MCM's Blog, page 5
September 6, 2012
Claustrophobia.
I’ve just spoken with an author and independent publisher about her claustrophobia. And about her despair. I’ve talked a lot here about the freedom of digital publishing and the individual constraints necessary when external boundaries are taken away. I’ve babbled about the falling fences and absent gatekeepers and limitless choices, but the flipside that emerges is claustrophobia.
It’s a bit like standing in a queue. Once we stood in line for years, quietly but impatiently waiting for our moment to shine. It came, we sparkled briefly, we smiled and bowed, and we moved back to the end of the line and started queuing all over again. When there is no longer a line, when there is anarchy and we are all free to rush to the front, the more delicate souls among us get crushed in the rush. Those with the loudest voices and most strident tones, and sometimes the greatest bulk, will squash the frail, the less confident, and the introverted; the arty types.
Since I first discovered the world of online fiction, I have regularly heard the reassurance that quality will rise, the rush of mediocrity will pass, and the deserving will inherit the world. That never happened in the traditional world of publishing. I think, most often, the loudest is heard, the dross floats to the top, and the inheritance is torn into ragged shreds that aren’t much use for anything but mopping up the bloodshed. Is that cynicism creeping in?
The crush is not a bad thing, really. Sometimes change only comes by riot and revolution. There is far more to gain from a world with free expression than there will ever be harm. For those, like me, who are horrified by the new 20% writing-80% hard-out self-promotion rules, there are quieter back streets to haunt. At least there we can watch the winners win and mumble under our breaths.
So – back to my chat about claustrophobia. We were discussing reviews and the difficulty of raising a profile in the claustrophobic, sardine-packed book sale sites. We all snigger when the likes of Mr Ellory or Mr Locke or Mr Rutherford are caught making up their own five star positive feedback, and we all know the names of others who play that game, but in terms of numbers – career altering numbers – even the liars are rarely rewarded with much space in the spotlight. There’s a riot in the market-square; tall poppies are targets.
Sadly, as much as I uphold my faith in the natural laws that assure us that this riot, too, shall pass, I see too many fragile and beautiful souls crushed or teetering on the brink of giving up their art.
That is overcrowding; that’s what it does. It stretches the resources too thin. There is not enough for all to take as much as they would like, and there is no longer a regulator to decide who will have and who will have not. And as in nature, it is the loudest and the most aggressive, not the most deserving, who take the greatest share. Nature is what it is, but it can be very hard to watch.
The trouble, I think, is not that some authors of dubious literary merit will succeed and others, better, will not. The trouble is the prize itself that we are all wrestling in the streets to touch.
We think the prize is a vast collection of five star reviews.
We decided that is how we would determine the best.
We allowed our work to be strung up on the auction block and when there were not four hundred five star reviews forthcoming, we found a way to provide them for ourselves. And the system our anarchy was supposed to have deposed, *coughAmazoncough*, allowed that self-defeating standard to rule in terms of sales and recognition.
I maintain my healthy cynicism about the claims of authors who do not wish to succeed/make money/become well known/bestsellers. It is a dream most humans cherish in one field or another. But poverty has never pushed artists to abandon their art. It has been the backbone of most artistic communities throughout history. Artists starve; it’s what they do.
The prize we were seeking when we got diverted by the new real was validation. Validation. To be told – that was good. I enjoyed that. Genuinely.
That’s why some authors can excuse themselves for buying fake reviews or drafting friends and family into the fray. Aside whisper to self: If fake reviews fool the true punters into reading my work, they will see how good it is and genuine validation will follow. Maybe not. It’s a slippery slope and no one wins anything.
Validation. Not reviews. It won’t equate to sales, but it fills the hole inside that drives you onward through the screaming crowds. So, here’s a happier, personally invaluable example of finding validation.
Recently, the lovely Julie O’Yang invited me to fictionaut. I have for a long time read work on that site and marveled at the quality. Jewels, I thought. I was a little bit in awe of the company I found myself in. I went into the quieter spaces there, a bit more like a library than a market square on Sunday morning, and I whispered some tiny little poems and I painted a snippet of flash on the wall.
