing. A boy who wouldn't mind (too much) having a big sister who bossed him around and two big brothers to worship.
And how's that for a great ending to a Mother's Day post--my mom and Spencer more than eleven years ago :)
This is an odd Mother's Day for me, because I'm away from my kids preparing for the launch event of my debut novel. The book-as-child metaphor is not uncommon, and considering that I sold this novel at auction on the same day my oldest son graduated from high school, it's a metaphor I've pondered.
And decided it's not for me.
My books are my books. I love them. I work hard on them. I'm nervous about them going into the world and what sort of reception they will have. What if people are mean to my books? What if they make my characters cry or feel self-conscious? What if they sink without a trace?
But they are only books.
If I could have been only one or the other for the entirety of my life--writer or mom--I'd choose mom without a blink, without a heartbeat, without hesitation.
And that makes my books all the sweeter, because my children are proud of me.
