L.R. Lam's Blog, page 9

Books Read in August

1. Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism – Michael Cart

A critical overview of YA. I enjoyed the history sections, but felt the SFF section was quite truncated and the LGBTQ chapter needed quite a lot of updating. For instance, the example of the first YA book with an intersex protagonist was one published a year after mine (and one that doesn’t have good reviews from actual intersex readers). This was published by the ALA and my book was on the Rainbow List, so a bit sad it was missed. Plus, no mention of Malinda Lo and other SFF writers that have published loads of LGBTQ YA lit. All in all, an interesting read and a good basis for the class I’ll be teaching next year.

2. The Last Nasmara (Iskari #1) – Kristen Cicarelli

In the beginning, there was the Namsara: the child of sky and spirit, who carried love and laughter wherever he went. But where there is light, there must be dark—and so there was also the Iskari. The child of blood and moonlight. The destroyer. The death bringer.

These are the legends that Asha, daughter of the king of Firgaard, has grown up hearing in hushed whispers, drawn to the forbidden figures of the past. But it isn’t until she becomes the fiercest, most feared dragon slayer in the land that she takes on the role of the next Iskari—a lonely destiny that leaves her feeling more like a weapon than a girl.

Asha conquers each dragon and brings its head to the king, but no kill can free her from the shackles that await at home: her betrothal to the cruel commandant, a man who holds the truth about her nature in his palm. When she’s offered the chance to gain her freedom in exchange for the life of the most powerful dragon in Firgaard, she finds that there may be more truth to the ancient stories than she ever could have expected. With the help of a secret friend—a slave boy from her betrothed’s household—Asha must shed the layers of her Iskari bondage and open her heart to love, light, and a truth that has been kept from her.

3. All Worked Up – Skylar Hill

A fun romance story about two people working in a sex toy company. I find Skylar Hill to be really nice

4. The Player of Games (Culture #2) – Iain M. Banks

The Culture–a humanoid/machine symbiotic society–has thrown up many great Game Players. One of the best is Jernau Morat Gurgeh, Player of Games, master of every board, computer and strategy. Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad, cruel & incredibly wealthy, to try their fabulous game, a game so complex, so like life itself, that the winner becomes emperor. Mocked, blackmailed, almost murdered, Gurgeh accepts the game and with it the challenge of his life, and very possibly his death.

5. Wake – Elizabeth Knox

An invisible monster is what you can’t see coming. With an invisible monster you never know when you’re in danger and when you’re safe—if you retreat to your fortress you can’t be sure you haven’t locked it in with you. The invisible monster is something on which no one is an expert. But everyone has the same relationship to it. It could just as well be peering over your shoulder as mine.

On a sunny spring morning the settlement of Kahukura in Tasman is suddenly overwhelmed by a mysterious mass insanity. A handful of survivors find themselves cut off from the world, and surrounded by the dead. As the group of try to take care of one another, and survive in ever more difficult circumstances, it becomes apparent that this isn’t the first time that this has happened, and that they aren’t all survivors and victims – two of them are something quite other. And, it seems, they are trapped with something. Something unseen is picking at the loose threads of their characters, corrupting, provoking, and haunting them.

Wake is a book that asks: ‘What are the last things left when the worst has happened?’ It is a book about extreme events, ordinary people, heroic compassion—and invisible monsters.

6. Wishful Drinking – Carrie Fisher

In Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher tells the true and intoxicating story of her life with inimitable wit. Born to celebrity parents, she was picked to play a princess in a little movie called Star Wars when only 19 years old. “But it isn’t all sweetness and light sabres.” Alas, aside from a demanding career and her role as a single mother (not to mention the hyperspace hairdo), Carrie also spends her free time battling addiction, weathering the wild ride of manic depression and lounging around various mental institutions. It’s an incredible tale – from having Elizabeth Taylor as a stepmother, to marrying (and divorcing) Paul Simon, from having the father of her daughter leave her for a man, to ultimately waking up one morning and finding a friend dead beside her in bed.

7. The Tiger’s Watch (Ashes of Gold #1)  – Julia Ember

Sixteen-year-old Tashi has spent their life training as a inhabitor, a soldier who spies and kills using a bonded animal. When the capital falls after a brutal siege, Tashi flees to a remote monastery to hide. But the invading army turns the monastery into a hospital, and Tashi catches the eye of Xian, the regiment’s fearless young commander.

Tashi spies on Xian’s every move. In front of his men, Xian seems dangerous, even sadistic, but Tashi discovers a more vulnerable side of the enemy commander—a side that draws them to Xian.

