Sarah Chorn's Blog, page 49

Audiobook Review | Gardens of the Moon – Steven Erikson

About the Book

The Malazan Empire simmers with discontent, bled dry by interminable warfare, bitter infighting, and bloody confrontations. Even the imperial legions, long inured to the bloodshed, yearn for some respite. Yet Empress Laseen’s rule remains absolute, enforced by her dread Claw assassins.

For Sergeant Whiskeyjack and his squad of Bridgeburners, and for Tattersail, surviving cadre mage of the Second Legion, the aftermath of the siege of Pale should have been a time to mourn the many dead. But Darujhistan, last of the Free Cities of Genabackis, yet holds out. It is to this ancient citadel that Laseen turns her predatory gaze.

But it would appear that the Empire is not alone in this great game. Sinister, shadowbound forces are gathering as the gods themselves prepare to play their hand.

26 hours, 8 minutes (audiobook)

Published on October 3, 2012

Published by Brilliance Audio

Author’s website

Buy the book

—

I first read Gardens of the Moon about five years ago. I remember reading it, and enjoying it, but mostly because I loved the writing. I spent most of the book completely confused, absolutely lost, and uncertain. I was positive that something better was going to happen, so I pushed through it, focusing on the writing, and forcing myself to ignore my confusion.

I recently decided to re-read the Malazan series, through audiobook. I was reluctant to start on Gardens of the Moon because of my previous experience with it. But, I figure if I’m going to reread this series, I’m going to do it right. I’ll start with the first book and move on through.

The audiobook is amazing, by the way. While I do think that it might be wise to read this book before you listen to the audiobooks (it’s complex, and for a first timer, it might be nice to be able to reread stuff and flip back and forth in a way you can’t with audiobooks), the audiobook is completely worth the time it takes to listen to it. Ralph Lister is a fantastic narrator. Some of the voices felt a bit off for me (Fiddler, for example), but when you consider how many voices this guy has to figure out, and keep track of, it’s pretty easy to be in awe of his voice acting skills (and memory) and forgive the voices that don’t quite hit it right. He’s easy to listen to, and he effortlessly tells an epic story without ever really bogging it down with over embellishments.

Gardens of the Moon is the first book in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. It is also, arguably, the least loved books of the series. Part of this, in my opinion, is because Erikson kind of throws his readers into the deep end in a complex, sprawling political and personal war, and lets you sink or swim without any real regard. There are no infodumps, and no real explanations. You either figure out this complex world and magic system as you go, or you don’t. That’s hard, and it’s stand-offish, and it’s difficult to care about people when you don’t understand what the hell it is that they are doing and why they are doing it. So yeah, I get it. I really wasn’t fond of this book on my first read through it.

But on my reread, I love it and I can’t get over Erikson’s genius. All the things that confused me before make so much sense to me now. There is a ton of foreshadowing, and a lot of details that I missed on my first read through are BAM, there and incredible. The world is textured, and the magic (and religious) system is so layered and intricate it is almost mind boggling. Gardens of the Moon sets the stage for the most complex (my opinion of course) epic fantasy out there. It’s military and raw, and brutal.

I can’t stop wondering how many notes and how much time went into creating this series. My mind can’t even wrap around all of the things that Erikson has created, and even though this is a review, it isn’t really because how in the hell am I supposed to talk about something this huge? On my reread, I’m amazed by how many details Erikson has packed into this novel that really make no sense until you read further books in the series. Everything ties to everything else, and characters make unexpected and often painful decisions in some of the most tense situations that anyone can possibly imagine.

What really makes Gardens of the Moon shine, is the fact that you, dear reader, know exactly as much as the characters do. No one really knows who is killing who or why they are doing it. The magic system exists, but a lot of people know almost nothing about it (some people know a lot about it, to be fair). The empire is moving here, there, and everywhere, and no one really knows why, nor can they anticipate the next move or the reasons behind it. People make decisions that are painful based on limited information. It’s a human drama told through a diverse and sprawling group of characters, in a world that is one of the best created secondary worlds I have ever run across.

Gardens of the Moon makes you work for it, but the payoff is worth it. It sets the stage for one of the most incredible, mind bending, well crafted, shocking, emotionally jarring, painful, unforgettable epic fantasy series out there. And I can honestly say that I loved this book with an intensity that surprised me on this reread.

 

5/5 stars

And now for something different…. Macro Monday

I do photography. I hesitate to say “I am a photographer” because I think in the grand scope of this art, I have a looooooooooooooooong way to go before I can claim to be/do/own anything remotely professional. Regardless, I love to do it. I have invested a ridiculous amount of time, money, and love in my kit, and I don’t see that ending anytime soon.

For a while photography was my way to get away from my health problems. Whether it was my fight against cancer, or my fight against my own body as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome breaks me down and beats me into submission, photography was (and is) where I’d go to get out of my own head and my own body (“meatcage,” as a few other EDSers call it). Photography was my time to center myself in the world around me and realize that, no matter how bad things seem, and no matter how sick I feel, the world is a big place and full of beauty. So, when things got bad to the point where I felt myself breaking, I’d take my kit and I’d hit the road/mountain/garden/whatever and suddenly everything would seem better somehow. I might be breaking/broken/sick/fighting/exhausted/something else, but damn it, the world is amazing and no matter how sick I feel, that can’t be taken away from me.

