September 30, 2013

Book Review: “Andrew’s Brain” by E. L. Doctorow

4 Stars

Andrew is a cognitive scientist and academic with a lifelong history of unintentional destruction. The narrative is a conversation between Andrew and — someone. He is — somewhere. At a time that is at —- some point in the future, after the events he relates. He talks about the death of his first child, the courtship then death of his second wife, and other milestones of his life.

I like this book. I’ve vacillated between 3 stars or 4 stars, and am opting higher because I can feel that this book will settle well over time. It took me a long time to care about Andrew, the main character. Caring about the characters is essential for me, and the whole first half of the book I didn’t. Yet I kept going along for the ride because Doctorow’s writing is such a pleasure. Every page has subtly wonderful insights, perspective, turns of phrase, without ever getting flashy for its own sake.

About the time I developed sympathy for Andrew (and not coincidentally) the story takes a sharp left turn. WTF!?! What the hell is this book really about? Hmmm… Okay. You’ve still got my attention…

This book managed to get me to care about events and people I had sworn to think about, nevermore. It’s not perfect and it’s probably not Doctorow’s best work (this is my first time reading him so I can’t say for sure). But it is worth a read.

Note: I read an advance copy from Librarything in exchange for an honest review. Random House will publish this in Jan 2014.

September 28, 2013

RAT is online! P.S. I Know Who Got the Design Genes

Cover art by Lars Huston.

At last (yee haw!) I have finished retyping Was It A Rat I Saw, my psychological thriller involving split brain research, animal rights, and a love quadrangle. It is now available in serial on this blog and as an ebook in various formats at Smashwords. FREE FOR THE NEXT WEEK!

For the first few hours of its e-publication, I used a cover that I made all by myself. I liked it when full size, but as a thumbnail image on Smashwords, it was murky and uninviting. Previously, my son has made my e-book covers, and I love his artwork. But I felt like I was railroading him into making the covers, so this time I resolved to do it myself. Fortunately, as he watched me struggle with a new and alien version of Illustrator, he offered to take over.

Here’s my original effort:

My version of the cover. Looked like mush at thumbnail size.

And then there’s the artist’s cover from the Bantam-Doubleday-Dell edition. She put a lot of effort into capturing the book’s details, which I much appreciated:

Jacket from the original hardcover edition.

September 18, 2013

Not Entirely Shameless Self-Promotion

So. I want people to read my books, and that means they need to know the books exist. Understanding this, I can’t believe how difficult it is for me to broadcast the news. It shouldn’t be such a big deal! Let’s be kindly and say that self-promotion is not one of my strengths.

As always, then, it is with some discomfort that I announce: I’ve now got an Author’s Interview over on Smashwords, which lets more people know that my books exist. Every time somebody visits my interview page, my interview moves closer to the front of the Interview queue, which results in more people discovering my books. So please do click on my interview page link.

BTW, I can add to the interview, apparently forever, so let me know what other questions I might answer there.

Also BTW, the Smashwords interviews are cool. Readers with a free Smashwords account can also post interviews. Tell the authors what you want!

Sheepish again.

Two sheepish posts in one week! Wonder what the record is – bet I could beat it. In fact, currently I’m in a loop: I now feel sheepish about so often feeling sheepish.

September 16, 2013

More Words about Murder and Brains

With relief, enthusiasm, and sheepishness, I announce that more chapters are now on-line in my serialization of Was It A Rat I Saw, my psychological thriller involving real-life split brain research, animal rights, and a love quadrangle.

Baaa.

I’m making progress – a mere 70 hardcover pages left to re-type! – but am way behind my original self-imposed deadline to digitize this novel. Hence the sheepishness.

Do not be misled by the photo. There are no sheep in Was It a Rat I Saw although I do have great fondness for sheep. In fact, my daughter’s first word was “Baaa.” We were visiting a farm at the time.

Was It A Rat I Saw was previously published in hardcover by Bantam-Doubleday-Dell. For the first time, I’m publishing it electronically, first as a serial and then as an e-book.

Here are some Rat Reviews on Goodreads.

August 25, 2013

My Writing Trends – and a Couple Cartwheels

First, the cartwheels. I have just finished a very rough first draft of the first book in my fantasy detective series, Frames. Now I set it aside for a week, and remind myself to savor the sense of accomplishment. Then the real work begins, as I read through it, make notes, then revise.

This is my fourth novel.

Having completed this draft of Frames, I see some encouraging trends:

TIME NEEDED TO FINISH THE FIRST DRAFT:

Longest time: first novel – 7 years!! I had issues with writer’s block. Eventually forbid myself from rewriting or rereading the prior day’s work.

Shortest time: fourth novel – 8 months – aided by time in bed recovering from surgery, where I wrote the second half in 7 weeks.

LENGTH OF FIRST DRAFT MANUSCRIPT:

Longest first drafts: novels 1 and 2. Editing required deletions.

Shortest first drafts: novels 3 and 4. Editing required additions.

My novels, in reverse chronological order, are:

Frames, Book 1: Nica of Los Angeles. First book in a fantasy detective series that is a missing person case in this dimension, a battle between good and evil elsewhere. Available probably by the end of this year.

Scar Jewelry. A coming-of-age drama about a family with secrets, set in the present and in the 1970s punk scene in Los Angeles. Now available as an ebook and trade paperback.

?Was It A Rat I Saw?, a psychological thriller involving a series of murders, real-life split brain research, animal rights, and a love quadrangle. Now available as a serial, soon available as an ebook and trade paperback. A few hardcover copies from the first edition are still findable on-line but I hope you buy one of the new editions instead!

