Pete Sutton's Blog, page 46

Book giveaway - Open Waters by David Gullen

Open Waters…
At once beautiful and dangerous, a sun-dappled ever-shifting landscape, restless, emotionless , impenetrable, capricious and heartless.
Open Waters…Across which the voyager will sail to wars without end and to the hiding places of the desperate survivors of alien invasion, will follow in the footsteps of lonely, far-from-home explorers and colonists, journey back to Creation itself then burrow into the darker recesses of the human psyche.
Open Waters…
Sixteen tales of terrible beauty from the imagination of David Gullen

We are incredibly lucky here at Bristol Book Blog to have two signed copies of the book to giveaway to two lucky readers.

All you need to do is tell us the name of David Gullen's SF Novel by mailing BRSBKBLOG-at-gmail.com all correct replies will be entered into a hi-tech randomiser (scraps of paper in a hat probably) and two lucky winners will walk away with a cool collection of stories signed by the author.

All entries to be in by June 19th & winners announced June 20th

The Bristol Book Blog review of the book will come soon.....

The rule of three - guest post by Tom Pollock

 The Rule of Three. Today's guest post by Tom Pollock




Tom Pollock is the author of the Skyscraper Throne trilogy which coolly reimagines London as a city of monsters and miracles.

You can find him on the web here: http://tompollock.com/ & on Twitter here: @tomhpollock




Three, that’s the magic number, especially when it comes to… well, magic. Trilogies are endemic in western literature (the Deptford trilogy, the Karla Trilogy etc) but they are extra-endemic (extrademic? ultrademic? MMMMONSTERDEMIC.*) in fantasy.
The Lord of the Rings? Trilogy His Dark Materials? Trilogy. Earthsea?  Quartet, technically, but the fourth book was written eighteen years later than - and was in part a comment and revision on - the first three, which were a trilogy. Lord of the extremely long form Brandon Sanderson has even said he envisions making his Mistborn sequence a trilogy of trilogies, to which I can only say, I admire the man’s stamina.
So what’s so great about three volume series? Is it just tradition? Or is there more to it than that?  I thought I’d ask some people who’d written some. So I took to Twitter.
Joe Abercrombie talked about echoing the classics and said it felt ‘intuitively right.’ Sarah Pinborough and Jon Courtenay Grimwood both welcomed the opportunity to write longer story arcs and deeper character development than a single book allowed, while Patrick Ness even cited Aristotelian unity, which I admit I had to look up. Kate Elliott described her use of the three act structure as follows: 1. Set problem, 2. Complicate, 3. Resolve.’, while Sarah Rees Brennan has her own (tongue, if you’ll forgive the pun, in cheek) rule: ‘Book one: set up, Book two: make-out, Book three: defeat evil.’
Okay, so what’s clear here is that this isn’t, as the bishop said to the Forth Bridge engineer, only about length. It’s the fact of having three acts that’s doing the work. But what work? Obviously enough, that’s going to vary from book to book, but maybe we can generalise a bit.
Conventionally, the beginning of a narrative throws down a challenge: a murder to solve, a dangerous piece of jewellery to dispose of, whatever. The end of that narrative – again conventionally – answers that challenge, either successfully (Professor Plum, Library, Candlestick. *smugly dons deerstalker*), or unsuccessfully, (and the dark lord’s shadow covered all the lands in a second darkness, probably should’ve called in those Eagles earlier, huh Gandalf?)
But this kind of simple call and response, isn’t really that interesting. Why? Because if we grasp the challenge implicit in the opening act, then we know the sort of thing that’s coming in the final one. We may not know who the killer is, but we know there’s going to be one. So we need a middle act, to introduce an element of the unexpected, to destabilise the narrative a bit and throw us off our guard, as Elliott puts it – we need to complicate the problem, to escalate it, so that it makes us wince at the price exacted to solve it, perhaps even make us conflicted that we want it solved or not. If, for example, all the evidence begins to point to the killer being the detective’s mum, that raises the stakes.
Complicating the problem also necessitates complicating the solution, and since the solution usually comes from the actions of characters, the people in the story become complex too. Brennan’s second act ‘make out’ rule is a pretty good example of this, a romance not only complicates the problem by raising the stakes  - because now it’s not just the world that’s in danger, it’s your boyfriend - but it also complicates the solution: is the hero strengthened by that relationship? Or fatally weakened by it? Either way it’s interesting.  
Obviously, three acts isn’t the only structure you can do this in – five acts is also popular, and as Elizabeth Bear pointed out a lot of longer series use epic or episodic structures  - but it is probably the simplest.
Equally obviously, not all three-act stories are sold and packaged as trilogies, but beyond a certain length, it just starts to make sense for both material reasons (there’s only so many pages a book can have before the binding disintegrates) and financial ones (if you’re going to write three times as much book, it’s nice to actually get paid three times.)
But why stop at plot? Act two of a trilogy gives you the opportunity to complicate so much more.
Like theme, for example. The trilogy I’ve just finished: The Skyscraper Throne is about cities and monsters and crane-fingered demolition gods, but it’s also about two teenage girls whose world is changing beyond all recognition. So the first book is about discovery, about finding a world that’s always been around you, that you’ve seen every day of your life, but is also impossibly strange and threatening. The second book was about testing your limits against that world, and deciding how far it’s going to shape you, and how much you can shape it… And the third book? Well, spoilers obviously, but the third book is about the fact that when you’ve done all of that, you can never go home again. Because encountering the fantastic -like growing up - isn’t something you can do as a tourist. There no magic wardrobe door you can run back through and slam to leave it all behind you. You do this, you give up home, you give up safety forever**
As it happens, each of these narrative arcs fits well with particular sub-genres. So the genre gets more complex with each book too – the first book is a (very) urban fantasy, the second book is a (very) urban fantasy and a dystopia, the third book is a (very) urban, dystopic, apocalyptic nightmare…
…with dragons made out of burning methane.
And that’s what the trilogy format gave to me: the opportunity to write three books about three different themes, in three different genres that taken together chart the shape of a young life in a very strange time. And monsters. Never forget the monsters.
*(Yep, that was an Unreal tournament reference)
**(Do I win some kind of tragic self-aggrandizement award for quoting myself?)Many thanks to Tom for this interesting post about trilogies!

