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Angela Korra'ti

Books

Book hiatus, with caveats

So I’m continuing with the projected book buying hiatus this month, and will possibly carry it on through the summer–however, I am reserving the right to still buy the most important, critical, vital books that I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT, those which I wish to buy on their release dates so’s to properly support their authors. And in some cases, books I must read IMMEDIATELY just because I have to know what happens in them RIGHT NOW.

These books are:

  • Deadline, by Mira Grant (userinfoseanan_mcguire), projected end of May release
  • Desdaemona, by Ben Macallan (userinfodesperance), also projected end of May release
  • Ghost Story, by userinfojimbutcher, end of July
  • Downpour, by userinfokatatomic, early August
  • Wayfinder, by userinfomizkit, September

That’s five projected vital books across an entire summer, which by my standards is still a veritable famine of book purchasing. I think this still counts!

However, if anybody out there thinks there are other vital books that I MUST ABSOLUTELY HAVE lest the entirety of the publishing industry collapse and a whole swath of imaginary characters look at me with piteous eyes, tell me in the comments. I will accept bribes. Especially if they involve pretty pictures of Alan Doyle.

May 9, 2011 by
Valor of the Healer

Lament of the Dove status report

My fellow Drollerie author Joely Sue Burkhart is running her Maynowrimo thing again this year–by which we mean, it’s a lot like Nanowrimo, only with a self-selected goal, in a much smaller group of authors trying to get some formal projects done.

I’m taking this as impetus to get edits on Lament of the Dove done, dammit. My goal: get the sixth and hopefully final draft finished by end of May. I’d really, REALLY like to get it back into Carina’s hands by mid-June, so consider this a preliminary call: anybody out there willing to beta read Draft Six? Beta reading previous drafts of Lament is not absolutely required, although anybody who has is more than welcome to jump in and tell me whether the changes I’m making generally overall improve things.

Note also to those of you who took a spin through the last draft: I’m not going line-by-line through changes, though I know some of you went above and beyond the call of duty and provided that level of detail in your feedback. I am however on the lookout for general commentary y’all made to me, such as watching out for overuse of semi-colons and such. Draft Six’s all about the bigger picture edits, and laying down a better ending to lead into Book Two.

FINALLY finished off Chapter 5 today–which was a hard one–and blew through all of Chapter 6. The next major changes are projected to fall in Chapter 12, so I’m hoping to charge through to that point in short order this week.

Here goes nothing. Wish me luck, folks.

May 8, 2011 by
Book Log

Book Log #5: Sea of Suspicion, by Toni Anderson

Sea of Suspicion

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had a bit of a time getting into Sea of Suspicion, one of Carina Press’ romantic suspense titles. Toni Anderson did draw me in nicely with the setup: rugged coast of Scotland, marine biologist stumbling across a murder, investigating detective on a quest for vengeance and locked squarely on the biologist heroine’s boss as his primary suspect. By and large, it is a decent story. It’s just that various aspects of characterization never quite clicked in for me.

Part of this had to do with the obligatory Troubled Pasts for both the heroine and the hero. While I acknowledge that it’s a bit of a nice change of pace to see the hero as well as the heroine having to deal with sexual abuse in the past, that’s a particular plot point I’ve seen too much of, both in fiction and among people I know in real life. Which is about all I can say about that, really, and it has less to do with this particular book and way more with just my personal tastes as a reader.

More pertinent to the book was that at least for a good stretch in the beginning, I was actively disliking the hero. He pulls one stunt in particular at the heroine’s expense that made me cranky at him, and which was not entirely ameliorated by his owning up to it later.

I had better luck with liking the heroine as a character, even given my aforementioned weariness with sexual abuse as backstory. Plot-wise, the story’s decent, and to its credit, it did come together more strongly for me towards the end. Props too for Anderson doing a nice job keeping me from figuring out the actual killer until suitably close to the end. Three stars.

May 6, 2011 by
Movies

Smashy hammer + Norse gods = silliness

As I mentioned a couple nights ago on Twitter and Facebook, userinfospazzkat scored a couple of free tickets to a sneak preview of Thor. So we spent Tuesday night amusing ourselves with that.

Spoiler-free picoreview: fairly silly overall, and not nearly as much substance and gravitas (for such values of ‘gravitas’ as you get in a Marvel superhero flick) as the Iron Man flicks, especially the first one.

And oh god the 3D was a bad idea. If you’re interested in seeing this flick–and it’s a perfectly acceptable even if silly popcorn flick–see it in 2D. The 3D added absolutely nothing and in most of the scenes set in Asgard, it actively distracted from what looked like some otherwise beautiful imagery.

Spoilers behind the cut!