Headliners, a character study about rock fans who travel the country to follow the tour of a life-altering opening band. Coming next year as an ebook.

A Novella of Unknown Trends

I also wrote a detective novella, which I cannot add to these trends because I remember nothing about the writing of it, except that at the time I was the mother of toddler twins:

C.R.I.M.E. Science, Book 1: The Beginning follows a misfit group of scientists and techies who investigate the death of a volcanologist. Set in Eugene, Oregon circa 1999. Available as an ebook and trade paperback. Next book in the series will be in Los Angeles in 2014.

August 25, 2013

A New Introduction to a Previous Self

I continue to limp deeper into the retype* of ?Was It A Rat I Saw?, my psychological thriller involving real-life split brain research, animal rights, and a love quadrangle. I haven’t read the book in years and retyping also means rereading, which holds surprises for me:

I’m always my harshest critic but I like ?Rat? although I would do everything differently now. I have resisted the urge to rewrite – that way lies madness.
The real brain science still shocks, chills, excites me.
I don’t remember much of my own book and the retyping gets derailed when I read ahead to see what happens next.
I couldn’t write this book today. I am not the same person. This book captures a slice of my life, perspective, attitudes at a particular moment that is now long gone.

I had a plan to publish each of the four sections of ?Rat?, chapter by chapter, to this blog during the four weeks in August. There are several chapters in each section. This week, I published one chapter. Not one section. One chapter.

I call it a sign of psychological health that I no longer calculate how behind I am.

I believe the retype should now pick up speed. First, I have adapted to being back at my day job and getting All Else done in scattered shards of time. When I started the re-type, I was home lounging around after hip replacement surgery, with nothing but time. Second, I have just finished a first draft (yahoo!) of my latest novel, the fantasy detective series opener Frames. That is written in a different style than ?Rat? and I backed off from retyping when I realized it was influencing the style of the new book.

Good excuses for the slowdown, eh wot? No doubt next week I will have occasion to manufacture yet others.

*?Was It A Rat I Saw? was previously published in hardcover by Bantam-Doubleday-Dell. Now I’m publishing it electronically, first as a serial and then as an e-book.

Here are some ?Rat? Reviews on Goodreads.

August 23, 2013

Book Review: “Ghost Moth” by Michele Forbes

4 STARS

Written with insight, grace, and truth, this evocative novel does a wonderful job capturing the workings of this family, its time and place (Northern Ireland, deep in the midst of “The Troubles”, 1960s-later), and the past that haunts them. The change of pace at the end was unnecessarily dragging, in my opinion, and some of the secrets did not entirely convince me. But this is a fine and well-crafted book; well worth a read. I am happy I received this book free in exchange for review.

Recommended.

I got this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

P.S. Here is a synopsis of the book with adjectives by the publisher.

August 16, 2013

The Sound of Two Hands Limping

Okay, whose brilliant idea was it to set a deadline for my retyping* of ?Was It A Rat I Saw?, my psychological thriller involving real-life split brain research, animal rights, and a love quadrangle?

I had a plan is to publish each of the four sections of ?Rat?, chapter by chapter, to this blog during the four weeks in August.

Half empty: I am behind by an entire section.

Half full: I have finished Part II and am almost at the midpoint.

Two more chapters on line this week! If I had no self-imposed deadline to make me feel behind, I would be better able to enjoy that accomplishment.

I feel a Life Lesson coming on…

*?Was It A Rat I Saw? was previously published in hardcover by Bantam-Doubleday-Dell. Now I’m publishing it electronically, first as a serial and then as an e-book.

Here are some ?Rat? Reviews on Goodreads.

August 12, 2013

Book Review: “The Healer” by Antti Tuomainen

4 STARS

A man searches for his missing wife as the world falls apart.

This is one time when an Early Reviewer program brought me a book I enjoyed without reservation.

I completely believed this dysfunctional, damaged world (here focussed on Finland), spiraling toward ecological apocalypse, and I got sucked into the story. The characters kept me at arm’s distance but it actually would have been out of sync with the tone if they had been more engaging. Overall there were too many coincidental connections among characters; that is my only complaint.

What most impressed me about this novel was how vivid and atmospheric it was, given the extremely spare writing style. Every word counted, every word needed to be there! I can’t think of many books that I can say that about – and reading Tuomainen has inspired me to go in and whack quite a few words from the novel that I am currently writing.

RECOMMENDED.

I got this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

P.S. Here is a synopsis of the book, with some embellishments from the publisher.

August 9, 2013

Week 2, Serial Publication: Was It A Rat I Saw

Jacket from the original hardcover edition.

Faster! Faster!

When I originally wrote Was It A Rat I Saw, a psychological thriller involving real-life split brain research, animal rights, and a love quadrangle, it was published in hardcover by Bantam-Doubleday-Dell. Now I’m publishing it electronically, first as a serial and then as an e-book.

My plan is to publish each of the four sections of Rat, chapter by chapter, to this blog during the four weeks in August.

Here in la semana dos, I have (already?) fallen behind. I was supposed to add six chapters this week. So far I have added four.

My plan was perhaps a tad ambitious.

To publish Rat electronically, I must first type the whole book from one of the print copies. I could have had it scanned and digitized but I didn’t. I decided to retype. I had a good reason and another reason. I wanted to save a little money and I wanted to read it again. You get to decide which reason is which.

I might catch up to my plan because the sections get shorter as the book goes along. Or I might revise the plan. Tune in next week for the next installment of Just How Fast Can Sue Type?

Meantime, feel free to establish office pools or other wagers about how many chapters I will add in week three.