Michael Formichelli's Blog: Nero's Niche, page 19

No blog post for this midweek here, I did one over on a f...

No blog post for this midweek here, I did one over on a friend's site:

Come check out my guest post on Barry Kirwan's blog!

http://www.blog.barrykirwan.com/2012/07/guest-blog-by-michael-formichelli-my.html


Barry Kirwan is the author of the most excellent Eden Paradox series!  While you're over there reading the blog, definitely check out the book links!

I'm Looking for Your Help

I've recently decided it's time to rev up a new approach to advertising my novel, Blood Siren Book One.The present plan is to create a set of cards to leave at key locations: coffee shops, community boards, comic book stores, etc. to drum up interest in both the book and my website.  I'll also be featuring the ad on facebook, and possibly with Google as well.
I've come up with a few taglines, and I need your help to figure out which line would work best.
Please pop over to my website, www.cygnusorion.com, and vote on the survey.  It is located below the purchase links for Blood Siren.
Your help will be appreciated!
I will announce the winning ad at the end of the week.  Will it be the one you voted for?  Stay tuned to cygnusorion.com to find out!

On ME3's Extended Cut add-on

Video taken from Youtube.

For me Mass Effect 3 was probably the biggest disappointment of the first quarter 2012, and I wasn't the only one who felt so.  In response to fan outrage Bioware released a free download for the game called "Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut" which was meant to answer some of the issues we, the fans, raised.

The Extended Cut is a series of cut scenes tacked on to the end of the game and doesn't actually represent anything new as far as the plot or game play go.  This is the first warning you should have if, like me, you were massively disappointed with the end of ME3.  The Extended Cut does add some story-line elements and gives the player a kind of "so that's what happened to the others" moment that was definitely missing from the initial ME3 release.  On that point, Bioware got it right, however they failed to address the more pressing issues.  It's not that I'm not grateful to know the fate of my surviving squad mates, but the additional information didn't actually fix what was wrong with ME3.

As Joystiq's Rowan Kaiser wrote about in his pointed article, the real issue with ME3 is that the writers let the plot take second seat to their vision of how the galaxy works.  So what, you ask?  As Rowan stated, the effect was to create an ending with a forced, "deus ex machina" (Rowan Kaiser's words) style resolution that hardly made any sense in terms of everything the rest of the story was building up to.  For a game that was so versatile in terms of choice and consequence, the hallmark of the ME series and something Bioware has chosen to focus on in general, to be limited to a set of options that neither the player nor the main character would like at the end was frustrating, to put it mildly.

The one good thing that did come of the grueling finale to the ME trilogy was a reaffirmed knowledge of what a good ending is really about.  Be it happy or tragic, an ending that leaves the audience feeling like the journey was well worth it is what every writer should strive for.  I wish ME3's writers had taken that to heart.

Sci-Fi News Installment

Greetings to all!
I have some sci-fi news to share!

Avatar Sequels (movies)

According to Sigourney Weaver via moviepilot.com James Cameron is planning another 3 Avatar films and all of them will be shot at once.  I'm wondering where this film franchise is going to go.  Avatar was quite pretty, and I admit I got into the plot (I'm a sucker for oppressed natives stories), but the only thing I can see happening in the sequel is the forces of Earth returning with some serious hardware and bombing the crap out of the Na'vi from orbit.
It's sort of hard to imagine any intelligent, greedy beings doing anything else.  Since what they're after is the ore, I doubt they'd care about preserving the environment or anything like that.  It's even harder for me to see how this story could be 3 more movies, but I can only assume either a) The Na'vi are about to get space tech from Jake (unlikely since he's not an engineer or scientist) or b) James Cameron is about to turn Avatar into a role-reversed Independence Day.
Who knows?  Maybe I'll be surprised, right?  I await the next films, due out starting in 2014, with trepidation.

Upcoming Non-Sequel Movies

According to io9, there are a whole slew of non-sequel movies in the speculative fiction genre headed our way.  It's a long list, and I invite you to go check it out yourself.  I'm going to present only the films I'm most excited about here.


Ender's Game


I'm looking forward to this one.  Not only does it promise to be visually stunning but the word is that the movie will be an accurate representation of the book by Orson Scott Card.  If you haven't read it, go and buy it right now because it's one of the sci-fi icons that shaped the genre we all love.  I have real hope that the movie will live up to the book, but as always I'm approaching it with caution.
Ender's Game will star Also check out the Ender's Game Blog for updates and photos.

The Gift

I remember watching the short film last year and thinking, "wow that was neat."  Apparently, I'm not the only one who thought so.  I recommend you check it out if you haven't seen it.  There is a possibility that it will be made into a full length film, or wind up being the prequel to a full length film soon.  Either way, I'd like to see this happen!


The video presented here is courtesy of YouTube.

