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Saturday, September 29, 2007
Lord of the Fading Lands - review of the ARC
I won this advanced reading copy in a competition advertised on Dear Author some weeks ago, and was thrilled when the book came through my door.
The cover is lovely, and, never having had a print ARC before, I got quite a thrill about holding a book 'pre-release' - and from the marketing information on the back! Sparkler (eleven) looked at the cover, by the way, and said, "Ooh, a panther." "Well," I said, "It's actually a kind of fantasy creature with wings." At which point she rolled her eyes as only a pre-teen can, and said, "Yeah. A panther with wings."
WARNING: Spoilers ahead.
First impressions:
I was predisposed to like this book. The Dear Author review was glowing, I'm immediately sympathetic to female-oriented romantic fantasy, and - hey - it was my first ARC. To be honest, though, I did not warm to the prologue.
For me, it had the problem I find with many epic fantasy books - it just started too big. Within four pages I had tairen, Fey (both in terrible peril), shei'dalins, Tairen Souls (not the same as tairen), Mages of Eld, the Eye of Truth, threads of multi-coloured magic, and a vision of 'the death of millions, the rise and fall of entire civilisations'. For me (and I emphasise this because I know many will disagree), this sort of start is akin to being hit over the head with a foreign dictionary, a history lesson and half the map of the world. It doesn't grab me; it overwhelms me with so much detail that I have nothing that I can start to care about.
And seeing as the marketing info compares the author, C.L. Wilson, with J.R.R. Tolkien, I'll use the start of The Lord of the Rings as a comparison. It starts in the Shire, with Bilbo Baggins' eleventy-first birthday. With details of fireworks and pub gossip. It draws you in, shows you the safe little world of Hobbiton, makes you ( all right, me) care, a long way before it throws you into vast battle scenes and death-or-glory charges.
Okay, so this is a matter of personal taste. And maybe it's my own fault for not doing as many readers admit to doing and skipping prologues. Although of course, if I had skipped the prologue I'd have missed the bit that did hook me. The last four paragraphs at the very end, which finish with She covered her eyes with shaking hands. Please, gods, not again. Okay, C.L., you got me.
What I liked:
The world-building. I'm charmed that the book is not set in a generic sword-and-sorcery pseudo-medieval world. It seemed, to me, more like the eighteenth century, which in turn made it seem more like a real world, with social rules and taboos and a whole believable culture.
The Cinderella aspect to Ellysetta's (Ellie's) relationship with Rain. It was delightful, purest wish-fulfillment. She's not beautiful but he loves her anyway. The bodyguard he appoints for her all fall in love with her too, in a fraternal sort of way, as if they're a lovely new bunch of big brothers. Her nasty fiance (from a forced engagement she doesn't want and was tricked into) tries to claim her and Rain uses magic to strike him dumb. Yay! He rebukes her parents for not taking better care of her. He hears her cry for help 'across hundreds of miles'. The spiteful town beauty tries to seduce him away from Ellie and he rejects her with utter contempt. Seriously, this is every awkward teenager's fantasy romance.
Queen Annoura. Lovely, complex character. I wanted a lot more of her story. She was, to me (I'm going to stop adding that qualifier in a minute), a more interesting character than the main hero and heroine. Rather like Scarlett O'Hara - vain, manipulative, self-centred, and yet I found myself caring a lot about what happened to her, and I'm still very concerned that she won't get her happy ever after. This is the first book of a trilogy, if you hadn't realised, so there are plenty of loose threads left to be picked up in the next book.
The hints of religious persecution by the exorcists of the Church of Light. This lent an edge of disquieting darkness and another interesting dimension to the nice, safe city life.
I also really liked the slow burn of Ellie and Rain's courtship. They're something similar to soul mates, but for their bond to be complete they both have to recognise it. Rain does so immediately; Ellie, although she's been half in love with him even before she met him in the flesh, takes longer. This plot device works like an arranged marriage: they have to be together, and you know they're going to stay together; the pleasure is in watching the journey of their relationship as they move from (effectively) lust to friendship to trust to - we hope - the all-consuming everlasting to-die-for passion we all read romances for!
What I didn't like:
The foreign (Fey) words dotted into conversations that were otherwise being conducted in standard mortal language (rendered, obviously, as English). I'm all for fantasy languages, in general (Tolkien and Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books come immediately to mind) but for some reason C.L. Wilson never succeeded in making me forget these were fake words in a fake language. When Rain is otherwise speaking in perfect English, I found it irritating that he would suddenly say nei instead of no.
