Meradeth Houston's Blog, page 12

Spring Break and Picture Posts

Hi! It's spring break here, even though spring has only sort of started to show her face--mostly by melting *most* of the snow :) Still, it's been lovely. And even though I'm still hard at work ("breaks" are for students...), my mom and sister came to visit for the weekend. We had a blast and I thought I'd share some of our adventures here. Ever made a Dutch Baby pancake? So tasty! The walking bridge near campus--I love these locks!

The tiny library downtown. I can't get over how cute it is! 
Totally adorable!
My mom and sister didn't appreciate the temps. It was in the low 50's--almost sweltering for here. But their California blood called for lots and lots of down jackets, haha!
And some lounging in the sun wherever they could find it.How are things in your neck of the woods? Has spring sprung yet?

Monday Musings & THIS IS SARAH by Ally Malinenko

Happy Monday everyone! How are you all doing? Surviving Daylight Savings? (Ugh--I hate the shift, though I do love that it's light out later!) After a massive dump of snow last week I think we may finally be out of the worst of winter, finally! And Spring Break is next week--WOOHOO!! I'll be busy working all week, but that's academic life and at least I won't have to teach every day on top of research, and committees, and meeting with students, and and and... :) Yeah, being a professor often resembles being a ping-pong ball. I often wonder if I'll ever be able to think in a straight line again...or not be stressed out. Because the latter is something I can no longer even remember.

BUT, I did finish my WIP! Seriously, that's a major WOOT!!!!!! Because that MS has been doggin' me for over a year. So, hopefully my agent likes it, and I can dig into revisions. Until then I have a very fun little short piece I'm working on in the spare minutes I can eek out (haha, yeah, more like shove in to my schedule because I *have* to write to remain sane).

So, today I'm sharing a book that we've talked about here before, but it's a good one:

When Colin Leventhal leaned out his bedroom window on the night of May 12th and said goodbye to his girlfriend, he never expected it would be forever. But when Sarah Evans goes missing that night, Colin’s world unravels as he transforms from the boyfriend next door to the main police suspect. Then one year later, at her memorial service, Colin makes a phone call that could change everything. Is it possible that Sarah is still alive? And if so, how far will he go to bring her back? 
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Snag it on Amazon for just 99 pennies!
About Ally:Ally Malinenko is the author of the poetry collection The Wanting Bone (Six Gallery Press) and the children's fantasy Lizzy Speare and the Cursed Tomb (Antenna Books). She lives in Brooklyn with her husband.
Website    Twitter    Goodreads

#InkRipples: Tropes: tried, true, and terrible

#InkRipples  is a themed meme hosted by Mary Waibel, Katie L. Carroll, and Kai Strand. We post on the first Monday of every month. If you would like to participate compose your own post regarding the theme of the month, include any of the images displayed on this page, and link back to their three blogs. Feel free to post whenever you want during the month, but be sure to include #inkripples when you promote so readers can find you. The idea is that we toss a word or idea into the inkwell and each post is a new ripple. There is no wrong interpretation.

Ahhh, tropes. They really are everywhere--I mean that's why they are considered tropes, right? The basic definition is just a recurrent theme or motif (well, I know there's another definition--that of shifting the meaning of words or using literary devices to add layers to stories, however that's less fun, so I'm going with this aspect of tropes). Despite this, they are often viewed as poor writing and lumped with cliches. No, I'm not suggesting using them, but I do think that sometimes tropes have their place. They are archetypal storylines and ideas that most everyone knows and it resonates for a reason: often they are powerful and make people identify with the story and characters. I think of the Hero's Journey as a classic one that if often used in fantasy/sci-fi. We've all seen it so many times, and yet, it's still used because it works.

Other tropes that tend to crop up in fantasy and science fiction are the classic good versus evil battle. I mean, isn't that the basis of about every novel you've read lately? :) Okay, maybe not every, but it's certainly pretty prevalent. I keep thinking of Harry Potter and it's abundance of use of these ideas: the Hero, the good versus supreme evil, the quest to find the missing object that will defeat the evildoer, and many times the Medievalism that's used in some shape or form (helllo Hogwarts). This forms the foundation for so many worlds in the fantasy realm that I'm sure we can all think of plenty of examples.

