The New Podler Review of Books

The Best of 2011

2012-01-24T09:30:00.003-07:00

Like last year, each reviewer here at the New Podler Review of Books picks the book (or books) which he/she feels are the very best independently published (or small press) work. Before, when it was just Podler, it was very easy to come up with one book to receive the Independent Novel Award. One reader, one judge. Getting four people with very different tastes, not to mention genre interests, to agree on one book out of thirty-three as being the very best would be impossible.

First up is S.B. Jung.

My pick for 2011 is Flaming Dove by Daniel Arenson. This book is a great read that I highly recommend to anyone who loves a different kind of fantasy fiction.

Libby Cone had two picks.

I nominate Helen Smith's Being Light - a tale well-told, with interesting characters of real depth.

and

Gunshot Stigmata by Scott C. Rogers: It takes a great deal of talent to employ a highly unreliable narrator, explore his delusions, and keep the narrative from flying apart altogether. A very sensitive treatment of the world of a very damaged soul.

Rob Steiner picked Oathbreaker Book 1: The Knight's Tale by Colin McComb.

Vivid language, unique characters, and a compelling story combined to put it far above the other books I reviewed last year. It's the first of a planned series, so I hope to read more of McComb's work in 2012.

For me, the 2011 winner, hands down, was Mirror Shards. This anthology, about the impact of augmented reality upon society, featured a diverse array of authors. Indie author, Thomas Carpenter, assembled the stories from both traditionally published and indie writers and published it under his Black Moon Books imprint. The end result was a highly entertaining and thought provoking read.

...

We reviewed 33 books last year. Over 150 submissions were rejected due to various reasons. Time is a big factor. We rejected some well-written stories because we didn't have the time to stick with a book that didn't grab us right away. When we were open to submissions, we received 20-30 submissions each month. It's just too much for us to handle. We need more reviewers to handle the flood. Until then, we'll finish up the remaining submissions from 2011 before we open the submissions window for a new batch.

Thanks for reading!

\_/
DED

Lacuna: Demons of the Void by David Adams

2012-01-16T13:55:00.020-07:00

Lacuna: Demons of the Void by David Adams starts with a bang. Literally.

One day in the year 2029, three Earth cities -- Beijing, Tehran, and Sydney -- are destroyed in a sudden and vicious alien attack. Accompanying the attack is a brief transmission from the aliens: “Never again attempt to develop this kind of technology.”

Fast-forward eight years. Earth has ignored the alien threat and used its naughty technologies to build three massive starships, each armed to the teeth with nukes, rail guns, and blast cannons for close fighting. Each ship has anti-gravity technology that enables normal Earth gravity on board. And each has the ability to “jump” to any position in the universe. It's that jump technology that has the aliens so annoyed.

Chinese Navy Commander Melissa Liao captain's one of the starships, the Beijing. Her mission -- hit back at the aliens and make them sorry they kicked the human hornet's nest.

Adams has written an action-packed story that doesn't get bogged down in detailed descriptions of the science behind his contraptions. To many SF readers, that's a bug and not a feature. But I'm among the SF fans who feel story trumps gadgets, and Lacuna does that with just enough plausible science when it's appropriate to the story.

The tale is told exclusively from Melissa Liao's point of view, and her actions are consistent with her motivations throughout the novel. Among the other primary characters are James Gregoire, the Belgian captain of the Beijing's sister ship, Tehran, and Liao's love interest; Summer Rowe, an Aussie scientist with a nerdy (and typically foul-mouthed) rejoinder to any attempt to order her around; and Saara, a captured alien that adds insight into the Toralii, the aliens who attacked Earth.

While Lacuna is a solid first effort by Adams, it could have been better in a couple of ways.

First, it could've used another round of copy editing. The version I read had numerous places where words and periods were repeated and/or missing, a few instances of awkward phrasing, and inconsistent italicizing of the ship names.

Second, I was looking for a brief explanation on how the world could build three, 500-meter-long, interstellar warships in the year 2037 with an America in economic collapse. Now I can buy that, but I would've liked a quick paragraph on how the EU, China, and Australia survived the elimination of a quarter of the world's GDP, yet still had the resources to build these warships from scratch. It's not a huge deal in relation to the story, but it's something I wondered throughout the book.

Lacuna: Demons of the Void is a fast-paced, entertaining read that kept me hooked all the way to the end. Highly recommended for fans of straight-forward alien invasion stories.

Lacuna: Demons of the Void is available on Amazon Kindle.

Derby Scribes 2011 Anthology

2012-01-08T21:29:00.003-07:00

Anthologies typically have some theme or common element to them. It could be something specific like the impact of augmented reality upon society or Lovecraft mythos stories in a futuristic setting. It can also be something very general like "space opera" or "horror stories with an erotic element." You get the idea.

But in the case of the Derby Scribes 2011 Anthology the common element is that all of the writers are members, or guests, of the Derby Scribes writing group, a mix of veterans and the newly published, in Derby, England. As such, the stories are a mixed bag of genres and quality. Reading this anthology was a bit like going to a restaurant and asking for a sample of everything on the menu.

The anthology opens with an excellent piece, "In the Spirit of Darwin" by Simon Clark. In the story, Lloyd Jefferson encounters the eminent biologist while sitting in a park on a sunny day. But the dark secret Darwin reveals, and his subsequent offer, belie the pleasantness of the afternoon.

"Brylcreem and Pipe Tobacco" by Stuart Hughes follows it up rather well. In it, A widow seeks the blessing of her dead husband in her decision to re-marry. The outcome was a pleasant surprise.

"Stump" is a very short piece about a little girl whose pets tend to meet unfortunate ends. I was expecting a dark finish to this story, but the author kept it light all the way through. I admit I was let down by the course the author chose. After the first two stories, this was a sudden turn.

"Leaving Jessica" by Jennifer Brown was a really good thriller that left me wanting more. It seemed criminal that this was just a short story and not the first chapter in a novel.

"Last Respects" by Richard Barber is a somber, World War One piece. It has a Twilight Zone feel to it, which is good but a little predictable.

I didn't like "The Wake Up Call". It got off to a good start: Some bloke is pouring gasoline on his car and setting it ablaze, which instantly gets the reader to wondering, "Why is he doing this?" As the protagonist moves on from here, we get conflicting reports from reality as to what's truly happening. In the end, the author gave us a variance of the "it was all just a dream" story (I won't spoil the variation for would be readers).

These sorts of stories are tired and have been done to death. Several pro zines have go so far as to state in their submission guidelines that they don't want "just a dream" stories because they've been so overplayed. Even Stephen King failed with his variance on it with Dreamcatcher and ruined an otherwise good story.

"The Gallery" by Conrad Williams is the longest piece in the anthology and just as excellent as the opening story. Williams drags us into a post-apocalyptic Orwellian future where the reading of unsanctioned books ("litcrime") is punishable by death. While the topic has been visited before, Williams puts his indelible stamp on it. Told in the first person, we get a visceral look at a ruined world, pockmarked with additions to the English language that come from the culture that precipitates out of rubble, brutality and cybernetics.

"Dave's Dinosaur" is a very short piece involving a couple out camping who are waylaid by a dinosaur. It plays on the absurd and attempts to resolve the situation with humor.

"An Interstellar Taxi Ride" tells us about a snooty interstellar diplomat who is forced to ride in a space taxi for various reasons. The author plays on the culture clash for humor.

"Obsolete" gets off to a good start. We're introduced to an old man who lives alone in a big house with a sprawling garden in the back. We learn that he's a prisoner here but we don't know if it's a figment of his imagination or true. Ultimately, when the "reveal" comes, it's handled rather awkwardly. The story ends not in resolution so much as the author just stopped writing.

The anthology ends with "The Smell of Fear". In this one, a bully terrorizes a neighborhood and everyone wants to get back at him. The author tries so hard not to reveal the nature of the characters of the story until the end that, except for the bully, we're left with faceless nobodies. It's a ham-fisted mess.

The Derby Scribes 2011 Anthology is a mix of stories comprising several genres and authors of varying skill level. While there are a few gems therein, the reader will have to sift through the slurry to get to them.

The book is available through in several formats. Check out the Derby Scribes website or from their publisher, Stumar Press, for your preferred platform.

He Who Shall Remain Shameless by David Michael Ewald

2011-12-27T15:26:00.004-07:00

In He Who Shall Remain Shameless, the protagonist roams the world with his electronic companion on a mission to rescue ghosts from obscurity (personified by the Meritocrat). Most of these are no ordinary ghosts, but rather those who enjoyed some celebrity or notoriety in life and have become largely forgotten in death. Our protagonist, who shares the same name as the author of this book but definitely isn't him (and that's explained in the book), believes that the internet can keep the memory of people alive forever. All he needs to do is convince them to embrace it.

Sometimes he succeeds. Sometimes he doesn't.

That kind of describes Ewald's story too. Each chapter is about a ghost the protagonist encounters and some were better than others. In some chapters, Ewald successfully builds suspense; particularly with those who died a violent death. These are his better chapters. Other chapters fall short when Ewald abandons suspense in favor of a satirical approach, as when the protagonist encounters King Aegeus of Greek legend. It's as if Ewald isn't certain what type of novel he's trying to write.

Ewald deserves credit for his research. As each ghost was introduced, I couldn't help but see what I could learn of them from a couple of quick searches (I discovered Mr. Ewald's fingerprints on multiple occasions). While I knew of a couple of these figures, most of them were unknown to me. Ewald deftly collects fragments and scraps of these lost souls and builds believable characters out of them. Again, those in the suspenseful chapters proved to be the most memorable.

The strength of the protagonist varies too. His cause is noble, but his various methods waver on their propriety. At times, he seems genuinely concerned about the dead and consoles them as they wrestle with their fate. Other times, he resorts to trickery or mockery to boost his chances of success (the end justifies the means). The latter behavior casts a shadow over the former. Perhaps if there had been more transition, the shifts in the protagonist's behavior would've been easier to understand.

Despite these quibbles, I found He Who Shall Remain Shameless to be an entertaining read. Ewald is at his best when he plays the suspense card. His historical ghosts are well researched and have believable personalities. But the story's strongest element is its exploration of death and obscurity. As we ponder his assertion that the Internet can (and should) be used to remember everyone, celebrity and average person alike, he reminds us that we're mortal. And death is a lesson we should all remember as we conduct our lives.

He Who Shall Remain Shameless is available in many formats that can be found on the author's website.

Oathbreaker, Book 1: The Knight's Tale by Colin McComb

2011-12-16T18:17:00.005-07:00

Oathbreaker, Book 1: The Knight's Tale by Colin McComb, is a riveting debut fantasy from an author who knows what fantasy fans love (he wrote adventures for TSR, after all) – visceral prose; logically sound and creative world-building; and fascinating characters that do not follow genre conventions.

Sir Pelagir, a Knight Elite in the Empire of Terona, faces a terrible choice – serve the Empire or serve the King. There is no middle ground. Either choice means he will break an oath and be hunted for the rest of his life. But a choice he makes, and it is one that makes him a marked man and sets the Empire on a destructive path from which it may never recover.

Right from the beginning, we know we're reading an author who knows what the heck he's doing. From the Prologue:

He rode, his proud face bleeding and grim in the light of the setting sun. He cradled a sleeping baby in the crook of his left arm, the reins of the metal horse in his right fist. With a few swift kicks, he urged the steed ever faster westward. His eyes squinted into the setting sun, and beads of perspiration—or were they tears?—coursed down his unlined cheeks. The gleaming hooves of the steed tore great clumps of sod from the grassy hills as it sped through the spring dusk.

Miles behind him, the city burned on its mountain. Steel-clad knights thundered from the great city’s gates into the dying day on their own metal stallions or took to the air with mechanical wings. The military dirigibles Retaliator and Heaven’s Will rose slowly from the heart of the city, flames spitting from their engines, and turned their massive noses to the west.

The knights sought the oathbreaker, the thief of their princess, the betrayer of their king. They swore bloody vengeance on Pelagir of the King’s Chosen, son of Pelgram, and raced to be the first to have his head. He had betrayed the most sacred of their oaths, and their rage burned as brightly as the flames in the capital city.

I dare any fantasy fan to stop reading at this point. I mean, the whole book is like this. And don't worry, McComb's prose serves the story, and not the other way around like so many first-time authors. Not a word is wasted.

The dialogue is unique to each character – you'd know who was speaking even without attribution. Some of the characters even tell their own tales in first person narration, giving the reader better insight into their goals and desires.

The settings are not overly described, but given one or two descriptive elements that lock them firmly into your mind, enabling your imagination to fill in the rest. While Oathbreaker was a short book – around 40,000 words – I did not feel like it was a “thin” book. McComb gave me a thorough introduction to his Empire of Terona, yet left enough mystery for me to look forward to the next book.

The only nitpick I had was that the ending felt more like the end of the first act rather than the climax of a complete story. I know, this is only Book 1 and, yes, that Tolkien fellow did the same thing, but it's never been one of my favorite novel structures. Plus, I had to find some nit to pick in this otherwise spectacular fantasy novel. My credibility as a reviewer demanded it. :-)

Highly recommended.

Originally posted at Quarkfolio by Rob Steiner.

Thinking of KDP Select? Read the fine print...

2011-12-10T16:50:00.006-07:00

Amazon just gave a big fat middle-finger to all the other ebook stores out there with the announcement of their KDP Select program. It sounds great:

KDP Select gives you access to a whole new source of royalties and readers - you not only benefit from a new way of making money, but you also get the chance to reach even more readers by getting your book in front of a growing number of US Amazon Prime customers: readers and future fans of your books that you may have not had a chance to reach before! Additionally, the ability to offer your book for free will help expand your worldwide reader base.

But as with all things that "sound great," you need to read the fine print:

1 Exclusivity. When you include a Digital Book in KDP Select, you give us the exclusive right to sell and distribute your Digital Book in digital format while your book is in KDP Select. During this period of exclusivity, you cannot sell or distribute, or give anyone else the right to sell or distribute, your Digital Book (or content that is reasonably likely to compete commercially with your Digital Book, diminish its value, or be confused with it), in digital format in any territory where you have rights.

In other words, if you also published your ebook on Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, etc., you'll have to remove it from those sites while you're in the KDP Select program.

Now this is a brand new program, so I don't pretend to know if placing my ebooks in it is worth the lost sales from the other online bookstores I use. I'll wait for all the first-adopters to be my guinea pigs.

But the program's costs/benefits aren't the most interesting thing about it to me.

What's interesting is that KDP Select's "Exclusivity" clause means Amazon has just declared war on every other ebook store. Now authors will have to think about whether their ebooks will get more exposure/sales from KDP Select's -- admittedly -- large marketing mega-phone, or if they'll do better on the virtual shelves of multiple ebook stores. Many authors will choose KDP Select and give up placing their ebooks elsewhere.

The other ebook stores must respond to this. They have no choice. Whatever they do, though, it'll only benefit authors. They're fighting over us and want to lure us into their stores with the better deal. Without authors, they have no product to sell.

Feels nice to be fought over.

Originally posted at Quarkfolio by Rob Steiner.

Creepers by Bryan Dunn

2011-12-05T07:28:00.013-07:00

I have a confession to make. You know those cheesy monster movies on the SyFy channel, the ones on Saturday nights when only the geeky or married are home? The ones with eye-catching names like Mega Python vs. Gateroid?

I love them all. Some people like Dancing With The Stars, I'll take Man With The Screaming Brain any day.

So when I saw Creepers by Bryan Dunn in our review queue, I snatched it up. It promised a story about a “zany group of characters struggling to save their home after a genetically altered creeper vine invades their small desert town with an insatiable thirst...and a taste for human blood.”

That alone should get you to download a sample, but here's a bit more.

An eccentric biologist living in the Mojave Desert creates the creeper vine as a way to “green up” the desolate landscape. But things go awry, as they always do in these stories. The vine escapes its confines and runs amok near the small desert town of Furnace Valley. It's up to Sam Rainsford, a local date rancher, and Laura Beecham, a beautiful botanist, to rally the town's sixteen residents – and a group of teenage campers – to escape the blood-thirsty vine and destroy it before it takes over the desert and the state.

Creepers follows the same pattern as my beloved SyFy movies – cut-out characters, dubious science, mortal peril for all involved.

But that's what I love about those movies and this book.

Creepers does not pretend to answer, or even ask, profound questions about the human existence. It's all about monstrous vines tearing apart buildings, animals, and people. It's a story you'd tell your friends around the campfire on a clear night in the desert. I can almost see the author winking at me as he relates one humorous/horrible scene after another. It's obvious he had fun writing this book, and the reader (at least the fans of B horror movies) will have fun reading it.

On the technical side, the book was well-edited without any grammar errors or typos that I could find. It's a fast-paced story (once things get going – see below) and a quick read at around 54,000 words.

There were a couple of spots where I thought the book could have been better.

One, in a few scenes Dunn revealed the horror behind the closet door, so to speak, in an omniscient view point before the characters saw it. That took away a lot of suspense that would've been there if the horror were experienced first through the characters' eyes.

Two, Creepers started a bit slow, with the main characters simply thinking about how they ended up where they were. The backstories would have been more dramatic if shown through character interaction and dialogue rather than naval gazing. However, the pace did pick up once the characters were fully introduced around 10% into the book.

All in all, Creepers is to books what Flu Bird Horror and Mansquito are to cinema – glorious fun.

Creepers is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

The Spectacular Simon Burchwood

2011-11-27T14:31:00.005-07:00

Simon Burchwood raises his balding pate again in another picaresque tale by Scott Semegran. This time, he is unemployed and newly divorced. After landing a job as a help-desk guy in a government office, he finds out that his ex-wife has abruptly moved with the kids from Austin, where Simon lives, to Dallas, several hundred miles away. Our hero is devastated; he truly loves his kids, and will do anything to get them back so that he can at least see them according to the custody schedule. As in Semegran's previous book,The Meteoric Rise of Simon Burchwood, he cannot do this alone. Rather, he accepts the help of a guy he barely knows from his brand new job, a guy with horrible teeth and questionable personal hygiene, whom Simon calls Snaggle. They set off in a rented Caddy. Snaggle wants to play Slug Bug as they drive, while Simon wants to do MadLibs, so they agree on silence. Is it my imagination, or am I detecting tiny infrequent bursts of empathy on Simon's part, feeling sorry for the socially inept Snaggle, being a bit more understanding of the various transportation and lodging personnel they encounter? Although Simon's pretensions to being a writer are relatively ludicrous, his pretensions toward being a better communicator and accepting quirks in others, which on the surface may just seem part of the writerly image to him, are actually becoming part of him in a deeper way. He and his aromatic acquaintance barrel along the highway, soon picking up more assistance in the guise of Gina, a multi-pierced Goth student from Oklahoma, looking for a lift to Norman. Of course, Simon had given his new boss, as well as Snaggle and Gina, the explanation that his grandmother had just died, and they are going to her funeral. He ruminates from time to time about this fib. Complications ensue, and they eventually go through Dallas and on to Oklahoma, where more complications ensue. But Simon is starting to understand something, and his luck literally changes. Semegran handles this quite deftly; even though Simon keeps warbling his “It's true!” declarations at a great rate, the reader does not tire of them, because, well, some of them ARE true, and we see the progress he is making in getting a grasp of what life is about, albeit in his own ham-fisted way.

Buy the book!

Kickstart Your Next Novel

2011-10-18T21:34:00.005-06:00

While printers like Lulu and CreateSpace have made it possible to create physical copies of an author's work without money from the author (they recoup the costs of printing each book as it is sold), there's more to self-publishing than just printing a book.

Before indie authors send their manuscript off to the printer, they need to hire an editor to proofread their work and an illustrator to design a cover. As an indie book reviewer, I've seen my share of bad covers and poorly edited works. While there are readers who don't care about the finished product (so long as it costs 99 cents), they are in the minority. Too many writers feel that they can self-edit and illustrate. Those that can do both well are rare (I am not in this select group). For me, nothing really detracts from the reading experience like a manuscript riddled with typos.

I sympathize with my fellow self-published writers. I have my own experience with the cost of self-publishing. As I was concerned about the quality of my finished work, I hired an editor and an illustrator. While these are costs I have yet to recoup, if I had to do it all over again, I'd still spend the money on both of them.

While making a living as a writer is a dream, I'd really like to just break even at this point. There are many other indie authors in the same boat. Let's face it, many of us have a limited budget to work with. Paying illustrators and editors means more start up costs and delays that break even point. It's tempting to cut corners and spend as little money as possible on them, or forgo utilizing their services entirely; but that's a mistake. Just like plumbers and electricians, their skills are essential and they deserve to be paid for their time and effort. Fortunately, there's a new way for writers to pay for these costs: investors.

Kickstarter is a company that allows writers, artists, inventors and businessmen to pitch their ideas to the general public and find investors (for detailed background info and tips read this Wired article). If an author can make a compelling pitch, they might be able to convince some people to assist in the cost of preparing their novel for publication.

Our very own Rob Steiner is attempting to secure funding for his novel, Umbra Corps, via Kickstarter. Here's his pitch:

If you visit his Kickstarter page, you'll see how much money Rob is hoping to raise and what "thank you gifts" you'll receive from him based on the amount of your investment.

Afterwards, check out how other authors are pitching their projects and consider utilizing Kickstarter for your next work. Be sure to let your friends and readers know what you're trying to do by posting to your blog or Facebook or even tweeting. You never know who believes in you enough to help publish your next book!

The Cloven by R. Muir

2011-10-13T09:59:00.001-06:00

As it is October, I decided to find something dark in the slush pile. The Cloven fits the bill.

It is 1987. Malcolm Poole, an unpublished writer (self-publishing in this time means going down to Kinko's), answers a personal ad (as there is no World Wide Web, there are no online dating sites) from someone seeking a writer and asks that he describe his "heart's ideal." The 666 P.O. Box is a dead giveaway to the reader but not Poole. I'm not giving anything away by telling you that the Devil itself (for Muir's Satan is a hermaphrodite) has set this trap. But unlike most, if not all, sold-your-soul-to-the-Devil stories, Satan is in the foreground of the story instead of being relegated to a walk on role. You see, Satan has its reasons for picking Poole.

Poole is in the midst of writing what he feels will be the novel that finally lands him a publishing contract. A good deal of The Cloven is this manuscript: a story about a UC Berkeley professor named Mortimer who teaches an ethics class. The use of torture factors pretty heavily in his lectures. Willis Rutherford, a grad student auditing his class, is distraught as his girlfriend, Tamara, is missing. Willis has a vague empathic ability which proves to be both blessing and curse. While he suspects Mortimer knows something about Tamara's disappearance, he isn't certain that he isn't the one who's to blame.

Beaten down with repeated failure to get any sort of attention from the publishing industry, Poole's confidence is a mask which Muir tears away to reveal a troubled and yet possibly disturbed man. The reader doesn't know whether to pity or revile him. To further complicate things, Muir calls into question how much of Poole is in Professor Mortimer. Poole reflects on his unhappy childhood and gender confusion while Mortimer does the same. While the two characters' circumstances are different, there are enough similarities that Muir keeps you guessing until the very end.

Muir's Satan is no misunderstood dark prince. It is an angry Beast with nothing but anger for God and contempt for the human race. Muir provides visceral details whenever it is in the room with Poole. Its rant against God is well thought out and demonstrates a clear unblinking arrogance of ego.

At times, Muir resorts to unconventional writing styles: poetry, paragraph long sentences and screenplay-like setting of scenes. While these might be dismissed as errors by an inexperience writer, it isn't the case here. Muir deliberately experiments with writing conventions as someone who still sees literature as an art form and not mere entertainment. At times, I found the paragraph long sentences tiring, but Muir's heart is in the right place and should be given credit for being brave enough to wander outside the norm.

The Cloven defies the "sell your soul" mold and provides an unconventional and unflinching look at the darkness within humanity. Strong characterization drives this unsettling psychological analysis of its protagonist. Muir doesn't shy away from the graphic, whether it be sex, torture or death though it isn't done for shock value. Instead, how characters respond to it determines how readers will respond to them.

The Cloven is available in print and on Kindle or through the author's website.

The End of the World by Andrew Biss

2011-10-02T16:37:00.010-06:00

The writing in this novella keeps your interest; after reading the sample I immediately went to Amazon and got the rest. I have read other submissions about young people thrust into other worlds, but the narratives often run out of gas and the author tries to string multiple situations together without much of a unifying theme, leaving the reader puzzled. Biss celebrates the ordinary and alludes to the horror (again, mostly offstage, as in ZombieStop Parade by Richard Buzzell) that makes up millions of unfortunate peoples' lives. There is a lot of Buddhist sensibility here, and those who can let the attachments fall away without too much trouble have an easier time at The End of the World, portrayed as a run-down boarding house distractedly attended to by a Mrs. Anna. Valentine, the protagonist, is raised by a strange couple who seem to embody the false sense of safety of the First World. They abruptly send him away with some money, the panacea of the West. He is too attached to the money to give it up to a mugger, only to be relieved of it by a denizen of the boarding house soon after his arrival. “My name is Luka. I live on the second floor,” says another housemate in an homage to Suzanne Vega and, perhaps, Arthur Phillips' book of homages, The Song is You. Mrs. Anna plays midwife in the end, plying Valentine with Proustian wisdom and guiding him towards modest expectations as he enters his next womb, an old washing machine. We are left hoping that he will be better prepared for the life he will lead if the womb is Sudanese or Syrian.

Mirror Shards Anthology

2011-09-20T11:51:00.001-06:00

Mirror Shards is a short story anthology published by Black Moon Books, the imprint of indie author, Thomas K. Carpenter. This time around, Carpenter serves as both author (he contributed one story) and editor. He accepted submissions from unpublished and published authors.

Much like Carpenter's novel, The Digital Sea (which was reviewed in this blog earlier this year), the stories in this anthology all have augmented reality (AR) as a common element integral to each story. However, how each author incorporates AR into their story is as varied as the authors themselves. It would be difficult to provide a detailed analysis of all 13 stories so I will provide a taste of each.

