Interview with Book Blogger Frida Fantastic
Frida Fantastic is the head Book Blogger over at Adarna SF, a site that primarily reviews works by independent authors (authors published either by self or from publishers outside of the 'Big Six'). She, along with two other bloggers, maintain the site, adding weekly reviews of books that lay within the speculative fiction umbrella.
What I particularly like about Adarna SF is that they not only review a lot of independent works, but works that are truly independent in terms of genre (as in stories outside of the typical story norms). The books they accept to review are typically well done and by extremely talented authors, whose imagination and writing tends to step beyond what we generally see in the mainstream mass-market.
And since I'm such a sucker for weird, original shit, I've actually purchased and read quite a few books based on Adarna SF reviews in the past, and I haven't been disappointed.
I recently had the opportunity to have a chat with Frida about herself, her blog, and all other elements pertaining to Adarna SF and its raison d'etre.
TW: Tell us about yourself. Who are you? Where are you?
FF: I'm a speculative fiction enthusiast and book blogger based in Vancouver, Canada. I'm a big supporter of indie e-publishing and something of an ebook evangelist.
TW: Tell us about your book blog, Adarna SF.
FF: Adarna SF is a speculative fiction group blog with book reviews in science fiction, fantasy, and horror. We focus on ebooks from independent publishers and self-published authors. It started as a single-author blog in April 2011 under my blogging name "Frida Fantastic", but it relaunched last month when it officially became a group endeavour.
Matt and Chris, the other reviewers, are experienced book bloggers (Chris has been book blogging for five years!), so it's great to be blogging with them. We have different favourite sub-genres, but we all love SF/F, so Adarna SF is shaping up to be a site of high quality reviews that cover a range of ebooks in speculative fiction. We get into the details of each book, both good and bad, and I think readers appreciate our thorough and straightforward approach.
TW: What's your favorite fiction genre? Why?
FF: I identify myself as a speculative fiction genre reader; spec-fic constitutes 90% of the fiction I read. Within the umbrella of spec-fic, I enjoy science fiction, fantasy, and horror fairly equally, so in my head, I barely distinguish between them. I'm a sucker for body horror and stories that fearlessly deconstruct genre tropes. I'm also intrigued by books with non-Western settings.
TW: Judging by the fact that you run a book blog, it seems that you are extremely passionate about literature. What brought on this undying love for books?
FF: Literature is a glorious storytelling medium that's personal and participatory in a way that visual media isn't. It's a complex art where a writer conveys entire worlds, sensations, and lives with nothing but text. The reader in turn, transforms the work into an experience in her mind. The most powerful literature crafts a story so compelling that it feels as exhilarating and meaningful as if the reader lived it herself. It's an entertainment form that'll never reach the heights of television in the 20th century, but it's a beautiful craft and it will last through the ages.
I immigrated to Canada when I was a child, and while English is a widely spoken language in the Philippines, I still struggled with it. I was encouraged to read novels to help me along, and although some of the books handed to me were a drag to go through, my first experiences with the fantasy genre really sparked that love for reading. I have fond memories of Laurence Yep's Dragon series and Sabriel by Garth Nix. Once I was immersed in worlds where an orphaned Chinese boy could adventure with dragons and a teenage girl could banish hordes of the undead, my young soul was forever lost to speculative fiction. I'm sure I'm going to be a genre geek until the day I die, and probably even after that.
TW: Adarna SF reviews only independent and small press authors. What brought on this decision? What do you find appealing about independent/small press books?
FF: I got into book blogging because I was curious about independent books, but there wasn't enough coverage of books published outside of the big six publishers. Other than books from Night Shade, there aren't that many books from independent publishers that are being reviewed at the major SF/F blogs. So basically, I started a blog that would help fulfill that need.
The purpose of Adarna SF is to cover books that the bigger SF/F blogs don't focus on: ebooks and indies—the books that are benefiting the most from the ebook revolution. Hence our tagline: "a speculative fiction blog for the ebook revolution". There's so many indie ebooks out there that it's almost overwhelming, and they range in quality with regards to both story and editing. At Adarna SF, we try to be a helpful guide as we highlight books that we think are deserving of attention and let readers know what they're really getting.
Actually, we do review books from major publishers, but this happens very rarely. Our submission system is not open to books currently published through a big six publisher, so if a book is featured on the blog, it was either bought personally by the blogger or temporarily procured from the public library. So while other blogs review indies once in a blue moon, we do the exact opposite. We just have our blogging niche staked out. When readers visit our blog, they know that they're going to see candid reviews of speculative fiction books, all of which are affordably priced and could be downloaded to their e-reader in a matter of minutes.
Regarding indie ebooks themselves, indie e-publishing provides the opportunity for all kinds of stories to be shared. The selection is amazing, and the internet connects readers to books in ways that were previously not possible. Book buying has never has been this easy in world history, and I think we're entering an era of a truly global reading and publishing culture. It's exciting!
TW: Who are some of your favorite authors?
FF: I'm not very good with listing favourite authors. It sort of comes with the assumption that I've read through most of their backlists and prefer it over other authors' backlists, although I may just be overthinking the question. Ursula K. Le Guin and Gabriel Garcia Marquez are the first ones that come to mind.
And like many other genre fans, I really enjoy George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, and I'm glad that there's been a surge in popular awareness of it due to both the HBO series and the release of the fifth book.
I'm also starting to pick out some new favourite authors from my book blogging, and those should be fairly clear from my reviews.
TW: Finally, what do you think the philosophy is behind indie book blogging? How do you feel you are contributing, or hope to be contributing to the indie world?
FF: I think that there are a lot of misconceptions about business models in publishing, but that's all they are—business models. A good book is a good book regardless of whether it came out of Tor, 1889 Labs, or a self-published author on Smashwords. It's the end product that matters, and readers could care less about how it got there. Honest reviews of indie books help eliminate those misconceptions. At Adarna SF, we give praise when it's well-deserved and we don't hold back on our criticisms. It doesn't matter if an ebook is from a big independent publisher, a smaller press, or a self-published author. It doesn't matter if the book is $9.99, $0.99, or free. We expect high quality books with regards to both story and editing.
I don't see Adarna SF as specifically contributing to the indie world, but rather, we do our best to contribute to the speculative fiction community. The blog owes much of its beginnings to our fellow pro-indie comrades over at the Mobileread forums and blogrings like Simon Royle's Indie Reviewers, but our target audience isn't necessarily people who already read indie. We communicate to genre readers who have embraced ebooks and are interested to learn of the books that their other SF/F haunts may not cover. We help fill that demand. The number of people reading ebooks is only growing, and our blog can only continue to be more relevant as the ebook revolution marches on.