The final sex scene. Which is actually a pseudo sex scene. Yup, I'll explain. Rain has promised Ellie's father he won't mate with her till they're married. (Which, as I liked the slow-burn aspect of the book, I was all for.) However, Rain's magic is so powerful he can create the totally convincing illusion that they're having sex even though they're not. So, having lived with them through their growing relationship, their first kiss, the frustration of wanting and not having, right at the end of the book I got a scene of oral sex, multiple orgasms, penetration - and all of it an illusion.
As it happens, I don't actually require open-door sex in books. But oh goodness, if you're going to give me open-door sex, can it please be real sex? I would have loved reading Rain and Ellie's wedding night, but now I feel I've already read it - except not. And I'm disappointed.
A nitpick:
Keflee. Hm. This is a dark, rich, hot aromatic drink that makes people jittery if they drink too much. Served with sugar or honey, and cream, and poured from a silver pot. Drunk either with cakes and pastries, or after dinner. Um, why are we spelling coffee keflee?
I'm not sure whether this is a plus or a minus. Being quite a fan of coffee, I rather liked its inclusion in this story - and I also liked the fact that, in this world, it's an aphrodisiac. But, in terms of believability, I think I'd have preferred it to be better disguised. Or, of course, called coffee.
Finally:
Good book? Yes. An effective blend of fantasy and romance? Yes. I enjoyed it, I cared, I believed in the world and the characters, and I'll keep an eye out for the second one. It hasn't gone straight onto my 'books to be saved in a fire' shelf, but it is on my keeper shelf, and not just because it's an ARC.
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| Friday, September 28, 2007
Collecting works-in-progress
Oh dear. So I'm already working on Straw for submission to Drollerie (and when I say 'working on' I mean rewriting from scratch).
I'm also still hammering out the details for my next young adult futuristic (full length, I hope).
I want to write - or rewrite - a spooky short story for the Romance Divas Halloween Challenge. Similar to the Valentines Day one, remember? What, you haven't read it? Why not? It won't cost you any money to click here and read it. No, I'm not channeling the salesman of yesterday.
There's an anthology coming up that I'd love to be included in.
And now I see this: http://www.shomifiction.com/contests.html
80,000 words by the end of April 2008? I can so do that. Once I have a plot, that is. Possibly the YA futuristic would be suitable. I'm not sure the heroine is very kickass yet, but she has the potential to become so.
Um, time to do some writing?
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| Thursday, September 27, 2007
No, I do NOT want new windows
A few minutes ago I pulled up outside the house, having just fetched Gloworm, Gloworm's friend, and T-who-we-take-to-school, to see a man waiting on my doorstep. He was a slightly dodgy-looking man, as it happened (Gloworm said afterwards she thought he was trying to steal something).
As I got out of the car he came walking cheerfully towards me with a big smile, saying, "That's good timing for you, isn't it?"
It doesn't take much to make my 'oh no bloody salesman' radar go off nowadays, so I have to say I responded warily from the outset, to the effect of: "I don't know. It depends what you want?"
So the man went into his standard sales pitch - for (how original) a quote for new windows. I'll add here that our windows are only single glazed, and that the whole front of the house is a little shabby. Which is fine, because we don't live on the bloody outside of the house (sorry - irritation escaping).
Salesman: Are you considering replacing your windows?
Me: (politely) No, I'm not.
Salesman: (with look of manufactured amazement) Why not?
Me: Well, I like these windows.
Salesman: (manufactured amazement turning up a notch) Do you? What do you like about them?
Me: Um, well, they work.
Salesman: And is that all you want from windows, that they work?
Me: Well, that's the point of them, isn't it? Either they work or they don't. (thinking: what the hell else are they supposed to do, anyway?)
Salesman: (turning round to gaze at house in very rudely appraising way) Do you think these windows are attractive?
Me: (thoroughly irritated by now) SILENCE
Salesman: (turns back to me) Do you think they're attractive?
Me: Yes.
Salesman: (with look of amused and vast incredulity) You think they're attractive?
Me: Yes, I do. And that was rude. And now I'm really not interested in buying new windows from you.
Salesman: You weren't interested anyway. (walks off)
Well, indeed. And if you'd accepted that the first time I said it we'd all be a lot happier.