So, photography is an important part of my life. I have four lenses, and my macro lens is my favorite (followed closely by my wide angle). I love how my macro lens makes me focus on the small details in the world around me. It makes me really stop and look at something differently. I love the challenge of taking something I see all the time, and make it interesting and impossible to overlook, and then I have the power to capture that interesting yet mundane thing, and keep it forever.

Am I a professional? No, but photography gives me the godlike power to keep a slice of the world frozen in time forever. It centers me. It forces me to really see the world around me, and I love it for that gift.

But I’m not perfect.

Chuck Wendig does something called Macro Monday and I love that idea, so I’m piggybacking a bit. At first I hemmed and hawed over this, thinking this is a SpecFic review website, why should I do anything else? Then I decided, you know screw it. This is my website, so I can do what I want here.

Therefore, I’m going to start doing Macro Mondays. Maybe they’ll always be macro photos. Maybe I’ll break the rules and put other photos up. Maybe they’ll be good. Maybe they’ll suck. Maybe I’ll add commentary and maybe I won’t. Does it matter? I am more than just books and reading, and sometimes it’s good to remember that.

For my first Macro Monday, I’m going to post these photos I took of a Saturnii moth (I think) that I took today. This guy was guarding my front door all day, sleeping or doing whatever it is that nocturnal flying critters do during the day. I should add that I am damn proud that I took these photos. I am terrified of bugs. Not afraid, but terrified. That’s not an exaggeration. They scare the holy living hell out of me, but he was huge and beautiful and he wasn’t moving. I made sure I had an exit plan, and I didn’t touch or disturb him, and managed to get these photos. Once I loaded them, I realized that he is a lot more beautiful (and fuzzy) than I realized. He is quite beautiful.

So here he is: the moth that kept anyone from coming to my front door today (and for that alone I loved him).

Zeroes – Chuck Wendig

About the Book

An exhilarating thrill-ride through the underbelly of cyber espionage in the vein of David Ignatius’s The Director and the television series Leverage, CSI: Cyber, and Person of Interest, which follows five iconoclastic hackers who are coerced into serving the U.S. government.

An Anonymous-style rabble rouser, an Arab spring hactivist, a black-hat hacker, an old-school cipherpunk, and an online troll are each offered a choice: go to prison or help protect the United States, putting their brains and skills to work for the government for one year.

But being a white-hat doesn’t always mean you work for the good guys. The would-be cyberspies discover that behind the scenes lurks a sinister NSA program, an artificial intelligence code-named Typhon, that has origins and an evolution both dangerous and disturbing. And if it’s not brought down, will soon be uncontrollable.

Can the hackers escape their federal watchers and confront Typhon and its mysterious creator? And what does the government really want them to do? If they decide to turn the tables, will their own secrets be exposed—and their lives erased like lines of bad code?

Combining the scientific-based, propulsive narrative style of Michael Crichton with the eerie atmosphere and conspiracy themes of The X-Files and the imaginative, speculative edge of Neal Stephenson and William Gibson, Zer0es explores our deep-seated fears about government surveillance and hacking in an inventive fast-paced novel sure to earn Chuck Wendig the widespread acclaim he deserves.

496 pages (paperback)

Published on August 18, 2015

Published by Harper Voyager

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

—

I’m hugely into cyberpunk right now. I think the exploration of how technology and social/political issues impact each other is fascinating. There is some great commentary and very thoughtful examinations of current events, and the potential evolutions and impacts of current events.

So yeah, I dig it.

I also love Chuck Wendig’s writing. He’s one of my favorite authors out there right now, bar none. He has the dry, sarcastic, smart humor that just works for me, and writing that is effective and shockingly direct. So when I heard that Master Wendig was taking a bit of a foray into cypberpunk/technothrillers I was there with bells on.

Zeroes starts out feeling like a thriller we’ve all probably read before. A group of people who have never met before, from all walks of life, are given a choice to either go to prison for ten years due to their hacker crimes, or work for one year for Big Brother in a remote, controlled location known as “The Lodge.”

Things get interesting when you get these different people in one small, confined location. Personalities clash, people start playing covert games to manipulate other people. Lines are drawn and crossed over. It starts out as something you’d expect to see in a situation like this. Essentially a small society is developed in this backcountry, full of a bunch of people who make their livings breaking the law (hacking). There are power struggles, and the people at The Lodge push and pull and learn the limits of their confinement and how their small society will manage to function during their time there.

Then, slowly, Wendig strips all of this away. The pushing and pulling gets a bit more dramatic, and makes more of an impact on the situation, and the people involved. It stops being a bunch of people dealing with their situation, and starts being something with a bit more heft. There are plot twists, and power struggles and plenty of moments where you think you know someone, and then suddenly their colors change. And I should mention there that one of Wendig’s strengths is dialogue, and his books tend to be pretty dialogue heavy, but I appreciate the hell out of that with him. His conversations are absolutely fantastic, and in a book this tense and mysterious, with such a diverse array of characters, his mad dialogue skills are really shown off.