When their spying unveils that everything they’ve been taught is a lie, Tashi faces an impossible choice: save their country or the boy they’re growing to love. Though Tashi grapples with their decision, their volatile bonded tiger doesn’t question her allegiances. Katala slaughters Xian’s soldiers, leading the enemy to hunt her. But an inhabitor’s bond to their animal is for life—if Katala dies, so will Tashi.

8. Song of the Wanderer (Unicorn Chronicles #2) – Bruce Coville

The first book in this series was one of my absolute favourites as a kid – I read it until it fell apart. There was a long delay for the rest of the series, so finally catching up on them.

Cara must return to Earth to save her grandmother, the Wanderer. But to do so, Cara must first travel through the wilderness of Luster, land of the unicorns, full of unknown creatures and perilous adventure around every bend in the road. Only at the back of the dragon Ebillan’s cave will she find the gate that can return her to Earth.

Embarking on the journey of her life, Cara will face vicious terrain, delver attacks, and a surly dragon. Beyond all this looms one more danger: Beloved, Cara’s infamous ancestor, who has dedicated a lifetime to ridding the earth of unicorns. Is Cara strong enough to resist Beloved’s ruthless magic and trickery? Can she bear betraying her own blood?

Total books: 65

Loose reading goals:

Catch up on books I own but haven’t read: The Player of Games
Read more romance: All Worked Up
Re-read some old favourites: none this month
Read more classics: none this month
Continue to read diverse books/books by marginalised authors: Wishful Drinking, Tiger’s Watch
Read nonfiction: Young Adult Literature, Wishful Drinking
Read women: The Last Nasmara, All Worked Up, Wake, Wishful Drinking

Borderlands Books event August 20th

I’m back in California. I’m posting this much later than I should have, but on Sunday, August 20th, at 3 pm, I’m having in event at Borderlands Books in San Francisco.

I’ve made a FB event here.

Borderlands Books is a wonderful bookstore, and it’d be lovely to see some local California readers. Great excuse to spend the day in the city, too! I’m looking forward to it- my first event in the US since I did launch events for Shadowplay back in 2014.

Please think about coming if you’re local and spreading the word to other SFF lovers in the Bay Area is always appreciated

Books Read in July

1. The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women – Kate Moore

The incredible true story of the young women exposed to the “wonder” substance of radium and their brave struggle for justice…

As World War I raged across the globe, hundreds of young women toiled away at the radium-dial factories, where they painted clock faces with a mysterious new substance called radium. Assured by their bosses that the luminous material was safe, the women themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered from head to toe with the glowing dust. With such a coveted job, these “shining girls” were considered the luckiest alive—until they began to fall mysteriously ill. As the fatal poison of the radium took hold, they found themselves embroiled in one of America’s biggest scandals and a groundbreaking battle for workers’ rights.

A rich, historical narrative written in a sparkling voice, The Radium Girls is the first book that fully explores the strength of extraordinary women in the face of almost impossible circumstances and the astonishing legacy they left behind.

2. The Last Days of Jack Sparks – Jason Arnopp

Jack Sparks died while writing this book. This is the account of his final days.

In 2014, Jack Sparks – the controversial pop culture journalist – died in mysterious circumstances.

To his fans, Jack was a fearless rebel; to his detractors, he was a talentless hack. Either way, his death came as a shock to everyone.

It was no secret that Jack had been researching the occult for his new book. He’d already triggered a furious Twitter storm by mocking an exorcism he witnessed in rural Italy.

Then there was that video: thirty-six seconds of chilling footage that Jack repeatedly claimed was not of his making, yet was posted from his own YouTube account.

Nobody knew what happened to Jack in the days that followed – until now. This book, compiled from the files found after his death, reveals the chilling details of Jack’s final hours.

3. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

‘In one moment, every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop… There, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth, stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white’

The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright’s eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter becomes embroiled in the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his ‘charming’ friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons, and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the paths and corridors of English country houses and the madhouse, The Woman in White is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with psychological realism.

Matthew Sweet’s introduction explores the phenomenon of Victorian ‘sensation’ fiction, and discusses Wilkie Collins’s biographical and societal influences. Included in this edition are appendices on theatrical adaptations of the novel and its serialisation history.