We're shown how a submarine pilot guides a gaggle of tourists in the depths of the Indian Ocean in "The Watcher" and jacked in with a bio-engineered assassin dropped on a distant ring world in "El Matador".

AR is a positive force that advances the effectiveness of smart detectives in "Witness Protection" while helping a young woman survive an encounter with a crime syndicate in the cold of eastern Russia in "Of Bone and Steel and Other Soft Materials". It enables a singer to adopt new personas while Earth is under the boot of alien overlords in "Stage Presence, Baby". And it enables revolutions in the corporate dictatorship of "Gift Horses".

The darker side of AR is explored as well. It is used to bring about an advertizing apocalypse in "Below the Bollocks Line" and adds a new dimension to imprisonment in "The Sun is Real." It fosters the ugliness of narcissism in "A Book By Its Cover".

Some stories balance the two. It props up the ego of the actors in "These Delicate Creatures" but also restores their humanity when art becomes protest. And in the sexual slavery of "More Real Than Flesh" it provides an escape hatch.

I have to say that there isn't a bad story in the bunch but I was still able to pick out two stellar stories that rose above the rest: "Music of the Spheres" and "The Cageless Zoo".

"Music of the Spheres" is probably the best math story I've ever read. A math major helps his sister with her geometry homework and it doesn't come across as dull, instead it turns into a lesson she has to teach him later in life. The underlying theme is about what happens to those who are left behind when AR takes over society. The author, Ken Liu, poignantly shows how one can cope with watching dreams die.

My favorite is Carpenter's own, "The Cageless Zoo", which is about a widow and her two children visiting a zoo full of predators who are kept from eating people by AR implants. The mother is confronted by a zoo official who demands a copy of her late husband's research, which she doesn't want to surrender for fear of it being buried by the Darwin Institute. Not only does Carpenter's story present us with a unique use for AR but it provides us with an excellent demonstration for how epigenetics could work in nature on a fictional beast. But forgetting the science for a moment, it was a fun read along the lines of Jurassic Park, but without the dinosaurs.

Carpenter has amassed a diverse collection of highly entertaining and thought provoking AR stories in Mirror Shards, Volume 1. As with all good anthologies, I now have another list of talented writers whose works I can explore further. I look forward to the next installment of this series. Highly recommended for all sci-fi fans.

Mirror Shards is available in print and ebook formats through the publisher's website.

Candy and Cigarettes by CS DeWildt

2011-09-12T10:45:00.008-06:00

Candy and Cigarettes, by CS DeWildt, is a literary dark crime novella that's as dark and grim as they come.

Lloyd Bizbang has had a hard life. His two-year-old sister accidentally drowned in the bathtub while he was supposed to be watching her. After the accident, he moved in with his grandparents where he also, accidentally, caused his grandmother to fall down the basement stairs and break her neck. He spent his remaining childhood moving from foster care to foster care, enduring beatings and cruel mocking over his death-filled past.

Lloyd is now in his twenties living in the small, dying town of Horton. After enduring another cruel attack by the town's two sociopaths, Loyd escapes to a junkyard and stumbles upon something no sane person would want to find. He's soon accused of more murders by the town's vile police chief, who seeks to clear up his own loose ends before his forced retirement.

If DeWildt sought to leave his readers tense and depressed after finishing the book, he certainly nailed it. That's not a criticism. DeWildt's style and language were spot on for this type of story, and I found myself cringing with dread at each turn of the page. Not dread in the classic horror sense, but a profound uneasiness regarding what the characters would soon endure.

For me, it brought to mind Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men. Though the stories were completely different, the writing style and the matter-of-fact way both authors show their villains conduct their gruesome business were very similar.

The only nitpick I had was that there were no characters I wanted to root for. Lloyd was the "good guy" in the sense that he was the protagonist, but he wasn't someone I respected. I mostly felt sorry for him. However, that could also have been what DeWildt was trying to do, and if so, he succeeded.

Overall, I highly recommend Candy and Cigarettes to fans of McCarthy and dark literary fiction. It won't disappoint.

Candy and Cigarettes is available through Vagabondage Press and Amazon.

Book Giveaway

2011-09-11T22:46:00.001-06:00

Sarah Cypher, who writes "The Final Page" column for this blog, is conducting an informal study about where readers spend their time online.

Five copies of Sarah's book, The Editor's Lexicon, are up for grabs. The study runs from now until 11:59 PM on Wednesday, September 21st. Head over to the book's page on GoodReads and click on the "Enter to Win" button. You'll need to have a GoodReads account though.

Heartbeasts by Rick Boven

2011-08-29T06:00:00.005-06:00

Heartbeasts is a collection of three stories about matters of the heart. What makes this collection stand out is that it is an eComic. Boven utilizes both the written word and stark black and white illustrations to convey his tales of wounded hearts.

In the first story, "Pruned", a young man confronts a friend who chooses religion over friendship and ditches the protagonist when he needed her friendship the most. Although the protagonist delivers a powerful and moving case against the friend, we're deprived of the friend's response. The story ends up just being a rant. While there's always satisfaction in telling someone off, I think the story would've been better served if we could've seen how (or even if) the friend reacted to being told what a heel she'd been.

"The Price Is Wrong" shows us how a man, Jamie, can appear to have everything going for him yet still feel empty inside. This one was the strongest of the three. Boven brings us in to the picture with Jamie seemingly happy at his girlfriend's house eating dinner with her parents. But on the drive home, Boven shows us how a song on the radio can dig up memories that can cloud our judgement and lead us to ruin.

The last story, "Before It Snows", has no dialogue at all. Boven's skill with his drawings render words irrelevant. He skillfully captures the loneliness of a boy desperate for attention that anything he can get, no matter how negative, is something to build on, even if that foundation is weak.

While it has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words, in reality these stories are more like flash fiction. I find this form limiting as the word count forces writers to cut so much that the proper story often remains unfinished. It's a bit like trying to construct a dinosaur skeleton from just a femur. But having the artwork accompanying the stories enables Boven to tell us much more than words alone. And, in that way, it works.

Heartbeasts is available from Nan bu Nan Publishing.

The Egyptian by Layton Green

2011-08-27T06:00:00.258-06:00

A former diplomatic security agent, a religious phenomenologist and an ambitious reporter sift through science and myth to uncover the truth behind a sinister biotech company’s miraculous life-extension product.

The Egyptian is the second novel in the Dominic Grey series. It isn't necessary to have read the first book, The Summoner, to follow along. Mr. Green provides enough flashbacks to give the reader an idea of what happened. However, readers who enjoy this book should consider checking it out. Both works will be available for 99 cents during the release weekend (August 27th & 28th). Visit the author's website for details.

After the intriguing first chapter, I found The Egyptian to be a bit slow. However, I stuck with it and the pace picked up. From time to time, I found myself thinking "get on with it" as the characters got sidetracked with detours that didn't advance the story (anything involving Veronica's boss) or plodded along with either hesitation or too much idle speculation about how profound an effect a life-extension product would have upon society. It's not as if I need non-stop action in a story, but the pacing should at least give the reader the sense that the story is moving forward.

But maybe the fault lies with the main character: Dominic Grey. His surname is a good clue as to his personality. He isn't grey in the interesting sense: a character whose behavior blends right and wrong (Grey's hat is definitely starchy white). He's grey as in a dreary, cloudy day. He couldn't make up his mind whether or not he wanted to hook up with the fun loving, driven reporter, Veronica. Instead, he pined for a woman from The Summoner who Green wrote out of the picture by page 9 in The Egyptian. While this brooding ex-Marine recon clearly made Veronica swoon, I found him to be wishy washy until it came time to do his job: private investigator.

Maybe if I'd read The Summoner I'd understand Grey's misery as Green showed their relationship to us rather than him telling us about its end now. I say that because in Pale Boundaries, Scott Cleveland handled the "tough guy on the outside/vulnerable guy on the inside" protagonist very well. But it is the first book in its series and only when the sequel comes out will I know how well he (Terson) carries on going forward.

The character that stole the show, or at least my interest, was Jax the mercenary. While he was clearly a rogue with few redeeming qualities, his scenes were entertaining. He was the life of the party compared to Grey's dour paladin.

As for the villain, after his initial introduction, he's reduced to "give me back my property" proclamations. We don't get a clear picture of him until the end.

Green is at his best when describing the settings his characters inhabit. Manhattan is "alive, possessed of an inexorable energy bubbling up from the bottomless wellspring of humanity in the surrounding boroughs and cascading like a waterfall into the maelstrom of Manhattan." In Bulgaria, the city of Sofia was "a labyrinth of leafy cobblestone streets and hidden squares, where dour old men sat on benches, sipped syrupy Bulgarian coffee and took world-weary drags on cigarettes while they engaged in lively discussion." And of Cairo he notes: "the faint parched taste of sand in the air, the sun hovering overhead as if Cairo were her firstborn, the nonchalant juxtaposition of ancient and new." These places are described as only someone who's been there would.

Unfortunately, this splendid prose is tainted by a variety of technical mistakes. It's not as if the manuscript is rife with errors. It's not. However, too many got through that should've been caught. Among these were: a missing period, using a plural pronoun instead of singular, repeated phrases in the same paragraph, several typos, not utilizing pronouns where applicable, and many misplaced commas.

The Egyptian has the basic elements of a solid thriller which carries the reader to vividly detailed locales across the globe. However, the main character of the series is upstaged by a minor one and is better off being left alone to brood about humanity's sins, or until he gets over his ex-girlfriend.

Borders Post-Mortem

2011-08-10T16:30:00.002-06:00

You've all heard about the death of Borders. There have been some who were quick to accredit its demise to upheaval in the publishing industry, but it's actually amazing the company lasted as long as it did. Rather than there being one cause of death, Borders suffered from several mistakes over the last two decades.

1. Hijacked by Kmart. Kmart was struggling to properly manage Waldenbooks. After eight years of mediocrity, they bought Borders in 1992 hoping that the executives there could help them out. Instead, they jumped ship. The Kmart execs never figured out how to sell books so they spun off the two companies in 1995 as Borders - Walden Group (the latter half of the name was dropped before the year was out).

2. Bits Beat Bricks. Internet business whiz, Jeff Bezos, realized that the Internet allowed him to sell books (and later many more products) all over the world without physically being there. With the costs of running a website far less than that of running thousands of stores, Amazon is able to offer books at a discount and ship them to your house (for free if you buy enough of them). Browsing a bookstore in your pajamas? Great!

3. Selection, selection, selection. Amazon deserves a second dagger in Borders' heart here: the selection is unbeatable. In a brick and mortar, you've only got so much space to work with. You've got to keep those cash registers ringing so that means going only with the titles that sell. Amazon can stock them all because the books just occupy a spot on the rack in the warehouse. So if a customer is looking for something specific and not well known, the odds of them finding it on Amazon are great. In a Borders store? Not so much. That means missing out on the Long Tail, not to mention future purchases from now disgruntled customers.

4. Asleep, with the enemy at the wheel. Borders couldn't figure out how to make their website profitable. In 2000, they had $27 million in revenue from the website but the cost of operations led to an $18 million loss. So, like Toys-R-Us, they partnered with Amazon, the very company was eating their lunch. Amazon was quickly becoming a paradigm of order fulfillment and Borders threw in the towel. But since people knew Amazon was running things, they wondered why they should bother going through Borders.

5. Coffee is just coffee. In 2004, Borders partnered with Starbucks' subsidiary, Seattle's Best Coffee, to operate the coffee shops in its bigger stores. Borders hopes that the lure of good coffee will get more people into its stores. The deal works for Seattle's Best, but not so much for Borders. Sure, people will sit down and read a book, but it's not making them buy more books. And once free Wi-Fi becomes available, people begin accessing the Web rather than browsing the bookshelves.

6. Another failure to innovate or adapt. Amazon released its first e-book reader, the Kindle, in 2007. You know its story well: less expensive books, no more crowded bookshelves, near instantaneous deliveries. Bibliophiles gobbled them up. Many other companies followed suit with either dedicated devices or provided apps in their web-enabled phones and PDA's so that readers could download electronic versions of their favorite books. The growth of the e-book market has been nothing short of meteoric. But Borders totally misses the boat. Not only do they not offer e-books, but they failed to partner with any of the e-reader manufacturers. It isn't until July of last year that they open an e-Book store and offer an e-reader app of their own. The Kobo is also plugged as a preferred e-reader but by then Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Sony have staked their claims on the market.

By now it's too late. Borders hasn't made a profit since 2006. Throw in the Great Recession of 2007-09 and the death spiral is complete.

Don't get me wrong. I was disappointed in seeing Borders go under. For new books, it was either Amazon or Borders. I'll have to drive the proverbial extra mile to Barnes & Noble or stay home and browse Amazon. The two used book stores in town are always worth a look, but their selection is limited. The failure of Borders to survive is the result of a succession of bad business moves and the inability to adapt to the changing times. But you can't pity them, that's capitalism: innovate, adapt or die. Well, unless you can con your government into a bailout, but that's outside the scope of this blog. ;-)

Scimitar by Robin Raybould

2011-07-21T08:33:00.010-06:00

This is exciting reading. We're in 15th century Europe, at the end of the Byzantine era. All the rival city-states in Italy, Greece, and elsewhere are fielding networks of spies (some of them blackmailed), who move from place to place in disguise, trying to find out one another's designs on a moribund Constantinople, We follow the studly Eduardo Ferrucci, an orphan trying to make his way as a bookseller, as he is drawn into the Florentine network and begins his escapades. The background is Renaissance deluxe, with lots of boastful merchants, dishonest servants, adulterous wives, and dramatic reversals of fortune.

A sociopathic and jealous spymaster working for the Bargello in Florentine security blackmails our hero into serving long years working for these baddies, who have their fingers on the pulse of Florentine society by way of access to the records of all the banks, plus the usual team of informants. Over in Constantinople there are lots of battles, skirmishes, swords flying, and blood spattering, while, back in Florence, the Security people exact their own kind of bloodless vengeance, bankrupting those they mistrust or see as obstacles to their own enrichment. When Eduardo isn't involve in battles, he is seeking out valuable books to send back to his bookseller boss. Some of the books he discovers trace back to ancient Greece, and were actual discoveries that influenced Renaissance thinking. There is a lot of bibliophilia throughout the book, as well as a lot of escapades of a more fleshly nature, as Eduardo can't seem to keep it in his tights.

I don't want to spoil the plot, so I won't tell you how the book ends, but it is fairly predictable.

The only problem I had with the work was with the omniscient narrator: using words like “life-style” and “rationalize” tends to spoil the suspension of disbelief in a novel set in the Renaissance. The author, a Renaissance scholar, also cannot refrain from using footnotes, further breaking the spell. Maybe some notes at the end, with suggestions for further reading, would be appropriate, but swashbuckling and footnotes don't mix. Also, the long sentences at the beginning of the book skate dangerously close to run-on territory. Raybould would do well to consult the masters of the long sentence, Yaacov Shabtai and Todd Hasak-Lowy.

Shaman, Healer, Heretic by M. Terry Green

2011-07-05T16:41:00.002-06:00

Olivia Lawson ("Livvy") is a twenty-something techno-shaman, a medium that connects with the spirit world but relies on technology, rather than hallucinogens or other drugs, to get there. She uses her craft to heal people, though the pay isn't very good. Skeptics treat her with cynicism at best; violence at worst. One morning she's contacted by a kachina, a spirit being of southwestern US Native American cultures. Such a visit is supposed to be impossible.

While Livvy attempts to figure out why she's being contacted by a Hopi Indian god, trouble is brewing in the physical and spirit worlds. Her clients and friends are threatened while other shamans disdain her practice. Once people start dying, Livvy finds herself under assault from all sides, including an ancient being longing to wreak havoc upon the world.

M. Terry Green draws upon her archaeology background to craft a highly believable world where shamanism thrives in contemporary Los Angeles. Green introduces us to this world through Livvy and her agent, SK, a dwarf. We accompany Livvy as she heals those too poor or desperate to utilize modern medicine. A former medical student herself, Livvy barely scrapes by on what people can afford to pay for her services. When Livvy encounters a problem that neither she nor SK can answer, we are brought deeper into this world and meet other shamans.

It is through these latter encounters that Green's talent at developing diverse characters comes to light. Each of the shamans is distinctly different from the others in both her skills and personality. We also learn that this is a very territorial business and "sisterhood" is a concept that is secondary to a profitable enterprise.

Short chapters and an active dialogue move the story along at a quick pace. Green crams so much into Livvy's days, and thus the story, that she wears the poor girl out! The reader feels her fatigue.

Although Green isn't marketing this as a Young Adult novel, there's very little here that would preclude it from being read by a teen. There's no foul language, no sex (a couple of kisses), and only one incident involving alcohol. And the latter was definitely portrayed in a non-glamorous light. I think that teen girls would be able to relate to Livvy and her struggle with self-doubt, not to mention her love life.

As for the technicals, Green hired an editor so the quality of the manuscript is at a professional level. It made for very easy reading. Let that be a lesson to all of you indie authors out there!

Shaman, Healer, Heretic by M. Terry Green is an enjoyable read. Green provides us with a diverse group of realistic characters and is adept at creating a highly believable and easy to visualize setting. Her very personable protagonist is a charming guide to Green's Techno-Shaman world and I expect to be seeing more of her adventures in the future.

Shaman, Healer, Heretic is available in a multitude of formats at the author's website along with sample chapters.

The Meteoric Rise of Simon Burchwood by Scott Semegran

2011-06-29T10:54:00.012-06:00

This funny picaresque novel features the insight-challenged Simon Burchwood, off on a quest for fame and fortune as a great writer, making his journey from Texas to a reading of his début novel at the flagship Barnes and Noble store in New York City by way of Montgomery AL, where his boyhood friend Jason signs on as his Sancho Panza. Simon is a fine example of a “you spot it, you got it” personality type, exceedingly critical of everyone he meets, tilting at windmills that have his own name painted on them. Semegran manages a first-person narrative that is simultaneously derogatory, clueless, and energetic. Simon is constantly launching into little asides, some of which make one want to scream “TMI!” His meanderings will remind birders of the song of the house finch, which emits a long trail of descending, insistent-sounding notes, finishing with a querulous, whiny three-note ascending and descending phrase at the end; Simon's songs always end with the assertion “It's true!” He's a stingy tipper to boot; this is tolerated somewhat better in Montgomery than in NYC.

The action picks up substantially during his time in Montgomery, where he runs into old acquaintances and revives his assorted petty grudges against them that had been dormant for years, refreshing his relationships with people as what I think folks nowadays call their “frenemy.” He disparages Jason's slovenly lifestyle and makes fun of his old car, calling it a “turd-on-wheels.” The reader will tightly grip an imaginary steering wheel while Simon, often half in the bag, rides around the dark Alabama streets in Jason's other car, his father's lovingly restored 1967 Mustang.

As Simon readies for the New York leg of his trip, the cracks in Jason's marriage become visible to him, and, at Simon's insistence, Jason comes along for the ride, even though he has declared to Simon that “Everything was fine until you came into town. That's when everything started to fall apart.”

The New York segment is played for slightly more broad comedy, a two-hicks-in-the-big-city farce. The two men arrange with a sleazy bellman to stage a “practice” reading of Simon's book (always referred to in caps: “THE RISE AND FALL OF A TITAN,” based on the illegal shenanigans of Simon's detested boss), inviting off-duty hotel employees and sending up a keg. Simon clutches and manages to read the first paragraph only; then the drinking and partying begin. Our hero does manage a few moments of empathy, both in dealing with Jason and with a menacing breakfast chef. Does this suggest that, all other evidence aside, his book may be good? Is he capable of change, or will he remain a legend in his own mind?

The writing is very clever. The only problem I had was with Semegran's usage of “low and behold,” instead of “lo and behold,” and a few typos. Read this book, and feel yourself clutching the wheel of the Mustang as Simon careens through the streets and reaching for your wallet as he prepares to dole out another miserly tip.

Buy the book!

Stigma Erased

2011-06-23T19:53:00.005-06:00

It is done.

The stigma of self-publishing has been slowly subsiding for the last couple of years, but this year its demise has accelerated. And today I can say with certainty that it doesn't mean a damn thing anymore.

Amanda Hocking, Jeremy Robinson and Zoe Winters are just a few authors that have had tremendous success with indie sales. A couple of months ago, Ms. Hocking used her indie success to land a deal with a big publisher. Apparently, they didn't mind how she sold her books. Joe Konrath, a successful traditionally published author, went indie and has had tremendous success. Barry Eisler, another best-selling traditionally published author, spurned a deal from St. Martin's Press to go indie.

And the names keep coming.

Earlier this week, Amazon announced that indie author John Locke sold 1 million ebooks on the Kindle in 2011. Take a few seconds to absorb that one. 1 million. That's hundreds of thousands of people who didn't care one iota that this guy published his books on his own without an agent or a big publishing house to back him.

Wired UK reported today that J.K. Rowling is going to self-publish the Harry Potter series. In essence, indie publishing has been blessed as acceptable by one of the most successful authors of all time.

Traditional publishing purists may continue to sneer with contempt at indie authors, but they can pretty much go stuff themselves because no one cares anymore. Readers don't care how books come to market so long as they're entertained. They don't need any self-appointed "gatekeepers" (nannies of literature, if you will) to tell them what's OK to read because the Readers can figure it out on their own. Or they'll ask their friends. Or they'll read reviews on blogs or booksellers' sites. Readers want to read what they want to read! And that's all that matters.

TAU4 by V.J. Waks

2011-06-16T18:28:00.030-06:00

TAU4 by V. J. Waks has a great opening: a man is riding a spaceship down to the high-security Altair Base on the planet Altair. The base is in the middle of a jungle -- a setting almost Gothic in its isolation and claustrophobia -- and holds a terrible secret few in the Homeworld Alliance government know exists.

How can you not want to read on?

The man, Dr. Stephen Weller, is brought in to “adjust” the behavior of the base's lone prisoner and test subject, Gerda Tau. Tau is an artificially created female morph -- part human, part alien, with the ability to transform at will into a terrible hybrid creature. Turns out Tau has been a bad morph, killing her brother and sister morphs, along with several base guards. Dyle Carzon, the ruthless leader and brains behind Altair Base, wants Weller to force Tau to be more docile and comply with the orders of her captors/doctors.

But “Weller” has his own agenda. When Weller's plans fall apart, Tau finds herself marooned on a primordial world and forced to reconcile her violent alien side with the human woman who simply desires love and friendship.

Waks' characters are well drawn and uniquely portrayed. Gerda Tau is a tragic figure. Created as an instrument of death, she realizes she may have to stay lonely forever to protect the people she cares about. “Weller” is the dashing, brave hero whose honor gets him into trouble when he tries to save Tau from the people who would imprison her and use her as a weapon. Dyle Carzon is the evil mastermind behind Tau's creation, and maintains a strong psychological and biological hold on Tau that she struggles to break throughout the book.

TAU4 is written in the style of campfire and fairy tales -- poetic, mostly omniscient, but switching to third person limited for the main characters in some sections. It was well done, but there were times it slowed the action when Waks described in detail the geographical and cultural history of her planets. I found myself skipping those sections to get back to the characters.

One technical glitch in Waks' writing style was that she occasionally summarized conversations or character actions rather than dramatizing them. I would've felt closer to the characters if I had heard their own words through dialogue, or seen their actions in many of the scenes she summarized. However, this did not happen enough to take away from my enjoyment of the book, and I think this was more a symptom of the omniscient writing style rather than an oversight on the author's part.

Overall, I enjoyed TAU4 and would recommend it to those searching for lyrical sci-fi with strong, interesting characters.

The TAU4 series is available on Amazon, and sample chapters are on the author's web site.

Trang by Mary Sisson

2011-06-01T20:29:00.003-06:00

In Trang, by Mary Sisson, a missing satellite orbiting Saturn leads to the discovery of a mysterious portal. After several years of communicating with the aliens residing in a space station on the other side, a diplomatic mission is sent through the portal. The expeditionary force consists of a diplomat, the titular character Philippe Trang, and a squad of Special Forces, headed by the feisty Shanti, to provide security. Once at the station, humanity's representatives meet other alien races and eventually get pulled into a crisis that threatens to start an interstellar war.

Trang struck me as a throwback to 60's sci-fi. In particular, it runs in the vein of soft or social science fiction. While the aliens are quite "alien" in appearance, they are intrinsically civilized in a familiar way. The technology comes across as magical, with nary an explanation as to how it works. It just does. Action is light as dialogue carries the story. While this will be a turn off to some, particularly the hard sci-fi crowd, they'd be missing out on Sisson's strengths.

Sisson's strengths lie in characterization and dialogue. All of her characters, even the aliens, have distinct traits which make them unique. Trang is a borderline effeminate, elitist bureaucrat who can't stand the grunts that have been assigned to the mission. Their uncouth behavior, as compared to the Union Police he normally works with, rankles him. Shanti is the no nonsense CO of the Special Forces unit on the station. She drops F bombs with abandon, but is 100% focused on her job and has the complete respect of those under her command. Sisson invests as much time resolving their conflict as she does establishing relationships between the humans and the aliens.

This is a dialogue heavy novel, and the conversations feel authentic. As mentioned above, Trang is a virtual minefield of F bombs and other profanity. However, at no point did I feel it was gratuitous. In fact, there was a fair amount of barracks humor. On the non-profane side, Trang speaks the language of diplomacy with ease and genuine amiability. Communications with the aliens is handled effectively: the years between first contact and the meeting on the station were spent programming a translator, but it isn't perfect. Every so often the words "cannot translate" pop in to highlight its shortcomings.

As for the technicals, there are plenty of typos and typesetting errors. A second set of eyes would've cleared these up. However, the story also runs a bit long. While 370+ pages isn't necessarily a lot, I feel that the story would've been much tighter had it been about 20-25% shorter. There are whole sections (the discovery of the portal, the hate mail from Trang's ex-girlfriend) that didn't add to the story. An editor would've been able to help cut out the filler.

Trang is a clever return to the social sci-fi days of yesteryear. Convincing dialogue and strong characterization drive the story, with action forced to ride in the back of the bus. While the story could use some tidying up and a tighter fit, it's still appealing enough to give it a try.