And as these personal powers struggles are going on, facts are slowly revealed about just what they are doing at The Lodge, and the far reaches of what they are hacking. Insert into here government organization, secret government organization, artificial intelligence and basically whatever else. Wendig also draws on things like the Arab Spring, which added a really nice touch and some interesting insight into the role of hackers in situations like that, card sharks, and plenty more. We see, slowly, how all these diverse personalities who had almost nothing in common, who spent just about as much time locked in a power struggle as they did doing their work for Big Brother, can come together and do something powerful, with global impact.

There are multiple perspectives in this book, and I really enjoyed seeing how different people from different walks of life approached the situation. It gave this book a more well-rounded feel. Some characters get a bit more attention than others, and I can see where some readers might feel like the voices kind of merge together on occasion and lack a bit of the diversity readers will use to tell them apart with ease, but it was easily overlooked to me in favor of the story being told.

The action will keep you on the edge of your seat, and the personal, group, and political drama is absolutely riveting. Wendig throws in a lot of details that shows how well he has researched a lot of these hacker-ish topics that are dealt with here. He paints an interesting, stark, almost terrifying picture of just how politics and technology can mix and mingle to create something giant and terrifying and shockingly realistic.

Wendig’s signature humor is here, and his straightforward writing his part of why this book works so well. He says what he means and he says it how he means to say it. Wendig wastes no words. He almost pushes the story at his readers with shocking force, and you’re left to either sink or swim. This book is full of ideas, and complex insights into our global economy and many situations that have faced societies around the world, and plenty of science woven in to keep you happy. In some ways this is a David and Goliath story, and it is so very well done. The giant and the little guy, in conflict, as told only the way Chuck Wendig can tell it.

Grab this book, get comfortable, sit back, and enjoy the ride.

 

4/5 stars

And the winners are…

If you remember, I had this giveaway running. Well, the winners were randomly chosen, so let us all congratulate:

Taylor S. and Robin L.

Thanks to everyone who visited/entered/spread the word, and stay tuned because the SPFBO #2 is going to start up!

The Ripper Gene – Michael Ransom

About the Book

A neuroscientist-turned-FBI-profiler discovers a gene that produces psychopaths in this thrilling debut novel.

Dr. Lucas Madden is a neuroscientist-turned-FBI profiler who first gained global recognition for cloning the ripper gene and showing its dysfunction in the brains of psychopaths. Later, as an FBI profiler, Madden achieved further notoriety by sequencing the DNA of the world’s most notorious serial killers and proposing a controversial “damnation algorithm” that could predict serial killer behavior using DNA alone.

Now, a new murderer—the Snow White Killer—is terrorizing women in the Mississippi Delta. When Mara Bliss, Madden’s former fiancée, is kidnapped, he must track down a killer who is always two steps ahead of him. Only by entering the killer’s mind will Madden ultimately understand the twisted and terrifying rationale behind the murders—and have a chance at ending the psychopath’s reign of terror.

303 pages (hardcover)

Published on August 18, 2015

Published by Forge

Author’s website

Buy the book

This book was sent for me to review by the publisher.

—

I don’t typically review books like this, but every once in a while a publisher will slip one into my mailbox, and it grabs me and, well, here I am. As an added benefit, the other day I was reorganizing my bedroom and I found a HUGE pile of books that I had stashed somewhere because I had no room for them on my bookshelves. Now, suddenly, I have a whole lot of books to read that I forgot I had! Woo!

The Ripper Gene is a surprisingly intelligent thriller. While the setup felt fairly typical to me – a FBI profiler who finds himself on a case that defies explanation and quickly consumes him – I quickly realized that this really wasn’t a typical book at all. Not the least of which is due to the fact that it is incredibly well written, and very, very intelligent.

Dr. Lucas Madden was a neuroscientist who changed careers and found himself to be one of the leading criminal profilers in the FBI. At first it seems like he’s got it all under control, and lived a cushy life and then managed a successful career. Other than a very captivating prologue, Madden really seem put together. Slowly Ransom chips away at the veneer that makes Lucas Madden as polished as he is.

While Madden gains depth and a few chips and flaws to his impeccably built character, an entire mystery is unfolding all around him. It goes from interesting to riveting incredibly quickly as Madden finds himself a bit too close to all the things that are happening. He’s emotionally invested, which makes the readers emotionally invested.

The murder mystery is much like Madden himself. It starts out fairly typical, feeling pretty polished, and with the sense that eventually you’ll probably be able to predict the outcome. Slowly, deftly, Ransom peels away all of that until readers realize it’s just a façade, and exposes the dirty, unpredictability that the book is built on. Yes, you’ll be able to predict some aspects of this book. No, it probably won’t bother you much because it is so well done.

This book interested me for more reasons than just the character development and the murder mystery. While those are interesting, what really kept me going was the science that Ransom used throughout his book. He brings forward an interesting argument dealing with nature and nurture. Can science determine whether or not a person will be a serial killer, and if so, can it determine what kind of serial killer they will be?

And while these aren’t new questions posed to readers, what might actually be new about them is how they are handled, and so flawlessly woven into the book until these hypotheticals are just as interesting as the plot itself. Ransom himself has a rather extensive and technical background in science, and that is probably part of why these questions, and scientific postulations are dealt with so well. It helps to read stuff like this when it is written by someone who knows how to address these topics based on personal experience.