From a Killer's Mind Review

From a killer’s mind by Jason Helford
 

John is a serial killer. We follow him pursuing his ‘work’ as he meticulously plans another kill, using a map he has painstakingly noted all of the places he’s visited, the routes he’s taken etc. We see that he practices meditation to keep from going mad. When he brings his ‘epiphany’ home and chains her to a chair in his bomb shelter basement he sits down to meditate to obtain the calm frame of mind needed. When he wakes things are different. He has manifested, something (Tulpa – although never stated as such in the book). Things then get pretty complicated for John.
 
Helford takes his premise and runs about as far as he can with it. John’s current complicated life is interspersed with his pretty horrendous childhood, told in flashback. His monster of a father, aided and abetted by his mother torture him. His school life is pretty much as you’d expect, loner abused by peers. It’s a mainly psychological piece but does have a fair bit of torture and other “nasty bits.” It’s a pretty neat idea and there are some genuinely creepy moments. Readers with a strong stomach will enjoy this, not for those who can’t handle body shock. It’s a self-pub and there are a couple of minor things that could have done with a bit of tighter editing but only really nitpicky stuff, a couple of typos, no more than I’ve seen in some more trad published works.
 
Overall - A quick and entertaining read

David Tallerman interview

Today we're excited to have an interview with the fantastic David Tallerman:

The author of the novel Giant Thief - described by Fantasy Faction as "one of the finest débuts of 2012" - and its sequels Crown Thief and Prince Thief, all published through Angry Robot.  He's also written the Markosia graphic novel Endangered Weapon B: Mechanimal Science and around a hundred short stories, comic and film scripts, poems, and countless reviews and articles.