Trang is available in various formats through the author's website. Sample chapters available too.

"Editorial" by Arthur Graham and "Lief" by Ryan Tressel

2011-05-20T16:14:00.012-06:00

I have just finished reading Arthur Graham's “Editorial” and Ryan Tressel's “Lief.” They offer an interesting contrast in authorial voices. On the surface, the books are remarkably similar. Each follows a main character over a disjointed timespan: in “Editorial” we follow mostly one character over thousands of years (he is apparently immune to the nuclear catastrophes that kill off most of the world's population, and in one guise clutches a black leatherette notebook that serves as the tale's Maguffin) and in the other book, we follow the title character, Lief, at four-year intervals (she is a Leap Year baby) that go back and forth through her life.

Although “Editorial” switches between the first and third person (and between human and snake species as it indulges in a little shape-shifting), this reader was at a loss to identify any emotional investment in the characters by the author. If someone spends time as either a human or a snake, I want to know more about what it is like to, pardon the expression, experience humanity through snake eyes, and vice versa. I want to know what the kid being raised by an “aunt” and “uncle” really ate for his meals, why he exulted in their frequent fights, how he learned to read and write when being raised on dirty magazines (almost as an afterthought, deep into the story, we learn that he also attended school). The protagonist talks about using sex for currency in the world economy (I imagine it would make it very complicated to go to a movie) and generally displays a misanthropic Weltanschauung (“And this was what the people of the world, if they learned anything in their short, ignorant lives, learned on that day.”…“An ugly man and woman and their doubly ugly children [what happens when ugly multiplies] sat continuously yammering… ”) that, in itself, could still make for interesting reading if it weren't for the overall impression that Graham doesn't underpin the complicated narrative with much in the way of character development. There are scattered illustrations (one of which my Kindle couldn't handle), but they don't really add much.

Lief is a woman whom we glimpse every four yeas on February 29, from age four to forty, but out of order. We are invited to read the chapters in any order, but this reader chose to read them in the order written, which is still non-chronological. One is given a vague sense that she, too travels in time in an unusual manner. She is a rather ordinary person, a bashful child and a slightly anxious adult who goes to college and tries to sort out her complicated familial and social relationships. But the level of emotional investment by Tressel in his characters is what transforms the story. Leif is shy. Her mother is a left-wing radical who occasionally ignores the children when she is caught up in her political campaigns. The father is quite affable, and gives everyone nicknames (he reminded me, for some reason, of the father in the movie “Juno”). The mother dies offstage, as it were, and when we notice the name of the brother changes and he is not an older brother but a younger one we fear that he, too (the older brother), may be dead, and are relieved when we learn he was estranged from Lief and later takes steps to get back together. These are the things that draw the reader into a story, any story. Lief often refuses to wear her glasses; she has an occasional problem with excess saliva that leads to apologies and self-deprecatory remarks. If she existed as a snake for part of the narrative she would be self-conscious over a patch of dull scales and would worry about where she was going to lay her eggs. She is always cold, because it is always February 29.

Both books need editing. Both use the term “alright,” which to me is like fingernails on a blackboard. One is not squeezed in a vice but squeezed in a vise. On the plus side, I learned a new spelling for “jissom.”

Submissions Update

2011-05-09T09:54:00.003-06:00

A month ago, we closed our submissions window and yes, we're still closed.

The good news is that we've finished with the February submissions. The bad news is that there were a lot of submissions in March. And the pace continued into April.

One of our blog's readers stated that he felt the onrush of submissions was due to a surge in our popularity. Perhaps. I suspect it's due to our appearance in Christy Pinheiro's Indie Book Reviewer Yellow Pages. Now that indie writers can turn to a singular source to obtain dozens of names of indie book review blogs, it's easier for them to find us. Sure, there was Google, but scrolling through a list of hundreds of links isn't as user friendly as a nicely formatted guide full of blog names, what genres they like/dislike, where to submit, and so on. Christy did all the work for them.

I can tell that people are finding us in there (rather than here), because we've received a few submissions after we closed. If these authors had checked us out for themselves at any point, they would've seen that we were closed and threatening to delete all who disturbed us while we got caught up.

We hope to open soon, but the way things are going, I'm thinking that it's going to be at least another month.

The Digital Sea by Thomas Carpenter

2011-05-03T21:49:00.003-06:00

The world is a bleak place in Thomas Carpenter's The Digital Sea. Rising sea levels, changes in climate, dwindling resources and overpopulation have forced governments to enact population reduction laws and trade in population bonds. But a global one child policy isn't working fast enough for some, leading them to consider more drastic measures.

Escapism via augmented reality (AR), what people refer to as the Digital Sea, is very popular. Whether accessed via glasses or “mods”, surgically implanted neural networks, people are able to wallpaper over the despair and ruin to see a rosier reality. Or you can observe what's others have projected over themselves and their surroundings. It's geocaching taken to a whole new level. Unfortunately, just as opening an email attachment may introduce a virus to your computer, accepting someone's AR program may grant them permanent control over your perception of reality.

Zel Aurora has a daughter who is deathly ill. Fortunately, Zel is highly skilled at parting the waters of the Digital Sea to reveal what people try to hide. And she can use it to wash away her tracks. For this, she receives enough money to acquire the medical equipment and medicines to keep her daughter alive, albeit barely. They've also been on the run from a former employer, the Djed, who Zel spurned. Tired of running, and her daughter in desperate need of better treatment, Zel decides to return to his employ, hoping that his desire to use her skills overrules his anger.

Besides Zel, there are several other characters that figure prominently in the story. I wondered how well Carpenter was going to tie their individual storylines together, but he pulled it off. Even though he shifts around a lot, at no point did I forget who any of them were. Carpenter deftly shapes and defines all of his characters, providing us with a diverse group. He deserves credit for writing a story where one major character is an amputee and another suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, yet neither falls prey to stereotypes.

While The Digital Sea is well written, it could have used an editor's oversight. Overall, Carpenter does a good job self-editing but nobody's perfect. Typos got past him (“too” and “to” swapped, “artic” instead of “arctic”, missing verbs) and there were times when there were too many short, choppy sentences and fragments. An editor would've helped to catch the mistakes and offer suggestions to improve the flow of the narrative.

But despite my complaints, The Digital Sea is a good story. There's plenty of intrigue to captivate the reader's attention. The characters challenge the reader in that it's not a good versus evil situation. They're just pawns on opposing sides, trying to eke out a living in a difficult world. It will be interesting to see where Carpenter goes from here with this series.

Links to purchase The Digital Sea and other works by Thomas Carpenter may be found on his website.

March 2011 Smashwords Conveyor Belt

2011-04-13T15:15:00.026-06:00

I picked out these pieces in the first week of March and only now am able to review them, not only due to being involved in a move but also due to the sweetness of some of the candies coming down the belt. I think the caliber of Smashwords submissions is improving.

Here Today by Simon Groth is a novel about a woman doing a short-term gig as an occupational therapist in a palliative ward. It takes place in Australia. The protagonist, Astrid, is bunking with a friend, Leith, who herself has become paralyzed from the waist down, and who deals with it by dressing and behaving like Lindsay Lohan. Astrid has self-esteem issues, but does some good work with the mostly elderly clientele, and with a famous writer who has suddenly become locked in by a stroke. The theme of the book is communication; sometimes this is expressed with slightly heavy-handed metaphors, as when Astrid bites her tongue seriously enough to require medical attention, but overall the interplay between her, her patients, and her friend is handled very well. The narrative explores the lies we tell to ourselves and to others, and the struggle to communicate truthfully that some never win. It was an enjoyable book overall.

The Empress Rose by Chris Eastvedt held my attention for many pages, until the constant info-dump of material about the superiority of hydroponic farming wore me down. At my new digs, a front and back yard with scruffy grass are challenging me to revitalize them organically, but I doubt you want to hear much about the three-bin method of composting or the pros and cons of corn gluten meal. But Rose doesn't stop. At a farmers' market, after she has explained to other farmers in excruciating detail how her methods are superior, she starts all over again preaching to a restaurateur. I have been accused of doing the same thing over topics I am passionate about; I have learned that it is a quick way to bore people conversationally, and it sure is a good way to bore the reader if one is not careful.

Siding the House by Michael Jasper is a short vignette about a poor African-American family living down South who try to preserve a little joie de vivre in the face of threatening monotony and casual racism. The story is narrated by turns by Kanita, the little daughter, all brightness and speed; her depressed mother; her toothless grandmother, who tries to keep up morale by constantly making candy (an imaginative example of self-defeating behavior); and Bobby Ray, the developmentally delayed brother. Their house is being covered with siding by two young white men who seem to illustrate the downside of attempts at upward mobility in a racist system. Kanita disowns the siding, calling it “ugly,” and manages to hold onto her self-esteem. Beautifully written.

Tim the Tale Teller by Timothy Conerson:

“ By 2010 President Obama was constantly looking for terrorist in every corner of the globe. While cities and towns in the United States crumbled, Chinese computer programmers began to create a virus that paralyzed the weapon systems in the U.S. All combat took place hand to hand, gun to gun. The people of the United States were not particularly patriotic during that time so it was easy for the Chinese military to occupy the U.S.“

This is from “The Peoples [sic] Republic,” the first of several short stories. I think he means “terrorists.” This would have worked so much better if set in the distant future, with names changed (and text edited; there are many typos and grammatical errors). The year 2010 has come and gone, and I see no dearth of people who consider themselves patriotic, from the Tea Partiers to the strikers in Wisconsin. The author really liked his own book; he gave it five stars on Amazon.

Chewing on Pen Caps by Cloud Buchholz. I think this is. A type of experimental fiction. Because when the narrative is. In the POV of. Or about the protagonist. Lemon Anderson. The structure reverts. To sentence fragments. But it's difficult to read. And no substitute for character development. Which may happen eventually. But not soon enough for me.

If you find explicit sexual content unpleasant, read no further.

This is Butte. You Have Ten Minutes by Craig Lancaster and Gunshot Stigmata by Scott C. Rogers, if I had them in paperback, would probably smell of stale cigarette smoke and dried beer, with covers splotched with dried secretions whose origin I might not want to know. The Lancaster book looks at the trajectories of the lives of several people in Montana, down on their luck, and in one case, in prison. There is a lot of riding of Greyhound buses, furtive and fast screwing in a bus station restroom, and the exchange of a blow job for a lift with a trucker. The prose is intense but smooth, like good black coffee. The characters are honed by experience, mostly bad. Any residual loyalty or vulnerability is tested or betrayed. The whole narrative is bathed in yellowish sodium streetlight.

Rogers' book is different, in that its unreliable narrator is usually stoned and always insane. A damaged product of the foster care system, he plays guitar until his incapacity to bear life leads him to shoot himself in the hand, hence the title. He does try to find love; an uninhibited male view of sex runs rampant here and is refreshing. Rogers writes about sex and the ever-present undertone of aggression like Charles Bukowski on steroids: “The mole that hid just on the inside of her righ thigh. Whenever I ate her out I always kissed it goodbye afterwards, pulling up with a chin wet like a lion fresh from a kill.” The novella is in many short, disjointed chapters that jump around like the disordered thoughts of a severely shattered soul. Very well done.

Submissions Are Closed

2011-04-07T20:27:00.000-06:00

We're sorry to announce that we are closed to submissions. We have too great a backlog of stories to go through and we feel that it is imperative that we catch up before we accept any more.

Any submissions received from this moment forward will be deleted unread. Sorry, but closed means closed.

Keep watch on the Submission Guidelines page. When reviewers names appear there again, then you'll know it's safe to start submitting again.

Reviews will continue.

Thank you for your patience.

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DED

The Crown Conspiracy by Michael Sullivan

2011-03-31T11:51:00.017-06:00

The Crown Conspiracy by Michael Sullivan is the first in the six-book Riyria Revelations series. Sullivan explains in the book's Afterward that he wants to “bring the [fantasy] genre back to its roots...great characters, a complex plot, humor, and drama all in appropriate measures.”

Sullivan's Crown Conspiracy accomplishes this and more. The book is a fun, exciting, quick read, and a refreshing change from the 1,000-page fantasy tomes on the market these days.

Hadrian Blackwater and Royce Melbourn are independent thieves in the Kingdom of Melengar. They take jobs that other thieves turn down, which makes their services valuable to the rich and the scheming. But business is slow lately and winter is coming. So when a scared noble asks their help to avoid a duel he will surely lose, Hadrian and Royce take the job assuming it to be a quick payday. All they have to do is retrieve a sword the noble already stole and hid in a church. Easy. They realize it might be too good to be true, but the thought of starving over the winter holds even less appeal.

They're soon wishing for the grumbling bellies they tried to avoid.

Not only are they framed for the murder of the King of Melengar, but they find themselves unwitting participants in an adventure where their actions determine the freedom of Melengar and the entire continent. I can't reveal much more about the plot without giving away some entertaining twists, but the story gives fantasy fans the adventure they crave without descending to overly-gruesome violence or cliched magic from the Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook.

Hadrian and Royce are master thieves, yet they have an honorable streak that brings them more trouble than they'd prefer. They act so honorable at times that it makes you wonder why they chose a life of crime to begin with. Both have secret pasts they'd rather not talk about, and both have talents they prefer to keep hidden by their lives of thievery. Sullivan does not make clear what those secret pasts are, but he explains that The Riyria Revelations, though six books, is meant to be one epic tale. The next books will surely reveal more about these fascinating characters.

My only criticism is that Sullivan's bad guys had a penchant for "monologue-ing." Whenever it appeared our heroes were dead meat, the villains had to explain their schemes in detail and essentially brag to the good guys “boy, are you screwed now.” Unfortunately this seemed to happen in exciting scenes, which brought the action to a standstill.

Despite that, Sullivan gave me the kind of story that made me fall in love with fantasy when I was ten. The Crown Conspiracy is a worthy start to what is sure to be an epic series.

The Riyria Revelations series is available in print and eBook on Amazon.

Erasing the Stigma of Self-Publishing

2011-03-22T09:13:00.001-06:00

Bestselling author, Barry Eisler, recently announced that he turned down a $500,000 book deal from traditional publishers in favor of self-publishing. His lengthy conversation with successful indie convert, Joe Konrath, offers insight into his decision and the state of the publishing industry.

Meanwhile, bestselling indie author, Amanda Hocking, has been courted by traditional publishers and her Trylle Trilogy has been optioned for film.

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DED

The Job by Craig Davis

2011-03-10T08:58:00.000-07:00

Actually, the full title is: The Job: Based on a True Story (I Mean, This is Bound to have Happened Somewhere). Quite simply, this is modern update to the Biblical story of Job, though with more humor and far less death.

Joe B. is a vice-president at Universal Whirligig. He has enjoyed a successful career and a happy marriage, and has three loving daughters. Unfortunately, his success and dedication to the Big Boss has earned him the ire of Luci Fernandez, the HR Executive Officer in Charge of Outgoing Prescription Drug Claims Oversight. During a high level meeting, Luci makes the claim that Joe B. has been filing fraudulent claims. The Big Boss lets Luci mete out the punishment and is allowed to do anything short of firing Joe B. Our hero winds up being demoted to the mailroom where Luci hopes that he will become so demoralized that he'll quit.

Joe B. spends the rest of the novella trying to figure out why he has been demoted and how he can get back in the Big Boss's good graces.

Mr. Davis utilizes humor to tell the story of Joe B.'s troubles. And while it isn't laugh out loud funny, if one visualizes the physical comedy that Davis has composed, it's certain to produce several smiles. I could see Jim Carrey trying to pull off the role of Joe B. in the movie version.

While I found characterization to be a bit thin, I realize that the characters are here to support the story. Still, Davis does a great job with introducing us to Joe B. and Luci. After the intros, Luci disappears (a waste) and Joe B. becomes obsessive in his search for answers. In conversations with others who offer their advice to his plight, he falls back on sarcasm when he doesn't like what he hears. His best moment comes when he's taking care of his daughter Marie, who is sick with cerebral palsy. It is here that he's able to set aside everything else and focus on the one thing that matters.

In summary, Craig Davis skewers office politics and business bureaucracy for comedic effect to re-tell the grim story of Job. At times, the story is clever and cute, but it might've been better had Davis been less faithful to the original and more true to himself.

The Job is available in print from Amazon and several eBook formats via Smashwords.

The Wrinkly by Paul Collis

2011-03-02T08:57:00.001-07:00

Mike Lewis is closing in on 40 and has been selling commercial space for TV shows for most of his adult life. Although he's done well in his chosen profession, he's coming into a mid-life crisis. His job no longer satisfies, the women he dates are shallow and materialistic, and he can no longer identify with twenty somethings. He views the way they dress and their new-fangled iPods as alien. Meanwhile his passion for Brubeck and a 57 Chevy Nomad station wagon gives him more in common with older generations rather than his current one.

While on a business trip, he stumbles across Goldenville, a retirement community. He's immediately caught up in the idea of moving in and playing golf for the rest of his life. But there's one problem, you have to be at least 60 to live there. With the help of a makeup artist, Mike endeavors to act the part. But how long can Mike go before someone figures out his secret?

We follow Mike through a series of humorous encounters that could easily play out on a sitcom. The author confesses on his website that the story started out as a screenplay. And it shows. Each scene is fully blocked and the characters' actions choreographed so well they are easy to visualize. I would think a network exec would pick this up for potential cross-generational appeal.

Collis certainly nailed Mike's disconnect and discontent, but it was hard for me at first to be sympathetic with someone so shallow. Fortunately, Mike evolves as the story progresses and, once removed from his employer, is free to see that there's more to life than selling ad space on TV.

As for the other characters, they're certainly a colorful bunch. While Collis avoids stereotypes, I found that development was a bit short. Then again, the book is only 151 pages long. With a couple of exceptions, I would've liked to have seen Collis explore Mike's interactions with his co-workers and new neighbors a bit more.

All in all, The Wrinkly is a cute story with colorful characters who get into humorous situations. It's a quick read with a message that is content to ride in the back with the top down, making for light-hearted fare and a pleasant read.

The book is available in print and various eBook formats. Check out the author's website for all the links.

Our Two New Reviewers

2011-03-01T08:44:00.001-07:00

On behalf of The New Podler Review of Books, I'd like to welcome Rob Steiner and Bob 5000 to our review staff.

Rob Steiner has been with us since last Fall, so this welcome is overdue. He is the author of The Last Key. When he's not spending time with his family or writing books, he's dreaming of one day taking over for Guy Fieri on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.

Bob 5000 is a guitar player for Terror From the Year 5000, who were inspired by the movie of the same name, or perhaps the MST3K send up of said film. Bob is a professional software engineer by day and a semi-professional beer drinker by night, or when his wife and kids give their permission.

Details regarding their reading preferences can be found on our Submission Guidelines page.

Welcome aboard, guys!
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DED

The Best of 2010

2011-02-25T21:49:00.004-07:00

Yeah, I know. "Best of..." posts are supposed to come out either in December or January. Well, we've been a tad bit busy with stuff so we're just getting around to compiling our choices for best books that we've reviewed here on the blog.

Before, when it was just Podler, it was very easy to come up with one book to receive the Independent Novel Award. One reader, one judge. Getting three people with very different tastes, not to mention genre interests, to agree on one book out of twenty-three as being the very best would be impossible. Therefore, we agreed to each pick that book (or books) which we felt was the very best.

First up is S.B. Jung.

My pick for 2010 would have to be SkyGirl and the Superheroic Legacy by Joe Sergi. I read through that book in less than 48 hours!

Libby Cone's top two picks were:

Arguing with Henry by Niall Hunter
ZombieStop Parade by Richard Buzzell

Both books were extremely refreshing in their authors' skill with prose style and nuance. Although one would not guess it of ZombieStop, both books were character-driven. What goes on inside someone's head can be just as riveting as fiery explosions and mass computer crashes; it just takes an author with talent to share it with us.

As for me, it was very difficult to select one book as I found examples of great stories over a few genres. Libby Cone's Flesh and Grass was not your run-of-the-mill historical fiction. To be able to tell the story of a blind Dutch boy, from his POV, deserves high praise. Libby's vivid descriptions of the scents and sounds of 17th Century Delaware were a treat.

Although I didn't review S.B. Jung's Lines of Neutrality, I read it and commented about how the reviewer missed the point of the story. Characterization, not action, was the star here. Alternating the narration from the two main characters, both assassins, was a superb way of presenting the story. Witnessing the evolution of their relationship from rivals to allies was thoroughly enjoyable.

And then there was Rob Steiner's The Last Key. I'd become a bit jaded with high fantasy after reading so many Tolkein clones. I couldn't tell you the last time I read anything in the genre. But when I read the sample chapters lying in the slush pile, I was hooked despite myself. Realistic action, characters with depth, a compelling story, Rob's story had it all. It was a pleasure to be able to read a high fantasy story and not feel like it was cardboard characters executing a formula.

These are three very different stories: historical fiction, contemporary thriller and medieval high fantasy. And all of them were written by my fellow reviewers. I wanted to praise them for their hard work, but to avoid cries of nepotism, I shall pick another story.

And it isn't a difficult choice. The Losing Role by Steve Anderson gets my vote as the best story I reviewed in 2010 here at this blog. This work of historical fiction, traces the story of Max Kaspar, an out-of-work German actor turned soldier, recruited to play a crucial role in Operation Greif during the Battle of the Bulge. Excellent dialogue, well-crafted characters, and enough dramatic tension to saw a Panzer in half, The Losing Role is an excellent blend of noir and espionage thriller.

Thank you for your patronage. We'll try to be a bit more timely with our "Best of 2011" post. :)

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DED

The Hawk and His Boy by C.H. Bunn

2011-02-21T18:30:00.010-07:00

The Hawk and His Boy by C.H. Bunn is the first book in The Tormay Trilogy. It's a beautifully written and professionally edited epic fantasy set in a world filled with rich history, ancient magic, and diverse characters who all have their secrets.

The book starts out with a boy thief named Jute who gets a simple assignment – retrieve a box from an old house and give it to the Knife, the Thieving Guild's greatest assassin. “Don't open the box,” says the Knife, “or I'll cut your throat so wide the wind'll whistle through it.”

Of course Jute opens the box, releasing a powerful magic that manifests itself as a hawk. Jute is soon on the run from the angry wizard whose box he stole and the Thieving Guild for breaking his contract by opening the box.

The book is filled with other point-of-view characters who never meet, but whose stories point toward an eventual convergence in the next two books. The Knife is tired of his Thieving Guild jobs and longs to retire to his own private island paradise. Levoreth pretends to be a simple country lady, but hides an ancient wisdom and a powerful connection to the world and its animals that implies she's much more than she seems. And Nio, whose box Jute stole, is a morally corrupt wizard who willingly allies with the Dark to obtain magical power, even though he knows he risks his soul and the release of forces he may not be able to control.

The world of Tormay itself is a character. Bunn spends a great deal of time describing its history, legends, geography, and its flora and fauna. The Hawk and His Boy is not a roller coaster ride as much as a leisurely walk though a verdant forest where you pause to smell every flower, listen to every gurgling stream, and watch the sun set beneath the hills before searching the night sky for constellations...

Which demonstrates my one criticism of the book. It's beautifully written, but the writing was too beautiful at times. For example, the wizard Nio muses on how he came to practice Dark magic:

All souls are like dwellings shuttered and locked against the night. If one dreams too much, then a light grows and shines from behind those shutters. That, by itself, can be enough to draw notice from whatever stands outside in the darkness. If one continues to dream, day after day, then perhaps the door of the dwelling creaks open, and the sleeping soul wanders forth into the night, shimmering with the light that is the mark of life. The darkness is wide and the night is complete. Even a little light may draw attention.

Beautiful, yes, but numerous passages like this brought the plot to a screeching halt. I found myself wanting to skip entire pages to get to some action. There were also many information dumps -- beautifully written information dumps -- which Bunn could have incorporated through dramatic character interactions.

Despite these criticisms, I enjoyed The Hawk and His Boy. Bunn did a fantastic job setting up Tormay and its people for the battles ahead, and I look forward to seeing how it all turns out.

The Hawk and His Boy is available on Amazon.

The A-Men by John Trevillian

2011-02-16T11:08:00.002-07:00

In The A-Men, John Trevillian paints an apocalyptic picture of an induced collapse of civilization by corporate whim. Macro-corporations have long since replaced governments as the de facto supplier of civilization's needs and wants. But without government oversight, there's no one to keep the corporations in line. After all, you don't vote for corporations (even stockholders don't hold as much power as they think they do). With a sizable chunk of humanity moved off-world to orbital cities (and presumably other worlds), and resources nearly run out, there's no real incentive for these corporations to stick around. They all decide to pull out, leaving the earthbound to fend for themselves. Anarchy ensues as long suppressed gangs rise to fill the power vacuum.

Thrust into to this scene, is Jack, a man who's had his memory erased. We learn from the start that he asked to have this done. Why, we don't know. He's enlisted in some token security force being sent into one of the cities to maintain the illusion of order, but it's really to make sure no one tries to escape.

Jack's unit is ill-equipped for the mission and they're soon overrun. He and the survivors of his unit are forced to go AWOL and fend for themselves amidst the ruins and the gangs. Armed with Forevermore, a book of faerie tales, Jack tries to make sense of things and figure out why he had his own memory erased.

It's a punk rock wet dream, right down to the Anarchy A on the back of Jack's jacket. Corporations control everything. Religion is a joke. Human life has no value. There are plenty of guns (though ammo doesn't seem to be a problem), drugs, a hot car that gets tagged and some sex thrown in. Jack even gets involved in a romance straight out of Sid & Nancy.

As ambitious as Trevillian's story is, it's not without its flaws. Although I was lured in by high tech lab experiment set up in the first chapter, I found the pace to be a bit slow for some time. The opening tension and mystery faded until 80 pages in, when the macrocorps pull out and chaos ensues. I suppose that's ok for a story that's 400 pages long, but it still felt like it was meandering around for too long. While it could be said that it was done for character development, too many of the minor characters were subsequently abandoned later in the story to explain the pace of development here. For instance, Jack uses the death of one of the minor characters to convince Esther to return to the A-Men. At no point beforehand has Trevillian given us a reason to believe that Esther cared one iota about this dead minor character.

