Q&A with Josh Lanyon discussion
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What Are you Reading?
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So I've been doing that with mixed results. A lot of DNFs that I may or may not go into detail on later. A couple of painful efforts where the m/f pronouns were clearly switched out for m/m--with no more thought given than that. I mean, fantastically awful. (And would have been equally awful had the pronouns remained m/f.)
Mpreg. Wow. I did quite a bit of reading there and, putting aside for a moment whether you can stomach (ha!) the idea of mpreg or not, there is some abysmal writing in that subgenre. Also idiotic shenanigans regarding pen names and gender and so forth.
Carroll S. Poe's Southernmost Murder (still reading)
HelenKay Dimon's Mr and Mr Smith (still reading)
Looking for some good M/M Mystery recs.
I listened to
It was interesting but nothing that we didnt already know. I am recovering by reading
Alexander Hamilton which is about a really clever and talented man.
Josh wrote: "So I've been doing that with mixed results. A lot of DNFs that I may or may not go into detail on later. A couple of painful efforts where the m/f pronouns were clearly switched out for m/m--with no more thought given than that. I mean, fantastically awful. (And would have been equally awful had the pronouns remained m/f.)..."Makes me wonder what the heck you are picking up and where are you finding these abysmal examples? I have not had such bad luck in a long time. But then I think you've probably read the books that I have.
My head has been so far into YouTube watercolor tutorial videos that my reading has slowed way down.
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I also read a lot of books by some author named Josh Lanyon. I think I five starred all of them, so you know, more recommendations, if you need them. ;-)
His Quiet Agent*
Peter Darling*
The Long Past & Other Stories
Read My Mind*
Eleventh Hour
Muscling Through
How to Train Your Dom in Five Easy Steps
Bone Rider
Hemovore (the audiobook specifically)
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I hesitate to name actual authors, although it's tempting when I see such crap being churned out. Churned out by "authors" who then give other authors "advice" on writing (AKA data entry). UGH.
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Your watercolors are gorgeous. It's amazing to me that you've become so proficient in such a short time.
Josh wrote: "One of my other commitments for the New Year was to read more, especially in my work genre. Looking for MM mystery reccomendations."
M/m mystery recs for your consideration...(recentish). These weren't all five star ratings for me, but I will prob reread all of them at least once.
Pins and Needles A. J. Thomas
Pretty Pretty Boys Gregory Ashe
Night Drop Marshall Thornton
P.S. I Spook You S.E. Harmon
Gazes into You Alexa Jane
Hard Judgement Sidney Bell
I think Pretty Pretty Boys was the classic mm mystery of these. The others are funky, legal or corporate thrillers, psychic elements, bad guy as hero, or gay main character (no romance) for Thornton.
Hope some of these appeal.
I also had a relatively high number of DNF for last year. And there were many where I was good part of the way through, and then things got rushed, disorganized, very thoroughly predictable, or so briskly tying off every loose end and character arc, that I would stagger/skim to the end. Also quite a few where the characters' most interesting events occur prior to the story and are only briefly referred to in order to try and give some pretense of depth and angst without having to actually write the scenes.
Josh wrote: "Susinok wrote: "Josh wrote: "So I've been doing that with mixed results. A lot of DNFs that I may or may not go into detail on later. A couple of painful efforts where the m/f pronouns were clearly..."Thank you!
A friend of mine who I've known for a few decades pointed out that I have always been around art, looked at it, studied it, and have always been visual. So it's more a matter of training my hands to do something rather than start from 100% scratch. She is not surprised that once I got over my intimidation of painting, that I picked it up quickly. But I'm also practicing a LOT. Doing a few paintings a week. Ya'll only see the best ones, not the ones that end up as color mixing exercises, hehe.
Drawing or painting is not that far away from calligraphy and illumination which I used to do.
Just went back to the exhibit on Dutch Master Pen and Ink Drawings at the Oklahoma City Modern Art Museum. Such inspiration everywhere!
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I second what Josh said, Susinok. It's delightful to see you being so enthusiastic about painting. And the more your skills are improving the more satisfying it is for you... which in turn makes you want to practice more and try new things... which leads into new, sweet successes. :-)
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Josh, I enjoyed the Common Law four book series by Kate Sherwood. I suspect it may not be "your thing," but maybe read the blurb(s) and an excerpt to see. They're published by Riptide.