4. Black Panther: World of Wakanda – Ta-Nehisi Coates & Roxanne Gay

Wakanda! Home of the Black Panther, a proud and vibrant nation whose legends and mysteries run deep. Now, delve deep into Wakanda’s lore with a love story where tenderness is matched by brutality! You know them as the Midnight Angels, but for now they are just Ayo and Aneka — young women recruited to become Dora Milaje, an elite task force trained to protect the crown of Wakanda at all costs. But with their king shamed and their queen killed, Ayo and Aneka must take justice into their own hands! They’ve been officers. Rebels. Lovers. But can they be leaders? Plus: the return of former White Tiger, Kasper Cole! As Wakanda burns, Cole can only watch helplessly from halfway around the world. Will he find a new beginning — or meet a painful end?

Collecting BLACK PANTHER: WORLD OF WAKANDA #1-6.

5. When Dimple Met Rishi – Sandyha Menon

Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right?

Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself.

The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not?

Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.

6. Women, State And Revolution: Essays On Power And Gender In Europe Since 1789 – edited by Siân Reynolds

A collection of essays about the above.

7. The Spy Who Came In From the Cold – John Le Carré

In this classic, John le Carre’s third novel and the first to earn him international acclaim, he created a world unlike any previously experienced in suspense fiction. With unsurpassed knowledge culled from his years in British Intelligence, le Carre brings to light the shadowy dealings of international espionage in the tale of a British agent who longs to end his career but undertakes one final, bone-chilling assignment. When the last agent under his command is killed and Alec Leamas is called back to London, he hopes to come in from the cold for good. His spymaster, Control, however, has other plans. Determined to bring down the head of East German Intelligence and topple his organization, Control once more sends Leamas into the fray — this time to play the part of the dishonored spy and lure the enemy to his ultimate defeat.

8. His Bloody Project – Graeme Macrae Burnet

A brutal triple murder in a remote Scottish farming community in 1869 leads to the arrest of seventeen-year-old Roderick Macrae. There is no question that Macrae committed this terrible act. What would lead such a shy and intelligent boy down this bloody path? Will he hang for his crime?

Presented as a collection of documents discovered by the author, His Bloody Project opens with a series of police statements taken from the villagers of Culdie, Ross-shire. They offer conflicting impressions of the accused; one interviewee recalls Macrae as a gentle and quiet child, while another details him as evil and wicked. Chief among the papers is Roderick Macrae’s own memoirs, where he outlines the series of events leading up to the murder in eloquent and affectless prose. There follow medical reports, psychological evaluations, a courtroom transcript from the trial, and other documents that throw both Macrae’s motive and his sanity into question. Graeme Macrae Burnet’s multilayered narrative will keep the reader guessing to the very end.

9. After the Fire – Will Hill

The things I’ve seen are burned into me, like scars that refuse to fade.

Father John controls everything inside The Fence. And Father John likes rules. Especially about never talking to Outsiders. Because Father John knows the truth. He knows what is right, and what is wrong. He knows what is coming.

Moonbeam is starting to doubt, though. She’s starting to see the lies behind Father John’s words. She wants him to be found out.

What if the only way out of the darkness is to light a fire?

10. Slay! – Kim Curran

This is my friend’s manuscript, and it was announced at YALC that it’ll be out next year from Usborne! Press release here.

11. Unconventional – Maggie Harcourt

Lexi Angelo has grown up helping her dad with his events business. She likes to stay behind the scenes, planning and organizing…until author Aidan Green – messy haired and annoyingly arrogant – arrives unannounced at the first event of the year. Then Lexi’s life is thrown into disarray.

In a flurry of late-night conversations, mixed messages and butterflies, Lexi discovers that some things can’t be planned. Things like falling in love…

Total books: 57

Loose reading goals:

Catch up on books I own but haven’t read: Unconventional, Women State & Revolution, Jack Sparks
Read more romance: Unconventional, When Dimple met Rishi
Re-read some old favourites: none this month
Read more classics: The Woman in White, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold 
Continue to read diverse books/books by marginalised authors: Black Panther, When Dimple met Rishi, The Radium Girls
Read nonfiction: The Radium Girls, Women, State & Revolution
Read women: The Radium Girls, Black Panther, When Dimple met Rishi, Women, State & Revolution, Slay, Unconventional

Helsinki Worldcon Schedule

Next week I’ll be in Helsinki for Worldcon 2017 and I’m so excited! Here’s what I’ll be up to:

Asexuality in YA

Thursday, 10th August: 11:00 – 12:00, 203a (Messukeskus)

Are asexual characters well – or at all – represented in YA fiction? Is romance such an integral component of Young Adult fiction that it simply cannot be left out at all?

Marguerite Kenner, Salla Simukka, Laura Lam (M), Peadar Ó Guilín

LGBTQ+ Speculative Fiction Goes Worldwide

Friday, 11th August: 11:00 – 12:00, 101a&b (Messukeskus)

Panel discussion on gay, lesbian, bisexual. transgender and queer representation international works of speculative fiction.