The story is told from the first person POV of five characters. Trevillian imbues each one with a distinct voice. That is both a blessing and a curse. While it's a plus for characterization, the drawback is in the way it's expressed. 23rdxenturyboy's voice is all contractions. Duck'n, dive'n, dodge'n and weave'n. While a few words adds color to a character's speech, when it's this thick I'm reminded of Mark Twain characters. It becomes taxing to the reader.

But the worst offense is the stream of consciousness style writing that comes to be the hallmark of Jack's voice. There is a never ending run of sentence fragments. Like this. And this. Not just a sentence here and there. Not just paragraphs. But pages. And pages. Whole chapters. Just like this. While I have no problem with it being used here and there to emphasize a point or for dramatic effect, Trevillian goes overboard.

It's not that Trevillian doesn't know how to write. He provides us with some excellent prose, but it's best expressed in the soliloquies of Dr. Glass. It seems that this is the only way he has to show how damaged Jack's brain is. Maybe that's why instead of getting one metaphor we get three. But it leaks into other characters as well. Ultimately, we get conflicting metaphors, like this one from Esther: "...we drop like mountains from the hands of God the Allfather. Like sinners from the gates of paradise." For me, the former paints a far different picture than the latter.

In summary, John Trevillian has written an ambitious, punk rock look at a gritty dystopian post-corporate future. While his characters are colorful and compelling, the writing style used to convey their innermost thoughts is taxing. The believability of the inter-relationships between the characters fizzles through the neglect of minor characters and the main character's own self-absorption.

The A-Men is available through the author's website in a variety of formats.

Peace Warrior by Stephen Hawk

2011-02-03T09:13:00.004-07:00

Reviewed by Bob Five Thousand for The New Podler Review of Books

Ok, let me start this out with a bit of a disclaimer: I know practically nothing about Military SciFi. My one and only real exposure to the genre is Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers”. An argument could possibly be made for some of Catherine Asaro’s material, but that’s about it. Point being, I’m hardly an expert here. And with that, we’re off...

The book weighs in at 258 pages and is written in a simple, straight-forward manner. Making for a very quick read. It took me a grand total of around 8 hours to get through the whole thing.

The book is so simply written in fact, that if it wasn’t for the violent content, I’d recommend it as fairly easy reading for the pre-teen set. This isn’t a criticism by the way, merely an observation.

For those looking for a quick -n- dirty review, here it is: It’s not terrible. It’s a first novel from a guy who probably has no previous writing experience. If you take that into account going into it, then you can sit back and enjoy a fun read.

If you’re still with me at this point, I’ll dig into it a little more.
Briefly, the story takes place in the relatively distant future. After a long history of warfare, humanity has forsaken violence of any kind and for any reason. This is the state of affairs when the Minith arrive and enslave the people of Earth. The Earthlings find the main character, a soldier from some 600 years in the past, frozen in ice and revive him. It’s his job to free humanity from the tyranny of the alien invaders.

It’s definitely a bit on the amateurish side. You’ll find some grammatical errors as you read through it and there’s more than a few bits of awkwardly unnecessary dialog, for the sake of explaining things that shouldn’t really need explaining. The end is fairly predictable and the characters can be a bit cliché.

There’s not a lot of depth given to most of the people in the story, but given the fact that the book is more about the war than the people, that might not be such a big deal.

The "Death Scene" (you’ll know it when you read it) is needlessly long, drawn out and graphic. It’s definitely out of place when compared to the relatively quick flow of the rest of the story.

The author’s description of death itself, is actually really well done. It’s probably one of the most creative bits of the book.

I also liked how he handled the evolution of mankind as a species. The changes were minor, but nicely documented in the narrative and seemed reasonable for the amount of time that had passed.

If you’re reading the book for its military aspects, you (probably) won’t be disappointed. Or at least I wasn’t, speaking as someone with no military experience what-so-ever. The author is a former soldier himself and the battle scenes move along nicely without anything obviously impossible happening.
I have only one real complaint and I’ll admit right off that I’m being nit-picky here.

I read a lot of Science Fiction and Fantasy. I’m a particularly big fan of the early pulp stuff, where the authors were really just making crap up that sounded cool, with almost no thought as to whether or not it made any real sense. I say this to illustrate that I’m very comfortable with the whole idea of “Suspension of Disbelief” for the sake of a good story.

Now on to my complaint. One of the central structures of the story is “Violent’s Prison”. It’s also one of the grammatical errors I mentioned earlier, but that’s sorta besides the point. :-)

This is where all of the folks are sent, who just can’t seem to learn how to live peacefully with their fellow humans. If you act with violence towards another human, you get sent to prison. All well and good so far.

Except for one thing: The book beats you over the head repeatedly with the fact that violence is abhorred by the bulk of humanity. There is no army, no police force, no body of any kind that exists to enforce the law or protect the populace. People get physically ill at the thought of violence towards another person. There are no weapons at all, except those on display in museums. See where I’m going with this yet?

These people reject violence to the point where an alien can shoot a man’s family right in front of him and he won’t do anything about it (there actually is a scene where this happens).

So who is subduing the criminals and taking them to jail?

Well, there you have it. Overall, if you’ve got a couple of bucks to spare and you’re looking for some light reading, this wouldn’t be a bad choice. It won’t ever win any awards, but it’s fun. Which is good enough for me.

Peace Warrior is available in several formats, the links for which can be found on the author's website.

Flaming Dove by Daniel Arenson

2011-01-19T18:54:00.009-07:00

Reviewed By: S.B. Jung

Kudos, Mr. Arenson. You got my attention. I'm supposed to be on sabbatical.

Daniel Arenson's story takes place during the Armageddon as the armies of Heaven and Hell battle for supreme dominance over the Earth. There are few humans left, and those that survive eek an existence out of what they can find of the human world and what they can create from the devastation.

Heaven and Hell are at a standstill after twenty-seven years and battle for what foothold they can grab in Jerusalem, the holy city. The battle seems to hinge upon a young woman named Laila, purported to be of half-angel, half-demon blood due to Lucifer's rape of Archangel Gabriel's wife. She cannot live in Heaven - Godlight burns her demon blood; she cannot live in Hell - Hellfire boils her angel blood. Earth is her only haven and humans are the most accepting of her, which says very little. Only Laila's older half sister, Bat El, loves her unconditionally and has earned Laila's loyalty, love, and trust.

Arenson takes the reader through storylines that embrace Laila, Bat El, Beelzebub, and the Archangel Michael in unexpected and compelling ways. What makes Arenson's story interesting is his departure from the expected. Angels are normally depicted as God's boy scouts who never doubt his rule, world, or law. Arenson depicts Angels who become humanized as they fight the war and stay on Earth. They drink, swear, gamble, and sleep with as many women as much as human male soldiers do; Arenson's humanization of angels is thought provoking and risky, which, to me, is the mark of a good author. They believe in their war, they love God, but many of them follow the mantra of "the end justifies the means." Humans lie, cheat, steal, and commit atrocities in the name of God and what is right; why can't angels?

In the same vein of humanizing, arch demons are given emotions such as love and being able to be emotionally hurt, along with the ability to be tender and apologetic. Again, this is risky and thought provoking because it is so easy to blanket hate demons; it is infinitely harder to get a reader to actually sympathize with the enemy. Arenson masterfully makes this believable.

The one and only thing that really, truly annoyed me was the constant - and I mean constant - over-dramatization of Laila being "of the night" or of her drive and need for a home. The reader needs some reminders of a main character's motivations, but it doesn't have to happen every time we return to her storyline. Many times, I could lay my finger over Laila's internal monologue and see exactly where Arenson should have stopped to maximize the impact of Laila's thoughts before her actions. That being said, this book is a great read that I highly recommend to anyone who loves a different kind of fantasy fiction.

The book is available through the author's website.

Being Light by Helen Smith

2011-01-19T11:29:00.006-07:00

This is a very entertaining book. Readers familiar with Smith's prior work, “Alison Wonderland,” will become reacquainted with several chracters, including Mrs. Fitzgerald, a private eye; Alison and her daughter Phoebe, who assist Mrs. Fitzgerald; and Alison's friend Taron. It is not necessary to have read “Alison Wonderland,” nor is it necessary to keep notes on the myriad characters, because Smith is able to make them memorable with very deft description, so that when they pop up unexpectedly in the narrative, we recognize each individual's Leitmotif immediately.

The book begins with Roy, an affable middle-class man, and his more edgy friend Brian, inflating a “bouncy castle” for children attending a charity fair. Roy's whole relationship with gravity, tenuous at best, is completely transmogrified by a gust of wind that lifts him up with the castle and deposits him in what he thinks is (and there is no reason to think otherwise) Paradise, complete with an adoring angel named Sylvia, plus chickens, ducks, a cow, a dog, and an elephant. Roy's disappearance is a complete disaster to his devoted wife Sheila. When the police are no help and Mrs. Fitzgerald can find no leads at the outset, Sheila casts her lot in with a clairvoyant and other mediums, eventually going all over England with little aluminum foil earlaps to try to tune in Roy.

More twists and turns evolve as we meet Jeremy, a cross-dressing eco-activist; Venetia, Sylvia's former boss (she wants the elephant back); and Jane, a trendspotter-cum-journalist, who has to find a story in everything.

The characters all sound “light,” but some have agendas that are very weighty. There is a hint of criminal activity afoot, and one character buys too heavily into the idea of lightness and meets a ghastly end. Some don't “get” it, and are simply barmy or shallow, but interesting nevertheless.

This book, besides being very entertaining, is a good book for self-publishing authors to look to as an example. It is free of typos, avoids the two-adjective-noun, two-adjective-noun death march to boredom, and manages to tell a lot of story without a lot of words.

Pale Boundaries by Scott Cleveland

2010-12-22T21:21:00.000-07:00

In Scott Cleveland's debut novel, Pale Boundaries, Terson Reilly and his wife, Virene, are out boating when they witness a spacecraft crash into the sea. They speed over to the crash site to affect a rescue of the crew. Normally, such heroic behavior would be praised or even rewarded, but neither the government nor the owners of the spacecraft are pleased with them.

First off, the spacecraft that crashed had cargo belonging to an interplanetary crime family. They fear that Terson and Virene may have discovered incriminating evidence about them in the wreckage and feel obligated to eliminate the couple.

Terson is an involuntary immigrant to Nivia, a world with strict environmental and population control laws. On is homeworld of Algran Asta, he was an ex-cop turned helicopter pilot. An accidental run in with the wrong crowd got him booted off the planet and nearly cost him his life.

Having come from a cloudy, high gravity world, Terson's short stature and intolerance to Nivia's ample sunlight make him stick out like a sore thumb. An immigrant with a criminal record isn't exactly welcome on Nivia. Population controls dictate that his presence means one less pregnancy license will be issued. It seems like every knucklehead with a grievance is compelled to take it out on Terson. Not one to walk away from a fight, each altercation lands him behind bars.

As the couple was outside of the sanctioned coastal boundary, the authorities immediately suspected them of being poachers. Considering Terson's criminal record, the authorities doubt the credibility of his story. The one person who believes Terson and Virene is their parole officer and police captain, Maalan Bragg. While he's not blind to the couple's checkered past, he suspects that they're innocent and in over their heads.

Cleveland could've kept to the "wrong place at the wrong time" plot and it would've been fine, but there's even more going on in this story. There are sub-plots involving the crime family's members and its dealings with the government and the natives that if I write any more than this I'll be spoiling it for you. There are so many factions involved, each with its own agenda, that Cleveland must be given credit for tying it all together. It would fall apart in the hands of a less talented writer.

Cleveland also deserves praise for his skill at crafting realistic characters. While Terson is a tough guy and a loner, Cleveland shows how he came to be that way and we don't blame him. When Virene penetrates his hardened exterior, we get to see just how emotionally vulnerable he is. It lends credibility to Terson's ability to survive the physical punishment he endures.

On the other side is Halsor Tennison. He's the local head of the crime family and could very well be a two-dimensional villain. However, Cleveland takes a lesson from David Chase, the creator of The Sopranos, and makes Tennsion a human being rather than some run of the mill TV bad guy. When Tennison isn't hunting down Terson, he's dealing with rival factions, both within and without, staying hidden from the part of the government his family doesn't control and his complicated love life. The latter reveals his vulnerabilities. If it weren't for the fact that he's after Terson, you'd be inclined to root for him.

As for the technicals, there are only a handful of typos, half of which occurred in the last fifty pages of the book. The dialogue is spot on and seamlessly blends with the exposition. Cleveland's writing style displays a maturity typically only seen in seasoned veterans. I can't help but wonder why this book wasn't picked up by a major publisher.

My one gripe with Pale Boundaries, and it's a small one, is that it ends unfinished. I realize a series requires individual books to leave the overall story open, but there are too many unresolved issues. While the story has a climax, I didn't recognize it until I started writing this review. It took place 60 pages before the end of the book! While Terson, Tennison and the other characters deal with important matters afterward, the dramatic tension has already abated so the end of the book comes as anti-climactic. Perhaps this extra material could've been saved for the sequel.

My one minor complaint aside, Scott Cleveland has crafted a wonderful, action-packed story with layers of sub-plots to keep readers engrossed from start to finish. His characters, whether good or bad, are all real human beings with the strengths and vulnerabilities that come with the territory. While it's evident that he did his research on the science underlying the story, the sci-fi element is downplayed enough to make Pale Boundaries accessible to readers outside of the genre. I look forward to the sequel.

Pale Boundaries is available in print from Amazon and for the Kindle.

Pairs by D. W. Richards

2010-12-19T16:28:00.007-07:00

This book is about two (predominantly straight) couples. The men are cousins with little in common save blood; the women are from very disparate backgrounds. They are all (except maybe Adam, who seems to have his life together already but is conveniently unattached) relatively nice people who have had setbacks in their pasts. They are ready to pick up and move on to better things. Both couples meet cute, take ages to have sex, then go at it with enthusiasm. There is a lot of humor here, especially the character Kayley's grandmother, whom we never meet, but whose deftly sprinkled stream-of-consciousness phone calls are expertly crafted, and reminded me of the razor-sharp prologues to both parts of Angels in America.

The ongoing story is quite entertaining. Occasionally one realizes that the author is trying to run a subplot underneath all the conversations, flirting, sex, personal growth, and confessions. This arises awkwardly; Chapter 16 concludes “A cathartic sorrow overwhelmed Kayley, and she wept quietly.” The very next chapter ends with “A cathartic sorrow overwhelmed Alexandra, and she wept softly.” Am I missing something? I mean, I get the part about renovating the house.

There is something else about Kayley's departed ex-boyfriend and a poem they wrote together, but it gets so little emphasis that its infrequent mentions, and a recovered letter from the deceased, read at the end of the book, are somewhat anticlimactic.

Mr. Richards' prose can be awfully good: “A weak grin slid onto Kayley's face and led into a quiet pop of breath that Adam interpreted to be a distant and shattered cousin of laughter.” Some same-sex attractions, mostly fleeting, flow easily with the narrative. Inexplicably, besides the slightly-more-than-tolerable number of typos are some other quirks. One character owns a “Berber umbrella.” I have searched Google, thinking that there may be more drizzle in North Africa than I have been led to believe. All I could come up with was “...unless one is prepared to disagree with the whole concept of closely related Afrasan 'languages' brought under the 'Berber' umbrella...” Does he mean Barbour? Burberry?

The author pays the bills by being an accountant but I would have guessed he is an architect. I counted the word “foyer” ten times in the text. If I weren't so cheap I could have bought the Kindle version and found a few more with the search function. I checked the poem that is so infrequently mentioned yet so fraught with a meaning that escapes me: no “foyer.” Is it a metaphor for the birth canal? A critique of urban Canadian residential architecture? Wait; do Berber dwellings have foyers? A friend suggested that perhaps Richards is very fond of the author Jonathan Safran Foer and betrays this unconsciously in his writing; it's a reasonable theory.

Quibbles aside, I enjoyed the story and recommend it to those who are looking for well-rounded characters and overall good writing.

Digger's Bones by Paul Mansfield Keefe

2010-12-11T06:23:00.013-07:00

Newspaper reporter Angie Cooper has a past filled with regrets. She was once an up and coming archeologist, but it all came to an end when she rushed to publish findings that later turned out to be false. Not only did she lose her career, but she lost the respect of her close colleagues and her boyfriend at the time, Jack Reilly. Only her friend Terek “Digger” Rashid stuck by her side and defended her through the scientific firestorm.

So when Angie receives a frantic phone call from Digger pleading for her help with an explosive archeological find, she doesn't hesitate – she hops on the next flight to Washington DC to help her best friend. But then Digger is murdered before her eyes, forcing Angie to race from Washington DC to Israel to Germany trying to find an ancient set of bones that could overturn two thousand years of theology. Angie faces professional hit men, murderous religious zealots, and a powerful politician who will stop at nothing to ensure she does not bring the truth to light.

Paul Mansfield Keefe's Diggers Bones is professionally written and fast-paced, evoking the thrills and conspiracy theories of Dan Brown. Keefe does a good job spacing out the clues to the mystery of Digger's bones, keeping the reader guessing as to where the next clue will lead Angie. He also throws in several plot twists that turn the story in a completely different direction. I can't get into the twists here without giving them away, but the stakes exponentially rise with each new revelation.

Digger's Bones is a commendable effort, but it falls short in ways that keep it from rising above the other religious conspiracy thrillers on the market.

For example, an “every woman” like Angie Cooper manages to elude or fight off supposedly professional hit men way too often. There were so many scenes like this that I expected another attempt on her life – and escape – every time she walked out the door. The deus ex machina got very thick at times.

And while Angie is a sympathetic character and heroic in many ways, her story motivations seemed confused. One moment she “swoons” over old boyfriend Jack Reilly and wants “nothing more” than to be his wife, but in the next she wants “nothing more” than to find Digger's bones, even though Jack threatens to break up with her over her dangerous quest. It's not made clear why she wants so badly to be with a man who won't support her in something she feels is so important. Or why she's willing to lose the man she loves to pursue this quest.

But these issues aside, Digger's Bones is a good first effort by Keefe. The quality of his writing and the scope of his story are at a professional level. If he keeps in mind the lessons he learned in this first book, I have no doubt his Angie Cooper Series will take off.

You can find Digger's Bones on Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and in the Apple iBook Store. Find out more about Paul Mansfield Keefe at his web site.

Submissions Update

2010-12-10T15:33:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

We've received a lot of genre submissions of late so we're going to close the door to anything in the horror, fantasy, alternate history, thriller and science fiction categories. Rob, S.B. and I have enough to keep us busy for a while. Our two trainee reviewers are wading through the slush trying to get something together.

Fortunately, Libby, our literary reviewer, is still available to read your submissions. Just make sure that what you're submitting suits her tastes. If you're unsure, check her past reviews to get an idea.

Genre authors should check back sometime in January before submitting. Checking the "caught up through" date will give you an indication of our progress, though rejections will come sooner.

Reviews will continue. Rob Steiner will be posting one shortly. Libby, the trainees and I are reading submitted stories and will post our reviews when time permits. The holidays tend to get in the way. :)

\_/
DED

Hell and Gone by Henry Brown

2010-11-12T22:06:00.003-07:00

Veteran's Day was yesterday (Thank you to all who served). In light of that, Hell and Gone seemed like an appropriate book to review.

The plot is pretty straightforward: Muslim terrorists have a nuclear bomb. The CIA recruits a dirty baker's dozen of veterans and mercenaries to neutralize the threat. There are only a few questions: "Will they succeed?", "How high will the body count be?" and "Who's going home in a body bag?" Instead, Brown focuses his creative energy on the characters and the action scenes.

In an action thriller it would be very easy for the characters to resemble cardboard props waiting their turn to become cannon fodder, but Brown doesn't go that route. Each of his characters has a story and Brown gives each one the time to tell it, although with the sheer number present some get more time than others. And they're a diverse, fractious lot. Yes, they're all dark-skinned (Caucasians would be a dead giveaway in the Sudan, where the action takes place) ex-military or mercenaries loaded up with testosterone, but the similarities end there. They're distinct individuals with their own sets of skills and shortcomings. They're men, not superheroes. You'll hate Mai for his arrogance and bigotry, but you'll admire Scarred Wolf's ability to execute his bloody job with honor and integrity.

The villains in Hell and Gone are truly evil. I don't say that lightly. The manipulation that the Jihadist leader, Ali, and his Chinese consultant, Chin, put fifteen-year old Bassam through is nothing short of diabolical. The scary part is, none of it comes across as far-fetched.

Brown, a veteran himself, uses his characters to address a range of issues. He explores veteran alienation through several men. We get to see how each dealt with feeling disconnected from friends, family and country once they were “back in the World.” There's also the matter of American foreign policy. At his weakest point, Brown's characters sound like they're reading neocon talking points from the back of a cereal box. But at his best, he presents an intelligent examination of our relationship to Israel and the Middle East. You'll wish our leaders would have such a frank discussion with all the facts, rather than dishing out the rhetoric.

The battle scenes are meticulously detailed. It wouldn't surprise me if Brown built scale models of the locales in his basement so that he could properly choreograph each step and shot. He'll have vets and military aficionados nodding their heads as he relates the pros and cons of various weapons down to their milspecs. Meanwhile, civvies will run to Wikipedia to look up the old planes that have been out-of-service in the Western World for decades. But he doesn't do it to impress anyone, he does it to stay true to his characters and himself.

While the dialogue is great, I do have gripes though. For a bunch of leathernecks, they never curse! "Shit" doesn't appear until three quarters of the way through the book. "Damned" has been replaced by "doomed." Every variation of profanity involving "dick" has been replaced by "Richard." For example, "limp Richard" and "Richard head." And there isn't a single F-bomb. This behavior is never explained and strikes me as disingenuous.

As for the technicals, a few homophones slipped through the cracks. There are a few point-of-view shifts that might violate some rule somewhere, but honestly they don't disorient the reader at all. Towards the end of the final battle, the writing breaks down into short, choppy sentences, which impart the feel of a grocery list of action rather than a flowing narrative.

Overall, Hell and Gone is a military thriller that delivers the goods on the action, has vivid, realistic characters who interact with great dialogue, and presents some food for thought. If enough people chew on it, maybe the all too plausible scenario presented here will remain fiction, assuming it hasn't happened already.

Hell and Gone is available in print from Amazon and in several eBook formats from Smashwords. Free samples are available through the author's website and at Smashwords.

Fixing Mr. Styx by Geoffrey Thorne

2010-10-29T09:05:00.002-06:00

Looking for a quick read this Halloween? Say, about 30 pages? Then, might I suggest Fixing Mr. Styx by Geoffrey Thorne. It's a paranormal urban fantasy where demons and magic are real and a high priced gopher, I mean "procurement specialist," finally gets the one job that will make or break… the world as we know it.

Mr. Styx, an alias for our protagonist, Sherman, finds "things" for his clients. Typically they're magic items, but sometimes he solves missing persons cases. Unfortunately, these are people who would prefer to stay missing. While he won't get his hands bloody, his conscience looks the other way if his clients make a mess of the mark. When we meet Sherman, he's in his favorite diner (not so much for the food as it is for the plethora of exits) being offered a job he's not allowed to refuse by a couple of lineman-sized thugs who are far more sinister than they appear to be.

Despite all of Sherman's flaws, Thorne makes him out to be a likable character. He's aware of his moral shortcomings, but acknowledges they're necessary for survival in the line of work he's in. Thorne spends a good deal of time exploring Sherman's character and reveals how he came to be the man he is. While on the surface, he resembles a Gen X version of the hard-nosed detective of many a pulp fiction story, underneath there's a vulnerability that belies that exterior.

Thorne's writing style makes for an entertaining read. To add to the almost noir-like atmosphere, he pours on the similes and metaphors like syrup over a steaming fresh stack of blueberry pancakes. Mmmmmm. It fits in well with establishing Sherman's character, his clients and the grim city he lives in.

As for the technicals, there are several typos. They were easy enough to find and could easily have been eliminated if a second set of eyes had gone over the manuscript before publishing. However, none of them were bad enough to detract from the story. Small bumps in the road as it were.

I understand that this is the third story in Thorne's "Grim Arcana" series. I'm not sure what the other titles are but you don't need to have read them to enjoy this story, though I suspect you'll want to. With Fixing Mr. Styx, I feel like we've come in at the end of a story, and I'm left wanting to know how we got here. Only in Resident Evil can you have a sequel to "Apocalypse." Thorne throws us enough bones to want to read more about Sherman's past exploits that led up to this encounter. A novel, or a collection of novellas, highlighting his misadventures in expanded form is what I'd like to see.

All-in-all, Fixing Mr. Styx is a highly enjoyable excursion into a dangerous world that exists just outside the corner of our eyes.

Fixing Mr. Styx is available for FREE from Smashwords as part of a Halloween promotion. Once the Day of the Dead rolls in, all bets are off.

Update 11/1/10: Got word from Mr. Thorne's editor that the typos were his fault, not Mr. Thorne's, and that they've been corrected.

Lodestone Book One: The Sea of Storms by Mark Whiteway

2010-10-28T11:57:00.000-06:00

Reviewed for the New Podler Review of Books by Rob Steiner

Lodestone Book One: The Sea of Storms by Mark Whiteway has a unique way of making a science fiction story feel like a fantasy.

The world of Kelanni is populated by a pastoral intelligent race that suffered a terrible cataclysm in the distant past, driving society into a dark age. Into this dark age comes an alien being known as the Prophet who enslaves the Kelanni with his powerful Keltar “priests.” The Keltar use “lodestones,” rocks with strange physical properties, to power their technology – from flying cloaks to communication rings to cannons and grenades. The Keltar force the Kelanni to mine the lodestones for the Prophet's own nefarious purposes.