There are other tropes, too, of course. The HEA ending in Romance could be considered one. The feisty heroine who wins the day and the man in chic-lit. There are so many. And yeah, while I definitely like the new and refreshing ideas that I come across, these tried and true tropes have their place. It's all about the execution, right? The ability to put a fresh spin or face on these ideas, to make them interesting and fun. And of course some great characters to bring them to life. This is definitely what I think about every time I see one of the Star Wars films :)

What about you? What are your thoughts on tropes?

Cover Reveal: GIRL WITHOUT A FACE by Medeia Sharif

It's always a pleasure to hold a fellow Evernight author, especially one whose work I love so much! Check out this amazing cover for Medeia's new piece:


GIRL WITHOUT A FACE BY Medeia SharifEvernight Teen, March 3, 2017
Destiny awakes with amnesia. She had been driving on a wet road, about to leave flowers at a memorial marker of a deceased classmate, when she almost met that same fate.
Her mother, Mildred, is restrictive. She doesn’t want Destiny to have her cellphone, which a nurse sneaks into her room. It’s useless since Destiny doesn’t have the passcode. After her hospital stay, she enters her mother’s overbearing household. Mildred becomes physically abusive, and Destiny fights back.
When Mildred is away, Destiny leaves with her neighbor, Gabriel, whom she’s developing feelings for, and they drive around to jog her memory. She’s positive she crashed near a memorial marker. When they find the marker in question, and when she remembers her phone’s passcode, her identity is questionable and Mildred is even crazier than she at first thought. Destiny is eager to escape Mildred’s household and find out who she really is.
Find Medeia – YA and MG Author
Website   |   Twitter   |   Goodreads   |   Instagram   |   Amazon

Monday Mishmash: the why is it not Spring already edition

It's the end of February. Once again, I wonder how that happened. Granted, the past few months have been very long in some respects, as work has been relatively insane. But, here's what's on my mind lately:

Spring is taunting us here in Montana. We had a couple of really nice days where the snow melted enough that I can actually see most of my road (because for SOME DUMB REASON the roads aren't plowed even in the middle of the biggest city in the state...*ahem* this absolutely pisses me off and I vent about it regularly :). And then it snowed again this morning. So, go figure. I can't wait for this winter to be over though--it's been a long one!I think I post about how much I hate winter almost every single time I do one of these.Who else out there is watching the USA implode and trying not to tear their hair out? Because that's been utilizing a whole lot of my energy lately, let alone attending marches, writing letters, making calls. I have always been politically minded, though I don't post about it much, and good grief, lately it seems that EVERYTHING I hold dear is under attack: the arts, sciences, free speech, the gov't checks and balances, equality, understanding and acceptance of other religions and ancestry groups. I really try to remain neutral in general in my public posts but it's crossed the line. People, this is my LIFE. I am a professor who teaches about science and how we are all human and we should treat each other as such. Why is this so hard to understand for some people?The end is in sight for my WIP. Maybe not revisions, but I am *this* close to getting to the end. This draft has kicked my butt, and I generally love drafting. Some novels though, I swear, they're more blood than ink!I wrote a lecture on writing research papers (and how to do academic research...because for *some* reason I revel in my students being informed, intelligent members of society who can check out sources of information). This is the last slide, because it cracked me up:

After Reading: THE IMMORTALS by Jordanna Max Brodsky

MANHATTAN HAS MANY SECRETS.
SOME ARE OLDER THAN THE CITY ITSELF.

Manhattan.
The city sleeps. Selene DiSilva walks her dog along the banks of the Hudson. She is alone-just the way she likes it. She doesn't believe in friends, and she doesn't speak to her family. Most of them are simply too dangerous.

Murders.
In the predawn calm, Selene finds the body of a young woman washed ashore, gruesomely mutilated and wreathed in laurel. Her ancient rage returns. And so does the memory of a promise she made long ago. To protect the innocent-and to punish those who stand in her way.