And it appeared; not begged, not sought out with a cover letter detailing personal bests and a history of violence and bloodshed in the arena, just there, whispered back just as quietly.
“That was good. I liked that.”
Validation.
If you feel it is time to drop the pen and take up the sword once again, try finding a quiet place away from the rioting masses, the sort of place you always wished you could belong, and do whatever it is you do best.
September 3, 2012
Review: Eighty Nine – Literary Mixtape Anthology
1989: a cusp between decades.
The year the Berlin Wall came down and Voyager went up. Ted Bundy and Emperor Hirohito died. The birth of the first Bush administration and computer virus.
In San Francisco and Newcastle the ground shook, in Chernobyl it melted. Tiananmen Square rocked the world and Tank Man imprinted on the international consciousness. Communism and Thatcherism began their decline, Islamic fundamentalism its rise.
It was the year Batman burst onto the big screen, we went back to the future (again), Indiana Jones made it a trifecta at the box office and Michael Damian told us to rock on.
Based on a play list of 26 songs released in 1989, Eighty Nine re-imagines the social, political, cultural and personal experiences at the end of the decade which gave the world mullets, crimped hair, neon-coloured clothing, acid-wash denim, keytars, the walkman, Live Aid, the first compact disc and MTV.
I was given a copy of Eighty Nine by the editor, Jodi Cleghorn, without any expectation of promotion. When I read the collection, I was so delighted by the consistent quality of the stories, I offered to post reviews.
Anthologies, even from a single author we admire, tend to be a bit up and down depending on our individual tastes. I read the opening stories of Eighty Nine and enjoyed them, then found I was up to the middle of the book and still reading avidly without wanting to pause, not even between stories. There are 26 individual tales here, based, as the blurb reveals, on a playlist of songs from 1989, and I did not rate any one of them less than a high 3 from 5. In those cases where I liked them less, it is definitely a question of taste rather than poor penmanship. Every story brings a different style and a different subject, [all a little bleak, as reflects the mood at the end of the nineteen eighties] so I will share those I enjoyed most.
30 Years in the Bathroom, by Icy Sedgwick– It is 1989 and Diana Phelps, an aging star, stares at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Her age is well hidden, but she made her film debut thirty years earlier and now not even her beauty is sufficient to bring her the work she loves or the adoration she craves. Reduced to begging, she pleads for Aphrodite to renew her charms, but the gods are as fickle as fame itself. (5)
Nowhere Land, by Maria Kelly– The residents of Area Zero watch as a new inmate is discharged from The Bullet. It’s a door, the only link they have with the real world, and they hope endlessly for a newcomer with a textbook that will help them understand where they are. They are dissidents: names and faces who simply disappeared, and they live in barracks to defend themselves from the monsters that inhabit this nowhere land. If only they could find a way back…. (5)
Chronical Child, by Lily Mulholland– At the Imperial mausoleum in Hachioji, Kiko-chan remembers her life as the Emperor Hirohito’s beloved concubine. She combs her hair, tugging free memories of her love and the warnings she offered in the hope he would choose love over duty. (5)
Amir, by Benjamin Solah- One of the stories that made me weep, as it brings the image of the lone, unarmed student in Tiananmen Square and the horror that image represented into every other field of war. Amir is the story of solidarity, a word du jour for 1989, when artists and students stood up to tanks. (5)
The Banging on the Door, by Jonathan Crossfield– As the tide of political power swings in East Berlin, a Stasi informer flees from the neighbours he once monitored. Alone in the dark forest, in a hovel that offers scant protection from the elements, he meets with the spirit of another who has been hounded from safety by a witch-hunt. There, he learns to fear what his neighbours once feared most: the banging on the door. (5)