Most Kelanni meekly accept the way things are. But a small group of patriots led by a former Keltar apprentice named Lyall and his best friend Alondo, fight back by using the Keltar's lodestone technology against them. They recruit a young, talented Kelanni named Shann into their rebellion and set out to free the Kelanni slaves.

Along the way they meet Keris, a Keltar with a crisis of faith who was persuaded by an intelligent caterpillar-like creature named Boxx that the Prophet is constructing a weapon to destroy the Kelanni people and take the Kelanni world as his own. They learn the Prophet is building this weapon on the other side of the Kelanni world, so Keris, Boxx, Lyall, Alondo, and Shann set out across the Kelanni frontier to find the weapon and destroy it before the Prophet can complete it.

The Sea of Storms does what the first book in any series is supposed to do – introduce us to the main characters and set up the world they inhabit. In most respects, the book does this very well.

We learn that Lyall is the moral voice of the small band of rebels, Alondo is the comic relief, Shann the cynical teenager, and Keris the brooding warrior with a haunted past. Boxx is a truly alien creature that keeps the other characters guessing with its endearingly cryptic speech.

And the world of Kelanni – with its three suns the people worship as gods – has the strange regions and creatures you'd expect to find in a fantasy novel. The Fire Pits. The Great Barrier of Storms. The Serpent of Karthrun. But that's where the fantasy ends. The science fiction comes in with the lodestones, which are supposed to be a form of technology that Whiteway based on Einstein's theories of “negative matter.”

The book is fun, but it does have its down sides.

For one, it can be very plot driven at times. Some of the characters abandon long-held beliefs at the drop of a hat in order to make choices the plot obviously demanded. For example, Keris the Keltar abandons her faith, her mentor, and the only life she has ever known after getting a dubious message regarding the Prophet's secret weapon. A message which someone in her position should at least have been skeptical. And Lyall, the leader of the rebellion, seems way too trusting of the strangers he meets on their quest. It makes one wonder how he survives in a society where the Keltar are all-powerful and betrayal is supposedly common.

The world-building was fine, but it did have some holes. Like the nomadic race that wanders the plains hunting herds of buffalo-type creatures...and “brews their own wine.” Now that's okay, but the author never explains where in their wagons they store their vineyards.

But with that said, Lodestone Book One: The Sea of Storms is a fast-paced adventure that doesn't spend a lot of time with character navel gazing, or devote pages to technology or magic description like many sci-fi/fantasy door stoppers today. All those things are there, but they come out at appropriate times through the action in the story, and they do not slow down the narrative. Give The Sea of Storms a try if you're looking for a short, action-packed read.

You can find Lodestone Book One: Sea of Storms on Amazon, along with its sequel, Lodestone Book Two: The World of Ice and Stars. It is also available in ebook form from Smashwords.

Rob Steiner is the author of The Last Key.

Lulu Makes A Big Mistake

2010-10-25T08:43:00.003-06:00

I received the following email over the weekend from Lulu:

Get your book on the iBookstore with our eBook Conversion Service

Get your book on the iPad (TM) and other eReaders

eBook Conversion Services

Lulu now offers eBook conversion services to take your book into the future. Get your book ready for the iBookstore*, the iPad and other eReaders with our ePub conversion service. Based on your page size, please select the appropriate service.

ePub Conversion Services
250 pages or less: $99
251-500 pages: $199
501-750 pages: $299

This is a service that Amazon and Smashwords provide for FREE.

Why is Lulu doing this? Are they trying to recoup the investment made to create or license the software? Are they completely ignorant of what Smashwords is doing here? Or even Amazon? Or are they hoping that authors are?

When I first looked to self-publish my novel, Armistice Day, the only option I had was to go with a vanity press. Not wishing to spend thousands of dollars on printing costs (I'd already spent plenty on editing), I chose to wait. Then along came Lulu with its zero start up costs. They made their money as copies of each book were printed and sold. All in all, I was happy with them.

A year later, I'm not so happy. While I've been fortunate not to have any quality issues, I've discovered that their book production costs make it difficult for a nobody like myself to sell copies at a competitive price. My research has determined that $15 is too high. I've had success with a $10 price point as it is only slightly higher than mass market paperbacks. Unfortunately, my per unit cost with shipping is around $11/book.

Now Lulu wants to up their presence in the hot ebook market. But they're forgetting that the reason why ebooks are hot is that they're cheap. Charging a hundred dollars and up for the service when most indie ebooks sell for $2.99 means that an author will need to sell a lot of copies just to break even. But since Smashwords and Amazon don't charge a thing, I think that this is a serious mistake. For me, it's further evidence that a formerly good company for independent authors has failed to adjust to the changing publishing climate.

Erasing the Stigma of Self-Publishing

2010-10-22T08:57:00.001-06:00

If you read this blog, you know all about the stigma of self-publishing. I won't waste your time rehashing the debate. We know that there are gems in the indie publishing world and we like to dig them up. Every so often, one of the traditional publishing companies realizes that they're out there too and snatches them up.

Really. It happens.

For instance, Kristen Tsetsi had two books picked up by an undisclosed publisher. Kristen's novel, Homefront was one of those two books and it was reviewed here by Podler three years ago.

Good things come to those who persevere. Congratulations, Kristen!

ZombieStop Parade by Richard Buzzell (aka ZombieStopperUno)

2010-10-13T15:34:00.005-06:00

This book is entertaining, not so much for its plot as for its style. There are truckloads of books telling tales of young progressives working to enlighten the masses about corrupt systems, but few told in such a fresh and economical way.

The whole story unfolds in the form of a diary kept by the unnamed best friend of a late-teens/early-twenties college dropout named Corky. Both guys are unhappy with the way large corporations seem to break the rules and expect the population to buy their twisted rationalizations as expressed by the corporate-owned mainstream media. There is much mention of a recent “financial fiasco,” which everyone is dealing with, and which is being spun as usual to make the corporations look blameless. Corky and his friend run a progressive blog called ZombieStop, which they founded when twelve years of age. It includes a forum and, as the book progresses, a satirical comic strip. Corky is also a DJ at an invitation-only club. The two guys are very good at what they do, and very careful about letting things go to their heads. They just want people to stop being zombies.

The plot has a few twists and turns, but what held me from beginning to end was the spare and elegant prose style. This is the diary of a young man with a close friend whom he admires. They share a common goal, and are willing to put in hours, years, really, in front of computer screens to achieve it. His trust of Corky is tested from time to time by others; he doesn't go crazy or confront Corky at knife-point or anything; he just reflects upon his feelings in the diary. It is a real treat to read someone's thoughts about friendship, loyalty, truth, and doubt when they are presented so honestly, and in a very clever deadpan style.

The book reads like a Jane Austen novel; any really intense action occurs offstage (in this case, a house and a yacht are blown up after some embarrassing personal finance information is uploaded to the blog by someone calling himself the Jackal; this brings the blog under suspicion but also boosts its following). What the reader is treated to is the inner thoughts of the number two guy as he handles the blog's newfound fame, the rekindling of a relationship he has had with a lover who criticizes him constantly, and the intrusive and leading questions of an FBI agent assigned to sniff out conspiracies. The friend discusses at length Corky's common-sense progressive ideology and his quietly subversive style without ever sounding didactic or fawning; he is able to show doubt, modesty, and humor in a way that is rare in literature of this type.

Downside? The prose, while very good, could do with a comma-ectomy. Buzzell also needs to decide upon English (“neighbourhood”) vs American (“labor”) spelling. But these are easily fixed, and do not detract from this little gem of a novel.

Author's Website

Sky Girl and the Superheroic Legacy (Volume 1) by Joe Sergi

2010-09-27T18:58:00.005-06:00

Reviewed by: S.B. Jung

The story of Sky Girl and the Superheroic Legacy covers the adventures of Dede Christopher, a high school freshman with the usual crush on the captain of the football team. She is a gymnast with an archrival who happens to be dating said captain of the football team and is one of the most beautiful and talented gymnasts in town. Dede's best friend, Jason, is a comic book fanatic who has indexed every power of every superhero he has ever read about, along with their fictional life histories. When Dede starts developing strange abilities, it's Jason who realizes that her new powers are none other than the powers of SkyBoy whom everyone believes is nothing but a comic book legend.

The beauty of the this book is that it never tries to be anything else but a good ol' time. It's text is fresh, never breaking characters out of themselves to be existential, symbolic, but rather characters to whom the characters can relate. The characters develop at a good pace, though sometimes the teenage angle is a touch too much, at times making the main character harder to sympathize with through her whining. The angle of approach is realistic, revealing that superheroes are human, too, and won't always say or do the right thing, but they sure try. Except for a couple mechanical errors here and there, plus a strange penchant for commas between simple, easy adjectives (that was an example) in the beginning of the book, Joe Sergi delivers a book that is professional the first time around. I read this book in two days because of how easy and absorbing it was. May you enjoy this book as much as I did.

For more information, visit: www.skygirlnovel.com

The Dempsey Gambit by Ben Lacy

2010-09-19T17:10:00.006-06:00

Reviewed by S.B. Jung.

The premise of The Dempsey Gambit is human cloning and the ethics behind successfully cloning another human being. The story adds dimension to this question with the ability to clone anyone from history with a full memory provided scientists can find their residual energy signature in a particular place. Lacy does not go for the cliché idea of cloning someone like Albert Einstein, Adolf Hitler, or any other prominent figure in history. Rather, the story revolves around the cloning of former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, all for the sake of a desperate boxing manager bouncing on financial thin ice. The scientists involved did it for the funding only to discover that duplicating a human being is not as simple as it seems on paper.

The beauty of the story comes from watching as the cloned Jack Dempsey adapts to a new world and society almost a century after his own. He has the memories of the original Dempsey as well as the skill, prowess, and strength of the original, but once he understands his new surroundings, he starts to see if he can make his own life without just following in the original's footsteps. The story also follows the female scientist, Rebecca, involved in his cloning and the ethical questions she cannot escape.

The story is a complicated twist of drama, enemies become close friends, and moral questioning that is just lovely. Lacy rarely gets overly cliché and does an excellent job of making Dempsey both a fish out of water and a person who is light years ahead of society with his simplistic angles of thinking. Lacy begs the question of whether cloning is something to really pursue in this society, or if perhaps science should leave well enough alone. This book is more of a dive into moral waters than pure science fiction, so keep that in mind before picking it up.

A few things that keep this book from being perfect is a need for a thorough line editor. There are enough mistakes with spelling, verb tense, possessives, and punctuation that threaten the integrity of the story. Also, there is a transition problem in the first half of the book when narration switches between Jack's and Rebecca's perspectives. A full sentence or perhaps simply providing the dates and times at the beginning of chapters would allow an easier transition without the need to think of news ways to introduce time overlap. Finally, there is almost too much on boxing that a layman, like myself, starts to feel burdened with knowledge. There is a fine line between showing the audience that you did your homework and giving so much information that the audience becomes disinterested. Those sections need to be culled in order to fit with the rest of the book.

Overall, I recommend this book as long as you keep those minor errors mentioned in mind. Kudos, Mr. Lacy.

The book is available for the Kindle.

The Smashwords Conveyor Belt

2010-09-15T18:20:00.015-06:00

It has been a while since I have sampled the treasures of Smashwords as they arrive hot off the server. Once again, I am looking at the book-length literary fiction offerings available today, September 15. I mainly read the samples, which are often generous, but if I really love a book, I buy it. I am skipping thrillers and any other genres I feel would be better judged by another member of the staff.

First up is G. K. Ingersoll's The Atheist Vignettes . This is a mostly well-written pastiche of pieces about people, mostly former members of a group called Chris†eens, who are confronting their doubts about faith as they enter middle age. We are treated to sections of a play interspersed with vignettes (naturally) of characters in various states of dogmatic compliance/anxiety interacting with one another. The dialog seems very sharp and realistic; the only problem is with the play excerpt at the beginning, featuring a dialog between God and Satan. The name of the speaker does not begin every line, so the reader is constantly referring back to the top of the page and counting downward “God, Satan, God, Satan...” to the line in question. There are also a few syntactical errors, but overall it looks like an interesting read.

Next, we have three offerings from the mysterious “Dorian Taylor.” Is he real? Is he alive? Is he dead? The preface of each work only hints.

I will start with Modern Problems. We are told of an author using the pseudonym “Dorian Taylor,” an artist plagued by anomie who just cannot get it together to find a market for his writing. The book is a pastiche of narratives, beginning with a poem. I think Taylor has a story to tell, but first he has to fix the errors and the derivative style. I'm sure he can come up with a more interesting description of a dancer than comparing her to Terpsichore:

“From all that he could conger up in his mind in later years, all that really presented itself to his memory were Jamie's legs…”

“Standing still she was a homely little girl from Nebraska, in motion she was Terpsichore, the Goddess of the dance, and she came from Mount Olympus.

“There is or maybe was, a bar off of Washington Square, situated in the basement. It had chess boards painted on it's tables, and the chief reason for going there was to discuss philosophy, or literature, or maybe play a game of chess, while sipping the French liquid fire called Pernod” (italics mine)…

Top 40 is a book that uses old (and I mean OLD) pop tunes as chapter headings in stories about the author as a “man out of time.” Being old myself, I can relate. I didn't get through enough of the sample to see if he actually used Joni Mitchell's “Urge for Going,” but it's what comes to mind. The image of the rambling man who “marches to a different drummer” or “hears the call of the road,” or (if I ever write my own song) “is too narcissistic to commit to anyone” is very prominent. I'm hoping it was a satirical treatment, but when he misspelled “Iliad” I couldn't go on.

Billed as “Georgette Heyer meets the Marquis De Sade,” Taylor's Volatile Elements makes for more interesting reading. It is about a very wealthy man who owns vineyards and other revenue-producing ventures, a man who came by his money in a very unfortunate way that I wish Taylor had elaborated much more upon. He meets up with a long-lost girlfriend, and we are treated to multiple points of view, as well as lots of steamy sex. I think Taylor's characters become much more interesting when they are making love rather than soliloquizing. This seems to be the most mature of the works.

Elder Wonder Comes of Age is a book about horny Mormons. It's very funny. It's Mormon practice to send their young eighteen-year-old men to do two years of missionary work. They can have only limited contact with family and friends while on a mission. The protagonist, Jerry Wonder, already has one strike against him: he's a vegetarian. Also, as most eighteen-year-old humans, he's constantly thinking about sex. He is sent to New Zealand, where, under the very watchful eye of a senior elder, he goes out proselytizing with other horny teens. It is the early 1960's, and everybody is worried about what direction the Cold War will take. They get a mixed reception in New Zealand; their hard-sell tactics anger many people. As a Jew (Jews don't seek converts), I found it unnerving to read about Jerry's partner lying to an elderly Jewish woman, telling her they were sent by her Rabbi to visit her. Jerry refuses to back up the other missionary's faith statements. Meanwhile, his girlfriend has taken a job as a stewardess so she can see him in New Zealand. I may have to buy this one…

The Last Key by Rob Steiner

2010-09-04T22:14:00.000-06:00

In Rob Steiner's, The Last Key, Raven Labrend is a Novice Dahkshari, an Order of Faith on the continent of Andea. He and his mentor, Jalen Drummond, are tasked with escorting Seala Mesalek, a Duke's daughter and heir, to a peace treaty signing between the kingdoms of Andea and Loquath. The ceremony is to be held at her uncle's castle. It should come as no surprise that the journey is fraught with perilous adventure.

The modern fantasy genre evolved out of fairy tales, legends and mythology. It peaked with Tolkien and his success spawned many imitators, good and bad. As such, we've all been exposed to these stories and are familiar with the elements that go into a high fantasy story: swords and magic, mythical creatures, kings and queens, valiant heroes and fair maidens, and the titanic struggle between good and evil. It would be all too easy for Steiner's story to simply follow that well-worn path and for his characters to fall into two-dimensional stereotypes, but they don't.

Steiner's characters have a measure of depth to them. Raven, is the valiant hero who wants nothing more than to emulate his mentor, Jalen, and to do that he must respect the strict rules of the Dahkshari. But he struggles with a painful childhood memory that drives him to seek justice even if it means bending the rules. Seala is the fair maiden, but she's an educated idealist among the nobility who's unafraid to engage Raven in a debate over the freedom to practice one's Faith. Furthermore, she takes pains to demonstrate to Raven that she's no fragile flower and won't be swayed by a handsome face.

Seala's uncle, Duke Thallan Brael, is cast as evil but he's not a cartoon villain. He was a decorated war hero during the war with Loquath. Sadly, Loquathi soldiers murdered the Duke's wife and children right before his eyes. For him, signing the peace treaty is a big mistake as his heart burns with revenge.

Ferahtu could be considered for the cartoon villain role, but he's more complex than that. His malevolence possesses a dark logic. He helps Brael to see that the end justifies the means. Sacrifices need to be made for the greater good and Ferahtu is all to eager to execute those hard decisions for him. Brael is in possession of one third of the Reaping Key, a powerful source of magic that a millennium ago nearly destroyed the world when one man possessed all three pieces. With Ferahtu's help, he seeks to reclaim the other two pieces and use its power to completely destroy Loquath.

The Last Key is more complicated than a simple quest journey. One of the sub-plots involves the practice of Faith. In Steiner's world, Faith is a form of magical energy; the life essence granted to all living things by the Patrons. It can be used to heal, protect and even destroy. There are various schools of Faith in which people may enlist to learn how to properly harness it. However, there's always someone who doesn't like school. These people are considered heretics and are hunted as criminals. Steiner puts Raven in an awkward situation, as the Novice must decide whether or not he should accept the help of a band of heretics or turn them over to the authorities.

There's plenty of action and at least one fight scene was so vividly choreographed that I had no trouble visualizing it blow by blow. But at no point did I feel like it was overdone. However, the body count is high. Many a character, both major and minor, meets an untimely end. While it makes for a grim story, under the circumstances, it's realistic.

Mythical beasts are used sparingly and to great effect. The Gryphons are noble, yet prideful creatures. The Renders are terrible monsters and Steiner doesn't spare us any details to their grotesque creation or their eating habits.

The Last Key is a great fantasy story. Steiner has crafted a world where politics muddy the boundary between good and evil and forces the characters to find a clear path to solve a world-shattering crisis. His characters rise above stereotypes and engage each other with realistic dialogue that comes naturally to them. And they evolve. Although it is only his first novel, The Last Key clearly exemplifies Steiner's mastery of writing high fantasy. He is one to watch.

Fantasy fans should go buy his book now from Amazon or Smashwords. Read more about Rob and The Last Key at his website.

New Service: Editorial Referral

2010-08-14T21:34:00.002-06:00

We'd like to announce a change in leadership at The New Podler Review of Books. Since Podler (the founder) has stepped down, the four of us have decided to carry on with the blog. Nature abhors a vacuum, and without Podler around to make decisions, we've discussed adding new features and practices to our reviews.

The first change is editorial referral. Sometimes we get submissions that look very much like rough drafts. Instead of giving them a poor review, we will respectfully decline them from now on and recommend an editor. We're building that pool of qualified editors, starting with our contributor, Sarah Cypher. To clear up any perception of potential impropriety, let it be known that none of the reviewers will receive a commission or referral fee of any kind. We do this with the intent of improving the quality of self-published books in the marketplace.

We welcome your comments and suggestions, and as always, look forward to providing the indie publishing community of writers and readers with helpful book reviews.

Update 9/3/10: We've now added Linda Chiara, Amberly Finarell and Den Fischer to our Editors' Pool.

Review of "Misanthropy's Ever-Expanding Wings" Web site by Libby Cone

2010-07-27T16:41:00.006-06:00

Michael Chivulescu's site fills a niche: it will attract fans of post-modernist writing and graphics who are also conservative/libertarian. Bursting with interesting illustrations (unfortunately I was unable to play any of the embedded audio), the site asks “QUO VADIS, AMERICA?” and purports to answer the question with the channelings of one “Goddess Roxanna” (replete with pre-Raphaelite paintings), the imprecations of “Spartacus Metastasis,” and a story having something to do with immigrant Russian loan sharks. The site claims to be partially censored due to a “US District Court (SACU)” order. I don't know what SACU stands for in this instance. South African Customs Union? San Antonio Credit Union?
Most of the prose rails against organizations such as Amnesty International, Moveon.org, ACLU, etc., “relentlessly projecting from this wretched station all over the world their odious, blood-thirsty and de-basing (sic) secular humanistic tentacles!” My libertarian husband would probably enjoy the polemics, but he wouldn't appreciate the graphics. He would love the Morse code, though, so I think I'll show it to him.

Flesh and Grass by Libby Cone

2010-07-25T20:30:00.006-06:00

Reviewed for The New Podler Review of Books by David Drazul.

Flesh and Grass is the fictional memoir of Cornelis Plockhoy, the son of Pieter Plockhoy, the founder of the ill-fated Dutch settlement of Zwaanendael in what is now Delaware. As if a novel about a Dutch colony in North America weren't rare enough, Cone's protagonist is blind. As such, Cornelis recalls his life's experiences through his other senses, particularly scent. Nearly all of his memories have some olfactory attribute, whether pleasant or foul, associated with them. Cinnamon recalls his ever supportive mother while the odor of cooked meat is a horrific reminder of his father's death.

Like the Puritans in Plymouth, the Dutch in Zwaanendael are there for religious freedom. Much like his father, Cornelis is a pious man. But unlike his father, Cornelis is faced with one test of faith after another. Although he never questions his blindness, life in the New World brings enough calamity that he wouldn't be blamed for thinking himself a descendant of Job. The colony is caught in the crossfire between the British and Dutch Empires. Each round of battle between the two nations brings some form of tragedy to the settlement and Cornelis' life. While he prays for deliverance from the avaricious struggles of nations, part of him wonders why he and his brethren must suffer so.

Cone has painstakingly researched her novel. While she admits to taking liberties with a few of the characters, the historical events that transpired are factual. The dialogue, while obviously written in English, is peppered with enough Dutch and Old English to grant an air of authenticity to the story. While this should be considered an asset, it might turn off some readers uncomfortable with the vernacular of the time (mid to late 1600's).

While Flesh and Grass offers a window into 17th Century colonial America, it is the tests of Cornelis' faith that make up the crux of the story. Each new found joy and sorrow over four decades of life spent in the settlement work at the foundation of that faith. In the end, we learn whether or not that foundation is on solid ground or sand.

Flesh and Grass is available in different eBook formats through the author's website.

Update 6/24/11: Now available in paperback.

Broken Birds: The Story of My Momila

2010-07-19T12:22:00.003-06:00

This book has been getting a lot of attention online, so I was eager to read it. It is the story of a dysfunctional family, the sons and daughters of Holocaust survivors. Although it purports to be the story of the matriarch, information about her is relatively sparse and leaves the reader with many questions. The mother, Channa, and her brother, Isaac, grew up in a small town in Poland. When the German army took over, they suffered the depredations visited upon the resident Jews and soon wound up in a ghetto. When Channa was twelve, shortly after the death of their aunt and Isaac's wife and children in a pogrom, Isaac took Channa with him into the forest, where they joined the partisans, remaining with them until the end of the war. They snipped telephone and telegraph lines, blew up bridges, killed solitary German soldiers, lived off the land and off food they demanded from farmers. When the Red Army liberated Poland two years later, they returned to their hometown to find the rest of their family had perished and their home was occupied by strangers, who reluctantly let them move in and then relinquished the house. That is the first ten percent of the book. The reader is then treated to a rather rushed narrative of Katzir's father, who grew up in a town in Czechoslovakia that later became part of Hungary. Only a few pages are devoted to the difficult years of 1939-1944; then he and his family were deported to Auschwitz. Nathan managed to survive the selections for the gas chambers, and wound up later on a hellish work detail cleaning up the rubble of the Warsaw Ghetto (which she calls “only a shell of its former self”). As the Allies drew closer, he was deported to the German camp, Dachau. The reader encounters the tired phrases of concentration-camp existence: “packed like sardines,” “living skeletons,” etc. Then, astonishingly, only after he gets to Dachau, Nathan gets lice! Now, Dachau was a disgusting camp; they all were. But Auschwitz was the worst of the worst, with its gas chambers and crematoria going day and night (there is still controversy as to whether the gas chambers at Dachau were ever used to exterminate Jews, while there is no question about the ones at Auschwitz). I don't ever recall reading that Auschwitz had a lot of hand sanitizer stations. You couldn't spend more than five minutes there without getting lice. Here is where the narrator misses rich opportunities to delve into the experiences of Channa and Nathan, and how their later behaviors were shaped. Channa was in the partisans for two years; why do we get so few pages? Is Nathan's memory of events skewed so that he remembers the lice at Dachau and forgets the lice at Auschwitz? Was Auschwitz too horrible to remember? Or is this just sloppy editing?

At one point, as Nathan was trying to outwit the Germans (always referred to as “Nazis” in this book, although many of the most brutal soldiers never joined the Nazi Party), he and some friends jumped into a ditch. The author takes great pains to point out that “The ditch still held water mixed with sludge and dead bugs, but they did not care.” Eww! Dead bugs! These were people who would often wake to find their bedmate a corpse, who were often forced to spend days in railroad cattle cars shitting on the floor!

Nathan and Channa eventually made their way to America separately, met, and married. Five children were born, and their story takes up most of the book. We really never understand fully how Channa's and Nathan's backgrounds molded their parenting style, and how (or if) it turned the kids into such quarrelsome, greedy bastards. There is one scene where Nathan dances too much, in Channa's estimation, with a niece at a party, and Katzir seems to see this as a seminal event in her mother's behavioral slide. Much more narrative energy is lavished upon all the times one sibling signed a contract with another and then reneged, or one sibling borrowed money and never returned it, than on the behavior of, say, the other partisans or the camp guards. We are treated to a long description of the author's love of horseback riding, and of how an unscrupulous dealer sold her her first horse, a bad match. She feels entitled to use a sister's address to allow her kids to go to school in a town they don't reside in, and goes ballistic when the sister abruptly puts a stop to it. The quarreling over the mother's will after her death is too much to take. All the siblings are scandalized by their father's quick remarriage, though one could hardly blame him, since his wife wrote him out of the will! There is really very little more about Channa until her death, just some quotes showing that she wasn't June Cleaver.