Long Shadows
Embers
Darkness
Home Fires
Josh, if you're looking for an excellent fantasy mystery series (not sure how you feel about that!), I'd recommend checking out Melissa Scott's Astreiant books. They're police procedurals in a fantasy world and they're wonderful. The romance is very much a secondary thing, and it's a completely charming love story. They're very well done books. The first book is Point of Hopes.
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https://www.amazon.com/Object-Desire-..."
Looking forward to it!
Karen wrote: "Ame wrote: "Well, well, well. See what I just saw.https://www.amazon.com/Object-Desire-..."
Looking forward to it!"
Me too!
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I've read them! And I agree, they're wonderful. :-)
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https://www.amazon.com/Object-Desire-..."
Wooohoooo!!!!
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Josh, I enjoyed the Common Law four book series by Kate Sherwood. I suspect it may not be "your thing," but maybe read the blurb(s) and an e..."
Ah. I'm not really a fan of Sherwood's work, but I appreciate the rec!
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Looking for MM mystery reccomendations."
M/m mystery recs for your consideration...(recen..."
Lots to choose from here! Thank you, WMD.
I’ve been reading (and listening) a lot this year. Two that I really enjoyed were ‘Tall, Dark, and Deported’ by Bru Baker and narrated by Dorian Bane. It’s one of the Dreamspun Desires from Dreamspinner Press. The second one is ‘Michael, Reinvented ‘ by Diana Copland. It’s narrated by Michael Pauley and is the second in the Delta Restorations series. You really should read / listen to ‘David, Renewed’ first. Excellent books. Amazing narrators.
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Josh, I enjoyed the Common Law four book series by Kate Sherwood. I suspect it may not be "your thing," but maybe read the blu..."
This series was different (to me) from her other books, although I enjoyed others at the time I read them.
I have decided I need to stroll through Jordan Castillo Price's Psycops again...next one out on 16th! Yay, tomorrow!!
Josh wrote: "Looking for some good M/M Mystery recs."- TA Boone Bone to Pick - I seem to have liked this one (gave it 5 stars), but I can't remember anything about the plot atm..., but i liked the characters. It's likely more suspense than proper mystery, though.
- Shiloh Hollis The Body in the Backyard - this one I remember - nice and quiet cozy mystery of the English village variety with amateur sleuth. It just went on too long. Way too long. But likable characters and slow-burn, quiet romance.
- SE Harmon P.S. I Spook You, I really enjoyed it. More mystery/suspense than classic mystery, If i remember correctly.
- Oh! James Lear The Sun Goes Down. This is the fourth in his mystery series (can be read as standalone), and it's excellent.
- Kate Aaron The Dead Past. This is quite good too.
- Lou Harper's LA Paranormal series. I really enjoy her writing.
- T Neilson The Glass-House Murder. Very good.
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https://www.amazon.com/Object-Desire-..."
Yay!!!
FINALLY decided to tackle The Rifter series. Just finished book seven and things look rather dismal for one of our heroes.Taking a break to read Agent Bayne.
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Taking a break to read Agent Bayne."
Isn't it amazing?
Haldis wrote: "FINALLY decided to tackle The Rifter series. Just finished book seven and things look rather dismal for one of our heroes.Taking a break to read Agent Bayne."
I think you're going to love it! I read it last year and I enjoyed it a lot! 😀 The series is amazing, I loved its characters and the worldbuilding is superb.
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Taking a break to read Agent Bayne."
Oooooh! The Rifter is soooooo good, isn’t it!
Haldis wrote: "FINALLY decided to tackle The Rifter series. Just finished book seven and things look rather dismal for one of our heroes.Taking a break to read Agent Bayne."
Have fun, Haldis! :)
Haldis wrote: "FINALLY decided to tackle The Rifter series. Just finished book seven and things look rather dismal for one of our heroes.Taking a break to read Agent Bayne."
I'm all in favour of a break with Victor, but don't worry too much about our Rifter's heroes...
BTW Ginn Hale just pointed out that someone is blogging about «The Rifter»: http://notesfromnayeshi.tumblr.com/
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I recommend The Rifter at work a lot. But I’m still only the second person to review it in our catalog, and the other person didn’t know what they were reading and hated it because they were confused about what was happening. Makes me wonder if people do read my recommendations or not.
If I had the time, or the audiobook, I’d reread The Rifter once a year, every year. Without fail. Perhaps every January. :-)
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Antonella wrote: "Haldis wrote: "FINALLY decided to tackle The Rifter series. Just finished book seven and things look rather dismal for one of our heroes.Taking a break to read Agent Bayne."