Cocaine, My Sweetheart, by Jodi Cleghorn– And as a last recommendation, a nod to the editor herself. In a slightly different tribute to 1989, this story leaves behind the political turmoil and moves closer to more personal tragedies. Cocaine, the mistress of choice for the 1980s. A sequence of memories that leaps from one reality to another carries Rebecca and Toby back into the arms of their sweetheart. (5)
Table of Contents
Ashes to Ashes – Adam Byatt [4]
Shrödinger’s Cat – Dale Challener Roe [4]
Diavol – Devin Watson [4]
Nowhere Land – Maria Kelly [5]
Chronicle Child – Lily Mulholland [5]
Angelgate – Tanya Bell [4]
All I Wanted – Rob Diaz [3]
Drilling Oil – Kaolin Imago Fire [3]
30 Years in the Bathroom – Icy Sedgwick [5]
Amir – Benjamin Solah [5]
Over the Wall in a Bubble – Susan May James[3]
Disintegration – Stacey Larner [4]
Choices – Laura Eno [4]
Divided – Emma Newman [5]
Blueprints in the Dark - Rebecca Dobbie [4]
Eighteen for Life – Jo Hart [3]
New Year, Old Love – Jim Bronyaur [3]
Solider Out of Time – Laura Meyer [3]
The Story Bridge – Josh Donellan [4]
If I Could Turn Back Time – Alison Wells [4]
An Exquisite Addition – Paul Anderson [5]
Maggie’s Rat – Cath Barton [4]
The Banging on the Door – Jonathan Crossfield [5]
Now Voyager II – Monica Marier [4]
Cocaine, My Sweetheart – Jodi Cleghorn [5]
Paragon – Jason Coggin [4]
All up, this is high quality short general fiction. Some readers might disagree with my ratings, marking some stories higher and others lower. I believe, however, that all readers will enjoy this selection as much as I have.
Excellent. Recommended without reservation. Five stars.
Editor: Jodi Cleghorn
Literary Mix Tapes, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-9871126-6-8 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-9871126-7-5 (eBook)
Publication Date: October, 2011
Dimensions: 203 x 127 mm (Perfect Bound)
Pages: 178
Cover Artwork: Blake Byrnes
Download Sample (PDF)
Literary Mix Tapes is the creative brainchild of eMergent Publishing’s co-founder Jodi Cleghorn, inspired by the practice of recording mix tapes on a double tape deck as a teenager in the 80′s and early 90′s.
The anthologies are a cross pollination of music and writing, and have roots in Cleghorn’s search for new ways to inspire fiction and encourage writers to work together. Built on a ‘collective submissions platform’ and tapping into the crowd-sourcing potential of social media and networking, the anthologies reflect eMergent Publishing’s determination to push the boundaries of the anthology and collaborative work, and to bring the freshest stories and newest authors to lovers of speculative short fiction.
Bio – editor and creative director:
Jodi Cleghorn is the Creative Director at eMergent Publishing and Managing Editor of the Chinese Whisperings and Literary Mix Tapes imprints. Passionate about short stories and a mad innovator of new anthology and collaborative models, Jodi creates publishing opportunities for emerging writers and is working to revive the close and supportive relationship editors and authors once thrived in. In her spare time she chases her own characters across an often dark narrative landscape.
EMAIL: jodi.cleghorn@emergent-publishing.com
Anthologies in the series, available at the eMP bookstore.
Nothing But Flowers
Eighty Nine
Deck the Halls
Tiny Dancer
Three anthologies are slated for release in 2013 based on the music and events of 1968, and the songs Hotel California and Sympathy for the Devil.
September 1, 2012
The LON Blog Tour ends! Prize Winners to be announced next week!
The Legion of Nothing blog tour has come to an end after an exciting month of excerpts, interviews, podcasts, and reviews! It was a ton of fun and a BIG thanks goes out to all our sponsors who helped make the tour a success!
Want to check out some stuff you missed? Click here for the full schedule and links to each blog tour stop!
The giveaway has finally reached an end, so stay tuned because we’ll announce the winners of the Kindle and other prizes on
September 8th!