You can find him on his website here: http://www.davidtallerman.co.uk/#!page2/cjg9 & on Twitter @davidtallerman





For folks who may not know you or your work can you do a quick introduction?
Well I've been writing seriously for about eight years now; for the first half that was mostly short fiction and since then it's been primarily novels.  I'm the author of the comic Fantasy series The Tales of Easie Damasco, comprised of Giant Thief, Crown Thief and Prince Thiefand published by Angry Robot over the course of 2012 and 2013, and the graphic novel Endangered Weapon B: Mechanimal Science, released last year.  I also had a Horror chapbook out from Spectral Press in 2012, The Way of the Leaves.  My short stories have appeared in around sixty markets, including Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Beneath Ceaseless Skies and Interzone.
Talking of the Easie Damasco books -
·         What came first the giant or the thief?
I can honestly say that they came together.  The half-awake image that began it all was of a man riding on the shoulder of a giant.  It struck me enough that I got to thinking how that might come about, and the most logical explanation I could come up with (again, I should emphasise that I was only half awake at this point) was that the man had stolen the giant, or had stolen something else that necessitated also stealing the giant as a getaway vehicle.  The whole concept of Giant Thief, the central pairing, the first few chapters, all of them came together from that single image.
·         Easie Damasco is a wise-cracking fairly non self-examining, loose morals sort of bloke when we first meet him (spoiler alert – there is character development) was it difficult to get his voice right? Was his character arc all planned out in advance or did it arrive organically?
Damasco's voice came very naturally; he appeared more or less fully formed, and the only change I made from my early notes was to tone down the amount of deliberate humour he was allowed ... to make him more the unwitting butt of the joke than the guy who's always cracking wise at everyone else's expense.
His arc was trickier.  The character that Damasco begins as is not one with much inclination to change; to listening to other people or paying attention to what's going on around him or any of the other things that tend to lead to character development.  So I had the sense almost from the beginning of where I wanted him to end up by the close of Giant Thief, and once Giant Thief was finished I knew where I'd want a series to leave him, but actually making it happen was a far more intricate process.
·         Why do you think there aren’t more fantasy tales with giants in them?
I don't know.  Giants are fun!  I came to fantasy as a kid largely through Greek and Roman mythology, so I don't entirely understand why adult-orientated Fantasy is so wary of monsters and the outlandish in general.  I guess they're associated with children's stories and fairy tales and there's never been much impetus to reclaim or reinvent them.  As far as Fantasy monsters go, it seems like dragons are about as acceptable as it gets these days. 
·         How did you approach writing the books – was the first going to be standalone or did you always plan a series?
It's funny, I was adamant that Giant Thief would be standalone; I absolutely believe that if you buy a book then it should stand alone, not tell you a piece of a story.  And it was only when I finished that I realised that there was scope for developing the world and the characters and for telling other stories, or even one much bigger story that Giant Thief could be the beginning of.  Yet, looking back, as much as I believe Giant Thief does stand alone, I find it difficult now to look back on it as anything other than the opening act of the trilogy.
·         If you can be a character from the books, who would it be and why?
None of the major characters, that's for sure.  I treat my major characters pretty atrociously.  Maybe I'd be one of the giants that gets to stay home, or an innkeeper or something, someone who manages to have a quiet life while everyone else is off having the traumatic, life-changing adventures.
·         Tell us a little bit about the path to publication, did you have an agent before the book deal?
I'd gone to Fantasycon in, I think, 2010, with the crazy idea of handing out printed booklets to publishers containing the first three chapter of Giant Thief.  I happened to bump into Angry Robot's Lee Harris there, who I knew from way back, and while he didn't want one of my lovingly hand-crafted booklets he said he'd be willing to take a look if I submitted through the normal channels.  I think it was two or three months later than the offer for a two-book deal came through.  On the back of that I contacted a few agents, and the Zeno agency agreed to represent me.  Since by that point I was already thinking in terms of a trilogy they managed to wrangle the deal up to three books.
·         What books about giants and/or thieves would you recommend apart from your own?
It's shocking but I really haven't read any.  I can't think of anything at all with giants in that I've read.  Once I started Giant Thief I deliberately kept away from anything that might be similar - I don't think that any good comes from reading the books you imagine your work-in-progress might be like - and then afterwards I didn't want to be in the position of retrospectively comparing myself with anyone else.  With the trilogy done that's not such an issue now, and I have Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora waiting to be read, I hear that's really good.  Thief-wise, again, I'd heartily recommend Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories to anyone who hasn't read them yet.
·         What are you most proud of in the three books?
I think I'm most proud of my core cast.  Every character, even the ostensibly heroic ones, has some deep flaws, and it's those flaws more than their virtues that define where they go, especially after the first book.  Though the Tales of Easie Damasco are fundamentally light-hearted I didn't want them to shy too far from reality, and I think there are some genuinely complex moral issues that the characters are forced to deal with, a few of which are just plain insoluble without compromising and being compromised, just like in the real world. 
·         What did you learn about writing by writing a trilogy?
I learned how to plot a novel and - because of the particular timescale in which I wrote the Tales, which for the sequels basically amounted to a book a year around a full time job - I learned to write really damn fast.
 