Gods.
With the NYPD out of its depth, Selene vows to hunt the killer on her own. But when classics professor Theo Schultz decodes the ancient myth behind the crime, the solitary Huntress finds herself working with a man who's her opposite in every way. Together, they face a long-forgotten cult that lies behind a string of murders, and they'll need help from the one source Selene distrusts most of all: the city's other Immortals. (Goodreads)

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I've been wandering into the adult fiction arena more, which means I've been trying to pick up books that fit into the category I enjoy most: urban or paranormals. I love the real world with a good twist :) And this one absolutely fit the bill for what I wanted. Selene is the goddess Artemis, and I really enjoyed the way she was portrayed--lonely, frustrated, and always trying to right the wrongs against women. The story Brodsky has crafted is fast paced, fun, and fascinating for a geek like me who loves all things Greek mythology. Theo Schultz, the professor in the novel, did annoy me a bit (yeah, he's the subject of another blog post ;), but as the story progressed as his position became less of a focus, I could ignore my annoyance more and it didn't detract from the story. Honestly, this story was awesome and I'm really looking forward to the sequel!

Definitely a good read for anyone who's enjoyed American Gods or the Percy Jackson series (this was the blurb that sold me on this book in the first place!).

GHOST TOUCH by LA Dragoni Book Spotlight!

I have a fun book to share today, from the wonderful LA Dragoni! Enjoy! :)
For fifteen minutes each night a portal opens in Tamara’s barn and a horde of ghosts spills into her yard. She and Dex work together to find a way to help Cal and the thousands of spirits stuck in the void to cross over. When she learns she has the ghost touch—the ability to touch the ghosts as if they were corporeal—and she accidentally helps a little boy cross, she believes it might be possible. But not all the spirits play nice and when they learn they can sip energy from her ghost touch, they become greedy putting her life at risk.
Each time Cal has to pull her from the mass of ghosts, her touch restores him more and more until he is at danger of being stuck on earth—forever, which is very enticing to Tamara the better she knows him. Will she and Dex figure out how to help the spirits cross and if they do, will she be able to let Cal go?
Available in ebook, and audiobook from Amazon, and now available in print! Also available on Barnes and Noble, Kobo, iTunes, and other e-tailers.
Excerpt:
Tamara rubbed her hands together then held them toward the fire. The air had an extra chill to it. “Hurry up, they should be here soon.”She’d barely finished speaking when bright light burst through the barn. Tamara spun back around. “Dex!”She shielded her eyes with a hand searching for Dex’s familiar silhouette, but couldn’t make him out in the chaos of ghosts streaming from within the building. “Dex!” she shouted again, leaping forward and running toward the door. A stabbing pain of cold sliced through her upper arm when she knocked against the ghost with the shovel in his hand. He stopped to stare at her with a surprised expression on his face. She pushed forward, ignoring the increasing pain as she jostled up against the ghosts. A knot of ghosts hunkered together where she last saw Dexter. She pushed through them, her warm touch surprising enough to make them jump back. Dex lay crumpled in a quivering ball at the center of the group. Tamara kneeled beside him and clutched his shoulders.“Dex! Are you okay?” He didn’t respond, just rocked to and fro, mumbling incoherent words. She shouted. “Dex! Can you hear me?”His gaze finally lifted, a wary look colored with terror.“Oh my God.” Tamara wrapped her arms around him. His body was ice cold. She pressed as much of herself against him as she could and buried her face in his hair. “I gotcha. You’ll be okay.”Then she became aware of an ache worming through her muscles and realized hands pawed at her, clutched her, and were trying to pull her away. She raised a furious glare at the eager crowd of ghouls and snarled. “Stop! Leave us alone.”However, hunger showed in the eyes of those who’d been dead a short enough time to still have them. Actions became more insistent and then combative. The group shoved and swayed until she worried she’d be crushed beneath them when they fell. She kept her arms wrapped around Dex, hoping to keep the spirits off him, but many simply reached through him to get to her. He shuddered violently and had grown quiet. Each individual touch drained her of warmth and energy, yet they continued to grope at her arms and back, tug on her hair and clothing. She grew weaker and weaker until the edges of her vision dimmed and she could barely feel the boy she was trying to protect. Just before she passed out, a roar penetrated her frozen mind and she sensed more than saw the crowd spring away. But she was already too far gone and lost consciousness just as lukewarm hands gripped her upper arms.
Reviews:
"The writing's terrific, the storyline compelling. Truth be told, I rushed to the end to find out who Tamara would end up with." -Stuart R. West
About the author: LA Dragoni isn’t too particular about who falls in love or where they fall in love. She simply considers it her job to capture the story about their love. Whether it’s paranormal, mythical, or time travel, LA will be there to divine their story for you. She lives in Central Oregon with her husband and children, but haunts ghost towns and cemeteries up and down the west, in search of the next adventure to sift through her storytelling brain. Follow LA on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to her mailing list and learn more about LA and her work at www.ladragoni.com