Catherine Lundoff, Laura Lam, Keffy R.M Kehrli, Kat Kourbeti (M)

Second Book Problems

Saturday, 12 August: 11:00 – 12:00, 101a&b (Messukeskus)

Discussing/troubleshooting common problems in plotting & writing sequel!

Katri Alatalo, Annie Bellet, Jo Lindsay Walton, Laura Lam, N.S. Dolkart (M)

Signing: Laura Lam

Saturday, 12th August: 16:00 – 17:00 (Signing Area)

Say hi if you see me!

YALC Schedule

This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I’ll be at Young Adult London Comic Con! This’ll be my first time at this con.

All my events are Friday, so I’ll be wandering around the other two days.

Friday:

1 pm: SFF Now Panel

Laura Lam, Taran Matharu, Elizabeth May, David Owen, Samantha Shannon.

CHAIR: Laure Eve

VENUE: Stage

2 pm: Signing!

VENUE: Stand 6

Please come say hi! Looking forward it

Writing Update: May and June

Time for the bi-monthly update!

May was a good writing month. Near the start of the month, I finished a draft of Frozen Book, then while I was at PAF I worked on a little fun palette cleanser project. Also did a bit of preliminary editing on the co-written project.

Fiction: 25,225 words

Non-fiction: 8,204 words (the beginnings of Shattered Minds promo, some Napier work, blogging etc)

Total: 32,779 words

June was slower, fiction-wise, as there was so much travel and promo work for Shattered Minds. I still managed to work, and it was mostly editing the co-written project. Tracking words on edits is a bit tricky. If it’s all new words, I tend to count them all, but if it’s a scene I’m more massaging than rewriting, I tend to cut the word count in half. Also: many guest posts, interviews, blog posts, and other launch stuff.

Fiction: 10,276 words

Non-fiction: 13,866 words

Total: 24,142

Year to date: 157,547 words

So, still ticking along. I’m a steady writer, but it’s rare I write more than 2k in a day. It’s a lot of 800-1000 word days, most of the time.

Over the next two months, my plans are to keep editing the co-written project, and to also edit the book I finished drafting in May so it’s in a fit state to actually show people. That draft is ROUGH. As time goes by, the first drafts are getting worse, as I have more faith I can fix it later.

Would people be interested in more in-detail process and craft posts from me? If so, leave a comment!

Books Read in June

1. Something Real (Exile Ink #3) – Skylar Hill

James McGowan has it all: a business on the verge of opening to great success, talent and sinful good looks, and a sweet and sexy woman who worships him almost as much as he worships her.

James and Cam are stronger than ever as the launch of Exile Ink, the tattoo studio they’ve built together, draws near. But their happiness is marred by another, much more dire event: the probation hearing for her mother’s killer. It’s hard to think about ink, art and forever when the man who caused Cam so much pain might soon be free.

With their future threatened, and Cam on the verge of breaking, James is determined to protect the woman he loves at all costs—even if it means taking justice into his own hands.

SOMETHING REAL is the third and final book in a trio of steamy novellas telling James and Cam’s love story.

2. Bound by Your Touch – Meredith Duran

Beauty is as beauty does… 

Silver-tongued Viscount Sanburne is London’s favorite scapegrace. Alas, Lydia Boyce has no interest in being charmed. When his latest escapade exposes a plot to ruin her family, she vows to handle it herself, as she always has done. Certainly she requires no help from a too-handsome dilettante whose main achievement is being scandalous. But Sanburne’s golden charisma masks a sharper mind and darker history than she realizes. He shocks Lydia by breaking past her prim facade to the woman beneath…and the hidden fire no man has ever recognized. But as she follows him into a world of intrigue, she will learn that the greatest danger lies within—in the shadowy, secret motives of his heart.

3. The Power – Naomi Alderman

In The Power the world is a recognisable place: there’s a rich Nigerian kid who larks around the family pool; a foster girl whose religious parents hide their true nature; a local American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family. But something vital has changed, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power – they can cause agonising pain and even death. And, with this small twist of nature, the world changes utterly.

This extraordinary novel by Naomi Alderman, a Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year and Granta Best of British writer, is not only a gripping story of how the world would change if power was in the hands of women but also exposes, with breath-taking daring, our contemporary world.

4. Dreamfall – Amy Plum

Cata Cordova suffers from such debilitating insomnia that she agreed to take part in an experimental new procedure. She thought things couldn’t get any worse…but she was terribly wrong.