Elysium


This upcoming near-future movie stars Matt Damon and Jodie Foster.  It seems to be set in a distopian future where the rich live on a space station, and the rest of us are stuck on a dying planet.  Considering it's by the same people who brought us District 9 (itself, an amazing film), it will probably be heavy on the politics and have a poignant message.
I'm definitely looking forward to this one simply based on who is making it.  Also, I recommend you check out the website mentioned at the end of the clip.  For now it seems to only have the trailer up, but since they went through the trouble of making it a real website I expect cool digital swag to appear soon.

Once again, trailer courtesy YouTube.

That's it for now!  Be sure to check out my new website www.cygnusorion.com for updates, news, and links about my writing, me, and the Blood Siren series!

My Review of The Eden Paradox

The Eden Pardox by Barry Kirwan

The only unique resource on Earth not readily available elsewhere in the solar system is us, and Mr. Kirwan knows it.

With the art of a master swordsman, Mr. Kirwan carves out a tale of diabolical intent and our desperate struggle against both ourselves and an implacable, superior enemy.  His characters are instantly involving.  Each has a unique history and cultural background that is made clear through clever use of exposition and offhand remarks that really convince the reader that these are real people involved in a visceral struggle for survival.

Overall Mr. Kirwan made excellent use of mixing dialog with exposition, although there were a few places where I felt he should have spent more time showing the reader some of the action leading to the present situation instead of having a character reminisce about the past.  At no point did the book feel rushed or ponderous.  His ability to merge poetic prose with technical knowledge and amazing descriptions that kept clicking the forward button on my Kindle in every free moment I had.  At no point did the science overwhelm the story and the book is a smooth read from start to finish.

Mr. Kirwan's plot line is complex, but he uses his superior writing talent to tie all the lines together to a satisfying, and chilling conclusion that left me wishing I had already bought the sequel.

Truly, if you don't read this book you're missing out.  I highly recommend The Eden Paradox to any lover of science fiction and good, edge of your seat stories.

Book Reviews: Convergent Space & Lilith

Good morning and happy Friday!

As some of you may know, I'm on a quest to read as many books by authors I've recently met on Twitter as I can and review their work.  Below are two reviews from books I've read so far:  Convergent Space by John-Paul Cleary, a science fiction novel, and Lilith by Victoria Limbert, an urban fantasy-horror novel.

The titles below are links to where you can buy these books from Amazon.com.


Convergent Space by John-Paul Cleary

Convergent Space is a sweeping sci-fi epic set in the future of our little corner of the galaxy. It centers around Rone, a reluctant heroine on a quest to clear humanity's name of the largest catastrophe in galactic history.

Overall it's an interesting story whose cultures, both alien and far-future human, are well developed. The dialog is also well written and the characters' voices are distinct. One hardly need the speaker attributions to know who is saying what. One can tell that Mr. Cleary put a lot of time into getting the dialog right and it certainly paid off. However, there are a few critical issues that prevented me from giving the work a higher rating.

There is a lot of exposition. Characters seem to lapse into long historical narratives at the drop of a hat and go on for pages before the story returns to the scene. There is also a lot of point of view jumping that disrupts the flow of the scenes. Finally, the main antagonists are a bit too classic for me to really be interested in them. They seem to giggle and wink at the thought of genocide with melodramatic glee. It is disappointing, because if not for this one-dimensionality they would have been truly horrifying antagonists.

Rone on the other hand, is a very interesting and complex character. She is a lot of fun to read about and her scenes are the most riveting. Her interactions with her mechanical companion, Necessity, kept me turning pages for the length of the story, and she makes the whole trip through Mr. Cleary's world worthwhile.

An earlier reviewer mentioned this, and I agree. Fans of science fiction like Star Trek will very much enjoy Convergent Space.



Lilith (Twin Souls Novels Book 1) by Victoria Limbert

Lilith is a tale of demons living in our world that simmers with mystery, drama and sexual tension.

Ms. Limbert quickly weaves visual descriptions of demons, spells, and magic that pull the reader right in from the beginning. I often found myself reluctant to put my kindle down. The prose flows well across the pages and it is clear Ms. Limbert is a skilled writer.

Unfortunately, there were a few things that prevented me from giving the book five stars. For one, there is a preponderance of repetition in the use of adjectives to describe the non-physical characteristics of the demon world. Reading the words "lust, pain, sex" over and over again made me a bit numb to it by the end of the book. It made the otherwise colorful and entrancing demons a bit one-dimensional.

Also, I was a bit thrown off by Annette's continual condescension to human males throughout the story. In nearly every scene where her primary interaction is with humans, she continuously thinks and speaks about how they could never understand what is going on, and how all of their conclusions are wrong. The way in which she does this, true or not, comes across as venomous which I found a bit off-putting (being a human male myself). The tone does not carry over to demonic males, and so I suspect this is an intentional choice that just had its volume turned up too high for my tastes. It made the otherwise likable Annette a bit narcissistic.

Despite this, the story is so involving that I was pulled right out of these moments back into the real juice that keeps the tale building to the climactic end. I'm not normally a reader of paranormal urban fantasy, but I really enjoyed Lilith. I highly recommend it for all fans of the urban fantasy, paranormal, and occult genres.

