J.B. Garner's Blog, page 41

Book News: The Tale of the Tape revised and rereleased

We are almost to the end of Revision Road.  The files for the revised edition of The Tale of the Tape are working through Amazon and Smashwords as we speak.  This fully cleaned-up edition should be available later today for download.  If you previously purchased the book, all you need to do is update it (Kindles at the least should do this auto-magically).

All that’s left in terms of ‘old business’ is to revise Indefatigable and then it’s time to progress to new writing.  Huzzah!

Thanks to all those people who have read, reviewed, rated, and provided input to this point!  You have been a fantastic help in this process!

Monday Musings: Everybody Should Read Comic Books!

Welcome to the first weekly installment of Monday Musings, where I shake off the hunger pangs of another hardscrabble weekend to bring you whatever crosses my addled brain.  For this initial article, I want to tell everyone out there that they should really read some comic books already!

This may not be that left-field of a thing for me to say.  After all, I write in the superhero genre, one born from the comic books.  What’s different here is that I’m saying that you should read not superhero stuff, or watch comic-book-inspired movies, but to read actual, real comic books.  Why?

Look, they aren’t all good.  Many are actually pretty bad.  However, there are some truly remarkable stories told in those four-color pages and, more importantly, they are our modern mythology.  They are our Greek gods, our legend makers.  It isn’t ‘David and Goliath’ anymore, as much as Spider-Man freeing himself to save his Aunt May in Amazing Spider-Man #33 (websearch it if you haven’t seen the pages before and don’t be surprised if you HAVE, just didn’t know the exact source).

Just open your eyes and see that quite a few superheroes ARE the gods of old.  Thor, Hercules, Odin, Loki, Ares, and many more hobnob with the new colorful pantheons we have created.  Even more are closely connected with the old mythology.  Wonder Woman, Shazam, and countless others herald back to the Greek, the Norse, the Egyptian, and so many other collections of gods and heroes.  Our comic books are inheritors of thousands of years of tradition, history, and introspection.

Don’t buy it?  Comic books have been with us now for decades and those characters and stories that resonate with us have never faltered for that entire history.  The archetypes, the parables, the lessons those pages hold connect with the same stories man has told in thousands of ways since the dawn of time.  Comic books reflect the times they are written in, but still contain the same messages and characters they have held since their inception.

There must be something culturally vital for what began as children’s entertainment to still be so important to us over seventy years later.  There must be something critical for us all to glean from something that was considered as indispensable to many soldiers during World War II as anything else in their care packages.  Our culture, our history, our hopes, our dreams, and our nightmares are in the colorful pages you can get at any comic book shop.  We just have to take the time to read them and sort the good from the bad.

Starving Review: Reincarnation (The Seven Uniters Book 1) by Alicia J. Love

Reincarnation��(The Seven Uniters��Book 1) by Alicia J. Love (Amazon, Goodreads)

Young adult sci-fi romance, it’s a mixture of a lot of popular tastes these days. ��Conceptually in the same realms as the paranormal romance that still sells piles of books,��Reincarnation��tries to turn away from the��Twilight��crowd, using a nice dollop of alien worlds and even a hint of superhero chocolately-ness to make its own mark. ��Do all of these new flavors make for a brilliant recipe or a deflated souffle?

Before we find out, it’s time to bring out the Starving Review creed:

I attempt to rate every book from the perspective of a fan of the genre
I attempt to make every review as spoiler-free as possible.

There are some tasty ideas here, some things with real merit, that could have propelled��Reincarnation��away from the crowd of other YA genre romances. ��I don’t fib at the mention of alien worlds and new vistas. ��Ms. Love does embrace the science fiction elements and, while not handled as well as I would have liked, the inclusion adds a lot of flavor to an overcooked genre. ��I was also eager to see how the hinted-at superheroic elements would play out.

The problem with these fresh genre inclusions comes in with the rather late inclusion of these elements. ��There’s a large front section of the book that is rooted on Earth and, while some of this exposition is crucial, it lingers far too long there. ��It leaves the real meat of the book to be shoved into the back half of the book, which is a real shame.