Soon after the experiment begins, there’s a malfunction with the lab equipment, and Cata and six other teen patients are plunged into a shared dreamworld with no memory of how they got there. Even worse, they come to the chilling realization that they are trapped in a place where their worst nightmares have come to life. Hunted by creatures from their darkest imaginations and tormented by secrets they’d rather keep buried, Cata and the others will be forced to band together to face their biggest fears. And if they can’t find a way to defeat their dreams, they will never wake up.

5. Saga Vol 6 – Brian K Vaughan

After a dramatic time jump, the three-time Eisner Award winner for Best Continuing Series continues to evolve, as Hazel begins the most exciting adventure of her life: kindergarten. Meanwhile, her starcrossed family learns hard lessons of their own.

6. Saga Vol 7 – Brian K Vaughan

From the worldwide bestselling team of Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan, “The War for Phang” is an epic, self-contained Saga event! Finally reunited with her ever-expanding family, Hazel travels to a war-torn comet that Wreath and Landfall have been battling over for ages. New friendships are forged and others are lost forever in this action-packed volume about families, combat and the refugee experience.

7. Save the Cat! – Blake Snyder

This ultimate insider’s guide reveals the secrets that none dare admit, told by a show biz veteran who’s proven that you can sell your script if you can save the cat!

Total books: 46

Loose reading goals:

Catch up on books I own but haven’t read (I’ve been meaning to read Save the Cat for ages, borrowed from the Writer’s Room Library at work)
Read more romance (Something Real, Bound by Your Touch)
Re-read some old favourites (none this month)
Read more classics (None finished this month…spent a lot of the month listening to The Woman in White, which will go on July’s list)
Continue to read diverse books/books by marginalised authors (The Power, Dreamfall, Saga)
Read nonfiction (Save the Cat)
Read women (Something Real, Bound by Your Touch, The Power, Dreamfall)

 

 

Shattered Minds US Blog Tour

The US blog tour has completed, so I’m collecting the links here.

June 19th Monday Reading for the Stars and Moon Guest Post : Struggles Faced while Writing Shattered Minds
June 20th Tuesday Little Library Muse Excerpt
June 21st Wednesday Bookish Lifestyle Guest Post: Three Bookish Wishes
June 21st Wednesday CBY Book Club Excerpt
June 22nd Thursday Sara is Reading and Listening to What Review & Excerpt
June 23rd Friday JeanBookNerd Guest Post: 10 Reasons to Read Shattered Minds & Interview
June 26th Monday A Dream Within a Dream Guest Post: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Pacifica & Review
June 27th Tuesday Crossroad Reviews Review
June 28th Wednesday Insane About Books Review & Excerpt
June 28th Wednesday TTC Books and More Spotlight
June 29th Thursday Wonder Struck Guest Post: Top 10 Books Read in 2017. Also a review here.
June 29th Thursday Sassy Book Lovers Excerpt

June 30th Friday Sabrina’s Paranormal Palace Guest Post: 10 Favourite Book Covers

And some other links!

Liz Bourke wrote a review on tor.com, stating: “It’s also a tight, tense and nail-biting science fiction thriller, informed by cyberpunk influences like Nicola Griffith’s Slow River and Melissa Scott’s Trouble and Her Friends as much as by the near-future extrapolatory science fiction tradition. It’s damn good. I recommend it, and I hope Lam writes more in this vein.”

I show up on Chuck Wendig’s blog talking about the research I did for Shattered Minds: I Am On So Many Government Watchlists.

I also show up on John Scalzi’s blog for his Big Idea feature, talking about how I had to bring the draft back to life with the edit.

There’s a nice review of Shattered Minds on Just Love Reviews.

Shattered Minds appears in the LA Times, along with other near future reads like Want by Cindy Pon and Hold Back the Stars by Katie Khan. They say: ” In a standalone thriller set in the same world as 2016’s “False Hearts,” Laura Lam tells the story of a woman who has sunk to her lowest — and beyond — in gripping prose. Carina is in a painful place when the novel begins; I recoiled from her as much as I sympathized with her. As she begins her journey to recovery, a different Carina emerges.”

And over on Mary Robinette Kowal’s blog, I write about My Favourite Bit, which are Carina and Roz, my two villains.

Also, if you pick up SFX I have a book review of Parable of the Sower in it, and there’s also an interview in SciFiNow.

Now I’m done with guest posts. I don’t mind writing them, but it does eat into writing time. July needs me to write a lot of words!

Shattered Minds is Now Out in the UK & the US!

