Anna Frost's Blog, page 4

LGBT Book Rec: Adaptation & Inheritance from Malinda Lo

Blurb taken from Goodreads: 
Reese can’t remember anything from the time between the accident and the day she woke up almost a month later. She only knows one thing: She’s different now.

Across North America, flocks of birds hurl themselves into airplanes, causing at least a dozen to crash. Thousands of people die. Fearing terrorism, the United States government grounds all flights, and millions of travelers are stranded.

Reese and her debate team partner and longtime crush David are in Arizona when it happens. Everyone knows the world will never be the same. On their drive home to San Francisco, along a stretch of empty highway at night in the middle of Nevada, a bird flies into their headlights. The car flips over. When they wake up in a military hospital, the doctor won’t tell them what happened, where they are—or how they’ve been miraculously healed.

Things become even stranger when Reese returns home. San Francisco feels like a different place with police enforcing curfew, hazmat teams collecting dead birds, and a strange presence that seems to be following her. When Reese unexpectedly collides with the beautiful Amber Gray, her search for the truth is forced in an entirely new direction—and threatens to expose a vast global conspiracy that the government has worked for decades to keep secret.

My thoughts:
This is a two-for-one review, but I'm going to avoid spoilers as best as I can. Here we go.

I liked the fast plot, the mysteries, the successive little revelations. At the end of the first book I was unhappy because the main mystery, what's wrong with the birds, was not completely explained. It felt hand-waved away. Thankfully we got proper answers in the second book.

I very much liked how the main character's bisexuality is handled, especially what happens to the love triangle at the end of book two. The narrative gets a little into what kind of BS bisexual people can face (such as being considered "indecisive" or cheaters/sluts) without hitting you over the head with it. Well-done, all around.

I however didn't like the amount of relationship angst. Oh noes, I like him! Oh noes, I like her too! My tolerance for romance-related angst is very low and I wish there was less of it--both in this specific series and in YA books in general. At this point I'm more interested in this series for its plot than its characters.

Will I be picking up the third volume? Absolutely. It's good stuff and I want to know what'll happen next.

New Year Resolutions 2014

Let's make it short and sweet. This is what I hope to accomplish this year.

#1: Sell my steampunk manuscript. (again)

#2: Bring my current WIP to query-ready status. It's Canadian/Japanese urban fantasy with a lesbian lead.

#3: Write something new. I leave it to future me to figure out what it'll be. 

Pitmad Musings (08/01/14)

Pitmad is an event where authors pitch their novels via twitter so agents and editors can make requests. It's today from 8 am to 8 pm EST.

Turning a whole novel into a 140-character tweet is harder than it looks! I came up with half a dozen different ones but settled on the three I felt were strongest. I'm curious to see which one will gather agent/editor requests, if any.

1. After years of pretending to be his dead sister, gender-confused K goes to war to become a man. Instead, K befriends the enemy. YA/F #pitmad

2. K thought war would teach him to be a man. Instead, he learns befriending the enemy is easy, but finding a mythical dragon isn't. YA #pitmad

3. Gender-confused K goes to war to learn to be a man and instead learns to befriend the enemy. LGBT YA Japanese steampunk #pitmad

I also came up with a pitch for my newest project. I won't tweet this one because the manuscript still needs work, but it was an interesting exercise.

Nat's life: a homesick girlfriend, a hostile demon sealed under her skin, and a guardian fox spirit who hates the neighbor's dog. UF #pitmad

LGBT Reading Challenge

I'm an author, not a book blogger, but I figure there's no harm in signing up for the LGBT reading challenge hosted by Fighting Dreamer. It might give me a kick in the ass to search for more YA LGBT books that are up my alley. It's hard because I don't much like contemps or romances and excluding those genres doesn't leave a lot of options. I want to read the same kind of stuff I write, which means fantasy or sci-fi where romance/sexual orientation is a minor, yet vital, plot point.

Recommendations are extremely welcome. Here's one from me:


Dreams of Fire and Gods trilogy by James Erich
YA high fantasy with gay MCs. This series is with a small press and I'm really impressed by the covers. So pretty.

Lifted from Goodreads:
"A thousand years ago, two factions of gods, the Stronni and the Taaweh, nearly destroyed the Kingdom of Dasak by warring for the land and the frightened humans who lived there. Then suddenly the Taaweh vanished and the Stronni declared victory.