I'm all in favour of ..."
Yes, I saw the link for The Rifter reread blog. I was trying to just scan it, make sure there were no spoilers because I still have three books left to read.
Jordan wrote: "Haldis, I know it’s Victor Bayne and he pretty much trumps most other books when new things release, but how on earth were you able to put down The Rifter?! Lol. I recommend The Rifter at work a ..."
Don't worry, Jordan. I started book 8 on my work kindle...Vic is getting busy on my home kindle.
Karen wrote: "Ame wrote: "Well, well, well. See what I just saw.https://www.amazon.com/Object-Desire-..."
Looking forward to it!"
Looking forward to it as well. With trepidation...
Steve wrote: "I’ve been reading (and listening) a lot this year. Two that I really enjoyed were ‘Tall, Dark, and Deported’ by Bru Baker and narrated by Dorian Bane. It’s one of the Dreamspun Desires from Dreamsp..."I liked David, Renewed. I'll add the sequel to my list.
Josh wrote: "Looking for some good M/M Mystery recs.""I just noticed "A Simple Suburban Murder" has finally been released electronically (see Amazon Link). I've been looking for it for ages, although I guess I can't actually "recommend" it since I haven't read it yet (soon to be remedied).
Finally read Amy Rae Durreson's The Holly Groweth Green. Such beautiful writing and a lovely story.And Chris Scully's Until September, which was great for the most part, really enjoyed it, but (view spoiler) A good read nonetheless.
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I recommend The Ri..."
LOL. Okay. :-)
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I recommend The Rifter at work a ..."
It just goes to show that not every book is for every reader. Some of the reviews of classic novels on Goodreads are proof of that. :-D
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But the story is brisk and competent. Even well-written in a technical sense. But everything I look for, everything that matters to me as a reader is missing.
Which sounds like a criticism, but honestly it's not. She's hugely popular and she knows her craft. There's nothing going on here that she doesn't intend or understand, these are her creative choices.
Which is the fascinating part for me as both a reader and another writer. The kind of detail and nuance I'm looking for as a reader--and try to capture as a writer--is not overlooked here. It's jettisoned as non-essential. I'm guessing her readership doesn't WANT that detail. Would find it slows everything down.
And I believe that this is the direction fiction is headed.
This type of writing is very much what you find in a lot of KU titles (the difference being that Dimon can actually write and so many KU titles seem to be the product of these courses on How to Pump Out a Million Books in a Year).
It's almost a kind of shorthand designed for voracious consumption of fiction where the reader, frankly, is not going to want to invest too much time or energy because she wants to move on to the next book.
Josh wrote: "I'd mentioned I've been reading Mr. and Mr. Smith. What I find fascinating is this very abbreviated almost shorthand that Dimon writes in. Her characters are so coded as to be one step from talking..."I think you have summarised it really well. Those kind of stories are like Pringles or other moreish snacks but for me as a reader I also need something with more depth especially from a mystery story. I can read shifter stories by the ton but I also want a book that will astound and dazzle me like Gabriel Garcia Marquez' One Hundred Years of Solitude
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Yes. That's it. And sometimes I'm in the mood for potato chips and sometimes I'm in the mood for a glass of wine and a nice meal. It doesn't have to be either or.
And yet a subscription service does encourage the quantity over quality menu.
Josh wrote: "Ije the Devourer of Books wrote: "Josh wrote: "I'd mentioned I've been reading Mr. and Mr. Smith. What I find fascinating is this very abbreviated almost shorthand that Dimon writes in. Her charact..."But after eating chocolate or pringles or other snacks for a while, I really long for a real meal. I find that after two or three of those very easy, without depth stories, I get bored. I can truly say, I have never been bored by a Josh story yet.
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Thank you for saying so, Anne. <3
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Yeah, Josh Lanyon book is like a delicious, satisfying meal with starters and dessert, for sure. :-)
And now I'm hungry! Both for food and for JL books. :-D
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Yes, I think you've said it well. And what disappoints me to no end (I can't help it!) is that books like these are, in fact, the kind hubby likes. But hey, he also likes potato chips more than I do... :-)
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Pintrest has been suggesting writing articles about how to write a book in a week and such. I'm thinking what lunatic would want to be able to write a book that fast? How could it ever be good enough? Well, maybe if you didn't have a full time job and didn't sleep at night?
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Q&A with Josh Lanyon
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Thank you for the rec. It's only $0.99
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/...
or $1.02
http://www.amazon.com/Team-Phison-Cha...