August 31, 2012
Discontinuo by Maude Larke
Rosa and Gillian were the best basso continuo team in the business. Two accompanying musicians more in sync were impossible to find. In addition, Rosa knew how to sit calmly at her harpsichord and slip in the surest direction behind the backs of the biggest egos among leaders and soloists. Gillian laid down a viola da gamba line with balls. The male members joked about looking behind the instrument to see if there really were only boobs there. But they knew what a crack in the chops they would get from Rosa if they tried.
Everyone knew that the couple vibrated as a one bowed string. They believed the rumors about both of them straddling the sounding instruments to get their clits twanging. And they knew enough to stand out of the way after a performance had been particularly good. Being mowed down by Gillian’s hard gamba case in their hurry to get home and rip off their clothes to celebrate was not at all a pleasant experience.
The Ensemble Trois Siècles was their main group, but they were as much eaters of music as eaters of each other, always ready to take on a new group, time and transport for the harpsichord permitting. It never tired them. It just seemed to feed the libido.
Then there was that day when that new guest leader came along. The violinist invited at the last minute to take the place of the star flute player’s violinist husband while he was having his appendix out. The half-pint sparkplug who said baroque wasn’t her usual thing but she liked to branch out. She laughed, shook her bushy hair out of her eyes, and did a burn-up of a Brandenburg. Too much swing to please most of the group. They waited for their harpsichordist to set things straight, but the chick had absolutely no contradiction. Rosa barely looked at her score. So did Gillian.
The guest did her quick gig and left, and the group lost its fire. Rosa let the leaders lead, and their egos led the group through more wayward, shifting rubato than Chopin’s complete works contain.
Gillian’s tone lost its ring; the musicians complained that she had become a magician, sawing the instrument in half. There was no sync at all any more to the continuo, sunk in a continuous vicious circle of cold shoulders and heated cat-hiss exchanges. If Rosa was going to bust chops, they risked being Gillian’s.
The day Rosa stomped out of the concert hall alone, they all knew that they would be advertising for a new team.
They say Rosa’s switched to piano, only plays contemporary, works in small ensembles, chases around the country to work with the bushy-haired half-pint.
Gillian is saving up to buy a new gamba to replace the one she broke over Rosa’s head. She has one on loan for now. She paid a high security deposit for it.
* * *
Maude Larke lives in France. She has come back to creative writing after years in the university system, analyzing others’ texts, and to classical music as an ardent amateur, after fifteen years of piano and voice in her youth. Winner of the 2011 PhatSalmon Poetry Prize and the 2012 Swale Life Poetry Competition, she has been published in Naugatuck River Review, Oberon, Cyclamens and Swords, riverbabble, 52|250, and Sketchbook.
August 30, 2012
The Legion of Nothing Blog Tour: EXTENDED!
The Legion of Nothing Blog Tour: EXTENDED GIVEAWAY!
The Legion of Nothing blog tour has two days left to run: today, Thursday 30th and tomorrow, Friday 31st. The giveaway was EXTENDED to give everyone a chance to collect all their raffle entries so gogogo get those points!
***
Check now that you have ALL your points so you can win:
A brand new KINDLE plus The Legion of Nothing ebook!
A print copy of The Legion of Nothing plus a limited edition tshirt
5 ebook gift packs with The Legion of Nothing plus The Antithesis by Terra Whiteman
***
Go get your points from:
LIKE 1889 Labs on Facebook
LIKE The Legion of Nothing on Facebook
Comment on Jim’s Guest Post at Book Monster Reviews!
Comment on Jim’s Interview at My Seryniti!
Comment on an excerpt of LON: Rebirth at Sweeping Me!
Comment on the LON excerpt over at Crazy Four Books!
Comment on Jim’s First Exclusive Podcast at Musings of a Writing Reader!
Comment on Jim’s Interview at I Am, Indeed!
Comment on Jim’s Podcast at Simply Infatuated!
Comment on Jim’s Podcast at Coffee Beans and Love Scenes!