#InkRipples: Contemplating the Big Genre Switch

#InkRipples  is a themed meme hosted by Mary Waibel, Katie L. Carroll, and Kai Strand. We post on the first Monday of every month. If you would like to participate compose your own post regarding the theme of the month, include any of the images displayed on this page, and link back to our three blogs. Feel free to post whenever you want during the month, but be sure to include #inkripples when you promote so readers can find you. The idea is that we toss a word or idea into the inkwell and each post is a new ripple. There is no wrong interpretation.
Yay for February! A little closer to spring! We've had the longest winter ever (or so it's felt like, and actually it's one of the coldest since they started keeping records 1896). Anyhow, I'm ready for the snow to melt already :) And this month we're talking about genres on InkRipples. You know, the classifications of books that delve more deeply than just fiction/non-fiction :) I've spent the majority of my writing career writing in Young Adult fantasy and sci-fi. I love reading this genre. I love writing it. But...lately it hasn't been doing it as much for me. I know it's not that the books have changed. They're still fantastic! But when I want to pick up a novel, I'm a little more inclined to want an adult MC. Don't get me wrong--I'm still reading as much YA as possible, but I've added a great deal more adult fantasy and sci-fi to my TBR.
This has also reflected in my writing. The last couple of books I've written have absolutely been in the adult category. Not because they have loads of sex or something (nothing more than any of my other books), but because they have older MC's and deal with bigger issues, more adult problems. And I'm kinda okay with that. Though I am wary of delving into the adult writing community, as it feels like a new culture and world to learn and I like my kid-lit people! Still, I can't help it: I'm crossing the genre line into the adult side of the writing scene.
So, what does this mean? Well, it depends. A different market to target with my writing. Different things to think about while writing (not so much about being an accurate teen, but more an accurate adult), and gearing some aspects of my language and thinking toward a more "mature" audience (interpret that as you will ;). It's actually a little less stressful in some ways--teens are far less forgiving about slips in authenticity, whereas adults may be just as discerning, but more open to differences in experiences. We'll see how this goes!Marketing is a whole other issue. How to target a new audience with an adult book? Well, I'm going to worry about that a bit more when it comes to it, as I don't have either of these books placed with a publisher (yet! Because it's gonna happen!). I do know it's going to take some tweaking and re-tooling, however.
If anyone had asked me a couple of years ago what I thought about genre-switching, I would have twitched and blinked and maybe broken out in hives. But now it's something I'm really enjoying. Does this mean I won't write more YA? Nope. But it does mean that I'm going to embrace what my brain decides it wants to write, and if that means an adult book, bring it on! Okay, couldn't resist! This made me laugh too hard :)

Thoughts on Writing: the Professor character #amwriting

So this is something that came up this week while reading a really awesome novel: I was really enjoying everything...until the university professor comes on the scene. Because, lets be honest, as a Professor, there are very few times that this character is portrayed correctly. Actually...I can't think of a single time that I've seen it done well or accurately.

Caveat: every department, university, and career is very different. I am biased toward what it's like to be an anthropology professor in a smaller school, but with a focus on research. Things are super different at the big R1 schools (research first), and vastly different from smaller teaching colleges. Still...it's *always* going to be a busy and stressful job.

So, what got the burr in my butt about this? The guy shows up to work and got to spend the whole day, door shut, just doing research. He didn't have to attend faculty meetings, or read his emails (well, memos in the book, but really NO one uses memos any more). Actually, he avoided interaction with the rest of his department pretty much on the whole all of the time. AND, the kicker, he got to PICK where he worked. JUST NO. On all counts.