The Ripper Gene really surprised me. I don’t typically like books like this because I read so much they become predictable fast, and it’s a lot less fun when you can see how these things are going to end when your 1/4th of the way through. This was one of those rare thrillers that really worked for me. Superb writing, fantastic character development, and a riveting plot works together to make something that is quite remarkable. But what really hooked me was the science, and the absolutely superb ways that the author asked some provocative questions, and left his readers no real answers. He laid out a scenario, and requires the readers to figure out where they stand on the issues and questions presented.

This isn’t speculative fiction, but a thriller. Regardless, I liked it so much I felt like it deserved a place on my website. If you’re in the mood for something a bit different, and something that requires you to really think about more than just the mystery, then check out The Ripper Gene. I was pleasantly surprised.

4/5 stars

GIVEAWAY | THE SELF-PUBLISHED FANTASY BLOG-OFF BUNDLE

(Giveaway details at the end)

THE SELF-PUBLISHED FANTASY BLOG-OFF BUNDLE

Curated by Blair MacGregor

“Ten fine bloggers and blog-sites spent a year considering almost three hundred self-published fantasy books to bring you their ten favorites. It’s hard to imagine you won’t find some gems among them.” — Mark Lawrence

This is a unique bundle, its books chosen not by me, but by reviewers who took part in the first Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off organized by Mark Lawrence. Each reviewer received over twenty-five books and a mission: Choose one. This bundle contains the books those reviewers put at the very top of their list.

The SPFBO Bundle includes some of the coolest indie fantasy around. Crista McHugh’s A Soul for Troublegives you a witch named Trouble, possessed by the god of chaos. William Saraband’s Shattered Sands follows a slave girl suddenly empowered by forces older than the desert itself. You’ll delve into the more-than-murder mystery of Matthew Colville’s Priest, and follow another priest trying to save the world after the gods disappear in Barbara Webb’s City of Burning Shadows. And The Weight of A Crown from Tavish Kaeden serves up the deep epic of a recently-united realm on the verge of fracturing.

There is the sharp warrior who knows the value of leaving heroism behind in Under A Colder Sun by Greg James, and the ruined hero who chances into a way to surmount the past in David Benem’s What Remains of Heroes. Plague Jack delves deep into a brutal world of conspiracies, consequences, and backlash against a conqueror in Sins of the Sovereignty. Ben Galley smacks a young man into a frontier Wyoming filled with blood magick and secrets in Blood Rush. And Michael McClung’s The Thief Who Pulled On Trouble’s Braids—the novel scoring highest in the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off—races along with a sassy, smart thief who must find an artifact everyone thinks she already has before she’s killed for it.

StoryBundle lets you choose your own price, so you decide how much you’d like to support the writers. For $5—or more, if you’d like—you’ll receive the basic bundle of five novels in DRM-free ebook format. For the bonus price of at least $15, you’ll receive all ten novels. If you choose, a portion of your payment will go toward supporting different charities such as Mighty Writers and Girls Write Now. Over the years, StoryBundle and its participating writers have donated thousands to support awesome charities doing great work.

The Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off Bundle is available for only three weeks, so now is the time to pick up this unique collection of reviewer-beloved fantasy novels, and discover new independent writers who want to take you on thrilling adventures through worlds you’ve never seen with characters you want to know (even if a few of them are rather terrifying). – Blair MacGregor

For StoryBundle, you decide what price you want to pay. For $5 (or more, if you feel generous), you’ll get the basic bundle of five books in any ebook format worldwide:

Shattered Sands by W. G. Saraband
The Weight of a Crown by Tavish Kaeden
Priest by Matthew Colville
What Remains of Heroes by David Benem
A Soul for Trouble by Crista McHugh

If you pay more than the bonus price of just $15, you get all five of the regular titles, plus five more:

Sins of a Sovereignty by Plague Jack
The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble’s Braids by Michael McClung
Under a Colder Sun by Greg James
Bloodrush by Ben Galley
City of Burning Shadows by Barbara J. Webb

The bundle is available for a very limited time only, via http://www.storybundle.com. It allows easy reading on computers, smartphones, and tablets as well as Kindle and other ereaders via file transfer, email, and other methods. You get multiple DRM-free formats (.epub and .mobi) for all books!

It’s also super easy to give the gift of reading with StoryBundle, thanks to our gift cards – which allow you to send someone a code that they can redeem for any future StoryBundle bundle – and timed delivery, which allows you to control exactly when your recipient will get the gift of StoryBundle.

Why StoryBundle? Here are just a few benefits StoryBundle provides.

Get quality reads: We’ve chosen works from excellent authors to bundle together in one convenient package.
Pay what you want (minimum $5): You decide how much these fantastic books are worth to you. If you can only spare a little, that’s fine! You’ll still get access to a batch of exceptional titles.
Support authors who support DRM-free books: StoryBundle is a platform for authors to get exposure for their works, both for the titles featured in the bundle and for the rest of their catalog. Supporting authors who let you read their books on any device you want—restriction free—will show everyone there’s nothing wrong with ditching DRM.
Give to worthy causes: Bundle buyers have a chance to donate a portion of their proceeds to charity.
Receive extra books: If you beat the bonus price, you’ll get the bonus books!