Announcement

Greetings all

Apologies for the lack of posts recently.

I'm getting married this weekend and there will be a hiatus for the next few weeks.  I'll be back and blogging again by the end of the month, though I hope to maybe get a post in during the honeymoon.

Thanks for your support and well wishes!

Mike

2nd Blood Siren Book

Greetings to all.

Blood Siren Book 2 is well on the way.  Below is a picture of my printed draft, bound to both save paper and make it fun to work on.  (I love binding books just for fun.  I find it relaxing).


As you can see, it's going to be a bit longer than the first book.  Even though I will no doubt cut down the size a bit in the editing process, I anticipate the reader will get to spend a longer period of time in the Blood Siren universe than before.

I anticipate Blood Siren Book 2 to be ready for publication by fall 2012.

Stay tuned!

Blood Siren Book 1 is available now for:

      Kindle                                                                       NOOK

Its Hard to Write Love

One of the most difficult scenes for me to write are "love" / erotic scenes.

It's not so much that I feel embarrassed writing them, but there is a definite awkwardness that comes over me when two of my characters start getting into it.  I know I have to keep writing, see where their intimacy takes them and what it reveals about each character.  I believe that how a character does things reveals a lot about who they really are versus what they portray themselves to be.  In some ways writing these scenes is as much an exploration of a character's true nature for me as it is for (I hope) the reader.  A "love scene" for me is a real chance to show the reader a rarely glimpsed but critical honesty about a character.

Given how important these scenes can be in my narratives, what exactly is the issue I have with them?

I have a bit of trouble about the fine tuning aspects.  The critical question for me is:

How graphic should the physical details be above what's necessary?

After all, I don't want an intimate moment to read like a technical journal, nor should it break up the flow of the rest of the book.  I also, I admit, want it to be at least somewhat steamy (with a few exceptions- for example, the love scene in my first book, Blood Siren, is NOT meant to be erotic since it is not about love or tenderness or sharing intimacy at all.  It's supposed to reveal how dead inside one of the characters involved is, and despite this how the other being involved is enthralled by them.)  And here, I think, is where I get the most hung up.

There's a fine line between sultry, heart-pounding prose and outright, laughably bad descriptions.  I really, really do not want to wind up featured for a "Bad Sex Award."  I also don't want to go overboard and offend my audience with my descriptions.  I wouldn't necessarily mind my readers being offended by what a character does in an intimate context, villainous antagonists are supposed to be offensive in some way after all, but if I offend my audience with bad prose then not only have I broken the narrative and ruined the scene, but I may have also ruined the book.  That would be quite unforgivable.

In order to avoid this and achieve what I'd actually like to see from my writing, I read a number of books on how to write romantic scenes and romance books in general.  I've also read a number of romance novels now to see what all the hub-ub is about and get a sense for what is really considered steamy writing that keeps readers coming back for more.  Herein is a second challenge, since not everyone likes the same things and there's no guarantee I'm reading the books that are considered to be the best in the category.

Although I'm not trying to write romance stories, romance and intimacy are part of life.  As I am trying to write an accurate portrayal of life in my version of the future, and since I'm also trying to write an interesting story, romance and intimacy are an inevitable consequence.

I'm happy to say that my research has opened my mind to some new stories I never would have considered reading before, and I feel like I have a whole new galaxy of adventure to explore in romance writing.  I'm looking forward to the adventure.

I'm in the midst of composing a list of books to read, so if you have any suggestions please make them below.

Hidden Skills

Everyone has a hidden talent, yes?  More likely, everyone has multiple talents and hobbies that you'd never know about without becoming good friends with them.  I'm aiming to short-circuit that a bit and invite my fellow authors, friends, etc. (at risk of being the only one to do this) to take the following survey for fun, and possibly "oh that's cool" factor.

1.  What languages do you speak?

2.  How old were you when you wrote your first story (any length)?

3.  Name 3 of your hobbies/things that are fun for you and that you do at least a few times a month?

4.  Name 2 things that you wish you had more time to do.

5.  Name something that you know you are not good at, and state if you do it anyway because it's fun.

6.  Other than writing, what do you really love doing?



Okay, I'll go first.

1.  English (mother tongue), Japanese, Italian (working on it)

2.  My first full story was written around age 14 or so. I wrote it in episodes and passed it out to a few friends.

3.  a) Bookbinding!  (I'm really taken with it for some reason), b) Gaming (Currently playing SWTOR, Diablo 3, and Sims 3- yeah, I do that), and c) Reading (nightly)

4.  a) Kendo, b) Socializing with friends

5.  HTML/Web Design- It's fun when it works out, but I suck at it.  (Currently trying to build my website)

6.  Traveling abroad, though I haven't in a really long time, I hope to get back in the swing of it soon.


Please post responses to comments.  I'll do my best to get them up ASAP.