Comment on Jim’s Guest post on Book Bite Reviews!
Comment on an LON excerpt at Bookittyblog!
Comment on an excerpt of LON at At Home Between the Pages!
Comment on Natasha’s LON review at A Bit of Dash!
Comment on LON Review at Close Encounters with the Night Kind!
Comment on Whoopeeyoo’s LON Review!
Comment on Jim’s Interview at The Pen and Muse!
Comment on Jim’s 5 Superhero review at Diary of a Book Addict!
Comment on Beach Bum Reads!
Comment at My Seryniti!
Comment at The Reading Cafe.
***
GOOD LUCK!!
The Legion of Nothing Blog Tour: EXTENDED GIVEAWAY!
The Legion of Nothing Blog Tour: EXTENDED GIVEAWAY!
The Legion of Nothing blog tour has two days left to run: today, Thursday 30th and tomorrow, Friday 31st. The giveaway was EXTENDED to give everyone a chance to collect all their raffle entries so gogogo get those points!
***
Check now that you have ALL your points so you can win:
A brand new KINDLE plus The Legion of Nothing ebook!
A print copy of The Legion of Nothing plus a limited edition tshirt
5 ebook gift packs with The Legion of Nothing plus The Antithesis by Terra Whiteman
***
Go get your points from:
LIKE 1889 Labs on Facebook
LIKE The Legion of Nothing on Facebook
Comment on Jim’s Guest Post at Book Monster Reviews!
Comment on Jim’s Interview at My Seryniti!
Comment on an excerpt of LON: Rebirth at Sweeping Me!
Comment on the LON excerpt over at Crazy Four Books!
Comment on Jim’s First Exclusive Podcast at Musings of a Writing Reader!
Comment on Jim’s Interview at I Am, Indeed!
Comment on Jim’s Podcast at Simply Infatuated!
Comment on Jim’s Podcast at Coffee Beans and Love Scenes!
Comment on Jim’s Guest post on Book Bite Reviews!
Comment on an LON excerpt at Bookittyblog!
Comment on an excerpt of LON at At Home Between the Pages!
Comment on Natasha’s LON review at A Bit of Dash!
Comment on LON Review at Close Encounters with the Night Kind!
Comment on Whoopeeyoo’s LON Review!
Comment on Jim’s Interview at The Pen and Muse!
Comment on Jim’s 5 Superhero review at Diary of a Book Addict!
Comment on Beach Bum Reads!
Comment at My Seryniti!
Comment at The Reading Cafe.
***
GOOD LUCK!!
August 26, 2012
The Legion of Nothing Blog Tour: EXTENDED GIVEAWAY!
Tomorrow marks the last day of the Legion of Nothing blog tour, but we’ve decided to EXTEND the giveaway to give everyone a chance to collect all their raffle entries! The giveaway will end at midnight (EST) on August 31st, so gogogo get those points! You can get up to 22 entries into the raffle 
Psst! Want the rundown on the blog tour and giveaway? Click here!
Missed a few days of the tour? Click here for the full schedule and links to each blog tour stop!
Today on the Blog Tour!
Nova of My Seryniti is back for her second post of the blog tour, this time with a great review of LON! What does she think?
This book is perfect for a stressful day, sit back and enjoy some good entertainment with a good plot and great characters. I don’t want to finish a book and feel like I just ran a marathon. This book did the exact opposite, it was fun, quirky and fast. Definitely a good, easy read. I say if you want to read about some great pretty level headed teenagers that just also happen to be super heroes, well this book is for you!
Hooray! We love it when reviewers love our new titles, and we want you to love them too, so go get those raffle points for a chance at a free copy of The Legion of Nothing: Rebirth!
Leave a comment to gain an entry into the prize raffle!
Prizes!
Mmmm, prizes. Do you want a kindle? eBooks? a tshirt? REAL BOOKS?! By tomorrow you’ll have 22 chances to win some prizes, so get to it! You have until the end of the month!