Talking of Endangered Weapon B -  “madcap steampunk hijinks”  
·         How did this come about – was it a joint idea or did you have a script and look for an artist?
That's a long story.  Basically I wrote a five page script that got accepted for a magazine called Mangaquake; the editor asked me to expand to ten pages, which I did, and then the magazine promptly folded.  I went hunting for another publisher and stumbled over Bob Molesworth on the internet, who had a hand in a small press venture back then, not realising he was also an artist.  When I chased Bob up a few months later, he sent me the completed story - pencilled, inked, coloured and lettered - which we now refer to as Endangered Weapon B #0, and which is the last story in the trade paperback. 
 ·         Do you have a full series plotted & planned out?
There's a second arc that I've finished the script for, which wraps up a lot of what's set up in the first volume.  But I haven't planned too much beyond that point; a lot of the fun of Endangered Weapon is the sheer randomness of it, and that applies to the writing too, so I don't want to overthink it too much.
·         What do you prefer when working on comics over novels and vice versa?
The virtue of writing comics for me is collaboration and the sheer joy of someone else taking the ideas and images and characters you came up with and making them into something better than you could have imagined.  There are few things more satisfying than getting a load of finished pages back by an artist whose work you're totally in love with.
Novel writing is a far more solipsistic process, but then sometimes that's exactly what you want, to be cut off with just you and the story.  Plus you can set your own pace, at least until you start sending the end product out; drawing a comics page takes much longer on average than writing one, so producing a finished comic, let alone a graphic novel, can be a slow process.
·         What did you learn about writing by writing a comic?
Comics writing can teach you a lot about clarity.  You're writing two stories, basically, one for the reader and one for the artist, and the one for the artist has to be one hundred percent clear because otherwise they're never going to be able to represent what you have in mind.  Also, from writing both comics and film scripts, which is something else I've dabbled in, you learn a lot about dialogue and how much it can carry a story.
Talking of your short stories –
·         You have an impressive number of published shorts out there, have you considered doing an anthology?
                Yes I have ... plenty of thought, in fact.  But right now that's all I can say!
·         How do you go about finding a market for your shorts?
I use Duotrope's Digest, which is basically a market database and submissions tracker.  I'm hesitant to recommend it because it's a charging service these days and in my opinion it's not as cheap as it should be, but on the other hand it is completely brilliant.  I'd recommend it to anyone who's serious enough about writing to stomach the fifty dollar a year cost.
·         What attracts you to writing short fiction?
Short fiction will always be my first writing love.  With a novel you're generally tied to a single style and voice, but I think that if you're serious about writing short fiction then every story needs its own distinctive style and its own voice, and so that's where you get to experiment and try new things, to test yourself and take risks and generally muck about.
·         What did you learn about writing by writing short stories?
Just about everything; everything but planning and long-form plotting, really.  I still feel like I'm quite new to novel writing, I've finished three novels and nearly finished two more but compared with the hundred or so short stories I've written that feels like small change.  So I guess it's safe to say that most of my formative work was in short fiction.
General –
·         I saw you at 9 worlds last year. Are you going to be at any cons this year? Appearing on any panels?
I'm doing Nine Worlds again, and Fantasycon and Thought Bubble, the Leeds-based comics festival.  I definitely hope to be doing panels at the first two, but you don't get a lot of notice with these things.
·         What are you currently working on?
Well ... (Deep breath.)  I'm close to finishing the first draft of a WW1-set Sci-Fi novel, a fifth of the way through a post-apocalyptic Horror novel and plotting out my first attempt at writing a straight Crime novel.  Including the second volume of Endangered Weapon BI have three graphic novel scripts out with artists and I'm developing a couple more.  I'm writing about a short story a month and steadily editing up the last of my older short stories.  I have a novella, Patchwerk, that I wrote last year and plan to polish up in the next few weeks.
I've always liked to have plenty on the go, but since this is my first year writing full time I plan to make it count!
·         Do you have a set writing process, if so what is it?
Until I went full time at the end of last year it was always a case of writing whenever and however I could, but now it's gone completely the opposite way.  At the moment I'm doing five shifts of about an hour each spread throughout the day - usually split over two or three writing projects and research time - and then an hour and a half in the evening to catch up with e-mails, editing, blogging, things like that.  I like to work in my office, which was designed specifically for that purpose.  After years of writing in hotel rooms and on trains and wherever else, using whatever time I could scrape together, it all feels insanely extravagant!  But thanks to all the years when I had to do without such luxuries it's good to know that I can write in just about any situation shy of a hurricane if the need arises.
·         In one sentence, what is your best piece of advice to new writers?
Make it your goal to write every day, even if it's only for a few minutes; if you miss a day then don't beat yourself up about it but vow not to do it again, because if you can't learn commitment to the process of sitting down and writing then the chances of you learning anything else about the trade aren't great.
Many thanks to David for agreeing to being interviewed. We'll leave you with the opening part of Giant Thief for your entertainment. It's a Bristol Book Blog recommended read...
 Extract from Giant Thief