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| Wednesday, September 26, 2007
And now a good week
As if to compensate me for the weeks of computer-crash-disaster, this is shaping up to be an excellent week.
Things are going well with the girls and school. Sparkler came home very happy today, lugging an apple crumble (still warm) in a glass dish, which she'd cooked at school. She's staying late tomorrow, and coming home on the late bus, in order to go to art club. Gloworm has joined choir, necessitating a late pick-up on Tuesdays, and has finally learned to skip with a rope. (And needs to practice her times tables. No, no, I'm going to talk about good things.)
My newest short story, Frayed Tapestry (working title Night Paints the Stars, which sounds pretty but makes no sense) has just been contracted with Drollerie Press. I'm very happy about this, not least because I get more beautiful cover art.
And today I got a parcel from the US. After poking it gingerly, wondering if it was a letterbomb (no, I don't know why I wondered that - it's not like people in America normally send me bombs), I opened it to find a paperback book written by one of my authors under a different pen name. I'm thrilled to death - appropriately, as she writes romantic suspense. I get to read about another Emma Wayne Porter hero!
To sum up, an apple crumble that I didn't make myself, a contract, and a book. And it's only Wednesday!
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| Monday, September 24, 2007
The tale of two bad weeks (plus two nice links - go look)
Two weeks ago today the computer died. No safe mode, no system restore, no boot up.
Fortunately, we're still within our extended warranty period, so I phoned the computer company and spoke to a slightly patronising woman. She got me to do various things with the computer to see if we could restore it. This, of course, always involves doing stuff I'm not familiar with (cos, like, otherwise I wouldn't need to phone the helpline to do it).
At one point I had a very busy tree diagram up on the screen, I'd just clicked 'hard drive', and another window had opened up. Ms Helpline told me to click on - I think - 'fast check'. Faced with a multi-branched tree diagram and an active window scrolling messages I couldn't make head or tail of, I asked, "Where should I be looking?" To which Ms Helpline said, "The screen."
I realise helpline staff have to deal with the most clueless computer users. I've heard the stories about customers asking where the 'any' key is. I've heard the stories about them being told to open a window and disappearing from the phone while they cross the room to - yes - open a window. I realise it must be infuriating to have to deal with customers like that, and I don't blame helpline staff for feeling - and being - snippy with them. However, I was not one of those customers. I'd already gone through the troubleshooting section in the computer manual, I'd tried running the diagnostics program, I was following Ms Helpline's instructions. Just because I couldn't immediately see 'fast check' on a screen full of abbreviations and numbers did not mean I was insanely hunting for it under the keyboard. In short, I did not need to be told to look at the screen.
Anyway, it turned out that the hard drive had gone bad. Ms Helpline said the company would send a new hard drive, and that we could have a week to try to recover our data. At this point I asked her what the chances were that we'd be able to do so. She kindly told me that I should contact a local data recovery company, or maybe a friend who knew about computers, or maybe 'Mr Howson' would be able to do it. Which wasn't what I'd asked. And, given that she had never met or spoken to Abstract, I can only assume she thought he'd be able to do data recovery by virtue of being 'Mr' rather than 'Mrs' Howson. Which, may I point out, is not the case.
Then I had fun with phoning data recovery firms, lumping the computer into town, waiting in for the hard drive delivery, and all the time going frantic because I couldn't work. The next week I changed the hard drives, re-installed Windows, and had more fun because the computer requires all sorts of drivers to be installed separately, and until it has them it won't work properly. I also tried to restore our missing data from the disks the data recovery man had made, and discovered that I had seven disks filled with completely unfamiliar files, and nothing that belonged to us. Telephoned, the data recovery man swore that this was what he'd got off our hard drive. Which can't be possible.
This was the point at which I cried. Well, I may have cried before this, but this was the point at which I really cried.
Abstract (being 'Mr Howson' and all) took the next turn on the helpline and got the drivers re-installed. He's also going to take the next turn of dealing with Mr 'This is what came off your hard drive honest guv', but I don't know whether that story will get a HEA. I'm trying not to think of the photos and music we may have lost forever. Thank goodness, before the crash I'd just backed up all my writing on Bling, my little USB keyring drive thingy.