After the Holocaust, the victims (and the perpetrators who avoided arrest) mostly worked hard to establish some kind of normal life. The everyday problems of fighting siblings, financial strain, obnoxious neighbors, etc. don't go away because you were part of one of the most tragic and momentous events in history. Your way of dealing with those issues may be greatly affected, though, but we are not given much information about this in the story, most of which is devoted to the five children of Channa and Nathan (Channa called them “My five fingers”).

When do people whose parents went through hell stop blaming those parents for all the behaviors of their siblings? This is another interesting question that goes unaddressed. Perhaps their parents really DID screw them up; what difference does it make? When do you start taking responsibility for your own problems, since blaming does nothing to solve them?

“Broken Birds” is like a sandwich: a long list of familial acrimonies between two slices of narrative. With some editing of the filling, and enrichment of the bread, it would be a much more interesting read.

We Have All Had This Conversation

2010-07-14T09:06:00.003-06:00

I saw this over at the POD People blog this morning and I just had to share.

Hats off to Zoe Winters for perfectly encapsulating the debate.

\_/
DED

The Losing Role by Steve Anderson

2010-07-07T14:16:00.011-06:00

Reviewed for The New Podler Review of Books by David Drazul.

Late in 1944, the German Army pressed westward along the western front in a desperate attempt to break the Allied advance. The offensive would later come to be known as the Battle of the Bulge. While plenty of novels and movies have portrayed the American side of the struggle in Belgium's Ardennes forest that winter, Steve Anderson's The Losing Role examines the story of a German soldier caught up in a cause he knows is lost.

Max Kaspar is an out-of-work actor drafted into the German Army to fight a war he doesn't have the stomach for. A former emigrant to America, Max's English speaking skills, not to mention his acting ability, lands him a part in Operation Greif, the brainchild of SS Colonel Otto Skorzeny. The plan is for English-speaking soldiers to sneak behind American lines and wreak as much havoc as possible to better the odds of Panzer divisions breaking through American lines. Max, however, has plans of his own.

Max has seen enough of the horrors of war to know that Germany is fooling itself if it can think it can win. The Russians are fueled by revenge on the Eastern Front and the Americans, well, there's no end to the resources at their disposal. It's Max's hope to use the cover of the operation to desert the Army and find passage back to America, where he can rejoin his family and renew his career. But any soldier can tell you that nothing ever goes as planned in war.

Anderson doesn't offer much hope for Max. It seems as if everyone has an ulterior motive and Max isn't sure who to trust, or for how long. Each encounter he faces could be the one where he gets caught or killed. Anderson deftly elevates the tension when Max stumbles over words, phrases or elements of American culture that any American would know. The story is told entirely from Max’s point of view but Anderson skillfully hints to the reader what other characters are up to through well placed conversational and body language clues that Max doesn’t always pick up on.

While it would be easy to root against Max simply because he’s a German soldier (our enemy at the time), Anderson sculpts Max as a likable guy, a victim of circumstance rather than a hero for Deutschland. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn of Max's struggle to fit in as an immigrant actor in America, forced to play German stereotypes. Disgruntled, he returns to a rejuvenated Germany where he finds success and love, at least until the bombs start to fall.

I would’ve liked to have seen more interaction with Max and his pre-war girlfriends on both sides of the Atlantic. While we got a good start with Lucy, Liselotte comes across as an ideal placed on a pedestal. We never really get to know her.

It's always refreshing to see a portrayal of a German soldier as something other than a mindless stormtrooper perpetuating Hitler's bloodlust for world domination. Max isn't a Nazi and he has no stomach for war. He's an actor who just wants to entertain his audience, but he's smart enough to know that those that speak out against the war effort disappear.

The setting is thoroughly researched, but Anderson uses it to bolster the credibility of the story rather than rehashing historical trivia. His masterful use of dialogue builds suspense every step of the way. The Losing Role is an excellent WW II espionage thriller that transcends the genre, making it a story that you don't have to be a history buff to enjoy.

The author's website contains links to other works as well as sample chapters of this one.

The Losing Role is available in multiple e-book formats from iBooks, Kindle, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and Scribd.

"The Final Page" Tip of the Week: Plan way ahead. I mean waaay ahead.

2010-07-06T13:13:00.004-06:00

"The Final Page" column provides a weekly tip for avoiding common self-publishing mistakes. A professional final product makes the difference between being reviewed on The New Podler, or being one of the millions of books that sink through Amazon's sales rankings to languish below the 4-million mark.

Give yourself three months, and then add two more.
Have you ever tried to thaw a frozen chicken breast 30 minutes before dinner? Or fix the plumbing in the guest bathroom the Friday before your in-laws arrive? Then you know that rushing is a bad idea. If you are going to publish your own manuscript in a professional way, you need t-i-m-e, and lots of it.

Here's a 20-week schedule that will guarantee your book launches successfully. I will assume you have an edited manuscript in hand when you begin.

Weeks 1 and 2
Contact your short-list of freelance cover designers, typesetters, indexers, proofreaders, and printers. Get price and time estimates. Anyone who can't get back to you within two weeks with a proposal should be struck from the list, as they're likely to delay production later on.

Weeks 3 to 5
Your freelance cover designer and/or typesetter should be able to deliver draft cover designs and interior layouts to you in fewer than three weeks. Solicit opinions from a few trusted colleagues. Then give your prompt response to the designer and/or typesetter with a clear list of revisions.

Week 6
You should receive your next-t0-final draft of your cover design and interior layout. Send both files to your proofreader for a final typo search, and then submit the list of changes to the typesetter and/or cover designer.

Weeks 7 and 8
Submit the final interior layout file to the indexer (if your book is nonfiction). When the indexer delivers the index, send that file to the typesetter for inclusion in the final layout. Most typesetters will deliver all press-ready files to your printer, unless you prefer to do so yourself.

Week 9
Receive galley copies from the printer. Check for errors in trim size, bleeds, color, page orientation, and the like. Work with the printer and designer to make any final changes. Now is also the time to submit some uncorrected proofs to newspapers and magazine book review departments that have long lead times. (Don't worry, "uncorrected proofs" are the norm.)

Week 10
Check the final galley for errors, and order your first 100 books. Even if you use a print-on-demand publisher, you will want many copies on hand to sell directly to your network, send as gifts, and send to review outlets with shorter lead times.

Weeks 11 to 20
Congratulations! The hard work is done. Craft a press release for your book, search for other review sites, plan a book launch event, and communicate with your network. Submit two copies to the U.S. Copyright Office.

When the official publication date arrives, you can be confident that your book is as error-free as possible, and prepared for a well-orchestrated launch.

Sarah Cypher is the author of "The Editor's Lexicon: Essential Writing Terms for Novelists" (Glyd-Evans Press, 2010) and runs a two-woman editing and book design shop, The Threepenny Editor.

Submissions Update

2010-06-28T11:13:00.004-06:00

We've finished reviewing the submissions that came in through ~~April 30th~~ May 15th. If you haven't heard from us, then we won't be reviewing your book. We apologize for the general, impersonal announcement but we're desperately trying to catch up on the backlog.

The New Podler Review of Books Staff

Fashion Police By: Sibel Hodge

2010-06-23T09:03:00.002-06:00

Review For the New Podler Review of Books by S.B. Jung

Hodge created a lovely chick-lit/thriller storyline that reminds me of Charlaine Harris’ Lily Bard mysteries that I love to eat up. The main character, Amber Fox, is a jilted ex-cop out for revenge against her incompetent superior officer, Janice Skipper, whose goal in life is to look beautiful, destroy others more competent that herself, and snag Amber’s Latin Lover for herself. Her dismissal from the Hertfordshire police force forces her to work for her ex-fiance in order to make ends meet. The storyline follows the disappearance of a famous fashion designer and his latest collection. The story has a lot of promise, and some simple clean-up would help the story flow better and reach a more diverse audience. The characters are mostly fun and the story is a nice read. The love triangle Amber Fox finds herself in is a nice touch of humanity and vulnerability, though her indecision gets to be much after awhile. We don’t want a heroine with a penchant for whining, do we?

Issues: First, the book takes place in England, so some of the slang and references are lost on a Yankee like myself. I understood references such as “flat” (apartment) and “boot” (trunk of the car), but others lost on me. If the book had been meant as a regional book, it wouldn’t make a difference, but since this review site caters to an American audience, better care needs to be given in order to market to an international audience.

As for the storyline, it was polished enough but for a few problems. First, Amber is forced to field too many assignments at once. All of them tie together to the overall picture, but time needs to be taken so the reader can absorb what’s happening and digest. Also, the part where Amber has a dream sequence and magically finds a program the Hacker can use for facial recognition is just too convenient. More development is needed her to make this wholly believable.

Also, the author seemed a little too stereotypical in her portrayal of one particular character which almost had me stop reading. Her decision to make “the Hacker” a black male would have been normal, but she decides to have him be a Haitian versed in Voodoo (voudon or Vodun are more proper), dress in over-sized hip-hop clothing, and eat only natural foods. Hodge points out his eccentricities over and over again, saying things like, “He had to be the least techy-looking guy I’d ever seen: black, over six and half feet tall with two plaits sticking out the top of his head, a hoodie three sizes too big, jeans that were so baggy they defied the laws of gravity, and a goatee beard. He looked more like a gangster rapper than a computer expert” (Hodge 2). It is this stereotyping of minorities that can be insulting and offensive to both the targeted race as well as those who do not tolerate discrimination of any sort. Stereotyping like this alienates more sensitive readers. She could have treated this in a much better manner than this and other references to the Hacker as Snoop Dogg. This is a personal opinion of mine, for the record, and some may not see into it as much as I do, so if you read it please bear that in mind.

This book is available from Amazon.

S.B. Jung has been an English Teacher since 2002. She has been writing plays, poems, and novels since 1997; Lines of Neutrality is her first published work. You can find the book at Amazon or other online retailers.

Technical Difficulties, Please Stand By

2010-06-17T14:25:00.000-06:00

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The New Podler Review of Books Staff

Review Roundup by Libby Cone

2010-06-06T13:21:00.012-06:00

by Libby Cone

I have been on another Smashwords adventure, catching book samples on my hard drive as they drop from the conveyor belt of the literary fiction genre. Using this method, I hope to save readers time, energy, and money by reporting on books worth reading, worth sampling, and worth letting fall into oblivion.

Today is June 6, 2010. The latest offering is “Brakenstroom” by Jacob Singer, a book of short stories about Jewish emigrants to South Africa. When I noted that only the first ten percent of the book was offered as a free sample, I was concerned that I might not appreciate its essence by reading such a small excerpt. I need not have worried, though. I invite experts on the complicated and tragic history of South Africa to comment on the accuracy of the author's account in the introduction. No expert is needed, however, to find “it's” being used as a possessive pronoun, or an implement for blade sharpening being described as a “wet-stone.” I began to have serious doubts when I read this sentence: “He worked hard, the hours spent pouring over accounting books giving him the stooped scolitic back and chronic myopia that on his tall thin frame, offered a portrait of the Scrooge circumstances had made him.” Then I read this sentence and gave up: “As a boy he was always a head and shoulders taller than others his own age, as thin as a stick, with two large ears on either side of a very Jewish nose.”

Next is “To Come Back So Far From Nowhere in Particular” by Jon Thorpe. This is a free short story. Unlike the previous work, which dealt with a skinny, four-eared Jewish kid, this story describes the challenges facing suburban Christian youth devoid of bizarre physical deformities. I stopped reading after Page 6, which contains this sentence: “One young woman, Virginia Talbot, someone who would proclaim that Lubeck had seduced and corrupted her and led her astray from her good Christian values, had come forward and admitted Lubeck had arranged meetings with her in seedy hotel room where the two would smoke crack and Lubeck would masturbate as she pleasured herself with a crystal dildo.”

The next book in line is “The Sister City Initiative,” also penned by Mr. Thorpe. Forgive me, readers, for skipping his other ouevre, and the next book in line, which is written in Japanese.

The next book is “The Album” by Sandra White. It is actually published by “The Fiction Works.” POD purists may skip the rest of this paragraph. Ms. White gets brownie points from me for correct usage and spelling of the words “pored” and “its.” However, after wading through onslaughts of telling-and-not-showing, I was finally defeated by this sbit of dialogue: “ 'It's beautiful out here, Jack. Blakefield's city fathers have done a superb job expanding and building without totally demolishing the wonder of Mother Nature.'”

Everyone knows the conflicting urges to look, and not to look, at something ghastly. I decided to give in to the desire to look at another short story of Mr. Thorpe, the next story in line, called “Never, Ever, Bring This Up Again.” I am happy that I did, because this cold-war-era story of a failing oil platform (sound familiar?) while somewhat difficult to follow, is actually an attempt at satire. It led me to return to the previous story by Mr. Thorpe, about the crystal dildo, and indeed, satirical narrative followed. My bad. While I did not think either satire was very clever, far be it from me, hoodwinked as I was, to reject Mr. Thorpe's pieces out-of-hand. You may wish to sample them yourself.

As that wasn't much of a ringing endorsement, I proceeded to the next book, “Chips & Gravey,” only to find that it does not seem to be self-published, having already garnered advance comments from the likes of E. Annie Proulx and Atom Egoyan.

Next in line is Wes Patterson's “Wherever You May be Searching.” A weird book. A motormouth know-it-all boy has a creepy, borderline-incestuous relationship with his sister, who is just a couple of years younger than he. I think he's supposed to be a 'bend-the-rules,” “different drummer” sort, but he comes off as controlling and manipulative. Sample it if you wish.

“107 Degrees Fahrenheit” is another short story by Barry Rachin, whose “Just Like Dostoyevsky” I have reviewed previously. Barry, Barry, Barry, what's with the weird commas? What's with the snappy dialogue like “'Marauding insects and harsh weather often destroy the eggs. Raising them in captivity helps even the odds they’ll survive to adulthood and reproduce'”?

“Beyond Redemption – The Forbidden” by Jax Alexander. Adjective-noun, adjective-noun, adjective noun, ad nauseam: “Gagging down bile mashed up by the crushing grip, Mike was assaulted by the stench of decaying carrion as he oozed through the clashing colors into the center of the stinking swirl. Toxic thoughts filled with ancient anger forced their way into his head and fouled his mind with an oily presence.” Need I say more?

Finally (my eyes are crossing), “Embrace the Rain” by Michael Holloway Perronne. I only read the first thirty pages or so, but it looks good. Technically, it's published by Chances Press, which seems to specialize in gay erotica, but I don't see any encomiums by Edmund White or Sarah Waters, so I'll include it in the self-pub category. A bunch of couples and families, gay and straight, are affected by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, some in a completely negative way, some in an opportunistic way. The writing is good. Take a look at it.

"The Final Page" Tip of the Week: Avoid common typesetting mistakes.

2010-06-04T12:31:00.003-06:00

"The Final Page" column provides a weekly tip for avoiding common self-publishing mistakes. A professional final product makes the difference between being reviewed on The New Podler, or being one of the millions of books that sink through Amazon's sales rankings to languish below the 4-million mark.

"Do it yourself" shouldn't scream "I did it myself!"
Graphic designers are expensive. In my years as an editor, however, I have learned that they don't charge half of what they are worth to authors, and that a $700 book cover or $500 layout job ought to buy them a pair of angel wings. In an increasingly savvy indie marketplace, an ugly book will embarrass you and hurt sales.

Mama may have said, "Ain't nothing is free." Listen up. If you are publishing a book without the help and expense of a graphic designer, what you don't know will cost you. You can typeset your book in Word, but there are reasons not to. The industry-standard software, Photoshop and InDesign, will cost you more than a designer who knows how to use them. Whatever program you use, be sure to avoid these common mistakes.

1. The page margins must be set correctly. There are certain proportions the margins should conform to; specifically, the margins that face the center fold should be wider than outer margins, to leave room for binding.

2. Running heads and page numbering are often cluttered, and sized either too large or too small.

3. Chapter titles, subheads, and epigraphs often look disproportionate.

4. Paragraph's indents should not be a full half-inch. Two to three spaces is usually enough.

5. Tracking may be too tight, and the leading, too loose. Tracking is the space between lines, and leading is the space between letters.

6. Readers will lose patience with ugly, hard-to read font. Although standard for manuscripts, twelve-point font size is a bit excessive for the body text. Be keenly aware of how big or small your font will appear, realistically, in the published version.

7. Your typing teacher may have taught you to put two spaces between sentences. But in the age of computers and nice readable fonts, the accepted standard is only one. Do a find-and-replace for double spaces.

For more reading on the subject, visit this article and this one. And if you prefer to spend your money on Adobe software instead of a graphic designer who knows how to use them, at least drop $12 for this book on typesetting in Microsoft Word.

Sarah Cypher is the author of "The Editor's Lexicon: Essential Writing Terms for Novelists" (Glyd-Evans Press, 2010) and runs a two-woman editing and book design shop, The Threepenny Editor.

Book review: The Caliphate by Andre Le Gallo

2010-06-02T15:29:00.006-06:00

Reviewed for The New Podler Review of Books by David Drazul.

Steve Church, an American businessman, is visiting Dr. Ted Coogan, a friend of his father's, in Paris before a business trip to Morocco. Coogan and Steve's father were both in the CIA together. Although both are retired, Steve feels that Coogan would prove to be a great resource for the Arab world. Unknown to Steve at the time, Coogan is part of a research team charged with verifying the authenticity of a recently recovered copy of the Qur'an that differs from the established text. His work is considered blasphemous by many Muslims. As such, Coogan's home is ransacked and Coogan himself is attacked while away in Germany. Steve is asked to pick up Coogan at the airport, and the two are photographed together by a reporter.

This one photograph renders Steve guilty through association with Coogan. The Salafists, the organization behind the attacks on Coogan, assume that Steve is working with him and a CIA spy. They are led by Tariq al Khalil, who Steve knows of from graduate school. Tariq's organization seeks to restore the Caliphate, the political unification of all Muslims that, at its height, stretched from Spain to Pakistan. Tariq is willing to use any means necessary to accomplish his goal and any infidels who would undermine him must die.

Steve is ultimately recruited by the CIA and Mr. Le Gallo, a former CIA agent himself, introduces us to a far less glamorous organization than what we see in the movies. After his training, Steve is hampered by bean counters from the bureaucratic wing back home while being forced to recruit locals in the field to assist him with intelligence gathering.

From Paris to Morocco and from Mali to Israel, Steve and Tariq's paths cross time and time again. And as each grows more familiar with the other, so too does their enmity. I won't spoil the story's end, but there's a heated argument between the two men as they make the case for their respective causes. The verbal combat was, for me, more powerful than the action scenes.

Mr. Le Gallo draws upon his vast experience to show us not only what it's like to be a CIA operative but the villains he faced. 9/11 opened our eyes to the lengths that Islamic extremists will go to in order to achieve their objective. Mr. Le Gallo's terrorists are cut from that very same cloth. What's more, he brings the reader into the minds of the men that make up these organizations. While al Khalil is a megalomaniac, the rest of the men are far from being monolithic followers. Mr. Le Gallo reveals their conflicted psyches as they struggle to balance their conscience with the Salafist objectives.

My one complaint, and it's a minor one, is that the dialogue doesn't ring true at times. Character A would ask character B a series of questions all at once and continue talking without letting character B answer them. Finally, character B would be allowed to answer the questions in the order they were asked and then run on at length as well. It was as if they were conducting multiple conversation threads at once.

Mr. Le Gallo stated in the Acknowledgments for the book that "a novel allows the author to entertain as well as educate." I felt that sometimes he may have gone a bit too far in the education department. A few times a character would launch into an educational segment that may as well have started with "Did you know...." While some of the information was pertinent to the story, in a few instances it seemed more documentary than drama.

Overall, The Caliphate is an excellent story of international espionage and a welcome addition to the genre from someone who lived it. While we can rest easy that the more speculative elements are just fiction, the fact remains that the people Mr. Le Gallo writes about are very real, some frightfully so.

The book was published by Dorchester Publications and is available from them and Amazon.

Author site is at andrelegallo.com. Sample chapters are also available.

Update 2/16/11: The author's website is gone. However, the book is still available through Amazon.

Book review: Just Like Dostoyevsky by Barry Rachin

2010-06-02T15:07:00.003-06:00

Reviewed for The New Podler Review of Books by Libby Cone.

Having sat down at my computer to sort through the literary fiction on Smashwords, imagine my surprise at finding a winner in my first selection! “Just Like Dostoyevsky” by Barry Rachin is a smart short story about a divorcee, her teenage daughter, and an Irish handyman. Even better, the story is free. Unless, like myself, one has the great good fortune to be married to an engineer who also knows plumbing, certain domestic emergencies arise that call for a handyman. The man in question, Danny O’Rourke, hails from the Emerald Isle and charms mother and daughter with his quiet competence. The dialogue is dead-on. Rachin even manages to fit in flashbacks to a Russian trip the mother had taken the year before. The kid is appropriately flirty, the professor mother reserved. My only complaint was the succession of adjective-comma-adjective-noun phrases, like “curly, brown hair,” “muggy, July warmth,” “leggy, blonde coed.” Nothing that can’t be fixed.

The book is available at Smashwords.

"The Final Page" Tip of the Week: Think 10 years from now.

2010-05-22T16:02:00.004-06:00

"The Final Page" column provides a weekly tip for avoiding common self-publishing mistakes. A professional final product makes the difference between being reviewed on The New Podler, or being one of the millions of books that sink through Amazon's sales rankings to languish below the 4-million mark.

If you want it now, that could be a problem.
This month, my freelance editing business received several requests for a free sample edit. In some of those requests I saw a trend; thanks to the ever-rising profile of self-publishing, many writers are ready to get their novel into print, and want an editor to make it ready for publication in one pass. The catch: What if it's not ready to be line-edited?

I could eat up a lot of space in the column merely listing the reasons why a novel might need heavy structural revisions. But the crux of the problem is simply that it makes little sense to pay an editor to prep, scrub, and polish your novel until you know that its beginning, middle, and end doesn't need rewriting. Otherwise, you and your editor are just writing on water.

Think 10 years from now.
One of reasons writers write is the desire to say something permanent, something that remains true or entertaining over time. Ironically, the easier it is to convert those words into immortal print, the greater the temptation to do it too soon. Ten years from now, that rushed book may not the proud accomplishment you meant it to be.

So, take your time. If the manuscript needs another year, or two, or three, give it time. If your editor advises you to join a good critique group, do it. If, despite your truly accomplished writing or topical plot, the manuscript has an Achilles heel that trips it up at the climax, then back off, cool down, and rewrite those chapters from scratch.

In a world where money will buy authorship immediately, patience is tough. A published book may make you an author, but the bookstore has plenty of books by authors who are experts, celebrities, journalists, and politicians--people who probably wouldn't call themselves writers, per se. If you aren't an expert, celebrity, etc., then you need to be a writer before you're an author. Repeated failure, continuing improvement, and patience are what makes a person a writer. This is probably the hardest lesson I've had to learn, and from what I can see, it's not just a lesson for beginners.

Sarah Cypher is the author of "The Editor's Lexicon: Essential Writing Terms for Novelists" (Glyd-Evans Press, 2010) and runs a two-woman editing and book design shop, The Threepenny Editor.

Book Review: Dead Forever: Awakening By William Campbell

2010-05-20T19:58:00.012-06:00

William Campbell tackles the subject of reincarnation in his novel Dead Forever: Awakening. In this story, we find a group of rebels fighting for the right to live as they wish and conform to their own whims rather than someone else’s. The enemy is the Association, bent on making every sentient species they encounter conform to their idea of perfection in order to stamp out chaos and elements of violent dissent. The reincarnation comes into play in this book because the rebel society is fully aware of the soul’s ability to be reborn. In fact, one of the ingenious parts of the book that Campbell does well is that, if someone dies in a war, they have alternate vessels waiting for the soul to occupy and re-enter battle.

Another smart idea Campbell has is full memory and the Association’s hatred of this soul memory from lifetime to lifetime. How do you kill something that will just rise again to fight you? The Association’s answer is to brainwash people using pain as a deterrent to free thought and to teach the soul that there is only one lifetime and that God will decide where you will spend eternity – Heaven or Hell. Then, the body is disposed of with the soul following it blindly to the far ends of the known galaxy, unaware of the power of reincarnation.

As brilliant as the concept is, this is one of the things that was poorly done in the book. It philosophizes too much and too soon to be natural; information is given too quickly in the beginning. The main character, one who was rescued from the brainwashing, is subjected by excited compatriots spilling the ideas of why reincarnation makes so much more sense than the idea of God, Heaven, and Hell. The aggressive approach to anti-Christian life-after-death mentality is introduced too early and can serve to put people off who, given better lead in and less obvious comparison may actually have given readers more to think about. It also has these odd lucid dreaming sequences that are a bit too existential to fuse well with the rest of the book’s content.

Characterization suffered as well, mostly with the believability of the main character. The main character shifts from being a hardened soldier, to a crude mouthed drunk, to a philosophizing spiritual, to a man who literally can use thought to heal himself and fix anything in sight, all in one book. People are multi-faceted, but this is just too much for one book to cover in the amount written. More time and development of the plot and characters would probably have made a longer, but so much more smooth plot line to follow.

Lastly, Grammar was sometimes left at the roadside and made it difficult to understand what the author was trying to convey. I choose one problematic paragraph from the beginning of the book because it was the one I remember the most. Others I had to skip over because my mind refused to try and wade through it all.

“Even though I’ve seen it all before, every visit I have to gawk at the odd knock-knacks mounted to the walls. A car’s grill, banged up road signs, on the other wall an antique something, looks like an egg-beater, next to a transistor radio, and ancient photos behind cracked glass in broken frames, of people from some other century. Dusty junk hangs from the ceiling, worn tools with splintery handles, a pogo-stick, that might be fun, next to a rusty saber, all sorts of crap” (7).