The sun was going down by the time they decided to hang me.

In fairness, they hadn't rushed the decision. They'd been debating it for almost an hour since my capture and initial beating. One of the three was in favour of handing me over to an officer from amongst the regulars. The second had been determined to slit my throat, and was so set in his opinion that I'd hoped he might make a start with his companions. On that basis, I'd decided to lend him my encouragement. "He's right, you know. It's quick, but painful, and less messy than you might expect."

All that had earned me was a particularly vicious kick to the forehead, so I'd settled for the occasional nod or mumble of assent instead.

I'd often been told that sooner or later I'd steal the wrong thing from the wrong person and end up with my neck in a noose. While I'd occasionally suspected there was some truth to the theory, I'd made a point of trying not to think about it. Hanging struck me as a needlessly drawn out and unpleasant way to go, so I'd comforted myself with the knowledge that - law enforcement in the Castoval being what it is - I'd never need to worry unless I got careless or exceptionally stupid.

That day, unfortunately, I'd been both.
 

Far Horizons e-mag

I have been helping out at Far Horizons - a new, free e-mag dedicated to genre (SF&F and Horror) that can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/#!/farhorizonsemag & here: http://www.joomag.com/magazine/far-horizons-tales-of-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror/M0194431001395480479 & here: http://info-far-horizons.wix.com/far-horizons-emag


you can also find it on Twitter - @FarHorizonseMag
Got a Story or Artwork you’d like to submit? Email us: info.far.horizons@gmail.com

Fringe in a Flash

Cheryl Morgan has posted the Podcast of the BristolCon fringe readings in which I did a reading:

http://www.cheryl-morgan.com/?p=18996

I'm on in the second half at abou 25 minutes - but I'd recommend you listen to both halves as there's lots of good stuff there before I came on last...

Artifice Perdu - Dramatised

Southern Reach volume 2: Review

Below the review of the first is a review for the second in the series. If you've not yet read the first book go do so now. This post will wait for you. If you have read the first and don't want to know anything about the second (and I understand that urge) then again, this post will wait for you.



Area X has been contained behind the border for 30 years

So starts the first book in a new trilogy from Jeff Vandermeer. The Southern Reach has sent 11 expeditions into Area X. Many of them have failed to come back, or have come back changed Our narrator is one of 4 in the 12th expedition, she is a biologist and joins a psychologist, surveyor and anthropologist. This is her story. This is the story of the 12th expedition. This is the story of, well let’s not reveal too much here shall we?

This is an example of isolation fiction with a hearty dollop of paranoia on top of the fear and mystery. VanderMeer weaves a web of wicked weirdness that conceals to reveal. We have so many questions that are not answered and may never be but this is because the mystery is, well mysterious. Our narrator is no more clued up than we are and, crucially, compromised. Can we trust her? Can we trust anyone on the team? Can we trust The Southern Reach? Why aren’t expeditions allowed to take cameras, or telecoms, or most other modern technology but are allowed to take guns? What is the true purpose of the expeditions? What is Area X? What is the significance of the Lighthouse? Do we really want to know what the strange noises in the night are? Why did the Biologist join the expedition?