In other bad things these last two weeks, I had to go for a routine but very unpleasant medical check at the surgery, both of our cats got bitten and the bites got infected (one recovered by herself, the other had to have expensive antibiotics), Abstract was away for two nights (no husband, no computer, no work...I ended up going to bed very early), there were some issues with the school bus, and I finally got back online to find that one of my publishers - Stardust Press, who had contracted Fire and Shadow - is going out of business. It's not a huge big deal for me, because I hadn't yet gone into edits and certainly hadn't been published, but it does mean that, instead of an autumn release date as I'd been told, I have an orphaned manuscript to shop around.
In good things, Falling has been collecting reviews. The latest is here, at Teen eBooks. Also, Dear Author, which reviewed Falling in August, has just posted Spotlight on Drollerie Press.
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| Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Four questions
3pm:
I'd forgotten how productive I can be when the children are at school.
So far today I've eaten a radish, done some editing, sent off various emails, taken buckets of assorted stuff upstairs (and dumped them in a hideous midden on the landing, but let's not look at the landing), hoovered all the downstairs, washed the kitchen and conservatory floors, tidied and dusted the sitting room (a much bigger job than it sounds, believe me), dusted the conservatory, sorted out the dishwasher, put tonnes of stuff in the recycling bin, drunk two cups of coffee (one real, one instant) and half a glass of water, eaten four ginger oatcakes and two pieces of seedy bread with cream cheese.
Soon I need to go out to get the car taxed. While I drink my instant coffee (No, it's not that nice. Thanks for asking.), though, I will do this meme that Emma Wayne Porter passed on to me.
Four jobs I've had or currently have in my life:
1. Church youth worker.
2. Nanny.
3. Parent.
4. Editor.
Four countries I've been to:
1. Scotland.
2. France.
3. Austria.
4. Menorca.
Four places I'd rather be right now:
1. At a writers' conference/ convention/ retreat - preferably one of those big ones in America everyone else gets to go to.
2. Somewhere which is still having proper summer and where the swifts are still around to eat the mosquitoes.
3. In some darling little mediterranean town with Abstract, having a long weekend and eating seafood.
4. A log cabin in the mountains. Any mountains. Preferably with snow. And bears.
Four foods I like to eat:
1. Tiramisu.
2. Wensleydale cheese.
3. Lychees.
4. Radishes grown in our vegetable garden.
Four personal heroes, past or present:
1. Diana Wynne Jones.
2. Jennifer Crusie.
3. Anyone who puts themself in danger by engaging in non-violent protest.
4. JRR Tolkien.
Four books I've read or am currently reading:
1. Lord of the Fading Lands by CL Wilson. I won this ARC and I'm going to blog about it soon.
2. Avalon High by Meg Cabot.
3. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by (can't remember - book upstairs - will add later).
4. The Time of the Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones (re-read, yet again).
Four words or phrases I would like to see used more often:
1. You're absolutely right.
2. You don't need to diet!
3. I had a great day at school, Mum.
4. Let's get a takeaway.
Four reasons for ending a friendship:
1. Lack of compassion (it doesn't much matter for what - it's pretty much a killer whatever it's for).
2. Inability to understand that different people feel differently.
3. Hatred of children in general. Or my children in particular (not that this has happened, but just to warn you all now...).
4. Constantly lecturing me about something I already feel guilty about.
11.20pm:
Four smells that make me feel good about the world:
1. Coffee.
2. Fresh-cut grass.
3. Roses.
4. Freshly baked bread.
Four movies I've seen more than four times:
1. Dirty Dancing.
2. West Side Story.
3. Grease.
4. Grease 2 (sense a theme here?).
My question: Four things I'd paint if I were good enough to paint them well?
1. Sunsets.
2. Fountains.
3. Cherry blossom.
4. Fabulous fantasy-scapes with full moons and beautiful swishy women and panthers with glowy eyes.
FOUR PEOPLE I'M TAGGING (if they haven't done it already):
1. MG Braden.
2. Diane (seeing as she's just visited my blog!).
3. Evie Byrne (but does she have a blog?).
4. Anyone who likes Grease 2 more than Grease (let me know in the comments!).
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More historic moments
I felt the radish was worthy of its very own post, but in other historic news, Sparkler started secondary school.
She has a blazer, and a stripy tie, and a new school bag and bunches of PE kit. And she has to get on the school bus by herself and travel into town. I won't see her till she gets home at four o'clock.
It's all a bit much. I want the school to have a web-cam so I can look at what she's doing.
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Historic moments
This morning I ate a radish - grown in our vegetable garden. That's all.
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