StoryBundle was created to give a platform for independent authors to showcase their work, and a source of quality titles for thirsty readers. StoryBundle works with authors to create bundles of ebooks that can be purchased by readers at their desired price. Before starting StoryBundle, Founder Jason Chen covered technology and software as an editor for Gizmodo.com and Lifehacker.com.

For more information, visit our website at storybundle.com, tweet us at  @storybundle  and like us on  Facebook .

 

GIVEAWAY

I will be giving away TWO (2) codes for two different people to receive all the ebooks in this bundle. Leave a comment on this post to enter. The giveaway will run from today (April 14) through Saturday, April 16 at midnight, Mountain Time. Only one entry per person. Winners will be chosen randomly and announced on Monday, April 18.

Note: Mark Lawrence is accepting submissions for the SPFBO 2. More details here. 

Guest Post | How to Write a Publicity Query Email That Won’t Get You Blacklisted by Bloggers – Melanie R. Meadors

Melanie R. Meadors is the author of fantasy and science fiction stories where heroes don’t always carry swords and knights in shining armor often lose to nerds who study their weaknesses. She’s been known to befriend wandering garden gnomes, do battle with metal-eating squirrels, and has been called a superhero on more than one occasion.

Her work has been published in Circle Magazine, The Wheel, and Prick of the Spindle, and she was a finalist in the 2014 Jim Baen Memorial Science Fiction Contest. Melanie is also a freelance author publicist and publicity/marketing coordinator for both Ragnarok Publications and Mechanical Muse. She blogs regularly for GeekMom and The Once and Future Podcast. Her short story “A Whole-Hearted Halfling” is in the anthology Champions of Aetaltis, available April 12, 2016. You can find out more about her on Facebook and Twitter. 

About the Book

More than three hundred years have passed since the fall of the Atlan Alliance, and the people of Aetaltis have finally brought order to their fractured world. Fledgling nations have grown into powerful kingdoms, thriving merchant states have re-established old trade routes, and the priests of the Enaros have rebuilt their great temples.

But in this time of hope, the shadow of an ancient evil has emerged from the darkness to threaten the world once again.

Discover a new world of adventure in this collection of pulse-pounding stories written by some of the greatest fantasy authors alive. From the vine enshrouded ruins of a lost jungle temple to the seedy back alleys of the villainous city of Port Vale, experience the thrill of heroic fantasy with these gripping tales of action and adventure.

—

How to Write a Publicity Query Email That Won’t Get You Blacklisted by Bloggers

by Melanie R. Meadors

 

There are about a million ways you can draft a letter asking a blog or website if they would be willing to have you or an author you represent on their venue to help publicize a project, or to have them review a book, or whatever else you are querying them for. However, as many bloggers will tell you, there are about a million ways you shouldn’t write one, too. As an author publicist, doing both freelance publicity for authors themselves and doing publicity for small publishing companies, I send out a lot of letters/emails every month to blogs asking for reviews, guest articles, and interviews. It’s my job. I’m a professional. Or, at least, I play one on TV. When I saw a couple bloggers posting samples of some of the letters they got (names removed to protect the not-so-innocent), I was appalled. How could these authors expect to have a blog offer them a guest spot if there was no mention of the author’s name in the message. Or the title of their book? How could they expect a blogger to do a kindness for them when they outright insulted the blogger in their message? Even so-called publicists are guilty of some of the most atrocious things in their letters (and this is where I will say buyer beware! In this age of social media, there are people who say, “Hey, I could make some extra money being a copy editor/publicist/book formatter!” and they have little to no training or experience. DO NOT just hire anyone to do these things. Make sure there are plenty of references and experience listed, because you are giving them money you’ve worked hard for. Don’t let someone who has no idea what they are doing have it and then make you look bad because your name is associated with them. Do your due diligence). I have seen query letters from “publicists” that use the wrong author name, the wrong book name, completely mixed up information, faulty cut-and-paste operations, etc. And believe me, in my years in this work, I’ve screwed things up. Mistakes have been made. But not because I am completely ignorant of procedures or because I’m totally careless.

You, as an author, are a professional. This is a business you are involved in. Therefore, you need to conduct yourself in a manner that is professional. I’m not saying you have to be stiff, that you have to have no personality or that you can’t have fun. Quite the contrary! But if you want to succeed in this business, there are things you need to do, and being able to write a proper email asking a blog or website if they would be willing to review your book and/or have you on as a guest is one of them (and these same pointers can be used to ask if you can take part in convention programming, or if to invite authors to your blog, or anything that is business related). Many of the bloggers I query for my authors are my friends after a few years. My messages to them about business matters are STILL business letters.

So, without further ado, here are my pointers for a successful query to a blogger/reviewer:

Dear John: Address the blogger by name. You can usually find their name on their website somewhere. And make sure you call them the RIGHT name (cough, I’ve actually screwed this up once in the past couple months, and was rightfully called out on it). This lets the blogger know that you actually put some effort into getting to know their blog, that you didn’t just get their email address from some list.