There are several VanderMeerisms (yes that is a word) that will appeal to fans of his earlier work (no spoilers but I bet you can guess what I mean) but this is a slightly different tale to those he has told before. He describes a real and lush landscape in almost cinematic terms. He also manages to make it feel uncanny with a few deft touches and therefore even though the palette is light he achieves a darker tale. I was in the story from the first paragraph, rushing gladly through the book simultaneously desperate to know what was going to happen and deeply dreading knowing in case that knowledge were to change me irrevocably.

It will be compared to Roadside Picnic by the Strugatskys no doubt and possibly Dark Matter By Michelle Paver and there are brief elements of familiarity here if you are well read in the Weird. However VanderMeer has carved a compelling and fresh tale that may owe a passing nod to Lovecraft but only in the same way that a modern car would owe a nod to a Model T. If any complaint were to be levelled at this it would be that we are forced to wait some months before the second in the trilogy is released. Will we get our answers in that tome? Do we want answers? Perhaps it’s safer not to know.

Overall – I can only describe this as VanderMeerian (yes that is also a word) in its brilliance. If you’re a fan of VanderMeer go, buy, read! If you’re not a fan of VanderMeer why the hell not?




In the aftermath of the 12th expedition we follow "Control" the nom de guerre of the new director of the Southern Reach. Some of the questions in the first book are answered but many mysteries remain, are deepened in fact. This is different in tone and style and yet the two books are so inextricably linked that whilst reading this volume I had to several times resist the urge to go back and re-read Annihilation. When I have completed all three books I can imagine re-reading all three as a "whole".

I won't go into the plot - that's a doorway you'll have to cross by yourself. This is less dream-like (although relies, in part, on dreams to build the experience) and less pared down than Annihilation but feels like a layering on of information, themes, character, plot, sense of place, and, to use a term from the book (and the wine world), terroir. It is a deeply sensuous experience that I gorged myself upon. Another reason to re-read once all three have been ravenously consumed will be to take it slower and appreciate the craft. For to be sure there is much craft in these books to admire.

Comparisons are useless, this is idiosyncratic and it is obvious that much thought and care has been put into this as a book, as the second in a trilogy, as a bridge, as a complex exploration of transformation and immersion. Everything becomes significant, it is like being indoctrinated by a conspiracy theorist. It is both a reflection and an intermingling with the first book. Themes are re-explored, re-examined, deepened. Throughout, as per the word Annihilation in the first book, I was considering – what is authority?, what is control? There is a Russian doll feel to it. Turn over a phrase and find a concept which when considered is but a layer of a greater theme which in turn is reflected in character development, or description, or dialogue. Throughout is a key uncertainty, which in itself is another theme – surface detail is a concealment, an obfuscation of the truth, or is it?

Adding to this is the very form of the story. Presented in a paranoid spy thriller atmosphere as organisational politics meets intelligence meets counter-intelligence. Power struggles, suspicions, revelations, tug-of-war manoeuvres and the use of hypnosis (itself a recurrence of something explored in Annihilation) conspire to keep you immersed and engaged.

VanderMeer has parcelled out information, seemingly generously (in comparison to Annihilation) and yet the mystery remains and is, if anything, deeper following this book. At the end of Annihilation I wanted answers and yet wasn’t sure I’d like what the answers were and was simultaneously eager and afraid of reading the next book. At the end of Authority I wanted the next book to be there to hand, to tear straight into, the level of suspense and anticipation has been built to fever pitch.

Overall – This is a book and a series that deserves all the praise. I expect prizes in the future.

Review of the brilliant essay anthology - Invisible

Invisible: Personal essays on representation in SF/Fedited by Jim C Hines

 People who read a lot of fiction form judgements based upon their reading about how the world works and should work. Books can give us dreams and ideals and goals. Saying to any group, "these dreams, these goals, are not for you" harms not just individuals, but our culture.

 
This slim, but important and packed volume, is a must read. As the editor explains: This project began as a call for a handful of guest bloggers to talk about representation in fiction, inspired by Alex Dally MacFarlane’s article about ending the default of binary gender in SF/F and the backlash that article received. Giving voice to thoughts on representation are; writers of colour, women, Trans, non-traditional gender, disabled, a writer with Asperger’s and an impassioned appeal to stop making albinos evil, by an albino. Every single one of these voices underline why representation is important. More importantly, and highlighted in Derek Handley’s brilliant essay, why representation without understanding can hurt as much as, if not more, than no representation at all. This is a book I’d love to put into the hands of many authors, one I’d love to see taught in creative writing classes and one I will be referring to often when discussing why representation matters, with the numerous folk who don’t understand that concept. Stories make the world.
 