Haha, okay, so yeah I know, sometimes it's necessary to bend the rules a little to make a story work. I guess it just irked me because it got me thinking that never, anywhere, have I seen this type of character done well. To add to this, the Professor character is EVERYWHERE. Think about it: they are on almost every show, and many movies, let alone books galore. (and not just characters that are called "professor" and aren't one, too.)

Anyhow, things to think about if you're going to write a professor character: we never have free time. I work pretty much 24/7. I always have to have my email around, because it gets insane in the blink of an eye. I work with people around the world on research, let alone my students in classes and the lab. If I'm in my office, I'm almost never left alone, with the rare exception of right around a big holiday. Students, other professors, random people off the street (and oh gods could I tell you stories about this), let alone research collaborators, etc., are ALWAY stopping by. Getting a chance to work on a single project and dedicate some serious hours to it flat out always means I have to work from home. Which I do. A lot.

I'm never going to be able to take an unexpected trip to see some strange event. Not in the middle of the semester, especially. Professors don't get substitute teachers. We may be lucky enough to have a grad student or TA who can cover a few days for us, both long absences are next to impossible. I'll be missing two days later this semester for a work conference and it's insane attempting to get that all worked out. Sure, I can cancel class...but that can count against me on my evaluations and that's not something I can afford to mess with (they count toward raises, tenure, annual evals, which if you think about it is really screwed up).

Okay, last one: the academic job market is a pretty screwy place. This is a huge post in and of itself, but let's suffice it to say that new, permanent positions only open up when someone retires or dies. Sometimes a university opens a new position when the money allows for it, but it doesn't happen often. So, once you're done with grad school and basically desperate for a job, you kind of have to apply to the random positions that are open. And that could be ANYWHERE. (And no university hires its own graduates.) This is how I ended up in the middle of Montana. Sure, maybe later I'll be able to apply for a position that'll come open elsewhere, but getting a tenure track position to begin with is like winning the lotto--getting one where you want to live (wherever that might be) is next to impossible. So, a character that just applies to any old department because they want to live in XYZ city--nope. Not gonna happen.

Anyhow, this is a random rant of a post about professor life. If you want to be true to life to on in your writing, it would be best to be really familiar with academic life. Or just make your character in some other profession that you know more about :)

/rant :)

After Reading: DREAD AND BREAKFAST by Stuart R. West

WELCOME TO THE DANDY DROP INN, WHERE EVERYBODY IS TREATED LIKE FAMILY!

It's the worst snowstorm Missouri has ever seen, and nine strangers, each harboring their own secrets, find themselves sharing a roof at the Dandy Drop Inn.

CHECKING IN'S EASY, …

Tommy and Heather Goodenow, the inn's only scheduled guests, are young newlyweds brought together by God himself. They plan to start their life together by carrying out the Lord's work, and God help anybody who gets in their way.

Harold Carsten, an accountant for the mob, is on the run with $700,000 stolen from his employer.

Winston Ashford is a man on a mission. His mission? Retrieve the money Carsten stole and make sure the man never does it again.

And then there's Rebecca Stanchfield and her six-year-old daughter, Kyra; they're risking their lives running from an abusive past.

… CHECKING OUT'S A BITCH.

Jim and Delores Dandy wouldn't dream of turning anybody away, especially not on the worst night in Missouri's history, because that just wouldn't be neighborly.

Before the storm is over, blood will flow.

Who will survive to see the storm finally pass? (Goodreads)

SNAG A COPY HERE!
I've been a huge fan of Stuart's work for quite a while now. All of his novels are really well written, have amazing characters, and are bound to keep you reading well into the night. Dread and Breakfast is an intricately plotted novel with a host of interesting (and a little crazy) characters who all end up at the bed and breakfast during a storm. As the events of the night unfold, I definitely wasn't turning the lights out, nor putting the book down until I knew for sure what was going to happen. I loved it! Everyone has a backstory here, and most are ones you'll never expect. And some left my skin crawling, haha! Stuart isn't one one to shy away from a little (or a lot) of horror, and for this reader, it's awesome. Plus, in true form, there are some great witty lines--so I was often laughing while totally being creeped out :) I highly recommend this one, and all of Stuart's books!