Be sure to look at the blog’s guidelines for both reviewing and/or articles. Some do not want self-published books. Others only want certain genres or subgenres. Those are their rules. Don’t try to convince them to take a book that is outside their criteria. Those rules are in places as much for your benefit as theirs. Do you really want to put your science fiction novel on a romance blog, no matter how many hits they get? The audience will not be impressed, and you’ll have completely wasted your time. You also run the risk of getting bad reviews for misrepresenting your book. If a genre is not a good fit, it’s not a good fit. Don’t try force yourself in.


Mention the blog’s name in the body of the email, and say why you want to be on their blog in particular. This lets the blog know you’re familiar with them and that you know what they are about.


In the body of your message, always remember the 5 Ws and 1 H.

Who: Your author name, or who you are writing on behalf of.

What: Your book title, or the project you are representing, as well as a short line about what genre.

Where: The publisher, and also the author’s website.

When: The release date.

Why: Why are you querying this blog in particular.

How: How can the blog help you? Do you want a review? A guest post or interview? All of the above? Tell them what you want.

Sign your message. Some people don’t. You must.


Author bio and book summary: After your signature, paste the official cover copy of your book and the bio of the author. This helps the blogger see if they are really interested or not.


Always include your website address (and yes, you’d better have one). The blogger will want to check you out, see your previous work, see what kind of following you have, etc. On your website, they should easily be able to find links to your accounts on Facebook and Twitter, etc, and so just by including this link, they will have a lot of their questions answered.


Offer them content that will draw readers to their blog. Bloggers are not your bitches. They aren’t working for you. They have a blog because they want people to read them. The harsh reality is that book spotlights get skimmed or skipped. No one cares. Anything that is easy for you, the author, is usually the least effective. Bloggers want content. They want an author’s unique view of things, they want to offer their readers something to entertain and inform them. They want something that will be shared on social media. And really, that’s what YOU want, too. You are doing a publicity tour so that you can actually reach readers. Not just so you can check off a box that says “stuck crap up on the internet.” Spotlights don’t reach readers in a memorable way. Posts that make them laugh, let them hear your voice, and show them who you are hit readers in a positive way that will make them click on the link to your work so they can learn more. That type of content is good for bloggers and is good for you. Tell them what type of post you are interested in, and if possible, even offer them a topic.


Use a professional yet friendly voice. Be you in your letter, but keep it professional. This will ensure that all information is conveyed correctly, and will also ensure the blogger that you have a voice that will both appeal to readers and be able to get information across. This letter may well be a blogger’s first exposure to you as an author. Show them that you can actually write.


DON’T BE A DICK. For those of you who have taken my workshops, you’ll know I inevitably end all of my publicity lessons with Wheaton’s Law. When all else fails, even if you do none of the above, just follow this one simple rule. Treat people like human beings, represent yourself honestly, and don’t convey yourself as some celebrity no matter HOW big you are. Show in your letter (usually by following the guidelines above) that the blogger is important to you, that you recognize that YOU are the one asking for a favor, and treat them well. If you screw something up, not being a dick is the best way to overcome any fall out from your mistakes.

I hope this list has been helpful to authors and aspiring publicists alike, and I also hope it will be helpful to bloggers who have to receive some of these letters. There is a lot to learn in the world of publishing, but most of the time just some thought and common courtesy can go a long way. And who knows? Maybe an article you write (accepted by a blogger because you had an awesome query letter) will go viral and make you an author rock star! If you piss off a blogger before they even see your work, however, you’d never know.

A Non-Bookish Aside… with photographs

You may or may not have noticed that I have been rather quiet recently. Well, my batteries have been running on empty and I’ve been e-x-h-a-u-s-t-e-d. I’ve been reading a lot, but I’ve had almost no energy to actually write reviews. You know how that goes…

Well, we took the two kids to visit my family for about a week and it has been absolutely necessary for my soul. My batteries have recharged, and it was nice to see my family. In an odd twist of events, we expected to drive south for a bunch of hours, and arrive somewhere warm, desert, 80 degrees and sunny. Somewhere very different from the colder spring we are experiencing at home. Well, the day after we arrived, a freak monsoon coursed through the area and lasted our entire visit. There was thunder and lightening, and flash flood warnings. I loved it. Storms in the desert are beautiful.

So we didn’t get out much due to the weather (Which, oddly enough, is going to start up here where I live tomorrow. We left one stormy stretch of weather to enter another. My mom called today to tell me it was beautiful, sunny at 84 the day we left.), but it was very relaxing. My husband and I saw a fantastic show (Ka at the MGM is SO. WORTH. IT.). I went on a lot of (wet) walks. I even managed to take a nap (a rare occurrence for this mama with two young kids). What I loved the most was being able to do some photography.

My parents have this patio in their back yard, which is surrounded by these palm-tree-bush-things and a bunch of honeysuckle bushes, as well as hummingbird feeders. I sat outside and watched them eat and fight, with my camera, telephoto lens, and kit nearby. It was so relaxing to watch the hummingbirds, and practice photographing these fast little creatures, and listen to the rain.