Now, as tensions escalate between the emperor and his regent, Vek Worlen, the vek's son, apprentice mage Sael dönz Menaük, finds himself allied with a homeless vagabond named Koreh. Together they flee the capital city and make their way across a hostile wilderness to the vek's keep, mere steps ahead of the emperor’s assassins.

But Koreh has dreams—dreams of the ancient Taaweh—and he knows the looming war between the emperor and the vek will be nothing compared to the war that is about to begin. The Taaweh are returning, and the war between the gods may destroy the kingdom once and for all. "

The Joy of Giving: Not a Myth

Mr. Frost and I have a Christmas tradition of sorts. Every year we participate in a local charity event called L'arbre enchanté (the enchanted tree). Somewhere in November, the local Knights of Columbus set up in the mall and spread out dozens of paper Christmas decorations. Each paper features the given name and age of a child, along with two gift wishes. Often, one or two both choices are for winter items like coats and boots. If you think about that too long, you might cry. Winter is no joke this far north. For any family to have to rely on strangers to get a new winter coat for their kid... Yeah.

Our picks this time were Annabelle, five years old, who wanted either doll-sized furniture or Cars-themed toys, and Kelly Ann, four and a half years old, who needed a winter suit.

And so, we set forth to battle the shopping hordes.

This is what we got for Annabelle. We couldn't find any doll-sized furniture, so we went for the Cars stuff.



And this is what we got for Kelly Ann. We added a matching hat and mittens.



Mr. Frost suggested we add a book to our gifts, so we swung by the book store and stared blankly at the selection until I noticed a Cars-themed story. We had no idea what Kelly Ann might like, so I picked out the Aladdin-themed one because that was my favourite Disney movie as a kid. What little girl doesn't want a tiger for pet?



I don't know if there are similar events in other cities, but I certainly wish it was done everywhere. It's much more personal than dropping change in a cauldron and it's good for the soul.

I hope Annabelle and Kelly Ann will be pleased. Merry Christmas, kids.

Cyber Monday Deal

My publisher is having a sale, yay! That means that you can get each of my books for $2.49 instead of the regular $4.99 price. This deal is only available via my publisher's website so I'll provide direct links.



The Fox's Mask (Kitsune Trilogy #1)
Demon hunter Akakiba keeps many secrets from his human companion. The fact he's a werefox isn't the worst one.In feudal Japan, magic is dying. As a demon hunter, Akakiba finds this problematic. The evil he's been trained to destroy is disappearing and, along with it, the shape-shifting abilities of the clan he left behind. With his only companion, a determined young human named Yuki, Akakiba traverses the country slaying demons and performing odd jobs.But when an army of demon-possessed humans masses to exterminate his clan, Akakiba must put aside old feuds and protect his family–all while hiding an important secret from Yuki. Will they find a way to defeat the demon possessed before it's too late? With magic dwindling, will it matter either way?




The Fox's Quest (Kitsune Trilogy #2)In trying to save his clan's shapeshifting powers, Akakiba might just lose his own.The Fox clan is on the verge of extinction, their magic all but gone, but all hope is not lost. Akakiba and Yuki have found a mysterious object that seems to be draining magic from the world. If they can destroy this object, it might return strength to the clan.The problem is, they don't know who created this object or what those mysterious individuals might do to get it back.





Additionally, I can personally recommend these two other Musa titles. It's good stuff, I promise.







Phoenix by Jennifer Mason-Black
This is a YA LGBT novella. It's short, but gorgeous. The half-price promo means it's currently going for just one dollar. Totally worth it.












The Wrong Sword by Ted Mendelssohn
This is not a GLBT book. I recommend it because it's funny and I like funny. Here, judge the book by this teaser:

Henry climbed down and, holding his breath, picked up Excalibur. 
The cave exploded with the sound of trumpets. 
A heavenly choir began to sing. 
A surge of power ran up the sword into Henry's hand, and a voice thundered throughout the cavern: "Whosoever Pulleth The Sword From Out The Stone, Is Rightwise Born King of All England." 
Henry screamed and threw the sword back into the lake.

Post-NaNo Blues

I hit 50k yesterday so I'm officially DONE with NaNo. In the end, I wrote two novellas and one short story. The novellas don't seem very promising right now but I like the short and might develop it further  eventually.

I always get a little lost and confused when NaNo ends, because after spending a month forcing my brain to work twice as hard as usual, I forget what it is I do when I'm not on a crazy deadline. Wait, I DON'T have to churn out a thousand words right this minute? I can do something else? Whoa.