UK cover

It’s the 20th! That means Shattered Minds is officially out in the US today. My 5th book is out in the world.

If you purchase a copy by the 25th and email the receipt to lauralamauthor [at] gmail [dot] com, you can claim 10k of free tie in fiction. Likewise, if you leave a review of any of my books, you can claim a signed bookplate. More details here.

Shattered Minds was a difficult book to write (though I’m not sure any of them were exactly easy…). It involved a lot of research into things I wasn’t familiar with, and it is very dark, even in comparison to False Hearts. The first draft was simply finding the plot and scoping out the characters, but it was in the second and third drafts it really came alive. Now I’m quite proud of my twisted, dark Frankenstein retelling in near future Los Angeles.

As ever, I can only yell about my book so much. My publishers can only yell about my book so much. The baton passes to you. Here’s things you could do that would help me out so very much:

If you’ve enjoyed False Hearts, please consider picking up Shattered Minds sooner rather than later. A strong opening month means it’s a lot more likely I’ll be able to write more books for you, and there’s nothing I’d rather do.
If you haven’t had a chance to read False Hearts yet, consider picking up the paperback.
Either of these books makes excellent gifts for friends and family. *cheesy grin*
If you can’t afford to buy the book, make sure your local library has it in–if you request, they’ll probably order.
If you go into a bookstore and they don’t have the book in stock, if you ask a bookseller, they’ll order it in. Doesn’t often take long for it to arrive.
You can also order online, either on Amazon or supporting independent bookstores with sites like Book Depository or Hive.
If you read the book, please consider leaving a review on a retailer site and Goodreads. Retailers especially help with visibility algorithms, hence my not-so-subtle bribing of readers with signed bookplates. Just a line or two is more than enough!
Tell a few people about the book. The hardest part is helping people know that it exists.

US cover

Events!

Tonight: Waterstones Aberdeen, 7 pm.

June 22nd: Waterstones Argyle St, 6.30 pm.

June 28th: Linlithgow Canal Rooms, 7 pm.

Here’s some recent guest posts and reviews! 

Me speaking about Inspirations & Influences on The Book Smugglers.

Before Our Story Begins on Tor UK, where I introduce the world a bit.

Review on The Illustrated Page: “Forewarning, Shattered Minds is not for the faint of heart. It is pretty gruesome.” I also did an interview on the blog.

I wrote a post about 5 books featuring a futuristic California for tor.com.

A nice review on Barnes & Noble: “Laura Lam pitches a near perfect game with Shattered Minds, a new standalone novel set in the world of last year’s False Hearts. Part futuristic sci-fi thriller, part mystery, and part psychological potboiler, it presents a frightening vision of a biotech future in which advances in science allow the human body to be manipulated without the subject ever being aware it’s happening.”

Kirkus lists it in its June roundup. So does Gizmodo. So does Best Science Fiction Books.  So does Book Den. So does Blastr/SyFy Wire. It’s also a spring highlight for Foyles. Since Shattered Minds is an Amazon.com editor’s pick for SFF, it’s on the Amazon Omnivoracious blog, too.

The Speculative Herald describes my villain as “an unholy blend of Orphan Black’s Cosmina and Rachel” and I’m totally stealing that phrase.

Romantic Times gives Shattered Minds 4 stars: “This is also recommended for readers of thriller novels, not just sci-fi!”

There’s been a UK blog tour of extracts and giveaways:

June 15th: A City of Books (Prologue)

June 16th: Curiosity Killed the Bookworm (Chapter 1)

June 17th: The Reader’s Corner (Chapter 2)

June 18: One More Page (Chapter 3 part 1).

June 19th: Queen of Teen Fiction (Chapter 3 part 2)

June 20th: Tales of Yesterday (Spotlight & Giveaway)

Here’s the cover copy and some purchasing links! 

Goldsboro (signed first edition) / Forbidden Planet (signed first edition) / Indiebound / Book Depository/ Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Powells / Booksamillion / Blackwell’s / Waterstones / Fishpond / Kobo / iBooks / Hive / Indigo / WH Smith / Wordery 

She’ll fight corruption, but can she save others from herself?

Former neuro-scientist Carina craves killing. But to protect others, she self-medicates with Zeal, an addictive drug which allows her to satisfy these urges in dreams. Sudice Inc. damaged her mind when she worked on their secretive brain-mapping project—and this violence is the price she pays.

Carina wants to be left alone to self-destruct, until an ex-colleague passes her dangerous information on Sudice. She finds herself unwillingly drawn into a plot involving illegal experiments on unwilling volunteers, blackmail and assassination.