Yesterday, I made Mercedes Murdock Yardley pizza (and cooked it too long). Her kid and my kid played for a while while Mercedes and myself yapped about life, publishing, and how she thinks I need to go into editing on my own (complete with a business plan). It was a ton of fun, and I always love visiting with her.

So that’s what I’ve been doing recently. I feel recharged, refreshed, and ready to be productive again. I have a guest post going up today, and a few books I’m ready to review on Thursday and Friday.

Anyway, here are some of my favorite pictures (not perfect, but whatever) from the trip, for those who care, and thanks for being patient with me while I’ve been dragging my feet, and exhausted.

This one is my personal favorite.

I love how frumpy this little dude was, and his tongue!!

The Last Days of Jack Sparks – Jason Arnopp

About the Book

Prepare for the cleverest, most addictive thriller you will read this year. This is the story of the ill-fated Jack Sparks – a man who plays with fire, and pays the price . . .

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.

Read on and decide for yourself what really happened to the notorious Jack Sparks – in this razor-sharp tale about the dangers of mocking what you don’t believe

336 pages (paperback)

Published on March 8, 2016

Published by Orbit

Author’s Webpage

Buy the book

This book was sent by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

—

The Last Days of Jack Sparks kind of snuck up on me. I got a new kindle a while ago, and in the process of moving all my books from my old device to my new one, all my books got scattered and unorganized and I completely forgot what I had on there. (This is also why it’s taking me a little longer than normal to read some of the books I’ve received.) Anyway, I’ve been slowly trying to put things in order, and I ran across this book. I decided to open it and see what it was all about. I finished it in about three days.

The Last Days of Jack Sparks is a really unique contemporary sort-of-fantasy thriller which features our controversial journalist protagonist (kind of) named Jack Sparks. The book is notes from the book he was writing before he kicked it. The book was released for his fans by his brother, as is, complete with notes for his agents and editor as he was writing it.

Jack Sparks is an interesting character. At first blush he seems similar to some culture journalists I’m sure we can all pinpoint in our own day and age. He’s a man with a unique, strong voice and a fearless desire to investigate aspects of life that most of us don’t think about. He has a huge fan base, and he obviously really likes himself (dude has a huge ego), but he’s also gotten himself in a bit of trouble. He’s a notorious drug addict, and has a tendency to close himself off to possibilities. All in all, Jack Sparks is quite repugnant and I instantly couldn’t stand him.

Which is part of why I liked him. (Weird, right?) It’s rare that an author can get me to dislike a character as intensely as I disliked this one. And part of what made him so easy to dislike wasn’t just his strong (really strong) personality, but also how real he was to me. He wasn’t just a character in a book, he was vibrant and real, and I could actually picture him trotting around the globe offending everyone he came in contact with.

The book opens up with Jack Sparks at an exorcism of a young girl in Italy. Things don’t go as planned, and while Sparks thinks it’s all an elaborate ruse, it’s really where it all begins for him. He gets quite fixated, and the YouTube video that gets infamous on the internet and really steamrolls over the book he was planning to write appears. It’s really early on in the book where readers can see the book Sparks wanted to write turn from that, into the YouTube video obsessed book that he ended up writing.

It’s also where a lot of this weird sort-of-fantasy-thriller stuff comes into play. In fact, I’d say this is less fantasy and more horror, now that I’m thinking about it. In its bare bones, a lot of this is a ghost story. Jack is being hunted and haunted by spirits and forces he doesn’t understand. There are dark passageways and spooky moments that had my skin crawling. He is determined to show that the paranormal is all a ruse, and the paranormal seems determined to show him that it’s not. It’s an interesting ideological war that he finds himself in the middle of, and he narrates it all beautifully.

As the chapters pass, readers can easily see a bit of Jack’s mind fraying. He’s really put together at the start, but the pages pass and he gets messier. Things start falling apart. There are fewer notes to his editor and what he writes transforms from a book, into a sort of rambling narrative that is woven together with his personal terror that he feels so acutely readers can’t help but feel it.

What’s interesting here is less the fact that Jack is falling apart, and all these terrifying things are happening all around him, and more the little tidbits between each chapter. These portions at the end of each chapter that are put in there by his brother and his editor showing an alternate perspective to what happened. And it’s quite eye opening. Jack seems so put together, so blatantly, offensively honest. These portions at the end of each chapter paint another picture of him, and shed a questioning light on many of his claims, from the claims that he’s drug free, to the claims that he is sane. These portions of the book make you really question Jack, and if he is who he seems to think he is. Or even if the things he thinks are happening, are really happening.

It’s quite brilliant. Arnopp seemed to take the idea that nothing is what it seems to be, and wrote an entire book based on that premise, in a pop-culture way that most everyone would enjoy or relate to. It’s a sort of cross-genre read that is part horror, part cerebral, and a whole lot of thriller. There’s a little of everything here, and the book is just as interesting as it is to watch someone fall apart …. Or is he falling apart? The ending left a little to be desired, as I think the last part of the book sort of lost itself a little. There were some curveballs that took me out of the book a little bit.

Despite that, The Last Days of Jack Sparks was the sort of unique book that I’ve been waiting a while to read. This modern ghost story was riveting in just about every possible way. Jason Arnopp’s debut novel was a homerun for me, and well worth checking out if you’re into ghost stories that are sort of thrillers, sort of cerebral, sort of a contemporary examination of belief and the power of pop culture.