I’ll leave you with Derek’s words on representation:
 
Representation is important. When you’re a kid, it’s about having a positive role model with your defining characteristics. When you’re an adult, it’s about being reminded that you fit in somewhere and escaping into that character. And when you’re going through a major life change, it’s about finding solace in stories that show you that someone understands and that maybe you can overcome the challenges you face.
 
Overall – Slim but packs a mighty wallop. Highly recommended.

Check out Jim's website here: http://www.jimchines.com/tag/invisible/

Laura K Cowan Guest post

Today's guest on the blog is Laura K Cowan

Laura's new book - Music of the Sacred Lakes is a new arrival on my e-shelf. I am very much looking forward to reading more of Laura's work and recommend that you check this book out. I'll be posting a review of it in the next couple of weeks.

Over to Laura -


Mermaids and God:
Making The Invisible Visible Through Imaginative Fiction
By Laura K. Cowan
 
I once was researching a novel and discovered that many modern physicists believe that the entire basis of matter is vibrating energy at different frequencies, as though different kinds of matter are notes on a scale. Take off one electron, you change the energy level and you also change what kind of molecule you’re looking at. I know, my head exploded too. Because beyond being completely awesome, this idea (from string theory) also has great implications for fiction and for the layers of reality itself. Here’s how I came to understand the possibilities, not only of imaginative fiction, but of the life it reflects.
 
The idea above got me thinking. We now know that even thoughts in our minds have an energy signature, a certain frequency, mappable in the brain. So if you imagined a mermaid, the energy signature of a mythic creature would actually exist in your mind, because your thoughts are real things with a real energy to them. So in that way, don’t mermaids exist, if only in the plane of existence of the imagination? Isn’t anything possible on some level, even if it’s the level of the mind? I began to write stories about the lives of imagined beings, some of whom were aware they were dreamed into existence. Uh oh. Doesn’t that resonate with the mythic truths coded into the Bible about the origins of life? God spoke and the universe came into existence? Whether we believe in God or not, we all know on some level that however this crazy mixed up life began, in mythic terms we were all dreamed up by someone, or something, or dreamed ourselves into existence somehow. Weird, right? But however we define it, it’s true. We were created somehow, and we are ourselves creators. Mermaids living inside our own imaginations speaks to the origin of life.
 
Great stories can come from any genre, but the very best ones bring something more than an entertaining read. We all know that the very best stories leave us humming. Something resonated with us, with the truths of our lives. Whether they inspire or disturb us, the best stories bring us truth. In fantasy fiction, the genre I call home, we do this by making the invisible things in life—the imagination, the spiritual truths of life, the possibilities of the world—come alive in a literal way. We make the invisible visible for the reader so they can experience the world in a new and wonderful way. How can fiction get any more wonderful than that imaginative creative work, in any genre? Dreaming up new life?
 
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Laura K. Cowanwrites imaginative stories that explore the connections between the spiritual and natural worlds. Her work has been compared to that of acclaimed fantasy and sci-fi authors Ursula K. Le Guin and Ray Bradbury, but her stark and lovely stories retain a distinctly spiritual flavor. Laura’s debut novel The Little Seer was a top 5 Kindle Bestseller for free titles in Christian Suspense and Occult/Supernatural, and was hailed by reviewers and readers as “riveting,” “moving and lyrical.” Her second novel, a redemptive ghost story titled Music of Sacred Lakes, and her first short story collection, The Thin Places: Supernatural Tales of the Unseen, received rave reviews, and Music of Sacred Lakes also topped the Kindle free bestseller lists during its launch, including #42 on all of Kindle, and #2 in Genre Fiction overall, remaining on the top 100 Kindle bestseller lists for Metaphysical Fiction and Metaphysical Fantasy after launch. Laura’s short stories also appear in a number of anthologies, including the charity anthology Shades of Fear (#5 on the Kindle free bestseller lists for anthologies during its promotion), and the upcoming historical horror anthology Sins of the Past, the rather ridiculous soon-to-come PANTS! anthology, and the completely absurd upcoming Faery Tale Therapy.
 Many thanks to Laura for dropping by and sharing her thoughts!