As Carina races to stop Sudice, she needs the incriminating data Mark locked in her mind. She persuades a band of hackers to decrypt her broken memories. One is a former doctor, Dax, who helps Carina fight her addiction to Zeal. If she can hold on to her humanity, they might have a future together. But all shall be for nothing if they can’t bring their enemy down, never to rise again.

Books Read in May

A lot of re-reads and comfort reads this month.

1. A Lady’s Lesson in Scandal – Meredith Duran

In gritty, working-class London, she does what she must to survive…

When Nell Whitby breaks into an earl’s house on a midnight quest for revenge, she finds her pistol pointed at the wrong man—one handsome as sin and naked as the day he was born. Pity he’s a lunatic. He thinks her a missing heiress, but more to the point, he’ll help her escape the slums and right a grave injustice. Not a bad bargain. All she has to do is marry him.

A notorious ladies’ man could take her from poverty to opulence…but at what price?

A rake of the first order, Simon St. Maur spent his restless youth burning every bridge he crossed. When he inherits an earldom without a single penny attached to it, he sees a chance to start over—provided he can find an heiress to fund his efforts. But his wicked reputation means courtship will be difficult—until fate sends him the most notorious missing heiress in history. All he needs now is to make her into a lady and keep himself from making the only mistake that could ruin everything: falling in love…

2. Parable of the Sower (Earthseed #1) – Octavia Butler (re-read)

When unattended environmental and economic crises lead to social chaos, not even gated communities are safe. In a night of fire and death Lauren Olamina, a minister’s young daughter, loses her family and home and ventures out into the unprotected American landscape. But what begins as a flight for survival soon leads to something much more: a startling vision of human destiny… and the birth of a new faith.

3. Assassin’s Quest (Farseer #3) – Robin Hobb (re-read)

King Shrewd is dead at the hands of his son Regal. As is Fitz—or so his enemies and friends believe. But with the help of his allies and his beast magic, he emerges from the grave, deeply scarred in body and soul. The kingdom also teeters toward ruin: Regal has plundered and abandoned the capital, while the rightful heir, Prince Verity, is lost to his mad quest—perhaps to death. Only Verity’s return—or the heir his princess carries—can save the Six Duchies.

But Fitz will not wait. Driven by loss and bitter memories, he undertakes a quest: to kill Regal. The journey casts him into deep waters, as he discovers wild currents of magic within him—currents that will either drown him or make him something more than he was.

4. Parable of the Talents (Earthseed #2) – Octavia Butler

This Nebula Award-winning sequel to Parable of the Sower continues the story of Lauren Olamina in socially and economically depressed California in the 2030s. Convinced that her community should colonize the stars, Lauren and her followers make preparations. But the collapse of society and rise of fanatics result in Lauren’s followers being enslaved, and her daughter stolen from her. Now, Lauren must fight back to save the new world order.

5. Into the Woods: A Five Act Journey Into Story – John Yorke (re-read)

Into The Woods is a revelation of the fundamental structure and meaning of all stories, from the man responsible for more hours of drama on British television than anyone else, John Yorke.

We all love stories. Many of us love to tell them, and even dream of making a living from it too. But what is a story? Hundreds of books about screenwriting and storytelling have been written, but none of them ask ‘Why?’ Why do we tell stories? And why do all stories function in an eerily similar way?

John Yorke has been telling stories almost his entire adult life, and the more he has done it, the more he has asked himself why? Every great thinker or writer has their theories: Aristotle, David Hare, Lajos Egri, Robert McKee, Gustav Freytag, David Mamet, Christopher Booker, Charlie Kaufman, William Goldman and Aaron Sorkin – all have offered insightful and illuminating answers. Here, John Yorke draws on these figures and more as he takes us on a historical, philosophical, scientific and psychological journey to the heart of all storytelling.

What he reveals is that there truly is a unifying shape to narrative – one that echoes the great fairytale journey into the woods, and one, like any great art, that comes from deep within. Much more than a ‘how to write’ book, Into the Woods is an exploration of this fundamental structure underneath all narrative forms, from film and television to theatre and novel-writing. With astonishing detail and wisdom, John Yorke explains to us a phenomenon that, whether it is as a simple fable, or a big-budget 3D blockbuster, most of us experience almost every day of our lives.