I hope to spend the next couple days doing things like cleaning the house and reading things I didn't write. I will probably also play more World of Warcraft than is strictly healthy and go out for food and/or a movie with the long-suffering Mr. Frost, who just this week looked around and wondered aloud why the house is so dirty. (It's November. That's why.)

Once I recover from NaNo and feel like writing again, I'm likely to pick up that Canadian-Japanese urban fantasy draft I finished in October. I believe that drafts need to sleep at least four weeks before they're ready for the first editing round so this one is about ready to get kicked around. I'm a bit scared to work on it because it's got so much potential and what if I screw it up, ahhhhh.

NaNo Fun

Sometimes my NaNoWriMo projects crash and burn. This is fine. I put such projects away and move on.

This specific project seems to be proof I can't be a plotter. I started out with a full outline for the main plot line. I thought this would be a good thing since it would minimize the PANIC of running out of plot. But having a complete outline appears to have prevented my brain from coming up with on-the-spot plot twists I depend on to fill out my stories. I wrote every single scene I'd planned, and then I wrote "the end." The story never took off, never came to life. It's not even a novel; I finished at 30k. I might be able to do something with it later on, but for now it's going in the FAIL folder.

Obviously 30k isn't enough to "win" NaNo. I'm currently scrambling to invent a new story on the spot.
I'm about 5k in. So far it's the story of a man-eating mermaid who makes friend with a human instead of eating him. I have no idea where it's going, but maybe that's not such a bad thing. We'll see!

Ahh, NaNoWriMo Season

If you're wondering what I'm up to--I'm NaNo-ing!

NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. It's a challenge to write a 50,000-word (minimum) novel during the month of November. NaNo started in 1999 but I discovered it in 2003, while I was in university. I was already writing back then, but I knew I wasn't anywhere near publishable. That first year I glued myself to my computer and fainted twice on the way to class because of a combination of not sleeping, not eating, and working myself into exhaustion. Every single word I wrote that year was terrible and will never see the light of day, but that's not what's important. That first NaNo taught me a lot about bashing my way through writer's block, finding ways around plot holes, and writing No Matter What. It also taught me that eating and sleeping regularly are NOT optional.

I've participated in NaNoWriMo every year since. I believe everybody should try this insanity at least once. It's a learning experience for everybody, not just people who aim to be professional writers, and it's fun and social. I even met Mr. Frost at a NaNo launch party. He's more of a reader than a writer but I'm sure glad he decided to give it a go that year!

Some industry people (agents, editors, authors) dislike NaNoWriMo, sometimes for very good reasons. The writers who finish their novel on November 30 and email it off to agents and publishers the next day aren't doing anybody a favor. But I believe this has gotten better in recent years, as we collectivelly try harder to teach people that having a finished manuscript is NOT the the same as having a ready-for-publication manuscript. I understand the NaNo organizers have now set up an informal event in January and February called "Now What?" It addresses editing, revising, researching the industry, etc.

Those people who hate NaNoWriMo because the unwashed masses should not be allowed to believe they have the right to write like Real Authors do--those guys can shove it. The rest of us are busy getting work done. I currently have 9,000 words and I aim to have a lot more before I collapse in bed.

Publishing Birthday!

It's officially been a year since The Fox's Mask came out. I had meant to do something special, but somehow all my free time got absorbed by my shiny new project. Whoops.

Though I haven't had official word yet, the third and final volume of the trilogy will likely be coming out somewhere around spring. I swear I'll do something fancy at that time. Something fancy, I say!

In the meantime, let's have yet another Goodreads giveaways. Everybody likes free stuff, right?

.goodreadsGiveawayWidget { color: #555; font-family: georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; background: white; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget img { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0 !important; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget a { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0; color: #660; text-decoration: none; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:visted { color: #660; text-decoration: none; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:hover { color: #660; text-decoration: underline !important; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget p { margin: 0 0 .5em !important; padding: 0; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink { display: block; width: 150px; margin: 10px auto 0 !important; padding: 0px 5px !important; text-align: center; line-height: 1.8em; color: #222; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; border: 1px solid #6A6454; border-radius: 5px; font-family:arial,verdana,helvetica,sans-serif; background-image:url(https://www.goodreads.com/images/layo... background-repeat: repeat-x; background-color:#BBB596; outline: 0; white-space: nowrap; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink:hover { background-image:url(https://www.goodreads.com/images/layo... color: black; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; } Goodreads Book Giveaway The Fox's Mask by Anna Frost

Giveaway ends November 03, 2013.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win