August 22, 2012
The Legion of Nothing Blog Tour: Day 14!
Day 14 of the Legion of Nothing blog tour, and yes, THE REVIEWS HAVE STARTED! Want to know what readers really think of Rebirth? Check out this week’s posts!
Psst! Want the rundown on the blog tour and giveaway? Click here!
Missed a few days of the tour? Click here for the full schedule and links to each blog tour stop!
Today on the Blog Tour!
Whoopeeyoo has a great review of LON: Rebirth today on her blog. What does she think?
Anyway, the grandkids of a league of superheroes gets to be superheroes too with a headquarters and the machones and gadgets their grandparents used. It’s so cool! It’s like tons of Alex Rider and I love the Alex Rider series and Anthony Horowitz. It’s the little James Bond with the gadgets. And what’s even better is that they are a league of superheroes and they’re all friends! Well, at least when they were kids. And of course, superhero stories can’t impossibly not have villains. Gah, I love villains.
We’re glad you enjoyed it, Dianne! Hopefully our readers will too!
Leave a comment to gain an entry into the prize raffle!
Prizes!
YES. PRIZES. GALORE! Did you realize you can not only enter into our raffle for a brand new kindle, but you can enter into it SIXTEEN TIMES?! (and by the end of the tour, twenty two!) That’s a whole lot of chances for free stuff.
August 16, 2012
The Legion of Nothing Blog Tour: Day 12!
It’s day 12 of the Legion of Nothing blog tour and we’re having a blast so far! Have you scooped up all your raffle points? No? Are you some sort of crazy person? Yes? Oh. Well, then. Carry on!
Psst! Want the rundown on the blog tour and giveaway? Click here!
Missed a few days of the tour? Click here for the full schedule and links to each blog tour stop!
Today on the Blog Tour!
We know we’ve been teasing you with excerpts and interviews for weeks, so today Natasha over at A Bit of Dash has a review of the book for today’s blog tour stop! Want to see what she thinks of the Legion of Nothing? Go check it out!
Leave a comment to gain an entry into the prize raffle!
Prizes!
Did someone say prizes? I said prizes! PRIZES. We have ebooks! We have a kindle! We have a candle-lit dinner while simultaneously riding horses on a beach with Jim Zoetewey! Wait. Maybe not that last one. Now go collect those points!
August 14, 2012
Review: Waiting for Daybreak by Amanda McNeil
Post-apocalyptic science fiction.
What is normal?
Frieda has never felt normal. She feels every emotion too strongly and lashes out at herself in punishment. But one day when she stays home from work too depressed to get out of bed, a virus breaks out turning her neighbors into flesh-eating, brain-hungry zombies. As her survival instinct kicks in keeping her safe from the zombies, Frieda can’t help but wonder if she now counts as healthy and normal, or is she still abnormal compared to every other human being who is craving brains?
This book was requested for review. I am a long time follower of Amanda’s reviews.
Since I read ‘Waiting for Daybreak‘, Amanda has begun her promotional blog tour and she has had a chance to express her intention in writing this story more clearly than in a 200 word blurb. That is a very good thing. I hope that readers like myself who have followed her reviews will have followed the blog tour and gained a feel for her book’s strengths, and so will not be holding expectations of the book which it was not intended to meet.
If I had begun reading knowing what to expect, a YA story of emotional development, I would have given grace to the author and trusted her to introduce me to Frieda and her innermost fears. Instead, I began reading a post-apocalyptic science fiction zombie story, well written, but with some serious flaws. That made me wary and I questioned, then, what Frieda was revealing to me.
I wavered for a long time over a rating for Waiting for Daybreak. I couldn’t decide between a three – ‘this is an okay read, but….’ and a four – ‘this was a good book; it ticked most of the boxes; go ahead and read it.’
I settled on the four stars so I should start with what I loved about it.