Continue Reading

May 5, 2011 by
Drollerie Press

Drollerie Press needs a new cover artist

Drollerie Press’ current acting head editor, Selena Green, has relayed to us Drollerie authors that our head editor, userinfoserasempre (Deena Fisher) is in poor enough health that Drollerie is now seeking a new cover artist. Those of you who’ve bought Faerie Blood and/or Defiance may note that Deena did the covers of each; in fact, Deena’s covers were part of what drew me to Drollerie in the first place.

We’re very much hoping for Deena to have a nice peaceful recovery, but in the meantime, Selena has asked us Drollerie authors to spread the word that we do need a new cover artist. So if you or someone you know has experience in the realm of cover art for ebooks, talk to me and I’ll get you in touch with Selena. Thanks all.

May 4, 2011 by
Books

Book roundup to start the month of May and book buying hiatus

I think this’ll be my last book roundup at least for a couple of months–userinfosolarbird and I are about to hit summer doldrums in our rental income, so I need to back off buying books for a while. Also, I need to get massively caught up on reading and reviewing! So as of this post I’ll be on hiatus for buying new books through the end of May, at least. Possibly the whole summer, but let’s say for now the end of May.

Therefore, in print:

  • The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, by Mark Hodder. Steampunk. Picked this up since I’d been hearing about it for a while, and because it just won the PK Dick award.
  • Mark of the Lion, by Suzanne Arruda. Mystery. This is a re-buy, in print, on the grounds that I’d tried to shift over to ebook with these series, only to discover that book 1 is not actually available electronically to US readers. To wit, bah. Re-bought it so I could keep it in my library, but will buy the rest in ebook.
  • Palimpsest, by Catherynne M. Valente. Fantasy. Re-buy in print as I gave my previous (unread and still in new condition) print copy to userinfokathrynt as a birthday present!
  • Nine Coaches Waiting, by Mary Stewart. Romantic suspense. Because, as I’ve observed before, you don’t get much more awesome than Mary Stewart for old-school Gothic romance.

In ebook:

  • Mansfield Park and Mummies: Monster Mayhem, Matrimony, Ancient Curses, True Love, and Other Dire Delights, by Jane Austen and Vera Nazarian. Jane Austen mashup, bought partly because of userinfonorilana‘s recent financial troubles and partly because I’d already tried to buy a print edition of this via Third Place’s book-printing machine, only to have it come out large and kind of fragile in binding. So I’ve elected to buy the Kindle edition for my iPad instead.
  • Northanger Abbey and Angels and Dragons, also by Jane Austen and Vera Nazarian. Another Jane Austen mashup, not actually previously purchased. Buying the Kindle edition since that’s the only ebook version available, though I wish it were available for the nook.
  • The Native Star, by M.K. Hobson. Steampunk/romance. Because I’ve been eying this one for a while and it sounds like fun, and I have to admit that I’m a sucker for a hero with a goofily pretentious-sounding name like ‘Dreadnought Stanton’. I hope he’s as awesome as that name makes him sound. 😉
  • Uncertain Allies, by Mark Del Franco. Urban fantasy. Book 5 of his Connor Grey series.
  • Face Off, also by Mark Del Franco. Urban fantasy. Book 2 of his Laura Blackstone series.
  • Play Dead, by John Levitt. Urban fantasy. Book 4 of his Dog Days series.
  • Married With Zombies, by Jesse Petersen. ‘Cause, well, y’know, ZOMBIES, and also because the Smart Bitches reviewed it, and because the author started following me on Twitter. Hi, Jesse Petersen! Looking forward to this.
  • Wild Ride, by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. Romance. Bought because I have highly enjoyed the previous two collaborations by these authors, and I expect to enjoy this one, too; this time there appears to be a touch of paranormal involved, so it’ll be interesting to see what they do with that. Also, there appears to be an amusement park.
  • Dead Waters, by Anton Strout. Book 4 of his Simon Canderous series.

Also, as a bonus, the following books were picked up in print while I was at Norwescon:

  • Well of Sorrows, by Benjamin Tate, a.k.a. userinfojpsorrow (Joshua Palmatier). I’ve already bought this in ebook, of course–and had also read an ARC of it and reviewed it for him. But I wanted to buy the print edition to support him, and also to get him to sign it! Woo!
  • Diving into the Wreck, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. SF. Acquired as a freebie for volunteering at the con, along with the following two titles, all of whom are trade editions of Pyr titles.
  • Blood of Ambrose, by James Enge. Fantasy. Another freebie.
  • Empire in Black and Gold, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. SF. Another freebie.

This puts me up to 106 for the year. Now let’s see how many of these I can actually READ.

May 1, 2011 by