The combination of sentence fragments, commas instead of semi-colons, and random thoughts mixed in without warning to the reader, jolted me out of my reader chair and into my teacher’s chair as I strove to make sense of what I was reading. Though this did not happen throughout the book, it happened enough that I settled more comfortably into the mindset of having to switch between being a reader and being a teacher in order to safely navigate through the all the book’s grammatical bends. It is understandable that an author does not need to be completely perfect at grammar, and that a misplaced comma or two won’t kill anybody, but there are basic rules to follow so that ideas are not lost on the audience.

All in all, the book was enjoyable enough, but the plot and main character need more development and better ways to naturally incorporate the author’s ideas without making the story feel as though it is going through a sci-fi vs. spiritual guidance personality crisis.

Dead Forever: Awakening is available through Amazon Kindle.

S.B. Jung has been an English Teacher since 2002. She has been writing plays, poems, and novels since 1997; Lines of Neutrality is her first published work. You can find the book at Amazon or other online retailers.

Book Review: This Unhappy Planet by Marc Horne

2010-05-20T19:08:00.005-06:00

Reviewed for The New Podler Review of Books by Libby Cone.

An elementary schoolteacher, a ravenous entrepreneur, and a New Age drifter form a company in Southern California to offer one-stop shopping for any kind of spirituality their well-off clientèle might wish. This sounds like the beginning of a joke, as well it should, but this book is awfully unfunny. Instead of jokes about messed-up kids really being “Indigo” and the language of beemers, we get odd metaphors and similes like “A bad vibe was bubbling up in the lava of the day” and “Her lips moved a little, like bananas full of maggots.” Most of the characters are not very likable, which is no sin; although I wasn't crazy about “The Kindly Ones,” you can bet I read it through to the end to see what its sick-pup protagonist would do next. But this isn't the Southern California of Didion or DeLillo; the characters and the plot are pretty predictable. The men are snarky and misogynist, the women neurotic and needy. We feel the economy tiptoeing towards the cliff, and see the unsurprising panic when it crashes. I'd love to see more character variety and depth, or at least more humor. The topic has the potential to be extremely humorous.

Gotta go adjust my aura!

The book is available at Smashwords.

Technorati Tags: book review,reviews,book,fiction

"The Final Page" Tip of the Week: E-books as a promo tool

2010-05-15T12:15:00.003-06:00

"The Final Page" column provides a weekly tip for avoiding common self-publishing mistakes. A professional final product makes the difference between being reviewed on The New Podler, or being one of the millions of books that sink through Amazon's sales rankings to languish below the 4-million mark.

Books That Sell Themselves
You've cut open your first shipment of books, handled the top copy reverently, and fulfilled pre-orders from family and friends. You still have 30 copies in the box. You give copies to the local library, and send more out for reviews. That leaves 20. Your Amazon sales rank looks a bit dismal, and now it's been a month and orders have tricked to zip. You leave a few more copies on the tables of local coffee shops. You're learning that books don't sell themselves.

But in a way, they can. Digital Book World's blog recently posted a study of what happens to paper book sales when the e-book is given away for free. Slight evidence suggests that giving away the e-book version impels more readers to buy the paper version. The study is imperfect in that it compares apples to oranges--the books it compares are of different genres and released by publishers of different sizes. Yet a correlation existed between free e-books and paper book sales.

As a promotional tool, e-books give you little to lose. By generating the multi-format book on Smashwords, readers can download the file to their computer as a PDF or read it on iPad, Nook, or Kindle. The process is relatively easy if you follow Smashwords's style guide, and free. Your book will then be available on the Smashwords site, as well as Amazon, B&N, and Apple's bookstore.

If giving your book away feels uncomfortable, you can always set a price for it now and generate a free coupon code for it later. Then, by sharing the coupon code promo through your social network online (you do have one, don't you?), you've allowed readers anywhere to perceive value in your offer and share it with others.

While no method guarantees success, who would you rather advertise to? Your family and local coffee shop patrons, or everyone with Internet access? Good luck!

Sarah Cypher is the author of "The Editor's Lexicon: Essential Writing Terms for Novelists" (Glyd-Evans Press, 2010) and runs a two-woman editing and book design shop, The Threepenny Editor.

"The Final Page" Tip of the Week: What to put on a copyright page

2010-05-08T14:28:00.002-06:00

The publisher's name and address (either URL or snail mail). Even if you are your own publisher, you may have a name for your publishing venture, or may wish to list Lulu or Amazon's Createspace as the publisher.
Book title
Author name
ISBN. See Bowker's website for more info on this essential 13-digit book identifier. The only reasons you wouldn't need to purchase an ISBN number from Bowker are: (a) you are already working with a publisher who provides one, or (b) you obtain a free one as part of your Lulu, Createspace, or Smashwords publishing package.
"Copyright © [year] [your name]. All rights reserved."
"First edition [year]."
Rights statement, which might read like this: "No portion of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, translated, transmitted, or stored in any
information retreival system existing or hereafter invented, without the written permission of the author."

You can also include these optional items.

Library of Congress control number. Actually, you won't be able to get one of these if you are self-published, but the equivalent is a Cataloging in Publication (CIP) number. It tells librarians where to shelve your book. Read more here.
The titles of your other books
Your URL, Facebook, or Twitter profile.

Where can I see an example?
For examples of copyright pages, select "Copyright" on any book for which Amazon.com offers the "Look Inside" feature.

Is that all I need to do?
All printed works are automatically copyrighted under U.S. intellectual property law. You may use the copyright symbol in the book when you publish it, and register it within three months of first publication to secure all the legal advantages of an officially registered work. To apply, file copyright form TX, which you can print with detailed instructions here. (And I gotta say it: I'm not a lawyer, so double-check my information before calling the job done.)

Sarah Cypher is the author of "The Editor's Lexicon: Essential Writing Terms for Novelists" (Glyd-Evans Press, 2010) and is a freelance editor with The Threepenny Editor.

The Editor’s Lexicon by Sarah Cypher

2010-05-07T06:59:00.001-06:00

Reviewed for The New Podler Review of Books by Libby Cone

This is a very helpful book. It gives names to many of the pitfalls we try to avoid in our writing, such as scope (which I would call “getting bogged down in one little detail”) and info-dump (nobody wants to know that the conference table was rectangular or the taxi was drive-by-wire). The author even has the courage to use a passage from Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight to illustrate weak style! She includes typical editorial comments to demonstrate how one might come across the terminology, as well as book excerpts illustrating good and bad execution and concepts that might otherwise seem obscure. It is a very short book, but its treatment of editorial lingo gives writers another tool for looking at their work with a bit more objectivity.

Technorati Tags: editing,writing technique

Sarah Cypher is the author of "The Editor's Lexicon: Essential Writing Terms for Novelists" (Glyd-Evans Press, 2010) and runs a two-woman editing and book design shop, The Threepenny Editor.

"The Final Page" Tip of the Week: Use the "find" function

2010-05-01T09:11:00.006-06:00

Last week I spotted a self-published book lying on a cafe table. It was a promo copy, and it got my attention—in a bad way. First, it had four typos in the first three pages. Second, it was a hardboiled mystery, but it had a creepy kitten on the cover.

Starting this week, "The Final Page" column will provide a weekly tip for avoiding mistakes like these as you get ready to print your book. A professional final product makes the difference between being reviewed on The New Podler, or being one of the millions of books that give self-publishing a bad rap.

Tip #1: Use the "find" function.
Even though I am an editor, my proofreader caught many small typos in my 80-page manuscript. Whatever program you use for writing, its "find" function will save you the twinge of humility you'll otherwise feel when you start noticing typos in your just-published book.

Double periods (..) When you cut sentences, the second period often gets overlooked.
Punctuation outside of quotation marks (",) (".) ("!) ("?) All punctuation goes inside, no matter how funny you think it looks. Refer to Strunk and White's Elements of Style for the very few exceptions.
Space around dashes ( -- ) All your long dashes, or em-dashes, should be right up against the words before and after them.
Fake em-dashes (--) You should also replace all double- or triple-hyphens (--) (---) with a true em-dash (—). Using the "find and replace" function in Word, go to the drop-down menu "special" and select em-dash.
Peak, peek, pique. Do yourself a favor. Look up all three of these words right now. Use "find" and correct the ones that are misused.
Hyphenate e-mail (email) The style guides agree: there is a hyphen in e-mail.
Internet is capitalized (internet) Anybody who works with books will identify this rookie mistake right away.
Double tabs. Search for "^t^t" to find over-indented paragraphs. You will also want to do a visual scan of each page, since some double tabs result from a tab space used on top of an automatic 0.5" first-line indent.
The d-less conjunction (an) We type "and" a lot. It is inevitable that we miss the D once in a while, and spell-check won't catch it.
Pubic humiliation, a.k.a. TMI. Search for "pubic." You meant to type "public," I know, but you might have missed that L.

Sarah Cypher is the author of "The Editor's Lexicon: Essential Writing Terms for Novelists" (Glyd-Evans Press, 2010) and runs a two-woman editing and book design shop, The Threepenny Editor.

Arguing with Henry by Niall Hunter

2010-04-26T07:39:00.003-06:00

Reviewed for The New Podler Review of Books by Libby Cone

Arguing with Henry and Greenberg are both works with 40-year-old narcissistic white male protagonists who drink to assuage their existential angst. Arguing is a book by Niall Hunter; Greenberg is a film by Noah Baumbach. While Ben Stiller's performance in the film is noteworthy, the movie itself drags.

Greenberg is a man of the Eighties. He has fallen off the train of popular culture, except when an opportunity for "hooking up" with a woman he barely knows presents itself; then he is quite up-to-date. I get the symbolism of the dog with autoimmune disease and the distorted animal in the pool; he is self-sabotaging and his goals and desires warped. But so what?

It was quite a surprise to download this book, with its crude cover illustration, and find myself immediately drawn into the story of its parallel protagonist, Henry Flanagan. Married to a woman who finds more and more reasons to be away, having an affair with a younger woman with a need to settle down that is manifested by a wandering eye, Henry drinks and smokes his way through life, enfeebled with narcissism. The book is replete with scenes of drinking, screwing, shitting, and vomiting. Did I mention there is a lot of drinking? Dried secretions and body odors are lovingly described in a way that, if just a little more effusive, would qualify as McCarthyesque.

The prose is deft and hilarious; it limns an Ireland struggling to enter the 21st Century, while obviously looking over its shoulder at the Catholic Church. The baggage of its estimable literary tradition is another burden to anyone with the slightest inclination towards creativity. Henry is on the outs with a columnist manque of his own age, as well as with a younger entertainment tycoon his lover takes a fancy to, one of a handful of twentysomethings he finds himself slyly analyzing; Hunter somehow is able to convey the idea of Henry's genuineness outshining the flash of the phonies.

To the bemused chagrin of us nose-to-the-grindstone types, Henry, like many self-absorbed slobs, is able to function, even excel, in his job. I suppose it stems from his rubbing elbows with what he sees as the lowest cultural common denominator, thus knowing his audience. There is a hidden nugget of genuineness within him that makes his actions believable. Conversely, Roger Greenberg, recently out of a psychiatric facility, protests that "it doesn't define me," all the while making choices and behaving towards women in a way that just screams "crazy."

I would be remiss if I did not mention that this self-published one-dollar book is beautifully edited, with typos I can count on the fingers of one hand, giving lie to the notion that POD means "sloppy." Edit, proofread, and edit some more, my friends!

If you're a huge fan of Ben Stiller, by all means go out and see the movie; he is excellent in it. But if you don't want to see him with a bad brown dye job and you like a little dry humor with your narcissism, skip the film and read Arguing with Henry.

Niall Hunter’s Smashwords page: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/nhunter

Technorati Tags: Niall Hunter,Arguing with Henry,selfpublished,self published,novel,fiction,literature,book review,bookreview

Low Light by Stanley J. Cutler

2010-04-16T19:14:00.003-06:00

Reviewed for The New Podler Review of Books by Libby Cone

This book has a very engaging plot, dealing with a possible explanation for the legendary FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover's predilection for persecuting anyone he deemed Communist or otherwise subversive, while leaving the great organized crime networks of the US relatively untouched. It is common knowledge now that J. Edgar preferred the company of men; it was a career-destroying piece of information in the Twenties, and the only lever with which he could be controlled.

I have lived in Philadelphia for twenty years, and have been to Atlantic City once or twice, and find Cutler's descriptions of old Philly and the honky-tonk sounds and smells of Atlantic City to be quite evocative.

Cutler tells a tale of photographer Al Rubin, who has built a life in the United States after arriving as a penniless immigrant. Still mindful of the racism and anti-Semitism rife in everyday polite American society, he has been able to situate himself in the middle class. Of course, a middle class life in those days could be destroyed if you were a naturalized citizen with too much familiarity with the likes of labor unions, Socialists, and the like. The author mentions the Palmer raids, roundups and deportations of immigrants, legal and illegal, naturalized and nonnaturalized, that were named after Woodrow Wilson's Attorney General. It was best to keep a low profile. In an interesting digression towards the end of the book, Al reflects on the gangsters who have tapped him for his services, namely Meyer Lansky and Enoch "Nucky" Johnson, and their ways of smoothing the cognitive dissonance inherent in the trade:

“Meyer was of the Robin Hood school; laws were enacted by an elite group to manage society for its own, narrow benefit. He, born poor, had an obligation to take from them…" Johnson, the Treasurer of Atlantic County, boss of the Republican political machine, and "Czar of the Ritz," "…saw himself as the benevolent engineer who kept everything running smoothly."

Al, in too-infrequent moments of introspection, sees himself being sucked into this demimonde, attracted by the wealth and luxury. He gradually acquires his gangster sea-legs as the plot progresses, to the point of using his boyhood boxing experience without hesitation to get out of a jam. Does he have photos of Hoover in a negligee? Does Meyer? Are the photos destroyed? Hoover is kept guessing, and his weakness for the ponies as well as for tall guys is played like a violin.

I would have liked to see a bit more depth in Al's infrequent soliloquies on being drawn into the life. These are the only portions where Cutler ditches show-don't-tell (" The room pulled at me -- I wanted to gamble"..."I didn't want to understand her; I had been completely seduced").

A bit more mention of some characters, such as investigators Dixon and Whitehead, would have been nice, so I didn't have to keep going back to the prologue (or whatever one is to call the pages before Part One), in which Al is spying on, and trying to photograph, Hoover and his lover Clement Talbot in flagrante delicto. The prologue would be perfectly fine in chronological order.

Cutler is spot-on in his research (indeed, I had forgotten that Woodrow Wilson, who is briefly mentioned, died in 1924; I thought he had died in 1920, but my plans to make snarky comments about this being an historical vampire novel were happily foiled). Other minor flaws were mentions of Al and his wife taking mass transit on Shabbos to Meyer Lansky's Bar Mitzvah, which had me busily dog-earing pages, only to be followed several chapters later by the mention that they were Reform Jews, and rather lapsed at that. A little more explanation earlier on would remedy that. I was very amused at one point where, when offered a lobster, Al turns it down in favor of a club sandwich (which contains bacon). It is a brilliant evocation of one of the little cognitive-dissonance smoothings many of us no-longer-really-kosher Jews do. Oh, no, not a big lobster! A little bacon buried in a sandwich? OK. But in Al's case, we have already seen him rationalize blackmail.

Now for the editing. As Al's wife Ida and I both tend to say when perturbed, vay is mir! I will be the first to point out the difficulties of self-publishing: it is extraordinarily difficult to keep some of the conventions in mind, such as not indenting a line of dialogue that starts a paragraph (I am guilty of this and am beating my chest right now). But, oy, the backwards quotation marks! On almost every page yet! Sometimes he uses single quotes, it seems, just for the hell of it. Plus "alright" used so many times, a middle school English teacher would plotz! The restaurant at Nucky's Ritz is called "The Bath and Turf Club." Bath and Turf? Is that a steak on a plate with a loofah? And why do the waitstaff keep changing genders?

The other things that bothered me were the portentous subtitles on the front and back covers. "Birth of Organized Crime in Jazz Age Atlantic City" and "Blackmail FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover," besides being non-grammatical, make the book sound like nonfiction. I only figured out it was a novel when I began reading the contents. A little subtlety instead of subtitles would be nice.

That said, it was an enjoyable read. I hope Mr. Cutler's style and editing really shine in the second and third volumes of what is to be a trilogy.

Author’s web site is: stanleycutlerauthor.com

Technorati Tags: J. Edgar Hoover,historical fiction,fiction,historical,book review,Philadelphia,1920s,Jewish immigrants

Kindle experiences

2010-04-09T14:25:00.001-06:00

Writer Lee Goldberg shares his experiences with self-publishing via the Kindle on his blog A Writer’s Life.

One of the interesting tidbits Goldberg shares is the story behind the Wideman self-publishing story.

Armistice Day by David Drazul

2010-04-02T15:42:00.004-06:00

A firefight is unexpectedly interrupted by the arrival of aliens in the gripping opening chapter of Armistice Day.

Some fifteen months after the Overlords show up and lay down their brand of law, Aaron Osborne’s private security company is hired by Jeekyri, a Queezal, one of the races subservient to the Overlords, to provide security for the Armistice Day ceremony because of the possibility that members of the resistance will try to disrupt the ceremony.

In skipping the invasion battles, Drazul focuses his story on the aftermath of intervention and the keeping of the uneasy peace between the old defeated order and the new masters. Not everyone is happy with the new order, of course, and clandestine actors are secretly plotting to plunge Empire back into war.

As Aaron prepares for the event, several mysteries hang in the air, one involving the the other security company hired by the Empire, Bergen Security. Aaron doesn’t know much about them or even who had hired them. Neither does Jeekyri, at least initially. The company is based in Topeka, where a break in at the Imperial armory occurred. One of Aaron’s friends, Sal, thinks the company may somewhere be involved. There is certainly something suspicious about an outside company being hired when there were plenty of good, local outfits capable of doing the job. Could Bergen Security be a front for the resistance? But how were they able to get the Imperial contract? Whatever the truth, one thing is certain, someone is playing a game and Aaron could be caught right in the middle of it.

Drazul creates respectable level of tension in the story as the moment of the ceremony approaches while the possibility that a conspiracy will disrupt it remains open. One of the more interesting plot twist comes when Aaron and his team are implanted with subdermal transponders by the alien who hired Bergen, though I suspect that greater suspense would be generated if Aaron did not know the alien’s connection to Bergen. When the mystery is finally solved, the story blooms into a thriller as Aaron is on the run for his life while trying to prove what really happened.

Armistice Day is not just an excuse for action, the store is informed by a surprisingly sophisticated appreciation of conquest politics, revealing it to be a world of secret games played by the Empire in order to subdue the conquered for their own good. These are dirty kinds of games involving betrayals and setups—alibis all for a more aggressive intervention by Empire. I wish, however, that Drazul had given us more here—his story of intervention certainly makes the reader wish Drazul had filled in more of the spots on the canvas of his vision: more about the Empire and its politics, more about the world chafing under its forces and perhaps a less optimistic ending would elevate this book from good to great.

Technorati Tags: science fiction,invasion,alien invasion,book review

Finitude by Hamish MacDonald

2010-03-17T16:03:00.005-06:00

Reviewed for The New Podler Review of Books by Libby Cone

In this fast-paced novel, global warming/climate change is a reality and not a topic for debate. Various groups are working out solutions. A Government Coalition is trying to capitalize on the changes in the environment, taking advantage of citizens of other lands for cheap labor, as it readies a project to dim the sun and, at the same time, harness and monopolize solar energy. Other groups, seen as enemies of the Government, have cobbled together various lifestyles aimed at conserving what is left of resources and avoiding the deadly new dangers posed by the environment, including tigers and methane clouds.

Set against this backdrop is one Jeremy Chutter, an insurance agent who realizes the meaninglessness of insurance as his coastal home slowly floods. He is in mourning for his twin sister and his lover, who died in an automobile accident with Jeremy at the wheel. This understandably causes him to focus on himself and his own needs to the exclusion of most others, except his parents. After learning from his meteorologist friend “Des” Despendra that bundling his folks off (on the airline industry's “Last Flights Day”) to the region of Iktyault may have put them in danger, he strikes out with her and new friend Victor, an ecotravel agent, to rescue them from environmental disaster.

The prose is witty and the futuristic touches are amusing: Jeremy subscribes to a service called “Tinfoil Hat” that blocks out aggressive advertising. Everyone consumes a processed food called “Mete®,” the source of which turns out to be only a little less ghastly than that of Soylent Green.

The journey is compelling but the editing is poor. MacDonald is inordinately fond of the word “leapt,” using it in some cases three times on one page. In a society where auto accidents still occur, huge ships are described as zipping about and parking like MiniCoopers: “...the Prime Minister turned and gestured at the vast ship pulling up to a stop in the harbour behind him...” “...A grey ship the size of a building rumbled past, making the little rescue-dinghy wobble dangerously... the grey ship docked, extending a ramp down from its front...” I think there are pilots and towboats involved when these behemoths come into port. The sun, too, performs some neat tricks: “The sun was lowering behind them, sending shafts of golden light filtering down the streets, turning every color into a perfected version of itself.” That is all well and good, but a few pages later: “The rising sun leached the colour out of the scenery.” I thought the rising and setting sun always looked more golden, giving us the term “the magic hour”?

Jeremy finds new love with a kind and brave truck driver, and Victor early on with Despendra, and each becomes more attuned to the needs of others in the process. As they wander the polluted landscape, the awkward sentences become obstacles akin to the rocks, ice, and tigers in the narrative. But unlike the fish that are going extinct, this book can be saved by more editing.

Author's website is: http://www.hamishmacdonald.com/novels/novels/finitude.html

Self-publishing news: PEN/Faulkner winner to release his short stories via Lulu

2010-03-11T08:36:00.001-07:00

From Entertainment Weekly comes this report,

But now a two-time PEN/Faulkner winner and National Book Award finalist is stepping into the mix. John Edgar Wideman will be releasing his latest collection of short stories via Lulu, a self-publishing company that releases submitted work either as an e-book or printed-on-demand. Briefs: Stories for the Palm of the Mind, available starting March 14, will be one of few works from an already established author to bypass the mainstream industry entirely. Another is JA Konrath, who, after having a collection of his stories rejected by publishing houses, turned to the Internet and self-published his own Kindle ebook. Less than one year later, Konrath has sold nearly 30,000 copies and he expects to earn as much as $43,800 this year on that e-book alone.

When it comes, the shift to self-publishing will liberate authors.

Null_Pointer by Ken McConnell

2010-03-09T09:05:00.003-07:00

Null_Pointer is a fresh take on the amateur sleuth mystery genre with a hacker turned detective at its center. The action takes place in a world just enough removed from the ordinary to make the story interesting. The high concept at its core makes it surprisingly satisfying.

The book opens with the mysterious death of an unnamed programmer from what appears to be a new type of malware that transports the victim into a deadly virtual reality. Who is behind this and what do they want? And how can anyone kill with sounds and with images on the screen?

Josh Jones suffers from insomnia, a psychologically induced condition that is the result of his tragic past. When he was sixteen, his parents were killed in a car accident that he blames himself for causing. Now in his early 20s, Jones makes a living as a coder at RegTech and does well, he drives a Porsche. But he is a target of an clever and deadly enemy who has been stalking him for years.

Because he can’t sleep, he makes his way to work at a very early hour and discovers that one of the other coders, Glenn, is dead, slumped over by his terminal. At first the death appears to be nothing more than a consequence of poor lifestyle choices finally catching up with Glenn. Still, when Jones gets back home from the police station, he finds that he is rattled by the death. But when his friend Dancia drops by, Jones learns that a hacker called Zemo was found dead by his parents. Zemo’s death was not accidental: a hidden message suggests that someone has killed Zemo and that others are on the target list. Could Glenn’s death and Zemo’s be connected?

As Jones investigates, he discovers that the apparently unassuming coder at RegTech who went by the name of Glenn was really Themis, a hacker with whom Jones worked over the Internet on a college project called MyMovies. Jones discovers a secret message in the computer code—someone is targeting the members of the MyMovies programming team and Jones and Dancia are next.

Null_Pointer does a great job imagining the life of young computer geniuses. McConnell’s characters talk the secret language of root kits, localhosts, virtual machines, C sharp, kernel level access, shells and on, giving the reader a taste of what real hackers living inside a secret hacking culture might talk like. It is a largely hidden world of mostly young men with exceptional skills who make their own rules. It is a murky world, too. Many of these computer demigods are only known by their aliases, making distinguishing between friend and foe difficult: you never know who hides behind the alias. Communication is done through IRC chartrooms and bulletin boards forums. Rarely do the players actually meet in the offline world. But the death of Zemo occasions a rare meeting between Jones and a security expert known as Psycho in search of clues.

A good part of the detective work involves finding system logs and tracing Glenn’s computer activity. Because nearly all of Glenn’s life has left a digital trail, Jones soon comes across the “how” of the murder -- not only can the images and sounds steamed from the Internet kill, they can also make you do things that you would not normally do: the story is based on a clever concept that is likely and frightening and just maybe not developed enough. But the “who” turns out to be much closer to Jones than he imagines and much more involved with his family past than he knows.

See http://jjmysteries.ning.com/ for more information about the book.

Author’s website is http://ken-mcconnell.com/

His newest book is Starstrikers.

Technorati Tags: thriller,mind control,hackers,book review,mystery,self-published,self published,fiction

del.icio.us Tags: thriller,mind control,hackers,book review,mystery,self-published,self published,fiction

Editing and writing help

2010-03-02T18:35:00.001-07:00

It is hard to find good editing and writing help. Fortunately, there are good writers and editors out there. One is Stephen Shugart. Check out his website for more information. Shugart offers self-publishing consulting as well. Shugart also offers writing classes.

(Disclosure: I received no compensation for this mention nor am I going to receive any portion of sales resultant from this mention.)

News: Inside the Writer’s Studio

2010-02-20T12:25:00.001-07:00

Kristen Tsetsi and R.J. Keller have joined forces and created Inside the Writer’s Studio. They have a Facebook page.

Authors Kristen Tsetsi and R.J. Keller like to make videos when they should be writing. Their show is called "Inside The Writers' Studio."