The other major issue with the plot is that Reincarnation��hews far too closely in terms of story beats as its YA genre romance brethren. ��The actual dramatic plot points are introduced and dealt with in quick beats in the last third of the book, the romantic elements have far too much ‘love at first sight’ elements (though to Ms. Love’s credit, it does so in a totally unabashed way, making no excuses for the use of it), and the lead protagonist, for all the hint of importance and vast power she has, lacks far too much agency to be palatable to me.

Let’s not be too hard on the chef though. ��This is a cut above things like��Twilight��and there are flashes of brilliance to be found here. ��In some ways, I feel that��Reincarnation��suffers from a problem I’ve noted in several books that are part of larger series in where it feels like each book feels far too reliant on the larger storyline of the series. ��To clarify, it is like these books are written entirely to service the series, with no real attention paid to focusing on the actual story arc of each book.

There’s not much more to say about this particular literary treat. ��In summation,��Reincarnation��tries to break the baking mold of YA genre romance with a fresh dash of science-fiction and a hint of superheroics, but it falls short of truly shaking up the tired tropes of the plot itself. ��It remains a cut above the mainline of the genre, but not enough to truly soar to culinary perfection.

FINAL VERDICT: *** (A cut above other YA genre romance, but falls short of truly shaking things up.)

Writing Is A Bad Habit: Wrestling Psychology and Writing

It isn’t hard to realize that I am a big fan of professional wrestling. ��Heck, I have an entire book series dedicated to it. ��While this may be a surprise to some, there is actually a strong connection between the in-ring theatrics of wrestling and the art of writing fiction. ��There are lessons to be learned from one that can be applied to the other and that is something we are going to touch on today.

In pro wrestling, there is a concept called ‘wrestling psychology’ or ‘mat psychology’. ��What it means is that the wrestlers are creating a believable, logical sequence of events during the match. ��They are following a consistent strategy for their approach, reacting (‘selling’) to their opponent’s moves, and general convincing the audience to buy into the match, to believe that maybe this could be real. ��It’s all about making the audience suspend their disbelief, to become invested into the wrestlers’ characters and the action going on.

Now, while we know that pro wrestling is scripted to an extent, it isn’t extensively choreographed like a fight scene from a movie. ��Each wrestler has to invest their own athletic and acting talents into the match to make it work. ��It is improvisational, cooperative story-telling told through grunts, groans, slams, and posturing.

That’s where the connection lies between writing and wrestling. ��Understanding what makes for good ‘wrestling psychology’ can help a writer understand good ‘writing psychology’. ��Every story, just like every match, has to follow a logical sequence of events. ��The story must have characters that the readers can believe in, convince them that their conflicts are real and important, and then ‘sell’ the reactions of those characters.

Also, just like the improvisational ring work of wrestlers, writers often need to be able to think on their feet. ��I have yet to meet or speak with a fellow author that hasn’t been forced to go ‘off script’ when they transfer their concepts from plan to actualization. ��A good writer goes with the flow and then smooths over the bumps so that you, the reader, never know just how many curves and swerves the writer went through, much like the best pro wrestler. ��A bad writer, well, you can tell. ��Either the situation seems wrong (they didn’t go with their instincts) or you can tell when the writing suddenly shifts ninety degrees (they didn’t make sure the changes were done smoothly).

What do you, my faithful readers, think? ��Do you see the connections or am I just slinging some manure? ��Comment and discuss below!

Until next time, good luck, good reading, and good writing!

General News: The PLAN a.k.a. Time For A Schedule So I Don’t Get Behind

That’s right! ��Crazy, I know, but the only way to keep a disciplined and constant flow of fresh material here is to institute a (DUN, DUN, DUNNNN) schedule here at Starving Author, LLC.

From here on out, I will be presenting new content three times a week at a minimum as per this schedule:

MONDAYS: Monday Musings will be my podium to talk about whatever strikes my fancy, especially things not directly related to writing or publishing.
WEDNESDAYS: Writing Is A Bad Habit��will be focused entirely on writing-related articles, focused primarily on writing techniques, the use and misuse of tropes, and general good and bad writing habits.
FRIDAYS: Starving Reviews��will, naturally, be the regular book reviews you have come to enjoy.