This is not a long book and it moves along at a clip. The story flies by and it is thoroughly engrossing, with periods of action and adrenaline nicely balanced by periods of memory and self-reflection. The sense of danger and suspense is well developed, and the narrator’s doubts and fears are easily understood. It is not hard to empathize with the characters in this book.
The main character, Frieda, has a dissociative mental illness. She is socially inept and has a history of deep depression, substance abuse, and self-harm. Her journey toward daybreak is compelling and well told. As a book about Frieda, it is well worthy of its four stars.
But ….
To begin with the coloquialism of the grammar and syntax grated every now and then. As I read on, however, I decided that as a first-person present-tense narrative, I was reading the words of the character and not the author, so that minus moved closer to a plus.
Secondly, as with most addictions, self-mutilation acts a dampener to emotional development, which explains the immaturity of Frieda’s actions and reactions. Her flawed decision making processes would then also have been deliberately plotted by the author. But it was difficult at first to know if they were intentional or if Frieda was an awkward characterization, acting as the author believes any reader in the same position might act. In the end I decided it didn’t matter; she is as she is and she acts as she does. As a vessel for sharing understanding of mental illness, she is better than many. Again, as I continued reading I became more aware and more convinced of the fact that I was following Frieda’s inner story more than an apocalyptic story.
Ultimately, these issues only arose because I struggled with the genre tags. With the freedom of self-publication, genre definitions are being blurred and discarded. That is fine, but it can make it hard for readers to connect to the stories they enjoy and for authors to direct their work toward its ideal market. By its nature this book is going to appeal to readers of two distinct types, and I am not certain either of them will find what they want unless the reader understands exactly what it is about.
It is framed, primarily, as a post-apocalypse zombie survival story. For readers who want that, it does not work very well; it is two dimensional. The opening scenes are straight out of ‘I Am Legend’, the remainder from ‘Shaun of the Dead’, with the splatter/melodrama/comedy intact. I apologize if that sounds harsh, but there is no nuance at all in this zombocalypse. It does not seem well thought out in regard to Frieda’s methods of survival, or the series of events that establish the story in its place. True devotees of zombie tales are likely to shred these elements.
The second group of readers, however, those who enjoy a sympathetic journey through the worst experiences of young adult angst, will find a gem. It is a story which asks the reader to question what is normal, as Frieda is forced to examine her darkest demons – those inside her head not those outside. I am not entirely sure they will find it, hidden as it is in its zombie-colored camouflage. The zombie apocalypse is no more than a crisis event on which to hang the threads of a deeper emotional story, and that is not made plain in the introductory blurb.
In summary, properly marketed so that it finds its way to its best readership, this book is deserving of four stars. If it is picked up by zombie aficionados, it will suffer. I hope the author reaches her intended market. Its tags at Amazon clearly show a primary reference to the lesser zombie/horror without mention of the superior emotional interior landscape. [zombies, horror fiction, dead series, post-apocalyptic, zombie apocalypse, etc] Its tags need boosting toward soul-searching, mental illness, and personal development.
Four stars.
About Amanda McNeil: I’m a 20-something, unmarried, child-free Bostonian! I love animals, actively advocate for animal rights, and have been a vegetarian since January 1, 2007. I consider myself to be an agnostic humanist, although a friend jokingly said I’m more like a hedonist humanist. As for my credentials, I received my BA from Brandeis University in History (concentration on US History) and English and American Literature with a minor in Religious Studies. I graduated in January of 2011 with my MLIS from Simmons College.
I believe that people with mental illnesses should be loved and helped, not stigmatized or demonized. Due to my passion for those struggling with mental illnesses and their loved ones, I created the Mental Illness Advocacy (MIA) Reading Challenge. Please do take a moment to check out the dedicated page and consider broadening your reading horizons!
Contact: opinionsofawolf[at]gmail[dot]com
Other works:
The Most Lovely Morning – Short story in Down in the Dirt Volume 103 (February 2012)
The Tale of Leroy of the Backwoods of Vermont – Short story in 69 Flavors of Paranoia
Ecstatic Evil – Paranormal romance novella