6. Mansfield Park – Jane Austen

‘We have all been more or less to blame …

every one of us, excepting Fanny’

Taken from the poverty of her parents’ home, Fanny Price is brought up with her rich cousins at Mansfield Park, acutely aware of her humble rank and with only her cousin Edmund as an ally. When Fanny’s uncle is absent in Antigua, Mary Crawford and her brother Henry arrive in the neighbourhood, bringing with them London glamour and a reckless taste for flirtation. As her female cousins vie for Henry’s attention, and even Edmund falls for Mary’s dazzling charms, only Fanny remains doubtful about the Crawfords’ influence and finds herself more isolated than ever. A subtle examination of social position and moral integrity, Mansfield Park is one of Jane Austen’s most profound works.

7. Six of Crows (Six of Crows #1) – Leigh Bardugo (re-read)

Criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker has been offered wealth beyond his wildest dreams. But to claim it, he’ll have to pull off a seemingly impossible heist:

Break into the notorious Ice Court

(a military stronghold that has never been breached)

Retrieve a hostage

(who could unleash magical havoc on the world)

Survive long enough to collect his reward

(and spend it)

Kaz needs a crew desperate enough to take on this suicide mission and dangerous enough to get the job done – and he knows exactly who: six of the deadliest outcasts the city has to offer. Together, they just might be unstoppable – if they don’t kill each other first.

8. Something New (Exile Ink #1) – Skylar Hill

James McGowan is a legend. The renowned tattoo artist has a face to die for, a body to kill for, and a way with ink that’s unmatched.

He’s back in his hometown for the first time in years, finally ready to open Exile Ink, the tattoo studio of his dreams. When he sees a friend with a new piece—a watercolor tattoo done with such skill even he’s impressed—James has to meet the artist.

Cam Ellison hasn’t had an easy life. Orphaned just after her eighteenth birthday, she’s done everything she can to keep her and her little sister going. Even if it means working under a tyrannical boss who doesn’t appreciate her tattooing style. After all, a paycheck is a paycheck.

When James sets up an appointment as “Jay,” Cam has no idea she’s about to meet a man whose tattooing she’s admired for years. She never imagined he’d want a tattoo designed by her, or that when they’re face to face, sparks don’t just fly, they sizzle. After a steamy session in one of the private tattoo rooms, it’s impossible to deny the pull between them.

James is a man who knows what he wants, and he’s all in, but Cam’s got a lot to lose.

Is she willing to risk everything—her heart and her career—on the man behind the ink?

9. Something Right (Exile Ink #2) – Skylar Hill

James McGowan’s life is going exactly how he wants. He’s on the verge of opening his tattoo studio, and his relationship with Cam, the sexy watercolor tattoo artist he’s fallen for, is sweeter—and hotter—than ever.

But as their work on Exile Ink continues, James feels Cam pulling away. Worried he may lose her, he pushes too hard, and the fight that follows has him scared it’ll be the end of them.

But it’s not James who’s put Cam on edge.

She thought she could outrun her past, but now it’s caught up with her. Cam’s done everything she could to keep her and her sister safe, but time’s running out, and she has a choice to make: Tell James the truth, or lose what they have.

Cam’s trusted James with her body, her career and her heart.

Can she trust him with her secrets?

10. The Space Between the Stars – Anne Corlett

In a breathtakingly vivid and emotionally gripping debut novel, one woman must confront the emptiness in the universe—and in her own heart—when a devastating virus reduces most of humanity to dust and memories.

All Jamie Allenby ever wanted was space. Even though she wasn’t forced to emigrate from Earth, she willingly left the overpopulated, claustrophobic planet. And when a long relationship devolved into silence and suffocating sadness, she found work on a frontier world on the edges of civilization. Then the virus hit…

Now Jamie finds herself dreadfully alone, with all that’s left of the dead. Until a garbled message from Earth gives her hope that someone from her past might still be alive.

Soon Jamie finds other survivors, and their ragtag group will travel through the vast reaches of space, drawn to the promise of a new beginning on Earth. But their dream will pit them against those desperately clinging to the old ways. And Jamie’s own journey home will help her close the distance between who she has become and who she is meant to be…

Total books: 39

Loose reading goals:

Catch up on books I own but haven’t read (nope, I’m failing at this)
Read more romance (A Lady’s Lesson in Scandal, Something New, Something Right, Mansfield Park)
Re-read some old favourites (Parable of the Sower, Assassin’s Quest, Into the Woods, Six of Crows)
Read more classics (Mansfield Park, Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents)
Continue to read diverse books/books by marginalised authors (Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, Six of Crows, Something New, Something Right)
Read nonfiction (Into the Woods)
Read women (A Lady’s Lesson in Scandal, Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, Assassin’s Quest, Six of Crows, Mansfield Park, Something New, Something Right, The Space Between the Stars)