4/5 stars

Audiobook Review | Spellwright & Spellbound – Blake Charlton

About the Book(s)

Spellwright

Nicodemus is a young, gifted wizard with a problem. Magic in his world requires the caster to create spells by writing out the text… but he has always been dyslexic, and thus has trouble casting even the simplest of spells. And his misspells could prove dangerous, even deadly, should he make a mistake in an important incantation.

Yet he has always felt that he is destined to be something more than a failed wizard. When a powerful, ancient evil begins a campaign of murder and disruption, Nicodemus starts to have disturbing dreams that lead him to believe that his misspelling could be the result of a curse. But before he can discover the truth about himself, he is attacked by an evil which has already claimed the lives of fellow wizards and has cast suspicion on his mentor. He must flee for his own life if he’s to find the true villain.

But more is at stake than his abilities. For the evil that has awakened is a power so dread and vast that if unleashed it will destroy Nicodemus… and the world.

17 hours 30 minutes (audiobook)

Published on November 6, 2015

Published by Audible Studios

Author’s website

Buy the book

Spellbound

Francesca DeVega is a healer in the city of Avel, composing magical sentences that close wounds and disspell curses. But when a newly dead patient sits up and tells her that she must flee the infirmary or face a fate worse than death, Francesca finds herself in the middle of a game she doesn’t understand—one that ties her to the notorious rogue wizard Nicodemus Weal and brings her face-to-face with demons, demigods, and a man she hoped never to see again.

Ten years ago, Nico escaped Starhaven Academy, leaving behind his failed life, in which he was considered disabled and felt useless. Now, in Spellbound, he’s starting fresh, using his newfound gifts in the dark Chthonic languages to pursue the emerald that holds his birthright. Unfortunately, he can’t escape the chaos of his old life. His mentor suffers from an incurable curse, agents of the fabled Halcyon hunt him day and night, pieces of Francesca’s story don’t add up, and the prophesized War of Disjunction looms on the horizon.

Nico and Francesca don’t know it yet, but they are going to have to fit together the pieces of an age-old puzzle and discover the demon’s darkest secret

20 hours 28 minutes (audiobook)

November 6, 2015

Published by Audible Studios

Buy the book

These audiobooks were given by the author in exchange for an honest review.

—

This isn’t going to be as much a review as a revisit.

I’ve been on a kick recently where I’m rereading (erm… listening) to books I’ve read before. For some reason, listening to a book rather than reading it is a whole new experience for me. When Blake Charlton was looking for reviewers for the audio versions of his two books, I jumped on it. I really enjoyed reading these books the first time through. I was absolutely thrilled to listen to them and experience the magic all over again. Plus, the third book is going to drop this year, and I think it’s pretty essential that I reread his previous books before I jump on that one.

Kevin T. Collins did a wonderful job narrating the book. He seemed like a natural pick for Nicodemus’s character. He had a knack with infusing Nicodemus with a sense of wonder and determination that really pulled me into the book. He tended to struggle a bit with accents that sort of pulled me out of the book a little bit. Other than that bit of awkwardness occasionally, he did a wonderful job at nailing the tone and voice of this book and really managed to bring it alive for me all over again.

Therefore, the audiobooks are totally worth your time.

Even though I read these books when they first came out a few years ago, listening to the audiobooks really revived everything I loved about them the first time through them. Nicodemus is a completely loveable, passionate character who is struggling through school despite his dyslexia, which could easily hold him back. Nicodemus is one of those ardent characters, full of heart that you just can’t ignore. His struggles are real and full of emotion, and his successes and frustrations are just as real.

These books are full of adventure, and a magic system that can seem overly complex at times. The audiobooks make the few infodumps easier to absorb, which in turn makes the nuances of this complex magic system easier to digest. It’s a lot of fun to see how Charlton takes something that could be so limiting, and turned it into such an interesting plot point, and a fantastic strength of Nicodemus’s.

That seems to be a huge positive point that keeps me coming back to these books, and makes me want to read them (and listen to them) over and over again. Charlton has a history with dyslexia, which he isn’t quiet about and I fully suggest you go to his website and read up on him and his dyslexia a bit. It’s quite inspirational. Charlton has managed to do something incredible with his disability, and that inspires someone like me, who is struggling with a degenerative disease and a body that is slowly breaking down and falling apart. It’s wonderful to see an author take something that is frustrating, and scary, and absolutely limiting, and turn it into this empowering strength. I wish more authors did that.

These books are easy to read (and very easy to listen to). The plot is addicting, and the characters are fantastic. There really isn’t much about these books that aren’t to love. Charlton has been going through medical school, and while I’m very pleased for him, I’ve almost resented his education because it’s kept him from releasing more books in this series (ha ha). Charlton is releasing his third book Spellbreaker on August 23 of this year, through Tor books. I fully recommend you read (or reread) these two books before then. From what I understand, Spellbreaker stands alone, but I think revisiting these previous two books is a good idea not just because they are wonderful, but also because it will probably help you appreciate what is sure to be a fantastic climax to this trilogy.