This doesn’t preclude content showing up at other times of the week, especially reblogs of particularly intriguing articles I find around the blogosphere and the occasional regular reblog, like S. Paige Reiring’s Trope of the Week on Tuesdays. ��I don’t know about you, but I work best in a schedule and under the pressure of deadlines, so this new system should keep the good ideas coming your way, dear reader.

Until tomorrow, good luck and good writing!

Trope of the Week: Technology is Evil

jbgarner58:

It’s time for Paige’s Trope of the Week!

Originally posted on break the system:

���durr hburr technology is bad fire is scary and thomas edison was a witch���

A touching quote by anonymous. In science-fiction and horror especially, technology is treated as the root of all evil. It is through the vein-like wires that Satan���s evil seeps through and devours all mortal souls. ���Today, we���re simultaneously more connected and more alone than every before,��� says the Facebook philosopher. Sometimes technology is described as a ���necessary evil,��� something we require for our continued survival, but it���s our great hubris that comes with developing technology that ends up being our downfall. So of course in fiction, many a protagonist has been warped, maimed, slain, or otherwise harmed by the sins that are our electronics.

WARNING: Spoilers for Avengers: Age of Ultron

Why this can be bad: There���s an element of truth to the fear people have of technology. Our teenagers ���overindulge��� on screens, and���

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General News: Review Requests open til the 5th, updates to come tomorrow!

Quick notes:

Site updates to come tomorrow.
Blame the ‘editing hermitage’ effect. ��When I start to edit, the world blurs out of existence.
The Opening Bell��is fully revised and full of win!
The Tale of the Tape��should be revised and updated this week, with��Indefatigable��to follow.
REVIEW REQUESTS OPEN TO THE 5TH!

Trope of the Week: Waiting to Give Important Info

jbgarner58:

A little late, but not a day late, so awesome! Here’s Paige’s Trope of the Week!

Originally posted on break the system:

There could be a lot of reasons why your side character can���t give this highly important information to the protagonist right now. Maybe she has to go visit her dying aunt for a moment. Maybe she wants to go drink at the bar, thinking the info can wait. But we can guarantee that ���I have something to tell you when I get back��� is by and large a death sentence for that character.

Why this can be bad: Sometimes this makes sense. Sometimes. But a lot of times, as an audience member, you���re sitting there frustrated not just because this info would help the protag so much, but because it makes absolutely zero sense why the character couldn���t tell the protag right now, especially if it���s of dire importance. Why does the protagonist never ask, ���What is it about?��� or ���Why can���t you tell me now?��� And if���

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Book and General News: Candles burned at both ends and OMFG FAN ART

First, my deep and sincere apologies to those of you awaiting more Starving Reviews and other writing articles. ��I’ve literally been burning my candle at both ends, writing books, editing books, reading books, writing articles, while still taking care of other personal and business responsibilities. ��With the finish of my last book to write (The Twelfth Labor)and my last major revision left to do (Indomitable), I have suffered from a complete and overwhelming attack of exhaustion. ��Maybe even a touch of exhaustion-based sickness. ��I’m resting up so that, hopefully, things can return to normal levels of insanity around here by the end of the week.

Secondly, I was approached by a fan of��Three Seconds to Legend��for permission to do some fan art, to which I said, “HELL YES YOU CAN!”. ��So you can check out one of the very first pieces of fan art I’ve seen for my books here at deviantArt. ��This same artist also is doing work on a sci-fi mixed with pro wrestling comic book series, which I would be remiss to not shout out to, which you can see the blog for here.

Book News: The Twelfth Labor is released, as well as a new revision of Indomitable!

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It’s been a long road but it’s slowly coming to an end.

Today, the last book of��Three Seconds to Legend,��The Twelfth Labor has been sent off to Smashwords, Amazon, and CreateSpace. ��You can get it from Smashwords already and it should go live through Amazon and in print late today or tomorrow.

In addition, the much needed revision of my first book,��Indomitable, is also going live today. ��You can check it out on Smashwords already, with Amazon and CreateSpace updates to follow. ��As it is now polished enough to be worthy, it is now actually sold for monies instead of free, woo!

More updates to come!