They are Paper Rats.

http://www.twitter.com/paperrats

In other news, the Self-published book chat didn’t go well as, due to technical problems, I wasn’t able to get the chat started at the time announced. Hopefully things will go better next time—I plan to do it sometime in March.

Self-publishing symposium: Kristen Tsetsi

2010-02-16T08:21:00.001-07:00

How does self-publishing differ from traditional publishing?

I haven't had a book traditionally published, so there's a lot of information I don't have that would allow me to make a sound comparison, but I can tell you why, after having self-published, I'd like to be traditionally published.

As I understand it, having a book traditionally published means 1. People take the book more seriously immediately 2. (this includes reviewers normally not accessible to those who self-publish) 3. the book shows up in bookstores - the real ones that have people walking in, perusing

On the other hand, self-publishing is faster, gives the author complete control over everything from fonts to cover art, and cuts out the middleman.

Of course, the only time you don't want a middleman is when you're making real money from book sales. Most self-published authors don't.

Do self-published book review blogs help to raise the reader awareness of self-published books?

I believe yes. Internet blogs, articles, and websites are the biggest marketing tool self-published writers have when it comes to spreading word about the work.

How do you respond to the following statement?--Self-publishing is not a serious way to get one's work into print now and never will be.

I'd have to ask how "serious" is defined. And if I came to agree that it's currently not a serious way to get one's work into print (and it's not likely I would agree), I'd then have to question the use of the word "never."

Has the golden age of self-publishing already passed or is it yet to come?

It seems to have just begun.

What about the challenges posed to the self-published writer by having to promote and edit his or her own book?

As I understand it from authors who have published traditionally, the challenges are similar for all who want people to read their work. Every author should spend as much time editing her/his own writing as possible, whether self-publishing or handing it off to an editor connected with a publisher. Promotion, too, is something traditionally published writers have said is largely left up to them, as well. "They" say publishers aren't doing as much author promotion as they used to.

The challenge is real: it's difficult to simultaneously market and write. Both require creativity, but they require it in different ways, and each begs for full attention. I'm learning it comes down to time management. It's not easy, but it's do-able.

Why is it that a self-published author has yet to emerge into national recognition as a self-published author? (As opposed to being given a mainstream publishing contract after a self-published book attracts attention.)

My guess is that self-published authors simply have yet to be taken seriously. Until a traditional publisher accepts the work, it's not "real." Nor is it "good." Many still view self-published writers as those who can't write; if they could, they would be traditionally published. (Look here for a conversation/debate with with author J.A. Konrath about this popular belief.)

Has the experience of self-publishing changed the way you write? (If you have self-published. )

I wish I had a more interesting answer, but no. Anyone who writes writes the best way they can.

However - if anything, it's possible self-publishing allows some writers to be truer to themselves and their writing because they're focused on just that: the writing. They're not worrying about how to please an editor and/or a publisher, whether the manuscript will be accepted, about what will sell, and then allowing that to influence the story or how it's told.

Kristen Tsetsi is the author of Homefront

Find her at,

www.kristentsetsi.com
www.backwordbooks.com

Honor among assassins: Lines of Neutrality by S.B. Jung

2010-02-14T09:41:00.004-07:00

No matter what your line of work, there’s always some kind of unspoken, professional ethic to it. There are certain things you are expected to do, and certain things that you just should never do. In my line of work, nicking someone else’s kill is at the top of that list. -- Christian

Two assassins, both members of the shadowy Society of Assassins, are hired to kill the same target, a mobster named Dimitri Oshenka, causing one of them to break one of the unwritten rules of the game. This turn of events rises the question, who hired two assassins to take on Oshenka and why?

Christian recognizes Raven through his rifle scope as she kills Oshenka, and he decides to take her on to address the violation of unwritten professional assassin code. As a caged bird -- a term used to describe an assassin who is pledged to an outside organization -- Delacroix is of lower rank than Raven Yin, therefore risking a great deal, for she ranks above all others outside the inner circle of the Council itself, and her words as well as her actions are law: If she kills him, his death will mean nothing to the Society. But pride and anger won't let him walk away.

The two meet at Yin's favorite hangout, The Raven's Roost. Delacroix not only intrudes on Yin's place of rest, he sizes her up and makes her reveal her name in a public place – all highly disrespectful moves on his part that require, according to Society law, a blood duel to to settle honor. They make their way to her apartment where she gets rough with him and the truth comes out: they were both hired to do the same job by Tommy Marzano. The question that now remains is, why?

Part of the reason why the book was chosen by me to review was its interesting concept – two assassins hired to kill the same target – and its clever use of two alternating first person points of view that promise to take the reader on an unusual journey through the mental scape of unusual characters. As Raven and Christian tell their story, the reader gets a view into the workings of their minds, which is the best part of the story.

While the choice is interesting and initially compelling, it seems more suited perhaps to a story about how Christian and Yin develop a relationship rather than a struggle to unravel a mystery. Also the action sequences are lessened because they are described from the point of view of someone presumably used to them and therefore they come across as unremarkable. Indeed, the more you think about the point of view choice, the more it becomes apparent that an assassin like Raven would only consciously think about any action and killing if it had somehow been remarkable, given her experience. So all those sequences when she kills -- Raven wouldn’t think much about them. That’s the problem with first person in this type of thriller, where presumably part of the attraction for the reader is the action: from a first person point of view of the assassin, such action wouldn’t be very noteworthy unless the action is fundamentally challenging and out of the ordinary for Raven, creating the need for her to plan and plot in her mind. But all we get are just reports on how she easily walks in and out of Marzano’s trap and other places and this makes for a reduction in tension and suspense.

The writing overall is fluent and clean, and it is much better edited than the average self-published book. But there are some issues, the biggest of which is plot, which is hardly a surprise as plot is the element that always disappoints in many self-published books. In Lines of Neutrality, the plot underperforms as well.

While the complication that Delacroix and Yin face in having been assigned the same target is compelling, it does not lead to the creation of a clear line of action that climaxes with the revelation of the answer. You expect the first part of the story conflict to be essentially defined by the problem of discovering the reason for Marzano having hired both assassins to kill the same target. For instance, you expect that the subsequent action follow some set of steps Raven and Christian would take, steps unique to who they are and to their world, in order to unravel the mystery. What is the process, for example, they would go through as members of the Society? Surely the Society must have some way of finding these things out, as it is more than likely that such a thing has happened before. But such issues don't inform the narrative's progress.

The next story movement has Yin go to collect the other half of her fee from Marzano. But how that relates to her problem of finding the answer to why he hired her and Christian is unclear. In this story movement Marzano tries to coerce Raven to work for him, a somewhat odd move on his part since he presumably knows about the Society and the fact that Raven, given her high standing, is not someone you can simply push around. No matter how stupid Marzano was, he wouldn’t be that dumb. The outcome has Christian assassinate Oshenka. Some other sequence is needed here, perhaps one that begins the process of making inquiries. Indeed, the only way, it would seem to me given this situation, that she could find out why would be to agree to work for Marzano. But getting rid of Marzano before they can find out from him why he hired them both, or before they can use him to ferret out the answer, is confusing. The question that began to the story -- the why of Marzano’s actions -- remains open. Rather than creating suspense, however, the open question only engenders confusion because Marzano’s death does not deliberate it.

Subsequent events are, consequently, somewhat confusing as well. It is unclear so as to whether Raven going to see Carlos Corazon is her taking a new assignment or Christian’s. The reason for the confusion is the bit in the apartment where Raven and Christian first meet. There she has a look into the envelope and sees him next assignment, but we never find out what this assignment is. If Corazon is a new assignment, then more is needed: How do assassins get their assignments? Is there a secret Society website? Do they get messages on the Blackberries? Or do they have to come into an underground center where they all meet and get new assignments? Such bits add to the verisimilitude of the story and make it fun. If someone else is the target, then that needs to be raveled, too, for keeping it a mystery seems to serve no deeper story purpose.

S.B. Jung's novel is certainly based on a promising concept and Jung can write fluent, clean copy, but Lines of Neutrality is lessened by its ineffective plotting.

This book is available through Amazon.com

S.B. Jung’s profile on selfpublishingreview.com is http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/members/sbjung/

Her site is sbjung.net

New Feature: Live chat event

2010-02-11T10:06:00.001-07:00

In an effort to foster a sense of community in the self-publishing world and in order to bring together self-published readers and writers, The New Podler Review of Books introduces the live self-publishing chat. The event is scheduled for February 18, 2010 at 5 pm Pacific Standard Time.

To the right, you will find a box regarding the upcoming event. At the very bottom of the blog, you will find the chat room interface, which is where the chat will take place.

Don’t forget to invite your friends, tweet and tell others about it.

If you are a self-published author and would like to be one of the panelists, contact me and I will add you to the panelist list. (thenewpodlerreviews@gmail.com)

Event RSS feed: http://rss.coveritlive.com/rss.php?altcast_code=f9a0cad59a

You can add the interface to your blog or site through his link below so that visitors to your site or blog can participate in the event.

<a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/index.php?option=com_altcaster&task=siteviewaltcast&altcast_code=f9a0cad59a&height=550&width=470" target="_blank" >Click Here</a>

Newsbreak: Deadly Exchange recognized by L.A. Book Festival

2010-02-11T09:14:00.001-07:00

Geoffrey Gluckman’s novel Deadly Exchange won an honorable mention at the L.A. Book Festival.

Self-publishing symposium: Mick Rooney

2010-02-10T19:42:00.000-07:00

How does self-publishing differ from traditional publishing?

Beyond the fact both paths of publishing will result in a printed book, I think they are worlds apart. Traditional publishing at its best is a shared and collective effort on the part of author and publisher to successfully manage the streams of creativity and marketability and deliver a book and brand to the reader using tried and trusted formulas of business. Traditional publishing at its worst is a collision of poor but desirable content and brute sales presented to the general consumer as a product of essential living.

Self-publishing is the individual or assisted business of the author to develop and connect with a readership by presenting their book as a comparative and quality product by using innovation to exploit a mix of old and new platforms. Self-publishing at its best has the potential to derive a sustained income for an author or create a brand and marketability that mainstream and independent publishers will find hard to ignore. Self-publishing at its worst simply turns bad writers into bad authors and bad manuscripts into bad books, and this unfairly makes an example of self-publishing in general at the expense of the author. The upshot of self-publishing at its worst is profit for the vanity presses and author solutions service and it prolongs the time span before self-publishing becomes an accepted part of the publishing industry.

Do self-published book review blogs help to raise the reader awareness of self-published books?

I don’t think reviews in general are as effective as the general perception of them. The biggest seller and influence on the sales of a book is word of mouth—effectively, readers sell the books they have read. Self-published book review blogs can help the sales of a book, but only because they usually address and appeal to defined and captured niche markets, often comprising of readers who themselves are authors.

How do you respond to the following statement?--Self-publishing is not a serious way to get one's work into print now and never will be.

Anyone can get their book into print—printing a book is simply a process. I suspect you really mean self-publishing is just printing a book rather than actually publishing it and that self-publishing may never be taken seriously. I don’t agree. There is nothing more serious than an educated author spending their own money and taking on what is a small business operation to publish their own work. Self-publishing is not serious only if the author decides not to take their hours of craft seriously when they decide to self-publish.

My own experience of talking to many self-published authors is that they are becoming savvier about the business of self-publishing and demonstrate a flexible and dynamic approach. What we are talking about here is perception, and significantly an industry perception, because I don’t believe the vast majority of readers could care less about who publishes what book. For them, it’s about content and quality of read and that’s something which will never change.
If people think self-publishing a book does not have a place within the publishing industry; they might like to visit Thomas Nelson and Harlequin who think very differently, and even taking the worst view are happy to exploit their slush piles.

Has the golden age of self-publishing already passed or is it yet to come?

I don’t think there are things like ‘golden ages’ in any form of publishing. If anything, traditional publishing has moved very little away from the business model they employed for years. Self-publishing has had a significant explosion due to new digital technology and social media networks rather than bring about it. This again is the misconception that self-publishing is something that existed outside of the publishing industry. Publishing is publishing—there is only change, and so far, self published authors have adapted to that change far better.

What about the challenges posed to the self-published writer by having to promote and edit his or her own book?

These are not so much challenges, but rather the realities of the last ten years that editing and promotion are tasks vanity publishers of the 1970’s and onwards charged you for but never carried out, and subsequent author services overcharge or don’t do proficiently. I think from what I have experienced, authors have adapted very well to new technology and media in promotion their work and finding and exploiting social media streams for their books. I believe this is going to go from strength to strength and the traditional model of publishing is adopting localised social models of marketing but on a global scale.

I have always believed that authors were better placed to understand their material and readership, but the traditional path of publishing somehow tried to circumvent the authors input into the core marketing strategy of a book. Self-published authors have a greater understanding of the need for professional editing of their book, and along with cover design are the few areas they must concede valuable input on.

That question suggests we have not had successes at a national level. Strange how quickly we forget books like Necromancer, originally self-published. The truth is that publishers may not easily admit that they watch leading self-published titles and move quickly to acquire them in the first few months of success. This results in the enduring perception that most self-published successes always originated from large publishing houses. Few can blame authors for taking an opportunity if it leads to them writing full-time as a career. We have always presided over an industry happy to finger point at the poverties of self-publishing but quick to adopt and re-invent many self-publishing successes.

Has the experience of self-publishing changed the way you write? (If you have self-published.)

No. There may be a case for non-fiction, certainly not for fiction.

Mick Rooney has been self-publishing his books since 1990. He has written numerous articles on the publishing industry and self-publishing which have appeared in many magazines. He is editor, researcher and publishing consultant for his website and author resource, POD, Self-Publishing & Independent Publishing, providing news, service reviews and advice.

POD, Self Publishing & Independent Publishing
http://mickrooney.blogspot.com

Mick Rooney's Author Site
http://mickrooneyauthor.blogspot.com

Strength Through Joy
http://strength-through-joy.blogspot.co

Self-publishing symposium: Henry Baum

2010-02-09T17:47:00.001-07:00

How does self-publishing differ from traditional publishing?

Limited distribution. Other than that - nothing. Yes, a publisher offers a design team, marketing team, and editorial guidance, but a writer can do those things alone. The one thing a writer cannot do (unless he or she has a gigantic marketing budget or money to self-distribute) is distribute to brick and mortar bookstores. In this way self-publishing will always lack compared to traditional publishing until distribution changes.

Do self-published book review blogs help to raise the reader awareness
of self-published books?

Vaguely - awareness, yes. Immediate book sales, not so much. The most books I sold with my last novel, North of Sunset, was not from a review on the Poddy Mouth blog, but after that mention was picked up by Entertainment Weekly. People can say that blogs have a lot of marketing power, but it's still the mainstream, traditional press that can have the biggest impact on book sales.

How do you respond to the following statement?--Self-publishing is not
a serious way to get one's work into print now and never will be.

You're a backward-thinking turd. Really, though, the "never will be" is easily discarded because imagine a world in which as many people have ereaders as now have cell phones. It'll open everything up. This is about being "in print" though, and self-published books can look as good as traditionally published books if you hire the right people. As mentioned, it's not the best way to distribute, but to have an actual book in your hands? Just fine.

Has the golden age of self-publishing already passed or is it yet to come?

Totally yet to come. Repeating myself here, but this time is coming: ereaders are ubiquitous and the Espresso Book Machine can be found at bookstores and other places (Starbucks et al). Traditional publishers will start looking to print on demand to save on costs - compared to having an up-front print run that may not sell. At that point, there's very little difference between traditional publishing and putting it out yourself, as everyone will be using a similar distribution system.

What about the challenges posed to the self-published writer by having
to promote and edit his or her own book?

Every writer has to edit his/her own book, so it amounts to hiring an editor you trust. That will cost around $800, give or take, so it's not for everybody. Writers need to take on their own marketing as well. Personally, I'd like to have the muscle of a traditional publisher's marketing/distribution team, because I can then combine that with the marketing I'm already doing. That's better than going it alone. My whole beef with the traditional publishing industry is how books are selected, not how they're distributed or even marketed. It's sickening that books are selected based on how they can be marketed, but I can't deny that having someone else marketing you is effective. It's just better for my sanity to not try to enter a system that's gauging your work on something other than the quality of the work. It's too painful and maddening a process, and getting worse.

Why is it that a self-published author has yet to emerge into national
recognition as a self-published author? (As opposed to being given a
mainstream publishing contract after a self-published book attracts
attention.)

I guess because once you reach a level of success, most writers take the traditional book deal. If a publisher said, we'll give you $50,000 and better distribution, I wouldn't turn that down. If I was making $50,000 on my own, that'd be something different. But most writers aren't and most people need the money. It's not about the validation, I imagine, it's about the money. Very hard to turn your back if someone's offering something generous.

As time goes on and distribution improves, writers will be able to be self-sustaining. As it stands now, some of the people who are successful with self-publishing are those who had success with traditional publishing and have a larger platform because of it. My dream, of course, is to become that self-published poster child and still sell a lot of books on my own while having total creative freedom to release whatever I want. My diabolical plan is inching forward.

Has the experience of self-publishing changed the way you write? (If
you have self-published.)

It's made me not have to think about the market at all. I still want to be entertaining. I'm not an experimental writer, I still want it to be readable. But I don't have to write by putting myself in an agent's head and how he or she would read the book. Honestly, that's how I should have been writing anyway, but ambition can get in the way of writing.

On the flipside, the obsession about an agent or editor's acceptance or rejection can get in the way of writing as well. So while I might have to spend a lot more time plugging my work all on my own, I have to spend a lot less time querying agents, looking up independent presses, and caring too much if they like what I write. Instead, I can just find readers who like or dislike it, which is the point of writing in the first place - not to be published, but to be read.

Henry Baum is author of North of Sunset. His latest novel is The American Book of the Dead. He is also the editor of Selfpublishingreview.com

Self-publishing symposium: Shannon Yarbrough

2010-02-05T07:12:00.001-07:00

How does self-publishing differ from traditional publishing?

This is a question that by now, I'm sure most already know the answer to. I could first post the obvious which pretty much defines what self-publishing is in general: The author is mostly responsible for the editing, formatting, and marketing of his own work. Self-published books usually cost more and are sold nonreturnable. Self-published books are not usually stocked by traditional bookstores unless specifically ordered for an event or special order. But, by these definitions alone, someone considering self-publishing would probably frown upon it. These days, thanks to e-publishing, the expense and retail cost is much more affordable, and often free. E-publishing bypasses the brick and mortar bookstores all together, and puts the self-published author in the electronic forefront where bookstores are losing their customers anyway. Authors also keep the rights to their work which means they don't have to pay a big publishing house, editors, and agents, so they can keep more of the profit to themselves. Those margins might still be small, but most self-published authors still find it to be just as rewarding. In the end, we have a slush pile just like traditional publishing does.

Do self-published book review blogs help to raise the reader awareness of self-published books?

Since I founded LLBR (www.llbookreview.com), I would certainly say yes to this question. But generally I find more authors visit the site than readers who are non-writers. Now, we all know that when authors aren't writing, they should be reading. So, hopefully it's a win-win situation. Authors, new and old, learn more about the POD experience from these review blogs. And they also find books to read and can support other authors like themselves. Most non-writing readers don't care about the emphasis put on self-publishing; they just want a good book to read. I think sometimes we put too much emphasis on the self-publishing part because we think POD fans are the only ones reading us.

How do you respond to the following statement? –Self-publishing is not a serious way to get one’s work into print now and never will be.

I would probably respond by saying, "Did you ever hear of a book called The Joy of Cooking? It was first self-published. Or do you know who Upton Sinclair, James Redfield, Oscar Wilde, E.E. Cummings, Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, Walt Witman, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, and Edgar Allan Poe are? Do you know what they all have in common? Yep, they self-published." Self-publishing is not taken seriously only because of the stigmas that surround it, most of which were created by the traditional publishing companies anyway. But that is changing.

Has the golden age of self-publishing already passed or is it yet to come?

I think it has yet to come, but we are getting there. As E-publishing becomes the norm, and more people buy into e-readers, it's only going to get better.

What about the challenges posed to the self-published writer by having to promote and edit his or her own book?

Well, anyone who is considering self-publishing seriously should know they can't do it alone. A lot of POD companies offer editing and formatting services. There are also a ton of reputable editors-for-hire out there. I'm guilty of trying to do it all by myself, and my biggest advice to anyone out there who wants to is don't take that "self" part literally. Get some type of professional assistance whether that be with formatting, your book cover, or editing. Hire someone. Take a writing class. Join a writing club. Or take advantage of your POD company's extra services if you can afford them.

They have. You just don't hear about them. But it's because Americans are guilty of all reading the same thing. There are millions of books out there and millions more being published every year. Ask any non-reader to name a popular book though and they will probably say Harry Potter, or Twilight, or the latest by Stephen King, or whatever has been made into a movie this week. That's because as a society, we've always wanted what our neighbor has. We want to fit in. We want to do what everyone else is doing. So in the end, we are also all reading the same books. And so our society as a whole has an effect on what we see on the news or read in the papers. Because that's what is making money.

Take Christopher Paolini's book, Eragon, for example. He began writing it when he was fifteen. Few people probably know it was first self-published. But fewer probably even know it was a book at all because Hollywood made it into a movie. I'm sure Mr. Paolini still cashed some nice paychecks though; today he's only 27 and has published a whole series of books. Still Alice by Lisa Genova is another self-published book picked up by the mainstream that has done very well.

My point is that most self-published authors don't have the finances or collateral that's needed to get that national recognition. If you could afford a massive marketing campaign, then it might happen for your self-published book. Still, it might not. For now, the self-published author is lucky to get the local color page in the community paper or a signing at their B&N, and for some, that's recognition enough.

Has the experience of self-publishing changed the way you write? (If you have self-published.)

Absolutely. I tend to format a new Word document to a 6x9 page right from the start, leaving blank pages for the front matter. I also format the margins and page numbers. All this even for a first draft!

What are the dangers of self-publishing? Are self-published authors, in other words, more likely to be attacked for writing material that is challenging or outside of mainstream?

Well, self-publishing has always been the scarlet letter of the writing world. Self-published authors are attacked for more than their content. I think the freedom from traditional publishing restrictions is exactly why authors self-publish. I've seen and read a lot of non-traditional books as far as design, content, and even illustrations go. That's one of the beauties of self-publishing that I enjoy. It's artistic freedom in a way that has broken the mold on not just the way we publish, but also the way we write and read.

Shannon Yarbrough runs the LL Book Review.

Self-publishing symposium: Bonnie Kozek

2010-02-02T12:39:00.001-07:00

NP: How does self-publishing differ from traditional publishing?

BK: At its most elemental level there’s no difference between self-publishing and traditional publishing: Either way, the writer’s job is the same: Write a book. Beyond this essential there’s a whole heap of difference – the biggest being time. How much time does it take to get your work published? In traditional publishing, excluding the rare exception, the answer is, years, decades, even lifetimes. (Henry Miller’s first novel didn’t get published until he was 44 years old; Raymond Chandler’s first short story didn’t get published until he was 45 years old; Emily Dickinson’s poems didn’t get published until after her death.) In self-publishing, the answer is that your book can be published within months. When you move beyond the printed page into ebooks and digital, you can be published in minutes. Time is a tremendous factor in a writer’s decision about which route to take, traditional or alternative. I personally found it to be a complex and difficult decision.

NP: How do you respond to the following statement? “Self-publishing is not a serious way to get one’s work into print now and never will be.”

BK: Well, it’s just a silly statement. The fact is that writers are self-publishing, and they are getting their books reviewed, distributed, and into the hands of readers. I belong to a collective of eight very serious writers, called Backword Books. Our work has been reviewed by highly-respected literary critics and reviewers, and we have each achieved recognition in our varying genres. So, to put it another way: There’s nothing “unserious” about self-publishing.

NP: Has the golden age of self-publishing already passed or is it yet to come?

BK: The golden age of self-publishing has yet to come. It’s still in its infancy. It has rattled, and radically altered traditional book publishing, and it will continue to do so. It’s hard to predict what the book publishing industry will look like once the dust settles. It’s also hard to predict when that might happen. Until then, self-publishing continues an upward trajectory. It has a cache of advantages over traditional publishing; technological innovation and infinite opportunity; unbridled creativity; and the excitement and energy of serious and committed individuals who have a love of books – be they reader, reviewer, marketer, or publisher. When you add to that mix the willingness of professional writers to take control of their own destinies, well, it’s not hard to understand why self-publishing has so successfully breathed new life into an industry that had become both dull and stagnant.

NP: What about the challenges posed to the self-published writer by having to promote and edit his or her own book?

BK: It’s a tremendous challenge, no question. In order to be successful, the self-published writer will have to wear many different hats – some which may not fit so well. The writer has to become editor, proofreader, copywriter, blogger, marketer, maybe even distributor. It’s a fulltime job. On the other hand, the road to traditional publishing poses challenges no less daunting. The writer has to become, primarily, a salesperson. The writer has to shop the work around in hopes of finding an agent – which, even if one is secured, is no assurance that the work will be published. The writer has to become, secondarily, a professional “waiter” – waiting for a response to an inquiry, waiting for acceptance or rejection, waiting for an agent to return a phone call. Given all of this, it’s reasonable that a writer would choose to take on the challenges of self-publishing because the end result is not dependent on the judgments of agents and editors and publishers. The end result is guaranteed: The writer will be published.

NP: Why is it that a self-published author has yet to emerge into national recognition as a self-published author? (As opposed to being given a mainstream publishing contract after a self-published book attracts attention.)

BK: That’s an easy question: Writers want to write. They don’t want to edit, proofread, market, distribute. So, if a mainstream publisher came along and said, “You write, we’ll do the rest,” well, it would be an opportunity that most writers would find very hard to pass up.

NP: Has the experience of self-publishing changed the way you write? (If you have self-published.)

BK: No.

Bonnie Kozek’s highly-acclaimed noir thriller, Threshold, is available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, Powell’s Books and other online sites. The second thriller, Just Before the Dawn, will be published in 2010. Learn more about her work at: http://www.bonniekozek.com or contact her at: bk@bonniekozek.com